Trump suspends visas for Harvard's new international students
US President Donald Trump is moving to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University. The move is the latest attack of the incumbent administration against the US' oldest and wealthiest university.
This latest attempt seeks to choke the Ivy League school from an international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body.
In an executive order signed on Wednesday, Trump declared that it would jeopardise national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
'I have determined that the entry of the class of foreign nationals described above is detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard's conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,' Trump wrote in the order.
It's a further escalation in the White House's feud with the university. A federal court blocked the Department of Homeland Security from barring international students at Harvard last week. Trump's new order however invokes a different legal authority.
Trump invoked a broad federal law that gives the president authority to block foreigners whose entry would be 'detrimental to the interests of the United States.'
He used the same authority when announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the US and those from seven others would face restrictions, in what some are calling a resurrection of his infamous first term's 'Muslim ban'.
Trump's Harvard order cites several other laws, too, including one barring foreigners associated with terrorist organisations.
In a statement on Wednesday night, Harvard said it will continue to protect its international students. 'This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard's First Amendment rights,' university officials said.
The feud stems from Harvard's refusal to submit to a series of demands made by the federal government. It has escalated recently after the Department of Homeland Security said the Ivy League school refused to provide records related to misconduct by foreign students.
Harvard says it has complied with the request, but the White House snapped back saying the school's response was insufficient.
The dispute has been building for months after the Trump administration demanded a series of policy and governance changes at Harvard, calling it a 'hotbed of liberalism' and accusing it of tolerating anti-Jewish harassment.
Harvard defied the demands, saying they violated the university's autonomy and represented a threat to the freedom of all US universities and higher education institutions.
For foreign students already at Harvard – around 6,800 currently enrolled – Trump says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will determine whether or not their visas should be revoked.
The new order is scheduled to last six months. The Trump administration also reserves the right to renew the order, and will make a decision on the matter within 90 days.
At least 11 people were killed and close to three dozen others were injured in a stampede outside a cricket stadium in southern India's Karnataka state, as crowds rushed to enter the grounds, according to authorities.
The crush happened as tens of thousands of cricket fans gathered outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru city to celebrate the winners of the Indian Premier League, the world's most popular T20 cricket tournament.
Karnataka state's Chief Minister Siddaramaiah – who only uses one name – said the crowd tried to break one of the stadium's gates and enter to take part in the celebrations.
Eleven people were killed and 33 others were injured, said Siddaramaiah, adding that most of the injured were stable and receiving treatment in hospitals.
'At a time of celebration, this unfortunate event should not have happened. We are saddened by this,' he told reporters.
"No one expected this crowd,' he said.
Cricket fans had come out to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru's first Indian Premier League title win. The team had given away free passes to fans for the event through its website, and urged them to follow guidelines set by police and authorities.
The team in a statement said it was 'deeply anguished.'
Local Indian media outlets showed some people stretched out on the ground and emergency personnel carrying people into ambulances, while celebrations inside the stadium continued.
Deputy chief minister of Karnataka state, D.K. Shivakumar, told reporters that 'the crowd was very uncontrollable."
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which organises the Indian Premier League (IPL) called the incident 'unfortunate' in a statement.
'This is a negative side of popularity. People are crazy for their cricketers. The organisers should have planned it better,' said Devajit Saikia. Secretary of the BCCI.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident 'heartrending' and said his 'thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones.'
Stampedes are relatively common in India when large crowds gather. In January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh festival, the world's largest religious gathering.
