Category Archives: Europe

Denmark election result keeps Social Democrats at the helm

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Mette Frederiksen, the incumbent PM, can form government though may face dilemma over picking leftwingers or moderates as partners

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has won a nail-biting election that gave her left-leaning bloc a one-seat majority in parliament – but her pledge to build a broad left-right coalition may mean she struggles to form a stable government.

Exit polls on Tuesday night had suggested Frederiksen’s five-party “red” bloc would lose its majority in the 179-seat parliament, but as the last votes were counted early on Wednesday it became clear that it had secured 87 seats in mainland Denmark.

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Labour in bid to avert Northern Ireland power cuts as result of Brexit legislation

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Exclusive: Peter Hain to table amendment in House of Lords to protect single energy market

A Labour peer is launching a bid to avert a fresh energy crisis with potential power cuts and drastic electricity price rises in Northern Ireland as a result of proposed Brexit legislation.

The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain will table an amendment to the Northern Ireland protocol bill in the House of Lords on Wednesday to protect the so-called single energy market (SEM), which allows power to be traded with the island of Ireland as one economic unit.

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Germany calls for ‘precautionary pause’ before deep-sea mining industry starts

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Berlin urges International Seabed Authority to prioritise nature as it debates rules and warns seabed mining may ‘destroy ecosystems’

Germany has called for a pause in the controversial deep-sea mining industry, saying not enough is known about the likely impacts of digging up the ocean floor for metals.

While other nations, including Spain and New Zealand, have previously called for a temporary halt to any exploitation of deep-sea metals, Germany, the world’s fourth biggest economy, is the most significant nation to voice its opposition to date. The country holds two of the 22 licences for exploration of the seabed.

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Girl, 4, forced to sail from Tunisia to Sicily on migrant boat without parents

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Girl became separated from parents and disembarked on island of Lampedusa after 26 hours at sea

A four-year-old girl who was separated from her parents as they tried to board a migrant boat from Tunisia to Italy was forced to make the journey across the Mediterranean without them.

The girl, referred to as Linda by Italian authorities, disembarked on the island of Lampedusa on 17 October after 26 hours at sea on a crowded wooden boat carrying a further 70 asylum seekers from Tunisia.

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Denmark election: Social Democrats lead but no majority, exit poll suggests

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Mette Frederiksen’s party predicted to have about 23% of vote, which could make former PM Løkke Rasmussen kingmaker

Prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats have finished first in Denmark’s election, exit polls have suggested, but neither the ruling left or rival right bloc are heading for a majority, setting up her predecessor and his new centrist party as kingmakers.

An exit poll by public broadcaster DR on Tuesday predicted that Frederiksen, who was forced to call the vote when an allied party withdrew support, had led the Social Democrats to a score of about 23%, nearly twice that of the second-placed Liberals.

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Iran plans to send more combat drones to Russian troops, says Ukraine – as it happened

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Discovery of Iranian kamikaze drones last month stirred huge outcry over Iran’s involvement in the conflict

Every day, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) issues an operational briefing. Today, it claims that one person was killed and six people were injured on the Ukrainian territory that it occupies. It also claims that “three civilian infrastructure facilities” were damaged in shelling that affected eight areas it occupies. The claims have not been independently verified. The so-called DPR is one of the areas that the Russian Federation claims to have annexed. Russia, Syria and North Korea were the only UN member states to recognise the DPR as any sort of legitimate authority.

This is Martin Belam taking over the blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours.

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Finland and Sweden call on Hungary and Turkey to ratify Nato applications

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Erdoğan demands action against ‘terrorist’ Kurdish militants as Nordic pair maintain united front

The prime ministers of Finland and Sweden have urged Hungary and Turkey to approve their countries’ applications to join Nato, but Ankara insisted it would not lift its objections without further extraditions of suspects it considers terrorists.

The two Nordic nations applied to join the US-led defence alliance in May, jettisoning decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Giorgia Meloni appoints minister once pictured wearing Nazi armband

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Brothers of Italy politician Galeazzo Bignami says he feels ‘profound shame’ over wearing swastika in 2005

A Brothers of Italy politician who was once photographed wearing a Nazi swastika armband is among the junior ministers appointed in Giorgia Meloni’s government.

Galeazzo Bignami, named undersecretary at the infrastructure ministry, caused controversy after a photograph of him wearing the armband was published by an Italian newspaper in 2016. The photo dated back to his stag party in 2005, and after it initially emerged in the press he shrugged the gesture off as a bit of “lighthearted” fun.

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‘Coldest village in France’ reports rare frost-free October

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Mouthe’s temperate autumn is extra proof of climate crisis, say weather experts

For the first time in 140 years, the village of Mouthe – officially recognised as France’s coldest – reported a frost-free October.

