Turkey’s onslaught on the Kurdish areas of north-eastern Syria have exposed the geopolitical impotence of European governments
Continue reading...Category Archives: Europe
Drenthe residents react after Netherlands police discover family locked away for years – video
Residents of Drenthe, a province in the north-east Netherlands, reacted to the discovery of a group of people believed to have spent years living in the cellar of a remote farmhouse 'waiting for the end of time'.
Six adults were removed and being taken care of, police confirmed, while a 58-year-old-man who was renting the farmhouse was arrested after refusing to cooperate with their inquiry.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on racism and football: time for Uefa to step up | Editorial
England’s footballers behaved with dignity and discipline on a shameful night of racial abuse in Bulgaria. European football’s governing body must now impose sanctions that bite
Long before the footballers of Bulgaria and England walked on to the pitch of Sofia’s Stadion Vasil Levski on Monday evening, their Euro 2020 qualifying match had become a test of something far more important than sporting prowess. Parts of the stadium had been closed off after previous incidents of racist abuse at international games. Yet warnings by the Chelsea forward, Tammy Abraham, that England would consider leaving the pitch if there was a repeat, drew the ire of the president of Bulgaria’s football federation, Borislav Mihaylov. Bulgaria, he said, had less of a problem with racism than England, and Abraham’s remarks had been “derogatory” and “offensive”.
In fact they turned out to be prescient. Before and during the match, black English players were booed and subjected to monkey chants by sections of the crowd. Far-right ultras repeatedly made Nazi salutes. The defender Tyrone Mings, making his international debut, was a particular target, after pausing to stare in the direction of some of the most virulent abuse. The shameful, hateful spectacle has inevitably raised questions of whether the match should have been abandoned. It was paused twice during the first half, after England reported the abuse to the referee, Ivan Bebek, following to the letter a new Uefa protocol. The protocol provides for a game to be called off as a final step. In the event, after discussing the situation at half-time, England opted to play out the second-half, leaving open the option of walking off the field at any point.
Continue reading...Six freed after years living in Dutch cellar ‘waiting for end of time’
Six adults removed from house and man, 58, arrested
A man and his six grown children have been found after spending several years living in the cellar of remote farmhouse in the northeastern Dutch province of Drenthe “waiting for the end of time”, local media have reported.
The family were discovered after the oldest son, aged 25, visited a local bar, the Kastelein cafe. On the first occasion, 10 days ago, he “ordered and drank five beers on his own”, the bar owner, Chris Westerbeek, told broadcaster RTV Drenthe.
Continue reading...Uefa charges Bulgaria and England over behaviour in Euro 2020 qualifier
- BFU charged over fans’ racist chants and Nazi salutes
- FA charged over anthem disruption and stewarding
- Aleksander Ceferin demands ‘war’ on discrimination
Uefa has charged the Bulgarian football union over the racist behaviour of its fans at Monday’s Euro 2020 qualifier against England. The Football Association is also facing sanctions after being charged for the disruption of the Bulgarian national anthem by England supporters and for having an insufficient number of travelling stewards.
On a lengthy Uefa charge sheet the most significant aspect was the reference to chants and Nazi salutes by Bulgaria fans. However both national associations were also charged over the disruption of national anthems and among the other charges was one for the BFU relating to the throwing of objects from the stands.
Continue reading...Mayor of Sardinian village blames Google Maps for lost tourists
Rescuers in Baunei called out 144 times in past year to save visitors from impassable roads
The mayor of a town in Sardinia is to attempt to end the use of Google Maps by tourists in his local area because visitors keep getting lost on mountain roads.
Salvatore Corrias, the mayor of Baunei, a mountain village in Ogliastra province, advised people to use traditional paper maps as “so many” visitors have had to be rescued after being led astray.
Continue reading...Russian troops patrol between Turkish and Syrian forces on border
Soldiers’ presence underlines Moscow’s role as power broker after evacuation of US personnel
Russian units have begun patrolling territory separating Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from the Syrian army around the flashpoint town of Manbij in north-east Syria, in a clear sign that Moscow has become the de facto power broker in the region after the evacuation of US troops.
Oleg Blokhin, a Russian journalist usually attached to mercenaries in Syria, posted a video on social media on Tuesday from a deserted US military base in the village of al-Saadiya, near Manbij.
