Move comes in response to Rome imposing similar measures after mass migration rush to Ceuta
Spain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.
The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement.
Continue reading...Taxi driver says he acted as middleman between Yorgen Fenech and three men already convicted of €150,000 contract killing
The businessman accused of paying for hitmen to murder the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was impatient for the killing to take place, and once texted from his boat to say he was “preparing champagne” to celebrate, a jury in Malta has heard.
Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes several Hilton hotels, is on trial in Malta for complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia. She died in a car bombing in October 2017 after publishing a series of revelations about senior politicians that were so damaging they triggered a snap general election.
Continue reading...Officials try to find homes for residents as talks to save social assistance hub collapse amid government crackdown
Rome authorities are scrambling to find homes for hundreds of people sleeping in tents in extreme heat after talks aimed at saving Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance collapsed amid a crackdown by Giorgia Meloni’s government on squatted buildings.
The approximately 400 evicted residents of Spin Time Labs, located in a 10-floor building in Rome’s Esquilino district occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, will not be allowed to move back in after its private owner refused Rome council’s offer to buy the property. The residents were forced out at the end of last month.
Continue reading...The curator of Norway’s national museum in Oslo is bringing the work by the Flemish baroque artist Clara Peeters out of obscurity in a major exhibition of female artists
Anonymous was often a woman: so said Virginia Woolf. And so thought Cynthia Osiecki one day in 2022, when she chanced on an unattributed still life in the storage area of the National Museum of Norway in Oslo.
Osiecki had been studying the work of a renowned 17th-century Flemish artist, Clara Peeters, one of the earliest practitioners of still life painting. Works by Peeters hang in the Prado in Madrid, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Continue reading...Germany investigating whether foreign state involved as minister says ‘ripped’ detonator stopped device going off
A catastrophe with multiple casualties was possibly narrowly averted by the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, German officials said, as they examined whether a foreign state could be behind the plot.
One of the Ukrainian aircraft next to where the bomb drone was found was loaded with military ammunition, according to a classified police report quoted by the public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper.
Continue reading...Figure raises questions about deal with France despite UK ministers insisting repeat arrivals will be removed
Almost 50 asylum seekers deported using the “one in one out” scheme have been recorded as returning to the UK a second time, the Guardian has learned.
In addition to the returnees detained by the Home Office, an unknown number are believed to have arrived in the UK undetected.
Continue reading...Government introduces several measures, including monitoring of computers, for pupils aged 16 to 19
Danish teenagers will have to make an oral defence of their written essays to combat AI cheating, the government has announced.
Pupils aged 16 to 19 at upper secondary school (known in Denmark as gymnasiet) will also be encouraged to do written assignments at school under controlled conditions, including monitoring of their computer screens, rather than at home.
Continue reading...Washington-Rabat ties under scrutiny as questions swirl over what led to deadly influx into tiny Spanish territory
The cosy relationship between Washington and Rabat has long been flaunted by both sides, from Morocco’s announcement this year that it would be the first African state to join Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to the congratulatory message recently sent by Trump to mark King Mohammed VI’s 27 years in power.
The latest example landed this week. As Spain grappled with the aftermath of the sudden influx – and swift return – of more than 70,000 people into Ceuta, Morocco’s monarch confirmed he had named a $1bn highway flanking the disputed territory of Western Sahara after Trump.
Continue reading...After Ukraine failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile fired by Russia on Wednesday, the president urged allies to increase supplies of Patriot interceptors
Nato is working to get Ukraine the air defences it “urgently needs”, its secretary general has said, after Kyiv failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in an attack on Wednesday, and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was seeking to significantly boost missile production ahead of winter.
Speaking at a National Security and Defense Council meeting on winter resilience, the Ukrainian president did not rule out the idea that stalling missile supplies from western allies were “aimed at making Ukraine, so to speak, more willing to compromise” in peace talks with Russia.
Continue reading...After Ukraine failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile fired by Russia on Wednesday, the president urged allies to increase supplies of Patriot interceptors
Nato is working to get Ukraine the air defences it “urgently needs”, its secretary general has said, after Kyiv failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in an attack on Wednesday, and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was seeking to significantly boost missile production ahead of winter.
Speaking at a National Security and Defense Council meeting on winter resilience, the Ukrainian president did not rule out the idea that stalling missile supplies from western allies were “aimed at making Ukraine, so to speak, more willing to compromise” in peace talks with Russia.
