Catalan secessionists likely to join right against Pedro Sánchez’s government
Spain’s socialist government could be forced to call a snap general election if rightwing parties and Catalan secessionists make good on their threats to reject the national budget in a key vote on Wednesday.
The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces an uphill battle to secure approval for the budget in the face of opposition from critics of his minority government.
Continue reading...Idea of topping municipal plant in Copenhagen with urban ski resort won accolades for Danish architecture firm
It might be the first waste incinerator the neighbours actually want next door. The shop at the foot of the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy project in Copenhagen is packed with families desperate to be among the first to try its unique selling point: the ski slope on the roof.
“I live so close by that I could follow the development,” says Ole Fredslund, who lives in neighbouring Amager, as he helped his sons Felix and Victor strap on their boots as the slope opened its lifts for the first time on Tuesday. “I guess 90% of the focus is on the fact that there’s a skiing hill coming, so in a way it’s very clever. Everybody talks about the ski hill to be, not the waste plant to be.”
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May’s statement to MPs about Brexit
This amendment would stop the government from running down the clock on the Brexit negotiations, hoping members of parliament can be blackmailed into supporting a botched deal.
The Labour MP Yvette Cooper has published details of her latest plan to ensure that MPs get the chance to vote to rule out a no-deal Brexit. Here are the key points.
This bill would require the prime minister and parliament to take crucial decisions by the middle of March at the very latest on whether the UK is leaving with a deal, without a deal or seeking an extension to article 50.
It forces the prime minister to tell us whether she wants to leave with no deal or to extend article 50 if she still hasn’t got a deal in place by the middle of March. This bill creates a parliamentary safeguard to prevent us drifting into no deal by accident, and to prevent those crucial decisions being left until the final fortnight. The risks to jobs, the NHS and security from no deal are too great for us to stand back and let the government drift.
Continue reading...Sicilian detective recovers body of drowned migrant in episode of drama series
Italy’s most famous fictional detective has delivered a pro-migrant message on TV, angering supporters of the far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini.
In a scene from a new episode of the TV series Inspector Montalbano that aired in Italy on Monday night, the Sicilian investigator, played by the Roman actor Luca Zingaretti, jumps into the sea to recover the body of a migrant who drowned attempting to reach the shore.
Continue reading...Lack of participation at Middle East event reflects anger over US policy on Iran and Syria
Key European powers will offer only limited participation in a high-profile Trump administration summit on the Middle East starting on Wednesday, reflecting their growing anger over unilateral US policymaking on Iran and Syria.
The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will leave the Warsaw summit early, pleading Brexit Commons business, while France is sending a civil servant and Germany its junior foreign minister.
Continue reading...Flabbergasted owner says EU must have been referring to his place when warning diplomats to avoid a Brussels restaurant
Eleven years since opening his restaurant in the shadow of the European commission’s vast Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels, Philippe Weiner can safely boast that the Meet Meat Steak and Wine House is a firm favourite of the better-fed Eurocrat.
Sharp-suited diplomats and officials flock to its minimalist dining room for lunch and dinner. The president of the European council, Donald Tusk, and his team have been known to enjoy the kitchen’s meat offerings, best served à point or saignant.
Continue reading...Madrid trial of separatists seen as the most important since Spain’s return to democracy
A little less than 16 months ago, the nine men and three women sitting on the plush burgundy benches of Madrid’s supreme court were ministers in the Catalan regional government and high-profile civic leaders.
On Tuesday morning, however, they stepped out of prison vans to take their places as the defendants in landmark proceedings variously described as the trial of the century, a “stress test for Spanish democracy”, and the single most important judicial event the country has seen since the end of the Franco dictatorship.
Continue reading...Ismaël Emelien departs as president reshuffles team in wake of gilets jaunes protests
Emmanuel Macron’s closest special adviser has become the latest to quit the Élysée Palace as the French president reshuffles his team to counter the gilets jaunes anti-government protests and an ongoing scandal around a former security aide.
Ismaël Emelien, 31, had helped mastermind the 2017 election campaign in which Macron promised a mix of right- and leftwing ideas that would destroy France’s tired political party system. Emelien took the role at the Élysee after Macron’s defeat of the far-right Marine Le Pen in 2017, advising on how the now-president could continue to “disrupt” traditional politics.
Continue reading...Moscow says temporary disconnection is a test of its cyberdefence capabilities
Russia is planning to temporarily disconnect from the internet as part of what it says is an experiment to test its cyberdefence capabilities.
According to a report on the Russian news site RBC, the planned disconnection is intended to analyse the country’s preparedness for a draft law mandating a “sovereign” internet.
Continue reading...Report by Human Rights at Sea says revoking of Aquarius’s flag sets precedent for states to ignore international humanitarian law
The deflagging of the Aquarius, the last migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean, represents a “dark moment” in European history, setting a dangerous precedent for states to flout international humanitarian laws.
A report by the charity Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) cited “inconsistencies in reasoning” given by Gibraltar and Panama for revoking the flag of Aquarius, which it said had acted transparently.
Continue reading...As the world’s first junior cycle mayor, Lotta Crok wants to draw attention to the obstacles kids on bikes face – and inspire other children to cycle
During Amsterdam’s chaotic rush hour, nine-year-old Lotta Crok cycles to a very busy junction. “Look,” she says. “There’s traffic coming from everywhere. Four trams from four different directions. For a child on a bike that’s really confusing!”
