Category Archives: Europe

Eight killed in two days after third deadly avalanche hits Austria

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58-year-old local man dies as heavy snowfall followed by warm weather makes for dangerous conditions

One person was killed and four others injured in an avalanche in western Austria on Saturday, police said, a day after two other avalanches killed seven skiers as heavy snowfall followed by warmer weather made for unusually dangerous conditions.

Austrian broadcaster ORF said the person killed in Saturday’s avalanche in the municipality of Schmirn, in the state of Tirol, was a 58-year-old local man.

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‘It’s a rubbish bin’: Parisians fight for the soul of their blighted city

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Angry residents have rallied to a campaign against the ‘trashing’ of the capital. Some blame mayor Anne Hidalgo while others see the protests as a far-right ploy

In the middle of Paris’s third Covid lockdown last March, a hashtag appeared on Twitter with a photo of a lock on the Canal Saint-Martin that runs through the north of the city clogged with litter, plastic bags and bottles.

Images of Paris looking worse for wear are nothing new but, within days, dozens of pictures of overflowing bins, broken pavements and graffiti-covered walls appeared with the same hashtag – #SaccageParis – which roughly translates as Trashed Paris.

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Trial of protesters against Beijing Olympics postponed in Greece

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Lawyers say delay in case against three defendants including a Briton is to avoid embarrassing China

The trial in Greece of activists who protested against Beijing holding the Winter Olympics has been postponed amid accusations that proceedings were delayed to avoid embarrassing China on the eve of the Games.

The highly anticipated hearing had been due to take place on Thursday in the town of Pyrgos, with human rights lawyers travelling from the UK and Athens to attend. The activists, who included a Briton, an American and a Tibetan-Canadian, were arrested when they briefly disrupted the Olympic flame lighting ceremony in October.

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Flying high: how a photo of a Syrian father and son led to a new life in Italy

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A tender moment captured by Mehmet Aslan of Munzir al-Nazzal and his son, both survivors of the Syrian war, prompted Italian organisations to act. A year on, they are settling into life in Tuscany

In January last year, while working on the Turkish-Syrian border, photojournalist Mehmet Aslan photographed a Syrian man, Munzir al-Nazzal, who had lost a leg in a bomb attack. Munzir was playing with Mustafa, his 5-year-old son, who was born without limbs, and the shot portrayed the father, propped up on a crutch, raising his smiling child into the air.

Aslan entitled his photograph Hardship of Life.

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Avalanche in Austria kills five near Swiss border

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Rescue workers in Tyrol searching for survivor, as five others rescued after being buried at ski resort

An avalanche in Austria’s Tyrol province has killed five people on an unusually dangerous day in the Alps after heavy snowfall was followed by warmer weather.

“Unfortunately five people lost their lives,” a rescue official said on Friday.

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Iceland to end whaling in 2024 as demand dwindles

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Japan’s return to commercial whaling in 2019 has left few buyers for Iceland’s meat

Iceland, one of the only countries that still hunts whales commercially, along with Norway and Japan, plans to end whaling from 2024 as demand dwindles, the fisheries minister has said.

“There are few justifications to authorise the whale hunt beyond 2024,” when current quotas expire, Svandis Svavarsdóttir, a member of the Left Green party, wrote in Morgunblaðið newspaper.

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Xi and Putin urge Nato to rule out expansion as Ukraine tensions rise

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Chinese and Russian leaders call on west to abandon ‘cold war’ approach at pre-Olympic meeting

China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia have signed a joint statement calling on the west to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”, as the two leaders showcased their warming relationship in Beijing at the start of the Winter Olympics.

The politicans also said the bonds between the two countries had “no limits”. “[T]here are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation’,” they declared.

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Costa’s win in Portugal continues comeback by Europe’s centre-left

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Analysis: Social democratic parties that have adapted to the political landscape are winning elections again

The unexpected triumph of António Costa’s Socialist party in Portugal’s elections this week continues a cautious comeback by Europe’s centre-left – and, analysts say, may hold some lessons in what remains a mixed picture for the continent’s social democrats.

After wins last autumn by Germany’s SPD and Norway’s Labour party, the Portuguese prime minister’s unexpected victory – with 41.7% of the vote, five points up on 2019 – was further good news for a movement that five years ago looked in terminal decline.

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Record Covid cases in Russia and Ukraine complicate military plans

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Spread of Omicron variant cited as another factor that could determine whether Moscow launches offensive

The Omicron variant is causing record numbers of new Covid infections in Russia and Ukraine, threatening to impact military calculations over Russia’s continued troop buildup.

Analysts have cited various factors as possible contributors to whether and how Russia will launch an assault on Ukraine, ranging from Vladimir Putin’s psychological state to the strength of the western response and even the firmness of the ground during a mild winter in the region.

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EU plans to ban use of synthetic pesticides in parks

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UK urged to follow suit as Brussels draws up proposal to cut overall use of the chemicals by 50%

The use of synthetic pesticides in parks and other green public spaces in urban areas is to be banned in the EU, with member states obliged to cut overall use by 50%, according to a leaked draft regulation.

The move is said by the European Commission to be necessary owing to the failure of a number of EU member states to act on previous guidance on reducing the use of chemical pest control.

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In too deep: the epic, doomed journey of Europe’s first narco-submarine

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Former boxer Agustín Álvarez jailed for piloting a sub carrying 3,000kg of cocaine across the Atlantic

Twenty-eight months after it began in a clandestine shipyard deep in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the more unlikely criminal voyages of all time came to an end on Tuesday with the seven sentences handed down by a court in north-west Spain.

