GENEVA: Exceptional snow and wind forced airports to close Thursday in Scotland, Switzerland and France and stranded several hundred drivers in their cars as a Siberian cold snap stretched across Europe.
Geneva’s airport closed after the Swiss city was hit with 13 centimeters (about five inches) of snow over a three-hour period in the early morning.
It reopened several hours later after extensive de-icing of the runway, plans and facilities.
Several deaths have been attributed to the unusually cold late-winter weather across Europe. The fatalities include a man in his 60s who was pronounced dead after being pulled from a frozen lake in London on Wednesday, the city ambulance service said.
Snow shut Glasgow and Edinburgh airports in Scotland, and there are cancelations at Heathrow and other airports in Britain. Airports in the southern French cities of Montpellier and the Atlantic beach resort of Biarritz were also affected.
Hundreds of drivers were trapped in their cars overnight in Scotland and authorities said everyone except emergency-services workers should stay off the roads.
Police in the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England say most roads there are impassable, with as much as two feet (60 centimeters) of snow in rural areas.
Forecasters say a new storm is due to bring blizzards, freezing rain and thunderstorms to Ireland, southwestern England and Wales on Thursday.
About 2,000 cars were blocked on highways in the Herault region of southern France, where snow — and snowplows — are extremely rare.
Snow blanketed Paris and the surrounding region Thursday, and authorities urged Paris commuters to leave their cars at home because of dangerous conditions.
Snow and wind paralyze European airports, trap drivers
Snow and wind paralyze European airports, trap drivers
Macron pushes back against Trump’s tariff threats, calls for stronger European sovereignty at Davos
- French president calls for stronger European sovereignty and fair trade rules, signaling Europe will not bow to economic coercion amid US tariff threats
LONDON: French President Emmanuel Macron warned about global power and economic governance, implicitly challenging US President Donald Trump’s trade and diplomatic approach, at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
Without naming Trump, Macron described a world sliding toward a “law of the strongest,” where cooperation is replaced by coercion and economic pressure becomes a tool of dominance.
His comments come as Europe faces renewed threats of tariffs and coercive measures from Washington following the fallout over Greenland and other trade disputes.
Macron, wearing sunglasses on stage, warned political and business leaders of a world under pressure, marked by rising instability, weakened international law, and faltering global institutions.
“We are destroying the systems that help us solve shared problems,” he said, warning that uncontrolled competition, especially in trade, puts collective governance at risk.
In recent days, Trump has threatened punitive tariffs on European exports, including a 200 percent levy on French wine, after Macron refused to join the “Board of Peace” for Gaza.
Trump also announced a 10 percent tariff on exports from Britain and EU countries unless Washington secured a deal to purchase Greenland from Denmark, a move European officials have privately called economic blackmail.
Macron rejected what he described as “vassalization and bloc politics,” warning that submitting to the strongest power would lead to subordination rather than security.
He also criticized trade practices that demand “maximum concessions” while undermining European export interests, suggesting that competition today is increasingly about power rather than efficiency or innovation.
Macron also said that Europe has long been uniquely exposed by its commitment to open markets while others protect their industries.
“Protection does not mean protectionism,” he said, emphasizing that Europe must enforce a level playing field, strengthen trade defense instruments, and apply the principle of “European preference” where partners fail to respect shared rules.
Macron warned against passive moral posturing, arguing that it would leave Europe “marginalized and powerless” in an increasingly harsh world. His dual strategy calls for stronger European sovereignty alongside effective multilateralism.
The timing of the speech underscored its urgency. Trump recently published private messages from NATO leaders and Macron, following a diplomatic controversy over Greenland.
Macron closed his Davos speech with a clear statement of principles: “We prefer respect to bullying, science to obscurantism, and the rule of law to brutality.”