Continue reading...Initial evidence suggests aerial drone, found near Ukrainian cargo planes at German airport, came from Russia
The armed drone found at Leipzig airport on Wednesday may not have exploded, but the fact that it got inside the perimeter, close to Ukrainian cargo planes, raises obvious concerns for the security of international aviation.
Though the identity of the culprits is unknown, the initial evidence points firmly towards a Russian-orchestrated plot. It is the first time that a drone with explosives has been found in Europe far from the Ukrainian border.
Continue reading...Assassination attempt demonstrates Ukraine’s ability to continue clandestine operations deep inside Russian territory
The head of a leading Russian drone manufacturer has been critically injured in a car bomb near Ekaterinburg, in what appears to be the latest in a series of assassination attempts targeting figures linked to the country’s war in Ukraine.
Vladimir Tkachuk, the founder of the private drone manufacturer Uraldronzavod, was rushed to intensive care on Wednesday after a bomb planted beneath his Mercedes exploded, according to Russian state media, citing emergency services. His bodyguard was killed in the explosion.
Continue reading...Assassination attempt demonstrates Ukraine’s ability to continue clandestine operations deep inside Russian territory
The head of a leading Russian drone manufacturer has been critically injured in a car bomb near Ekaterinburg, in what appears to be the latest in a series of assassination attempts targeting figures linked to the country’s war in Ukraine.
Vladimir Tkachuk, the founder of the private drone manufacturer Uraldronzavod, was rushed to intensive care on Wednesday after a bomb planted beneath his Mercedes exploded, according to Russian state media, citing emergency services. His bodyguard was killed in the explosion.
Continue reading...Investigators looking into whether incidents at Leipzig are linked after DHL plane forced to make emergency landing
A DHL cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing after colliding with an unknown object as it was climbing away from Germany’s Leipzig airport, where police later found a drone on the ground.
The German government on Wednesday confirmed the incident, which led to serious disruption of air traffic.
Continue reading...Ukraine shoots down most drones but no ballistic missiles in overnight attack that mainly targeted civilian facilities
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has blamed allies for not delivering air defences fast enough after Ukraine failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in a deadly overnight attack that killed at least 17 people and injured dozens more.
Preliminary data from the Ukrainian air force showed its defences shot down 98 of the 115 drones fired by Russia overnight, but no ballistic missiles.
Continue reading...Company acquired in deal involving Affinity Partners, a firm run by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner
Electronic Arts, the maker of video games such as The Sims, Madden NFL and Battlefield, has been bought by Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund and a group of investors for $55bn (£41bn).
The company announced the completion of the deal on Tuesday evening, only days after the EU gave its approval, the final regulatory green light needed.
Continue reading...Spin Time provides homes, food banks and after-school clubs but the authorities have locked out residents
Hundreds of people have spent a week sleeping in tents in the Rome heat amid a standoff between Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government and local politicians over the future of Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance.
A minor fire last week forced the evacuation of the building, occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, and it has remained closed as the Meloni government attempts to crack down on such squatted properties.
Continue reading...UK’s Secret Intelligence Service praised for playing long game and having ‘a taste for dirty tricks’
MI6 has been ranked as the most powerful foreign intelligence service in Europe ahead of France and the Netherlands, according to a peer review.
The British intelligence agency scored 251 points in the research and was commended for its expertise in recruiting high-level informants and penetrating the ruling elites in Russia, China, Iran and Turkey, according to the review by 60 professionals from 25 countries.
Continue reading...Migration commissioner says scheme regularising undocumented people ‘not a good signal’ for Europe
The EU’s top official on migration has criticised Spain’s plan to regularise undocumented migrants as “not a good signal” for Europe, after an emergency meeting intended to draw a line under divisions on the Ceuta crisis.
Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for migration, said that while the EU could not currently see a direct link between events in Ceuta and Spain’s regularisation plan, the policy was “definitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe”.
Continue reading...Winner called waste management team after she realised stub showing she had hit the jackpot had been thrown away
A €1m lottery ticket has been recovered from the rubbish in Italy after the frantic winner called on refuse collectors to help her retrieve it, according to the waste management company.
The instant win ticket was “miraculously still in one piece” after garbage workers combed through mounds of rubbish on their truck, said Roberto Nicola Toscano, the administrator of the SANB company in Italy’s southern Puglia region.
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