Agustín Álvarez, a 31-year-old former Spanish amateur boxing champion, was jailed for 11 years for piloting a semi-submersible “narco-submarine” carrying 3,068kg of cocaine worth an estimated €123m (£104m) across the Atlantic. His two crewmates, Ecuadorian cousins Luis Tomás Benítez Manzaba and Pedro Roberto Delgado Manzaba, received the same sentence, while four Spaniards who conspired with Álvarez to help guide the sub ashore were jailed for between seven and nine years.

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‘We want the truth’: families of ethnic Pamiris killed in Tajikistan call for justice as tensions rise

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Urgent protection for minority groups facing increased repression needed in crisis connected to escalating clashes across central Asian ex-Soviet region, say human rights groups

Parents of men killed by Tajikistan forces have called on the international community to step in and urgently protect ethnic groups being targeted by the Tajik regime.

In a rare interview, families from the Pamiri ethnic minority have demanded that soldiers who killed their sons be brought to justice and urged the UN to prevent a new phase of conflict in Tajikistan, a landlocked country in central Asia.

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Ministers accused of failing to stem flow of Russian ‘dirty money’ into UK

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Anti-corruption activists criticise government inaction in face of years of Kremlin provocation

Britain’s efforts to halt the flow of Russian “dirty money” into the UK have been called into question in the aftermath of a threat by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to hit Kremlin-linked oligarchs with economic sanctions if Ukraine is attacked.

Labour and anti-corruption campaigners this week accused the government of failing to curtail Russian wealth and influence in Britain, despite years of provocative actions from the Kremlin.

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‘Almost invisible’: Germans lose patience with Olaf Scholz as he hesitates on Ukraine

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The new chancellor has faced criticism abroad for his stance, and is now coming under fire at home

Germany’s new chancellor Olaf Scholz is waving goodbye to the honeymoon period of his tenure, as his “inaudible” stance over the brewing crisis on the Ukrainian border is failing to impress not just Russia-hawks abroad but also more ambivalent voters at home.

Scholz, whose liberal-left “traffic light” coalition was sworn in less than two months ago, has been criticised by Kyiv and other east-central European capitals for sticking to his country’s restrictive stance on weapons export to crisis regions and looking slow to spell out the potential sanctions that could be triggered by a Russian invasion into Ukraine.

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Russia plans ‘very graphic’ fake video as pretext for Ukraine invasion, US claims

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Officials say they have evidence of plot to mock up scenes of attack using corpses, Turkish-made drones and actors playing mourners

US officials claim they have evidence of a Russian plan to make a “very graphic” fake video of a Ukrainian attack as a pretext for an invasion.

The alleged plot would involve using corpses, footage of blown-up buildings, fake Ukrainian military hardware, Turkish-made drones and actors playing the part of Russian-speaking mourners.

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Russia to expel German broadcaster after RT blocked in Germany

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Deutsche Welle boss says retaliation by Moscow, including closure of its bureau, is ‘total overreaction’

Russia is to expel the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) in retaliation for a German ban on broadcasts by Russia’s RT.

The foreign ministry said the press credentials of DW’s correspondents would be revoked, its bureau in Russia closed, and its German-language broadcasts would be banned from Russian satellite television in the near future. It said this was the first stage of its “retaliatory measures”.

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‘We will defend our country’: Ukraine’s border guards brace for Russian assault

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While some locals at Belarusian border see no cause for concern, troops and tanks are ready to swing into action

Standing next to the snowy Belarusian border, Vladyslav Gorban showed off Ukraine’s latest defences against Russian attack. New wooden posts topped with coils of gleaming razor wire ran alongside a slush-covered road. There was a shallow defensive ditch, dug some time ago, and a yellow and blue customs post. Plus a dog, used to sniff out narcotics.

Gorban, a border guard, admitted Russian tanks would be able to smash through this flimsy ensemble of barricades and continue towards Kyiv, 140 miles away. But he had a warning. “If the Russians come, they can expect a nasty surprise,” he said, hinting at the new portable anti-tank weapons sent by the UK to Ukraine’s embattled pro-western government.

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Covid: Europe set for ‘long period of tranquillity’ in pandemic, says WHO

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Vaccinations, milder Omicron and arrival of spring should keep death rate low as cases rise to all time high

Europe could soon enter a “long period of tranquillity” that amounts to a “ceasefire” in the pandemic thanks to the less severe Omicron variant, high levels of immunity and the arrival of warmer spring weather, the World Health Organization has said.

In an upbeat assessment, Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Europe director, said the region was in a position of “higher protection” that could “bring us enduring peace”, even if a new, more virulent variant than Omicron should emerge.

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Xi-Putin summit: Russia inches closer to China as ‘new cold war’ looms

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Fifty years after Nixon and Mao’s historic handshake, the geopolitical world order is again being reshaped

When the leaders of China and Russia meet in Beijing this Friday shortly before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, observers of the bilateral relationship will be looking for insights into how this 21st century quasi-alliance is reshaping the postwar world order.

It was 50 years ago this month, on 21 February 1972, that the historic handshake between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong changed the geometry of the cold war. Historians called the visit “the week that changed the world”. It later influenced Washington’s subsequent movement towards détente with Moscow.

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Halt to Northern Ireland Brexit checks ‘a breach of international law’

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Ireland’s European commissioner criticises decision by DUP minister affecting food and animal imports

A decision by a Democratic Unionist minister to halt all Brexit checks on food and animals entering Northern Ireland has been described by Ireland’s European commissioner as “an absolute breach of international law”.

The move announced by the devolved administration’s agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, on Wednesday has been branded an electioneering stunt by opposition parties in Northern Ireland and has set the UK on a collision course with the EU.

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