Europe

Ukraine’s European allies are considering the possibility of using their air forces to defend the country’s western skies from drone and missile attacks without the help of the United States, sources familiar with the talks tell Al Jazeera.

The plan, known as Skyshield, could put NATO planes and pilots into Ukrainian airspace for the first time, sending a powerful political message to Russia that Europe is committed to Ukraine’s defence.

Skyshield is more likely to come into effect as part of any ceasefire, especially if European ground forces are committed. But it was designed by Ukrainian and British aviation experts to work under combat conditions as well.

“It’s being taken very seriously into consideration by the UK, France,” said Victoria Vdovychenko, an expert on hybrid warfare at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, who has sat at some of the meetings. “German colleagues and Italian colleagues also do know about that, as well as the Scandinavian colleagues,” she said.

When it comes to implementing Skyshield in wartime conditions, she admits, “some of the partners are still fluctuating in their decision making”.

Skyshield was published in February and is the brainchild of Price of Freedom, a Ukrainian think tank founded by Lesya Orobets. She came up with the idea during an air defence crisis last spring, when Republican lawmakers in the US delayed the passage of a $60bn bill to send more aid to Ukraine.

During a phone call with the head of Ukraine’s air force, Orobets was told, “We are in the middle of a missile crisis. We don’t have enough [interceptors] to shoot down the missiles.”

Skyshield calls for the deployment of 120 European aircraft to protect Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and export corridors along the Danube River and the Black Sea, freeing up the Ukrainian Air Force to focus on the first line of defence in the contested east of the country.

“There would be a piece of land of 200 kilometres [125 miles] between them at least,” said Orobets.

European jets would be based in neighbouring Poland and Romania, and fly mostly west of the Dnipro, protecting Kyiv on both sides of the river in the north of the country.

A higher-risk strategy

Western commanders are wary of costs, casualties and military implications.

Hourly flight costs, which include training, parts and maintenance, range from $28,000 for an F-16 to about $45,000 for a fourth-generation Rafale jet, Colonel Konstantinos Zikidis of the Hellenic Air Force told Al Jazeera.

“We’d have to pay for people to be there, several shifts a day in all specialities … it will be exhausting,” he said, referring to aircraft technicians and pilots.

“On the other hand, the proposal downplays the effectiveness of air defence systems, which are very effective against cruise missiles and have a far lower hourly operating cost than aircraft,” Zikidis said.

“It’s also not really the job of aircraft to hunt down cruise missiles. They can do it if they are given coordinates by air command. They can’t go out on flight patrol and spot them by chance. So you need a very thick radar array to cover a given area, especially at low altitude.”

European NATO members do not operate AWACS airborne radar, which would be the ideal tool for the job according to Zikidis, but Ukrainian pilots have already downed Russian cruise missiles using air-to-air missiles, suggesting the ground-based radar assets are there.

Europe has provided Ukraine with Patriot and Samp-T long-range air defence systems and Iris-T medium-range systems, but these are enough only to protect larger urban centres, said Vdovychenko. Russia is also stepping up its attacks. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on May 4 that Russia had launched almost 1,200 long-range kamikaze drones and 10 missiles in just a week.

These types of weapons are routinely directed at civilian and industrial infrastructure, not the front lines, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasing production. Last year, Russia’s factory at Alabuga produced 6,000 Shahed/Geran long-range drones, said Ukraine’s head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, last month. He said Putin set production at 8,000-10,000 drones this year.

The effects are visible. High-profile attacks on Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv and Kyiv have killed dozens of people this year.

The second problem European air forces would face is that of casualties.

“If one European plane falls and a pilot is killed, it will be very difficult for a European government to explain it,” said Zikidis. “For a Greek pilot to go and get killed in Ukraine could bring the government down,” he added.

“I don’t think that there is a political will [for that], and that is what stops this partially,” said Vdovychenko.

But Orobets put this risk in a wider context.

“We’re talking about catching cruise missiles and putting down the offensive drones, which is quite an easy target for trained pilots,” she told Al Jazeera. “So we do consider Skyshield to be less risky [than enforcing a no-fly zone] or any participation of the European troops closer to the front line.”

Strategic intimidation

Thirdly, there are the military implications. Skyshield is partly about freeing up the Ukrainian Air Force to strike deeper inside Russia, deploying the estimated 85 F-16s it is being given.

That is because Russia has this year intensified its use of controlled air bombs (CABs), which are directed against front lines, reportedly dropping 5,000 in April versus 4,800 in March, 3,370 in February and 1,830 in January.

