Europe

French maritime officials rescued 126 migrants attempting to cross the Channel to Britain as tensions escalated over record arrivals on England’s southern coast. At least 14,100 people have now crossed the Channel to the UK on small boats this year, according to Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency — some …

Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Pakistan will hold joint military drills from Sept. 12-20 in Baku, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, the first such drills between the three countries. The goal of the “Three Brothers – 2021” exercises is to improve cooperation between their special forces and to share knowledge and …

Denmark’s high vaccination rate has enabled the Scandinavian country to become one of the first European Union nations to lift all domestic restrictions. The return to normality has been gradual, but as of Friday, the digital pass — proof of having been vaccinated — is no longer required when entering …

Thousands of police were deployed in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki Saturday ahead of protests during a policy speech by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who seeks to repair political damage from summer wildfires. Halfway through his four-year term, Mitsotakis has seen his conservative party’s ratings flag after wildfires destroyed over 100,000 …

Three people died, including an 11-year-old girl, after a gas explosion caused a two-storey apartment building to partially collapse in a Russian village early on Saturday, head of the Lipetsk region Igor Artamonov said. Video footage showed major structural damage to the building in Solidarnost, a village 400 km (250 …

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has hailed the recent Baghdad conference, which aimed at promoting regional de-escalation and dialog, as an “important diplomatic achievement,” said Iraq is key to promoting stability between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In a blog post published on the website of the European External Action …

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday an all-out war with Russia was a possibility, to which Moscow responded by saying he was “divorced from reality.” Asked at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) summit on the possibility of war with Russia he said: “I think it may happen. It’s the …

The European Union rejected a British demand to renegotiate their deal governing the trading position of Northern Ireland, saying that to so would only bring instability and uncertainty. European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who oversees EU relations with post-Brexit Britain, said on Friday that the Northern Ireland protocol needed to …

Unusually strong winds and high late-summer temperatures hindered efforts on Friday to tame a wildfire near a popular resort in southern Spain that has forced over 1,000 people out of their homes and killed an emergency worker. Since erupting on Wednesday evening, the blaze has burned through around 3,600 hectares …

A record amount of rain – the equivalent of two months’ rainfall in three hours – fell on Wednesday evening in the city of Agen in southwestern France, with streets turning into rivers, cars submerged and houses flooded. In some parts of Agen, in France’s Lot-et-Garonne region, there were as …

German prosecutors said on Thursday they had seized documents at the finance and justice ministries as part of an investigation into possible obstruction of justice by a government agency that is responsible for investigating money laundering. Prosecutors said in a statement they had been investigating the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) …

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Thursday that France would not accept Britain violating international maritime law or “financial blackmail” as London steps up efforts to prevent migrants crossing the Channel. “France will not accept any practice that breaks maritime law, nor any financial blackmail,” Darmanin wrote on Twitter. “Britain’s …

Italian police warned on Thursday that anti-vaccine campaigners had called for armed attacks during planned anti-government protests this weekend and that eight people were being investigated for incitement to crime. A police statement said searches had been conducted in six Italian provinces, including Milan, Rome, and Venice, and that the …

At least 10 people have been killed in a fire that engulfed a modular Covid-19 hospital in the town of Tetovo, North Macedonia. Reports indicate that the blaze erupted after an explosion rocked the building. The fire was extinguished after a few hours.It was unclear how many patients were in …

France will make access to birth control free for women aged up to 25 years old from January 1 onwards, in a new measure that will cost the state 21 million euros ($24.8 million) per year, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday. The policy announcement comes as President …

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will announce a bid to become France’s first woman president on Sunday, joining a growing list of challengers to incumbent Emmanuel Macron, several MPs from her Socialist party told AFP. Hidalgo’s intention to seek France’s highest office has been an open secret for months. On Tuesday, …

The European Union on Wednesday said the “caretaker” government unveiled by the Taliban in Afghanistan failed to honor vows from the new rulers to include different groups. “Upon initial analysis of the names announced, it does not look like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of the rich ethnic …

Germany’s foreign minister has responded skeptically to the Taliban’s announcement of an interim government line-up for Afghanistan. Heiko Maas released a statement on Wednesday, a day after the Taliban announced an all-male interim government. The Cabinet is stacked with veterans of their hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year …

Russia’s Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev died during a training exercise in the Arctic, the RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying on Wednesday. The 55-year-old official, who had headed the high-profile emergencies ministry since 2018, died while saving someone’s life, it said without providing further details. “… Zinichev died …

Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam says in court that he is a soldier of ISIS, Reuters reports. A court trial began on Wednesday into the November 2015 terrorist attacks on Paris, which left some 130 people killed and hundreds wounded when gunmen with suicide vests targeted six bars and restaurants, the …