Fifty-eight other people found alive during rescue involving inflatable craft in early hours of Wednesday
The bodies of 19 people have been recovered from an inflatable boat south of the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard, a spokesperson told AFP.
Fifty-eight other people, including five children, were found alive during the rescue in the early hours of Wednesday and transported to Lampedusa by the coastguard, according to Roberto D’Arrigo.
Continue reading...The argument for transitioning to renewables seems stronger than ever – and yet, attacks mount on the carbon price scheme that underpins the EU’s success at cutting pollution
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On the one hand, experts say, Europe is better prepared for this energy crisis than the last. On the other, it is still waging a culture war against the most obvious path out.
Fuel prices have soared to ruinous levels since the Iran war left ships of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) stranded in the Gulf. The pain is most acute in Asia, but high energy prices are already causing panic in Europe. Shortages could hit the continent this month, oil company Shell warned last week. Donald Trump’s “go get your own oil” comments on Tuesday sent prices to their highest level since the start of the US-Israel attack on Iran. They briefly dipped below $100-a-barrel on Wednesday amid hopes that the war may soon end.
Continue reading...Two-month arrangement aimed at preventing small-boat crossings comes as existing deal expires
The UK will pay France an extra £16.2m to keep police patrolling Channel beaches and prevent a surge in small-boat crossings after negotiators failed to agree a permanent deal before a midnight deadline.
The stopgap arrangement, which will last for two months, comes after French negotiators refused to agree to UK demands for further interventions and patrols to stop asylum seekers from reaching the UK via the Channel.
Continue reading...The German chancellor has drawn condemnation from NGOs and members of his own government
Friedrich Merz has drawn condemnation from NGOs and members of his own government after he called for the vast majority of Syrians living in Germany to “go back to their homeland”.
The German chancellor, who was elected last year after promising a tough line on immigration in a bid to beat the far right, made the remarks during a visit to Berlin on Monday by the interim Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Continue reading...Publisher alleges AI research company’s chatbot violated its copyright over Coconut the Little Dragon series
Penguin Random House has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging its chatbot ChatGPT violated copyright by mimicking and reproducing the content of a popular series of German children’s books.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday with a Munich court against OpenAI’s Ireland-based European subsidiary, states Penguin Random House’s legal team had prompted ChatGPT to write a story in the vein of Penguin author and illustrator Ingo Siegner’s Coconut the Little Dragon series.
Continue reading...Spin-off launched with 10 nations, as original event remains mired in protests and boycotts over Israel’s involvement
Eurovision is seeking to expand into the Asian market by hosting a version of its song contest in Bangkok this year, just as the original annual event is being buffeted by discord and boycotts on the eve of its 70th anniversary edition.
The grand final of the inaugural Eurovision song contest Asia will take place in Thailand’s capital on Saturday 14 November, the Switzerland-based organisation announced on Tuesday. Broadcasters from 10 countries have confirmed their participation.
Continue reading...President says he is open to scaling back strikes on oil and wider energy industry if Moscow reciprocates. What we know on day 1,496
Continue reading...Collien Fernandes accuses ex-husband, Christian Ulmen, of sharing sexually explicit deepfake images of her online
A high-profile German TV star’s allegations that her ex-husband spread AI-generated pornographic images of her have triggered a national debate and put pressure on the government to tighten laws around digital violence against women.
In an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel last week, Collien Fernandes accused her former husband Christian Ulmen, a prominent TV presenter and producer, of impersonating her online for years and sharing sexually explicit deepfake images.
Continue reading...Apple Distribution International, based in Ireland, made payments worth £635,000 to a Russian streaming service
The UK government has fined a subsidiary of Apple £390,000 for breaching sanctions against Moscow over payments it made to a Russian streaming platform.
Apple Distribution International (ADI), based in the Republic of Ireland, instructed an unnamed UK-based bank to make two payments to a company owned by a sanctioned Russian entity.
Continue reading...Spain’s defence minister confirms move and describes US-Israel war on Iran as ‘profoundly illegal and unjust’
Spain has ramped up its opposition to the US-Israel war on Iran by closing its airspace to US aircraft involved in attacks, underlining its position as Europe’s leading critic of the conflict.
