What started as a protest against the planned hikes in gas taxes in France, has quickly turned into a protest against much more. More than a quarter million French citizens joined the “Yellow Vests” movement and have been blockading roads to protest raising taxes and for some, the policies of President Emmanuel Macron. Drivers and civilians have blocked highway access… Read more »
Russian authorities have announced new charges against the US-born British financier William Browder – another twist in a highly politicised case that has seen the Kremlin tirelessly go after one of its most vocal international critics. On Monday, prosecutors in Moscow accused Browder of organising a “transnational criminal group” and claimed he may have poisoned Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who… Read more »
A protester taking part in a road blockade has been killed by accident after a car crashed into her, France’s Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Saturday. The driver panicked when protesters surrounded her car and began banging on the roof, he said. She then ploughed into the crowd in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, southeast France, hitting a woman in her 50s. The… Read more »
The former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin once famously quipped: “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.” When Dutch, British and US officials last week issued coordinated denunciations of Russia’s cyber-operations – whose targets ranged from sports anti-doping bodies to the international chemical weapon watchdog – it felt like Chernomyrdin’s saying had been given new meaning. For… Read more »
Thousands in cities across Norway have been protesting against proposals to restrict women’s access to abortion. “My body my right” and “Defend abortion” were among the messages scrawled on banners and signs in Oslo on Saturday. Moves to tighten abortion law have been raised as Prime Minister Erna Solberg seeks to prop up her minority coalition government with support from… Read more »
Ewa Waluś was a small child when her father, Janusz, emigrated to join his father and brother in South Africa in 1981, just two months before General Jaruzelski’s imposition of martial law. Ewa and her mother were left behind in the town of Radom, central Poland. She hasn’t set eyes on him since he made a brief visit to Poland… Read more »
Five men have been arrested in Croatia for allegedly stealing €2m (£1.7m) worth of jewellery owned by a member of Qatar’s royal family from Venice’s Doge’s Palace in early January. In a case that baffled police, the thieves managed to deactivate the alarm system, break into a reinforced case, seizing some earrings and a brooch before blending into the crowds… Read more »
A doctor who slipped a sedative into a 74-year-old woman’s coffee before administering a lethal drug as members of her family held her down is to be the first medic to be prosecuted for breaching Dutch euthanasia laws. A public prosecutor in The Hague said in a statement that the doctor could not have unambiguously come to the conclusion that… Read more »
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the ending of the first world war. To honor the occasion, leaders and representatives from countries who fought in the war held a ceremony in Paris. During the ceremony, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, gave a speech warning about the dangers of rising nationalism. This seemed to be in direct response to a… Read more »
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned of the dangers of rising nationalism as he addressed Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and other world leaders at a ceremony in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the first world war armistice. As more than 60 heads of state and dignitaries gathered in the rain near Paris’s tomb of the unknown soldier… Read more »