Europe

Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a roughly 400 million-euro ($472 million) package of immediate aid for victims of last week’s floods and vowed to get started quickly on rebuilding the devastated areas. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said that the package, financed half by the federal government and half by Germany’s …

Hundreds of undocumented immigrants, on hunger strike in Brussels for the last two months to demand residence rights, have begun refusing water, putting themselves close to death and the Belgian government in danger of collapse. Around 400 migrants, many of whom have been in Belgium for years, are already emaciated …

Where’s your health pass? Visitors heading to museums, cinemas, or swimming pools in France will be denied entry from Wednesday if they cannot show the document that proves they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have had a recent negative test. Summary| Health pass needed for cinemas, museums from Wednesday …

The Moroccan government used Israeli malware to spy on French President Emmanuel Macron’s phone calls, Le Monde has reported. More than a dozen other French politicians were reportedly targeted in a scheme denied by Morocco. Hours after Paris prosecutors launched an investigation into allegations that Morocco’s intelligence agencies used Israeli …

German authorities faced pressure on Tuesday to set aside longstanding privacy concerns and send mobile phone alerts directly to people in potential disaster zones following the devastation wrought by last week’s catastrophic floods. Unlike many other countries, including Japan, Israel and New Zealand, Germany has no way of sending text …

Greek authorities on the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos say they are drawing up a criminal case, including on charges of espionage, against 10 people, all foreign nationals, for allegedly helping migrants enter the country illegally. Police in Lesbos said on Monday the investigation had been ongoing for several months …

A Norwegian man who went to extreme lengths to illegally milk the country’s Covid relief program has been nabbed by authorities, but only after he used hundreds of stolen identities as part of his massive fraud scheme. The 35-year-old suspect has been accused of collecting around 10 million Norwegian krone …

With a maximum range of 600 km, the latest missile weapon system carried out live-fire exercises to hit a high-speed ballistic target at Kapustin Yar training ground, Russian defence ministry says. Russia said it had successfully test-fired its new S-500 air defence missile systems at a southern training range and …

Russia on Tuesday released what is thought to be the first footage of its advanced new S-500 surface-to-air missile system in action, a weapon it hopes will beef up its own defences and one day become an export best seller. Its predecessor, the S-400 system, has become a source of …

A French Mirage 2000 jet has crashed in northern Mali due to a technical problem, a spokesman for the French army told Reuters on Tuesday. Colonel Pascal Ianni also said that the two pilots involved in the crash were safe.

Britain’s Brexit minister David Frost will make a statement to parliament on the Northern Ireland Protocol on Wednesday, parliamentary authorities said on Tuesday. The protocol was agreed by Britain and the European Union as part of a 2020 Brexit deal but has not been fully implemented yet and Britain says …

Sirens are set to wail before streets fall silent on Tuesday in Belgium as the country holds a day of mourning for the victims of the devastating floods that left nearly 200 dead in western Europe. Heavy rains last week sent torrents of floodwaters sweeping through towns and villages, mostly …

A tourist area in Spain’s resort city of Marbella turned into a scene of horror as a car veered into a pedestrian area, plowing through sidewalk cafes and reportedly injuring about a dozen people. Graphic footage from Monday’s crash site shows wounded people along the sidewalk, overturned chairs and tables, …

Climate change has dramatically altered the Swiss Alp landscape — at a quicker pace than expected — as melting glaciers have created more than 1,000 new lakes across the mountains, a study published Monday showed. The inventory of Swiss Glacial lakes showed that almost 1,200 new lakes have formed in …

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France and South Pacific nations would launch a South Pacific coastguard network to counter “predatory” behavior, which an adviser said was aimed at illegal fishing. The United States and allies including France, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, are actively expanding their activity in …

The Danish cartoonist behind a controversial 2006 drawing of the Prophet Mohammed has died. Kurt Westergaard passed away at the age of 86 after a long illness, Danish daily Berlingske reports. Westergaard’s 2006 satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper where he had worked since the …

Britain will threaten this week to deviate from the Brexit deal unless the European Union shows more flexibility over Northern Ireland, one UK, and three EU sources told Reuters. David Frost, the British minister who leads Brexit negotiations, is preparing to announce a significant potential change on the protocol that …

Russia said on Monday it had successfully tested a Tsirkon(Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world. The defence ministry said in a statement that the missile had been fired from the Admiral …

This week, in what Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini called a “historic” move, Italy’s cabinet of ministers approved a ban on ships weighing more than 25,000 metric tons or longer than 180 meters (590 feet) entering the lagoon basin near Venice’s St. Mark’s Square, the narrow Giudecca Canal and the …

Some 114,000 people have rallied across France to denounce what they see as government intrusion into their private lives. The protests were in response to the rollout of Covid-19 certificates and mandatory vaccination plans. Thousands-strong protests took place in major French cities on Saturday, with a total of 137 protest …