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Germany, other European countries suspend decisions on Syrians’ asylum bids after Assad’s fall

Syrian refugee Anas Modamani records a video with his phone in front of Aljoud bakery in Neukolln district in Berlin, Germany December 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Syrian refugee Anas Modamani records a video with his phone in front of Aljoud bakery in Neukolln district in Berlin, Germany December 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 09 December 2024

Germany, other European countries suspend decisions on Syrians’ asylum bids after Assad’s fall

Syrian refugee Anas Modamani records a video with his phone in front of Aljoud bakery in Neukolln district in Berlin, Germany.
  • Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said Monday that more than 47,000 applications are currently pending
  • It said it would reassess the situation and resume decisions once things in Syria have stabilized

BERLIN: Germany and several other European countries said Monday they are suspending decisions on asylum claims by Syrian nationals because of the unclear situation in their homeland following the fall of Bashar Assad.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said Monday that more than 47,000 applications are currently pending. It said it would reassess the situation and resume decisions once things in Syria have stabilized.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Sonja Kock noted that asylum decisions take account of the circumstances of each case, which involves assessing the situation in the applicant’s country. She said the migration authority has the option of prioritizing cases from other places if a situation is unclear, as it currently is in Syria.
More broadly, German officials said it’s too early to tell what the fall of Assad will ultimately mean for the many Syrians who sought refuge in Germany in recent years, particularly in the mid-2010s.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said it’s not yet possible to predict “concrete possibilities to return” and “it would be unserious to speculate about this in such a volatile situation.”
Her ministry said that, as of Oct. 31, there were 974,136 Syrian nationals in the country, the majority of whom had some kind of refugee or other protected status.
In neighboring Austria, Chancellor Karl Nehammer also tasked his interior minister with suspending decisions on current asylum applications by Syrians, the Austria Press Agency reported.
“It is important to first establish facts, to put asylum and family reunion procedures on hold,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said. “We need to wait until the dust settles, so we can see what is happening, what the next points are.”
Sweden’s Migration Agency said it will also pause decisions on Syrian asylum cases, arguing that it isn’t possible at present to assess applicants’ reasons for seeking protection. It didn’t specify how long the pause would last, but said a similar decision was made in connection with the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
In Finland, the director of the Department for International Protection at the Finnish Immigration Service, Antti Lehtinen, told public broadcaster YLE that decisions have been suspended there, and he can’t immediately estimate when they will resume.
In Norway, the Directorate of Immigration announced a similar decision, saying that it has put asylum applications from Syria on hold “until further notice.”
France says it was considering following Germany’s example.
“We are working on a suspension of ongoing asylum files from Syria,” the French Interior Ministry said. “We should reach a decision in the coming hours.”
The ministry said 450 applications from Syrian citizens are pending in France.


Trump offers assurances that US troops won’t be sent to help defend Ukraine

Trump offers assurances that US troops won’t be sent to help defend Ukraine
Updated 9 sec ago

