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Germany has welcomed a decision by Switzerland to open the way to sell back some of its German-made Leopard II tanks to help rebuild stocks depleted by aid to Ukraine.
Germany had asked Switzerland in February to sell back some of the 96 Leopard II tanks it has in storage to manufacturer Rheinmetall, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...‘World’s most beautiful avenue’ in French capital will undergo urgent cosmetic changes after years of decline
On paper and in urban legend, the Champs-Élysées is the most beautiful avenue in the world. For the last 30 years, however, Parisians have lamented the slow decline of the capital’s famous street.
The pavements flanking what is now an eight-lane highway used by an average 3,000 vehicles an hour have become an obstacle course of uneven paving stones and electricity cables and a hotchpotch of restaurant, bar, cafe and brasserie terraces of all shapes, sizes and colours.
Continue reading...Campaigners including Greta Thunberg had called for halt to Rosebank project involving Oslo-listed Equinor
Britain has given the go-ahead to develop the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield off Shetland, sparking outrage from environmental campaigners.
The UK oil and gas regulator’s decision to grant the Oslo-listed Equinor and the British firm Ithaca Energy permission to develop the Rosebank oil and gas field in the North Sea was condemned by the Green party MP Caroline Lucas as “the greatest act of environmental vandalism in my lifetime”.
Continue reading...Danger-to-life warning issued as first named storm of autumn damages buildings and disrupts travel
Gusts of 70mph were recorded as the first named storm of the autumn, Agnes, swept across Britain and Ireland, damaging buildings, causing travel delays and leaving homes without power.
The Met Office issued severe weather warnings covering much of the UK, where strong winds and heavy rain were expected on Wednesday evening and into Thursday.
Continue reading...Report urges changes in the law to make it easier to take down content and prosecute its makers
As much as 90% of pornographic content online features verbal, physical and sexual violence towards women, and a significant amount of violence shown is punishable under existing laws in France, a report by the government-nominated equality watchdog has found.
France’s high council for equality between women and men on Wednesday handed the government a damning report on illegal porn-industry practices, urging changes to the law to prosecute makers of pornography and to take down content in order to protect those who have been filmed.
Continue reading...Death toll from fuel depot explosion on Monday rises to 68 as ethnic Armenians raise concerns about reprisals from Azerbaijan
Almost a quarter of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population have fled into Armenia since Azerbaijan launched an attack on the breakaway region last week, according to Armenia’s government.
Some 28,000 people – about 23% of the region’s population – scrambled to flee as soon as Azerbaijan lifted a 10-month blockade on the region’s only road to Armenia. That blockade had caused severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of Armenians, many residents feared reprisals.
Continue reading...Researchers in Norway reveal further analysis of 2022 explosions as well as a detailed timeline of events
Scientists investigating the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines have revealed key new details of explosions linked to the event, which remains unsolved on its first anniversary.
Researchers in Norway shared with the Guardian seismic evidence of the four explosions, becoming the first national body to publicly confirm the second two detonations, as well as revealing a detailed timeline of events.
Continue reading...Medical centres in Stepanakert at capacity after explosion, the cause of which remains unknown
Dozens of people are feared dead and hundreds more injured after a powerful explosion at a fuel storage depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as thousands of ethnic Armenians streamed out of the breakaway territory after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of it in a lightning offensive last week.
Most of those wounded were in a “severe or extremely severe” condition after the blast at the facility near the regional capital of Stepanakert on Monday evening, according to the Armenian health ministry. The death toll from the blast is expected to rise significantly, with more than 100 still listed as missing.
Continue reading...LGBTQ groups laud fashion designer for speech in which she said ‘minority voices’ were under attack
Gay rights groups in Italy have praised Donatella Versace for speaking out against the government’s anti-gay policies in a heartfelt and personal speech while receiving a fashion award.
“Our government is trying to take away people’s rights to live as they wish,” Versace said on Sunday night, citing in particular a government policy that allows only the biological parent in same-sex couples to be officially recognised as the parent. “They are restricting our freedoms,” she said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Questions mount over ties between Farhad Moshiri and tycoon, before he was put under sanctions
The Everton Football Club owner, Farhad Moshiri, received more than £400m from Alisher Usmanov companies in the run-up to the Russian billionaire being placed under sanctions, documents suggest, raising fresh questions about the financial ties between the two men.
