World

From Ukraine to EU-UK ties: Big summit of European leaders kicks off

Published

1 year ago

July 18, 2024

From Ukraine to EU-UK ties: Big summit of European leaders kicks off

European leaders gather during the European Political Community Summit at the iconic Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, with Ukraine and migration as top items on the agenda.

European leaders gathered in Blenheim Palace, home of the Churchills as Dukes of Marlborough, on Thursday for a summit overshadowed by concerns about the US’ reliability as an ally if Donald Trump wins a second presidency.

Newly-elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed around 45 heads of government to discuss migration, energy security, and the threat from Russia, aiming to mend relations between the UK and its European Union neighbours four years after Brexit.

Starmer has said the summit “will fire the starting gun on this government’s new approach to Europe.”

As he addressed his guests, he emphasised the UK’s commitment to playing a more active role globally, particularly regarding Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion and battling human smuggling gangs.

He assured fellow leaders that under his leadership, the UK would be “a friend and a partner, ready to work with you — not part of the European Union, but very much part of Europe. Not focused on the differences between us, but on the values that we share.”

“Our primary task today is to confirm our unwavering support for Ukraine, to unite behind our shared values, and to confront aggression on this continent together,” he said, noting that the threat from Russia “extends across Europe.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a key guest at the meeting. He stressed the importance of the event for Ukraine, explaining the country was currently experiencing a “tough period,” adding “it is very important to maintain unity in Europe because always this unity leads to strong decisions.”

‘New chapter to open’ in UK-EU relations

When Britain agreed to host the one-day summit earlier this year, Conservative Rishi Sunak was prime minister. Following his defeat in the 4 July election, it was Starmer who welcomed leaders to the birthplace and residence of World War II PM Winston Churchill.

“It’s an incredibly useful occasion for Starmer, as it allows him to meet many European leaders,” said Jill Rutter, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Government think tank. “It’s like Rishi Sunak organised a dating party for him.”

Attendees included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, her Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

This is the fourth meeting of the EPC, initiated by Macron in 2022 as a forum for countries inside and outside the 27-nation EU following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted Europe’s sense of security. Previous meetings were held in Prague, Chisinau and Granada.

The UK aims for this to be the most attended summit yet, though European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is staying away as she fights to secure a second term as European Commission president from lawmakers in the European Parliament and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also did not attend.

Starmer’s centre-left government is working to rebuild ties with the EU strained by years of contentious Brexit negotiations. A key priority is a new UK-EU security pact that Starmer hopes to finalise soon.

“We are confident that a new chapter will be opened with the UK,” European Council President Charles Michel said upon arrival.

The UK plans to enhance cooperation with the European police agency Europol against human smuggling as part of measures to strengthen border security following Starmer’s decision to cancel the Conservatives’ controversial plan to send migrants arriving in the UK by boat to Rwanda.

Orban: Trump win would be ‘best news for everybody’

Many will likely be thinking about the US, where a recent assassination attempt on Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, highlighted the intense and polarised political climate ahead of the 5 November election.

Trump’s scepticism about NATO has long unsettled US allies. His choice of Sen. JD Vance, an opponent of US military aid to Ukraine, as his vice-presidential running mate has heightened concerns.

“European countries must stand on their own legs more than ever,” said Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

Several other leaders echoed that sentiment, but not Hungary’s pro-Russian Premier Viktor Orbán, who said a solution to the conflict in Ukraine was “not on the battlefield” but at the negotiation table.

“They believe that they can destroy militarily the Russians, which I don’t think so, because I think that there is no solution of this conflict on the battlefield,” Orbán told reporters.

Orbán has recently carried out a series of rogue meetings with foreign leaders about Ukraine, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As he spoke of Trump, Orbán has said his victory would be “the best news for everybody, because he’s a man of the people.”

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World

Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia

Published

8 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia

A team of marine mammal experts had spent several days in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, searching for a sea lion with an orange rope wrapped around its neck. As the sun set on Dec. 8, they were packing up, for good, when a call came in.

The tangled animal, a female Steller sea lion weighing 330 pounds, had been spotted on a dock in front of an inn, leading into the bay in southwestern Canada.

The rope was wrenched four times around her neck, carving a deep gash. Without help, the sea lion would die.

The team had been trying to find the sea lion for a month, and on that day, with daylight running out, the nine members that day knew they needed to work fast. They relaunched their boats and a team member loaded a dart gun and shot her with a sedative.

“Launching the dart is the easiest part of the whole operation,” said Dr. Martin Haulena, executive director of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which conducted the rescue alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “It’s everything that happens after that, that you just have no control over.”

Steller sea lions, also known as northern sea lions, are the largest such breed. They are found as far south as Northern California and in parts of Russia and Japan. A male Steller sea lion can weigh up to 2,500 pounds.

The Cowichan Tribes Marine Monitoring Team assisted the rescue society, calling it whenever the sea lion was spotted. The tribe named her Stl’eluqum, meaning “fierce” or “exceptional” in Hul’q’umi’num’, an Indigenous language, according to the rescue society.

