Journalist’s son says his mother was examining leak from Electrogas, part owned by Yorgen Fenech who is on trial
Daphne Caruana Galizia was investigating suspected corruption by the businessman Yorgen Fenech and members of Malta’s government when she was killed, a jury has heard.
The heir to one of Malta’s biggest fortunes, Fenech is on trial for murder, accused of commissioning and paying for Caruana Galizia’s killing in a car bombing in October 2017.
Continue reading...Campaigners say people who have had cancer face discrimination in areas including bank loans, adoption of children and insurance
German politicians who have survived cancer have spearheaded proposals to protect people long in remission from what they call rampant discrimination in areas including bank loans, adoption of children and insurance.
The policy known as “the right to be forgotten” (RTBF) is a central demand of a community estimated to number 5.5 million people in Germany: former cancer patients who have been given a clean bill of health by their doctors.
Continue reading...Farmers warn impact of high temperatures, drought and wildfires on range of foodstuffs means costs will increase
Farmers across Europe are warning of a slump in food production and rising prices as crops from maize to salads suffer as a result of extreme heat, drought and wildfires.
Olive groves have also been hit as the climate crisis drives temperatures across the continent to fresh record highs, meaning the cost of olive oil – already at elevated levels – is expected to start rising again.
Continue reading...European Commission president says work needed in five areas of migration control including returning more people
The president of the European Commission has called for action to strengthen Europe’s borders after tens of thousands of people arrived and quickly left the Spanish territory of Ceuta, triggering a furious row between Madrid and other European countries.
In a letter to Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on Monday, Ursula von der Leyen said: “From this incident, it is clear that we must do more to further strengthen our borders at critical points, including vigilant monitoring and the use of physical barriers where needed.”
Continue reading...Boris Nadezhdin, who gained prominence after standing against Putin in 2024, says he is now in France
The prominent Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin has fled to Paris as Moscow tightens its grip on dissent before parliamentary elections later this year.
Nadezhdin, a veteran liberal politician, gained international prominence during Russia’s 2024 presidential election when his long-shot campaign against Vladimir Putin unexpectedly gathered momentum before electoral authorities barred him from running.
Continue reading...Internal inquiries also opened after two suicides and two attempted suicides of staff in departments connected to PM’s office
The Paris state prosecutor has opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged workplace bullying after the attempted suicide of a staff member in a department connected to the French prime minister’s office, France Inter radio has revealed.
The public radio station reported on Monday that two government workers in different departments had ended their lives in the past year, and two others had attempted suicide. The radio station said complaints of alleged workplace bullying had been made.
Continue reading...Hungary and Romania face energy crisis as record-low river levels force atomic power plants to reduce output
Romanian naval forces carried out a controlled explosion to help redirect vital cooling water from the drought-hit Danube to the country’s last working nuclear reactor, while neighbouring Hungary said it may be able to eke out two more days of power from its only atomic plant.
Hungary and Romania have been forced to shut down nuclear reactors cooled by the Danube for the first time, as record-low water levels deepen fears of an energy crisis across the region.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry accuses Kyiv of carrying out attack reports say may have been aimed at air force chief
Russia has blamed Ukraine for a bombing at a restaurant in central Moscow that killed five people, amid growing speculation that a senior Russian military commander was the intended target.
The explosion occurred on Saturday evening near the entrance to an upmarket Italian restaurant in one of the city’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers on Kudrinskaya Square.
Continue reading...Greek police say 26-year-old Afghan national is believed to have left Elisabeth-Jane Ross’s body in derelict building
Greek authorities have arrested an Afghan national in connection with the death of a Scottish woman whose body was found in a suitcase in an abandoned building in central Athens.
Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, a charity worker described as an “angel full of innocence and goodness” by friends, had been in Greece for almost three weeks when she is believed to have died.
Continue reading...Fire department says two-person crew of one aircraft killed in incident during gale-force winds to west of capital
Two firefighting helicopters have collided west of Athens, killing the two-person crew of one of the aircraft, as efforts to control a massive wildfire barrelling towards the outskirts of the Greek capital intensified.
Footage showed one of the helicopters losing control in the face of gale-force winds that have pushed flames towards settlements on Athens’ western fringes.
Continue reading...The EU is using a currency redesign as an opportunity to be less neutral and try some finely balanced identity-building
Is Europe best represented by the bold intellect of Marie Curie, the sprawling imagination of Miguel de Cervantes and the intense musical genius of Ludwig van Beethoven? Or by a migrating stork and a bee-eater, swooping across borderless plains and enjoying freedom of movement across European countries?
