Secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council says Russia has increasingly put its economy onto war footing. This live blog is now closed
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Not possible to return asylum seekers who arrived from Russia, Finnish president says – Europe live
Sauli Niinistö calls for close cooperation on border security during visit to Poland
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has congratulated Javier Milei and invited the new Argentinian far-right libertarian president to visit Israel to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Milei has previously said he would move the location of Argentina’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “I don’t care if I’ll be criticized by world leaders. I truly believe that’s the right thing to do,” he said in a recent interview with the Times of Israel.
It’s obvious that Argentina needs a change. It was unacceptable that one of the most prosperous countries in the world should keep falling year after year into the same thing.
I wish the new government every success and I want them to know that they can count on Madrid, where we’ve worked to defend freedom from day one and where we’ve looked after so many Argentinians who have fled, terrified, from Peronism …
Continue reading...Albania opposition starts fire in parliament during anti-government protest
MPs set off smoke bombs in middle of chamber in failed attempt to stop vote on 2024 budget
Albania’s opposition has set off smoke bombs and started a small fire in the middle of parliament in a failed attempt to stop the chamber from voting on the 2024 budget.
MPs involved in the protest on Monday piled chairs in the centre of the chamber and red, green and purple smoke filled the air as security kept protesters back from the seat of the prime minister, Edi Rama.
Continue reading...More than 200 mobsters convicted in Italian mafia ‘maxi trial’
Specially built courtroom in Calabria heard evidence of ruthless tactics of ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate
An Italian court has convicted and sentenced more than 200 people of crimes including criminal association, extortion and bribery in what has been described as Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades.
The verdicts mark the end of a three-year “maxi trial” held in a high-security courtroom in the southern Calabria region built specifically to hold up to 350 defendants, accommodate 400 lawyers and hear from the 900 witnesses providing testimony against an extensive network of members belonging to the notorious ’Ndrangheta.
Continue reading...Pieter Omtzigt: the Netherlands outsider whose politics is firmly in the centre
A much-admired MP who launched his own party in the summer is hoping for electoral success
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Usually in European elections the insurgent candidates come from the outer reaches of the political spectrum: the far left or, more often of late, the far right. This one comes solidly from the centre. He could hardly be less fringe if he tried.
Days after Pieter Omtzigt, a Dutch Christian Democrat MP for 18 years, announced in August he was founding a new party to “do politics differently”, it was topping the polls. Two days from the vote, it is vying for the lead in the parliamentary election.
Continue reading...Shakira strikes deal with Spanish prosecutors to avoid €14.5m tax fraud trial
Colombian singer to pay €7.3m fine instead of risking prison sentence in deal that ends Barcelona trial
The Colombian pop star Shakira has reached a settlement with prosecutors to avoid a trial in Barcelona over charges she failed to pay €14.5m (£12.7m) in Spanish income tax between 2012 and 2014.
As part of the deal, she accepted the charges and a fine of 50% of the amount owed, more than €7.3m.
Continue reading...Hat worn by Napoleon fetches record €1.9m at Paris auction
Black bicorne hat is one of 20 remaining that once belonged to French emperor, who famously wore them sideways
A two-cornered hat worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his reign as French emperor has fetched a record €1.932m (£1.69m) at an auction in Paris.
The black bicorne beaver felt hat was initially estimated at €600,000-800,000. The price reached surpassed the €1.884m paid for another of Napoleon’s hats in 2014, also sold by the Drouot auction house, a spokesperson for the company said.
Continue reading...Far-right Party for Freedom makes gains in poll ahead of Netherlands election
Leftwing parties urge people to vote tactically to prevent Geert Wilders’ party winning power
Leftwing parties in the Netherlands have urged people to vote strategically to avoid a far-right government after a poll showed last-minute gains for Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV).
Wilders, whose manifesto calls for an asylum “stop” and ban on “Islamic schools, Qu’rans and mosques”, said it was a “game changer” when a poll on Saturday evening put him level with Mark Rutte’s party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
Continue reading...Shakira due to go on trial in Spain over tax fraud claims
Colombian singer is accused of defrauding authorities of €14.5m and could face jail if found guilty
Shakira, the Latin Grammy-winning singer, is due in court in Barcelona on Monday on charges of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of €14.5m (£12.7m).
The 46-year-old Colombian musician, who lives in Miami with her two children, could face up to eight years in jail and a €24m fine if found guilty.
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez is back … now Spain’s PM must make his daring gamble pay off
The socialist leader’s pact with separatist activists has returned him to power for now, but it’s a strategy fraught with political uncertainty
At the end of an investiture debate that had been fraught, savage and bizarre, even by recent standards, the defeated leader of Spain’s conservative opposition offered his triumphant socialist rival a handshake. It was not accompanied by his warmest wishes.
“This was a mistake,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the People’s party (PP), as he pressed the flesh with a smiling Pedro Sánchez on Thursday. “And you’re responsible for what you’ve just done.”