Trump offers assurances that US troops won’t be sent to help defend Ukraine

Trump offers assurances that US troops won’t be sent to help defend Ukraine
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered his assurances that US troops would not be sent to help defend Ukraine against Russia after seeming to leave open the possibility the day before.
Trump also said in a morning TV interview that Ukraine’s hopes of joining NATO and regaining the Crimean Peninsula from Russia are “impossible.”
The Republican president, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders held hours of talks at the White House on Monday aimed at bringing an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine. While answering questions from journalists, Trump did not rule out sending US troops to participate in a European-led effort to defend Ukraine as part of security guarantees sought by Zelensky.
Trump said after his meeting in Alaska last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Putin was open to the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine.
But asked Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” what assurances he could provide going forward and beyond his term that American troops would not be part of defending Ukraine’s border, Trump said, “Well, you have my assurance, and I’m president.”
Trump would have no control over the US military after his terms ends in January 2029.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later on Tuesday emphasized that “US boots will not be on the ground” as part of any potential peacekeeping mission.
The president also said in the interview that he is optimistic that a deal can be reached to end the Russian invasion, but he underscored that Ukraine will have to set aside its hope of getting back Crimea, which was seized by Russian forces in 2014, and its long-held aspirations of joining the NATO military alliance.
“Both of those things are impossible,” Trump said.
Putin, as part of any potential deal to pull his forces out of Ukraine, is looking for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as recognition of Crimea as Russian territory.
Trump on Monday said that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky.
But the Kremlin has not yet said whether Putin, who has resisted previous calls by Trump and others for direct negotiations on ending the war, is committed to a face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
Asked whether Putin has promised Trump that he’ll meet directly with the Ukrainian leader, Leavitt responded affirmatively. “He has,” Leavitt said of Putin.
Trump early on Monday during talks with Zelensky and European leaders said that he was pressing for three-way talks among Zelensky, Putin and himself.
But after speaking to Putin later in the day, Trump said that he was arranging first for a face-to-face between Zelensky and Putin and that three-way talks would follow if necessary.
“It was an idea that evolved in the course of the president’s conversations with both President Putin, President Zelensky and the European leaders yesterday,” Leavitt explained.
Trump said he believed Putin’s course of action would become clear in the coming weeks.
“I think Putin is tired of it,” Trump said. “I think they’re all tired of it. But you never know. We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks. That I can tell you.”

Modi receives Beijing’s top diplomat as India-China tensions ease amid US trade war

Modi receives Beijing’s top diplomat as India-China tensions ease amid US trade war
Updated 19 August 2025

Modi receives Beijing’s top diplomat as India-China tensions ease amid US trade war

Modi receives Beijing’s top diplomat as India-China tensions ease amid US trade war
  • India-China relations have been tense since deadly clashes along their border in 2020
  • Disruption from Trump’s tariffs created an opening for the Asian powers to repair ties

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received China’s top diplomat on Tuesday, as the Asian powers resumed disputed border talks after years of tensions.

The neighbors and the world’s two most populous countries have been locked in a standoff triggered by deadly clashes along their Himalayan border, known as the Line of Actual Control, in 2020.

Tens of thousands of troops, tanks, and artillery have since been deployed on both sides of the LAC, with both countries building new roads, bunkers, and airstrips in the high-altitude area.

Despite multiple rounds of military and diplomatic engagements, friction points remained, with India restricting Chinese investments, banning dozens of Chinese apps, and scrutinizing trade ties, as it deepened relations with Beijing’s rivals — the US, Japan, and Australia.

But a recent disruption caused earlier this month by US President Donald Trump’s trade war, in which he unexpectedly hiked the total duty on Indian exports to 50 percent, has created an opening for the Asian powers to seek to repair ties.

Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, arrived in New Delhi for a three-day visit on Monday.

Ahead of meeting Modi, he held talks with his counterpart, S. Jaishankar, who told him in his welcome speech that after a “difficult period” in bilateral relations, the “two nations now seek to move ahead.”

Jaishankar said the visit would cover economic and trade issues, including cross-border trade, as well as people-to-people contacts.

Wang also met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval for the 24th round of talks to discuss de-escalation of border tensions, and said he was ready to work with India “to build more consensus and identify the direction, the specific goals of the boundary consultations going forward, and create more conditions for the improvement and further growth” of bilateral relations.

A thaw between India and China began last year, when Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first bilateral meeting in five years at a summit of BRICS nations in Russia’s Kazan.

They are expected to meet again later this month as Modi will visit China for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This will be the Indian prime minister’s first official trip to China in over six years.

 

“Both are moving gradually to try and normalize a relationship. If you go back to October last year when Prime Minister Modi met President Xi Jinping, you saw the beginnings of some sort of an effort towards normalization,” Manoj Kewalramani, chairperson of the Indo-Pacific Research Program and a China studies fellow at the Takshashila Institution, told Arab News.

But after years of freeze, change is not likely to happen immediately.

