Category Archives: Europe

Portugal to scrap ‘unjust’ tax breaks for foreign residents

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Low-tax scheme launched during financial crisis has stoked housing inflation that has drawn protests across country

Tax breaks for foreign residents in Portugal are “no longer justified”, the prime minister, Antonio Costa, has declared, promising to close the scheme for new applicants in 2024 after it stoked housing prices in one of western Europe’s poorest nations.

Launched in 2009, the scheme allows people who become residents by spending more than 183 days a year in the country to benefit from a special 20% tax rate on Portuguese-sourced income derived from “high value-added activities“”, such as doctors and university teachers.

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UK campaign group chief says Poland deported him at France’s request

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Head of Cage says criticism of Emmanuel Macron’s government for Islamophobia is reason for forced return to Britain

The UK director of the campaign group Cage has claimed he has been deported from Poland at the behest of French authorities because he criticised Emmanuel Macron’s government for Islamophobia.

Muhammad Rabbani, who heads a group that campaigns on behalf of those affected by the “war on terror”, was due to give a speech this week at an international security conference in Warsaw that would have been critical of France’s handling of anti-government protests.

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Kosovo Serb politician arrested over role in armed ambush of police

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Milan Radoičić admitted being among paramilitaries who ambushed Kosovan patrol leading to four deaths

Police in Belgrade have arrested a Kosovo Serb politician four days after he admitted being part of a paramilitary group involved in a gunfight with Kosovan security forces in which four people died.

The clash threatened to ignite a wider eruption of violence, after thousands of Serbian troops were deployed to the Kosovo border. They were withdrawn only after the threat of sanctions from the US.

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Western allies say they are running out of ammo to donate; Ukraine advancing in south, says General – as it happened

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UK and Nato says suppliers must ramp up production; General Oleksander Tarnavskyi says Russian forces sustaining losses in south. This live blog is closed

Veterinary and sanitary controls of Ukrainian agricultural cargo bound for the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda will in the next two days be transferred from the Polish-Ukrainian border directly to Klaipeda under a deal reached by Kyiv, Warsaw and Vilnius, the Ukrainian farm ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement quoted agriculture minister Mykola Solsky as saying the move was aimed at speeding up transit.

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Germany calls for ‘permanent’ UN presence in Nagorno-Karabakh to build trust for civilians – Europe live

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‘Only transparency can build trust in Azerbaijan’s promise to protect the rights of all residents and returnees to the region,’ Berlin says

Nearly the entire ethnic Armenian population has left Nagorno-Karabakh, as the first United Nations mission arrived in the largely deserted mountainous region on Sunday.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said the United Nations team on the ground, the first UN mission to the region in 30 years, would “identify the humanitarian needs” both for people remaining and “the people that are on the move”.

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Nobel laureate urges Polish opposition to commit to progressive causes

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Exclusive: Olga Tokarczuk’s comments come in rare political interview two weeks before potentially pivotal election

The Polish opposition seeking to topple the country’s rightwing populist government needs to start spelling out its commitment to progressive causes, the Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk has urged in a rare political interview.

“We as citizens will need to be assured that a new government would have faith in democracy, Europeanism and freedom guaranteed by law,” Tokarczuk told the Guardian two weeks before Poland goes to the polls in a potentially pivotal election on 15 October.

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‘Chance of a century’ – could department store become Berlin’s first central library?

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City’s culture minister hopes to turn Galeries Lafayette store into German capital’s ‘new living room,’ but critics question likely cost

Perusing the cold meat counter in the Galeries Lafayette on Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse, Rahel Schorn was taken by the idea that she may one day come here to pore over books instead. “The location is very central,” said the business student, shopping for groceries with her mother. “And the building is large, light and airy.”

Under proposals by Berlin’s culture senator, Joe Chialo, the French department store might yet be turned into the city’s first central library, something decision-makers have argued about for more than 100 years and German librarians insist is “the chance of a century”.

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Kharkiv to build Ukraine’s first underground school to protect children

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Children in frontline city are currently taught in the underground metro system amid threats from Russia’s missile attacks

Ukraine’s eastern metropolis of Kharkiv will build the country’s first fully underground school to shield pupils from Russia’s frequent bomb and missile attacks, the city’s mayor has said.

“Such a shelter will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

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Birkenstock set to float on stock market with valuation of nearly $10bn

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German sandal maker has come a long way from its founding in 1774 as a maker of orthopaedic shoes to going public on the NY stock exchange

Birkenstock, the resurgent German sandal maker once beloved by healthcare workers, is set to be valued at up to €9.2bn ($9.7bn) when it floats on the stock market this month.

Around 32.2 million ordinary shares will be put on the New York Stock Exchange in an initial public offering. On Monday, the company priced its shares at $44 to $49 each, which could see the company raise up to $1.58bn.

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EU proposes €5bn military aid package for Ukraine after ‘historic’ meeting

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Josep Borrell condemns ‘inhumane’ Russia as bloc offers training for soldiers and fighter jet pilots

Ukraine is set to receive billions of euros more in military aid, as well as training for fighter pilots, the EU’s top diplomat has said, after a “historic” meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said on Monday the 27-nation bloc remained committed to helping Ukraine defeat a “brutal and inhumane” Russia.