Records seen by the Guardian appear to show that Moshiri borrowed £145m from a company wholly owned by the Russian-Uzbek tycoon from about 2020.
Continue reading...Viktor Sokolov shown in footage released by defence ministry, day after Ukraine said he had been killed in missile strike
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has rather sarcastically castigated US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller for deflecting a question about the appearance of a Ukrainian veteran of a Nazi unit in the Canadian parliament. Miller had said that he was attending the UN on Friday.
Zakharova has posted to her Telegram channel to say:
Everyone was at the UN on Friday, Matthew. And everyone saw how nazism triumphed in Canada. The UN has a lot of problems, but the internet works great there.
Continue reading...Musk is told his platform, now known as X, must comply with new laws designed to combat fake news and Russian propaganda
The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk to comply with sweeping new laws on fake news and Russian propaganda, after X – formerly known as Twitter – was found to have the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.
The report analysed the ratio of disinformation for a new report laying bare for the first time the scale of fake news on social media across the EU, with millions of fake accounts removed by TikTok and LinkedIn.
Continue reading...Despite Feijóo’s party winning July’s snap poll, his rival Pedro Sánchez remains best placed to form a government
Two months after winning July’s general election but failing to secure a parliamentary majority, the leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) is launching an almost certainly doomed bid to become the country’s next prime minister.
Although the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, finished first in the snap election, it failed to win enough votes to form a government, taking 137 seats in Spain’s 350-seat congress. Despite the arithmetical challenge, King Felipe has asked the party to try to form a government during this week’s investiture session, which begins with a day of debate on Tuesday.
Continue reading...European Commission president welcomes agreement among EU governments on Euro 7 pollution standards
More from NGO Transport and Environment’s Anna Krajinska, who criticised EU governments’ compromise decision yesterday on pollution standards for cars, vans and trucks.
“The fight to secure an effective Euro 7 is a reminder of the political and economic power of the car industry,” Krajinska told the Guardian in an email this morning.
Continue reading...Russia again strikes at Ukraine’s port and grain infrastructure; border crossing with Romania closed following drone attack
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pan-European investigation looked at thousands of transactions since Paris climate agreement in 2016
Banks including some of Europe’s largest lenders have helped fossil fuel companies to raise more than €1tn (£869bn) from the global bond markets since the Paris climate agreement, according to an investigation by the Guardian and its reporting partners.
In the push to zero carbon, Europe’s biggest lenders face growing pressure to limit their financial support for fossil fuel companies through direct loans and other financing facilities.
Continue reading...Ukraine says 34 officers were killed including Black Sea fleet admiral Viktor Sokolov in its missile strike on Sevastapol last week
An air alert has been declared in Mykolaiv.
Tass reports that the Russian ministry of defence has reported that it destroyed Ukrainian drones that were over the north-western part of the Black Sea near occupied Crimea, as well as over the Kursk and Bryansk regions. It claims to have shot down eight aircraft-type drones in total.
Continue reading...The 50-point plan also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% and includes new projects for offshore wind farms
Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a national “ecological plan” to reduce France’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% and end the use of fossil fuels by 2030.
Speaking after a special ministerial council at the Elysée, the French president said an extra €10bn (£8.7bn) would be put towards the 50-point programme, which he described as “ecology à la Française”.
Continue reading...Ukrainian military says attack that apparently killed Viktor Sokolov was timed to coincide with meeting of naval officials
Ukraine has claimed it killed Adm Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, along with 33 other officers, in one of Kyiv’s boldest attacks yet on the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
The Ukrainian military said Friday’s attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol was timed to coincide with a meeting of naval officials.
Continue reading...Police submit dossier about images allegedly spread on social media in Almendralejo by teenagers aged 13 to 15
A Spanish prosecutor’s office has said it will investigate whether AI-generated images of naked teenage girls, allegedly created and shared by their peers in south-western Spain, constitute a crime.
The rise in use by children of such technologies has sparked concern among parents worldwide. The FBI warned in June that criminals were increasingly using artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit images to intimidate and extort victims.
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