Craving a girls’ holiday and keen to help a heartbroken friend, writer Jessica Phillips planned a break to one of Europe’s most affordable sun-sure destinations
The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first time
Like cholesterol clogging up an artery, it took just a couple of years for the quagga mussels to infiltrate the 5km (3-mile) highway of pipes under the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). By the time anyone realised what was going on, it was too late. The power of some heat exchangers had dropped by a third, blocked with ground-up shells.
The air conditioning faltered, and buildings that should have been less than 24C in the summer heat couldn’t get below 26 to 27C. The invasive mollusc had infiltrated pipes that suck cold water from a depth of 75 metres (250ft) in Lake Geneva to cool buildings. “It’s an open invasion,” says Mathurin Dupanier, utilities operations manager at EPFL.
Mathurin Dupanier indicates the water cooling systems that were blocked by the invasive quagga mussels. Photographs: Phoebe Weston/the Guardian; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Pressure is growing on member states to back a €90bn loan for Kyiv ahead of a Brussels summit
European leaders are being urged to decide whether to use Russia’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defence at a time of unprecedented pressure from the US.
At a critical summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders will be asked to make good on a promise to find urgently needed cash for Ukraine, with Kyiv under pressure to cede territory as Russia ekes out advances on the battlefield.
The hard right and far right are the political winners from the migration ‘crisis’, but only because centrist parties keep legitimising them
For a decade, Europe has remained suspended in a perpetual state of migration crisis. While the Greek word krisis refers to an exceptional moment that disrupts the normal order of things, since 2015 it has become an enduring condition in contemporary Europe. That year, 1 million people sought refuge in Europe, fleeing wars and persecution. In the ensuing decade, the issue of migration has been so thoroughly weaponised that one can hardly remember a time when it was not considered a crisis.
The idea of a permanent state of emergency does not reflect a reality whereby Europe genuinely cannot cope with new arrivals. Rather, it reflects the fact that there are simply too many who profit from manufacturing a sense of crisis.
Dr Maurice Stierl is a migration and border researcher at the University of Osnabrück, Germany
Un sommet européen se tient ce jeudi 18 décembre à Bruxelles. Les chefs d'État et de gouvernement des 27 devront trancher des questions qui les divisent comme l'utilisation des avoirs russes gelés pour financer l'Ukraine ou encore l'accord de libre-échange avec les pays sud-américains du Mercosur.
Un sommet européen se tient ce jeudi 18 décembre à Bruxelles. Les chefs d'État et de gouvernement des 27 devront trancher des questions qui les divisent comme l'utilisation des avoirs russes gelés pour financer l'Ukraine ou encore l'accord de libre-échange avec les pays sud-américains du Mercosur.
Jugé pour avoir refusé pendant près de trois semaines de laisser débarquer 147 migrants récupérés par le navire de l’ONG espagnole Open Arms, en août 2019, l’ancien ministre de l’Intérieur et actuel vice-Premier ministre avait été relaxé en décembre 2024. Mais les procureurs de Palerme, qui avaient requis six ans de prison pour séquestration et abus de pouvoir, ont interjeté l'appel du jugement auprès de la Cour de cassation. Après six heures de réunion en chambre du conseil, les juges suprêmes ont confirmé définitivement son acquittement.
Jugé pour avoir refusé pendant près de trois semaines de laisser débarquer 147 migrants récupérés par le navire de l’ONG espagnole Open Arms, en août 2019, l’ancien ministre de l’Intérieur et actuel vice-Premier ministre avait été relaxé en décembre 2024. Mais les procureurs de Palerme, qui avaient requis six ans de prison pour séquestration et abus de pouvoir, ont interjeté l'appel du jugement auprès de la Cour de cassation. Après six heures de réunion en chambre du conseil, les juges suprêmes ont confirmé définitivement son acquittement.
La hausse des prix est deux fois plus élevée dans le pays que dans la zone euro. Elle touche principalement les denrées alimentaires et affecte de plus en plus de foyers.
La hausse des prix est deux fois plus élevée dans le pays que dans la zone euro. Elle touche principalement les denrées alimentaires et affecte de plus en plus de foyers.
Exclusive: Key figures at frozen assets depository among targets of intimidation campaign, say European intelligence agencies
Belgian politicians and senior finance executives have been subject to a campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Russian intelligence aimed at persuading the country to block the use of €185bn assets for Ukraine, according to European intelligence agencies.
Security officials indicated to the Guardian that there had been deliberate targeting of key figures at Euroclear, the securities depository holding the majority of Russia’s frozen assets, and leaders of the country.
More than 300 women file complaint after video shows French first ladycalling feminist protesters ‘sales connes’
Brigitte Macron is facing a legal complaint from several organisations, including women’s rights groups, after she was filmed saying feminist protesters at a theatre show in Paris were “stupid bitches”.
More than 300 women – specifically 343, a historically symbolic number in French feminism – this week filed the complaint against the French first lady for public insult.
Donald Trump may rage about Europe being a multicultural hell facing “civilisational” collapse. As a proud real estate guy, however, he must be impressed by one feature of European life: the house prices, and the extent to which even progressive governments have abandoned housing to the markets.
Since 2010, average sale prices in the EU have surged by close to 60%. In some countries, such as the Netherlands, house prices have doubled in a decade. Rents, meanwhile, have increased by almost 30% on average in the last 15 years. The rent average masks dramatic spikes experienced in some countries: 208% in Estonia, 177% in Lithuania, 108% in Ireland and 107% in Hungary. If property has been a lucrative bet for wealthy investors, the cost of a home is a financial ordeal for millions of people whose incomes have been outpaced.
Germany’s first national space security strategy was unveiled last month to much fanfare. And who’s surprised? It was long overdue, and puts into plain language a simple but vital truth: space is now a theatre of power. With Russia and China long having treated orbit as contested territory, and the United States preparing daily for […]
The UK has given its final warning to Roman Abramovich to release £2.5bn from the oligarch’s sale of Chelsea FC to give to Ukraine, telling the billionaire to release the funds in 90 days or face court action.
Keir Starmer told the House of Commons the funds from Abramovich, who is subject to UK sanctions, would be converted into a new foundation for humanitarian causes in Ukraine and that the issuing of a licence for the transfer was the last chance Abramovich would have to comply.
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