A temperate autumn is additional proof of the reality of the climate crisis, weather experts say.

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Home Office is putting 2.6m EU citizens at risk of removal, court hears

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Implementation of Brexit withdrawal agreement threatens rights of those with ‘pre-settled status’, watchdog argues

The government is putting 2.6 million EU citizens at risk of detention or removal from the country by the Home Office, the high court has heard.

The claim was made at a judicial review of the Home Office’s implementation of the part of the withdrawal agreement guaranteeing the rights of about 6 million EU citizens living in the country before Brexit.

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Ukraine faces ‘winter humanitarian crisis’ with energy grid on the brink

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Exclusive: Energy boss says ‘virtually all’ non-nuclear power stations hit by Russian attacks

Ukraine faces a winter humanitarian crisis unless it can prevent a collapse in its electricity supply caused by the relentless campaign of Russian bombing, the chief executive of the country’s national grid said.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of Ukrenergo, said “virtually all” large non-nuclear power stations in the country had been hit, as well as more than 30% of the network’s routing substations.

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Oligarch renounces Russian citizenship over Ukraine war

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Oleg Tinkov, who has previously spoken out against the conflict, says he ‘won’t be associated with a fascist country’

The billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he has previously criticised.

“I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing innocent people daily,” Tinkov said.

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Russian assault on Ukraine’s power grid is the strategy of nihilism

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His bombs may not break Ukrainian resolve, but Vladimir Putin knows their damage will drive up the west’s costs

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Russia’s cynical decision to target Ukraine’s network of hydroelectric power stations on Monday represents a further, dispiriting, escalation in its efforts to destroy the country’s power supply.

The electricity network is reeling from three weeks of attacks focused on coal- and gas-fired power stations and, above all, the electricity substations that link up different parts of the grid. Power cuts are the new normal as winter looms.

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Putin ‘exacting vengeance’ for his military failures with latest strikes, says UK foreign secretary – as it happened

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UK’s James Cleverly says Russian president taking things out ‘on the poorest people in the world by threatening their food supplies’

US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on a call on Sunday and discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and the threats it poses to global security and economic stability.

Blinken also discussed with his Chinese counterpart on the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage US-China relations, the US department of state said in a statement.

As a result of strikes on critical infrastructure facilities, part of the capital was cut off. There is no water supply in some areas. All services are working. More details – later.”

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US court drops Libor rate-rigging charges against ex-UBS trader

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Judge dismisses case against British former trader Tom Hayes, who was jailed over interest rate scandal

A New York court has dismissed a criminal indictment against Tom Hayes, the British former trader at UBS and Citigroup who served five and a half years in a UK prison for rigging the Libor lending benchmark.

Prosecutors in the US filed a motion to dismiss the case against Hayes and another former UBS trader, Roger Darin.

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Protesters attacked near Iranian embassy in Berlin

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People at pro-democracy vigil were beaten and threatened at gunpoint by unknown assailants, say police

Protesters holding a pro-democracy vigil outside the Iranian embassy in Berlin were beaten and threatened at gunpoint by unknown assailants over the weekend, German police have said.

An officer guarding the building saw three men with face coverings tear down flags and banners reading “Iranians want democracy” and “Women Life Freedom” from a caravan parked in Dahlem district, in the capital, at just after 1am on Sunday morning.

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Russia targets Ukraine energy and water infrastructure in missile attacks

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As winter looms, Moscow escalates missile attacks on vital utilities such as hydro plants, substations and dams

A wave of Russian missiles slammed into hydroelectric plants and other critical energy and water infrastructure across Ukraine on Monday, with explosions reported near the capital, Kyiv, and in at least 10 other regions.

Hydro plants, substations and heat generation facilities were all hit, Ukraine said, while the ministry of defence in Moscow said it had targeted “energy systems” in a devastating morning raid carried out using long-range cruise missiles.

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Northern Ireland power-sharing system not fit for purpose, says Irish PM

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Micheál Martin says electoral system ‘should not be one that constantly reinforces polarisation’

Ireland’s prime minister has said the system of sharing power between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland is no longer fit for purpose and should be reviewed.

Micheál Martin’s remarks come amid claims the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) wants to delay a new Stormont assembly election as long as possible to give talks over the disputed Brexit protocol a chance to take off.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow claims it has identified drones used in Black Sea Fleet attack

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Russia blames Ukraine for attack on Saturday; calls grow for Moscow to rejoin grain deal as US accuses Kremlin of weaponising food

More on the reported Russia-Ukraine exchange of prisoners of war on Saturday: officials in Moscow and Kyiv said both sides had returned about 50 people each.

Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate reported the return of 52 detainees, among them soldiers, sailors, border guards, national guard members and doctors.

We remember all those who are held captive in Russia and on occupied territory and will do everything to ensure that each and every one is returned.

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