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Europol signed a strategic agreement with the Israel Police on Tuesday, marking the first-ever working agreement signed between the European Union criminal intelligence agency and a non-EU country. The agreement was signed in The Hague by Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich and Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol. The signing of the “Police to Police” agreement followed intensive discussions and a vote at the Europol headquarters which was unanimously approved by 28 representatives of member countries. Europol said in a press release that the agreement will be important for tackling priority crime areas affecting both the European Union and...

Germany’s long-understaffed army has a new plan to boost recruitment: allowing foreigners from other European Union countries to serve in the unified armed forces (Bundeswehr). The defense ministry confirmed on Saturday that it was seriously considering the idea. “The Bundeswehr is growing. For this, we need qualified personnel,” a Defense Ministry spokesman told German news agency DPA. Speaking with local newspaper Augsburger Allegemeine, Social Democrat (SPD) defense expert Karl-Heinz Brunner said that he could imagine EU citizens serving in the Bundeswehr. But he warned that any soldier who fought for Germany must be promised citizenship. “If citizens of other countries...

In a local election on Sunday, the residents of Kaufbeuren, a small town in Bavaria, voted against providing public land for the construction of a mosque. At issue was the question of whether the city would provide the local branch of the nationally active Turkish-Islamic religious association DITIB with a 5,000 square meter (54,000 square foot) plot in an industrial area. At least 45 percent of the approximately 34,000 voters took part in the election. A minimum of a 20 percent turnout was necessary to make the vote valid. The city must now break off its negotiations with DITIB. According...

Plans for US far-right figure Steve Bannon to exert his influence on the European parliament’s 2019 election have been met with alarm across Germany’s political spectrum. Bannon has become a controversial figure, known for his ties to the campaigns for the UK to leave the European Union and the election of US President Donald Trump. “We have to fight now, with good arguments, confident and true,” said Michael Roth, a center-left Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker and Minister of State for Europe in an interview with the Welt newspaper. Europe should not “be afraid of nationalist campaigns with which Mr. Bannon...

Leo Varadkar was branded an “airhead” today as Downing Street dismissed his extraordinary threat to “ban” British aircraft from Irish airspace in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Irish PM was slapped down by Theresa May’s spokeswoman over the saber-rattling — which is being seen as tit-for-tat for the UK reclaiming control over its territorial waters. As the row raged, Mrs. May urged the EU to take a more “practical” approach to the negotiations — insisting her Chequers plan offered a “comprehensive” solution to the need to avoid a hard Irish border. And No. 10 gave short shrift to...

France and Russia have agreed to send 50 metric tons of medical aid to government-controlled eastern Ghouta in Syria, French officials said on Friday. A Russian cargo plane arrived late Friday in Chateauroux in central France to take the aid, which includes medical supplies and other essential goods, to a Russian military base in northwestern Syria. It will then be transported to eastern Ghouta, which the Syrian government retook from rebel forces in April. Once in Syria, the cargo will be distributed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) with the help of the Syrian...

Full tile.... Jeff Flake takes to Senate floor to suggest Trump committed TREASON by giving 'aid and comfort' to 'enemy' Russia ..... The Trump-Helsinki summit brought new accusations in Congress Thursday, as GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona accused the president of providing 'aid and comfort' to the enemy. Flake's choice of words evoked the Constitution's definition of treason – at a time when President Trump is facing a new level of scrutiny for his refusal to forcefully condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for election meddling during their summit meeting Monday in Finland. 'By choosing to reject objective reality in...

Yorai Feinberg has gotten used to hearing from “Ludwig Fischer.” Every few days the Berlin restaurant owner receives emails from a man who writes under the pseudonym of one of Hitler’s most notorious SA henchmen. He calls Feinberg a “filthy rat,” says the Holocaust is just a “scam” and rants that all Jews will land in the gas chamber. […] The last few months have seen several high-profile attacks on Jews in Germany. Just last week a Jewish-American professor was attacked by a young German of Palestinian descent in the city of Bonn. In April, an attack on a yarmulke-wearing...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday spoke out over US President Donald Trump’s attempts to backtrack on comments he made during Monday’s Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin. Maas said Germany and other western allies demanded a “minimum degree of reliability” from Trump and his foreign policy. “It is, quite simply, extremely difficult to craft policies when the information or facts have a half-life of 24 hours. This will not work,” Berlin’s top diplomat added after meeting with his Chilean counterpart Roberto Ampuero. “This also seems to be the unanimous opinion within the United States,” he added. […] Germany’s...

