Category Archives: Europe

British wine wholesaler to leave UK over post-Brexit paperwork

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Daniel Lambert, who supplies M&S, Waitrose and 300 independent retailers, to set up in France after £150,000 hole in revenue

A British wine wholesaler who last year criticised Brexit as the biggest threat to his business in 30 years has decided to leave the UK after post-Brexit paperwork made a £150,000 hole in revenue.

Daniel Lambert, who supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and 300 independent retailers, is moving to Montpellier in France later this week with his wife and two teenage children.

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Insurance uncertainty poses challenge to Ukraine grain deal

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Traders remain sceptical of UN-backed plan to export vital food supplies through mined Ukrainian waters

Worries over insurance are the biggest obstacle to grain ships leaving Ukraine’s Black Sea ports this week, exporters say.

Questions remain over whether insurance companies will be willing to insure the vessels as they navigate the mined waters, while buyers are hesitant to make new orders given the risk of Russian attacks.

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Czech police turn seized Ferrari into patrol car

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The Ferrari 458 Italia is capable of chasing down joyriders at speeds of up to 200mph

Police in the Czech Republic have turned a high-powered Ferrari they seized from criminals into a patrol car capable of chasing down joyriders at speeds of up to 200mph.

The 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia was formerly coloured racing red, but the authorities painted it with yellow and blue reflective stripes and mounted a panel of lights on top. It will be used to chase stolen cars and to crack down on illegal road races, police said in a statement.

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Russia’s Gazprom to make drastic cut to Europe’s gas supply from Wednesday

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State-controlled energy company says it is halting a turbine due to the ‘technical condition of the engine’

The Russian state-controlled energy company Gazprom has announced a drastic cut to gas deliveries through its main pipeline to Europe from Wednesday.

The Russian gas export monopoly said it was halting the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the “technical condition of the engine”, cutting daily gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline to 33m cubic metres a day – about 20% of the pipeline’s capacity.

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Cruise passengers shuttled into Venice by motor boat to dodge big ships ban

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Move by Norwegian Cruise authorised by city’s port authority despite plans to curb daytrippers

A cruise company has circumvented a ban on its ships entering the Venice lagoon by shuttling passengers into the famous city centre on small motor boats.

Norwegian Gem, a vessel of just under 300 metres long and owned by Norwegian Cruise, anchored outside the Venice Lido early on Saturday morning. It then launched several motor boats which between them dropped about 1,500 passengers off in St Mark’s Square before picking them up again in the evening.

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Ukraine grain exports set to start as Kyiv says US-supplied arms have slowed Russia

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Grain exports to begin this week despite Russian attack on Odesa 12 hours after signing agreement

Ukraine has said it hopes to start exporting grain from its ports this week, despite Russia’s attack on Odesa 12 hours after Moscow agreed to allow Kyiv safe passage for the commodity.

The first ships may move from the country’s Black Sea ports within a few days, said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq. Details of the procedures will soon be published by a joint coordination centre that is liaising with the shipping industry, said Haq.

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Lavrov’s African tour another front in struggle between west and Moscow

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Analysis: Foreign minister seeks to win friends and influence people in countries where closeness can be traced back to USSR

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, is arriving in Uganda on the latest stop of his tour of Africa, aimed at rallying support on the continent for Russia as the war in Ukraine goes into its sixth month.

Many African leaders have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have accused the US and Nato of starting or prolonging the conflict.

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Zelenskiy calls on Europe to respond to Russia’s ‘gas war’ – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

One of the Russian-imposed officials in Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region has told the RIA Novosti news agency that a referendum on the region joining the Russian Federation will most likely take place in September, alongside a similar one in occupied Kherson.

The agency quotes Vladimir Rogov saying: “Everything is moving towards the fact that the referendum will be in the first half of September. I will not name the exact date yet. Election commissions are being formed.”

The house of culture, where people were hiding in the basement, was actually destroyed by the occupiers. Rescuers have already freed three people from the rubble, but there were still people in the basement. In addition, residential buildings, an educational institution were damaged, and open areas were hit.

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UK to host Eurovision song contest in 2023 on behalf of Ukraine

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BBC says programme will have ‘glorious Ukraine at its heart’, with cities invited to bid to host event

The Eurovision song contest will be hosted in the UK next year after Ukraine’s public broadcaster dropped its objections and agreed to work with the BBC on the event.

Ukraine won this year’s Eurovision with the song Stefania by Kalush Orchestra, earning the right to host the 2023 edition. However, organisers concluded this could not be done safely while the country was at war with Russia – angering the Ukrainian government, which said it had submitted a workable safety plan.

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Fears island of Ireland faces ‘new carve-up’ by mining companies

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Campaigners warn of damage as concessions now cover over a quarter of land on both sides of border

Environmentalists on the island of Ireland say they fear a “new carve-up of the island” over coming decades, with mining concessions now covering more than a quarter of all land on both sides of the border.

