Protesters clash with police at start of far-right AfD congress in Essen

Party summit expected to draw 80,000 demonstrators as German police are stretched by Euro 2024

Clashes between hooded demonstrators and police marked the start of a party congress of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), weeks after it scored record EU election results despite multiple scandals.

About 1,000 police were deployed in the western city of Essen as about 600 delegates began a two-day meeting, with authorities expecting up to 80,000 people to join demonstrations.

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Jay Slater: expert volunteers join search for missing teenager in Tenerife

Volunteers with experience in rough terrain will go over areas previously covered by police in search for 19-year-old

Volunteers with experience navigating tough terrain are in Tenerife to help the Spanish police in the search for a missing British teenager.

Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last heard from on 17 June when he called a friend to say he had no water and only 1% battery left on his phone.

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Macron told ‘people detest you’ as far-right bids to be biggest party in France

Centrists are fighting for their survival in Sunday’s poll, amid fears the president’s snap election has unleashed chaos

Emmanuel Macron’s centrist grouping was fighting for survival this weekend before the first round of France’s high-stakes snap election, which could see the far-right National Rally (RN) become the biggest force in parliament.

Macron, who warned last week that France risked “civil war” if Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration RN, or the leftwing New Popular Front coalition, came to power, said at the European summit in Brussels that “uninhibited racism and antisemitism” had been unleashed in France.

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British hiker found dead in Pyrenees mountains after four-day search

Spanish Guardia Civil says 70-year-old man discovered by rescue team near Aspe peak in western Pyrenees

A 70-year-old British hiker has been found dead in the Pyrenees mountains four days after disappearing.

The man, who was from London, went missing on Monday. He was discovered in the mountain range by a rescue team on Thursday at around 1pm, the Spanish Guardia Civil said.

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Belgium’s ‘Crazy Killers’ mystery goes unsolved after police close file

Investigation that lasted decades ends with no convictions for 1982-85 rampage that took lives of 28 people

It is a murder mystery that gripped Belgium for decades and now, with the closure of the file on Friday, it may remain a cold case forever.

A gang went on a murderous rampage between 1982 and 1985, killing 28 people including children in a series of supermarket robberies, becoming known as the “Crazy Killers of Brabant”.

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‘Biden can’t do it’: European politicians shocked by US president’s debate flop

Some call for rethink by Democrats and say continent must step up preparations for another Trump term

European politicians, already drowning in multiple crises of their own, were left shell-shocked and aghast at Joe Biden’s meandering performance in Thursday’s presidential debate, aware that a second Trump term had drawn that much nearer – with all that this implies for the rise of populism in the continent, the future of Nato, and for Ukraine and the Middle East.

The voices of despair came from across the mainstream political spectrum, interspersed with the odd call for Europe to prepare even more intensively for a Trump second coming.

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Journalists refused entry to Azerbaijan energy conference ahead of Cop29

Incident reignites concerns over crackdown on media before crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year

Western journalists were refused entry to an energy industry conference in Azerbaijan earlier this month, reigniting concerns over the state’s crackdown on the media ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year.

At least three journalists from the UK and France have told the Guardian that they felt “unsafe” after they were denied entry to the Baku Energy Week forum, despite registering with the event organisers weeks in advance.

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Far-right National Rally strengthening in final polls ahead of vote

Marine Le Pen’s party has pledged to boost spending power, slash immigration and restore law and order

The far-right National Rally (RN) has strengthened in final polls, including one suggesting it could be on course for a historic parliamentary majority, as candidates fought for votes on the last day of campaigning before the first-round ballot in France’s most momentous election for decades.

Two days before Sunday’s ballot, two polls on Friday showed Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, France-first party pulling steadily further ahead in a race it has led since President Emmanuel Macron called the shock ballot almost three weeks ago after the defeat of his centrists in the European parliamentary election.

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Thousands of Spaniards to descend on Málaga to protest against mass tourism

Demonstrators from popular destinations such as Granada and Seville to join protest amid anger at lack of housing

Thousands of people from across southern Spain are expected to take to the streets of Málaga on Saturday in the latest in a series of protests against mass tourism.

Demonstrators from the popular Andalusian destinations of Granada, Seville and Cádiz will join others in the Mediterranean city following recent protests in the Canary and Balearic islands, with another scheduled for a week later in Barcelona.

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Head of France’s cinema agency sentenced to three years for sexual assault of godson

Dominique Boutonnat to step down from French industry champion CNC, and will serve sentence at home

Dominique Boutonnat, the head of France’s powerful National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), was on Friday given a three-year prison sentence, including two years suspended, after being convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.

In a statement released immediately after the ruling, Boutonnat announced he would step down as head of the CNC, a government agency whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

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French court rules Boléro was Ravel’s work alone

Claimants, backed by composer’s estate, lose claim of co-authorship, described as ‘historical fiction’

A French court has ruled that Boléro, one of the best-known works of classical music in the world, was written by Maurice Ravel alone, in a verdict on a case with big financial stakes that could have taken the work out of the public domain.

Ravel first performed Boléro at the Paris Opera in 1928 and it was an immediate sensation. He died 10 years later and his heirs were paid millions of dollars until the copyright ran out in 2016.

