Rwanda had sued UK government over alleged breach of agreement, after scheme scrapped by Labour on first day in office
The UK will not have to pay the Rwandan government millions of pounds over a failed migrant deportation scheme set up by Boris Johnson’s administration, an international court has ruled.
The east African nation had sued the current UK government for more than £100m, claiming it was owed after a breach of an agreement.
Continue reading...Major report on young people not in employment, education or training warns ‘we have neither a system or a plan to deal with it’
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, is introducing Alan Milburn.
He says Milburn’s report is “really important and powerful”.
I could see in the first few weeks after being appointed as the secretary of state what was happening, both in human and in financial terms, [in terms of youth unemployment].
And I knew that we had to get properly under the bonnet of this problem, because there’s a lot more thing than one thing happening here …
Continue reading...French police fire teargas and UK shops close for safety reasons as hundreds queue for Royal Pop timepieces that make up Audemars Piguet collaboration
The launch of limited-edition Swatch watches descended into chaos in several European cities and New York, with French police firing teargas to restore order at a store near Paris.
Hundreds of people waited through the night from Friday into Saturday – and in some cases for several days – hoping to buy the Royal Pop timepieces, made in collaboration with the luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet.
Continue reading...WHO says seven confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus on MV Hondius, including three passengers who died
A British crew member was in need of urgent medical care and a passenger from the UK remained in a critical but stable condition following a suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a luxury cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Three people have died and medics on Monday were scrambling to evacuate two others from the MV Hondius, which set off in March from southern Argentina carrying 149 people from 23 countries. The crisis emerged late on Sunday after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was investigating a suspected outbreak.
Continue reading...Royal Navy chief says unified naval force will deter future Russian threats from the ‘open sea border’ to the north
Britain has agreed to create a unified naval force with nine European countries to deter future Russian threats from the “open sea border” to the north, the head of the Royal Navy has announced.
Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins said that despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, where the strait of Hormuz remains closed after the US-Israeli war in Iran, “Russia remains the gravest threat to our security”.
Continue reading...Deal will create pensions and savings group with 16m customers and £480bn of assets, while Aegon focuses on US
The Dutch financial services group Aegon has struck a £2bn deal to sell off its almost 200-year-old UK arm to Standard Life, as part of a US push in which the group will be rebranded as Transamerica.
Standard Life, previously known as Phoenix Group, said the deal to buy Aegon UK would create a pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets under administration.
Continue reading...Priceless artefact snatched in Netherlands museum heist has been recovered, ending international search
A priceless gold 2,500-year-old helmet from Romania, stolen last year in the Netherlands, has been recovered, according to a Dutch art detective.
“It’s amazing. It’s the best news we could have got,” Arthur Brand said on Thursday, confirming that the Helmet of Coțofenești had been found.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK owner’s version of Old Man with a Gold Chain reunited in Chicago with undisputed work by Dutch master
A portrait in a UK collection that has long been dismissed as a workshop copy of an almost identical painting by Rembrandt was in fact also painted by the 17th-century Dutch master, according to a leading scholar.
Each of the paintings, titled Old Man with a Gold Chain and dated to the early 1630s, is a near-lifesize depiction of an older man wearing a gold chain and a plumed hat.
Continue reading...Archaeologists believe remains found in Maastricht, Netherlands, may be of soldier who inspired novel character
More than three-and-a-half centuries after a musket ball to the throat put an end to decades of exemplary swashbuckling, the French soldier who inspired Alexandre Dumas and went on to be immortalised on the stage and screen – not to mention as a plucky cartoon dog – may rise again.
Workers repairing a church in the Dutch city of Maastricht have discovered a skeleton that could belong to the 17th-century Gascon nobleman Charles de Batz-Castelmore – better known as d’Artagnan – whose exploits led Dumas to make him the hero of the Three Musketeers.
Continue reading...Mediahuis suspends Peter Vandermeersch, who says he ‘fell into trap of hallucinations’, after investigation by newspaper where he was once editor-in-chief
The publisher of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and the Irish Independent has suspended one of its senior journalists after he admitted using AI to “wrongly put words into people’s mouths”.
