Month: March 2023

Violent clashes broke out between police and protesters outside the Greek parliament in Athens on Sunday as thousands attended a rally following the nation’s worst rail disaster that killed 57, AFP reporters saw. Some demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and threw Molotov cocktails, while police responded firing tear gas and stun grenades, clearing Syntagma Square of the protesters within a few minutes. Police said 12,000 people had gathered by the large esplanade in front of the parliament to demand accountability for Tuesday’s head-on collision near the central city of Larissa that has sparked widespread outrage. They had released hundreds …

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Anyone arriving illegally in Britain will be prevented from staying, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in an interview published on Sunday, ahead of new legislation which is expected to be set out next week. Under pressure from his own lawmakers to find a solution to the flow of migrants arriving in Britain across the channel from Europe, Sunak has made stopping small boats one of his five key priorities. “Make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay,” Sunak told the Mail on Sunday newspaper. A new law to tackle the issue is due …

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Ukrainian diver Stanislav Oliferchyk proudly bears the name of his late grandfather, who died in brutalized Mariupol. Russia’s troops turned the Ukrainian port city into a killing zone in the process of capturing it. The elder Stanislav could no longer get the cancer treatment he needed in the ruins, his grandson says. He was 74 when he died last October. Another victim of the months-long Russian siege of Mariupol was its gleaming aquatic center. Oliferchyk had planned to use the refurbished sports complex as his training base for the 2024 Paris Olympics. But it was bombed the same day last …

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Climate activists splashed a dark liquid over an artwork Saturday near the German parliament building. Desecrating the art, engraved with key articles from the country’s constitution, drew condemnation from the speaker of parliament and other lawmakers. The Last Generation group said supporters symbolically “soaked in ‘oil’” the outdoor installation — a series of glass plates on which 19 articles from the German Constitution setting out fundamental rights are engraved. They pasted posters over the work that read, “Oil or fundamental rights?” The group said in a statement that “the German government is not protecting our fundamental rights” and argued that …

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced a gender equality law that will require more equal representation of women and men in politics, business and other spheres of public life. The Equal Representation Law will apply gender parity measures to electoral lists, the boards of directors of big companies, and governing boards of professional associations. Sanchez made the announcement during a Socialist party rally ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8. It will be approved during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting before going for debate in parliament. He said the government was “not only taking a step in favor of …

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Italy’s government will hold a cabinet meeting near the southern seaside town where dozens of bodies washed ashore after a migrant ship broke up on rocks last month, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday. Speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi after meeting United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to discuss migration flows among other topics, Meloni rejected accusations that her government had failed to act to prevent the incident. She also dismissed calls from the opposition for Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to resign. “Frankly, they ask for the resignation of a different minister every day,” she …

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On a blustery late-winter day in Shakespeare’s birthplace, the foyer of the Other Place theater is a cozy refuge. Visitors are having meetings over coffee, checking emails, writing poetry, learning to sew. It looks and feels like an arty café in the picturesque streets of Stratford-upon-Avon, but it’s a “warm hub” set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company drama troupe to welcome people struggling to heat their homes because of sky-high energy prices. Warm hubs have sprouted across Britain by the thousands this winter as soaring food and energy prices drive millions to turn down the thermostat or skimp on …

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Archaeologists say they have uncovered a “unique” cache of well-preserved spices, from strands of saffron to peppercorns and ginger, on the wreck of a royal ship that sank off Sweden’s Baltic coast more than 500 years ago. The wreck of the Gribshund, owned by King Hans of Denmark and Norway, has lain off the coast off Ronneby since 1495, when it is thought to have caught fire and sank as the monarch attended a political meeting ashore in Sweden. Rediscovered by sports divers in the 1960s, sporadic excavations of the ship have taken place in recent years. Previous dives recovered …

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