Category Archives: Europe

Group of British MPs and peers say Parthenon marbles must return to Greece

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Six legislators call for return of cultural treasures held by British Museum ‘to their Athenian home’

More MPs and peers have expressed support for the repatriation of the Parthenon marbles to Greece as protesters in London mark the 13th anniversary of the opening of the Athens museum where they believe they belong.

Calls for the reunification of the antiquities, removed by Lord Elgin from the Acropolis in controversial circumstances more than 200 years ago – and regarded as vital to the nation’s cultural memory – mounted on Saturday with six UK lawmakers telling the Greek daily, Ta Nea, that restitution was the only proper thing to do. The British Museum acquired the sculptures from the diplomat in 1816.

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‘Ukraine will definitely win’ says president on visit to Mykolaiv

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy gives medals to Ukrainian troops in southern city as war with Russia grinds on in east

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said “Ukraine will definitely win” during a working trip to the southern city of Mykolaiv, as relentless fighting in the country’s east continued.

The president handed out medals and posed for selfies with the servicemen in what appeared to be an underground shelter, according to a video posted to his official Telegram account.

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Belgium to return Patrice Lumumba’s gold tooth in bid to atone for colonial crimes

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Relic of the murdered Republic of Congo leader will be returned to his family as Brussels confronts its bloody past in Africa

The Belgian government will return a tooth of Patrice Lumumba to his family this week, hoping to draw a line under one of the most brutal and shameful episodes in the country’s bloody exploitation of central Africa.

The relic is all that remains of Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under its earlier name Republic of Congo, and an icon of the struggle against colonialism in Africa, who was murdered by separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961. His killers dissolved his remains in acid, though some kept teeth as macabre mementoes.

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Moscow’s war in Ukraine could take years, Stoltenberg says –as it happened

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Rockets hit a southern district of Ukraine’s central city of Kryvyi Rih on Saturday leading to at least two casualties, local authorities said in posts on messaging app Telegram.

The attack came as it was confirmed that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had visited the southern city of Mykolaiv during a working trip to the region, Reuters reported.

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UK will not yield to ‘Ukraine fatigue’, says PM on return from Kyiv

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Boris Johnson reaffirms commitment to provide long-term ‘strategic resilience’ to help expel Russian troops

Russian-Ukraine war: live updates

Boris Johnson has reaffirmed Britain’s support for Ukraine, cautioning against “Ukraine fatigue” as Russia’s invasion enters its fifth month.

Speaking to reporters on his arrival at RAF Brize Norton after his trip to Kyiv, the prime minister said: “When Ukraine fatigue is setting in, it is very important to show that we are with them for the long haul and we are giving them the strategic resilience that they need.

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Revealed: why Van Gogh’s ‘empty chair’ paintings were never shown together

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Sister-in-law hid one dedicated to Gauguin because of ‘anger at the French artist’s attacks on his former friend’

Shortly before Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear and had a breakdown after quarrelling with his fellow artist, Paul Gauguin, in the French city of Arles in 1888, he created a pair of extraordinary paintings. One, Gauguin’s Chair, depicts a couple of books and a lit candle discarded on an ornate armchair. The other, Van Gogh’s Chair, shows a tobacco pipe and pouch on a rustic wooden chair and is instantly recognisable as one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Now, the mystery of how the diptych of paintings came to be split up – and why the picture of Gauguin’s chair was kept in the family collection while Van Gogh’s Chair was sold off – has finally been solved.

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Eurovision 2023 should be held in Ukraine, Boris Johnson says

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Comments come after Ukrainian criticism of organiser EBU’s decision to move contest to UK

Boris Johnson has said Ukraine deserves to host next year’s Eurovision song contest and that he hopes it will be able to do so despite the ongoing war with Russia.

The BBC is in talks with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) about hosting the event in the UK, which came second in the 2022 contest, after the body ruled it could not go ahead in Ukraine as planned.

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Mystery of Waterloo’s dead soldiers to be re-examined by academics

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Modern techniques to test traditional explanation that most bones from 1815 battle were ground into powder for fertiliser

It was an epic battle that has been commemorated in words, poetry and even a legendary Abba song, but 207 years to the day after troops clashed at Waterloo, a gruesome question remains: what happened to the dead?

While tens of thousands of men and horses died at the site in modern-day Belgium, few remains have been found, with amputated legs and a skeleton unearthed beneath a car park south of Brussels among the handful of discoveries.

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Europe heatwave: France braces for record-breaking temperatures as Spain battles forest fires

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Temperature could exceed 42C in parts of France as scientists warn heatwaves will hit earlier than usual due to climate change

France, Spain and other western European nations braced for a sweltering weekend that is set to break records and sparked concern about forest fires and the effects of climate change.

Temperatures already nudged over 40C (104F) in parts of France on Friday.

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Putin calls Ukraine war sanctions ‘insane’ in combative speech

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President claims Russia can ‘cope with any challenge’ in address delayed by cyber-attack, but largely avoids discussing Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has delivered a combative speech repeating his critique of the west and saying the sanctions “blitzkrieg” against Moscow never had any chance of succeeding.