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Fashion Network
an hour ago
- Fashion Network
Trump tariffs put pressure on Harris Tweed makers and luxury supply chain
Harris Tweed, the centuries-old fabric woven by islanders in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, faces new global headwinds. Trump-era tariffs on wool imports are raising costs for textiles prized by luxury fashion houses worldwide. In December 1957, Reverend Murdoch MacRae travelled from his parish on Lewis and Harris, one of the Outer Hebridean islands off the northwest coast of mainland Scotland, across the Atlantic to confront the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington. At the time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tariffs on woollen imports threatened to trigger an exodus of island workers whose livelihoods depended on producing hand-woven tweed jackets, trousers and caps—garments long cherished by Americans, from Wall Street bankers to the Kennedys and Hollywood actors. MacRae's mission to protect the islanders from US protectionism ultimately succeeded. Yet nearly 70 years later, his achievement is being undermined by the trade policies of another figure with Hebridean roots: Donald Trump. 'Trump might portray himself as a man of Scottish heritage; he might have used the family Bible at his inauguration,' says Iain Martin, a fourth-generation weaver, but 'that man doesn't care. He's out for himself, nobody else.' Martin is one of just 150 weavers of Harris Tweed, a fabric made from coarse, woven wool. It has been his life. He started winding bobbins—a now semi-automated part of the process essential for loading yarn onto the loom—when he was five. Now, at age 57, he weaves about 8,000 meters of tweed each year, in addition to managing a 15-acre farm and caring for 600 sheep. He still uses a loom purchased by his grandfather in 1926, housed in a workshop alongside his own stack of family Bibles, a collection of colourful bobbins and a heavy blanket hand-woven by his grandmother. The distinctive diagonal-patterned Harris Tweed, unique to the Hebrides, has become part of the collateral damage caused by the US president's sweeping tariffs on global trade, measures he defends as necessary to protect American jobs. Though tweed exports are small compared to the £59.3 billion total value of UK goods shipped to the US, the island's crofters and weavers still face the same 10% tariff rate imposed on much larger exporters, even after Trump's deal with the UK government reduced levies for some other sectors. They now compete under the same terms as major companies such as automaker Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, Diageo Plc, the consumer products group, and fashion brand Burberry Group Plc. Islanders warn, as MacRae did seven decades ago, that these tariffs threaten a way of life rooted in the 18th century, on remote islands that today are home to around 26,000 people—most of them living on Lewis and Harris. The US president's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was once one of those islanders. She grew up in Lewis before emigrating to New York at age 17 in 1930. 'A lot of islanders go to work elsewhere and they never return home, but for people like me, crofting, weaving—it's in the blood,' says Martin. 'That's what draws me to keeping these traditions alive.' Nike sparks a tweed renaissance A 1993 British act of Parliament protects the manufacture of Harris Tweed, stipulating that producers must use pure sheep's wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides, weave it by hand at home and finish it in the Western Isles. They then export the fabric to around 55 countries—the US, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are the biggest markets—where designers use it in everything from luxury suits to sneakers and even whisky flasks. The industry has long been sensitive to the whims of American buyers, whose preferences have had an outsized impact on the sector. In the post-war era, purchasing a tailored tweed suit was a rite of passage for many young men. However, when US consumers turned away from wool in favour of lighter fabrics in the 1980s, Hebridean tweed-makers experienced a sharp downturn. Years later, a limited-edition tweed sneaker by Nike Inc. introduced the fabric to a younger audience, sparking a renaissance in the 2000s. The once-derelict Shawbost mill, dating back to the 1920s, was reborn as Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd. in 2007 to capture some of that renewed US interest. Now the largest of the island's three mills and its biggest private-sector employer, the company generated a turnover of around £9 million in 2023, according to company filings. The US remains its top export market. Approximately 1 million meters of the fabric are produced annually, with the Shawbost mill accounting for about 65% of that total and supplying international brands such as Ralph Lauren Corp., Brooks Brothers and Christian Dior SE. Margaret Ann Macleod, chief executive officer of Harris Tweed Hebrides, describes the 10% tariff as 'hugely concerning,' particularly as it comes on top of higher employment taxes in the UK and against a backdrop of slowing global luxury demand. Demand for the fabric also risks being affected by the high levies the Trump administration imposed on European Union exports. Although the tariffs do not directly impact the Hebridean mills, any increase in the final retail price of garments made with Harris Tweed could prompt US clients to reconsider using the fabric. Last week, the US Court of International Trade declared the Trump tariffs illegal. However, a successful appeal by the White House has delayed a final decision, leaving those affected by the measures still awaiting clarity. 