Local police scour Greek island of Symi two days after TV doctor and columnist went missing
The search for the TV doctor and columnist Michael Mosley has resumed on the Greek island of Symi, two days after he went missing.
Local police have confirmed that officers with sniffer dogs are scouring the island after they paused the search-and-rescue operation for the 67-year-old Briton on Thursday night.
Continue reading...German tennis player agrees deal after Brenda Patea alleged he pushed and strangled her, which he denied
The German tennis player Alexander Zverev has settled an assault case against him for allegedly pushing and strangling his then girlfriend, a charge he denied.
The deal reached between the world No 4 and his former partner Brenda Patea marks the end of a lengthy legal battle, with the Berlin court hearing the case officially declaring no verdict.
Continue reading...Leaders rally behind Zelenskiy to make clear to Putin that, as in 1944, freedom in Europe is worth fighting for
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron have marked the 80th anniversary of D-day with a rallying cry for support for Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was embraced by western leaders in Normandy.
The US president used his address at the American commemorative event to send a message to Moscow that the US and its allies “will not bow down” and will “stand for freedom”.
Continue reading...President warns at 80th anniversary that democracy is under greater threat than at any time since second world war
Joe Biden has marked the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy with an impassioned call to western allies to continue supporting Ukraine in the face of the “unending struggle between dictatorship and freedom”.
Speaking on Thursday at a ceremony at the Normandy American cemetery attended by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and dozens of surviving veterans from the second world war, Biden drew parallels between the Allied troops who fought to free Europe and the alliance of nations that came together to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.
Continue reading...World leaders attend international commemorative ceremony as French president draws comparisons with Ukraine conflict
The British prime minister Rishi Sunak will miss the major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day but the Labour leader Keir Starmer will attend alongside world leaders at the Omaha Beach event.
Sunak is attending events in Normandy including speaking at the major British ceremony, but he will not be present alongside leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden at the international gathering.
Continue reading...Agent says columnist and presenter has been missing since he went for a coastal hike on Greek island of Symi
A search is under way for the TV doctor and newspaper columnist Michael Mosley, who went missing after going on a coastal walk on the Greek island of Symi.
The 67-year-old, known for his appearances on The One Show and This Morning, was last seen when he set off hiking along St Nicholas beach at 1.30pm local time (1130 BST) on Wednesday. His wife, Dr Clare Bailey, alerted authorities after he failed to return by 7.30pm, but they were unable to locate him overnight.
Continue reading...French officials insist on checking paperwork of 400 troops landing in Normandy for 80th anniversary commemoration
Eyebrows were raised at the Ministry of Defence when French immigration and customs insisted on checking the paperwork of 400 British paratroopers immediately after they dropped into fields near Saneville, Normandy on Wednesday.
Some felt the French were trying to make a point in response to the UK’s decision to leave the EU and, while immigration checks for British troops on exercise abroad are routine, doing so at a public commemoration is deemed exceptional.
Continue reading...American says she is ‘sad but determined’ after Italian court upholds her conviction
Amanda Knox has said an Italian court’s decision to uphold her slander conviction for wrongly accusing a bar owner of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher was “unfair and incorrect” and vowed to continue her fight against “this injustice”.
Knox, 36, left through a back exit of a Florence appeals court on Wednesday and cancelled a planned press conference after judges rejected her appeal to have the conviction dropped.
Continue reading...Geert Wilders’ PVV party is predicted to go from one seat to eight in European parliament nonetheless
Elections to the world’s only transnational assembly get under way in earnest on Thursday as Dutch voters go to the polls in a four-day, 27-country ballot that will return 720 MEPs to the next European parliament.
The results of the elections, which will shape the makeup of the next European Commission and could have a major impact on the bloc’s political direction in key areas including immigration and climate action, are expected on Sunday evening.
Continue reading...Veterans in bloc will have to adjust to new reality as rightwing groups expected to have real influence for first time
When the results of the European parliamentary elections start to emerge on Sunday night, polls suggest they will show that the world’s only directly elected transnational assembly will have tilted, unambiguously, to the right.
Yet, for all the talk of a significant surge in support for the forces of Europe’s hard right, their gains should prove broadly in line with a steady progression over the past couple of decades or more. The difference will be in the response.
Continue reading...Ben and Annie Vautier’s children say in statement their father killed himself just after their mother died of a stroke on Wednesday
French artist Ben, best known for his ironic painted slogans, has died aged 88, killing himself just hours after the death of his wife of 60 years, his family said Wednesday.
