Europe
UK’s Sunak set to say security guarantees need for Ukraine
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday will call on world leaders to “double down” on support for Ukraine, saying arms and security guarantees are needed to protect the country and the rest of Europe from Russian aggression now and in the future.
Sunak will deliver the message in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of heads of state, defense ministers and other world leaders. This year’s meeting will focus on threats to the accepted rules of international relations a year after Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
Highlighting Britain’s recent commitment to provide battle tanks, advanced air defense systems and longer-range missiles to Ukraine, Sunak will urge other nations to follow suit before Russia launches an expected spring offensive.
“Now is the moment to double down on our military support,” Sunak said in excerpts released ahead of the speech. “When Putin started this war, he gambled that our resolve would falter. Even now he is betting we will lose our nerve.”
Sunak will also call on NATO to provide long-term security guarantees for Ukraine. Such commitments are necessary to shield Ukraine from future Russian aggression and to protect the system of international rules that have helped keep the peace since the end of World War II, Sunak is expected to say.
“It’s about the security and sovereignty of every nation,” Sunak says in the excerpts. “Because Russia’s invasion, its abhorrent war crimes and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric are symptomatic of a broader threat to everything we believe in.”
Bodies of 18 migrants found in abandoned truck in Bulgaria
Police in Bulgaria on Friday discovered an abandoned truck containing the bodies of 18 migrants, who appeared to have suffocated to death.
The Interior Ministry said that according to initial information, the truck was carrying about 40 migrants and the survivors were taken to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment.
Bulgarian Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said most of the survivors were in very bad condition.
“They have suffered from lack of oxygen, their clothes are wet, they are freezing, and obviously haven’t eaten for days,” Medzhidiev said.
The truck was found abandoned on a highway near the capital, Sofia. The driver was not there, but police discovered the passengers in a secret compartment below a load of timber.
Authorities did not immediately give the nationalities of the migrants. Bulgarian media reported they all were from Afghanistan.
Bulgaria, a Balkan country of 7 million and the poorest member of the European Union, is located on a major route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan seeking to enter Europe from Turkey. Very few plan to stay, with most using Bulgaria as a transit corridor on their way westward.
Bulgaria has erected a barbed-wire fence along its 259-kilometer (161-mile) border with Turkey, but with the help of local human traffickers many migrants still manage to enter.
Read more: 37 Bangladeshi migrants feared dead trying to reach Europe: Govt
In Britain in October 2019, police found the bodies of 39 people inside a refrigerated container that had been hauled to England. British police said all the victims, who ranged in age from 15 to 44, came from impoverished villages in Vietnam and were believed to have paid smugglers to take them on a risky journey to better lives abroad.
Police said they died of a combination of a lack of oxygen and overheating in an enclosed space. The truck discovered in the town of Grays, east of London, had arrived in England on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium.
European inflation eases for 3rd month but prices still bite
Europe's inflation rate dipped at the start of the year, giving some relief to consumers but still leaving them facing higher prices that have driven protests and will likely press the European Central Bank into another interest rate hike Thursday.
The consumer price index for the 20 countries that use the euro currency reached 8.5% in January compared with a year earlier, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Wednesday. That's down from the annual rate of 9.2% in December.
It's the first report on consumer prices that includes data from Croatia, which joined the eurozone on Jan. 1, but lacked unavailable figures from Germany, Europe's biggest economy. Inflation in Europe has now slowed for the third month in a row, falling from a record high of 10.6% in October.
Food and energy prices are persisting as the major factors driving up European inflation. Prices for food, alcohol and tobacco rose at a 14.1% annual pace in January, while energy prices rose 17.2%.
Russia's war in Ukraine has shaken up food and energy markets, and while commodity prices have fallen from all-time highs last year, consumers are not yet seeing relief on their utility and grocery bills.
Natural gas prices have dropped from records last summer thanks to a scramble to find supplies outside Russia and warmer winter weather that eased energy demand for heating. While Europe may have dodged fears of energy rationing and shortages after Russia cut off most supplies, natural gas prices are still three times higher than before Russia started massing troops on Ukraine’s border.
The energy upheaval has made the cost-of-living squeeze more painful in continental Europe and the United Kingdom than in the U.S., leading to protests and strikes from workers in several countries seeking pay that keeps pace with inflation.
