List of All Articles with Tag 'europe'

Sabrina Carpenter was in shock when she found out she would be supporting Taylor Swift on tour, calling Swift one of her "main inspirations ever since I was a little girl".

For the aspirational middle classes, it seemed a no brainer: buy property in one of Britain’s holiday hot-spots

When German Finance Minister Christian Lindner was asked this year where he sits on the “government boat” –

Group of Seven leaders understand that the war in Ukraine may be lengthy but are prepared to support

The chair of President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, Jared Bernstein, said the US can maintain strong

A Russian helicopter pilot defected to Ukraine after reportedly being "lured" during a six-month intelligence operation, Ukraine claims. Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said an Mi-8 helicopter landed at a Ukrainian airfield with the pilot and his unsuspecting crew members, without specifying when. It comes after a Russian military blogger claimed in recent weeks that a helicopter crossed the border with three people on board after it had lost its way, but Ukraine now claims this was a deliberate move. "This was a GUR operation,” spokesperson Andriy Yusov said on Wednesday. “The aircraft moved according to the plan. "You will need to wait a bit, work is being conducted, including with the crew. Everything is fine, there will be news." Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda cited unnamed intelligence sources saying the agency worked for months to convince the pilot to cooperate and fly the aircraft to Ukraine. The report said the helicopter landed in eastern Ukraine with the pilot. Two other crew members who were unaware of the plan were subsequently "liquidated". Ukrainian military journalist Yuriy Butusov said the helicopter was fully operational and would serve in the Ukrainian armed forces after being examined. According to The Guardian, Russian blogger Fighterbomber, presented the cross-border flight as an accident originally, saying: "The crew, for some reason, lost their bearings and crossed the border. “Realising where they landed, they made an attempt to take off, but were shot while the helicopter was on the ground. Presumably, two board members died and the commander was taken hostage.” If true, the news of such a defection would come as a huge blow to Moscow as it has struggled to establish air superiority in Ukraine. Just days ago it was reported that a supersonic Russian bomber was destroyed in a drone attack hundreds of miles from Ukraine. Ukraine is also awaiting the delivery of dozens of F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands. However, the planes will only be handed over once after the pilots are trained, which will not happen until next year. Read More I warned Wagner chief to watch out for threats to his life, says Belarus president Lukashenko Ukraine aid faces a stress test as some GOP 2024 presidential candidates balk at continued support Estonia's pro-Ukrainian PM faces pressure to quit over husband's indirect Russian business links The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that he he warned the Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to "watch out" for threats to his life before the plane crash said to have killed him. Mr Lukashenko helped broker a deal between Mr Prigozhin and the Kremlin that ended an attempted mutiny by Wagner forces against Moscow in June – an uprising that marked the most significant challenge to Mr Putin's authority in more than two decades in power. Two months to the day after that revolt was halted, with fighters 125 miles from the Russian capital, a plane believed to be carrying Mr Prigozhin and a number of other members of Wagner's senior leadership crashed on Wednesday evening. Mr Putin had called the Wagner mutiny treason, and had initially vowed to crush it, and a number of world leaders have suggested that he would not let the embarrassment of that incident stand. Mr Lukashenko said on Friday that Mr Prigozhin had twice dismissed concerns raised by the Belarusian leader about possible threats to his life. Mr Lukashenko said that during the mutiny he had warned Mr Prigozhin that he would "die" if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he said Mr Prigozhin had answered: "'To hell with it - I will die'." Then, Mr Lukashenko said, when Mr Prigozhin and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, who was also listed as a passenger on the plane which crashed, had come to see him, he had warned them both: "Lads – you watch out". Mr Lukashenko said that the Wagner leader had never asked him for security guarantees. "I don't have to ensure Prigozhin's safety... the conversation was never in that vein." It was not exactly clear from Mr Lukashenko’s words, which were reported by state news agency BELTA, when that conversation took place, Reuters reports. Mr Lukashenko has previously claimed that he persuaded Mr Putin not to "wipe out" the Wagner leader. US officials, speaking to American media, have suggested that a preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed by an intentional explosion. One of the US and Western officials who described the assessment to the Associated Press said it determined that Mr Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.” The Kremlin rejected that assessment on Friday, falling back on a regular refrain for Moscow that it is the West that are the root of the problem. “Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call with journalists. “Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie,” he claimed. On Thursday, Mr Putin appeared to eulogise Mr Prigozhin, calling him a “great businessman”. But he also said that the the Wagner leader had made “serious mistakes” in his life and had a “complicated fate”. A close ally of Mr Putin, the Belarusian president said that he believed the plane crash was “just too rough and unprofessional a job” for the Russian leader to be involved. “I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Lukashenko said. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame.” The jet crashed soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg, carrying Mr Prigozhin, six other Wagner members and a crew of three, according to Russia's civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Mr Prigozhin was dead. As part of the deal to end June's mutiny, Mr Prigozhin was due to set up in Belarus, with any Wagner fighters that wanted to join him. While the mercenary leader appeared to be able to travel freely, thousands have his fighters have travelled to Belarus, and have been training Belarusian soldiers near the border with Nato-member Poland. Warsaw has moved thousands of its own troops to its border in response. Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Friday that it was "highly likely" Mr Prigozhin was dead and that his death "would almost certainly have a deeply destabilising effect" on Wagner, with the reported deaths of Mr Utkin and logistics chief Valery Chekalov compounding a "leadership vacuum", Mr Lukashenko said Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus. "Wager lived, Wagner is living and Wagner will live in Belarus," the president said. "The core remains here." "As long as we need this unit, they will live and work with us," he said. Elsewhere, on the battlefield in Ukraine – which has been subject to Russian invasion for 18 months – there was a significant attack on Russian-occupied Crimea involving dozens of drones. Russia's Defence Ministry said that 42 drones had been shot down over Crimea and 73 as a whole across across the last 24 hours. The attacks were the latest in a surge of similar incidents in recent weeks. Ukraine has said that destroying Russia's military infrastructure helps a counteroffensive than Kyiv began in June. President Volodymyr Zelensky told an international conference this week that Kyiv would "de-occupy" Crimea. Ukrainian military intelligence said it had assisted the navy this week in a "special operation" in which they landed units on the western tip of Crimea, had a firefight with Russian forces and raised a Ukrainian flag. Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary What next for the Wagner Group in Russia? Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? Wagner chief presumed dead in plane crash What is the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin?