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‘It’s going to be tight’: Macron’s centrists struggle to deter voters from backing far right

With the first round of France’s snap election on Sunday, the president’s allies are desperate to shore up support

Standing in a courtyard framed by the white walls of one of Marseille’s Armenian churches, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, France’s secretary of state tasked with citizenship, took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully as she addressed a voter who had admitted she was considering switching allegiances to the far right.

Agresti-Roubache, born to a family with Algerian roots, led with the heart, describing how concerns over the snap parliamentary election results had left her elderly mother “in tears” daily. When the tactic proved futile, she changed tack. “When you don’t have power, you can say whatever people want to hear,” said Agresti-Roubache.

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Mass search to be held on Saturday for missing Briton Jay Slater in Tenerife

Police had called for volunteers to help in search of rocky wildness close to where teenager went missing

A “mass search” for the missing teenager Jay Slater is due to begin in Tenerife on Saturday after police called for more volunteers to take part.

Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last heard from on the morning of Monday 17 June when he texted a friend to say he had no water and only 1% battery left on his phone.

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Belgrade authorities cancel ethnic bridge-building arts festival after nationalist protests

Youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo who organise the Mirëdita Dobar Dan cultural event accuse Serbia’s interior ministry of failing to protect them from intimidation

Organisers of a festival designed to promote cultural exchange between Kosovo and Serbia say Belgrade authorities have caved in to pressure from hooligan groups by banning this year’s event.

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, Belgrade police cited security concerns as the reason to cancel the event Mirëdita Dobar Dan (meaning “Good day” in Albanian and Serbian), which was due to start in the Serbian capital yesterday.

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French poll puts far-right National Rally in clear lead at 36% – Europe live

Macron’s allies trailing at 21% as leaders of political groups gear up for a televised debate this evening

Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP, has sent a letter with 20,000 signatures to the European Council president calling for the upcoming Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU to be suspended.

“Together with 20.000 citizens, we, the undersigned Members of the European Parliament, ask you to officially suspend the Hungarian Presidency of the Council, which is currently set to begin on July 1st, 2024,” he wrote.

It would be extremely harmful for the reputation of our Union, if the current Hungarian government would represent us Europeans in any capacity, just after the European elections. The EU has officially frozen funds under the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism due to the high levels of corruption in Hungary. Over the years, the Orbán government has also undermined their elections, the Rule of Law, and media freedom in Hungary.

On the European level, the Orbán government has compared the European Union with a dictatorship. They published posters across the country with bombs bearing the EU flag, when sanctions against Russia were passed. At the time when imperialist dictator Putin is bombing Ukraine, an EU candidate country, Orbán went out of his way to China just to be able to shake hands with him.

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Zelenskiy says Russia’s recent offensive shows pressure on Kremlin ‘not enough’

Ukrainian president signs military agreement with EU and says ‘fulfilment of every promise’ of support is important

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told EU leaders that Russia’s spring offensive in Kharkiv showed that international pressure on the Kremlin was “not enough”, as he signed a military agreement with the bloc.

Vladimir Putin had tried to “expand the war” in May with a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskiy said on Thursday, referring to relentless attacks on the Kharkiv region.

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Le Pen claims far right will win absolute majority and take over military decisions

National Rally leader says Macron ‘won’t have choice’ but to appoint her protege as PM and he would make decisions on Ukraine support

Marine Le Pen has said she expects her far-right National Rally (RN) party to win an absolute majority in France’s general election, form a government and take over at least some defence and armed forces decision-making – including on Ukraine.

France’s constitution states that the president is head of the armed forces and chairs France’s national defence committees, but also that the prime minister is “responsible for national defence”, leaving the precise role of the premier open to interpretation.

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‘Here I found respect for who I am’: the French citizens who choose to leave

Scores of highly qualified French citizens from Muslim backgrounds have left the country in recent years

Even as she climbed up the corporate ladder in France, Ophélie Rizki’s after-work routine remained unchanged. Each evening as she got into her car to drive home, she would make a beeline for her headscarf, feeling herself slowly becoming whole again as she covered her hair.

She had never been explicitly told that she couldn’t wear her hijab at work, nor had she asked. But as politicians in France continued to spar over headscarves, two decades after parliament voted to ban them in school, she worried about the impact that choosing to keep her hair covered would have on her career. “You don’t ask the question, you know it’s not something you can do,” she said.

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Italian PM criticised by opposition after fascist chants by party’s youth wing

Meloni has not yet commented on revelation of Nazi salutes and antisemitic rants by members of National Youth

Italian opposition parties have rounded on the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, after an investigative outlet published video clips and messages showing members of her far-right party’s youth wing engaging in fascist chants, Nazi salutes and antisemitic rants.

Undercover reporters from the investigative website Fanpage infiltrated groups and chat forums used by members of National Youth, the youth wing of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.

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Global wave of elections could hit UK financial system, warns Bank of England

Central bank raises concerns over newly elected governments as more than 80 countries go to polls this year

Uncertainty caused by a global wave of elections, starting this weekend in France, risks destabilising the UK’s financial system, the Bank of England has warned.

Officials are concerned about the kind of policies that newly elected governments may enforce in large economies, including the US, where Donald Trump is vying for another term as president in the run-up to the election in November.

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