Category Archives: Europe

Palestine recognition: the principle the EU has been stuck on for decades

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Europe’s ability to help bring peace to the Middle East has long come under question, with Spain’s PM this week saying it had failed on Gaza

In 1980 when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union and Donald Trump was a property developer, the nine leaders of the then European Community made their first major foray into joint diplomacy. The cause: the Middle East, including a Palestinian state.

“The time has come to promote the recognition and implementation of two principles universally accepted by the international community: the right to existence and to security of all states in the region, including Israel … [and] recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” stated the Venice declaration calling for Palestinian self-determination.

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Spain and Portugal wildfire weather made 40 times more likely by climate crisis, study finds

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Wildfires were 30% more intense than would have been expected without global heating, scientists say

The extreme weather that fuelled “astonishing” blazes across Spain and Portugal last month was made 40 times more likely by climate breakdown, early analysis suggests.

The deadly wildfires, which torched 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of the Iberian peninsula in a matter of weeks, were also 30% more intense than scientists would have expected in a world without climate change, according to researchers from the World Weather Attribution network.

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Portugal declares day of mourning for 15 people killed in Lisbon funicular railway crash

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Another 18 people injured when Gloria funicular railway car derails and apparently crashed into a building

A day of national mourning has been declared in Portugal after at least 15 people were killed when Lisbon’s well-known Gloria funicular railway car derailed and crashed on Wednesday.

An emergency services spokesperson said some foreign nationals were among the dead but would not identify the victims or disclose their nationalities. At least 18 people, including a child, were injured, five of them seriously.

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Scotland bans arms companies that supply IDF from receiving financial aid

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Devolved government says contractors seeking support must prove products will not be used by Israeli military

The Scottish government has banned arms companies which supply the IDF from getting grants and investment support, and will freeze support for trade with Israel.

John Swinney, the first minister, said on Wednesday any defence contractors who wanted financial help in Scotland would have to prove their products would not be used by the Israel Defense Forces.

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Kim Jong-un promises to do ‘everything to assist’ Moscow after Putin meeting

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North Korean leader invited to visit Russia as Zelenskyy says Putin is displaying ‘impunity’ with new Ukraine strikes

Vladimir Putin has invited Kim Jong-un to visit Russia during a lengthy meeting in Beijing on the sidelines of China’s biggest military parade, as Kim promised to do “everything I can to assist” Moscow.

North Korea has supported Russia in its war against Ukraine with weapons and troops, and the Russian president praised North Korean fighters for acting “courageously and heroically”.

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Budget compromise needed if PM ousted, says French finance minister

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Éric Lombard says he hopes François Bayrou will survive vote and dismisses talk of looming debt crisis

The French finance minister, Éric Lombard, has said the government would have to compromise on plans to cut the budget deficit if the prime minister, François Bayrou, is toppled in a confidence vote next week.

Lombard told the Financial Times that fresh negotiations would require the government to make concessions to the left to reduce the size of the fiscal package if the government falls.

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Manneken Pis gets new uniform to honour soldiers who liberated Brussels

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Gift comes 8o years after Welsh guards first left replica uniform for Belgian statue to commemorate end of Nazi occupation

When British forces commemorated the liberation of Brussels for the first time in 1945, they left a unique gift – a replica Welsh guards uniform for the Belgian city’s emblematic “peeing boy” statue, the Manneken Pis.

Now 81 years after the Welsh guards freed Brussels from Nazi occupation, the gift has been renewed: the Manneken Pis has a new regimental uniform, including scarlet jacket embroidered with gold lace, gleaming white belt and authentic bearskin hat.

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Georgian MP who accused west of ‘blackmail’ appointed security chief as report warns of autocratic takeover

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Mamuka Mdinaradze appointed as study says his Georgian Dream party has consolidated control

A Georgian Dream MP who criticised the west over a “policy of blackmail and threats” has been appointed to lead the country’s security services as an authoritative report warned of an autocratic takeover.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, who was the parliamentary majority leader for the ruling party, was confirmed on Wednesday as head of the country’s powerful state security service.

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Outcry as Swedish ‘cultural canon’ snubs Abba and anything since 1975

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Critics argue ‘shared map’ of Swedish culture is ‘very exclusionary’ and a ‘nationalist education project’

The Gustav Vasa 1541 bible, Pippi Longstocking, Ikea, the right to roam, paternity leave, Sámi joiks, the Nobel prize and works by Ingmar Bergman and August Strindberg all made it into Sweden’s long-awaited, much-criticised proposal for a “cultural canon”.

However, notable omissions from the list of 100 works and references that have formed Sweden’s culture and history – intended, its creators said in Uppsala on Tuesday, to establish a “shared map and compass” for Swedish citizens and new arrivals to Sweden – included Abba and anything from after 1975, a period that has seen Sweden transform into an international, multicultural society.

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Italy considers hiding state flight paths after jamming of von der Leyen plane

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EU member states debate how to make leaders’ flights more secure as Russia blamed for GPS loss

Italy is considering keeping state flights secret after the satellite signal of the aircraft carrying the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, was allegedly jammed by Russia, Italian defence ministry sources said.

Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Moscow’s war in Ukraine, was flying to Bulgaria on Sunday when her charter plane lost satellite navigation aids, delaying its arrival in Plovdiv, and reportedly forcing it to circle an airport for an hour.

