Category Archives: Europe

EU softens China strategy by adopting ‘de-risking’ approach

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Decision agreed quickly at Brussels summit of leaders as bloc highlights vulnerability of supply chains

EU leaders have launched a policy towards China of “de-risking”, a softening of its unofficial “decoupling” approach that reflects concerns over the economic damage of cutting off the world’s second-biggest economy or entering a trade war with it.

The decision was agreed quickly at a summit of leaders in Brussels after the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, went into the summit with consensus among the 27 member states.

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Oligarch hit by Ukrainian sanctions has UK residency and was given ‘golden visa’

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Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian who made a fortune in Russia and is under investigation for fraud, was granted special visa for the rich in 2012

An oligarch who made a fortune in Russia and is under Ukrainian sanctions has UK residency after being granted a special visa for the rich.

Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian national who had sanctions imposed in 2021, is also under criminal investigation for fraud and tax evasion in his home country. But the Guardian has established that Fuks, known as a regular at an exclusive Mayfair restaurant, was granted a so-called golden visa in 2012, followed by indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2017. “It’s effective as of today,” his spokesperson said.

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Low emission zones are improving health, studies show

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Review of research finds particularly clear evidence that LEZs in cities reduce heart and circulatory problems

An increasing number of research studies are showing that low emission zones (LEZs) improve health.

More than 320 zones are operating across the UK, Europe and notably in Tokyo, Japan. These reduce air pollution across an area by curbing the number of highly polluting vehicles, normally older diesels. Schemes, including London’s ultra-low emission zone, can improve air quality. This should lead to improved health, but does this actually happen?

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France police shooting: violence erupts for a third consecutive night

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Police fire teargas at rioters as 6,000 march through Nanterre to protest against shooting of 17-year-old

Violence has erupted for a third consecutive night in France as Emmanuel Macron struggles to contain mounting anger after the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy of north African descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.

The officer concerned was charged with voluntary homicide on Thursday and placed in provisional detention in the capital as an estimated 6,000 people marched through the streets of Nanterre in memory of the teenager, identified as Nahel M.

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EU looks to Egypt partnership to tackle people-smuggling networks

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Leaders already exploring plans with other African nations to tackle root causes of migration-related deaths

The EU may seek a new wide-ranging partnership with Egypt including measures to stem irregular migration and break criminal people-smuggling networks.

EU leaders are already exploring plans beyond a looming €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to other countries in Africa as part of a wider bid to tackle the root causes of migration-related deaths and disappearances.

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Key Madeleine McCann witness says Met police ignored tipoff for nine years

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German man says he first contacted Scotland Yard about suspect Christian Brückner in 2008

The man who tipped off police about Christian Brückner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has said his initial approach to the Metropolitan police in the year after she disappeared was ignored and he was only taken seriously when he contacted them again nine years later.

The German man, identified only as Helge B, said he had approached Scotland Yard in 2008, suspecting Brückner’s involvement in the child’s abduction, but he heard nothing back from them. Publicity around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2017 prompted him to contact them again, after which they acted on his information, he said.

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Tourist from England suspected to have carved name on Colosseum wall

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Male suspect reportedly from Bristol could face a prison term of up to five years for the widely condemned act

Italian police have identified a man from England as the suspected culprit behind an inscription carved into a wall of the Colosseum, after a four-day search.

A young man wearing a blue flowery shirt was filmed by an onlooker using a key to scratch his and his girlfriend’s name into an internal wall of the 2,000-year-old monument last Friday. If convicted, the suspect could face a hefty fine and prison term under Italy’s strict cultural heritage protection laws.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Wagner mercenaries will no longer fight in Ukraine; Putin greets crowds in rare walkabout – as it happened

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Group’s chief refuses to sign contracts with Kremlin, says head of Duma defence committee; Russian president poses for selfies in Dagestan

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the distribution of humanitarian aid in Nevske in the Ukraine-controlled portion of Luhansk has been paused after Russian shelling.

It cites the regional governor Artem Lysohor, who said there were no casualties or injuries, but that due to the deterioration of the security situation, the humanitarian aid would be distributed later.

The rescue operations at the site of the missile strike in Kramatorsk have been completed.

A total of 12 people, including three children, died as a result of the attack. 60 people were injured, including an eight-month-old baby.

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‘There’s so much anger’: France braces for more rioting over police shooting

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Killing of 17-year-old in Nanterre has triggered nights of clashes and politicians fear unrest will spread

Amid the twisted and smouldering carcasses of burned-out cars, the stench of melted tarmac and smoke-blackened buildings, French housing estates were braced for more nights of rioting and soul-searching on fractured race relations and deep distrust of the police.

“There’s so much anger,” said Chakir, a 21-year-old youth worker, who had been awake until 5am on the streets of his housing estate in Roubaix, northern France, where more than 100 young people had lit firework rockets with cigarette lighters and thrown them at lines of riot police. They were protesting after the death of a 17-year-old boy, Nahel, of Algerian background, who was shot dead at close range by police at a traffic stop in Nanterre, west of Paris, on Tuesday.

