Category Archives: Europe

Russia claims to have thwarted Ukraine’s advance in Kursk

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Fighting said to be continuing, with reports of power outages near nuclear power station, despite Moscow’s claim

Russia’s defence ministry claimed it prevented Ukraine from advancing further on the fifth day of the unprecedented attack into the province of Kursk, though there were reports of regional power outages after an electricity substation was hit.

Fighting was said to be taking place in three villages between seven and 11 miles from the international border – Ivashkovskoye, Malaya Loknya and Olgovka – similar locations to where Ukraine is estimated to have advanced previously.

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Family and friends pay tribute to Jay Slater at funeral in Lancashire

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Hundreds of people attend service for 19-year-old who died after going missing in Tenerife mountains

The family and friends of Jay Slater have paid tribute to the teenager who died while on holiday in Tenerife at a funeral service attended by about 500 people.

Mourners packed into the chapel at the Accrington crematorium for the funeral of the 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, who is believed to have fallen to his death after getting lost in a mountainous area of the Spanish island on 17 June.

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Slovakia purges heads of national theatre and gallery in ‘arts crackdown’

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Country’s hard-right culture minister Martina Šimkovičová accused of ‘complete lies’ after removal of respected figures

When Slovakia’s minister for culture fired the director of the country’s oldest and most important theatre last Tuesday, the numerous reasons she cited for her surprise move included “political activism”, an alleged preference for foreign over Slovak opera singers, and, bizarrely, an incident with a crystal chandelier.

Matej Drlička, whose dismissal from the Slovak National Theatre was followed a day later by that of the director of the Slovak National Gallery, says the real reason is something else: a concerted crackdown on freedom of artistic expression and a systematic assault on the central European republic’s state institutions under the watch of the populist prime minister Robert Fico.

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Apple changes EU App Store rules after commission charges

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Change in policy means developers will be able to communicate with customers outside App Store

Apple on Thursday changed its policy in the European Union to allow developers to communicate with their customers outside its App Store after the commission charged the iPhone maker in June for breaching the bloc’s tech rules.

The commission had said that under most of the business terms, Apple allows steering only through “link-outs”, meaning that app developers can include a link in their app that redirects the customer to a web page where the customer can conclude a contract.

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Travis Scott arrested in Paris over altercation with security guard

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The rapper was arrested for an incident involving a hotel security guard while he is in the city for the Olympics

Rapper Travis Scott was arrested at a Paris hotel after an altercation with a security guard, French prosecutors said Friday.

The arrest occurred after police were called to the Georges V hotel early Friday to arrest a man “nicknamed Travis Scott for violence against a security guard”, according to a statement from the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

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Third teenager arrested over foiled Taylor Swift concert attack in Vienna

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Iraqi man, 18, said to be an associate of main 19-year-old suspect in terror plot that has led to cancellation of shows

A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a foiled terror attack on Taylor Swift’s now-cancelled concerts in Vienna, the Austrian interior minister has said.

The 18-year-old Iraqi man is understood to have been an associate of the main 19-year-old suspect, identified as Beran A, an Austrian with North Macedonian roots.

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Wall Street banker bonuses forecast to rise 35% this year

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Surge caused by rebound in market activity very likely to influence payouts for European outposts of banks

Bonuses for Wall Street’s investment bankers are forecast to jump as much as 35% this year – although experts have warned that payouts could be knocked by stock market volatility and an economic slowdown in the US.

Fresh predictions suggest that staff across a range of financial firms – including hedge funds, asset managers and investment banks – will see payouts rise for the first time in two years. It follows a rebound in business confidence and market activity, with companies more willing to take risks amid easing inflation that has started to translate into lower borrowing costs.

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Carles Puigdemont no longer in Spain and will not give himself up, lawyer says

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Fugitive Catalan separatist has returned to Belgium after flying visit to Barcelona in which police failed to arrest him

Carles Puigdemont is no longer in Spain and will never give himself up, his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, said after the fugitive former Catalan president’s dramatic flying visit to Barcelona on Thursday.

Lluís Llach, a Catalan singer and fervent nationalist, said that Puigdemont was “safe and sound and above all, free” while Jordi Turull, the secretary-general of Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia party, said he had returned home to Waterloo in Belgium, adding that before his public appearance on Thursday Puigdemont had arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday evening.

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Protests over mass tourism could spread beyond Spain, says Unesco official

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Situation ‘out of balance’ as local people are priced out of housing and frustrated by hordes of selfie-seekers

Surging visitor numbers, soaring housing prices and the rise of selfie-seeking tourists have helped to create situations that are “totally out of balance”, a Unesco official has said, adding that a failure to address these issues could see the Spanish wave of protests against mass tourism extend across Europe.

In recent weeks tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Spain’s most popular destinations, calling for curbs on mass tourism and a rethink of a business model that they say has pushed up housing prices and driven local people out of cities.

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Ukraine justifies Kursk attack in first acknowledgment of incursion into Russia

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Zelenskiy aide says ‘root cause of any escalation’, including into Kursk, is Moscow’s ‘unequivocal aggression’

Ukraine has publicly justified its attack into Russian territory for the first time, amid reports that its forces are advancing towards a village 13 miles (20km) inside the Kursk region on the third day of its incursion.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the president’s office, said “the root cause of any escalation”, including into Kursk, was “unequivocal aggression” on the part of Russia in believing it could invade Ukraine with impunity.