Peter Vandermeersch, the former head of the Irish operations at Mediahuis, said he “fell into the trap of hallucinations” – the term for AI-generated errors – when using the technology.
Continue reading...Mayor condemns ‘cowardly act’ on south side of Amsterdam which caused limited damage and no reported injuries
An explosion has damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam in what the city’s mayor described as “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community”.
The explosion early on Saturday in a residential neighbourhood on the south side of the city caused limited damage, the mayor, Femke Halsema, said in a press release, as police and firefighters arrived at the scene quickly.
Continue reading...The king and queen’s visit to the former colony is the first by members of the Dutch royal family in nearly five decades
The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, vowed on Monday that the topic of slavery would not be off-limits as he visits former colony Suriname, where the practice ended just over 150 years ago.
The king arrived in the capital Paramaribo on Sunday with Queen Maxima, a week after the small South American country marked 50 years of independence from the Netherlands.
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...Party will take lead in first round of talks to form coalition government after securing most votes
The Dutch liberal-progressive party D66 won the most votes in Wednesday’s general election, the news agency ANP has reported, putting its 38-year-old leader, Rob Jetten, on course to become the youngest prime minister in the Netherlands.
While the last few thousand votes are still being counted, Dutch media reported on Friday that Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) could no longer win.
Continue reading...Far right neck and neck with liberal D66 but all major mainstream parties have ruled out working with anti-Islam firebrand
Geert Wilders is almost certain to be shut out of the next Dutch government after a knife-edge general election in which support for his far-right Freedom party (PVV) slumped and the liberal-progressive D66 party made spectacular gains.
With 99.7% of ballots counted, the two parties were neck and neck on a projected 26 seats each in the 150-seat parliament, with D66 an estimated 15,000 votes ahead after the capital, Amsterdam, declared preliminary results on Thursday.
Continue reading...As liberal-progressive D66 party makes huge gains in election, former junior athlete with ‘positive story’ and ‘vision’ leads race for power
Rob Jetten, a former junior athlete, was pictured last month in a sports magazine running merrily past the Dutch prime ministerial office in The Hague. The 38-year-old could be forgiven on Thursday for wondering when he will get the keys.
Such is the nature of Dutch politics that confirmation will not come for weeks or even months. But after a general election in which Jetten’s liberal-progressive D66 party made huge gains, he appears almost certain to be the Netherlands’ next prime minister.
Continue reading...Netherlands and Hungary move towards designation as draft resolution reportedly backed by 79 MEPs in 20 countries
Where Donald Trump leads, Europe’s nationalists and far right follow. After a Truth Social post last month, when Trump announced the US would designate antifa, the decentralised anti-fascist movement, “a major terrorist organisation”, his international allies swung into action.
That same day, the Dutch parliament, where the largest party is Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV, passed a resolution, noting the US decision and calling on the government to declare antifa a terrorist organisation in the Netherlands.
Continue reading...Thirty arrests made and two officers injured as teargas and water cannon deployed against violent protesters
Dutch police have used teargas and a water cannon to disperse violent anti-immigration protesters in The Hague on Saturday, a local government spokesperson has said.
Thirty people have been arrested and two police officers were injured. Authorities did not rule out additional arrests in the coming days as they review camera footage.
Continue reading...Problems have arisen in Dutch capital since introduction of a deposit scheme for small bottles and cans
City leaders in Amsterdam are taking a novel approach to keeping its streets clean – by taking away litter bins to combat rubbish in part blamed on people rifling through them to obtain refund deposits on some discarded items.
There has been a surge in complaints about litter in the Dutch capital since the introduction of a deposit scheme for small bottles and cans. Last year, a quarter of residents described their neighbourhood as dirty or very dirty, rising to two in five in the city centre.
Continue reading...Portrait of a Lady by the Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi handed over by daughter of the late Nazi financier Friedrich Kadgien
Authorities in Argentina have recovered an 18th-century painting stolen more than 80 years ago by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a week after it was spotted by chance in a real estate listing.
The painting, the long-lost Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi, was looted in the second world war. It was handed over on Wednesday to the Argentinian judiciary by the daughter of the late Nazi financier Friedrich Kadgien, Patricia Kadgien, who has been under house arrest with her husband since Tuesday.
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