Society of Jesus admits 81 children and 21 adults were sexually abused by 96 of its members since 1927
The Jesuit order in Spain has admitted that 81 children and 21 adults have been sexually abused by 96 of its members since 1927, and has apologised for the “painful, shameful and sorrowful” crimes.
In a report released on Thursday, the Society of Jesus, whose members often work as teachers, said most of the abuse had taken place in schools “or was related to schools”.
Continue reading...Artist painted pet as present for Marguerite Lathuille, whose family has owned picture for last 140 years
A previously unseen painting of a pet dog by Édouard Manet will be sold for the first time at an auction in Paris next month.
The French modernist artist dashed off the small work in 1879 as a present for Marguerite Lathuille, the daughter of a Paris innkeeper whose portrait he painted around the same time.
Continue reading...Foreign Office says EU should not be treated as nation state, despite 142 countries granting bloc this status
A near-yearlong row about the UK’s refusal to grant full diplomatic status of the EU mission to the UK has worsened, with the leak of letters revealing the EU foreign affairs chief has serious concerns about the status being given to EU officials in the UK.
The issue is likely to be discussed at a EU foreign affairs council on Monday, the first such meeting of member states’ foreign ministers since the post-Brexit transition ended.
Continue reading...Move aimed at tackling spread of new variant; Cloth masks ‘fail to provide enough protection’; Rio carnival cannot be held even in middle of year, warns city mayor
Japan’s government has privately concluded the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, The Times has reported, citing an unnamed senior member of the ruling coalition.
The government’s focus is now on securing the games for Tokyo in the next available year, 2032, the newspaper said.
French president Emmanuel Macron said France will make PCR tests compulsory for all travellers into France from Sunday, including from fellow EU countries, Reuters reports.
Cross-border workers and land transportation will be exempt from that obligation, the French presidency added. The test will have to be carried out no later than 72 hours before departure.
Continue reading...Movement restrictions at EU internal borders will also dominate debate between 27 chiefs
The European Union could ban travellers from Britain and restrict movement at the bloc’s own internal borders under proposals to be debated by leaders at a videoconference summit.
The need to clamp down on the spread of the new variants of coronavirus will dominate discussions between the 27 heads of state and government on Thursday evening.
Continue reading...The UN calls for the resumption of state-led operations in the Mediterranean, as rescue groups’ vessels are detained in port
At least 43 people have been killed after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, the UN said on Wednesday.
Ten people survived the shipwreck, which happened after the boat’s engine failed a few hours after departing the coastal city Zawiya, west of the capital Tripoli, on Tuesday morning.
Continue reading...Several people injured in blast but nearby care home residents and school children unharmed
At least three people have been killed and several injured after a gas explosion tore through a parish building in the centre of Madrid, raining masonry on the street below.
Initial investigations suggested the blast, which happened just before 3pm on Wednesday, occurred during a boiler repair.
Continue reading...Internet giants that spread hate speech and conspiracy theories should face ‘democratic limits’, says European commission president
The end of Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House was celebrated by the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, as she warned that the former US president’s rise highlighted the need to confront the internet giants who helped him spread “conspiracy theories and fake news”.
The European commission president spoke of her relief at Trump’s departure, but warned that the outgoing leader’s movement still existed, and that the digital platforms used to spread hate needed to be tackled.
Continue reading...Fairytale anthology Wonderland Is for Everyone must now carry warning that its stories contain ‘behaviour inconsistent with traditional gender roles’
Hungary’s government, which has made hostility to LGBT people a central part of its rightwing agenda, on Tuesday ordered a publisher to print disclaimers identifying books containing “behaviour inconsistent with traditional gender roles”.
The government said the action was needed to protect consumers, after Labrisz, an association for lesbian, bisexual and trans women, published a fairytale anthology titled Wonderland Is for Everyone, which included some stories with LGBT themes.
Continue reading...Half of referrals for child sexual abuse material could be falling under the radar after changes to EU e-privacy directive
The children’s charity NSPCC has called on Facebook to resume a programme that scanned private messages for indications of child abuse, with new data suggesting that almost half of referrals for child sexual abuse material are now falling below the radar.
Recent changes to the European commission’s e-privacy directive, which are being finalised, require messaging services to follow strict new restrictions on the privacy of message data. Facebook blamed that directive for shutting down the child protection operation, but the children’s charity says Facebook has gone too far in reading the law as banning it entirely.
Continue reading...Spanish emergency services say rescue teams, firefighters and police are working in a central area of Madrid after an explosion.
Footage shared on social media showed a tower of smoke ascending from a building and rubble strewn on the street.
