Its stunning Moorish architecture makes the Spanish monument one of the world’s most visited. But photographer Ugo Mellone found the resident frogs, toads and newts just as fascinating
The Alhambra, which sits on a hill in Granada, Andalucía, is the only preserved palatine city of the Islamic period and a Unesco world heritage site. Once the residence of the Nasrid sultans, it is one of the most visited national monuments in the world.
Continue reading...Hogan’s resignation comes after Irish government signalled it wanted him to quit or be sacked
The embattled European trade commissioner, Phil Hogan, has resigned his post after an outcry over his breaches of coronavirus rules during a golfing break in Ireland.
Hogan issued a statement on Wednesday night apologising to the Irish people and the EU commission for causing hurt and embarrassment, ending his attempts to ride out the controversy and keep his post as a key player in Brexit talks.
Continue reading...Caretaker PM warns over state of pandemic following Beirut blast; Belgium deaths slightly lower than thought; Iran’s death toll exceeds 21,000
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, appears to have employed the services of a celebrity personal trainer after admitting he needed to lose weight after contracting Covid-19.
Harry Jameson, who describes himself as an “elite performance coach”, was snapped running alongside Johnson in central London by a photographer from London’s Evening Standard newspaper today.
Germany will end mandatory coronavirus tests for travellers returning from high-risk areas abroad and again focus its testing strategy on people with symptoms or possible exposure to Covid-19 patients, the country’s health minister said today.
Health minister Jens Spahn said that over the summer vacation period the number of virus tests performed in Germany nearly doubled to 900,000 a week in part to identify people who caught the virus during trips abroad, the Associated Press agency reports.
Continue reading...Critics say plan for fields off Svalbard threatens ecosystem and relations with Russia
Norway is planning to expand oil drilling in previously untouched areas of the Arctic, a move campaigners say threatens the fragile ecosystem and could spark a military standoff with Russia.
A public consultation on the opening up of nine new Norwegian oilfields closed on Wednesday. The areas in question are much further north in the Arctic than the concessions the US president, Donald Trump, announced for Alaska this month.
Continue reading...Meteorological and environmental reasons cited as reasons for record low catches
Spanish fishing boats are landing only a tenth of their normal summer catch of octopus – an unheard-of drop.
To date, since 1 July they have caught 38 tonnes of octopus, compared with a normal average of 378 tonnes over the same period. Income has slumped by 84%. Catches vary from year to year but such a huge drop is unprecedented.
Continue reading...Irish government says it has lost confidence in Phil Hogan after he flouted quarantine regulations
The Irish government wants the embattled European trade commissioner, Phil Hogan, to quit or be sacked after concluding he flouted coronavirus regulations during a golfing break in Ireland.
The Green party leader, Eamon Ryan, part of the ruling coalition, on Wednesday said the government had lost confidence in Hogan.
Continue reading...Phil Hogan gave more detail about his trip but said he was exempt from lockdown restrictions
The embattled European trade commissioner Phil Hogan is facing fresh accusations that he flouted coronavirus regulations during a golfing break in Ireland.
Hogan attempted to douse the controversy and save his job in a media interview on Tuesday evening, but ended up tacitly admitting he had violated quarantine rules, triggering more questions and calls for his resignation.
Continue reading...Gendarmes’ request for topless sunbathers to cover up on south coast prompts outcry
France’s interior minister has defended the “precious” right to sunbathe topless on beaches, after police asked a group of women to cover up on the southern coast.
French gendarmes patrolling a beach in Mediterranean seaside town Sainte-Marie-la-Mer last week asked a group of topless sunbathers to cover up in response to a complaint from a family, the local gendarmerie said in a statement on Facebook.
Continue reading...Svetlana Tikhanovskaya tells MEPs ‘intimidation didn’t work’ after two allies detained
The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has vowed that the country’s movement for democratic change will not give up, despite the arrest of two allies working for a peaceful transition of power.
Speaking to the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee from exile in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya said the authorities had responded with threats and intimidation to the coordination council, set up by the opposition to bring about non-violent change. But, she insisted: “The intimidation didn’t work. We will not relent. We demand to respect our basic rights. We demand all political prisoners be free.”
Continue reading...Businesses and psychologists say country is still reeling from its earlier confinement
As officials across Spain wrestle with a surge in the number of coronavirus cases, a chorus of voices is warning that another lockdown could have dire consequences for a country that just months ago emerged from one of Europe’s strictest confinements.
While cases of the virus have climbed across Europe, Spain has led the pack in recent days. More than 78,000 cases have been detected in the past two weeks, pushing the 14-day infection rate to 166 per 100,000, compared with 67 in France and 22 in the UK.