Continue reading...30 years after communism, eastern Europe divided on democracy’s impact
Pew research reveals very different views on whether countries are better off today
Thirty years on, few people in Europe’s former eastern bloc regret the monumental political, social and economic change unleashed by the fall of communism – but at the same time few are satisfied with the way things are now, and many worry for the future.
A Pew Research Center survey of 17 countries, including 14 EU member states, found that while most people in central and eastern Europe generally embraced democracy and the market economy, support was far from uniformly strong.
Continue reading...Catalan independence leaders accused of ‘totalitarian attitude’
Spain’s foreign minister says regional government excludes views of people who do not back independence
The Spanish foreign minister has accused the pro-independence Catalan government of exhibiting a “totalitarian attitude” by excluding and ignoring the 50% of Catalans who oppose breaking away from Spain.
Josep Borrell, who is himself Catalan, made the remarks a day after nine senior Catalan leaders were jailed for sedition over their roles in the failed attempt for regional independence.
Continue reading...Catalonia’s separatists were jailed for sedition, but brought down by hubris | Giles Tremlett
It could have been very different. But the 2017 declaration of independence threw away the campaign’s moral advantage
Some things are impossible. Catalan independence is currently one of them. The stiff jail sentences handed down to the leaders of the separatist campaign that peaked in 2017 with a banned referendum, police violence and a fudged declaration of independence make that clearer than ever.
There are huge practical obstacles to independence, starting with the many hurdles written into Spain’s constitution. Overcoming these requires massive support in Catalonia itself; but the separatist leaders who orchestrated a head-on collision with the law never had anything like that. The jail sentences are for sedition, but their real problem is hubris.
Continue reading...Notre Dame car bombing: all-female jihadist cell jailed for failed cathedral attack
Two women with ties to Islamist militants sentenced to at least 25 years for unsuccessful 2016 atttack
Two women with Islamist militant ties who tried to set off a crude car bomb outside Notre Dame cathedral three years ago each have been sentenced to at least 25 years in jail.
They were among five members of an all-female jihadist cell, aged between 22 and 42, who were arrested after a car packed with seven gas cylinders was found parked near the bustling esplanade in front of the Paris cathedral in September 2016.
Continue reading...Thousands protest over prison terms for Catalan separatist leaders – video
Protesters took to the streets of Barcelona and other parts of Spain after the supreme court jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders for sedition over their role in a failed independence bid in 2017. Three main streets in Barcelona were blocked, as was train and metro access to Barcelona airport
Continue reading...Election results give hope to opposition in Poland and Hungary
Analysts say tactic of cooperation against nationalist parties appears to be working
A narrower-than-expected win for Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and a serious setback for Hungary’s governing Fidesz show eastern Europe’s illiberal nationalist parties are not entirely invincible, analysts and commentators have said.
“It looks like this may be a small step in the right direction – but it’s clear the opposition still has an awful lot of work to do,” said Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.
Continue reading...Rights groups urge Cyprus to drop false rape case against Briton
Woman, 19, to go on trial after revoking claim she was raped by 12 Israeli tourists
Human rights and feminist groups are calling for Cypriot authorities to drop the case against a British teenager accused of falsely claiming she was raped by 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room.
The 19-year-old, who reported the alleged assault almost three months ago but was then arrested after revoking her criminal complaint, is due to go on trial on Tuesday on a charge of public mischief. She has pleaded not guilty to fabricating the accusation of rape, but could be imprisoned for up to a year if found guilty.
Continue reading...Nationalists march in Kyiv to oppose east Ukraine peace plan
Ukrainian president calls on protesters to avoid violence as he is criticised for ‘capitulation’
Thousands of people have joined a march through Kyiv led by nationalist parties and veterans’ associations to protest against changes to a peace plan for east Ukraine that they have called a “capitulation” to Russia.
Police deployed around Ukraine’s capital closed off several major avenues for the demonstrations, as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged participants to avoid violence. He also warned that images from the protests could be used by Russian state media to discredit Ukraine.
Continue reading...Poland’s populist Law and Justice party voted back in
Almost complete election results show party has done even better than four years ago
Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and Justice party has scored a convincing victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, with almost complete results indicating a parliamentary majority and another four-year term in office.
