Category Archives: Europe

Global report: Muslims face curfews ahead of Eid amid Covid-19 crisis

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Pandemic subdues Ramadan festivities as Taliban declares ceasefire; Spain and Greece to welcome tourists

Muslims worldwide prepared to celebrate Eid under lockdown, with the strictest governments bringing in 24-hour curfews for the holiday – but across the world the slow march is continuing out of coronavirus quarantine.

For the first time since the beginning of the outbreak, China said it had recorded no new cases of the virus; Spain joined Greece in saying it would be reopening to foreign tourists from July, and also said its football league would start again next month.

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Sweden’s Covid-19 policy is a model for the right. It’s also a deadly folly | Nick Cohen

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The Swedes were the Brexiters’ poster nation, but now have Europe’s worst death rate

Covid-19 is nature’s way of making bad situations worse. From the moment it turned the world upside down, you could have predicted that the Chinese Communist party would have arrested whistleblowers and covered up the threat to humanity. It’s what it does best, after all.

You would not have needed mystical powers to divine that Viktor Orbán would have used a pandemic as an excuse to turn Hungary into the European Union’s first dictatorship. Nor did it take a modern Nostradamus to foresee that, if you put men who care nothing for competence, complexity, or the difference between truth and falsehood in power, you will live to regret it. Or in the case of tens of thousands who trusted Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, die needless deaths.

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French billionaire claims he spied on ex-president for security agency

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Xavier Niel, co-owner of Le Monde, says he worked for French security services in 1980s

A French billionaire has said he spied on a former president and on the car giant Renault for the country’s security agency.

Xavier Niel, a co-owner of Le Monde newspaper, claimed that as a teenager in the 1980s he worked for the state internal security services when they were interested in hacking, which was then a relatively new technique.

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Johnson’s promised Brexit border in Irish Sea ‘will not be ready in time’

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Influential thinktank warns that UK will need to extend transition period in wake of coronavirus or risk very hard border

A new Brexit border in the Irish Sea will not be ready by Boris Johnson’s end-of-year deadline, according to a new analysis that warns more than 60 administrations, government departments and public bodies will be involved in overseeing the new system.

Ministers finally admitted last week that there would be some checks on certain goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK from next January, when the Brexit transition period comes to an end.

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US security officials ‘considered return to nuclear testing’ after 28-year hiatus

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Discussion held this month as way to press Russia and China into agreeing arms control deal, officials say

US officials have debated whether to carry out the first US nuclear tests in 28 years as a way to pressure Russia and China into make a trilateral arms control deal, according congressional aides and former officials.

They said the discussion took place at a “deputies meeting” of senior national security officials at the White House on 15 May, but that the proposal was shelved for the time being.

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Global report: India and Indonesia announce record daily infection figures

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China sets no growth target for first time in decades; Madrid and Barcelona lockdowns to ease

India has reported more than 6,000 new Covid-19 cases, its biggest one-day increase, while China has abandoned setting a GDP growth target because of the “great uncertainty” caused by the pandemic.

The sharp increase in new infections in India came after the government began easing lockdown restrictions and as airlines prepared to reopen selected domestic routes.

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‘Exploitative conditions’: Germany to reform meat industry after spate of Covid-19 cases

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Ban on use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 for slaughterhouses breaching new labour regulations a ‘historic moment’, say campaigners

The German government has announced a series of reforms of the meat industry, including a ban on the use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 (£26,000) for companies breaching labour regulations, as slaughterhouses have emerged as coronavirus hotspots.

A number of meat plants across the country have temporarily closed after hundreds of workers tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks.

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UK and EU clash over crime-fighting database in Brexit talks

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UK set to lose access to Schengen Information System that police across continent use to stop criminals

EU officials have accused the British government of threatening to weaken security cooperation with the bloc unless the UK gets an equivalent to a major crime-fighting database.

The UK is set to lose access to the Schengen Information System (SIS II), a massive EU database, where police across the continent share millions of pieces of information on criminal suspects, at the end of the year.

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We lived the European dream. Will any politician stand up for open borders?

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Millions of us built our lives on the promise of free movement. Under cover of coronavirus, that dream is disappearing

They said he was German, others Italian, but then again he might have been French. We may never know the true nationality of “patient zero” in Europe. And it doesn’t much matter, because the true patient zero in our continent is Europe itself.

From the first detection of the virus on European territory, Europe has been in a coma.

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Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector

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Fridays for Future to publish letter urging reform of common agricultural policy ahead of European commission meeting

The EU’s farming sector needs radical reform, and the common agricultural policy (CAP) must be rewritten if the climate crisis is to be tackled, a group of young climate activists will urge.

