Category Archives: Europe

Seafood lorries travel to Westminster for protest against Brexit red tape

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Fishers ‘losing their livelihoods’ as delays hamper exports to the EU and trucks return empty

Fishing lorries from Scotland and Devon have descended on Westminster to stage a protest against the Brexit red tape they say is either delaying or ruining exports of their fresh shellfish to the EU.

Trucks with slogans including “Brexit carnage” and “Incompetent government destroying shellfish industry” parked metres from Downing Street on Monday, but they stopped short of carrying out their threat last week to dump fresh fish close to No 10.

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Germany weighs up mandatory FFP2 masks in shops and on transport

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Respiratory masks already compulsory in Bavaria over fears of coronavirus mutations

Germany is weighing up following Austria and Bavaria’s lead in making it compulsory to wear full protective filter masks on public transport and in shops, as the country remains on high alert about the impact of possible coronavirus mutations.

The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Sunday that wearing single-use filtering facepiece respirator, or FFP2, masks would become mandatory on public transport and in shops from 25 January, as the Alpine state moves to extend its national lockdown until 7 February.

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Italian PM battles for coalition’s survival over Covid recovery plan

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Italia Viva party’s departure deprives Conte of majority, with crunch vote on Tuesday

Italy deserves a “cohesive government”, its prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has said as he began the fight for his coalition’s survival.

Conte told the lower house of parliament on Monday that the political crisis triggered last week by the former prime minister Matteo Renzi was “unfounded” and risked severely damaging the country at a time when Italians were struggling with health and financial worries.

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How Biden era could kickstart coordinated approach to Russia

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Analysis: the west has been hampered by the fatal ambiguity of Trump’s US policy towards Moscow

Joe Biden’s accession to the US presidency has spawned a huge body of literature about his intentions towards China, but in his four years out of office Biden has in fact made Russia his primary focus in combatting authoritarianism.

Now, just days from coming into office, the arrest of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has suddenly presented him with a test case, which may also lead to friction with two of his closest allies: Germany and the UK.

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Sámi reindeer herders file lawsuit against Norway windfarm

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Indigenous communities say planned Øyfjellet turbines will interfere with migration paths

Indigenous reindeer herders are bringing a legal action against a proposed wind power project that would be one of the largest in Norway.

The Sámi herders from Nordland county are accusing the Øyfjellet windfarm constructors of breaking licensing agreements which stipulated that construction would not interfere with reindeer migration paths.

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‘We need answers’: why are people living near Dutch goat farms getting sick?

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A decade after an outbreak of Q fever killed 95 people in the Netherlands, scientists fear the emergence of a new disease

In early 2008, Jeannette van de Ven began to see a slightly higher rate of miscarriages among the goats on her dairy farm in the south of the Netherlands.

“We sent the samples to the veterinary authority. Nine out of 10 results showed no explanation. Only maybe toxoplasmosis from cats. We had no cats,” she says.

Van de Ven, who keeps a herd of around 1,700 dairy goats in Noord-Brabant, a province densely populated with goat farms, kept sending samples. Finally, in May 2008 an outbreak of the respiratory infection Q fever was confirmed. It infects livestock including goats, sheep and cattle, and is found in placenta, amniotic fluid, urine, faeces and milk.

The disease turned into a nightmare for the Netherlands after thousands of people also became infected during the outbreak, which lasted from 2007 to 2010. The Dutch government culled more than 50,000 dairy goats on 55 farms in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.

About half of the humans infected ended up developing complications, such as heart failure, and 95 people died.

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Coronavirus live news: UK had world’s highest Covid death toll last week; more countries record new variant

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UK had highest Covid death toll in week to 17 January with 16.5 deaths per 1m people; Czech Republic and Japan find Covid variant first detected in UK

Hauliers require a negative Covid-19 test before travelling from Britain to Denmark and the Netherlands, the UK government has said.

Last week the French government said people travelling from non-EU countries to France will no longer be allowed to enter by presenting a negative result from a quick Covid-19 test, but cross-Channel truck drivers would be exempt.

Nigeria has written to the African Union to request 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to supplement the COVAX programme and has allocated $26 million for licensed vaccine production, the health minister said.

Nigeria, like other countries across Africa, is grappling with a second wave of coronavirus. As of Monday, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country of 200 million inhabitants, had 110,387 confirmed cases and 1,435 deaths.

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Kremlin could try to keep Navalny locked away for years

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What happens to Vladimir Putin’s opponent after his arrest depends on what officials think they can get away with

Since Alexei Navalny emerged as a top critic of Vladimir Putin more than a decade ago, the Kremlin has done its utmost to smother him: tying him up in courtrooms, locking him down under house arrest, and taking his brother as hostage by sentencing him to a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Finally, a decision appeared to have been taken to eliminate him when he was allegedly poisoned by Russia’s FSB spy agency. With that operation a failure and Navalny defying the Kremlin to return to Moscow, Putin’s dilemma remains what to do with one of his most stalwart and effective critics.

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Alexei Navalny detained after arriving at airport on return to Russia – video

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Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been detained at Sheremetyevo airport on his return from treatment abroad after a suspected poisoning attempt by Russia's FSB spy agency. Navalny, whose investigations into corruption in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle have angered the country’s most powerful men, had vowed to return home despite signs that the Kremlin was preparing to arrest him

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Eurostar warns of ‘risk to survival’ without government help

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The cross-Channel train service has seen a 95% fall in passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Eurostar has said it is facing an existential threat, as business leaders pleaded with the government to step in and save the “vital link” with Europe.

