Europe

Munich, Feb 15 (AFP/PTI) French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday warned that Russia would continue to try to "destabilise" Western democracies through election interference, social media manipulation and other acts of cyber warfare.

"I think that Russia will keep trying to destabilise, either through private actors, directly through its agencies, or through proxies," Macron said at the Munich Security Conference, describing Moscow as "extremely aggressive" in this area.

PARIS, Feb 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – European aircraft producer, Airbus, said that, the United States government’s decision to increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the European Union (EU), further escalates trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU.

The decision of the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), “further escalates trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU, thereby creating more instability for U.S. airlines, that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft,” said the European plane maker in a statement.

16 February 2020; AFP: President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday France was growing "impatient" with the lack of German response to its push to strengthen the European Union after Brexit.

Asked at the Munich Security Conference if he was frustrated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's silence on his proposed reforms, Macron said: "I'm not frustrated, I'm impatient."

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe may have lost the battle to create digital champions capable of taking on U.S. and Chinese companies harvesting personal data, but it can win the war of industrial data, Europe’s industry policy chief said on Saturday.

Vast troves of data from how fast we drive our cars to how much time a robot needs to churn out products will open a new front in the battle for digital dominance, said Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner in charge of the bloc’s single market.

MUNICH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Riyadh was still committed to back-channel peace talks with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, despite a recent increase in violence in the five-year conflict.

Yemen has been mired in fighting since the Iran-backed Houthi movement ousted the government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi from the capital in late 2014.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore him. The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe, Shi’ite Muslim Iran.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will “turn off the tap” of foreign, low-skilled labor and require all skilled workers wishing to come to the country to have a job offer and meet salary and language requirements as it sets post-Brexit rules from next year.

Britain formally left the European Union at the end of January but a transition period is in effect until Dec. 31, during which time little changes.

MUNICH (Reuters) - Iran and Saudi Arabia appeared no closer to bridging their differences on Saturday with both sides sticking to their positions and regional facilitator Oman seeing no breakthrough before U.S. elections in November.

Tensions in the Gulf region stepped up after the killing in early January of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani by the United States in Iraq. European and Arab states have since scrambled to avert a full-fledged conflict between the two sides.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Saturday expressed his belief that European countries will make wise choices on Huawei's 5G at their own discretion.

"Huawei's 5G is an old issue," Wang said in the Q&A session after his speech at the ongoing 56th Munich Security Conference which kicked off here on Friday and runs until Sunday.

Many European countries, including Britain and Germany, have adopted a calm, objective and scientific attitude towards the issue, he noted.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday called for solidarity in fighting the epidemics here at the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC).

"We must be guided by solidarity, not stigma," he reiterated, adding that the greatest enemy is not the virus itself but the stigma "that turns us against each other."

"We must stop stigma and hate," he stressed.

MUNICH (AP) — Diplomats from nations that lost citizens when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner pushed Iran’s foreign minister Saturday for more cooperation from Tehran on the investigation and other issues.

Amid heightened tensions with the United States, Iran said it accidentally shot the aircraft down Jan. 8 after mistaking it for an incoming missile attack. All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines plane died.