One suspect, Mehdi Nemmouche, is serving a life sentence for a 2014 attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels
Five suspected Islamist terrorists accused of kidnapping and torturing four French journalists covering the war in Syria have gone on trial in Paris.
The men include the French jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, who is serving life imprisonment for an attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014 in which four people died.
Continue reading...Villach mayor praises Alaaeddin al-Halabi, who intervened in knife attack that killed 14-year-old and injured five others
A Syrian migrant living in Austria has been hailed as a hero after he rammed his car into an attacker, bringing down a radicalised assailant who had killed one teenager and left five others injured.
The stabbing, described by Austria’s interior minister as having been carried out by a Syrian man who was legally living in the country and who had become radicalised by the Islamic State group, happened on Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Villach.
Continue reading...Vadim Stroykin reported to have killed himself by jumping from a ninth-floor window during visit by security services
No one knows exactly what happened in the final moments of Vadim Stroykin’s life.
The 59-year-old Russian singer-songwriter’s vibrant career came to a sudden end on 5 February when a team from Russia’s security services arrived at his cramped ninth-floor St Petersburg flat at 9am. They were investigating him for what has become one of the gravest offences in today’s Russia — donating to the Ukrainian army.
Continue reading...Pischane in Donetsk back under Kyiv’s control as Zelenskyy renews call for fighting to end ‘with just and lasting peace’
Ukrainian forces have recaptured a village on the frontline in the country’s east, amid signs Russia’s advance may be slowing down and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his call for the fighting to end “with a just and lasting peace”.
On Sunday, Ukrainian forces took back the village of Pischane, south-west of the city of Pokrovsk, military officials said. Russian units had made rapid gains in the area in December and January, seizing a string of settlements and threatening to cut off Pokrovsk.
Continue reading...European papers express deep alarm at declaration of an ‘ideological war’, while the NYT says Putin may soon ‘realise his dream’
This year’s Munich security conference exposed the chasm in core values separating the Trump administration from most Europeans and sparked deep alarm at US efforts to control the Ukraine peace process and exclude European governments from it.
Here is what some of the main European and US newspapers had to say about it.
Continue reading...The former UK prime minister says democracy in Europe and across the globe is ‘under threat’. This live blog is closed
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has warned against “over-dramatising” the meeting between European leaders in Paris on Monday.
France is due to host the summit of European leaders to discuss the Ukraine war and European security as the continent scrambles to respond to US president Donald Trump’s unilateral approach to the conflict.
Continue reading...Queues of people risk possible arrest at Moscow cemetery while European leaders condemn Kremlin
European leaders have condemned the Kremlin’s “ultimate responsibility” in the death of Alexei Navalny, as supporters of Russia’s best-known opposition politician held remembrance events a year after he died in an Arctic penal colony.
A steady queue of people braved freezing temperatures and possible arrest in Moscow to visit Navalny’s grave in Borisovskoye cemetery, while his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was due to address a memorial ceremony in Berlin, where she is living in exile.
Continue reading...Jonathan Reynolds says Britain has not given up on persuading the US to allow Ukraine to join Nato
The UK hopes to act as a bridge between Europe and Donald Trump’s US, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has said before what could be a crucial week of diplomacy in deciding Ukraine’s future.
With Keir Starmer expected to travel to Paris on Monday for an emergency summit of European leaders, in advance of a possible trip to Washington the following week, Reynolds said the UK had still not given up on persuading the US to allow Ukraine to join Nato.
Continue reading...As Donald Trump and his officials rip up three years of US rhetoric on supporting Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is walking an unenviable diplomatic tightrope
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had some tough weeks in the past three years, but this past one may be up there with the worst of them.
Back on Monday, in an hour-long interview with the Guardian at his Kyiv offices, the Ukrainian president was in a cautiously optimistic frame of mind. He said he had received “positive signals from the Americans” over upcoming negotiations. His team was working to fix a date for a meeting with Donald Trump, he said, and he was sure that the US president understood the importance of coordinating his position with Kyiv before talking to Russia.
Continue reading...Russia is relying on strength of numbers, and Putin may not honour a peace deal
After three years of Russia’s attempt to occupy and annex Ukraine, the country continues to put up a fierce resistance.
Russia is suffering more than 1,500 casualties a day and only slowly taking ground. But the Ukrainian army is also being put under immense pressure.
