Category Archives: Europe

European region Covid cases jump 10% as WHO calls for Euro 2020 monitoring

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All eyes on Israel, as countries look to see if 85% vaccination rate there will prevent deaths during surge

New Covid cases in the World Health Organization’s 53-country European region rose 10% last week after falling for 10 straight weeks, the body has said, warning of a possible new surge before autumn and calling for more monitoring of Euro 2020 matches.

Infection numbers continue to fall in many parts of the region, including the EU, but Katy Smallwood, WHO Europe’s senior emergencies manager, said some – such as Russia – were recording their highest daily death tolls of the pandemic.

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EU Commission urged to reject Hungary’s Covid recovery plan

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Cross-party group writes to Ursula von der Leyen over fraud, corruption and LGBTQ+ rights concerns

The European Commission is being urged to reject a coronavirus recovery plan for Hungary over concerns about fraud, corruption and the country’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights.

A cross-party group of left and liberal MEPs have written to the Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, demanding she send the Hungarian government back to the drawing board over its spending plans for a €7.2bn (£6.19bn) coronavirus recovery grant.

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Over 50,000 EU citizens scramble to beat UK settled status deadline

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Exclusive: Home Office receives fivefold daily rise in applications as people tell of fear and anger

There was a fivefold surge in applications by EU citizens for UK settled status on Wednesday, with more than 50,000 scrambling to beat the midnight deadline, it has emerged.

Such was the last-minute rush that the Home Office extended the time applications would be accepted to 9am on Thursday.

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Court rejects attempt to reopen investigation into Yasser Arafat’s death

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European court of human rights rules family’s appeal over French hearing is ‘manifestly ill-founded’

The widow and daughter of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have lost an attempt to reopen an investigation into his death in 2004.

Suha El Kodwa Arafat and Zahwa El Kodwa Arafat, who are both French nationals, filed a criminal complaint to the European court of human rights that claimed Arafat had been the victim of premeditated murder.

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Employers warned not to discriminate amid rush for EU settled status

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Citizens told to complain if rights have been breached, as number of applicants surges before deadline

Businesses and public bodies have been warned by the Brexit rights regulator not to discriminate against EU citizens as the new post-Brexit immigration regime enters into force at midnight.

The warnings come as Home Office helplines for EU citizens living in the UK were reported to be “jammed” by a last-minute surge in EU citizens applying to remain in the UK by the midnight deadline. Charity workers helping applicants said they were also struggling to get through to the specialist hotline reserved for advisers.

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Covid tourism freeze could cost global economy $4tn by year end

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Turkey, Ecuador and South Africa will be among hardest hit as pandemic-related losses reach $2.4tn, says UN report

The cost to the global economy of the tourism freeze caused by Covid-19 could reach $4tn (£2.9tn) by the end of this year, a UN body has said, with the varying pace of vaccine rollouts expected to cost developing nations and tourist centres particularly dear.

Nations including Turkey and Ecuador will be among the hardest hit by the severe disruption to international tourism, with holiday favourites such as Spain, Greece and Portugal also badly affected. Pandemic-related losses have reached up to $2.4tn this year, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). The potential lost tourism-related income in 2021 is equivalent to the effect of switching off 85% of the UK economy, while projected losses over 2020 and 2021 could equate to removing Germany from the global economy for two years.

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Putin says he was jabbed with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine

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President endorses domestic vaccine campaign but distances himself from tough measure

Vladimir Putin has for the first time said that he was inoculated with Russia’s own Sputnik V vaccine as he gave a careful endorsement of the country’s floundering campaign while distancing himself from tough new measures designed to pressure more Russians into taking the jabs.

Putin has cut a mercurial figure during the pandemic, intrepidly donning a medical suit to visit a coronavirus hospital last March and then shunning public events for months, prompting ridicule that he was sheltering in a “bunker”.

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Belfast court dismisses legal challenge to Brexit Northern Ireland protocol

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Ruling is boost to UK and EU negotiators who are expected to announce new arrangements

The high court in Belfast has thrown out a legal challenge to the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol.

The ruling is a setback for the applicants including the Democratic Unionist Party and a relief for UK and EU negotiators who are planning to announce a package of new arrangements later on Wednesday aimed at taking the heat out of the current dispute over Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Ireland.

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‘Iconic gay image’: history of sailors and sex explored in Barcelona exhibition

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Catalan city is hosting new show looking at relationships between men who spend their lives at sea

A new exhibition at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona seeks to tell the story of the romantic and sexual reality of men who spend their lives at sea.

El desig és tan fluid com la mar (Desire Flows Like the Sea) aims to evoke the lives of men living in isolation but at close quarters and whose intimate lives were once clandestine out of necessity because homosexuality was and, and in many places still is, considered both a sin and a capital offence.

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Spain backs bill allowing teenagers to change official gender without medical checks

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Equality minister says draft law marks ‘giant step forward for LGBTI rights, particularly trans people’

Spain’s government has approved a draft law that would allow anyone aged 14 and over to change their gender on official documents without the need for hormone treatment or a medical report, and which would also ban conversion practices and strengthen the rights of LGBTI people.

