Category Archives: Europe

Dutch officials seize ham sandwiches from British drivers

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Personal imports of meat and dairy products banned from EU since Brexit transition ended

Dutch TV news has aired footage of customs officers confiscating ham sandwiches from drivers arriving by ferry from the UK under post-Brexit rules banning personal imports of meat and dairy products into the EU.

Officials wearing high-visibility jackets are shown explaining to startled car and lorry drivers at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal that since Brexit, “you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe, like meat, fruit, vegetables, fish, that kind of stuff.”

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Macron tells Idris Elba he will invite young Africans to summit, not leaders

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French president vows to overhaul France-Africa event to help mobilise Africa’s young people

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to invite young Africans rather than their political leaders to a key France-Africa summit in a video call with the actor Idris Elba.

The Élysée Palace said Elba, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ international fund for agricultural development, had asked to speak to the French leader. The Guardian was the only newspaper invited to attend the discussion at the Élysée, which marked the start of the One Planet biodiversity summit in Paris.

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Foreigners face ban from Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes

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Proposals would allow only Dutch residents to enter city’s 166 marijuana-selling coffee shops

Foreigners face being banned from Amsterdam’s cannabis coffee shops as part of wide-ranging plans to discourage organised crime and cut back on drugs tourism that have drawn mixed reactions from residents and business owners.

Backed by police and prosecutors, the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, has tabled proposals allowing only Dutch residents to enter its 166 marijuana-selling coffee shops, with the measure likely to come into force sometime next year.

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Nuclear stand-off: can Joe Biden avert a new arms race?

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Analysis: new president will face threats on multiple fronts, including from Russia and Iran, and must decide future of US arsenal

Joe Biden will have to make critical decisions on arms control in his first days in the White House that could determine whether a new nuclear arms race can be averted, and possibly reversed.

When the new president takes the oath of office on 20 January, there will be 16 days left before the 2010 New Start treaty with Russia expires, and with it the last binding limit on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals left standing in the wake of the Trump era.

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Vaccine scepticism in France reflects ‘dissatisfaction with political class’

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Past medical scandals involving big pharma and public officials have made many suspicious of vaccines

In France, every child is now obliged to have 11 vaccinations. If parents want their children to attend school, or take part in many extracurricular activities, they must accept. There is no opt-out or concessions made to vaccine doubters.

On Monday France’s government and health authorities are speeding up the country’s Covid-19 vaccine drive – a process complicated by widespread scepticism about the inoculation that has encompassed the usual global conspiracy theories.

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Paris agrees to turn Champs-Élysées into ‘extraordinary garden’

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Mayor Anne Hidalgo gives green light to £225m-scheme to transform French capital’s most famous avenue

The mayor of Paris has said a €250m (£225m) makeover of the Champs-Élysées will go ahead, though the ambitious transformation will not happen before the French capital hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Anne Hidalgo said the planned work, unveiled in 2019 by local community leaders and businesses, would turn the 1.9 km (1.2 mile) stretch of central Paris into “an extraordinary garden”.

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Starmer accepts end of EU free movement in Brexit reversal

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Labour leader rules out extensive renegotiation if party wins next election

Keir Starmer has abandoned the commitment to free movement of people in the European Union he made to Labour members during the party’s leadership contest.

The Labour leader said his party had to be honest with the public, and that if it won the next general election a major renegotiation of the Brexit treaty would not be possible.

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Madrid hospital staff walk for hours to relieve colleagues after snow storm

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With roads blocked and trains cancelled healthcare staff decide to make the trip to work on foot

Healthcare workers in Madrid have gone to extreme lengths – some walking for hours – to relieve their exhausted colleagues as Spain grapples with the double whammy of a deadly storm and the coronavirus pandemic.

Storm Filomena hit Spain on Friday, blanketing large parts of the country in snow and bringing Madrid to a standstill as the city saw its heaviest snowfall in 50 years. Across the country the storm claimed at least four lives, affected around 20,000km of roads and left thousands trapped in their cars for as many as 12 hours without food and water.

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Ginger root and meteorite dust: the Steiner ‘Covid cures’ offered in Germany

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The movement best known for its schools is firmly entrenched within the German health sector

In a pandemic where global leaders have peddled quack treatments and miracle cures, Germany has often stood out as a shining beacon for science.

It is the country that developed the first diagnostic test to detect the coronavirus, and the first vaccine approved in the west to shield people against the disease. It is a country whose physicist chancellor told parliament she passionately believes “there are scientific findings that are real and should be followed.”

