Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
About 2.8 planets would be needed if rest of world followed suit, biocapacity data shows
Europe is using up natural resources so quickly that the planet’s ability to replenish itself over the year would be exhausted by this Friday if everyone consumed as much, a new analysis has found.
Ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent to pipe greenhouse gas into vast under-sea cavities
Three of the largest ports in Europe – Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent – are to be used to capture and bury 10m tonnes of CO2 emissions under the North Sea in what will be the biggest project of its kind in the world.
The ports, which account for one-third of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg region, would be used to pipe the gas into a porous reservoir of sandstone about two miles (3km) below the seabed.
President suggests US could help revive Iran’s economy in return for no-nuclear weapons pledge
Donald Trump has offered Iran direct talks, saying its leaders should “call me” and suggested the US would help revive the country’s economy as long as Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.
The impromptu offer by the US president, if serious, represents a dramatic lowering of the bar set by his administration for lifting extensive sanctions, including an oil embargo. Iran is already party to a 2015 agreement that strictly limits its nuclear programme and places it under close scrutiny. Trump withdrew the US from the Obama-era treaty a year ago.
Repeated attempts by police to clear dealers from Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg prompts move by park manager
Drug dealers in Berlin are to be given designated spaces in a city centre park to carry out transactions, leading to criticism that authorities have capitulated to criminal gangs.
For years there has been a heated debate about Görlitzer Park, a popular meeting point in the trendy southern Berlin district of Kreuzberg, which has been attracting an ever increasing number of drug dealers. Local people said they were reluctant to let children and pets roam free there.
Paralysis over Brexit means the country is burying its head in the sand over the very real challenges ahead
The European elections Theresa May never intended Britain to participate in are now only two weeks away. They are inevitably being fought as a proxy contest for Brexit by all the political parties. The results will be interpreted as a verdict on Brexit too, just as last week’s English local elections have been, and probably in much the same careless way.
Yet it would be a stretch to pretend that, for once in our recent history, the UK’s European elections are actually focusing on Britain’s and Europe’s place in the 21st-century world. The truth is far less flattering. These elections can better be understood as another episode in the national – and, in particular, Conservative – trauma over the historic decline of British power, of which the referendum was an interim climax. The elections are therefore unlikely to be cathartic or cleansing. On the contrary, they are dragging us deeper into the ongoing psychodrama that was intensified by the vote in 2016.
Research says malign actors online tried to craft individual narrative for each EU state
Around half of all Europeans could have been exposed to disinformation promoted by social media accounts linked to Russia before the European elections, an analysis suggests.
Evidence of 6,700 so-called “bad actors” posting enough content to reach up to 241 million users was discovered by researchers examining the scale of the threat.
Ministers to sign agreement securing rights conferred under common travel area
The rights of Irish people in the UK and British citizens in Ireland are to be guaranteed in a Brexit side deal to be signed by the countries’ two governments.
Sources say the memorandum of understanding will put the rights already conferred on citizens of both nations under the common travel area (CTA) on to a more secure footing.
Once compared to Oxford, the university city of Pavia is now better known for gambling. These activists are fighting to change that
At the start of this year, Massimo was standing on a bridge “determined to jump off”. The 45-year-old had been struggling with gambling addiction since 2001.
“I started to play slot machines and video poker after the death of my father and ended up spending €5,000 a day,” says the artisan fence-maker, from the city of Pavia in northern Italy. He was soon in debt to loan sharks and ended up stealing to fund his habit, including from his own mother, before considering suicide.
As EU leaders gather in Transylvania under Romania’s presidency, Liviu Dragnea is increasingly vexing the bloc
European leaders will gather on Thursday for a summit in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu, the showpiece event of Romania’s six-month presidency of the EU, the first time the country has taken on the role since it joined in 2007.
Despite the fact the UK is still an EU member, Theresa May has agreed to stay away, to give the other 27 leaders the opportunity to discuss the future of Europe without her. But for observers of European politics who look beyond Brexit, there is likely to be another more significant absentee: Liviu Dragnea, the most powerful politician in the summit’s host country.
European commission warns of ‘major shock’ and slashes growth forecast the union
The threat of a full-blown trade war between the US and China and Brexit uncertainty are posing mounting risks to the EU economy, the European commission has warned, after downgrading its growth outlook for 2019.
Brussels’ executive arm said a recent slowdown in global trade volumes had taken its toll across the continent, as it cut its GDP growth forecast for the 28-nation bloc for 2019 to 1.4%, down from a forecast of 1.9% in the autumn.
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on today’s cabinet.
