Ex-Barcelona footballer on provisional release from prison term while he appeals against rape conviction
The former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves has been allowed out on bail having served 14 months of a four-and-a-half-year sentence for rape.
One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was found guilty last month of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of 31 December 2022.
Continue reading...Technology groups face hefty fines if they are found guilty of breaching Digital Markets Act
Apple, Google’s parent company and Meta are being investigated by the EU for potential breaches of the bloc’s new laws designed to police anti-competitive behaviour by big technology companies.
The trio face significant fines if they are found guilty of breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of regulation that came into force on 7 March and is aimed at increasing choice for online consumers.
Continue reading...At least five people injured and a three-storey building damaged in latest wave of strikes
Russia has launched its third wave of missile strikes against Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, in five days, as part of its escalating aerial bombardment of the city.
Five people were injured in the strike, with two of them taken to hospital, said the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, as Ukraine’s foreign minister called on international allies to supply more air defences to his country.
The injuries and damage appear to have been the result of falling missile debris as the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down two missiles over the city.
Continue reading...Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in Iberia
Brazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in places. Cumulative totals from Friday through Sunday were close to 250mm, particularly along the coast: this is far higher than the monthly average.
Landslides and mudslides occurred across the region, and a number of houses collapsed. Rescue operations are under way to look for people who may have been stranded by the floods. Although there may still be a few showers over the following days, the worst of the rain has now passed.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Surge in nurses originally from outside the EU moving overseas prompts concern Britain is a ‘staging post’ in their careers
Almost 9,000 foreign nurses a year are leaving the UK to work abroad, amid a sudden surge in nurses quitting the already understaffed NHS for better-paid jobs elsewhere.
The rise in nurses originally from outside the EU moving to take up new posts abroad has prompted concerns that Britain is increasingly becoming “a staging post” in their careers.
Continue reading...New date for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica announced but enormous, controversial stairway will take another eight years
Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.
The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect.
Continue reading...A rally car veered off the road and crashed into a group of spectators in Hungary on Sunday, killing four and injuring several others, police said.
The accident occurred during a race between the towns of Labatlan and Bajot near the Danube River in northwest Hungary, the Komárom-Esztergom County police said in a statement.
Continue reading...Russians lay flowers and light candles outside Crocus concert hall on day of mourning. This live blog is closed
Pope Francis has condemned the shooting attack at the concert hall near Moscow as a “vile” act that offends God.
“I assure my prayers for the victims of the vile terrorist attack carried out in Moscow, may the Lord receive them in his peace, comfort their families and convert the hearts of those who … carry out these inhuman actions that offend God,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Square after the Palm Sunday mass.
I think we have very little confidence in anything the Russian government says.
We know that they are creating a smokescreen of propaganda to defend an utterly evil invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Higher education minister will become taoiseach in April after shock resignation of Leo Varadkar
Simon Harris will become Ireland’s youngest prime minister after the leadership race in his Fine Gael party ended without any other candidates coming forward.
The leadership became vacant after the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, announced his surprise resignation “for personal and political reasons” last week.
Continue reading...Footage of gunmen reinforces Islamic State’s claim to have masterminded worst terror attack on Russia in two decades
Four suspects have appeared in court in Moscow charged over the terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall on Friday that left 137 people dead.
The men were officially identified as citizens of Tajikistan, the Tass state news agency said, and were remanded in custody for two months at Sunday’s hearing.
Continue reading...Russian missile was targeting Ukraine’s Lviv region while Kyiv suffers third pre-dawn attack in four days
Poland said it would demand an explanation from Moscow after a Russian missile briefly breached Polish airspace during a massive missile attack on Ukraine, prompting the Nato member to put its forces on heightened readiness.
Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with Sunday’s early morning strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut.
Continue reading...Ivan Korcok won most votes in first round, ahead of parliament speaker Peter Pellegrini
A pro-EU former Slovak foreign minister has scored a surprise victory in the first round of a presidential election, setting up a runoff vote with a key ally of the populist prime minister, Robert Fico.
Slovakia’s presidential election is a chance for Fico, whose views on Ukraine have angered critics for veering too close to Russia, to strengthen his grip on power. Opposition forces want a counterbalance to his rule.
Continue reading...Exclusive: newly obtained footage and leaked documents show how a ‘mass casualty event’ could arise from aggressive tactics employed by border forces
French police funded by the UK government have endangered the lives of vulnerable migrants by intercepting small boats in the Channel, using tactics that search and rescue experts say could cause a “mass casualty event”.
Shocking new evidence obtained by the Observer, Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde and Der Spiegel reveals for the first time that the French maritime police have tried physically to force small boats to turn around – manoeuvres known as “pullbacks” – in an attempt to prevent them reaching British shores.
Continue reading...Monuments erected on the Stadtschloss are an ‘infiltration’ of the city and its skyline by nationalists, say critics
Silently towering into the grey Berlin sky, the latest addition to the German capital’s skyline is easily missed by passengers passing along the Unter den Linden boulevard below. Eight statues of Old Testament prophets, each more than 3 metres tall and weighing 3 tonnes, were installed last week in a circular formation around the cupola of the palace in the centre of the metropolis.
