Thieves believed to have escaped into sewers after holding staff and customers in Crédit Agricole branch for two hours
Armed robbers held 25 people hostage at a bank in Naples for two hours on Thursday, before fleeing through a tunnel.
The three thieves entered a branch of Crédit Agricole in the southern Italian city at about 11.30am, taking hostage staff and customers, who were freed by police a couple of hours later.
Continue reading...Individuals such as Matt Goodwin and Lord Frost benefited from largesse of self-styled ‘illiberal democracy’
The last 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s rule have been kind to a number of British political figures – from the Tory peer David Frost to Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin and James Orr.
All benefited from largesse extended by the self-styled “illiberal democracy” established by the Hungarian leader’s ruling Fidesz party, which took a particular liking for those on the harder right of British conservatism.
Continue reading...Critics say efforts to rescue the animal, nicknamed Timmy, unlikely to succeed and could lead to further harm
A last-ditch effort to rescue a wayward whale that has transfixed Germans for weeks has begun in the Baltic Sea despite criticism it has little chance of success and could further harm the 12-tonne creature.
The male humpback whale was first spotted last month near Timmendorfer Strand on the northern coast of Germany, giving rise to its nickname Timmy. It has repeatedly become stranded and then freed itself after human assistance but it is now stranded again, with rescuers saying it is fighting a losing battle for its life.
Continue reading...More than 100 injured across country after Russia launches nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles
Russia has carried out its deadliest attack against Ukraine this year, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 100 in a wave of drone and missile strikes across the country.
Nine people died in the southern port city of Odesa and four were killed in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old boy. There were three fatalities in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Another person died in Zaporizhzhia oblast.
Continue reading...Agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on 1 April after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHS
The French government is pressing the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release the 86-year-old French widow of a military veteran from immigration custody after she was detained earlier this month.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on 1 April after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHS. Ross is now being held at a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Continue reading...Lelia Doolan, who finished 220km trek at parliament gates, says use of Shannon airport violates Irish neutrality
A 91-year-old peace activist has crossed Ireland on foot and arrived in Dublin to petition the government to bar US military flights.
Lelia Doolan completed a two-week, 220km (138 mile) trek on Wednesday, ending at the gates of parliament accompanied by throngs of supporters.
Continue reading...Deal will create pensions and savings group with 16m customers and £480bn of assets, while Aegon focuses on US
The Dutch financial services group Aegon has struck a £2bn deal to sell off its almost 200-year-old UK arm to Standard Life, as part of a US push in which the group will be rebranded as Transamerica.
Standard Life, previously known as Phoenix Group, said the deal to buy Aegon UK would create a pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets under administration.
Continue reading...Ari Hodara bought his ticket at the weekend after finding out about the raffle by chance while dining out
A Parisian art enthusiast could not believe his luck when he found out on Tuesday he had won a Pablo Picasso painting worth more than €1m with a €100 raffle ticket.
“How do I check that it’s not a hoax?” said Ari Hodara, 58, after organisers called him following the draw at Christie’s auction house in the French capital.
Continue reading...Interior minister is ‘highly determined’ to block US rapper from performing in the southern city in June due to his past antisemitic remarks, sources say
Kanye West has announced he will postpone an upcoming concert in France, just after reports emerged that France’s interior minister is seeking to block the US rapper from performing due to his antisemitic remarks.
“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” the rapper, legally known as Ye, wrote on X.
Continue reading...French child, six at time of 2019 attack, suffers setback in recovery after January operation
The family of a boy thrown from the 10th-storey balcony of the Tate Modern seven years ago said it feels as though his recovery has taken a “sad step backwards” after surgery.
The unnamed French child was six when he was seriously hurt in an attack by Jonty Bravery at the London attraction in August 2019.
Continue reading...Remarks come as Italian PM suspends defence agreement with Israel amid growing domestic pressure over conflict
Donald Trump lashed out at one of his closest allies on Tuesday, saying Italy’s Giorgia Meloni lacked courage in light of her failure to join the US in attacking Iran.
“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” the US president said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Continue reading...Ron Prosor says verbal attack on Friedrich Merz referencing Nazi regime ‘erodes the memory of the Holocaust’
Israel’s envoy to Germany has criticised a far-right Israeli cabinet member who made historically charged accusations against the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, saying the attack “[eroded] the memory of the Holocaust”.
In a rare rebuke of a top Israeli official by an active ambassador, Ron Prosor said he wished to “unequivocally condemn” Bezalel Smotrich’s tirade against Merz, in which he made reference to the Nazi regime and said: “You will not force us into ghettos again.”
Continue reading...Regime hopes to capitalise on deepening transatlantic split by briefing previously sidelined European countries
In a move designed to increase pressure on the US to make compromises in its conflict with his country, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi has been briefing European capitals on the nature of the offer Iran had been willing to make about its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and future stewardship of the strait of Hormuz during the weekend talks in Islamabad.
After the inconclusive talks, Araghchi held phone briefings with the French and German foreign ministers, Jean-Noël Barrot and Johann Wadephul, as well as the Saudi, Omani and Qatari foreign ministers.
