Volodymyr Zelenskiy announces return of Mariupol commanders from Turkey and Rishi Sunak reiterates UK’s ban on cluster munitions
Continue reading...Category Archives: Europe
‘You’re in my head, heart and soul’: Elton John thanks fans at farewell show
76-year-old pays touching tribute to audience as he performs final date of huge tour in Sweden
Sir Elton John has told his fans they will remain in his “head, heart and soul” as he closed the final show of his big farewell tour in Sweden in spectacular fashion.
The 76-year-old has been travelling around the globe performing his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show since 2018, and his second night at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm finally brought the 330-date run to a close.
Continue reading...Moscow denounces return of Mariupol commanders sent to Turkey in prisoner swap
President Zelenskiy flies men back to Ukraine as Russia says Turkey has violated terms
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has returned from a visit to Turkey, bringing home five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol despite a prisoner exchange last year under which the men were meant to remain in Turkey.
Russia immediately denounced the release of the men. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated the prisoner exchange terms and had failed to inform Moscow.
Continue reading...Mark Rutte hands in resignation as Dutch government collapses over asylum row
Radically different outlooks of four parties on immigration ‘unbridgeable’, says four-time prime minister
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has presented his government’s written resignation to King Willem-Alexander, who returned from holiday to receive it.
It was Rutte’s fourth government – a fragile, four-party coalition of his People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the liberal democratic Democrats 66, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and centrist ChristenUnie. It took 10 months to agree its formation and it lasted less than 18 months.
Continue reading...Moscow hits out as Turkey allows return of ‘hero’ Mariupol commanders – as it happened
Moscow says men’s return to Ukraine is a ‘direct violation’ of prisoner swap agreement
- UK will not supply cluster munitions to Ukraine, says Sunak
- Zelenskiy visits Snake Island on 500th day of Russian invasion
- What we know on day 500 of the invasion
From a distance of about 3 miles (5km) the drone camera zoomed in on a group of Russian soldiers. Three of them got out of a vehicle, strolled over to a cottage, and disappeared inside. “We won’t hit them yet.
“It’s better to observe,” the drone’s Ukrainian operator – call-sign “Garry” – said. “Once we’ve destroyed them, we’ll move on to the next target.”
Today we are on Snake Island, which will never be conquered by the occupiers, like the whole of Ukraine, because we are the country of the brave.
I want to thank, from here, from this place of victory, each of our soldiers for these 500 days.
Continue reading...‘We have ambitious plans’: Anti-Putin forces plan fresh attacks inside Russia
Leader of cross-border raids from Ukraine says weapons, not words, are needed to overthrow the regime in Moscow
The commander of the Freedom of Russia Legion says his fighters are planning another cross-border raid into Russia and are seeking to capitalise on disarray inside the Kremlin following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“There will be a further surprise in the next month or so,” Caesar, a spokesperson for the anti-Putin paramilitary group, said in an interview with the Observer in Kyiv. “It will be our third operation. After that there will be a fourth, and fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to free all our territory.”
Continue reading...French officials ban Paris march for black man who died in police custody
Annual rally in memory of Adama Traoré had been moved to Paris after it was banned in Val-d’Oise
The French authorities have banned people from marching in central Paris to honour Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016.
After a court challenge to overrule a ban on the march being held in the Val-d’Oise, north-west of Paris, failed on Friday, organisers announced it would take place instead at Place de la Républic in the capital.
Continue reading...Sir Elton John to perform final farewell show in Sweden
The megastar behind Rocketman and Your Song to call time on more than 50 years of live performance
Sir Elton John will hold what he has described as his “final farewell show” in Sweden this weekend as his tour comes to an end.
The megastar played his last UK date at Glastonbury festival last month and will bring the tour to an end on Saturday at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm.
Continue reading...‘We sing for our freedom’: Estonians still find strength in choirs during difficult times
A musical tradition has more weight than ever as Estonia looks hard at its neighbour Russia following its invasion of Ukraine
Aarne Saluveer recalls the time his cult Estonian rock band, Karavan, was invited to perform in Moscow in the 1980s, on condition they sang in Russian. “We were on a roll, performing 250 concerts a year. We refused the Soviet authorities’ request. Estonian and English only, we said, knowing that if we relented we’d lose our sense of self because if the music doesn’t come from your heart, you die.”
Four decades on he is no less steadfast, but has swapped his keyboard and vocals to conduct more than 23,000 young choristers at Estonia’s Laulupida youth song and dance festival in the capital Tallinn. The event, where Estonian choirs gather to sing the country’s folk songs, is a key expression of the Baltic state’s identity, and in the late 1980s played a vital part in bringing down communism when crowds took part in the country’s “singing revolution”.
Continue reading...British scientists can request grants if UK rejoins EU’s £85bn Horizon scheme
‘Expected’ return could help retain scientists and researchers lost after grants were cancelled in Brexit row
British scientists and academic researchers will be able to reapply to the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) for grants if, as expected, the UK rejoins the flagship Horizon European programme, it has been confirmed.
