National team shirt features map of Ukraine that includes Russian-annexed Crimea
The head of the Ukrainian football association has caused outrage in Russia by unveiling a new national team shirt emblazoned with a map of Ukraine that includes Crimea.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Moscow considers the peninsula part of Russia, but it is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
Continue reading...A unique ‘pig toilet’ and a diet of organic leftovers are part of former vet Kees Scheepens’ plans to put animal welfare and sustainability first
“Oma, hoi! Hier! Hallooo,” Dr Kees Scheepens, a Dutch farmer known as the “pig whisperer”, is calling his two oldest pigs for some apricot snacks.
Oma or “granny”, a seven-year-old sow, lives with a Berkshire boar called Borough, who’s nine, off a quiet lane in the town of Oirschot, in the south of the Netherlands, on a farm called Hemelrijken – Dutch for “the realms of heaven”.
Continue reading...Data shows increased danger for those on the frontline in the pandemic, with misinformation, scarce vaccines and fragile health systems blamed
Hundreds of healthcare workers treating Covid patients around the world have experienced verbal, physical, and sometimes life-threatening attacks during the pandemic, prompting calls for immediate action from human rights campaigners.
Covid-related attacks on healthcare workers are expected to rise as new variants cause havoc in countries such as India and rollouts of vaccination programmes belatedly get under way in some countries, according to the UN special rapporteur on the right to health.
Continue reading...Red Army soldier David Dushman used his T-34 Soviet tank to mow down the electric fence of the Nazi death camp
David Dushman, the last surviving soldier who took part in the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in 1945, has died at the age of 98.
He died in a Munich clinic on Friday night, the city’s Jewish IKG cultural community said on Sunday, describing him as a liberating “hero of Auschwitz”.
Continue reading...Conservative win in Saxony-Anhalt seen as last big test ahead of national election in September
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fought off a challenge from the far right in a state election on Sunday seen as the last big test for Germany’s political parties before a national vote in September that will end the chancellor’s 16 years atop German politics.
In exit polls the CDU, whose current leader, Armin Laschet, will vie for the top job in September, improved on its 2017 performance to gain 36% of the vote in the eastern state – a result the state premier, Reiner Haseloff, said symbolised “a clear demarcation against the far right”.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson has pledged to give details of how UK will meet its climate targets before Cop26
The German government is backing an extension of EU carbon pricing that will end free carbon permits for airlines, putting pressure on the UK to put in place a similar package to meet climate targets.
The European Commission will propose a dozen climate policies on 14 July, each designed to slash greenhouse gases faster in line with an EU goal to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels.
Continue reading...Artwork in building slated for demolition faces uncertain future, though city has pledged to save it
It all began one February night in 1989. Cesar de Melero was DJing in the Ars Studio club in Barcelona when someone told him that the artist Keith Haring was outside but the doorman wouldn’t let him in.
“The place was packed, so I put on a record and pushed through the crowd,” De Melero told the Guardian. “And there he was with his saintly, innocent face and I told the doorman to let him in and I said to the boss: ‘Champagne for Keith Haring.’”
Continue reading...Ceremony takes place at Ver-sur-Mer for 22,442 soldiers under British command who died during D-day and Battle of Normandy
They fought on the beaches of Normandy, they fought on the landing grounds in the fields and streets and hills. As Winston Churchill had promised, they did not surrender.
On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled.
Continue reading...Joe Biden will use his visit to Europe this week to “rally the world’s democracies” in a reset of US foreign policy after four turbulent years under Donald Trump – all while threats to American democracy, stoked by Trump, proliferate at home.
Related: After Trump: Biden set to outline US policy to Johnson, Putin and more
Continue reading...Victory for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would be a devastating blow for Armin Laschet’s CDU
Germans in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt headed to the polls on Sunday, with the far right posing a tough challenge to Angela Merkel’s conservatives in the final major test before the first general election in 16 years not to feature the veteran chancellor.
Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany’s smallest states with a population of 2.2 million, but with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union running neck-and-neck with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) there, the stakes could not be higher for the regional vote.