Continue reading...Péter Magyar would ‘talk to Russian president, but won’t initiate contact’; Ukraine welcomes defeat of Orbán. What we know on day 1,511
Péter Magyar, Hungary’s new leader, said he would ask Vladimir Putin to end the killing in Ukraine if they speak, and plans to review Hungary’s Russian energy contracts and renegotiate them if needed. Magyar said he would talk to the Russian president, but won’t initiate contact. “If Vladimir Putin calls, I’ll pick up the phone,” he said in his first news conference after his landslide win against Viktor Orbán, a Putin ally. “If we did talk, I could tell him that it would be nice to end the killing after four years and end the war. It would probably be a short phone conversation and I don’t think he would end the war on my advice,” he said.
Ukraine welcomed with relief on Monday the defeat of Orbán, its harshest critic in the EU, an outcome that paves the way for a €90bn ($105bn) loan that Kyiv urgently needs to fund the war with Russia.
Higher oil prices caused by the war in the Middle East could raise inflation rates in Ukraine by 1.5 to 2.8 percentage points, Ukraine’s top central banker said on Monday. The National Bank of Ukraine governor, Andriy Pyshnyi, said the central bank would stick to its target of lowering inflation to 5% in three years, using all available tools to ensure that goal was met. “We’re trying to walk on a razorblade,” Pyshnyi said through an interpreter, noting prices have already started to rise.
The Ukrainian military struck a Russian chemicals plant in Cherepovets in the Vologda region, Kyiv’s drone forces commander said on Monday. The plant produces chemicals that serve as raw materials for TNT, hexogen and components for munitions, Robert Brovdi said on Telegram.
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be permitted to compete in World Aquatics events with their respective uniforms, flags and anthems, the sport’s governing body said on Monday. Competitors from both countries were banned from international sports events after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which was launched in part from Belarusian territory.
Continue reading...Iran warns Americans they face higher pump prices due to prohibition imposed on Monday evening
The US blockade of ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf has come into effect, turning the six-week-old conflict between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran into a test of economic endurance.
US Central Command (Centcom) made no formal announcement of the start of the blockade but had said it begin on Monday at 5.30pm Iranian time and would apply to any ships entering or departing Iranian ports or coastal areas, while ships using non-Iranian ports would not be impeded.
Continue reading...Orbán is out in Hungary and talks have failed to end the war in Iran – ill-fated road trip has been setback for Maga aims
Shortly before JD Vance’s ill-fated week crisscrossing the world, Donald Trump asked him during a private Easter brunch about how the Iran negotiations were shaping up. “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance,” Trump said to laughs in the room. “If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”
The joke at Vance’s expense contained an unfortunate nugget of truth: this is not an administration that rewards failure.
Continue reading...Stunning loss of rightwing populist in Hungary carries symbolic significance for opponents of Donald Trump
For US Democrats seeking rays of light in the dark landscape of Donald Trump’s authoritarian onslaught, illumination has arrived from the unlikely source of Budapest.
Viktor Orbán’s stunning defeat in Hungary’s general election – ending 16 years of unbroken rule for his governing Fidesz party – carries symbolic and psychological significance for American politics out of all proportion to the central European country’s modest size and distance from the US.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Orbán concedes defeat after 16 years in power, ushering in a new era for Hungary’s relations with the EU, US and Russia
Good morning. The people of Hungary are waking up in an unfamiliar political landscape – one in which Viktor Orbán, who has served as prime minister since 2010, is stepping aside after defeat to Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party has won an election likely to reshape the country’s ties with the EU, the US and Russia.
Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orbán conceded defeat after what he described as a “painful but unambiguous” result. Magyar, who has pledged to repair Hungary’s strained relationship with the EU, crack down on corruption and channel funds towards long-neglected public services, said Tisza voters had rewritten Hungarian history and that “truth prevailed over lies”.
Middle East | Donald Trump has said the US will begin blockading the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to take control of the strategic waterway from Iran in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations.
Carers | Thousands of unpaid carers will continue to be hit with hefty and potentially unfair benefit repayment demands, as a government initiative gets under way to fix welfare injustices that have drawn comparison to the Post Office scandal
UK news | The Home Office is to announce the closure of 11 asylum hotels this week as part of its pledge to close all such facilities by the end of this parliament.
Ireland | Police have cleared a blockade of central Dublin by farmers and hauliers who were protesting about fuel prices, signalling a possible end to six days of protests that have rocked Ireland.
UK politics | Ministers are planning to reshape Britain’s relationship with the European Union, with new legislation that could result in the UK signing up to EU single market rules without a normal parliamentary vote.
Continue reading...Congratulations pour in from across EU, with leaders from Spain, Poland, France, Britain, Denmark, Romania, Sweden and beyond hailing a new chapter
EU leaders heaped praise on Péter Magyar after his decisive election victory in Hungary against the long-serving prime minister Viktor Orbán, who many saw as a direct threat to Europe’s peace and prosperity.
The outpouring reflected a deep frustration with Orbán across the EU’s 27 member states and its institutions.
Continue reading...Number of tickets to win Tête de Femme will be capped at 120,000 and proceeds will go to Alzheimer’s research
A raffle in France is offering the chance to win a portrait by Pablo Picasso for the price of a €100 (£87) ticket, with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s research.
Picasso painted the gouache-on-paper Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman) in 1941. The raffle organisers’ online sales platform says the number of tickets will be capped at 120,000, meaning the draw could net €12m if they are all sold.
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