U.S. annual inflation dropped to 6.5% in December, while the U.K. reading of 10.5% signaled how the British economy was a striking exception to the International Monetary Fund's brighter outlook for 2023.
Read more: Europe's inflation slows again but cost of living still high
In the eurozone, so-called core inflation, which doesn't include volatile food and energy costs, held steady at 5.2% last month, underlining how prices also are rising for both services and goods such as clothing, appliances, cars and computers.
Germany’s inflation number wasn’t available because of a technical issue so an estimate was used. Economists said that means the inflation figure should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Still, “when it comes to monetary policy, this is just noise,” Jack Allen-Reynolds of Capital Economics said in a report. “The core inflation rate is sending a clear signal: underlying price pressures remain strong.”
With inflation far above its target of 2%, the ECB has been raising interest rates that make it more expensive for consumers to borrow money. Aiming to get price spikes under control, the central bank is expected to institute another half-point hike Thursday.
That will come a day after a decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the same day the Bank of England acts on borrowing costs.
The central bank moves to cool inflation also strain the economy, with Europe eking out just 0.1% growth in the final three months of last year and 3.5% for all of 2022. That outpaced the 2.1% expansion in the U.S. and China’s 3% growth last year.
Iran sanctions Europeans over criticism of protest crackdown
Iran on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting more than 30 European individuals and entities, portraying the move as a response to recent European sanctions against officials linked to a crackdown on nationwide protests.
Those targeted with sanctions include Britain's attorney general and army chief of staff, several European parliamentarians and European military officials. Also targeted are the French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy and three senior staffers at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which recently published a series of cartoons lampooning Iran's clerical rulers.
The sanctions would bar travel to Iran and allow authorities to block bank accounts and confiscate property in Iran. Those targeted are unlikely to have either, rendering the move largely symbolic.
The move came two days after the European Union widened its sanctions to target dozens of Iranian officials and organizations linked to the violent suppression of recent protests. It stopped short of branding Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group despite an appeal from the European Parliament.
Iran has long been under heavy U.S. and European sanctions linked to its disputed nuclear program and support for regional militant groups. The nuclear sanctions were lifted under a landmark 2015 agreement with world powers, but President Donald Trump restored them after unilaterally withdrawing the U.S. from the deal.
Read more: US imposes more sanctions on Iran over Mahsa Amini's death
Iranians have taken to the streets since September over the death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code.
The demonstrations have called for the overthrow of Iran's theocracy and pose one of the biggest challenges to the ruling clerics since the 1979 revolution that brought them to power. Rights groups say security forces have used live ammunition, bird shot and beatings to disperse protests.
At least 527 protesters have been killed and over 19,500 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained, and have blamed the protests and violence on foreign powers without providing evidence.
The demonstrators say they are fed up after decades of social and political repression by a clerical leadership they view as corrupt and incompetent.
France, Germany renew alliance strained amid war in Ukraine
France and Germany are seeking to overcome differences laid bare by Russia's war in Ukraine and shore up their alliance with a day of ceremonies and talks Sunday on Europe’s security, energy and other challenges.
Germany’s entire Cabinet is in Paris for joint meetings, and 300 lawmakers from both countries are coming together at the Sorbonne University to mark 60 years since a landmark treaty sealed a bond between the longtime enemies that underpins today’s European Union.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will oversee two rounds of talks at the Elysee Palace, focusing first on energy and economic policy, and then on defense.
Read more: German caution on Ukraine arms rooted in political culture
A top priority is working out Europe’s response to the subsidies for U.S. electric car makers and other businesses in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, according to senior French and German officials.
France wants Europe to counter what it considers an unfair move by Washington. Paris is pushing for the EU to relax rules on state subsidies in order to accelerate their allocation, simplify the bloc's support for investments and create an EU sovereign fund to boost green industries. Berlin, however, warns against protectionism.
On defense, the neighbors are expected to discuss military aid to Ukraine, according to French and German officials who weren't authorized to be publicly named according to their governments’ policies.
Both countries have contributed significant weaponry, but Ukraine is asking for tanks and more powerful arms as Russia’s war drags on.
Read more: Russia claims progress in eastern Ukraine; Kyiv craves tanks
The war has exposed differences in strategy between the two countries, notably in European talks on how to deal with the resulting energy crisis and punishing inflation, as well as over future military investment.