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Nestlé fires CEO after investigation into ‘undisclosed romantic relationship’

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Company, which owns brands including KitKat, replaces Laurent Freixe with Philipp Navratil

Nestlé has dismissed its chief executive, Laurent Freixe, after an investigation into an “undisclosed romantic relationship” with a subordinate that was found to have breached its code of business conduct.

The Swiss-headquartered multinational, which owns consumer goods brands including KitKat chocolate, Häagen-Dazs ice-cream and Nespresso coffee capsules, named Philipp Navratil as his replacement.

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Climate change kills, Spanish PM tells deniers at launch of plan to tackle crisis

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Pedro Sánchez says country’s deadly August wildfires show society needs to mobilise and take immediate action

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced a 10-point plan to prepare the country for the climate emergency, warning: “If we don’t want to bequeath our children a Spain that’s grey from fire and flames, or a Spain that’s brown from floods, then we need a Spain that’s greener.”

Sánchez said August’s heatwave-fuelled wildfires – which killed four people, burned through an area six times the size of Ibiza and required “the biggest human and technical deployment” ever seen in Spain – showed that immediate action must be taken to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.

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Iran accuses Europe of stepping aside and letting Trump dictate nuclear deal terms

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Foreign ministry official says US will be dictating what happens once UN-wide sanctions are reimposed

Europe is on the verge of abandoning its role as a mediator between the US and Iran and instead handing the Iran nuclear file over to Donald Trump’s veto, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said in an interview with the Guardian in Tehran.

Esmail Baghaei said that as soon as UN-wide sanctions were reimposed at Europe’s demand in less than 30 days’ time, the US would regain its security council veto over what happens next, including the continuance of sanctions.

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Lyon mayor condemns ‘Free Gaza’ defacement of Holocaust memorial

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Mayor says city stands firm against antisemitism after message scratched into black marble memorial

A Holocaust memorial unveiled only eight months ago in the French city of Lyon has been inscribed with the words “Free Gaza”, local officials said, amid growing concern about antisemitic incidents in France.

The words were scratched into the black marble memorial late on Saturday, the city’s mayor, Grégory Doucet, said. Yonathan Arfi, of the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), posted a photo on social media and called the incident “despicable”.

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Family of French woman killed by ex-partner to go to court to find out why she was not protected

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Family submitted a case last year accusing police, social services and courts of ‘serious failings’ but had no response

The family of a woman killed by an ex-partner who bombarded her with hundreds of messages and calls will ask a judge on Monday to force the French authorities to explain why they failed to protect her.

Sandra Pla had complained to police three times about Mickaël Falou’s threatening behaviour over a period of six months, but her application for a protection order was rejected.

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Vladimir Putin arrives in China for security summit – Ukraine war live

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Russian president and Indian prime minister among more than 20 world leaders attending Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin

At an emergency meeting of the UN security council on Friday, the US warned Russia to move toward some sort of peace settlement and meet with Ukraine or face possible sanctions.

The meeting was called after a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday that killed more than 20 people.

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Investigation launched into ‘horrific murder’ of Ukrainian politician in Lviv

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Former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy shot dead as EU ministers meet to discuss measures to force Moscow to the negotiating table

A Ukrainian former parliamentary speaker was shot dead in Lviv on Saturday, authorities said, as European foreign ministers met to discuss increasing pressure on Moscow to end its war against Ukraine.

Andriy Parubiy, a member of parliament who served as parliamentary speaker from 2016 to 2019 and a key figure in Ukraine’s 2013 pro-European Maidan revolution, was shot dead, prosecutors said. A murder investigation has been launched and the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, condemned the killing as a “horrific murder”.

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‘Most of this is symbolic’: the new wave of anti-migrant vigilantes in Europe

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‘Citizen patrols’ and self-styled protective forces are fuelling social fears and the far right, say experts

Sporting black shirts emblazoned with an iron cross, a dozen or so men marched through the centre of Reykjavík, courting attention on a buzzy Friday night. In Poland and the Netherlands, vigilantes thronged along the German border, ready to turn back any asylum seekers they came across. In Belfast, they roamed after sunset, demanding to see the identity documents of migrants and people of colour.

Each of the groups, who are part of a renewed wave of anti-migrant vigilantes that have sprung up in recent months across Europe, have sought to cast themselves as a sort of protective force. But those who have studied vigilantes warn that their actions often exacerbate security concerns, sow fear and fuel the far right.

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Ukrainian lawmaker shot dead in Lviv as Zelenskyy says hunt for killer is under way – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed

Andriy Parubiy, a Ukrainian politician who previously served as the parliament speaker, has been shot dead in western city of Lviv, say officials.

Confirming the news, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X:

Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko and prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported the first known circumstances of the horrendous murder in Lviv. Andriy Parubiy was killed.

My condolences to his family and loved ones. All necessary forces and means are engaged in the investigation and search for the killer.

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Car rams into crowd outside bar in northern France, killing one

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Police launch investigation into escalation of dispute in bar in Évreux, Normandy, after five others injured

A man has driven a car into a crowd outside a bar in northern France after a dispute in which one person was killed and five others injured, according to prosecutors.

The incident took place in the town of Évreux, Normandy, at about 4am on Saturday.

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