Category Archives: Europe

French politician jokes US should return Statue of Liberty for siding with ‘tyrants’

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Raphaël Glucksmann quips that US should give back 19th-century gift from France over Trump’s approach to Ukraine

A French European parliament member has quipped that the US should return the Statue of Liberty, which it received as a gift from France about 140 years ago, after Donald Trump’s decision “to side with the tyrants” against Ukraine.

Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, then responded to Raphaël Glucksmann on Monday by calling him an “unnamed low-level French politician” and saying the US would keep the statue.

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Hungary’s government submits bill to ban Budapest Pride event

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Ruling coalition continues its crackdown on LGBTQ+ people under its ‘child protection’ legislation

Hungary’s ruling coalition is continuing its crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ+ community, as members submitted a bill to parliament that would ban the popular Budapest Pride event and allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify people attending.

The bill, presented on Monday, is almost certain to pass as the coalition has a two-thirds majority in parliament.

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Norwegian writer Dag Solstad dies aged 83

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A hugely influential novelist and critic, Solstad won the Norwegian Critics prize three times, and his work was translated by Haruki Murakami

Dag Solstad, a towering figure of Norwegian letters admired by literary greats around the world, has died aged 83.

Known for prose combining existential despair, political subjects and a droll sense of humour, Solstad won the Norwegian critics prize for literature an unprecedented three times.

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Italy one of five ‘dismantlers’ causing ‘democratic recession’ in Europe, report says

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Civil liberties report warns that Italy along with Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia intentionally undermining rule of law ‘in nearly all aspects’

Italy’s government has profoundly undermined the rule of law with changes to the judiciary and showed “heavy intolerance to media criticism”, in an emblematic example of Europe’s deepening “democratic recession”, a coalition of civil liberties groups has said.

A report by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) said Italy was one of five “dismantlers” – along with Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia – that “intentionally undermine the rule of law in nearly all aspects”.

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Pope seen praying at hospital chapel in photo released by Vatican

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Francis pictured for first time since he was admitted to hospital more than a month ago with pneumonia

The Vatican has released the first photograph of Pope Francis since the 88-year-old was admitted to hospital more than a month ago with pneumonia in both lungs.

The photo shows the pope, bare-headed, seated in a wheelchair and wearing a white robe and purple shawl, in front of a simple altar with a crucifix on the wall.

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North Macedonia mourns dead in nightclub fire as 15 people detained

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Government declares seven-day period of mourning after fire in eastern town of Kočani kills at least 59

North Macedonia has declared a seven-day period of mourning after a fire in a nightclub that left at least 59 dead and scores injured, as authorities detained 15 people for questioning and the interior minister said a preliminary inspection revealed the club was operating without a proper licence.

At the end of a day in which the small Balkan country grappled with a disaster not seen in decades, its interior minister Panche Toshkovski said the venue in the eastern town of Kočani where the pre-dawn blaze occurred appeared to be operating illegally.

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Macron says Russia’s permission not needed to deploy troops in Ukraine

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French president says France, UK and others could each deploy ‘a few thousand troops’ to key locations to show Ukraine ‘long-term support’

Emmanuel Macron has said France, the UK, and other nations providing security guarantees for Ukraine after any eventual ceasefire would not be aiming to deploy a “mass” of soldiers, but instead could send contingents of several thousand troops to key locations in Ukraine without needing Russia’s permission.

The French president told regional French newspapers, including Le Parisien and La Dépêche de Midi, that “several European countries, and indeed non-European ones” had “expressed their willingness” to join a possible deployment to Ukraine to secure a future peace agreement with Russia.

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Arrest warrants issued as death toll rises to 59 from Kočani nightclub fire in North Macedonia – as it happened

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More than 150 people injured after blaze broke out in the early hours at Pulse club in town 60 miles from Skopje

At least 59 killed in North Macedonia nightclub fire

North Macedonia’s public prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski has said five prosecutors would investigate the fire.

“At the moment, orders have been issued for collecting of evidence” and some people were being interviewed, Kocevski said.

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Nightclub fire in North Macedonia kills 59 and leaves more than 100 injured

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Interior minister says blaze at pop concert in eastern town of Kočani probably caused by pyrotechnics

Fifty-nine people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a fire that broke out in a nightclub in North Macedonia early on Sunday.

The blaze in the small eastern town of Kočani is thought to have erupted when special-effect pyrotechnics caused the roof of the Pulse nightclub to go up in flames.

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Romania bans second far-right hopeful from presidential election rerun

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Diana Șoșoacă’s exclusion follows expulsion of front-runner Călin Georgescu from race amid rising tension around poll

Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Șoșoacă, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll.

Earlier in March, the electoral bureau barred Călin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40% before the rerun election.

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The big question on Ukraine: is Trump ready to push Putin into peace? | Shaun Walker

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Russian leader’s antagonism to Zelenskyy and lack of interest in a ceasefire leaves colossal task for US

On paper, everyone is in agreement: Donald Trump says he wants a ­ceasefire; Kyiv’s ­negotiating team has already agreed to a 30-day ceasefire ­proposal at marathon talks with the Americans in Jeddah; and Vladimir Putin says he accepts the idea, albeit with a few “nuances”.

