List of All Articles with Tag 'europe'

Climate tech investments have dipped this year, but a new fund with more than $1 billion to spend

A former Austrian minister who announced recently that she was moving to Russia to lead a think tank, reportedly flew in her ponies to Moscow on a military plane. Karin Kneissl will move to St Petersburg to work at the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues [GORKI], she told the Russian TASS news agency recently. Last week Ms Kneissl brought two of her ponies to St Petersburg on a military aircraft from the Russian air base at Hmeimim in Syria following a diversion from its intended mission of transporting troops. The Insider reported that Fighterbomber Z-channel confirmed that an Il-76 military transport aircraft was used to carry the animals. Ms Kneissl, 58, received a lot of notoriety for inviting Russian presidentVladimir Putin to her wedding in 2018. She co-founded the GORKI centre which she set up with St Petersburg University in June to “help define the policies for the Russian Federation” with a focus on the Near and Middle East. She said: “Since there is a lot of work and it requires a lot of attention, I can’t do it in passing, I decided to move to St Petersburg for this work.” It was reported that the Russian aircraft used to bring her two ponies belonged to the 224th flight detachment of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation which in May came under US and Ukrainian sanctions for transporting equipment and mercenaries of the Wagner Group. Ms Kneissl – who is a former foreign minister – relocated to France in September 2020 and took on the role of a guest columnist for Russia Today, an outlet often perceived as a propagandistic mouthpiece of the Kremlin. Her invitation to Mr Putin drew widespread criticism. It occurred just months after several EU countries, excluding Austria, had expelled numerous Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. On Wednesday, the former Austrian minister expressed shock over her move to Russia turning “political”. In a Telegram post, she said that she had moved her “books, clothes and ponies from Marseille to Beirut via DHL” in June 2022. Ms Kneissl had been living in Lebanon after leaving Austria in 2020 amidst a political scandal. However, Lebanon served as a temporary arrangement, she explained, and she would travel to Russia every six weeks for work. “Due to sanctions there are neither flights nor DHL [for her move to Russia],” she wrote. “I therefore had the option of accompanying a Russian transport flight from Syria to Russia, for which I am very grateful.” Ms Kneissl held the position of Austrian foreign affairs minister from 2017 to 2019. Meanwhile, the website of the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the Leningrad Region stated on 9 September that veterinarians carried out “all the necessary measures when importing animals into the territory of the Russian Federation”. “Specialists conducted a clinical examination of the ponies, took blood samples, and also quarantined them. Domestic horses are healthy”. Read More A flotilla of migrant boats from Tunisia overwhelms an Italian island and tests Meloni's policy Complex Napoleon: how Bonaparte’s unrivalled ambition built an empire and left a tangled legacy Weapons, spy satellites and nuclear ambitions: what we learned from Putin’s summit with Kim Jong-un in Russia The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Greenland’s police have opened a probe into how a luxury cruise ship got stuck in the mud in

A Russian pilot fired two missiles towards an RAF surveillance plane after mistakenly believing he had permission to fire. Following the incident last September, Russia claimed it had been caused by a “technical malfunction” with the UK’s Ministry of Defence publicly accepting their explanation. However, intercepted communications reveal that one of the Russian pilots believed he had been given permission to target the aircraft following an ambiguous command from a Russian ground station. The two Russian SU-27 fighter jets had encountered the RAF plane, which was carrying a crew of up to 30 people, as it was flying a surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace on 29 September. Three Western defence sources with knowledge of the incident have told the BBC that the two Russian pilots received words to the effect of “you have the target”. This prompted one of the pilots to release an air-to-air missile, which successfully launched but failed to strike its target. A row then broke out between the two Russian pilots, as the second did not believe they had been given permission to fire. However, a second missile was released but simply fell from the wing - suggesting the launch was aborted or the weapon malfunctioned. As the Rivet Joint is loaded with sensors to intercept communications, the RAF crew would have been able to listen in to the incident which could have resulted in their own deaths. After the Russian Ministry of Defence called it a “technical malfunction”, the UK government confirmed the incident had taken place. In a statement to MPs on 20 October, the former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace described it as a “potentially dangerous engagement”. However, he added: "We do not consider this incident to constitute a deliberate escalation on the part of the Russians, and our analysis concurs that it was due to a malfunction." An intelligence leak, published online by US airman Jack Teixera, revealed that the US miliary spoke of the incident as a “near shoot-down”. “The incident was far more serious than originally portrayed and could have amounted to an act of war,” the New York Times reported. The MoD has now told the BBC that “this incident is a stark reminder of the potential consequences of Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine.” Read More South Korea expresses 'concern and regret' over military cooperation talks between Kim and Putin What is a Storm Shadow cruise missile? Weapons, spy satellites and nuclear ambitions: what we learned from Putin’s summit with Kim Jong-un in Russia The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Sweden’s core inflation rate declined more than expected in August, providing some relief to the country’s central bank

John Lewis Partnership Plc has pushed back its plan to be profitable by two years as stubbornly high

Ukraine has targeted a Russian navy ship in the Black Sea using a barrage of sea drones, according to Russia. Another 11 drones were shot down by Russian air defences over Crimea, Moscow said. If confirmed it would mean a second day of major operations by Ukraine against Russian military targets in occupied Crimea. Russia suspended traffic on Thursday morning on the bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland, a move it has typically taken in the past due to incoming attacks by Ukraine. Yesterday Ukraine launched its largest attack on the Crimean port city of Sevastopol since the start of the war, with military sources saying British Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used. Elsewhere, NATO member Romania has found new fragments of a drone deemed similar to those used by the Russian army near its border with war-torn Ukraine, in the third such finding in a week, defence officials said. Read More What is a Storm Shadow cruise missile? North Korea fires two missiles into the sea as Kim Jong Un travels in Russia for meeting with Putin ‘My body was burning’: Russian journalist’s horror journey in grips of suspected poisoning Putin’s main Black Sea shipyard up in flames as Ukraine and Russia exchange air strikes

China lashed out at the European Union’s investigation into electric vehicle subsidies, saying the move will harm relations,

European natural gas prices held gains as escalating strikes in Australia add to concerns about supply disruptions from

TotalEnergies SE is launching a “massive” green hydrogen tender to reduce the carbon emissions of its six European

Singapore’s approach to crypto became more conservative after the collapse of FTX but the island remains crypto friendly

Ukraine has targeted a Russian navy ship in the Black Sea using a barrage of sea drones, according to Russia. Another 11 drones were shot down by Russian air defences over Crimea, Moscow said. If confirmed it would mean a second day of major operations by Ukraine against Russian military targets in occupied Crimea. Russia suspended traffic on Thursday morning on the bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland, a move it has typically taken in the past due to incoming attacks by Ukraine. Yesterday Ukraine launched its largest attack on the Crimean port city of Sevastopol since the start of the war, with military sources saying British Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used. A Russian submarine and landing ship were hit in the attack, a Ukrainian spy agency official said, without comments on “the means (used) for the strike”. Read More What is a Storm Shadow cruise missile? North Korea fires two missiles into the sea as Kim Jong Un travels in Russia for meeting with Putin ‘My body was burning’: Russian journalist’s horror journey in grips of suspected poisoning Putin’s main Black Sea shipyard up in flames as Ukraine and Russia exchange air strikes