Category Archives: Europe

Donald Trump says he is ‘very angry’ with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine

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US president says his Russian counterpart’s questioning of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s credibility could delay ceasefire

Donald Trump has said he is “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin over his approach to a ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened to levy tariffs on Moscow’s oil exports if the Russian leader does not agree to a truce within a month.

The US president indicated he would levy a 25% or 50% tariff that would affect countries buying Russian oil in a telephone interview with NBC News, during which he also threatened to bomb Iran and did not rule out using force in Greenland.

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First orbital rocket launched from mainland Europe crashes after takeoff

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Uncrewed Spectrum test rocket’s failure seconds after blast-off said to have produced extensive data nonetheless

A test rocket intended to kickstart satellite launches from Europe fell to the ground and exploded less than a minute after takeoff from Norway on Sunday, in what the German startup Isar Aerospace had described as an initial test.

The Spectrum started smoking from its sides and crashed back to Earth in a powerful explosion just after its launch from from the Andøya spaceport in the Arctic. Images were broadcast live on YouTube.

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Turkey says Swedish journalist detained on terror charges and for ‘insulting the president’

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Joakim Medin, who works for the Dagens ETC newspaper, was arrested on Thursday when his plane landed

A Swedish journalist who was detained on his arrival in Turkey to cover protests over the jailing of Istanbul’s mayor has been arrested on terror-related charges and for “insulting the president”, the Turkish presidency has said.

Joakim Medin, who works for the Dagens ETC newspaper, “has been arrested on charges of ‘membership in an armed terrorist organisation’ and ‘insulting the president’”, the presidency said on Sunday.

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Marine Le Pen’s future to be decided as embezzlement verdict arrives

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Far-right leader could be barred from standing for presidency if she is convicted over alleged fake jobs scam

The future of the far-right leader Marine Le Pen – and France’s political landscape – will be decided on Monday when a court hands down its verdict on charges she and party officials embezzled money from the European parliament.

If convicted, the three-time presidential candidate of the National Rally (RN) could be barred from standing to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 presidential election.

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‘Expressing your pain in artistic form is not easy’: exiled Russian theatre director builds bridges in London

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Dmitry Krymov, who fled Moscow after the Ukraine invasion, plans Dickens hybrid with UK and Russian actors

The acclaimed Russian stage director Dmitry Krymov the winner of many of Moscow’s top theatre prizes before his exile due to public criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, has spoken angrily of the impact of the war ahead of his first work with British actors. The Moscow-born director, 70, plans to use Dickens’s two stories Great Expectations and Hard Times to create a new performance.

Arriving in London this weekend for a short stay, Krymov, who is regarded by many western theatre pundits as among the best directors in the world, told the Observer he wants to link British and Russian performers and audiences, despite the divisions caused by President Vladimir Putin.

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Keir Starmer urged to get tough with Trump as US tariff threat looms

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PM told to be as robust as Canada with the US president as the UK stages last-ditch talks to strike trade deal

Keir Starmer should fight back strongly against Donald Trump if he imposes punitive tariffs on British exports, senior UK and EU diplomats said on Saturday night, amid heightened fears that the US president could trigger a global trade war with devastating effects on the UK economy.

British government officials in London and Washington are working frantically this weekend to try to persuade Trump not to slap duties on more key UK industries on what he is calling “liberation day” on Wednesday. The US president has already announced plans for 25% levies on imports of cars, steel and aluminium to the US.

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Le boycott: French customers shun McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Tesla to protest against Trump

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France has been urged to shun Maga America as #BoycottUSA hashtag spreads, but teenagers say they can’t afford to join the action

On the rainy Grands Boulevards in Paris on Friday, the branches of McDonald’s and KFC were doing brisk business.

There was little sign of “le boycott” – a movement among French customers to reject American brands and products made in the US, in protest at Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and anti-Europe rhetoric.

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Turkish opposition rallies in defence of jailed Istanbul mayor in mass protest

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Hundreds of thousands gather for Ekrem İmamoğlu outside Istanbul centre in move to keep momentum after clashes with police

Turkey’s main opposition has rallied in defence of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, in a move to sustain the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended the protest called by the head of the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) in a spot far from the Istanbul city centre. The party leader, Özgur Özel, claimed 2.2 million people attended.

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Italian PM calls for ‘reasoned’ approach to escalating tariff war between EU and US

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Giorgia Meloni says it is her responsibility to defend transatlantic unity in face of looming US levies

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has called for a “reasoned” approach to an escalating tariff war between the EU and the US and repeated the importance of transatlantic unity.

