Author: EU News

Ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Bangladesh have led to significant scaling back of visas and appointment slots for Bangladeshi nationals seeking to travel to India. Following political unrest and the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, Indian visa centers across Bangladesh were closed indefinitely for security reasons. In September, over 20,000 Bangladeshi passports were returned following the suspension of visa services by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka in the wake of widespread protests. Impact on students and medical tourism Since January, five visa centers in Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna have been operational but only…

  The streets of Maputo were deserted on Monday when Mozambique swore in its new parliament. Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane had called for a three-day strike to protest the result of highly disputed elections. Indeed, two smaller opposition parties boycotted the opening ceremony, saying they did not accept the outcome of the October election. President-elect Daniel Chapo called for calm and unity after months of unrest that have rocked the southern African nation. Mondlane entered Mozambique from self-imposed exile last week after his lawyer was assassinated on October 19. His return sparked confrontations between supporters and police in the capital. He…

It has been nearly a week since the devastating wildfires began raging through southern California, killing at least 24 people and burning an area larger than San Francisco. While the true causes of the blaze remain under investigation, a flood of misinformation regarding the fires and their impact has been unleashed on social media. Noticeably, President-elect Donald Trump was one of those who spread numerous false or misleading claims on the wildfires in LA, many of which went viral after Elon Musk reposted them on his social platform, X. Many users on social media shared numerous pictures and videos allegedly showing the fires,…

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested on Wednesday over insurrection accusations related to his December 3 martial law declaration, investigators said. The Asian country’s anti-corruption agency confirmed Yoon had been detained hours after hundreds of investigators and police officers arrived at his presidential compound to apprehend him. A former prosecutor who led the conservative People Power Party to election victory in 2022, Yoon said he relented to avoid “bloodshed.” “When I saw them break into the security area using firefighting equipment today, I decided to respond to the CIO’s investigation, despite it being an illegal investigation, to prevent unsavory bloodshed,” Yoon…

Months after efforts began to remove people working in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, rescuers removed 36 bodies and 82 survivors from the mine after two days of operations, police said on Tuesday. “All 82 that have been arrested are facing illegal mining, trespassing and contravention of the immigration act charges,” police Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said in a statement. Police are uncertain how many miners remain inside the illegal mine but said it is likely in the hundreds. Miners, many from neighboring countries, entered the shaft near Stilfontein, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, the shaft…

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested on Wednesday over insurrection accusations related to his December 3 martial law declaration, investigators said. The Asian country’s anti-corruption agency confirmed impeached Yoon had been detained hours after the hundreds of investigators and police officers arrived at his presidential compound to apprehend him. A former prosecutor who led the conservative People Power Party to election victory in 2022, Yoon said he relented to avoid “bloodshed.” “When I saw them break into the security area using firefighting equipment today, I decided to respond to the CIO’s investigation, despite it being an illegal investigation, to prevent unsavory…

CCOO, ELA, LAB and UGT have proposed to Confebask the date of February 6 for the constitution of a negotiation table with the aim of reaching an interprofessional agreement that establishes an agreed minimum wage in Euskadi. The aforementioned unions, which have presented their requests separately to the Basque Labor Relations Council (CRL), do not share the figure, which is around 1,600 euros, but they do share the idea of ​​agreeing on their own minimum wage and transferring it to the agreement. The Basque employers’ association has confirmed that it will attend the meeting on February 6. In a statement,…

Spain is planning a bold move to address its housing crisis by introducing a tax of up to 100% on properties purchased by non-EU residents, including those from the UK.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed demands from US President-elect Donald Trump that Germany and other NATO allies increase defense spending to at least 5% of gross domestic product (GDP). “Five percent would be over €200 billion ($204 billion) per year — the federal budget is not even €500 billion,” Scholz said at a campaign event in the western German city of Bielefeld on Monday. “That would only be possible with massive tax increases or massive cuts to many things that are important to us,” he said, insisting that he would not countenance cuts to pensions, local government or transport infrastructure.…

It has been over two months since Donald Trump’s election victory, but he won’t become president until January 20. The reason for the long wait? A quirk of history. Like many aspects of American political life, the November-to-January timeline from election to inauguration outlined in the US Constitution has its roots in historic logistics. It “is somewhat of a historical artifact,” Michael Berkman, a professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, told DW. For over a century, the United States waited until March to inaugurate its president, potentially leaving an administration that was voted out in…

Dangerously high winds are set to return to Los Angeles, threatening efforts to extinguish wildfires that have destroyed neighborhoods and claimed at least 24 lives. “We are not in the clear as of yet,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowle said. “We must not let our guard down,” she added. Dry Santa Ana winds of up to 70 miles (112 kilometers) per hour are predicted to resume on Monday and continue until Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning. Firefighters are working to contain three active blazes in the Los Angeles area…

The PP spokesperson in Parliament, Juan Fernández, stated this Monday that the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, is a “hostage of ERC” after the refusal to agree on the regional budgets communicated yesterday by the independence party. At a press conference, Fernández lamented the “paralysis” of the regional government, which in his opinion plays the “inherited score” of the Pere Aragonès era. “We continue with the same uncertainties with which we ended last year,” he declared. The leader has regretted that ERC is not interested in “entering into a negotiating dynamic” and that, literally, the Catalans have been kidnapped…

Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest on Sunday, demanding the immediate resignation of outgoing President Klaus Iohannis and the reinstatement of the cancelled presidential election.

