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In stilte is de EU veel beter geworden in het terugdringen van illegale migratie. In 2024 daalde het aantal illegale grenspassages met bijna 40 procent, vooral op de centraal-Mediterrane en Westelijke Balkanroute. Niet door schietgrage milities, maar door een mix van deals, data en harde grenspolitiek.

De irreguliere instroom van migranten aan de buitengrenzen van de EU is de afgelopen twee jaar scherp gedaald. Volgens grenswachtagentschap Frontex daalde het aantal gedetecteerde illegale grensoverschrijdingen in 2024 met 38 procent, tot iets meer dan 239.000 – het laagste niveau sinds 2021. Op de drukste route, via de centrale Middellandse Zee, gingen de aantallen zelfs met 59 procent omlaag; op de Westelijke Balkanroute met 78 procent.

Die omslag kwam niet vanzelf, analyseert The Economist. Europese regeringen sloten de afgelopen jaren een web van afspraken met transitlanden als Tunesië, Libië en staten op de Westelijke Balkan, waarin geld, visumbeleid en grensapparatuur worden uitgeruild tegen strengere controle aan hun kant. Tegelijk is de EU massaal gaan investeren in grensbewaking: Frontex breidde operaties uit, er kwamen meer patrouilles, drones, biometrische databases en gezamenlijke acties tegen smokkelnetwerken. De boodschap is duidelijk: minder aankomsten aan de Europese kust begint ver vóór de Europese kust.

Daarmee tekent zich een nieuwe migratie-architectuur af: “externalisering” als norm. Europa houdt vluchtelingen en arbeidsmigranten steeds vaker op afstand, door hen al in Afrika of het Midden-Oosten te selecteren, tegen te houden of terug te sturen. Dat is effectief in cijfers, maar schuift risico’s en mensenrechtendilemma’s door naar landen met zwakkere rechtsstaten en minder toezicht.

Politiek gezien is de daling een geschenk voor regeringsleiders die onder druk staan van radicaal-rechtse partijen. Minder boten en lagere aantallen in de statistieken wegnemen acute paniek, maar lossen niets op aan de structurele oorzaken: conflicten, klimaatstress en demografische verschillen. De kans is groot dat de volgende migratiecrisis niet ontstaat door te veel beweging, maar door een Europa dat denkt dat het probleem met lagere cijfers is verdwenen.

De echte vraag is niet of Europa de aantallen omlaag krijgt, maar met welke prijskaartje – en wie dat uiteindelijk betaalt.

TOKIO (ANP/AFP/RTR) - Japan wil in de komende decennia tot veertien verouderde kernreactoren vervangen. Het ministerie van Economie, Handel en Industrie deed vrijdag een voorstel daartoe, om zo aan de stijgende vraag naar elektriciteit te kunnen blijven voldoen.

Japan sloot zijn 54 kernreactoren nadat een aardbeving en tsunami in 2011 drie reactoren van de kerncentrale in Fukushima tot smelten hadden gebracht. Daarbij kwam veel radioactief materiaal vrij. In de jaren daarna zijn vijftien reactoren weer opgestart. Veel reactoren naderen echter het einde van hun levensduur van zestig jaar.

In het voorstel worden tussen de twee en vijf reactoren voor de jaren 40 van deze eeuw vervangen. In het decennium daarna moet het totaal aantal van elf tot veertien bereikt worden. In de plannen is rekening gehouden met een sterk verhoogde vraag naar elektriciteit vanwege kunstmatige intelligentie.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide, October 1958

Report into royal property affairs reveals disgraced ex-prince generated private income from Windsor Royal Lodge

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received private income from subletting three cottages on his Windsor Royal Lodge estate while paying a “peppercorn rent” to the crown estate, a report into royal property arrangements has revealed.

The National Audit Office (NAO) review also shows that King Charles pays an “adjusted” rent from his private Duchy of Lancaster income, below open market value, for his disgraced brother’s non-working royal daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to live in royal palaces.

Fifty years ago this week, the Sex Pistols played their first Manchester gig – and upended pop culture. But what was 1976 really like before punk arrived? From swing bands to ‘spaghetti rock’, we discover a lost history

In January 1976, the cover of the NME didn’t feature an artist, but a photo of a room damaged by an IRA bomb: there had been a string of terrorist attacks in London the previous year. The headline: “Is rock’n’roll ready for 1976 … Is 1976 ready for rock’n’roll?”

In the accompanying feature, writer Mick Farren was to be found complaining vociferously about the state of music. Audiences are “prepared to tolerate just about anything”. Rock has “lost its guts” and “is on an unalterable course to a neo-Las Vegas”, because artists are “totally insulated from the real world” and thus making music that “seems so damned irrelevant to real life”. Farren reiterated these points in June in a piece titled The Titanic Sails at Dawn, by which point it was obvious that some new artists completely agreed with him.

Pontiff’s resolve to highlight plight of migrants has aligned him with Spanish PM, whose inner circle and party are mired in corruption allegations

While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous.

The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals.

