Category Archives: Europe

Ukraine may be willing to hold talks on Crimea, suggests Zelenskiy adviser

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Andriy Sybiha expresses Kyiv’s interest in negotiations with Moscow should Ukrainian forces reach region

Ukraine may be willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy has suggested.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Andriy Sybiha, the deputy head of the president’s office, expressed Kyiv’s interest in negotiations should Ukrainian forces reach the region’s administrative border as a result of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive many expect will begin in the coming months.

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Macron urges Xi to bring Russia ‘back to reason’ over Ukraine

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French president makes plea as two leaders hold first of series of high-level meetings in Beijing

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has urged China’s Xi Jinping to bring Russia “back to reason” over the war in Ukraine, as the two held the first of a series of high-level meetings in Beijing.

“The Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to [international] stability,” Macron told Xi, standing alongside the Chinese leader outside the Great Hall of the People before their meeting. “I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table.”

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French unions to hold day of strikes after talks with prime minister fail

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First meeting since pension changes were presented in January was over in an hour, and unions emerged calling for more protests

Hundreds of thousands of people across France are expected to protest on Thursday against Emmanuel Macron’s rise in the minimum pension age from 62 to 64, after talks between trade unions and the prime minister failed to ease tensions.

France will face another day of strikes affecting transport, schools and refineries, amid anger over the government’s use of an executive order to push through the pensions changes without a parliamentary vote last month.

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Benin bronzes made from brass mined in west Germany, study finds

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Metal used for west African artworks was acquired from manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the slave trade

Scientists have discovered that some of the Benin bronzes were made with brass mined thousands of miles away in the German Rhineland.

The Edo people in the Kingdom of Benin, modern Nigeria, created their extraordinary sculptures with melted down brass manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries.

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Klaus Teuber, creator of popular board game Catan, dies aged 70

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Introduced in 1995 and based on a set of hexagonal tiles, game has sold millions of copies and is available in more than 40 languages

Klaus Teuber, the creator of the hugely popular Catan board game, has died after a brief illness, according to a family statement. He was 70.

The board game, originally called The Settlers of Catan when introduced in 1995 and based on a set of hexagonal tiles, has sold tens of millions of copies and is available in more than 40 languages. It has spawned dozens of spinoffs and new editions, including electronic versions, not to mention products related to the game.

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Young migrants take over Paris building in protest at treatment

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Young people had been sleeping rough across city after being rejected as minors by French authorities

More than 180 homeless young migrants have taken over a disused nursery school building in the west of Paris to protest against the inhumane treatment of unaccompanied minors arriving in France from Africa.

Backed by three French charities, the young people who had been sleeping rough across Paris for months arrived overnight at the old school building, which has no running water or electricity, and slept under blankets.

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Zelenskiy welcomed with military honours on visit to Poland

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Trip is first time Ukrainian president and first lady have travelled abroad together since Russia invaded

Military honours, tributes and praise welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, to Poland in a rare wartime foray out of Ukraine for the country’s president.

While Zelenskiy has also travelled to the US, Britain, France and Belgium, the trip to Poland stood out because it was announced in advance and undertaken without the secrecy of past foreign trips.

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Paris prosecutors open criminal inquiry into air quality on Métro

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Operator investigated for possible trickery and causing involuntary injuries over pollution levels within network

Prosecutors in Paris have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that pollution in the capital’s Métro system is putting travellers’ lives at risk.

The operator of the Métro, the RATP, is being investigated for possible trickery and causing involuntary injuries after it was claimed it had deliberately underreported pollution levels and failed to inform passengers about the dangers.

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Russia-Ukraine war: anyone supporting Moscow in conflict is an ‘accomplice’, Macron says during China visit – as it happened

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

You may have noticed on Monday that we are testing a new feature across some of the Guardian’s live blogs, including the Ukraine live blog, which allows you to contact us directly. This is for people who want to message the live blogger directly, and they are not public comments.

If you have something you’ve seen you think we’ve missed, or you have questions or comments about the war or our coverage, or you have spotted one of my regular typos, please do drop me a line.

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Mackerel loses sustainable status as overfishing puts species at risk

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Marine Conservation Society calls for better regulation of how north-east Atlantic mackerel is caught as stocks decline

Mackerel populations are declining because of overfishing and the fish no longer a sustainable food choice, the Marine Conservation Society has said in its new UK guide to sustainable seafood.

North-east Atlantic mackerel has been considered an environmentally-friendly choice for consumers since before 2011, but the species has become increasingly scarce and now experts are calling for more regulation over how its caught.

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Macron arrives in China hoping to talk Xi into changing stance on Ukraine

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French leader sees Beijing as possible ‘gamechanger’ and will also discuss European trade on three-day visit

Emmanuel Macron has arrived in China for a three-day state visit during which he hopes to dissuade Xi Jinping from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while also developing European trade ties with Beijing.

