Europe

    At least two British visitors to Paris were among seven victims of a savage knife attack in the French capital, police said today. A suspect ‘of Pakistani or Afghan origin’ began ‘slashing passers-by’ on the Loire Quay in the north of the city on Sunday night. It runs along the Villette Canal Basin, which was full of people enjoying hot late summer weather when the assailant struck. He first stabbed three people outside the MK2 cinema complex, 'including two English tourists', according to an investigating source. One was particularly badly hurt by ‘a stab in the head’, while the other was ‘cut in the chest’. He injured four others, before a police night patrol appeared, and arrested the unnamed man at the scene. The case is being investigated by judicial police...

    Michel Barnier has expressed his frustration with Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, for allegedly withholding information from the EU, as the question of the Irish border erupted again in the Brexit negotiations. The EU negotiator was said to be disappointed and irritated by Raab’s alleged failure this week to live up to a promise to provide data on the trade flows between the UK and Northern Ireland, which had been requested as part of an attempt to take the drama out of the Irish border issue. The backstop solution for avoiding a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic would result in the province effectively staying in the customs union and single market for goods as the rest of the UK withdraws. The British government has dismissed the backstop as it ...

    British and French fishermen have failed to finalise a deal to end the scallop wars in the English Channel. British and French fishermen have failed to finalise a deal to end the scallop wars in the English Channel. Industry leaders were unable to agree a compensation package during negotiations in Paris on Friday, which was aiming to cease recent skirmishes. The basis of an agreement was formed in London this week, with small UK vessels pledging not to fish in the area of dispute during the period French laws prevented their counterparts. But this was on the basis British crews would not lose out financially, and the price appeared to have been too high for the French during the latest discussions. A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spok...

    Britain will be more likely to secure a free trade agreement with the European Union if it pays the the £39 billion Brexit bill, Michel Barnier has signalled in a concession from Brussels that will bolster Theresa May’s efforts to get the deal through parliament. The European Commission has always insisted that the payment of the financial settlement, a central part of the withdrawal agreement, could not be made conditional on a trade deal. It argued that the payment would settle existing debts and that the future UK-EU agreement must be kept separate. Dominic Raab, the new Brexit Secretary, has pushed for a link between the Brexit deal and the political declaration, which will be a non-binding document that will be used as the basis for trade negotiations during th...

    The EU27 are planning a carrot and stick approach to Brexit at an upcoming summit, offering Theresa May warm words on the Chequers plans to take to the Conservative conference alongside a sharp warning that they need a plan for Northern Ireland within weeks. The twin statements from the EU leaders at the meeting in Salzburg later this month would seek to give the British prime minister some evidence of progress in negotiations on the future trade deal as she seeks to fight off the threat of rebelling MPs. However, under the plans being discussed among the 27, a shot would be fired across May’s bows on the issue of a backstop for Northern Ireland, an issue on which officials and diplomats are becoming increasingly frustrated. This would come into force if a trade de...

    Britain will hold continuous negotiations with the EU from now on in a bid to achieve a breakthrough in Brexit talks. Following a meeting with Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab in Brussels on Tuesday, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier revealed discussions are now entering the final stage. We have agreed the EU and the UK will negotiate continuously from now on and Dominic and I will meet regularly to take stock and move the negotiations forward, he said. Mr Barnier paved the way for negotiations to yet extend beyond the next formal European Council summit on 18 October, which had previously been viewed as a deadline for striking a deal. He said a UK divorce agreement and political declaration on the future UK-EU partnership was needed "well before the end of th...

    New Zealand’s minister for women has cycled herself to hospital to give birth to her first child. Julie Genter, 38, posted pictures of her beautiful Sunday morning ride to the hospital in Auckland with her partner. The Green Party politician said she opted to cycle because there wasn’t enough space in the car. She wrote: Beautiful Sunday morning for a bike ride, to the hospital, for an induction to finally have this baby. This is it, wish us luck My partner and I cycled because there wasn’t enough room in the car for the support crew but it also put me in the best possible mood. She added that the journey was mostly downhill and that she used an electric bike, but joked: Probably should have cycled more in the last few weeks to get the labour going. Ms Genter is...

    Luigi Fiorillo stamped on the brakes of his delivery lorry as he watched the Morandi bridge crumbling before his eyes. The 37-year-old father-of-four's escape has been described as a miracle as every vehicle ahead of him plunged off the structure, leaving at least 39 dead. However the usually chatty delivery driver has told how he escaped death. I stared death in the face on the Morandi bridge. I saved myself by a miracle, he said. I stamped on the brakes and came to a stop. I tried to put it in reverse gear. But I couldn't so I jumped out and stepped back a meter when I saw how close to the edge I was. His Basko delivery truck remains on the stricken Morandi bridge. His boss Patrizia Damonte told MailOnline: Luigi is fine but he is suffering from shock. You can ...

    A now-deleted statement on the party's website from 2013 argues against a project to improve Genoa's highways including the bridge saying those who backed the plan showed 'an embarrassing lack of critical sense. The plan is an obsolete idea with exorbitant costs that, in the end, would fall entirely on citizens who would have to deal with a decade of building works and disruption, the statement says. Money would be better spent creating a separate bridge for trucks and investing in public transport to convince people to stop using their cars, the party argued. Repair work was eventually carried out on the bridge in 2016 but plans to rebuild it were shelved amid fears it would be too disruptive to locals. The bridge collapsed on Tuesday morning killing at least 38 ...

    Seven national guards have been injured in Venezuela after an apparent assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday using an explosive-laden drone as he addressed the nation on live TV. Footage broadcast by state television shows Maduro abruptly cutting short his speech before looking to the sky. Thousands of soldiers who were assembled in massed ranks then scatter as people scream amid the sounds of explosions. His wife, Cilia Flores, was standing next to him at the time, and can be seen ducking away as officials erect a shield wall around the president. Images showed a bloodied soldier being carried away and smoking holes in nearby buildings. Maduro accused neighboring Colombia and unidentified 'financiers' in the United States of being responsib...