Despite a big rise in infections, particularly among younger people, there is no sense of panic on the streets around Madrid
An hour or so before lunch on Thursday, Ángela Falcón stepped out of the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and on to the hot and busy streets of Parla.
“I’m scared and I very seldom come out but when I do, I stop by the church to pray,” said the 71-year-old.
Continue reading...Drama featuring McDormand as a retiree forced on the road after the 2008 recession takes top honours on the Lido, while Vanessa Kirby is named best actress
Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, a recession-era road trip drama starring Frances McDormand, won the Golden Lion for best film on Saturday at a slimmed-down Venice film festival, which was held against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.
Zhao and McDormand appeared by video from the United States to accept the award, as en virus-related travel restrictions made reaching the Lido in the Italian lagoon city difficult if not impossible for many Hollywood filmmakers and actors.
Continue reading...Turkish leader hits back after criticism from French president over warship deployment
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Saturday warned his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, “not to mess” with Turkey, as tensions between the Nato allies escalated.
“Don’t mess with the Turkish people. Don’t mess with Turkey,” Erdoğan said during a televised speech in Istanbul on the 40th anniversary of the 1980 military coup.
Continue reading...Rally in Minsk against disputed re-election of Lukashenko was attended by thousands
Belarusian riot police detained several dozen women demonstrators and threw them into vans, as thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest against police violence and electoral fraud.
Before a massive protest expected on Sunday, columns of female protesters gathered in central Minsk for a peaceful women’s protest. Some beat saucepans with ladles and others chanted “Bring back our Masha”, referring to opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova by her diminutive name.
Continue reading...PM claims internal market bill is needed to counter EU ‘threats’ to put a blockade in Irish Sea
Boris Johnson has said his controversial legislation to override parts of his Brexit deal is needed to end EU threats to install a “blockade” in the Irish Sea.
The prime minister said Brussels could “carve up our country” and “seriously endanger peace and stability” in Northern Ireland if Conservative MPs rebel to block the internal market bill.
Continue reading...Military seen using helicopters to carry equipment as they set up tented area on hilltop
Authorities have rushed to start putting up tents on Lesbos after thousands of men, women and children forced by devastating fires to evacuate Greece’s largest refugee camp spent a second night of sleeping rough.
Faced with intense opposition from local officials who were now demanding that the notoriously overcrowded Moria facility be removed “once and for all” from the island, the Greek government scrambled to break the deadlock.
Continue reading...Thousands of refugees on Lesbos protested in the street on Friday outside what was the largest migrant camp in Europe, which burned to the ground on Tuesday night.
Greek officials have pledged new temporary tents for the close to 13,000 refugees who were staying in Moria, as 11 European countries agreed to take 400 unaccompanied minors from among those left homeless by the fire
Thousands of Belarusians have defied beatings and arrests to demand the resignation of the country's authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, after he claimed victory in an election they say was rigged. Protesters have flooded Belarus's capital, Minsk, every week for a month to call for new, free and fair elections, as well as an end to police violence. But Lukashenko has held on with the support of the police and military. Can the protesters topple the man often called Europe's last dictator?
Plan has enraged EU and many Tories but sources say No 10 thinks it will move talks along
Britain’s Brexit negotiators believe Downing Street’s plan to break international law, pushing the trade and security negotiations to the brink, may have helped reboot the talks by offering Brussels a reality check about the looming danger of a no-deal outcome.
The publication of the internal market bill on Wednesday, under which key parts of the withdrawal agreement agreed last year would be negated, has enraged the EU and prompted an internal rebellion within the Conservative party.
Continue reading...Peaceful protests break out as the fire that destroyed Europe’s largest refugee camp leaves thousands without provisions, shelter or medical help
After days of sleeping on the streets since fleeing a fire which, for many, claimed all of their worldly belongings, Moria camp residents protested in their thousands on Friday. Babies sat on the shoulders of their fathers and small children carried signs bearing the word “freedom,” written on scraps of cardboard.
People clapped, whistled and banged empty water bottles together during a peaceful but noisy protest as frustrations ran high. Camp residents have been stuck on the streets between Moria camp and the main town of Mytilene, blocked in on all sides by police buses. Riot police in helmets and holding shields looked on as the protest passed them.
Continue reading...Under current system a female captain, for example, is called Frau Hauptmann – Mrs Captain
Germany is considering introducing feminine forms for military ranks, according to reports, 20 years after women gained the right to join the Bundeswehr.
The army has resisted using the feminine form even after women gained the right to join in 2000. A female captain in the Bundeswehr is addressed as Frau Hauptmann, the equivalent of “Mrs Captain”.
Continue reading...Citroën’s ‘urban mobility object’ is classed as a light quadricyle and can be driven without a full licence
The vehicle is cheap and the reactions from the pavement are a bonus, from the disbelieving double-take or uncontrolled giggle to the frankly envious where-do-I-get-one-of-those (plus the odd pitying stare, but then this is Paris).
