GERMANY – Germany has begun new controls at all of its land borders as part of a crackdown on migration, placing restrictions on a wide area of free movement known as the Schengen Zone and stirring anger among its European neighbors.

From Monday, as well as existing border controls with Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland, Germany will now also have internal border controls with France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Berlin will have the power to reject people at all land borders, a statement from the Interior Ministry said. The new rules will last for six months initially.

The move marks how far Germany has shifted in recent years on the flashpoint issue of migration.

The German government under Angela Merkel welcomed more than one million new arrivals during the migrant crisis of 2015-2016, but is now following other European countries in toughening up rules as it faces a surging far-right opposition.

It comes after Germany on Friday struck a controlled migration deal with Kenya, which will see Berlin open its doors to skilled and semi-skilled Kenyan workers.

Announcing the changes, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that Germany was “strengthening internal security through concrete action” and continuing its “tough stance against irregular migration”.

She signaled the move was aimed at protecting German citizens from the dangers posed by Islamist terrorism, as well as serious cross-border crime.

The move has put the unity of the European bloc to the test and attracted criticism from Germany’s neighbors.

Germany is part of the Schengen border-free area. Under European Union rules, member states have the ability to temporarily reintroduce border control at internal borders in the event of a serious threat to public policy or internal security. However, this must be applied as a last resort.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the introduction of tighter controls at land borders was unacceptable for Poland, adding that Warsaw would request urgent talks with all countries affected. Both Greece and Austria have warned that they would not accept migrants rejected by Germany.

Closer to home, Germany’s Council for Migration warned that the plan risks violating EU law. (CNN)…[+]

NIGERIA – At least 274 inmates have escaped from a prison in Nigeria’s Borno state following heavy flooding, the Nigerian Correctional Service said, as aid agencies reported more than 1,000 people had died across western and central Africa.

Initially, 281 inmates escaped while they were being transferred to “a safe and secure facility” but seven were recaptured later, Nigerian Correctional Service spokesman Abubakar Umar said in a statement on Sunday.

“The flood brought down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the medium security custodial center Maiduguri (MSCC) as well as the staff quarters in the city,” he said.

Umar added that the service was aware of escapees’ identities, including their biometrics, and had made this information “available to the public.”

The search for the inmates was ongoing, he said.

Weeks of flooding across Nigeria have led to 269 deaths and displaced more than 640,000 people, according to the latest data from the country’s disaster management agency NEMA.

Northern Nigeria has been the most affected by the floods, the data showed. Borno state is in the northeast of the country.

Last month, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) also warned of the rising water levels of the Niger River, one of the country’s largest rivers, urging states to be on alert.

Extreme rainfall events are expected to increase in frequency and intensity across almost all of Africa, including Nigeria, as human-caused climate change heats the planet, projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show.

Around 4 million people have been affected by floods across Nigeria and its west, and central African neighbors with surging waters leaving a trail of devastating effects, including multiple human casualties.

In Chad, at least 487 people have lost their lives from flooding, according to Chadian media, with 265 others killed in similar flood incidents in Niger. Another 55 people have died in Mali, aid groups reported.

In Cameroon, up to 20 people have been reported dead from recent floods which have also impacted other parts of Africa, such as the northeastern Sudan where at least 97 people have been killed, according to data by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

On Wednesday, last week, floodwaters that gushed from an overflowing dam in northern Nigeria engulfed a zoo and swept animals including crocodiles and snakes into nearby communities. (CNN)…[+]

An estate agent will be travelling to Ukraine to donate supplies for the ninth time after raising almost £100,000 since the conflict started.

Gary Fear, from Gnosall, Staffordshire, will be setting off for the eastern European country on Tuesday, where he will buy food and other essentials for people affected by the war. Mr Fear made his first visit Ukraine in April 2022.

He has raised more than £92,000 in donations since launching an online fundraiser shortly before that first trip. Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke, Mr Fear said the support from people had been incredible

He will be taking a total of £14,000 with him on Tuesday, which he said would pay for an “awful lot of food” and at least one generator for a village left without electricity as a result of the war. When you see the expression on the face of someone you hand some food to, or when they start crying because someone has taken the trouble to do that, it makes it all worthwhile. Asked what the situation was like on the ground in Ukraine, he said it had been getting worse. We’ve been to places where we’ve had to leave because the village we were in was being shelled,” he said. We’ve seen more and more atrocities in terms of damaged buildings and people being displaced.   (BBC)…[+]

RED SEA  –  A burning oil tanker that was attacked by Yemen’s Houthi movement has been towed to a safe area in the Red Sea without any spill, an EU naval mission says.

The Greek-owned and flagged MV Sounion, carrying about a million barrels of crude, was abandoned by its crew after being hit by missiles on 21 August. Houthi fighters later detonated explosives on board, sparking several fires.

A photo showed three vessels belonging to what the EU mission described as “private stakeholders” carrying out the salvage operation, protected by a warship.

The Sounion’s destination was not given, but Saudi Arabia has reportedly offered to help the salvagers offload its oil.

“The completion of this phase of the salvage operation is the result of a comprehensive approach and close co-operation between all stakeholders committed to prevent an environmental disaster affecting the whole region,” the EU’s Operation Aspides said on X.

A potential spill from the Sounion could be almost four times larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which saw 2,100km (1,300 miles) of coastline contaminated after a tanker ran aground off Alaska, according to the US.

The Iran-backed Houthis said at the end of August that they had agreed to allow the Sounion to be towed away from Yemen after being contacted by “several international parties”.

They also stressed that the attack on the tanker showed their “seriousness in targeting any ship that violates the Yemeni embargo”.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November, sinking two vessels, seizing another and causing the deaths of at least four crew members.

They say they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.

They have not been deterred by the deployment of Western warships to protect merchant vessels, nor by US and British air strikes on territory they control in north-western Yemen.

Israel also bombed Yemen in retaliation for a deadly drone strike on Tel Aviv, and it has vowed to make the Houthis pay a “heavy price” for a missile attack on Sunday.

In a separate development, the Houthis said they had shot down a US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen’s Dhamar province and released videos which they said showed the charred wreckage on the ground. The US military said it was aware of the claim. (BBC)

Photo: The three vessels in the Red Sea. (EUNAVFOR)…[+]