Category Archives: Europe

Thousands of hotels in Europe to sue Booking.com over ‘abusive’ practices

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Class action lawsuit argues the online travel platform distorted market with ‘best price’ clauses

Booking.com is facing a class-action lawsuit from more than 10,000 European hotels arguing that the accommodation mega-site used its muscle to distort the market to their detriment over a 20-year period.

The Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes in Europe (Hotrec), which represents the industry within the EU and is bringing the legal action, recently extended to 29 August a deadline for hotel owners to join the suit because of high demand.

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Anniversary of birth of Irish hero Daniel O’Connell rekindles mystery of missing heart

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250th celebrations renew interest in searching for organ that disappeared from college in Rome

On his deathbed Daniel O’Connell, the man known in his time as “the Liberator” of Ireland, made a request: “My body to Ireland, my heart to Rome and my soul to heaven.”

On Wednesday Ireland marked the 250th anniversary of his birth with speeches and pomp and a nagging question: where is the heart?

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‘Unprecedented’ wildfire burns area size of Paris in southern France

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Advancing blaze scorches 16,000 hectares near Spanish border, destroying homes and forcing people to flee

Hundreds of firefighters are battling to stop the spread of a fast-moving wildfire in southern France after one woman died and nine people were injured as the blaze scorched a vast area of the Corbières hills.

The blaze burned an area the size of Paris over one afternoon and night and was still burning on Wednesday evening, making it the second biggest fire in France in 50 years.

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Outrage as Spanish town bans Muslim religious festivals from public spaces

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Conservative People’s party in Jumilla votes to stop civic centres and gyms being used for activities ‘alien to our identity’

A local authority in south-east Spain has banned Muslims from using public facilities such as civic centres and gyms to celebrate the religious festivals Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha.

The ban in Jumilla, in Murcia, is a first in Spain. It was introduced by the conservative People’s party (PP) and passed with the abstention of the far-right Vox party and the opposition of local leftwing parties.

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Shares in European drug companies hit four-month low as Trump tariffs loom

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President repeats threat to bring in levies ‘within next week or so’ in attempt to get companies to move production to US

Shares in European pharmaceutical companies have sunk to a four-month low, after Donald Trump repeated his threats to introduce tariffs on drug imports “within the next week or so”.

Europe’s Stoxx Health Care index slid by 2.8% on Wednesday, falling to its lowest level since mid-April, shortly after the US president’s initial “liberation day” tariff announcements.

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UK to bear transport costs of ‘one in, one out’ asylum seeker deal with France

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Treaty can be ended by either side at a month’s notice and France can refuse returns on certain grounds

The UK will pay the costs of transporting asylum seekers to and from France under Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal with Emmanuel Macron, it has emerged.

The deal will have to be renewed by 11 June next year, and can be ended at a month’s notice by either side, documents made public by the government indicate.

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Ireland calls on Haiti to secure release of group kidnapped from local orphanage

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An Irish missionary and three-year-old child are among eight people taken by gunmen who stormed the place

Ireland’s foreign ministry has called on Haitian authorities to ensure “everything is done” to secure the release of a group of people, including an Irish missionary and a three-year-old child, taken by gunmen who stormed a local orphanage.

Simon Harris, the Irish foreign minister, spoke with his Haitian counterpart overnight, the government said in a statement, during which they agreed to stay in touch on their work to ensure the group is released, including missionary Gena Heraty who oversees the orphanage.

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‘We didn’t vote for ChatGPT’: Swedish PM under fire for using AI in role

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Tech experts criticise Ulf Kristersson as newspaper accuses him of falling for ‘the oligarchs’ AI psychosis’

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has come under fire after admitting that he regularly consults AI tools for a second opinion in his role running the country.

Kristersson, whose Moderate party leads Sweden’s centre-right coalition government, said he used tools including ChatGPT and the French service LeChat. His colleagues also used AI in their daily work, he said.

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Homes of ‘working-class Romans’ discovered during Rome metro dig

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Experts say the relics at Piazza Venezia appear to resemble a multistorey complex of homes and shops

The remains of homes believed to have been lived in by working-class people around the time of the early Roman empire have been found by workers building an underground station in the city’s historic centre.

The relics are the first to emerge from beneath the bustling Piazza Venezia since work began in 2023 on the station that will form part of the Italian capital’s Metro C underground line.

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Shein fined €1m in Italy for misleading environmental claims about products

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Chinese fast fashion retailer penalised month after €40m fine from French regulator in July

The Italian authorities have fined Shein €1m (£870,000) for making “misleading or omissive” environmental claims about its products, the second time in as many months the Chinese fashion retailer has been targeted by European regulators.

Environmental sustainability and social responsibility messages on Shein’s website were in some cases “vague, generic, and/or overly emphatic” and in others were “misleading or omissive”, said Italy’s competition authority, AGCM.

