Group of people who crossed Channel by boat understood not to have been on Air France plane after legal challenge
The first flight to France carrying people who crossed the Channel under Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal has not taken place as planned, according to reports.
A small group of individuals were removed from an Air France flight on Monday due to travel from Heathrow to Paris after a legal challenge, according to multiple newspaper reports.
Continue reading...Franzoso suffered ‘major head trauma’ in accident
Lindsey Vonn: ‘This is incredibly sad … RIP Matteo’
The Italian skier Matteo Franzoso has died at the age of 25 following a crash during pre-season training in Chile at the weekend, his country’s winter sports federation (FISI) has confirmed.
After suffering “a major head trauma” in the accident at the La Parva track on Saturday, Franzoso was taken by helicopter to the intensive care unit of a clinic in Santiago and placed in an induced coma. The FISI confirmed on Monday that he did not recover after “cranial trauma” and a subsequent swelling of his brain.
Continue reading...‘Nato is responding with unity and strength’ to Russian threats, says John Healey
RAF Typhoon jets will be deployed within days to shoot down drones over Poland and other Nato allies in eastern Europe if necessary, after last week’s incursion of 19 uncrewed Russian aircraft into Poland.
The British fighters, based at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, will join Nato’s new Eastern Sentry mission working alongside French, German and Danish counterparts who are acting as reinforcements for Dutch F-35s and Polish F-16s.
Continue reading...Speaking after Gaza protesters forced early end to cycle race, Pedro Sánchez says Israel should not be allowed to use sports to ‘whitewash’ its ‘barbarism’
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called for Israel to be barred from international sports competitions for as long as its “barbarism” in Gaza continues, saying the country should not be allowed to use high-profile events to “whitewash” its offensive.
Speaking a day after pro-Palestinian demonstrators forced a premature end to the Vuelta a España cycle race amid chaotic scenes and clashes with police, Sánchez said he had “a deep admiration” for all those who had protested peacefully against the participation of the Israel-Premier Tech team.
Continue reading...Former mixed martial arts fighter had vowed to curb immigration to shore up ‘Irish culture’ and give power ‘back to the people’
The former mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has withdrawn from Ireland’s presidential election and complained that nomination rules were a “straitjacket” that prevented a true democratic contest.
“Following careful reflection, and after consulting with my family, I am withdrawing my candidacy from this presidential race,” he posted on X on Monday morning. “This was not an easy decision, but it is the right one at this moment in time.”
Continue reading...Scotland Yard made formal request to interview Christian Brückner, due for release from seven-year rape sentence
The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has refused to be interviewed by the Metropolitan police before his pending release from prison in Germany, the force has said.
The Met confirmed it had submitted a formal international request to question Christian Brückner, the 49-year-old German national who has long been under investigation in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance, but the suspect declined.
Continue reading...Greatest damage from heat, drought and flooding done in Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Bulgaria
The violent weather that battered Europe this summer caused short-term economic losses of at least €43bn, according to an EU-wide estimate, with costs expected to rise to €126bn by 2029.
The immediate hit to the economy from a single brutal summer of heat, drought and flooding amounted to 0.26% of the EU’s economic output in 2024, according to the rapid analysis, which has not been submitted for peer review but is based on relationships between weather and economic data that were published in an academic study this month.
Continue reading...Party takes 16.5% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, behind governing CDU and Social Democrats
Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has more than tripled its support in local elections in the country’s most populous state, a poll seen as Friedrich Merz’s first significant electoral test since he took office as chancellor four months ago.
According to exit poll results from North Rhine-Westphalia, Merz’s Christian Democrats won with 34% – about the equivalent of its historically worst result in the same poll in 2020 – while the AfD secured 16.5%.
Continue reading...Polish minister says Moscow sought to gauge reaction without starting war as Romania reports new incursion
Poland’s foreign minister has said the Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was an attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s reactions by incremental escalations without prompting a full-scale response, as Romania became the second Nato country to report an incursion in a matter of days.
Radosław Sikorski confirmed that while the drones that entered Poland last week were capable of carrying ammunition, they were not loaded with explosives. “Interestingly, they were all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war,” Sikorski told the Guardian in Kyiv.
Continue reading...Country’s defence ministry condemns ‘irresponsible actions’ after drone entered its airspace on Saturday
Romania has strongly condemned the entry of a Russian drone into its airspace during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine, saying Moscow’s actions pose a “new challenge” to Black Sea security.
Poland had already denounced the intrusion of Russian drones into its airspace last week, calling on Moscow to avoid further “provocations”. Polish fighter jets scrambled on Saturday in response to fresh Russian drone strikes just over the border in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Bart De Wever travelled to Essen, Germany to hear performance conducted by Lahav Shani, the music director of the Israel Philharmonic
Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, has said he attended a concert by a German orchestra that was uninvited from a Belgian festival to show support for its Israeli conductor.