More than 25% of the total land area of Northern Ireland is covered by mining concessions, according to government statistics, while the figure for the Irish republic has in the past couple of years been even higher at 27%. The prospecting licences covering these areas grant mining companies permission to survey and assess sites, as well as carry out exploratory work that includes digging tunnels, pits, taking rock samples and carrying out chemical analyses.

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France orders air-conditioned shops to save energy by shutting doors

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Minister says open doors lead to 20% more consumption as restrictions on illuminated signs also announced

Air-conditioned shops throughout France will have to keep their doors shut or risk a fine of €750 (£635), a French minister has announced, after the mayors of several major cities unveiled a similar rule during the country’s heatwave last week.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the minister for ecological transition, said leaving doors open with air conditioning on led to “20% more energy consumption and … is absurd”. A decree confirming the decision will be issued in the coming days.

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Weather tracker: Europe to cool down as western US holds on to heat

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Jet stream will push heat away to south of Europe, while Pacific Northwest will see temperatures climb

After weeks of intense heat and wildfires across Europe with temperatures into the high 30s Celsius each day in central and southern areas, and frequently reaching above 40C (104F), temperatures will gradually start to temper from the north-west through this week.

The jet stream will meander southwards, pushing the plume of heat away to the south and west and bringing conditions much closer to or below normal, with the exception of some parts of Spain, which may hang on to the heat without much relief.

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Dover ferry passengers advised to arrive early amid fears of summer-long disruption

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Cross-Channel ferry passengers told to arrive in good time for border checks after weekend of delays

Cross-Channel ferry passengers were being told to arrive in good time at Dover as queues built at the Port of Dover amid fears the severe disruption of recent days could return to Kent throughout the summer.

The ferry operator DFDS told passengers there were queues of about an hour for French border checks on Monday morning and to “allow a minimum of 120 minutes before your departure to complete all controls”.

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Ukraine claims it will recapture Kherson by September with aid of western weapons

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Aide in southern region says a ‘turning point’ has been reached, heralding switch from defensive moves to long-awaited counterattack

Ukrainian military officials have claimed a “turning point” in the battle to retake the southern region of Kherson, saying they will use western weapons to liberate by September the first major city captured by Russian forces.

Sergiy Khlan, an aide to the administrative head of the Kherson region, said in an interview with Ukrainian television on Sunday: “We can say that a turning point has occurred on the battlefield. We are switching from defensive to counteroffensive actions.”

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine predicts it will recapture Kherson region; push to restart grain exports after missile attack – live

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Aide to head of region says it will be liberate by September; minister says preparations to resume grain shipments ongoing as strikes on port draw international condemnation

Without port blockades, Ukraine would be able to export 60m tonnes of grain in eight to nine months, according to Ukraine’s economic adviser, Oleh Ustenko.

Ustenko said Russia’s strike on the port of Odesa showed it would definitely not be that easy, according to Reuters reports of his appearance on television.

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British man feared drowned in Italy’s Lake Garda after diving in to save son

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Aran Chada, 51, believed to have had seizure after leaping from boat into water

A British man is feared to have drowned in Lake Garda in Italy after diving in to save his teenage son.

Aran Chada, a 51-year-old sales director from Leicestershire, is believed to have had a seizure when he leapt from a boat into the water, the Times reports.

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Russia rallies support in Africa as doubt cast on Ukraine grain deal

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Russian foreign minister starts trip in Egypt, one day after Russian strike on Odesa put question mark over deal to restart exports

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has reassured Egypt over Russian grain supplies at the start of a four-country tour of Africa, amid uncertainty over the future of a deal to resume Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea.

Egypt, one of the world’s top wheat importers, bought 80% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine last year, and has been torn between ties to Moscow and its close relationship to the west.

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Viktor Orbán sparks outrage with attack on ‘race mixing’ in Europe

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Hungary’s far-right prime minister says countries where races mingle are ‘no longer nations’

Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has lashed out against the “mixing” of European and non-European races, in a speech that immediately drew outrage from opposition parties and European politicians.

“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”.

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‘She’s very charismatic’: could Giorgia Meloni become Italy’s first far-right leader since Mussolini?

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Brothers of Italy leads far-right alliance in pole position for snap summer election

When the far right took power in Ladispoli, a beach town near Rome, in 2017, ending 20 years of leftwing administration, among its priorities was naming a square after Giorgio Almirante, a minister in Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship and founder of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).

Protests from anti-fascist groups failed to thwart the plan, and in 2019 the nameplate was unveiled during a ceremony that included a blessing from the priest of the church on the same square. Almirante was described by mayor Alessandro Grando, who won a second term in June, as “the father of Italian rightwing socialism and point of reference for many Italians”.

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