Browsing: Europe

Several thousand people marched in France on Saturday to condemn violence against women on the international day to combat the scourge.

He’s received countless death threats and has been under police protection for almost two decades. He’s been convicted for inciting hate speech and his opinions once even got him banned from entering the UK. Known as the Dutch Donald Trump, far-right politician Geert Wilders and his PVV Freedom Party have now won a major victory in the country’s general elections.

Israel accused Spain and Belgium of “supporting terrorism” after they called on the EU to recognise the Palestinian state and stop its bombardment of Gaza.

Ukraine’s capital experienced the brunt of what the military said was the largest Russian drone attack on the country since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In the late 1960s, Denmark implemented a brutal contraceptive policy to limit births in its former colony of Greenland, forcing thousands of teenage girls to have IDUs inserted without their consent. After decades of repressing their trauma, the women are now speaking out and demanding reparation.

Pope Francis has cancelled his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s square due to illness

Talking Europe hosts one of the EU Commission’s vice-presidents, Margaritis Schinas, who is in charge of overseeing the promotion of the European Way of Life. That includes fighting anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination in various forms. Schinas also coordinates the Commission’s work on the Migration and Asylum Pact, which is entering a critical period in negotiations between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. Schinas tells Armen Georgian he is optimistic that the Pact will be completed before the EU elections next June, and that this will be a key part of the legacy of Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission.

The statistics are as damning as they are grim. In the EU, one in three women aged 15 or over has experienced physical or sexual violence – or both. More than half of all women in Europe have been sexually harassed. Only a fifth of women in the EU go to the police when an intimate partner assaults them. Meanwhile, EU member states have failed to agree on how to address the worst crimes against women. Several countries continue to resist calls by Brussels to define non-consensual sex as rape, punishable by a stiff jail sentence. Today, in 2023, there is no common set of rules in the EU to punish rape, to the growing dismay of many. As Europe prepares to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, we discuss the issue with two MEPs.

A night of torched vehicles and shop looting sparked in Dublin after a knife attack outside a school was of an “extraordinary” level of violence unseen in decades, police said Friday.

Protesters on Thursday fought running battles with police, torched vehicles and looted shops in Dublin, after three young children were injured in a knife attack outside a school.

IN THE PRESS – Thursday, November 23: We look at reactions in the Dutch papers after Geert Wilders’ party wins legislative elections and must now form a coalition to govern. Also: Italian lawmakers pass a law protecting victims of domestic violence, after the death of an Italian student garners front page news. Plus, a new study shows that astronauts may suffer from erectile dysfunction as a result of prolonged time spent in space.

The transport system in Paris will not be ready in time for the 2024 Olympic Games in the French capital, its mayor said, sparking anger Thursday from political opponents.

The murdered spy’s wife is turning her focus to helping Ukraine’s children caught up in almost two years of war.

Two migrants die crossing Channel in small boat Two migrants died after their small boat got into difficulty as they attempted to cross the Channel. …

Dutch election: Anti-Islam populist Wilders set for big win Geert Wilders has won the Dutch general election, according to the latest forecast.  After 25 years…

Italy is one of the main countries of arrival in Europe for thousands of minors crossing the Mediterranean on their own. Since the beginning of her mandate as prime minister, far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has prioritised the fight against illegal immigration. This fall, the Italian executive approved a decree targeting unaccompanied minor migrants. The text toughens their living conditions and imposes stricter measures on verifying their age. Our correspondents report from Palermo, on the island of Sicily.

Surveys have fluctuated wildly in the run-up to election day, but observers believe that whichever party wins the most seats in this Wednesday’s parliamentary elections in the Netherlands may need support from at least three other parties to govern. Dilan Yesilgoz, leader of the centre-right VVD party and successor to outgoing PM Mark Rutte, is hoping to cap a meteoric rise by clinching the top job. She would be the first woman to do so in the Netherlands. Born in Turkey, the 46-year-old Yesilgoz has taken a hard line on immigration. For more, we speak to Professor Joop van Holsteijn from the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University.

They’re trying to scare off the orcas.

‘The state can offer them a kind of deal, in which a woman’s sentence is terminated and in case she gives birth during such a “vacation”, the rest of the term is cancelled.’

A British woman and two Spanish men have been arrested in connection with the shooting of a right-wing politician in Madrid earlier this month.

Sweden said Tuesday it wanted to introduce new requirements that would allow the deportation of asylum-seekers and immigrants for substance abuse, association with criminal groups or statements threatening Swedish values. 

A new Dutch political party started by Pieter Omtzigt is among those leading in opinion polls for the snap elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday, November 22. Omtzigt, a former Christian Democrat MP, is known for helping bring down the government of Mark Rutte in 2021 after revealing a child benefits scandal, in which thousands of families were wrongly accused of fraud on the basis of their ethnicity. The centrist anti-establishment candidate is shaking up the Dutch political landscape and is already drawing comparisons to French President Emmanuel Macron, who swept to power in 2017 with his new centrist party. So who is Omtzigt, the man who could become the next Dutch prime minister? Our correspondents report.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday linked historic pro-democracy protests in Kyiv one decade ago to the invasion of Ukraine, describing the demonstrations on Maidan square as the “first victory” of the war with Russia. FRANCE 24’s Emmanuelle Chaze reports from Kyiv.

The ’ndrangheta family were running drugs and arms worldwide, the tribunal heard.

An Italian tribunal on Monday convicted 207 people and sentenced them to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta organised crime syndicate, one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups. The mafia group, which is tied to some 150 Calabrian families, has a near monopoly on the European cocaine trade, bringing in €50 billion annually according to some estimates, FRANCE 24’s Seema Gupta said.