LONDON/KYIV (Reuters) - The leaders of France, Germany and Britain staged a strong show of support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in London on Monday at what they described as a “crucial time” for Kyiv, under U.S. pressure to agree a proposed peace deal with Russia. At a hastily arranged meeting, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Zelensky said they wanted to come up with firm plans in case of a peace deal.

 

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BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU countries on Monday approved a significant tightening of Europe’s immigration policy, including endorsing the concept of setting up “return hubs” for migrants outside the 27-nation bloc. Fearful of far-right parties making gains at the ballot box, governments across Europe are scrambling to take a tougher stance.  Interior ministers meeting in Brussels will vote for the first time on a series of measures presented this year by the bloc’s executive to more strictly regulate the arrival and return of migrants.

 

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WASHINGTON (TASS) – U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed disappointment with Vladimir Zelensky, who has not yet read the draft peace proposal prepared by the U.S. administration to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. “I have to say I’m a little bit disappointed that Zelensky has not yet read the proposal,” he told reporters at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He added that he was not sure whether Zelensky was fine with the agreement Washington had proposed, adding that someone will have to explain why Zelensky had not yet reviewed the details of the deal.

 

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 PARIS (AFP) - A water leak in late November damaged several hundred works in the Louvre’s Egyptian department, the Paris museum told AFP on Sunday, weeks after a brazen jewel theft raised concerns over its infrastructure. “Between 300 and 400 works” were affected by the leak discovered on November 26, said the museum’s deputy administrator Francis Steinbock, describing them as “Egyptology journals” and “scientific documentation” used by researchers. The damaged data-x-items date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are “extremely useful” but are “by no means unique”, Steinbock added.

 

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UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The United Nations on Monday hit out at global “apathy” over widespread suffering as it launched its 2026 appeal for humanitarian assistance, which is limited in scope as aid operations confront major funding cuts. “This is a time of brutality, impunity and indifference,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told reporters, condemning “the ferocity and the intensity of the killing, the complete disregard for international law, horrific levels of sexual violence” he had seen on the ground in 2025. “This is a time when the rules are in retreat, when the scaffolding of coexistence is under sustained attack, when our survival antennae have been numbed by distraction and corroded by apathy,” he said.

 

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian firefighter was killed overnight after he was struck by a tree while trying to control a bushfire that had destroyed homes and burnt large swathes of bushland north of Sydney, authorities said on Monday. Emergency crews rushed to bushland near the rural town of Bulahdelah, 200 kilometers north of Sydney, after reports that a tree had fallen on a man. The 59-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest and died at the scene, officials said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the “terrible news is a somber reminder” of the dangers faced by emergency services personnel as they work to protect homes and families.