Category Archives: Europe

King of Sweden blasts country’s ‘failed’ coronavirus response

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Criticism of anti-lockdown stance comes as hospitals struggle to cope with surge in cases

The king of Sweden has said the country has failed in its response to Covid-19, as hospitals in the Stockholm region warned they were struggling to cope with a surge in cases and polls showed public confidence in the authorities had plunged to a new low.

“The people of Sweden have suffered tremendously in difficult conditions,” King Carl XVI Gustaf told the state broadcaster, SVT, in an end-of-year interview. “I think we have failed. We have a large number who have died, and that is terrible.”

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Unlike Trump, Europe’s far-right leaders haven’t been damaged by the pandemic | Cas Mudde and Jakub Wondreys

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A study of 31 countries shows other rightwing populists have not been ‘exposed’ by Covid-19 in the way the US president was

By now it is almost received wisdom that “populists” (often used as a euphemism for “the far right”) have ignored the threat of Covid-19, that populists have been the electoral victims of the pandemic, and that the pandemic has exposed the political incompetence of populists in government.

Most of this speculation is based on one or two individual cases, most notably the US president, Donald Trump. But he is the exception rather than the rule. In a recent comparative study of far-right parties in the European Union, we found that none of those three assumptions holds up to scrutiny. In fact, there has been significant variety in far-right responses to the pandemic.

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Trump’s Twitter account was hacked, Dutch ministry confirms

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Public prosecutor states Victor Gevers did access US president’s site but as ethical hacker faces no charges

Dutch prosecutors have confirmed that Donald Trump’s Twitter account was hacked in October despite denials from Washington and the company, but said the “ethical hacker” would not face charges.

The hacker, named as Victor Gevers, broke into Trump’s account @realDonaldTrump on 16 October by guessing the US president’s password, Dutch media reports said.

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Outing of FSB hit squad highlights Russia’s data security problem

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Analysis: trade in stolen data is a boon for investigators and a headache for Kremlin

In early 2019, the journalist Andrei Zakharov managed to buy his own phone and banking records in a groundbreaking investigation into Russia’s thriving markets in stolen personal data, in which law enforcement and telecoms employees can be contracted anonymously to dip into their systems and pull out sensitive details on anyone.

A year and a half later, investigators from Bellingcat and the Insider used some of the same tools and clever analysis to out a secret FSB team that had been tasked with killing Alexei Navalny using a novichok nerve agent.

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Charlie Hebdo trial: French court convicts 14 over 2015 terror attacks

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Defendants found guilty on range of charges from membership of criminal network to complicity in attacks

A court in France has convicted 14 people in relation to the January 2015 terror attacks in Paris on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.

A total of 17 people were murdered across three days in a series of attacks that horrified the nation. All three assailants were killed in shootouts with the police, leaving only accomplices to face trial.

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Wear masks when you see family for Christmas, WHO urges Europeans

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UN body also suggests gatherings should be ‘outside where possible’ to reduce Covid transmission risk

Europeans gathering for Christmas with their friends or families should try to celebrate outside or wear masks indoors in a well-ventilated space, according to an advisory issued by the World Health Organization.

The advice, posted by the UN health body’s European region on its website, covers a variety of issues relating to winter recreation and holidays, including whether to take a skiing break and seasonal celebrations.

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‘Very narrow path’ to Brexit agreement, says Ursula von der Leyen – video

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Ursula von der Leyen told European leaders she did not know if a trade agreement could be reached with Britain before the 31 December deadline. 

The main issue remained fisheries, on which the European commission president said discussions were very difficult. She added Europe did not question UK sovereignty over its waters, but asked for rights for EU workers

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Coronavirus live news: London enters tier 3 restrictions; Trump will ‘absolutely’ encourage vaccine use

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One in four people globally may not get vaccines until 2022; EU likely to approve vaccine within days; Canada signs deal to accelerate Moderna vaccine deliveries

A little more on the new community transmission case in Sydney. The positive case was detected in van driver transporting international airline crew to and from Sydney airport. Matilda Boseley and Melissa Davey report.

Related: NSW records new local Covid case, raising questions over airline crew quarantine

It’s been described as “very un-Australian” - one of the fiercest, but most flexible, criticisms you can make in this part of the world.

Australian department of foreign affairs and trade officials are being allowed to skip government-mandated hotel quarantine when returning from abroad, instead spending two weeks at home.

Related: Foreign affairs officials allowed to skip hotel quarantine when returning to Australia

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Coronavirus live news: UK death toll rises by 612; Denmark to impose hard lockdown over Christmas

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‘We have to act now,’ says Danish PM; 11,214 new cases in the Netherlands; no vaccines for poorer countries until 2024, report claims

Peru’s government told people in the country not to invite friends and family who live outside the home to Christmas and New Year celebrations, a measure aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases in Peru totalled 987,675 as of Tuesday with 36,817 deaths so far, according to official figures. Health authorities are warning of a possible second wave of infections early next year.

Brazil has registered more than 70,000 additional cases of Covid-19, pushing the country’s total confirmed cases over 7 million.

The country has now registered 7,040,608 total confirmed cases, behind only the US and India.

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Paris city hall fined for putting too many women in senior roles

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Paris mayor to pay fine of €90,000 for breaking national rules in 2018 on gender parity

Paris city authorities have been fined for employing too many women in senior positions, a decision mocked as absurd by the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, on Tuesday.

