Category Archives: Europe

Torture photos added to evidence in trial of alleged Dutch drug kingpin

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Images show woman who looks like smuggler known as Godmother of the Coke, who disappeared in 2019

Photographs found on a phone showing the torture of a woman believed to be a Moroccan-Dutch drug smuggler nicknamed the Godmother of the Coke have been added to the prosecution’s evidence against a suspected drug kingpin in his trial in Amsterdam for multiple murders.

Three disturbing images of a woman who bears a close resemblance to Naima Jillal, who disappeared in 2019, were reportedly found on a BlackBerry when Ridouan Taghi was arrested three years ago in Dubai.

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Ukraine apologises after backlash over Hirohito image in anti-fascism video

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Wartime emperor removed from video on Russia’s invasion, which also featured Hitler and Mussolini, after angry reaction from Japan

Ukraine’s government has apologised after it included a photograph of Japan’s wartime emperor, Hirohito, in an anti-fascism video alongside images of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Officials removed Hirohito from the video after pressure from the Japanese government, which has imposed sanctions on Russia, provided $300m (£235m) in loans for Ukraine and accepted hundreds of refugees.

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Spanish royal palace reveals personal assets of King Felipe VI to be €2.6m

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Felipe renounced inheritance from his father, Juan Carlos, who abdicated after financial scandals

Spain’s royal palace has unveiled King Felipe VI’s personal wealth for the first time, saying it amounted to €2.6m (£2.2m).

The announcement late on Monday came as Spain’s leftist government said it would pass a decree to “strengthen the transparency, accountability, efficiency” of the scandal-hit royal household “in line with the principles that have presided” during Felipe’s reign.

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Trump to be fined $10,000 a day after New York judge finds him in contempt – as it happened

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A New York judge on Monday held former president Donald Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents in the state attorney general’s civil probe into his business practices, Reuters reports.

The decision relates to Trump’s non-compliance in a case brought by New York state attorney general Letitia James.

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Pentagon chief’s Russia remarks show shift in US’s declared aims in Ukraine

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Defense secretary Lloyd Austin said he ‘wants to see Russia weakened’ – a sign Washington now defines its goals differently

The US defense secretary’s declaration that Washington wanted to see Russia weakened militarily and unable to recover quickly, marks a shift in Washington’s declared aims underlying its military support for Ukraine.

At a press conference in Poland after a surprise visit to Kyiv, Lloyd Austin was asked if he would now define US goals differently from those set out soon after the Russian invasion. In response, he started out with the established administration line about helping Ukraine retain its sovereignty and defend its territory.

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Investigation opened into claims of abuse on Dutch version of The Voice

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Accusations of ‘sexually transgressive behaviour’ and abuse of power cast shadow over original version of popular talent show

Dutch prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into sexual abuse allegations around the talent show The Voice of Holland, saying four suspects are under investigation.

Accusations of “sexually transgressive behaviour” and abuse of power rocked the Netherlands in January, in the country’s first major #MeToo scandal.

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Russia bombs five railway stations in central and western Ukraine

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Casualties unknown after morning airstrikes fell within an hour of each other, say officials

Five railway stations in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian airstrikes in the space of an hour on Monday, as the war ground on relentlessly in the south and east of the country.

Oleksander Kamyshin, the head of Ukrainian Railways, said five train stations came under fire, causing an unspecified number of casualties, as most of Ukraine was placed under an unusually long air raid warning for two hours on Monday morning.

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Russia-Ukraine war: about 15,000 Russian troops killed since start of invasion, says UK; Nato is ‘in essence engaged in war with Russia’, says Lavrov – live

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UK defence secretary says, alongside death toll, Russians have lost over 2,000 armoured vehicles; Russian foreign minister says western weapons are a ‘legitimate target’

The visit of US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to Kyiv had been kept tightly under wraps in advance for security reasons. Some images from the meeting have been sent to us via the newswires.

The US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has just been speaking to the media at the Poland-Ukraine border. He has been meeting officials from Ukraine. He told reporters:

Our focus in the meeting was to talk about those things that would enable us to win the current battle and also build for tomorrow. We talked about security force assistance. And we talked about training.

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Large fires break out at Russian oil depots near Ukraine border

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Russian state media reports fires at civilian and military depots in Bryansk, which are potentially an act of sabotage by Kyiv

Large fires broke out early on Monday at two oil depots in the Russian city of Bryansk near the border with Ukraine, in a potential act of sabotage by Kyiv.

