French authorities to improve cooperation with UK and increase coastal surveillance
The French authorities have set out plans to prevent people in small boats risking the dangerous Channel crossing to England.
Measures being taken include improved cooperation between law enforcement agencies and more surveillance and security on beaches along the northern French coastline.
Continue reading...No 10 refuses to provide details of call, with PM battling to obtain assurances on backstop
Theresa May has spoken to Jean-Claude Juncker as part of her effort to obtain further written reassurances that the Irish border backstop in her Brexit deal would never come into force.
The phone call between the prime minister and the European commission president on Friday was described by Brussels as “friendly” but Downing Street refused to provide any further details, as May struggles to break the Brexit impasse.
Continue reading...Pro-choice groups condemn picket of clinic as health service warns of fake websites
Anti-abortion activists have struck back against Ireland’s introduction of abortion services by picketing a clinic and by launching potentially misleading websites that mimic the state’s support service for unplanned pregnancies.
A group holding placards protested outside a doctor’s office in Galway on Thursday in an effort to deter women from seeking abortion pills just three days after abortion services became legal.
Continue reading...Huge cache of documents published daily in December but came to light only on Thursday
Sensitive data belonging to hundreds of German politicians, celebrities and public figures has been published online via a Twitter account in what is thought to be one of the largest leaks in the country’s history.
The huge cache of documents includes personal phone numbers and addresses, internal party documents, credit card details and private chats.
Continue reading...Paul Whelan revealed to be dual national after being arrested in Moscow for ‘act of espionage’
The former US marine who is being held in Moscow on charges of spying is a British citizen, it has emerged.
Paul Whelan, who is thought to be facing 20 years in a Russian prison if convicted, was initially thought to be American, but was revealed to be a dual national on Thursday evening. The UK Foreign Office said: “Our staff have requested consular access to a British man detained in Russia after receiving a request for assistance from him.”
Continue reading...Whelan faces 20 years if convicted as Russian news outlet claims he had USB drive with classified list of names
The former US marine detained in Moscow has been charged with spying and faces 20 years if convicted, according to the Interfax news agency.
Related: US man detained in Russia is former marine, says family
Continue reading...Latest ruling could provoke further protests following outrage when judges dropped rape charges
A Spanish court has ruled that the five members of the so-called “Wolf Pack” who were convicted of sexually abusing an 18-year-old woman during the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona in 2016 can remain at liberty pending an appeal to the supreme court.
There was outrage last April when judges dropped rape charges against José Ángel Prenda, Alfonso Cabezuelo, Antonio Manuel Guerrero, Jesús Escudero and Ángel Boza and instead convicted them of the lesser charge of sexual abuse, sentencing them to nine years. The accused appealed but the sentence was confirmed in December.
Continue reading...Many traditional parties are trying to co-opt the agenda of the radical right in order to defeat them. But various elections in 2018 reveal the limits of that approach
After the Dutch parliamentary elections of March 2017, the prime minister, Mark Rutte, triumphantly declared that “good populism” had defeated “bad populism”, a claim eagerly and uncritically repeated in media around the world. It confirmed received wisdom that the best way to defeat the populist radical right, is to co-opt a moderate version of their agenda, while excluding the party itself.
Few cared that Rutte’s claim rested on dubious empirical grounds: compared with the 2012 election, Rutte actually lost big (-5.2%), whereas Geert Wilder’s Party for Freedom (PVV) made gains (+3.0%) and was joined by a new far-right party, Forum for Democracy (FvD), with 1.8%, making their combined scored of 14.9%. That’s less than one percentage point lower than the PVV’s high score of 15.45% in 2010.
Continue reading...Firms with exposure to China hit over fears the Silicon Valley giant’s slowdown could spread
Apple’s shock downgrade has sent shares in European and US-listed companies with exposure to China – from Burberry and the Gucci owner, Kering, to chipmakers and miners – tumbling over fears the slowdown that has hit the Silicon Valley giant is set to spread.
