Category Archives: Europe

Libyan warlord Haftar leaves Moscow without signing ceasefire deal

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General had been in Russian capital seeking deal with head of Libya’s UN-recognised government

Libya’s eastern strongman Gen Khalifa Haftar has left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement to end nine months of fighting in the country, leaving the future of a fragile truce uncertain..

The commander’s abrupt departure in the early hours of Tuesday was a setback for an international diplomatic push in recent days, though Moscow insisted it would continue mediation efforts.

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Belgian doctors go on trial for murder for helping woman end life

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Medics accused of poisoning Tine Nys, 38, in country’s first euthanasia criminal case

Three Belgian doctors go on trial for murder on Tuesday for helping a woman end her life in the country’s first criminal case concerning euthanasia.

The doctors, whose names have not been made public, are accused of unlawfully poisoning 38-year-old Tine Nys on 27 April 2010. Prosecutors say Nys did not fulfil the conditions under Belgian law to be euthanised.

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Climate activist turns down Siemens’ offer of seat on energy board

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Protest group leader Luisa Neubauer says she would lose right to criticise the company

The leader of Germany’s Friday for Future climate protests has said she turned down a seat on the board of Siemens’ new energy business amid growing anger over its role in a controversial coal mining project in Australia as she feared she would lose the right to criticise the company.

Luisa Neubauer, 23, the German face of the campaign group inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has campaigned alongside her, said on Monday the position would jeopardise her independence if she had taken up the offer from its chief executive, Joe Kaeser, made at a meeting in Berlin on Friday.

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Malta’s new PM has only days to prove himself, says Andrew Caruana Galizia

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Son of murdered journalist says Robert Abela is ‘continuity candidate’ and must break with ‘corrupt legacy’

Malta’s new prime minister, Robert Abela, has a few days to prove whether he will break with “the corrupt legacy” of the past, a son of the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galiziahas said.

Abela, an outsider who beat the favourite to become leader of Malta’s ruling Labour party on Sunday, will be sworn in as the island’s 14th prime minister on Monday.

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EU trade chief foresees ‘financial services for fishing’ Brexit bargain

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Commissioner says Europe will seek fishery access and UK will want concessions for City

The EU’s trade commissioner has suggested there could be a last-minute trade-off with Brussels offering the City of London access to European markets in return for European fleets retaining their fishing rights in British waters.

The UK’s financial services sector will lose its automatic right to serve Europe-based clients at the end of the transition period and the EU will need to negotiate access to UK waters for its fishing boats.

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Ex-soldier admits killing Slovak journalist and his partner

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Miroslav Marček appears in court over shooting of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova

A former soldier has admitted killing a Slovak journalist and his fiancee, a crime that sparked mass protests leading to the resignation of the prime minister Robert Fico.

Miroslav Marček told the special criminal court in Pezinok that he accepted guilt, an admission that could reduce his sentence from potential life imprisonment.

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Prada works commuter chic at Milan men’s fashion week

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A surreal take on tailoring echoed masculine workwear themes seen elsewhere

On the third day of Milan men’s fashion week, the concept of the working man emerged as a theme in the newest collection from Prada.

The brand, which skipped Milan last season to show instead in Shanghai, showcased a collection which focused on formality and tailoring but with Miuccia Prada’s surreal touches. On a set that was designed to replicate a futuristic town square (a white statue of a man on a horse stood in the centre of the box-like runway), models replicated Prada-ised commuters on their way to work.

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Libya ceasefire in doubt as rival forces accuse each other of breaches

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Warring sides also plan to deploy more troops despite Russian-Turkish brokered deal

A Russian-Turkish brokered ceasefire between the two warring groups in Libya was struggling to take hold in Tripoli as both sides accused the other of breaches and laid out plans to mobilise more forces.

In a breakthrough on Saturday, both sides in the civil war – the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces led from the east of Libya by Gen Khalifa Haftar – agreed to a ceasefire proposed last week by Russia and Turkey.

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Ski resorts lure millennials with the sound of music

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As fiftysomethings pack the slopes, cost and a cultural shift are putting off younger skiers – and the industry is having to respond

It’s Thursday evening at Geneva airport and about 60 British holidaymakers are waiting for a bus to take them to the French ski resorts of Chamonix and Morzine. All but a handful are over 50.

What was once a young person’s sport is now owned by the baby boomer generation, something with potentially disastrous consequences for the ski industry as older skiers depart the slopes and young people fall out of love with the mountains.

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Malta gets new PM after Muscat departs over Daphne Caruana Galizia murder

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Robert Abela elected as Labour leader after PM Joseph Muscat resigned amid controversy surrounding investigation of journalist’s death

Outsider Robert Abela is set to become Malta’s new prime minister after the downfall of previous leader Joseph Muscat over the investigation into the murder of an investigative journalist.

Abela, who is seen as representing continuity, was elected leader of the Labour party on Sunday, meaning he automatically takes the role of prime minister.