Kewalramani expects that as the two countries resume talks, they would be followed by more engagements at the levels of commerce, finance, industry and technology ministers.

“We can start to build on areas where there are commonalities and shared interests that would inject some sort of stability not only into the relationship but also into the geopolitics of the region,” he said.

“One can argue that the disruption that Donald Trump has caused has led to some degree of urgency, but I don’t think you’re going to see an overnight change in the relationship. I think what you are going to see is a slow, cautious, calibrated effort by both sides to try and arrive at some sort of a new equilibrium.”


Macron calls Putin ‘predator’ and ‘ogre at our gates’

Macron calls Putin ‘predator’ and ‘ogre at our gates’
Updated 19 August 2025

Macron calls Putin ‘predator’ and ‘ogre at our gates’

Macron calls Putin ‘predator’ and ‘ogre at our gates’
  • Emmanuel Macron: Putin, ‘including for his own survival, needs to keep eating. That means he is a predator, an ogre at our gates’
  • Macron: This did not mean that France would ‘come under attack tomorrow, but of course this is a threat to Europe (...) let’s not be naive’

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday warned European allies not to trust Russian President Vladimir Putin whom he called “an ogre at our gates.”
Macron’s remarks came as Russian and Ukrainian presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky looked set for a peace summit after fast-moving talks Monday between Donald Trump and European leaders that focused on the key issue of long-term security guarantees for Kyiv.
“Putin has rarely honored his commitments,” Macron told the LCI broadcaster. “He has constantly been a force for destabilization. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power.”
Macron said he did not believe that Russia would “return to peace and a democratic system from one day to the next.”
Putin, “including for his own survival, needs to keep eating,” Macron said. “That means he is a predator, an ogre at our gates.”
This did not mean that France would “come under attack tomorrow,” Macron said, “but of course this is a threat to Europe (...) let’s not be naive.”


Somalia faces diphtheria surge amid vaccine shortages and aid cuts

Somalia faces diphtheria surge amid vaccine shortages and aid cuts
Updated 19 August 2025

Somalia faces diphtheria surge amid vaccine shortages and aid cuts

Somalia faces diphtheria surge amid vaccine shortages and aid cuts
  • Diphtheria, a bacterial disease that causes swollen glands, breathing problems and fever and mostly affects children, is preventable with a widely available vaccine
  • More than 1,600 cases, including 87 deaths, have been recorded, up from 838 cases and 56 deaths in all of 2024
MOGADISHU: Diphtheria cases and deaths have risen sharply this year in Somalia, where the response has been curtailed by vaccine shortages and US aid cuts, Somali officials said.
More than 1,600 cases, including 87 deaths, have been recorded, up from 838 cases and 56 deaths in all of 2024, said Hussein Abdukar Muhidin, the general director of Somalia’s National Institute of Health.
Diphtheria, a bacterial disease that causes swollen glands, breathing problems and fever and mostly affects children, is preventable with a vaccine that became widely available in the mid-20th century.
Childhood immunization rates in Somalia have improved over the past decade, but hundreds of thousands of children are still not fully vaccinated.
After fleeing fighting between government forces and Islamist militants in the central Somalia town of Ceeldheere three months ago, all four of Deka Mohamed Ali’s children, none of whom was vaccinated, contracted diphtheria. Her 9-year-old daughter recovered, but her 8-year-old son died and two toddlers are now being treated at a hospital in the capital Mogadishu.
“My children got sick and I just stayed at home because I did not know it was diphtheria,” she told Reuters from the bedside of her 3-year-old son Musa Abdullahi whose throat was swollen to the size of a lemon from the infection.
Health Minister Ali Hajji Adam said the government had struggled to procure enough vaccines due to a global shortage and that US aid cuts were making it difficult to distribute the doses it had.
Before President Donald Trump cut most foreign assistance earlier this year, the United States was the leading humanitarian donor to Somalia, whose health budget is almost entirely funded by donors.
“The US aid cut terribly affected the health funds it used to provide to Somalia. Many health centers closed. Mobile vaccination teams that took vaccines to remote areas lost funding and now do not work,” said Adam.
Muhidin separately echoed his comments about the closures.
Overall US foreign assistance commitments to Somalia stand at $149 million for the fiscal year that ends on September 30, compared with $765 million in the previous fiscal year, according to US government statistics.
“The United States continues to provide lifesaving foreign assistance in Somalia,” a US State Department spokesperson said when asked about the impact of its aid cuts in the country.
“America is the most generous nation in the world, and we urge other nations to dramatically increase their humanitarian efforts.”
Aid group Save the Children said last month that the closure of hundreds of health clinics in Somalia this year due to foreign cuts has contributed to a doubling in the number of combined cases of diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, cholera and severe respiratory infections since mid-April.
Besides the US, Britain, France, Germany and other major Western donors are also cutting aid budgets.
Somalia’s government has also faced criticism from doctors and human rights activists for its limited funding of the health sector. In 2024, it allocated 4.8 percent of its budget to health, down from 8.5 percent the previous year, Amnesty International said.
The health ministry did not respond to a question about that criticism. It has said it is planning to launch a vaccination drive but has not given details when.

