First cameras were torn down by someone calling themselves Fleximan – now traffic calming measures are being targeted
Renzo Bergamini, the mayor of Gualtieri, was on his way to buy the newspapers on Tuesday morning when he noticed something was amiss with one of the two speed humps positioned on the town’s ring road.
“I saw that the sections of the hump were slightly misaligned,” he said. “The bolts had been unscrewed.”
Continue reading...Gunman, who was detained unharmed, was protesting about war in Gaza and had trapped seven workers for nearly nine hours
Turkish police have released seven workers taken hostage by a pro-Palestinian gunman at a plant near Istanbul owned by US consumer goods company Procter & Gamble in protest at the war in Gaza.
Local officials said police staged a raid nearly nine hours into the standoff when the lone gunman took a bathroom break.
Continue reading...People on sauna boat pull car driver and passenger from freezing water before vehicle is lifted out
Two motorists whose car plunged into a freezing Oslo fjord escaped unharmed when a floating sauna came to their rescue, Norwegian police have said.
A video clip filmed by witnesses and obtained by Agence France-Presse on Thursday appears to shows the vehicle, a Tesla, partly submerged in the water, with its occupants sitting on the roof.
Continue reading...Demonstrations calling for help with taxes, costs and environmental rules overshadow EU leaders’ summit
Europe’s farming sector is facing a big crisis and must “profoundly” change its rules, Emmanuel Macron has said after a European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels was overshadowed by protesting farmers hurling eggs, dumping manure and lighting fires.
Speaking as hundreds of farmers from Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere blocked streets around the European parliament with tractors, the French president said there should be a joint EU mechanism to guarantee fair prices paid to farmers by food giants and supermarkets. He said regulations should be simplified, after weeks of farmer protests across Europe have blockaded motorways.
Continue reading...Michelle O’Neill has taken the top job but Irish unity is unlikely to be ‘within touching distance’
The elevation of Michelle O’Neill as Northern Ireland’s first minister is a historic moment that breathes new life into the republican slogan “tiocfaidh ár lá” – “our day will come”.
The Sinn Féin deputy leader, a working-class republican, has taken charge of a state that was designed in 1921 to enshrine a unionist majority in perpetuity, and that the IRA vowed to destroy.
Continue reading...Essen’s Folkwang University took issue with the American artist’s support of a ‘letter against apartheid’ by Palestinian artists
The artist, musician and film director Laurie Anderson has withdrawn from a guest professorship at a university in Germany after officials took issue with her support for a 2021 statement by Palestinian artists titled Letter Against Apartheid.
The decision, announced days before Anderson is due to receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Grammys, adds to the wave of cultural events that have been scrapped in Germany after artists expressed views deemed by officials to be anti-Israel.
Continue reading...Supply chain difficulties have led to job losses and cuts in purchasing and stocks, S&P Global poll shows
Britain’s factories have been hit by disruption caused by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea that led to shipping delays and contributed to rising costs, as the boss of Adidas warned about “exploding” global freight rates.
UK manufacturers have experienced growing supply chain difficulties, as the Red Sea crisis led to the rerouting of deliveries of raw materials, components and other goods away from the Suez Canal, a survey has shown.
Continue reading...Hungarian prime minister, who had vowed to block the funding, relented after series of 11th-hour meetings
A robust and united position among EU member states convinced Viktor Orbán to end his “blackmail” and support a €50bn (£43bn) funding package for Ukraine, European prime ministers have said.
The Hungarian prime minister, who had been vowing to block the funds since December, performed one of the fastest U-turns seen at a leaders’ summit after six weeks of brinkmanship.
Continue reading...Meeting in Brussels as 26 heads of state try to persuade Hungarian leader to back aid
As leaders prepare for the summit, last-minute talks are ongoing to convince Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to sign off on a funding package for Ukraine.
Charles Michel, the European Council president, posted a photo of talks with Orbán.
Continue reading...German bank becomes latest global lender to target staff in post-pandemic cost reductions
Deutsche Bank is to cut 3,500 jobs, making it the latest global lender to target employees as part of post-pandemic cost reductions, amid a drop in profits.
The German bank said that while it had made progress on a €2.5bn (£2.1bn) cost-cutting programme that it first announced in 2022, it still needed to save €1.6bn of that total, meaning thousands of staff had to go.
