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20 minutes ago
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Hungary’s Orbán says he won’t back down and allow EU’s €90bn loan to Ukraine – Europe live
Hungarian PM, who is facing an upcoming election, appears in no mood to compromise as EU leaders meet in Brussels this morningGermany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz also called for de-escalation in the Middle East, welcoming what he said were signals by US president Donald Trump that combat action in Iran could come to an end, which could allow Europe to contribute to securing peace in the region.“I am expressly grateful that the US president sent a signal in this regard last night that he is prepared to bring the fighting to an end,” he told reporters ahead of an EU summit in Brussels in comments reported by Reuters. Continue reading...
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
‘Life-changing’ international learning scheme in Wales at risk of closure
Taith programme, set up after UK’s post-Brexit withdrawal from Erasmus+, faces uncertain future over fundingA “life-changing” international learning programme set up in Wales after Brexit is at risk of being closed down.Taith, which means “journey” in Welsh/Cymraeg, was established by the Senedd in 2022 after the UK pulled out of the Erasmus+ student exchange programme. Its reach is much wider: many participants get involved through schools, youth groups or adult education centres, and nearly half come from underrepresented backgrounds. Data suggests Taith has already funded approximately twice as many projects in Wales as Erasmus+ did, working with less money. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 hours ago
Leo Varadkar: LGBTQ+ rights in Europe face ‘chill wind’ from east and west
Ireland’s former taoiseach warns of conservative Russian influence and says US is now ‘off the pitch’ under TrumpLGBTQ+ rights in Europe are caught in a “chill wind” from east and west as Vladimir Putin’s Russia exports its conservative agenda and the “Americans are off the pitch” under Donald Trump, Ireland’s former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.Varadkar, who in 2017 became Ireland’s first out gay prime minister, said Europe needed to “step up” to avoid the continent becoming further squeezed by global forces seeking to chip away at recent progress. Continue reading...
The Guardian
4 hours ago
Hungary’s Orbán to face pressure over Ukraine loan veto at EU summit
Hungarian PM shows no sign of backing down while Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges EU to resolve disputeHungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will face pressure from other EU leaders to stop blocking a vital €90bn loan for Ukraine over a political dispute about an oil pipeline.Ahead of an EU summit on Thursday, Orbán, who faces elections next month, showed no sign of backing down in his veto of the loan. He said he would not allow it until the damaged Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline supplying Hungary with Russian oil via Ukraine was repaired. Continue reading...
The Guardian
6 hours ago
Disgraced Juan Carlos wants to return from exile a hero. But Spain’s murky history still dogs him | Giles Tremlett
The ex-king has been stranded in Abu Dhabi after a series of scandals. Now newly released files support his claim to have saved Spanish democracy When Spain’s King Juan Carlos fell over and broke his hip while on an elephant hunt with a girlfriend in Botswana in 2012, he probably thought that Spaniards would accept this as a minor gaffe after a lifetime of public service. The monarch had, after all, weathered numerous scandals, including a string of extramarital affairs and investigations into his family’s financial affairs, during the previous 37 years of his reign. Money was hardly a problem in his life.This time, however, Spaniards had had enough. It was the height of the eurozone crisis and there was outrage that Juan Carlos was on what was reported to be a free hunting trip while people endured the poverty, mass unemployment and terror of an economy in freefall. Within two years, the king had abdicated and was passing the crown to his son, Felipe VI. Continue reading...
The Guardian
6 hours ago
Ukraine war briefing: Ukraine strikes Russian aircraft sites 800km from border
Kyiv hits Russian plants producing and repairing military transport planes; former pro-Kremlin operator abruptly calls for Vladimir Putin to step aside. What we know on day 1,485 Continue reading...
The Guardian
10 hours ago
Sadiq Khan urges Labour to campaign on rejoining EU at next election
Mayor of London says returning to EU now more desirable because of economic instability caused by Donald TrumpLabour should go into the next general election promising to rejoin the EU, Sadiq Khan has said.The mayor of London has repeatedly made the case for joining the customs union and single market, but went much further on Wednesday night by suggesting the party should promise full membership at next ballot. Continue reading...
