In Italy, dozens of migrants sent to Albania for asylum processing
On Tuesday, the Italian navy intercepted a ship carrying 49 migrants and redirected its passengers to Albania, where their asylum applications will be processed at specialized centers.
The migrants came from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia, according to
Italian media. While 43 of them already underwent the asylum hearing process in Albania, five of the migrants were deemed “vulnerable” as either children, elderly or sick and brought directly to Italy. One individual’s case was to be heard separately.
In November 2023, Italy and Albania established a controversial deal to institute two asylum-processing centers in northern Albania, where Italy could transfer up to 36,000 male migrants per year. The decision came after Italy received over 157,000 displaced migrants, and was the first deal struck between a European Union nation and a non-EU country to transfer migrants for asylum processing.
“It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told the upper house Senate. “But one that perfectly reflects the European spirit and has all the makings of a path to be taken with other non-EU nations as well.”
Last fall, the right-wing Italian government made two different attempts to detain migrants in Albania for asylum processing. However, they were blocked by the Italian court, which ruled that the migrants’ home countries — which were mostly African nations, where ongoing civil conflicts have displaced more than 4 million people — were not “safe enough.”
In China, a new AI model sunk U.S. stock markets by nearly $1 trillion
DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup company, launched its first free model last Monday and has seen over 3 million downloads since — led the American computer manufacturing company Nvidia to see a historic $600 billion stock plunge on launch day.
The AI model cost the Chinese company $5.6 million to produce — a fraction of the cost of ChatGPT. In total, DeepSeek caused a nearly $1 trillion stock market selloff, including companies like Broadcom, which lost nearly $195 billion, and Microsoft, which lost over $72 billion.
President Donald Trump called the DeepSeek launch “a wake-up call” for the U.S. tech industry, noting that the Chinese company’s success could change the AI landscape in the United States.
“We need to be laser focused on competing,” Trump told NBC News on Monday. “Instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.”
Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, accused DeepSeek of acquiring more data from OpenAI than permitted and incorporating it into its model. Additionally, the co-founder of the nonprofit Centre for Information Resilience Ross Burley told CBS on Wednesday that the model “will open the door to more and more personal data just being given away” to the Chinese Communist Party. DeepSeek’s privacy policy states that users’ personal information is contained “on secure servers” in China.
In France, ministers contemplate sending troops to counter U.S. encroachment on Greenland
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Tuesday that the French government may send troops to Greenland, to support Denmark amid Trump’s ongoing threat to annex the autonomous Danish territory.
Barrot said that Denmark has declined to accept France’s offer.
“If Denmark calls for help, France will be there,” he said in an interview with France’s Sud Radio. “The European borders are sovereign whether it’s north, south, east and west — nobody can allow themselves to mess around with our borders.”
Since his re-election, Trump has repeatedly sought control over Greenland for the territory’s rich natural resources, which could substantially reduce U.S. reliance on China. Capitalizing on the location could also halve shipping times to Asia and Europe, as well as help counter Russia’s militant dominance in the Arctic.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters she received “a great deal of support” after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Frederiksen is currently on a tour of European capitals, as Denmark is moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland and brace itself for “a more uncertain reality.”
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].
