EUROPE

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Berlin Brandenburg Airport faced significant congestion at passport control on the opening day of the Berlin Film Festival, creating frustration and disruption for many international arrivals heading to one of Europe’s most important cultural events.

Travelers landing at the airport throughout the day described long waits, slow moving lines, and confusion as hundreds of passengers queued to enter Germany. Among those affected were sales agents, financiers, producers, journalists, and talent arriving for both the Berlin Film Festival and the European Film Market. Several industry professionals reported waiting for hours, with some missing scheduled meetings as a result of the delays.

One traveler who arrived earlier in the day managed to pass through passport control after about an hour, having been seated near the front of the plane and joining what was then a relatively small queue. However, even at that point, hundreds of people were already lined up behind. As more flights landed, the lines grew significantly longer.

At one stage, the situation appeared particularly strained in the line designated for non European Union travelers. The entire rest of the world queue, which included families with young children as well as elderly and disabled passengers, was reportedly being handled by a single passport control officer. Passengers described the line as moving at a painfully slow pace, with little visible adjustment to staffing levels despite the growing crowd.

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The Kremlin has moved to block WhatsApp, citing the parent company Meta’s failure to meet Russian legal requirements. Dmitry Peskov, the presidential spokesman, said the ban reflects Meta’s unwillingness to follow “the norms and the letter of Russian law” but indicated the company could reverse the decision by engaging in talks and complying.

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has issued a public apology to victims of Jeffrey Epstein while facing mounting political pressure over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as the United Kingdom's ambassador to the United States. The apology follows renewed scrutiny after documents highlighted Mandelson's past links to Epstein and triggered criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum.

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The French government has announced plans to encourage young adults, especially those around age 29, to start having children earlier amid fears of a deepening fertility crisis.

Health officials say the move is aimed at preventing future regret, with many people facing fertility problems later in life and wishing they had acted sooner.

The campaign is part of a 16-point plan to boost France’s falling birth rate, a problem affecting many Western countries, including the UK, Sky News reported.

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The eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit will go on trial Tuesday on multiple charges including rape in a high-profile case that has been an embarrassment to the royal family, just as his mother said that she showed “poor judgment” in having contact with Jeffrey Epstein in the past.

Marius Borg Høiby is facing the Oslo district court after being indicted in August following a lengthy investigation. The indictment includes 38 counts, including rape, abuse in a close relationship against one former partner, acts of violence against another and transporting 3.5 kilos (7.7 pounds) of marijuana. Other charges include making death threats and traffic violations.

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The European Commission has ruled that Meta breached EU rules by blocking rival AI chatbots from accessing WhatsApp and has ordered the company to make “urgent” changes. Meta altered the messaging app on 15 January so that only its own assistant, Meta AI, could use WhatsApp’s interface; regulators say WhatsApp is an “important

entry point” for chatbots such as ChatGPT and that Meta’s move amounts to an abuse of its dominant position.

A Meta spokesperson said the EU had "no reason" to intervene, and claimed it had "incorrectly" assumed WhatsApp Business was a key way that people use chatbots.

"We must protect effective competition in this vibrant field, which means we cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage," said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission's competition chief.

The EU will wait for Meta to formally respond to its findings, and depending on the response, it could impose "interim measures" to prevent Meta from causing "serious and irreparable harm to the market".

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The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a series of advertisements from Coinbase, ruling that they irresponsibly suggested cryptocurrency could alleviate cost-of-living pressures. The watchdog upheld complaints regarding an August campaign that featured images of the UK in disrepair alongside satirical slogans and the exchange’s logo. The ASA concluded that the ads "trivialized the risks" of the crypto market, which remains largely unregulated in the United Kingdom.

Coinbase said it disagreed with the watchdog's decision.

"While we respect the ASA's decision, we fundamentally disagree with the characterisation of a campaign that critically reflects widely reported economic conditions as socially irresponsible," it said in a statement.

"The advert was intended to provoke discussion about the state of the financial system and the need to consider better futures, not to offer simplistic solutions or minimise risk."