Category Archives: Europe

About 50,000 protest in Tbilisi against Georgia ‘foreign agents’ bill

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US says parliamentarians must choose between Kremlin-style laws or Euro-Atlantic democratic path

An estimated 50,000 people marched peacefully in heavy rain in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Saturday night after the US said parliamentarians had to choose between Kremlin-style laws or the Euro-Atlantic democratic path they had embarked upon.

The march was the latest in a series of public protests against a “foreign agents” bill that would require media and commercial organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from outside the country to register as “agents of foreign influence”.

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Dutch broadcaster decries Eurovision decision to ban its contestant

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Avorotros says Joost Klein’s disqualification ‘disproportionate’ after incident involving female member of production crew

The Dutch broadcaster who sent the country’s entry to Eurovision has said the decision to disqualify its contestant from the song contest just hours before the start of tonight’s grand final was “disproportionate”.

Dutch singer and rapper Joost Klein was excluded from the main show due to an incident involving a female member of the production crew, the competition’s organisers announced earlier in the day.

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Russian attack on Kharkiv continues as Moscow says it has taken five villages

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Ukraine says it is pushing back against assaults and battling for control of territory

Fierce fighting has continued for a second day on the fringes ofthe Kharkiv region in north-east Ukraine. Moscow said it had captured five villages, while Kyiv said it was pushing back against the attacks and battling for control of the territory.

Russia launched the armoured incursion early on Friday, in an attack that may presage a broader push into the Kharkiv region, or aim to draw away overstretched Ukrainian forces in the east where Moscow’s offensive is focused.

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Far-right EU election gains could boost nationalist parties on home turf

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Polls indicate a surge for the right across the continent in next month’s ballots but the centrists are still likely to hold sway in parliament

Far-right gains in next month’s European elections will be hard, if not impossible, to parlay into more power in parliament, experts say, but they could boost nationalist parties in EU capitals – with potentially greater consequences.

Polling suggests far-right and hardline conservative parties could finish first in nine EU states, including Austria, France and the Netherlands, in the polls between 6 and 9 June, and second or third in another nine, including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden.

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Mystery of where Mona Lisa was painted has been solved, geologist claims

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Ann Pizzorusso says she has tracked down the background landscape of the world’s most famous painting

The landscape behind Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has sparked endless debate, with some art historians suggesting the view was imaginary and idealised, and others claiming various links to specific Italian locations.

Now a geologist and Renaissance art historian believes she has finally solved the mystery in one of the world’s most famous paintings. Ann Pizzorusso has combined her two fields of expertise to suggest that Leonardo painted several recognisable features of Lecco, on the shores of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.

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Cannes film festival faces strike disruption over seasonal workers’ rights

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Group will protest against government’s treatment of freelance workers at festivals across France

The Cannes film festival is facing strike action as it opens next week and could see protests by projectionists, floor managers and press agents who are demanding changes to the French government’s treatment of seasonal film festival staff.

The festival on France’s Côte d’Azur has faced major strike action only once before, during the student protests and workers’ strikes that began in May 1968.

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Eurovision struggles to keep politics out as Israel controversy hits Malmö

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Competing rallies are on the streets, Netherlands’ entrant is under investigation and others complain music is being overshadowed

The official motto of the 68th edition of Eurovision is “united by music”, but as the continent’s beglittered and sequined masses descended on the Swedish city of Malmö for Saturday’s grand final, music’s ability to heal and bridge divides was looking in serious doubt.

In the run-up to the song contest’s main event, the Netherlands’ performer Joost Klein missed his slot in two dress rehearsals after being put under investigation by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) due to an unexplained “incident”.

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Eight hundred protesters attempt to storm German Tesla factory

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Demonstrators opposed to expansion of factory near Berlin claim it would damage environment

Hundreds of protesters opposed to the expansion of a Tesla plant in Grünheide, near Berlin, clashed with police on Friday as some of them attempted to storm the electric vehicle manufacturing facility.

About 800 people took part in the protest, according to the organizing group Disrupt Tesla, which claims the expansion would damage the environment. Tesla has attracted intense backlash since the company opened the factory in March 2022, and later announced plans to expand into a nearby forest to increase its production capability.

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Catalan election gives voters chance to leave ‘lost decade’, says Salvador Illa

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Socialist frontrunner says region ready to unite, rather than focus on divisive politics that has plunged country into crisis

Catalonia’s imminent election offers voters a chance to leave behind a “lost decade” of unstable and divisive rule by pro-independence parties and instead choose a government that will focus on unity and improving “neglected” public services in the wealthy north-eastern Spanish region, according to the socialist frontrunner.

Salvador Illa, a former central government health minister who leads the Catalan branch of Spain’s ruling socialist party, said the region was ready for change almost seven years after the failed, unilateral bid to secede plunged the country into political crisis.

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Bus plunges into river in central St Petersburg killing at least three

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Russian officials say nine people were recovered from Moika after vehicle veered off bridge

A bus veered off a bridge in St Petersburg, Russia, killing at least three people and leaving six others injured on Friday, officials have said.

The emergencies ministry said rescuers removed nine people from the water, three of whom died. It said four others were in critical condition, and two more were in a serious condition.

