Category Archives: Europe

Cyprus to begin treating island’s sick cats with anti-Covid pills

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Vets receive medication originally meant for people amid virulent feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats

Veterinary services in Cyprus have received a first batch of anti-Covid pills, from a stockpile originally meant for humans, as efforts intensify to stop the spread of a virulent strain of feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats.

The island’s health ministry began discharging the treatment on 8 August – long celebrated as International Cat Day – in what is hoped will be the beginning of the end of the disease that has struck the Mediterranean country’s feline population.

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Turning food into a weapon: how Russia resorted to one of the oldest forms of warfare

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With Russia blockading Ukraine’s eastern ports, an alternative route to the west is possible but faces serious problems

After failing to conquer Ukraine by conventional means, Russia tried an energy war, trying to hobble the power grid and freeze the nation into submission. Now it has launched a food war.

The mining of the Kakhovka dam in June threatens to turn southern Ukrainian farmland into a dustbowl. Since Moscow pulled out of an UN-brokered deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea last month, it has announced a naval blockade of the country’s ports, and directly targeted food (destroying 220,000 tonnes of cereals awaiting export in silos) on the sea coast but also inland with attacks over the past two weeks on the Danube ports of Reni and Izmail.

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UK would be outlier with Russia if it left ECHR, Law Society says

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Robert Jenrick had said government would do ‘whatever is necessary’ to stop small boat crossings

The UK would be an international outlier along with Russia and Belarus if it left the European convention on human rights, a leading law body has warned, after a senior minister signalled that the move could be an option to stop small boat crossings.

Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the government would do “whatever is necessary”, even if that meant pulling out of the ECHR, the 70-year-old pan-European treaty that protects human rights and political freedoms in the continent.

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Ukrainian forces cross Dnipro River in bid to breach southern frontline

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Up to seven boats landed east of Kherson city and broke through defensive lines, say Russian military bloggers

Ukrainian forces have made an attempt to cross the Dnipro River dividing liberated and occupied Kherson, in a potential breach of what has for months served as the frontline in the south of Ukraine.

Russian military bloggers reported that up to seven boats, each carrying six to seven people, had landed near the village of Kozachi Laheri, east of Kherson city, on Tuesday and broke through Russian defensive lines.

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Former rugby star’s Irish-accented French team talk hailed as ‘absolutely glorious’

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La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara lights up the internet seamlessly blending French with English with a few choice words

French may be the language of Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Voltaire, but sometimes it takes a rugby player from Cork to inject extra oomph.

Ronan O’Gara, a former Ireland international who coaches the French club La Rochelle, has lit up the internet with a pep talk to his team that seamlessly blended French with English swearing, graced with a Cork accent.

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Russia-Ukraine war: factory explosion near Moscow injures 45 but cause remains unclear – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here

Local authorities in Dnipropetrovsk region report that overnight an 18-year-old boy was killed and three men were wounded in a Russian strike in the area of Nikopol. A church and private houses were damaged.

The claims have not been independently verified.

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More than 40 feared dead after boat sinks in Mediterranean near Lampedusa

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Four people rescued say vessel had set off from Sfax in Tunisia and had taken on water in stormy conditions

At least 41 people are feared to have died after a boat sank in rough seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities and the UN said on Wednesday.

Four survivors who were rescued on Wednesday morning by a Maltese bulk carrier and eventually moved to a patrol boat from the Italian coastguard, said they had been on a vessel that set off from the Tunisian port of Sfax six days ago and sank on its way to Italy’s shores.

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Germany arranges supply of 30 Leopard 1 tanks for Ukraine

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Arms firm Rheinmetall to refurbish vehicles following military aid package announced at Nato summit

Thirty secondhand Leopard I battle tanks are to be refurbished by the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall at the orders of the German government and exported to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the company has confirmed.

The tanks are part of a fleet of 49 vehicles that the Düsseldorf-based company purchased from the Belgian private defence company OIP Land Systems. Some of the vehicles are reportedly in such poor condition they will serve only for the supply of spare parts.

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Dozens injured in explosion at factory near Moscow said to hold fireworks

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Plant in Sergiev Posad previously made military equipment but officials downplay speculation blast was result of Ukrainian drone attack

An explosion has ripped through a factory said to house fireworks in the Moscow region, injuring at least 40 people and raising questions as to whether the blast was the result of an accident or of a targeted attack.

The explosion took place at about 10:40am local time on Wednesday at a factory workshop in Sergiev Posad, about 40 miles (65km) from central Moscow. Video of the blast showed a mushroom cloud of smoke rising into the air over the Zagorsk optical mechanical plant, which in the past has manufactured night-vision goggles and other imaging equipment for the Russian military. Factory officials ordered a “total evacuation” of the area.