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Alexis Tsipras steps down as Syriza leader after Greek election rout

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Leftwing opposition leader who was PM during eurozone crisis says party needs ‘profound renewal’

Alexis Tsipras, the former student activist who rose to become Greece’s first radical leftwing prime minister, has resigned as leader of Syriza four days after the party’s crushing defeat in general elections.

Eight years after taking Europe by storm, Tsipras said he was stepping down to make way for a new leader who could oversee Syriza’s “profound renewal”.

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Wagner mutiny has weakened Putin, says Scholz, as Russian president makes rare public visit

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German Chancellor says uprising shows ‘cracks’ in autocracy in Moscow, after Vladimir Putin greeted crowds of fans in unusual tour of southern city

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said the failed Wagner mutiny last weekend has weakened Vladimir Putin’s authority, as the Russian president sought to repair the damage to his standing by meeting military staff at the Kremlin and greeting crowds on a rare public walkabout.

Speaking in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with the ARD broadcaster, Scholz said: “I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts.”

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Ex-Rwandan military policeman found guilty of genocide by Paris court

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Philippe Hategekimana also convicted of crimes against humanity relating to mass killings in 1994

A Paris court has found a former Rwandan military policeman guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1994 slaughter in his home country and sentenced him to life in prison.

The court found Philippe Hategekimana, 66, guilty of nearly all the charges against him.

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Malta to allow abortion but only when woman’s life is at risk

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Watered-down law passed which says three specialists must agree that a termination is necessary

Maltese lawmakers have unanimously approved legislation to ease the strictest abortion laws in the EU, voting to allow terminations – but only in cases where a woman’s life is at risk.

Ahead of the vote on Wednesday, pro-choice campaigners withdrew their support, saying last-minute changes make the legislation “vague, unworkable and even dangerous”.

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Russian general who may have known about Wagner mutiny goes missing

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US intelligence claims Gen Sergei Surovikin, who has close ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin, had prior knowledge of uprising

A Russian general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine has not been seen in public since Saturday, with US intelligence reportedly claiming he had prior knowledge of the uprising led by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Gen Sergei Surovikin is the head of the Russian aerospace forces and formerly Moscow’s supreme commander in Ukraine. Prigozhin had welcomed his appointment to that post in 2022, calling him a “legendary figure” and “born to serve his motherland”.

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French engineer sentenced to life in prison after killing three women over job losses

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Gabriel Fortin, 48, found guilty of murder of two HR directors and a jobcentre worker and attempted murder of a fourth person in 2021 attacks

An unemployed French engineer who shot dead three women whom he blamed for his joblessness was given a life sentence on Wednesday for the murders.

In 2021, Gabriel Fortin, 48, killed two human resources directors and a jobcentre employee, and attempted to kill a company executive following a string of dismissals.

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Climate crisis linked to rising domestic violence in south Asia, study finds

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Increase of 1C in average annual temperature connected to more than 6% rise in physical and sexual domestic violence

As deadly heatwaves sweep through cities in India, China, the US and Europe amid the climate crisis, new research has found that rising temperatures are associated with a substantial rise in domestic violence against women.

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday found a 1C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries.

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Kramatorsk strike death toll rises to 11 – as it happened

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Three children among dead in Russian attack that hit pizza restaurant in eastern Ukraine; US president says ‘hard to tell’ if Putin weakened by Wagner mutiny. This blog is now closed.

Three children were among the dead, with another child wounded, after the Russian strike on a pizzeria in Kramatorsk, according to Ukraine’s regional governor of Donetsk, who warned the figure may still rise.

In a message posted to Telegram, Pavlo Kyrylenko said:

Eight dead and 44 injured - these are the preliminary consequences of yesterday’s attack on Kramatorsk. Three children were among the dead, one child was among the wounded.

The Russians struck with two missiles - one aimed at a private enterprise, the second at a pizzeria.

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Deadly Russian missile strike on busy pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk

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Four children among 10 people killed in rocket attack on packed restaurant in eastern Ukraine city

Four children were among 10 people killed in a devastating Russian rocket attack on a packed pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.

Ukraine’s state emergency service said at least 56 people were injured, some critically, when two Iskander missiles slammed into the cafe in the city centre on Tuesday evening, when it was full of diners. The restaurant is popular with civilians and foreign journalists.

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Ukraine defence minister expects Nato guarantee for after war

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Exclusive: Oleksii Reznikov says entry to alliance non-negotiable and pledges need to be made now

Ukraine’s defence minister has raised the stakes before the next Nato summit, saying he expects a guarantee that his country will be invited to join the military alliance at the conclusion of the war with Russia, describing membership as non-negotiable.

Before the 33rd meeting of the alliance’s leaders taking place in a fortnight in Vilnius, Oleksii Reznikov said Kyiv recognised that accession to Nato was not possible while the conflict continued but insisted hard pledges for the future would need to be made.

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