Category Archives: Europe

No-deal Brexit would mean hard Irish border, EU confirms

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Spokesman says it is ‘pretty obvious’ border controls would be needed under no deal

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The EU has confirmed it will enforce a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, despite the risk it would pose to peace.

In comments that will be highly uncomfortable for Dublin, Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief spokesman told reporters it was “pretty obvious” that border infrastructure would be necessary if the UK were to leave without deal.

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France summons Italian envoy over ‘hostile’ Africa remarks

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Italian deputy PM blames migrant crisis on France’s ‘colonisation’ of Africa

France’s foreign ministry has summoned the Italian ambassador in an escalating row over migrant arrivals in Europe that pits the centrist government of Emmanuel Macron against Italy’s far-right-populist coalition.

Teresa Castaldo was summoned over “hostile” remarks made by the Italian deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio.

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US singer Chris Brown arrested in Paris on suspicion of rape

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Twenty-nine-year-old in custody with two others after woman files complaint

The American singer Chris Brown and two other people were held in custody in Paris after a woman filed a rape complaint.

Brown was detained on Monday on potential charges of aggravated rape and drug infractions, a French judicial official said. Investigators have two days to decide whether to let him go or file preliminary charges.

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State secrets were on US man during Russia arrest, says his lawyer

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Paul Whelan, ex-marine accused of spying, may have been unaware of possession

A Russian lawyer for Paul Whelan, the US citizen accused of spying on Russia, has said his client was carrying state secrets when he was arrested in Moscow but may not have realised it.

Whelan, an ex-marine, has been accused of an unspecified “act of espionage”, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

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In the digital age, how much longer can Spain’s street kiosks survive?

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As newsprint sales fall and tourists demand keychains, the city of Barcelona is trying to keep alive the old social culture that revolves around street kiosks

For generations, the day in Spain has begun with picking up the paper from the newspaper kiosk and then reading it over breakfast in a bar. These two urban institutions – the kiosk and the bar – have been the twin pillars of any barrio, or neighbourhood.

“You have a close relationship with your clients,” says Máximo Frutos, who owns a kiosk and is vice-president of the city’s news vendors association. “I have copies of the house keys for around 15 people in the barrio, in case they lose theirs. It’s not like any other business.”

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Ronaldo agrees to pay €19m fine to settle tax fraud case

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Juventus footballer pleads guilty after agreeing to fine and suspended sentence in Madrid court

The Portugal and Juventus footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted committing tax fraud while playing for Real Madrid and agreed to pay an €18.8m (£16.5m) fine after striking a deal with prosecutors and tax authorities in return for a 23-month suspended prison sentence.

Ronaldo, 33, had been accused of defrauding the authorities of €14.8m (£12.9m) in unpaid taxes between 2011 and 2014.

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May claims EU second referendum would threaten ‘social cohesion’

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PM faces a looming revolt over a no-deal Brexit as Corbyn criticises her talks as ‘PR sham’

Theresa May doubled down on her opposition to a second Brexit referendum on Monday night, claiming it would threaten Britain’s “social cohesion” and insisting the centrepiece of her strategy remained negotiating changes to the Irish backstop.

With just 67 days to go until Britain is due by law to leave the European Union, May exasperated MPs and business groups by offering scant evidence that she was willing to change course.

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Google fined record £44m by French data protection watchdog

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CNIL found that company failed to offer users transparent information on data use

The French data protection watchdog CNIL has fined Google a record €50m (£44m) for failing to provide users with transparent and understandable information on its data use policies.

For the first time, the company was fined using new terms laid out in the pan-European general data protection regulation. The maximum fine for large companies under the new law is 4% of annual turnover, meaning the theoretical maximum fine for Google is almost €4bn.

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Vintage ski posters – in pictures

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A collection of vintage ski and winter sports posters up to a century old – some worth thousands of dollars – is about to be auctioned in New York. The resorts advertised range from Europe’s Alpine jewels to the mountains of Canada, and all offer fun in the outdoors

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EU support for Libya contributes to ‘extreme abuse’ of refugees, says study

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Human Rights Watch accuses EU institutions of sustaining network of ‘inhuman and degrading’ migrant detention centres

The EU’s support for Libya’s anti-migrant policies is contributing to a cycle of “extreme abuse”, including arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, extortion and forced labour.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, who interviewed 66 migrants and asylum seekers in Libya last year, EU institutions and member states are continuing to sustain a network of detention centres characterised by “inhuman and degrading” conditions where the risk of abuse is rife.

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Hungary: pithy insult dogs Orbán as anti-government protesters resort to ridicule

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Use of ‘O1G’ expletive illustrates rising anger at PM’s ‘slave law’ and anti-migrant rhetoric

Visitors to Budapest in recent weeks may have noticed the proliferation of a strange three-character code all across the city: “O1G”.