'The worst thing for buyers is being unsure,' Macleod says. 'When there are unknown costs that we can't quantify, it can make the difference between them selecting a British heritage textile or not. They may choose to delay that purchase, reduce the quantity or opt out entirely.' About 15% of Harris Tweed Hebrides' annual fabric production is already sold to Asian clients. The mill is now working to strengthen ties with markets such as South Korea—its fastest-growing market—and Japan, which Macleod will visit later this year as part of a British trade delegation. The company is also reviewing its prices—the cloth retails at £55 per meter for individual consumers—in response to the tariffs. Yet quickly pivoting to new markets is not easy for a 'slow fashion' business, where completing an order can take up to three months. The industry must also step up efforts to combat counterfeiting and raise brand awareness in newer markets like China. 'We're not going to offshore production; we legally cannot do that even if we wanted to,' says Calum Iain Maciver, interim chief executive officer of the Harris Tweed Authority, a statutory body responsible for protecting the cloth's reputation. 'Returning manufacturing plants to the USA is Trump's goal, but so many industries are caught up in that. It's quite a blunt instrument to try to solve a domestic American problem; it really is a sledgehammer.' From the sheep to the shop Producing Harris Tweed is a complex, months-long process that begins with bales of blended pure sheep wool sourced from across the UK, not just the Hebrides. Millworkers dye the wool fibres using one of 60 base colours and then spin them to achieve the fabric's rich hues. They weigh and blend different colored wools according to precise recipes created by the mill's designer to produce a wide range of shades. Next, they send the wool through carding—a mechanical combing process that disentangles and mixes the fibers—creating a candy-floss-like yarn in shades ranging from pinkish red to soft brown or earthy green. Workers then spin the yarn to strengthen it, preparing it to be wound onto bobbins. They arrange thousands of warp threads—a term derived from the Old Norse varp, meaning 'the cast of a net'—side by side lengthwise on the fabric. They then separate the threads into parallel strips and wind them onto a large beam. The mill delivers the prepared yarn and a pattern card to one of the island's self-employed weavers. The weaver introduces the weft colours—the horizontal threads woven through the warp—that create the fabric's distinctive zigzag pattern. After weaving, the mill washes, dries, steam-presses and crops the cloth before preparing it for inspection. If the cloth meets quality standards, the mill stamps it with the Orb certification mark of the Harris Tweed Authority (HTA) and readies it for export. This intricate process employs 300 millworkers and weavers, many of whom live in remote villages across the island. The HTA estimates that the sector also indirectly supports another 100 jobs in restaurants, bars and shops, along with about 1,000 registered local artisans who use Harris Tweed fabric to create and sell clothing and small accessories. 'Harris Tweed is literally woven into the community,' says Macleod. 'The economic fortunes of the islanders have always depended on the sector.' Retailers selling Harris Tweed garments, such as Peter Christian—a £10 million British tailoring brand—are already adapting to the new tariff regime. With US customers accounting for nearly 70% of its tweed suit sales, the company offered a 10% discount labelled 'reverse tariffs' in early April and scaled back advertising at the start of 2025 after a slowdown in US sales growth that predated Trump's measures. Tweed also supports the islands' £75 million tourism sector. Stornoway welcomed a record 57,000 cruise ship passengers last year. Many of these visitors tour weavers' workshops, where they learn about crofting and the craftsmanship behind Harris Tweed. They also dine in local restaurants and pubs and purchase Harris Tweed jackets or small souvenirs, such as pouches, key chains and hats. For now, says the HTA's Maciver, lobbying Washington as MacRae did in 1957 would be pointless given the current 'uncertainty and movement' surrounding the tariffs. Miriam Hamilton, 32, a weaver in Crossbost, a picturesque village 10 miles from Stornoway, says she does not plan to lower her prices to offset the higher tariffs for US customers. 'I can't absorb the extra costs,' she says.
