Category Archives: Europe

Von der Leyen warns against ‘carving up’ of Ukraine amid crunch US-led talks

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Commission president says undermining of sovereign European nation would ‘open the doors for more wars’

The European Commission president has warned against “the unilateral carving up of a sovereign European nation” as Europe scrambles to assert influence over the US’s attempt to end the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to European lawmakers in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen said Russia showed “no signs of true willingness to end the conflict” and continued to operate in a mindset unchanged since the days of Yalta – the much-criticised and misunderstood 1945 summit to settle the postwar order.

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European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s

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MEPs pass resolution to help parents tackle growing dangers of addictive internet platforms

Children under 16 should be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise, the European parliament says.

MEPs passed a resolution on age restrictions on Wednesday by a large majority. Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about the mental health risks to children of unfettered internet access.

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European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s

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MEPs pass resolution to help parents tackle growing dangers of addictive internet platforms

Children under 16 should be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise, the European parliament says.

MEPs passed a resolution on age restrictions on Wednesday by a large majority. Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about the mental health risks to children of unfettered internet access.

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As France prepares military expansion, how is Europe beefing up its armies?

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European nations are rushing to bolster their defences amid Russia threat and uncertainty of US support

France will this week become the latest EU country to set out plans to expand its army, with Emmanuel Macron expected to announce on Thursday that military service will be restored – albeit on a voluntary basis – nearly 30 years after the end of conscription.

In the face of Russia’s military threat and uncertainty over the US’s commitment to defending its transatlantic allies, Europe is rushing to bolster its defence industry and its deployment capability after radically cutting them back since the cold war.

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‘No topic is too difficult’: children’s series on life in communist East Germany wins an Emmy

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In Fritzi’s Footsteps tells story of a girl growing up in Leipzig who witnesses the fall of the Berlin Wall

The creators of a children’s television series about life in communist East Germany have said they hope it will awaken interest in the region’s history, after it was awarded an International Emmy.

Auf Fritzis Spuren (In Fritzi’s Footsteps) tells the story of a 12-year-old girl living in the eastern city of Leipzig and how she experiences life in the east and the events that lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Seven killed in Kyiv as Russia hits Ukraine’s energy sector with missiles and drones

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Wide-ranging assault included drones that crossed into Romanian and Moldovan territory

Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, killing seven and injuring 21 in Kyiv as a fresh round of US-brokered peace negotiations began in Abu Dhabi.

A total of 22 missiles, including four hypersonic Kinzhals, and 464 drones, were fired by Russia in attacks that principally targeted Kyiv and the surrounding area, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Nato scrambles jets as Russian drones make deepest incursion into Romania

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Fighter jets track two uncrewed aircraft in first daytime breach of Romanian airspace since full-scale Ukraine war

Nato jets were scrambled to track two Russian drones that crossed into Romania on Tuesday in the deepest and first daytime incursion into the country’s airspace since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

German Typhoon and Romanian F-16 fighter jets took off in pairs to follow the uncrewed aircraft. The first flew back into Ukrainian airspace, but the second was later found downed in Puieşti, about 70 miles from Ukraine.

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Italian man ‘dressed as dead mother in order to claim her pension’

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Man from Borgo Virgilio investigated for benefit fraud and hiding body since woman’s death in 2022

An Italian man is under investigation for benefit fraud and hiding a body after allegedly dressing up as his dead mother – including mimicking her hairstyle with a wig and wearing makeup and jewellery – in order to claim her pension.

The man, from Borgo Virgilio close to the northern Italian city of Mantua, allegedly claimed thousands of euros in pension payments after the death of his mother in 2022. Instead of reporting her death, he allegedly hid her body in his home.

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Surprise envoy pushing Ukraine ‘peace’ plan belies Vance influence on US policy

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Army secretary Daniel Driscoll presented a Russian wishlist, highlighting differences with the administration

The US army secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration’s newest proposal to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine – but his ties to JD Vance have put a close ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president on the frontlines of Donald Trump’s latest push to end the war.

Before his trip to Kyiv last week, Driscoll was not known for his role as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts at selling the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

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Court ruling to remove children of UK-Australian couple living in woods divides Italy

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Decision to remove children comes after they and their parents ate poisonous mushrooms and ended up in hospital

The decision by an Italian court to remove three children being brought up in the woods from their British-Australian parents has sparked a fierce debate in the country over alternative lifestyles.

Nathan Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol, and his wife, Catherine Birmingham, a former horse-riding teacher from Melbourne, bought a dilapidated property in a wooded area in Palmoli, in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, in 2021.

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Disarray over leaked US-Russia peace plan is ideal scenario for Putin

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Ukraine has been cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and faces threat of losing its most important ally

The Kremlin has barely lifted a finger in recent days. It hasn’t needed to.