Graffitied on to walls and fences: O1G. Traced into the snow on car windscreens every time a wintry flurry falls: O1G. The abbreviation is short for Orbán egy geci, a pithy phrase deriding the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, using a Hungarian expletive that literally means sperm but is used as a catch-all insult.

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Russian activists denied asylum in Sweden: ‘We can’t go back’

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Alexey Knedlyakovsky and Lusine Djanyan say they fear being arrested and beaten if sent home

Two Russian opposition activists denied political asylum in Sweden say they fear being arrested and beaten up if they are forced to go home.

“You never know when something will happen,” say Alexey Knedlyakovsky and Lusine Djanyan, who fled their home city of Krasnodar in March 2017 after what they say was a campaign of persecution by the secret police. They flew to Sweden with their two-year-old son and claimed asylum.

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World’s 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50%, says Oxfam

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Charity calls for 1% wealth tax, saying it would raise enough to educate every child not in school

The growing concentration of the world’s wealth has been highlighted by a report showing that the 26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the planet’s population.

In an annual wealth check released to mark the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the development charity Oxfam said 2018 had been a year in which the rich had grown richer and the poor poorer.

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EU citizen registration in UK could become ‘new Windrush’, say migration experts

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Critics warn many could be left without legal status to stay if settlement scheme fails

Migration experts have warned that the post-Brexit system for registering EU citizens living in the UK could become a new “Windrush scandal” as the scheme to register an estimated 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK begins.

From Monday, the third phase of testing will open to EU residents in the UK, who will be able to register for the new post-Brexit “settled status”. The Home Office is extending its live trial to all EU citizens who hold a valid passport and any non-EU citizen family members who hold a valid biometric residence card.

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‘No solutions’ to Irish backstop in May’s Brexit call with cabinet

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Statement on Monday expected to focus on finding a remedy to issue that threatens to split Tory party

Theresa May is expected to reject calls to forge a cross-party consensus on Brexit when she lays out her plan B to parliament on Monday, choosing instead to back new diplomatic efforts in Brussels to renegotiate the Irish backstop.

The prime minister held a conference call with her bitterly divided cabinet from the country retreat of Chequers on Sunday evening.

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Fire at French ski resort of Courchevel kills two

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Pre-dawn blaze injured 22 others and forced evacuation of 60 resort workers

Two people have died and 22 others have been injured after fire swept through a building in the French ski resort of Courchevel.

The fire spread rapidly after breaking out on an upper floor of the building, housing nearly 60 resort workers – many of them foreigners – some time after 4.30am on Sunday, forcing several residents to jump from windows.

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‘We feel orphaned’: Polish city mourns Paweł Adamowicz

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Gdańsk mayor’s funeral revealed a nation in shock, bereft of a man who stood for openness

Even as Paweł Adamowicz was lying in state at Gdańsk’s European Solidarity Centre, a museum, archive, and public space dedicated to the history and values of the independent trade union born in the city’s shipyards, its grief-stricken staff were preparing his entry into history.

The opening of the museum in 2014 was the realisation of a dream for Adamowicz, a Gdańsk native who had long sought to present his city to the world as a symbol of Europe’s hard-won freedom. In between shifts maintaining an overnight vigil by his coffin, researchers gathered materials with which to commemorate him.

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More than 100 migrants missing after dinghy sinks in Med

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The vessel left Libya two days ago and started sinking after 10 to 11 hours at sea

About 117 migrants who left Libya in a rubber dinghy two days ago are unaccounted for, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said, after three people were rescued from the sinking vessel in the Mediterranean.

“The three survivors told us they were 120 when they left Garabulli, in Libya, on Thursday night. After 10 to 11 hours at sea (the boat) started sinking and people started drowning,” IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said.

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Thousands march beside coffin of murdered Gdańsk mayor – video

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Carrying flags and candles through the streets, thousands of people walked in procession on Friday along with the coffin of Gdańsk's murdered mayor, Paweł  Adamowicz. He was stabbed on Sunday evening by a man who rushed the stage during a charity event. Adamowicz died the following day

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Paweł Adamowicz: thousands attend Gdańsk mayor’s funeral

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Poles mourn critic of ruling party’s anti-immigration policies who was stabbed at charity event

Polish and European officials joined thousands of people from across Poland on Saturday for the funeral of Paweł Adamowicz, the mayor of the northern city of Gdańsk, who died on Monday after being stabbed the night before at a charity event.

The European council president, Donald Tusk, a friend of Adamowicz, was among those attending the burial at the vast Gothic St Mary’s Basilica. Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, also attended along with former leaders including Lech Wałęsa.

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