Veterans and world leaders have attended ceremonies to mark 75 years since allied troops landed in France during the second world war
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Trump arrives for D-day ceremony in Normandy – live news
Follow live updates as world leaders join veterans to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy
The Élysée Palace is live streaming the ceremony.
EN DIRECT | Cérémonie franco-américaine au cimetière américain, Colleville-sur-Mer. #DDay75https://t.co/zh7bfyDifa
Continue reading...German nurse given second life sentence for murder of 85 patients
Niels Högel, who used drugs to cause cardiac arrests, confirmed as country’s worst postwar serial killer
When Niels Högel, a nurse, worked shifts at two clinics in the northern German towns of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst in the early 2000s, the hospital rota showed a mysterious spike in patients who experienced sudden cardiac arrests and had to be reanimated.
Yet the bullish man in his late 20s was allowed to go about his business undisturbed until a colleague caught him in the act in 2005: for at least half a decade, Högel had systematically injected patients with cardiovascular medication in order to orchestrate a medical emergency and show off his resuscitation skills.
Continue reading...Renault-Fiat Chrysler merger collapses
French government blamed as €33bn deal to create world’s third largest carmaker stalls
The proposed €33bn merger of Fiat Chrysler and Renault has collapsed after an intervention from the French government, Renault’s biggest shareholder.
Fiat Chrysler, an Italian-American company, withdrew from a 50-50 merger proposal for its French rival after a board meeting on Wednesday. A deal would have created the world’s third-largest carmaker behind Volkswagen and Toyota.
Continue reading...Aung San Suu Kyi finds common ground with Orbán over Islam
On a rare trip to Europe, Myanmar leader and Hungary PM discuss issue of ‘growing Muslim populations’
From her failure to speak out against ethnic cleansing to imprisoning journalists, the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi in the west has taken a battering in recent months.
But the leader of Myanmar has found a new ally in far-right, staunchly anti-immigrant Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.
Continue reading...Centre-left Social Democrats victorious in Denmark elections
Danes follow Nordic trend away from populism but leader Mette Frederiksen could struggle to form coalition
Voters appear to have returned the third left-leaning government in a year to the Nordic region as Denmark’s Social Democrats claimed victory in parliamentary elections with 25.9% of the vote.
The centre-left party finished clear of the centre-right Liberals of outgoing prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who improved on their 2015 score to reach 23.4%, and the populist, far-right Danish People’s party (DPP), which plunged to 8.7% – less than half its tally in the last election.
Continue reading...UK politics has changed for ever. The main parties must adapt or die | Letters
Party loyalty is a thing of the past, writes Alan Taylor, while Peter Muchlinski says that the political future requires replacing the residual elements of the ‘growth society’, with the ‘sustainable society’. Plus letters from Andrew Graystone and William Wallace
So, Boris Johnson fears that the Conservatives may face extinction if they delay Brexit (Report, 5 June). He may be right, on this at least, but for the wrong reasons. The fact is that the decline of the Conservatives, and of Labour, is a long-term process which began 60 years ago and may only now have reached its culmination. Both main parties have underestimated the consequences of this decline. The result is that the transformation in party voting seen in the Euro elections and since may be permanent.
British politics has long been seen as dominated by two big parties, each with a block of loyal supporters, and a small number of “floating” voters between them. This was an accurate picture of elections in the early 1950s, when over 80% of the electorate voted Labour or Tory. But this two-party domination began to weaken from the late 50s, a trend that has continued ever since. Turnout fell as fewer people were enthused by the main parties. The growth of this pool of unattached electors gave space for Liberal and Liberal/SDP “revivals”, the growth of nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, and now the rise of the Green party and the Ukip/Farage phenomenon.
Continue reading...EU could fine Italy £3bn for breaking spending and borrowing rules
Italy’s debt amounts to 132% and servicing it costs more than annual education budget
The EU is poised to punish Italy over its “snowballing” spending and borrowing, putting Brussels on a collision course with the populist government in Rome.
In a move expected to raise tensions with Italy, the European commission paved the way for an initial fine of as much as €3.5bn (£3.1bn) on Wednesday after advising the country had met the threshold for disciplinary action.
Continue reading...Dutch girl was not ‘legally euthanised’ and died at home
Noa Pothoven is believed to have refused to eat and there is no evidence of assisted death
A severely ill Dutch girl widely reported by international media as having been “legally euthanised” in a clinic in the Netherlands died at home, apparently after voluntarily refusing to eat or drink and with no evidence that her death was assisted.
Noa Pothoven, 17, who for several years had been treated in multiple institutions for severe depression and anorexia, and had made previous attempts to kill herself, died at her parents’ home in Arnhem on 2 June, local media reported.
Continue reading...Historians rubbish Spanish supreme court’s position on Franco’s reign
Critics say ruling suspending exhumation of dictator’s remains legitimises 1936 coup
Leading historians have rubbished the Spanish supreme court’s claim that General Franco was head of state from October 1936, almost three years before his rebellion secured victory in the Spanish civil war.
The claim was made in the court’s latest ruling on the socialist government’s tortuous efforts to exhume the dictator’s remains from his hulking mausoleum and have him reburied in the family vault.
Continue reading...Trump’s trade wars sent global investment tumbling – World Bank
Brexit and trade disputes push bank’s policy uncertainty index to record high, says report
Donald Trump’s trade wars with China, Mexico and Europe have sent global investment tumbling, according to a World Bank report that forecasts worldwide growth this year will slip back to levels not seen since 2016.