Spanish media reports said the blast took place in a building near a nursing home and a school. There have been reports of casualties
Continue reading...Leaders say Europe again has a friend in the White House but differences with US will not disappear
European leaders have voiced relief at Joe Biden’s inauguration, hailing a “new dawn” for Europe and the US, but warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and that transatlantic ties will be different in future.
“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, told MEPs. “Once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”
Continue reading...‘Renoducts’ will help animals who have to roam further for food due to global heating
Sweden is to build up to a dozen bridges so reindeer can safely cross railway lines and major roads in the north of the country as global heating forces them to roam further afield in search of food.
State broadcaster SVT said the transport authority aimed to start work on the first of the new bridges, named “renoducts”, a portmanteau from ren (reindeer) and viaduct, later this year near the eastern city of Umea.
Continue reading...Germany extends lockdown to 14 February and tightens restrictions; US deaths pass 400,000; US suffers record daily deaths
Covid-19 is unlikely to ever die out, even with vaccination efforts, but it could become more transmissible and less deadly, New Zealand’s director general of health has warned.
“If you think about influenza, which was first recorded in 1172 I think, in Europe … these viruses don’t tend to die out … They change over time and in fact what we are seeing with these new variants with the Covid-19 virus is that they tend become more transmissible and less deadly over time,” Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the AM Show on Wednesday.
Related: Covid unlikely to die out, says New Zealand health chief Ashley Bloomfield
If you fancy a break from the bad news, why not spend a few minutes thinking about sphinx moths (also known as hawk moths):
Continue reading...Spain records 41,576 new cases; Italy considers legal action over Pfizer vaccine delivery delays; France warns against wearing home-made masks
Spain logged another record number of new infections on Wednesday afternoon, recording 41,576 new cases in the preceding 24 hours and bringing the country’s total caseload to 2,412,318. It also recorded 464 deaths.
The new record came five days after the previous single-day high of 40,197 new cases.
Health authorities in Madrid have started mass testing hundreds of young people for Covid-19 at universities in a bid to detect asymptomatic carriers.
Continue reading...Prime minister faces leading an even more unstable coalition after exit of Matteo Renzi’s party
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has managed to cling to power, but he will plough ahead with an even more fragile government as the country battles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and recession.
Conte, who has led two different administrations since 2018, was supported by 156 lawmakers in the senate on Tuesday, with 140 voting against and 16 abstaining. Conte also won a vote of confidence in the lower house on Monday.
Continue reading...Germany became a unified state 150 years ago this week – and no other country has produced such original, provocative and powerful art since, from Richter to Klee, from Dix to Höch
Situated on the edge of the Alps, Neuschwanstein Castle may not look like the birthplace of modern art. Best seen from a perilously crowded footbridge across a vertiginous gorge, it floats in misty rains, a cloudy dream of white spires and battlements. Yet this 19th-century colossus is an architectural homage to one man: a composer who inspired the avant garde to make the leap to modernism.
Richard Wagner’s music so enflamed King Ludwig II of Bavaria, he built this magnificent medieval vision in honour of the composer. But, in artists across Europe, Wagner’s musical might released much more futuristic impulses. The abstract leitmotifs and unearthly symbolism of his operas fascinated artists from Aubrey Beardsley to Paul Cézanne. The impressionists, too, were entranced: Renoir travelled to Palermo, Sicily, to portray Wagner when he was composing Parsifal.
Continue reading...Analysis: release of investigation into Putin’s wealth shows opposition leader is still determined to expose Russian president
For more than a decade, Vladimir Putin has refused to say Alexei Navalny’s name in public, referring to him as “that gentleman”, or more recently, the “patient”, a reference to his suspected poisoning by FSB agents.
In the logic of politics, Putin is simply trying not to give the Russian opposition leader free advertising. But his linguistic game also points to a rivalry that has become deeply personal, stoked by a decade of attacks against friends and family, and made urgent by the understanding that Navalny will not back down despite the threat of death by poisoning or prison.
Continue reading...Museum shut due to coronavirus was unaware that 500-year-old Salvator Mundi had been missing
Italian police has found a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in a Naples flat and returned it to a museum that had no idea it had been stolen.
Officers said late Monday they had arrested the 36-year-old owner of the flat on suspicion of receiving stolen goods, after the painting was discovered in his bedroom cupboard.
Continue reading...Paternalism and racism must be tackled if the EU is to rebuild trust with a young, economically dynamic continent
Black Lives Matter protests last summer sparked an uncomfortable reckoning for many European nations with a legacy of slavery and colonialism.
Excavating this dark history via revised school curriculums and initiatives such as Black History Month is difficult. But it is badly needed, and not just to dispel the self-congratulatory and entirely false narratives about Europe’s “civilisational” past still being driven by nationalist and populist politicians.
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