Category Archives: Europe

EU parliament calls on Malta PM to resign now over Caruana Galizia

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Resolution questions ‘integrity and credibility’ of murder investigation

The European parliament has called on Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, to quit immediately over his handling of the investigation into the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, as it declared there were “serious and persistent threats” to democracy and the rule of law on the island nation.

In a resolution approved by a large majority, the European parliament said it was deeply concerned about “the integrity and credibility” of the investigation into the death of Caruana Galizia, who exposed the shady financial dealings of Maltese elite and was murdered in a car bombing in October 2017.

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Cliff-edge Brexit will hurt UK more than EU, says Von der Leyen

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EU president warns of time running out in the expected 11 months available to strike deal

Ursula von der Leyen has warned that a cliff-edge Brexit at the end of 2020 will hurt the UK more than the EU as she laid out her intentions to “make the most” out of the “extremely challenging” 11 months available to strike a trade deal.

The European commission president acknowledged the danger of time running out during the negotiations, a risk many fear has been amplified by Boris Johnson’s symbolic decision to legislate to block an extension of the transition period.

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Violence in Paris amid nationwide pension reform protests

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As prelude to day of action, power to thousands of homes deliberately cut by workers

Police fired teargas and charged at demonstrators in central Paris as hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country staged a show of force against the government’s controversial pension reform plans.

The violence erupted at Place de la Nation, one of Paris’s biggest squares, as riot police attempted to disperse protesters. Police said they had charged after coming under a hail of paving stones and missiles. There were 27 arrests by late afternoon.

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Boris Johnson’s Brexit extension block ‘will limit UK options’

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Brussels prepares to restrict scope of talks in light of British PM’s ‘strange’ move

Boris Johnson’s plan to make it illegal for the government to extend the Brexit transition period beyond 11 months has been described as “strange” by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, as Brussels prepared to limit the scope of the coming negotiations.

Simon Coveney said it amounted to the “UK deciding to tie itself in terms of options” while the director general for trade in the European commission, Sabine Weyand, said the ambition of any deal would need to be pared back.

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The censor is watching: China’s mega photo fair – in pictures

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Life on green trains, wild animals caught unawares and 55 ‘sweetheart’ portraits that angered the authorities … here the highlights of China’s biggest photography show

To visit the Lianzhou Foto festival, one flies along the banks of the Pearl river delta and into the heart of Guangzhou. Witnessing this mega city from the plane is to suddenly realise the immensity of modern China. Roughly 50 million people live in this urban sprawl surrounding Hong Kong.

Lianzhou is a four-hour drive from Guangzhou into the forested mountains of Guangdong province. It is perhaps an unlikely destination for a major arts event. But in 2005, Duan Yuting, a 47-year-old former photo editor for a Guangzhou newspaper, chose the city to found the festival, now firmly established as China’s leading contemporary photography event.

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Dubai police arrest Netherlands’ most wanted man

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Ridouan Taghi was sought on international arrest warrants for murder and drug trafficking

Police in Dubai have arrested the suspected head of a cocaine trafficking gang described as the most wanted man in the Netherlands.

Ridouan Taghi, 41, who was wanted on international arrest warrants for murder and drug trafficking, was held at a house in the Gulf emirate on Monday.

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Estonian minister mocks Finland’s ‘sales girl’ PM Sanna Marin

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Estonian president apologises after Mart Helme questions Marin’s capability

Estonia’s president has apologised after his country’s interior minister mocked Finland’s new prime minister – the world’s youngest serving government leader – as a “sales girl” and questioned her fitness for the post.

Mart Helme, 70, the leader of the populist far-right party Ekre, ridiculed Finland’s Sanna Marin, 34, and her government – in which four out of five coalition leaders are women under 35 – on his party’s radio talkshow on Sunday.

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Islands in the illiberal storm: central European cities vow to stand together

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Mayors of Prague, Warsaw, Bratislava and Budapest agree to protect common values

The mayors of four central European capitals signed a so-called “Pact of Free Cities” in Budapest on Monday, vowing to stand together against populist national governments in the region.

Budapest’s mayor Gergely Karácsony was joined by his counterparts from Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava to sign the document, which promised to promote the “common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, rule of law, social justice, tolerance and cultural diversity”.

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Suspected torturer for Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ extradited by France

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Ex-police officer alleged to be ‘butcher’ of dictatorship held over student’s disappearance

An Argentinian ex-police officer suspected of links with the murder of hundreds of people during the country’s “dirty war” has been extradited by France to Buenos Aires to face trial over the disappearance of a student.

Mario Sandoval, 66, was arrested on Wednesday at his home near Paris after French authorities gave the final go-ahead for his extradition, ending an eight-year legal battle.

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Greece says it’s ‘reached limit’ as arrivals of refugees show no sign of slowing

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EU must share responsibility for influx, says Greece, as it forms controversial plans to build ‘prison’ camps for migrants

Sometimes en masse, sometimes alone they keep on arriving: in rickety boats carrying men, women and children looking for a freedom they hope Europe will offer.

Despite winter’s limited daylight and whiplash-heavy storms and rains, the number of asylum seekers landing on Greek shores shows no sign of abating. Not since Europe’s historic agreement with Turkey to curb migrant flows at the height of Syria’s civil war in March 2016 have arrivals been so high.

