French President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday the creation of a "French-German defence and security council" as Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Paris.

"We will set up a French-German defence and security council to meet regularly to bring operational responses to our common strategic challenges.

 Macron said at a joint press conference, as Europe seeks to boost its defences amid Russia's war against Ukraine and doubts over US security commitments to Europe.

Britain's trade minister on Wednesday defended a contentious tax break for some Indian workers agreed as part of a landmark free trade agreement with India, saying the idea that he had undercut British workers was "absolute nonsense.

The trade deal, which includes a range of tariff cuts on British imports to India, also exempts some short-term workers from India from paying into Britain's social security system for three years.

The exemption under the so-called Double Contributions Convention also applies to British workers in India, but while Britain barely made mention of this element of the trade deal, India hailed it as a "huge win".

British opposition parties accused the government of signing up to a deal that would unfairly benefit India.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa appealed to the international community Wednesday to put a stop to the "deliberate humanitarian crime" of famine, which he said was being perpetrated in Gaza.

"We appeal to the conscience of humanity. Do not let the children of Gaza starve to death. Do not allow food and water to be used as weapons of war and control.

This famine is not a natural disaster, it is a deliberate humanitarian crime, and silence is complicity," he told a conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"We hold Israel, the occupying Power, fully responsible for this deliberate humanitarian catastrophe."

Source: The Economic Times