Fashion Network
an hour ago
- Fashion Network
Trump tariffs put pressure on Harris Tweed makers and luxury supply chain
Harris Tweed, the centuries-old fabric woven by islanders in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, faces new global headwinds. Trump-era tariffs on wool imports are raising costs for textiles prized by luxury fashion houses worldwide. In December 1957, Reverend Murdoch MacRae traveled from his parish on Lewis and Harris—one of the Outer Hebridean islands off the northwest coast of mainland Scotland—across the Atlantic to confront the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington. At the time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tariffs on woolen imports threatened to trigger an exodus of island workers whose livelihoods depended on producing hand-woven tweed jackets, trousers and caps—garments long cherished by Americans, from Wall Street bankers to the Kennedys and Hollywood actors. MacRae's mission to protect the islanders from US protectionism ultimately succeeded. Yet nearly 70 years later, his achievement is being undermined by the trade policies of another figure with Hebridean roots: Donald Trump. 'Trump might portray himself as a man of Scottish heritage; he might have used the family Bible at his inauguration,' says Iain Martin, a fourth-generation weaver, but 'that man doesn't care. He's out for himself, nobody else.' Martin is one of just 150 weavers of Harris Tweed, a fabric made from coarse, woven wool. It has been his life. He started winding bobbins—a now semi-automated part of the process essential for loading yarn onto the loom—when he was five. Now, at age 57, he weaves about 8,000 meters of tweed each year, in addition to managing a 15-acre farm and caring for 600 sheep. He still uses a loom purchased by his grandfather in 1926, housed in a workshop alongside his own stack of family Bibles, a collection of colorful bobbins and a heavy blanket hand-woven by his grandmother. The distinctive diagonal-patterned Harris Tweed, unique to the Hebrides, has become part of the collateral damage caused by the US president's sweeping tariffs on global trade—measures he defends as necessary to protect American jobs. Though tweed exports are small compared to the £59.3 billion total value of UK goods shipped to the US, the island's crofters and weavers still face the same 10% tariff rate imposed on much larger exporters, even after Trump's deal with the UK government reduced levies for some other sectors. They now compete under the same terms as major companies such as automaker Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, Diageo Plc, the consumer products group, and fashion brand Burberry Group Plc. Islanders warn, as MacRae did seven decades ago, that these tariffs threaten a way of life rooted in the 18th century, on remote islands that today are home to around 26,000 people—most of them living on Lewis and Harris. The US president's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was once one of those islanders. She grew up in Lewis before emigrating to New York at age 17 in 1930. 'A lot of islanders go to work elsewhere and they never return home, but for people like me, crofting, weaving—it's in the blood,' says Martin. 'That's what draws me to keeping these traditions alive.' Nike sparks a tweed renaissance A 1993 British act of Parliament protects the manufacture of Harris Tweed, stipulating that producers must use pure sheep's wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides, weave it by hand at home and finish it in the Western Isles. They then export the fabric to around 55 countries—the US, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are the biggest markets—where designers use it in everything from luxury suits to sneakers and even whisky flasks. The industry has long been sensitive to the whims of American buyers, whose preferences have had an outsized impact on the sector. In the post-war era, purchasing a tailored tweed suit was a rite of passage for many young men. However, when US consumers turned away from wool in favor of lighter fabrics in the 1980s, Hebridean tweed-makers experienced a sharp downturn. Years later, a limited-edition tweed sneaker by Nike Inc. introduced the fabric to a younger audience, sparking a renaissance in the 2000s. The once-derelict Shawbost mill, dating back to the 1920s, was reborn as Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd. in 2007 to capture some of that renewed US interest. Now the largest of the island's three mills and its biggest private-sector employer, the company generated a turnover of around £9 million in 2023, according to company filings. The US remains its top export market. Approximately 1 million meters of the fabric are produced annually, with the Shawbost mill accounting for about 65% of that total and supplying international brands such as Ralph Lauren Corp., Brooks Brothers and Christian Dior SE. Margaret Ann Macleod, chief executive officer of Harris Tweed Hebrides, describes the 10% tariff as 'hugely concerning,' particularly as it comes on top of higher employment taxes in the UK and against a backdrop of slowing global luxury demand. Demand for the fabric also risks being affected by the high levies the Trump administration imposed on European Union exports. Although the tariffs do not directly impact the Hebridean mills, any increase in the final retail price of garments made with Harris Tweed could prompt US clients to reconsider using the fabric. Last week, the US Court of International Trade declared the Trump tariffs illegal. However, a successful appeal by the White House has delayed a final decision, leaving those affected by the measures still awaiting clarity. 