The cancellation of a planned performance at the Flanders festival Ghent by the Munich Philharmonic over concerns about its Israeli future chief conductor, Lahav Shani, has triggered a storm of criticism and accusations of antisemitism.
Continue reading...‘Preventive operations’ included putting air defence systems on high alert and followed serious Russian incursion earlier in the week
Polish and allied aircraft have been deployed in a “preventive” operation in Poland’s airspace because of a threat of drone strikes in neighbouring areas of Ukraine, and the airport in the eastern Polish city of Lublin was closed, authorities have said.
The alert on Saturday lasted about two hours. On Wednesday multiple Russian drones had crossed into Poland, prompting Nato to send fighter jets to shoot them down, underlining long-held concerns about the expansion of Russia’s more than three-year war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Head of Bashkortostan region reports second drone shot down and minor damage to Bashneft’s Ufa refinery
A Ukrainian drone has crashed into one of Russia’s largest oil-refining complexes, sparking a fire and causing minor damage, a Russian official has said.
The complex, which belongs to Russian oil company Bashneft, lies on the outskirts of the central Russian city of Ufa about 870 miles (1,400km) from the frontline in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Marina Ramazashvili says son, Giorgi Bachiashvili, was the victim of a ‘vendetta’ by billionaire politician
The mother of a jailed former aide to Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused the de facto leader of Georgia of treating her son as his “personal prisoner” as she appealed to the west for help.
Marina Ramazashvili, a renowned ophthalmologist in Georgia, said Giorgi Bachiashvili, who has allegedly been beaten in his prison cell, was the victim of a “vendetta” waged by the billionaire politician.
Continue reading...Educational bodies from Europe to South America are boycotting Israeli institutions, though Universities UK said it did not support the action
A growing number of universities, academic institutions and scholarly bodies around the world are cutting links with Israeli academia amid claims that it is complicit in the Israeli government’s actions towards Palestinians.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 63,000 people have been killed in the territory – the majority of them civilians – with the true toll likely far higher. UN-backed experts have confirmed parts of Gaza, much of which has been reduced to rubble, are now in a “man-made” famine.
Continue reading...Mille Colling and Emma Aalto given go-ahead to compete in qualifier for national championships next month
A British ice dancer and her skating partner are to become Finland’s first same-sex team to take part in a competition after a rule change by the country’s skating federation.
Millie Colling, 20, who was born in Gateshead and moved to Finland at the age of six, and Emma Aalto, 19, will compete in a qualifier for the national championships next month after pressing for an amendment to the rules to allow them to enter as a team.
Continue reading...Fitch downgrade to lowest level on record complicates new prime minister Sebastien Lecornu and President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to control France’s finances
The Fitch agency downgraded France’s credit rating on Friday, as President Emmanuel Macron struggles with political instability and disagreements on how to put the country’s strained public finances in order.
The US rating agency, one of the top global institutions gauging the financial solidity of sovereign borrowers, downgraded France on its ability to pay back debts, from “AA-” to “A+”, the country’s lowest level on record at a major credit rating agency.
Continue reading...Banning order comes after multiple complaints from residents of apartment block about feathers and droppings
Rome’s mayor has ordered a woman to stop feeding dozens of pigeons that have overrun an apartment block, after furious residents, claiming to be drowning in feathers and guano, demanded relief from what has been described as a Hitchcockian nightmare.
For several months, on the third floor of a building at 108 Via Spartaco, a woman nicknamed “The Pigeon Lady” by the press has been feeding the flock of birds that has been plaguing the block. After countless complaints from residents, exasperated by the thick layer of guano covering the building’s interior and the public areas below – not to mention the parked cars – local authorities issued an order banning her from feeding the pigeons.
Continue reading...European Commission president addresses a parliament reeling from Trump trade deal and escalations in Ukraine and Gaza
When Ursula von der Leyen arrived in the vast semi-circle debating chamber in the European parliament in Strasbourg, she greeted MEP leaders of some of Europe’s political groups warmly. Wearing a trim khaki-green jacket, the European Commission president smiled, shook hands and exchanged air kisses with some of the politicians, who had front-row seats for her annual state of the union address.
The hour-long speech on Wednesday had a stark message: Europe must fight for its place in an “unforgiving” world, facing major powers that are either “ambivalent or openly hostile” towards it.
Continue reading...Authorities revoke building licence for cascading hotel complex on one of Greece’s most photographed shorelines
Environmental campaigners have welcomed a decision to halt construction of a disputed five-star hotel on a Greek beach known for its outstanding natural beauty.
Local authorities on the Cycladic island of Milos said a building licence for the resort on the world-renowned “moon beach” had been revoked by the municipality’s planning department after falling short of inspection standards.
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