Europe

According to the French president, Paris and London are submitting a draft resolution to the UN to establish a safe zone in Kabul to allow humanitarian operations to continue in Afghanistan. On Sunday morning, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a plan to establish a “safe zone” in Kabul, the capital …

Protesters have taken to the streets in cities across France and in Berlin, Germany, to express their opposition to the government-imposed COVID-19 regulations. The French Interior Ministry announced that approximately 158,580 protesters took part in the rallies for the 7th consecutive weekend in cities around France on Saturday. Media reported …

The campaign over who will replace German Chancellor Angela Merkel heated up on Sunday after an opinion poll showed the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) opening up a bigger lead over Merkel’s conservatives. Support for the SPD rose two points from last week to 24%, their highest result in four years …

Police tussled with protesters as thousands of people marched through Berlin on Saturday chanting slogans and waving banners against COVID-19 restrictions. Some demonstrators tried to get past barricades to the government district around the Reichstag parliament building and clashed with officers, police said. Four officers were injured, the Berliner Zeitung …

Italy said it has taken in the largest number of Afghans fleeing the war-ravaged country following the Taliban takeover, vowing “not to abandon” vulnerable groups after airlift evacuations end. Western nations are scrambling to get their citizens out of Kabul airport ahead of an August 31 deadline, along with Afghan …

Around 350 migrants tried to scale the fence from Morocco into Spain’s Melilla enclave before dawn on Saturday but none managed to get across, a Spanish government spokesman said. Spanish border forces had been alerted at around 5:30 am by their Moroccan counterparts that “a group of 350 sub-Saharan Africans” …

An Italian economy undersecretary has resigned after causing an uproar by saying a park in his hometown should be renamed after the brother of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Claudio Durigon, a member of the right-wing League, said earlier this month his party was committed to restoring the original name of …

Danish lawmakers on Friday voted through an emergency law that will effectively end a strike among more than 6,000 nurses over pay which has postponed tens of thousands of operations and other treatments. More than a tenth of Denmark’s nurses went on strike in mid-June after union members voted against …

Montenegro police said on Friday they had seized more than a tonne of cocaine, their biggest ever drug bust, concealed in a shipment of bananas, and that two people were arrested. The raid was carried out in Mojanovici, a suburb of the capital Podgorica in the tiny Adriatic country, the …

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, said on Thursday he would participate in his center-right camp’s probable primaries for next year’s French presidential election, joining an already crowded field of candidates. “In these dark times, I took the decision to run for the French presidency, to be president …

The Kremlin says Russia has conditioned the recognition of the Taliban on how the group treats the Afghan population and Russian diplomats following the militants’ shock seizure of the country. “We think that the Taliban’s dominance, the de facto rise to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan and those taking …

The Russian foreign minister says the current state of the relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) is “deplorable,” regretting the fact that the bloc’s policy is aimed at restraining Moscow. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remark at a joint press conference with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, …

With weeks until Germany’s vote, none of the hopeful candidates are proving as popular as the outgoing chancellor. With just a month to go until Germans head to the ballot box to vote in federal elections, the race to succeed Angela Merkel and form the next government is headed for …

Ukrainian police detained an unidentified man who on Thursday threw a Molotov cocktail at the door of the office of the Ombudsman for human rights in central Kyiv, the Ombudsman said. A video, issued by local television, shows fire engulfing the door and steps leading to the office. “Thanks to …

Afghan forces shot into the air to disperse crowds near Kabul airport on Thursday and did not fire at an Italian military transport plane, a government source said, quoting intelligence reports. Earlier, a defence source said the C-130 transporter, carrying almost 100 Afghan civilians, had come under attack minutes after …

Russia on Thursday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll as the country struggles with the aggressive delta variant and slowing vaccination rates. A government tally reported 820 fatalities over the past 24 hours and 19,630 new cases. Russia, the fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of cases, …

The European Court of Human Rights asked the Polish and Latvian governments on Wednesday to intervene to help migrants camped on the Belarus border. The fate of the migrants has become part of a broader dispute between the European Union and Belarus and groups such as Polish refugee charity Ocalenie …

Russia is pushing forward with plans to modernize its navy using cutting-edge technology, with President Vladimir Putin revealing that several new warships and nuclear submarines are in the pipeline. Delivering a speech through video conference as part of the Army 2021 expo from the Patriot Park outside Moscow on Monday, …

Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges the international forum to back Kyiv in its bid to overturn the 2014 seizure of Black Sea peninsula. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to do all he can to recover the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula and urged international allies to support the effort. Speaking on Monday at …

Earlier reports suggested that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will personally ask US President Joe Biden to prolong the withdrawal deadline past August 31 France and Germany intend to fight to prolong the deadline for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan during the G7 online meeting, CNN reported Monday …