French magistrates have ordered former president Nicolas Sarkozy and 12 others to go on trial on charges that his 2007 presidential campaign received millions in illegal financing from the government of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The national financial prosecutor, Jean-Francois Bohnert, announced that the decade-long investigation has been formally closed. The trial will run from January to April 2025, the statement said. The case is the biggest of multiple corruption investigations involving Sarkozy. He has been convicted in two others. He denies wrongdoing in all cases. In the Libya case, he is charged with illegal campaign financing, embezzling, passive corruption and related counts. Sarkozy has been under investigation in the Libya case since 2013. Investigators examined claims that Gaddafi's government secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros (£42 million) for his winning 2007 campaign. The sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time and would violate French rules against foreign campaign financing. The investigation gained traction when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told news site Mediapart in 2016 that he had delivered suitcases from Libya containing five million euros (£4.2 million) in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff. Takieddine later reversed course and Sarkozy sought to have the investigation closed. In May, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) demanded that Sarkozy be tried, citing charges against him of "concealment of laundering public funds, passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime punishable by 10 years in jail". Investigating magistrates, who had the last word, gave the go-ahead for a trial, the PNF said. After becoming president in 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gaddafi to France with high honours later that year. Sarkozy then put France at the forefront of Nato-led air strikes that helped rebel fighters topple Gaddafi's government in 2011. In an unrelated case, Sarkozy was sentenced to a year under house arrest for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid. He is free while the case is pending appeal. He was also found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in another case and sentenced to a year under house arrest in an appeals trial in May this year. He took the case to France's highest court, which suspended the sentence. Associated Press Read More French former President Nicolas Sarkozy to go on trial over Libya financing for 2007 campaign Wagner leader ‘killed’ in plane crash: Your questions answered by an expert Minister calls out ‘arsonist scum’ as 79 arrested over Greece wildfires

Ukraine’s allies now worry the war is dragging into a long fight that may strengthen Vladimir Putin’s hand

Unlike in the UK, grades were still boosted to reduce the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A mysterious naked “wolf man” holding a wooden spear has been photographed by hikers in the Harz mountains of central Germany. The photos show the man covered in dirt and hair as he plays with sand on the floor. The hikers, Gina Weiss, 31, and her friend Tobi, 38, were walking in the woods near Blankenburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt on Tuesday evening when they spotted him. “When we reached the sand caves we saw the wolf man. He stood up high on one of the caves and held a long wooden stick like a lance in his arm,” Ms Weiss told Bild newspaper. The wolf man and the hikers locked eyes but no words passed between them in those ten minutes, the hikers said. “He wouldn’t take his eyes of us, said nothing. He looked dirty like a Stone Age man from a history book.” Reports of a wolf man are not uncommon in Blankenburg. Authorities said they have been receiving intel about such a figure roaming the forests for the past five years. Fire sites and branch shelters have even been found in the area, as Alexander Beck, the head of Blankenburg fire brigade, said: “Someone clearly knows how to live outside and adapt to the changing seasons.” Members of the fire brigade have also reported seeing a forest dweller wearing fur but said that he ran off, according to MDR, the regional public broadcaster. In March this year, hikers said they saw a “wolf man” running around the forest and also reported seeing a fire-bolt. Emergency services searched the area but only found old fire sites. A volunteer with the local fire service told The Telegraph that they had not noticed anything unusual in the forest. They described the story as “nonsense” and suggested the photos of the wolf man were “a prank”. Nonetheless, Germany’s dense forests and shrubbery have always inspired folklore, with the ninetheenth-century Brothers Grimm among the most notable fairytale collections to be rooted in the dark woods. Read More In-N-Out owner reveals where ‘animal style’ name comes from More hearings begin soon for Summit's proposed CO2 pipeline. Where does the project stand? Here’s the best time to plant fruits and vegetables

US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday discussed the training of Ukrainian fighter pilots,