Ukraine would target the airfields from which Russian jets take off to drop the CABs. It would also move missile launch systems closer to the front lines, increasing their reach inside Russia.

CABs are Russia’s most effective weapon at the front, and it has successfully leveraged its nuclear arsenal to intimidate NATO into allowing them to be flown in.

The Biden administration had refused to allow Ukraine to deploy Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMSs), which have a range of 300km (190 miles), because Russia considered their use dependent on US intelligence, in its view, making the US a cobelligerent in the war.

It has expressed exactly the same view of Germany sending its 500km (310-mile) range Taurus missile to Ukraine.

In the same vein, Russia has threatened to act against any European force deployment to Ukraine.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu last month told a summit of the foreign ministers of the BRICS group of states in Rio de Janeiro that “military units of Western states on Ukrainian territory … will be considered as legitimate targets”.

These threats have been effective. The Biden administration was against the idea of allowing the Polish and Romanian air forces to shoot down drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace that were headed into Polish and Romanian airspace, Orobets said.

The Biden administration “thought that if any American pilot on any American jet or any Western jet would enter the Ukrainian airspace, then America or another country would become cobelligerent”, she said.

The same applied to the notion of Europeans entering Ukraine’s airspace.

“They were scared that Russians would then escalate to the level of a conflict they could not sustain. So that was the only reason. There was no reason like, ‘Oh, we cannot do that’,” she said.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Sanctions were levied during the rule of Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December.

European Union countries have given a green light to lifting all economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the war-torn country recover after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, according to diplomats speaking to news agencies.

Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states struck a preliminary agreement for the move, which should be formally unveiled by foreign ministers meeting in Brussels later on Tuesday, diplomats said, noting that the final decision is up to ministers.

This follows an announcement by the United States last week that it is lifting sanctions on Damascus.

Reporting from the EU headquarters, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra described the reported agreement to lift the sanctions as a “really significant” development.

“It’s first of all an acknowledgement that the EU recognises the authority which is operating now in Syria, and that there need to be more financial transactions to pave the way for the creation of financial stability and improve the living standards of the people in Syria,” he said.

Sanctions were levied during the rule of al-Assad in 2012 and 2013 and concern the transport, energy and the banking sectors, Ahelbarra said.

The country’s new leadership has urged the West to ease the restrictions to help Syria recover from years of despotic rule and civil war.

EU diplomats told AFP the agreement should see sanctions cutting Syrian banks off from the global system and freezing central bank assets lifted.

But diplomats said the bloc was intending to impose new individual sanctions on those responsible for stirring ethnic tensions, following deadly attacks targeting the Alawite minority.

Other measures targeting the al-Assad regime and prohibiting the sale of weapons or equipment that could be used to repress civilians were set to remain in place.

The latest move from the EU comes after its first step in February, suspending some sanctions on key Syrian economic sectors.

Officials said those measures could be reimposed if Syria’s new leaders break promises to respect the rights of minorities and move towards democracy.

This is a developing story, more to come…

A small town in western France has set a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Smurfs, organisers say, with more than 3,000 participants counted over the weekend.

Landerneau, a town of 16,000 in Brittany’s far west, had twice previously attempted to claim the record from Lauchringen, a German town that brought together 2,762 Smurfs in 2019.

But on Saturday, the French enthusiasts finally broke through, assembling 3,076 people clad in blue outfits, faces painted, donning white hats and singing “smurfy songs”.

The Smurfs – created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in 1958 and known as “Schtroumpfs” in French – are tiny, human-like beings who live in the forest.

The beloved characters have since become a global franchise, spawning films, television series, advertising, video games, theme parks and toys.

“A friend encouraged me to join and I thought: ‘Why not?’” said Simone Pronost, 82, dressed as a Smurfette.

Albane Delariviere, a 20-year-old student, made the journey from Rennes, more than 200km (125 miles) away, to join the festivities.

“We thought it was a cool idea to help Landerneau out,” she said.

Landerneau’s mayor, Patrick Leclerc, also in full Smurf attire, said the event “brings people together and gives them something else to think about than the times we’re living in”.

Pascal Soun, head of the association behind the gathering, said the event “allows people to have fun and enter an imaginary world for a few hours”.

Participants were relieved to have good weather, after last year’s attempt was hampered by heavy rain that deterred many from attending.

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, May 20:

Fighting

• With peace talks on the horizon, Russia currently controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to ask for Ukrainian forces to retreat from four regions of Ukraine during peace talks.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruled out withdrawing troops from parts of eastern and southern Ukraine currently under Kyiv’s control in an interview with The Kyiv Independent.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Telegram it seized the village of Marine, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, and Novoolenivka village in the eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the claims.

