Mick Meaney made global headlines when he beat world record in 1968, but returned to Ireland penniless
They were known as burial artists – people who had themselves buried alive in macabre feats of endurance – and Mick Meaney resolved to be the best there ever was.
It was 1968 and the Irish labourer had barely a pound to his name but he believed that if he stayed underground in a coffin longer than anyone else the world would remember his name.
Continue reading...Analysis shows small hike in populations of insect-eating species after 2018 ruling, but full recovery may take decades
Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe.
Neonicotinoids are the world’s most common class of insecticides, widely used in agriculture and for flea control in pets. By 2022, four years after the European Union banned neonicotinoid use in fields, researchers observed that France’s population of insect-eating birds had increased by 2%-3%. These included blackbirds, blackcaps and chaffinches, which feed on insects as adults and as chicks.
Continue reading...Move threatens to throw open parts of secretive legal battle on Channel island about ex-Chelsea owner’s wealth
The former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is making a claim of “conspiracy” against the government of Jersey after the crown dependency launched a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption and money laundering in connection with the original source of the oligarch’s wealth.
The latest move threatens to throw open parts of a secretive legal battle on the Channel island about the tycoon’s rise to become one of the world’s richest people, which emerged in September after a Switzerland federal criminal court ordered the release of a cache of Swiss banking records requested by the Jersey attorney general.
Continue reading...Survivors group had called on firm Felzmann to ‘show some basic decency’ and halt ‘cynical and shameless’ event
Poland’s foreign minister said on Sunday that an “offensive” auction of Holocaust artefacts in Germany has been cancelled, relaying information from his German counterpart, after complaints from Holocaust survivors.
Radosław Sikorski made the comments on X, saying he and German foreign minister Johann Wadephul “agreed that such a scandal must be prevented”.
Continue reading...Gardaí appeal for witnesses and Simon Harris pays tribute to first responders after two-vehicle collision on Saturday
Ireland is in mourning after a road crash killed five people in their early 20s and left three other people injured.
The two-vehicle collision happened at about 9pm on Saturday on a road near Dundalk in County Louth.
Continue reading...Zelenskyy says Nataliia Khodemchuk is victim of ‘new tragedy caused by Kremlin’, four decades after disaster
The widow of the first Soviet engineer to die in the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion was killed on Friday in Russia’s massive drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Nataliia Khodemchuk as the victim of a “new tragedy caused by the Kremlin”, nearly four decades after her husband, Valerii, was killed inside Chornobyl’s nuclear reactor number four.
Continue reading...Katrín Jakobsdóttir and her co-author want the 350,000 people who speak the language to fight for its future
Iceland’s former prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, has said that the Icelandic language could be wiped out in as little as a generation due to the sweeping rise of AI and encroaching English language dominance.
Katrín, who stood down as prime minister last year to run for president after seven years in office, said Iceland was undergoing “radical” change when it came to language use. More people are reading and speaking English, and fewer are reading in Icelandic, a trend she says is being exacerbated by the way language models are trained.
Continue reading...Rolex denies ‘any negotiation’ with US although luxury watchmaker entertained Trump and gave him gold clock
Donald Trump agreed to cut US tariffs on Switzerland from 39% to 15% as part of a new trade pact, lowering duties that strained economic ties and hit Swiss exporters.
The two countries have signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding”, the Swiss government announced, following bilateral talks in Washington and intense lobbying by Swiss firms.
Continue reading...Ipsos survey reveals fake news, lack of accountability, extremism and corruption seen as biggest threats
Satisfaction with democracy is below 50% in eight out of nine western countries surveyed in a poll, and majorities in all but one fear for its future, with fake news, lack of political accountability, extremism and corruption seen as the biggest threats.
An Ipsos survey of almost 10,000 people in Croatia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US found satisfaction with democracy low in all except Sweden, with deep concerns about the future state of electoral politics.
Continue reading...Home secretary to set out sweeping plans to deter people from coming to the UK and make deportations easier
The home secretary is due to announce sweeping changes next week aimed at making the UK less attractive for migrants and modelled on the Danish system.
Shabana Mahmood is expected to set out plans to deter migrants from coming to the UK and make it easier to deport those who do, in a statement to MPs on Monday.