The move, first reported by El País newspaper and confirmed by the defence minister on Monday, comes after Madrid said the US could not use jointly operated military bases in the country for operations related to the war.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK owner’s version of Old Man with a Gold Chain reunited in Chicago with undisputed work by Dutch master
A portrait in a UK collection that has long been dismissed as a workshop copy of an almost identical painting by Rembrandt was in fact also painted by the 17th-century Dutch master, according to a leading scholar.
Each of the paintings, titled Old Man with a Gold Chain and dated to the early 1630s, is a near-lifesize depiction of an older man wearing a gold chain and a plumed hat.
Continue reading...Twenty-two defendants, including intelligence agents and police, accused of committing crimes on behalf of Freemason mafia
Twenty-two people are to stand trial in France from Monday on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on a masonic lodge accused of running hit squads.
Seven defendants – including former intelligence agents, soldiers and businessmen – face possible life sentences. Prosecutors allege the group carried out murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy on behalf of a mafia network inside the Athanor lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.
Continue reading...Weak and sick mammal has become stuck in shallow bays and experts say prognosis ‘doesn’t look good’
The fate of a humpback whale stuck in shallow bays off Germany’s Baltic coast hangs in the balance after it became stranded for a third time.
The roughly 10-metre-long (33ft) mammal appeared weakened and sick on Sunday and was struggling to find a route back to the Atlantic when it ran into fresh difficulty.
Continue reading...Thieves made a break for 413,793 units of the company’s new F1 line bars which could cause shortage before Easter
A large shipment of KitKat candy bars was stolen while in transit to distributors, a major candy crime right before the Easter holiday that could cause shortages for customers.
The truck carrying 413,793 units of a “new chocolate range”, about 12 tons of chocolate bars, was pilfered while driving through Europe on 26 March, Agence France-Presse reported.
Continue reading...Incident in the city’s 8th arrondissement reportedly involved a homemade explosive device
French police prevented an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris on Saturday when they arrested a man about to set off a homemade explosive device, officials and sources close to the case said.
The incident occurred at about 3.30am (0230 GMT) in front of a Bank of America building in the city’s 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets away from the Champs-Élysées.
Continue reading...Survivors tell coastguard smugglers ordered victims to be thrown overboard after running out of food and water
22 people hoping to reach Europe from north Africa have died off the coast of Greece after six days at sea in a rubber boat, survivors told the Greek coastguard.
The coastguard said on Friday that 26 people, including a woman and a minor, were rescued by a European border agency vessel off the island of Crete.
Continue reading...Prime minister is scrambling to clean up her government after youth vote powered a damaging referendum defeat
Filippo Michelini was having a drink at San Calisto, a popular bar in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood on Wednesday night. As he chatted to his friends, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government was reeling from a failed referendum, and her beleaguered tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, had just resigned.
Michelini, a 29-year-old computer scientist who lives in Brussels, was spending a few days in the Italian capital after returning home last weekend to cast his ballot in the plebiscite on judicial changes.
Continue reading...Decision to choose small, wealthy – but very Catholic – state for first European trip has baffled some Vatican observers
Pope Leo will travel to Monaco, the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, on Saturday on his first European trip since being elected pontiff, causing bemusement among some Vatican observers, not least because it comes 488 years after the last papal visit.
Leo will travel from the Vatican by helicopter for the one-day trip, and will be greeted at Monaco’s heliport by Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene, before being taken to the palace, which has been the residence of the Grimaldi dynasty since the 13th century. It is the first time a pontiff has visited Monaco since Pope Paul III in 1538.
Continue reading...Regulator fears use of ‘covert marketing strategies’ by Sephora and Benefit might fuel compulsive habits
Italian regulators are investigating Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics over the apparent use of “covert marketing strategies” to sell beauty products to young girls that might be fuelling an unhealthy skincare obsession known as “cosmeticorexia”.
The Italian Competition Authority said it was looking into promotions for skincare products such as face masks, serums and anti-ageing creams that in some cases appeared to target girls under 10.
Continue reading...Piece by late South African artist Dumile Feni is part of new series History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme
On the second floor of the Reina Sofía, in the very spot where Picasso’s Guernica was first exhibited when it arrived in the Madrid museum 34 years ago, there now hangs a smaller, near-namesake of the Spanish artist’s most famous work.
While African Guernica, which was drawn by the late South African artist Dumile Feni in 1967, may lack the scale of Picasso’s masterpiece, its depth, anger and unnerving juxtaposition of man and beast, light and dark, and innocence and cruelty, are every bit as disturbing.
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