Category Archives: Europe

Europe gives Iran deadline to contain nuclear programme or see sanctions reinstated

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UK, France and Germany say without firm commitment from Iran by 29 August they will reapply embargos that were lifted 10 years ago

The EU will start the process of reinstating UN sanctions on Iran from 29 August if Tehran has made no progress by then on containing its nuclear programme, the bloc has announced.

Speaking at a meeting of his EU counterparts, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said: “France and its partners are … justified in reapplying global embargos on arms, banks and nuclear equipment that were lifted 10 years ago. Without a firm, tangible and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so by the end of August at the latest.”

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French PM may scrap two public holidays to reduce country’s crippling debt

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François Bayrou says Easter Monday and VE Day could become normal workdays as critics call plan ‘a direct attack on France’

France’s prime minister, François Bayrou, has proposed scrapping two public holidays as part of radical measures aimed at reducing the country’s ballooning deficit, boosting its economy and preventing it being “crushed” by debt.

Outlining the 2026 budget on Tuesday, Bayrou suggested Easter Monday and 8 May, when France commemorates Victory Day, marking the end of the second world war, although he said he was open to other options.

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Ukraine awaiting details on ‘billions of dollars’ worth of weapons promised by Trump

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US president said to have discussed providing Patriot missiles and long-range Tomahawks but no agreement has been reached

Ukraine is waiting for further details of the “billions of dollars” worth of US military equipment promised by Donald Trump on Monday, amid confusion as to how many Patriot air defence systems will be sent to Kyiv.

At a meeting at the White House with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Monday, Trump said an unnamed country was ready to immediately provide “17 Patriots” as he said a “very big deal” had been agreed for European allies to buy weapons from the United States and then ship them to Ukraine.

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France signals willingness to discuss reparations for colonial massacres in Niger

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Exclusive: French government says it is open to dialogue but does not acknowledge responsibility in letter seen by the Guardian

More than a century after its troops burned villages and looted cultural artefacts in the quest to include Niger in its west African colonial portfolio, France has signalled willingness over possible restitution, but is yet to acknowledge responsibility.

“France remains open to bilateral dialogue with the Nigerien authorities, as well as to any collaboration concerning provenance research or patrimonial cooperation,” the office of France’s permanent representative to the UN wrote in a document seen by the Guardian.

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Europe urged to raise plight of Iran’s political prisoners in any future talks

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Rights activists say Tehran’s crackdown must be on agenda in any talks on future relations between Europe and Iran

Iranian human rights groups are urging MEPs and European governments to escalate the issue of Tehran’s mistreatment of political prisoners, arguing that the crackdown on internal dissent must be on the agenda in any talks about future relations between Europe and Iran.

The Iranian foreign ministry appears to be in no rush to stage further talks with the west without clear US assurances that it will not be attacked again.

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Kyiv hails US weapons deal as Moscow dismisses Trump’s sanctions threat

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US president says he will send Ukraine Patriot anti-aircraft batteries and interceptor missiles paid for by EU allies

Politicians in Kyiv have welcomed Donald Trump’s announcement that billions of dollars worth of US military equipment will be sent to Ukraine, while officials in Moscow dismissed his threat of sanctions against Russia as hot air.

In a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the White House, Trump said the US would send Patriot anti-aircraft batteries and interceptor missiles, paid for by European allies.

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Trump’s hazy Ukraine arms announcement marks a tonal U-turn

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EU will buy some US weapons for Kyiv as president credits Melania Trump for his disenchantment with Putin

For those looking for details, Donald Trump’s rambling half-hour press conference in the Oval Office with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, offered only a handful of clues. The US will sell weapons to Ukraine, the president said, with other Nato countries paying the bill – but otherwise specifics were scant.

No sums of money were mentioned – making it hard to calibrate how much of a difference the proposed weapon supply would make to Kyiv. Details were light on what munitions would be supplied though Trump mentioned complete Patriot missile systems and Rutte added there would be “missiles and ammunition” too.

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Dig begins at site in Ireland believed to hold remains of nearly 800 infants

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Archaeologists, anthropologists and forensic experts aim to identify infants buried at former mother and baby home in Tuam

A century after Irish nuns first began to bury hundreds of infants in what would become a mass, unmarked grave, archaeologists and other specialists will start excavating the site in Tuam, County Galway.

A mechanical digger is to slowly start scraping earth on Monday at the 5,000-sq-metre (53,820 sq ft) site where the Bon Secours order is believed have interred 796 infants who died at the St Mary’s mother and baby home between 1925 and 1961.

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Ukraine secret service says it killed Russian agents suspected of Kyiv assassination

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SBU intelligence agency claims to have ‘liquidated’ members of Russia’s FSB who were suspected of killing Colonel Ivan Voronych last week

Ukrainian intelligence agents killed members of a Russian secret service cell wanted on suspicion of having shot dead a colonel last week, the SBU said.

The SBU intelligence agency said in a statement that the operation had sought the arrest of the agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), who it believes were behind the killing of Colonel Ivan Voronych – also a member of the SBU security service – in Kyiv on Thursday.

