Category Archives: Europe

EU disputes Facebook’s claims of progress against fake accounts

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Commissioner says ‘still some way to go’ in battle against disinformation on social media

Facebook and other major social media platforms have been accused by the European commission of giving a misleading picture of their efforts to remove fake accounts spreading politically motivated disinformation.

The security commissioner, Julian King, told the Guardian on the publication of the sites’ self-assessment reports to the EU’s executive that there remained a “disconnect” between the claims of progress from social media companies and “the lived experience”.

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Germany charges two Syrians with crimes against humanity

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Charges – including 59 counts of murder – linked to UN exhibition of torture photographs in 2015

Germany has charged two alleged former Syrian secret service officers with crimes against humanity, federal prosecutors have announced.

The two men were arrested in the capital, Berlin, and the southern state of Baden-Württemberg in February, in a coordinated operation by German and French police.

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Brexit: Government’s no-deal planning operation stood down – as it happened

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Government fails to win two-thirds majority for early ballot needed under Fixed-term Parliaments Act, after EU agrees to delay Brexit

That’s all from us this evening. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events:

Related: Boris Johnson abandons Brexit bill in new push for December election

My colleagues, Rowena Mason and Rajeev Syal, have been looking into what they’ve termed the “meltdown: at the People’s Vote campaign.

It’s embroiled in infighting after the chairman, Roland Rudd, fired two directors by email over the weekend. Today, Peter Mandelson – an Open Britain board member – has said:

Roland Rudd is like the captain of the Titanic demanding the passengers show him more respect as the iceberg carves open the hull and water gushes into the bowels of the ship.

Related: People's Vote set for showdown after directors' sacking

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Libya orders arrest of alleged trafficker who attended Italy migration talks

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Arrest warrant issued for Abd al-Rahman Milad, suspected of drowning dozens of people

The UN-backed government in Libya has ordered the arrest of a man described as one of the world’s most notorious human traffickers who was this month revealed to have attended meetings between Italian officials and a Libyan delegation to discuss controls on migration flows from north Africa.

In a note released on Monday by the interior ministry in Tripoli, authorities said Abd al-Rahman Milad, described by the UN security council as a ruthless human trafficker suspected of drowning dozens of people, was “a wanted man and an arrest warrant was issued against him”.

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Could cities profit from protecting themselves against rising seas?

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Some coastal cities are reclaiming land as a barrier against rising water – then selling it off. But critics argue that climate change defence should not be a business model

“The island is going to be placed where the British empire’s fleet once was,” says Anne Skovbro, looking out from her office in a 19th-century customs house over Copenhagen’s harbour.

She points out the mooring posts where tall ships once docked, the old masting crane that marked the harbour’s outer edge, and the patch of sea where Horatio Nelson is supposed to have held a telescope to his blind eye as his ships set the city’s medieval centre ablaze.

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Brian May completes stereoscopic ‘devil cards’ collection

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Queen guitarist finds last two of 19th-century set of French ‘Diableries’ after 30 years

They have names like The Infernal Cavalry, Satan the Journalist and Bicycle Race in Hell, and tell horrible stories of oppression, torture and misery.

There are also scenes that show the damned playing billiards at “Cafe Chez Satan”, a fancy dress carnival with the Prince of Darkness as an untrustworthy nurse, and a “lottery in hell” for which there is only one winner.

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Brexit: EU prepares to grant UK three-month extension

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Exclusive: UK will have option to leave earlier if deal is ratified, leaked draft shows

The EU is preparing to sign off on a Brexit extension to 31 January 2020 with an option for the UK to leave earlier if a deal is ratified, according to a leaked draft of the agreement seen by the Guardian.

Despite objections raised by the French government, a paper to be agreed on Monday circulated among member states suggests the EU will accede to the UK’s request for a further delay.

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Barcelona tourist industry counts cost of ‘lost week’ of rioting

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Trade reportedly falls 60% in some areas, with concern about disturbances’ long-term effect

Still reeling from the collapse of Thomas Cook, Spain’s tourist industry is now counting the cost of prolonged rioting in Barcelona, the nation’s most popular urban destination.

A week of violent and destructive disturbances over the jailing of Catalan political leaders left the city with a clean-up bill estimated at €3m but it is feared that the images of airport chaos, running battles with police and flaming barricades will cost the city a great deal more.

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Umbria election exit poll points to win for Salvini and Italy’s right

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Donatella Tesei, backed by Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi, appears set to win in centre-left Italian stronghold

Matteo Salvini’s political fortunes have been given a boost after an exit poll by Italy’s state broadcaster pointed to a win for a rightwing coalition backed by his League party in a regional election in Umbria.

Donatella Tesei, backed by the League, the far-right Brothers of Italy and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, will be elected governor with 56.5% to 60.5% of the vote, according to an exit poll for state broadcaster RAI.

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‘We were indifferent to the horror’: Nazi camp inmate to give testimony at trial

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Polish resistance fighter who escaped Stutthof will face Bruno Dey, accused of being accessory to murder of 5,230 people

It was when the guards began burning piles of bodies in the open because the crematorium could not keep up with the task that Marek Dunin-Wąsowicz realised he was being held in a camp whose purpose was not just to “concentrate”, but systematically to murder thousands of people.

