Category Archives: Europe

Calls for better care for asylum seekers after rise in diphtheria cases in Europe

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Researchers say improved health screening of people arriving in small boats is needed to prevent outbreaks

Health experts are calling for better care for asylum seekers as research reveals small boat crossings have been linked to a sharp increase in diphtheria cases in the UK and across Europe.

Reception centres in the UK have hit by a series of scandals in recent months, including outbreaks of disease and reports that offers of assistance from public health leaders have been declined by the Home Office.

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Macron stands by divisive remark about US allies ‘not being vassals’

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French president reaffirms Sunday’s call for Europe to act more independently from US over China and Taiwan

Emmanuel Macron has stood by his controversial comments on Taiwan, repeating that being a US ally did not mean being a “vassal”.

At the end of a state visit to the Netherlands during which he has also faced protests over pension reforms at home, Macron appeared to reaffirm the remarks he made in an interview on Sunday, in which he called for Europe to act more independently from the US over Taiwan.

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‘Huge honour’: Ireland breaks out the bunting for Joe Biden

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US president given rapturous welcome despite bad weather as he begins celebration of his Irish heritage

Joe Biden has started a three-day personal and political pilgrimage to the Republic of Ireland, receiving a rapturous welcome despite heavy wind and rain.

The US president flew into Dublin on Wednesday afternoon after concluding a politically charged visit to Northern Ireland. The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, greeted Biden after he descended from Air Force One for an expected three-day celebration of the president’s Irish heritage.

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Emmanuel Macron heckled during state visit to Netherlands

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French president also criticised for saying Europe should act independently from US over Taiwan

Emmanuel Macron was heckled and jeered on a state visit to the Netherlands as he faced pressure over both raising the French pension age and his warning that Europe must not become “vassals” in a US conflict with China over Taiwan.

The French president was due to give a speech on European strategic autonomy when two demonstrators against his pension changes were arrested as they ran towards him on his arrival at the University of Amsterdam.

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UK imposes sanctions on ‘enablers’ accused of helping Russian oligarchs

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‘Financial fixers’ alleged to have helped Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov to hide assets are among those targeted

The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped the Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets.

The sanctions, announced by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as “oligarch enablers”, whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.

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Threefold increase in Mediterranean crossings this year, says EU agency

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Nearly 28,000 people arrived via sea route in first quarter, Frontex says, as UN decries deadliest period since 2017

Three times as many people sought to reach the EU across the Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023 compared with a year before, the bloc’s border agency has said, as the UN’s migration arm decried the deadliest first quarter since 2017.

Overall, the EU agency, Frontex, reported 54,000 irregular crossings into the bloc via all routes in the first quarter of the year, up a fifth from 2022.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: US sanctions over 120 people and entities supporting Russia’s invasion — as it happened

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Latest sanctions target a wide network tied to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov

Associated Press today has a feature on people in Ukraine who are in need of mental health treatment after months of war.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this situation, experts say, and the number of people needing psychological help is only expected to rise as the war continues.

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Tories hail Greek migration policies as an example. Instead, they should serve as a warning

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Experience in eastern Mediterranean proves deterrence and harsh conditions do little to discourage refugees

Prominent Conservatives openly view Greece’s self-described “strict but fair” migration policies as a model to emulate. The former home secretary Priti Patel told MPs last week that “we would not be in this current situation” had she been allowed to replicate “Greek-style reception centres”.

British interest in the Greek model dates back to May 2021, when the former immigration minister Chris Philp made an “urgent” – as internal documents seen by the Guardian called it – trip to Greece. This was followed by an official visit by Patel in August 2021, who toured a newly constructed Greek camp, went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard and spoke of working “closely with Greek partners” on migration.

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Liz Truss to say Macron trip to China was sign of weakness

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Former PM to say in speech that any attempts by western leaders to appease Xi Jinping would be a mistake

Liz Truss will say Emmanuel Macron’s recent trip to China was a “sign of weakness”, after the French president asked Beijing for support in ending the war in Ukraine.

In the latest of a series of foreign policy interventions designed to encourage Rishi Sunak to take a tougher approach towards China, Truss will say in a speech that any attempts by western leaders to appease Xi Jinping would be a mistake.

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Armenian and Azeri soldiers clash near contested Nagorno-Karabakh region

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Rivals have accused each other of initiating fire which killed seven people

South Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of initiating a fatal clash around the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region which killed seven soldiers.

The two neighbours – both formerly part of the Soviet Union – have fought repeatedly over the last 35 years for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but home to a mainly ethnic Armenian population.