The 28-point US-Russia peace proposal, leaked to the media last week, has thrown Washington, Kyiv and European capitals into disarray, creating precisely the conditions Vladimir Putin has long sought: a negotiating table sharply tilted in the Russian president’s favour, with Ukraine cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and the threat of losing its most important ally hanging over its head.

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Udo Kier, German actor who starred in 200 films spanning Lars von Trier to Ace Ventura, dies aged 81

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Actor who appeared in My Own Private Idaho, Blade, Armageddon and Dogville, as well as Madonna music videos and video games, died on Sunday

Udo Kier, the German actor who appeared in 275 roles across Hollywood and European cinema, including multiple films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gus Van Sant and Lars von Trier, has died aged 81.

Kier died on Sunday morning, his partner Delbert McBride told Variety. The actor died in hospital in Palm Springs, California, his friend the photographer Michael Childers announced on social media. No cause of death was given.

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‘An inner duty’: the 35-year quest to bring Bach’s lost organ works to light

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Musicologist Peter Wollny chanced upon the manuscripts in 1992 and authenticating them took half of his lifetime

The best fictional detectives are famed for their intuition, an ability to spot some seemingly ineffable discrepancy. Peter Wollny, the musicologist behind last week’s “world sensational” revelation of two previously unknown works by Johann Sebastian Bach, had a funny feeling when he chanced upon two intriguing sheets of music in a dusty library in 1992.

His equivalent of the Columbo turn, from mere hunch to unravelling a secret, would take up half his life.

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US and Ukraine promise ‘updated’ peace framework after criticism of pro-Russian points in original plan

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US-Ukraine statement comes hours after European countries propose their own alternative peace

The US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war with Russia, hours after European countries proposed their own radical alternative that omitted some of the pro-Russia points made in an original US-backed document that was leaked last week.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, emerged from a meeting in Switzerland late on Sunday with a Ukrainian delegation led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, saying he was “very optimistic” about the progress of the talks. A joint statement between the two countries said that any eventual deal would “fully uphold” Ukraine’s sovereignty.

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Ukrainian refugee Danylo Yavhusishyn wows Japan to win his country’s first elite sumo title

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  • 21-year-old beats grand champion Hoshoryu

  • Wrestler uses ring name Aonishiki Arata

Danylo Yavhusishyn has become the first Ukrainian to win a sumo tournament in Japan.

The 21-year-old, who fled the war in Ukraine three years ago, won the Kyushu tournament after a tie-breaking victory over grand champion Hoshoryu from Mongolia.

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French winemakers ‘battle for survival’ as minister prepares for crisis talks

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Vineyard owners say sales slump, Trump tariffs and worst harvest in 70 years have put producers in danger of closure

French winemakers are often accused of viewing the glass as half empty. Dire warnings about the state of the sector – one of the three pillars of the country’s economy – are a hardy perennial blamed on everything from geopolitics to a drop in the number of drinkers.

Before a crisis meeting with the agriculture minister on Monday, vineyard owners say an unprecedented series of setbacks, including some of the worst harvests in 70 years, has left many of them on their last legs.

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Trump says Ukraine deal is not ‘final offer’ as officials gather for Geneva summit

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US president signals potential room for adjustments after Zelenskyy says proposals force Ukraine to choose between national dignity and losing the US

Donald Trump said on Saturday that his “peace plan” was “not my final offer”, after a furious backlash from Ukrainians who described it as reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.

The US president told reporters during brief remarks at the White House: “We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago … we’re trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended.”

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Greek secondary school teachers to be trained in using AI in classroom

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Some teachers and pupils voice concerns about pilot programme after government’s agreement with OpenAI

Secondary school teachers in Greece are set to go through an intensive course in using artificial intelligence tools as the country assumes a frontline role in incorporating AI into its education system.

This week, staff in 20 schools will be trained in a specialised version of ChatGPT, custom-made for academic institutions, under a new agreement between the centre-right government and OpenAI.

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Farage’s views on Russia likely to be further tested after jailing of Nathan Gill

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It would be expedient for Reform to take Labour’s advice and disavow ‘Putin talking points’

The discovery of a pro-Russian asset, Nathan Gill, at the heart of a British political party reads like the plot of a John Le Carré novel.

Russia was long known to have been trying to interfere in foreign politics with online bots and cyber-disinformation over the past decade.

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Trump may yet impose a Ukraine deal – but it threatens to be a disaster for Kyiv

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Ukraine could be forced into an agreement but plan as it stands seems too bizarre for Zelenskyy to sell to his public

We’ve been here before: the Trump administration announces a roadmap towards peace in Ukraine that seems to be dramatically skewed towards Moscow’s demands; Volodymyr Zelenskyy gets on the phone to alarmed European allies; they quickly call Trump to message him that the whole idea is unworkable; the plan quietly dies. Rinse and repeat.

This time it feels a bit different, however. Reports on Friday suggested the US has threatened that if Ukraine does not sign a hastily concocted peace plan, Washington could withdraw intelligence-sharing and other support critical to the Ukrainian war effort.

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