Cutting ties with European throttling missing pupil (10)

I believe the answer is:

estranging

'cutting ties with' is the definition.

'european throttling missing pupil' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'throttling' becomes 'strangling' (synonyms).
'missing' is a deletion indicator.
'pupil' becomes 'l'.
'strangling' with 'l' taken away is 'stranging'.
'e'+'stranging'='ESTRANGING'

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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