Category Archives: Europe

Belgium considers U-turn on Oxford Covid vaccine for over-55s

Posted on by

Several European countries opted not to give the jab to older age groups due to lack of data

People over the age of 55 in Belgium could be given the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, as the government seeks to “reset” its heavily criticised vaccination programme.

Belgium joined Germany, France, Poland and Italy last month in only giving the vaccine to younger groups due to a comparative lack of data on its efficacy in the older age ranges in the Oxford/AstraZeneca clinical trials.

Continue reading...

Like Pablo Hasél, I faced jail for my rap lyrics – but the worst censorship is self-censorship | Valtònyc

Posted on by

The rapper’s arrest shows Spain has a problem with freedom of ideology. But people shouldn’t be scared to write songs that stand up to power

The arrest of Pablo Hasél this month, a Spanish rapper – like me – who is accused of glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy in his lyrics, didn’t surprise me. When I was 18, I wrote a song about the Spanish king, the police arrested me and I was sentenced to three and a half years in jail. The day they came to take me to prison, I fled to Belgium and have been here ever since, despite the best efforts of Spain to have me extradited. It seemed like a joke – almost four years in jail for a song. But it wasn’t: there are 18 rappers in Spain facing jail for similar charges.

Related: Angry words: rapper's jailing exposes Spain's free speech faultlines

Continue reading...

‘Help and you are a criminal’: the fight to defend refugee rights at Europe’s borders

Posted on by

As illegal, and often violent, pushbacks of asylum seekers continue – human rights groups also report growing hostility

At the offices of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group in Budapest, András Léderer and his colleagues have a map on which they track every asylum seeker – man, woman or child – who has been physically pushed back by police from the Hungarian border and into the forests of Serbia.

The pushbacks are illegal under international law. Yet it is Léderer and his fellow human rights activists who could face arrest and a jail sentence if they went to the border to witness what is happening there.

Continue reading...

Covid has ‘taken wind out of Dutch politics’, analysts say as elections loom

Posted on by

Mark Rutte enters final leg of race in dominant position despite ‘difficult phase’ of pandemic

Coronavirus has “completely taken the wind out of Dutch politics”, analysts say, predicting little change in the makeup of the coalition government after March elections as the prime minister, Mark Rutte, begins cautiously easing restrictions.

Despite three nights of rioting and 400 arrests after a night-time curfew, the first since the second world war, was imposed in January, and one of Europe’s slowest vaccine rollouts, Rutte enters the last two weeks of the election race in a dominant position.

Continue reading...

Denmark’s climate policies ‘insufficient’ to meet 2030 target

Posted on by

Report says country set to cut carbon emissions by 54% compared with 1990 levels, not 70% as planned

The Danish government’s efforts towards meeting the country’s ambitious target of reducing emissions by 70% by 2030 have been judged “insufficient” by the body tasked with monitoring its progress, with measures so far announced only likely to take it a third of the way.

In its first annual status report, the Danish Council on Climate Change said new laws, inter-party agreements and initiatives announced since the country’s climate law came into effect last June would reduce emissions by the equivalent of 7.2m tonnes of CO2 by 2030, which is only enough to reduce Denmark’s emissions by 54% compared with 1990 levels.

Continue reading...

Will the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of pelota bounce back as a centre of Spanish culture?

Posted on by

Campaigners call for historic sports venue in Madrid to become a world heritage site after its €38m restoration

Beneath a pale-blue late-winter sky, and behind an elegant but unassuming facade, one of Madrid’s great unsung survivors sits waiting, once more, for news of the latest in a long and improbable series of metamorphoses.

Since its inauguration 127 years ago, the Frontón Beti-Jai, built at the height of the Spanish capital’s love affair with the Basque game of pelota, has echoed with the crack of leather-stitched balls, with cheers, screams, the thrill of invention, the gunning of thirsty American engines and, most recently, the chirping of the birds who nested in its almost terminal decay.

Continue reading...

Germany set to give AstraZeneca jab to older people

Posted on by

Regulator concedes process had ‘somehow gone wrong’ and could soon approve vaccine

Germany could soon authorise the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for seniors after the head of the country’s vaccination committee said his body’s advice to give the Oxford-developed vaccine only to those under 65 had “somehow gone wrong”.

Unlike the European Medicines Agency or Britain’s MHRA, Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko) last month recommended against the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on seniors, citing a lack of conclusive trial data to prove its efficacy in that age group.

Continue reading...

Cattle stranded on ship in Spain must be destroyed, say vets

Posted on by

Spanish officials recommend 864 cows that have been at sea for two months are no longer fit for transport

More than 850 cows that have spent months aboard a ship wandering across the Mediterranean are no longer fit for transport any more and should be killed, according to a confidential report by Spanish government veterinarians.

The cows have been kept in what an animal rights activist called “hellish” conditions on the Karim Allah, which docked in the south-eastern Spanish port of Cartagena on Thursday after struggling for two months to find a buyer for the cattle.

Continue reading...

Hundreds of calves stranded at sea due to suspected disease – video

Posted on by

Hundreds of calves crammed onboard a ship were checked by Spanish government veterinarians after months at sea, suspected of contracting the bovine disease bluetongue.

The Karim Allah docked at the south-eastern Spanish port of Cartagena on Thursday after struggling to find a buyer for its almost 900 cattle

Continue reading...

