Category Archives: Europe

‘A momentous day’: families of Britons killed in 1980 oil rig disaster finally win compensation

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Norway will set up state payment scheme for families of 123 men killed in Kielland disaster, but some feel it comes too late

“I think we all feel like we’ve had a bit of a weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Laura Fleming after an important milestone in one of Europe’s longest-running industrial disaster sagas. “It is just 45 years too late.”

Fleming’s father, Michael, was one of 123 men who were killed when the Alexander L Kielland accommodation rig capsized during a fierce storm in the Norwegian North Sea oilfields on 27 March 1980.

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Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says

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Government defence expert Fiona Hill warns UK to respond to threats by becoming more cohesive and resilient

Russia is at war with Britain, the US is no longer a reliable ally and the UK has to respond by becoming more cohesive and more resilient, according to one of the three authors of the strategic defence review.

Fiona Hill, from County Durham, became the White House’s chief Russia adviser during Donald Trump’s first term and contributed to the British government’s strategy. She made the remarks in an interview with the Guardian.

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Russia bombards Kyiv after Putin vows revenge for Operation Spiderweb

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Three emergency workers killed and 20 people wounded as missiles and drones strike Ukrainian capital

Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at Kyiv overnight after Vladimir Putin vowed to respond to Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb attack on some of the Kremlin’s nuclear-capable bombers.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 400 drones and more than 40 missiles at Ukraine, as he urged allies to build pressure on the Kremlin to end its war. Four people were killed, including three emergency workers in Kyiv.

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Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles and drones – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

We’re about to wrap up this live coverage for now – thanks for reading. Here’s a recap of what happened this morning.

Russia attacked Ukraine with Russian ballistic missiles and drones during a nighttime attack early on Friday, wounding at least three people, officials said.

Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv, the capital, and falling debris triggered fires across several districts as air defence systems tried to intercept incoming targets, said the Kyiv city administration’s head, Tymur Tkachenko.

Authorities reported damage in several districts and rescue workers were responding at multiple locations. Officials urged residents to seek shelter.

The attacks came after Russia accused Kyiv of state terrorism over its drone operation striking Russian heavy bomber planes at air bases in Siberia and the far north at the weekend and said it would respond as and when its military saw fit.

In Friday’s Russian attacks a fire broke out in a 16-story residential building in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and emergency services evacuated three people from the apartment. Rescue operations were continuing. Another fire broke out in a metal warehouse.

A Shahed drone exploded near an apartment building in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, shattering windows and doors, the regional military administration chief said. Explosions from ballistic missiles were also recorded on the city’s outskirts, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi added.

US president Donald Trump said that during a call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday he urged the Russian president to refrain from retaliating but fully expected Moscow to strike back over Ukraine’s assault on Russian heavy bomber planes.

The UN nuclear safety watchdog’s team at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine heard repeated rounds of gunfire that appeared to be aimed at drones reportedly attacking the site’s training centre, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of damage to the centre, it said.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Trump in an Oval Office meeting to increase pressure on Russia to end the war.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “unconditionally support” Russia in the war at a meeting with top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu, Pyongyang state media reported.
With agencies

How and when our military deems it appropriate.

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Trump scorns Merkel legacy during new German chancellor’s White House visit

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Friedrich Merz struggles to get word in as US president focuses on record of former German leader who left office in 2021

Donald Trump has heaped criticism on the former German chancellor Angela Merkel for opening up her country to refugees, telling her successor: “I told her it shouldn’t have happened.”

During an appearance with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Thursday, Trump was asked about the sweeping travel restrictions on 19 countries that he announced the previous day.

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Hungary’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ content violates human rights, says EU’s top court

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ECJ advocate general condemns ‘stigmatising’ law that bars such content from schools and primetime TV

A Hungarian law banning content about LGBTQ+ people from schools and primetime TV has been found to violate basic human rights and freedom of expression by a senior legal scholar at the European court of justice.

The non-binding opinion from the court’s advocate general, Tamara Ćapeta, issued on Thursday, represents a comprehensive demolition of the arguments made by the Hungarian government defending its so-called childprotection law, passed in 2021.