Ceasefire talks

• United States President Donald Trump said Moscow and Kyiv “will immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire and an end to their war” following a phone call with Putin that lasted for more than two and a half hours on Monday night.
• Following the call, Putin told reporters that Russia is “ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord, defining a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, [and] the timing of a possible peace agreement”.
• Putin repeated his oft-spoken point that any ceasefire would need to also address the “root causes of the crisis”, a reference to Ukraine’s potential entry into NATO.
• Zelenskyy said in a statement that Ukraine remains committed to peace talks, but Russia needs to also demonstrate its readiness to engage in meaningful dialogue. He also said the US is needed, saying: “It is crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace, because the only one who benefits from that is Putin.”
• Moscow and Kyiv are also in talks about a major prisoner exchange, following a phone call on Monday, according to Zelenskyy.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said European Union leaders told Trump they are ready to put more pressure and sanctions on Moscow. “Europe will increase the pressure on Moscow through sanctions. This is what we agreed upon with @POTUS after his conversation with Putin,” Merz said on X.
• Germany has joined Denmark in calling on China to exert its influence on Russia over the war in Ukraine.
• Pope Leo XIV is interested in hosting talks between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said, a suggestion that was welcomed by US and European leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said Italy is “ready to do its part to facilitate contacts and work for peace”. The Vatican did not confirm any such offer by the pope.

Economy

• Finland’s Ministry of Defence said it will use about 90 million euros ($101.35m) in proceeds from frozen Russian assets to buy ammunition for Ukraine. About $300bn of Russian assets have been frozen across the EU since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
• The EU is expected to lower the current $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil as far as $50 per barrel as part of its new sanctions package this week, the Reuters news agency reported, citing EU officials.
• Poland seized 5 million metric tonnes of tyres for civilian Boeing aircraft bound for Russia in violation of international sanctions.

Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth all have an outside chance of qualifying for Europe – but need Chelsea to win the Conference League and finish seventh in the Premier League.

The final matches in the Premier League take place on Sunday and there is still a scenario in which 10 of the teams, external would be playing in European competition in 2025-26.

Six English clubs will be in the Champions League – Liverpool and Arsenal have already secured their spots and will be joined by three of Newcastle, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest.

Manchester United play Tottenham in the final of the Europa League in Bilbao, Spain on Wednesday and the winner of that match will also be in next season’s Champions League.

Crystal Palace’s 1-0 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final has taken the Eagles into the 2025-26 Europa League, where they will be joined by whichever team finishes sixth in the Premier League.

The complication comes with Newcastle, whose Carabao Cup victory has ensured themselves a Conference League place at least. But if they finish sixth they would go into the Europa League instead, while a top-five place for Eddie Howe’s team would move them into the Champions League instead.

Chelsea play Real Betis in the Conference League final on Wednesday, 28 May, with the winner qualifying for the Europa League. But Enzo Maresca’s Blues also could still claim Champions League football with a top-five Premier League finish.

If Chelsea win the Conference League and come seventh, that would open up their Conference League place to the Premier League team which finishes eighth – with Brighton, who beat Liverpool 3-2 on Monday, in that spot, although Brentford and Bournemouth could still overtake them.

It is a similar situation if Chelsea win the Conference League and come sixth, with Newcastle seventh, meaning eighth in the Premier League would again be enough for European competition.

If Chelsea lose the Conference League final or finish in a Champions League place, the picture becomes much clearer.

The top five plus the Europa League winners would be in the Champions League, Crystal Palace and the sixth-placed team would be in the Europa League and the side that finishes seventh in the Premier League would be in the Conference League.

THE BOSS of an iconic car brand has revealed a major update on its merger with a rival, as the company admits the EV push is hurting sales.

Despite rumours of a potential tie-up between Stellantis and Renault, both companies have denied seeking a partnership.

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John Elkann, Stellantis Chairman, told the Financial Times: “We are not discussing any merger.”

Management at the automotive giant has been turbulent following the resignation of the former CEO, Carlos Tavares, who they still haven’t replaced.

The automotive giant currently oversees many carmakers such as Peugeot, Fiat and Vauxhall.

However, Stellantis has several underperforming brands, such as Chrysler, described as “a shadow of its former self,” according to motor1.com

Another failing car manufacturer is Abarth, which has seen revenues drop during its push to go fully electric.

