Europe

16 November 2023; MEMO: A group of activists in Liverpool occupied the offices, early Thursday, of Fisher German, property managers of an Israeli weapons factory in Shenstone in the UK, Anadolu Agency reports.

Activists from Palestine Action entered Fisher German’s offices and demanded an immediate end to the company’s association with the Israeli weapons manufacturer.

London, Nov 16 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India is not ruling out an investigation into Canada's allegations about the involvement of the Indian government's agents in the killing of a Canadian citizen Khalistani separatist in that country but wants it to provide evidence to back its claims.

Jaishankar made the comments on Wednesday in response to questions during a conversation with veteran journalist Lionel Barber titled ‘How a Billion People See the World' here.

15 November 2023; MEMO: More than 125,000 people have contacted their Member of Parliament over the last three days to demand they vote for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has said.

15 November 2023; MEMO: Spain’s Prime Minister has announced that his government will work to recognise Palestinian statehood, as some European states increasingly condemn Israel’s war crimes and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

BERLIN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The German government froze major spending pledges focused on green initiatives and industry support on Wednesday after a constitutional court ruling on unused pandemic emergency funds blew a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) hole in its finances.

The decision threw into disarray budget negotiations taking place this week within Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way ruling coalition, whose popularity has slumped as Europe's biggest economy teeters close to another recession.

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday the defence of the shattered eastern city of Avdiivka was key to Kyiv's war plans, with heavy Russian losses there likely to undermine Moscow's conduct of the broader conflict.

Zelenskiy's chief of staff, meanwhile, acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine's forces in southern Kherson region had established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, potentially opening a new line of attack towards Crimea.

BRUSSELS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - NATO will replace its ageing fleet of AWACS surveillance planes, in service since the Cold War in the 1980s, with a militarised version of the Boeing 737 commercial jet, the alliance said on Wednesday, in a deal likely worth billions of euros.

Acting like a flying radar tower, the AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) jets with the distinctive, nine-metre wide radomes on their backs have been NATO's eyes in the sky since 1982.

PARIS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - French judges have issued arrest warrants for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and two other senior officials over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in Syria, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

The arrest warrants -- which refer to charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes -- follow a criminal investigation into chemical attacks in the town of Douma and the district of Eastern Ghouta in August 2013, attacks which killed more than 1,000 people.

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Britain's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the government's scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful, dealing a crushing blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before an election expected next year.

With his flagship immigration policy in tatters, Sunak said he was working on a new treaty with Rwanda, and said if this did not solve the issue, he would pass new laws and revisit any international treaties which frustrated his plans.

BRUSSELS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- In collaboration with global strategy consulting firm Roland Berger, the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) released the chamber's annual flagship report titled "Building Trust, Boosting Prosperity."

The report sees Chinese enterprises' rating of the EU business environment dipping for the fourth year in a row, albeit at a slower pace.