Category Archives: Europe

Macron to visit New Caledonia to ‘set up mission’ after deadly riots

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French leader to leave for archipelago on Tuesday night with intention of restoring ‘calm and order’

The French president will travel to the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Tuesday, just over a week after riots erupted in the French overseas territory leaving six dead and hundreds injured.

The unrest over plans for an electoral overhaul has resulted in dozens of shops and businesses being looted and burned, with cars torched and road barricades set up. A state of emergency and curfew remain in place, with army reinforcements.

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Spain permanently recalls ambassador from Argentina amid feud with Milei

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Argentina’s far-right president Javier Milei sparks diplomatic row with remarks about Spanish prime minister’s wife

Spain has said it is permanently withdrawing its ambassador from Argentina as a result of a growing diplomatic feud with the South American country’s radical rightwing president, Javier Milei.

Milei – a notoriously pugnacious ally of the fellow populists Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro – sparked the row last weekend by insinuating that Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was “corrupt”.

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Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ law could be dropped in return for US support bill

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Draft bill tabled in Congress would open talks on trade deal with Georgia in return for commitments on civil rights

A “foreign agents” law in Georgia that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters on to the streets of Tbilisi could be dropped in return for a package of economic and security support from Washington, the ruling party has hinted.

In response to a draft bill tabled in the US Congress that would open up talks on a trade deal in return for fresh commitments on civil rights, the governing Georgian Dream party said it would need to see progress on such promises within a year.

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Charges dropped against nine Egyptians over 2023 migrant shipwreck off Greece

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Greek court says it has no jurisdiction to hear case as disaster happened in international waters

A Greek court has thrown out charges against nine Egyptian men accused of causing one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwrecks, ruling it has no jurisdiction over the case because the disaster was in international waters.

The three-member tribunal, sitting in the southern city of Kalamata, announced the decision as migrant solidarity supporters rallied outside in support of the defendants. Inside the courtroom there was applause and whoops of delight.

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Homes evacuated in Italy after strongest quake in 40 years near supervolcano

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Cracks form in buildings after 150 quakes follow 4.4-magnitude tremor around Campi Flegrei near Naples

Homes were evacuated and many people slept in their cars or on the street after the strongest earthquake in 40 years shook the area around the sprawling Campi Flegrei supervolcano close to Naples.

The 4.4-magnitude tremor in Pozzuoli, a densely populated port city, was followed by 150 quakes that were also strongly felt in Naples.

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UK and Finland discuss further efforts to stop Russia’s shadow oil fleet

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Third parties could be required to do more to block tankers from operating in Baltic and the Channel

Britain and Finland are discussing plans to require third parties to do more to block the Russian shadow oil tanker fleet operating in the Baltic and the Channel, the Finnish foreign minister has said.

The waters around Finland act as a key choke point for the estimated 100 Russian-bought oil tankers that navigate the Baltic monthly using opaque ownership structures to carry 90m tonnes of oil.

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Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice depicts him as a rapist

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Ali Abbasi’s film, starring Sebastian Stan, presents a fictionalised account of an incident recorded in Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, and since retracted

Donald Trump is depicted as a rapist who assaulted his first wife, Ivana, in a new biopic, The Apprentice, which has its world premiere in competition at this year’s Cannes film festival on Monday. Directed by the Iranian-Danish film-maker Ali Abbasi, the drama provides a fictionalised account of a 1989 incident that was previously detailed in the couple’s divorce proceedings.

The scene, which occurs near the end of The Apprentice, depicts Trump reacting with fury after Ivana disparages his physical appearance. “You have a face like a fucking orange,” she tells him. “You’re getting fat, you’re getting ugly, and you’re getting bald.” The future president is then shown forcing his wife to the floor and raping her. “Did I find your G-spot?” he asks in the film.

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Portal installations linking Dublin to New York City reopen after shutdown

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Two installations host a 24/7 live stream in both cities, but a small number of visitors initially abused the opportunity

The live video portal linking Dublin, Ireland, to New York, New York, has reopened after unruly behavior got the modern art sculpture temporarily shut down.

The two installations making up the Portal – created by the Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys – host a 24/7 live stream in both cities so people can see and interact with each other. One installation is located in the Flatiron district of New York, and the other is on Dublin’s popular O’Connell Street.

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Diplomatic row deepens after Javier Milei calls wife of Spanish PM ‘corrupt’

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Spain recalls its Buenos Aires ambassador and demands apology from Argentina’s populist president

The Spanish government has recalled its ambassador from Buenos Aires and repeated its calls for Argentina’s populist president, Javier Milei, to apologise after he reopened a festering diplomatic row by suggesting that the wife of Spain’s prime minister was “corrupt”.

Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” and sworn enemy of socialism, infuriated Spain’s centre-left government when he used a speech at a summit of international far-right leaders in Madrid on Sunday to revive allegations that Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, had engaged in corruption and influence-peddling.

