Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Although the Spanish socialist party (PSOE), led by the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, won the most votes five months ago, it fell well short of a majority in the country’s 350-seat congress.
Research finds black carbon breathed by mothers can cross into unborn children
Air pollution particles have been found on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning.
The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. It found thousands of the tiny particles per cubic millimetre of tissue in every placenta analysed.
Björn Höcke halts interview after German state broadcaster draws parallel to Nazi rhetoric
An Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) politician has walked out of an interview and threatened a journalist after he was confronted with parallels between his rhetoric and that of Adolf Hitler.
An interview with Björn Höcke by the state broadcaster ZDF, recorded last week but screened on Sunday, shows the AfD politician threatening “massive consequences” to a journalist who refused to restart an interview after a series of difficult questions.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson’s meeting with the European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, was asked if he was confident of progress as he went in for his lunch with Boris Johnson. According to the Press Association, he replied: “We will see.”
According to the Telegraph’s James Crisp, Juncker also offered to pay for lunch.
Juncker and Johnson are having their powwow in Le Bouquet Garni. 18th C restaurant opposite ducal palace. Boris, who was greeted by a protest said nothing on way in.
The anonymous members of Il Padrone di Merda (“crappy boss”) stage protests outside employers in the Italian city who are accused of exploiting their workers
On a warm summer afternoon in the Italian city of Bologna, a group of around 15 young people march through the crowded city centre to a high-end pastry shop in Strada Maggiore.
If employers are afraid of image damage, things can change
Breaking ‘manacles’ comments come a day before PM travels for Brexit talks in Luxembourg
European officials reacted with exasperation on Sunday as Boris Johnson compared himself to the Incredible Hulk throwing off the shackles of the EU the day before he is due to travel to Luxembourg for talks in pursuit of a Brexit deal.
No 10 struck a combative tone before the scheduled meeting with European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker saying Johnson would tell him that the UK must reject any new Brexit deadline.
EU ministers pledge support as 82 disembark from NGO boat, ending Salvini’s entry ban
Eighty-two migrants have disembarked in Italy, marking a break from the era of hardline immigration measures pushed by the former interior minister, Matteo Salvini.
On Saturday night, the migrants were transferred from the Norwegian-flagged rescue boat Ocean Viking, operated by the French charities SOS Méditerranée and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), to a coastguard vessel before being taken ashore on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
Stephen Barclay and Priti Patel insist focus is on achieving agreement before 31 October
Two of Boris Johnson’s senior cabinet ministers have talked up the possibility of securing a Brexit deal through some divergence on the rules in Northern Ireland, as the government’s rhetoric showed fresh signs of shifting ahead of crucial talks next week.
With Johnson due to meet Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, on Monday, Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, and the home secretary, Priti Patel, accepted the Irish border was likely to be a key to any potential agreement.
At least six people have died as a result of record-breaking rain during the past two days. More than 1,100 military personnel have been deployed to the regions of Murcia and Valencia to help evacuate thousands to safety after floods submerged roads.
A Montenegro holiday reportedly provided cover for a defection that until this week had left little trace
In June 2017, the Kremlin aide Oleg Smolenkov and his family flew from Moscow to Tivat, a coastal resort in Montenegro favoured by Russian tourists. He never came back, and his colleagues never heard from him again. A murder inquiry was launched and soon dropped for lack of leads.
That was the last anyone heard of Smolenkov until this week, when Russian media named him as a CIA spy spirited out of Russia by the agency for his own safety. CNN first revealed the existence of a US source inside the Kremlin earlier this week.
A no-deal exit would trigger complex negotiations, argues former top DexEU civil servant
Claiming a no-deal Brexit represents a clean break with the European Union is “nonsensical”, according to Philip Rycroft, the former permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU.
Boris Johnson has promised to extricate the UK from the EU on 31 October “come what may” – and has hinted that he could try to get around legislation mandating him to request a Brexit delay.
‘I cannot believe he’s being received by the Queen,’ says French judge
The French judge who convicted Geoffrey Boycott of assaulting his girlfriend has criticised the former England cricketer after he was knighted and says she stands by her decision to find him guilty.
Debate over Netherlands’ colonial past resurfaces with switch to ‘17th century’ as alternative
One of the Netherlands’ most prestigious museums has fuelled fresh debate over the the country’s colonial past by deciding it will no longer use the term Golden Age to describe the 17th century when it was at its pinnacle as a military and trading power.
The Amsterdam Museum said that in an attempt to be “polyphonic and inclusive”, the common description of the century in which the Netherlands bestrode the world stage would be banned from its exhibits.
Almería and Murcia airports closed with many areas on high alert as downpours continue
Four people have died as heavy rain and flash-flooding continue to batter south-eastern Spain, swelling rivers, turning roads into torrents and forcing the shutdown of two regional airports.
Police in Almería said a middle-aged man died in the early hours of Friday after his car became trapped in a tunnel that flooded in minutes.
Oleg Smolenkov reportedly taken to safety by US agents in 2017
‘Interpol was presented with questions about his disappearance’
Russia has asked the United States via Interpol to provide information on the whereabouts of a former member of Vladimir Putin’s administration who is believed to have been a CIA informant.
The alleged CIA mole, named this week by Russian media as Oleg Smolenkov, was whisked to safety by US intelligence agents during a family holiday in Montenegro in June 2017, CNN reported earlier this week.
Moscow says proposal could increase regional tensions, as Israeli PM meets Putin
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, flies into Sochi on Thursday for talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that come after Moscow added its voice to criticism of his pre-election pledge to annex occupied Palestinian territories.
Mario Draghi says bank will reboot quantitative easing in month Lagarde succeeds him
The European Central Bank has announced a fresh stimulus package in an attempt to prevent the fragile eurozone economy from grinding to a halt, with an interest rate cut and plans to pump €20bn (£19bn) a month into the financial markets.
In one of his final acts in his ECB presidency, before Christine Lagarde takes charge in November, Mario Draghi said governments across the eurozone needed to take greater steps to reboot growth by ramping up public spending or cutting taxes.