Fridays for Future, founded by teenagers in the wake of Greta Thunberg’s school strikes, will confront the European commission’s vice-president, Frans Timmermans, online to call for new plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, and replace subsidies based on the amount of land farmed with payments for farmers supplying public goods, such as clean water, clean air and lower carbon emissions.

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Parisians angry as trees in famous cinema’s Japanese garden cut down

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Property magnate Charles Cohen’s €8m renovation of La Pagode branded a ‘massacre’

When the property magnate Charles Cohen bought the La Pagode cinema in Paris, complete with its celebrated Japanese garden, three years ago, he announced that as an American in Paris he wanted “everyone to be happy”.

The cinema-loving Francophile promised to “restore and preserve” the magnificent listed building and pledged he would “not disappoint” with his €8m facelift.

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Trump to pull US out of third arms control deal

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The Open Skies Treaty allows Russia and western nations to conduct observation flights

The US has declared its intention to leave the Open Skies Treaty, which is intended to reduce the risk of war by allowing Russia and western nations to conduct observation flights over each other’s territory.

Washington informed the other 33 parties to the treaty of its intention to deliver a formal six-month notice of withdrawal on Friday, accusing Russia of violations.

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Covid-19 track and trace: what can UK learn from countries that got it right?

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Pledge of ‘world-beating’ system will have to look to likes of South Korea and Germany

Boris Johnson’s insistence that the UK will be able to roll out a “world-beating” coronavirus test, track and trace regime by 1 June has inevitably drawn comparisons with countries around the world that have already set up effective Covid-19 tracing programmes.

It has also raised questions about timing, as some experts insist a system would have been more useful at the beginning of the pandemic.

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Spain reports lowest daily death toll in over two months – as it happened

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Brazil daily death toll jumps by nearly 1,200; East Africa facing ‘triple menace’ of Covid-19, floods and locusts. This blog is now closed

We are closing this live blog now, but you can stay up to date on all our coverage with our new global blog which you can find below.

Related: Coronavirus live news: Trump pushes to open churches as Brazil death toll passes 20,000

Here the latest developments at a glance:

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EasyJet to resume domestic flights across UK and France

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Passengers and crew must wear masks but middle seats will not be blocked

EasyJet is to resume a small number of flights on 15 June, with increased safety measures on board including mandatory wearing of face masks, as it returns to the skies after grounding its entire fleet on 30 March.

The airline initially will restart domestic routes in the UK and France where it says there is sufficient customer demand to support profitable flying. Further routes will be added in the following weeks, as and when passenger demand rises and lockdown measures ease further across Europe.

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Ukraine to investigate leaked calls between Joe Biden and ex-president

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Recordings containing edited conversations between the two while in office published by Ukrainian associate of Rudy Giuliani

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said that leaked recordings of phone calls allegedly between Joe Biden and former president Petro Poroshenko would be investigated by the country’s law enforcement agencies, adding that their contents might be “perceived, qualified as treason”.

The remarks prompted an angry rebuttal from Poroshenko, who said that the Zelenskiy administration may have played a role in their release and should be investigated.

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Brexit: Gove confirms plans for checks on goods crossing Irish Sea

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Minister says checks on animals and food products are needed to maintain island of Ireland’s ‘disease-free status’

The government has confirmed for the first time that there will be Brexit checks on animals and food goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK from next January.

The announcement, detailed in a 23-page document released by the government on Wednesday, comes months after Boris Johnson pledged there would be no checks on trade crossing the Irish Sea – telling businesses that if anyone asked them to fill in new paperwork, they could “throw it in the bin”.

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Europe should brace for second wave, says EU coronavirus chief

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Exclusive: ‘The question is how big,’ says Dr Andrea Ammon, who thinks March skiing breaks were pivotal to spread

The prospect of a second wave of coronavirus infection across Europe is no longer a distant theory, according to the director of the EU agency responsible for advising governments – including the UK – on disease control.

“The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view,” said Dr Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

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Apple whistleblower goes public over ‘lack of action’

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Thomas le Bonniec says firm violating rights and continues massive collection of data

A former Apple contractor who helped blow the whistle on the company’s programme to listen to users’ Siri recordings has decided to go public, in protest at the lack of action taken as a result of the disclosures.

In a letter announcing his decision, sent to all European data protection regulators, Thomas le Bonniec said: “It is worrying that Apple (and undoubtedly not just Apple) keeps ignoring and violating fundamental rights and continues their massive collection of data.

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Coronavirus live news: Greece to restart tourism from 15 June

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Country plans to allow international flights from 1 July; Spain makes face coverings compulsory; global cases hit 4.9m

Here is more on US president Donald Trump calling for an in-person G7 meeting.

Donald Trump has said he may seek to revive a face-to-face meeting of Group of Seven leaders near Washington, after earlier canceling the gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Trump considers an in-person G7 meeting despite coronavirus pandemic

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