Lotta is the first junior cycle mayor in the world and her working area is the Dutch capital. It is her mission to inspire children to cycle every day and draw attention to the obstacles that kids on bikes are facing.
Continue reading...Five suspended over role in group that allegedly harassed other journalists for years
A clique of French journalists has been accused of bullying female colleagues via social media.
Six people have been suspended for their role in the closed Facebook group Ligue du LOL, a macho online “boys’ club” that reportedly harassed female and minority ethnic journalists for years.
Continue reading...Activist honoured decades after she was photographed fleeing naked in Vietnam war
Kim Phuc, known as the “napalm girl” after a well-known photo of her from the Vietnam war, has received an award in Germany for her work for peace.
Organisers of the Dresden prize say the 55-year-old, who lives in Canada, is being honoured for her support of Unesco and children wounded in war, and for speaking out against violence and hatred. She received €10,000 (£8,800).
Continue reading...French research involved more than 44,000 people over a period of seven years
Eating a lot of heavily processed foods is linked to a risk of earlier death, according to a study.
A team in France worked with more than 44,000 people in a study running from 2009 called NutriNet-Santé. They looked at how much of their diet – and calories – was made up of “ultra-processed” foods – those made in factories with industrial ingredients and additives, such as dried ready meals, cakes and biscuits.
Continue reading...Experts deployed to remove dozens of hungry bears besieging Novaya Zemlya
Analysis: what the polar bears reveal about the climate crisis
Russian environmental authorities have deployed a team of specialists to a remote Arctic region to sedate and remove dozens of hungry polar bears that have besieged the people living there.
The move came after officials in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, with a population of about 3,000 people, appealed for help.
“There’s never been such a mass invasion of polar bears,” said Zhigansha Musin, the head of the local administration. “They have literally been chasing people.”
Continue reading...The former foreign secretary says UK must have ability to exit Irish backstop unilaterally
Meanwhile, the prisons minister, Rory Stewart, says Theresa May has rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal for a customs union post-Brexit but suggested that the parties are closer together than some people think.
He told BBC Breakfast:
The prime minister remains very clear that she thinks that a very major economy like the United Kingdom needs to have the freedom to be able to make its own trade deals, so she’s disagreeing with Jeremy Corbyn’s suggestion that we enter a permanent customs union.
What she is saying is that we have a lot if common ground, a lot more common ground perhaps than people have acknowledged, on things like environmental protections, workers’ rights, making sure that we get investment into areas of the country which haven’t done as well out of the last few years as other parts of the country.
Related: Brexit: May has ruled out Corbyn's customs union plan - minister
Good morning, this is Haroon Siddique sitting in for Andrew Sparrow again. I’ll be attempting to keep you up to speed with the most significant politic developments of the day. Given the number of comments the blog attracts, if you want to get my attention, the best way is probably to Tweet me.
Ahead of the Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay’s meeting with the European chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels this evening, Boris Johnson has insisted that the Irish backstop must be amended to give the UK a unilateral out within a specified time period.
The argument is now about how to get out of the backstop. And how to make sure that the UK isn’t locked in that prison of the customs union. I think that you would need to have a time limit.
It [the deal] would have to give the United Kingdom a UK-sized exit from the backstop. We would have to be able to get out by a certain time and we would have to be able to get out of our own volition. The most promising way forward is to do what is called the Malthouse compromise.
"The pound will go where it will."
Ex-Foreign Sec @BorisJohnson downplays the possibility of the pound's value falling and prices increasing in the event of a no deal Brexit #r4today https://t.co/X1j9RC8rg8 pic.twitter.com/ClreIOdGoM
Hind Mohammed al-Bolooki could be sent home after North Macedonia rejected her claim
An Emirati woman who fled her family and is now trapped in a detention centre in North Macedonia is begging to be allowed to claim asylum elsewhere instead of being deported back home, the Guardian has learned.
Hind Mohammed al-Bolooki, 43, says she was locked in a room at her home in Dubai in October last year by family members after she asked for a divorce, but she managed to escape and leave the country.
Continue reading...Growing families better than letting Muslim immigrants in, says prime minister
Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has promised that women who have four or more children will never pay income tax again, in a move aimed at boosting the country’s population.
Orbán, who has emerged as Europe’s loudest rightwing, anti-immigration voice in recent years, said getting Hungarian families to have more children was preferable to allowing immigrants from Muslim countries to enter.
Continue reading...Protesters denounce what they see as PM’s overly conciliatory stance on Catalan issue
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Madrid on Sunday to protest against the government’s handling of the Catalan question, as the country braced for the landmark trial of 12 separatist leaders this week.
About 45,000 people joined the rally in Colón square to vent their fury at what they see as the overly conciliatory stance adopted by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and to demand a snap general election.
Continue reading...James Brokenshire says Commons will have chance to block no-deal departure
The government has sought to buy Theresa May more time to put together a workable Brexit deal by promising MPs another say by the end of the month, as business leaders said the process was now in the “emergency zone”.
The communities secretary, James Brokenshire, said that if no finalised deal were put to the Commons by 27 February, MPs would again be given an amendable motion to consider. This would give them the chance to block a no-deal departure or make other interventions.
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