Category Archives: Europe

Why does world’s tallest populace seem to be getting shorter?

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Dutch people born in 2001 are not as tall as previous generation – is it genetics, migration or nutrition?

From brutal conflicts to periods of prosperity, pandemics to triumphs for equality, human history is full of highs and lows. But such fluctuations don’t just affect society: the human body can also be a sign of the times.

Studies have shown that our height is not just a matter of genetics but is also influenced by the environment we live in, with key factors including our nutrition and experience of sickness, such as diarrhoea.

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Apple and Google accused of ‘political censorship’ over Alexei Navalny app

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Navalny’s supporters say companies deleted tactical voting app from stores after pressure from Kremlin

Supporters of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have accused Google and Apple of capitulating to Kremlin pressure after the two tech companies deleted his tactical voting app from their online stores.

Both companies had come under significant pressure from Russian regulators in the days before the courntry’s parliamentary elections to block access to Navalny’s Smart Voting initiative, which tries to channel opposition votes toward the strongest opponents of the ruling party, United Russia.

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Case backlog for EU citizens to settle in UK ‘may be cleared by Christmas’

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Figures suggest remaining applications being dealt with by the Home Office stands at 450,000

New government figures suggest the backlog of applications by EU citizens and their families received by the Home Office for the post-Brexit settlement scheme could be cleared by Christmas.

Quarterly figures issued on Thursday showed just over 6.1m applications had been received for the scheme that gives EU citizens, EEA nationals and their families the right to live, work, study or retire in the UK if they were in the country at the time of the EU referendum in 2016.

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Dragons, Nazis and Putin: children put German candidates through wringer

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Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz face their toughest grilling of campaign at the hands of two 11-year-olds

When Germany elects a new government on 26 September the average voter age may be over 50, but a week and a half before polling day it is children who are asking the hard questions of the candidates who want to fill Angela Merkel’s shoes.

Armin Laschet, of the outgoing chancellor’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and Olaf Scholz, of the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), were both left shifting in their seats in what has been hailed as their toughest grilling of the campaign trail – at the hands of two 11-year-olds.

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Pencil drawing of old man identified as Van Gogh work

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Drawing has been in private hands since around 1910 and is now going on display in Amsterdam

A pencil drawing of a broken old man, head in hands looking utterly exhausted, has been identified as a work by Vincent van Gogh.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said on Thursday that it had authenticated the drawing as being the work of the man himself. Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the museum, said it was a “spectacular” discovery shining light on Van Gogh’s early career as an artist living in The Hague, a time less well known than his years in Paris or the south of France.

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Rules on GM farming and cars to be top of UK bonfire of EU laws

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Minister reveals plans to change laws inherited from EU, with rules on medical devices also in crosshairs

Rules on genetically modified farming, medical devices and vehicle standards will be top of a bonfire of laws inherited from the EU as the government seeks to change legislation automatically transferred to the UK after Brexit.

Thousands of laws and regulations are to be reviewed, modified or repealed under a new programme aimed at cementing the UK’s independence and “Brexit opportunities”, David Frost has announced.

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Which countries are enforcing mandatory Covid jabs – and how?

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Joe Biden has introduced a vaccine mandate affecting millions, but some countries have gone further

Following the decision by the US president, Joe Biden, to introduce a vaccine mandate for millions of workers, and the UK government’s decision to row back on its push to require vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded events, where does the issue of insisting on vaccination stand globally?

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‘Stab in the back’: France accuses US of sinking Australia submarine deal – video

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France has expressed fury over Australia’s surprise decision to scrap a huge submarine deal in favour of nuclear-powered subs from the US, describing it as a 'stab in the back' from Canberra and a strain on its friendly relationship with Washington. 'We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed,' said the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian

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It’s not all about populism: grassroots democracy is thriving across Europe | Richard Youngs

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Protests, citizens’ assemblies, local referendums and mutual aid groups are pushing back against attacks on civil society

The past decade has been a bruising one for the health of European democracy. The dramatic authoritarian turns in Hungary and Poland have attracted most attention, but nearly all European governments have chipped away at civil liberties, judicial independence and civil society.

With Covid accentuating many of the challenges posed by populism, disinformation and a collapse in public trust, the narrative of democracy labouring in deep crisis is now well established. Yet as the threats have mounted, so have efforts to defend and rethink Europe’s democratic practices.

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Ryanair plans to carry 225m passengers by 2026 in Covid rebound

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Airline has also said it will create 5,000 new jobs across Europe over five-year period

Ryanair has said itplans to fly an extra 25 million passengers a year by 2026, as the no-frills airline tries to take advantage of the industry’s slow recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Irish airline said it hopes to carry 225 million passengers annually by March 2026, 25 million higher than its previous target of 200 million, as it prepared for its annual meeting in Dublin on Thursday.

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France says it has killed Islamic State leader in Greater Sahara

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Emmanuel Macron claims ‘another major success’ after death of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi

Emmanuel Macron has said French military forces have killed the leader of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, claiming “another major success” in the fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel.

