Alleged co-founder of mercenary group Wagner buried; video surfaces of Yevgeny Prigozhin appearing to show him discussing threats to his life
Continue reading...Category Archives: Europe
Train hits and kills five track maintenance workers in northern Italy
Mayor of northern town of Brandizzo speaks of ‘chilling scene’ after accident near Turin
Five railway workers in northern Italy were killed when they were hit by a train while carrying out overnight maintenance work.
Paolo Bodoni, the mayor of Brandizzo, told the AGI news agency that an emergency worker had described to him a “chilling scene, with human remains across 300 metres”.
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin spoke of threats to his life days before death, video appears to show
Wagner boss apparently seen in Africa saying ‘everything’s fine’ as he addressed rumours about wellbeing
A newly released video of Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show the Wagner group boss in Africa addressing rumours about his wellbeing and threats to his life, just days before his death.
“For everyone discussing whether I’m alive or not and how I’m doing. It’s currently a weekend in the second half of August 2023. I’m in Africa,” Prigozhin says in the short video published by the Grey Zone Telegram channel that is linked to Wagner group.
Continue reading...Ørsted shares fall 25% after it reveals troubles in US business
Almost £7bn wiped off value of world’s largest offshore wind company over possible £1.8bn write-down
Shares in the world’s largest offshore wind company have tumbled by nearly a quarter after it said it may have to write down the value of its US portfolio by nearly £2bn.
Ørsted said it had been hit by a flurry of setbacks in its American business, triggering a rapid sell-off in its shares, listed in Copenhagen.
Continue reading...EU imports of Russian liquified gas leap by 40% since Ukraine invasion
Pipeline flows from Russia have fallen to historic lows, but shipments of LNG from all over the world have surged
EU imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) have increased by 40% since the invasion of Ukraine despite efforts to cut down supplies.
Member states have bought more than half of Russia’s LNG on the market in the first seven months of this year, according to analysis of data by Kpler, which tracks marine and tanker traffic.
Continue reading...Gatwick passenger numbers soar as strikes hit flight punctuality
Demand for travel results in 41% rise but air traffic control industrial action across Europe affects timings
Passenger numbers at Gatwick airport soared to 19 million during the first six months of the year, according to its operator, although air traffic control strikes across Europe contributed to an increase in delayed departures and landings.
Demand for travel resulted in 41% more passengers travelling through the airport between January and June compared with 2022 – when Covid restrictions were still in place – Gatwick said as it released half-year results.
Continue reading...‘Avoid getting drunk’: row erupts over rape comments by Italy PM’s partner
Giorgia Meloni called on to condemn partner who appeared to suggest women could avoid rape by not getting too drunk
A row has erupted in Italy after a journalist and the partner of Giorgia Meloni appeared to suggest that women could avoid rape by not getting too drunk, with opposition parties calling on the prime minister to distance herself from his comments.
“If you go dancing you are fully entitled to get drunk ... but if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, perhaps you’d also avoid getting into trouble, because then you’ll find the wolf,” Andrea Giambruno said on his show on the right-leaning channel Rete 4 after recent high-profile gang rape cases near Naples and in Palermo.
Continue reading...US concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea ‘actively advancing’ – as it happened
Sergei Shoigu, Russian defence minister, has recently travelled to North Korea to try to convince them to sell ammunition, says White House. This live blog is closed
Russia’s Tass news agency reports, citing Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, that a drone was “destroyed” in the Ruzsky district of the Moscow region.
“Tonight, an attempt was made to mass attack drones in the Central Federal District. One of the UAVs heading for Moscow was destroyed by air defense forces in the Ruzsky district. There were no preliminary casualties and no damage,” Sobyanin wrote in his Telegram channel.
Continue reading...Ukrainian drones attack six Russian regions and hit military planes
Kyiv says four cargo planes destroyed in city 500 miles from border with Ukraine
Ukrainian drones have attacked at least six regions deep within Russia, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the largest-scale attacks on Russia in months.
A drone assault on the city of Pskov in north-western Russia damaged four IL-76 military cargo aircraft, Russian authorities said early on Wednesday, engulfing two of the planes in flames.