1. Cabinet sources say Brexit Sec Steve Barclay raised prospect of leaving EU in October without a deal at meeting this morning - big discussion on deal prep planned for next week - source suggests push back from Clark saying position was clear now that couldn't happen
2. No substantive discussion of cross party talks at Cabinet this morning - PM apparently also raised Williamson's sacking and said again there was compelling evidence - sources close to him say he still hasn't been told what it is
Almost all the MPs who have publicly backed a second referendum on Brexit are opposition MPs who would vote remain again if given the chance. Only a handful of Tories have backed the idea. But there are some signs now that that is starting to change.
If we cannot do this, if this is beyond us, and if we fail, then another referendum is inevitable.
If we fail, if there can be no compromise between the parties, I can actually see then the logic, and other people will be demanding another referendum. And those like me who have genuine concerns about what will happen to our society if we go through this process again, we will lose that debate over the referendum, because it will be the only option then left available to try to break the gridlock that we’ve entered into.
Talking to them, I think they are so obsessed with this issue, and they are so determined not to compromise in any way, they feel almost as if any form of compromise is some sort of betrayal. And certainly that narrative, one gets a great deal on Twitter: ‘This is a betrayal’, ‘This is a betrayal to the country’, ‘We are not fulfilling what the British people voted for’. I think that’s for the birds – it’s crazy …
I have to say, wouldn’t it be ironic if the ERG, the Eurosceptic caucus, through their intransigence, actually result in another referendum which will potentially overturn the previous result.
Secretary of state abruptly pulls out of Berlin meeting and is silent on his next destination
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has abruptly cancelled a long-established plan to hold talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin, citing unspecified “international security issues”.
The unusual last-minute schedule change follows brief talks between Pompeo and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in Finland on Monday.
Actor joined by WikiLeaks editor-in-chief for Assange’s first social visit since his arrest
Pamela Anderson has described Julian Assange as “the world’s most innocent man” and said a fight was on to “save his life”, after the actor and model visited the WikiLeaks founder at Belmarsh prison.
She was accompanied by the website’s editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, for what WikiLeaks described as Assange’s first social visit since he was arrested by police after Ecuador revoked the political asylum granted to him at the country’s London embassy.
Members of Republican People’s party say ruling AKP fears losing billions in grants to charities tied to government
Members of Turkey’s main opposition party have claimed a government bid to safeguard billions of dollars in grants to foundations that form a key part of its political apparatus is linked to moves to re-run the vote for Istanbul mayor, which the ruling party lost in March for the first time in a generation.
The highly contentious decision has continued to draw claims of an emerging “dictatorship” in Turkey and an electoral process increasingly subverted by the country’s political elite under president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since it was announced on Monday night.
Pro-democracy campaigner İyad el-Baghdadi has been vocal critic of Saudi crown prince
The CIA has warned Norway that a prominent Arab activist who is living in the country under asylum protection is facing a potential threat from Saudi Arabia, the Guardian has learned.
The pro-democracy activist, İyad el-Baghdadi, is a vocal critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Red Cross steps in after temperatures drop below zero at unauthorised electronic music festival
About 30 people have been treated for hypothermia at an outdoor techno music festival in France after unexpected snowfall left many sheltering under survival blankets distributed by the Red Cross.
About 10,000 people attended the unauthorised Teknival 2019 festival in the central Creuse region at the weekend, where temperatures dropped to -3C over Saturday night.
Working conditions have become ‘intolerable, says police union, calling for the station to be completely fumigated
A police station in north-eastern Paris had to be evacuated on Sunday after it was invaded by fleas, a police union said.
“Police station closed until further notice!” read an notice stuck to the front door of the station, which is located in the 19th arrondissement of the French capital.
Stevo Pendarovski wins vote focused on changing country’s name change, consolidating push towards EU and Nato membership
North Macedonia’s pro-western candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, won a run-off presidential vote after a campaign dominated by divisions over a change to the country’s name that was agreed to mollify Greece and open the way for EU and Nato membership.
The State Election Commission results based on 99.5% the votes counted showed 51.7% of the votes going to Pendarovski, who is the candidate of the ruling coalition and a long-serving senior civil servant and academic.
The Russian Sukhoi Superjet with 78 passengers on board bounced along tarmac before bursting in to flames
A Russian passenger jet burst into flames on Sunday while attempting an emergency landing at a Moscow airport, leaving as many as 41 passengers dead and more injured.
Video from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport shows the plane bouncing along the tarmac before it suddenly burst into flames. The tail section of the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 became engulfed by fire, discharging thick, black smoke as crew members evacuated passengers using emergency slides. Fire engines sped toward the blaze while some passengers were seen fleeing across the tarmac in tears. Some were carrying luggage.