This has caused major concern at Stellantis, adding to the company’s decision not to get involved in a massive merger.

Last year, the Auto conglomerate recorded a 12 per cent drop in shipments, which they blamed on “temporary gaps in product offerings”.

On the other hand, the Renault group reported their highest sales.

The two major companies share a common ground regarding the future of cars in Europe.

Both share concerns over strict emission regulations negatively impacting their profit and production of gas-powered city cars.

The European Union recently granted automakers an extension to meet their emission targets.

However, by 2030, stricter regulations will come into force, banning the sale of new cars with harmful emissions across the EU.

This comes after Europe’s second-largest carmaker halted production of an iconic model as its EV lineup faces “deep trouble”.

An initial manufacturing break at Stellantis has now been extended as bosses report a collapse in demand for electric cars.

The Fiat 500 was one of the vast company’s most successful and beloved models across two production runs lasting a collective 35 years.

Dating back to 1957, it has sold more than six million units between its two iterations.

However, the 500e, unveiled in 2020 as an electric alternative, has proved less popular.

The model is intended as the long-term successor to the 500 beyond the 2035 ban on petrol and diesel car sales.

But stuttering demand has now forced a pause in its production.

The latest data suggest that both the petrol and electric 500 sol 74,885 units from January to July.

That’s almost a quarter down on the same period last year.

Bosses told Autocar that poor sales were “linked to the deep difficulties experienced in the European EV market by all producers.”

They have also reportedly told union reps that the electric car segment is facing “deep trouble” more generally.

Fiat CEO Olivier François said: “We obviously, like everyone else, thought that the world would go electric faster and the cost of electrification would go down faster.

“But we couldn’t imagine that Covid would happen, shortage of raw materials would happen [and] the European Society – not all, not the youngest part – would turn their backs on the sustainable solutions.

“But this is the reality. We have to face those realities.”

United States President Donald Trump has said, after a more than two-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that Moscow and Kyiv “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and an end to the war, now in its fourth bloody year.

Putin said that efforts to end the conflict seemed “on the right track” and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord.

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, and said that Trump noted Russia’s support for peace, though the key question was how to move towards peace.

“We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord, defining a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement,” Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

If appropriate agreements are reached, then there could be a ceasefire, Putin said, adding that direct talks between Russia and Ukraine “gives reason to believe that we are generally on the right track”.

“I would like to note that, on the whole, Russia’s position is clear. The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.”

For his part, Trump said the call went very well. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the Vatican, “as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!”

Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said the call was “very important” for Putin.

“He [Putin] believes that the US – because of its influence – can resolve any problems. Vladimir Putin believes that initially the US was standing behind Ukraine in this conflict, masterminding it,” Shapovalova said.

“So, to address the so-called root causes of the conflict, it was important to speak directly with Donald Trump and with the US.”

‘I think we’ll solve it’

Trump briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders on the call. Zelenskyy has insisted if Putin doesn’t commit to a ceasefire stronger sanctions on Russia should be imposed.

Trump, who has promised to bring a swift end to Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire after years in which Washington joined other Western countries in arming Ukraine.

Putin recently rejected an offer by Zelenskyy to meet in-person in Turkiye, for talks between the two nations the Russian leader suggested himself, as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including Washington.

Those inconclusive direct talks, the first in three years, between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday were brief and only yielded an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Kyiv pull its troops out of all its regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Ukrainian television Saturday that the exchanges could happen as early as this week.

While wrapping up his four-day trip to the Middle East, Trump said Friday that Putin had not gone to Istanbul because Trump himself wasn’t there.

“He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it or maybe not,” Trump told reporters after boarding Air Force One. “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”

European leaders have said they want the United States to join them in imposing tough new sanctions on Russia for refusing a ceasefire. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy spoke to Trump on Sunday ahead of his call with Putin.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Kyiv, said there has been no reaction in Ukraine so far.

“There’s probably not going to be a lot of celebrations unless the details are much more revealing than what we’ve seen so far,” Hendren said.

The calls have taken place a day after Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war.

Ukraine’s intelligence service said it also believed Moscow intended to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile on Sunday, though there was no confirmation from Russia that it had done so.

BRITISH seas have been invaded by huge European octopuses devouring our crabs and lobsters.

The creatures have swum from the Mediterranean to the coast of Devon and Cornwall.

They break into crab and lobster pots “totally destroying” the seafood.

Fishermen have urged authorities to relax a bylaw stopping them selling 5kg octopus they find in their pots for £7 per kilo to eager Spain.