Sunday’s gathering is the first such in-person joint government meeting since 2019. It was originally scheduled for October, but was repeatedly delayed.
The officials are marking the 60th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty signed by French President and wartime anti-Nazi resistance leader Charles de Gaulle and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on Jan. 22, 1963.
Top 10 Honeymoon Destinations in Europe
It is the season of love. It doesn’t have to be any specific time or season to celebrate love, especially for honeymooners. Over the years, western Europe and its coasts have become go-to spots for newlywed love birds. From Santorini’s coast to Amalfi’s peaks, Europe is probably the perfect destination to make your honeymoon absolutely magical. With that said, here’s our list of 10 of the most popular honeymoon destinations in Europe.
10 Best Honeymoon Destinations in Europe
You will need to create an itinerary that best suits your travel plan. In this article, we will mainly focus on the places and their offerings.
Santorini, Greece
Starting the list with the blue lagoon and the lush white houses of Santorini. For over 3 decades, Santorini has been one of the top choices for destination weddings and honeymooners.
Read More: Beach Bucket List: 9 Magnificent Sea Shores in South Asia
And why not? The place has everything from the crisscrossed houses on the side of the mountain to the horizon touching the Aegean sea.
Europe’s inflation slows again but cost of living still high
Europe ended a bad year for inflation with some relief as price gains eased again. While the cost of living is still painfully high, the slowdown is a sign that the worst might be over for weary consumers.
The consumer price index for the 19 countries that used the euro currency rose 9.2% in December from a year earlier, the slowest pace since August, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday. Croatia joined the eurozone on Jan. 1.
It was the second straight decline in inflation since June 2021. In November, the rate dipped to 10.1% after peaking at a record 10.6% in the previous month.
Households and businesses across Europe have been plagued by surging energy costs since Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February, which played havoc with oil and natural gas markets and have been the main driver of inflation.
The latest numbers indicate that the energy crisis may be easing for now. Energy price rises slowed to 25.7%, down from 34.9% in November and 41.5% in October.
Natural gas prices have slipped from all-time highs this summer as Europe has largely filled its storage for winter with supplies from other countries while warmer-than-usual weather has reduced fears of a shortage during the heating season.
Food price gains, the other big factor that’s been driving up European inflation, held fairly steady. Prices for food, alcohol and tobacco rose at a 13.8% annual pace in December, a smidgen higher than the month before.
Inflation also has been worsened by bottlenecks in supplies of raw materials and parts amid rebounding global consumer demand after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions ended.
“It is likely that the peak in inflation is behind us now, but far more relevant for the economy and policymakers is whether inflation will structurally trend back to 2% from here on,” said Bert Colijn, senior eurozone economist at ING Bank.
So-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed to 5.2% last month from November’s 5%, as prices rose for both services and goods such as clothing, appliances, cars and computers. Colijn and other economists said that means European Central Bank officials will likely roll out more interest rate hikes to get inflation back to their 2% target.
Soaring costs for energy and food have threatened a recession and fed labor unrest as wages fail to keep pace with the price rises. Across Europe, subway staff, hospital workers, train drivers, postal workers and air traffic controllers have gone on strike, threatening political turmoil.
In a sign that energy costs remain a worry for political leaders, French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged energy suppliers to renegotiate what he called “abusive contracts” with small businesses to ensure “reasonable” price hikes.
Macron spoke to bakers gathered at the presidential palace for a traditional Epiphany kings cake ceremony, underscoring how energy and food prices are intertwined.
“Like you, I’ve had enough of people making excessive profits on the crisis,” he said.
The French government has capped natural gas and electricity price hikes to 15% this year for consumers and some very small companies that don’t use much energy. But more energy-intensive businesses, like bakeries, aren’t covered, leaving some of them facing closure because they can’t pay their bills.
While governments have offered relief on high energy bills, central banks are battling inflation by hiking interest rates.
Last month, the European Central Bank raised its benchmark rate by half a point, slowing its record pace of interest rate increases slightly but promising that more hikes are on the way. It matched actions taken by counterparts in the U.S., United Kingdom and elsewhere.
“The eurozone economy is at best stagnating, and persistently strong core inflation means the ECB will feel duty bound to press on with its tightening cycle for a while yet,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist for Capital Economics.