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Ukraine must get ready for future in which there is no ceasefire with Russia

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Recognising Putin is not serious about peace is first step towards ‘strategic neutralisation’ proposed by ex-minister

While Donald Trump – and other western leaders – are taking their time to catch up with reality, it is obvious that Vladimir Putin has no apparent desire to halt the war in Ukraine. A realistic future military and diplomatic strategy for Kyiv has to accept that fact – and formulate a new approach.

The past six months have been dominated by the erroneous assumption that it would be possible for Trump to negotiate a ceasefire, even an armistice. That would be followed by the arrival of an Anglo-French led stabilisation force to secure the future of Ukraine. But Putin has shown no desire to stop attacking.

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Macron calls on EU to ‘defend European interests resolutely’ from Trump tariffs

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French president says bloc should be ready for trade war after 30% tariff threat but other EU leaders call for calm

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on the EU to “defend European interests resolutely” after Donald Trump threatened to impose 30% tariffs on nearly all imports from the EU.

It came as the EU moved to de-escalate tensions after the blunt move by Trump on Saturday. The bloc declared a further pause on €21bn of retaliatory tariffs until 1 August, dovetailing with the US president’s new deal deadline.

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‘Now or never’ to save replica of American revolutionary war vessel, say French campaigners

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Fresh plea for funds to repair €26m copy of frigate that carried Louis XVI’s promise of aid in war of independence

French maritime enthusiasts are battling to save a replica of an 18th-century warship that became a symbol of the country’s historic relationship with America.

The copy of L’Hermione, a three-mast, 32-gun frigate that carried the Marquis de Lafayette across the Atlantic to announce France’s support for American independence from Great Britain in the revolutionary war, has been in dry dock at Anglet, near Bayonne, since its oak hull was found to be riddled with fungus four years ago.

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Rosie O’Donnell dismisses Trump’s threat to revoke her US citizenship

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Actor says she is latest in long list of artists, activists and celebrities to be threatened by US president

Rosie O’Donnell has shrugged off a threat from Donald Trump to revoke her US citizenship on the grounds that she is “a threat to humanity”.

The New York-born actor and comedian said on Sunday that she was the latest in a long list of artists, activists and celebrities to be threatened by the US president.

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Several people injured in second night of anti-migrant unrest in Spanish town

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Authorities say at least one person arrested after disorder broke out in Torre Pacheco over attack on pensioner

Several people were hurt in a second night of anti-migrant unrest in the town of Torre Pacheco in south-east Spain after a pensioner was beaten up, authorities said.

Despite a major police presence, groups armed with batons roamed the streets looking for people with foreign origins, the regional newspaper La Opinión de Murcia reported.

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Trump’s 10% tariff on most UK goods ‘here to stay’, says Lord Mandelson

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British ambassador to US believes universal levy unlikely to change but there is ‘scope’ for negotiations in some sectors

The 10% tariffs on most UK goods imported into the US are likely “here to stay”, according to Lord Mandelson.

The British ambassador to the US said the “universal 10% tariff” was unlikely to change but that there was “scope” for negotiations in different sectors and industries, such as technology.

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EU will be reeling over how to tackle trade talks after Trump’s 30% tariff threat

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Bloc had already backtracked from tough talk to seeking a bare bones deal – but US president has turned tables again

Second-guessing Donald Trump is a fool’s errand.

But Saturday’s shock threat to impose tariffs of 30% on the EU is a blow to the bloc’s confidence, which had already secretly capitulated during negotiations with diplomats revealing they had to sacrifice trade for the wider prize of security and defence of the continent.

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Donald Trump announces 30% tariffs on goods from the EU and Mexico

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The president made the announcement on social media, even as the EU was hoping for a trade agreement

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that goods imported from both the European Union and Mexico will face a 30% US tariff rate starting 1 August, in letters posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The tariff assault on the EU came as a shock to European capitals as the European Commission and the US trade representative Jamieson Greer had spent months hammering out a deal they believed was acceptable to both sides.

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EU risks breaking international law over Israel gas deal, say campaigners

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Europe accused of ‘trampling over Palestinian rights’ with deal linked to imports from pipeline running parallel to Gaza coast

The EU is “trampling over Palestinian rights” and risks breaching international law, over an energy deal signed with Israel to bring more gas to Europe, a campaign group has said.

A report by Global Witness shared exclusively with the Guardian concludes that the EU could be “complicit in breaches of international law” over a 2022 energy deal linked to gas imports from a pipeline said to traverse Palestinian waters. The NGO has called on the EU to cancel all gas imports linked to the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline and terminate the 2022 deal, which was also signed with Egypt.

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Sweden set to rent cells in Estonian jails as it runs out of room for its prisoners

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Centre-right government rejects long-established national policies focused on rehabilitation and reintegration

Sweden is moving away from criminal rehabilitation in favour of US-style mass incarceration, experts have said, as the country prepares to rent places in Estonian jails to help house its rapidly expanding prison population.

The move to outsource prison places is one of a slew of policies aimed at transforming the Swedish criminal justice system as the centre-right government struggles to tackle gang violence and prisons warn of overcrowding.

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Risotto rice under threat from flamingoes in north-eastern Italy

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Farmers are seeking ways to fend off birds who are stirring up soil in flooded paddy fields in Ferrara province

An unusual bird is ravaging crops and infuriating farmers in north-eastern Italy: the flamingo.

Flamingos are relatively recent arrivals in the area, and have settled into the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in Ferrara province, between Venice and Ravenna.

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