Europe

US President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet in Switzerland for their first summit, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported on Monday, citing “reliable sources”. An advanced U.S. mission has already arrived in Geneva for that purpose, the newspaper added. Plane spotters reported on Twitter seeing an unusual U.S. cargo …

Several airlines said on Monday they would avoid Belarusian air space after Belarus scrambled a warplane to intercept a Ryanair jetliner and arrest a dissident journalist in an act denounced by Western powers as “state piracy”. The European Union was considering responding to Sunday’s incident by limiting international air traffic …

Sun loungers are out, beach bars are open and rave music is pumping. Hotels and restaurants are greeting visitors hoping to get a head start on summer after more than a year of coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions. Croatia has widely reopened its stunning Adriatic coastline for foreign tourists, becoming …

France’s European affairs minister warned Britain not to play games with special post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland, as fears rise of a summer of violence in the province. Clement Beaune urged London to be “responsible” over the so-called “protocol” for Northern Ireland, which kept it in the EU single …

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair flight headed for Lithuania and carrying a young opposition blogger to land in Belarus on Sunday and detained him on arrival, prompting Lithuania to call for a NATO response. Law enforcers detained activist Roman Protasevich, 26, who had been put on a wanted …

A cable car linking Italy’s Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain in the Alps plunged to the ground. A mountaintop cable car plunged to the ground in northern Italy, killing at least 12 people and sending two children to the hospital, authorities said. The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes tourists and …

Poland will buy 24 armed drones from Turkey, the Polish defense minister said on Saturday, becoming the first NATO member to buy Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Bayraktar TB2 drones, the first of which are due to be delivered next year, will be armed with anti-tank projectiles. Poland will …

The head of France’s armed forces has slammed a UN report into an airstrike in central Mali which killed 19 civilians, saying it was biased and delegitimized the operations of the French-led Barkhane force there. “Very clearly this (report) comprises an attack on the French army, the Barkhane operation (and) …

Hundreds of Greek firefighters battled a forest fire near Athens for a third day on Saturday but brought the main front of the blaze under control as weather conditions improved. The fire, on the Geraneia mountain range, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the capital, is “one of the …

More than 6,500 migrants out of the approximately 8,000 who had entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta earlier this week have been sent back to Morocco, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Friday. Marlaska told the Radio COPE the situation was now “normal” compared with the previous days …

The European Parliament halted on Thursday ratification of a new investment pact with China until Beijing lifts sanctions on EU politicians, deepening a dispute in Sino-European relations and denying EU companies greater access to China. The resolution to freeze ratification passed with 599 votes in favor, 30 votes against, and …

Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged on Thursday that some of the country’s foreign foes dream about biting off pieces of the country’s vast territory, warning that Moscow would “knock their teeth out” if they ever try. In strong remarks during a conference call with officials, the Russian president noted that …

Hungary cannot approve a new European Union trade and development accord with African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries because it would bring more migrants into the bloc, the country’s foreign minister said on Thursday. Budapest’s refusal to ratify the accord with 79 countries, which was agreed by EU negotiators in December, …

Greek authorities have evacuated around 300 people from their homes as a fire, which broke out on Wednesday night near a seaside resort on the Peloponnese peninsula, spread to surrounding villages. No deaths have been reported but police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos told Reuters on Thursday that 300 people had been …

Italian police said they found weapons, Nazi flags, and pictures of dictator Benito Mussolini in the homes of the members of a white supremacist movement who were trying to build a new fascist party. Officers searched the homes of 25 people belonging to the ‘Last Legion’ group on Thursday on …

The Group of Seven is playing a “dangerous game” by making aggressive criticism of the Kremlin because it pushes Russia closer to China, Russia’s ambassador to London Andrei Kelin said on Thursday. G7 foreign ministers this month scolded both China and Russia, casting the Kremlin as malicious and Beijing as …

Facebook, Alphabet unit Google, and other tech giants will have to pledge to do more to curb the monetisation of false information through advertisement placements, according to a European Commission document seen by Reuters. The EU executive also wants smaller social media or search services, private messaging services, ad exchanges, …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are due to hold talks on Wednesday night ahead of a possible presidential summit in Junein an attempt to improve the dire relations between the former Cold War foes. The face-to-face talks on the sidelines of a gathering …

French police have staged a demonstration outside the National Assembly to call on President Emmanuel Macron’s government to protect them against violence and bring tougher punishment for those who attack law enforcement officers. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin was booed by some on Wednesday as he briefly attended the rally in …

European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-EU visitors ahead of the summer tourist season, a move that could open the bloc’s door to all Britons and to vaccinated Americans. Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries approved a European Commission proposal from May 3 to …