Continue reading...Kremlin critic being treated with same antidote used after 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury
Tests indicate that Alexei Navalny was the victim of a poisoning and he is being treated with atropine, the same antidote used after the 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury, the German clinic where the Kremlin critic is a patient said on Monday.
While Berlin’s Charité hospital did not identify the specific poison responsible for Navalny’s sudden illness on an internal Russian flight last Thursday, the substance was part of a group that affects the central nervous system, and includes nerve agents and pesticides, as well as some drugs.
Continue reading...The embattled Belarusian president is shown brandishing a rifle in official footage taken during protests in Minsk on 24 August. Alexander Lukashenko watched the demonstrations from his helicopter before a meeting with riot police outside his palace in clips released by his press service. He could be heard pledging to 'deal with' the protesters, after a crowd estimated at more than 200,000 gathered to call for his removal
Raised levels of cholinesterase are important piece in the puzzle of Kremlin critic’s sudden illness
High levels of the chemical cholinesterase in tests on Alexey Navalny are a compelling clue that he was poisoned with a nerve agent, experts have said.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical and biological counter-terrorism expert, said the presence of cholinesterase inhibitors suggested Navaly was suffering from nerve agent poisoning. Raised levels of cholinesterase were an important “jigsaw piece in the puzzle”, he said.
Continue reading...Coronavirus restrictions mean repatriation of remains would have taken three months
A Sudanese migrant who drowned while attempting to cross the Channel from France to England has been buried in Calais after coronavirus restrictions meant it would have taken three months for his body to be repatriated to Sudan.
More than 150 fellow Sudanese attended Abdulfatah Hamdallah’s funeral in Calais on Monday morning, according to his cousin.
Continue reading...Campaigners demand more rules for lorries after initial hope pandemic would mean less traffic
A coronavirus-related drop in traffic and new protected bike lanes have failed to make Berlin’s roads safer for cyclists, as the German capital reports a four-year record in fatalities.
A woman run over by a right-turning articulated lorry in the district of Reinickendorf on Friday became Berlin’s 14th official cycling fatality of 2020 – more than twice as many as the six recorded in 2019.
Continue reading...Factory strike leader and Tikhanovskaya aide held as Lukashenko releases video of himself armed with rifle
Belarusian authorities arrested two opposition leaders on Monday, as a showdown between the authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and a broad coalition of protesters continued into a third week.
Police detained Sergei Dylevsky, a factory worker who has become a prominent strike leader, and Olga Kovalkova, an aide to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition politician who stood against Lukashenko in elections earlier this month but was forced to flee the country after the vote.
Continue reading...Some 100 holidaymakers at the Cap d’Agde resort have tested positive so far
French regional health authorities on Sunday said there had been a “very worrying” outbreak of coronavirus at a naturist holiday resort on France’s Mediterranean coast, with some 100 holidaymakers so far testing positive.
The Cap d’Agde resort in the Herault region, hugely popular among naturists, saw 38 positive tests on Monday and another 57 on Wednesday, the regional health authority said.
Continue reading...Defence minister’s threat to call in army fails to quell protests sparked by disputed election
Defiant protesters have flooded central Minsk again in a sign that even a threat to use the army was not enough to quell the uprising against Belarus’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
The vast square outside the parliament was turned into a sea of red and white by protesters waving the traditional Belarusian flag adopted by the protest movement and chanting “resign!” and “put Lukashenko in a police van!”. Unofficial estimates put the crowd at 150,000 people or more.
Continue reading...Leak to newspaper is apparently intended to show Navalny was not poisoned in city of Tomsk
A Russian newspaper has alleged there was extensive government surveillance of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny during a trip to Siberia before he collapsed from a suspected poisoning on Thursday.
Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, had complained of being followed during the trip, calling the police surveillance “absolutely obvious” during a stopover in the city of Novosibirsk. The next leg in the city of Tomsk was “relatively calm”, she said, until Navalny fell ill during a return flight to Moscow on Thursday. He was transferred to Berlin’s Charite hospital on Saturday for treatment.
Continue reading...President has vowed to ‘solve’ demonstrations and told army to prepare for foreign invasion
Belarusians are preparing for a second Sunday of massed rallies against Alexander Lukashenko, after the country’s authoritarian president told his military to be on full combat alert to deal with supposed external threats.
Last Sunday saw the biggest demonstration in the country’s recent history, over Lukashenko’s rigged election win and subsequent police violence against protesters. The protest has continued throughout the week, with the riot police largely absent, but Lukashenko has promised to “solve” the issue of protests within a few days, leaving some wary of a new crackdown.
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