Category Archives: Europe

EU wants to mass produce three ‘course-changing’ Covid drugs from October

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Health commissioner says plan is to reduce hospitalisation and tackle long-term impact of Covid

Three Covid medicines with the potential to “change the course” of the pandemic will be authorised for mass production and use in the EU by October under a European Commission plan.

Stella Kyriakides, the commissioner for health, said such a move would reduce hospitalisation and tackle the long-term impact of Covid, with one in 10 people reporting symptoms 12 weeks after infection.

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American students jailed for life for murder of police officer in Rome

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Jury convicts Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, over knife killing committed in 2019

Two American students have been sentenced to life in prison by a Rome court for the murder of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega.

After almost 13 hour of deliberation, a jury convicted Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, of murdering Cerciello Rega, who had only just returned to duty after his honeymoon when he was stabbed to death, aged 35, on a street in central Rome in July 2019.

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UK sends navy vessels to Jersey amid post-Brexit fishing row with France

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Boris Johnson dispatches two gunboats to protect island from feared blockade

Boris Johnson has dispatched two Royal Navy patrol boats to protect Jersey from a feared blockade by French fishing vessels, in an escalation of a dispute over post-Brexit access to waters around the Channel island.

The move followed talks on Wednesday evening between the prime minister and the chief minister of the British crown dependency, John Le Fondré, who had warned Downing Street of imminent movements by French fishing boats to cut off the island’s main port.

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Liechtenstein prince accused of shooting Romania’s largest bear

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Environmental groups say Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein shot bear, named Arthur, in a protected area

Environmental groups have accused a prince from Liechtenstein’s royal family of shooting and killing the largest bear in Romania, in contravention of a ban on the trophy hunting of large carnivores.

The Romanian NGO Agent Green and the Austrian NGO VGT alleged in a statement that the bear, who was called Arthur, was shot in March in a protected area of the Carpathian Mountains by Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein.

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The Guardian’s coverage of Europe in the first week of its founding, 5 May 1821

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On 5 May 1821, the paper reported on revolutions in Naples and Sardinia as well as events in Moldavia, Odessa and Portugal

The hopes which were entertained, at the period when our prospectus was issued, with respect to the revolutions at Naples, and in Piedmont, have since been fatally disappointed, and the termination of the contest almost with a struggle on the part of the Neapolitans, of the Piedmontese, has afforded to the enemies of popular rights, opportunity for a sneer. It was not to be supposed that the forces of Naples, or of Piedmont, separated, or even united could cope with the armies of Austria, particularly when supported, as in the case of their receiving even a momentary check they would have been, and as in point of fact they still appear likely to, by those of Russia.

Related: The Guardian’s first ever edition – annotated

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Jersey hits back at ‘disproportionate’ French threat to cut electricity

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Paris threatens to take retaliatory measures in row over post-Brexit licences for French fishing boats

Jersey has accused France of making “disproportionate” threats after Paris warned it could cut off electricity to the island in a row over post-Brexit fishing rights.

The maritime minister, Annick Girardin, warned on Tuesday France was ready to take “retaliatory measures” after accusing the Channel Island of dragging its feet over issuing new licences to French boats.

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Tory quarrels determined UK’s post-Brexit future, says Barnier

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Revealed: EU chief negotiator’s diaries, The Great Illusion, give blow-by-blow account of moves behind UK’s departure

Britain’s post-Brexit future was determined by “the quarrels, low blows, multiple betrayals and thwarted ambitions of a certain number of Tory MPs”, the EU’s chief negotiator has said in his long-awaited diaries.

The UK’s early problem, writes Michel Barnier in The Great Illusion, his 500-page account, was that they began by “talking to themselves. And they underestimate the legal complexity of this divorce, and many of its consequences.”

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Revealed: 2,000 refugee deaths linked to illegal EU pushbacks

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A Guardian analysis finds EU countries used brutal tactics to stop nearly 40,000 asylum seekers crossing borders

EU member states have used illegal operations to push back at least 40,000 asylum seekers from Europe’s borders during the pandemic, methods being linked to the death of more than 2,000 people, the Guardian can reveal.

In one of the biggest mass expulsions in decades, European countries, supported by EU’s border agency Frontex, has systematically pushed back refugees, including children fleeing from wars, in their thousands, using illegal tactics ranging from assault to brutality during detention or transportation.

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France still split over Napoleon as it marks bicentenary of death

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President to tread fine line as he lays a wreath to ‘commemorate rather than celebrate’ anniversary

On 5 May 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in a surprisingly small bed surrounded by his French coterie in exile in a damp and reportedly rat-infested house on the British island of Saint Helena.

His last words, uttered shortly before he expired around 5.59pm local time were relayed back: “La France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine …” (France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine). He was 51.

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EU ‘suspends’ ratification of China investment deal after sanctions

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Massive trade agreement stalls after tit-for-tat sanctions prompted by Chinese policy in Xinjiang

The European Commission has said that efforts to ratify a massive investment deal with China have been in effect suspended after tit-for-tat sanctions were imposed over China’s treatment of its Uyghur population in March.

“We now in a sense have suspended … political outreach activities from the European Commission side,” said the commission’s executive vice-president, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Tuesday. He said that the current state of relations between Brussels and Beijing was “not conducive” for the ratification of the deal, which is known as EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment.

