Category Archives: Europe

Outcry as Spanish councillor uses face mask to ‘fake speaking English’

Posted on by

Valencia councillor criticised after it emerges speech made in perfect English was dubbed

Some have railed against the mandatory use of face masks, attacking them as a muzzle on their civil liberties. Others have civically adopted them without so much as a whimper. And then there are those who have seen the opportunities they present amid the crisis.

Valencia may have lost its bid to become the European Capital of Innovation 2020 – the Belgian city of Leuven claimed the honour – but a councillor from the city in eastern Spain did his hometown proud with a minute-long speech in stunningly fluent English and without the slightest trace of a Spanish accent.

Continue reading...

What lessons can Europe learn from Sweden’s Covid-19 experience?

Posted on by

Experts say that while contested ‘light touch’ response warrants study each country must find right approach for them

EU governments that locked down are increasingly emulating the one that did not, but experts warn that Sweden’s Covid approach, relying more on voluntary compliance than coercion, will not suit all – and big questions remain over whether it has worked for Sweden.

As infections surge in several European countries, France, which is currently averaging nearly 12,000 cases a day, has ruled out another national lockdown, instead pursuing a strategy the prime minister, Jean Castex, calls “living with the virus” and imposing local measures.

Continue reading...

Global Covid report: Rio cancels Carnival for first time in a century as global deaths near 1m

Posted on by

Landmark event scrapped as Brazil suffers; EU warns pandemic worse now than in March peak for some; Israel further toughens restrictions

As the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide looked set to pass a million within days, Rio de Janeiro delayed its annual Carnival parade for the first time in a century because of Brazil’s continued vulnerability in the pandemic.

The global death toll passed 980,000 on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. With the number of deaths confirmed daily averaging more than 5,000, it looks likely the toll will pass 1 million within days. There are 32m cases worldwide.

Continue reading...

Swiss to vote on whether to end free movement deal with EU

Posted on by

Sunday’s referendum with echoes of Brexit proposes limits on number of foreign workers

Switzerland will vote on Sunday whether to end its agreement with the EU on the free movement of people, in a referendum with echoes of the pro-Brexit campaign that led to Britain’s decision to leave the bloc.

The largest party in the Swiss parliament, the rightwing, anti-immigration Swiss People’s party (SVP), has called for the vote, arguing that the country must be allowed to set its own limit on the number of foreigners coming in to work.

Continue reading...

Video shows taxi driver helping protester escape police in Belarus

Posted on by

Clip showing movie-like pursuit and escape in Minsk spreads across social media

An unnamed Belarusian taxi driver who helped a man escape from riot police during protests against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko has transfixed social media users who have shared footage of the dramatic incident.

The 16-second video clip, filmed by a Euroradio.fm reporter, features a movie-like pursuit and escape that unfolded in a Minsk residential area on Wednesday evening as crowds protested against what they said was the illegitimate inauguration of Lukashenko.

Continue reading...

Trump cuts aid for pro-democracy groups in Belarus, Hong Kong and Iran

Posted on by

Open Technology Fund, which helped activists evade state surveillance and sidestep web censorship, sees $20m grant pulled

The Trump administration has stopped vital technical assistance to pro-democracy groups in Belarus, Hong Kong and Iran, which had helped activists evade state surveillance and sidestep internet censorship.

Related: Trump memo on Comey firing was 'tinfoil helmet material', Mueller prosecutor says

Continue reading...

French police investigate attack on woman, 22, for wearing skirt

Posted on by

Student says she was punched in face in Strasbourg by three men who said ‘look at that whore’

French police have opened an investigation after a young woman said she was attacked by three men and beaten in public for wearing a skirt.

The government denounced the “very serious” incident as unacceptable, which came amid growing anger in France at physical and verbal abuse towards women over their dress in public.

Continue reading...

Alexei Navalny’s Moscow flat seized as he recovered from poisoning

Posted on by

Bank accounts also frozen as part of lawsuit filed by catering firm, his spokeswoman says

Alexei Navalny’s bank accounts were frozen and his Moscow apartment seized as part of a lawsuit while the Russian opposition politician was recovering from a suspected poisoning in a Berlin hospital, his spokeswoman has said.

His assets were seized on 27 August in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Moscow Schoolchild catering company, Kira Yarmysh said in a video posted on Twitter on Thursday. The politician and his allies have been involved in a long-running dispute with the company.

Continue reading...

‘Mr Brexit to Mr U-turn’: German commentators befuddled by Johnson’s zig-zagging

Posted on by

Media criticise PM’s Covid strategy, as UK adopts job support scheme similar to Germany’s own

The UK followed in the footsteps of the German government by adopting a jobs support scheme on Thursday. The announcement came as German commentators spoke of their confusion at the zig-zag approach to tackling the coronavirus, describing a nation caught up in feelings of panic, disbelief and disillusionment.

“Military intervention to control coronavirus rules a possibility,” ran one banner headline in the business daily Handelsblatt this week, while an editorial in the Süddeutsche Zeitung was titled: “Johnson’s skittishness endangers his country.”

Continue reading...