'The worst thing for buyers is being unsure,' Macleod says. 'When there are unknown costs that we can't quantify, it can make the difference between them selecting a British heritage textile or not. They may choose to delay that purchase, reduce the quantity or opt out entirely.' About 15% of Harris Tweed Hebrides' annual fabric production is already sold to Asian clients. The mill is now working to strengthen ties with markets such as South Korea—its fastest-growing market—and Japan, which Macleod will visit later this year as part of a British trade delegation. The company is also reviewing its prices—the cloth retails at £55 per meter for individual consumers—in response to the tariffs. Yet quickly pivoting to new markets is not easy for a 'slow fashion' business, where completing an order can take up to three months. The industry must also step up efforts to combat counterfeiting and raise brand awareness in newer markets like China. 'We're not going to offshore production; we legally cannot do that even if we wanted to,' says Calum Iain Maciver, interim chief executive officer of the Harris Tweed Authority, a statutory body responsible for protecting the cloth's reputation. 'Returning manufacturing plants to the USA is Trump's goal, but so many industries are caught up in that. It's quite a blunt instrument to try to solve a domestic American problem; it really is a sledgehammer.' From the sheep to the shop Producing Harris Tweed is a complex, months-long process that begins with bales of blended pure sheep wool sourced from across the UK, not just the Hebrides. Millworkers dye the wool fibers using one of 60 base colors and then spin them to achieve the fabric's rich hues. They weigh and blend different colored wools according to precise recipes created by the mill's designer to produce a wide range of shades. Next, they send the wool through carding—a mechanical combing process that disentangles and mixes the fibers—creating a candy-floss-like yarn in shades ranging from pinkish red to soft brown or earthy green. Workers then spin the yarn to strengthen it, preparing it to be wound onto bobbins. They arrange thousands of warp threads—a term derived from the Old Norse varp, meaning 'the cast of a net'—side by side lengthwise on the fabric. They then separate the threads into parallel strips and wind them onto a large beam. The mill delivers the prepared yarn and a pattern card to one of the island's self-employed weavers. The weaver introduces the weft colors—the horizontal threads woven through the warp—that create the fabric's distinctive zigzag pattern. After weaving, the mill washes, dries, steam-presses and crops the cloth before preparing it for inspection. If the cloth meets quality standards, the mill stamps it with the Orb certification mark of the Harris Tweed Authority (HTA) and readies it for export. This intricate process employs 300 millworkers and weavers, many of whom live in remote villages across the island. The HTA estimates that the sector also indirectly supports another 100 jobs in restaurants, bars and shops, along with about 1,000 registered local artisans who use Harris Tweed fabric to create and sell clothing and small accessories. 'Harris Tweed is literally woven into the community,' says Macleod. 'The economic fortunes of the islanders have always depended on the sector.' Retailers selling Harris Tweed garments, such as Peter Christian—a £10 million British tailoring brand—are already adapting to the new tariff regime. With US customers accounting for nearly 70% of its tweed suit sales, the company offered a 10% discount labeled 'reverse tariffs' in early April and scaled back advertising at the start of 2025 after a slowdown in US sales growth that predated Trump's measures. Tweed also supports the islands' £75 million tourism sector. Stornoway welcomed a record 57,000 cruise ship passengers last year. Many of these visitors tour weavers' workshops, where they learn about crofting and the craftsmanship behind Harris Tweed. They also dine in local restaurants and pubs and purchase Harris Tweed jackets or small souvenirs, such as pouches, key chains and hats. For now, says the HTA's Maciver, lobbying Washington as MacRae did in 1957 would be pointless given the current 'uncertainty and movement' surrounding the tariffs. Miriam Hamilton, 32, a weaver in Crossbost, a picturesque village 10 miles from Stornoway, says she does not plan to lower her prices to offset the higher tariffs for US customers. 'I can't absorb the extra costs,' she says.
