World
Frontex chief: NGO rescue ships don't embolden Mediterranean migration
![Frontex chief: NGO rescue ships don't embolden Mediterranean migration Frontex chief: NGO rescue ships don't embolden Mediterranean migration](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/70/27/36/1200x675_cmsv2_e0c8dd80-7984-53e8-81bc-9c7da13c93a7-8702736.jpg)
Irregular crossing of EU borders has decreased by over a third in 2024 so far.
NGO ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea do not encourage departures, the European border guard agency Frontex director, Hans Leijtens, told Euronews.
“You have never heard me saying that it’s a pull factor. So that’s what my opinion is”, he said at a doorstep in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
“The first thing for our officers is to save lives on land and at sea. What we can do also depends on resources, but at least we always promise to do it,” Leijtens added.
“I repeat: all Frontex agents have taken an oath promising to serve and protect. This is what we do, priority number one.”
Leijtens’ position starkly contrasts a confidential agency document on migration routes from Libya to Europe, never made public but reported in the press in November 2022.
It has been cited repeatedly by the Italian government in its attempts to criticise the activities of NGOs.
More attention to fundamental rights
Leijtens, director of Frontex since 2023, updated the European Parliament on the agency’s activities.
Several MEPs who spoke at the hearing noted that he seems to devote more attention to respecting the fundamental rights of migrants than his predecessor Fabrice Leggeri, who is now a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Patriots for Europe group.
In the first seven months of 2024, irregular crossings of European borders decreased by 36%, mainly due to a decline in traffic on the Balkan and Central Mediterranean routes.
On the other hand, landings on the Canary Islands more than doubled, and entries from Belarus to the Baltic countries almost tripled. UN refugee agency’s data for 2023 shows that refugees and asylum seekers arrived in Europe in record numbers last year.
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World
Live Updates: Russia Unleashes New Strikes as Ukraine Prepares for Cabinet Shake-Up
Several ministers offered to resign as President Volodymyr Zelensky laid plans for a major reshuffle of Ukraine’s government. While rescuers searched the rubble of a deadly strike on a military academy in eastern Ukraine, another Russian attack killed seven in the west.
World
Greta Thunberg among 6 arrested at anti-Israel protest in Denmark
![Greta Thunberg among 6 arrested at anti-Israel protest in Denmark Greta Thunberg among 6 arrested at anti-Israel protest in Denmark](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-2151955700.jpg)
Activist Greta Thunberg was among six people arrested at Copenhagen University as they protested the institution’s connections to Israel on Wednesday.
Thunberg appeared alongside members of the Students Against the Occupation group, an anti-Israel activist group. Thunberg has become internationally famous for her climate activism, but she has participated in a number of anti-Israel protests across Europe as Israel has prosecuted the war in Gaza.
“Students Against the Occupation and I are at the University of Copenhagen’s administration building,” Thunberg wrote on Instagram. “Police have been called, violently entered the building with a ram wearing assault rifles. They are evicting everyone as we speak.”
“Students have been arrested and are being taken to the station this very moment,” she later added.
GRETA THUNBERG INTERRUPTED AT CLIMATE PROTEST AFTER CHANGING THE TOPIC TO THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
The student group is demanding that Copenhagen University end all of its partnerships and collaborations with Israeli universities and other institutions.
CLIMATE ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG GOES ON TRIAL IN LONDON FOR BLOCKING OIL AND GAS CONFERENCE
The group highlighted the Erasmus student exchange program that CU participates in, allowing Israeli students to study in Denmark. The group also condemns the Niels Bohr Institute, the university’s physics department named after the world-famous physicist. Bohr was of Jewish ancestry.
Greta Thunberg has participated in several anti-Israel protests in recent months. She is pictured here being arrested in Sweden at Eurovision 2024 in May.
Critics of Thunberg argued that her appearance at the protest was hypocritical, claiming on social media that one of the programs the university has partnered with Israeli groups on is focused on solving climate change. Fox News Digital could not find such a program, but the Niels Bohr Institute does list the “Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth” as a major research topic.
“We analyze the ice samples in our laboratories and study water stable isotopes, greenhouse gas, impurity concentrations, and ice properties,” the institute writes on its website, adding that it seeks to “understand both gradual and abrupt climatic changes of the past, present, and future.”
![greta thunberg](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/02/1200/675/greta_thunberg.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has once again engaged in civil disobedience. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Copenhagen police said Thunberg was one of a group of roughly 20 protesters who demonstrated inside a university administration building. Five people were arrested in addition to Thunberg, according to Danish media.
Police have confirmed that Thunberg has since been released.
World
MIP London Attracts More Than 80 Companies, Including Beta, Armoza, Fox, PBS
![MIP London Attracts More Than 80 Companies, Including Beta, Armoza, Fox, PBS MIP London Attracts More Than 80 Companies, Including Beta, Armoza, Fox, PBS](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Savoy.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1)
MIP London, the new content market and networking event run by the team behind Mipcom, has revealed that more than 80 companies – including distributors, buyers and producers – from 30 countries have confirmed their presence for the inaugural edition.
MIP London will run Feb. 23-27 at the Savoy Hotel and IET London conference center in London’s West-End. The event is timed to coincide with the London TV Screenings, which runs Feb. 23-28, organized by the top U.K. distributors, led by All3Media Intl., Banijay Ent., Fremantle and ITV Studios.
Among the distribution companies to confirm for the MIP London market are Armoza Formats, Beta Film, FilmRise, Fox Entertainment Global, Global Agency and PBS Distribution.
Companies sending buyers include Al Jazeera, AMC Networks Intl., Canal+, CBC/Radio Canada, France Televisions, ITV, M6, MBC, National Geographic, Netflix, Nine Network Australia, NRK, ORF, RTL Hungary, Seven One Entertainment Group, Sky, Telefonica, TF1, Thai Public Broadcasting Service, The Walt Disney Company, TV3 Group Baltics and ZDF among others.
“More people coming to London means more business done in what has become the must-attend content week in February,” Lucy Smith, director of MIP London and Mipcom Cannes, said. “Whether you are a company already hosting a screening event, planning to visit for the first time, or simply there to see more people, with this new MIP market our aim is to be complementary to existing events by providing additional opportunities to meet, showcase or discover content across the week. Plans for our centrally located hub and program are really taking shape and we are hugely encouraged by MIP London’s early momentum.”
MIP London also has announced further details of the program lineup including MIP’s Fast & Global Summit and the WIT’s Fresh TV presentation hosted by Virginia Mouseler.
As previously announced, Mipdoc and Mipformats – the markets for unscripted shows – will start on Feb. 23 in London.
Fox Entertainment Global is confirmed to join the lineup of Mipformats as presenting partner of the London edition of the Mipformats Pitch, which will seek through a worldwide call for entries to discover concepts for new entertainment formats. Submissions and full details of the Mipformats Pitch will be announced in October, and finalists will be invited to pitch their project to a Fox jury on stage in London on Feb. 24.
Also confirmed for the Mipdoc lineup are London editions of the Mipdoc Pitch and the Mipdoc Co-Production Summit, which will again explore commercial models for partnerships specific to the documentary and factual genres.
Advisory boards are in place to shape the agendas for these first Mipdoc and Mipformats London editions, comprised of unscripted executives from ARTE France, Banijay, Curiosity Inc., Fox Entertainment Global, Fremantle, National Geographic, Nine Network Australia, Off the Fence, PBS Distribution, Quintus Studios, RTL Hungary, The Bridge, TF1, TV4 and ZDF Studios.
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