One, Brian Tapper from Plymouth, said: “This time of year we’d normally see 60 to 100kg of lobster a day and 500-800kg of crab.

“Last week we had 8kg of lobster and 50kg of crab.

“Suspending the law means we could ride out this Biblical invasion.”

The Devon & Severn Fisheries Authority ruled boats can exclusively target octopus.

But they cannot keep any found trapped in crab or lobster pots.

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Pope Leo XIV met with US Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican, a day after his inaugural Mass. Vance, whose hardline immigration stance has drawn past criticism from Leo, invited the US-born pontiff to visit the US.

The Baltic nation is seeking damages, including compensation for border reinforcement costs.

Lithuania has initiated legal proceedings against Belarus at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing its neighbour of orchestrating a refugee and migrant crisis by facilitating the smuggling of people across their border.

“The Belarusian regime must be held legally accountable for orchestrating the wave of illegal migration and the resulting human rights violations,” Lithuanian Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus said in a statement on Monday.

“We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law.”

The case, submitted to the ICJ in The Hague, centres on alleged violations by Belarus of the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.

Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said attempts to resolve the issue through bilateral talks failed and it has evidence showing direct involvement by the Belarusian state in organising refugee and migrant flows, including a surge in flights from the Middle East operated by Belarusian state-owned airlines.

After landing in Belarus, many of the passengers were escorted to the Lithuanian border by Belarusian security forces and forced to cross illegally, Lithuanian officials said.

Lithuania also accused Belarus of refusing to cooperate with its border services in preventing irregular crossings and said it is seeking compensation through the ICJ for alleged damages caused, including costs related to border reinforcement.

Tensions between the two countries have simmered since 2021 when thousands of people – mostly from the Middle East and Africa – began arriving at the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia from Belarus.

Belarus had previously deported Middle Eastern refugees and migrants with more than 400 Iraqis repatriated to Baghdad on a charter flight from Minsk in November 2021.

That same year, a Human Rights Watch report accused Belarus of manufacturing the crisis, finding that “accounts of violence, inhuman and degrading treatment and coercion by Belarusian border guards were commonplace”.

European Union officials have also accused Minsk of “weaponising” migration in an effort to destabilise the bloc. The claims are strongly denied by Belarus.

In December, the EU approved emergency measures allowing member states bordering Belarus and Russia to temporarily suspend asylum rights in cases in which migration is being manipulated for political ends.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says Israel should be excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest over its war in Gaza. His comments follow protests against Israel’s participation at last weekend’s event in Switzerland, in which Israel finished second behind Austria.

Britain’s top football host will not front 2026 World Cup coverage and is ‘bowing out by mutual agreement’ after backlash to a social media post about Zionism.

Gary Lineker, a former England captain and the face of football on British television for more than two decades, will leave the BBC, the public broadcaster said in a statement on Monday.

Lineker, 64, had been due to cover the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the BBC, but his early departure comes after he apologised last week for sharing a social media post about Zionism which featured a picture of a rat, historically used as an anti-Semitic insult.

Lineker said that he deleted the posts after learning of the offensive references.

According to multiple British media reports, the high-profile host is “bowing out by mutual agreement”.

He rose to become the BBC’s highest-paid star after presenting its Match of the Day (MOTD) highlights show for 25 years. The BBC announced last November that he would step down from MOTD this year, but carry on working for it until 2026.

“Gary has acknowledged the mistake he made. Accordingly, we have agreed he will step back from further presenting after this season,” BBC director general Tim Davie said in a statement.

Lineker repeated his apology on Monday, saying he would never consciously repost anything anti-Semitic.

“I recognise the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am,” he said. “Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action.”

Voicing Palestinian support

In recent years, Lineker’s desire to put forward his political views on social media has caused headaches for the BBC, which has strict rules on impartiality.

He was temporarily taken off air in 2023 after he criticised the previous government’s immigration policy on social media. In 2018, he opposed Brexit and called for a second referendum.

But it was Lineker’s support for the Palestinians affected by the war on Gaza that most recently brought him into conflict with the BBC.

Lineker had already caused friction at the public broadcaster when he recently said Israel was to blame for the origins of the Gaza conflict, because it turned the occupied territory into an “outdoor prison”.

Speaking on May 9 in an interview with The Telegraph at the Football Business Awards, just days before he was accused of the anti-Semitic social post on X, Lineker expressed that his issues are with the Israeli government rather than Jewish people.

“Obviously, October 7 was awful, but it’s very important to know your history and to study the massacres that happened prior to this, many of them against the Palestinian people,” he said in the interview with The Telegraph, which was published last Thursday, on May 15.