Continue reading...Czech tycoon promised Gambling Commission two years ago his
firm would sever Russia ties before taking over the lucrative contract
The Czech billionaire whose company takes over running the UK national lottery from Thursday is still in business with the Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom, nearly two years after promising regulators he would sever ties with Russia.
The Gambling Commission awarded Allwyn the lucrative 10-year licence to run the lottery, estimated to be worth up to £100bn in sales, in March 2022.
Continue reading...Offer comes as research shows half of families in UK have never holidayed abroad with grandparents
EasyJet’s holiday wing is offering “grans go free” places on trips to Europe, after research found half of families had never holidayed abroad with their grandparents.
Under the offer, one grandparent on the trip can travel free of charge to countries including Spain, Greece and Italy. The tour operator said it hoped the deal would encourage Britons to take a holiday with three generations of their family or more.
Continue reading...Member states hope to persuade Hungary to remove its block on funding at Brussels emergency summit
EU leaders have returned to Brussels for a second showdown in two months with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán over his refusal to sanction a new €50bn assistance package for Ukraine.
A mixture of frustration and anger prevailed in the city as leaders arrived for dinner on Wednesday night on the eve of the emergency summit, with aides lamenting the failure of the Hungarian PM to shift position since December, when he first blocked the funds.
Continue reading...Country accused of violating torture convention in hope of finding justice decade after incident in which at least 15 people died
A 25-year-old from Cameroon has filed a complaint to the UN against Spain, accusing the country of multiple violations of the convention against torture in hope of seeking justice after an incident in 2014 during which at least 15 people died while trying to enter Spanish territory from Morocco.
“A decade has passed and still not a single person has been held accountable for the death and injury of so many,” said the man, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Ludovic.
Continue reading...Police described the object as a ‘dangerous object’ as Sweden’s prime minister condemned the ‘attempted attack’
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson condemned “an attempted attack” against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, after an object found outside it was destroyed by the bomb squad on Wednesday.
Police said a “live” device had been found by staff on the embassy premises on Wednesday, calling it “a dangerous object”, although they did not specify what it was.
Continue reading...Both sides confirm exchange of about 200 prisoners each a week after Russian transport aircraft shot down near border
Russia and Ukraine have conducted a major prisoner-of-war exchange a week after a previous swap was prevented when a Russian Il-76 transport plane was shot down and exploded near the border between the two countries.
Both sides said about 200 prisoners each had been exchanged on Wednesday, although they disagreed about the exact figures.
Continue reading...Under pressure from the far right in upcoming elections, environmental concessions being made across continent
Exhausted by an energy crisis, burdened by bureaucracy and angry at efforts to curb their pollution, Europe’s farmers say people are not listening to their plight.
“Over the last few years we’ve spoken out vigorously, but we haven’t been heard,” Europe’s biggest farming lobby, Copa Cogeca, said on Wednesday in an open letter to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. “The survival of European family farming as it is known today is in danger.”
Continue reading...Nutrinsect defies Italian food purists with cricket flour that can be incorporated into range of foods
A company that produces flour made from crickets has become the first in Italy to be given the green light to sell food made from insects for human consumption, defying Italian food purists and even a government attempt to curb its use.
Josè Francesco Cianni, the chief executive of Nutrinsect, said: “a new page in the history of food has been opened” now that his nutrient-packed flour can be incorporated into an array of food items.
Continue reading...‘UK internal market’ to be created to ease unionist fears over de facto border in the Irish Sea
• UK politics live – latest updates
New rules to smooth post-Brexit trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland have been unveiled by the government as part of a deal with the Democratic Unionist party that will restore the Stormont executive and install a Sinn Féin first minister.
A command paper titled Safeguarding the Union was published on Wednesday to allay DUP fears about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK and to end a two-year boycott of power sharing that has destabilised the country.
Continue reading...Deal to swap around 200 PoWs from each side comes after contested claim that Kyiv downed plane carrying Ukrainian soldiers
Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has told military manufacturers to “stop fooling around” and further increase the production of self-propelled artillery systems.
Shoigu visited arms-producing factories in the Urals industrial city of Yekaterinburg on Tuesday and said Russia was increasing production of air defence missiles after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks that have targeted cities and energy infrastructure.
Listen, stop fooling around here, guys. We got busy with this in 2022. We should have had these machines operating at full capacity in 2023.
I’d like to receive within a week a specific proposal on how we’ll reach the indicators set by the president (Vladimir Putin) ... this must be done, because all these orders are connected with the performance of very specific work on the battlefield.
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