By Jessica Parker BBC Brussels correspondent Last week I waited in a packed press pen for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to descend the stairs at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. She’d already had lunch with King Philippe and later would go to a farewell concert featuring the works of Mozart and Beethoven. In other words, […]
COP26 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will not attend the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. No reason was given for the decision not to attend, but a Kremlin spokesperson said climate change was an “important” priority for Russia. COP26 takes place in Scotland’s largest city from 31 October to 12 […]
FBI agents are sweeping properties in the US linked to Russian billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Mr Deripaska, who has close ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, was placed under US sanctions in 2018. The oligarch’s spokesman told Reuters news agency the FBI is searching two homes owned by relatives of Mr Deripaska under court […]
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged on Sunday to outlaw prostitution in the country. Speaking to supporters at the end of his Socialist Party’s three-day congress in Valencia, Mr Sanchez said that the practice “enslaves” women. Prostitution was decriminalised in Spain in 1995 and in 2016 the UN estimated the country’s sex industry was worth […]
A deadly bow and arrow attack in Norway which left five people dead appears to have been an act of terror, Norway’s security service (PST) said. The suspect, a 37-year-old Danish citizen named Espen Andersen Brathen, had converted to Islam and there were fears he had been radicalised. However a motive has not yet been […]
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 2001 but it has always been assumed that it could not apply to the crown as there would have to be an heir to the throne. Now caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte has made clear any king or queen could also marry a person of the […]
Nobel Prize The head of the academy that awards the Nobel Prizes in science has said it will not introduce gender quotas. Goran Hansson, head of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said they want people to win “because they made the most important discovery… not because of gender or ethnicity”. Since its inception […]
Pandora Papers The Czech Republic’s billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his ruling ANO party are set to lose their bid for re-election, partial results suggest. With some 99% of voting districts reporting, Czech Television predicts two opposition coalitions will win 108 of 200 seats. Both coalition groups have said they will not work […]
Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has stepped down, after pressure triggered by a corruption scandal. He has proposed Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg as his replacement. Mr Kurz and nine others were placed under investigation after raids at a number of locations linked to his conservative ÖVP People’s Party. He denies claims he used government money to […]
Police in Berlin say they are investigating after staff at the US embassy reported experiencing symptoms of the so-called Havana syndrome. The probe into an “alleged sonic weapon attack on employees of the US Embassy” began in August, police said. More than 200 US officials have reported suffering from the illness since 2016. On Friday […]