In New York the Dow Industrial Average fell over 2% in morning trading and all the major markets suffered sharp losses as investors reacted to the Apple news, reports of a slowdown in US factory activity and an ongoing government shutdown over the funding of Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico.
Continue reading...Embassy in Moscow offers help to arrested US citizen during meeting in ex-KGB prison
The US ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, has visited a former marine in a Moscow prison where he is being held on espionage charges, the state department has confirmed.
Paul Whelan, who is head of global security for a Michigan-based car parts supplier, was detained in Russia on Friday. In announcing the arrest three days later, the Russian Federal Security Service said he was caught “during an espionage operation”, but gave no details.
Continue reading...Six people were killed when an express train braked suddenly after being hit by objects from a freight train in storm-force winds
Continue reading...Reports say tarpaulin from a freight train hit a passenger train going the other way
Danish police say several people have been killed in a train accident on a bridge linking the central islands of Zealand and Funen.
Police did not provide further details about those killed or the number of people injured in Wednesday’s incident, which took place at about 8am local time.
Continue reading...Pristina badly needs a new mosque – but Turkish attempts to court the young Balkan state with investment and advocacy is making some uneasy
It is six years since Islamic leaders and government officials laid the cornerstone of Pristina’s new central mosque – a slab of stone now hidden beneath weeds in a parking lot.
Pulling back the weeds reveals it is covered with bright red graffiti – death threats to Kosovo’s chief mufti, along with the words: “No Turkish mosque or there will be blood.”
Continue reading...Eleven-month-old child found in ruins of building where 37 people are still missing
Russian emergency services have found an 11-month-old baby boy alive in the rubble of an apartment block that collapsed in a gas explosion, after a bitterly cold night in which temperatures dropped to -26C.
“Rescuers heard crying. The baby was saved by being in a cradle and warmly wrapped up,” the Chelyabinsk region’s governor, Boris Dubrovsky, said.
Continue reading...Helicopter scrambled after revellers spend New Year’s Eve stuck in mid-air in Rennes
Eight people were rescued from a funfair ride by helicopter after becoming stuck 50 metres high in the air on New Year’s Eve.
The group spent most of Monday night atop the 52-metre metal arm called BomberMaxxx after a new part broke and blocked the mechanics of the device in Rennes, in Brittany in north-west France.
Continue reading...Man arrested in Bottrop over what police say appears to have been an intentional attack
A man has been arrested in Germany after driving his car into a crowd of people, injuring at least four, in what appears to have been an intentional attack directed at immigrants.
Police said the 50-year-old driver of a silver Mercedes first attempted to hit a group of pedestrians in the western city of Bottrop shortly after midnight on Tuesday, but they were able to jump out of the way.
Continue reading...Rescuers have found a 10-month-old child alive in the rubble of a Russian apartment block that partially collapsed in an explosion. The blast, thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk on Monday, killing at least seven people, with 36 still missing
Continue reading...Photos from London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Sydney and elsewhere as major cities ring in 2019
Continue reading...Fears for native biodiversity as climate ideal for propagation
The raucous squawking comes first. Then they are seen, banking and diving before they crash-land on trees.
If Greeks had been told, not long ago, that their skies would become the preserve of ring-necked parakeets, the response would have been one of incredulity.
Continue reading...After the Finnish city was razed to the ground by the German army in the second world war, architect Alvar Aalto rebuilt it to a reindeer-shaped street grid. Then Santa came to town …
As soon as you land at Rovaniemi airport in Lapland you see a reindeer. Not a real one, admittedly, but somebody in a Rudolf suit cheerily greeting passengers who have just arrived. A couple of miles from “Santa’s official airport” lies Santa Claus Village, an amusement park complete with elves, real reindeers, huskies, shops and restaurants that draws more than 600,000 visitors a year to this isolated spot at the edge of the Arctic Circle.
There are reindeer everywhere in Rovaniemi: humans dressed as them at the airport, real ones pulling sleighs at Santa Claus Village and statues of them throughout the city centre.
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