Category Archives: Europe

‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy

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The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian

Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.

Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war.

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EU could block millions of Covid vaccine doses from entering UK

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European commission says new mechanism will give national regulators power to refuse exports

Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine could be blocked from entering Britain from the EU within days after Brussels said it had to respond to shortages emerging in member states.

Following reports of a lack of doses across the bloc, the European commission announced plans to give national regulators the power to reject export requests. The development raises concerns over the continued flow of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, for which the UK has a 40m-dose order, from its plant in Belgium.

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‘Keep me in handcuffs’: Navalny denounces criminal proceedings

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Kremlin critic will remain in jail until parole hearing next week where he could be sent to penal colony

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has denounced the criminal proceedings against him, telling a Russian court via a video link from jail that while it had the power now to “keep me in handcuffs … that situation is not going to continue for ever”.

As a Moscow appeal hearing has rejected calls to release him from jail and investigators charged Navalny’s top aides in a series of inquiries meant to disrupt the protest movement that has arisen in his support, he told the court he believed the proceedings were part of a campaign to intimidate the opposition.

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Why has Germany advised against Oxford/AstraZeneca jab for over-65s?

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Explainer: Move attributed to ‘insufficient data’ but experts say no evidence vaccine doesn’t work

German authorities have advised that the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab should not be given to those aged 65 or above. We take a look at why, and what experts make of it.

Why has Germany advised the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab should only be used in adults under 65?

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Germany to push on with Covid travel ban plan as EU tries to coordinate rules

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Berlin planning to ban travel from UK, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to stop spread of variants

Germany is planning a near-total ban on travellers from Britain, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa as European governments increasingly move to bar entry from countries where more contagious Covid-19 variants are rampant.

Berlin’s initiative came as EU interior ministers met to discuss a more coordinated approach to international travel restrictions.

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Refugee rights ‘under attack’ at Europe’s borders, UN warns

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Agency says violent pushback policies are continuing despite number of arrivals falling by nearly a quarter last year

The right to asylum is coming under increasing attack at Europe’s borders, the UN’s refugee body is warning.

UNHCR says it is alarmed by mounting expulsions and pushbacks of refugees and asylum-seekers and is calling for states to urgently investigate and halt increasing violence against people at Europe’s land and sea borders.

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Here in Europe’s poorest country we have no vaccine to argue over

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Nobody in Moldova has received a Covid jab yet – and our neglected healthcare system is unable to cope

“I am happy to work on the frontline and to see the Canadian medical system function so well,” Alecu Mătrăgună wrote in a Facebook post, “but I am sad that I was vaccinated before my mother, who works in the medical system in Moldova.” Mătrăgună is a Moldovan sonographer living in Montreal. His mother is 61 and a paediatrician with more than 30 years’ service under her belt. Yet, he told me, she has no idea when the Covid-19 vaccine might become available for her and for more than 53,300 other healthcare staff in Europe’s poorest country.

I had a similar reaction to Mătrăgună’s about my family in Moldova when I saw a sign at my local London pharmacy as long ago as early December, announcing that the vaccine was on its way. At the time, my grandmother had just recovered and my father was still battling with the effects of the virus.

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Italy ‘failed to protect life’ in 2013 drowning of 200 people, rules UN

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Authorities had duty under international law to respond immediately to calls from boat that came under fire and capsized

Italy failed in its duty to protect human life by delaying a rescue mission for a sinking boat in the Mediterranean, the UN Human Rights Committee found on Wednesday.

More than 200 people who had been on board drowned on 11 October 2013 after repeated requests for help were ignored, according to a ruling by the committee on a case brought by Syrian and Palestinian survivors who lost their relatives.

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Witness claims seeing Giulio Regeni in Cairo police station before death

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Man also alleges hearing Egyptian security officials discuss tampering with Italian student’s mobile phone

A man who claims to have witnessed the arrest of Giulio Regeni has told the Guardian how he heard and saw the Cambridge PhD student inside a police station in Cairo before he was found dead by a roadside.

The witness, who is regarded as credible by investigators in Rome, said the security officials alleged to have detained the Italian behaved as if they were above the law. “Those people that took Giulio were different,” he said. “Everyone is afraid of [Egypt’s] National Security Agency.”

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Britain and EU clash over claims to UK-produced Covid vaccine

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EU health commissioner dismisses AstraZeneca argument it is contractually obliged to supply UK first

Britain is on a collision course with the European Union over vaccine shortages after Brussels refused to accept that people in the UK have first claim on Oxford/AstraZeneca doses produced in local plants.

The EU’s health commissioner outright dismissed on Wednesday an argument made by Pascal Soriot, the Anglo-Swedish company’s chief executive, that he was contractually obliged to supply the UK first.