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
Europe's right caught in wake of broken Trump-Musk bromance
The very public fallout between Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, once among the US president's closest advisors, has rippled across the Atlantic, drawing fascination as well as anxiety from Europe's right-wing and far-right political circles. The collapse of the Trump-Musk alliance, marked by bitter exchanges over government contracts and personal insults, has left many on Europe's right politically adrift. Online, the moment has already spawned memes comparing European parties to children caught in a bitter divorce. Yet beyond the humour, the European right woke up in shock. For many of its leaders, Trump had served as proof that a nationalist 'wave' was not only possible but already underway. Musk, meanwhile, became an unlikely champion of their causes, lending legitimacy, visibility, and even a platform to far-right movements like Germany's AfD and Italy's Lega, with particularly close ties to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. So far, there has been no official comment from Europe's right-wing leaders on the Trump-Musk rift. That silence is striking as these politicians are usually quick to react to global events, especially those involving figures they admire. Their hesitation suggests a deeper unease: being forced to choose sides could present a strategic dilemma that reshapes the future of Europe's right-wing landscape. Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) faces a delicate balancing act. While the party has long admired Trump's nationalist politics – often calling for a 'Germany First' approach – it has also benefited significantly from Musk's support. Musk has repeatedly praised the AfD, once stating, 'Only the AfD can save Germany.' Ahead of Germany's federal elections, he even participated in livestreamed discussions with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel and used his platform X (formerly Twitter) to amplify the party's messaging. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was present at the White House during part of the unfolding dispute between the pair, hasn't commented, though his CDU party competes directly with the AfD and is likely watching developments closely. Italy's Lega and its leader Matteo Salvini face a similar dilemma but from a slightly different angle. Salvini has long styled himself as Italy's most pro-Trump figure, even more so than his rival Giorgia Meloni. Yet Musk has also courted Lega. In April, he addressed the party's national congress in Florence via video link as a star guest, echoing his involvement with the AfD. For Meloni, the situation is even more complex as she has cultivated relationships with both men. As the first Western European leader to meet Trump following the announcement of US tariffs on EU goods, she positioned herself as a diplomatic bridge between Washington and Brussels. At the same time, she has maintained a pragmatic, deal-oriented relationship with Musk, particularly regarding potential SpaceX contracts for Italian defence communications. Despite their ties to Musk and shared ideological overlaps, both Meloni and Salvini are likely to side with Trump in the event of a political schism since Trump remains a key political ally and, unlike Musk, is an elected leader. In other parts of Europe, the choice appears clearer. Parties such as Hungary's Fidesz under Viktor Orbán and France's National Rally, now led by Jordan Bardella, have consistently aligned themselves with Trump's nationalist agenda. Orbán, one of Trump's closest allies in Europe, frequently echoes his anti-immigration rhetoric and strongman leadership style. Bardella has praised Trump's patriotism and nationalist policies, while showing little public admiration for Musk. Elsewhere, parties like Poland's Law and Justice (PiS), Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ), and Spain's Vox have seen Musk act more as a sympathetic amplifier of their messages rather than as a political partner. While Musk has given visibility to far-right narratives on his social media platform, he lacks the political authority or ideological consistency that many of these parties find in Trump. As the Trump-Musk feud continues to unfold, Europe's right-wing movements may be forced into a reckoning. Do they align with a political icon who has shaped modern populism or with a tech mogul whose influence lies in platforms, not policies? For now, many are watching and waiting. But if tensions escalate further, silence may no longer be an option. A new YouGov study shows that the favourability towards Israel in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Italy is at or near its lowest level in Western Europe since 2016. The research interviewed 8,625 people from these six key Western European countries between November 2016 and May 2025. Net favourability towards Israel in Germany (-44), France (-48), and Denmark (-54) has reached its lowest level since YouGov started tracking in 2016, while public sentiment in Italy (-52) and Spain (-55) are likewise at their lowest or joint lowest levels, despite a shorter timespan from 2021 onwards. A number of Europeans across these six countries think Israel was right to send troops into Gaza, but believe they have since gone too far and caused too many civilian casualties. This opinion won the most support in Germany at 40%, followed by Denmark at 39% and Britain at 38%. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Food supplies have also been blocked, with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)'s latest report stating half a million people face starvation. Between 7% and 18% of European respondents say they sympathise most with the Israeli side, the lowest figure in most countries since the Hamas attacks. By contrast, between 18% and 33% say they sympathise more with the Palestinian side. Only in Germany are the figures for each side similar, with 17% for Israel and 18% for Palestine. Despite permanent peace in the Middle East seeming distant to Europeans, French people are the most optimistic that both sides will set aside their differences within the next 10 years. Meanwhile, Danes are the least optimistic at 15%. Across all countries, the opinion that peace is realistic has fallen in popularity by between four and ten percentage points.
