Category Archives: Europe

Greek floods: death toll rises as rescue teams search for survivors

Posted on by

At least eight people dead after storm sparks flash floods on island of Evia

The body of a man missing after a storm sparked flash floods on the Greek island of Evia over the weekend has been recovered, Greece’s coastguard has said, bringing the death toll from the storm to eight.

Rescue crews had been searching for the 72-year-old since Sunday when he was reported missing after flooding swept away cars and sent residents of some villages scrambling to their roofs to await rescue.

Continue reading...

Thirty-year-old corpse discovered in cellar of €35m Paris mansion

Posted on by

Gruesome find halts work on restoring newly purchased complex in prestigious area

Work on restoring an abandoned €35m (£27m) mansion in one of the most prestigious areas of Paris has been suspended after the discovery of a corpse that had been decomposing in the basement for 30 years, local media have reported.

Minutes from Les Invalides and the French prime minister’s official residence, and backing onto the former home of Yves Saint Laurent, the vast but crumbling complex at 12 rue Oudinot in the heart of Paris had been empty for more than 30 years.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson says crossing Channel in small boats ‘dangerous and criminal’

Posted on by

PM hints at law change to make it easier to deport people who make dangerous voyage

Boris Johnson has branded attempts by people to cross the Channel in small boats as a “very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do” and hinted at changing the law to make it easier to deport such arrivals.

Meanwhile, a French politician has warned that the UK’s decision to send in the Royal Navy “won’t change anything”, and a former Home Office official has said he was sceptical of the plans.

Continue reading...

Germany’s SPD picks Merkel-like figure to run for top job in 2021

Posted on by

Social Democrats name pragmatic ex-mayor Olaf Scholz as candidate for chancellor

Germany’s Social Democrats have fired the starting gun in the race to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor by announcing the pragmatist finance minister, Olaf Scholz, as their candidate for the job.

One of the two pillars of 20th-century democracy in Germany, the Social Democratic party (SPD) has seen its support wither away since joining Merkel’s government as a junior coalition partner in 2013. It lies third in the polls behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Greens, on about 14% of the vote.

Continue reading...

Belarus opposition candidate rejects election result after night of protests

Posted on by

‘I will believe my own eyes,’ says Svetlana Tikhanovskaya after commission says Alexander Lukashenko won landslide

Share your reaction on the Belarus election result

The main opposition candidate in Belarus’s election has rejected the official results that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide victory and her team has vowed to stay in the country to campaign for a change of power.

“I will believe my own eyes – the majority was for us,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told reporters in the capital, Minsk, on Monday, after widespread reports of vote-tampering in Sunday’s election.

Continue reading...

Belarus election: Lukashenko’s claim of landslide victory sparks widespread protests

Posted on by

Riot police deployed in Minsk and about 20 other cities in some of the biggest clashes in the country’s history

Clashes broke out in cities across Belarus on Sunday evening as riot police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, teargas and water cannons to quash protests against the results of the contested presidential election.

Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled for 26 years, claimed he had won a landslide victory in an election marred by accusations of vote-rigging. The election commission claimed Lukashenko was ahead with 82% of the vote in preliminary results on Sunday evening. The opposition, led by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, had held some of the country’s largest political rallies since the days of the Soviet Union.

Continue reading...

Belarus presidential election: opposition candidate goes into hiding on eve of vote

Posted on by

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is challenging incumbent Alexander Lukashenko in Sunday’s vote, fled her home after police detained staffers

Belarus’s opposition candidate for president went into hiding the night before challenging longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday in the country’s most unpredictable election in a generation.

Candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fled her apartment after police detained several senior staffers in what critics called an attempt to scare the opposition ahead of the crucial vote.

Continue reading...

Juan Carlos, Spain’s disgraced former king, may be in Abu Dhabi, reports suggest

Posted on by

A week after going into exile, the scandal-hit former monarch is said to be staying in a $12,000-a-night suite in the Emirates palace hotel

At first it was Portugal, then the Dominican Republic, but now Abu Dhabi is firming as the most likely place of residence for Spain’s scandal-hit former king Juan Carlos.

On Saturday, Spain’s NIUS media group published an image that showed a man with at least the likeness of Juan Carlos in a face mask, descending from a plane.

Continue reading...

Fingers crossed at France’s brasseries and cafes as tourist quarantines loom

Posted on by

Numbers of foreign visitors are already down – and the fresh surge of Covid cases could spell the end for the holiday season

In a normal August, the much-loved miniature tourist train in the French port city of Sète would be full of tourists from Britain and elsewhere, enjoying the ride.

Optimistically, the manager, Romiy Priore, took steps to make his attraction safe for Covid times. “With the virus, we decided to order disposable earphones for the start of the season on 23 June – 100 of them,” he says, huddling behind a Perspex screen in a cool cabin on the quayside. “It’s August, and I still have 70 left. That tells you how many foreign tourists we currently have.”

Continue reading...

MoD considering request to deploy navy to stop Channel migrants

Posted on by

Home Office asked for patrols after saying migrants should face ‘real consequences’

Alarm is growing over UK proposals to introduce hardline measures to discourage refugees and illegal migrants from seeking sanctuary after the Ministry of Defence confirmed it was considering a Home Office request to deploy navy vessels in the Dover Straits.

It comes after the immigration minister, Chris Philp, called for migrants caught crossing the Channel to be fingerprinted and face “real consequences”, before a meeting next week with his French counterparts.

Continue reading...

‘We’re still so tired’: Europe’s doctors brace for second Covid-19 wave

Posted on by

When the Guardian spoke to staff in March they had no time for reflection. So what do they think of the new surge now?