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Thursday briefing: How Geert Wilders’ exit from Dutch coalition might set up his own comeback

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In today’s newsletter: The Dutch government collapsed after Wilders pulled out of the coalition – leaving renewed political uncertainty as parties scramble to redefine their positions

Good morning. The Dutch government dramatically collapsed on Tuesday after far-right politician Geert Wilders pulled out of the coalition, citing his frustration over immigration and asylum policy.

Shortly afterwards the prime minister, Dick Schoof, handed in his resignation to King Willem-Alexander. Fresh elections are expected in October. Until then ministers will remain in place in a caretaker capacity.

US news | Donald Trump has signed a sweeping order banning travel from 12 countries and restricting travel from seven others, reviving and expanding the travel bans from his first term. Security concerns and visa overstays, the US president said, justified the move.

Fuel poverty | Bereaved families of tens of thousands of dead pensioners could be pursued by tax officials to recoup winter fuel payments under a new system being explored by the Treasury, the Guardian has learned.

Israel-Gaza war | The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has detailed the harrowing account of one of its paramedics, Asaad al-Nasasra, 47, who told the organisation he heard Israeli troops shoot first responders. The attack on a convoy of emergency vehicles killed 15 others.

UK economy | Keir Starmer has said he hopes a trade deal struck last month with the US can come into effect “in just a couple of weeks”, as the White House has signalled that the UK will be spared the 50% steel and aluminium tariffs that came into force on Wednesday.

Global health | A cure for HIV may be closer after researchers discovered a new way to force the virus out of hiding in human cells. This “overwhelming” breakthrough could help overcome one of the biggest obstacles to a cure: the virus’s ability to lie dormant in certain white blood cells.

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Shein accused of ‘shaming’ customers into buying more than they can afford

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Consumer watchdogs accuse Chinese fashion firm of ‘dark’ practices in formal complaint to European Commission

Consumer watchdogs from 21 countries have filed a formal complaint to EU authorities about alleged “dark” practices by the Chinese fast fashion firm Shein including the “shaming” of customers into buying more than they can afford.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has submitted a 29-page dossier to the European Commission citing multiple examples of “dark patterns”, or deceptive techniques designed to encourage purchases.

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Kremlin and Trump aides raise nuclear war fears after Ukraine drone strike

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Vladimir Putin has warned Russia will respond to Kyiv’s attacks on nuclear-capable aircraft at airfields

As Vladimir Putin pledges to retaliate against Ukraine for last weekend’s unprecedented drone attack, Kremlin advisers and figures around Donald Trump have told the US president that the risk of a nuclear confrontation is growing, in an attempt to pressure him to further reduce US support for Ukraine.

Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and an important intermediary between the Kremlin and Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, called the Ukrainian drone strike an attack on “Russian nuclear assets”, and echoed remarks from Maga-friendly figures warning of the potential for a third world war.

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Hungary postpones vote on law to curb foreign-funded organisations

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Orbán’s ruling party delays vote on legislation allowing government to ban organisations with foreign funding

Hungary’s ruling party has postponed a planned vote on draft legislation aimed at organisations that receive foreign funding, following weeks of protests and warnings that the law would “starve and strangle” civil society and independent media.

Viktor Orbán’s rightwing populist party, Fidesz, put forward legislation last month that would allow the government to monitor, penalise and potentially ban organisations that receive any sort of foreign funding, including donations or EU grants.

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France plans to begin intercepting small boats at sea, says UK Home Office

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Officials have agreed to begin offshore interceptions, it is claimed, in change of policy that NGOs say will risk lives

The French government plans to begin intercepting small boats carrying asylum seekers even if they are already at sea, a Home Office source has said.

In a move that NGOs claim will endanger lives, it was claimed that French officials agreed this week to draw up plans to begin intervening in waters close to beaches and inland canals.

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Woman who found Irish sanctuary after years on US death row dies in house fire

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Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs spent 17 years in prison for murder she said she did not commit, a story told in books, play and film

After enduring hellish years on America’s death row for a crime she said she did not commit, Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs found an idyll, and healing, in rural Ireland. But in a final, cruel twist, her sanctuary claimed her life.

Jacobs, 78, and her carer, Kevin Kelly, were found dead on Tuesday after a fire at her cottage near the village of Casla, in County Galway.

