Category Archives: Europe

Three sections of Roman wall in City of London given protected status

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Remains of once vast riverside structure granted legal protection against unauthorised change

Three sections of a huge but little-known Roman wall, discovered under the City of London, have been given protected status as scheduled national monuments.

The riverside wall was a once vast stone structure that formed part of the defences of Roman London. Built in the third century AD along the Thames, it connected to the city’s landward fortifications, large sections of which still exist.

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Pentagon leaks: we weren’t told about intelligence breach, Zelenskiy says

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Ukraine president says Discord server leaks were ‘not beneficial’ to the reputation of the US but still values Washington’s support for Kyiv

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the White House did not advise him about the leak of highly classified US intelligence documents that received widespread attention around the world last month.

“I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand,” Zelenskiy was quoted as saying in an interview with the Washington Post published on Tuesday.

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French minister’s steamy novel turns up heat on Macron

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Sex scene in Bruno Le Maire’s book provokes ridicule and anger among opposition politicians

An explicit sex scene in a newly published novel by the French economy minister has left the government facing fresh accusations it is not listening to the concerns of the country just as it tries to contain anger over the unpopular rise in the pension age.

The toe-curling sexual descriptions in the novel, Fugue Américaine, written by the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, have angered opposition politicians and inspired anti-government slogans and graffiti at street demonstrations as the government struggles to contain the political crisis over Emmanuel Macron raising the minimum pension age to 64.

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Nothing to see here: Dutch village calls off search for Nazi loot

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Ommeren became hive of activity after Dutch National Archive unveiled map featuring a red ‘X’ in January

A Dutch village that became the focus of a frenzied treasure hunt after a map allegedly showed Nazi loot buried there during the second world war has declared the search over – and said nothing was found.

The small hamlet of Ommeren did conclude that there had indeed been treasure buried there, but that it was removed after the war.

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Russian regions scrap Victory Day parades amid fear of Ukraine strikes

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Governor of region 400 miles from border latest to cancel over ‘safety concerns’ in glaring admission of vulnerability

At least six Russian regions have scrapped 9 May Victory Day parades that mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany amid fears over Ukrainian strikes, with a region 400 miles from the border being the latest to cancel.

The governor of Saratov announced the parade there would not go ahead because of “safety concerns”, adding to a string of cancellations that are a glaring admission of the country’s military vulnerability more than 14 months into the war.

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Ukraine vows not to give up on defending Bakhmut as it prepares for counteroffensive – as it happened

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Commander of Ukraine ground forces underlines importance Kyiv attaches to holding Bakhmut as preparations continue for a counterattack. This live blog is closed

Reuters has a quick snap to say that all parties in the Black Sea grain initiative will meet for talks on Wednesday, according to a senior Ukrainian source.

The deal is, according to Russia’s timetable, due to expire on 18 May. The Kremlin has been lukewarm about the prospect of it being extended, arguing that restrictions on Russia’s banking and insurance sector have damaged the country’s own agricultural exports.

Our state has already proven that it can win. We have proven that we can liberate our land from the occupier. All those who ensure the de-occupation have proven that, together with the blue and yellow flag, normal life returns for every person and every family. Our goal is to return this life to the whole of Ukraine, to all those areas that are still temporarily under occupation.

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Many Europeans want climate action – but less so if it changes their lifestyle, shows poll

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Exclusive: YouGov survey in seven countries tested backing for government and individual action on crisis

Many Europeans are alarmed by the climate crisis and would willingly take personal steps and back government policies to help combat it, a survey suggests – but the more a measure would change their lifestyle, the less they support it.

The seven-country YouGov survey tested backing for state-level climate action, such as banning single-use plastics and scrapping fossil-fuel cars, and individual initiatives including buying only secondhand clothes and giving up meat and dairy products.

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Europe warily eyes security implications of a protracted conflict in Sudan

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Long dispute creates unwanted uncertainties as increased migration and outside actors enter the conflict

Fears remain that Sudan – riven by fighting between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – could plunge into a protracted crisis, prompting a humanitarian disaster with broad geopolitical implications.

A string of failed or divided states already exist on Europe’s peripheries, a crescent of instability that stretches from the African Sahel, Libya, through to Yemen, Syria, and north into Ukraine, three countries where extended wars have been raging.

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‘They don’t know how they are viewed here’: Russians in Georgia revive old tension

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Russians in Tbilisi often arrive unaware of historical sensitivities and simmering hostility

As midnight approached on a recent Saturday evening in Tbilisi, the animated chatter and joyous shouting on the city’s central Rustaveli Avenue was almost all taking place in Russian.

A married couple from Rostov-on-Don headed home from dinner; passing them, a group of friends from St Petersburg were off for a late drink with some acquaintances from Moscow.

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At least 108 police injured and 291 held in May Day protests in cities across France

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Teargas fired amid clashes as unions turn traditional marches into anti-government protest against pension reform

French police fired teargas and clashed with demonstrators in Paris and other cities on Monday after trade unions transformed their traditional Labour Day marches into anti-government demonstrations against the rise in the retirement age.