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More than 600 French doctors threaten to quit amid funding row

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Medics say budget cuts have pushed health system to brink of collapse and put lives at risk

More than 600 French hospital doctors have threatened to resign if the government does not increase health funding, as striking medics prepare to take to the streets this week across the country.

The doctors warn that budget cuts, bed closures and staff shortages are bringing France’s health system to the brink of collapse and putting patients’ lives at risk.

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Italy: more than 50,000 evacuated in Brindisi after WW2 bomb found

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British bomb believed to have been dropped on southern Italian city in 1941

More than 50,000 people had to evacuate their homes in Brindisi in the south of Italy on Sunday, as experts removed a second world war British bomb.

The British bomb, uncovered by construction workers on 2 November during refurbishment works at a cinema, is believed to have been dropped on the port city in 1941.

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Anna Karina: an actor of easy charm and grace whose presence radiated from the screen | Peter Bradshaw

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From her landmark early films with Jean-Luc Godard to later work such as The Nun, Karina’s beauty and charisma shone out

It was Anna Karina’s fate, or curse, to be perpetually described as an “icon” or a “muse”: a devastatingly beautiful figurehead and inspiration-figure to all those male directors doing the creating or critics doing the rhapsodising – one male director-cineaste in particular. She certainly was every bit as beautiful as everyone ceaselessly said, but it was her easy charm, intelligence and grace which made that beauty visible and made it exist. It was the kind of acting talent that made her whole style and address to the camera look easy, or not like acting: the kind of thing that bad or inexperienced actors – or very good male stars – foreground as an effortfully meaningful performance. And she had parallel careers as singer, producer, director and novelist.

Related: Anna Karina, French new wave icon – a life in pictures

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Feminism comes of age in Finland as female coalition takes the reins

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For more than a century, the Nordic country has blazed a trail for women in politics. But even there, the battle for equality isn’t over, writes Emma Graham-Harrison

Just off Helsinki’s main shopping drag, toddlers in glitter paint whirl round their mothers, who are somehow managing to listen intently to a lecture on how to boost their careers with LinkedIn. No one bats an eye at the intermittent shrieks.

It’s business as usual at this Christmas networking meeting in the country that has come closer than perhaps anywhere else to making “having it all” a feminist reality, rather than an impossible goal to torment exhausted, overstretched women.

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‘Sardines’ against Salvini: Italy’s fight against the far right

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Grassroots protests have brought tens of thousands of people on to the streets of Rome

Tens of thousands of people have crammed together in Rome on Saturday as part of the growing “sardines” movement against the leader of the far-right League and Italy’s former deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, and his allies.

Protesters converged in Piazza San Giovanni early in the afternoon in a bid “to further shake up the country’s politics and battle xenophobia”, in what was billed as their biggest rally.

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EU looks at extending Brexit transition period beyond 2020

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Move is being considered by EU officials in face of Johnson not seeking extension beyond 11 months

EU leaders would take the initiative and request an extension to the transition period, keeping the UK under Brussels regulations beyond 2020, under a plan mooted for getting around Boris Johnson’s stated refusal to seek a delay.

The move is being considered by EU officials as a way out of the problem posed by the short time available to negotiate a new relationship and the prime minister’s insistence that he will not seek an extension beyond 11 months.

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Military police remove climate protesters from Schiphol airport

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Hundreds of demonstrators call for international hub in Amsterdam to curb emissions

Dutch military police have begun forcibly removing a group of climate protesters at Schiphol airport, in Amsterdam, after they refused to leave during a demonstration organised by Greenpeace.

Hundreds of protesters attended the demonstration on Saturday calling on the international air hub to adopt a plan to curb greenhouse emissions. The group had been allowed to protest outside the building only, but they broke that restriction, arguing that citizens’ rights to peaceful protest should not be restricted.

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Unesco removes ‘racist’ Belgian carnival from heritage list

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Carnival of Aalst included parade float caricaturing Orthodox Jews

Unesco has removed an annual carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst from its heritage list over persistent charges of antisemitism.

In an unprecedented move, Unesco’s intergovernmental committee for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage said it was withdrawing the carnival “over recurring repetition of racist and antisemitic representations” at the event.

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UK must be loyal on standards in return for market access – Macron

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French president demands regulatory harmonisation as price of good Brexit deal

Emmanuel Macron has warned Boris Johnson that the UK must remain “loyal” to EU standards post-Brexit for British companies to maintain access to the European market.

In comments echoed by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French president demanded continued regulatory harmonisation as the price for protecting the flow of trade, a demand that will be a cause of concern for the Conservative government.

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European Green Deal to press ahead despite Polish targets opt-out

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Poland opts out of 2050 net-zero emissions after hours of wrangling over timetables and money

European Union leaders have vowed to press on with a major economic plan to confront the climate emergency, despite Poland’s opt-out from a net-zero emissions target by 2050.

The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, told journalists he had secured an exemption for Poland on the 2050 target, which is meant to become the legally binding centrepiece of the “European Green Deal” , a plan to transform Europe’s economy announced two days ago.

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