Continue reading...Documents show Putin’s order to move superyacht before Ukraine invasion
Russian president ordered urgent removal of Graceful from Hamburg shipyard, investigation claims
Vladimir Putin moved his $100m (£75m) superyacht from a German shipyard to Russia just weeks before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine, according to secret documents released in a new investigation.
A Russian anti-corruption organisation set up by the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny claims emails show that the Russian president ordered the urgent moving of the 82-metre superyacht, called Graceful, from a shipyard in Hamburg, where it was undergoing a $32m refit, by 1 February 2022.
Continue reading...‘Farewell ceremony’ for Yevgeny Prigozhin takes place in St Petersburg – as it happened
Spokesperson says ‘those who wish to bid their farewell’ to the mercenary leader should go to the Porokhovskoye cemetery. This live blog is closed
My colleague Dan Sabbagh has a special dispatch from Kupiansk, a town in the Kharkiv region where some residents have abandoned their homes because of renewed shelling.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said military service in the Russian armed forces has become increasingly lucrative since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
On 4 February 2022 Russian president Vladimir Putin noted that a lieutenant received 81,200 rubles per month. By October 2022, he announced that even mobilised private soldiers would receive 195,000 rubles per month.
Many junior ranks serving in Ukraine are now on over 200,000 rubles per month. This is over 2.7 times the Russian national average salary of 72,851 rubles. By way of comparison, 2.7 times the average UK salary would equate to over £90,000 a year.
Continue reading...Funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin held in ‘closed format’ in St Petersburg
Kremlin earlier said president’s presence ‘not envisaged’ at funeral of Wagner chief who was killed in plane crash last week
The funeral of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin was held at a private cemetery on the outskirts of his home town of St Petersburg, his press service said on Tuesday hours after the Kremlin announced that Vladimir Putin would not be attending.
“The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those who wish to say goodbye may visit Porokhovskoye cemetery,” the press service said in its first post on Telegram in two months, ending days of speculation over how the warlord would be laid to rest.
Continue reading...‘I couldn’t take it any more’: holdouts quit Kupiansk after renewed Russian shelling
People who stayed through last year’s occupation are now abandoning the city amid fears of a ‘Bakhmut 2.0’
Antonina Sanina, 75, had spent the last two nights hiding in the basement of her apartment block in Kupiansk. She had endured six and a half months of Russian occupation last year, but now the renewed shelling of the city had prompted her to abandon her home. “I couldn’t take it any more,” she said a few minutes after local volunteers had driven her to safety.
She said eight neighbours hid in the cellar with her as the Russians targeted what they thought, wrongly, was a barracks nearby. “You could barely sleep. It would be on and off. Then you’d just wake up and you wouldn’t know – was that an actual hit or was it a dream?” A day before she took flight, one civilian was killed and 11 injured in a daytime artillery strike on the city centre.
Continue reading...Russia accused of intimidating US consulate staff with Ukraine war spying charges
State department says allegations against Robert Shonov are ‘wholly without merit’, as rare footage of detained US citizen Paul Whelan emerges
The United States has accused Moscow of attempting to intimidate and harass US employees, after Russian state media reported that a former US consulate worker had been charged with collecting information on the war in Ukraine and other issues for Washington.
The FSB security service has accused Robert Shonov, a Russian national, of relaying to US embassy staffers in Moscow information on how Russia’s conscription campaign was affecting political discontent ahead of the 2024 presidential election in Russia, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 552 of the invasion
More than 1,300 schools destroyed in Ukraine since war began; ‘farewell ceremony’ held Yevgeny Prigozhin
A “farewell ceremony” for Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, took place behind closed doors, his spokespeople said on Tuesday in a statement on social media.
More than 1,300 schools have been destroyed in government-held areas of Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, Unicef has said.
Vladimir Putin has no plans to attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed when his plane crashed last week, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
An FSB security services helicopter crashed Tuesday in central Russia, leaving three people dead, regional officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter went down near the village of Krasnoe Pole in the Chelyabinsk region.