Whether these wise men made of sandstone are mere innocent bystanders overlooking the ebb and flow of German history or warriors in a culture war over the country’s future, however, has been the subject of heated debate. Critics say the erection of Isaiah, Ezekiel and co is emblematic of the silent manipulation of a prestige architecture project by a shady group of donors with nationalist leanings.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow here
State-owned media RIA reports that so many people have turned up to donate blood after the attack that the Buyanov hospital in Moscow has had to ask people to return in the following days.
Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, has posted to social media to say that they were “terrible images” at the scene of the attack. She said “Moldova condemns all forms of terrorism. Our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones and the injured.”
Continue reading...Immersive tour at Musée d’Orsay takes visitors back to 15 April 1874 – the moment that marked the movement’s birth
In a lush red-and-gold carpeted photographer’s studio in northern Paris, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas are adding the final touches to the hanging of their paintings, while fellow artists Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro lament the lack of recognition for their work and Claude Monet bemoans being mistaken for Édouard Manet.
Outside, Parisian gentlemen in top hats and ladies in bustles are admiring the newly completed Opera House or enjoying an early evening drink on the café terraces while horse-drawn carriages clatter down Baron Haussmann’s new grands boulevards.
Continue reading...The ISKP regional affiliate has a haven in Afghanistan and carried out recent bombings in Iran, suggesting it has capacity for major atrocities
Speculation about who carried out the shooting at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow has quickly indicated that the terror attack will have outsized political implications in Russia and abroad.
A claim has surfaced that the attack was carried out by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) a regional affiliate of the IS terrorist organisation. IS has been implicated in some of Russia’s largest recent terror attacks, including the 2017 bombing in the St Petersburg metro that killed 15 and injured 45.
Continue reading...This blog has closed, read our full report here:
The roof of Crocus City Hall where gunfire and flames were heard and seen on Friday night is collapsing, RIA reports.
Here are videos emerging through social media:
Continue reading...At least 133 people killed and scores wounded, according to authorities, after gunmen opened fire at Crocus City Hall. Islamic State has claimed responsibility
Scores of people have reportedly been killed and many wounded in an attack at a concert venue near Moscow.
Here is what we know about the shooting so far:
Vladimir Putin has told the Russian people that Ukraine is linked to the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night that killed at least 133 people. In a video address lasting five-and-a-half minutes, the newly re-elected Russian president said Russian security forces believed they had apprehended all four direct participants in the attack, who were caught heading for Ukraine, which was preparing to receive them over the border. Kyiv has rubbished the claims. Eleven people have been detained in total.
Islamic State has claimed it carried out the attack, which Putin did not mention in his address. He described it as a “bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and said the victims were “dozens of peaceful, innocent people – our compatriots, including children, teenagers, and women”. He said the Russian Federation would “identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack”.
Ukraine has denied any link to the attack. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said attempts to connect the two were “absolutely untenable”. He said: “Ukraine has not the slightest connection to this incident. Ukraine has a full-scale war with Russia and will solve the problem of Russia’s aggression on the battlefield.” Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine.
107 people remain in hospital after the attack, including three children, one of whom is described as being in a critical condition. After a drive to receive blood donations in Moscow, the deputy prime minister, Tatyana Golikova, said there was enough “medicine, blood, and dressing materials”. Moscow authorities have said they will pay compensation to those affected, and arrange funerals for those killed.
Putin has declared Sunday a day of national mourning. People have been laying flowers and toys as a tribute to the victims at the site of the attack, and outside Russian embassies all around the world.
Images from inside the venue show that the auditorium has been completely gutted by fire and the roof has collapsed. Russian authorities say people died both from gunshot wounds and the effects of the fire.
The terrorist attack has been widely condemned around the world. David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary; Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, French president Emmanuel Macron, US secretary of state Antony Blinken, and Nato have been among those condemning the attack and offering condolences. Putin spoke to the leaders of Belarus and Uzbekistan by phone. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also offered his support, saying terrorism was “the common enemy of humanity”.
Reports that Islamic State carried out the attack appear credible to many. Several security analysts said that the claim of responsibility by the Islamic State for the massacre of Russian concertgoers appears to be plausible and fits with a pattern of previous marauding attacks by Islamist militants.
Moscow had been warned. US intelligence gathered information just over two weeks ago that ISPK, a branch of the Islamic State group based in Afghanistan, was eyeing Russia for a terrorist attack. The US embassy in Moscow had said it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts”. The unusually clear public alert was repeated by the UK.
Zelenskiy speaks out. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday that Vladimir Putin was seeking ways to divert blame for the massacre at the concert hall near Moscow on Friday. He said it was “absolutely predictable” that Putin had remained silent until the day after the attack before accusing Ukraine of being involved.
Continue reading...Islamic State claims responsibility after gunmen in combat gear opened fire and reportedly set off explosives at Crocus City Hall
At least 115 people have been killed and 145 wounded in Russia’s worst terror attack in years, as gunmen in combat fatigues opened fire and detonated explosives in a major concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow.
Russian media say authorities have detained 11 people.
Continue reading...