Russian state media said the first fire occurred at a civilian facility in Bryansk holding 10,000 tons of fuel, followed by a second fire at a military fuel depot holding 5,000 tons.

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Germany’s SPD calls on Gerhard Schröder to quit party over Russia links

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Former chancellor says he has no intention of resigning his seats on boards of Russian energy firms

The co-leader of Germany’s Social Democratic party (SPD) has urged the former chancellor Gerhard Schröder to hand in his party membership after he made clear in an interview that he had no intention to resign from his seats on the boards of Russian energy companies over the war in Ukraine.

Schröder, who was Germany’s head of government from 1998 to 2005, presides over the board of the Russian oil company Rosneft and is chairman of the shareholder committee of pipeline company Nord Stream.

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Evidence some Ukrainian women raped before being killed, say doctors

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Forensic specialists carrying out autopsies north of Kyiv say they ‘still have hundreds of bodies to examine’

Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv say they have found evidence some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces.

“We already have a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death,” said Vladyslav Pirovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor who with a team of coroners has carried out dozens of autopsies on residents from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka who died during Russia’s month-long occupation of the area.

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EU unveils plan for ‘largest ever ban’ on dangerous chemicals

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Up to 12,000 substances could fall within the scope of the new ‘restrictions roadmap’

Thousands of potentially harmful chemicals could soon be prohibited in Europe under new restrictions, which campaigners have hailed as the strongest yet.

Earlier this year, scientists said chemical pollution had crossed a “planetary boundary” beyond which lies the breakdown of global ecosystems.

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US pledges extra $713m for Ukraine war effort and to weaken Russia

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Moscow complains about US military aid as Washington promises more support, including advanced weapons

Russia should be “weakened to the point where it can’t invade Ukraine”, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said after he and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, visited Kyiv and pledged a further $713m to help Ukraine in its war effort.

The direct comment came a few hours after the two senior US figures met with with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy – and was followed by Russia making an official diplomatic complaint about American arms supplies.

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French election 2022: live second round results

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Emmanuel Macron has beaten Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff and will serve another term as president of France. Reliable projections put Macron on course for 58% to Le Pen’s 41%. Find out how the race is unfolding live department by department.

Live coverage and reaction

The election on Sunday 24 April is a runoff to decide between the first two candidates from the first round of voting on 10 April. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen topped that earlier poll.

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French election live: Macron vows to unite divided France after victory over Le Pen – as it happened

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President’s victory against Le Pen was significantly narrower than five years ago, scoring an estimated 58.8% of the vote

Both candidates are now back in Paris from their northern constituencies, French media report.

Macron is ensconced in the Élysée Palace on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and will later join his campaign team near the Eiffel Tower. Le Pen is at her campaign headquarters in the west of Paris.

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Ukrainian cities take heavy shelling as top US officials meet Zelenskiy in Kyiv

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As Russia and Ukraine mark Orthodox Easter, Russia continues assault with Zelenskiy set to request more weapons from US

Russian forces continued heavy shelling of Ukrainian cities on Sunday as people in both countries observed Orthodox Easter and the US secretaries of state and defence made their first visit to Kyiv since the invasion.

Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv and were holding talks with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said on Sunday in a social media video.

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Opposition Slovenian liberal party on course for landslide win, say exit polls

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Freedom Movement predicted to have won 35.8% of parliamentary election vote over populist PM Janez Janša

Exit polls in Slovenia’s parliamentary election suggest an opposition liberal party won by a landslide, dealing a major defeat to the populist prime minister, Janez Janša, who has been accused of pushing the small EU country to the right while in office.

The Sunday polls showed that Freedom Movement won 35.8% support, compared with 22.5% for the ruling conservative Slovenian Democratic party.

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What’s in Emmanuel Macron’s intray after his re-election as French president?

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Macron faces a second term at least as challenging as his first, if not more so

Assured of another five years in the Élysée after beating his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, on Sunday, Emmanuel Macron faces a second term at least as challenging as his first, if not more so. Here we look at some of the key challenges and priorities of the re-elected president:

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Russia-Ukraine war: Blinken and Austin in Kyiv for Zelenskiy talks, says adviser – live

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin visit Kyiv as Russian invasion enters third month

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the latest developments in Ukraine with me, Sarah Haque.

It is 11am, and this morning the sun came out as Ukrainians marked Orthodox Easter in the capital, Kyiv, with prayers for those fighting on the front lines and others trapped in places like Mariupol.

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