“Yes, Israelis have a right to defend themselves. But it appears that Palestinians don’t – and that is where it’s wrong. Palestinians are caged in this outdoor prison in Gaza, and now it’s an outdoor prison that they’re bombing,” Lineker added.

In the same interview, the TV host also disputed whether Israel could justifiably argue that it was still acting in self-defence. “I understand that they needed to avenge, but I don’t think they’ve helped their own hostage situation at all,” Lineker said.

“People say it’s a complex issue, but I don’t think it is. It’s inevitable that the Israeli occupation was going to cause massive problems, and I just feel for the Palestinians.”

The former striker played for England for eight years until 1992 and had been a top scorer for Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur in the 1980s and early 1990s.

He is also the co-founder of a podcasting production business, Goalhanger, which makes series such as the podcasts The Rest Is History and The Rest Is Football.

Lineker will leave his role at the BBC on Sunday after his final episode of Match of the Day.

Russia claims members of the international rights group have backed ‘extremist’ organisations and ‘foreign agents’.

Russian authorities have designated Amnesty International as an “undesirable” organisation, alleging that the rights group propagates pro-war content backed by the Western allies of Ukraine, in the latest crackdown on Kremlin critics.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Monday that Amnesty’s London office has acted as a “centre for the preparation of global Russophobic projects paid for by accomplices of the Kyiv regime”, according to state-run media.

It claimed that since the start of the war in February 2022, Amnesty has been “doing everything possible to intensify the military confrontation in the region”, including by “insisting on the political and economic isolation of our country”.

The office also emphasised that members of the international rights group “support extremist organisations and finance the activities of foreign agents”.

Amnesty did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The designation means the international human rights group must stop any work in Russia, and those accused of cooperating with or supporting it will be exposed to criminal prosecution.

This could even include anyone who shares Amnesty International’s reports on social media.

Russia currently recognises 223 entities as “undesirable” organisations, including some prominent independent, as well as Western-backed news outlets and rights groups. Some of those include Transparency International, Latvia-based outlet Meduza, and US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Amnesty International was established in 1961 to document and report human rights violations around the globe and campaign for the release of those deemed unjustly imprisoned.

The organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, having been recognised “for worldwide respect for human rights” and efforts to combat torture, advocate for prisoners of conscience, and promote global adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In addition to covering human rights violations during the Ukraine war, the group has documented massacres in the Gaza Strip and Israeli apartheid, as well as atrocities in Sudan and many other countries.

Moscow has intensified its crackdown on human rights groups and civil society organisations as relations with the West plummeted over the Ukraine war and the expansion of NATO.

This has included expanding the “undesirable” and “foreign agent” designations to shut down opposing voices, as well as the suppression of some minority groups’ rights.

The move on Monday came as US President Donald Trump was due to hold a phone call with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid efforts to end the fighting.

The diplomatic efforts follow inconclusive direct talks, the first in three years, between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday.

The brief talks yielded only an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Kyiv pull its troops out of all its regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters have marched through The Hague to call on the Netherlands government to do more to halt Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

Organisers said it was the country’s biggest demonstration in two decades as rally participants pressed the Dutch government on Sunday to take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The crowd that gathered outside the government seat was estimated to number more than 100,000 people, according to the organisers. Police did not give an estimate.

“Sometimes I’m ashamed of the government because it doesn’t want to set any limits,” said 59-year-old teacher Jolanda Nio.

“We are calling on the Dutch government: stop political, economic and military support to Israel as long as it blocks access to aid supplies and while it is guilty of genocide, war crimes and structural human rights violations in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories,” said Marjon Rozema of Amnesty International.

Israel’s army announced “extensive ground operations” on Sunday as part of its newly expanded campaign in the Gaza Strip. Rescuers reported dozens killed in a wave of Israeli attacks.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,339 people and wounded 121,034, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

The enclave’s Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and about 250 were taken captive.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague is hearing a case brought by South Africa, arguing that the Gaza war breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, an accusation Israel has strongly denied.

‘Suspicious and unwarranted’ arrests of Iranians come amid lingering tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme and the fallout of Russia-Ukraine war.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the United Kingdom’s charge d’affaires over what it called “suspicious and unwarranted” arrests of several Iranian nationals.

The UK earlier this month accused several Iranian nationals of offences without offering evidence, wilfully refrained from informing Iran’s embassy in time, and prevented consular access contrary to international norms, the ministry said in a statement issued late on Sunday, according to state media.