Croatian voters have re-elected Zoran Milanovic as president, with nearly 75% of the vote in a decisive victory. His opponent, Dragan Primorac, backed by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, managed only 25%—the HDZ’s worst-ever result.

Tanzanian rights activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai was abducted in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Sunday, Amnesty International and her organization reported. Tsehai was grabbed by three armed men in a black Toyota Noah in Nairobi’s Kilimani area, according to Amnesty Kenya. What do we know about Tsehai’s disappearance? Tsehai, who has 1.3 million followers on X, advocates for political reform, freedom of expression, and women’s rights in her country. She is also a fierce critic of Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Change Tanzania, Tsehai’s social movement, wrote on X that they believe her “abductors” are Tanzanian security agents, “operating beyond Tanzania borders to…

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic won reelection for another five-year term on Sunday, near-complete official results showed. Milanovic, nominated by the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), was estimated to have won 74% of the vote, after more than 99% of the ballots were counted. Dragan Primorac, the candidate for the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), secured around 26% of the vote. Croatia held a runoff vote between the two contenders on Sunday after the first round of voting on December 29. Who is Zoran Milanovic? Milanovic was first elected president in 2020. He previously served as prime minister from late 2011 until early 2016. A stalwart of…

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Romania’s capital, Bucharest, on Sunday to protest the Constitutional Court’s decision last month to order that the presidential election be re-run. They demanded that the vote take place and that outgoing centrist President Klaus Iohannis resign immediately. “We demand a return to democracy through the resumption of elections, starting with the second round,” George Simion of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), said. Why did Romania’s top court cancel the first round? The Constitutional Court initially declared the first round outcome as legal, only to surprisingly annul it two days before the runoff was due…

  The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, will propose this Wednesday to social agents an increase in the minimum wage of 50 euros (4.4%), which would reach 1,184 euros per month, with fourteen payments, according to confirmed in an interview in La Vanguardia. This is the highest option proposed by experts, who recommend an increase of 3.4% or 4.4% by 2025, depending on two different calculation methods, that is, increasing the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI). in 39 or 50 euros gross per month, which would rise to 1,173 euros or 1,184 euros gross per month. Díaz…

“Blame Canada!” goes the satirical song from the 1999 animated comedy film “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” in which a mother rallies her small Colorado town to confront youth degeneracy. The song humorously shifts blame to America’s northern neighbor rather than US government policies, parenting failures, or media influence, declaring that “we need to form a full assault  — it’s Canada’s fault.” Decades later, US President-elect Donald Trump appears to be channeling a similar energy, blaming Canada for illegal migration and drug trafficking across the northern border. Weeks after winning a second term in the White House, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian…

  Ethiopia and Somalia renewed their diplomatic relations during a visit of Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud to Addis Ababa on Saturday. Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “agreed to restore and enhance their bilateral relations through full diplomatic representation in their respective capitals.” The two emphasized that regional stability requires “strong cooperation between the two countries based on mutual trust, confidence and respect.”  The restoration of Ethiopia-Somalia diplomatic ties came just one month after the Horn of Africa neighbors reached a peace deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Why were Ethiopia and Somalia at odds? Relations…

The UK Treasury has assured this Saturday that the United Kingdom has closed agreements with China worth 600 million pounds (about 715 million euros) during the Economic and Financial Dialogue being held in Beijing. But the reality according to experts is this was a below average trade deal. The UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves, is visiting the Asian country today on a trip that is highly questioned in her country as it coincides with a moment of crisis in the national economy due to the increase in interest on debt bonds. sovereign. The Chinese do state visits perfectly According to the…

  Under the Digital Services Act, Elon Musk and his social media platform, X, could face heavy penalties should investigators for the European Union find that he manipulated the site’s algorithm in order to influence voters. The DSA was adopted in 2022 to prevent disinformation and other illegal activities online. In July, the European Union found that X had violated multiple tenets of the DSA by not providing access to data to researchers, failure to complay with advertising-transparency requirements, and selling access to its “blue check” verification system in a way that allowed fraudsters to impersonate celebrities and public officials.  On Thursday, Musk…

“Blame Canada!” goes the satirical song from the 1999 animated comedy film “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” where a mother rallies her small Colorado town to confront youth degeneracy. The song humorously shifts blame to America’s northern neighbor rather than United States government policies, parenting failures, or media influence, declaring, “We need to form a full assault  — it’s Canada’s fault.” Decades later, US President-elect Donald Trump appears to be channeling a similar energy, blaming Canada for illegal migration and drug trafficking across the northern border. Weeks after winning a second term in the White House, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports…

The United States and the United Kingdom imposed further sanctions on Russia’s energy sector on Friday in an attempt to curb funding for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US Treasury Department said it was designating two of Russia’s largest oil companies, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy.” The sanctions also apply to 183 vessels that the US government believes are part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of ships allegedly used to evade existing sanctions on the transport of Russian oil. In addition, the measures target specific projects and infrastructure for liquefied natural…

The union of technicians of the Ministry of Finance, Gestha, has assured that almost half of the taxpayers would not have to pay the Inheritance and Donation Tax even with the elimination of the bonuses that the autonomous communities currently grant to this tax, which benefits “a minority of wealthier households.” According to Gestha data based on statistics from the Bank of Spain, half of Spanish households with heads of household between 65 and 74 years old have less than the median wealth, 225,800 euros. Lower figures when the head of the family is 75 years old or older, in…