Death toll in Valencia fire rises to 10 as remains of last missing person found

Police in Spanish city continue to search debris after blaze that consumed one of the buildings in less than an hour

The death toll from a fire that left two residential buildings charred ruins in the Spanish city of Valencia rose to 10 on Saturday after authorities announced they had located the remains of what they believed to be the last missing person.

Forensic police found the 10th victim inside the building, the national government delegate in Valencia, Pilar Bernabé, told journalists. Police would proceed with DNA testing to confirm the identities of all the victims, she said.

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A train through Ukraine: a journey into the stories of two years of war

On 900 miles of track between the frontline and the edge of the EU, soldiers and civilians reflect on their experiences

The opening bars of the Cossack March rang out from the platform speakers at Zaporizhzhia-1 train station, jaunty trumpets transitioning into a rousing military march, heralding the departure of train number four, the 17.53 to Uzhhorod.

Carriage attendants slammed shut the heavy metal doors, a few people on the platform waved forlorn goodbyes in the evening gloom, and the train clattered off on its journey across the entire breadth of Ukraine, a 900-mile ride from close to the frontline all the way to the border with the European Union.

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Actor Judith Godrèche urges French film industry to face up to sexual abuse

Star tells audience at prestigious César awards that they need to challenge powerful and abusive men whatever the career risk

Judith Godrèche has urged the French film industry to break its omertà on sexual abuse in an unprecedented address to the country’s most prestigious awards ceremony on Friday evening.

Godrèche, who says she was groomed and raped as a teenager by an acclaimed director, received a standing ovation as she took the stage at the Césars – the French equivalent of the Oscars.

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Final death toll from Spanish tower block blaze is nine, say police

Authorities lower count of victims in Valencia fire, with one more person considered missing

Spanish police have said the final death toll from a devastating fire that tore through a 14-storey block of flats in the eastern city of Valencia is nine, with one person thought to have died now considered missing and all others accounted for.

El País cited national police as saying that after forensic analysis of the bodies found in the charred building, they had lowered the number of victims from the 10 previously reported by the Spanish government’s representative in the region.

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‘Virile’ exchanges expected as Macron heads to annual French farming show

President faces uncertain reception at Salon d’Agriculture after weeks of protests by furious farmers

Most politicians kiss babies; French leaders pat cows and make a fuss of lambs.

The Salon d’Agriculture, the country’s annual farm show which opens on Saturday, is a date presidents cannot afford to miss.

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Russia-Ukraine war: US sanctions three Russian officials over Alexei Navalny’s death – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For more on US sanctions against Russia, read our full report:

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday announced a fresh wave of more than 500 sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine and the death of Alexei Navalny, the White House said.

More information to come …

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Cameron warns failure to supply arms to Ukraine will harm US security

British foreign secretary argues blockage of $61bn aid package in Congress strengthens China and undermines confidence in US

David Cameron has said that the continued US failure to supply arms to Ukraine would undermine its own security, strengthen China and cast doubt on America’s reliability as an ally around the world.

The UK foreign secretary, who attended the G20 meeting in Brazil earlier in the week, admitted that the effort to rally global support for the Ukrainian cause had been “damaged” by the fact that neither the US nor the UK had voted for a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But he argued the damage had been mitigated by the UK’s clarification of its position.

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New hopes of Gaza ceasefire as Israeli negotiators head to Paris

Pressure mounts on Israel and Hamas to make a deal before threatened Rafah offensive

An Israeli negotiating team arrived in Paris on Friday for talks about a potential ceasefire in Gaza in the latest sign of tentative progress towards an agreement that could end the five-month-old war.

The Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, will meet the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official for talks over the weekend in what appears to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting.

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Ukraine appeals to Australia and France for more ammunition as it marks two years since Russian invasion

Ukrainian ambassador to Australia also urges west not to succumb to ‘fatigue’ in its support for Ukraine

Ukraine is appealing to Australia and France to deliver more ammunition to the country as it marks the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, also urged western leaders not to succumb to “fatigue” over the protracted war, saying: “I think the only country which can feel fatigue can be Ukraine, actually, because we are the ones who are being killed.”

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US to impose sanctions on 500 Russia-linked targets to mark Ukraine war anniversary

Military industrial complex and companies aiding Moscow in third countries will be targeted, treasury says

The US will impose sanctions on more than 500 targets on Friday in action marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deputy US treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo has said.

