Angela Merkel has sought to defend her government’s migration policy in her first speech to parliament since a showdown with the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, over the policing of Germany’s borders. The German chancellor spoke up for the compromise agreement the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) struck with its smaller partner, the Christian Social Union (CSU), to erect transit zones along the southern German border to speed up the deportation of ineligible asylum seekers, insisting migration had to be better regulated.

“We must have more regulation regarding every type of migration, so that people have the impression that law and order are being enforced,” Merkel told a packed Bundestag, in a speech intended to show she is still in control after intense speculation that her 13-year chancellorship was about to end. Stressing that migration was a “global problem requiring a global solution” and countries could not go it alone, she said the EU’s future was dependent on a solution being found.

“How we deal with the migrant question will decide whether Europe continues to exist in the future,” she said, referring to her fraught attempts to secure deals with other EU members to accept the return of refugees who had registered in their countries. At the same time, she underlined the necessity of protecting Europe’s outer borders more effectively as well as agreeing partnerships with African countries to tackle illegal migration and lessen the incentives for economic migration.(theguardian)…[+]

Counter-terrorism police have joined the investigation into two people in a critical condition in Wiltshire, amid fears that they may have been exposed to a nerve agent.

Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were found unconscious at a property in Amesbury and were initially believed to have overdosed, but their symptoms raised alarm among medics and Wiltshire police, which led them to suspect a possible nerve agent.

The couple, both in their 40s, were in a critical condition at Salisbury district hospital, Wiltshire police said on Wednesday. Tests were being carried out on the substance at the nearby Porton Down government defence laboratory. Whitehall sources said that it was too early to tell whether the substance was related to illegal drugs or “something more sinister”.(theguardian)…[+]

Fears are mounting about the safety of more than 270,000 civilians who have fled recent fighting in southern Syria, with aid groups and local doctors issuing urgent appeals for people stranded in the desert without shelter. Fighting in Deraa province, a strategic area that borders both Jordan and Israel, has halted while negotiations for a surrender deal between rebels in the region and the Syrian government’s main backer, Russia, continue. But UN officials say more than 270,000 people have fled their homes in the last two weeks, including 160,000 who have headed towards the Golan Heights and the Israeli border.

More than 200 civilians are believed to have been killed in the fighting in Deraa, which is meant to be a “de-escalation” zone with a ceasefire guaranteed by Russia, Turkey and Iran in place. The latest bout of violence began in mid-June after a year of relative peace, while the regime of Bashar al-Assad pursued military campaigns in other parts of the country.(theguardian)…[+]