BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande called Monday for a “unified” response to the worst refugee crisis to hit the EU since World War II.
“We must put in place a unified system for the right to asylum,” Hollande said in a brief statement ahead of talks, calling the influx from the world’s crisis zones “an exceptional situation that will last for some time.”
Merkel, whose country expects a record 800,000 asylum applications this year, said Germany and France also wanted all EU members to conform with existing refugee policies governing the bloc “as quickly as possible.”
The German leader said she and Hollande were also in agreement that the EU must draw up a “unified” list of safe countries of origin to which asylum-seekers arriving in the bloc would be quickly returned.
Germany has been pushing for such a policy given the large portion of its asylum-seekers — 40 percent — coming from the Balkans.
Berlin argues that to help those from war zones such as Syria, Iraq and some regions of Africa, it needs to be able to filter out “economic migrants” more quickly.
Merkel reiterated that registration centers must be set up at the first ports of call in Greece and Italy to be administered and staffed by the EU as a whole by the end of the year.
“We cannot tolerate a delay,” she said.
Hollande underlined France’s “solidarity” with Germany in calling for a “fair distribution of asylum-seekers” within Europe as well as “the dignified return of people entering illegally.”
“There are moments in European history in which we face an exceptional situation — today, it is an exceptional situation but an exceptional situation that will last for some time.”
At least 2,000 more migrants entered Serbia overnight from Macedonia, which has declared a state of emergency over the massive numbers pressing into the country from the Greek border.
They are trying to reach Hungary, a member of the EU’s open-border Schengen agreement, which has already registered over 100,000 asylum seekers this year and plans to finish its anti-migrant fence on the Serbian border by the end of August.
Hours before the talks with French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned “vile” violent protests against refugees, as anti-migrant sentiment reared its head over the weekend in the eastern city of Heidenau.
“The chancellor and the entire government condemn the violent rampages and the aggressively xenophobic atmosphere in the strongest terms,” Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters after the clashes between police and far-right thugs protesting the opening of a new center for refugees.
“It is vile how right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis try to spread their hollow, hateful messages. Those who act like the aggressors of Heidenau place themselves far outside the law,” he said.
EU border agency Frontex said last week that a record 107,000 migrants were at the bloc’s borders last month, with 20,800 arriving in Greece last week alone.
With many seeking to cross into Macedonia from Greece, Skopje closed the border for three days and police used stun grenades and batons to stop hundreds of refugees trying to break through barbed wire fencing, before apparently deciding to let everyone enter.
Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz, who had traveled to the Macedonia-Greece border, called for an urgent new strategy to deal with the crisis.
“It’s a humanitarian disaster, a disaster for the European Union as a whole, and there is a pressing need for us to focus on the situation in the western Balkans,” said Kurz.
In Rome, Italian officials said the coast guard had rescued 4,400 migrants from 22 boats in the Mediterranean on Saturday alone in what was understood to be the highest daily figure in years.
“There has to be a new impetus so that what has been decided is implemented,” a source in the French presidency said, referring to EU decisions taken in June to tackle the crisis.
“The situation is not resolving itself,” the source said, adding that the decisions made by the EU “are not sufficient, not quick enough and not up to the task.”
With asylum-seekers coming not just from war zones such as Syria but also from countries without military conflict in southeastern Europe, including Albania, Serbia and Kosovo, calls are mounting for a more unified approach in dealing with the influx.
France and Germany are both urging Brussels to compile a list of countries whose nationals would not be considered asylum-seekers except in exceptional personal circumstances.
Merkel is also traveling Thursday to Vienna, where she will meet with leaders of Balkan states including Albania and Kosovo to find out why “so many thousands of people are coming from these countries,” according to Seibert.
France’s and Germany’s leaders will try to help fast-track the setting up of reception centers in overwhelmed Greece and Italy — two countries that have borne the brunt of the crisis — to help identify asylum-seekers and illegal migrants.
“As long as these reception centers are not there and there is no internal solidarity within the EU, the return of migrants — which will dissuade further new arrivals — will not happen,” the French source added.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has warned that the deepening crisis could pose a major threat to the “soul” of Europe.
“On immigration, Europe is in danger of displaying the worst of itself: selfishness, haphazard decision-making and rows between member states,” Gentiloni told Il Messaggero.
Beyond the migrant crisis, Merkel and Hollande will later Monday tackle another issue pressing at the EU’s eastern flank — the Ukraine conflict.
The talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko come amid a resurgence of violence in the former Soviet state.
Hours ahead of the talks, Poroshenko accused Russia of sending three military convoys over the border into the separatist-controlled east.
Merkel, Hollande urge ‘unified’ response to EU refugee crisis
Merkel, Hollande urge ‘unified’ response to EU refugee crisis
Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘war crime’ with military hospital strike
- Ukrainian army statement said among the casualties were military personnel undergoing treatment at the medical center
- Moscow has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire, stepping up instead its offensive
KYIV: Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of committing a “war crime” during a massive attack on the city of Kharkiv, which included strikes on a military hospital that wounded personnel undergoing treatment.
“The hospital building and nearby residential buildings were damaged by a Shahed drone,” the Ukrainian army said in a statement.
“According to preliminary reports, there are casualties among the military personnel who were undergoing treatment at the medical center,” it added.
Kyiv does not typically reveal data on military casualties and did not say how many soldiers were wounded.
It accused Russia of having carried out a “war crime” and “violating the norms of international humanitarian law.”
The Ukrainian emergency services said the “massive attack” on the northeastern city also destroyed residential and office buildings.
Governor Oleg Synegubov said two people were killed: a 67-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman. Another 25 people were wounded, including children, he added.
The latest deadly strikes on Kharkiv come as US President Donald Trump’s administration pushes for a speedy end to the more than three-year war, holding talks with both Russia and Ukraine.
Moscow has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire, while Ukraine has accused Russia of dragging out talks with no intention of halting its offensive.
According to Kyiv, a ceasefire agreeing to halt strikes in the Black Sea came into effect last week, but the Kremlin said the agreement will come into force only after the lifting of restrictions on its agriculture sector.
The science behind the powerful earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand
SINGAPORE: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.7 centered in the Sagaing region near the Myanmar city of Mandalay caused extensive damage in that country and also shook neighboring Thailand on Friday.
How vulnerable is Myanmar to earthquakes?
Myanmar lies on the boundary between two tectonic plates and is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, although large and destructive earthquakes have been relatively rare in the Sagaing region.
“The plate boundary between the India Plate and Eurasia Plate runs approximately north-south, cutting through the middle of the country,” said Joanna Faure Walker, a professor and earthquake expert at University College London.
She said the plates move past each other horizontally at different speeds. While this causes “strike slip” quakes that are normally less powerful than those seen in “subduction zones” like Sumatra, where one plate slides under another, they can still reach magnitudes of 7 to 8.
Why was Friday’s quake so damaging?
Sagaing has been hit by several quakes in recent years, with a 6.8 magnitude event causing at least 26 deaths and dozens of injuries in late 2012.
But Friday’s event was “probably the biggest” to hit Myanmar’s mainland in three quarters of a century, said Bill McGuire, another earthquake expert at UCL.
Roger Musson, honorary research fellow at the British Geological Survey, told Reuters that the shallow depth of the quake meant the damage would be more severe. The quake’s epicenter was at a depth of just 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey.
“This is very damaging because it has occurred at a shallow depth, so the shockwaves are not dissipated as they go from the focus of the earthquake up to the surface. The buildings received the full force of the shaking.”
“It’s important not to be focused on epicenters because the seismic waves don’t radiate out from the epicenter — they radiate out from the whole line of the fault,” he added.
How prepared was Myanmar?
The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program said on Friday that fatalities could be between 10,000 and 100,000 people, and the economic impact could be as high as 70 percent of Myanmar’s GDP.
Musson said such forecasts are based on data from past earthquakes and on Myanmar’s size, location and overall quake readiness.
The relative rarity of large seismic events in the Sagaing region — which is close to heavily populated Mandalay — means that infrastructure had not been built to withstand them. That means the damage could end up being far worse.
Musson said that the last major quake to hit the region was in 1956, and homes are unlikely to have been built to withstand seismic forces as powerful as those that hit on Friday.
“Most of the seismicity in Myanmar is further to the west whereas this is running down the center of the country,” he said.
Protesters rebelling against Elon Musk’s purge of US government swarm Tesla showrooms
- A growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk took over DOGE have been looking to sell or trade them in, while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from him
SAN FRANCISCO: Crowds protesting billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of the US government under President Donald Trump began amassing outside Tesla dealerships throughout the US and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the world’s richest man.
The protesters are trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk’s role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he has gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. The biggest portion of Musk’s estimated $340 billion fortune consists of his stock in the electric vehicle company, which continues to run while also working alongside Trump.
After earlier demonstrations that were somewhat sporadic, Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automaker’s showrooms and service centers in the US in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the company’s sales.
By early afternoon crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of protesters had flocked to Tesla locations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota and the automaker’s home state of Texas. Pictures posted on social media showed protesters brandishing signs such as ” Honk if you hate Elon ” and ” Fight the billionaire broligarchy.”
As the day progressed, the protests cascaded around the country outside Tesla locations in major cities such as Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Seattle, as well as towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Smaller groups of counterprotesters also showed up at some sites.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go!” several dozen people chanted outside a showroom in Dublin, California, about 35 miles (60 miles) east of San Francisco, while a smaller cluster of Trump supporters waved American flags across the street.
A much larger crowd circled another showroom in nearby Berkeley, chanting slogans to the beat of drums.
“We’re living in a fascist state,” said Dennis Fagaly, a retired high school teacher from neighboring Oakland, “and we need to stop this or we’ll lose our whole country and everything that is good about the United States.”
Anti-Musk sentiment extends beyond the US
The Tesla Takedown movement also hoped to rally protesters at more than 230 locations in other parts of the world. Although the turnouts in Europe were not as large, the anti-Musk sentiment was similar.
About two dozen people held signs lambasting the billionaire outside a dealership in London as passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support.
One sign displayed depicted Musk next to an image of Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salute — a gesture that Musk has been accused of reprising shortly after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. A person in a Tyrannosaurus rex costume held another sign with a picture of Musk’s straight-arm gesture that said, “You thought the Nazis were extinct. Don’t buy a Swasticar.”
“We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that we’re facing,” said Cam Whitten, an American who showed up at the London protest.
Tesla Takedown was organized by a group of supporters that included disillusioned owners of the automaker’s vehicles, celebrities such as actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party lawmaker, Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Dallas.
“I’m going to keep screaming in the halls of Congress. I just need you all to make sure you all keep screaming in the streets,” Crockett said during an organizing call this month.
Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Pramila Jaypal, showed up at a protest in Seattle, which she represents in Congress.
Musk backlash has included some vandalism
Some people have gone beyond protest, setting Tesla vehicles on fire or committing other acts of vandalism that US Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as domestic terrorism. In a March 20 company meeting, Musk indicated that he was dumbfounded by the attacks and said the vandals should “stop acting psycho.”
Crockett and other Tesla Takedown supporters have been stressing the importance of Saturday’s protests remaining peaceful.
But police were investigating a fire that destroyed seven Teslas in northwestern Germany in the early morning. It was not immediately clear if the blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters, was related to the protests.
In Watertown, Massachusetts, local police reported that the side mirror of a black pickup struck two people at a protest outside a Tesla service center, according to the Boston Herald. The suspect was promptly identified by police at the scene, who said there were no serious injuries.
Musk maintains that the company’s future remains bright
A growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk took over DOGE have been looking to sell or trade them in, while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from him.
But Musk did not appear concerned about an extended slump in new sales in the March meeting, during which he reassured the workers that the company’s Model Y would remain “the best-selling car on Earth again this year.” He also predicted that Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars worldwide by next year, up from about 7 million currently.
“There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting,” Musk said.
After Trump was elected last November, investors initially saw Musk’s alliance with the president as a positive development for Tesla and its long-running efforts to launch a network of self-driving cars.
That optimism helped lift Tesla’s stock by 70 percent between the election and Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, creating an additional $560 billion in shareholder wealth. But virtually all those gains have evaporated amid investor worries about the backlash, lagging sales in the US, Europe and China, and Musk spending time overseeing DOGE.
“This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent research note.
Russian response to US truce plans inadequate ‘for too long’: Zelensky
- “For too long now, America’s proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table without an adequate response from Russia,” Zelensky says
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia’s response to US ceasefire efforts had been inadequate “for too long,” and that Moscow needed to be pressured into a peace deal.
Both Moscow and Kyiv agreed to the concept of a Black Sea truce following talks with US officials earlier this week, but Russia said it would not enter into force until the West lifted certain sanctions.
“For too long now, America’s proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table without an adequate response from Russia,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
“There could already be a ceasefire if there was real pressure on Russia,” he added, thanking those countries “who understand this” and have stepped up sanctions pressure on the Kremlin.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a speedy end to the more than three-year war since taking office, but his administration has failed to reach a breakthrough despite talks with both sides.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian plan for a 30-day ceasefire, and on Friday suggested Zelensky be removed from office as part of the peace process, further toughening Moscow’s negotiating position and angering Kyiv.
Italy tries to fill its Albanian migrant center after legal woes
- Government in attempt to salvage a costly scheme frozen for months amid efforts to curb refugee influx
ROME: Italy’s government said it would use its Albanian migrant centers for people awaiting deportation, the latest attempt to salvage a costly scheme frozen for months by legal challenges.
The two Italian-run facilities, located near the coast in northern Albania, were opened last October as processing centers for potential asylum seekers intercepted at sea, an experimental project closely watched by EU partners.
But Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ministers agreed on Friday that the centers will now primarily serve as repatriation facilities to hold migrants who are due to be sent back to their home countries.
BACKGROUND
The modification means that migrants who have already arrived on Italian shores could be sent across the Adriatic to a non-EU country to await their repatriations.
The modification means that migrants who have already arrived on Italian shores could be sent across the Adriatic to a non-EU country to await their repatriations.
Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party has vowed to cut irregular migration, has cast the scheme as a “courageous, unprecedented” model.
But the plan has run into a series of legal roadblocks, and the centers have stood mainly empty.
Italian judges have repeatedly refused to sign off on the detention in Albania of migrants intercepted by Italian authorities at sea, ordering them to be transferred to Italy instead.
The European Court of Justice, ECJ, is now reviewing the policy.
On Friday, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the new decree modifying the Albania plan “allows us to give immediate reactivation” of the migrant centers.
“The plan is going ahead,” he told journalists, saying the use change “will not cost €1 more.”
The scheme was signed between Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, in November 2023.
Under the plan, Italy would finance and operate the centers, where migrants considered to be from “safe” countries, and therefore unlikely to be eligible for asylum, would have their cases fast-tracked.
The first group of 16 migrants arrived in October, but they were promptly sent to Italy after judges ruled they did not meet the criteria.
Italy responded by modifying its list of so-called “safe countries,” but judges ruled twice more against subsequent detentions and referred the issue to the ECJ, which is expected to issue a ruling after May or June.
Meloni’s coalition government has cast the court rulings as politically motivated.
Italy’s opposition has decried government waste over the experiment, due to it costing an estimated €160 million ($173 million) per year, even as rights groups have worried that migrant protections would not be respected in the centers.
On Friday, former prime minister Matteo Renzi, a centrist, said the facilities would require a further €30 million to €50 million were they to be transformed into repatriation centers, calling them “useless structures, creatures of Giorgia Meloni’s propaganda.”
The leader of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, challenged the legal basis of the modification, saying European law “does not allow a repatriation center to be relocated to a third country.”
“The government has no qualms about trampling on fundamental rights and wasting more resources of Italians with its empty and harmful propaganda,” she wrote.
Immigration lawyer Guido Savio said that with the change announced on Friday, the government is trying to show that it can “make them work” while casting itself at the forefront of an “innovative” European policy on migration.
Savio said the changes will allow the government to prepare early for a draft EU regulation that would provide for outsourcing migrant centers to non-EU, so-called third countries, which is not due to take effect before 2027.
But Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo, another immigration attorney, predicted an “avalanche of appeals” after the latest government action, which he said has “no legal basis.”
The latest move has “highly symbolic” importance for the government, which “does not want to show the failure of the Albania model,” he said.
Undocumented migration via the Central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy fell by 59 percent last year, with 67,000 migrant arrivals, according to European border agency Frontex, due to fewer departures from Tunisia and Libya.
