Category Archives: Europe

Greece to launch parliamentary inquiry into spy scandal

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Move follows revelations that opposition leader was placed under surveillance while serving as MEP

Greece is to launch a parliamentary inquiry into a spy scandal embroiling the government as MEPs also step up calls for an investigation into the use of phone taps in the country.

An inquiry proposed by the centre-left Pasok party was backed by the entire political opposition late on Monday after revelations that the group’s leader, Nikos Androulakis, had been placed under surveillance while serving as an MEP.

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Dutch defence minister concerned at US gun violence after soldier’s death

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‘We don’t expect this,’ says Kajsa Ollongren of shooting that left two other Dutch commandos wounded

The Dutch defence minister has expressed concern at gun violence in the US after a shooting in Indianapolis over the weekend that left one Dutch soldier dead and two wounded.

“We do many trainings of our servicemen in the United States, and we really don’t expect this to happen. So it’s very, very concerning for us,” Kajsa Ollongren said at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Prague on Tuesday.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukrainian troops begin counter-offensive in south, says military command – as it happened

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Southern command spokesperson says Ukrainian troops have begun long-awaited counter-offensive in Kherson region. This blog is now closed

‘There were a lot of mines around [the pitch]’, says the former captain of Obolon Kyiv’s second team. ‘Even now we are still afraid to kick the ball over the fence.’

Kostja Kovalenko describes the reality of life at the team’s training ground before their first match in Ukraine’s second tier, as the Guardian visits the outskirts of Bucha, a war-torn suburb of the capital.

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European gas shortages likely to last several winters, says Shell chief

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Warning raises prospect of continued rationing, as Total boss says Europe has to plan for future without Russian supplies

Gas shortages across Europe are likely to last for several winters to come, the chief executive of Shell has said, raising the prospect of continued energy rationing as governments across the continent push to develop alternative supplies.

Cuts to the supply of Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine have plunged European countries into a devastating energy crisis, driving up wholesale prices to leave consumers facing huge bills and the highest rates of inflation since the 1980s.

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No let-up in shelling as UN team heads for Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

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Watchdog due to arrive in Kyiv as frequent attacks on Russian-occupied power station raise fears mission may be called off

A team of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog is due to arrive in Kyiv on Monday night en route to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power in southern Ukraine, where renewed shelling has cast a shadow over their planned visit.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Rafael Grossi, said on Monday morning that a team led by him had set off to visit the power station on the Dnieper River. “We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Grossi tweeted.

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French tax officials use AI to spot 20,000 undeclared pools

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Scheme to be extended across the country after trial in nine departments led to extra €10m in tax receipts

French tax authorities using AI software have found thousands of undeclared private swimming pools, landing the owners with bills totalling about €10m.

The system, developed by Google and Capgemini, can identify pools on aerial images and cross-checks them with land registry databases. Launched as an experiment a year ago in nine French departments, it has uncovered 20,356 pools, the tax office said on Monday, and will be extended across the country.

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Russia alleges second Ukrainian involved in Darya Dugina killing

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Security service claims without evidence that man helped assemble car bomb that exploded near Moscow

Russia’s FSB security service has accused without evidence a second Ukrainian citizen of preparing the car bomb that killed the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue this month.

The FSB had previously claimed Ukrainian intelligence plotted the murder of Darya Dugina, a pro-war pundit who was killed when a bomb tore through the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving near Moscow after a conservative festival.

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Dutch soldier dies of injuries after shooting in Indianapolis

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Commando Simmie Poetsema was one of three soldiers wounded in incident outside hotel in US city

One of three Dutch soldiers wounded in a shooting outside a hotel in Indianapolis over the weekend has died, according to US and Dutch authorities.

The commando died of his injuries on Sunday night surrounded by family and colleagues, the Dutch defence ministry said on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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D-day tribute or theme park? Battle rages over Normandy plan

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Critics say €90m project would reduce allied landing to a money-spinning tourist attraction

A row has erupted in France over plans for a new D-day attraction near the landing beaches, which critics have likened to a Disney-style theme park.

The multimillion-euro project to retell the story of le débarquement of 6 June 1944 and the subsequent Battle of Normandy in a hi-tech 45-minute “immersive show” has sparked a furious war of words, with opponents describing it as disrespectful to those who died and their families.

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Irish farmers say they will be forced to cull cows to meet climate targets

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Government plan to cut agriculture emissions by 25% by 2030 will drive many farms into bankruptcy, say critics

Donald Scully gazes at his herd of 208 cows munching grass and clover in a verdant field, as a light breeze ruffles the stillness.

“There is an enjoyment for me to come out and look and see how healthy and happy these cows are,” says Scully, 47, a third-generation dairy farmer. “Every single cow has her own personality, they’re all individuals.”

