Category Archives: Europe

Valencia tops surprising poll of travellers’ favourite coastal stays in Europe

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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.

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End justifies means for Biden in sending cluster bombs to Ukraine

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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”.

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Biden says sending cluster bombs to Ukraine was ‘difficult decision’ – as it happened

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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.

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Prigozhin wig pictures appear to be genuine, analysis shows

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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.

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Dutch government falls as coalition partners clash over immigration

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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.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy discusses peace plan, Nato and grain deal with Erdoğan in Turkey – as it happened

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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.

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‘A huge relief’: scientists react to hopes of UK rejoining EU Horizon scheme

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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.

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US expected to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine

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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.

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Russian cruise missile attack on Ukraine city of Lviv kills five

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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.

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Silvio Berlusconi leaves €100m to partner Marta Fascina in his will

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Three-time Italian prime minister leaves overall control of family holding company to two eldest children

The late Silvio Berlusconi left €100m (£85.4m) to his partner, Marta Fascina, in his will and control of the family holding company, Fininvest, to his two eldest children, a source has confirmed.

The three-time Italian prime minister, who died last month and whose empire is estimated to be worth more than €6bn, also left €100m to his brother, Paolo, and €30m to Marcello Dell’Utri, a former senator with his Forza Italia party who served jail time for association with the mafia.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: six die in missile strike on Lviv; US to send cluster munitions to Kyiv

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Cluster munitions banned by most of world under treaty US, Russia and Ukraine did not sign

On his recent visit to the US, Boris Johnson “reminded” Donald Trump he “actually played an important role” in supporting and arming Ukraine against its Russian invaders, the former British prime minister said, adding that British aid to Kyiv was “enabled” by Trump’s example.

Johnson made the claim about the notoriously pro-Russian former president – and brushed off mention of Trump’s impeachment for blocking military aid to Ukraine – in an interview on One Decision, a podcast hosted by Sir Richard Dearlove, a former chief of the British intelligence service MI6, and the journalist Julia Macfarlane.

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Wagner boss Prigozhin has returned to Russia, Lukashenko says

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Belarus president says head of mercenary group behind failed mutiny is in St Petersburg

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who last month brokered a deal to end Wagner’s armed mutiny, has said the head of the mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has returned to Russia.

“As for Prigozhin, he’s in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus,” Lukashenko told reporters. “Where is Prigozhin this morning? Maybe he left for Moscow.”

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Germany did not listen to warnings about Russia, says Annalena Baerbock

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Foreign minister says Ukraine war has changed country’s mindset about ‘chequebook diplomacy’

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed how Germany views security and made Berlin realise it failed to listen to eastern European allies who warned of threats from Moscow, Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, has written in the Guardian.

In a frank admission about the flaws in postwar German foreign policy, she said countries in eastern Europe had been right to warn Germany that hoping for the best in dealing with the threats from an autocratic Russia was not an adequate response. For too long, she said, Germany had resorted to “chequebook diplomacy”, or a belief that political and economic interaction would lead Russia to a democratic path.

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EU sets out first-ever soil law to protect food security and slow global heating

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Proposal to improve soil health throughout continent by 2050 criticised for lack of legally binding targets

The European Commission has proposed the continent’s first soil law, intended to undo some of the damage done by intensive farming and mitigate global heating.

Amid intense opposition to proposed laws on nature restoration and curbs on pesticides, the European Commission put forward proposals in Brussels on Wednesday to revive degraded soils. Research indicates that this could help absorb carbon from the atmosphere and ensure sustainable food production.

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Boris Johnson claims he ‘reminded’ Trump about key role in Ukraine aid

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Former British prime minister says in interview that Trump ‘played an important role’ in arming Ukraine and set an example

On his recent visit to the US, Boris Johnson “reminded” Donald Trump he “actually played an important role” in supporting and arming Ukraine against its Russian invaders, the former British prime minister said, adding that British aid to Kyiv was “enabled” by Trump’s example.

Johnson made the claim about the notoriously pro-Russian former president – and brushed off mention of Trump’s impeachment for blocking military aid to Ukraine – in an interview on One Decision, a podcast hosted by Sir Richard Dearlove, a former chief of the British intelligence service MI6, and the journalist Julia Macfarlane. The episode was released on Thursday.

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Spanish minister proposes €20,000 ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

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Yolanda Díaz says money for study, training or starting a business would ensure ‘equality of opportunity’

Spain’s leftwing labour minister, Yolanda Díaz, has proposed a scheme to tackle social inequality by giving every young person in the country €20,000 (£17,000) to be spent on study, training or setting up a business once they reach the age of 18.

According to Díaz’s Sumar platform, which announced the policy before Spain’s snap general election on 23 July, the initiative would cost €10bn, which would be raised by taxing the rich.

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Macron accused of authoritarianism after threat to cut off social media

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Élysée insists French president not advocating general blackout as ministers say rioters using platforms to organise violence

Emmanuel Macron is facing a backlash after threatening to cut off social media networks as a means of stopping the spread of violence during periods of unrest.

Élysée officials and government ministers responded on Wednesday by insisting the president was not threatening a “general blackout” but instead the “occasional and temporary” suspension of platforms.

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Italian men hid father’s body so they could claim his pension, police believe

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Body of Bruno Delnegro was found in a cave in Abruzzo last year, with three sons and girlfriend of one now under investigation

Italian police believe that the body of man found by walkers in a remote spot in the Abruzzo region a year ago had been left there by his sons who continued to pocket his pension.

The body of Bruno Delnegro, who died of natural causes, was found by two Canadian walkers last July in a cave about 215 miles (350km) from his home in Trani, in the southern Puglia region.

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