“If they are exceptional, then that means that everyone else is second class,” the Russian president said of the US. “They live in the past on their own under their own delusions.”

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France and Turkey propose rival plans to get grain out of Ukraine

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Macron favours land routes to Romania from Odesa whereas Ankara wants to use shipping lanes through Black Sea

Rival plans to export Ukraine’s vitally needed grain have been drawn up by France and Turkey, as concern grows over the potential impact on the world’s poorest people of failures so far to get the grain out of the country.

The Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said it was vital a timeline to release the grain is prepared by the time the G7 summit starts next weekend. “A series of deadlines are fast approaching and the drama of a world famine naturally concentrated in the poorest parts of the world, especially Africa, is approaching,” he said following talks with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Thursday.

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Cleaner who led pay strike faces former minister in Paris election

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Rachel Keke, who coordinated successful strike for better pay and conditions, takes on Macron’s former sports minister

A hotel housekeeper who led a strike for better pay and conditions at one of the biggest hotels in Paris could become the first cleaner to be elected to the French parliament on Sunday, as a left alliance challenges Emmanuel Macron’s centrists.

Rachel Keke, 48, said years of gruelling work cleaning up to 40 rooms a day at the Ibis hotel in Batignolles would enable her to speak up for workers in parliament. Her aim was to “make visible those who are invisible”, she told one rally.

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Boris Johnson promises Ukraine UK-led troop training scheme on Kyiv visit

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PM announces programme including battle skills and counter-explosive tactics that will take place outside Ukraine

Boris Johnson has announced that the UK will oversee a new three-week training programme for Ukrainian soldiers, as he visited Kyiv for the third time this year for talks with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The prime minister had been expected to address Conservative MPs at the Northern Research Group conference in Doncaster on Friday, but pulled out at the last minute.

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‘Marching towards starvation’: UN warns of hell on earth if Ukraine war goes on

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Unprecedented food shortages could spark riots in dozens of countries as Black Sea blockade adds to pressures, says WFP chief

Dozens of countries risk protests, riots and political violence this year as food prices surge around the world, the head of the food-aid branch of the United Nations has warned.

Speaking in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the world faced “frightening” shortages that could destabilise countries that depend on wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia.

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International investigators visit war-torn areas near Kyiv – as it happened

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Ukraine’s navy has claimed on social media that it has struck the Russian rescue tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which it says was in the process of the “transportation of ammunition, weapons and personnel of the Black Sea Fleet to Snake Island.”

The claim has not been independently verified, and as yet there is no comment from the Russian navy on the status of the ship.

Fighting continues on the line of contact. In the Kharkiv direction, the enemy tried to conduct reconnaissance by fighting in the Kochubeyevka area, but suffered losses and withdrew. In the Izium area, the occupiers are trying to continue the offensive in the direction of Slavyansk. Our defenders repel all attacks of the enemy.

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Hologram Zelenskiy promises Ukraine will defeat ‘the empire’

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Ukrainian president attends Paris trade show as electronic apparition, urging tech companies to aid ‘digital revolution’ on lend-lease terms

Volodymyr Zelenskiy referenced Star Wars and the second world war as the Ukrainian president appeared as a hologram at a conference in Paris to seek aid from big tech firms.

He told a crowd of hundreds at the VivaTech trade show that he was offering technology firms a unique chance to rebuild Ukraine as a fully digital democracy.

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Museum of Rescued Art showcases stolen relics that have returned to Italy

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Etruscan, Greek and Roman artefacts that are being returned have gone on display in Rome

A museum to showcase dozens of relics that were stolen from cultural sites in Italy and trafficked to the US has opened in Rome.

About 100 of the 260 Etruscan, Greek and Roman artefacts that are gradually being returned to Italy have gone on display as part of the first exhibit in the Museum of Rescued Art, which is being hosted in a space among the ruins of the ancient Baths of Diocletian.

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Civilian evacuation from Sievierodonetsk plant ‘impossible’, says governor – 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

Children born in Ukraine’s Kherson region since 24 February will automatically receive Russian citizenship, according to a statement by an official.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration in the occupied Kherson region has told Russian news agency RIA Novosti:

Children born after 24 February in the Kherson region will automatically receive citizenship of the Russian Federation. Plus, orphans will also be registered as citizens of the Russian Federation.

All of the main bridges over the Siverskyy Donets River, which link the contested town of Sieverodonetsk and Ukrainian-held territory, have now highly likely been destroyed.

Ukraine has probably managed to withdraw a large proportion of its combat troops, who were originally holding the town. The situation continues to be extremely difficult for the Ukrainian forces and civilians remaining east of the river.

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‘They’re being cooked’: baby swifts die leaving nests as heatwave hits Spain

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Ecologists raise concern over chicks’ attempts to escape high temperatures during one of earliest heatwaves on record

Hundreds of baby swifts in southern Spain have died after leaving their nests prematurely, in what ecologists described as an attempt to escape the extreme temperatures during one of the country’s earliest heatwaves on record.

Concerns were raised for the protected species late last week after residents in Seville and Córdoba noticed dozens of recently hatched birds scattered across sidewalks.

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