The US president, Donald Trump, has announced sweeping tariffs on his country’s allies and adversaries, including a 25% levy on car imports starting next week, and a 200% tariff on champagne, wine and other alcoholic drinks from the EU.

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‘A common humanity’: the British families who tended graves of German soldiers

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Across the country men and women have cared for the resting places of their enemy’s fallen, finding peace and hope

For some, tending the graves was an act of reconciliation. For others, it was about acknowledging shared losses and shared grief.

Thousands of Germans who died in Britain during the first and second world wars were laid to rest in local graveyards. British people tended these graves for decades, even laying flowers and wreaths for their former foes.

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Partial solar eclipse: moon blocks part of sun for people in northern hemisphere – as it happened

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This blog is now closed, you can read our story here

Here’s a view of the sun from Dakar, Senegal:

How visible today’s partial eclipse will be depends, unsurprisingly, on how clear the sky is where you are.

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Denmark hits back at ‘tone’ of US vice-president’s criticism over Greenland

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‘This is not how you talk to your close allies,’ says Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen

Denmark has hit back against JD Vance’s comments that Copenhagen has not done enough for Greenland.

The US vice-president made his remark on Friday during a trip to the Pituffik space base in north-western Greenland, viewed by both Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation.

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Europe’s first Mars rover will have UK-built lander

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Airbus also built the Rosalind Franklin rover, due to launch in 2028 to search for signs of past life

Europe’s first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK.

The Rosalind Franklin rover – named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA – is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface.

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JD Vance says US needs control of Greenland to fend off China and Russia

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Vice-president criticises Denmark’s treatment of Arctic island and says it should come under US ‘security umbrella’

JD Vance told troops in Greenland that the US has to gain control of the Arctic island to stop the threat of China and Russia as he doubled down on criticising Denmark, which he said has “not done a good job”.

Under increasingly strained relations between the White House and Greenland and Denmark, the US vice-president said during a visit to Pituffik space base on Friday: “Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass.”

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Putin’s endorsement of Trump’s Greenland takeover reflects their vision of a new world order

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As US pivots toward territorial ambitions in the west, the Kremlin’s support signals a deeper alignment in their challenge to global norms

As JD Vance touched down in Greenland, the Trump administration received an unlikely endorsement for the US’s first potential territorial expansion since 1947: Vladimir Putin.

Speaking at an Arctic policy forum in the northern Russian city of Murmansk on Thursday, Putin presented a more comprehensive case than any US official yet for Donald Trump’s plan to annex Greenland, crafting a historical argument that sounded suspiciously convenient in terms of Russia’s own territorial designs on Ukraine.

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Putin suggests Ukraine could have UN-led government to organise elections

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US rejects suggestion and Kremlin later clarifies idea is just ‘one of the options’ and has not been raised with Trump

Vladimir Putin has suggested Ukraine could be placed under a temporary UN-led government to organise fresh elections as both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of breaching an energy ceasefire agreed this week.

The idea was quickly rejected by a US spokesperson, and it was not clear how far it was meant to be taken seriously, given that the Kremlin clarified that Putin had not raised this idea in recent phone calls with Donald Trump.

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JD Vance to expect frosty reception in Greenland amid diplomatic row

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Visit by US vice-president and wife met with hostility by leaders after Trump’s threats to acquire territory

The US vice-president, JD Vance, and his wife Usha are due to touch down in Greenland on Friday in a drastically scaled down trip after the original plans for the unsolicited visit prompted an international diplomatic row.

The visit to Pituffik, a remote ice-locked US military base in northwestern Greenland, will be closely watched by leaders in Nuuk and Copenhagen, who have aired their opposition to the trip amid ongoing threats by Donald Trump to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.

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End of an era for Canada-US ties, says Carney, as allies worldwide decry Trump’s car tariffs

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Canadian PM says Donald Trump has permanently altered relations, as countries around the globe insist import taxes are harmful to all, including Washington

Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.

Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.

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Stereotyping a factor in loss of life in deadliest Channel crossing, inquiry told

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Migrant dinghy was also confused with vessel from which 35 people were rescued, so incident was marked ‘resolved’

Survivors and bereaved relatives have told an inquiry into the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel that they believe stereotyping them as “foreigners” contributed to the failure to rescue them before the majority died.

The Cranston inquiry into how at least 27 people drowned on 24 November 2021 heard that survivors believed many on board could have been saved if rescue had been sent more quickly.

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