Europe's inflation slows again but cost of living still high
Europe ended a bad year for inflation with some relief as price gains eased again. While the cost of living is still painfully high, the slowdown is a sign that the worst might be over for weary consumers.
The consumer price index for the 19 countries that used the euro currency rose 9.2% in December from a year earlier, the slowest pace since August, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday. Croatia joined the eurozone on Jan. 1.
It was the second straight decline in inflation since June 2021. In November, the rate dipped to 10.1% after peaking at a record 10.6% in the previous month.
Households and businesses across Europe have been plagued by surging energy costs since Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February, which played havoc with oil and natural gas markets and have been the main driver of inflation.
The latest numbers indicate that the energy crisis may be easing for now. Energy price rises slowed to 25.7%, down from 34.9% in November and 41.5% in October.
Natural gas prices have slipped from all-time highs this summer as Europe has largely filled its storage for winter with supplies from other countries while warmer-than-usual weather has reduced fears of a shortage during the heating season.
Food price gains, the other big factor that's been driving up European inflation, held fairly steady. Prices for food, alcohol and tobacco rose at a 13.8% annual pace in December, a smidgen higher than the month before.
Read more: Europe’s inflation likely hasn’t peaked, says central bank chief Lagarde
Inflation also has been worsened by bottlenecks in supplies of raw materials and parts amid rebounding global consumer demand after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions ended.
“It is likely that the peak in inflation is behind us now, but far more relevant for the economy and policymakers is whether inflation will structurally trend back to 2% from here on,” said Bert Colijn, senior eurozone economist at ING Bank.
So-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed to 5.2% last month from November's 5%, as prices rose for both services and goods such as clothing, appliances, cars and computers. Colijn and other economists said that means European Central Bank officials will likely roll out more interest rate hikes to get inflation back to their 2% target.
Soaring costs for energy and food have threatened a recession and fed labor unrest as wages fail to keep pace with the price rises. Across Europe, subway staff, hospital workers, train drivers, postal workers and air traffic controllers have gone on strike, threatening political turmoil.
In a sign that energy costs remain a worry for political leaders, French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged energy suppliers to renegotiate what he called “abusive contracts” with small businesses to ensure “reasonable" price hikes.
Macron spoke to bakers gathered at the presidential palace for a traditional Epiphany kings cake ceremony, underscoring how energy and food prices are intertwined.
“Like you, I’ve had enough of people making excessive profits on the crisis," he said.
The French government has capped natural gas and electricity price hikes to 15% this year for consumers and some very small companies that don't use much energy. But more energy-intensive businesses, like bakeries, aren't covered, leaving some of them facing closure because they can't pay their bills.
While governments have offered relief on high energy bills, central banks are battling inflation by hiking interest rates.
Last month, the European Central Bank raised its benchmark rate by half a point, slowing its record pace of interest rate increases slightly but promising that more hikes are on the way. It matched actions taken by counterparts in the U.S., United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Read more: Record inflation puts the squeeze on Eurozone economies
“The eurozone economy is at best stagnating, and persistently strong core inflation means the ECB will feel duty bound to press on with its tightening cycle for a while yet,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist for Capital Economics.
Warm start to 2023 breaks records in Europe: UN
The unusually warm conditions in Europe that marked the festive season broke records in several countries on the continent, on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the UN weather agency said.
The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) linked the record-breaking heat to widely accepted peer-reviewed scientific data from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicating that the frequency of cold spells and frost days "will decrease."
"Strong declines in glaciers, permafrost, snow cover extent, and snow seasonal duration at high latitudes or altitudes are observed and will continue in a warming world," the IPCC said.
According to the UN agency, New Year temperatures soared above 20 degrees Celsius in many European countries, even in central Europe.
National and many local temperature records for December and January were also broken in several countries, from southern Spain to eastern and northern parts of Europe, the WMO said.
At Spain's Bilbao airport, a reading of 25.1 degrees Celsius on January 1 smashed the previous all-time record established 12 months earlier, by 0.7 degrees Celsius.
Read more: Pope on Christmas: Jesus was poor, so don’t be power-hungry
And in the eastern French city of Besançon, which is usually chilly at this time of year, temperatures hit a new all-time high of 18.6 degrees Celsius on New Year's Day, 1.8 degrees Celsius above the previous record, dating back to January 1918.