It also accused the British government of harbouring “political motivations to exert pressure on Iran” with the arrests.

The diplomatic spat comes two days after British police charged three Iranians with suspected espionage for Iran’s intelligence services under the country’s National Security Act of 2023.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, were accused of conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024 and February 16, 2025.

They appeared before a Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, where they were also charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance with the intention of committing or supporting serious violence against a person in the UK.

Their cases were referred to a central criminal court, and the next hearing is scheduled for early June.

The three are among eight individuals arrested in May, including seven Iranians, as part of two separate operations which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said were some of the biggest investigations of their kind in recent years.

The four other Iranians were arrested as part of a “counterterrorism” operation, with investigations ongoing. The eighth man was released without charge last week.

In a stated effort towards improving national security against covert foreign influences, the UK has placed Iran on its highest tier under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).

Strained ties

The arrests come amid strained ties between Iran and three European powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The UK, France and Germany have repeatedly criticised Iran for a purported lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme remains peaceful.

The trio, branded the E3 in the context of the negotiations, were party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which the United States unilaterally abandoned in 2018.

However, the US has reopened talks with Tehran in a bid to secure a new deal, and amid four rounds of talks mediated by Oman, Iran has emphasised it is open to holding more talks with the E3 as well.

Senior diplomats from the two sides gathered on Friday in Turkiye’s Istanbul for their first meeting since the nuclear talks with Washington commenced last month. Both sides stressed a commitment to continued diplomacy, but there was no breakthrough.

Rather, Iran has repeatedly warned that there will be “serious ramifications” if the E3 push to invoke the “snapback” mechanism of the comatose 2015 nuclear deal, which would reinstate the United Nations Security Council sanctions that were lifted as part of the landmark accord.

Tehran and Washington have also failed to see eye to eye so far when it comes to enrichment of uranium, with Iran reiterating on Monday that it will not back down from its right to have a civilian nuclear programme.

After US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said President Donald Trump’s administration would not allow Iran to enrich uranium even to 1 percent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “unrealistic” demands would only lead to a dead end.

The E3 is also concerned about numerous reports that Iran has been arming Russia for its war in Ukraine, accusations that Tehran denies.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran has yet to receive a written proposal from the US to advance to a fifth round of negotiations, which is expected soon.

He also said Iran has not proposed a joint enrichment venture with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but backs such an effort.

“The West Asia region, and specifically countries of the Persian Gulf, may increasingly require nuclear energy and to build power plants requiring nuclear fuel, so it won’t be bad if nuclear fuel facilities or consortiums are created in our region so everyone can invest in them.”

BRITS heading to Europe could soon find it much easier thanks to new plans allowing holidaymakers to use airport e-gates.

Since the UK left the EU, British tourists have faced huge queues at the airport across Europe after being forced to use the standard passport gates.

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However, the UK government has revealed plans of a deal that would allow UK holidaymakers to use the much faster e-gates when visiting Europe.

The talks, part of the UK-EU summit taking place today, suggest Brits would join other EU tourists in the shorter queues, The Guardian reports.

EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said he backed the potential rule change.

He told Sky News: “I would love to see you being able to go through the border more quickly in that way.

“That’s certainly something we’ve been pushing with the EU and I think that will be something that will be very helpful to British people.

“I think we can all agree that not being stuck in queues and having more time to spend, whether it’s on holiday or work trips, having more time to do what you want, would be a very sensible objective.”

Plans to allow Brits to use e-gates in European countries were put forward back in 2023 by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak although never came into fruition.

Last summer, some Brits even missed their flights when travelling through Spain due to long passport queues while waiting to get them stamped.

Another Brit wrote on Tripadvisor: “My lunchtime arrival at Oslo left me with an hour and a half wait to get through manual passport control.”

Another agreed: “The queue was horrendous, people couldn’t even get into the passport hall. Took just over 90 minutes to get through.”

However, the new rules could cause problems with passport stamping, which is still required from Brits entering and exiting Europe.

This is because of the new rules which only allow Brits to visit for 90 days in an 180 day period.

Anyone without an outgoing stamp could be mistakenly seen to have overstayed in Europe and even be banned from entering – which happened to a British tourist in Majorca back in 2022.

But it comes ahead of the constantly-delayed Entry/Exit System (EES) which will scrap the need for passport stamping entirely.

First announced in 2016, it finally hopes to be rolled out from October this year.

Instead of manual passport stamping, new biometric checks will take place instead.

And next year will see the roll out of the ETIAS – a visa waiver that Brits will need to visit Europe.