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People’s party wins Madrid snap election but fails to get majority

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Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s conservatives take 65 of 136 seats and will need support of far-right Vox party

Spain’s conservative People’s party has won a resounding victory but fallen just short of an absolute majority in a Madrid regional election dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and marked by a bitter and deeply polarised campaign.

The PP, led by incumbent regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, won 65 seats in the 136-seat regional assembly, more than doubling its tally in the 2019 regional election and taking more seats than all three leftwing parties combined. However, its failure to cross the majority threshold of 69 seats means it will now have to rely on the help of the far-right Vox party to form a new government.

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France threatens to cut off power to Jersey in post-Brexit fishing row

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French minister raises electricity supply as point of leverage in dispute over access to UK waters

The French government could cut off the electricity supply to Jersey in an escalating row over post-Brexit fishing rights, a French minister has suggested.

Responding to questions in the national assembly, Annick Girardin, the minister for maritime affairs, said she was “revolted” by the UK government’s behaviour over its waters and France was ready to retaliate.

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German society ‘brutalised’ as far-right crimes hit record levels

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Police recorded almost 24,000 far-right crimes last year – the highest level since records began

Germany’s interior minister has said that a dramatic rise in rightwing extremist crime demonstrates a “brutalisation” of society and poses the biggest threat to the country’s stability.

Horst Seehofer said politically motivated crime in general was a growing problem, pledging more police surveillance of protest groups as a result.

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Farmer moves border stone for tractor – and makes Belgium bigger

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French farmer could theoretically face criminal charges for moving 200-year-old marker

The boundary between France and Belgium is believed to have been inadvertently redrawn by a farmer who found the 200-year-old border stone marking the divide in an inconvenient location for his tractor.

The French farmer could theoretically face criminal charges after making Belgium bigger by moving the stone that has marked the border since after the defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.

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Melting ice reveals first world war relics in Italian Alps

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Accelerating retreat of glaciers in Lombardy and Trentino Alto-Aldige reveals preserved history of ‘White War’

The soldiers dug the wooden barracks into a cave on the top of Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10,154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass. For the next three-and-a-half years, the cramped, humid space was home to about 20 men from the Austro-Hungarian army as they fought against Italian troops in what became known as the White War, a battle waged across treacherous and bitterly cold Alpine terrain during the first world war.

Fought mainly in the Alps of the Lombardy region of Italy and the Dolomites in Trentino Alto-Adige, the White War was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global warming started to reveal an assortment of perfectly preserved relics – weapons, sledges, letters, diaries and, as the retreat of glaciers hastened, the bodies of soldiers.

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UK likely to give green light for travel to fewer than 10 EU countries

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Traffic light system to be used cautiously despite European plan to let in Covid-vaccinated tourists from June

Britons’ summer holiday plans were given a major boost on Monday, as the EU confirmed vaccinated travellers will be able to fly to Europe from June, though it’s understood the UK could give the green light to travel to fewer than 10 countries.

The changing quarantine requirements for popular holiday destinations looks set to make 2021 the year of the last-minute booking.

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German police shut one of world’s biggest darknet child abuse images sites

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Boystown platform had membership of more than 400,000 international subscribers

An online platform said to be one of the largest websites for child sexual abuse images in the world has been closed down by German police after a lengthy investigation.

The Boystown platform, which had a membership of more than 400,000 international subscribers and was active for almost two years, was accessible only via the darknet, a component of the wider internet for which special software is needed. It was used for the swapping and sharing of images and films, mainly of boys, according to investigators from Germany’s federal investigative police force (BKA).

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UK dairy firms try to count the cost of churn in post-Brexit trade

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Country Milk’s trade with the EU has nosedived with the dairy industry particularly badly affected by new customs rules

A small error in the paperwork – a box ticked by mistake – and the tanker of butter oil was held at French customs for five days, with veterinary authorities at the border threatening to destroy it. The debacle nearly cost the tanker’s exporter, dairy company County Milk, a six-figure sum. After fraught negotiations, the cargo was eventually repatriated.

“You don’t need too many of those to be destroyed and you are in dire straits,” says Phil Langslow, trading director at County Milk, the UK’s largest privately owned dairy ingredients business.

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‘Stark contrast’: how Covid pass is helping Denmark open up

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The ‘coronapas’ has enabled places such as bars, restaurants and museums to welcome people back

Outside Forum, a concert venue turned coronavirus test centre in Copenhagen’s university district, the queue was starting to build up before a sunny Labour Day weekend.

As he waited, Casper Beckers, 25, was monitoring the WhatsApp group where the night’s festivities were being planned, starting with a board game bar, then cocktails.

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‘We’re all Ayuso’: lockdown sceptic poised for victory in Madrid election

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Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s mix of bluntness, defiance and appeals to far-right voters appears set to pay off

The late lunchers who linger over coffee and wine on the terraces of Calle Ponzano, Madrid, sit beneath banners bemoaning the neighbourhood’s noise levels and among posters bearing the capital’s most ubiquitous face.

From the windows of many of the bars and restaurants that line the bustling street – and from the walls of metro stations across they city – stare the eyes of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, regional president of Madrid, scourge of Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition government, and unofficial patron saint of a hefty proportion of the region’s hospitality industry. Her campaign posters and letters feature little more than her image and the single word libertad. Freedom.

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