After Stl’eluqum was sedated, she jumped from the dock into the water. Recent torrential rains and flooding had stirred up debris, making the water brown, and harder to spot the sea lion, Dr. Haulena said.

Several minutes after the sea lion dived into the bay, the drone spotted her and the team moved in.

The rope had multiple strands and it was wrapped so deeply that she most likely wasn’t able to eat, Dr. Haulena said. At first, the team had trouble freeing her.

“You couldn’t see it because it was way dug in underneath the skin and blubber of the animal,” Dr. Haulena said.

After unraveling the rope, the team tagged her flipper, gave her some antibiotics and released her.

Freeing the sea lion was the culmination of weeks of searching and missed moments. The first call about the tangled marine mammal was made to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada hotline on Nov. 7, according to a news release from the rescue society. Then the society logged more calls.

The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, a nonprofit that works in partnership with the Vancouver Aquarium, searched for several days for the sea lion. The day they found her was the last of the rescue effort because bad weather was forecast for the area around the bay. The call that led them to Stl’eluqum came from the Cowichan Tribes, Dr. Haulena said.

The society, Dr. Haulena said, cares for about 150 marine mammals from its rescues every year — sea lions, otters, harbor seals and the occasional sea turtle. The group gives medical care to animals it takes in, such as Luna, an abandoned newborn sea otter who was three pounds when she was found and still had her umbilical cord attached.

Many of the society’s rescues involve animals tangled in garbage or debris, Dr. Haulena said.

Stl’eluqum was tangled in nylon rope commonly used to tie boats or crab traps, he said. When sea lions get something caught around their necks it can grow tighter until it cuts into their organs, sometimes fatally, he said.

“It’s our garbage; it’s our fault,” Dr. Haulena said. “It’s a large amount of animal suffering and not a good outcome unless we can do something.”

World

Poland foils ISIS-type bomb plot as Sydney attack triggers UK, Europe terror alerts

Published

9 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Poland foils ISIS-type bomb plot as Sydney attack triggers UK, Europe terror alerts

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Polish authorities have foiled a suspected ISIS-inspired plot to attack a Christmas market, charging a student accused of preparing a mass casualty bombing, according to officials.

The case comes as Germany and the U.K. also raised security measures around religious and cultural events after the Sydney shooting Sunday in which 16 people were shot dead at a Jewish Hanukkah party on Bondi Beach.

Polish authorities say the suspect, identified as Mateusz W., 19, was detained in late November at an apartment in Lublin by officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW).

According to Jacek Dobrzyński, a spokesperson for the Minister’s Coordinator of Special Services, investigators believe the teen had been studying how to make explosives and intended to join a terrorist organization to help carry out the attack.

EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS FORTIFY SECURITY MEASURES AS TERROR THREATS FORCE MAJOR OPERATIONAL CHANGES

Polish authorities foil an alleged ISIS Christmas market bombing plot targeting holiday shoppers. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“The purpose of the crime was to intimidate many people, as well as to support the Islamic State,” Dobrzyński said in a statement shared on X.

Items linked to Islam and digital storage devices were seized, and the suspect has been remanded for three months as the Szczecin branch of ABW continues its investigation.

At a news conference, Dobrzyński also referenced a June case in which three 19-year-olds were charged over alleged extremist plots, including a reported plan to attack a school in Olsztyn.

MOSSAD–EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION LAUNCHES SWEEPING CRACKDOWN ON HAMAS GLOBAL TERROR NETWORK

Authorities arrested five on suspicion of plotting a terror attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria. (Juergen Sack/Getty Images)

“You are familiar with this issue from Olsztyn; now we have another example of preparing an attack before Christmas,” he told reporters, according to GB News.

In Germany, police in Lower Bavaria also arrested five men on Dec. 12 on suspicion of preparing an attack on a Christmas market, according to reports.

Authorities said an Egyptian national described as an Islamic preacher had allegedly called for an assault during gatherings at a mosque in the Dingolfing-Landau area, per Euronews.

CANADIAN SPY CHIEF WARNS OF ALARMING RISE IN TEEN TERROR SUSPECTS, ‘POTENTIALLY LETHAL’ THREATS BY IRAN

In the U.K., counterterrorism officials have stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities. (Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Image)

Special operations forces carried out the arrests, and investigators believe the group had begun early-stage preparations.

In the U.K., counterterrorism officials stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities on Tuesday.

“Sadly, as shown by the appalling attack on Sydney’s Jewish community during a Hanukkah event, we know they can also be a target for terrorist activity,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jon Savell said in a press release.

He cited large festive gatherings, religious services and Christmas markets as potential targets.

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In the release posted Tuesday, he urged the British public to report anything that “doesn’t feel right” as part of the annual winter vigilance campaign.

Meanwhile, U.S. authorities say they separately disrupted a New Year’s Eve plot in Southern California.

Four alleged members of an extremist anti-capitalist, anti-government group suspected of rehearsing coordinated bombings against sites linked to two U.S. companies were arrested on Monday.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.