According to results from 99.5% of constituencies published by the electoral committee on Monday, Law and Justice took 43.8% of the vote, ahead of the country’s biggest opposition grouping, the liberal centre-right Civic Coalition, on 27.2%. The Left alliance took 12.5%, the agrarian PSL and anti-establishment Kukiz’15 8.6% and the far-right Confederation 6.8%.
“We have reason to be happy”, the PiS leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, told supporters on Sunday night.
The results appeared to vindicate the party’s political strategy of combining a big increase in social spending in certain areas, most notably the introduction of an expensive child benefit programme, with nationalist and traditionalist rhetoric, and an uncompromising authoritarian political style that has exacerbated existing divisions in Polish society.
They also crown a dismal four years for the mainstream Polish opposition, which was energised by large-scale demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 against PiS’s attempts to assert direct control over the country’s democratic institutions, most notably the judiciary, but which has failed to formulate a convincing alternative programme. Pressure is mounting on Grzegorz Schetyna, a former foreign minister who leads the centre-right Civic Platform, the largest party in the Civic Coalition.
The government’s increases in welfare spending were made against the backdrop of a booming economy and record consumer confidence. A central issue in these elections was the flagship child benefit programme 500+, which gives families 500 zloty (£100) a month per child.
Civic Platform had opposed the policy before the 2015 parliamentary elections, arguing that it was unaffordable. But the party has since said it would retain the 500+ if elected. Observers argue that this U-turn and PiS’s ability to deliver the programme may have undermined the opposition’s credibility among voters.
Sunday’s PiS victory could also prove a headache for Brussels and several European capitals. In government, the party has been an uncompromising and at times exasperating EU member, as illustrated by a farcical episode in 2017 when it tried to torpedo the re-election of Donald Tusk, a former leader of Civic Platform, as president of the European council.
For years, Warsaw has sparred with the European commission over PiS’s attempts to assert direct control over the Polish judiciary, with several cases referred to the European court of justice. Under PiS, Poland has emerged as an active opponent of the liberal democratic values that underpin the EU, with European diplomats admitting in private that many in Brussels had hoped the problem would be taken out of their hands by Polish voters.
“There was a hope that PiS would lose, but that has not materialised,” said Piotr Buras, the director of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank. “This is not just an issue for Brussels, but for several European capitals – they will have to deal with an emboldened partner.
Catalan separatist leaders given lengthy prison sentences
Nine convicted variously of sedition, misuse of public funds and disobedience over 2017 independence vote
Spain’s supreme court has jailed nine prominent Catalan separatist leaders for sedition over their roles in the failed push for independence two years ago, triggering angry protests in Catalonia and renewed calls for a political solution to the long-running territorial dispute.
Protesters took to the streets and others tried to blockade the main terminal at Barcelona airport after the court acquitted the nine defendants of the charge of violent rebellion but convicted them variously of sedition, misuse of public funds and disobedience.
Continue reading...Violent clashes over Catalan separatist leaders’ prison terms
Chaos at Barcelona airport as protesters react to sentencing over 2017 bid for independence
The Catalan independence crisis erupted again on Monday as police and protesters clashed at Barcelona airport hours after the Spanish supreme court jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders over their roles in the failed bid for secession two years ago.
Protesters took to the streets, with many gathering at Barcelona’s El Prat airport after the court acquitted the nine defendants of the charge of violent rebellion but convicted them variously of sedition, misuse of public funds and disobedience.
Continue reading...What is the story of Catalan independence – and what happens next?
On day that Spain’s supreme court announced verdicts in trial of 12 separatist leaders, we look at how the movement has evolved
Who’s who: key figures in the push for Catalan independence
On Monday, Spain’s supreme court announced its verdict in the landmark trial of 12 Catalan leaders accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds over their roles in the failed push for regional independence two years ago.
Nine of them were cleared of violent rebellion but convicted of the lesser charges of sedition and misuse of public funds.
Continue reading...Kurds reach deal with Damascus in face of Turkish offensive
Agreement to hand over border towns comes after more than 700 Isis affiliates escape camp
More than 700 people with links to Islamic State have escaped from a detention camp in north-east Syria, as the Kurdish-led forces in control of the area reached a deal with the Assad regime to stave off a bloody five-day-old Turkish assault.
Kurdish fighters controlling the region would surrender the border towns of Manbij and Kobane to Damascus in a deal brokered by Russia, officials said on Sunday night.
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