Reuters: World

EU wants to send more migrants away as irregular arrivals grow European Union ministers on Thursday sought ways to curb irregular immigration and send more people away as arrivals rose from pandemic lows, reviving controversial ideas for border fences and asylum centres outside of Europe. EU border agency Frontex reported some 330,000 unauthorised arrivals last year, the highest since 2016, with a sharp increase on the Western Balkans route. "We have a huge increase of irregular arrivals of migrants," Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said at talks among the 27 EU migration ministers. "We have a very low return rate and I can see we can make significant progress here." read more

Meta to reinstate Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) said Wednesday it will reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021. The restoration of his accounts could provide a boost to Trump, who announced in November he will make another run for the White House in 2024. He has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram, platforms that are key vehicles for political outreach and fundraising. His Twitter account was restored in November by new owner Elon Musk, though Trump has yet to post there. Free speech advocates say it is appropriate for the public to have access to messaging from political candidates, but critics of Meta have accused the company of lax moderating policies. read more

Microsoft cloud outage hits users around the world Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Wednesday said it had recovered all of its cloud services after a networking outage took down its cloud platform Azure along with services such as Teams and Outlook used by millions around the globe. Azure's status page showed services were impacted in Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Only services in China and its platform for governments were not hit. By late morning Azure said most customers should have seen services resume after a full recovery of the Microsoft Wide Area Network (WAN). An outage of Azure, which has 15 million corporate customers and over 500 million active users, according to Microsoft data, can impact multiple services and create a domino effect as almost all of the world's largest companies use the platform. read more

Germany to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv, allow others to do so - sources German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries such as Poland to do so while the United States may supply Abrams tanks, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. A government spokesperson, the foreign ministry and the defence ministry declined to comment. The decision concerns at least one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks that will be provided out of Bundeswehr stocks, said Spiegel magazine, which first reported the news. One company usually comprises 14 tanks. read more

Ukraine purges officials and governors in biggest shakeup of war Ukraine dismissed the governors of five battlefield provinces and an array of other senior officials on Tuesday in the biggest shakeup of its wartime leadership since Russia's invasion last year. Separately on Tuesday, a long-awaited decision on whether allies could send German-made heavy tanks to Ukraine finally reached Berlin, after Poland said it had formally sent its request. Among more than a dozen senior Ukrainian officials who resigned or were dismissed on Tuesday were the governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. All five regions have been major battlefields over the past year, giving their governors an unusually high national profile. read more

WHO urges 'immediate action' after cough syrup deaths The World Health Organization has called for "immediate and concerted action" to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year. In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly aged under 5 - in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday. The medicines, over-the-counter cough syrups, had high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. "These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal even taken in small amounts, and should never be found in medicines," the WHO said. read more

Zelenskiy promises to swiftly confront Ukraine corruption Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that corruption, the country's chronic problem cast into the background by the war against Russia, would not be tolerated and promised forthcoming key decisions on uprooting it this week. Zelenskiy's pledge came amidst allegations of senior-level corruption, including a report of dubious practices in military procurement despite officials promoting national unity to confront the invasion. "I want this to be clear: there will be no return to what used to be in the past, to the way various people close to state institutions or those who spent their entire lives chasing a chair used to live," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. read more

Protests in Stockholm, including Koran-burning, draw condemnation from Turkey Protests in Stockholm on Saturday against Turkey and Sweden's bid to join NATO, including the burning of a copy of the Koran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs Ankara's backing to gain entry to the military alliance. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book ... Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Its statement was issued after an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe burned a copy of the Koran near the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take necessary actions against the perpetrators and invited all countries to take concrete steps against Islamophobia. read more

U.S. Justice Dept found more classified items in Biden home search A new search of President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday by the U.S. Justice Department found six more items, including documents with classification markings, a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night. Some of the classified documents and "surrounding materials" dated from Biden's tenure in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said. The Department of Justice, which conducted a search that lasted over 12 hours, also took some notes that Biden had personally handwritten as vice president, according to the lawyer. read more

Hundreds evacuated as blaze erupts in slum next to Seoul's posh Gangnam district Fire swept through part of a shanty town in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Friday, destroying 60 homes, many constructed from cardboard and wood, and forcing the evacuation of around 500 people. Emergency services took five hours to put out the blaze, which erupted before daybreak in Guryong Village, a slum that lies just across a highway from Seoul's affluent Gangnam district. Officials said no casualties were reported so far. Home to around 1,000 people, Guryong is one of the last remaining shanty towns in the capital and has become a symbol of inequality in Asia's fourth largest economy. read more

U.S. to send hundreds of armored vehicles, rockets to Ukraine The United States said on Thursday it would send hundreds of armored vehicles plus rockets and artillery shells to Ukraine as part of a $2.5 billion military assistance package. The package includes 59 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 90 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers, 53 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles and 350 high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement. The 59 Bradleys included in the latest U.S. package come after a previous 50 announced earlier in January. The armored Bradley has a powerful gun and has been used by the U.S. Army to carry troops around battlefields since the mid-1980s. read more

Jacinda Ardern shocks New Zealand, says she is stepping down as prime minister New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday made a shock announcement she had "no more in the tank" to continue leading the country and would step down no later than early February and not seek re-election. Ardern, holding back tears, said that it had been a tough five and a half years as prime minister and that she was only human and needed to step aside. "This summer, I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term - because that is what this year requires. I have not been able to do that," Ardern, 42, told a news conference. "I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so called 'real' reason was... The only interesting angle you will find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human," she continued. read more