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Infighting at top of Spain’s far-right Vox party as spokesperson quits

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Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, a founding member, marginalised by hardliners close to party leader

An internal war has broken out at the top of Spain’s far-right Vox party after its poor showing in last month’s general election when it lost nearly half of the seats it won in 2019.

Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, a founder member and the party’s spokesperson, resigned on Tuesday, saying he would not be taking up his seat in parliament.

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Seals practise social distancing, aerial survey of North Sea shows

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Research suggests behaviour may reflect evolutionary response to previous outbreaks of disease

Aerial surveys of the North Sea have revealed that seals practise social distancing – and the discovery may have profound implications for the spread of disease among the marine mammals.

In a paper published today by the Royal Society, researchers conducting censuses of grey and harbour seals detail new evidence that the two species not only maintain distances between their own kind (unlike walruses, for instance, who cluster close together) but also that this behaviour may “reflect an evolutionary response to viral susceptibility”.

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EU country buys 49 secondhand Leopard tanks for Ukraine, arms dealer says

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Freddy Versluys says he has sold the former Belgium main battle tanks, which could be in combat in six months

Dozens of secondhand Leopard 1 tanks that once belonged to Belgium have been bought by a major European country for the Ukrainian army fighting Russia, according to the arms trader who sold them.

Freddy Versluys, CEO of the private defence company OIP Land Systems, told the Guardian that he sold 49 tanks to another European government, which he could not name due to a confidentiality clause. He said he also could not disclose the price. Versluys added it could be up to six months before they were on the battlefield in Ukraine.

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Storm Hans causes havoc in Norway with heaviest rain in 25 years forecast

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Landslides, a stranded town and two deaths so far reported as extreme weather sweeps across south of the country

A powerful storm has brought destruction to Norway, causing landslides and leaving an entire town stranded, as meteorologists warned of the strongest rainfall in a quarter of a century.

The storm – named Storm Hans – has killed two people, ripped off roofs and caused widespread disruption across northern Europe in a summer that started with wildfires across much of the region.

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Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

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Proceeds from levy on interest rate income will be used to help mortgage holders and cut taxes

Italy has announced a one-off 40% windfall tax on local banks that have been accused of reaping billions in extra profit from rising interest rates.

The Italian government, which approved the surprise tax in a cabinet meeting on Monday night, said it planned to use the proceeds to support mortgage holders and cut taxes, at a time when rising rates have put extra pressure on households.

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French research centre behind controversial Covid paper found to have used questionable ethics processes

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Institution used concerning approval procedures for hundreds of studies, review says

A major French research centre that produced one of the most widely cited and controversial research papers of the Covid-19 pandemic has been found by an international research team to have used questionable and concerning ethics approval processes across hundreds of studies.

The Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, or IHU, is a large clinical research centre in the south of France. It was founded by Prof Didier Raoult, who was also director of the centre until August 2022, when he stood down ahead of the release of findings from a government audit that found the institute conducted trials “likely to constitute offences or serious breaches of health or research regulations”.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv claims to have foiled Russian hacking of armed forces combat system – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here

Suspilne has this news roundup for the morning in Ukraine, gathering together casualty figures from across the country. It reports:

It is now known that nine people were wounded as a result of yesterday’s attack on Kruglyakivka in Kharkiv region, among them two rescuers and two policemen. Two other people died.

In the last 24 hours, Russian troops shelled Kherson oblast 68 times. In Kherson, residential areas and a “point of invincibility” were targeted. One person died, thirteen were injured.

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Small firms fear going bust as Amazon extends wait time for sale proceeds

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Marketplace sellers in UK and rest of Europe say having to wait over a week means they will struggle to pay staff and loans

Amazon has told thousands of marketplace sellers in the UK and continental Europe it will hold on to sale proceeds for more than a week in a move that small businesses say could force them to go bust.

The company has written to sellers to inform them it will no longer credit their accounts as soon as a sale is made online but will do so a week after an item has been delivered.

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Ukraine creates database of art linked to sanctions-hit Russians

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Corruption agency hopes portal will ‘make it difficult for Russian oligarchs to sell such assets’

From Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi to Andy Warhol’s Four Marilyns, it amounts to an art collection that could grace any gallery in the world.

But rather than being the highlights of a blockbuster exhibition at a major gallery, these are just some of the 300, and counting, pieces known to have been recently owned by Russian nationals under western sanctions that have been entered into a searchable database set up by Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).

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Norway to fine Meta $98,500 a day over user privacy breach from 14 August

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Country’s data protection regulator said firm cannot harvest user information such as physical locations for showing targeted ads

Facebook owner Meta Platforms will be fined 1m crowns ($98,500) a day over privacy breaches from 14 August, Norway’s data protection authority told Reuters on Monday, a decision that could have wider European implications.

The regulator, Datatilsynet, had said on 17 July that the company would be fined if it did not address privacy breaches the regulator had identified.

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