Council-supported project beginning on roof of school in Poblenou could grow across the city
A secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city.
The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area.
Continue reading...Russian missiles hit Odesa hours after deal to allow resumption of grain exports; US accuses Russia of deepening global food crisis
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s main port of Odesa – through which grain shipments would take place – with cruise missile strikes, barely 12 hours after Moscow signed a deal with Ukraine to allow monitored grain exports from Ukraine’s southern ports. “The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles,” Ukraine’s operational command south wrote on Telegram, raising doubts about the viability of the deal that was intended to release 20m tonnes of grain to ward off famine in large parts of the developing world.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed the strikes on Odesa showed Moscow could not keep its promises. “This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it,” he said during a meeting with US lawmakers, according to a statement from the presidency.
The US secretary of state condemned the Russian attack against Odesa, accusing Russia of deepening the global food shortage. In a statement posted on Twitter, Antony Blinken said: “The United States strongly condemns Russia’s attack on the port of Odesa today. It undermines the effort to bring food to the hungry and the credibility of Russia’s commitments to the deal finalized yesterday to allow Ukrainian exports.”
Ukraine’s defence ministry has urged citizens in Enerhodar, a key area seized by Russia, to reveal where Russian troops are living and who among the local population was collaborating with the occupying authorities. “Please let us know as a matter of urgency the exact location of the occupying troops’ bases and their residential addresses … and the places of residence of the commanding staff,” it said on Saturday, adding that exact coordinates were desirable.
The governor of Zaporizhizhia has said that Russia is keeping 170 people captive in the Zaporizhizhia oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to the governor, Oleksandr Starukh, Russian forces have abducted at least 415 people in the southern region since 24 February – the day Russian forces invaded Ukraine – and at least 170 individuals are still being kept captive.
The UNHCR says 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees have received temporary protection status in the European Union. In a new report released Friday, the UNHCR cited that 3.7 million Ukrainians have registered for Temporary Protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe.
Video footage has emerged of a powerful explosion that took place in the Russian-occupied territory of Horlivka on Saturday in the Donetsk oblast, Euromaidan reports. Reports from outlets have been claiming that Ukrainian armed forces have hit a Russian ammunition depot.
The former deputy secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council has been suspected of high treason, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to a report released on Saturday by the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations, Volodymyr Sivkovych is suspected of collaborating with Russian intelligence services and managing a network of agents in Ukraine that spied on behalf of Russia.
Germany has delayed weapons delivery to Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports. The outlet, sourcing German media organisation German Welt, reported that anonymous Ukrainian officials had reported that Ukraine’s application for eleven IRIS-T air missile defence systems is currently being held up by Germany’s Federal Security Council.
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán called for US-Russian peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, lashing out at the European Union’s strategy on the conflict. In a speech in Romania on Saturday, the 59-year-old rightwing leader also defended his vision of an “unmixed Hungarian race” as he criticised mixing with “non-Europeans”. Orban has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, but maintains an ambiguous position on the conflict.
Two US citizens recently died in the Donbas region, CNN reported on Saturday, citing a US state department spokesperson. The spokesperson, not named in the report, did not provide any details about the individuals or the circumstances of their deaths but said the US administration was in touch with the families and providing “all possible consular assistance,” according to CNN.
Continue reading...Travellers told to allow three to four hours to pass through security and French border checks at port
French authorities have hit back at claims by the Port of Dover that French border control staff were to blame for a second day of hours-long delays, saying: “France is not responsible for Brexit.”
It came after the port blamed delays on insufficient border staff at police aux frontières.
Continue reading...Painters, playwrights and photographers have defied the threat of arrest in southern Ukrainian city to share their experiences
Under the threat of imprisonment, interrogation and the constant pressure of searches by Russian soldiers, six artists secretly met in a basement studio in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson.
In the months after their homes were taken over by Putin’s forces, the artists formed a residency during which they created dozens of works, including drawings, paintings, video, photography, diary entries and stage plays.
Continue reading...French transport minister hits back at Liz Truss’s suggestion that France needed to fix the ‘avoidable and unacceptable’ situation
Authorities in Kent have declared a “major incident” due to traffic jams in and around Dover, with officials saying the disruption could be worse than on Friday.