Costing around €7 and lasting three years, it will be similar to the current ESTA Brits need when visiting the US.

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These are the key events on day 1,180 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, May 19:

Fighting

• Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, destroying homes and killing at least one woman, a day before United States President Donald Trump is due to discuss a proposed ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 273 drones at Ukrainian cities, more than the previous record Moscow had set in February, on the war’s third anniversary.

• Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Russia planned to conduct a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile to intimidate Ukraine and the West, as ceasefire talks continue.

• Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Bahatyr in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said. It also said that Russian forces had downed 75 Ukrainian drones on Sunday, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.

Ceasefire talks

• The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom again pressed the need for sanctions against Russia in a call with Trump before his telephone summit with Putin on Monday, the office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
• Putin told Russian state television that he wanted to “eliminate the causes that triggered” its war on Ukraine, “create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, two days after the first direct talks with Kyiv since 2022 failed to produce a ceasefire deal.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome, on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration, to discuss the latest developments on ceasefire talks with Russia. It was their first meeting since their heated White House encounter in February.
• The pope held his first private audience as Catholic leader with Zelenskyy, after highlighting hopes for peace for a “martyred Ukraine”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has discussed the war in Ukraine with leaders of the United States, Italy, France and Germany, a 10 Downing Street spokesperson has said, in advance of US President Donald Trump’s planned call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday.

The flurry of diplomacy comes shortly after inconclusive direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, Turkiye on Friday.

The leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for Putin to take peace talks seriously, the spokesperson said late on Sunday, adding that they also raised the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and concerted peace talks.

In remarks to reporters earlier on Sunday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while the two men were attending the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. Merz said he also spoke at length at the Vatican with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I spoke with Marco Rubio, including about the call tomorrow. We agreed that we will speak again with the four state leaders and the US president in preparation of this conversation [with Putin],” Merz said.

Trump said he planned to speak to Putin and Zelenskyy to discuss ways to stop the war’s “bloodbath”.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that preparations were under way for a conversation between Putin and Trump.

The talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

The brief talks yielded only an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met US Vice President JD Vance and Rubio on the sidelines of the papal inauguration, according to a source in the Ukrainian delegation. It was the first meeting between Zelenskyy and Vance since they publicly clashed during talks at the White House in February over the future of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine fears ballistic missile attack

In the meantime, Ukraine has claimed Russia is planning to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile late on Sunday to intimidate it and its Western allies.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, GUR, said Russia was planning to conduct a “training and combat” launch of the missile.

GUR said in a statement on the Telegram app that the launch was ordered to be implemented from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, adding that the flight range for the missile was more than 10,000km (6,200 miles).

Ukraine on Sunday also said Russia had launched a record number of drones overnight, targeting various regions, including that of the capital, where a woman was killed.

Its air force said Russia launched “273 Shahed attack drones and various types of imitator drones”, of which 88 were destroyed and 128 went astray, “without negative consequences”.

Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was a “record” number of drones. “Russia has a clear goal – to continue killing civilians,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said overnight, “air raid sirens began, and they went on for nearly nine hours”.

“We see these massive drone strikes and we see crowds of people seeking shelter, seeking safety, in those deep underground subway stations in the capital and in other areas of the country, once again,” Basravi said.

‘Deliberate killing of civilians’

The Russian military said it intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. It also claimed it had captured Bahatyr, another village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as it intensifies the war effort despite the talks.

Russia’s overnight drone attacks were roundly condemned by Ukrainian officials.

Zelenskyy reiterated his call for stronger sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Saturday. “This was a deliberate killing of civilians,” he said.

“Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings. Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy.”

Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it struck a military target in Sumy. Its Ministry of Defence claimed another settlement was captured in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, also decried the attacks.

“For Russia, the negotiations in Istanbul are just a pretence. Putin wants war,” Yermak said.

Russia aims to ‘create conditions for lasting peace’

In an interview with Russian state TV, Putin said Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, without elaborating further.

Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.

They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.

Ukraine and the West have rejected all of these reasons, saying Russia’s offensive is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia started the war, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Putin said the Russian army, which occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine, had the “troops and means required” to achieve its goals.

The US Department of State said in a statement that Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke with each other on Saturday. During the call, Rubio welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement reached in Istanbul, the department’s spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the “next step” would be a meeting between the two warring presidents.

Russia said it had taken note of the request, but added that the swap of prisoners of war had to be completed first, and both sides then needed to present their visions for a ceasefire before the next round of negotiations could be arranged.