In the autumn of 1944, the 17-year-old Pole saw trainloads of Jews, most of them from Hungary, being taken straight to the gas chambers at Stutthof. Others were gassed inside an adapted railway carriage, set on tracks to trick prisoners into believing that they were being transported to another destination.

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Spanish police clash with thousands of Catalan protesters in Barcelona

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Police charge 10,000-strong crowd as pro-independence demonstration turns violent

Spanish police and militant elements in a thousands-strong crowd of protesters clashed in the streets of Barcelona close to police headquarters late on Saturday, as a pro-independence demonstration by a direct action group turned violent.

After a largely peaceful gathering of an estimated 350,000 pro-independence supporters jammed the centre of the city earlier in the day, a second crowd began to form around Barcelona’s police headquarters about 7.30pm. As the crowd grew to around 10,000, according to police estimates, TV footage showed protesters throwing bottles, balls and rubber bullets at officers.

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Number of Britons leaving for Europe hits a 10-year high

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Britons in Europe spoke of the importance of an actively European identity to them

The number of British citizens leaving for European Union countries is at a 10-year high, with the rate of departure accelerating since the referendum, new research has revealed.

According to initial findings of a report on the migration of UK citizens, 84,000 people are expected to leave Britain for another EU nation this year, compared with 59,000 in 2008. It found that about 11,500 people moved from the UK to Germany in 2018, compared with more than 8,500 in 2008.

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DUP says Johnson’s Brexit deal would take Northern Ireland in ‘wrong direction’

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Arlene Foster highlights importance of party’s 10 parliamentary votes in propping up government

The Democratic Unionist party leader has demanded honesty from the government on Brexit as she vows to keep opposing the current deal until changes are made.

Arlene Foster told her party conference on Saturday afternoon the current withdrawal agreement would take Northern Ireland in the “wrong direction”.

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Tourist trade counts the cost as separatist riots blight Barcelona

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Hoteliers, restaurants and shops say takings fell up to 50% after the violence, and future bookings may be hit

Catalonia has been counting the political cost after protests swept across the region following the decision by Spain’s supreme court to impose heavy sentences on Catalan separatist leaders found guilty of sedition. Now it faces a new cost – a slump in the lucrative tourist business in its hugely popular capital, Barcelona.

The violent disturbances left the city with a clean-up bill estimated at €3m (£2.6m), but it is feared that the images of airport chaos, running battles with police and flaming barricades will cost a great deal more.

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Blow to Trump as DoJ ordered to turn over evidence from Mueller grand jury

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  • Democrats must be given access to testimony, judge rules
  • Committees subpoena Trump officials who refused to testify

A judge on Friday ordered the justice department to give the House unredacted portions of grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, handing a victory to Democrats who want the material for the impeachment investigation of Donald Trump.

Related: Judge grants Democrats access to unredacted Mueller report – live

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Ex-Nazi camp guard admits seeing people taken to gas chamber

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Bruno Dey, 93, tells trial he heard screaming but did not know killings were taking place

A 93-year-old former guard at the Nazi Stutthof concentration camp has testified at his trial that he once saw people being led into the gas chamber, followed by screaming and banging sounds behind the locked door.

Bruno Dey, a former SS private, went on trial on 17 October at the Hamburg state court where he stands accused of having been an accessory to the murder of 5,230 people while he was deployed at Stutthof from 1944 to 1945.

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Javid: government will push for general election ‘again and again’

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Chancellor says Tories will insist on election but experts outline problems with pre-Christmas vote

Sajid Javid has said the government will repeatedly push for a general election if parliament rejects Boris Johnson’s motion on Monday, as electoral administrators outlined potential problems with a pre-Christmas election including a lack of polling stations and late postal votes.

Johnson on Thursday night threatened to pull his Brexit deal if Jeremy Corbyn rejected the offer of a general election on 12 December, but Labour appeared poised to block Monday’s motion by telling MPs to abstain. The party has said it will only back an early election when a no-deal Brexit scenario can be firmly ruled out.

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EU delays decision on Brexit extension until MPs vote on election

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Offer is now expected to be made only days before UK is due to leave EU on 31 October

The EU will delay its decision on the length of the next Brexit extension until next Monday or Tuesday to take into account the result of a vote on Boris Johnson’s demand for a pre-Christmas general election.

Speaking after a two-hour meeting of ambassadors in Brussels on Friday, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said an “excellent” discussion had concluded without any clear way forward. “No decision,” he said.

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Central African Republic considers hosting Russian military base

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Kremlin denies discussion at Russia-Africa summit but CAR president says countries’ defence ministries were reviewing idea

The president of Central African Republic has said his country would consider hosting a Russian military base, as Vladimir Putin woos dozens of African leaders in an effort to spread Moscow’s influence at an investment summit in southern Russia.

In an interview with Russian state media, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra said he had also asked Russia for new weapons shipments for CAR’s soldiers, who have fought a civil war against rebel forces in the country since 2012. Asked about a potential military base, Russia’s first in Africa, he said that his government was “considering the possibilities”.

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