In the German city of Dresden, the 1961 New Year's Eve record of 17.7 degrees Celsius was left trailing by the 19.4 degrees Celsius reading taken on December 31, 2022, just as Poland's Warsaw residents saw in the new year with temperatures peaking at 18.9 degrees Celsius, a staggering 5.1 degrees Celsius higher than the previous all-time record for January, from 1993.
Further north, on Denmark's Lolland island, 2023 started with a new high of 12.6 degrees Celsius, overtaking the 12.4 degrees Celsius record set in 2005.
The WMO attributed the warm spell in Europe to a high-pressure zone over the Mediterranean region which encountered an Atlantic low-pressure system.
Their interaction induced a strong south-west flux that brought warm air from north-western Africa to middle latitudes, the UN agency said, adding that this hotter-than-normal air was further warmed when passing the North Atlantic, due to a higher-than-normal sea surface temperature.
Read more: A Christmas season without its traditional glow in Ukraine
Highlighting the influence of warmer sea waters on weather patterns, the WMO noted that in the eastern North Atlantic, sea surface temperature was 1 to 2 degrees Celsius higher than normal, and near the coasts of Iberia, even more.
All this caused record-breaking heat in several European countries on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the WMO said.
The weather extremes experienced in Europe are projected to carry on increasing, the WMO said, as it referenced a recent analysis published with "high confidence" by the IPCC.
"Regardless of future levels of global warming, temperatures will rise in all European areas at a rate exceeding global mean temperature changes, similar to past observations," the IPCC said.
UK saw hottest-ever year in 2022 as Europe's climate warms
Britain had its warmest year on record in 2022, official figures showed Thursday, the latest evidence that climate change is transforming Europe’s weather.
The Met Office weather agency said the provisional annual average temperature in the U.K. was 10.03 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), the highest since comparable records began in 1884. The previous record was 9.88 Celsius (49.8 Fahrenheit) set in 2014.
Met Office scientists said human activity — primarily fossil fuel emissions — has made such warm conditions vastly more likely. Britain's 10 hottest years on record have all been since 2003.
“The results showed that recording 10C in a natural climate would occur around once every 500 years, whereas in our current climate it could be as frequently as once every three to four years,” said Met Office climate attribution scientist Nikos Christidis.
Britain is not alone. France’s average temperature was above 14 Celsius (57.2 Fahrenheit) in 2022, making it the hottest year since weather readings began in 1900. Switzerland's meteorological service said the alpine nation's annual average temperature of 7.4 Celsius (45,3 Fahrenheit) was “by far the highest value since measurements began in 1864.”
Spain also had its hottest year since records started in 1961, according to the national weather agency Aemet, with an average daily temperature of 15.4 Celsius (59.7 Fahrenheit). It said the four hottest years on record for the southern European country have all come since 2015.
Read more: Dangerous heat predicted to hit 3 times more often in future
Last year saw summer drought and heat waves across much of Europe, with the temperature in Britain rising above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for the first time on record. Norway’s Svalbard islands in the Arctic had their warmest summer in more than a century of record-keeping. The archipelago’s average temperature for June, July and August was 7.4 Celsius (45.3 Fahrenheit), the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said.
Autumn brought more heavy rain in parts of Europe, including the mountainous Italian island of Ischia, where downpours in November triggered a massive landslide that pushed cars and buildings into the sea and killed at least a dozen people.
Unlike the U.S. and Canada, which have been hit by bitter cold and snowstorms, much of Europe is experiencing unseasonably warm winter weather.
In Germany, the year ended with the warmest New Year’s Eve on record, with temperatures reaching 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) in the south of the country. Belarus, Belgium, Czechia, Latvia, Poland and the Netherlands all set national record daily highs for Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.
As 2023 begins, many low and medium-altitude ski resorts in the Alps, the Pyrenees and other European ranges are suffering from a lack of snow.
Read more: Weather, climate disasters hit millions, cost billions in 2022: UN
In Bosnia, spring-like weather has foiled even artificial snow — either it’s too warm to make it, or it melts soon after being spat out onto the slopes. Along the slopes in Bjelasnica near Sarajevo on Wednesday, snow accumulation amounted to little more than several white patches on an otherwise grassy landscape of brown and green.