European | Pakistan

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it paused all immigration applications, including green card and US citizenship processing, filed by immigrants from 19 non-European countries, citing concerns over national security and public safety. The pause applies to people from 19 countries that were already subjected to a partial travel ban in June, placing further restrictions on immigration — a core feature of US President Donald Trump’s political platform. The list of countries includes Afghanistan and Somalia. The official memorandum outlining the new policy cites the attack on US National Guard members in Washington last week, in which an Afghan man was arrested as a suspect. One member of the National Guard was killed, and another was critically wounded in the shooting. Trump has also stepped up rhetoric against Somalis in recent days, calling them “garbage” and saying “we don’t want them in our country.” Since returning to the office in January, Trump has aggressively prioritised immigration enforcement,...

Iran’s top security body said on Saturday that action by Britain, France and Germany to reimpose United Nations sanctions will “effectively suspend” its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. “Despite the foreign ministry’s cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency and the presentation of plans to resolve the issue, the actions of European countries will effectively suspend the path of cooperation with the agency,” the Supreme National Security Council said in a televised statement. Britain, France and Germany were among the parties to a 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that gave Iran relief from UN sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities. The three governments say Iran has reneged on its commitments under the deal which has been effectively moribund since Washington pulled out in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term. The UN Security Council voted on Friday, after European pressure, to reimpose the UN sanctions ...

A cyberattack on a provider of check-in and boarding systems has disrupted operations at several major European airports, including London’s Heathrow — the continent’s busiest — causing flight delays and cancellations on Saturday. Collins Aerospace, which provides systems for several airlines at airports globally, is experiencing a technical issue that may cause delays for departing passengers, Heathrow Airport said, having warned of delays. Brussels Airport and Berlin Airport were also affected by the attack, they said in separate statements. RTX, Collins Aerospace’s parent company, said it had become aware of a “cyber-related disruption” to its software at selected airports, without naming them. Electronic check-in affected “The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations,” RTX said in an e-mailed statement, adding that it was working to fix the issue as quickly as possible. The attack has rendered automated systems inoperable, allo...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that Tehran would respond to a decision by France, Britain and Germany to trigger a mechanism reimposing UN sanctions under a moribund 2015 nuclear deal. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond appropriately to this illegal and unjustified action by the three European countries, in order to protect and guarantee its national rights and interests,” Araghchi told his French, British and German counterparts in a phone call, according to a statement from his ministry. He called on the three countries to “appropriately correct this wrong decision in the coming days”. While Araghchi did not specify what retaliatory measures Iran might take, Tehran has previously warned that such a move could lead to the exclusion of the European powers from any future negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme. In a statement, the Iranian foreign ministry said: “This decision by the three European countries will seriously undermine the ongoing process of interaction and coope...

European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Monday visit to Washington to see President Donald Trump in a collective bid to find a way to end to Moscow’s invasion, with the US offering security guarantees for Kyiv. The meeting follows a summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that […]

European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Monday visit to Washington to see United States President Donald Trump in a collective bid to find a way to end Moscow’s invasion, with the US offering security guarantees for Kyiv. The meeting follows a summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that failed to yield any breakthrough on an immediate ceasefire that the US leader had been pushing for. Trump, who pivoted afterwards to say he was now seeking a peace deal, on Sunday posted, “Big progress on Russia, stay tuned!” on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating. Trump’s Russia envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Trump and Putin had agreed in their summit on “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine. But Zelensky, on a Brussels visit hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen today, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees. “What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than P...

Britain, France and Germany have told the United Nations they are ready to reimpose UN-mandated sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme if no diplomatic solution is found by the end of August, according to a joint letter obtained by AFP. The letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council says the three European powers are “committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon” unless Tehran meets the deadline. The foreign ministers from the so-called E3 group threaten to use a “snapback mechanism” that was part of a 2015 international deal with Iran that eased UN Security Council sanctions. Under the deal, which terminates in October, any party to the accord can restore the sanctions. All three have stepped up warnings to Iran about its suspension of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. That came after Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June, partly seeking to destroy its nucl...

Madrid: Spain and seven other European nations on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, warning it would kill large numbers of civilians and force nearly a million Palestinians from their homes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Friday greenlighted plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave […]

Around 2,300 people died of heat-related causes across 12 European cities during the severe heatwave that ended last week, according to a rapid scientific analysis published on Wednesday. The study targeted the 10 days, ending July 2, during which large parts of Western Europe were hit by extreme heat, with temperatures breaching 40 degrees Celsius in Spain and wildfires breaking out in France. Of the 2,300 people estimated to have died during this period, 1,500 deaths were linked to climate change, which made the heatwave more severe, according to the study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Climate change has made it significantly hotter than it would have been, which in turn makes it a lot more dangerous,” said Dr Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London. The study covered 12 cities, including Barcelona, Madrid, London and Milan, where the researchers said climate change had increased heatwave temperatures by up to 4°C. The...

In response to the European Union’s (EU) recent sanctions on Russian media, Moscowa has restricted access to the online platforms of 15 European media organisations. “Brussels and other EU capitals have been repeatedly warned that their bans and ungrounded sanctions against the Russian mass media, as well as other formats of politically motivated repressions will […]

Poles were voting on Sunday in a presidential election that will decide whether Warsaw follows the pro-European path set by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, or shifts in the direction of nationalist admirers of US President Donald Trump. Trump’s return to power has energised eurosceptics across Europe, and Sunday’s ballot will be the biggest test of Tusk’s pro-European vision since he came to power in 2023, ousting the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The election pits Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Tusk’s Civic Coalition, against conservative historian Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by PiS. Trzaskowski has been cast as the frontrunner, likely to face Nawrocki in a run-off, due on June 1, if no candidate wins over 50 per cent. Voting ends on Sunday at 9pm (12am Pakistan Standard Time), with exit polls expected soon afterwards and results trickling in overnight and on Monday. Also competing are far-right candidate Slawomir Mentzen from the Confederation party, Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia of the ...