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Warsaw, — Detected irregular crossings into the European Union fell 42% in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, EU border agency Frontex said on Tuesday. Frontex released its latest statistics shortly before a summit of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels later this week, where immigration is among topics high on the agenda. The number of detected crossings into the EU “fell by 42 percent to 166,000 in the first nine months of this year,” Frontex said. It said the biggest falls were along the routes through the Western Balkans and Central Mediterranean. Nearly 17,000 …

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BRUSSELS — EU energy ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday to discuss the bloc’s rising Russian liquified natural gas imports, Ukraine’s energy shortages ahead of winter and how to balance energy prices across member states, officials said. The EU agreed on a 14th package of sanctions in June including a ban on transshipments of Russian gas as of March 2025 but stopped short of an outright ban. Since then, Belgium and the Netherlands have seen a sharp increase in imports. In a letter on Monday, France and nine other countries asked the European Commission to propose stricter reporting obligations on Russian …

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran condemned new EU and British sanctions on Tehran and denied providing ballistic missiles to Russia, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, said in a post on X on Tuesday. The European Union agreed on Monday to impose sanctions on seven people and seven organizations, including airline Iran Air, for their links to Iranian transfers of ballistic missiles to Russia. The listings also include Saha Airlines and Mahan Air and Iran’s Deputy Defense Minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari. At the same time, Britain added nine new designations under its Iran sanctions regime. Last month, the United …

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Officials in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region said Tuesday a Russian missile attack killed at least one person and injured 16 others. Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram the attack damaged an infrastructure facility, restaurant and shopping areas, as well as residential buildings. Ukraine’s military said Tuesday that Russia’s overnight attacks included nine missiles and 17 drones, with Ukraine’s air defenses destroying 12 of the drones. The drone intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Poltava regions, the Ukrainian air force said. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it destroyed Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod, Kursk and …

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TALLINN, Estonia — The last time any of Maria Kolesnikova’s family had contact with the imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist was more than 18 months ago. Fellow inmates at the penal colony reported hearing her plead for medical help from inside her tiny, smelly cell. Her father, Alexander Kolesnikov, told The Associated Press by phone from Minsk that he knows she’s seriously ill and tried to visit her several months ago at the facility near Gomel, where she is serving an 11-year sentence, but has failed whenever he goes there. On his last attempt, he said the warden told him, “If she …

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Copenhagen, Denmark — Pollution, habitat degradation, climate change and overuse of freshwater resources are putting a strain on Europe, with only a third of its surface water in good health, the European Environment Agency warned  Tuesday. “The health of Europe’s waters is not good. Our waters face an unprecedented set of challenges that threatens Europe’s water security,” EEA executive director Leena Yla-Mononen said in a statement. Only 37% of Europe’s surface water bodies achieved “good” or “high” ecological status, a measure of aquatic ecosystem health, the EEA report said. Meanwhile, only 29% of surface waters achieved “good” chemical status over the …

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ROME — Italy is transferring the first group of migrants to Albania, the Interior Ministry said Monday, as part of a contentious plan to process thousands of asylum-seekers outside its borders.  A naval ship departed from the island of Lampedusa with 16 men — 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya. The ship is expected to arrive Wednesday morning, a ministry spokesman said.  Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government formally opened the two centers in Albania Friday where Italy plans to process thousands of male migrants requesting asylum after being intercepted in …

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