The Washington-based lender to developing world countries said in its half-yearly global health check that spiralling political uncertainty was to blame for a slowdown in trade and a collapse in investment spending that will push down GDP growth to 2.6% this year “before inching up to 2.7% in 2020”.
Continue reading...EU gives Nigel Farage 24 hours to explain Arron Banks funds
European parliament summons Brexit party leader over failure to declare expenses
Nigel Farage has been given 24 hours by the European parliament to explain in person his failure to declare lavish expenses funded by Arron Banks, an insurance tycoon under investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency.
The summons came just two hours before the Brexit party leader was spotted arriving at the US ambassador’s residence in London for a meeting with Donald Trump during the US president’s state visit to the UK.
Continue reading...Italian PM’s threat to quit leaves ball in Salvini’s court
Bickering between the League and M5S has intensified since European elections
The fate of Italy’s coalition government lies with the far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, a day after the prime minister threatened to resign if Salvini’s League and its coalition partner, the Five Star Movement (M5S), could not patch things up.
Giuseppe Conte, a law professor who was plucked from obscurity a year ago to steer the coalition, issued the ultimatum to Salvini and M5S’s Luigi Di Maio during a press conference on Monday night, urging them to set aside their many differences and “revive the spirit” of the coalition government’s early days, or seek new elections.
Continue reading...Athens’ youngest mayor: I’m interested in real life, not utopias
Centrist Kostas Bakoyannis says his approach transcends divisions that have long defined Greece
The mayor-elect of Athens says he doesn’t believe in grand projects, nor does he “do utopias”. What he prefers to focus on is “real life” – and seeing it by walking and talking with almost everyone he meets.
It has paid off. After visiting 129 neighbourhoods across Athens since launching his campaign to become the capital’s youngest mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis, at 41, has been catapulted to the top office of City Hall with the widest margin of victory ever. With him comes a team of councillors that will be among the most politically diverse on record.
Continue reading...Doonbeg: why one Irish village won’t join the Trump protests
Trumpland’s Irish outpost in the village of Doonbeg in County Clare is an economic lifeline for locals
Protests and controversy await Donald Trump when he flies into Ireland on Wednesday, but there is at least one corner of the country preparing a heartfelt welcome.
The village of Doonbeg in County Clare has erected US flags and plans to give a mighty cheer if the presidential cavalcade swooshes past.
Continue reading...Athens’ buried rivers: stream favoured by Plato could see light of day
The Greek capital entombed its major rivers in concrete during its car-centred postwar development. Now the most storied of them, Ilisos, could be set free
Photographs by Christian Sinibaldi
Walking through the densely built metropolis of Athens, few visitors or even locals realise the Greek capital was once crisscrossed by three major rivers, not to mention some 700 smaller streams that flowed into them.
The Kifisos, the Iridanos and the Ilisos were buried under concrete during the city’s postwar car-centred development, in what daily newspaper Kathimerini has labelled “a crime against the city”.
Continue reading...Unwelcome guests: moped riders protest as Amsterdam drives them from bike lanes
Dutch capital steps its pro-cycling reputation up a gear with new regulations – and not everyone is happy
Convoys of mopeds speed down Amsterdam’s bike lanes, beeping their horns and flouting their bare heads. This isn’t some strange Dutch festival, though. These were protests from some of the thousands of furious moped riders ahead of a new city regulation which came into force this week to force them out of bike lanes, on to main roads and into helmets.
The cycling city of Amsterdam is stepping up a gear – with plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles from the centre by 2030, the removal of 10,000 car-parking spaces, a hike in parking charges and a wide range of measures to take from the car and give to pedestrians, cyclists, green space and children.
Continue reading...Denmark’s centre-left set to win election with anti-immigration shift
Social Democrats expected to return to power this week after backing once far-right policies
Tacking left on welfare and right on immigration looks likely to pay off for Denmark’s Social Democrats, who are widely expected to return to power this week as voters desert the centre-right government and the far right.
A poll this weekend predicted the centre-left party, led by Mette Frederiksen, will be the country’s largest with about 27% of the national vote after the election on Wednesday, while the “red bloc” of left-leaning parties it leads is on course for more than 55%.
Continue reading...Death, carnage and chaos: a climber on his recent ascent of Everest – podcast
On 23 May, an image taken by the climber Nirmal Pujra went viral. It showed a long queue of climbers waiting to reach the summit of Everest. Elia Saikaly, a film-maker, was on that climb. He describes the ascent, while the Guardian’s Michael Safi discusses why the number of people seeking to scale Everest has exploded. Plus: Helsinki’s radical solution to homelessness
May and June are the only months where weather conditions make it possible for climbers to reach the summit of Everest. This year, a record number of permits were issued by the Nepalese government, which, along with a rule that every climber has to be accompanied by a sherpa, led to there being more than 820 people trying to reach the summit. Eleven people died on the mountain, leading to questions about whether better regulation is needed.
The film-maker Elia Saikaly tells India Rakusen about his ascent on 23 May, a climb he has described as “Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at Camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies. Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out on our summit night.” The Guardian’s South Asia correspondent, Michael Safi, looks at the history of climbing Everest and whether this year’s events might prompt better regulation.
Continue reading...German police investigate murder of CDU politician Walter Lübcke
Senior figure in Angela Merkel’s party was shot in the head at close range, say police
A local politician from Angela Merkel’s party was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head, German police said on Monday.
With no weapon found at the scene and no discharge residues on the dead man’s body, investigators appear to have ruled out suicide and are investigating intentional homicide.
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