Shortly after arriving in the Chinese capital, Macron said he wanted to push back against the idea that there was an “inescapable spiral of mounting tensions” between China and the west.

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French priest gets death threats after ‘sexy’ pole dance show held in his church

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Baroque music and performing arts group performed Pergolesi’s lyrical sequence Stabat Mater combined with pole and dance acts

A French priest has received death threats after a sold-out pole dance performance that the local paper called “sexy” was held in his church.

Daniel Boessenbacher, the priest at the Protestant Saint-Guillaume church in Strasbourg, eastern France, told AFP he had alerted police to the threats after receiving two anonymous letters.

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Furious Credit Suisse investors say bank’s board should be ‘put behind bars’

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Shareholders lash out during final AGM as boss apologises for crisis that led to takeover of lender by UBS

Furious Credit Suisse investors at its final ever annual meeting blocked executive pay plans and called for board members to be “put behind bars”, as the Swiss lender’s chair said he was “truly sorry” over the bank’s demise.

Shareholders used most of the nearly five-hour annual general meeting in Zurich – the last in the 167-year-old bank’s history – to voice fury over poor management, hitting out at excessive pay for “incompetent and greedy” bankers who they said took too many risks and endangered Switzerland’s economic prosperity.

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Russia-Ukraine war – as it happened: Finland joins Nato in move Moscow says increases risks of wider conflict

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Country joins alliance in move Moscow says is an ‘encroachment on Russia’s security’

Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency has reported that the number of people injured in the St Petersburg cafe explosion that killed the prominent military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky has risen to 40. It quotes a statement from the press service of the Russian health ministry:

According to operational data, as a result of an incident in a cafe in St. Petersburg, 40 people sought medical help, including three minors.

At night, the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine from the south with 17 “Shahed” drones: 14 of them were destroyed by air defence forces. In the Odesa region, a business was hit, there were no casualties.

In the morning, Russian troops shelled Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region. As a result of the impact, an economic building caught fire, the state emergency service reported. On 3 April, one man was injured as a result of shelling in the Chuhuiv district.

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Finland becomes 31st member of Nato in Brussels ceremony

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Formal accession nearly doubles Nato border with Russia as Moscow warns it will boost its defences if necessary

The blue-and-white flag of Finland has been raised alongside those of its western partners outside Nato’s headquarters in Brussels after the Nordic country formally became the 31st member of the transatlantic defensive alliance.

Guests including the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Finnish president, foreign and defence ministers applauded and shouted “bravo” at the ceremony on Tuesday, which marked a historic realignment of Europe’s security landscape.

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Polish farmers threaten to ‘ruin’ Zelenskiy visit amid grain dispute

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Grain producers say they are being undercut by tariff-free imports from Ukraine

Polish farmers are threatening to derail a visit to Warsaw by Volodymyr Zelenskiy over claims that Ukrainian grain is flooding their market, in a move that would provide Russia with valuable evidence of a crack in western solidarity.

Ukraine’s president is scheduled to visit Poland’s capital on Wednesday to express his gratitude for the country’s solidarity over the war with Russia, but Polish grain producers are warning they could take to the streets to “ruin” the occasion.

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Netherlands train crash: one dead and dozens injured after carriages derail

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Authorities say at least 50 passengers were onboard train that crashed into a crane between The Hague and Leiden

A train in the Netherlands rammed into a maintenance crane on the tracks before it derailed and ploughed into a field, killing the crane operator and injuring dozens of passengers.

The maintenance work was planned and standard, but “we have no idea how the crane got on the track which was still open for traffic”, John Voppen, the chief executive of the railway infrastructure company ProRail, said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

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Family of UK woman with Alzheimer’s vow to stop deportation from Sweden

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Swedish police pressing ahead with removal of Kathleen Poole, 74, due to incomplete post-Brexit paperwork

The family of a woman with Alzheimer’s who is threatened with deportation from Sweden have vowed to do anything they can to stop her removal because of a promise they made to their children.

Kathleen Poole, 74, is facing forced removal from Sweden, her home for 18 years, after immigration authorities rejected an application by her family to stay in the country post-Brexit on the grounds her paperwork was incomplete.

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‘Damaged nuclear bomb’ at Dutch base was dummy weapon, Pentagon says

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US defence department releases statement saying object was used in training after photo emerged of military inspection

The Pentagon has said that a picture that featured in a report by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) on Monday about apparent damage to a US nuclear bomb at a Dutch airbase was a dummy weapon used for training emergency response teams.

FAS published a photograph of a B61 bomb being inspected for damage by US soldiers, including two from an explosive ordnance disposal unit, and a civilian. The rear of the bomb appears to have been twisted by an impact and one of the tail fins is missing. There is pink sticky tape covering an apparent hole.

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