Continue reading...The suspect was detained in the city of Villach after a 14-year-old boy died
A 14-year-old boy has died and four other people have been injured in a knife attack in southern Austria on Saturday, according to police, who said they had arrested a 23-year-old suspect.
The suspect was detained in the city of Villach, where the attack took place, police said on Saturday. He is a Syrian national with legal residence in Austria, they said.
Continue reading...Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving car into trade union demonstration on Thursday
A two-year-old girl and her mother died on Saturday from injuries suffered in the car-ramming attack in Munich on Thursday that left 37 others injured, police said.
“Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother,” a police spokesperson told AFP.
Continue reading...A further 69 people were rescued in what French authorities called a very busy night for crossings
One person has died trying to cross the Channel in a small boat that sank off the coast of Calais, while 69 were rescued during what French authorities said was a very busy night for crossings.
The small boat began to take in water before French navy ship Abeille Normandie rescued the 70 people on board. Only half of those on board had life jackets. The French navy’s Dauphin helicopter was also involved in the rescue operation.
Continue reading...The district of Plaka dates to neolithic times but a new wave of development is luring more tourists – and local people are fighting back
In a neoclassical building in Athens on the oldest street of one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the western world, residents gathered last week with much on the minds.
Items on the agenda included noise pollution, congestion and other modern afflictions, but there was one that was met with instant relief: Haris Doukas, the city’s mayor, had decided to set up a taskforce to save Plaka, the ancient quarter at the heart of the capital’s historic centre.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says Putin only seeking ceasefire to lift sanctions and regroup as he prepares to address Munich security conference
German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday shot back strongly in defence of his stance against the far-right and said his country will not accept people who “intervene in our democracy,” a day after US vice-president JD Vance scolded European leaders over their approach to democracy, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The German leader spoke with just eight days before crucial elections in Germany, with polls showing the far-right Alternative for Germany party currently in second.
Vance said on Friday at the Munich Security Conference that he fears free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.
“Germany is a very strong democracy, and as a strong democracy, we are absolutely clear that the extreme right should be out of political control and out of political decision making processes, and that there will be no cooperation with them,” Scholz said. “We really reject any idea of cooperation between parties, other parties and this extreme right parties.”
A day earlier, Vance said that many Americans saw in Europe “entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.”
Scholz, shooting back, said “free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against legislation and laws we have in our country.” He was alluding to rules in Germany that restrict hate speech, reports the AP.
The comments came as European leaders have been trying to make sense of a tough new line from Washington on issues including democracy and Ukraine’s future, as the Trump administration continues to upend transatlantic conventions that have been in place since after the second world war.
US vice-president’s speech and meeting with Germany’s AfD chief signal administration’s wider plans for continent
The Trump administration is making a big bet on Europe’s hard right.
Speaking at a conference of Europe’s leaders in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president JD Vance stunned the room by delivering what amounted to a campaign speech against Germany’s sitting government just one week before an election in which the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim AfD is set to take second place.
Continue reading...Ukrainian leader appears reassured after Munich bilateral, having feared he could be bounced into peace negotiations
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said during a meeting with the US vice-president, JD Vance, that his country wants “security guarantees” and a joint US-Ukrainian peace plan before he enters into any talks with Vladimir Putin to end the war in his country.
Both men agreed after an hour-long discussion on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that further talks were required to see if they could reach a common understanding.
Continue reading...Allegations of fraud against Gisella Cardia, who drew pilgrims by claiming statue wept tears of blood
A self-styled mystic who drew hundreds of pilgrims to a town near Rome by claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood could face trial after a DNA test indicated the blood was hers.
Gisella Cardia, who also claimed that the statue was transmitting messages to her, was last year declared a fraud by the Roman Catholic church, which subsequently tightened its rules on supernatural phenomena.
Continue reading...Pontiff to receive treatment for bronchitis after having difficulty breathing during meeting
Pope Francis has cancelled his scheduled events over the next few days after being hospitalised, the Vatican said.
The pontiff, who has been suffering from bronchitis, was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday after reportedly having breathing difficulties during one of his meetings.
Continue reading...Family of Danielle McLaughlin say justice has finally been achieved after Vikat Bhagat convicted in India
The family of a young Irish woman raped and murdered in India eight years ago have said justice has finally been achieved after a man was convicted in Goa.
Danielle McLaughlin, from Buncrana in County Donegal, was found dead in a field in Canacona, an area of Goa popular with holidaymakers, in March 2017.
Continue reading...