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Pension age debate threatens to splinter Germany’s fragile coalition

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Merz walks fine line as ‘lazy Germans’ debate sparks protest and economy minister calls to raise retirement age to 70

The fact that ageing Germany’s generous pension system is unsustainable is political Berlin’s worst-kept secret, but a controversial call to save it by hiking the retirement age to 70 has sparked howls of protest and threatened to destabilise the fractious government.

The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely sidestepped the ticking timebomb of the greying population since taking office in May, preferring instead to announce sweeteners such as tax breaks for older Germans to continue working past the retirement age.

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UK to start small boats returns to France ‘within days’ after EU gives green light

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Some asylum seekers will be sent back across Channel for first time under treaty agreed with French president

The UK will begin detaining people who arrive on small boats and returning some to France “within days” after the EU gave the green light to a deal agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The treaty between France and the UK will allow the Home Office to return some asylum seekers back across the Channel for the first time in exchange for accepting others directly from France via a safe route.

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Search intensifies for British woman missing from Greek beach

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Coastguard and police continue to scour land and sea for Michele Bourda, who was last seen on a sunbed

A mammoth search-and-rescue operation for a British woman last seen lounging on a sunbed in Greece has intensified days after her “mysterious” disappearance.

The Hellenic coastguard, backed by a flotilla of pleasure craft and fishing boats, has fanned across the waters off Ofrynio beach near the northern town of Kavala, where Michele Bourda, 59, went missing on 1 August.

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Denmark to reportedly remove ‘ugly and pornographic’ mermaid statue

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Danish agency for palaces and culture requests removal of 14-tonne sculpture from Dragør Fort in Copenhagen

A debate has erupted in Denmark over the fate of a mermaid statue that is to be removed from public view after being decried as “ugly and pornographic” and “a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like”.

The Danish agency for palaces and culture is reportedly removing the 4x6 metre Den Store Havfrue (the Big Mermaid) from Dragør Fort, part of Copenhagen’s former sea fortifications, because it does not align with the cultural heritage of the 1910 landmark.

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Rescued British hiker billed €14,225 for ignoring rockslide signs in Dolomites

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Local rescue service chief says two helicopters had to be used after man, 60, ventured on to path closed due to risk

A British hiker has been charged more than €14,000 (£12,000) by the Italian mountain rescue service after ignoring danger warnings in the Dolomites.

The man, aged 60, had to be rescued after venturing to the Ferrata Berti, a rocky mountain path at an altitude of 2,500 metres (8,200ft) in the San Vito di Cadore area of the northern Italian peaks where dozens of paths were closed last week because of the high risk of landslides.

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Suspected gunmen go on trial in Moscow over concert hall terror attack

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Islamic State affiliate group have claimed responsibility, though Russian investigators have sought to blame Ukraine

Nineteen people, among them the four suspected gunmen, went on trial in Moscow on Monday over a concert hall attack that claimed 149 lives, one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern Russia.

Four armed men from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan allegedly stormed the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow on 22 March last year, opening fire and then setting the building alight, injuring hundreds of people.

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Swiss president under fire after Trump call leads to US tariffs shock

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Karin Keller-Sutter accused of mishandling talks as shares dive after Switzerland hit with 39% tariff

The Swiss stock market has plunged, the cabinet has been holding emergency talks and President Karin Keller-Sutter has been accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House after Donald Trump hit the country with a shock 39% export tariff.

Switzerland, home to some of the world’s best-known luxury brands, was left stunned after the US president on Friday imposed one of the highest tariff rates in his global trade reset. Industry associations warned that tens of thousands of jobs were at risk.

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Choir that drowned out Germany’s AfD leader happy to ‘bend the ear’ of country

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Group ‘surprised’ when their song was used to disrupt an interview with Alice Weidel – but now they face a backlash

It was while Alice Weidel was being interviewed on the terrace of a parliament building overlooking the River Spree in Berlin that members of the Corner Chor’s mobile phones began to ping with alerts as their song in protest at her far-right party, Scheiß AfD Jodler (Shit AfD Yodellers), blasted out from a 100,000-watt sound system on the other bank.

“We were hugely surprised and truly happy to hear at that moment that our song was receiving such a public airing,” one choir member told the Guardian.

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Ukrainian attack sparks blaze at Russian oil depot as countries trade strikes

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Video shows black smoke pouring from facility in Sochi, while Russian attack on Mykolaiv wounds seven people

An overnight Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot near the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi ignited a raging fire, as the two countries traded strikes at the end of one of the deadliest weeks in Ukraine in recent months.

More than 120 firefighters worked to put out the blaze, said the regional governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, as emergency officials reported a fuel tank with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres (70,000 cubic feet) had burned before it was extinguished.

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British man dies after falling ill at hair transplant clinic in Turkey

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Former teacher Martyn Latchman, 38, became unwell during the preparatory phase of £1,500 procedure

A British man has died after starting a hair transplant procedure in Istanbul.

Martyn Latchman, 38, from Milton Keynes, who left a 16-year career in teaching last year to become a defence contractor, died last week after becoming unwell during the preparatory phase of the £1,500 procedure.

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