Tributes paid to Kesaria Abramidze, as ruling party and allies are accused of state campaign against minorities

A well-known Georgian transgender model has been murdered, local officials said, a day after the government passed legislation that will impose sweeping curbs on LGBTQ+ rights in the country.

Georgia’s interior ministry said Kesaria Abramidze, 37, was believed to have been stabbed to death on Wednesday in her apartment in the suburbs of the capital Tbilisi.

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Judges ruled investigation into then-MP that found he repeatedly engaged in improper lobbying was fair

The European court of human rights has dismissed an appeal by the former MP Owen Paterson against the parliamentary report that preceded his political downfall.

Paterson, a former environment secretary and influential pro-Brexit Conservative, resigned as an MP in 2021 after an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards established that he had repeatedly engaged in improper lobbying.

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Private equity group to control classified business while Mathias Döpfner and Friede Springer will run digital operation

Axel Springer has struck a €13.5bn (£11.3bn) deal that will see its media assets, which include Politico, Business Insider and newspapers Bild and Die Welt, hived off into a private company with the aim of building an international digital news media powerhouse.

The move will see the German conglomerate, which last year decided against bidding for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph because its focus is a “digital first, digital only” acquisition strategy, become fully privately owned for the first time since its flotation in 1985.

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The European Commission president’s new team reflects her ruthlessness in crushing critics showing everyone who is the boss

With six executive vice-presidents balancing political families, geography and gender, Ursula von der Leyen has cemented her personal power in her second term as European Commission president while subtly tilting the EU executive to the right politically and to the east geographically.

The new 27-member commission unveiled on Tuesday illustrates her commitment to making the European economy greener, more competitive and more secure, and her ruthlessness in wielding power to crush critics, reward loyalty and punish those who do not cooperate with her. Her eviction of the powerful French industry commissioner Thierry Breton , who had criticised her personal governance style, and the demotion of Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi to the health and animal welfare job in a snub to the nationalist Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, illustrate her determination to show who is the boss.

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Campaigners criticise decision to scrap tax introduced in 2018 amid rise of ‘flight shame’ movement

Campaigners have accused the Swedish government of doing “everything in its power to stop climate action” after it cut a tax on flying, despite admitting that it would increase emissions.

The flight tax, aimed at cutting pollution from aviation, was introduced in 2018, amid the rise of the “flight shame” ( flygskam ) movement popularised by Greta Thunberg.

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Automotive lobby group warns ‘multi-billion-euro fines’ will punish manufacturers without relaxation of rules

Europe’s car industry has called for the relaxation of EU emissions targets after sales of electric cars stalled further in August, adding to growing political pressure that threatens to slow the transition away from fossil fuels.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), a lobby group, said that its members could face “multi-billion-euro fines” because the shift to electric production has not been quick enough to meet the EU targets.

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Anger as Meloni government accused of lacking will to confront climate crisis

About 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna overnight after devastating floods and landslides, as Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government was accused of lacking the will to confront the climate crisis.

The flooding was brought on by Storm Boris, which had earlier wreaked havoc in central and eastern Europe , killing at least 24 people. Several major cities in central Europe were bracing for swollen rivers to peak on Thursday.

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‘Risk’ analyses largely ignore the dangers of the climate crisis. Unless we wake up to them, they will soon outweigh all others

The Irish sea captain who in 1751 discovered the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) – closely connected with, though not identical to, the Gulf Stream – found a practical use for it: he used the frigid deeper water to cool his wine.

That may seem a rather frivolous response, but of course, Capt Henry Ellis had no idea that the oceanic pattern he had stumbled upon had been critical to the climate, the agriculture and indeed the entire development of western Europe. The same excuse can hardly be made for British and European governments today.

Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of Climate Change and the Nation State: The Realist Case

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En août 2024, les ventes de voitures électriques ont augmenté dans plusieurs pays européens. Toutefois, ils ne font pas le poids face aux plus grands marchés comme l'Allemagne, la France ou l'Italie qui décrochent. Le marché de l'électrique en Europe affiche -43,9 % par rapport à août 2023, mais ce chiffre ne dit pas tout.