Global stock markets drop as inflation fears prompt sell-off

Posted on by

UK FTSE was down 2.5%, its biggest one-day fall in percentage terms since the end of October

Global stock markets ended February deep in the red, as fears of higher inflation prompted a sell-off in government bonds and spread anxiety across financial markets.

The UK’s FTSE 100 index fell 168 points to 6,483, a 2.5% drop – the biggest one-day fall in percentage terms since the end of October.

Continue reading...

Woman who set herself on fire in Lesbos refugee camp charged with arson

Posted on by

Pregnant Afghan woman gave testimony to prosecutor from her hospital bed

A pregnant Afghan woman who was severely injured when she set herself on fire in a refugee camp on Lesbos has been formally charged with arson and destruction of public property after giving testimony to a prosecutor from her hospital bed.

The 26-year-old, who has been granted refugee status and is due to give birth next week, was told she would face trial for her actions and be unable to leave Greece. She has not been publicly identified.

Continue reading...

‘Lying is no longer a sin’: former French ambassador on Brexit and Boris Johnson

Posted on by

Exclusive: Sylvie Bermann, who has written book in attempt to understand Brexit, says question of Britain’s identity was key

When Sylvie Bermann arrived in August 2014 as France’s new ambassador, London was, she says, a city of “extraordinary dynamism and optimism”.

French cabinet ministers were queuing up to visit, she said, one after the other, all searching for “Britain’s recipe for success. It was an an astonishing place.”

Continue reading...

Kremlin takes swipe at Navalny’s reputation as he is sent to prison colony

Posted on by

Opposition leader faces accusations over nationalist past but allies call for support to ensure his safety

The Kremlin is taking aim at Alexei Navalny’s reputation, as the opposition leader was sent to a prison colony in Russia, a journey into a “grey zone” where supporters say he will need maximum international support to ensure his safety.

For years Navalny was a phantom in Russian state media, his name studiously absent from the lips of top officials and news anchors. A favourite game among the opposition was to write his name on a snowbank – municipal workers would often arrive shortly after to sweep it away.

Continue reading...

Pro-choice protests in Warsaw and Myanmar coup: 20 photos on human rights this week

Posted on by

A roundup of the best photography on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Algeria to Uganda

Continue reading...

Russian diplomats leave North Korea on hand-powered rail trolley

Posted on by

Coronavirus pandemic meant the envoys and their families had to travel home in an unconventional way

In normal times, most diplomats can expect to end a foreign posting with an official – if not always fond – farewell from their hosts and a comfortable journey back to their native country.

But for one group of Russian envoys and their families, the coronavirus pandemic meant there was only one way home – under their own steam on a hand-pushed rail trolley.

Continue reading...

Elephant kills Spanish zookeeper with one hit from trunk

Posted on by

Man was cleaning stables when he was hit by female, knocking his head against bars of enclosure

A zoo worker in Spain has died after he was struck by an elephant’s trunk, knocking his head against the bars of an enclosure, the zoo and local officials said.

The female elephant weighing around 4,000kg (8,800lb) hit the 44-year-old with her trunk on Wednesday morning at the Cabarceno Natural Park near the northern city of Santander, the zoo said. The man was rushed to hospital where he died from his injuries some three hours later.

Continue reading...

Ursula von der Leyen issues Covid vaccine export warning at EU summit

Posted on by

Commission head reassures leaders she will ban vaccines leaving EU if suppliers fail to deliver again

Ursula von der Leyen has reassured EU leaders she will ban coronavirus vaccines from leaving the EU if suppliers such as AstraZeneca fail to deliver again, as she faced questions over her handling of shortages.

The European commission president’s pledge at a virtual summit came as leaders issued a statement promising to “accelerate the provision of vaccines”, with just 8% of the adult population having received a jab compared with 27% in the UK.

Continue reading...

Could a former bar be one of Spain’s lost medieval synagogues?

Posted on by

Work is under way to see whether an abandoned 14th-century building is part of the legacy of the country’s exiled Jews

The rambling, 14th-century building that sits off a narrow alley in the historic heart of Utrera, its patio walls furred with moss and its inner ones painted pugnacious shades of purple and orange, has led a long and varied existence.

Over the centuries, it has served the Andalucían city as a hospital, a home for abandoned children, a restaurant and, in its final incarnation, a bar.

Continue reading...

Coventry family wins legal battle for Irish wording on gravestone

Posted on by

Church court had objected to loving tribute to Margaret Keane for fear of arousing political ‘passions’

A grieving family has won its battle to erect a gravestone with an inscription in Irish after overturning a church court ban issued on the grounds that it might arouse political “passions”.

The family of Margaret Keane, a Coventry dinner lady who died aged 73 in 2018, now hope a Celtic cross bearing the words “In ár gcroíthe go deo” – “in our hearts forever” – will be in place on her grave in the grounds of St Giles church in Exhall, near Nuneaton, in time for St Patrick’s Day on 17 March.

Continue reading...

‘Unique’ petrified tree up to 20m years old found intact in Lesbos

Posted on by

Discovery of 19.5-metre tree with roots, branches and leaves is unprecedented, say experts

First came the tree, all 19.5 metres of it, with roots and branches and leaves. Then, weeks later, the discovery of 150 fossilised logs, one on top of the other, a short distance away.

Nikolas Zouros, a professor of geology at the University of the Aegean, couldn’t believe his luck. In 25 years of excavating the petrified forest of Lesbos, he had unearthed nothing like it.

Continue reading...