The action, taken in partnership with other countries, will target Russia’s military industrial complex and companies in third countries that facilitate Russia’s access to goods it wants, Adeyemo told Reuters news agency, as Washington seeks to hold Russia to account over the war and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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Ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens arrested again

Alexander Smirnov, who claims to have Russian intelligence links, taken into custody after meeting at lawyers’ offices in Las Vegas

The former FBI informant who is charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving Joe Biden’s family was again taken into custody in Las Vegas, two days after a judge released him, his attorneys said.

Alexander Smirnov was arrested during a meeting on Thursday morning at his lawyers’ offices in downtown Las Vegas. The arrest came after prosecutors appealed the judge’s ruling allowing 43-year-old Smirnov, who holds dual US-Israeli citizenship, to be released with a GPS monitor ahead of trial. He is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.

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Four dead as Valencia apartment block gutted by flames fanned by high winds, official says

Thirteen reported injured as 22 teams of firefighters fight flames engulfing 14-storey building

Spanish firefighters have been battling high winds to put out a huge fire that gutted a multi-storey apartment block in Valencia and left four dead.

At least 13 people have been injured, including a minor and six firefighters, emergency services and regional officials in the eastern port city said, without providing details on the extent of the injuries. The emergency services earlier said seven people were lightly injured, mostly from smoke inhalation.

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Navalny’s mother shown body and ‘blackmailed by authorities’ over funeral

Lyudmila Navalnaya says she was told to agree to secret burial as Kremlin appears to fear funeral turning into political action

Alexei Navalny’s mother has said she has been shown the body of her son but that the authorities were “blackmailing” her into burying him in a secret ceremony without mourners.

In a video message on Thursday, Lyudmila Navalnaya said she was driven to a morgue on Wednesday evening where authorities showed her the body.

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Israeli Eurovision song under ‘scrutiny’ for alleged Hamas attack reference

Organisers considering if lyrics breach non-political rules a week after giving Israel all-clear to participate

The organisers of the Eurovision song contest have said they are “scrutinising” the lyrics of Israel’s entry after it was claimed it makes reference to the Hamas attacks on 7 October.

The lyrics from Israel’s entry, October Rain, sung by Eden Golan, were leaked to the media. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, lines in the song include, “There’s no air left to breathe”, and “They were all good children, each one of them”. The song also refers to “flowers”, which the newspaper reported is a military code for war fatalities.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy downplays loss of Avdiivka to Russian forces

President points to Ukrainian victories in Kharkiv and Black Sea since invasion began and questions the value of Russia capturing eastern city

Italy hopes to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine “in the coming days”, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is negotiating the agreement with Ukrainian authorities, Tajani said during a parliamentary hearing.

We count on being able to finalise [it] in the coming days.

The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin.

But it debases those who use such vocabulary.

Has Mr. Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself.

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UK criticised over apparent call to firms to rebuild disputed areas of Azerbaijan

Officials held online meeting with business leaders despite flight of ethnic Armenians after military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh

The UK government faces criticism after officials appeared to urge British businesses to help rebuild disputed areas of Azerbaijan just weeks after the state’s military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh led more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee the region.

Officials from the UK Foreign Office and the business department held an online meeting with British business leaders in November to encourage companies to take advantage of the “great opportunity” to support Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev’s rebuilding agenda.

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Jim Ratcliffe’s vast petrochemical plant in Antwerp faces new legal challenge

Proposed Project One cracking plant is ‘hugely destructive’, says Client Earth

The creation of the biggest petrochemical plant in Europe in 30 years faces a new legal challenge by a group of NGOs arguing that the true impact of the development on people, nature and the climate has not been considered.

Client Earth lodged papers on Wednesday evening in court which aim to halt the building of Project One, a vast cracking plant to produce the chemicals to make plastic, which is being built in Antwerp by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company Ineos.

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Germans must capitalise on anti-AfD momentum, says political veteran

Exclusive: Time is ripe for challenge to growing far-right support, says former Bundestag president

A former president of the German Bundestag has urged the country’s political leaders to seize on the momentum of recent nationwide demonstrations against far-right populism to build “an alliance of democrats”, comparing the outpouring of anger to the protests that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Wolfgang Thierse, a veteran social democrat considered by many to be a moral authority in contemporary Germany, said he was shocked by the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has struggled to distance itself from revelations that party members attended a meeting at which plans for the mass deportation of foreigners were discussed.

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People helping asylum seekers in Europe face rising violence, report warns

Aid workers being held at gunpoint and having communications monitored, Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner says

People and groups who assist asylum seekers are reporting a disturbing trend of escalating intimidation, with aid workers facing direct threats including being held at gunpoint and having their phone communications monitored by government authorities, according to a report from the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights.

Dunja Mijatović has warned of increasing harassment and in some cases criminalisation of people and groups who assist refugees, especially in Hungary, Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Croatia and Poland.

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