Category Archives: Europe

Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy rules out giving up any territory to Putin in potential peace deal – as it happened

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

A poll has revealed that one year after Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine, 61% of Europeans believe Ukraine will be successful.

PA reports:

One year into the war in Ukraine, 61% of Europeans believe that the country will prevail. Germans, however, are not quite so optimistic, although a 55% majority believes in a Ukrainian victory. These are the findings of the EU-wide survey conducted by eupinions. It is published in cooperation with the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation.

Europeans are not only betting on victory, 68% also see the war of aggression as a matter affecting them all, because it is an attack on the whole of Europe. Most EU citizens polled also see Ukraine in a battle to defend a set of common values that are shared by all European states.

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Wagner mercenary group will ‘decrease’ as prisoner recruitment ends, says boss

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Kremlin is said to be pushing back against private army and curbing influence of Yevgeny Prighozin

The Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has admitted that his mercenary group is facing difficulties in Ukraine and will soon decrease in size, amid growing evidence that his political influence in the Kremlin is waning.

“The number of Wagner units will decrease, and we will also not be able to carry out the scope of tasks that we would like to,” Prigozhin told a group of pro-war bloggers and state journalists gathered at an army barracks in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday.

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French prosecutors close rape investigation into model agency boss

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Case on alleged crimes by Gérald Marie in 1980s and 90s closed due to statute of limitations

French prosecutors have closed an investigation into possible rape and sexual assault by the model agency boss Gérald Marie, who was accused of a string of offences.

The Paris prosecutors’ office concluded that the alleged crimes in the 1980s and 1990s took place too long ago to be prosecuted under French law which sets time limits for offences to be tried in court.

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Ukraine ‘inflicting very serious losses’ on Russian troops in the east, says Ukrainian official – as it happened

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Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar says Russian attacks are constant

Nato countries should spend a minimum of 2% of their GDP on defence, said the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, on Wednesday as Nato defence ministers gathered in Brussels.

“Just spending two percent will not be enough. It must be the basis for everything that follows. The German government is debating that right now and will soon reach an agreement,” Pistorius told the media, Reuters reports.

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Brussels contacts Sweden over plans to deport British woman with Alzheimer’s

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Kathleen Poole, who lives in a care home, faces removal for not having post-Brexit paperwork in order

The European Commission has contacted the Swedish authorities after it emerged they were planning to deport a 74-year-old British woman with severe Alzheimer’s because she did not have her post-Brexit paperwork in order.

At the same time, the office of the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is trying to ascertain the exact circumstances that have led to the removal threat faced by Kathleen Poole, who cannot speak, walk or feed herself and is bedbound in a care home.

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Russian army has lost up to half of key battle tanks, analysts estimate

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Experts say Moscow has large number of cold-war era models in storage so can continue war in Ukraine for some time

Russia’s army is estimated to have lost nearly 40% of its prewar fleet of tanks after nine months of fighting in Ukraine, according to a count by the specialist thinktank the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).

That rises to as much as 50% for some of the key tanks used in combat, forcing Russia to reach into its still sizeable cold war-era stocks. Ukraine’s tank numbers are estimated to have increased because of the number it has captured and supplies of Soviet-era tanks from its western allies.

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European Commission takes Poland to court over ‘legal Polexit’

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‘Bombshell’ step in response to rulings by Polish judges that breach principle of the supremacy of EU law

The European Commission is taking Poland to court over rulings from Polish judges considered by experts as a “legal Polexit” that fundamentally undermine the EU’s legal order.

The decision to refer Poland to the European court of justice on Wednesday – described by one expert as a bombshell – comes as Poland’s rightwing nationalist government battles to secure €35.4bn (£31.4bn) in EU Covid recovery funds that have been frozen over concerns about government-influenced courts.

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Lufthansa IT failure leaves thousands of passengers stranded

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Outage causes flight delays and cancellations after cables damaged during construction work

Thousands of passengers worldwide have been stranded after an IT fault at Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa caused flight delays and disruption at airlines across the group.

The company said the problem was caused by damage to several of Deutsche Telekom’s glass-fibre cables during construction work in Frankfurt. Repairs would take until Wednesday afternoon, Lufthansa said.

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Glencore shareholders to receive almost £6bn after record profits

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Mining and commodities firm’s pre-tax profit climbed 60% to £28.2bn last year, up £10.6bn on 2021

Glencore will give almost £6bn to shareholders after the mining and commodities company reported record pre-tax profits of more than £28bn in 2022, boosted by rocketing oil and coal prices.

The Switzerland-based group, whose market capitalisation makes it one of the largest FTSE 100 companies, announced a payout of £5.9bn ($7.1bn) to shareholders, including dividends and a new £1.2bn share buyback programme.

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Deal on Northern Ireland protocol ‘could be struck next week’

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Negotiations are in crucial final phase with Rishi Sunak preparing to hold calls with EU leaders

Negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol are in the crucial final phase with a deal possible as early as next week, according to multiple sources.

