Category Archives: Europe

British Council staff in Italy to strike over proposed 80% workforce cut

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Soft power institution faces funding crisis linked to Covid-era government loan due to be repaid by September

Staff at the British Council in Italy will go on strike over deep cuts that would slash about 80% of its workforce due to a funding crisis facing the organisation.

Out of 130 of its teaching staff across Rome, Milan and Naples, 108 are being targeted as teaching activities in Italy face the axe. The move would end 80 years of British Council English language teaching in Italy as part of the organisation’s global mission to promote British culture and education across the world, sources said.

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Brexit may be back, but Britain needs to know what it wants

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A decade after the referendum, EU leaders would welcome closer ties – once the UK has understood the ‘European deal’

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Brexit’s back. Well, sort of. If it ever really went away. At any rate, an awful lot of ink has been spilled – in Britain, at least – over last weekend’s remarks by a would-be PM that Brexit was “a catastrophic mistake” and the UK’s future lay “back in the EU”.

That reflects, first, just how deep the wounds of Brexit still run. A decade after the referendum unleashed an identity politics so powerful it still dominates UK debate, Britain’s voters remain divided into the two warring tribes of remain versus leave.

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Lithuanian leaders rushed to bunkers as drone violates country’s airspace

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Vilnius residents urged to take shelter during alert, after Nato and EU warn that Russia is diverting Ukraine’s drones

Lithuania’s president and prime minister were rushed to underground bunkers and residents of the capital, Vilnius, urged to take shelter during a warning issued after a drone violated the country’s airspace.

Air and train traffic in and around the city was suspended after the mobile phone “take shelter” alert, the first issued in an EU and Nato country since the start of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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US doctor who contracted Ebola in DRC flown to Germany for treatment

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Dr Peter Stafford’s wife and four children are also being monitored for symptoms amid Ebola outbreak in Congo

An American doctor who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been flown to Germany for treatment, along with his wife and four children, as the World Health Organization warned of the “scale and speed” of the outbreak.

Authorities have reported at least 134 suspected deaths and more than 500 cases of the hemorrhagic Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatments or vaccines. The outbreak, which has spread into urban areas, has been declared a public health emergency requiring international response.

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Russian jamming blamed after Nato jet downs Ukrainian drone over Estonia

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Officials from Baltic states say Moscow behind latest such incident but also tell Kyiv to be more careful with its routing

A Romanian F-16 Nato jet shot down a drone over Estonia on Tuesday in what appears to be the latest case of Russian electronic jamming diverting long-range Ukrainian drones into the alliance’s territory.

A local resident told the Estonian public broadcaster, ERR, that he had seen two fighter jets – part of a Nato force policing the skies over the Baltic states – flying in the area before a loud bang that brought the drone down. He said the drone had crashed about 30 metres from the nearest residential building.

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Clint Eastwood cannon from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly traced to Spanish museum

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Enthusiasts track down weapon used to fell fleeing Eli Wallach amid preparations for 60th anniversary of film’s release

Six decades after Clint Eastwood nonchalantly used a cigar to light its fuse and fell a fleeing Eli Wallach, the Manchester-made cannon that appeared in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been rediscovered in a museum in south-east Spain.

The artillery piece was tracked down by the Sad Hill Cultural Association, a group of volunteers dedicated to restoring the graveyard near Burgos, northern Spain, built for the climax of Sergio Leone’s seminal spaghetti western.

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Son of Mango fashion chain founder arrested in Spain over father’s death

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Jonathan Andic released on €1m bail after being questioned in connection with death of Isak Andic in 2024

The son of Isak Andic, the founder of the fashion chain Mango, has been released on bail of €1m (£866,000) after being arrested and questioned in connection with his father’s death in Catalonia almost 18 months ago.

Andic died in December 2024 after apparently falling 100 metres down a ravine while hiking in Montserrat, near Barcelona, with his son, Jonathan. His death aged 71 prompted tributes to him from politicians, journalists and the fashion world.

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Belfast harbour operator to invest £1.3bn as NI economy grows

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Port has upgraded offshore wind facilities and is to expand quays, ferry terminals and cruise ship services

The operator of Belfast harbour plans to spend £1.3bn over the next 25 years to take advantage of strong economic growth in Northern Ireland, in what would be one of the largest non-governmental investments in the region’s history.

The Belfast Harbour Commissioners said the money would be spent on upgrading the port, with the possibility of residential property developments that could add another £750m in investment on top.

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Belgian ex-diplomat dies before standing trial over 1961 murder of Congolese leader

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Étienne Davignon, 93, was last living person targeted in investigation into assassination of DRC’s first PM, Patrice Lumumba

A 93-year-old Belgian former diplomat who became the first person to be charged in the murder of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba has died before he could stand trial.

The death of Étienne Davignon, an aristocrat who served as a European commissioner during a decades-long career as one of Belgium’s leading diplomats and industrialists, was confirmed by the Jacques Delors Institute thinktank, where he had served on the board.

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Shakira in line for €55m payout as Spanish court rules tax fines were wrong

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Singer says she has faced ‘years of public shaming’, as court rules tax agency made mistake over her 2011 status

A court in Madrid has ordered Spain’s tax authority to pay Shakira back more than €55m (£48m) after ruling that it had wrongly imposed huge fines on the Colombian singer and philanthropist because it had made mistakes over her tax status.

