Zelenskiy welcomes approval of Ukraine’s application to join EU as ‘historic moment’ while battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine edges towards ‘fearsome climax’
Continue reading...Category Archives: Europe
Ukrainians who come to UK illegally could be sent to Rwanda, Johnson says
PM had previously said deportations were ‘simply not going to happen’ but now admits in theory they could
Ukrainian refugees face being sent to Rwanda if they travel to the UK without authorisation, Boris Johnson has said in an escalation of government plans to deport those who travel across the Channel seeking sanctuary.
During a visit to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the prime minister also urged Nato and G7 countries not to settle for a “bad peace” in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, saying it would lead to escalation by Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Politicians from 11 European countries condemned the Rwanda-UK scheme. But it emerged that Johnson did not raise human rights abuses when he met the country’s president, Paul Kagame, on Thursday, despite previous indications that he would.
Ahead of a meeting with Prince Charles on Friday, Johnson was bullish in saying he would defend the policy after the heir to the throne reportedly called it “appalling” – but Downing Street and Clarence House sources suggested the subject would not be raised.
The Rwandan government confirmed it has already received £120m from the UK government to house asylum seekers who have yet to arrive, and has spent a proportion of the money.
The prime minister pledged £372m in aid to provide help for countries grappling with soaring food prices.
Continue reading...Labour unveils plans to seek limited changes to Brexit deal
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, confirms party won’t seek to rejoin single market or EU bloc
Labour has broken its long silence on Brexit, laying out detailed plans to improve, not scrap, the deal Boris Johnson struck with the EU, in a move it concedes will enrage remain supporters.
On the sixth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, confirmed the party would seek only limited changes and would not seek to rejoin the single market which would bring the return of free trade and free movement of people.
Continue reading...‘Ukraine’s future is in the EU’: Zelenskiy welcomes granting of candidate status
Move opens door to EU membership amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack
European leaders have granted Ukraine candidate status, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels approved Ukraine’s candidate status on Thursday night, nearly four months after the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion. Moldova was also given candidate status.
Continue reading...Pope Francis orders online release of second world war-era ‘Jewish’ files
Vatican archive of 2,700 cases of requests for help by Jewish people renews debate on Pope Pius XII legacy
Pope Francis has ordered the online publication of 170 volumes of files relating to Jewish people from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, amid renewed debate about the legacy of the second world war-era pope.
The archive of 2,700 cases “gathers the requests for help sent to Pope Pius XII by Jewish people … after the beginning of Nazi and fascist persecution”, said the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, Paul Richard Gallagher, in a statement.
Continue reading...Appetite for frogs’ legs in France and Belgium ‘driving species to extinction’
Conservationists say exploitation of amphibians leading to depletion of native species abroad
A voracious appetite for frogs’ legs among the French and Belgians is driving species in Indonesia, Turkey and Albania to the brink of extinction, according to a report.
Europe imports as many as 200 million mostly wild frogs every year, contributing to a serious depletion of native species abroad.
Continue reading...Eight convicted over theft of Banksy artwork from Paris attack site
Work paying homage to victims of 2015 attack – painted on door at Bataclan concert hall – was stolen in 2019
A French court has convicted eight men for the theft and handling of a Banksy painting paying homage to the victims of the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.
Three men in their 30s who admitted to the 2019 theft were given prison sentences, one of four years and two of three, although they will be able to serve them wearing electronic tracking bracelets rather than behind bars.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war: EU leaders to decide on Kyiv bid; Russia aims to turn Donbas cities into a Mariupol, Zelenskiy says – live news
Historic decision from the EU brings Ukraine a huge step closer to full membership; Reports say missiles hit southern port city
- British citizens and Moroccan sentenced to death preparing appeal
- Finland ready to fight Russian attack, says armed forces chief
- British man facing death sentence told: ‘Time is running out’
- At a glance: what we know on day 120 of the invasion
Russia’s Tass news agency is carrying a report that British citizens Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, alongside Moroccan Saadoun Brahim, are preparing an appeal against their death sentences.
Tass quotes Pinner’s lawyer Yulia Tserkovnikova saying “my colleagues and I are preparing the full text of the appeal against the verdict in the interests of our clients.”
Continue reading...Brexit remains ‘open wound’ for EU citizens living in UK
Survey of EU nationals shows ‘profound and lasting’ impact of Brexit on sense of identity
A study of EU citizens living in the UK has revealed the “open wound” left by Brexit, with respondents saying the decision to leave the bloc had left them feeling betrayed, insecure and distrustful towards the country that most nonetheless still call home.
The survey of EU nationals from 22 countries, who had mostly been in Britain for more than five years and stayed since Brexit, showed “a profound and lasting impact on the lives and sense of identity and belonging of EU citizens in the UK”, the authors said.
Continue reading...Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul prepare for Mediterranean tsunami
Risk of significant tsunami within next 30 years is nearly 100%, Unesco says, as it urges coastal cities to become ‘tsunami-ready’
A tsunami could soon hit major cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea including Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul, with a nearly 100% chance of a wave reaching more than a metre high in the next 30 years, according to Unesco.