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Slovakia’s pro-Russia former PM Robert Fico invited to form coalition

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Three-time former prime minister, who promised to end military aid to Ukraine, expected to seek deal with two other parties

Slovakia’s president has asked Robert Fico, a populist, pro-Russian three-time former prime minister who campaigned on a promise to end military aid to Ukraine, to try to form a coalition government after his party came top in weekend elections.

President Zuzana Čaputová stressed on Monday that the new government would have to be one “which will serve all citizens”, saying the coming days would be “a time of political negotiation” not just between parties but between her and party leaders.

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‘It’s a ghost town’: UN arrives in Nagorno-Karabakh to find ethnic Armenians have fled

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‘What is left for the UN to monitor?’ asks one refugee who crossed the border to escape

Nearly the entire ethnic Armenian population has left Nagorno-Karabakh, as the first United Nations mission arrived in the largely deserted mountainous region on Sunday.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said the United Nations team on the ground, the first UN mission to the region in 30 years, would “identify the humanitarian needs” both for people remaining and “the people that are on the move”.

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Greenlandic women plan to sue Danish state over historical contraceptive ‘violation’

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Group of 67 claim they were fitted with an IUD between 1966 and 1970 without consent or knowledge

Dozens of Greenlandic women who say they were fitted with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge are planning to sue the Danish state.

The group of 67 women, some of whom were as young as 12 when they say they were fitted with an IUD by Danish doctors in an attempt to reduce Greenland’s population, are among the 4,500 women and girls affected between 1966 and 1970.

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Who is Robert Fico, the pro-Russian leader poised to head Slovakia’s coalition government?

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Leadership of populist three-time PM could have ramifications for Ukraine, EU and Slovakia’s rule of law

Slovakia’s president, Zuzana Caputova, on Monday handed the country’s former prime minister Robert Fico a mandate to start negotiations to form a coalition government after his Smer-SD party won almost 23% of the vote in weekend elections.

If he succeeds, the populist, pro-Russian leader’s fourth term as prime minister could have significant ramifications for Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine, EU unity and cohesion, and the rule of law in the central European country.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian victory depends on cooperation with Europe, Zelenskiy tells EU foreign ministers in Kyiv – as it happened

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Meeting takes place amid concerns over cracks in US funding and after a pro-Russian populist party won the most votes Slovakia’s election

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has arrived in Kyiv, a spokesperson for her ministry said.

The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, had said earlier on Monday he was convening a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Ukrainian capital.

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Kosovo’s troubles may not have come to a head, but the crisis still festers

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Swift western pressure on Serbia to step back from conflict does not resolve the chronic problems of Kosovo’s nationhood

The signs this weekend suggest that the immediate crisis over Kosovo has been defused. Some Serbian troops are pulling back from the border, and the threat of a return to armed conflict has receded for now.

The Biden administration acted decisively on Friday, drawing on some of the lessons from the run-up to the Ukraine invasion, going public with US intelligence on Serbian troops movements, and calling Belgrade to threaten sanctions and ostracism. The Nato peacekeeping force, Kfor, was immediately reinforced by the transfer of command of a battalion of British troops who were in the region for training.

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AI Vincent van Gogh talks of ‘mental health struggles’ in Paris exhibition

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Musée d’Orsay adds AI and VR to display of artist’s last works, never previously seen together

For a man who died in 1890, Vincent van Gogh seemed remarkably au fait with 21st-century parlance.

Asked why he had cut off his left ear, the artist replied that this was a misconception and he had in fact only cut off “part of my earlobe”. So why did he shoot himself in the chest with a revolver, causing injuries from which he died two days later?

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Paris-Berlin relations slump is holding up key EU decisions, says German MEP

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Exclusive: Defence and trade affected by poor post-Merkel rapport, says chair of foreign affairs committee

Poor relations between France and Germany are slowing down key decisions in the EU including deals on defence in Ukraine and trade, an influential German MEP has claimed.

David McAllister, chair of the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a key figure in the opposition Christian Democrats party, says he is concerned that the lack of contact between the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is causing delays on key decisions on battle tanks and fighter jets, and a future trade deal with Latin America.

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Rescuers continue search for bodies at Spanish nightclubs after deadly blaze

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Up to 18 people were reported missing after the blaze in Murcia, with 13 bodies so far found in La Fonda club

The death toll from a fire that tore through three adjoining night clubs in Spain is expected to rise as rescuers search the wreckage for a further five people reported missing after the blaze that has killed at least 13 people.

The blaze in the south-eastern town of Murcia broke out at around 6am on Sunday morning in the La Fonda club, before spreading to the neighbouring Teatre and Golden clubs, officials said.

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Biden urges Republicans to approve Ukraine aid, saying support cannot waver

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US president says he is ‘sick and tired’ of domestic political brinkmanship as Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows to fight on in speech released on Defenders Day

Joe Biden has pressed congressional Republicans to back a deal to provide more aid to Ukraine, after provisions for Kyiv were left out of a bill to avoid a US government shutdown.

The US president said on Sunday he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship, and that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”. Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote, he said.

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