Russia denies involvement after Copenhagen and Oslo airports forced to close after drone sightings
The Danish prime minister has said the country was subjected to the “most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date” after a drone incursion shut Copenhagen airport for several hours.
Mette Frederiksen said authorities were still investigating who was behind the suspected hybrid attack, but she said she could not rule out Russia.
Continue reading...Mette Frederiksen announces ‘reconciliation fund’ plan on same day decision to remove Greenlandic woman’s baby is reversed
Denmark intends to pay reparations to Greenlandic women who were fitted with contraceptive coils by Danish doctors and to other people in its former colony who were subjected to “systematic discrimination because they are Greenlanders”, the Danish prime minister has said.
In a historic move for relations between Copenhagen and Nuuk, Mette Frederiksen said on Monday she would discuss a planned “reconciliation fund” when she visited Greenland on Wednesday for an event to mark Denmark’s official apology for the IUD (intrauterine device) scandal.
Continue reading...Russia shrugs off criticism as Poland and Estonia speak about incursions at emergency meeting of UN security council
European allies have vowed to shoot down any Russian aircraft violating their airspace after Nato members accused Moscow of repeated incursions into the alliance’s territory in recent weeks.
“If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don’t come here to whine about it,” Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York on Monday that was called to discuss a Russian airspace incursion over Estonia.
Continue reading...Schools and stations closed and ports blocked in one of Europe’s biggest demonstrations opposing Israel’s offensive
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in dozens of cities across Italy – shutting schools, disrupting trains and blocking ports and roads – in one of Europe’s largest nationwide protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The protests came as France and several other countries prepared to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN general assembly on Monday after the UK, Australia, Portugal and Canada did so on Sunday.
Continue reading...Essex-based John Brandler seeking final loan payments as well as three murals from exhibitions company
A bitter row has broken out between a British art dealer and an Italian exhibitions company over three enormous Banksy murals that were loaned three years ago and which the dealer insured for £15m.
John Brandler, an Essex-based specialist in work by the graffiti artist, is pursuing legal action after losing patience with Metamorfosi in Rome, which stages temporary touring exhibitions.
Continue reading...Oscar winner’s comments come days after suspension of Jimmy Kimmel by ABC and Disney, a decision heavily criticised by major stars including Pedro Pascal and Olivia Rodrigo
Angelina Jolie has said “I don’t recognise my country” amid the threats to free speech in the US, saying “anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous”.
At Spain’s San Sebastián film festival on Sunday, the Oscar winning actor was asked by a journalist: “What do you fear as an artist and an American?”
Continue reading...Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane ignored requests to make contact, in latest of what are seen as provocative acts by Kremlin
Two German Eurofighter jets were scrambled on Sunday to intercept a Russian military aircraft above the Baltic Sea, as Estonia said it would call an emergency meeting of the UN security council after Russian planes violated its airspace.
Germany’s air force said the Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane had switched off its transponders and ignored requests to make contact. The Eurofighters took off from the Rostock-Laage airbase to head off the aircraft as it flew in international airspace.
Continue reading...Zaventem asks airlines to cancel half of Monday departures, while most of Heathrow flights expected to operate
Hundreds of thousands of passengers at Heathrow and Berlin airports faced flight delays on Sunday after a cyber-attack hit check-in desk software, while cancellations at Brussels airport suggested that disruption of Europe’s air travel would continue into Monday.
Airlines were forced to revert to slower manual check-ins from Friday night after the attack hit Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in desk technology to various airlines.
Continue reading...Murano resident reported children, aged between 12 and 13, to the police
Italy might be a football-loving country but that did not stop police in Venice from pursuing a group of unlikely targets: 14 children who fell foul for playing the game in a public square, leading to fines presented to their parents, in a move that has sparked a debate about the rights of young people to play outdoors.
The children, aged between 12 and 13, were playing football earlier this month in Pino Signoretto square in Murano, an island of about 4,500 inhabitants in the Venetian lagoon, when a resident, annoyed by the noise they were making, reported them to the police.
Continue reading...LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, who could take €1bn hit, says proposed 2% levy ‘aims to destroy liberal economy’
Europe’s richest man, the luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, has said that a wealth tax that could cost him more than €1bn (£817m) would be deadly for France’s economy.