At the close of the Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki, Hodges told DW that Trump’s attitude toward NATO is worrying, his attack on Angela Merkel was “a terrible mistake” and his friendship with Putin is “inexplicable.” DW: What did you make of President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Helsinki? Do you share what seems to be the common view: that it was a diplomatic disaster that undermines multilateral alliances like NATO?Hodges: I’m reluctant to say anything is a disaster so immediately after it happened. It’s just going to take a little bit of time for things...

At least 1,000 people gathered at the grandiose tomb of the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on Sunday to protest against Madrid’s plans to move his body, an AFP photographer said. Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975 when he died, is buried in a valley just outside Madrid in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain face with a 150-meter (490-feet) cross towering over it. Known as the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen), it is a deeply divisive symbol of a past that Spain still finds difficult to digest. By late morning, a long line...

Spain’s Socialist government is seeking to erase gender bias in the constitution but the head of the Royal Spanish Academy, the custodian of the language, on Monday said the plan was unworkable. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo asked the Academy to study updating the 1978 constitution with “inclusive” language. “We have a constitution in the masculine which dates back to 40 years ago,” she said, noting that it referred to “ministers and deputies” with the male form of the noun. The traditional Spanish use of male pronouns and noun forms to refer to both genders collectively has raised...

Several dozen supporters of President Donald Trump, many waving American flags and sporting “Make America Great Again” caps, have cheered as the U.S. leader neared his hotel in Helsinki before his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. […] The Trump fans, several from the True Finn anti-immigration party, said they wanted to make a show of support in a country where many people have criticized his policies. A few scattered boos rang out from across the road. …

Coming off a contentious NATO summit and a trip to the U.K. in which he seemed to undercut the government of America's closest ally, President Trump took aim at another Western institution just days before his high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor Jeff Glor in Scotland on Saturday, President Trump named the European Union -- comprising some of America's oldest allies -- when asked to identify his "biggest foe globally right now." "Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they...

When asked which world leader was the greater threat to world security, 64 percent of respondents chose US President Donald Trump over his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. That’s according to a YouGov poll published on the eve of Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki. And the German antipathy toward Trump doesn’t end there: 56 percent of respondents thought that Putin was more competent than Trump, with only 5 percent preferring the latter on that score. Thirty-six percent of Germans find Putin more likable than Trump, while 6 percent say the opposite — although most respondents refused to indicate a preference...

Charles Powell, her most important private secretary, now believes that she would have negotiated a deal quite like David Cameron’s latest, and urged a Remain vote. Norman Tebbit, one of her most senior and like-minded ministers, says the opposite. I shall not break my rule by agreeing or disagreeing with either. But the story of Mrs Thatcher and Europe does reveal something interesting. The whole time she was in office, she never said that Britain should leave. Once she had left office, she said privately – to me and several others – that she thought we should.

Former UK Ambassador to the US Sir Christopher Meyer, 74, was beaten bloody by two attackers at Victoria Station in London on Wednesday, hours after he published an essay supporting President Donald Trump’s visit to the UK Thursday.

BARNSLEY, England – President Trump's three-day visit to the United Kingdom will be greeted by throngs of protesters marching through London, many carrying expletive-laden placards and with an enormous “Trump baby” balloon flying overhead. Meanwhile, liberal media voices in the U.S. and U.K. assure their audiences that Brits are overwhelmingly united against Trump and his policies. But here in the north of England, particularly among those who supported Brexit -- Britain’s departure from the European Union -- opinions of Trump are far more nuanced, with many even offering strong support of the president.

The U.S. ambassador to Germany urged Berlin on Tuesday to stop Iran withdrawing large sums of cash from bank accounts in Germany to offset the effect of new U.S. sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal. Richard Grenell, a longtime critic of the accord, told the mass-circulation daily Bild that the U.S. government was extremely concerned about Tehran’s plans to transfer hundreds of millions of euros in cash to Iran. “We encourage the highest levels of the German government to intervene and stop the plan,” Grenell said. […] Bild first reported on Monday that German authorities were...

A major purpose of Iran wanting to enlarge its footprint in Syria may be to hide aspects of its nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency, former top IDF Military Intelligence official Yossi Kuperwasser said on Wednesday. Speaking at a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs conference on the Iran nuclear situation, JCPA fellow Kuperwasser, a former IDF brigadier-general, noted that IAEA inspectors are limited to inspecting Iran’s territory, as the Iran nuclear deal did not grant IAEA inspectors complete access to Iranian scientists. Based on that limited access, Kuperwasser said Iran could move and conceal its nuclear scientists and...