At first glance, Citroën’s new Ami, a playful polypropylene cube on wheels with an unashamedly Toytown aesthetic, seems hardly the kind of car to excite the passions of France’s drivers. But, perhaps because it is not a car, that is just what it is doing.
Continue reading...Delphine Boël, whose mother had affair with ex-king Albert II, also wants to take her father’s surname
A woman who successfully fought a seven-year legal battle to prove she was the daughter of the former king of Belgium, Albert II, will learn next month whether, against the wishes of her father, she will be able to use the titles Her Royal Highness and the Princess of Belgium.
Delphine Boël, 52, an artist and sculptor, whose mother had an extra-marital affair with Albert in the 1960s and 70s, argued in the Brussels court of appeal that she should also be able to use her biological father’s surname of Saxe-Coburg. The court will give its judgment on 29 October.
Continue reading...French film Mignonnes sparks 200,000 tweets calling for boycott of streaming service over claims the film sexualises its young stars
A call to boycott Netflix on Thursday over the French film Mignonnes – AKA Cuties – has been launched on social media, over claims that its young stars were portrayed in a sexualised way.
The film is directed by French-Senegalese director Maïmouna Doucouré, and started streaming on 9 September. More than 200,000 tweets with the hashtag #CancelNetflix became the top trending topic one day later.
Continue reading...Dublin minister says UK plan to undo Brexit deal would have ‘unthinkable’ consequences
The Irish government has accused Boris Johnson of trying to sabotage the Northern Ireland peace process with a “unilateral provocative act” based on spurious claims about the Good Friday agreement.
As Brexit talks hang by a thread following the UK’s threat to renege on parts of the withdrawal agreement, Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s European affairs minister, branded the UK government’s claims that its move was to protect the peace process as “completely false”.
Continue reading...Minors were at house party in a villa in Marconia di Pisticci in southern Basilicata region
Italian police have arrested four people in connection with the alleged gang-rape of two British girls in the south of the country.
The rape reportedly took place on Monday night at a house party in Marconia di Pisticci, a town of about 8,000 people in the Basilicata province of Matera.
Continue reading...Residents of Moria camp struggle to salvage what they can as protesters try to block efforts to rebuild
Plumes of smoke rise above the ashes and twisted metal. In many parts this is all that remains of Europe’s largest refugee camp.
Just a few days ago, the Moria camp in Lesbos was home to thousands of children and their families. Now all that is left are the smoldering ruins and jagged outlines of scorched tents.
Continue reading...Deepening dispute between Nato allies has dragged in neighbours and is in danger of spiralling out of control
An increasingly fractious standoff over access to gas reserves has transformed a dispute between Turkey and Greece that was once primarily over Cyprus into one that now ensnares Libya, Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and feeds into other political issues in the Mediterranean and has raised fears of a naval conflict between the two Nato allies in the Aegean Sea.
The crisis has been deepening in recent months with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, leading those inside the EU opposing Turkey’s increasingly military foreign policy and saying Turkey can no longer be seen as partner in the Mediterranean. He has offered French military support to the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, including the possible sale of 18 Rafale jets.
Continue reading...The UK internal market proposals turn Britain into a country whose word cannot be trusted. Conservative MPs must use their power to stop this shameful plan
The damage is real, the damage is mounting and the damage must be ended as soon as possible. By trumpeting its readiness to override some of its treaty obligations towards the European Union, Boris Johnson’s government has cast Britain as a country that does not act in good faith and cannot be trusted to keep its word. The irresponsibility makes the Brexit process more difficult, triggering Thursday’s EU ultimatum to withdraw the plan. It subverts the rule of law at home and abroad. It pulls the rug from under Britain’s reputation everywhere from Ireland to Hong Kong, and wherever else people hope they can rely on Britain to play fair. The plans set out this week in the United Kingdom internal market bill read like an application for rogue state status.
The pushback against this law-breaking bill is already international. The government may have been relaxed about causing consternation in Brussels and exasperation in Berlin. But did it not stop to think of the impact on the politics of Ireland, north and south, or on already alienated opinion in Scotland and Wales, or on trade negotiators in Tokyo and other capitals? Did the government factor in the inevitably frosty response of the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, who is proud of his Irish ancestry and a friend of the EU, or of Democratic lawmakers (and some Republicans too) in Washington? Did it think about the multitude of other places around the world where goodwill towards Britain cannot always be assumed? Did it not realise that the promise-breaking would be welcomed by the likes of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, all of whom will feel that Britain has just made it a bit easier for them to go on defying the rules too? If ministers did not think of these things, they are fools. If they did, and still went ahead, they are rogues.
Continue reading...Ylva Johansson says EU working to reduce number of refugees and migrants on Greek islands
A senior EU official has said Europe’s failure to agree a common migration and asylum policy was partly responsible for the “unacceptable” conditions at the Moria camp on Lesbos that burned to the ground this week, leaving more than 12,000 people without shelter.
Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner for home affairs, said that when she took office in December 2019, the situation for 40,000 refugees and migrants living on Greek islands was “unsustainable and unacceptable”.
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