An international chemical weapons monitor group said a team of inspectors collected samples Saturday at the site of an alleged gas attack two weeks ago in the Syrian town of Douma. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a report based on the findings and other information gathered by the team will be drafted after the samples are analyzed by designated laboratories. The group added it will “evaluate…

The U.N. migration agency has measured an impressive drop in the number of migrants and refugees entering Europe by sea this year, compared to the same period the two previous years. Through mid-April of this year, data shows 18,575 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.  The International Organization for Migration says that is less than half of last year’s pace.  …

After laying out a dazzling Bastille Day parade and an Eiffel Tower dinner complete with stunning Paris vistas, French President Emmanuel Macron can expect return treatment when he heads to Washington Monday, for the first official state visit of Donald Trump’s presidency. But along with dining at the historic landmark of Mount Vernon and a chance to address Congress, lie talks on serious transatlantic differences. Macron’s three-day visit to the…

The European Union needs to be exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs announced by the United States in order to work with Washington on trade with China, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday. “We are close allies between the EU and the United States. We cannot live with full confidence with the risk of being hit by those measures and by those new tariffs. We cannot live with…

Among the issues pressing on the mind of French President Emmanuel Macron as he prepares for a state visit to Washington on Monday is what he describes as a “civil war” between the forces of democracy and authoritarianism in Europe.  In a recent speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Macron called on the European Union to resist the siren song of populism. “There is a fascination with the illiberal and…