CA:Europe

British Chambers of Commerce asks for policy ‘reset’ after poll finds companies want greater flexibility

Many exporters are still struggling with post-Brexit trading rules, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has said, as it urges the government to press ahead with an EU “reset” in the new year.

In a survey of more than 1,000 of its member companies, the BCC found just 15% said the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) with the EU, signed by Boris Johnson on Christmas Eve 2020, had helped them to grow sales with the EU.

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Thousands in Germany mourn five killed in attack while far-right protesters in black balaclavas gather for rally

Police in Germany have said a man suspected of killing at least five people and injuring hundreds more after a car was driven at speed through a crowded Christmas market faces charges of murder and attempted murder.

The suspect, named by German media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006, was remanded in custody late on Saturday after the attack in the central town of Magdeburg on Friday night.

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German media say toddler among five dead, with 205 people injured

Bild, German public-service broadcaster ARD and other media are reporting that four people were killed and 41 were seriously injured in the attack.

In addition, 86 people were treated with significant injuries in hospital, while 78 people suffered light injuries.

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Police arrest Saudi Arabian doctor as suspect for attack, according to German state premier

• Full report: car ploughs into crowd at Christmas market

Germany’s deputy chancellor, Robert Habeck, has reacted to the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, saying it was “horrible news”.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones,” he wrote on X.

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One killed in attack that reportedly used Kinzhal and Iskander missiles against the Ukrainian capital

The Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces had taken control of two more settlements in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Uspenivka and Novopustynka, Reuters reported, citing Russian state news agency RIA.

Russia has been moving toward the strategic city of Pokrovsk, with its forces getting to within 3km (1.9 miles) of it last week. Uspenivka is about 20km of Pokrovsk and Novopustynka is about 16km away from the city.

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Gisèle Pelicot addresses other sexual violence victims after the verdicts, saying outside court: ‘We share the same fight’

• Who are the men convicted over rape and assault?
• Cheers, chants and hope: supporters thank Gisèle Pelicot

Gisèle Pelicot has paid tribute to sexual violence victims still fighting for recognition in society after her ex-husband and 50 other men were found guilty in the biggest rape trial in French history.

As political leaders hailed the trial as a turning point in the battle against rape culture and victim shaming, Pelicot, 72, said on Thursday that she had never regretted her decision to waive her right to anonymity in order to hold the trial in public.

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Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says ambassador to Ukraine to return to Kyiv in January and Russia war affects security of Indo-Pacific

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Australia’s support for Ukraine will surpass $1.5bn as it offers more aid and reveals an embassy will reopen in the war-torn country for the first time since 2022.

The ambassador to Ukraine, Paul Lehmann, and the deputy head of mission will return to Kyiv in January, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said from the nation’s capital on Thursday.

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The 29-year-old had been recruited by Ukrainian special services, Moscow says

Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday that arms control was now a thing of the past due to the lack of trust between Russia and the West.

Gerasimov said Russia had seen increased activity by the US-led Nato military alliance near Russia’s borders.

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Lt Gen Igor Kirillov killed along with his deputy after device attached to escooter exploded

• Killing of Russian general cements SBU’s reputation for abrupt vengeance

A senior Russian general has died after an explosive device hidden in an electric scooter detonated outside an apartment building in Moscow, in an attack claimed by Ukraine that marks one of the boldest targeted assassinations of a senior military official since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, the head of the military’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit, was killed along with his assistant when the blast went off as the two men left a building in a residential area in south-east Moscow on Tuesday.

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Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed outside an apartment after a device inside a scooter detonated

Russia is boosting its ballistic arsenal with new strategic missile systems, plans maximum-range launches and may increase testing in response to growing external threats, a senior Russian military commander said on Monday.

In a clear warning that Russia will respond if it deems its security is threatened, Sergei Karakayev, the commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, said the country plans maximum-range test launches as part of testing new systems, Reuters reported.

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Prime minister tells Joint Expeditionary Force conference in Estonia that Ukraine requires ‘all the capability it can get’

Keir Starmer is to visit British troops serving on Russia’s border after saying that Ukraine will require more funding and capability.

The prime minister was speaking at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) conference in Estonia, where he met leaders of other Baltic states.

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Chancellor triggered path to elections, due to take place on 23 February, by firing finance minister Christian Lindner last month

Scholz can expect to lose today’s vote, touching off the planned course of events. However speculation has been rife that the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party could try to torpedo the drive for a new election in a bid to create chaos. If enough AfD MPs voted for Scholz in the confidence vote, it could prop up his minority government against its will. To prevent this, the Bundestag is requiring lawmakers to vote by name thus leaving each on the record with their stated preference. And the parliamentary group leaders of the Greens, junior partners in the government, have advised their members to abstain while the centre-right CDU/CSU and the FDP will vote against Scholz, thus virtually ensuring he won’t gain a majority.

Scholz, who is deeply unpopular, will begin the session at 1pm CET with a short speech presenting his reasons for calling the confidence motion. He will be the fifth chancellor to use the measure as laid out in Article 68 of Germany’s Basic Law since the second world war – Angela Merkel was a rare exception in never using it despite her 16 years in power through many a crisis. About 90 minutes of debate will follow.

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Police investigating whether suspect had workplace dispute with firms where three of victims worked

French police are still trying to establish the motive for five murders that were committed in the space of less than two hours near the northern port city of Dunkirk on Saturday afternoon.

A man who handed himself into police later the same day, claiming to be responsible for all five fatal shootings, has no criminal record and was not known to police or the courts, prosecutors said on Sunday.

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As they confront a marauding Trump, trade tensions with China and their own upheavals, the bloc’s two biggest countries are at a crossroads

“When France and Germany advance, all Europe advances. When they don’t, it grinds to a halt” was how former French president Jacques Chirac put it almost a quarter of a century ago at one of the periodic love-ins between the EU’s two biggest member states.

So what would Chirac, who died in 2019, make of the current condition of the famed Franco-German engine which, since the bloc’s inception, has powered so much of the postwar European project? It looks not so much faltering as comprehensively bust.

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