There are currently 3,000 lorries parked on the M20 and traffic is building at the port.
We are operating in a post-Brexit environment which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped and indeed the capable people that do man the booths – police aux frontieres – they’re doing their job that they need to do now.
Continue reading...We are now pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. We will return in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments.
Three people were killed as 13 Russian missiles hit a military airfield and railway infrastructure in Ukraine’s central Kirovohrad region on Saturday, the local governor said.
Reuters reports that speaking on television, governor Andriy Raikovych said two security guards at an electricity substation had been killed. He also said that one Ukrainian soldier had been killed and nine more wounded.
Russian forces are using artillery fire along the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
“Supply lines of the Russian forces west of the river are increasingly at risk,” the ministry said in an intelligence update.
Continue reading...Fears over financing, security and staffing threaten to take the shine off a showcase event and a national triumph for Emmanuel Macron’s presidency
Two years almost to the day before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, organisers are reportedly “in a cold sweat” over security, financial, venue and staffing concerns that could take the shine off Emmanuel Macron’s promised “national triumph”.
The reformist French president, who holds a meeting with key ministers on Monday for a progress report, has personally invested in the success of the Games, having energetically backed the city’s successful bid to host them for the first time in a century as an opportunity to showcase the best of modern France.
Continue reading...Wiegman has transformed the fortunes of the women’s football team and got them to the Euro semi-finals – with no fear of making tough calls along the way
For any of the 7.6 million BBC One viewers who tuned in to watch England’s dramatic extra-time defeat of Spain in the quarter-finals of the Euros on Wednesday night, the sight of an animated blond Dutch woman on the touchline will not have gone unnoticed.
Sarina Wiegman, England’s manager, is fast becoming a talking point. Less for her antics – although watching her being lifted aloft in a bear-hug from centre-back Millie Bright after the full-time whistle was a treat – and more for the 11-month transformation of the Lionesses from disjointed and confidence-drained to contenders on the biggest of stages.
Continue reading...The new grain deal should help the Black Sea port’s economy – but existence has been hollowed out by the pressure of war
Barely 12 hours after Moscow signed a deal with Ukraine to allow monitored grain exports from Ukraine’s southern ports, Russia targeted the country’s main port of Odesa – through which grain shipments would take place – with cruise missile strikes.
The attack raised new doubts about the viability of the deal, which was intended to release about 20m tonnes of grain to ward off famine in parts of the developing world.
Continue reading...Strikes raise doubts about viability of agreement as Russia also launches series of attacks across Ukraine
Barely 12 hours after Moscow signed a deal with Ukraine to allow monitored grain exports from Ukraine’s southern ports, Russia targeted Ukraine’s main port of Odesa – through which grain shipments would take place – with cruise missile strikes.
“The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles,” Ukraine’s operational command south wrote on Telegram, raising doubts about the viability of the deal that was intended to release 20m tonnes of grain to ward off famine in large parts of the developing world.
Continue reading...Porsche’s Oliver Blume will take over after difficulties managing electric transition during Diess’s four years in charge
Volkswagen’s CEO, Herbert Diess, is stepping down and will be succeeded by the current head of Porsche, Oliver Blume, Europe’s top carmaker has said, after a four-year tenure in which Diess pushed VW’s electric vehicle ambitions and clashed with its work council and board.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said the Porsche and Piëch families, who own over half the voting rights and a 31.4% equity stake in Volkswagen, pressed for a change at the helm.
Continue reading...Analysis: demand is desperate but ships, crew, insurance and shipping lanes all need preparing
The agreement to move Ukraine’s grain may have been signed, but the challenge of moving millions of tonnes from blockaded Black Sea ports is only just beginning.
On Friday, Ukraine and Russia signed a UN-backed deal to allow Ukraine’s wheat, maize and oilseeds to be shipped amid fears over a global food crisis.
Continue reading...Shipping of millions of tonnes from blockaded Black Sea ports could avert global food crisis
Ukraine and Russia have signed a UN-backed deal to allow the export of millions of tonnes of grain from blockaded Black Sea ports, potentially averting the threat of a catastrophic global food crisis.