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Eagles shifting flight paths to avoid Ukraine conflict, scientists find

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Vulnerable birds deviating from migratory routes by up to 155 miles, which could affect breeding

Eagles that have migratory routes through Ukraine have shifted their flight paths to avoid areas affected by the conflict, researchers have found.

GPS data has revealed that greater spotted eagles not only made large detours after the invasion began, but also curtailed pitstops to rest and refuel, or avoided making them altogether.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia to make further bid to carve out ‘buffer zone’ in coming weeks, warns US defence secretary – as it happened

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Lloyd Austin, speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, praises troops’ courage in ‘hard and dangerous fight’. This live blog has closed

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Russian state news Tass agency reported on Monday.

It said the ministers were meeting to discuss the implementation of Russian-Chinese agreements reached during Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China last week, and events in Iran, whose president and foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

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Mediterranean migrant boat disaster: men on trial are ‘scapegoats’, say lawyers

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Survivors of shipwreck that killed 600 people not ‘real smugglers’, say defenders, with inquiry into coastguard’s role also incomplete

Nine men accused of causing one of the deadliest shipwrecks to have taken place in the Mediterranean are “scapegoats” who should never have been prosecuted, defence lawyers have said, as their long-awaited trial opens in Greece.

The Egyptian suspects, who have been held in pre-trial detention since the 14 June disaster last year, are appearing in court in the southern city of Kalamata on Tuesday.

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Slovakian PM Robert Fico stable and communicating, say doctors

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Health update comes as country reels from assassination attempt and contends with political fallout

The Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a stable condition and communicating after last week’s assassination attempt, doctors have said, as the country continues to grapple with the political fallout from the shooting.

On Monday, the FD Roosevelt hospital in Banská Bystrica said Fico’s conditiond was “stable”. “He is clinically improving, communicating and his inflammatory markers are gradually decreasing,” it said, adding: “The prime minister remains in our care.”

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New Caledonia: Macron calls further security meeting as deadly unrest grinds on

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French forces launch operation on Sunday to regain access to parts of Nouméa and allow airport to reopen

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called a meeting of his defence and security council to discuss the deadly unrest in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

It is the third such meeting in less than week, the previous two having resulted in the decision to declare a state of emergency in the French territory and then to send reinforcements to help government forces on the ground restore order.

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European far-right leaders gather ahead of EU elections

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Le Pen, Orbán and Meloni rail against socialism and ‘massive illegal migration’ at ‘great patriotic convention’ in Madrid

International far-right leaders, including France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Argentina’s Javier Milei, came together in Madrid to rail against socialism and “massive illegal migration” three weeks before hard-right parties are expected to see a surge in support in June’s European elections.

Sunday’s “great patriotic convention”, which was organised by Spain’s far-right Vox party, offered conservatives and far-right populists a chance to congregate and take aim at a variety of familiar targets, from the welfare state to “wokeness” and the agendas of Brussels-based bureaucrats.

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‘Proud and happy’: Ukrainians embrace Oleksandr Usyk’s boxing victory

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People in Kyiv and Kharkiv celebrate win in world heavyweight unification fight as symbolic achievement for the country

From the capital, Kyiv, to the heavily attacked region of Kharkiv, news of Oleksandr Usyk’s win over Tyson Fury brought war-weary Ukrainians a rare and very welcome moment of victory and celebration.

Usyk, who became the first undisputed world heavyweight champion this century after his victory in Riyadh in the early hours of Sunday, said his triumph did not belong to him alone.

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Two dead and five missing after boat collision near Budapest

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Hungarian police called to scene of accident on shore of the River Danube near Veroce

Hungarian police say two people have died and five are missing following a boat collision on the Danube.

Hungarian police received a report late on Saturday night that a man had been found bleeding from his head on the shore of the river near the town of Veroce, about 30 miles (50km) north of the capital, Budapest.

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Slovak PM Robert Fico out of immediate danger four days after shooting, says deputy

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Fico remains in intensive care but has ‘emerged from immediate threat to his life’, Robert Kaliňák tells reporters

Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, is out of immediate danger but remains in intensive care four days after he was shot by a gunman, the country’s deputy prime minister has said.

“He has emerged from the immediate threat to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care,” Robert Kaliňák, Fico’s closest political ally, told reporters.

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German star at Cannes condemns ‘madness’ of protective culture for UK child actors

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Cast member of Palme d’Or contender shot in Kent says the high number of chaperones and intimacy coordinators on set was over the top

Is Britain leading the way in protecting young people and children from the potential traumas of working on a film set, or has it all gone far too far? Two of the most prominent European stars attending the Cannes film festival, both with high-profile premieres, have very different views.

Franz Rogowski, the acclaimed German actor who plays a key role in Bird, British director Andrea Arnold’s contender for the top Palme d’Or prize, said this weekend that the proliferation of chaperones and intimacy coordinators that had been required on the shoot on location in Kent qualified as well-intended “madness”.

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Eurostar reverses wheelchair policy that left user stranded, after Observer campaign

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Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistance

Eurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.

Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer.

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