The risk of a tsunami in Mediterranean coastal communities is predicted to soar as sea levels rise. While communities in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where most tsunamis occur, were often aware of the dangers, it was underestimated in other coastal regions, including the Mediterranean, Unesco said.
Continue reading...Vienna reclaims title of the world’s most liveable city
Annual rankings return Austria’s capital to first place, as former title-holder Auckland tumbles to 34th and Ukraine war sees eastern cities slump
The Austrian capital, Vienna, has made a comeback as the world’s most liveable city, according to an annual report from the Economist.
Vienna snatched the top spot from New Zealand city Auckland, which tumbled down to 34th place due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, according to the report by the Economist intelligence unit published on Thursday.
Continue reading...French MP sued for allegedly adopting aristocratic family’s name
Emmanuel Taché de la Pagerie, a member of Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, faces legal action by descendants of the Tascher de la Pagerie family
A newly elected MP for Marine Le Pen’s resurgent far-right National Rally party has been sued by the descendants of one of France’s oldest aristocratic families who accuse him of adding their name to his own.
Emmanuel Taché de la Pagerie, 47, was one of dozens of National Rally MPs voted into the National Assembly on Sunday, with his official ID verified and approved by the local authorities in the southern city of Marseille.
Continue reading...British man facing death sentence in Donetsk told: ‘Time is running out’
Aiden Aslin has been told his execution in Russian-occupied Ukraine will be carried out, his family say
A British man sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court for fighting in Ukraine has been told the execution will be carried out, his family have said.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were sentenced on charges of “terrorism” by a court that is not internationally recognised earlier this month in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Continue reading...Finland’s armed forces chief says his country is prepared for a Russian attack and ready to fight – as it happened
This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
One of the leaders of the authorities imposed in occupied Ukraine has described the border between Russia and Ukraine as “worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans”, according to a report from RIA Novosti.
It quotes Vladimir Rogov saying:
For us, the border with Russia is worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans. According to various estimates, 60-68 per cent of the inhabitants of East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic [East Germany] had relatives in West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany [West Germany]. In Ukraine, depending on the region, 73-85 percent residents have relatives in Russia. Accordingly, this border should not exist.
Continue reading...Russia bears down on Lysychansk, targeting police and judicial buildings
Moscow’s troops move on to city neighbouring Sievierodonetsk, after capturing all but chemical plant there
Sievierodonetsk and its neighbouring city, Lysychansk, continue to be battered by intense Russian shelling as Moscow edges closer to seizing the last pocket of resistance in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.
Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, said on Wednesday that Russian forces were moving towards Lysychansk, targeting the buildings of police, state security and prosecutors.
Continue reading...US woman left traumatised after Malta hospital refuses life-saving abortion
‘Desperate’ tourist who fell foul of country’s total ban fears for her life if complications set in while she waits for transfer to UK
Doctors have denied an American woman on holiday in Malta a potentially life-saving abortion, despite saying her baby had a “zero chance” of survival after she was admitted to hospital with severe bleeding in her 16th week of pregnancy.
Despite an “extreme risk” of haemorrhage and infection, doctors at the Mater Dei hospital in Msida told Andrea Prudente that they would not perform a termination because of the country’s total ban on abortion.
Continue reading...Drone crashes into Russian oil refinery in possible attack
Video shared on social media shows an explosion at the Novoshakhtinsk plant
Dramatic footage has emerged from Russia of what appears to be a drone crashing into an oil refinery and setting off a fiery explosion in what could be an attack inside Russia’s borders.
Video shared on social media showed the unmanned aerial vehicle crashing into the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, in Rostov, in what would be an embarrassing penetration of Russia’s air defence systems in its ongoing war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...EU plan to halve use of pesticides in ‘milestone’ legislation to restore ecosystems
Proposals – the first in 30 years to tackle catastrophic wildlife loss in Europe – include legally binding targets for land, rivers and sea
For the first time in 30 years, legislation has been put forward to address catastrophic wildlife loss in the EU. Legally binding targets for all member states to restore wildlife on land, rivers and the sea were announced today, alongside a crackdown on chemical pesticides.
In a boost for UN negotiations on halting and reversing biodiversity loss, targets released by the European Commission include reversing the decline of pollinator populations and restoring 20% of land and sea by 2030, with all ecosystems to be under restoration by 2050. The commission also proposed a target to cut the use of chemical pesticides in half by 2030 and eradicate their use near schools, hospitals and playgrounds.
Continue reading...Brexit: unilateral action on NI protocol ‘not conducive’ to trade deal, warns US
Exclusive: officials’ comments put paid to idea displeasure with UK is limited to Irish caucus on Capitol Hill
The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020.
Continue reading...Brexit is making cost of living crisis worse, new study claims
EU withdrawal fuelling higher import costs and costing British workers nearly £500 a year, says Resolution Foundation
Britain’s cost of living crisis is being made worse by Brexit dragging down the country’s growth potential and costing workers hundreds of pounds a year in lost pay, new research claims.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank and academics from the London School of Economics said the average worker in Britain was now on course to suffer more than £470 in lost pay each year by 2030 after rising living costs are taken into account, compared with a remain vote in 2016.
Continue reading...