The Guardian
12 hours ago
The Guardian view on the legacy of Jürgen Habermas: philosophical sustenance for illiberal times | Editorial
In an age of demagogues and big tech, the work of one of Germany’s greatest scholars points the way to a new politics of the humanIn his later years, Jürgen Habermas was sometimes described as “the last European” – a reference to his passionate commitment to the ideals of the European Union (although not always its modern reality). The great German philosopher was also the last surviving exemplar of a generation of postwar intellectuals formed by the experience of the second world war. Like Jean-Paul Sartre in France, Habermas was as at home in the public square as the seminar room, debating the future of a continent that needed to be rebuilt ethically as well as physically.In the new age of unreason, where brute exercise of power is explicitly prized above the force of moral argument, the loss of any such figure is to be mourned. But Habermas’s death at the age of 96, as the US and Israel wage an illegal war of choice, and the far right is in the ascendant in France and Germany, feels particularly poignant. A member of the Hitler Youth as a boy, Habermas then made it his life’s work to philosophically ground the democratic values which are now under threat again.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The Guardian
17 hours ago
Damaged Russian tanker carrying natural gas floats into Libyan waters
Fears of ecological disaster as vessel continues to drift after being struck by suspected drone attackA severely damaged Russian tanker carrying liquified natural gas that has been adrift in the Mediterranean for two weeks, raising concerns of an ecological disaster, has floated into Libyan waters, Italy’s civil protection agency said on Wednesday.The Arctic Metagaz was part of a Russian “shadow fleet” used to circumvent sanctions imposed on the country’s oil and gas after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was struck in a suspected drone attack close to Maltese waters earlier this month, causing a huge hole. The crew is believed to have been rescued between Malta and Libya. Continue reading...
The Guardian
17 hours ago
Starmer says Tory shadow minister should be sacked for criticism of Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square – as it happened
Nick Timothy said an event attended by the mayor of London that included prayers was an ‘act of domination’Polanski says the government should be doing more to improve home insulation, and on the drive towards renewable energy.And he says the government should commit to ensuring energy bills do not rise above the April-June price cap.The government should guarantee right now that it will not allow energy bills to rise beyond the April-June price cap – instead setting aside approximately £8.4bn to prevent a rise of up to £300 per household that could be coming down the track.No, it’s not cheap. But the alternative is unacceptable: if the price cap rises, we will see interest rate rises. Mortgage rates up. Bond yields up. And inflation up – and we will be back into the doom loop that has done untold damage to our economy and caused misery for households across the UK for years now.There are ways to pay. Instead of scrapping the windfall tax on energy companies, as this government is planning to do, we should be strengthening it instead. We need a real, loophole-free windfall tax with no exemptions for reinvesting in fossil fuels. A robust tax that claws back every single pound of reckless profiteering from this crisis and repurposes it immediately to protect every home in the country. And while taxing extreme wealth in the ways we need to will take time to implement, there are levers the government could pull right now – like equalising capital gains tax with income tax and reforming the base, to raise £12bn.It’s time for the government to act decisively, eliminate the uncertainty that is plaguing people and the markets and insulate us from some of the worst economic effects of Trump’s war.This was not a war of self-defence, there was no imminent threat. Negotiations were ongoing. It was, as the BBC’s international editor said, a war of choice.People across the Middle East are terrified of what Trump and Netanyanhu’s war will mean for them and their loved ones. And the repercussions are echoing across the world as instability spreads and oil prices spike.People are already struggling so hard just to make ends meet. People feel like they’re running every day just to stay in the same place. The idea that yet again – for the second time in just a few years – that we are going to have to deal with another enormous spike in the cost of the basics is unacceptable.It’s unacceptable because we didn’t need to be here. It’s unforgivable that just four years after we last saw an energy price shock, that one triggered by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, far too little has been done to protect this country, its people, and its economy – from the impact of yet another energy price shock. Continue reading...