Continue reading...Ban on huge vessels passing St Mark’s Square proves to be temporary after liner docks in city for first time in 17 months
Anti-cruise ship campaigners in Venice claim they were “deceived” by the Italian government as hundreds protested against huge vessels docking in the historic city’s port on Saturday.
Residents were caught by surprise on Thursday when a cruise liner sailed into the lagoon city for the first time since the pandemic began, despite prime minister Mario Draghi’s government declaring that the ships would be banned from the historic centre. The 92,000 tonne ship MSC Orchestra collected 650 passengers before leaving for Bari, in southern Italy, on Saturday.
Continue reading...Covid-19 policies risk leaving psychological and socioeconomic scars on millions of young people across Europe, with far-reaching consequences for them and society, a wide-ranging Guardian project has revealed.
Taking a snapshot, the Guardian asked five members of Europe’s Generation Z how the worst global pandemic in a century has affected their lives, what they have learned and how they see their future after the pandemic
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Continue reading...Talks hosted by Rishi Sunak believed to be very close to agreement in principle on global reforms
The G7 group of wealthy nations is close to a historic agreement to radically reshape international tax rules by using a global minimum rate of corporation tax to prevent abuse of the system by multinationals.
Finance ministers from the world’s biggest western economies were negotiating details late on Friday with the aim of reaching a landmark deal early on Saturday as part of talks being held in London.
Continue reading...Tui says half of its passengers booked to visit Portugal in June are still planning to travel
As recriminations continue over the UK government’s decision to remove Portugal from the travel green list, many Britons have decided to press ahead with overseas holiday plans, even if that means going against official advice.
At 4.45pm on Sunday 6 June, Pont-Aven, one of Brittany Ferries’ flagship cruise liners, will leave Plymouth for Santander in Spain – the company’s first sailing on that route for eight months. The UK government says people should not travel to amber list locations such as Spain and advises against all but essential travel to the country – but that has not stopped the company, or the more than 800 people making the trip.
Continue reading...Digital documents to be used to cut post-Brexit paperwork under agreement hailed by Liz Truss as ‘massive boost’
A trade deal struck with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein with provisions for digital paperwork to cut down the time and costs of post-Brexit border bureaucracy has been championed by the international trade secretary, Liz Truss, as a “major boost”.
After months of difficult talks, the comprehensive trade deal was hailed by both the UK and Norwegian governments as being pioneering in its scope and measures, with tariff-free trade in industrial goods secured.
Continue reading...Reinhard Marx tells pope he wants to share responsibility for church’s failure to deal with abuse by clergy
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, one of Germany’s most senior Catholics, has offered his resignation to the pope over the “catastrophe” of sexual abuse by clerics and other church members.
Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising and a prominent liberal, said in a letter to Pope Francis that he wanted to share responsibility for the abuse that had taken place over decades and the failure of the church to deal with it.
Continue reading...Move follows forced landing of Ryanair flight and detention of Raman Pratasevich last month
The EU has banned Belarusian carriers from its airspace and airports over the forced landing of Ryanair flight FR4978 and arrest of the opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich.
EU ambassadors agreed during a meeting on Friday to require member states to deny the country’s carriers landing and taking off rights and forbid them from overflying the territory of the 27 member states from Saturday.
Continue reading...France, Germany, Italy and Spain increase pressure for an end to loopholes that enable multinationals to pay minimal tax
The EU’s four biggest economies have raised the pressure for a landmark agreement to curb tax abuse by multinational companies to be reached at G7 meetings in London on Friday.
Sending a united message in a letter in the Guardian, the finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Spain said a critical moment had been reached to strike a blow against tax avoidance as governments around the world attempt to rebuild from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading...Supporters say Raman Pratasevich’s apparent confession, in which the blogger broke down in tears, was the result of ‘abuse, torture and threats’
Detained journalist Raman Pratasevich appeared on Belarusian state television on Thursday, tearfully confessing to his role in anti-government protests in an interview which the opposition said was made under duress.
In his third appearance since his Ryanair plane was forced to land in Belarus by the authorities on 23 May, Pratasevich admitted to plotting to topple President Alexander Lukashenko by organising “riots” and recanted earlier criticism of the veteran leader.
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