Category Archives: Europe

Coronavirus live news: Germany sets another daily case record as Europe passes 10m infections

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England lockdown expected early next week; US passes 9m infections; Melbourne records no new cases or deaths. Follow the latest:

Ukraine announced a new high of 8,752 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Saturday, up from 8,312 cases on Friday.

Total infections stood at 387,481, it said.

Coronavirus is “running riot” across all age groups in the United Kingdom, says Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Semple told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

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Coronavirus live news: US sets world record for daily cases – as it happened

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England lockdown expected early next week; US passes 9m infections; Melbourne records no new cases or deaths. Follow the latest:

This blog will wrap up shortly. Here the latest key developments at a glance:

Just a reminder that if you want to get in touch and share comments or tips, you can contact me either on Twitter or via email.

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Pro-choice supporters hold biggest-ever protest against Polish government

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About 100,00o people take to the streets of Warsaw to oppose tightened abortion law

About one hundred thousand protesters took to the streets of the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Friday, in the largest demonstration of popular anger directed against Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS) since it assumed office in 2015.

Protests have been held across the country since Poland’s constitutional tribunal declared earlier this month that abortions in instances where a foetus is diagnosed with a serious and irreversible birth defect were unconstitutional. Such procedures constitute about 96% of legal abortions in Poland, which already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

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Turkey earthquake: drone shows buildings reduced to rubble in İzmir – video

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Drone footage captured buildings reduced to piles of rubble in the Turkish city of İzmir on Friday after a strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea, setting off tidal waves which slammed into coastal areas and islands. Search and rescue operations continued at 17 collapsed or damaged buildings, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said.

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Russia loses UN vote over women’s rights in conflict zones

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Security council resolution that many feared would weaken human rights is rejected by UK, US and other states

Attempts by Russia to introduce a UN security council resolution, which activists said would have unravelled the rights of women in conflict have failed as 10 countries abstained on a crucial vote on Friday.

The UK, US, Germany and France were among the abstaining member states, which meant the resolution did not gain the nine votes required to pass.

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Polish hospitals begin turning away women seeking abortions

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Institutions appear to enforce controversial ban despite legislation not yet taking effect

Hospitals in Poland have been turning away women seeking abortions even though a court ruling that has instituted a near-total ban on terminations has not yet taken effect.

The ban, which outlaws one of the three narrow exceptions under which abortion is still permitted – that of severe foetal defects – has sparked huge protests in Poland.

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‘Everywhere was collapsing’: powerful earthquake hits Turkey and Greece – video report

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Footage shows the aftermath of a deadly earthquake that struck in the Aegean sea and toppled buildings in the Turkish city of İzmir and the Greek island of Samos. 

The earthquake struck about 11 miles (17km) off the coast of İzmir, causing a number of deaths and widespread damage. 

Witnesses captured the moment buildings collapsed and sea water flooding in both Samos and İzmir

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Brazil names Nice knife attack victim as Simone Barreto Silva

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Silva, 44, had lived in France for three decades and worked as carer for elderly people

The 44-year old victim of the Nice knife attack who told paramedics “tell my children I love them” as she died of stab wounds has been named Simone Barreto Silva, who worked as a carer for elderly people.

Silva, who was born in the Brazilian state of Bahia, was a citizen of France, where she had reportedly lived for about 30 years.

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From ice swims to knitting: Europeans seek ways to ride out Covid winter

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People across the continent are embracing a range of pursuits in an effort to stay healthy and in good spirits

For Alice Weiss there is no alternative to what the Germans call Flucht nach vorne, or knuckling down, to cope with the challenge of surviving winter during a pandemic. Others are determined to stay warm as the temperature drops, but Weiss has embraced winter swimming, plunging into the chilly lakes on the western edge of Berlin.

“It is invigorating, it takes me out of myself. It makes me stronger, healthier,” she said. “I’ve yet to have the legendary endorphin release that some swimmers talk of, but I expect that to come in winter.”

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Nice terror suspect phoned his family hours before attack

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Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui, 21, gave no indication he was contemplating violence

The 21-year-old Tunisian man who is accused of using a kitchen knife to kill three people in a church in Nice spoke to his family 12 hours before the attack, giving no indication he was contemplating violence.