Sniffer dogs used to detect coronavirus in Helsinki airport as part of trial – video

Posted on by

Sniffer dogs have started to be deployed at Helsinki airport to detect Covid-19 among travellers, in a state-funded trial that it is hoped will provide a cheap, fast and effective alternative method of testing people for the virus.

A dog is capable of detecting the presence of the coronavirus within 10 seconds and the entire process takes less than a minute to complete, according to Anna Hielm-Björkman, of the University of Helsinki, who is overseeing the trial

Continue reading...

Italian president rebuts Johnson’s ‘freedom’ remarks over restrictions

Posted on by

Pushback comes after PM’s suggestion UK’s Covid-19 infection rate was worse than Italy because Britons loved their freedom more

Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, said its citizens “also love freedom, but we also care about seriousness”, responding to Boris Johnson’s suggestion that the UK’s rate of coronavirus infection was worse than both Italy and Germany’s because Britons loved their freedom more.

Mattarella’s comments came at the end of a ceremony in Sardinia, in memory of the former Italian president Francesco Cossiga.

Continue reading...

Orcas ram boat off the coast of Spain – video

Posted on by

Three orcas rammed a boat off the coast of Spain.

The incident lasted 45 minutes, during which the animals bit off part of the the sailing boat's rudder as the crew had to travel to a port in Galicia to check for further damage.

A number of incidents involving orcas and sailing boats have been reported near Spanish and Portuguese coasts, but the reasons behind the behaviour are still not clear

Continue reading...

‘I no longer participate’: Dutch celebrities rebel over Covid constraints

Posted on by

Rapper Famke Louise joined by Bizzy and others refusing to follow government advice

They are young, famous and refusing to abide by the coronavirus restrictions. A group of Dutch celebrities have triggered both a sizeable backlash and a national debate after breaking cover on social media with the hashtag #ikdoenietmeermee, (I no longer participate).

The central figure is the rapper and model Famke Louise, 21, who told her 1 million Instagram followers she was no longer willing to go along with the growing number of restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus. “Only together can we regain control of the government,” she said. “I no longer participate. Free the people.”

Continue reading...

Protesters clash with police in Belarus after Lukashenko sworn in again

Posted on by

Water cannon and stun grenades used by riot squad after opposition denounce president’s secret ceremony as illegitimate

Riot police clashed with protesters in Minsk on Wednesday evening, using water cannon and stun grenades, hours after the inauguration of Alexander Lukashenko for another term as president.

Several thousand protesters, many carrying the red-and white opposition flag, took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities following a surprise announcement that Lukashenko had been sworn in for a sixth term in office following disputed elections in August.

Continue reading...

Germany’s furlough scheme saves firms from freefall

Posted on by

Story of one Berlin travel agent illustrates how the Kurzarbeit scheme has kept businesses afloat

Without Germany’s furlough scheme, called Kurzarbeit (“short work”), Wulf Scheunert’s travel agency BITS would by now be “in freefall”, as he puts it.

Related: Rishi Sunak could do worse than copy Germany

Continue reading...

EU’s migration proposals draw anger on left and leave questions unanswered

Posted on by

One Dutch MEP compared the plans to the far right while Von der Leyen’s party called them ‘a good starting point’

The EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, hopes migration will become just another “normal policy area”, even “boring”.

Since more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, migration has been neither “boring” nor easy for the bloc. Leaders have flung accusations at each other, exposing painful divisions. In 2015, Italy’s then prime minister told his fellow leaders they were “time wasters”, who didn’t deserve to call themselves Europeans. Central European countries accused their neighbours of trying to “blackmail” them.

Continue reading...

Spain bans yachts from stretch of sea after orcas damage boats

Posted on by

Yachts less than 15 metres told to avoid area near coast of Galicia after series of incidents

Small yachts have been ordered to steer clear of a stretch of water off the north-west coast of Spain after at least three boats were damaged by a gang of boisterous orcas.

On Tuesday, Spain’s transport ministry said yachts of less than 15 metres in length would be banned from sailing close to the coast between Cape Prioriño Grande and Estaca de Bares point in Galicia for a week.

Continue reading...

As Covid cases rise again, how are countries in Europe reacting?

Posted on by

Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent

Continue reading...

EU proposes to ditch refugee quotas for member states

Posted on by

Countries would be offered €10,000 an adult to take people in under ‘solidarity à la carte’ plan

The European commission is abandoning the idea of mandatory refugee quotas, as it revives an attempt to change Europe’s asylum and migration rules after more than four years of deadlock.

The long-awaited migration proposals, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, would allow EU member states to choose whether to accept refugees, or take charge of returning those denied asylum to their home countries.

Continue reading...

Alexei Navalny out of German hospital after treatment for poisoning

Posted on by

Doctors say Russian opposition leader could make full recovery from exposure to suspected novichok

Alexei Navalny has been discharged from Berlin’s Charité hospital after spending 32 days as an inpatient, following what German authorities say was poisoning with a novichok nerve agent and with doctors suggesting he could make a full recovery.

The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the Russian opposition politician’s condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”, and added that he had left on Tuesday.

Continue reading...