In speech to divided parliament, Élisabeth Borne tries to court opposition parties to avoid deadlock
France is to renationalise its indebted electricity giant EDF in response to the energy crisis aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country’s prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, has said.
Borne vowed to limit the impact of rising energy prices despite the political turmoil of Emmanuel Macron losing control of parliament in recent legislative elections.
Continue reading...Increases reported in countries including Greece, Spain, France and Germany as Omicron variant BA.5 spreads
Holidaymakers heading to and from the European mainland are being warned of a growing incidence of coronavirus, especially in tourist hotspots, which risks hampering travel plans.
Health officials are calling in some cases for a reintroduction of face masks and other measures, and are urging travellers to exercise personal responsibility, warning that an escalation of the virus could lead to the swift return of restrictions.
Continue reading...Unclear if Zelenskiy backs permit system to keep men eligible to fight in the region they are registered in
Ukraine’s military has announced plans to introduce a system of permits that would prohibit men eligible for conscription from leaving the region where they are registered.
The move, based on legislation from 1992, was intended to enable the country’s armed forces to locate potential conscripts more easily, but it prompted an immediate backlash.
Continue reading...CMA looks into whether firm gives own sellers unfair advantage over third-party rivals
The UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into whether Amazon has been giving its own brands and those using its logistics services unfair advantage over third-party rivals on its online marketplace.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it opened an investigation on Tuesday amid concerns the US tech corporation’s practices on its UK marketplace may be anti-competitive and could result in a worse deal for customers.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has arrived in Kyiv. The Irish prime minister is expected to have a series of meetings designed to reiterate Ireland’s solidarity with the Ukrainian authorities. PA Media quotes him saying:
The people of Ireland stand with Ukraine and its people in the face of Russia’s immoral and unprovoked war of terror. The bombardment and attacks on civilians are nothing short of war crimes and I will use my visit to express Ireland’s support for moves to hold those behind these attacks fully accountable.
The spirit and resolve of the Ukrainian people has inspired us all and Ireland will provide every support for Ukraine’s path to full EU membership, and continue to welcome and support civilians fleeing this war.
Continue reading...Russian forces hit targets across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province; governor urges 350,000 civilians to evacuate
At least two people have been killed and seven injured after “massive shelling” pummelled the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, officials say. City mayor, Vadim Lyakh, called on residents to evacuate after Russian forces struck a market and a residential area.
The governor of the Donetsk region has also urged 350,000 civilians to evacuate in light of an imminent Russian offensive. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that getting people out is necessary to save lives and to enable the Ukrainian army to better defend towns from the Russian advance.
Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk said on Wednesday that fighting continues in the villages around Lysychansk. Serhai Haidai said “some settlements have already been under one or another control twice”. He repeated that up to 15,000 civilians remain in Lysychansk and 8,000 in Sievierodonetsk, adding “today’s videos from Lysychansk are painful to watch”.
The battle for Sloviansk is likely to be the next key contest in the struggle for Donbas as Russian forces approach within 16km of the Donetsk town, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. Russian forces from the eastern and western groups of forces are likely now around 16km north of Sloviansk as central and southern groups of forces also pose a threat to the town, according to the latest British intelligence report.
The premises of a higher educational institution in the Kyiv region of Kharkiv have been destroyed by Russian fire, according to the governor of the region, Oleh Synyehubov
The first rotation of Ukrainian soldiers has arrived in the UK for training, according to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace. The training is part of a programme that aims to train up to 10,000 new Ukrainian recruits alongside a £2.3bn military aid package.
Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin is in Ukraine today, and has visited the Borodyanka area on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv. The Irish prime minister said: “The people of Ireland stand with Ukraine and its people in the face of Russia’s immoral and unprovoked war of terror. The bombardment and attacks on civilians are nothing short of war crimes.”
Continue reading...Pavlo Kyrylenko says ‘destiny of the whole country’ will be decided in Donetsk region
The governor of Donetsk, the last remaining eastern province of Ukraine partially under Kyiv’s control, has urged the region’s 350,000 people to flee amid reports of fresh deaths and injuries.
At least seven civilians have been killed in Russian shelling over the past 24 hours and 25 are said to have been wounded as the Kremlin continues to step up its offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Continue reading...Norwegian government intervenes in pay row because of ‘great social consequences for whole of Europe’
The Norwegian government has stepped in to end a strike that had threatened supplies of gas to Britain.
The labour dispute had shut down oil and gasfields and was expected to cut Norway’s gas supplies by almost 60% by the weekend.
Continue reading...Complex in Alicante, sanctioned for breaking competition rules, to begin productions later this year
One of Spain’s most notorious and costly white elephants, the Ciudad de la Luz (City of Light) film studios in Alicante, is to get a new lease of life 10 years after it was forced to shut by the EU on grounds of unfair competition.
The Valencian regional government has announced that the studios will reopen, with productions expected to begin later this year. Brussels had banned it from operating until 2027 after production companies, including Pinewood Studios in London, complained that government subsidies broke EU competition rules.