A 95% drop in passenger numbers has brought the cross-Channel train service to its knees, and the company reiterated on Sunday that while government loans had been extended to aviation, international high-speed rail had also been severely affected by the pandemic.

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Long johns for Prada as Milan fashion week goes online

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Collaboration between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, only the second for the designers, includes gloves and comfort-wear

At a time when the relevance of high fashion is being questioned, Prada’s menswear show in Milan addressed the criticism with an unusually practical item of clothing: a pair of long johns.

Speaking after an audience-free show at a largely virtual Milan fashion week, Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada, co-creative directors of the brand, described the item as symbolic of the current situation. Worn by every model, and intended as a second skin, they were inspired as much by pyjamas and babies as wetsuits and “rockers”, though Simons was quick to add: “We didn’t want it to look like activewear.”

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Alexei Navalny detained at airport on return to Russia

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Opposition figure picked up after landing in home country following recovery from poisoning

The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on his return from treatment abroad after a suspected poisoning attempt on his life by Russia’s FSB spy agency.

Navalny, whose investigations into corruption in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle have sparked protests and angered the country’s most powerful men, had vowed to return home despite signs the Kremlin was preparing to arrest him.

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Merkel’s successor faces uphill struggle to unite his party

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Analysis: centrist Armin Laschet, the new leader of Germany’s CDU, will need to deliver on promises of reconciliation

The election of Armin Laschet as the new leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union has been welcomed by those hoping for a smooth transition after the imminent departure of Angela Merkel from political leadership. But his detractors have warned he faces an uphill challenge to unite not just his party but also the country in the event that he becomes chancellor, at a time of national crisis and division.

Laschet, who is now in line to succeed Merkel as chancellor after the parliamentary elections in September, secured victory at the weekend despite the odds having been on Friedrich Merz, a prominent conservative and investment banker. Norbert Röttgen, chair of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee, dropped out after the first round, prompting many of his supporters to back Laschet. The digital vote must still be confirmed by a postal ballot.

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Alexei Navalny to fly into Moscow in challenge to Putin

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Opposition figure likely to be taken into custody when he lands following recovery from poisoning

The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is expected to return to Moscow on Sunday evening nearly five months after a suspected poisoning by Russia’s FSB spy agency left him fighting for his life.

Navalny’s return is a direct challenge to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, which has sought to keep the opposition leader in exile by indirectly threatening him with prosecution and jail time if he comes back.

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Coronavirus live: UK ‘considering all measures’ including quarantine hotels; Sydney struggles to quash cluster

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Dominic Raab says UK needs to respond to variants from Brazil and South Africa; New South Wales records six new cases

Reaction has been coming today from Russian sources after Brazil’s health regulator said it was seeking further data on Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before considering its approval for emergency use.

Documents supporting drugmaker Uniao Quimica’s application for emergency use of the vaccine have been returned to the company because they did not meet its minimum criteria, the watchdog said on Saturday.

While people over 75 living at home will be able to get vaccinated from Monday in France, there are concerns in the field that there are not enough doctors, Le Monde reports today.

Jacques Battistoni, president of MG France, a trade union for general practitioners, said: “We expect tensions and a difficult start to the week.”

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Shock Brexit charges are hurting us, say small British businesses

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Levies to cover the increase in red tape, VAT and customs declarations are hitting trade to the European Union

Government ministers describe the post-Brexit headaches that British exporters have suffered since 1 January as mere “teething problems”. But Alex Paul, who jointly runs a successful family business that features in the Department for International Trade’s list of national “export champions”, disagrees. And he wants the real story to be told.

Two weeks into the supposed golden era of global Britain, Paul and many other British entrepreneurs, large and small, are running into very serious problems.

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Germany: Merkel’s party chooses Armin Laschet as leader

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New leader of centre-right CDU will run for chancellor in September, or have a big say in who does

Angela Merkel’s continuity candidate, the centrist conservative Armin Laschet, has beaten one of her longest-standing rivals in the contest to lead Germany’s Christian Democratic Union.

In a digitally-held party congress, Laschet beat the conservative hardliner Friedrich Merz by 521 to 466 votes in a run-off vote, following a strong speech that emphasised social cohesion and held up recent scenes from Washington DC as a warning example of divisive leadership.

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Simon Rattle decries Brexit as he applies for German citizenship

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Conductor laments impact on UK musicians’ careers and describes application as ‘absolute necessity’

The conductor Simon Rattle, who announced this week that he was cutting short his tenure at Britain’s leading orchestra to return to Germany, has applied for German citizenship after Brexit.

The Liverpool-born musician lamented the barriers thrown up by Britain’s departure from the European Union to the careers of young musicians who had grown used to performing freely to the continent’s music-hungry public.

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‘Internexit’ for Leave.EU as domain name temporarily suspended

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Error message greets visitors to site registered in name of Irish businessman who claims he does not know campaign group

Leave.EU has been forced to “Internexit” after the group’s EU domain name was temporarily suspended. It comes after the Irish businessman in whose name the pro-Brexit campaign group’s domain name is registered denied having any involvement with the organisation.

Now visitors to the site are greeted with an error message, and the EU’s online registry marks the domain as under a server hold, meaning it is “temporarily inactive and under investigation”.

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