The French president, who recently moved to reduce French troop deployment in the troubled sub-Saharan region amid broad consensus that the intervention was not achieving its aim, gave no further details in his statement on Wednesday night, though he mentioned French casualties.

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In Germany’s election, the fate of the EU is at stake | Timothy Garton Ash

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After Merkel, the incoming coalition will have to prove that democracy can meet Europe’s great challenges


In Brussels last week, I found everyone waiting for Berlin. In Berlin, I found everyone electrified by an unexpectedly wide-open election. One thing, however, is clear: the new German government will be a coalition, and almost certainly of three, rather than two, parties.

That points to the deepest question underlying this pivotal European event: can democracy deliver? More precisely: can the European model of change through democratic consensus, of which Germany is a prime example, produce the actions Europe badly needs if it is to hold its own in the 21st century?

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Fire shuts one of UK’s most important power cables in midst of supply crunch

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Coal plants being warmed up as market prices surge to £2,500 per MWh from a norm of £40

A major fire has forced the shutdown of one of Britain’s most important power cables importing electricity from France as the UK faces a supply crunch and record high market prices.

National Grid was forced to evacuate staff from the site of the IFA high-voltage power cable, which brings electricity from France to a converter station in Kent, where 12 fire engines attended the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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Von der Leyen: EU must acquire ‘political will’ to build own military

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European Commission president’s state of union speech urges bloc to learn lessons from US withdrawal from Afghanistan

The EU must learn the lessons of the abrupt end of the US-led mission in Afghanistan and acquire the “political will” to build up its own military force to deploy to future crises, the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said.

In her annual state of the union speech in the European parliament in Strasbourg, Von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, said the withdrawal of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, and the subsequent collapse of President Ashraf Ghani’s administration, raised troubling questions.

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‘Wine is our livelihood’: locals still recovering from German floods

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Estimated €50m worth of wine has been lost in the Ahr valley since the floods

Tanja Lingen barely dares to think about the night her two sons went into the family vineyard cellar to salvage what they could of the supplies and equipment as waters from the nearby river Ahr rose to dangerous levels.

“They removed the fermentation airlocks on the oak barrels and replaced them with tight plastic stoppers just in the nick of time,” she says. They even had the presence of mind to film the dramatic scene, by chance capturing the fast disappearing chalk markings on the barrels which meant it was possible to identify what was in them.

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Spain cuts soaring energy bills with emergency measures

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Government expects to redirect €2.6bn from firms to consumers in next six months, with average monthly bill falling by 22%

Spain’s government has passed emergency measures to reduce sky-high energy bills by redirecting billions of euros in extraordinary profits from energy companies to consumers and capping increases in gas prices.

In the first such broad response in Europe, where wholesale prices have doubled in a year, Spain plans to limit the profits that energy companies using hydropower and other renewable power generators can make from surging electricity prices.

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Putin self-isolates after coronavirus found in entourage

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Russian president is not sick but will no longer hold in-person meetings this week, says Kremlin

Vladimir Putin has gone into self-isolation because of an outbreak of coronavirus in his entourage, the Kremlin has announced.

Although the Russian president was not sick, a Kremlin spokesperson told journalists, he would cease holding in-person meetings and would not travel to Dushanbe this week for summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Collective Security Treaty Organization.

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Leaked EU anti-deforestation law omits fragile grasslands and wetlands

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Campaigners say draft regulation contains many loopholes, including exclusion of Cerrado and Pantanal

The fragile Cerrado grasslands and the Pantanal wetlands, both under threat from soy and beef exploitation, have been excluded from a European Union draft anti-deforestation law, campaigners have said, and there are many other concerning loopholes.

The European Commission has pledged to introduce a law aimed at preventing beef, palm oil and other products linked to deforestation from being sold in the EU single market of 450 million consumers. But campaigners said a leaked impact assessment reveals “significant omissions” in the plans, including the exclusion of endangered grasslands and wetlands, as well as products that raise environmental concerns, such as rubber and maize.

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‘Time to take sides’: post-Merkel era needs radical new direction, says study

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German chancellor’s consensus-building approach no longer sustainable in crisis-hit Europe, report says

After 15 years of “Merkelism” the German chancellor’s neutral, consensus-building approach means many Europeans accept her country as the EU’s leader – but post-Angela Merkel Berlin will have to radically change tack, according to a study.

“Angela Merkel has come to embody a strong and stable Germany, positioning herself as Europe’s anchor though more than a decade of crises,” said Piotr Buras, the co-author of the report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

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Norway election result: Labour celebrates but coalition talks loom

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Labour’s Jonas Gahr Støre on course to be prime minister after Conservative incumbent concedes defeat but faces hard choices on picking allies

Norway’s Conservative prime minister Erna Solberg has conceded defeat to the left-leaning opposition after a general election campaign dominated by questions about the future of the key oil industry in western Europe’s largest producer.

“The Conservative government’s work is finished for this time around,” Solberg told supporters on Monday. “I want to congratulate Jonas Gahr Støre, who now seems to have a clear majority for a change of government.”

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