Mexico City plans to tackle gentrification after protests against mass tourism
21/07/2025
Public outcry in France over return of banned insecticide
21/07/2025
Southern France cities impose curfews to curb youth violence
21/07/2025
What's at stake in French Foreign Minister's visit in Kyiv?
21/07/2025
South Syria faces uncertain calm after deadly clashes that killed over 1,100
21/07/2025
Japan PM Ishiba vows to stay on after bruising election defeat
21/07/2025
Ecuador's biggest drug lord 'Fito' extradited to US
21/07/2025
D-Day veteran and TikTok star 'Papa Jake' Larson dies at 102
21/07/2025
Storms hit southern China mainland in wake of Typhoon Wipha
21/07/2025
Gaza civil defence says Israeli fire kills 93 aid seekers
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Kyiv buries soldier's wife and daughters killed in Russian attack
Residents held each other and wept as they bid a final farewell to their neighbours, who died at dawn on Friday, when a barrage of Russian drones and missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital for hours. Across a leafy park next to the school, flowers, toys, and portraits of those killed were laid beneath the remains of a nine-storey residential building gutted in the attack, which killed at least 31 people. "It is difficult to imagine the grief of our brother, who lost two little daughters and his beloved wife in an instant," said the military unit of Igor Gumeniuk, the serviceman whose family was buried. Local media reported that Irina and her children Anastassia, 13, and Alina, 10, had fled the fighting in the eastern Donetsk region -- where Russia has concentrated its firepower -- before settling in Kyiv. "Alina and Nastya were sincere, kind and bright girls. We will remember their smiles, their kind hearts, their desire to live and learn," the girls' school that held the ceremony wrote on Facebook. One of Irina's final social media posts from last month showed the family meeting in eastern Ukraine with Igor, an active serviceman. "We were happy together all day for the first time in eight months," she wrote on Facebook, alongside pictures of the family relaxing by a river. Russia has stepped up its long-range drone and missile attacks on Ukraine over recent months as US-led efforts to end the more than three-year invasion appear to stall. Thirty-nine-year-old doctor Roman Moskalenko, whose body was found beneath the rubble in Kyiv, also received a farewell from his fellow medics. "His colleagues remember him as attentive, caring, and professional," Kyiv's Vechirniy media outlet reported.
France 24
9 hours ago
- France 24
UK-France migrant returns deal takes effect
The interior ministry said that British authorities were "operationally ready" and that migrant detentions were expected to begin "within days" following ratification of the agreement. "Today we send a clear message -- if you come here illegally on a small boat you will face being sent back to France," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement after striking the deal with French President Emmanuel Macron last month. The agreement seeks to curb record levels of irregular Channel crossings that are causing discontent in Britain and helping fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party. Under the arrangement -- for now a pilot scheme set to run until June 2026 -- irregular migrants arriving on UK shores could be detained and returned to France if they are deemed ineligible for asylum. In exchange, the UK will accept an equal number of migrants from France who can apply for asylum via an online platform, giving priority to nationalities most vulnerable to smugglers and to people with ties in Britain. The two governments signed the final text last week, with the EU Commission giving its "green light on this innovative approach", Britain's Home Office said in a statement late Monday. "The unscrupulous business model of smugglers must be broken," the European Union's migration commissioner Magnus Brunner wrote on X Tuesday. But refugee charities have criticised the deal, urging the British government to provide more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers instead. The number of migrants making the dangerous journey in flimsy dinghies this year crossed 25,000 at the end of July, the highest tally ever at this point in the year. The rise, which the government has partly attributed to extended periods of good weather, means Labour leader Starmer is struggling to fulfil one of his main pledge's before winning last year's general election. Social media ads In recent weeks, anti-immigration protesters and counter-protesters have clashed outside hotels housing asylum seekers in Britain, with some demonstrations turning violent. Starmer has tried to portray the deal as a diplomatic victory after years of faltering cooperation between France and the UK on the politically sensitive issue. "This is the product of months of grown-up diplomacy delivering real results for British people as we broker deals no government has been able to achieve," he said. While the agreement has also met with criticism in northern France, where some officials say the scheme is too favourable to the UK, Nigel Farage's anti-immigrant Reform UK party says it does not go far enough to secure Britain's borders. Interior minister Yvette Cooper said Tuesday that she would not put a number on how many migrants would be deported under the deal. "Of course, it will start with lower numbers and then build, but we want to be able to expand it," she told BBC radio. The Home Office this week pledged £100 million ($132 million) for law enforcement, including additional staff and technology, to "tackle" gangs who organise the crossings. Starmer's government also said it would make it an offence to promote on social media dangerous immigration routes into the UK, including via the Channel. Under the new provision, which will be part of a border security bill making its way through parliament, those found advertising such crossings could be fined and face up to five years in prison. According to a Home Office analysis, 80 percent of migrants arriving via small boats told officials they used social media during the process.
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
UK to begin migrant returns to France under 'one in, one out' deal
Britain said it will begin implementing a deal to return some migrants who arrive on small boats to France within days, a key part of its plans to cut illegal migration, after a treaty on the arrangement is ratified on Tuesday. Under the new deal, France has agreed to accept the return of undocumented people arriving in Britain by small boats, in exchange for Britain agreeing to accept an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with British family connections. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the "one in, one out" pilot scheme on migrant returns last month. More than 25,000 people have come to Britain on small boats so far in 2025, and Starmer has pledged to "smash the gangs" of smugglers to try to reduce the number of arrivals. Starmer, whose popularity has fallen since winning an election landslide last year, is facing pressure to stop small boats from Nigel Farage 's Reform UK party, which leads national opinion polls. In recent weeks in England, there have been a number of protests around hotels housing the asylum seekers who have arrived on small boats, attended by both anti-immigration and pro-immigration groups. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on X that the new agreement between the countries has a "clear objective" to break up the people-smuggling networks, although British interior minister Yvette Cooper would not say how many people would be returned under the scheme. "The numbers will start lower and then build up," she told Sky News on Tuesday, adding that the people returned would be those who had immediately arrived on small boats, rather than people already in Britain. Government sources previously said the agreement would involve about 50 returns a week, or 2,600 a year, a fraction of the more than 35,000 arrivals reported last year. Critics of the scheme have said that the scale will not be sufficient to act as a deterrent, but Cooper said that the agreement with France was just one part of the government's wider plan. The government has also targeted people smugglers with sanctions, clamped down on social media adverts and is working with delivery firms to tackle the illegal work that is often promised to migrants. A treaty on the scheme was signed last week but not previously announced ahead of Tuesday's ratification. Britain said the European Commission and European Union member states had given the green light to the plan.