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Taylor Swift concert plot: Austrian police find bomb chemicals in suspect’s home

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Austrian, 19, arrested alongside 17-year-old for allegedly planning Islamist attack at Vienna venue

The 19-year-old prime suspect in an alleged plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert that led to the cancellation of the singer’s three-night run in Vienna had collected chemicals with the intention of building a bomb, senior Austrian security officials have said.

The Austrian suspect was arrested along with a 17-year-old who recently started working for a services company providing support for the concerts, on suspicion of planning an Islamist attack. A third person, 15, was taken into custody late on Wednesday in connection with the investigation.

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Police hunt for Puigdemont as pro-union MP takes Catalan presidency

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Pro-independence parties lose their grip on power as Salvador Illa elected, while police operation to find Carles Puigdemont continues

Catalan police have launched an operation to find and arrest Carles Puigdemont and set up roadblocks on routes to the French border after the fugitive former regional president returned to Spain for the first time in seven years to address a crowd of a few thousand in Barcelona before promptly disappearing.

Two officers in the Catalan regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, were arrested on Thursday in connection with Puigdemont’s escape, raising serious questions about the policing operation as the search brought Barcelona and the surrounding area to a standstill. One of those arrested is alleged to be the owner of the car in which the former Catalan president fled.

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Family of British doctor missing in French Pyrenees appeal for help

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Tom Doherty, 67, messaged his family to say he had fallen and could not move shortly before they lost contact

The family of a retired British doctor have issued an urgent appeal after he went missing in the French Pyrenees almost 48 hours ago.

Tom Doherty, 67, from St Albans, was hiking and camping near Col d’Escots when his family lost contact with him on Tuesday evening, just after he sent messages saying he had fallen and couldn’t move.

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How Russia’s summer offensive is reshaping the war in Ukraine

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Putin’s attacks on Ukraine have become more ferocious over the summer, as the invader puts pressure on defenders all along the eastern front. How is Russia’s war evolving?

Sources: Military control and advances from the Institute for the Study of War. Core mapping from OpenStreetMap. Terrain data from Mapzen. Urban areas data from Daylight map distribution.

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Three Taylor Swift shows cancelled after Vienna police foil planned attack

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Main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian, said to have pledged oath of allegiance to Islamic State group ‘in recent weeks’

The Vienna leg of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras tour been cancelled after two people were arrested over an apparent plot to launch an attack on a public event in the Austrian capital.

The announcement was made by concert organisers Barracuda Music late on Wednesday, after Austrian authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly planning an Islamist attack in the Vienna region and suggested that Swift’s shows had been the “focus” of the plot.

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Carles Puigdemont vows to return to Spain in headache for ruling coalition

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Fugitive Catalan separatist leader risks arrest if he keeps to his word on Thursday after seven years in exile

The fugitive Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has said he will return to Spain on Thursday, risking likely arrest in a move that could destabilise the country’s ruling coalition.

Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium for seven years after organising an illegal independence referendum in Catalonia, has said that he will be at the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Thursday as it swears in the region’s new leader.

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Polish man sentenced to four months in prison for attacking Danish PM

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Mette Frederiksen suffered whiplash and was ‘clearly shaken’ by incident in Copenhagen in June, court hears

A man has been sentenced to four months in prison after being found guilty of attacking the Danish prime minister.

The 39-year-old Polish man – who Danish authorities ruled could not be named by the media – punched Mette Frederiksen in the right arm, causing the prime minister to lose her balance, while she was in Copenhagen during campaigning for the EU elections.

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Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region continues into second day

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Vladimir Putin convenes meeting with top officials as defence ministry acknowledges fighting is ongoing

Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has continued into a second day, prompting Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting with his top defence and law enforcement officials.

A report from one Russia military blogger suggested Ukrainian forces had advanced northwards, possibly as far as nine miles (15km) from the border, along a highway north of the border village of Sverdlikovo and near a major natural gas transmission hub, but this could not be verified.

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Novo Nordisk cuts profit outlook after weaker sales of weight-loss drug Wegovy

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Danish company, which also makes Ozempic, faces increasing competition from US rival Eli Lilly

Novo Nordisk has cut its annual profit expectations after posting weaker-than-expected sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, fuelling investor concerns over growing competition and sending its shares lower.

The Danish drugmaker’s market value has soared over the past year, making it the most valuable company in Europe, on the back of the success of its obesity and diabetes injections Wegovy and Ozempic, used by celebrities including Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey. However, the company is facing increasing competition from its US rival Eli Lilly’s drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.

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Moscow says Ukraine has launched cross-border attack inside Russia

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Russian military claims it repelled incursion by 300 soldiers up to six miles into Kursk border region

Moscow has said about 300 soldiers from Ukraine launched a cross-border attack into a hitherto quiet part of the front on Tuesday, with reports of fighting at a town as deep as six miles (10km) inside Russia.

Moscow’s ministry of defence said late on Tuesday that up to “300 Ukrainian militants” from Ukraine’s 22nd mechanised brigade launched the attack at 8am, supported by “11 tanks and more than 20 armoured fighting vehicles”.

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