The re-entry comes almost a year after 115 grants approved for British candidates were terminated by the council because of the delay in ratifying the UK’s associate membership of the £85bn Horizon funding scheme.
Continue reading...Valencia tops surprising poll of travellers’ favourite coastal stays in Europe
A new Which? survey reveals that visitors are starting to look beyond the old overcrowded favourites such as Barcelona and Málaga
Ask for a lineup of the most popular European coastal destinations and you might expect the usual suspects: Venice, Lisbon and Nice. Travellers from the era of the Grand Tour might have added Biarritz and Naples – but a survey of 3,500 readers by consumer organisation Which? suggests that visitors are starting to look beyond the old favourites and discover new destinations.
The Spanish Mediterranean port of Valencia was the surprising winner in a recent poll that looked at 12 separate criteria, including quality of the beaches, seafronts and marinas; attractiveness; food and drink; and value for money. Respondents cited the city’s history, futuristic architecture and gastronomy, but also its peace and quiet. With traditional favourites such as Barcelona struggling with overpopularity – numbers there are heading back towards the 2019 high of 13.9 million overnight visitors – that seems significant.
Continue reading...End justifies means for Biden in sending cluster bombs to Ukraine
Decision to approve cluster munitions, lambasted by rights groups, exposes feeling in Washington that war is reaching crunch time
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, America’s voice at the United Nations, usually chooses her words carefully. “We have seen videos of Russian forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield,” she told the general assembly last year. “That includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs – which are banned under the Geneva conventions.”
The speech can be read on the official website of the US mission to the UN. But it comes with a neat metaphor for how messy diplomacy can be. The transcript of Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks now has the words “which has no place on the battlefield” crossed out, and the word “banned” comes with an asterisk: she should have said “the use of which directed against civilians is banned under the Geneva conventions”.
Continue reading...Biden says sending cluster bombs to Ukraine was ‘difficult decision’ – as it happened
President tells CNN he took the recommendation for controversial weapons because Ukraine is ‘running out of ammunition’
The US added 209,000 new jobs in June as hiring slowed amid signs that the economy is cooling.
The rise was the weakest gain since December 2020, lower than the 240,000 jobs economists had expected and lower than the 309,000 jobs added in May. But the increase was also the 30th consecutive month of jobs gains, and the unemployment rate ticked down to the historically low rate of 3.6%.
This alarming development requires the Committee to assess White House security practices and determine whose failures led to an evacuation of the building and finding of the illegal substance.
The presence of illegal drugs in the White House is unacceptable and a shameful moment in the White House’s history.
Continue reading...Prigozhin wig pictures appear to be genuine, analysis shows
Images leaked by Russian security services are consistent with one another and appear distorted due to being pictures of a digital screen
A raid on Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mansion in St Petersburg by security services has revealed his possession of some interesting items.
Among them was a wardrobe full of wigs, and photos of Prigozhin in various disguises wearing those wigs, which were allegedly taken from his personal album.
Continue reading...Dutch government falls as coalition partners clash over immigration
PM Mark Rutte disbands cabinet after four parties in government coalition disagree over asylum seeker policy
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has announced his resignation and that of his cabinet, citing irreconcilable differences within his four-party coalition about how to control immigration.
The decision on Friday by the Netherlands’ longest-serving premier means the country will face a general election later this year for the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy discusses peace plan, Nato and grain deal with Erdoğan in Turkey – as it happened
Ukraine president meets with Turkish leader after summits across Europe
In his daily operational briefing, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said that one man was killed by Ukrainian shelling in the last 24 hours. He also recorded damage in a number of settlements caused by falling debris after air defence had been in action.
Belgorod borders Sumy, Kharkiv and the occupied Luhansk region in Ukraine’s north-east. The claims have not been independently verified.
Continue reading...Six die after fire in Milan care home
More than 80 injured after blaze believed to have started in a bedroom sweeps through first floor
Six people have died and more than 80 were injured after a fire swept through a care home in Milan overnight.
The blaze began shortly after 1am on Friday in Casa dei Coniugi, home to 167 residents.
Continue reading...‘A huge relief’: scientists react to hopes of UK rejoining EU Horizon scheme
Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK’s decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU’s flagship programme
Scientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.
Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit.
Continue reading...US expected to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine
Human Rights Watch calls for immediate halt and urges US not to supply bombs amid reports Biden is to include them in aid package
Human Rights Watch has called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster bombs, and urged the US not to supply the munitions to Kyiv, amid reports the Biden administration is poised to include the controversial weapons in a new military aid package.
Russian and Ukraine forces have used cluster bombs, which break apart in the air and release large numbers of smaller bomblets across a wide area.
Continue reading...Russian cruise missile attack on Ukraine city of Lviv kills five
Night-time onslaught believed to be heaviest attack on civilian areas of city since start of invasion
Russia has fired cruise missiles at a western Ukraine city far from the frontline of the war, killing at least five people in a block of flats, in what officials said was the heaviest attack on civilian areas of Lviv since the Kremlin’s forces invaded Ukraine last year.
The night-time attack destroyed the roof and top two floors of a residential building, injuring nine people as emergency crews with search dogs went through the rubble.
Continue reading...