Category Archives: Europe

Munich car attack believed to have had Islamist motive, says prosecutor

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Gabriele Tilmann says suspect’s online communications point to extremism but investigators have found no links to jihadist groups

German police and prosecutors have said the Afghan suspect in a car ramming in central Munich that injured at least 36 people is believed to have had an “Islamist” motive and will answer to charges of attempted murder.

One day after the attack on a trade union rally during the final stage of the German election campaign, the chief prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told reporters that online “communications” by the suspect, a 24-year-old asylum seeker, pointed to Islamic extremism.

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Ukraine on ‘irreversible path’ to Nato membership, Starmer tells Zelenskyy

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Prime minister uses call with Ukraine president to restate UK support in face of Trump interventions

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Ukraine remains on “an irreversible path” towards Nato membership, Keir Starmer has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call that underlined the divide between Europe and the US over the future of the country.

According to a Downing Street readout of the call with the Ukrainian president, Starmer stressed “the UK’s concrete support for Ukraine, for as long as it’s needed”.

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The heartlessness of the deal: how Trump’s ‘America first’ stance sold out Ukraine

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The US president does not care who controls east Ukraine, so long as he can access the rare earth minerals underneath

In Donald Trump’s world, everything has its price.

There is no place for sentiment in his politics. Common values cannot secure loans for military aid. And the US president does not care who controls the blood-soaked soils of east Ukraine, so long as he can access the rare earth minerals that lie beneath.

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Trump’s Ukraine call with Putin leaves UK sounding at odds with reality

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Statements that there can be no negotiations without Kyiv ring hollow when the US president has just sidelined it

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s incendiary call with Vladimir Putin, UK ministers and officials have had to do some extraordinary contortions.

There is no greater priority in the UK’s foreign policy than keeping the volatile occupant of the White House on side. And that has meant over the past 24 hours that some pronouncements by the British government have seemed at odds with reality.

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Pete Hegseth says ‘everything is on the table’ to end Ukraine war

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US defence secretary suggests cutting number of American troops in Europe could even be part of a deal with Russia

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said “everything is on the table” to bring peace to Ukraine and suggested reducing the number of American troops in Europe could be part of any deal.

European leaders are reeling from several abrupt US moves since Wednesday in relation to the Ukraine war and the continent’s security, which has been underpinned by the US since Nato was formed at the end of the second world war.

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EU failed to Trump-proof Europe and now faces humiliation over Ukraine

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As Putin’s actions again disrupt the start of a Munich security conference, Brussels largely has itself to blame

The start of the Munich security conference has a habit of being disrupted by a display of power by Vladimir Putin. In 2022, the transatlantic security establishment gathered in the knowledge that Putin was days from launching his attack on Kyiv. In February 2024, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in disputed circumstances in a Russian jail and this year Russia’s leader is on the brink of opening talks with Donald Trump that many analysts predict will end with Russia not just gaining Ukrainian territory but dismembering Ukraine as a sovereign independent state.

For Europe it is a humiliation. And yet little that Trump or his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday about their approach to a ceasefire including the US’s refusal to commit further resources to Ukraine could have come as a shock. Indeed Europe largely has only itself to blame.

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Norway to open protected rivers to hydropower plants

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Green politicians describe plan as ‘a historic attack on Norwegian nature’

The Norwegian parliament has voted to open up protected rivers to hydropower plants, prompting fury from conservation groups who fear for the fate of fish and other wildlife.

The bill allows power plants bigger than 1MW to be built in protected waterways if the societal benefit is “significant” and the environmental consequences “acceptable”. It was voted through on Thursday as part of measures to improve flood and landslide protection.

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Sudan says plan for first Russian naval base in Africa will go ahead

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Two countries’ foreign ministers meet in Moscow and agree there are no obstacles to long-delayed plan

A plan for Russia to establish its first naval base in Africa will go ahead, Sudan’s foreign minister has confirmed, after years of delays over the Red Sea military port.

If the agreement is implemented, Russia would join the US and China in the region; they have bases to the south in Djibouti.

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Belarus frees three detainees including US citizen and journalist

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Journalist with US-funded broadcaster among those in release hailed by ambassador as ‘big day for team America’

Belarus has released three detainees including a veteran journalist for a US government-funded broadcaster and a US citizen, the White House said on Wednesday.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed the release on Wednesday of three people including “one American and two individuals from Belarus, one of whom worked for Radio Liberty”. The released American has not been identified.

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No lasting peace in Ukraine without European role in talks, leaders say after Trump-Putin call

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Statement from countries including France, Germany and UK comes after US president says he and Putin are ready to begin talks

European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, have said they have to be part of any future negotiations on the fate of Ukraine, underscoring that only a fair accord with security guarantees would ensure lasting peace.

“Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations,” seven European countries and the European Commission said in a joint statement after a foreign ministers meeting in Paris.

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Trump says he has spoken to Putin and agreed to negotiate Ukraine ceasefire

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US president says he called Russian leader and agreed to have teams start negotiations immediately

Donald Trump has said that he and Vladimir Putin have spoken directly and agreed to begin negotiations to broker a ceasefire to the war in Ukraine.

In a social media post, Trump said that held a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin and that they agreed to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately”.

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Talks to form far-right-led coalition government in Austria collapse

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Disagreements over key posts and issues like migration mean snap election is likely, with far-right Freedom party ahead in polls

Austria’s Freedom party (FPÖ) has ended coalition talks with the conservatives on forming the country’s first far-right-led government after disagreements over key posts and issues such as migration.

The FPÖ – which topped national polls for the first time in September – has been negotiating with the long-ruling conservative People’s party (ÖVP) since early January.

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US no longer ‘primarily focused’ on Europe’s security, says Pete Hegseth

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US defence secretary says Europe should lead in defending Ukraine and that restoring pre-2014 borders is unrealistic

Donald Trump’s newly appointed defence secretary told allies on his first international trip that the US was no longer “primarily focused” on European security and that Europe would have to take the lead in defending Ukraine.

Pete Hegseth, speaking to defence ministers at a lunchtime meeting in Brussels, said Europe had to provide “the overwhelming share” of future military aid to Kyiv – and recognise that restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic.

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Russia will not exchange Ukrainian land to reclaim parts of Kursk, Kremlin says

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Putin’s spokesperson rejects Zelenskyy’s plan for transfer of Kyiv-held pockets of Kursk to help end war

The Kremlin has said that Russia will never consider exchanging occupied Ukrainian land for parts of its Kursk region, dismissing a proposal outlined by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Guardian.

Zelenskyy revealed in an hour-long interview earlier this week that he intended to propose a straightforward territorial exchange with Russia to facilitate an end to the war, including the transfer of Ukrainian-held pockets of Kursk.

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Flight costs from France to rise as government more than doubles air tax

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‘Solidarity tax’ to go up in move criticised as ‘irresponsible’ by Air France, as Ryanair threatens to cut flights in country

The cost of flights from France will rise next month when the government more than doubles its “solidarity tax” on tickets.

The French government has said the increases are fair on ecological and fiscal grounds but critics say it will hit France’s ability to compete globally.

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China tops list of countries trying to silence exiled dissidents over past decade, study shows

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Russia, Turkey and Egypt also among worst perpetrators of transnational repression around the globe

A quarter of the world’s countries have engaged in transnational repression – targeting political exiles abroad to silence dissent – in the past decade, new research reveals.

The Washington DC-based non-profit organisation Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries, from 2014 to 2024.

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Marc Fogel: Trump says another release to come as he greets US teacher freeed by Russia

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President claims release of Pennsylvania teacher Marc Fogel, held in Russia since 2021, could be an important part of ending the Ukraine war

A US teacher who has been held in Russia since 2021 has been greeted at the White House by Donald Trump, who claimed the release could be an “important part” of ending the Ukraine war and that another, unidentified person would be released on Wednesday.

Marc Fogel, who arrived in the US on a flight from Moscow on Tuesday, said: “I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now. I’m a middle-class school teacher who’s now in a dream world.”

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French investigators say ‘all hypotheses remain open’ in deaths of British couple

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Prosecutor confirms body of Dawn Searle was found semi-clothed outside with head injuries caused by several blows

French police say they are still investigating the deaths of a British couple whose bodies were found at their rural home in Aveyron in the south of France last week.

The bodies of Andrew Searle, a retired fraud investigator, and his wife, Dawn, a project manager, were discovered at about 12.30pm on Thursday at their home in the village of Les Pesquiès.

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Police in Sicily arrest almost 150 people in mafia crackdown

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More than 1,200 officers involved in dawn raids in and around Palermo, reportedly biggest operation against Cosa Nostra since 1984

Italian police have arrested almost 150 people in a significant operation against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, areas of which remain in the grip of powerful Cosa Nostra clans.

Warrants were issued against a total of 183 people on Tuesday, 36 of whom were already in custody, for crimes including mafia-type criminal association, attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, police said.

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Canada, Mexico and EU criticise Trump’s metal tariffs amid fears of trade war

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Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs ‘will not go unanswered’ as Justin Trudeau says Canadians will ‘stand up if we need to’

Canada, Mexico and the EU have sharply criticised Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US, amid mounting fears of a global trade war.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday she “deeply regretted” the US president’s move, announced late on Monday, adding: “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered.”

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