Category: 2. World

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on the EU to “defend European interests resolutely” after Donald Trump threatened to impose 30% tariffs on nearly all imports from the EU.

He said the EU should be ready for a trade war and to stand up to the US president who was only last week expected to approve a 10% tariff agreement in principle with the bloc.

“It is more than ever up to the commission to assert the union’s determination to defend European interests resolutely,” Macron said on social media. “In particular, this implies accelerating the preparation of credible countermeasures, by mobilising all the instruments at its disposal, including anti-coercion, if no agreement is reached by 1 August.”

Other European leaders called for calm, including in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. But reflecting the shock around the bloc over Trump’s threat, the influential Federation of German Industries (BDI) said Trump’s announcement was “a wake up call for the industry on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Macron’s call for trade war readiness came in contrast to Berlin, which urged a “pragmatic” response. “The EU now must, in the time that remains, negotiate in a pragmatic manner a solution with the United States,” Germany’s economy minister, Katherina Reiche, said in a statement. “A pragmatic outcome to these negotiations must be reached quickly.”

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, who enjoys good relations with Trump, said in a statement she trusted “a fair agreement” could be reached. “It would make no sense to trigger a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic,” she said.

The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, said on social media the EU “must remain united and resolute” in its aim to reach a “mutually beneficial” deal with the US.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, said “there is no necessity to escalate the situation”. Trump has previously accused Dublin of stealing US business by luring in tech and pharma companies.

Ambassadors are to meet in Brussels on Sunday to discuss tactics ahead of a scheduled summit of trade ministers on Monday where divisions in approach may be underlined.

The threat of a 30% tariff is being seen as a negotiating tactic, but behind the scenes there is fury with many viewing it as a dangerous transatlantic game at at time of grave global instability.

Trump’s latest salvo is in line with his April “liberation day” claim that the EU was charging unfair duties of 39% on US imports, an analysis widely discredited with EU officials pointing to an average of about 2.5%.

Some MEPs have warned that if they start accepting “illegal” tariffs as the new norm, Trump will just come back for more. “It is matter of showing the EU is not a victim, is not paralysed in itself or scared,” the Italian MEP Brando Benifei, a member of the international trade committee, said last week.

Germany’s Association of the Automotive Industry warned about the prospect of rising costs for carmakers and suppliers and said it was “regrettable that there is a threat of a further escalation of the trade conflict”.

Germany’s car industry is already reeling from the 25% hike in tariffs on exports to the US on top of the pre-existing 2.5%, while its steel industry is having to cope with punitive tariffs of 50%.

It is understood the agreement in principle that was on Trump’s table offered potential tariff relief for any European car manufacturers with plants in the US, which included Mercedes Benz, BMW and Volkswagen along with the Swedish brand Volvo.

Last week the Swedish finance minister called the agreement “really bad” while at the same time saying that some economic pain was inevitable.

EU-US trade is worth €1.4bn a year but just three countries – Germany, Italy and Ireland, with its large multinational pharma sector – export more to the US than they import.

Emanuele Orsini, the president of Confindustria, the confederation of Italian industry, said the EU must not escalate. “Now we all need to keep calm and hold our nerve,” he said.

But in the north of the country, the Confindustria Veneto president, Raffaele Boscaini, said there would have to be supports for industries in the event of higher tariffs. “The EU and the Italian government will have to intervene with concrete measures to support the competitiveness of our companies: investment and access to credit, bureaucratic and fiscal relief as well as the definition of energy policy,” said Boscaini, who is head of marketing at Masi, the leading producer of Amarone wine, which would be hit hard by a 30% tariff.

A man has escaped a French prison by hiding in the bag of a fellow inmate who was leaving prison after serving their sentence, officials told local media.

The prison service has launched an investigation after the man escaped from Lyon-Corbas prison in south-east France on Friday, according to broadcaster BFMTV.

He “took advantage of the liberation of his fellow inmate to hide himself in his luggage and get out”, the prison service said in a statement to AFP news agency.

French media have reported that the escaped prisoner was serving several sentences and was also under investigation in a case linked to organised crime.

A judicial investigation has also been opened into possible “escape as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy”, according to local media.

Last month, the Lyon Bar Association expressed alarm about overcrowding at the Lyon-Corbas prison.

As of 1 May 2025, around 1,200 people were detained in the prison, which has capacity for 678 places, BFMTV had reported.

The reports cannot be independently verified as media and international observers have been barred from Gaza, but the Red Cross has warned of an “unrelenting tide of injuries” that threatens to overwhelm the last remaining operational field hospital in the area.

That comes after the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, said she had brokered a deal with Israeli authorities to ensure Palestinians could access aid, amid fears of famine, water shortages and an almost total disintegration of the health care system.

“This deal means more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers. We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed,” the former Estonian prime minister declared on Thursday, insisting that humanitarian supplies would begin flowing within days.

In comments to POLITICO, European Commission foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper insisted that the deal brokered by Kallas “is a vital step forward” despite the fact “hostilities continue on the ground.”

“We deplore the loss of every innocent life. Reports that over 30 Palestinians were killed near an aid distribution site in Gaza underscore the urgent need for a full ceasefire.”

Top diplomats from EU countries will on Tuesday discuss whether to impose penalties on Israel amid growing pressure from capitals to take action to end the bloodshed. An options paper first obtained by POLITICO reveals Kallas will ask foreign ministers whether there is sufficient support to scale back cooperation with Israel on trade and other key areas.