But Putin’s so-called nuances are bigger than mere wrinkles, and at the end of an intense week of diplomacy around Russia’s war in Ukraine, a ceasefire – never mind a sustainable peace – still looks to be something of a distant prospect.

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Serbians stage huge protest in Belgrade against their president

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Farmers and bikers join students in climax to movement that Aleksandar Vučić labels an ‘imported revolution’

A vast demonstration has been gathering in Belgrade, marking the climax of more than four months of student-led protests and the biggest challenge to President Aleksandar Vučić in the 11 years of his increasingly autocratic rule.

Vučić stoked tensions in the run-up to yesterday’s mass protest, suggesting there would be an attempt to overthrow him by force and calling it an “imported revolution” with the involvement of western intelligence agencies, but he provided no evidence for the claims. The demonstrations against government corruption and incompetence have so far been overwhelmingly peaceful.

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Protesters march in Belgrade at huge rally against Serbian president

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Authorities in capital make apparent attempt to disrupt demonstration by cancelling public transport

Tens of thousands of people from across Serbia joined an anti-corruption rally in Belgrade on Saturday, in what is regarded as the culmination of months of protest that have shaken the grip of the country’s autocratic president, Aleksandar Vučić.

The sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed throughout the Serbian capital, which has been on high alert since the rally was announced.

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Greek PM seeks ‘reset’ with former far-right activist as migration minister

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Shaken by rail protests, Kyriakos Mitsotakis brings in new transport minister while tacking right on migration

The Greek prime minister has appointed a former far-right student activist to the helm of the migration ministry as part of a broad reshuffle aimed at “resetting” his government amid public outrage over its handling of a deadly 2023 train crash.

In an attempt to stem declining approval ratings, Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed the self-described nationalist, Makis Voridis, in the sensitive post while selecting a number of younger officials to key portfolios including the transport ministry.

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Ukraine’s retreat from Kursk appears to mark end of audacious operation

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Some say incursion achieved many goals while others wonder if it cost Ukrainian lives for no tangible gain

Under constant attack from drones attached to fibre optic cables, the soldiers scrambled in groups of two or three along hidden tracks or through fields, often walking miles to reach Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian retreat from the Kursk region, carried out in stages over the past two weeks, appears to mark the end of one of the most audacious and surprising operations of the conflict, and strips Ukraine of one of its few solid bargaining chips in possible peace negotiations with Russia.

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‘Germany is back’: Merz secures Greens’ support for defence spend boost

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Backing of Greens is tantamount to approval of chancellor-in-waiting’s proposal to relax debt brake

Germany’s conservative chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, has said he has secured the support of the Green party for his radical plan to increase spending on defence and infrastructure after marathon talks that went through the night, paving the way for its approval in parliament.

“Germany is back,” Merz said in Berlin on Friday. “Germany is making its large contribution to the defence of freedom and peace in Europe.”

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Putin makes clear Russia will only play ball with Ukraine by his rules

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While carefully avoiding an outright rejection of US ceasefire proposals, Moscow is playing for time

For once, the US president and European leaders were on the same page.

Grasping for a familiar metaphor, a chorus of western heads of state declared this week that “the ball was in Russia’s court” after Ukraine agreed in talks with the US on Tuesday to an immediate 30-day ceasefire.

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Jonathan Powell: the veteran negotiator being lauded over US-Ukraine detente

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Insiders say UK national security adviser avoids limelight, but it found the ‘calm operator’ this week

In the topsy-turvy world in which Keir Starmer and his aides operate, the US putting the onus on Russia to agree to a truce with Ukraine marked a significant victory.

The proposed 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine is the culmination of two weeks of high-wire negotiations involving Ukraine, the US, UK, France and Germany.

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Donatella Versace defied expectations to become a fashion icon of her own

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When she took over after her brother Gianni’s murder, few expected her to last 27 years and become a household name

When Donatella Versace took over the house of Versace in the aftermath of her brother Gianni’s murder, most observers privately assumed that her reign would be no more than a postscript. The bottle-blond younger sister, with no formal training and a drug addiction that was the fashion industry’s worst kept secret, was seen as a sentimental appointment by a shell-shocked family.

She proved everyone wrong. Versace is now defined as much by Donatella as by Gianni. She steps down from designing after 27 years as an icon in her own right, one of the most successful female designers in modern fashion history. Sober for 20 years, she has steered Versace to become a global household name, valued at $2bn (£1.6bn) when it was sold to Capri Holdings six and a half years ago.

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Destruction of Ukraine dam caused ‘toxic timebomb’ of heavy metals, study finds

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Researchers say environmental impact from Kakhovka dam explosion comparable to Chornobyl nuclear disaster

The destruction of a large Ukrainian dam in 2023 triggered a “toxic timebomb” of environmental harm, a study has found.

Lakebed sediments holding 83,000 tonnes of heavy metals were exposed when the Kakhovka dam was blown up one year into Russia’s invasion, researchers found.

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