The proposed measures – which follow months of wrangling between the Spanish Socialist Worker’s party (PSOE) and its junior coalition partners in the far-left, anti-austerity Podemos party – would abolish existing legislation that requires people wishing to change their gender to obtain a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and undergo hormone treatment.

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Ireland to delay indoor dining and only allow access to fully vaccinated

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No date agreed for planned reopening as health officials warn of risks of a Delta-driven new wave

Ireland has delayed the reopening of indoor hospitality and plans to limit indoor dining to people who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

The government announced the changes on Tuesday after health officials warned of a possible wave of infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant.

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Greece accused of refugee ‘pushback’ after family avoid being forced off island

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Story of Palestinians who hid on Samos to escape deportation to Turkey appears to be ‘proof’ that pushbacks continue, claim rights groups

On 26 April Dimitris Choulis, an immigration lawyer based on the Greek island of Samos, opened his office door to find a family of four on his doorstep. Aisha*, 31, and her three children, all from Palestine.

“She said ‘pushback,’” said Choulis, “and I understood what had happened.” These were the only people left on the island out of a group of asylum seekers who had arrived from Turkey a few days before.

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‘You can’t cancel Pride’: the fight for LGBTQ+ rights amid the pandemic

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Lockdown hit LGBTQ+ communities hard but even as Pride events are called off there is hope and a promise that the parades will return

This month, for the second year in a row, there was no Pride parade in San Francisco, arguably the city most laden with history and symbolism for the LGBTQ+ community.

It is a decision Fred Lopez, who took over as executive director of San Francisco Pride at the beginning of last year describes as “heartbreaking”.

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Greek police recover two stolen paintings by Picasso and Mondrian

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Works by 20th-century masters found nearly a decade after audacious heist at Athens gallery

A Picasso gifted to the Greek people by the artist in honour of their resistance to Nazi rule has been found in a gorge after a builder admitted to stealing the masterpiece and two other artworks in an audacious heist from the National Gallery in Athens nearly a decade ago.

For nine years, Head of a Woman had lain hidden in the home of the self-described art lover alongside Stammer Windmill, a work by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, also stolen during the overnight raid on 9 January 2012.

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UK and Brussels near deal on Covid passports to boost holiday hopes

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Talks progressing on recognition of status certificates, while German calls for caution failing to win support

Hopes have been raised of summer holidays in Europe for fully vaccinated Britons as a deal with Brussels on Covid passports neared completion and Germany failed to convince popular destinations to pull an “emergency brake” on UK visitors.

Restrictions on travel are tightening across the continent for tourists coming from the UK who have not had two jabs, owing to concerns over the highly transmissible Delta variant now dominant in Britain.

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Italian region bans farm work during hottest hours after Malian worker dies

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Camara Fantamadi died after picking tomatoes in scorching sun – critics question if ban will be respected

Authorities in southern Italy have prohibited outdoor farm work during the hottest hours of the day after the death of a Malian farm worker, but a representative of the African community in Puglia says the ban does not go far enough.

Officials in the region have banned farm work between 12.30pm and 4pm during the hottest days after Camara Fantamadi, a 27-year-old man from Mali, died after picking tomatoes under the scorching sun last Thursday.

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Five key takeaways from France’s regional elections

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Analysis: record low turnout makes it difficult to draw clear lessons but both Macron and Le Pen did badly

France’s regional elections produced a humiliating defeat for Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN), stinging failure for Emmanuel Macron and thumping wins for incumbents from the country’s traditional centre-right and centre-left parties.

A record low turnout of less than 35% makes it hard, however, to draw clear lessons for next year’s presidential elections, in which Macron and Le Pen remain clear frontrunners – although the race has certainly got a lot more interesting.

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Catalonia: threat to impose massive fines on ex-minister prompts outcry

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Dozens of Nobel laureates sign open letter condemning treatment of economist Andreu Mas-Colell

Threats of massive fines against the economist and former Catalan finance minister Andreu Mas-Colell for his alleged role in Catalonia’s failed independence bid in 2017 have prompted international condemnation.

Mas-Colell, 76, who served as finance minister from 2010-16, is among 40 officials, including the former Catalan presidents Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, accused by a tribunal of illegally using €4.8m of public money between 2011 and 2017 to further the cause of independence.

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‘The anxiety is palpable’: EU citizens face looming settled status deadline

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Those submitting last-minute applications for right to stay in UK describe stress of dealing with an overwhelmed system

With just three days to go before the deadline for EU citizens who wish to remain living in the UK to apply for EU settled status (EUSS), applicants have described the stress they are experiencing as they submit last-minute applications or wait to hear from the Home Office about whether their applications have been accepted.

They describe the frustration of trying to get through to a Home Office helpline that is often unable to accept calls because of excessive numbers of people seeking advice; many are worried that they may find themselves in a legal limbo, despite government reassurances to the contrary.

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