Category Archives: Europe

Ukrainians defending Bakhmut under severe pressure from Russian onslaught

Posted on by

Regular army and Wagner units advancing into northern suburbs of north-east Donetsk city, MoD reports

Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut are facing increasingly strong pressure from Russian forces, according to British military intelligence, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city.

Ukraine is reinforcing the area with elite units, while the regular Russian army and forces of the Russian private military Wagner group have made further advances into Bakhmut’s northern suburbs, the UK Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.

Continue reading...

‘Gruyere’ can be used to describe US cheeses, court rules

Posted on by

Decision means word cannot be restricted in US only for kind made originally in France or Switzerland

A US appeals court has ruled that the word “gruyere” is a common label for cheese and cannot be reserved just for the kind made originally in France or Switzerland.

The US does not have the same strict rules as Europe on the designation of origin for foods, said judges in the Richmond, Virginia-based US court of appeals for the fourth circuit.

Continue reading...

Three lifeboats launched after fire breaks out on ferry in Channel

Posted on by

Irish Ferries says all passengers and crew are accounted for after flames discovered in engine room

Three lifeboats and a French salvage tug were launched after a fire broke out on board a ferry in the Channel.

Irish Ferries, which owns the vessel, said all passengers and crew were safe and accounted for after flames were discovered in the engine room of the Isle of Innisfree at about 5:30pm on Friday. The ferry was about halfway across the Channel on a journey from Dover to Calais.

Continue reading...

Models and robots share the runway at Coperni fashion show

Posted on by

Boston Dynamics’ canine automatons steal show in Paris as maison stages modern fable, designers say

Welcome to the age of the super-robot.

With their impossible proportions, thousand-yard stares and supernatural ability to walk in 5in heels, catwalk models often appear a different species to regular humans.

But it was the models, including Kate Moss’s daughter Lila, who played the role of vulnerable, flesh and blood creatures at the Coperni fashion show in Paris, where they shared the stage with five robots.

Coperni partnered with Boston Dynamics for the first fashion show in which robots, rather than models, were the star turn.

As the lights went down, four pairs of green eyes began to flash in the darkness. When the “Spots” – Boston Dynamic’s robot canines, in tarantula stripes of yellow and black – stalked into the room, there was an audible collective intake of breath as each creature seemed to lock eyes with, and approach, an audience member.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden meets Olaf Scholz in effort to keep Ukraine strategies aligned

Posted on by

German chancellor’s working visit to the White House focuses on continuing support for Kyiv

Joe Biden has hailed Olaf Scholz for Germany’s “critical military support” for Ukraine, acknowledging in a White House meeting that, in the face of stiff domestic political resistance, such backing had been “very difficult” for the chancellor.

The meeting of the US and German leaders on Friday comes shortly after the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and at a time when both are facing political challenges to their efforts to maintain the flow of military and economic support to Kyiv.

Continue reading...

Greek train crash: effort to find bodies expected to end as anger grows

Posted on by

Operation to locate missing passengers likely to be concluded three days after crash near Larissa that killed at least 57

Rescuers are expected to wrap up efforts to find the bodies of victims of a head-on collision of two trains in central Greece, as anger grows over the deadly crash.

Three days after the Thessaloniki-bound passenger train slammed into an oncoming freight train outside the town of Tempe, killing at least 57, the operation to locate missing passengers would likely be concluded, officials said.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Biden and Scholz hold talks as Russian forces close in on Bakhmut – as it happened

Posted on by

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, says Russian ‘pincers are getting tighter’ around contested city

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Russia “will not let the west blow up gas pipelines again” and said that Moscow would no longer rely on the west as an energy partner.

Reuters reports Lavrov was speaking at an event in India a day after attending a meeting of G20 foreign ministers.

Continue reading...

Belarus jails Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Ales Bialiatski

Posted on by

Pro-democracy activist sentenced to 10 years as part of Alexander Lukashenko’s purge of opponents

Belarus has sentenced the Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison as part of Alexander Lukashenko’s purge of opponents after the 2020 pro-democracy protests against his rule.

Bialiatski, a pro-democracy activist, is the founder of Viasna, the authoritarian country’s most prominent human rights group. He was detained in July last year and charged with smuggling cash into Belarus to fund his group’s activities, but is widely recognised as being persecuted for his opposition to Lukashenko.

Continue reading...

King Charles to make first state visits to France and Germany

Posted on by

Monarch will become first UK sovereign to address French senate and Bundestag on six-day trip

The king will make his first state visits to France and Germany, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

King Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will travel to Paris and continue to Berlin during a six-day visit which begins on 26 March.

Continue reading...

Sister of Sicilian mafia’s ‘last godfather’ arrested over secret notes

Posted on by

Matteo Messina Denaro’s hand-typed instructions found hidden in sofa at home of his sister Rosalia, say police

The sister of Italy’s recently jailed top mobster, described as “the last godfather of the Sicilian mafia”, has been arrested after police searching her house found pizzini – slips of paper that the boss used to deliver his hand-typed instructions.