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Pornhub owner to suspend site in France in protest at new verification law

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Parent company Aylo criticizes requirement that adult website visitors must confirm age with credit card or ID document

French visitors to the adult sites Pornhub, Youporn and RedTube will on Wednesday be greeted with a message denouncing the country’s age verification requirements, the company said on Tuesday.

Parent company Aylo, in reaction to a French law requiring adult sites to take extra steps to verify that their users are 18 or older, will stop operating in France, a spokesperson said.

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Austrian newspaper cuts ties with writer over Clint Eastwood ‘exclusive’

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Kurier editor says Q&A that was picked up by other outlets contained old quotes from round-table events

One of Austria’s leading newspapers has severed ties with a Hollywood reporter after admitting she repackaged old comments by Clint Eastwood and presented them as a supposedly exclusive interview.

In an apparent journalistic coup, the Vienna-based daily Kurier published a Q&A with Eastwood last Friday and it was picked up around the world over the weekend due to the Oscar-winning actor’s outspoken criticism of Hollywood’s “era of remakes and franchises”.

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Major evacuation in Cologne after second world war bombs discovered

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About 20,000 people relocated while allied munitions dropped on German city in 1940s are made safe

The biggest evacuation in Cologne since the second world war is under way after the discovery of three unexploded bombs dropped by allied forces 80 years ago.

About 20,000 people are having to leave their homes and businesses, while hotels, a care home for elderly people and a hospital are being evacuated. Three bridges over the Rhine have been closed and rail traffic has been halted or diverted.

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Rome’s taxi drivers outraged at claim they drive like F1’s Max Verstappen

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  • Mercedes chief Wolff made comparison after Spanish GP

  • ‘It would be better if Wolff focused on his own team’

Rome taxi drivers are in uproar at the suggestion they drive as badly as mad Max Verstappen, with some challenging Formula One drivers to navigate the traffic and potholes of the Italian capital as skilfully as they do.

Verstappen, a four-time F1 champion, was issued with a penalty on Sunday after crashing into George Russell’s Mercedes in the Spanish Grand Prix.

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‘Five years from now, these readers will be soldiers’: The Russian literature encouraging teens to enlist

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Master-race stories of heroic characters battling against zombie Nazis and western spies to recover imperial grandeur are a bleak new spin on an old propaganda tradition

‘Z literature”, a subgenre of Russian fantasy fiction characterised by nationalistic, pro-war storylines, has been on the rise since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began three years ago and may be pushing young readers towards enlisting in combat.

Z literature – named after the “Z” symbol of support for the invasion – often features popadantsy, or “accidental travel” narratives, involving a protagonist being transported to pivotal moments in Russia’s past and using modern knowledge to intervene and alter history in Russia’s favour.

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Dutch government collapses as far-right leader pulls party out of coalition

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Coalition leaders call decision by Geert Wilders to withdraw from alliance over immigration policy ‘irresponsible’

The Dutch government has collapsed after the far-right leader Geert Wilders pulled his party out of the ruling coalition in a row over immigration and asylum policy.

The prime minister, Dick Schoof, on Tuesday handed in his resignation and that of his 11-month-old cabinet to King Willem-Alexander. Remaining ministers will stay on in a caretaker capacity until new elections, most likely in October.

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Dutch museum to display 200-year-old condom probably made from sheep’s appendix

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Rijksmuseum exhibition includes contraceptive featuring erotic etching of a nun and three clergymen

A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam this week, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art collection.

The condom, which was probably made of a sheep’s appendix circa 1830, is thought to have come from an upmarket brothel in France, most likely in Paris. It features an erotic etching depicting a partially undressed nun pointing at the erect genitals of three clergymen, as well as the phrase Voila, mon choix (“There, that’s my choice”).

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Clint Eastwood calls viral interview a fabrication: ‘Completely phony’

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The actor and director claims that an Austrian newspaper invented a recent interview with him

Clint Eastwood has released a statement to claim a recent interview with him is a fabrication.

Quotes from an alleged interview with the Oscar-winning actor and director had gone viral over the weekend and were picked up by a number of sites. Yet Eastwood has now said that he never spoke to anyone from German-language Austrian newspaper Kurier.

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