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Trapped on Lesbos: the child refugees waiting to start a new life

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Thousands of children are living in appalling conditions on the Greek island. At the Moria camp, one Syrian teenager tells of trying to join his family in the UK

Outside the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, a shanty town made of tarpaulin strung between olive trees is getting bigger every week. There are now 18,000 people living in this second camp, designed for just over 2,000.

Ahmed (not his real name), 17, and his friend Musa wind their way up muddy tracks towards their tent, swerving to avoid groups of children running in flip-flops through the dirt.

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Iran plane crash admission triggers international calls for full investigation

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Ukrainian president also calls for full admission of guilt, justice and compensation

Iran’s admission that it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane has been met with international demands for a full investigation into the disaster, in which 176 people died during a period of soaring tensions between Tehran and Washington.

A statement carried on Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Saturday morning said the military had made an “unforgivable mistake” in targeting Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport on Wednesday. It was followed by condolences from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and an apology from the country’s president, Hassan Rouhani.

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Brexit deal: EU may threaten ‘to block’ City’s access to its markets

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Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, hinted at move to ensure level playing field

The EU will be unashamedly “political” and block the City of London’s access to European markets if Boris Johnson tries to exempt the UK from its laws.

Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, whose country is taking over the presidency of the EU, made the bloc’s intentions clear after the prime minister insisted the UK would not be aligned to the bloc’s regulations.

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Harry and Meghan could face fight to protect ‘Sussex Royal’ brand

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Pair may have to file objection after EU trademark application is apparently made from Italy

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex face having to potentially make an objection to protect their would-be brand “Sussex Royal” after an application was lodged with EU authorities to trademark a range of goods including beer and jewellery.

In what may be the latest attempt to either squat on or protect the couple’s brand, it was lodged on Thursday by an applicant who appears to be based in Italy and filed it in German, with English listed as a second language. Database searches suggest it was made in the name of Ui Phoenix Kerbl, possibly after the Guardian reported on Thursday that the Sussexes had yet to register their brand outside of the UK.

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Czech new wave director Ivan Passer dies aged 86

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Passer was a key figure in the Czech new wave before moving to the US, where his best known film was the cult thriller Cutter’s Way

Ivan Passer, the film-maker who was a key figure in the Czech new wave and who went on to direct the thriller Cutter’s Way after emigrating to the US, has died aged 86. Variety reported that an associate of his family confirmed the news.

Passer, who was born in Prague in 1933, spent his career inextricably associated with, and to some extent overshadowed by, his friend and fellow Czech director Miloš Forman. The pair met as schoolboys and studied together at the Prague Film Academy; they both became part of a group of film-makers who took advantage of a slight weakening of the communist government’s iron grip in the late 50s and early 60s. “We were all united, one way or another, with desire to expose the regime on the screen,” Passer told the LA Times. “And we got away with it because the regime was melting.”

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A visual guide to the Iran plane crash

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Flight came down shortly after take off from airport in Tehran on 8 January

Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 took off at 6.12am on 8 January after nearly an hour’s delay at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. It gained altitude heading west, reaching nearly 8,000ft, according to flight-tracking data.

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Iran plane crash: Ukraine’s president calls on US and allies to share evidence – live

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss investigation with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo

The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation body has told reporters that authorities examining the contents of the Flight 752’s black box today at a laboratory at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.

The will attempt to assess whether it is possible to reconstruct and analyse the information inside the country, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency.

A British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran has had panic attacks since tensions between the country and the US escalated, her husband has said.

Richard Ratcliffe said the fallout from Donald Trump’s assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was taking a toll on the mental health of his wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

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Catastrophic failure of Ukraine jet in Iran suggests missile strike

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Experts say debris fragments and sudden loss of fail-safe systems point to missile

To civil aviation professionals, including pilots, engineers and former crash investigators, there was something immediately puzzling about the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet that fell burning out of the sky minutes after takeoff from Tehran.

Conversation on forums, and in a risk assessment that was rapidly produced by the organisations OpsGroup, pointed to the sudden and catastrophic nature of the event, including the loss of both communications and tracking systems.

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Labour leadership: Thornberry gives Corbyn ‘0 out of 10′ for election, but ’10 out of 10’ for principle – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

The troubled Northern rail franchise faces financial collapse within months, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has said, as the government set out a timetable to tackle the “unacceptable services” for rail passengers in the north. My colleague Gwyn Topham has the full story here.

Related: Northern rail franchise could collapse within months, says Shapps

Nadia Whittome, the new Labour MP for Nottingham East, also says she is going to nominate Clive Lewis for Labour leader without necessarily planning to vote for him because she wants his ideas to be part of the debate. Lloyd Russell-Moyle is in this position too. (See 1.55pm.)

I have nominated @DawnButlerBrent for Deputy and @labourlewis for Leader to ensure both are on the ballot.

I haven't decided who I'll endorse but Clive's steadfast commitment to migrants' rights, and electoral reform and party democracy proposals, must be part of the debate.

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