According to investigators, Rosalia Messina Denaro, the sister of Matteo Messina Denaro – who was Italy’s most wanted man until his arrest on 16 Janurary – had helped her brother evade capture for 30 years and acted on his behalf as the “cashier” of the “family”, while also running the transmission network of the pizzini, thus enabling the mafia boss to maintain relations with his organisation during his long period as a fugitive.

Continue reading...

ECB looking out for price gouging as fears grow over ‘greedflation’

Posted on by

Concerns that a big driver of price rises may be firms using inflation as excuse to increase profit margins

Fears that Europe’s companies are exploiting high inflation to increase their profit margins have prompted a warning from the European Central Bank that it is closely monitoring potential price gouging of consumers.

Policymakers have repeatedly called for wage restraint but concerns are mounting that a bigger driver of the wave of price rises may be companies using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins, a trend unions have described as “greedflation”.

Continue reading...

Greek train crash: anger grows as officials admit rail network problems

Posted on by

Government says rail projects beset by ‘chronic public sector ills’, as death toll from crash rises to 57

Thousands of Greeks have taken to the streets for a second day of protests as anger mounts over the loss of life in Tuesday night’s head-on train crash.

Braving torrential rain and thunder, demonstrators marched from the office headquarters of Hellenic Train in Athens to the Greek parliament, chanting “this crime will not be forgotten”.

Continue reading...

Sunak’s Brexit deal under pressure after opposition from Boris Johnson and DUP

Posted on by

Negative comments by former PM and senior unionists suggest revised Northern Ireland protocol has not won over key figures

Rishi Sunak’s hopes of ending years of Brexit infighting with a revised deal for Northern Ireland have suffered a double blow as Boris Johnson came out against the plan while pressure mounted within the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to reject it.

In his first public comments since the Windsor framework was unveiled on Monday, Johnson used a speech to a conference in London to say he would find it “very difficult” to back the plan, arguing it would stifle the UK economically.

Continue reading...

Bags containing 2.3 tonnes of cocaine wash up on Normandy coast

Posted on by

Drug with street value of £133m found in two batches of watertight packages

Sealed bags containing a total of 2.3 tonnes of cocaine have washed up on the northern French coast in the past few days, a source with knowledge of the find has said.

The drug was found in two batches of watertight packages on the Normandy coast, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday, the source told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Russia blames ‘terrorists’ after reports of fighting near Ukraine border

Posted on by

Anti-Putin émigré group claims its fighters crossed into Russia after Kyiv dismisses reports as ‘false flag’ attack

The Kremlin has claimed Russia has been attacked by “terrorists” after conflicting reports of firefights emerged from the Bryansk and Kursk regions, which Russian media blamed on Ukrainian “sabotage groups” and Ukrainian sources called a “provocation”.

The reports of fighting in Russia near the Ukrainian border began on Thursday morning. The head of the Bryansk region claimed that a “sabotage group opened fire on a moving automobile. As a result, one resident was killed; a 10-year-old child was injured.”

Continue reading...

Russia accuses west at G20 of blackmail and claims it has China’s support

Posted on by

Stormy meeting in Delhi breaks up without joint statement as west and Moscow spar over Ukraine

Russia has accused the west of blackmail and threats and claimed it had China’s support for its position at a stormy meeting of G20 foreign ministers in India, dominated by the war in Ukraine.

The event broke up with no joint communique, only a summary of the meeting prepared by the host, India, the group’s current chair.

Continue reading...

Blinken tells Lavrov US will support Kyiv for as long as it takes during meeting in margins of G20 summit – as it happened

Posted on by

US secretary of state speaks to Russian foreign minister in what is believed to be their first one-on-one conversation since invasion of Ukraine. This live blog is closed

Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, has tweeted about the overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia, writing:

Zaporizhzhia bravely resists the Russian aggressor. In retaliation, it attacks civilians. A high-rise building was deliberately hit last night. Three floors are completely destroyed. People died. We continue to search under the rubble. My condolences to the victims. We will not forgive this.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.

Continue reading...

Romania PM unveils AI ‘adviser’ to tell him what people think in real time

Posted on by

Nicolae Ciuca says bot named Ion is a world first and that using artificial intelligence is ‘an obligation’ to make better decisions

Romania’s prime minister has presented his “new honorary adviser” – an artificial intelligence assistant named “Ion” that Nicolae Ciuca hailed as the first of its type.

Developed by Romanian researchers, Ion’s main task will be to scan social networks to inform the government “in real time of Romanians’ proposals and wishes”, Ciuca said on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Kherson torture centres were planned by Russian state, say lawyers

Posted on by

Investigators say sites set up during occupation of Ukrainian city were part of ‘calculated plan to terrorise’ locals

Evidence collected from Kherson in southern Ukraine shows Russian torture centres were not “random” but instead planned and directly financed by the Russian state, according to a team of Ukrainian and international lawyers headed by a UK barrister.

The city was under Russian control for eight months, from 2 March last year until Ukrainian forces entered the city on 11 November.

Continue reading...