The fine of €90,000 (£81,000) was demanded by France’s public service ministry on the grounds that Paris city hall had broken national rules on gender parity in its 2018 staffing.

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Kent lorry park will not be ready in time for Brexit day deadline

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Heavy rain has hampered work on site intended to relieve queues around Dover from 1 January

The Kent lorry park designed to relieve queues of up to 7,000 trucks taking goods across the Channel will not be ready for Brexit on 1 January, it has emerged.

Damian Green, the MP for Ashford, said the government told him rain had hampered work on the site between the villages of Sevington and Mersham, fuelling fears of traffic queues around the county for the first two months of the year.

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Two men beheaded in videos from Nagorno-Karabakh war identified

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Exclusive: Ethnic Armenian men refused to leave their villages before Azerbaijani forces arrived, locals say

Two elderly men who were beheaded by Azerbaijani forces in videos widely shared on messaging apps have been identified, confirming two of the bloodiest atrocities of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective villages said. Both were beheaded by men in the uniforms of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The short, gruesome videos of the killings are among the worst of a torrent of footage portraying abuse, torture and murder that has continued to emerge more than a month after a Russian-brokered ceasefire came into force.

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UK coronavirus live: Hancock holds news briefing after revealing new Covid variant and putting more areas into tier 3

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Latest updates: health secretary holds press conference after tougher restrictions announced for London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire

Prof. Whitty reiterates a “minimalist, responsible” Christmas meeting families sticking to the rules, calling it a “limited relaxation”.

Hancock tells @Kate_M_Proctor he's repeatedly answered the question on whether the Christmas relaxation could be tightened up if cases rise

Narrator: He has not answered the question on whether the Christmas relaxation could be tightened up if cases rise

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Brexit trade deal possible within days after Johnson concession, says EU

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Barnier says PM’s acceptance of need for ‘evolution clause’ as standards diverge has unlocked talks

A post-Brexit trade and security deal could be sealed as early as this week after Boris Johnson made a key concession at the weekend but the pathway to agreement remains “very narrow”, Michel Barnier has told ambassadors and MEPs in Brussels.

The EU’s chief negotiator said the prime minister’s acceptance of the need to ensure that there is fair competition for British and European businesses as regulatory standards diverge over time had unlocked the talks despite difficult issues remaining.

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Orion hack exposed vast number of targets – impact may not be known for a while

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Analysis: eavesdropping on high-value targets is labour intensive so hackers may not have made most of access

If there is one silver lining to the months-long global cyber-espionage campaign discovered when a prominent cybersecurity firm learned it had been breached, it might be that the sheer numbers of potentially compromised entities offers them some protection.

By compromising one piece of security software – a security tool called Orion developed by the Texan company SolarWinds – the attackers gained access to an extraordinary array of potential targets in the US alone: more than 425 of the Fortune 500 list of top companies; all of the top 10 telecommunications companies; all five branches of the military; and all of the top five accounting firms.

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Suspected Russian hackers spied on US federal agencies

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FBI to investigate after treasury and commerce departments believed to have been targeted

Suspected Russian hackers have carried out the biggest cyber-raid against the US for more than five years, US officials have said, targeting key government networks including the Treasury and commerce departments.

The hackers were able to monitor internal email traffic and may have compromised other government bodies, in what is being described as a highly sophisticated state-level attack. The situation is so grave it led on Saturday to a national security council meeting at the White House.

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Brexit trade deal still possible, says Michel Barnier – video 

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Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator,  says a 'good, balanced agreement' on a trade deal is still possible, as negotiators continue talks ahead of the 31 December deadline. 

Barnier stressed the EU had never before tried to reach such a complex agreement with a country in such a short space of time. 

Britain and the EU enter the final stretch of the negotiations with renewed hope of a deal being struck within days, after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and ordered the resumption of talks in Brussels


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‘I speak Italian with a Croydon accent’: reporters on their language skills

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Our foreign correspondents reflect on the practical and cultural importance of fluency in a country’s native tongue

During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in China, people described to us deeply personal and traumatic experiences – losing their parents, suffering the death of a child, being harassed and intimidated for trying to speak out. Having these conversations in Mandarin was important not just for capturing nuance and detail but for a sense of empathy.

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Coronavirus live news: Netherlands heading for month-long lockdown; Poland facing ‘third wave’ of Covid

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Dutch PM to speak to the nation tonight; ministers to recommend restrictions are extended in Poland

The US has reported 16,113,148 cases of new coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 1,476,230 cases reported in the last seven days.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday that 17,184 people had died from Covid-19 in the previous week, taking the total US death toll so far to 298,266.

Turkish president has said Turkey will impose a five-day full lockdown beginning on 31 December, as official data showed new daily coronavirus deaths hit a record 229.

Recep Tayip Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting, said the stay-home order would begin at 9pm on New Year’s Eve and run to 4 January.

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Polish women travel abroad for abortions ahead of law change

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Support services in Poland and abroad say numbers increasing even before legislation is tightened

Polish women are increasingly being forced to travel abroad to seek abortions even though a court ruling to tighten the country’s already strict laws has not yet coming into force, activists have said.

The constitutional court ruled in October that abortion was illegal even in cases where there were severe foetal abnormalities. Around 1,000 abortions a year – almost all of the country’s legal abortion procedures – are carried out for this reason.

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