Ten people, including six children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike while waiting to fill water containers in central Gaza on Sunday, emergency service officials say.

Their bodies were sent to Nuseirat’s al-Awda Hospital, which also treated 16 injured people including seven children, a doctor there said.

Eyewitnesses said a drone fired a missile at a crowd queuing with empty jerry cans next to a water tanker in al-Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli military has been asked to comment.

Separately, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had treated more mass casualty cases at its Rafah field hospital in southern Gaza in the last six weeks than in the 12 months before that.

Unverified footage shared online after the strike showed bloodied children and lifeless bodies, with screams of panic and desperation.

Residents rushed to the scene and transported the wounded using private vehicles and donkey carts.

The strike came as Israeli aerial attacks across the Gaza Strip have escalated.

A spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence Agency said 19 other Palestinians had been killed on Sunday, in three separate strikes on residential buildings in central Gaza and Gaza City.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that its field hospital in Rafah had received 132 patients “suffering from weapon-related injuries” on Saturday, 31 of whom died.

ICRC said the “overwhelming majority” of the patients had gunshot wounds and “all responsive individuals” reported they had been trying to access food distribution sites.

It added that the hospital had treated more than 3,400 weapon-wounded patients and recorded more than 250 deaths since new food distribution sites opened on 27 May – exceeding “all mass casualty cases treated at the hospital” in the year prior.

“The alarming frequency and scale of these mass casualty incidents underscore the horrific conditions civilians in Gaza are enduring,” the ICRC said.

On Friday, the UN human rights office said that it had recorded 789 aid-related killings.

Of those, 615 were in the vicinity of the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)’s sites, which opened on 27 May and are operated by US private security contractors inside military zones in southern and central Gaza.

The other 183 killings were recorded near UN and other aid convoys.

The Israeli military said it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise “possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible”.

The GHF accused the UN of using “false and misleading” statistics from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

GHF boss Johnnie Moore previously told the BBC he was not denying deaths near aid sites, but said “100% of those casualties are being attributed to close proximity to GHF” and that was “not true”.

On Saturday, southern Gaza’s Nasser hospital said 24 people were killed near an aid distribution site, where witnesses said Israeli troops had opened fire as people were trying to access food.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there were “no known injured individuals” from IDF fire near the site. Separately, an Israeli military official said warning shots were fired to disperse people who the IDF believed were a threat.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,882 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times.

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed. The healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

This week, for the first time in 130 days, 75,000 litres of fuel was allowed into Gaza – “far from enough to meet the daily needs of the population and vital civilian aid operations”, the United Nations said.

Nine UN agencies warned on Saturday that Gaza’s fuel shortage had reached “critical levels”, and if fuel ran out, it would affect hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks and bakeries.

“Hospitals are already going dark, maternity, neonatal and intensive care units are failing, and ambulances can no longer move,” the UN said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Moscow his full support for its war in Ukraine during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pyongyang state media said on Sunday.

Lavrov’s visit to North Korea was the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials as both countries deepen military and political ties amid Russia’s offensive against Kyiv.

Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to oust Ukrainian forces and has also provided the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles.

Moscow said Lavrov’s talks with Kim were held in a “warm comradely atmosphere”.

Lavrov expressed “sincere gratitude to Pyongyang” for its role in Kursk and support of Russia’s operation, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow also said the two sides “agreed” that the West was to blame for “the growing tension” on the Korean peninsula.

The ministry earlier posted a video on Telegram of the two men shaking hands and greeting each other with a hug.

It said the talks were held in Wonsan, a city on North Korea’s east coast where a massive resort was opened earlier this month — one of leader Kim’s pet projects.

Kim told Lavrov that Pyongyang was “ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The North Korean leader also expressed a “firm belief that the Russian army and people would surely win victory in accomplishing the sacred cause of defending the dignity and basic interests of the country”.

He lauded Putin’s “outstanding leadership”, the report said.

The two men otherwise discussed “important matters for faithfully implementing the agreements made at the historic DPRK-Russia summit talks in June 2024”, KCNA said, referring to North Korea by its official acronym.

Lavrov told Kim that Putin “hopes for continued direct contacts in the very near future”, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

He left Pyongyang and landed in Beijing on Sunday to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers’ Council, TASS reported on its Telegram account.

Invincible alliance

Ahead of Lavrov’s recent visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Lavrov lauded Wonsan as “a good tourist attraction”, adding: “We hope it will be popular not only with local citizens, but also with Russians.”

KCNA also issued a statement today on the meeting between Lavrov and his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui, held a day earlier in the coastal city, saying that bilateral ties were becoming an “invincible alliance”.

Moscow “expressed its firm support for the DPRK side in its just efforts for defending the security of the state” during the meeting, KCNA said.

In return, Choe demonstrated “full sympathy and support for all the measures taken by the Russian government to remove the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict”.

TASS earlier reported that Lavrov thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers who have been deployed to aid Russia during the ministerial meeting.

Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.

North Korea only confirmed it had deployed troops to support Russia’s war in April, and admitted its soldiers had been killed in combat.

Both sides “emphasised their determination to jointly counter the hegemonic aspirations of extra-regional players, which are leading to escalating tensions in Northeast Asia and throughout the Asia-Pacific region”, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

The two heavily sanctioned nations signed a military deal last year, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang.