Author: Press Room
At least 88 people died during the recent mass influx of migrants into Spain’s Ceuta enclave from Morocco, Spanish officials said on Monday, though Moroccan officials later presented a lower estimate. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Most of the estimated 60,000 people who rushed into Spain’s north African territory, most by swimming, have returned to Morocco since the territory’s largest mass migrant crossing. “The latest figure that we have is 72,” the government’s delegate to Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez Triano, told reporters, when asked about the number of fatalities. The previous toll was 67 deaths. Later on Sunday, Morocco’s interior ministry issued its…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 15:16 GMT+2 Two British universities have merged to form what they describe as the UK’s first “super-university.” ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT London’s University of Greenwich and the University of Kent in southeast England announced on Monday that they had completed a merger establishing the new “London and South East University Group, which will be known as LASE. The new group, which has been designed to allow other universities to potentially join in the future, will have more than 50,000 students, making it the third largest university in the UK. The two universities will continue to operate under their…
Russian planes dropped eight powerful glide bombs in the span of 90 minutes on residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and wounding dozens of others, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Russia has used glide bombs to smash Ukrainian towns and cities since it launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbour more than four years ago. The weapons are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms of explosives, leaving huge craters. Ukraine has no effective countermeasures against them. Meanwhile, six people were killed by Ukrainian…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 15:41 GMT+2•Updated 15:56 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for stronger border controls and physical barriers at critical points along EU borders following the Ceuta crisis, according to a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez seen by Euronews on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The commission president sought to ease tensions with Spain after Sánchez accused several fellow EU leaders of using the migration crisis in Ceuta to take aim at his government. Last Friday, around 60,000 non-EU nationals entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, marking the largest border crossing ever recorded in Europe over…
Italy is aiming to extend at European level the model of migrant centres set up in Albania, proposing the creation of expulsion hubs of foreign nationals arriving on EU turf unlawfully to safe third countries while their asylum and immigration files are examined. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The proposal, revealed by leading Italian media outlets and confirmed by government officials, will be presented by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi at the extraordinary Council of European Union interior ministers convened for Tuesday. The meeting was organised after the migration emergency that erupted in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on Moroccan territory, where over the course…
Authorities in Ceuta are struggling to cope with thousands of people that remain in the autonomous city following the mass arrival of migrants last week. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Security forces estimate that around 73,500 people have already left the North African exclave and returned to Morocco, while local authorities say up to 5,000 remain in the Spanish territory, including 862 minors. The crisis has so far resulted in at least 88 confirmed deaths, according to Ceuta’s authorities, in addition to bodies recovered by Moroccan authorities in Moroccan waters. Juan Vivas, the president of Ceuta, estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants…
People-smuggling networks are believed to have opened new routes to move migrants from Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave, to the Spanish mainland. According to Spanish newspaper Europa Sur, the groups are using speedboats and jet skis to ferry migrants across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain’s southern coast. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Several landings were reported over the weekend near the cities of Algeciras and La Línea de la Concepción, close to Gibraltar, where Spanish security forces intercepted groups of young Moroccan nationals. The newspaper reported that the criminal networks are taking advantage of the thousands of migrants still stranded in Ceuta…
By Nathan Rennolds & AP, AFP Published on 03/08/2026 – 16:36 GMT+2 A drought gripping central Europe has seen record-low water levels in the Danube River, forcing governments across the region to take drastic action to prevent a looming energy crisis. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT In Romania, where the Danube’s water flow has reportedly dropped to 1,500 cubic meters per second, the country’s navy has carried out a controlled explosion to clear rock near the river’s Bala Canal in an effort to maintain the required water flow for the safe operation of Romania’s Cernavodă nuclear power plant. The drastic action came after authorities had already…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 17:15 GMT+2 Rustem Umerov, former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council has been appointed as head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service on 3 August. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Umerov has also been a key member of Kyiv’s negotiating team in the US-led peace process and he will carry on with this task, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s president explained as well that Umerov will also continue coordinating the Drone Deal initiative with foreign partners, including in the Middle East. “He has greater capacity to deal with these issues simultaneously — diplomacy, defence, and the negotiations process…
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar is facing the biggest test of his government yet, as an energy crisis triggered by the partial shutdown of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant threatens to disrupt supply during peak summer demand. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT All but one reactor has been taken offline because of record-low water levels in the Danube, which the plant relies on for cooling. Should water levels fall further, the plant could be forced to shut down entirely for the first time since it opened 42 years ago – raising the prospect of blackouts and electricity restrictions during the high season. For…