Payment for Inditex founder, the world’s 15 richest person, tops last year’s dividend of €3.1bn
The billionaire founder of Zara is to receive a company record €3.23bn (£2.8bn) dividend this year from the world’s biggest fashion retailer.
Amancio Ortega, who still controls 59% of Spain’s Inditex and whose daughter Marta Ortega Pérez is now chair, will receive half his dividend in May and half in November – as will other shareholders.
Continue reading...Alireza Salarian says Iran’s new supreme leader was lucky to survive strike that killed six of his family members
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the 28 February attack that killed six of his family members, including his father, Tehran’s ambassador to Cyprus has confirmed.
In an interview conducted at his embassy compound in Nicosia, Alireza Salarian elaborated on the circumstances in which Khamenei, 56, was injured, saying he was lucky to survive the strike, which levelled the late ayatollah’s residence.
Continue reading...Investigators suspect fire was result of deliberate act after reports that someone onboard doused themselves in petrol
Police investigating a bus fire that killed at least six people in western Switzerland have said they suspect a deliberate act by a person onboard but so far have not found any evidence of a terrorist motive.
The vehicle, operated by a service that transports passengers and mail, went up in flames on Tuesday evening in Kerzers, a town of about 5,000 people about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital, Berne, in the canton of Fribourg.
Continue reading...Documents filed at Companies House over 2022 deal could complicate row with UK over how money will be used
Jersey authorities may be investigating whether cash raised by Roman Abramovich’s 2022 sale of Chelsea FC amounts to the proceeds of crime, according to documents filed at Companies House on Wednesday, potentially complicating a row with the UK government over how the money will be used.
Accounts for Fordstam Ltd, the company through which the billionaire Russian oligarch owned Chelsea, show that the proceeds of the sale – currently frozen and gathering interest in a Barclays Bank account – have risen to £2.4bn.
Continue reading...Study shows animals hear very high frequencies, making it possible to design a deterrent to cut deaths
Hedgehogs have been discovered to hear high-frequency ultrasound, raising hopes that they could be deterred from dangerous roads with ultrasound repellers.
Vehicles are estimated to kill up to one in three hedgehogs, a big factor in the much-loved mammal’s drastic decline across Europe over recent decades.
Continue reading...Limiting access to German church to well-off visitors would be ‘socially unjust’, critics say
Plans at Cologne Cathedral to start charging visitor fees have sparked an outcry, with critics warning against limiting access to the majestic gothic building to the well-off.
Officials said this month that the cathedral, the tallest twin-spired church in the world and a tourist magnet in Germany’s fourth largest city, could only be maintained with a new revenue stream.
Continue reading...Thousands of girls were locked up by Board for the Protection of Women for ‘rehabilitation’
Spain is to formally pardon a group of 53 women who are among thousands who were incarcerated by the Franco regime on the grounds that they were supposedly “fallen or in danger of falling”.
The women were locked up as adolescents by the Board for the Protection of Women, a collection of institutions run by religious orders. The board, which had echoes of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries, was overseen by Carmen Polo, the wife of the dictator Gen Francisco Franco.
Continue reading...French president says attack on island is ‘an attack on Europe’ as EU states send military support
Emmanuel Macron has vowed that Europe will do whatever it takes to stand by Cyprus, the continent’s first state to be directly affected by the Iran war, after coming under what he described as “attack from multiple drones and missiles.”
In the strongest show yet of solidarity towards the EU member closest to the Middle East, Macron likened the attacks, which included a drone strike against a British base on the eastern Mediterranean island, to an attack on Europe.
Continue reading...Social media company tells MPs of continual fight against state-backed efforts, with Russia being most prolific
Elon Musk’s X said it had suspended 800m accounts over a 12-month period as it fights the “massive” scale of attempts to manipulate the platform.
The social media company told MPs it was continually fighting state-backed attempts to hijack the agenda on its network, with Russia the most prolific state actor, followed by Iran and China.
Continue reading...Interceptor drones and operators deployed to Middle East after ‘requests for help from 11 countries neighbouring Iran’
Ukraine’s president has said he dispatched interceptor drones and operators to protect US bases in Jordan last week, one of 11 countries that had asked Kyiv for help as the US-Israeli war against Iran continued into its 10th day.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview that he had responded to a US request for help in defending Jordan last week as Ukraine seeks to improve relations with Gulf and Middle Eastern countries coming under attack from Iran.
Continue reading...European Commission head says rules-based system can no longer be relied upon to protect the continent’s interests
Europe can “no longer be a custodian for the old-world order” and needs “a more realistic and interest-driven foreign policy”, the head of the European Commission has said.
Speaking to an audience of EU ambassadors on Monday, Ursula von der Leyen said the union “will always defend and uphold the rules-based system” but could no longer rely on it to defend European interests and shelter the continent from threats.
Continue reading...Russian oligarch says money is his to allocate despite international sanctions imposed on his assets
The Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has stepped up his row with the British government over the £2.5bn proceeds of his sale of Chelsea FC, insisting that the money is his to allocate despite the international sanctions imposed on his assets.
