Europe

    On the train from London to Brussels just as the high-speed train dived under the English Channel, Mujtaba Rahman frantically typed an email on his smartphone and hit send. A short ride later, through a dark void that briefly blocked both his ears and his cellphone reception, he was hurtling across the rolling fields of France. “On the way in and out of the tunnel is a really good time to do some thinking,” Mr. Rahman said. What he thinks a lot about these days is Brexit. Mr. Rahman once worked for the British government, helping tie its fortunes ever more closely to the European Union. Today, he consults private clients on the risks of Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc. He is part of a tribe of lawyers, economists, journalists and trade experts who helped turn th...

    After the shocking episode of 23 October last, where 39 migrants were found dead in a refrigerated truck in the Essex, in United Kingdom, the controversy over human trafficking by earth is rekindled. This time they would be 41 the immigrants found irregular in a container in conditions at the limit of suffocation: a discovery, that of the Greek Police, which took place in the city of Xanthi . Most men of Afghan origin and with an age ranging from 20 to 30 years she was hospitalized due to the numerous respiratory problems presented at the time of discovery of the vehicle. To relaunch the news the local media Ekathimerini: initially there was talk of 80 people found in the truck. The driver arrested Arrested near Thessaloniki , where the discovery took place, the ...

    A trip to Switzerland need not involve a flight. Several cities, including Geneva and Zurich, are easy to reach by train. Here are five ideas for a one-week break The Swiss Riviera Take the 7:55am Eurostar and after a dash across Paris to the Gare de Lyon you could be in lakeside Geneva by 15:27pm, leaving plenty of time to explore the atmospheric Old Town and find somewhere for dinner. Geneva is gastronomic nirvana, but you’ll still find tucked-away bistros serving menus-du-jour for £15. Trains follow Lake Geneva’s northern shore to Lausanne, another medieval gem that’s reknowned for its nightlife. Beyond it is Vevey, a genteel resort that won the approval of Charlie Chaplin – his old villa, Manoir de Ban, is now the centrepiece of Chaplin’s World, a museum dedica...

    Boris Johnson appears to be fighting a losing battle to avoid Britain staying in the European Union beyond 31 October after Michel Barnier privately gave a scathing analysis of the prime minister’s new plan for the Irish border, describing it as a trap. The European commission also refused to go into the secretive and intensive “tunnel” talks with the UK’s negotiators before a crunch summit on 17 October from which the UK had hoped to deliver a breakthrough deal. Despite concerted attempts to avoid publicly trashing the UK proposals, there was dismay behind the scenes in Brussels after Johnson tabled his first concrete proposal for replacing the Irish backstop. The prime minister had set out the outline of the government’s offer in a speech to Tory party faithful i...

    Jean-Claude Juncker has warned there will have to be controls at the border in Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit. In an outspoken interview, the European Commission president said the UK would be to blame for any fallout for a chaotic exit for the bloc as the EU “did not invent the Brexit”. Mr Juncker said he wanted to reach an agreement with the UK but the EU had to protect the safety of its citizens. The Irish border issue has been a major stumbling block in the Brexit negotiations, as Boris Johnson has demanded that the backstop a contingency plan to prevent a hard border by keeping the UK aligned with many of Brussels’ rules should be scrapped. The senior Brussels official also sought to blame the UK for any fallout caused by a no-deal Brexit, amid frus...

    Politicians in France have started working on a law that would outlaw the practice of “gay conversion therapy”. Its parliament is holding hearings this week on a draft bill that could become law by early next year. It seeks to ban practices which attempt to “cure” homosexuality. Last year, the British government announced plans to ban “gay conversion therapy” in the UK. If implemented, the law would ban any procedure that would alter someone’s physical or mental health. It could come with sentenced of up to two years in prison and a £27,000 fine, it was reported by France Inter. This week’s hearings focus on “practices claiming to alter a person's sexual orientation or gender identity”. They will include input from LGBTQ+ groups, the National Council of French Eva...

    Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, renewed his ongoing feud with President Donald Trump on Sunday by ridiculing the U.S. leader for golfing as Hurricane Dorian threatened several American states. Trump pulled out of a two-day visit to Poland to commemorate the anniversary of the beginning of World War II this weekend to deal with Hurricane Dorian, which reached Category 5 strength on Sunday but has since been downgraded to a Category 4. The president traveled by helicopter from Camp David to his private Virginia golf club for several hours on Saturday, according to AP. Trump reportedly returned to Camp David later that day, where experts briefed him on the hurricane. "He's clearly busy dealing with a hurricane out on the golf course," Khan told Politico on Sunday. Th...

    Donald Tusk has told Boris Johnson not to “go down in history as ‘Mr No Deal’”. Speaking at the G7 summit in Biarritz, where the pair will meet later this weekend, the European council president noted that Johnson would be the third British Tory leader with whom he has discussed Brexit, after David Cameron and Theresa May. Tusk said he was “willing to listen to ideas that are operational, realistic and acceptable to all EU member states, including Ireland, if and when the UK government is ready to [put them forward]. The one thing I will not cooperate on is no deal, and I still hope that Prime Minister Johnson will not like to go down in history as ‘Mr No Deal’.” Johnson will arrive in Biarritz on Saturday afternoon, having visited Berlin and Paris, in search of a ...

    A 65-year-old man who tackled a gunman who stormed a mosque in Norway is being hailed as a hero. Witnesses said Mohamed Rafiq restrained the terror suspect and held him down with another worshipper before police arrived, despite being injured in the struggle. Mr Rafiq was among three people at the al-Noor Islamic Centre in Bærum in Saturday, when a man burst in with two shotgun-like weapons and a pistol. The attacker, who was reportedly wearing a uniform and body armour, broke through a glass door to reach the place of worship, where people were preparing to celebrate the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha. Speaking to press outside a nearby hotel on Sunday, Mr Rafiq said: I’m thankful for all of the help and support I have received. He told how he held the gunman d...

    Europe is facing another decade of economic stagnation with low inflation, low interest rates and low growth becoming the new normal unless it takes drastic action soon to kickstart growth. That is the view of CNN Business’s Julia Horowitz who warns that “ten years after the global financial crisis, Europe's economy has achieved a recovery, but not a revival”. Citing eurozone inflation below the 2% target set by the European Central Bank (ECB); historic low interest rates; and stubbornly high levels of unemployment in some regions, she says “the conditions in Europe have drawn comparisons to Japan's lost decade, a period of slow growth and weak inflation in the 1990s from which the country has never convincingly emerged”. “With the eurozone economy stuck in a low g...