During the initial peak of Spain’s Covid-19 pandemic in the spring, the virus displayed an unexpected mercy. In its spread, ferocity and awful novelty, it left health workers too tired and overwhelmed to look beyond the next few hours.

“There’s no time to get angry or to wonder why things have been organised the way they have been,” Sara Gayoso, an A&E doctor at El Escorial hospital near Madrid, told the Guardian at the end of March.

Continue reading...

Europe treats undocumented children with less care than livestock | Michele Levoy

Posted on by

Countless young people are being pushed to Europe’s margins by hardline border and migration policies

We don’t know how many undocumented children are living in Europe. We don’t even know how many children are currently locked up in detention because of their own or their parents’ immigration status. While the European Union requires precise data collection in numerous sectors – we know how many dairy cows there are in the EU and the UK, for example – the lack of data and visibility of undocumented children seems a political, rather than a technical, void.

Being born in Europe is not enough to prevent a child from becoming undocumented, if they are born to undocumented parents. No European country grants citizenship solely based on birth in the national territory. Others in the ranks of the undocumented moved to Europe as kids and have spent most of their lives here. For them, Europe is home. But policy hasn’t caught up with this reality.

Continue reading...

Italy infections jump 38% in a day as Japan confirms record number of new cases – as it happened

Posted on by

‘The holiday is over,’ says Norwegian health minister; PPE destroyed in Beirut blast; Africa passes 1m confirmed cases. This blog is now closed.

U.S. president Donald Trump said he would take part in a conference call on Sunday with leaders of Lebanon, France and other countries following the devastating blast in Beirut.

He also said he will be doing a press conference shortly, which would touch on both Beirut and the coronavirus.

I will be doing a news conference on the ChinaVirus, the just announced very good economic numbers, and the improving economy, at 7pm from Bedminster, New Jersey. Also, the subject of the Beirut, Lebanon catastrophe will be discussed.

Australia passed 20,000 coronavirus cases yesterday, with case numbers doubling in less than a month thanks to the outbreak in the Victorian capital of Melbourne.

Melbourne residents are beginning their first full weekend under stage four lockdown conditions, which will remain in place until 13 September.

Continue reading...

Extreme droughts in central Europe likely to increase sevenfold

Posted on by

Researchers say moderate reductions in CO2 emissions could halve their likelihood

Extreme droughts are likely to become much more frequent across central Europe, and if global greenhouse gas emissions rise strongly they could happen seven times more often, new research has shown.

The area of crops likely to be affected by drought is also set to increase, and under sharply rising CO2 levels would nearly double in central Europe in the second half of this century, to more than 40m hectares (154,440 sq miles) of farmland.

Continue reading...

European court of justice advises Madeleine McCann suspect was lawfully tried in rape case

Posted on by

Preliminary opinion a setback for Christian Brückner’s attempt to appeal conviction using European arrest warrant rules

The prime suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann was told that he was lawfully put on trial for rape last year, as his lawyers attempt to overturn that conviction at the European court of justice.

Christian Brückner, a 43-year-old German, is trying to overturn his conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005. He has argued at the ECJ that he had been extradited to Germany from Portugal, and later Italy, on a different charge.

Continue reading...

Italy threatens to ban Ryanair over alleged Covid-19 guideline violations

Posted on by

Dublin-based airline, previously criticised by German health authorities, denies accusations of non-compliance

Italy’s aviation regulator has threatened to ban Ryanair from its skies, alleging that the airline has not complied with rules brought in to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The Italian civil aviation authority Enac accused the Dublin-based airline of “repeated violation of anti-Covid-19 health measures drafted by the Italian government and in force to protect passengers’ health”.

Continue reading...

Italian homes evacuated over risk of Mont Blanc glacier collapse

Posted on by

Roads near Courmayeur closed to tourists because of threat from falling Planpincieux ice

Homes have been evacuated in Courmayeur in Italy’s Aosta valley, after a renewed warning that a huge portion of a Mont Blanc glacier is at risk of collapse.

The measures were introduced on Wednesday morning after experts from the Fondazione Montagne Sicura (Safe Mountains Foundation) said 500,000 cubic metres of ice was in danger of sliding off the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes Jorasses park.

Continue reading...

Belgium set to be added to England’s coronavirus quarantine list

Posted on by

Department for Transport officials said to be finalising announcement of the move

Belgium is set to be added to England’s quarantine list after a rise in Covid-19 cases, meaning arrivals from the country will have to isolate for 14 days.

The Guardian understands that officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) are finalising the announcement of the move and the current plan is that the measures are not due to come into effect until the weekend.

Continue reading...

German Protestant church to send migrant rescue boat to Mediterranean

Posted on by

Sea-Watch 4 is result of crowdfunding and is set to leave from Spain in few days

The German Protestant church will send a ship to the central Mediterranean to rescue migrants attempting to reach Europe from north Africa.

The boat, named Sea-Watch 4, will depart in a few days from the seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, in Spain, where volunteers are finalising preparations, the crew has said.

Continue reading...

French intelligence agents charged with attempted murder

Posted on by

Police discover agents in stolen car with false plates while plot to kill woman was not part of duties

Preliminary attempted murder charges have been filed against two agents from France’s foreign intelligence agency over an alleged plan to kill a 54-year-old woman last month in the Creteil suburb of Paris, the city prosecutor’s office has said.

French media reported on Wednesday that the directorate-general for external security (DGSE) agents were believed to have been plotting to kill a target, but not as part of their job duties. The agency is the French equivalent of the CIA.

Continue reading...