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Russians try to break through Ukrainian defence lines north of Kharkiv

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Kyiv says initial attacks repelled as Russia seeks to intensify pressure on Ukraine’s second city

Russian forces have attacked across the Ukrainian border to the north of Kharkiv in a potential effort to open a new front in the war and intensify the pressure on Ukraine’s second city.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said there had been “an attempt by the enemy to break through our defence line using armoured vehicles” at about 5am on Friday near the town of Vovchansk, and the initial attacks had been repelled.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv sends reinforcements to Kharkiv and evacuates civilians as Russian forces advance – as it happened

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Russian forces have advanced one kilometre (0.62 mile) into Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region near Vovchansk, a high-ranking Ukrainian military source said on Friday.

According to Reuters, the source said the Russian military was aiming to advance as much as 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) into the region in an effort to establish a buffer zone. Ukrainian forces were fighting to hold back Moscow’s advance.

At approximately 5 am, there was an attempt by the enemy to break through our defensive line under the cover of armoured vehicles.

As of now, these attacks have been repulsed; battles of varying intensity continue.

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Great goat giveaway: Italian island inundated with adoption offers

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Mayor of Alicudi appealed for homes for 600 feral goats which will be removed from tiny volcanic island

When the mayor of a remote Italian island grappling with an overpopulation of feral goats offered to give the animals away, he anticipated a smattering of interest from farmers on neighbouring isles who were perhaps keen to boost their production of ricotta cheese.

But as news of his “adopt a goat” initiative spread beyond Alicudi, he received a flurry of offers from around the world – not just from Europe, but also the US, and even from an animal-lover in Nigeria.

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‘No alternative’: EU climate chief urges MEPs not to use crisis as political tool

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Exclusive: Wopke Hoekstra says EU must press ahead with cutting greenhouse gases and use policy to bring about economic benefits

Europe’s climate chief has warned against politicians trying to use the climate crisis as a wedge issue in the forthcoming EU parliament elections, calling instead for climate policy that will bring wider economic benefits.

Wopke Hoekstra, the EU commissioner for climate action, said Europe had no choice but to press ahead with strong measures to cut greenhouse gases, whoever was in power, but added that more attention was needed to help businesses thrive in a low-carbon world.

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Israel qualifies for Eurovision song contest final despite protests

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Thousands had marched against the country’s inclusion in Saturday’s final but Eden Golan’s entry was voted through

Israel has made it through to the final of the Eurovision song contest, setting the stage for a tense and politically charged event in Malmö on Saturday.

At Thursday’s second semi-final in Sweden’s third largest city, viewers from the competing countries backed the Israeli singer Eden Golan as one of the 10 entries to progress.

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Taylor Swift debuts new tracks as she returns to The Eras Tour

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Pop star thrills Paris crowds with songs from newest album The Tortured Poets Department

Taylor Swift has added her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, to an already packed setlist as she returned to The Eras Tour after a two-month break.

Swift had described TTPD as “new works reflecting events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure”. In Paris on Thursday night she put it more succinctly: “Female rage, the musical.”

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Hungary rolls out red carpet for Xi in final leg of European tour

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Warm welcome for Chinese president contrasts with rest of EU, with up to 18 cooperation agreements expected

Hungary has rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping in a show of warmth that contrasts with wariness in the rest of the EU about China’s stance on trade, global politics and human rights.

On the third and final stop of his first European tour in five years, Xi was given a ceremonial welcome by Hungary’s president, Tamás Sulyok, at Buda Castle, in Budapest, before talks with Viktor Orbán. The Hungarian prime minister, the EU’s longest-serving leader, has sought to deepen ties with Beijing and blocked EU motions criticising China’s human rights abuses.

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Spanish investigation into Shakira’s alleged tax evasion dropped

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Court says irregularities in Colombian singer’s 2018 tax return did not indicate intent to defraud

A Spanish court has shelved an investigation into an alleged tax fraud by the Colombian pop star Shakira, putting an end to her legal woes in the country where she once lived.

Prosecutors had opened the case in July, alleging she had used a network of companies, some in tax havens, to cheat the tax office out of €6.6m (£5.7m) in 2018.

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Putin watches Russian military parade featuring a solitary, Soviet-era tank

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Victory Day event commemorating second world war highlights drain of Ukraine war on Russia’s military

A solitary, symbolic tank has featured in Russia’s annual 9 May military parade for the second year in a row as the country was forced to pare down its normal display of military might during a full-scale war in which it has suffered unprecedented losses over the last two years.

The single tank to roll across Red Square as Vladimir Putin reviewed about 9,000 troops was a second world war-era T-34 carrying the banner that the Soviet Union used when it defeated Nazi Germany alongside other allies. The tank has gained iconic status, but is not in combat use and is instead a token of those that used to be part of the 9 May Victory Day celebrations.

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Students across Europe hold Gaza war protests in run-up to UN vote on Palestinian statehood

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Police arrested dozens of people in Amsterdam, with university occupations continuing in Netherlands, Belgium and Spain

Thirty-two people were arrested as Dutch police broke up a Gaza war protest at the University of Amsterdam, in a second day of unrest over the conflict. Police said the offences included public violence, vandalism and assault.

Video captured by Reuters appeared to show officers in riot gear striking protesters and police knocking down makeshift barricades of desks, bricks and wooden pallets that seemingly had been used to set off fire extinguishers in hopes of pushing them back. The footage appeared to also show police dragging several students away as hundreds shouted: “Shame on you!”

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