Category Archives: Europe

Brics to more than double with admission of six new countries

Posted on by

Major expansion as economic bloc that includes Russia and China attempts to provide counterweight to the US and western allies

The Brics group of big emerging economies has announced the admission of six new members, in an attempt to reshape the global world order and provide a counterweight to the US and its allies.

From the beginning of next year, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE and Ethiopia will join the current five members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – it was announced at a summit in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Spanish football president in kissing row denies new misogyny allegations

Posted on by

Tamara Ramos claims Luis Rubiales asked what colour her underwear was when they worked together

Spain’s football federation president Luis Rubiales was at the centre of new misogyny allegations on Wednesday, as he faces growing calls to be sacked for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips after the country’s World Cup victory.

The country’s football federation (RFEF) chief, 46, has been widely condemned for planting a kiss on the lips of the footballer after her team’s 1-0 triumph over England in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Yevgeny Prigozhin onboard plane in fatal crash, says Russia

Posted on by

Officials say Wagner chief behind June mutiny was on jet that crashed in Tver region, killing all 10 onboard

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner paramilitary chief who launched an armed mutiny in June, has been reported dead. Russia said he was onboard a private jet that crashed in the Tver region near Moscow, killing all 10 onboard.

Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation authority, said Prigozhin and senior Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin were among 10 people travelling on the Embraer business jet that crashed on Wednesday evening.

Continue reading...

Prigozhin’s death would leave lasting mark on Russian army and elite

Posted on by

Since the Wagner group’s abortive coup, many have felt its leader could be living on borrowed time

Ever since the abortive coup, speculation had been that Yevgeny Prigozhin could be living on borrowed time.

When the head of the notorious Wagner group launched his historic uprising, inflicting the biggest crisis of Vladimir Putin’s 23-year reign, many were left wondering how the Russian leader would respond.

Continue reading...

Russia removes Sergei Surovikin as head of aerospace forces

Posted on by

Commander seen as an ally of Wagner has not been seen in public since Yevgeny Prighozin’s mutiny in June

Russia has relieved Gen Sergei Surovikin of his command of the Russian aerospace forces, in the highest-level sacking yet of a military commander after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive mutiny in June.

The extended absence and now removal of Surovikin, a prominent commander, indicates the shock waves sent through the military establishment by Prigozhin’s armed uprising. He sent thousands of troops to seize a military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don and try to march on Moscow to protest against the dismantling of his Wagner private military company.

Continue reading...

Cape Verde boat survivors say some jumped out to try to reach land

Posted on by

Some took parts of wooden seats for buoyancy after watching friends die on drifting vessel

Facing hunger, thirst and a rising number of deaths, some of the group of asylum seekers who were adrift for more than a month in the Atlantic resorted to breaking off chunks of the boat’s wooden seats in hopes of floating to land, a friend of three of the survivors has said.

More than 90 people are believed to have died before the rickety boat that had set off from Fass Boye, a seaside town in Senegal, was found off Cape Verde last week. Survivors said they left on 10 July aiming to reach Spain’s Canary Islands and spent weeks drifting at the mercy of powerful Atlantic trade winds.

Continue reading...

Niger observers link coup to president’s support for EU migration policies

Posted on by

Experts say army received bribes from people smuggling until 2015 law associated with Mohamed Bazoum

Observers have linked Mohamed Bazoum’s support for European Union policies aimed at stifling migration routes through north Africa to his ousting as president of Niger last month.

Army officers toppled Bazoum on 26 July, as Niger became the fourth west African country since 2020 to have a coup, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.

Continue reading...

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was on plane that crashed with no survivors, Russian aviation authority says – live

Posted on by

Wagner leader and chief commander Dmitry Utkin were onboard the crashed Embraer plane, according to Russian officials

Russia has appointed a new acting head of its aerospace forces to replace Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon”, the RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday.

In June, US intelligence claimed that Surovikin, who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine, had prior knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising, in which Wagner group mercenaries captured the city of Rostov and moved on Moscow before cutting an amnesty deal.

Ex-chief of the Russian Air and Space Forces Sergei Surovikin has now been relieved of his post, while colonel-general Viktor Afzalov, head of the main staff of the airforce, is temporarily acting as commander-in-chief of the airforce”.

Continue reading...

Central Moscow building hit by drone in latest attack on Russian capital

Posted on by

Moscow airports suspend flights briefly as drone hits site in city centre, with two others brought down across the region

A drone hit a building under construction in central Moscow early on Wednesday, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said, in what AFP reported was the sixth straight night of aerial attacks on Russia’s capital region.

The Russian military downed two more drones over the western part of the Moscow region, the mayor said on his Telegram channel.

Continue reading...

Toto Cutugno whose song L’Italiano was No 1 across Europe dies at 80

Posted on by

Singer’s big hit, stuffed with cliches about Italian life, was irresistible to millions as far away as Russia and Georgia

Toto Cutugno, the singer whose cliche-ridden but irresistibly catchy L’Italiano defined ideas of Italian culture to millions of listeners across Europe and Russia, has died at Milan’s San Raffaelle hospital aged 80.