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At least three people die in Spain’s worst snowstorm in 50 years

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Public urged to stay at home as Storm Filomena traps motorists and brings Madrid to standstill

The Spanish government has urged people to stay at home after at least three people died as the worst snowstorm in 50 years struck the country, bringing Madrid and the surrounding region to a frozen standstill and leaving hundreds of motorists trapped in their cars.

Storm Filomena hit Spain on Friday, bringing snowfalls not seen in Madrid since 1971, according to the state meteorological office, Aemet. The snow continued overnight and into Saturday, by which time 50cm had fallen in parts of the Madrid region.

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Firms halt deliveries from UK to EU over Brexit border problems

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DPD pauses road service and retailers suspend sales or reduce lines amid concerns over paperwork and tariffs

A growing number of retailers and courier firms are suspending or cutting back deliveries into the EU as companies grapple with new border controls as well as import taxes.

On Friday DPD, the international delivery giant, said it was “pausing” its road service from the UK into Europe, including the Republic of Ireland. Separately, Marks & Spencer said it was concerned that a third of the products in its Irish food halls, including Percy Pig sweets, would now be subject to import tariffs. Such taxes could spell higher prices for shoppers.

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Giant sinkhole opens in hospital car park in Naples

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Nearby Italian residence for Covid-19 patients had to close temporarily because of electricity cuts

A giant sinkhole has opened up in the car park of a hospital in Naples, Italy, forcing the temporary closure of a nearby residence for recovering Covid-19 patients because the electricity was cut.

Operations at the Hospital of the Sea were not affected, and firefighters said no one appeared to be injured. The sinkhole consumed a few cars in the hospital’s otherwise empty visitors’ car park on Friday.

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Coronavirus live news: WHO says poorer countries not getting vaccines; Denmark to restrict all travel

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WHO urges rich countries to stop making bilateral deals with manufacturers; Denmark to restrict entry from all countries after today

The United States has set a new daily record for new coronavirus cases, with 290,000 cases reported in 24-hours, according to the Johns Hopkins global tally.

Some 3,676 people in the US died with the virus in the same period.

Mexico has reported 14,362 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 1,038 deaths.

It is one of the highest daily case increases and brings the total number of cases in Mexico since the pandemic began to 1,507,931, with 132,069 deaths.

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‘I’m stuck here’: lorry drivers in Calais begin to feel effects of Brexit

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Truck drivers tell of long delays for checks at the Eurotunnel as trade barrier goes up between UK and EU

Roger White arrived in France at 2.30pm on Tuesday with a truckload of hard cheese from Somerset.

Before Brexit he would have rolled off the Eurotunnel train and carried on up the A16 to Belgium, unloading his wares a few hours later at his ultimate destination in Utrecht.

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Europe at tipping point with Covid running rampant, says WHO

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Europe director Hans Kluge says rapid spread of new variant is cause for alarm

Europe is at a tipping point in the course of the pandemic, the World Health Organization has said, warning that the coronavirus is spreading very fast across the continent and the arrival of a new variant has created an “alarming situation”.

Related: Coronavirus live news: Japan's PM announces state of emergency for Tokyo; US suffers record daily deaths

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Coronavirus live news: Israel ‘to vaccinate all over-16s by April’; France’s border with UK closed ‘for foreseeable future’

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More than 17% of Israelis have had first shot; 26,391 new infections in Germany; Reuters says Europe has now had more than 25m cases

Brazil has hit another dire milestone in its struggle with coronavirus as its death toll rose above 200,000 with the epidemic again worsening.

On Thursday afternoon a coalition of news groups that tracks the number of deaths said Brazil’s death toll had risen to 200,011.

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French authorities charge man suspected of organising new year rave

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Prosecutor say 22-year-old not alone in organising event that shocked a country in lockdown

French authorities have charged a suspected organiser of an illegal new year rave at which 2,400 people defied coronavirus rules, in a decision condemned by his supporters as an injustice.

The wildcat rave party in Brittany shocked the country as people continued to observe strict bans on gatherings to battle the coronavirus.

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Denmark launches children’s TV show about man with giant penis

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Critics condemn idea of animated series about a man who cannot control his penis, but others have backed it

John Dillermand has an extraordinary penis. So extraordinary, in fact, that it can perform rescue operations, etch murals, hoist a flag and even steal ice-cream from children.

The Danish equivalent of the BBC, DR, has a new animated series aimed at four- to eight-year-olds about John Dillermand, the man with the world’s longest penis who overcomes hardships and challenges with his record-breaking genitals.

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Chef and Le Gavroche restaurateur Albert Roux dies aged 85

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Member of Roux culinary dynasty died on Monday after a long illness, his family has said

The chef and restaurateur Albert Roux has died at the age of 85.

The founder of the Michelin-starred Le Gavroche and member of the Roux culinary dynasty died on Monday after a long illness.

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