The French founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton said in a statement to the Sunday Times that calls for a 2% wealth tax on all assets “aims to destroy the liberal economy, the only one that works for the good of all”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Imedi TV owner denies criticism by EU disinformation monitor and says it is editorially independent
On Pont Street in Belgravia in central London, on the first floor of a handsome Edwardian townhouse, sitting above the royal green awning of the Jeroboams wine shop, is an office. There are no obvious signs for it beyond a little note next to the intercom. When buzzed this week, no one appeared at the door.
This is the registered office of Hunnewell Partners, which describes itself as an “entrepreneurial private equity and litigation funding practice”.
Continue reading...Thirty arrests made and two officers injured as teargas and water cannon deployed against violent protesters
Dutch police have used teargas and a water cannon to disperse violent anti-immigration protesters in The Hague on Saturday, a local government spokesperson has said.
Thirty people have been arrested and two police officers were injured. Authorities did not rule out additional arrests in the coming days as they review camera footage.
Continue reading...Attack raises questions over security as Brussels and Berlin airports’ check-in and boarding systems also affected
Flights have been delayed and cancelled at three leading European airports – including London’s largest, Heathrow – after the company behind the software used for check-in and boarding said it was hit by a cyber-attack.
Airports in Brussels and Berlin are also experiencing delays and disruption as a result of the problem affecting Collins Aerospace, which works for several airlines at airports across the world.
Continue reading...Distinctive and critically acclaimed films and drama series from ‘a big hub of talent’ are appealing to audiences around the world
When it comes to film-making, Norway has long been left watching on while its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark put out hit after hit by luminaries such as Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Ruben Östlund.
But after years in the shadows, the country has finally found its place in the international spotlight with a number of distinctive, relationship-centred and critically acclaimed films and television shows in what many are describing as a Norwegian “golden age”.
Continue reading...Trump had refused to grant visas for Palestinian delegation due to attend conference and UN general assembly
The United Nations general assembly has voted to allow the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to address next week’s annual gathering of world leaders next week in New York via video link after Donald Trump said he would not give him a US visa.
The resolution received 145 votes in favour and five votes against, while six countries abstained.
Continue reading...Court fines publisher after Milo Rau falsely claimed that far-right former chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache sang a song ridiculing the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis
A Swiss theatre director known for re-enacting landmark trials has been told by a judge in Vienna that his publisher must withdraw a book in which he alleged that a far-right Austrian politician sang a song mocking the victims of the Holocaust.
On Thursday, Vienna’s regional court fined independent German publishing house Verbrecher Verlag €1,500 (£1,300) for publishing a book in which Milo Rau alleged that Heinz-Christian Strache, the former leader of the Freedom party (FPÖ), once sang a song with the line: “We’ll manage the seventh million”, a reference to the approximately 6 million European Jews murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime.
Continue reading...Portugal has also made extradition request for Diogo Santos Coelho, who is facing cybercrime charges
A high court judge has quashed a Home Office decision that paved the way for a vulnerable autistic man to be extradited to the US on cybercrime charges carrying a possible 52-year sentence.
The UK government has accepted that Diogo Santos Coelho, 25, a Portuguese national, was groomed and exploited online by adults from the age of 14, leading to him setting up the website RaidForums, to which the alleged crimes relate.
Continue reading...Problems have arisen in Dutch capital since introduction of a deposit scheme for small bottles and cans
City leaders in Amsterdam are taking a novel approach to keeping its streets clean – by taking away litter bins to combat rubbish in part blamed on people rifling through them to obtain refund deposits on some discarded items.
There has been a surge in complaints about litter in the Dutch capital since the introduction of a deposit scheme for small bottles and cans. Last year, a quarter of residents described their neighbourhood as dirty or very dirty, rising to two in five in the city centre.
Continue reading...Intervision promises to be lighter on sequins and heavier on patriotic ballads than its European counterpart
Russia is gearing up to revive its Soviet-era alternative to Eurovision – the Intervision song contest – which kicks off in Moscow on Saturday, with performers from 23, mostly allied, countries set to take the stage.
But sequinned bodysuits, camp theatrics and Europop bangers will be in short supply. Instead, the Kremlin’s version of the spectacle promises “traditional values”, patriotic ballads and a Russian entry led by a fiercely pro-war singer, as Moscow attempts to refashion Europe’s glitter-soaked pageant in its own image.
Continue reading...Home Office says man left Heathrow for Paris early on Friday after losing high court attempt to block move
An Eritrean man has been deported to France under the UK government’s “one in, one out” deal with the neighbouring country.
The man – the second to be deported under the agreement – was on a flight that left Heathrow for Paris at 6.15am on Friday, the Home Office confirmed after he lost a high court attempt to block the move.
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