The Guardian
19 hours ago
The EU’s Hungary problem won’t be solved even if Viktor Orbán is ousted
The bloc’s foremost troublemaker could lose April’s election, but the headaches he’s caused will not necessarily disappear with him• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHow do you solve a problem like Viktor Orbán? By crossing your fingers and hoping it disappears in just over three weeks’ time. But even if the European Union’s disruptor-in-chief is ousted in elections next month (which is far from certain), Europe’s Hungary problem is unlikely to vanish overnight.EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for yet another summit that will be at least partly hijacked by Orbán, Hungary’s illiberal prime minister. Continue reading...
The Guardian
20 hours ago
Prosecutors seek more than seven years in jail for son of Norway’s crown princess
Marius Borg Høiby accused of 39 offences, but denies the most serious charges of four rapesMarius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway’s crown princess, should receive more than seven years in prison if he is found guilty of 39 offences, including four rapes and assaults, according to prosecutors.On Wednesday, the penultimate day of the more than six-week-long trial at Oslo district court, the prosecution said it believed that Høiby was guilty of 39 of the 40 offences with which he was charged, which, as well as rape and domestic abuse, include multiple breaches of restraining orders, assault, drug and driving offences. Continue reading...
The Guardian
21 hours ago
Trump wants to strongarm Nato into a new Gulf war. Here’s why Europe must resist | Armida van Rij
If Europe is sucked into this illegal conflict with Iran, public support for rearmament could collapse – and only Putin will benefit Once again, Donald Trump has deployed Nato as leverage to get the US’s European allies to submit to his will. After launching an unprovoked war against Iran, in response to which Tehran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz to shipping has sent oil prices soaring, Trump now wants his Nato allies in Europe to step in to help clean up his mess. Europeans should do nothing of the kind.Trump’s war of choice with Iran is not going well. Iran has retaliated by targeting US assets and allies in the Gulf. At least 13 US service members have so far been killed in this conflict – a figure dwarfed by more than 1,200 civilian Iranian deaths. The US has spent $16.5bn on just the first 12 days of the war, more than its total humanitarian assistance budget for 2024. Prolonged high oil prices could lead to a recession in Europe and parts of Asia.Armida van Rij is a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform Continue reading...
The Guardian
21 hours ago
In a dangerous world, Britain needs its diplomats more than ever – this is no time to axe them | John Kampfner
Cut off from Europe by Brexit and cast adrift by Donald Trump, maintaining diplomatic expertise and connections is crucialOf all the concerns in the world, the demise of the Ferrero Rocher ambassador might not be top of the agenda. In days gone by, thanks to an excruciating TV advert, the chocolate with the golden wrapping was synonymous with the diplomatic circuit. You really had made it if you offered them up to your bejewelled and bemedalled guests.That was the 1990s. Almost all diplomats I have met over the years are very serious and very hardworking. They still must schmooze and dress up on occasion, but most of their time is spent trying to fathom out what’s going on and reporting that back to base, often from difficult places.John Kampfner’s latest book, Braver New World, is published in April Continue reading...
The Guardian
22 hours ago
EU calls for urgent reboot in talks with UK to stop reset deal failing
Time is running out to find agreement on areas such as tuition fees EU citizens would pay in Britain and rules for food safetyThe EU is hoping to urgently reboot talks on the “reset” of relations with the UK as negotiations are in danger of foundering before a planned July summit.At a public meeting of the EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly in Brussels, the European Commission vice-president and trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, said both sides had to “change gears” now to ensure the deal got over the line. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
The week around the world in 20 pictures
Crisis in the Middle East, Ramadan in Gaza, the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics and Paris fashion week – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...
The Guardian
5 days ago
Switzerland bus fire that killed at least six could have been 'a deliberate act' – video
At least six people died in a coach fire on Tuesday in a small town in western Switzerland, prompting the police to launch a criminal investigation. 'Well, at this point, a deliberate act could be the cause of this tragedy. We really want to know what happened,' said the spokesperson for the Fribourg Canton Police, Frederic Papaux.At least six people killed and five injured in bus fire in Switzerland Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 week ago
Tourist photography subverted: Luigi Ghirri was a master of composition
An exhibition of rare photographs by the Italian photographer highlights the abstraction and poetry of his lesser-known works. Captions by Tosia Leniarska Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 week ago
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