His wife, Annie, suffered a stroke on Monday evening and died on Wednesday, the couple’s two children, Eva and Francois, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Recovering PM posts video in which he calls would-be assassin ‘messenger of evil’ but offers forgiveness
The Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, has blamed the country’s opposition for fostering the “hatred” that led to his assassination attempt in his first appearance since he was seriously wounded in a shooting three weeks ago.
In a pre-recorded speech posted on Facebook on Wednesday, in the run-up to the European elections, Fico described the shooter as an “activist of the Slovak opposition … a messenger of evil and political hatred that the politically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition has fanned to unmanageable proportions”.
Continue reading...Man, 26, questioned under suspicion of participating in terrorist conspiracy after explosion in hotel north of Paris
French anti-terror prosecutors have launched an investigation after a Ukrainian-Russian man detonated explosive materials in a hotel room north of Paris.
A source at the French anti-terrorism prosecutors office (PNAT) said that on Monday night the 26-year-old man was given medical treatment by fire officers in a hotel in the Val-d’Oise, north of Paris, for “significant burns after an explosion”.
Continue reading...Ruling by European court of justice ends 17-year legal tussle between Irish chain and global rival
The small Irish takeaway chain Supermac’s has won a David v Goliath court battle with McDonald’s over the use of the Big Mac trademark, paving the way for it to open outlets across Europe.
The ruling also means the US-founded fast food multinational has lost the right to use the name “Big Mac” in the EU in relation to chicken burgers.
Continue reading...José Maria Neves says governments should still try to have such conversations and build solutions using diplomatic corridors
Cape Verde’s president, José Maria Neves, said the rise of rightwing populism has made it difficult to hold a serious debate about colonial reparations but argued that should not stop governments from having those conversations behind closed doors.
In an interview with the news site Brasil Já, published on Wednesday, Neves said debating reparations in the “public arena” could lead to more political polarisation in countries such as Cape Verde’s former coloniser, Portugal, where the far right is on the rise.
Continue reading...False claims and fake videos spreading across continent with voting to being from Thursday. This live blog is closed
Alternative for Germany’s Tino Chrupalla said the party’s local council candidate Heinrich Koch was injured with a knife in Mannheim when “confronting poster vandals” and wished him a speedy recovery.
As the D-Day commemorations get underway, White House National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said aboard Air Force One on the way to France that Joe Biden will stress how the men on those cliffs “put the country ahead of themselves” and detail “the dangers of isolationism, and how, if we back dictators and fail to stand up to them, they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price,” the Associated Press reported.
“Eighty years later, we see dictators once again attempting to challenge the order, attempting to march in Europe,” Sullivan said, “and that freedom-loving nations need to rally to stand against that, as we have.”
US president and Ukrainian president to sit down after they arrive for anniversary of D-day landings in France, White House confirms. This live blog is closed
French president Emmanuel Macron is to host US president Joe Biden, British King Charles and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on the shores of Normandy, representing the three main countries involved in the landings on 6 June 1944, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and about 200 surviving war veterans are also expected to attend.
Continue reading...Text appears to have been copied out and backdated by Camus in 1944, possibly as a way to raise funds during Nazi occupation
A handwritten manuscript of the classic French novel L’Étranger by Albert Camus has sold for more than €650,000 (£553,000) at auction, despite bafflement over the reasons for which the Nobel prize-winning author appeared to have faked and backdated it.
The bound, 104-page draft of Camus’s novel about a French settler in Algeria who kills an unnamed Arab man went under the hammer in Paris on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Heinrich Koch reportedly stabbed in altercation over election posters days after police officer died in attack in same German city
Politicians in Germany have pleaded for calm on the campaign trail after a candidate for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party was stabbed in the south-west German city of Mannheim, less than a week after a police officer was killed in a knife attack in the city.
The attack, which took place on Tuesday evening but was confirmed by police on Wednesday, left the politician with non-life threatening injuries for which he is being treated in hospital.
Continue reading...A 25 percentage point cut to main lending rate is forecast amid growth in Germany, Italy and Spain
Business activity grew across the eurozone at the fastest rate in a year in May while inflation cooled, according to data that will be welcomed by the European Central Bank (ECB) in advance of expected interest rate cuts tomorrow.
The latest HCOB purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data, compiled by S&P Global, showed private sector output expanded in most economies covered by the euro currency after growth in Germany, Italy and Spain was only marginally offset by a downturn in France.
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