At least 108 police were wounded and 291 people detained across France as violence erupted in several cities on the sidelines of the main union-led marches, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said. In Paris, 25 police were injured and 111 people were detained. One police officer suffered serious burns to his hands and face after being hit by a petrol bomb, he said.

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Liverpool predicted to get £40m Eurovision boost in visitor spending

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Extra 100,000 visitors expected amid £1bn lift for UK hospitality in May helped by coronation, bank holidays and Eurovision

Liverpool is likely to receive a £40m boost as tens of thousands of Eurovision fans descend on the city to celebrate the annual song contest next week.

Liverpool, which saw off Glasgow to be chosen as host after last year’s winners, Ukraine, were unable to hold the event amid Russia’s invasion, is expecting an influx of visitors.

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Ukraine ammunition depot reportedly hit in wave of Russian missile attacks

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Ukraine intercepts 15 out of 18 missiles as Moscow launches strikes apparently designed to hamper Kyiv’s plans for a counteroffensive

Russian missiles have struck warehouses reportedly storing ammunition at a railway depot in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, in an apparent effort to slow Kyiv’s preparations for its much anticipated counteroffensive expected to start shortly.

Video posted on social media showed secondary detonations amid a significant blaze at the site of the strike, which came amid overnight missile launches against a number of Ukrainian cities by Russian strategic bombers.

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Liverpool plans huge Eurovision sing-along in solidarity with Ukraine

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Project hopes Beatles classic will ‘unite the world’ and show victims of the conflict that they’ll never walk alone

An ambitious campaign to create the world’s biggest sing-along as an expression of solidarity with Ukraine during the Eurovision song contest is gaining momentum.

The #HelpUkraineSong project is aiming to “unite the world through music” by getting as many people as possible to sing the Beatles’ With a Little Help from My Friends at noon on Saturday 13 May.

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‘Vanishing like glaciers’: plunging birthrate threatens Italian schools

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With one of the lowest fertility rates in the EU and fewer women to have children, classrooms are emptying and the future of communities is in doubt

For centuries, the infant school in Champorcher, in the Aosta Valley, has been an integral component of the community, with the sound of children’s voices in the playground providing a beacon of hope for the mountain village’s survival.

In September last year, however, the school fell eerily silent. It was forced to close after just two pupils enrolled.

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Heavy shelling reported in Kharkiv region after overnight attacks in Kherson – as it happened

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Two injured by rocket attacks in Kherson after heavy shelling and homes hit by anti-aircraft missiles in Kharkiv

Shelling through the night in the city of Kherson has injured two people, deputy head of Kherson Oblast Council Yuriy Sobolevsky said this morning.

More than 27 attacks were reported on residential areas of the wider Kherson region on Saturday, according to its authorities, with some 135 shells fired.

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When Russia targets ordinary homes: the attacks that mean no one is safe in Ukraine

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A strike that killed 23 people far from any frontlines has forced residents to understand that one could come anywhere

Huddled under a blanket, Iryna Babii turned away from the empty space where, until Friday, nine floors of apartments had been stacked, one of them home to her daughter’s best friend.

The apartments were obliterated when a Russian missile crashed into this residential block, which sits beside a school in a neighbourhood just near the botanical gardens of Uman, a central Ukrainian city that before the war was known mostly as a Jewish pilgrimage site.

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Field of fresh cow pats welcomes first dung beetles to be rewilded in France

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Sixty of the keystone species released near Bordeaux to feast on waste from wild cattle and help restore a vital habitat on the Atlantic coast

In a forest clearing filled with cowpats, French history is being made: the country’s first translocation of dung beetles in a nature reserve near Bordeaux.

With the same pomp and ceremony afforded to the release of an Iberian lynx or a European bison, about 60 “ball rolling” insects were brought to the marshy forests of Étang de Cousseau in south-west France on Wednesday to restore a vital ecosystem function on the Atlantic coast.

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‘We’ll show just how weak they are’: Ukraine primed for crucial offensive

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With concern among allies seemingly growing, there is a lot riding on an imminent counter-assault on the Russians in the south

The last time “Luh” served in the military, he was a Soviet conscript, sailing the Arctic Ocean with the USSR’s northern fleet over four decades ago.

When Russia seized the Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed proxies moved into his home region of Luhansk nearly a decade ago, he cheered on the Ukrainian army but thought his fighting days were behind him.

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‘The suit burns’: Madrid’s street performers suffer in record Spanish heat

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The country has recorded its hottest, driest April yet. For people working outdoors, it’s no joke

There are many better places to be in Spain than Madrid when recordbreaking temperatures bring summer’s ruthless heat in spring, prompting government health warnings, action plans from regional authorities and the familiar agonising wait for outdoor public pools to open.

There are also many better places to be in Madrid when the mercury nudges 30C (86F) than under a woolly hat inside a furry Sonic the Hedgehog costume in the elegant, shadeless air fryer that is the Spanish capital’s Plaza Mayor.

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