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US feared Ukraine could fall ‘well short’ in spring counter-offensive, leaks reveal

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‘Top secret’ document reportedly warned Kyiv faced shortfalls in troops and weaponry and suggested any gains would be modest

US intelligence reportedly warned in February that Ukraine might fail to amass sufficient troops and weaponry for its planned spring counter-offensive, and might fall “well short” of Kyiv’s goals for recapturing territory seized by Russia, according to one of a trove of leaked defence documents.

A document tagged as “top secret” quoted by the Washington Post said that Kyiv was facing significant “force generation and sustainment shortfalls” and was therefore only likely to achieve “modest territorial gains”. The document is a snapshot of the situation in early February, and it is unclear how far Ukraine, with the support of Nato member states, has been able to make up the shortfalls since then.

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Up to 50 UK special forces present in Ukraine this year, US leak suggests

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Documents appear to list number of western special forces personnel in Ukraine in February and March

Leaked US military documents indicate that the UK has deployed as many as 50 special forces to Ukraine.

The documents suggest that more than half of the western special forces personnel present in Ukraine between February and March this year may have been British.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Hungary signs new energy deals with Russia; UN tally of Ukraine civilian deaths approaches 8,500

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This blog is now closed.

The RIA Novosti news agency in Russia reports on its Telegram channel that yesterday an unknown drone fell near Belgorod airport. Citing emergency services, it said “there were no casualties, the fence was slightly damaged”.

The claims have not been independently verified.

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Joe Biden to meet Rishi Sunak before keynote speech at Ulster University

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President expected to emphasise US’s commitment to ensuring peace in Northern Ireland as he begins visit to island of Ireland

Joe Biden will hold a meeting with Rishi Sunak in Belfast on Wednesday before a keynote speech in which he is expected to emphasise the US’s commitment to ensuring lasting peace and prosperity for Northern Ireland.

US officials said the president would be “underscoring the readiness of the United States to support Northern Ireland’s vast economic potential to the benefit of all communities” with the prospect of major investments if power-sharing is restored in Stormont.

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‘The Saint’ leaves Italian town after case opened into statue’s ‘tears of blood’

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Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla investigated after claim blood stains on statue of Virgin Mary come from a pig

A woman nicknamed “the Saint” has mysteriously vanished from a small lakeside town near Rome where pilgrims have flocked for years to pray before a statue of the Virgin Mary that she claimed shed tears of blood.

Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla, originally from Sicily, and her husband reportedly fled Trevignano Romano last week after a private investigator triggered a judicial investigation against her based on his alleged finding that the blood stains on the statue came from a pig.

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Sixth body found in rubble of collapsed building in Marseille

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Rescue workers continue to search smouldering debris for more people after suspected explosion, as manslaughter investigation opened

Rescue workers have recovered a sixth body from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Marseille, as emergency services battled difficult conditions to look for missing people.

More than 24 hours after a suspected explosion at the building, where people had reported a strong smell of gas, dozens of rescue workers and dogs worked among the debris and rubble as a fire still smouldered underneath.

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Latest leak highlights how many have access to US top secret material

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Classified documents revealing Ukraine military troubles and US intel gathering against allies were probably spread through gaming servers

The evidence emerging on the leak of classified US defence documents suggests that it was probably not some dastardly hacking or disinformation plot by Russia or the US, but rather another example of how carelessly Washington handles its secrets.

The least likely version of reality is the one being circulated among Kremlin supporters, that it was a clever piece of CIA distraction ultimately aimed at demoralising Russians by showing how many lives they had lost, and how badly their war was going in Ukraine.

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Defiant Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza likens his case to Stalin’s show trials

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Russian opposition figure facing up to 25 years in jail tells Moscow court he stands by all of his political statements

Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, who faces up to a quarter of a century in jail on treason charges, has told a Moscow court that he stood by all of his political statements and said his prosecution resembled one of Joseph Stalin’s show trials.

Kara-Murza, 41, who holds Russian and British passports, has denied several charges including treason and spreading false information about the Russian army. Prosecutors have requested a 25-year prison sentence.

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Father of woman killed by husband in Greece to look after granddaughter ‘far away’

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David Crouch to raise daughter of murdered Caroline Crouch in the Philippines, where her grandmother has relocated

Almost two years after the 19-year-old British student, Caroline Crouch, was murdered by her husband as she lay asleep in the couple’s Athens maisonette, her father says he will concentrate on raising his granddaughter, “who is now without” either parent.

Speaking publicly for what he said would be the last time, David Crouch, 79, told the Guardian he would leave Greece to look after Caroline’s daughter, Lydia, who is almost three, in the Philippines, “far away” from her mother’s self-confessed killer.

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