In a statement released on Monday, the Audiencia Nacional said it had accepted an appeal from Shakira against the fine she was handed five years ago after the Agencia Tributaria claimed she had not paid the necessary tax in Spain in 2011. At that time, the singer was in a relationship with the FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué.

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French star Patrick Bruel denies multiple sexual assault allegations

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Singer and actor who has appeared in more than 40 films faces investigations in France and Belgium

The French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, the subject of multiple rape allegations, protested his innocence on Sunday and said he would not step away from his work.

The Paris prosecutor’s office announced earlier on Sunday that Bruel was the subject of at least four complaints of sexual assault in France, and that the cases would be investigated together.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

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At least four people killed in Russia as Ukraine launches retaliatory strikes

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Wave of almost 600 drones launched across 14 regions, after Moscow’s deadly three-day attack on Ukraine last week

One of Ukraine’s largest ever drone strikes against Russia’s regions, including Moscow, has killed at least four people and wounded a dozen more, the Russian authorities have said.

The wave of almost 600 Ukrainian drones struck overnight across 14 Russian regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula and the Black and Azov seas, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday, with the area around the capital among the worst-hit.

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‘It was like a mosh pit’: Swatch closes stores as watch launch causes crowding and scuffles

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French police fire teargas and UK shops close for safety reasons as hundreds queue for Royal Pop timepieces that make up Audemars Piguet collaboration

The launch of limited-edition Swatch watches descended into chaos in several European cities and New York, with French police firing teargas to restore order at a store near Paris.

Hundreds of people waited through the night from Friday into Saturday – and in some cases for several days – hoping to buy the Royal Pop timepieces, made in collaboration with the luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet.

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Andalucíans vote in election seen as gauge of Spain’s wider political change

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Conservatives expected to keep majority as socialists face drubbing and ballot tests trajectory of far-right Vox party

Voters in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía are casting their ballots in an election that is likely to deliver an absolute majority to the conservative People’s party (PP) and inflict another debilitating defeat on Pedro Sánchez’s embattled socialists in what was previously one of their proudest strongholds.

Sunday’s election in Spain’s most populous region – the last big poll before next year’s general election – will serve as a barometer of wider electoral opinion and could also reveal whether the popularity of the far-right Vox party is beginning to peak.

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Seven people injured after man drives car into pedestrians in northern Italy

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Man in 30s arrested over incident in Modena that left two seriously hurt

Eight people were injured, two seriously, on Saturday after a car rammed into a group of pedestrians in the northern Italian city of Modena.

Police said the driver, in his 30s, had been arrested. He is also alleged to have attempted to stab a passerby who had tried to stop him from fleeing the scene.

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Timmy the whale confirmed dead by Danish authorities

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Humpback had been found deceased on Friday after rescue attempt criticised as ‘pure animal cruelty’

Timmy the whale has been confirmed dead by Danish authorities two weeks after the beached humpback was transported to the North Sea in a rescue attempt criticised as “pure animal cruelty”.

Denmark’s Environmental Protection Agency said a whale had been found dead on Friday near ​the small ⁠island of Anholt in the Kattegat, a broad strait between Denmark and Sweden, and confirmed it was Timmy on Saturday.

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Arrest of Iraqi terror suspect with alleged links to Iran’s Quds Force is astonishing but not surprising

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Iran has a long history of unconventional operations, all designed to divert, distract and destabilise current or potential enemies

The arrest by US authorities of an alleged Iraqi commander of an Iranian-backed militia group now accused of responsibility for 18 terrorist attacks in the UK, Europe and Canada since the beginning of the Iran war is an astonishing development – yet not the least bit surprising.

According to a complaint unsealed on Friday in a federal court in Manhattan, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi is allegedly responsible for organising – among other operations – a string of recent firebombings of banks and other targets in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, an arson attack against a synagogue and a shooting at the US consulate in Toronto in March, as well as – most recently – a wave of attacks on mainly Jewish targets in the UK including places of worship and charities.

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Maldives diver dies in operation to recover bodies of Italians from cave

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Mohamed Mahudhee suffered decompression sickness after searching for scuba divers in Vaavu Atoll and died in hospital

A Maldivian military diver has died during a high-risk operation to recover the bodies of four of the Italian scuba divers who drowned while exploring a deep underwater cave in the Maldives.

The diver suffered underwater decompression sickness after searching for the bodies of the Italians who, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, had “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft)”.

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Down and then out in Paris and London? Why Starmer isn’t the only one with a popularity problem

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As continent faces tough headwinds, leaders are bearing brunt of delivering bad news to frustrated electorates

“People hate you,” the adviser informed his leader. A think-piece in a daily newspaper noted that “almost everyone agrees on one thing: they don’t like him”.

The recent disastrous set of local election results in the UK built on Keir Starmer’s longstanding reputational problem: only 11% of Britons believe he has been a good or great prime minister, and nearly 60% believe he has been poor or terrible, according to polling by YouGov.

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UK joins European deal to send rejected asylum seekers to third-country hubs

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All 46 Council of Europe members sign agreement ‘deplored’ by human rights organisations

The UK and 45 other European countries have signed an agreement that explicitly endorses plans to send unwanted asylum seekers to third country hubs.

A political declaration from the 46 members of the Council of Europe, the body that oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR), said states had an “undeniable sovereign right” to control their borders.

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