The quest to settle this issue has engaged a surprising number of people across the continent, after more than 6 million people voted in a survey within just a week of its launch to determine whether the newly redesigned euro bank notes should depict either cultural figures or birds and waterways.
Continue reading...More than 20 people injured in blast near Italian restaurant Balzi Rossi in centre of Russian capital on Saturday night
A homemade bomb carried by a woman killed three people and injured at least 21 in an explosion near a restaurant in central Moscow on Saturday evening, prompting speculation on social media that the attack may have been linked to the war in Ukraine.
The explosion occurred just before 8pm local time (6pm UK time) close to an Italian restaurant in one of Moscow’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers at Kudrinskaya Square, police said.
Continue reading...At least five taken to hospital and about 300 evacuated in strongest quake to hit southern Italian region in 40 years
At least 26 people have been injured after a 4.7-magnitude earthquake rocked a region near Naples, in southern Italy.
The quake, which occurred at 7.46pm on Friday night, caused power outages, disrupted public transport and damaged a pier in Campi Flegrei, the site of Europe’s largest volcanic crater.
Continue reading...Labour veteran is said to relish role that requires careful negotiation of Trump and impending G20 leadership
Extraordinarily, given the importance of geopolitics, the office of foreign secretary has sometimes appeared a consolation prize in British politics, perhaps reflecting the transfer of responsibility to Downing Street or the Cabinet Office.
That is not how Ed Miliband views the job. His allies say suggestions that he nurses resentment after he was deprived of the chance to be chancellor misunderstand his grasp of the policy challenges ahead. “Ed has an immense appetite to get things done and is relishing being in this job,” one says. “Ed will be a policy-driven foreign secretary.”
Continue reading...Supporters fear structure could be torn down as safety hazard and want it to become memorial to postwar foreign labourers in honour of its Turkish creator
Sometimes the currents of history converge in a single spot. In Berlin, one of the most intriguing of those places is a small traffic island with a lovingly tended garden and a ramshackle two-storey structure called the Treehouse at the Wall.
In 1983, Osman Kalin, a Turkish “guest worker”, was looking in his corner of the city cleaved by the Berlin Wall for a patch of earth in which to plant his onions, garlic and cucumbers. Virtually on his doorstep in the Kreuzberg district was a slice of no man’s land next to the concrete barrier and barbed wire. Although it sat in West Berlin, cold war logic meant the lot officially belonged to the communist East.
Continue reading...Move will end six decades of production in area, as new CEO tries to simplify company and cut debt
BP has put its North Sea oil and gas business up for sale as it looks to end six decades of production from the basin.
The firm announced on Friday morning it had launched a formal process to market its North Sea business for a potential sale. The move comes as BP’s new chief executive, Meg O’Neill, tries to simplify the company and cut its debt levels.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Danielle Kirton calls on Ed Miliband to help her get answers about why evacuation order came too late
The bereaved daughter of a British couple who died in a Spanish wildfire is calling on the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, to get answers from Spain’s government about why her parents were not told to evacuate until it was too late.
Severe wildfires have burned across Spain and France since early July, killing people, destroying thousands of homes and forcing more than 300,000 people to flee.
Continue reading...Companies must ensure people know when they are interacting with artificially generated images, audio and text designed to look real
From apparently conspiring to steal elections to abusing staff or performing embarrassing dance moves, the last few years have seen plenty of fake content made about politicians intended to malign its targets and mislead the public.
Now EU rules aim to stem the flood of this deceptive content: starting from Sunday, artificially generated images, audio and text designed to look authentic must be labelled.
Continue reading...Rashad Sultanov, from London, suspected of conducting hostile surveillance and passing information to Revolutionary Guards
A British-Azerbaijani national has been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of spying on a British airbase on the Mediterranean island and passing information to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Metropolitan police said.
Rashad Sultanov, 44, from Islington, north London, was arrested on 17 July by Cypriot authorities and is being held in custody as extradition proceedings continue, the police said in a statement on Friday.
Continue reading...CRS officers funded by UK tried to stop boarding of boat, on day four asylum seekers died trying to cross Channel
French riot police funded by UK taxpayers used teargas on asylum seekers in an attempt to stop them from boarding a boat in which three women were later found dead, a charity has claimed.
Footage and photographs seen by the Guardian show CS gas canisters being fired towards groups of people on Plage du Braek near Dunkirk at 4am on Thursday. At 6am, three women were found dead in a boat near the same beach.
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