The UK and EU imposed sanctions on Abramovich in 2022, freezing his assets in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, citing his ties to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Continue reading...Private equity group EQT to take 42% stake as supplier faces scrutiny over environmental record and CEO’s pay
A leading European investor will pump fresh funding into Yorkshire Water including helping to cover a £600m loan, despite recent heavy sewage fines and a scandal over executive pay at the utility company.
EQT, a Swedish private equity group, said on Monday it would take a 42% stake in Kelda Holdings, the Jersey-registered parent company of Yorkshire Water, which has 5.7 million customers across Yorkshire and parts of the East Midlands and Lincolnshire.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president hopes for reciprocal support for Kyiv in repelling Russian forces. What we know on day 1,474
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Kyiv’s drone experts will be on site in the Middle East “next week”, as he seeks US air defence missiles in exchange for drone expertise. Ukraine is facing a shortage of the expensive US PAC-3 air defence ammunition and Kyiv fears a longer Middle East war could disrupt supplies even further. When asked how exactly he wants to help the United States and its Gulf allies repel the drones, Zelensky said: “It is too early to say anything else at this stage”, adding: “I think that next week, when the experts are on site, they will look at the situation and help.”
Zelenskyy said he and Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten discussed joint arms production during his visit to Kyiv on Sunday, and he stressed Ukraine’s unique experience in defending against Iranian-made drones used by Russia. “We would very much like this to be an opportunity for both sides,” Zelenskyy told a press conference after a meeting with Jetten. “It is important that we are producing weapons together with the Netherlands – and we will certainly continue and expand this joint work,” Zelenskyy said, adding they had discussed investments and possible production volumes in detail. The Netherlands are an important donor to the PURL program through which Europe buys US weapons for Ukraine, so far contributing $870m to it.
Demand for Ukraine’s drone defence technology could lead to new defence partnerships for Kyiv, but equally could mean fewer drones for Ukraine itself in a stretched market, says Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent. Ukraine has significant experience battling the Shahed drones now being used by Iran to attack its Gulf neighbours, something that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly said he is ready to share in return for help against Russia. “We are ready to help, and expect that our people will also receive the necessary support,” he said over the weekend. However, the attention of the White House is now elsewhere, perhaps drawing momentum away from peace talks with Moscow, and the attack on Iran seems to reinforce Vladimir Putin’s view of the world, in which stronger nations can target their weaker adversaries with impunity.
Global weapons flows have grown by almost 10% in the past five years, with Europe more than tripling imports in the wake of the war in Ukraine, a report showed on Monday. The surge can be explained, in part at least, by the fact European countries are buying in weapons to supply to Ukraine and because they are seeking to boost their own military capabilities against a perceived threat from Russia, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said. While imports of weapons to Europe are still not at the levels seen during the cold war, “Europe is now the largest recipient of arms [globally],” Mathew George, director of SIPRI’s Arms Transfers Programme, told AFP.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units had intercepted 234 drones over various parts of central and southern Russia over a nine-hour period, including six drones headed for Moscow. The ministry reported no damage or casualties during the period, extending from 2pm to 11pm.
Continue reading...National Gas insists storage broadly in line with levels for time of year despite disruption for tankers carrying LNG
Great Britain has only two days of fossil gas stored after a decline in energy reserves, as more tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) are diverted from their course to Europe towards Asia because of the Iran war.
Great Britain had 6,999 gigawatt hours (GWh) of fossil gas stored on Saturday, according to figures from National Gas, which owns and operates the gas national transmission system. This compares with 9,105 GWh a year earlier.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Campaigners urge Keir Starmer to back ‘Philomena’s Law’ to protect payments for up to 13,000 survivors living in Britain
Survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes have started to have benefits cut in Britain because they accepted compensation from the Irish government.
The cuts to the means-tested benefits of survivors in Britain come as campaigners including the actors Siobhán McSweeney and Steve Coogan called on Keir Starmer to back a bill known as Philomena’s Law, which would ringfence survivors’ benefits.
Continue reading...Artefacts include souvenirs from 1972 ‘Match of the Century’ between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer
A vast collection of chess memorabilia, including souvenirs from the 1972 “Match of the Century” and considered to be the largest and most important of its kind in private hands, is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London next month.
The collection belonged to the German grandmaster Lothar Schmid, whose passion for the sport extended way beyond the board.
Continue reading...Foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, tells Guardian Iranian-made drone that hit airbase was launched from Lebanon
Britain is facing growing calls to withdraw its military bases from Cyprus as locals step up protests against facilities seen as a threat to their security after an unprecedented drone attack on RAF Akrotiri.
Anger over the installations spilled on to the streets of Nicosia, the capital, as protesters chanting “out with the bases of death” marched to the colonial-era presidential palace on Saturday amid fears of the Mediterranean nation being dragged into the wider Iran conflict.
Continue reading...Foreign minister wants ‘conversation’ about closing UK military sites following lack of warning of impending attack on RAF Akrotiri
Cyprus’s foreign minister has said there are “questions” about the future of the UK’s military bases on the island after the drone strike last Sunday.
The attack on RAF Akrotiri, suspected to have been launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon, caused minimal damage and did not result in casualties.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president orders equipment and expertise to be provided to US in return to diplomatic support against Russia, saying ‘we help to defend from war those who help us’
The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Various countries, including the US, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against the Iranian drones, Zelenskyy said late on Wednesday. He said he has spoken in recent days to the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation.
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