Rishi Sunak is expected to spend the latter half of the parliamentary recess this week looking at the shape of the deal, with calls pencilled in with EU leaders. However, UK sources stressed that talks were at a delicate phase and there was no guarantee of a final agreement.

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World’s oldest European hedgehog discovered in Denmark

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‘Emotional’ posthumous discovery of 16-year-old hedgehog gives conservationists hope for the mammals’ future preservation

A 16-year-old European hedgehog called Thorvald has been crowned the oldest in the world, smashing the previous record by seven years.

The male hedgehog lived near the town of Silkeborg in the centre of Denmark. Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at Oxford University, who led the Danish Hedgehog Project that discovered Thorvald, said she was overwhelmed when she discovered how old he was.

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German ballet director offers no apology over dog faeces incident

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Marco Goecke says he acted in heat of the moment after years of ‘annihilatory' criticism’

An award-winning German ballet company director who smeared his dog’s faeces on the face of a dance critic has failed to apologise, saying he was responding to decades of “annihilatory criticism”.

Marco Goecke admitted in an interview with the broadcaster NDR that his “means of attack” was “certainly not super” but said he had acted on impulse on seeing the journalist, Wiebke Hüster.

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Ukrainians blow up bridge in Bakhmut amid reports Russia closing in

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Kyiv denies retreat imminent as Kremlin throws troops at capturing city before one-year anniversary of war

Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near the eastern city of Bakhmut, in a sign they may be planning to retreat from the area, which would give Russia a significant, symbolic boost ahead of the first anniversary of the war.

Troops blew up the bridge on Monday, according to a local Donetsk region news site. Ukraine denies it intends to leave Bakhmut, despite six months of heavy fighting and reportedly dwindling stockpiles.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin has already lost ‘strategically, operationally and tactically’, says US general – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more about the Russia-Ukraine war here

An air alert has been declared across several southern areas of Ukraine including Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa.

Earlier, Volodymyr Litinov, head of the Beryslav district administration in the Kherson region reported on Telegram that Russian shelling in the previous 24 hours had damaged “the hospital building, residential buildings and farm buildings” in the area, but that “fortunately, there were no civilian casualties.”

This is Martin Belam in London taking over the live blog.

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Ford to cut nearly 4,000 jobs in Europe, including 1,300 in UK

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US carmaker blames losses on rising costs and need to switch to electric vehicle production

The British car industry faces the prospect of further steep job cuts without urgent government support for electric vehicle investment, a union leader has warned, after Ford revealed 1,300 UK redundancies in its internal combustion operations.

The US carmaker said it planned to eliminate 3,800 product development and administration jobs across Europe, citing rising costs and the need to speed up its switch from petrol and diesel engines to electric vehicles.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Nato seeing start of new Russian offensive already, says Stoltenberg

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As it happened: Nato secretary general said Putin sending thousands more troops and accepting big losses to pile pressure on Ukrainians

Reuters reports that an unverified video is being circulated on social media which appears to show the murder with a sledgehammer of a former Russian mercenary who fled the Wagner mercenary group while fighting in Ukraine, in a clip similar to that which showed the killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin in November last year.

In the video published by the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which is linked to Wagner, a man identifies himself as Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44. In the clip the agency reports that facing the camera in a seated position, Yakushchenko appears to recite his name and year of birth.

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Moldova president accuses Russia of plotting to oust pro-EU government

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Maia Sandu says plan revealed by Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been confirmed

Moldova’s president has accused Russia of plotting to overthrow the country’s pro-EU government through violent actions disguised as opposition protest.

Maia Sandu said authorities had confirmed an alleged Russian plot to destabilise her country that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had revealed last week.

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German ballet director ‘smeared dog faeces on critic’s face’ after bad review

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Marco Goecke allegedly confronted Wiebke Hüster at Hanover State Opera, furious at her verdict on a previous show

The director of a leading German ballet company has been suspended from his post and is being investigated by police after allegedly smearing a critic’s face with his dog’s excrement at the premiere of his new show after she described one of his productions as “boring” and “disjointed”.

Marco Goecke, the head of Hanover State Opera’s ballet company, has also been barred from the opera house, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday afternoon, after he confronted Wiebke Hüster, the ballet critic of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), in the interval of his latest show on Sunday night.

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Portugal: Catholic clergy abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, inquiry finds

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Independent commission reaches conclusion after hearing evidence from over 500 survivors last year

Catholic clergy in Portugal have abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, an independent commission said on Monday after hearing hundreds of survivors’ accounts.

Thousands of reports of paedophilia within the church have surfaced around the world, and Pope Francis is under pressure to tackle the scandal.

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Gibraltar’s chief minister threatens top rights lawyers with defamation

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Lawyers call for apology and withdrawal of threats made during inquiry into alleged government corruption

Two leading London-based human rights lawyers have been threatened with defamation proceedings for making submissions on behalf of their client, in a highly unusual development.

The threat was made by lawyers representing the Gibraltar government and senior ministers, including the chief minister, Fabian Picardo, at an inquiry exploring alleged corruption at the top of the British overseas territory’s administration.

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