Air Canada to resume service as flight attendants’ union end strike

Air Canada to resume service as flight attendants’ union end strike
Updated 19 August 2025

Air Canada to resume service as flight attendants’ union end strike

Air Canada to resume service as flight attendants’ union end strike
  • First strike by its cabin crew in 40 years that had upended travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers
  • The carrier said it would gradually resume operations and a full restoration may require a week or more

MONTREAL/TORONTO: Air Canada’s unionized flight attendants reached an agreement with the country’s largest carrier on Tuesday, ending the first strike by its cabin crew in 40 years that had upended travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The strike that lasted nearly four days had led the airline that serves about 130,000 people daily to withdraw its third quarter and full-year earnings guidance.

The carrier said it would gradually resume operations and a full restoration may require a week or more, while the union said it has completed mediation with the airline and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge.

“The Strike has ended. We have a tentative agreement we will bring forward to you,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a Facebook post.

Air Canada said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to ten days until the schedule is stabilized and that customers with canceled flights can choose between a refund, travel credit, or rebooking on another airline.

“Air Canada’s Q3 just taxied back to the gate with hundreds of canceled flights that could take up to 10 days to make up for,” said Michael Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital.

Even though stranded passengers expressed frustration as many were forced to sleep in airports or scramble for alternate flights, they sympathized with the workers on strike.

The carrier had earlier offered a 38 percent increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25 percent raise in the first year, which the union deemed insufficient.

The flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday after contract talks with the carrier failed. They had sought pay for tasks such as boarding passengers, which are not remunerated. They are now paid for time when the plane is moving.

The CUPE, which represents Air Canada’s 10,400 flight attendants, wanted to make gains on unpaid work that go beyond recent advances secured by their counterparts at US carriers like American Airlines.

In a rare act of defiance, the union remained on strike even after the Canada Industrial Relations Board declared its action unlawful.

Their refusal to follow a federal labor board order for the flight attendants to return to work had created a three-way standoff between the company, workers and the government.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajjdu had urged both sides to consider government mediation and raised pressure on Air Canada, promising to investigate allegations of unpaid work in the airline sector, a key complaint of flight attendants who say they are not paid for work on the ground.

Over the past two years, unions in aerospace, construction, airline and rail sectors have pushed employers for higher pay, improved conditions and better benefits amid a tight labor market.

Air Canada’s flight attendants have for months argued new contracts should include pay for work done on the ground, such as boarding passengers, but neither the union nor the airline disclosed whether that issue was addressed in the deal.

Its CEO had on Monday in a Reuters interview stopped short of offering plans to break the deadlock, while defending the airline’s offer of a 38 percent boost to flight attendants’ total compensation.