A signing ceremony at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul was attended by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, who had played a key role during months of tense negotiations.
A coalition of Turkish, Ukrainian and UN staff will monitor the loading of grain on to vessels in Ukrainian ports before navigating a pre-planned route through the Black Sea, which remains heavily mined by Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Ukrainian pilot vessels will guide commercial vessels transporting the grain in order to navigate the mined areas around the coastline using a map of safe channels provided by the Ukrainian side.
The vessels will then cross the Black Sea towards Turkey’s Bosphorus strait while being closely monitored by a joint coordination centre in Istanbul, containing representatives from the UN, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.
Ships entering Ukraine will be inspected under the supervision of the same joint coordination centre to ensure they are not carrying weapons or items that could be used to attack the Ukrainian side.
The Russian and Ukrainian sides have agreed to withhold attacks on any of the commercial vessels or ports engaged in the initiative to transport vital grain, while UN and Turkish monitors will be present in Ukrainian ports in order to demarcate areas protected by the accord.
Continue reading...Russia edges closer to de facto capital of Donetsk as Ukraine claims at least 1,888 schools and nurseries destroyed in war
Russian forces have shelled a school building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, leaving three dead, according to Ukraine’s authorities.
The school was destroyed in the attack, video footage shows, and 85 residential buildings were damaged, said Ukraine’s presidential office.
Continue reading...Blaze, estimated to have damaged 14,000 hectares, started after spark escaped from soil excavator
An international reforestation company has said it is “devastated” after one of its contractors accidentally caused a massive fire in Spain, where dozens of calamitous wildfires have raged this week.
Land Life, a Netherlands-based company with offices in Spain and the US, said the fire broke out on Monday at one of its reforestation projects in Ateca in the north-eastern region of Aragón.
Continue reading...Four siblings under 10 among those to die in assault on Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib, with others still trapped under rubble
Seven people, among them four children, have been killed in a Russian airstrike in north-western Syria, one of five carried out by Vladimir Putin’s air force during the deadliest day in the country in months.
The deaths occurred on Friday near the opposition-held town of Jisr al-Shughur, in the rebel enclave of Idlib, where jihadist units and anti-Assad groups uneasily coexist among more than 4 million people, many of them Syrians from elsewhere in the country.
Continue reading...We will be pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine and returning in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments. You can find a summary of where things stand here
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has issued casualty figures for the past 24 hours, claiming that one person was killed and seven injured in the territory it occupies. It claims this was the result of Ukrainian shelling. The claims have not been independently verified. The Donetsk People’s Republic is only recognised as a legitimate authority by three UN member states.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has said that five civilians were killed in the region on 21 July, and that a further 10 people were injured. Posting to Telegram, he said three of the deaths occurred in Siversk.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 637 civilians have been killed and another 1,641 injured as a result of shelling and bombing in Donetsk region. The number of Russian victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha is currently unknown.
Continue reading...Strikes indicate ‘huge battle’ may be on way that will be a key test of Kyiv troops’ ability to push Russia back
The war in Ukraine may be heading for its bloodiest phase yet, according to senior Ukrainian officials and western analysts, who say a long-threatened southern counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces will result in a “huge battle” and will need to overcome increasingly well dug-in Russian troops.
People interviewed by the Guardian, including those who have recently escaped Kherson, describe Russian forces in the south building hardened tank shelters, digging trenches and bringing in prefabricated concrete pillboxes by lorry.
Continue reading...Solution to overcrowded asylum centres angers NGOs, though three ships have already been commissioned
Plans to house refugees arriving in the Netherlands on cruise ships have been described as “absurd” and illegal, as the Dutch government laid out its solution to overcrowded asylum centres.
Three large ships have already been commissioned and one is due to be anchored in Velsen, near IJmuiden in North Holland, although ministers are struggling to find further willing ports.
Continue reading...New cases come on top of three others already in motion heading to European court of justice
The EU has expressed its anger over the backing given by MPs for legislation overriding post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland by launching a further four legal cases against the UK government.
The claims concern past failures to implement the 2019 deal agreed with Boris Johnson but the EU has been spurred to act by the passage through parliament of a bill that would rip up current arrangements.
Continue reading...