Continue reading...Threat of volcanic eruption leaves Iceland waiting in uncertainty
Authorities say it could be months before people evacuated from town of Grindavik can go home even if danger subsides
People in south-west Iceland remain on edge as they wait to see whether a volcano rumbling under the Reykjanes peninsula will erupt.
Civil protection authorities said that even if it does not, it is likely to be months before residents evacuated from the danger zone can safely return home.
Continue reading...Two first responders killed by Russian rocket attacks in Zaporizhzhia
Ukrainian police say workers were at scene of attacks on village near frontline when Russia launched another strike
Two first responders have been killed by rocket attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
Ukrainian police said Russia fired a series of rockets at the village of Komyshuvakha, close to the frontline in Zaporizhzhia, which Russia annexed last year.
Continue reading...Rally held in Madrid against Catalan amnesty after Sánchez sworn in as Spanish PM
About 170,000 people demonstrate in capital over socialist party leader’s deal enabling second term in office
At least 170,000 people gathered in central Madrid for another large protest against the controversial Catalan amnesty law that has allowed Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to secure a second term in office.
Sánchez was sworn in on Friday after winning an investiture vote the previous day that came almost four months after July’s inconclusive snap general election. Although the conservative People’s party (PP) narrowly beat Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) in the election, it was unable to secure the parliamentary support to form a government even with the backing of the far-right Vox party and other smaller groupings.
Continue reading...Dutch parties vie for voters with no faith in government after string of scandals
A benefits fraud affair and claims of institutional racism are among issues that led to crisis of trust before this week’s general election
Sandra Palmen was the whistleblower in a scandal that saw 31,000 Dutch families falsely accused of fraud – often dual nationals, single mothers or working families in less affluent postcodes who were financially and personally ruined by unjustly being made to repay every cent from years of childcare benefits.
But Palmen, a top inhouse lawyer who in 2017 wrote an official memo saying an anti-fraud drive had gone desperately wrong, was the only tax-office employee who was pushed out. Now she is standing for a new political party headed by a campaigning backbencher, Pieter Omtzigt, advocating a social contract to repair a series of government scandals in the Netherlands.
Continue reading...Dozens of Wales fans arrested in Armenia before Euro 2024 qualifier
Foreign Office says it is supporting families after 32 Wales football fans arrested in Yerevan
More than 30 Wales football fans have been arrested in Armenia before Saturday’s European Championship qualifier in Yerevan.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) confirmed that 32 supporters had been arrested in the Armenian capital and that the Foreign Office was involved.
Continue reading...Venice Biennale’s new, rightwing director has art world guessing
Meloni’s party is pleased by the appointment but Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has surprised before – not least by adopting Islam
When Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the incoming new president of the Venice Biennale, was once asked in an interview whether he was a fascist, the Italian rightwing journalist and public intellectual replied: “I am not a fascist. I am something else.”
After Buttafuoco was this week officially nominated to lead the oldest and largest cultural exhibition in the world, it is not just the artists, actors, architects, film-makers, dancers and musicians whose work will be shown at the coming biennales’ six events who are asking themselves what exactly that “something else” may be.
Continue reading...Tory party’s ex-chair to be paid to advise firm with links to sanctions-hit Russians
MP Brandon Lewis will be paid £250,000 a year by LetterOne, investment group 49% owned by two oligarchs
The former Conservative party chair, Brandon Lewis, will be paid £250,000 a year to advise a company part-owned by two Russian oligarchs with sanctions placed against them.
The job at LetterOne, an investment group 49% owned by Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, is Lewis’s fifth on top of his role as an MP, and his total earnings will come to almost £500,000 a year.
Continue reading...Ukrainian teenagers win peace prize for developing apps to help young refugees
Sofia Tereshchenko, Anastasiia Feskova, and Anastasiia Demchenko awarded 2023 International Children’s Peace prize
Three Ukrainian teenagers who developed apps for children who have fled war have been awarded this year’s International Children’s Peace prize at a ceremony in London.
Sofia Tereshchenko, 18, Anastasiia Feskova, 17, and Anastasiia Demchenko, 17, were awarded the prize for developing a pair of apps for refugee children.
Continue reading...Man jailed for life after murdering Irish teacher Ashling Murphy
Jozef Puska, 33, stabbed 23-year-old as she jogged along a canal last year in a case that shocked Ireland
A man has received a life sentence for stabbing to death a primary school teacher last year in a case that shocked Ireland.
Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old teacher and musician, was murdered as she jogged along a canal near Tullamore, County Offaly, in January 2022.
Continue reading...Russia files lawsuit to crack down on LGBTQ+ community
Supreme court to consider justice ministry request to outlaw ‘international LGBT public movement’ as extremist
The Russian justice ministry on Friday said it had filed a lawsuit with the supreme court to outlaw what it called an “international LGBT public movement” as extremist, in the latest attacks against the country’s already suppressed LGBTQ+ community.
The ministry said in an online statement that authorities had determined “signs and manifestations of extremist nature” in “the activities of the LGBT movement” in Russia, including “incitement of social and religious discord”.
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