Ukraine said on Tuesday that its forces had pushed deeper into Russian defensive lines near the village of Robotyne, a day after claiming control over the village on the southern front.
Russian president Vladimir Putin will skip the G20 summit in India next month and will send his foreign minister instead, prime minister Narendra Modi’s office said.
Russian air defences reportedly downed Ukrainian drones over the Tula and Belgorod regions, Moscow’s defence ministry said on Tuesday, without indicating if there had been damage or casualties.
The US on Monday accused Moscow of attempting to intimidate and harass US employees after Russian state media reported that a former US consulate worker had been charged by security services with collecting information on the war in Ukraine and other issues for Washington.
The EU should get ready to admit new members from eastern Europe and the Balkans by 2030, EU chief Charles Michel argued on Monday. With Russia’s war in Ukraine continuing and Moldova’s pro-western government scrambling to reform, senior officials have previously been reluctant to offer precise timetables.
Pope Francis came under criticism on Monday for telling Russian youths to remember that they are the heirs of tsars such as Peter the Great, whom President Vladimir Putin has held up as an example to justify the invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine said the comments, which Francis made on Friday in a live video address to Catholic youths gathered in St. Petersburg, were “deeply regrettable”.
Continue reading...Spanish football federation leaders demand resignation of Luis Rubiales
Embattled president increasingly isolated following World Cup kiss after urgent meeting between chiefs
Spain’s football federation regional presidents have demanded that Luis Rubiales “immediately resign”, pulling support for the football chief days after the federation’s members heartily applauded his vow to stay on.
On Monday, more than a week after Rubiales grabbed forward Jenni Hermoso by the head and planted a kiss on her lips, the federation’s regional presidents were summoned to an “extraordinary and urgent” meeting in Madrid to assess the impact of the crisis.
Continue reading...Suella Braverman restates wish for UK to leave European court of human rights
Home secretary calls the court ‘politicised’ and refuses to rule out mass tagging of asylum seekers
Suella Braverman has reiterated her wish to leave what she called the “politicised” European court of human rights (ECHR) and refused to rule out the mass tagging of asylum seekers, a move one refugee charity said would treat people as “mere objects”.
Marking a return to the political fray after a summer recess in which a series of Home Office policy hiccups prompted speculation she could be replaced as home secretary, Braverman said the government would “do whatever it takes” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Continue reading...Carlsen and Niemann settle dispute over cheating claims that rocked chess
- US player had filed lawsuit against former world champion
- Parties agree to move forward after series of allegations
A dispute that caused scandal in the world of elite chess appears to have been settled after the players involved said they have moved on from their rift.
Hans Niemann, a rising star in the chess world, filed a $100m lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen, the website chess.com and chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura after allegations he had cheated.
Continue reading...Swedish man charged with passing hi-tech equipment to Russia
Russian-born man in his 60s suspected of transferring Swedish and US technology with potential military use
A man in his 60s whose arrest in a residential area near Stockholm last year prompted shock has been charged with gross illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and gross illegal intelligence activities against a foreign power.
The man, who has lived in Sweden for 25 years after emigrating from Russia and has had Swedish citizenship since 2012, is suspected of having transferred advanced technology with potential military use to Russia.
Continue reading...Poland ‘will close Belarus border’ if there is incident with Wagner; Ukraine troops pushing south – as it happened
Poland and Baltic states demand mercenary group leaves Belarus; Ukraine says it has liberated village of Robotyne as counteroffensive continues. This live blog is closed
Ukraine says troops advancing southeast of Robotyne
Some more now on Ukraine claiming it has captured the village of Robotyne on the southern front.
Robotyne has been liberated. Our forces are advancing south-east of Robotyne and south of Mala Tokmachka.
As usual, there will be more meetings with staff this week. The agenda is already set. In particular; there will be decisions that will allow us to further strengthen our warriors, that allow military commanders to prepare the infrastructure for new Ukrainian aircraft more accurately, and allow diplomats to promote everything that our warriors need more actively in communication with partners. The requests from each of the units are very clear.
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