Act of clemency is needed to promote ‘dialogue, understanding and forgiveness’, caretaker Spanish PM tells parliament

Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has defended the controversial Catalan amnesty law that is set to deliver his socialist party a second term , saying the act of clemency towards hundreds of people involved in the push for regional independence is needed to promote “dialogue, understanding and forgiveness”.

Although Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) was narrowly beaten by the conservative People’s party (PP) in July’s inconclusive snap general election , it has managed to succeed where the PP and its allies in the far-right Vox party failed by cobbling together enough parliamentary support to form a government.

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Christ Mocked by pre-Renaissance artist Cimabue subject to export ban after being found hanging in kitchen

A 13th-century painting found hanging over the kitchen stove of an elderly French woman and later sold for €24m (£21m) at auction has been acquired by the Louvre after a ban on its exportation.

The Paris museum says the pre-Renaissance painting, now one of the oldest works in its collection, will be the centrepiece of an exhibition in 2025 after a four-year effort to keep it in France.

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Robert Fico describes leading broadcasters and newspapers as hostile and says they are ‘unwelcome guests at government office’

Slovakian journalists and international watchdogs have expressed alarm after the new prime minister, Robert Fico, described leading media outlets as hostile and threatened to restrict their access.

Fico, who took over as Slovakia’s leader in October as part of a coalition government led by his populist Smer party, said this week that some of the country’s biggest outlets were not welcome in his office.

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Boeing 747 cargo plane turns back after horse becomes untethered in flight and pilot says ‘We cannot get the horse back secured’

A cargo plane heading for Belgium was forced to return to New York City after a horse escaped from its crate on board.

The horse became loose on the Boeing 747 cargo plane within 30 minutes of the plane’s initial takeoff, according to the audio clips from air traffic control that were reconstructed on YouTube , ABC News reported .

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Petr Aven, a UK-based billionaire who owns a Surrey mansion, is under UK and EU sanctions

He is a billionaire Russian oligarch who has been closely linked to Vladimir Putin for three decades.

And for years Petr Aven also enjoyed the trappings of London high society, as a trustee and donor of the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as owning three multimillion-pound UK properties, including one in the ultra-wealthy Surrey enclave of Virginia Water.

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Unfortunately even her talents cannot save perfunctory tale of a discontented American woman who inherits an Italian crime family

Not even the fierce wattage of Toni Collette’s talent can light up this hokey crime comedy, a kind of wacky mobster spin on the idea of the unhappy American woman finding herself and learning to love again in a luxury Euro-tourist paradise; Mafia Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, perhaps. It’s directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a story idea by French author and film-maker Amanda Sthers, who gave us Madame – another film into which Collette tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to breathe some life.

Here she plays Kristin, an empty-nester whose son has just gone away to college; she is bored and unfulfilled by her job as a big pharma PR, and her husband turns out to be a cheating slimeball. Then she receives news that her Italian grandfather has just died on his Lazio estate bequeathing her full control of his “winery” business. Intrigued and in need of a change of scene, Kristin hops on the next flight to Italy and even at the airport has a flirtatious encounter with a hunky pasta-maker called Lorenzo (Guilio Corso). But when a shootout breaks out at her grandfather’s funeral, Kristin learns the awful truth: she has inherited a crime family.

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Floods force evacuation of homes, schools and town halls in Calais region and in the Alps

Widespread flooding in northern and eastern France has led to thousands of people having to evacuate their waterlogged homes, the collapse of roads and the closure of schools and public buildings.

Record rainfall has caused rivers to break their banks, forcing the government to declare an official state of emergency in hundreds of towns and villages.

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The surprise resurrection of the man who gave us Brexit could be good news for a political scene in need of compromise

It is quite incredible really. David Cameron is back . The former prime minister who gambled with the future of his country by calling the Brexit referendum because he wanted to resolve a dispute within his own party is now entrusted with representing British interests on the world stage.

As a European, it is impossible not to laugh: I did, for several minutes , when news broke of his resurrection. But in spite of the staggering irony of it all, this could actually be good news from the perspective of the UK’s allies in Europe and beyond. Politics is the art of the possible, and every appointment should be weighed against its alternatives. Bearing in mind some of the candidates that Rishi Sunak could have chosen to replace James Cleverly at the Foreign Office, this appointment is good news.

Helene von Bismarck is a Hamburg-based historian specialising in UK-German relations

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Pedro Sánchez manages to secure necessary votes by enlisting support of Catalan and Basque nationalists after months of deadlock

Pedro Sánchez is on the verge of winning congressional backing for a second term as Spain’s prime minister after securing the support of Catalan separatist parties by agreeing to a controversial amnesty for hundreds of people involved in the failed push for regional independence six years ago .

Wednesday’s investiture debate – which will be followed by a vote on Thursday that the socialist leader already has the numbers to win – is expected to bring an end to months of political deadlock following July’s inconclusive snap general election .

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