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Why the EU and AstraZeneca are stuck in a Covid vaccines row

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Explainer: AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot gives insight into ‘glitches’ that constrained production

The chief executive of AstraZeneca has dismissed suggestions that the UK is being unfairly prioritised for Covid-19 vaccine doses, in a wide-ranging interview revealing “glitches” that have constrained production.

Pascal Soriot offered the deepest insight yet into a scientific process that has been dragged into the political sphere, as leaders in Brussels and several EU capitals voiced anger that Europe will not get the vaccine as quickly as hoped.

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Napoleon’s manuscript on victory at Battle of Austerlitz goes on sale

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Dictated account of military success in 1805 contains several corrections made by the exiled French leader

Napoleon Bonaparte’s account of his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, dictated and annotated during his exile on the island of St Helena, has gone on sale in Paris for €1m (£880,000).

The description of the battle, the strategy behind which is still taught in military schools, is viewed by historians as evidence of Napoleon’s desire to record his hour of glory for posterity after his 1815 humiliation at Waterloo and subsequent capture by the British.

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Boeing 737 Max cleared to fly again by EU regulator

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The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority will certify the plane separately

Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft has been given the green light to return to the skies in the EU by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), after a 22-month grounding following two fatal crashes.

Marking a crucial step in its return to service, a modified version of the US company’s previously bestselling aeroplane has been given permission to fly again, although not until a package of checks and training is completed.

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Germany expected to tighten borders to control spread of Covid variants

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Interior minister says danger posed by recent mutations ‘requires drastic measures’

The German government is expected to announce tighter border controls after warnings from leading virologists that the move is vital to control the spread in the country of more contagious variants of Covid-19.

Angela Merkel, the chancellor, is widely reported to have told a meeting of her CDU party colleagues that air travel in particular needed to be restricted “to the extent that you simply can’t get anywhere any more”.

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No-fly zone over Putin-linked palace is due to Nato spies, says FSB

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Alexei Navalny’s investigation into £1bn seaside mansion has sparked protests across Russia

Russia’s FSB security agency has confirmed it enforced a no-fly zone over the £1bn seaside palace that Vladimir Putin has assured the public he does not own. It said the restrictions were imposed last summer to protect the Black Sea coast from Nato spies. Coincidentally, that stretch of coastline also hid an opulent chateau of murky provenance boasting its own casino, skating rink and vineyard.

The Kremlin has been scrambling to explain away an investigation by Alexei Navalny into the 17,691 sq metre seaside mansion that was allegedly funded by a number of Putin’s friends and guarded by the government agencies that also protect Putin and his family. The investigation was released after Navalny, an opposition leader, was jailed and threatened with years in prison on charges he claims are political. the video has been viewed more than 95m times on YouTube.

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EU’s vaccine supply issues mean light at end of tunnel that much further away

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Analysis: Frustration around restrictions in Netherlands could be voiced in other countries

In recent nights, rioters have poured on to the streets of 10 Dutch cities in what has been the closest Europe has come to open revolt against the coronavirus restrictions imposed across the continent.

The violence, the worst in four decades, might be put down to the liberty-loving culture of the country or an outbreak of straightforward criminality but, perhaps not coincidentally, the Netherlands is also the very last EU member state to start vaccinating the public and offer some hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

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Head of AstraZeneca confirms UK has prior claim on vaccine

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Chief executive of pharmaceutical giant says the firm will honour UK’s earlier contract despite EU anger over shortfall

AstraZeneca’s chief executive has insisted the UK will come first for vaccines as he rejected calls to divert doses to the European Union following a breakdown in supply.

Amid a growing row, Pascal Soriot, the French head of the pharmaceutical giant, said the UK was benefiting from being early to sign a contract for 100m doses.

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Biden presses Putin on election interference and Navalny arrest in first call

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  • US and Russia agree to extend arms control treaty
  • Biden raised concerns over several issues

The US and Russia have agreed to extend an arms control treaty limiting their deployed nuclear warheads after Joe Biden’s first phone call as president with Vladimir Putin.

At the same time, Biden took a firm position on Russian actions that Donald Trump largely ignored, raising concerns about the poisoning and arrest of the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, warning Putin that the US supported Ukraine against Russian “aggression”, complaining about Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election, and the “Solar Winds” cyber attack on US government agencies last year.

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AstraZeneca vaccine may not be given to older people, says EU medicines chief

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European Medicines Agency approval could stipulate age range, suggests Emer Cooke

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may be authorised only for younger people in Europe, because there is insufficient data on how well it works in the over-65s, the head of the regulatory body has suggested.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to authorise the AstraZeneca vaccine at the end of this week, a month after it was approved in the UK.

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