Born Salvatore Cutugno to Sicilian parents in Tuscany, the singer was for a decade a regular at the Sanremo music festival, the Italian institution that served as inspiration for the Eurovision song contest.

Continue reading...

Spain’s conservative party leader proposed as PM despite no majority

Posted on by

People’s party’s Alberto Feijóo is choice of king to succeed Pedro Sánchez but would only be able to form minority government

The leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party has been put forward to be prime minister, in a move that seems doomed to fail as he has not secured enough votes to command a majority.

In accordance with protocol, King Felipe VI proposed Alberto Feijóo for the investiture on Tuesday night on the grounds that his party won the most votes in last month’s general election, which produced a hung parliament.

Continue reading...

Putin tells African nations Russia can take Ukraine’s place as supplier of grain – as it happened

Posted on by

Russian leader, wanted under international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, gives speech by video link to summit in South Africa. This live blog is now closed

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted a picture of himself alongside Nikolai Denkov, the prime minister of Bulgaria, with whom he said he had “fruitful talks” at the Ukraine-Balkans summit on Monday.

Zelenskiy said the two leaders had discussed further cooperation, Black Sea security and alternative grain corridors, adding that he expected to meet more “Balkan colleagues” on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Athens offers more support as Zelenskiy takes high-speed tour of Europe

Posted on by

Ukrainian president also meets leaders of Serbia and Croatia in bid to broaden support base

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s high-speed tour of Europe’s smaller countries continued in Athens on Tuesday, where he obtained further military and diplomatic support after securing a long-awaited commitment on the provision of F-16s at the weekend.

The Ukrainian president met Serbia’s president and Croatia’s prime minister at a Balkans summit in the Greek capital, while a day earlier Greece’s prime minister had said his country would help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets.

Continue reading...

Ukraine drone strike reportedly destroys Russian supersonic bomber

Posted on by

TU-22M3 – used extensively in missile strikes on Ukraine – seen burning in images shared on social media

A drone appears to have destroyed a supersonic Russian bomber on an airfield hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine, British military intelligence has said, the latest in a string of successful assaults on prestige infrastructure and military hardware.

These attacks, far beyond the frontlines, are powerful propaganda for Ukraine, though Kyiv rarely claims them directly. Hits on key assets, which are meant to be heavily guarded by the latest technology, is highly damaging to morale in Russia, even if they do not change the balance of forces on the battlefield.

Continue reading...

Barcelona community resource named world’s best new public library

Posted on by

Gabriel García Márquez library in working-class district specialises in Latin American literature

A Barcelona library specialising in Latin American literature has been named the best new public library in the world by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions at its congress in Rotterdam.

The library, named after the Nobel-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, opened last year in the working-class neighbourhood of Sant Martí de Provençals.

Continue reading...

Eighteen bodies found in wildfire zone in north-east Greece

Posted on by

Officials working to identify people found in Alexandroupolis region as firefighters battle second wave of fires

The bodies of 18 people have been found in an area of north-east Greece where firefighters are battling a major wildfire, authorities have said, as a record-breaking late summer heatwave continues to sear swathes of continental Europe.

Hundreds of firefighters were struggling on Tuesday to contain dozens of outbreaks, including several that have burned out of control for days and forced widespread evacuations, in the second deadly wave of blazes in Greece in a month.

Continue reading...

Quarter of music industry workers have had no work in EU since Brexit

Posted on by

Survey shows devastating impact of Brexit on music sector, says Independent Society of Musicians

Almost half of UK musicians and workers in the music industry have had less work in the EU since Brexit than before it, and more than a quarter have had no EU work at all, according to a survey.

The impact of Brexit on the music sector had been devastating, said the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), which carried out the survey. Restrictions had impaired the viability of making a living as a musician, it said.

Continue reading...

African Union issues ambiguous view on possible Niger military intervention

Posted on by

AU opposes countries outside Africa getting involved, but gives more nuanced position on any Ecowas military action

The African Union (AU) appears to have left room open for military intervention by a west African political bloc to restore democracy in Niger, as Algerian state radio said it had refused a French request to fly over its airspace for a military operation.

France’s joint defence staff, however, denied the country had made any request to Algeria to use its airspace for a military operation in Niger.

Continue reading...

Wagner making ‘Africa even more free’, says Prigozhin in first post-rebellion video

Posted on by

Person who appears to be mercenary leader seen in desert area, saying his group is recruiting

The Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has posted his first video address since leading a short-lived rebellion in Russia, appearing in a clip – possibly shot in Africa – on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group.

A person who appears to be the 62-year-old mercenary leader is seen in the video standing in a desert area in camouflage and with a rifle in his hands. In the distance, there are more armed men and a pickup truck.

Continue reading...

Ironman swimming race in Ireland in which two died did not have approval

Posted on by

Ivan van Chittenden and Brendan Wall were competing in event that Triathlon Ireland did not sanction owing to bad weather

An Ironman swimming race in which two competitors died was not sanctioned by the governing body for triathlons in Ireland due to concerns about “adverse conditions”.

Triathlon Ireland said it had not sanctioned the Ironman Cork event in Youghal because of the weather.

Continue reading...