Ceuta, Spain, and Fnideq, Morocco, are physically separated by only a mile, but they are intertwined by family and trade. A recent border crisis is the latest chapter in their story.
Kyiv has not yet acknowledged killing Russian civilians on a Black Sea beach, but as it strikes deeper at Moscow, these tragedies will multiply – and that’s not the only worry, explains world affairs editor Sam Kiley
Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys
Far beyond the fires raging across Europe and North America, the smoke, dangerous to breathe, hangs in the air, dimming the view, changing the very color of sunlight into something grimly unsettling.
An estimated 20,000 are said to have died in the extreme heat in Europe earlier this year, and heat is climate change’s quiet killer, compared with the dramatic violence of death by fire or flood. In eastern Washington, 600 homes have just burned down, and in both Europe and North America, firefighters have died in the effort to contain the climate-fueled firestorms.
A pregame ceremony at the FIFA World Cup final match last month between Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium. FIFA is expected to take in $15 billion in revenue from this year’s event.
The EU’s panic and the lack of solidarity emboldens smugglers and the far right – and makes Spain even more vulnerable
For the European hard right and the White House, it seemed almost too good to be true: left-liberal Spain punished with a migration crisis of its own making.
The histrionics came right on cue. As thousands of mainly Moroccan citizens streamed into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the tip of north Africa, Spain’s far-right party Vox decried a migrant “invasion”, blaming Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s regularisation and leftist politics. The Trump administration did the same. A senior Israeli diplomat goaded Madrid over its “colonial” territories while Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen area. Denmark and Finland backed Italy’s move and, by the weekend, 22 EU leaders had penned a letter pointing an implicit finger at Madrid over its presumed failure to “relentlessly combat illegal migration”.
After thousands poured into the Spanish territory in North Africa, the pro-immigration policies of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez were blamed. The reality is more complex.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, center, visiting Ceuta on Friday. “In less than 48 hours, my government has succeeded in fully restoring control over the border,” he said on Saturday.
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Most of the people who surged into Spain on Thursday have since returned to Morocco. A small minority are holed up on a seafront, tired, hungry and vowing to stay.
Some migrants were waiting it out on a beach in Ceuta, a Spanish territory, on Saturday after crossing from Morocco days earlier.
Europe sheltered many refugees in 2015. Its hard-line reaction to a new crisis in Ceuta shows how, 11 years on, the far right has reshaped European attitudes.
Rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves have changed the feel of the season for today’s children, compared with their parents and grandparents.
The crossing of 50,000 people to Spanish territory this week has created a crisis for the Spanish government, much as the 2015 migration crisis did for Europe’s leaders. The context is different.
Several migrants who crossed into Ceuta attributed their arrival to lax Moroccan border protocols. But Europe’s anti-immigrant politicians blamed Spain’s migrant-friendly policies.
Under French rules, homeowners must clear vegetation within roughly 50 yards of their houses. In the forests affected by France’s worst fire in decades, that didn’t happen.
En quelques jours, plus de 1 500 personnes – dont plusieurs centaines hier – sont arrivées par la mer en provenance du Maroc dans l’enclave espagnole de Ceuta.
Les corps de neuf personnes qui avaient tenté de rejoindre la rive à la nage ont été repêchés.
Le gouvernement espagnol a déployé des militaires.
Il a indiqué que les personnes entrées illégalement seront rapatriées vers le Maroc.
Ceuta, située à la pointe nord du Maroc, est l’une des deux enclaves espagnoles en Afrique du Nord.
C’est une frontière terrestre de l’Union européenne sur le continent africain.
Have you had to cancel, reschedule or replan a trip to France, Spain or elsewhere because of raging fires or stifling heat? If so, we want to hear from you.
Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has repeatedly run into trouble with both the Kremlin and Western officials as he cast himself as a champion of free speech
The continent is experiencing some of its biggest fires and highest temperatures ever. Residents are fleeing, leaders are struggling to respond and “it will get worse,” one climate expert said.
Many European travelers, who normally sustain the economics of several prominent Southeast Asian resort towns, have canceled tropical holidays in favor of destinations closer to home.
Mediators have made progress in efforts to bring the United States and Iran back to negotiations and prevent an all-out war in the Middle East, according to two regional officials
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