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Better late than never: Gibraltar ‘becomes’ city after 180-year delay

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Research to update record of cities in UK and overseas territories reveals Gibraltar was awarded status in 1842 but omitted from list

Residents of Gibraltar smarting at missing out on gaining city status in a recent competition have been handed an unexpected surprise: it has been one for the last 180 years.

Gibraltar was among 39 places across the UK and British overseas territories vying to win city status as part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations in a competition last year, up against sites ranging from Alcester to Wrexham, via the Cayman Islands.

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Reports EU set to suspend visa travel agreement with Russia – as it happened

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Plan to freeze 2007 deal will make it harder and more expensive for Russians to get Schengen-area documents, FT reports

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree allowing Ukrainian passport holders who have entered Russia since Moscow’s offensive to live and work in the country indefinitely.

Until now, Ukrainians could stay in Russia only for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. To stay longer or to work, special authorisation or a work permit was required.

In mid-August, we closed our offices and ceased all Russian operations.

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EU foreign ministers expected to suspend Russian tourist visa facilitation

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Move comes as EU official says it is ‘inappropriate for Russian tourists to stroll in our cities’

The EU’s foreign ministers are expected to approve suspending the bloc’s visa facilitation agreement with Moscow next week, as Russian rocket and artillery strikes hit areas across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

The EU move, aimed at reducing the number of visas issued to Russian nationals after pressure from eastern member states, falls short of an outright ban but would make getting travel documents significantly more complicated and expensive.

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Leïla Slimani: ‘Attack on Salman Rushdie shows why we must not censor ourselves’

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The bestselling author fears she too could be a target but says terrorists cannot be allowed to win

The bestselling author Leïla Slimani says the knife attack on Salman Rushdie has left her and other writers afraid, but that they have a “duty” to keep making public appearances and resist censoring themselves, despite the dangers.

The French-Moroccan writer, whose novels include Adèle, Lullaby and The Country of Others and is Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of French language and culture, said defending her freedom as a writer “feels even more important than before” and was an act of resistance.

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Greek ‘Watergate’ phone-tapping scandal puts added pressure on PM

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Embattled leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is facing calls to resign after state intelligence monitored opposition party

For much of last week thunderstorms and torrential rain swept Athens, marking a dramatic end to a summer otherwise electrified by talk of spyware, cyber-mercenaries, espionage and eavesdropping.

As the sun re-emerged on Friday, it was to a highly charged mood as Greece’s prematurely reconvened parliament debated a phone-tapping scandal whose exposure of practices last associated with military rule has shocked the nation and been met with stunned disbelief at the heart of the EU.

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Ukraine braces for cold winter amid uncertainty over power supplies

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Fears grow Russia will target country’s gas infrastructure or further cut its supplies to Europe

Ukrainians are likely to experience the coldest winter in decades, its gas chief has said, as the thermostats on its Soviet-era centralised heating systems are set to be switched on later and turned down.

Yurii Vitrenko, the head of the state gas company Naftogaz, said indoor temperatures would be set at between 17 and 18C, about four degrees lower than normal, and he advised people to stock up on blankets and warm clothes for when outdoor temperatures fall to and beyond the -10C winter average.

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Death toll rises after lorry rolls into street party in Netherlands

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Many others injured as police say they are trying to determine why vehicle careered down dyke

The death toll from an accident when a lorry drove off a dyke and into a barbecue party in a village south of Rotterdam has risen to six, with a further seven people in hospital, including one in critical condition.

Police said the lorry driver, a 46-year-old Spanish man, was suspected of causing the crash, which happened early on Saturday evening in the village of Nieuw-Beijerland.

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Serbia and Kosovo reach free movement agreement

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Serbia to abolish entry-exit document for Kosovo ID holders and Kosovo agrees not to introduce them

Serbia and Kosovo have agreed on an arrangement for free movement between their countries, the EU’s foreign policy chief announced Saturday.

Serbia agreed to abolish its entry-exit document for Kosovo ID holders, and Kosovo agreed to not introduce them for Serbian ID holders, said Josep Borrell.

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Toxins in soil, blasted forests – Ukraine counts cost of Putin’s ‘ecocide’

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Environmentalists are measuring the impact of Russian military’s devastation and hope to force Moscow into making reparations

The woods outside Chernihiv were quiet in late August when Anatoliy Pavelko scrambled into a 10-metre bomb crater with a trowel and an icebox full of sample jars. He wanted to find out what the Russian FAB-250 bomb left behind when it carved this gaping hole into the ground in the spring.

Four months earlier, the environmental lawyer was dug in on a frontline just a few kilometres away, shells crashing around him in the bitter fight to keep Russian forces out of Kyiv.

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