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Scholz, Mirziyoyev ink migration deal in Uzbekistan

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Scholz, Mirziyoyev ink migration deal in Uzbekistan

The bilateral deal is intended to ease the entry of skilled workers from Uzbekistan to Germany, particularly those working in the healthcare sector.

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Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has signed a migration agreement with Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the first day of his three-day trip to Central Asia.

The bilateral deal, which was signed in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand, is intended to ease the entry of skilled workers from Uzbekistan to Germany, particularly those working in the healthcare sector.

The agreement will also speed up and simplify the repatriation of Uzbeks living in Germany without a legal residence permit.

The German press agency dpa estimates around 13,700 Uzbek nationals currently live in Germany and while the vast majority do so legally, around 200 are reportedly eligible for repatriation.

“With our agreement on migration and mobility signed today in Samarkand in Uzbekistan, we are enabling people with great talents to enter our country. Also, we committed to unbureaucratic processes so that those who cannot stay in our country must go back,” Scholz said in a post on X.

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Scholz and Mirziyoyev signed seven other agreements covering areas such as sustainable water resource management and a critical minerals partnership.

Scholz will head to Kazakhstan on Monday and his talks there are expected to focus on oil and gas supplies to Germany and also on sanctions on Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Central Asian republics are traditionally close to Moscow and Astana has been accused of enabling Russia to circumvent trade restrictions.

But Scholz’s trip has also attracted criticism.

While he is in Kazakhstan, he’s expected to attend a summit with the heads of all five former Soviet republics (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), the first German Chancellor to do so.

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International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that summit would be a wasted opportunity if Scholz didn’t raise alleged human rights shortcomings in all five countries.

“The German government cannot pretend closer ties with Central Asia are possible without a significant improvement in human rights in the region. The upcoming summit offers a chance to make this clear,” HRW said in a statement.

The watchdog cited persistent human rights abuses in the region including the, “suppression of the rights to protest and express opinions, including online, jailing of activists, torture in detention, crackdowns on civil society, violence against women, impunity for abusive security forces, and a lack of free and fair elections.”

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Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

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Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

new video loaded: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

Prosecutors in Switzerland ordered Jacques Moretti to be detained after investigators questioned him and his wife, Jessica Moretti. Officials are looking into whether negligence played a role in last week’s deadly fire at their bar, Le Constellation.

By Meg Felling

January 9, 2026

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Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’

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Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’

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Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.

Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”

“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.

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TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’

Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.

“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”

Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.

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“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.” 

Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro. 

Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.

A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND

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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.

That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.

“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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What Canada, accustomed to extreme winters, can teach Europe

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Euronews spoke to Patrick de Bellefeuille, a prominent Canadian weather presenter and climate specialist, on how Europe could benefit from Canada’s long experience with snowstorms. He has been forecasting for MétéoMédia, Canada’s top French-language weather network, since 1988.

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