Macron, Merz and von der Leyen among those due to gather in Montenegro for talks on integration of six countries

European leaders will seek to show six western Balkan countries that they have a real chance of joining the EU one day, despite splits over how to handle enlargement of the 27-member bloc.

Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen are among more than 30 leaders expected to gather in the Montenegrin coastal resort of Tivat on Friday for summit talks. The focus will be on integrating the six Balkan countries – among them Montenegro and Albania – more deeply into the EU single market, paving the way for them to join the bloc.

(Atlantic)
After scrapping an album and starting anew, Lizzo still sounds lost amid these weak genre-hopping songs. Perhaps the zeitgeist has simply left her behind

Just over a year ago, Lizzo appeared on Saturday Night Live, announcing a new album called Love in Real Life in grandstanding style. Wielding an electric guitar, clad in a Trump-baiting T-shirt that read Tariffied, she performed its title track and two other new songs, Still Bad and Don’t Make Me Love U. As with her appearance earlier the same week on a late night talkshow – during which she ran into the audience to high-five fans who were yelling “we love you Lizzo!” – it looked very much like a defiant comeback, fit to drag her out of the controversy that erupted at the end of her hugely successful 2023 world tour. Three former backing dancers and a costume designer filed lawsuits against the singer alleging harassment and discrimination: damaging claims given how Lizzo’s songs have preached a message of inclusivity, body positivity and self-confidence. Some of the allegations were dismissed by a judge but others are ongoing; Lizzo has refused to settle out of court, saying: “I’m fighting the case because I know that it’s not true.”

But the Love in Real Life single, a pivot towards rock that owed a little to Tom Petty’s American Girls – or the Strokes’ American Girls-indebted Last Nite if you prefer – failed to make the charts, a far cry from the period between 2018 and 2022 when Lizzo’s singles seemed to go multi-platinum as a matter of course. The same fate befell Still Bad, a track much more in the vein of her big hits, prompting a rethink. The album was pulled, Lizzo apparently taking control of her own destiny – “I need to do shit my way”. A mixtape that returned her more-or-less to where she started, before pop stardom came calling – punchy hip-hop, albeit tricked out with guest appearances from Doja Cat and SZA – appeared in its place: My Face Hurts from Smiling received mixed reviews and underwhelming streaming figures.

Campaign wants to transport people back to weekend of her disappearance when England drew 1-1 with Switzerland in Euro 96 match

The family of Melanie Hall, who was murdered after vanishing from a Bath nightclub 30 years ago, have said they still hope her killer may be found – but felt time was running out – as police launched a fresh appeal for information.

Melanie’s father, Steve Hall, said: “You always think in the early days there’s going to be a quick resolution. That’s not been the case but we travel in hope. I hope I live long enough to see a conclusion.”

Experts say increased use of crops for fuel is ‘dangerous game’ that could send food price inflation soaring

Demand for biofuels is likely to leap by nearly a third this year, which could send food price inflation soaring further and push the world closer to a global food crisis.

More countries are opting to increase biofuel use as the price of oil has jumped to nearly $100 a barrel after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

In what has become one of the most chaotic primaries in recent history, elections in California are delivering some upsets. Elsewhere, establishment Democrats performed well and a Trump pick failed to make the cut.

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian’s Sam Levin about the big takeaways from the single busiest primary day of the year so far

Archive: AP, Reuters

After a period of burnout, I realised that nature knows what you need, and is always ready to offer it – you just have to be quiet enough to receive it

In 2022 I moved to Clevedon, near Bristol. As soon as I saw the oak tree behind my flat, I started sitting under it. It’s not in some beautiful, remote place – it’s on an urban hill surrounded by grassland – but as a solitary tree on the side of a hill, it drew my attention.

I was burned out. For 10 years, I had run a nonprofit tackling plastic pollution. We had got the government to ban plastic cutlery and polystyrene takeaway packaging, and supermarkets to ban plastic cotton buds. They were major achievements, but it was hard work and I was exhausted. I was transitioning away from activism, and only working three days a week.

Across Europe, public service journalism is a shield for democracy. But we have to decide if we want to fight for its survival

For 16 years, Viktor Orbán’s government poured millions of euros of public money into thinktanks, institutions and media outlets sympathetic to its illiberal views – not only in Hungary but beyond its borders. In Slovakia, for instance, where a sizeable Hungarian minority lives, Budapest is alleged to have sent millions of euros to favoured media organisations. Many independent newsrooms survived on only a fraction of what these outlets received.

These government-fattened channels were never truly called “media” by Hungarian colleagues, nor their content producers “journalists”. If Hungarians were asked to recall ever hearing from these outlets a piercing human story, an investigation exposing abuse of power or a facts-based analysis that brought clarity to chaos, they would search their memory in vain.

Beata Balogová is a Slovakian journalist and a member of the board of the European Press Prize

In Australië vormen Europese konijnen weer een plaag. De invasieve soort is immuun geworden voor de virussen waarmee ze voorheen bestreden werden. Intussen verwoesten de knaagdieren complete ecosystemen.