Europe

    The G7 summit is poised to end without a formal communique after Donald Trump clashed with European leaders over trade, the environment and Russia . The US President made clear during working sessions on Friday and over dinner that he is not prepared to concede ground over steel and aluminium tariffs. He repeatedly highlighted the United States trade deficit with European nations in a variety of sectors, arguing that it showed how unfairly America was being treated. European leaders in turn united as they accused him of imposing unjustified sanctions and warning that they would ultimately damage the US economy. There was also a significant impasse over the environment. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, had hoped to make protecting the oceans from pollut...

    The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has rejected Theresa May’s latest proposal to solve the Irish border problem, arguing that aspects of it are not feasible. Speaking in Brussels on Friday Michel Barnier also said Europe would not be intimidated by Brexiteers’ blame game for the downsides of leaving the EU. The British government on Thursday unveiled a white paper spelling out its plan for a so-called backstop to prevent a hard border in Ireland after Britain leaves the bloc. The UK rejected an earlier Brussels plan to keep Northern Ireland aligned with EU regulations and customs procedures, which would introduce customs checks on ferries across the Irish sea. The UK’s plan tries to get around introducing checks by keeping the whole UK aligned with those rules, and ...

    Brexiters have hit back at leaked Whitehall advice warning of food and fuel shortages if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, with the Conservative backbencher Jacob Rees Mogg calling it project fear on speed. As Theresa May’s ministers prepared to return to Westminster after the Whitsun recess with the cabinet still deadlocked over customs arrangements, a fresh row broke out over the risks of a no deal Brexit. Three scenarios drawn up in Whitehall and obtained by the Sunday Times the worst of the three referred to as armageddon set out the consequences should Britain walk away from the negotiating table. In the second scenario, not even the worst, the port of Dover will collapse on day one. The supermarkets of Cornwall and Scotland will run out of food within a c...

    Italy’s new populist government has reacted furiously to suggestions by the president of the European Commission that the south of the country is corrupt and feckless. The row erupted between Brussels and the new coalition government before it was even inaugurated an event due to take place later on Friday. As the new administration was in the process of being formed on Thursday, Jean-Claude Juncker was asked about the economic situation in Italy, which has the second highest debt per capita in the EU after Greece. I’m in deep love with Italy. Bella Italia. But I can no longer accept that everything that is wrong in southern Italy is explained by the fact the EU, the European Commission won’t do enough, he said in a question and answer session in Brussels. Italian...

    With the Trump administration’s recent withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the already rocky relationship between the United States and its European allies has become even more tenuous. For many Europeans, Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Iran accord crystallizes what they dislike about his approach to world affairs: Instead of multilateralism, it’s America First. Across much of Europe, anti-Americanism appears to be on the rise. Polls show plunging ratings for America, and European leaders are once again critical of Washington’s foreign policies. Commentators are issuing dark warnings about the fate of the transatlantic alliance. Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, has said that Europe can no longer rely on the United States and that ...

    Austria's vice-chancellor has called for EU member states to discuss reform of free movement ahead of his country taking over the bloc's rotating presidency. Heinz-Christian Strache, who leads the eurosceptic and far-right Freedom Party, questioned whether the EU rule allowing citizens to live and work in any other member state was smart. Considered one of the four freedoms of the EU, the free movement of people is a right fiercely guarded by EU officials as indivisible from membership of the bloc or its single market. The UK government's decision to quit the EU's single market after Brexit stems from Brussels' insistence that membership must be accompanied by continued adherence to free movement rules, with immigration a large part of the 2016 EU referendum campai...

    The father of a child saved by a Mali immigrant as he dangled from balcony in Paris was “playing Pokemon Go” during his son’s dramatic rescue. Mamoudou Gassana has been awarded for his bravery with papers to legalise his stay in France after scaling five floors on the outside of the building to grab the four-year-old boy. French Prosecutor Francois Molins claimed the child’s father was playing the virtual reality smartphone game on his way back from the shops. He told BFM TV that the boy’s dad had left the flat just as the incident unfolded. The window had been left open and there was no safety grille to stop the child falling out, he added. He said: “The father left the flat just as the incident was unfolding. He went shopping and then decided to play Pokemon Go...

    Savita Halappanavar, whose father has called for legislation that will follow Saturday’s historic referendum result to be referred to… Campaigners for abortion reform in Ireland have said they will support a move to have a new law named after Savita Halappanavar, who died after being denied a termination in 2012. Halappanavar’s father has called for the legislation that will follow the historic referendum result to be referred to as Savita’s law. We have one last request, that the new law, that it is called Savita’s law. It should be named for her, Andanappa Yalagi told the Irish Times. At a press conference in Dublin on Sunday, Together for Yes, an umbrella group representing pro-repeal organisations, said it would support such a move. It also called on the govern...

    A day that will long be remembered as significant in our social history, Ireland has voted to reform its highly-restrictive abortion laws and has done so emphatically. Yes campaigners are tonight taking in a stunning victory after the results were confirmed at Dublin Castle, with a huge majority of voters - some 66.4pc- casting their ballot in favour of repealing the hugely-controversial Eighth Amendment. Donegal was the only constituency that voted against repeal, and it was only a narrow victory for the No side there. But elsewhere it was a stunning victory for the Yes campaign, with a huge majority in a number of constituencies including 78pc in Dublin Bay South- and among all age groups under the age of 65. While the result may have not have been entirely unexp...

    The UK has confirmed it could pursue its own satellite navigation system and reopen negotiations over the £39bn Brexit divorce bill if it is excluded from the EU's Galileo project. The Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) has included the threats in a document setting out the government's view on Brussels' insistence the UK cannot remain a full member of the Galileo system. Originating in 1999, the Galileo project aims to establish a European rival to the US global positioning system (GPS) for satellite navigation. It is due for completion in 2020, when it will include 24 satellites and six spare satellites. The Galileo satellite navigation system The UK wants to remain part of the multi-billion pound project after Brexit, which it has already invested large sum...