Brahim Aouissaoui grew up among eight sisters and two brothers in a modest home on a potholed road in Thina, a working-class neighbourhood in an industrial zone close to Sfax, a major port on Tunisia’s eastern coast.

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Rescue teams search rubble after earthquake rocks Turkish coast and Greek islands

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At least 27 reported dead and 800 injured in quake that hit İzmir in Turkey and Greek island of Samos

Rescue teams searched through concrete blocks and rubble on Saturday after at least 27 people were killed and hundreds injured when a powerful earthquake in the Aegean Sea toppled buildings in the Turkish city of İzmir and created sea surges on at least two Greek islands.

Turkey’s disaster and emergency authority (Afad) said the quake on Friday, measuring about 7.0 in magnitude, struck at 2.51pm local time (11.51am GMT). with 407 aftershocks recorded overnight. Around 800 people were reported injured.

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Aftermath in İzmir as 7.0-magnitude earthquake hits Turkey and Greece – video

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An earthquake has struck in the Aegean Sea, flattening buildings in Greece and Turkey. Footage shows buildings reduced to rubble in the Manavkuyu neighbourhood of İzmir, a city on Turkey's Aegean coast. 

The US Geological Survey measured the earthquake at magnitude 7.0 and said tremors were felt as far away as Athens and Istanbul

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Irish surfer Conor Maguire catches ‘Ireland’s biggest wave’

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Surfer tackles huge swell off Co Sligo – after checking lockdown rules allowed it

It’s been compared to the monstrous big waves of the Pacific. But for Conor Maguire, an Irish surfer, who has claimed what may be his country’s largest ever swell, it was almost on his doorstep at Mullaghmore in County Sligo.

The biggest question for Maguire was not whether he wanted to try it, but whether it was socially acceptable to go out in the midst of a national lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Man arrested over deaths of Iranian Kurd family in Channel sinking

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Iranian man held on suspicion of manslaughter following deaths of at least four people

An Iranian man has been held on suspicion of manslaughter following the deaths of four people, and the disappearance of a further three who are believed to have died, as they attempted to cross the Channel.

Iranian Kurds Rasul Iran Nezhad and his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and two of their children, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, drowned on Tuesday as they tried to reach Britain by boat after departing from near Dunkirk.

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Coronavirus live news: US passes 9m cases; Italian cases jump by 31,000 in a day

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Italy also records 199 further deaths; US record surge killing nearly 1,000 Americans a day; Moscow creates vaccination network

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France orders children aged six and over to wear masks in school

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National assembly votes to extend rule to primary schools as national lockdown starts

Children in France aged six and over will have to wear face masks in the classroom to keep schools open, the prime minister said on the eve of a second national lockdown.

Speaking before the national assembly backed the new restrictions by 399 votes to 27, Jean Castex said the mandatory use of masks was being extended to primary school pupils on the advice of public health officials. Only children over 11 have had to wear masks in school until now.

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Macron says France ‘will not give in to terror’ after Nice attack – video

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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday that he would step up the deployment of soldiers to protect places of worship and schools after a knife attack in Nice in which three people were killed. Speaking from the scene, a defiant Macron said France had been attacked 'because of our values, our taste for freedom, the possibility there is here to believe freely'

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Nice attack: knife attacker kills three people at church in France – video report

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France will not give in to terrorism, Emmanuel Macron has said in a call for firmness and unity after the country’s latest terrorist attack left three people dead.

On Thursday morning, a man armed with a knife killed two women and a man at the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city centre of Nice on the Côte d’Azur

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Brexit talks making good progress, says Ursula Von der Leyen

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European commission president says key issues are level playing field and fisheries

Trade and security negotiations between the UK and the EU are making good progress, Ursula von der Leyen has said in the most optimistic comments to date on the state of the Brexit talks.

As the negotiations moved to Brussels after seven days in London, the European commission president said: “We’re making good progress but [there are] two critical issues: level playing field and the fisheries, [where] we would like to see more progress.

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