Continue reading...Former Spanish federation president struck by three eggs
Rubiales claims the assailant ‘was my own uncle’
The disgraced former Spanish football federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales had eggs flung at him, allegedly by his uncle, during the presentation of his new book on Thursday in Madrid.
Rubiales, convicted of sexual assault for a forced kiss on the player Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the Women’s World Cup, appeared to be struck on the back by an egg as the man Rubiales claimed was his uncle threw three in the direction of the 48-year-old.
Continue reading...Denmark has slashed asylum numbers by granting only short-term status and by targeting ‘ghettoes’, which critics say has damaged the country’s values
Of all the measures introduced to deter people from seeking asylum in Denmark over the last decade, it is the impermanence of refugees’ status that is often cited as the most effective.
Before 2015, refugees in Denmark were initially allowed to stay for between five and seven years, after which their residence permits would automatically become permanent. But 10 years ago, when more than a million people arrived in Europe fleeing conflict and repression, largely from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea, the Danish government dramatically changed the rules.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president calls for more air defence from Europe and US after six killed and dozens injured in strikes across capital
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Russia’s latest attack against Ukraine as “deliberate, calculated and wicked”, after six people were killed and dozens injured in a wave of night-time strikes across Kyiv.
Air raid sirens sounded shortly after midnight and residents of the capital made their way to shelters or lay between two walls in their apartments. Soon afterwards the whine of Shahed drones could be heard in the sky, with heavy machine-gun fire from Ukrainian air defences.
Continue reading...Bells ring out across French capital marking 10th anniversary of country’s deadliest peacetime attack
France has paid tribute to the 130 people killed 10 years ago by Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who targeted a stadium, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall in the country’s deadliest peacetime attack.
“The pain remains,” Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media on Thursday as he visited each of the sites that were attacked. Bells rang out across the city as a remembrance ceremony began at a memorial garden in central Paris attended by relatives and survivors.
Continue reading...Government established joint venture with Trump’s son-in-law in February 2024 to build hotel, apartments and museum complex
The Serbian government has established a joint venture with a property development company owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to develop a hotel complex in Belgrade, giving Serbia until next May to demolish the existing buildings, according to leaked documents.
An independent Serbian news magazine, Radar, published what appears to be a 2024 investment agreement giving Kushner’s firm Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC a 77.5% stake in the joint venture, and the Serbian government a 22.5% stake.
Continue reading...Proposal includes 72,000 social homes to tackle housing crisis, but critics call it ‘old wine in a new bottle’
The Irish government has announced a long-awaited plan to tackle the country’s severe housing shortage by building 300,000 new homes within five years.
It plans to boost supply by increasing construction capacity and the amount of zoned and serviced land, and to increase support for vulnerable groups, according to proposals published on Thursday.
Continue reading...Restrictions for entry to Schengen zone announced last Friday because of sabotage attacks linked to Russia
Russian opposition figures have reacted with anger and dismay to a decision by the European Union to introduce a ban on multi-entry visas to the Schengen zone for Russian citizens, announced in recent days.
“Starting a war and expecting to move freely in Europe is hard to justify,” said the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, when announcing the decision last Friday. She added that the tightened rules were a response to Russian drone incursions into European airspace and sabotage attacks linked to Russia.
Continue reading...Country explores taking part in the glitzy song contest as it distances from the US and seeks to deepen ties with Europe
When Canada released its federal budget this month, much of it was standard fare, from the plans to downsize the public service to the boost in defence spending.
But one line tucked in the nearly 500-page document has captured imaginations on both sides of the Atlantic: a mention that the government is working with Canada’s national broadcaster to explore participation in the Eurovision song contest.
Continue reading...Gisella Cardia allegedly made €365,000 in donations from pilgrims to shrine in lakeside town near Rome
A self-styled mystic who drew hundreds of pilgrims to a town near Rome by claiming a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood has been sent to trial for alleged fraud.
Gisella Cardia, who also claimed the statue was transmitting messages to her, will be tried along with her husband, Gianni Cardia, in April next year.
Continue reading...DFDS says film was broadcast mistakenly to passengers who had been watching F1 race on France-UK service
A ferry company has apologised after children were left “screaming” when a pornographic film was played on one of its ships from France to Sussex.
DFDS said it was “very sorry” over the incident, which happened onboard the ferry from Dieppe in France to Newhaven.
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