Europe

    The UK is set to be handed a €2bn (£1.69bn) bill by the European Union over its failure to sort out customs fraud, a European Commission source said. HM Revenue & Customs is believed to have failed to stop Chinese crime gangs from undervaluing goods being imported into the EU through Dover and Felixstowe, avoiding billions of pounds in customs duty and value-added tax. EU investigators believe that Britain has become the gateway for Chinese gangs to import under-declared goods into Europe. The Times said that the European Commission is considering whether to launch formal infringement procedures against Britain. This fraud is still going on and Britain knows, a European Commission source told The Times. It will come up in trade discussions and it will have an impact on...

    Pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron came under fire Monday over a glitzy party in a high-end Paris bistro and his triumphant speech following his success in the first round of France’s presidential polls. Even close allies appeared to caution the inexperienced 39-year-old against complacency ahead of the second round run-off on May 7 against far-right leader Marine Le Pen. ‘We need to be humble. The election hasn’t been won and we need to bring people together to win,’ Richard Ferrand, secretary general of Macron’s ‘En Marche’ (‘On the Move’) movement, told BFM television on Monday. After results emerged on Sunday evening, Macron addressed thousands of euphoric supporters at an election party in southern Paris and brought his wife Brigitte on stage to share in the applause. ‘I...

    France goes to the polls under heavy security Sunday for the first round of the most unpredictable presidential election in decades, with the outcome seen as vital for the future of the beleaguered European Union. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron are the frontrunners to progress to a run-off on May 7 but the result is too close to call in a deeply divided country. Le Pen, the 48-year-old leader of the National Front (FN), hopes to capitalise on security jitters that were catapulted to the fore of the campaign after the fatal shooting of a policeman on Paris’s Champs Elysees avenue claimed by the Islamic State group. Aiming to ride a wave of populism that led Donald Trump to the White House and Britain to vote for Brexit, Le Pen also wants to pull...

    Britons in Paris should remain vigilant and follow the advice of local security authorities. That's the latest advice from the Foreign Office (FCO) following a shooting in the heart of the city, on the Champs Elysees, in which a police officer was killed and two more injured. The attack is the first in the country since a man drove a lorry through Bastille Days crowds in Nice last year, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more. It was the third major attack in France in 18 months, with the other two, the November attacks and the Charlie Hebdo shootings, taking place in the capital, Paris. What happened in Paris? A suspected terrorist opened fire on a police car parked on the historic Parisian road that links the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde. The gunman ...

    A policeman was shot dead on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Thursday night in an apparent Isil-inspired terror attack. The shooting, in which the gunman was also killed, was carried out by a man who was under preliminary investigation for terrorism but let go. The attack raised questions over how yet another Islamist extremist known to police was able to bring terror to the heart of the French capital. The shooting came just three days before the first round of the country’s presidential election, and François Fillon, the conservative candidate, last night called for election campaigning to be suspended. Security will be heightened across the country in the run-up to Sunday’s election. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant identified the attacker as one of its soldiers,...

    The president of the European parliament has said Britain would be welcomed back with open arms if voters change their minds about Brexit on 8 June, challenging Theresa May’s claim that “there is no turning back” after article 50. Speaking after a meeting with the prime minister in Downing Street, Antonio Tajani insisted that her triggering of the departure process last month could be reversed easily by the remaining EU members if there was a change of UK government after the general election and would not even require a court case. If the UK, after the election, wants to withdraw [Article 50], then the procedure is very clear, he said in an interview. If the UK wanted to stay, everybody would be in favour. I would be very happy. Detailed coverage on snap General Election ...

    For the second consecutive night, Russia flew two long-range bombers off the coast of Alaska on Tuesday, this time coming within 36 miles of the mainland while flying north of the Aleutian Islands, two U.S. officials told Fox News. The two nuclear-capable Tu-95H bombers were spotted by U.S. military radar at 5 p.m. local time. Unlike a similar incident Monday night, this time the U.S. Air Force did not scramble any fighter jets. Instead, it launched a single E-3 Sentry early warning aircraft, known as AWACS, to make sure there were only the two Russian bombers flying near Alaska, and not other aircraft flying underneath the large bombers. U.S. territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from shore. U.S. Air Force scrambled F-22 stealth fighters; Jennifer Griffin reports fr...

    European Council president Donald Tusk will help determine where the two agencies leaving Britain will relocate. The EU is set to inflict a double humiliation on Theresa May, stripping Britain of its European agencies within weeks, while formally rejecting the prime minister’s calls for early trade talks. The Observer has learned that EU diplomats agreed their uncompromising position at a crunch meeting on Tuesday, held to set out the union’s strategy in the talks due to start next month. A beauty contest between member states who want the European banking and medicine agencies, currently located in London, will begin within two weeks, with selection criteria to be unveiled by the president of the European council, Donald Tusk. The European Banking Authority and the Europe...

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a historic referendum Sunday that will greatly expand the powers of his office, although opposition parties questioned the outcome and said they would challenge the results. With nearly all ballots counted, the "yes" vote stood at 51.41 percent, while the "no" vote was 48.59 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The head of Turkey's electoral board confirmed the "yes" victory and said final results would be declared in 11-12 days. Although the margin fell short of the sweeping victory Erdogan had sought in the landmark referendum, it could nevertheless cement his hold on power in Turkey and is expected to have a huge effect on the country's long-term political future and its international relations. The 18 constituti...

    Emma Morano, an Italian woman believed to have been the oldest person alive and the last survivor of the 19th century, died Saturday at the age of 117, Italian media reported. Morano, born on November 29 1899, died at her home in Verbania, in northern Italy, the reports said. She had an extraordinary life, and we will always remember her strength to move forward in life, said Silvia Marchionini, the mayor of Verbania, a small village of some 2,000 residents. According to the US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Morano ceded the crown of the world’s oldest human being to Jamaican Violet Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900. Morano’s death, at the age of 117 years and 137 days, means there is no one living known to have been born before 1900. Her first love died in Wo...