Continue reading...Defence minister announces move as ‘we have no reason to think Russia will change its behaviour’
Latvia is to reinstate compulsory military service amid growing tension with Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The current military system of Latvia has reached its limit. Meanwhile, we have no reason to think that Russia will change its behaviour,” the Latvian defence minister, Artis Pabriks, told reporters on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Sloviansk mayor tells residents to evacuate amid expected increase in Russian bombing
Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, Serhai Haidai, has posted an update to Telegram casting aspersions on the ability of pro-Russian proxies to restore stability in the newly occupied areas of Ukraine. He writes:
In the recently occupied territories, the Russians establish their own rules, talk nonsense about the opening of schools from 1 September, the rapid restoration of communications. This is all a lie, the same thing happened in Mariupol. The only thing the Rashists [a term for Russian fascists] are capable of is terrorising the local population. Orcs [derogatory slang for Russians/pro-Russian forces] are already looking for activists and military families, collaborators are helping with this.
Over these few months, more than 800 saboteurs were detained and handed over to the SBU [Ukrainian security service] for further procedural actions. And often, they are “sold for thirty pieces of silver”: the price for treason to the motherland reaches no more than 300 dollars.
Continue reading...Euro slumps to 20-year low against US dollar as jump in natural gas prices intensifies economic strain
Rising worries about a European recession hit stock markets on Tuesday as the euro slumped to a two-decade low and the pound fell to its lowest since the start of the pandemic.
Shares tumbled in London and across Europe as a jump in natural gas prices intensified the strain on the European economy.
Continue reading...George Degiorgio says he would have asked for bigger payment for murder had he known more about victim
One of the men accused of detonating the car bomb that killed the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has confessed to the crime and said he would have asked for a bigger fee for the murder had he known more about her.
George Degiorgio, who along with his brother Alfred and an associate, Vince Muscat, has been charged with murdering Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017, also said he would implicate others in the plot to kill her.
Continue reading...Peak at Sonnblick in Austrian Alps has melted more than a month before previous record time
The snow at the highest observatory in the world to be operated all-year-round is expected to completely melt in the next few days, the earliest time on record.
Scientists at the Sonnblick observatory in the Austrian Central Alps, which is 3,106 metres (10,190ft) above sea level, have been shocked and dismayed to see the snow depleting so quickly.
Continue reading...Belgian justice minister tells MPs if bill not approved threat to Belgian interests will increase
Belgian politicians who support a treaty that would permit the swap of an Iranian diplomat jailed in Belgium for Belgians held prisoner in Tehran have told the treaty’s opponents that “lives are at stake”.
MPs were told during a debate on Tuesday that there were serious risks to Belgians being kept in Iran if they voted against ratifying the treaty, which is set to be a first of its kind among European countries.
Continue reading...Director’s lawyer says prosecutors in Italy are deciding whether to investigate allegation he had sex with a woman without consent
A judge in southern Italy on Monday ordered the film director Paul Haggis released from detention at his hotel while prosecutors decide whether to pursue their investigation of whether he allegedly had sex with a woman without her consent over two days, his lawyer said.
Michele Laforgia told the Associated Press that his client Haggis, who is also a screenwriter and an Academy Award winner, was still in Italy. The ruling was made by Judge Vilma Gilli, based in Puglia, which is the region that forms the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.
Continue reading...Ukraine officials clarify initial confusion as to whether the flag has been raised, saying it is there but will be hoisted only once troops arrive
Ukrainian forces are set to raise the country’s flag on Snake Island, a strategic and symbolic outpost in the Black Sea that Russian troops retreated from last week after months of heavy bombardment.
“The military operation has been concluded, and … the territory, Snake Island, has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, told reporters.
This article and its headline were amended on Tuesday 5 July 2022 to take in the update of when the flag would be raised on Snake Island.
This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
Ukrainian media reports an ammunition depot was destroyed in occupied Snizhne in the eastern Donetsk region. Nexta TV has this unverified footage of what it claims to be the incident.
Russian forces hit a secondary school in the Kharkiv district at 4am this morning, according to a report from Oleh Synyehubov, governor of the region. There were no reported casualties.
Continue reading...Labour leader says he will rebuild trust with EU and get ‘a better deal for the British people’
Keir Starmer has thrown Labour back into the Brexit debate by ruling out any return to the single market or customs union, but arguing he could remove trade and travel barriers as prime minister because the EU would trust him.
In a speech on Monday evening that ended Labour’s habitual silence on the subject since the referendum, Starmer pledged to tackle what he called a “fatberg of red tape and bureaucracy” caused by Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Continue reading...Visiting scene, Italian PM says country must take measures to ensure such a tragedy does not happen again
Thunderstorms have hampered the search for more than a dozen hikers who remain unaccounted for a day after a huge chunk of an Alpine glacier in Italy broke off, sending an avalanche of ice, snow and rocks down the slope.
The Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, pledged on Monday night that his government would work to avoid a repeat of the tragedy in which at least seven people were killed.
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