Author: Press Room

In the coming months, European governments will intensify their efforts to establish how the EU’s long-term budget for the period 2028-2034 should be financed, with new revenues, called “own resources”, at the centre of the debate. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The discussion on own resources is not new. During the last long-term budget negotiations, the 27 member states failed to agree on any resources at all, and the budget was eventually financed by a national contribution, each country contributing 1.13 percent of its gross national income. But given the bloc has grand ambitions to make large new investments in strategic sectors such…

The European outrage at Spain over the crisis in Ceuta has subsided on the surface, but the incident has revived a broader question in Brussels: is Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez becoming what Danish MEP Henrik Dahl called Europe’s “red Orbán” — a left-wing leader increasingly isolated from the EU mainstream? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Though the merit of the “red Orbán” label is debatable, the Ceuta crisis has become the clearest sign yet of the growing isolation of Spain and Sánchez within the European political landscape. “Like Orban, he is seen as a spoiler,” said Dahl, a member of the European…

Published on 06/08/2026 – 10:14 GMT+2 Ukraine struck two Russian oil refineries hundreds of kilometres from the border in an overnight attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, as Russia hit a train station and commercial ship in Ukraine. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Both sides have been intensifying their long-range attacks in recent months, leading to a jump in civilian deaths. Kyiv has been firing record numbers of drones at Russia, while Moscow has been launching all-time high missile attacks. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had hit oil refineries in the Bashkortostan and Yaroslavl regions, about 700 kilometres from the front. The attacks were…

Published on 06/08/2026 – 10:24 GMT+2•Updated 10:46 Hungary’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar says he is optimistic that the Paks nuclear power station will be able to restart soon as water levels on the Danube slowly rise. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Hungary shut down its sole nuclear power plant, which relies on the waters of the Danube for cooling, on Sunday because of low water levels. The waters of the Danube, Europe’s second longest river, have dropped in parts to a record low due to successive heatwaves that have parched the continent since May. “The good news is that we are now nine…

Images and videos of mass migration into Ceuta, which borders Morocco, quickly spread across social media after tens of thousands of migrants rushed into the Spanish territory last week. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Mixed in with genuine reports about the crisis, which saw roughly 72,000 people from Morocco cross into Ceuta, was a wave of misleading visuals, including AI-generated images presented as authentic news photographs and recycled videos falsely linked to the crossings. One example is this dramatic image purportedly showing a “soldier” raising a large rock above a migrant climbing an embankment, which was shared on YouTube, X and Reddit. The…

Published on 06/08/2026 – 16:52 GMT+2 Ceuta Mayor Juan Jesús Vivas has described the breach of the Spanish enclave’s border with Morocco as an “invasion” and demanded the immediate return of migrants still there after last week’s border incident. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Vivas made the remarks in his testimony before the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on Thursday. The hearing was convened after roughly 80,000 migrants entered Ceuta by sea in what has been described as one of the largest migration crises in the EU’s history. The Spanish government declined its invitation to attend the session;…

Published on 06/08/2026 – 18:17 GMT+2•Updated 19:18 The Ministry of Information of Belarus has designated Euronews’ website as “extremist” media, adding it to its “Republican List of Extremist Materials” following a national court order, according to Belarus-based media outlets. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Euronews website will now be restricted in Belarus, and readers could face administrative penalties for “storing or distributing” its content, after many years in which Euronews has been the main European source of information in the country, according to Euronews’ audience data in Belarus. The state decision was taken by the Horki District Court in the Mogilev Region…

Published on 06/08/2026 – 16:55 GMT+2 A record number of people have been referred to an anti-terrorism programme in England and Wales, the UK Home Office has announced. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Official data released on Thursday showed that from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, a total of 10,293 referrals were made to the government’s Prevent programme, up 39% compared to the year prior and marking the highest number of referrals over a 12-month period since records started in April 2015. The Prevent Scheme Prevent is an early intervention scheme designed to stop people turning to terrorism. According to the…

EU migration chief Magnus Brunner has called on MEPs to adopt a stalled EU law on fighting people smuggling, saying it could help prevent migration crises like the one in the Spanish territory of Ceuta last week. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Speaking on Thursday, Brunner said the events in Ceuta “showed that there are actors who have no regard for the safety or even the lives, of innocent people,” but that nonetheless, “we cannot accept such a breach of integrity of our external borders and violation also of the security of of the Union – and in that regard, the impact of…

Portuguese authorities have seized around five tonnes of cocaine from a cargo ship intercepted off the country’s coast. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The ship, which had departed from South America, was boarded in a joint operation involving Portugal’s Judiciary Police, Air Force and Navy, with support from Britain’s National Crime Agency and Spain’s National Police. Most of the cocaine was found inside a shipping container, while the rest had been moved into the ship’s hold. Three foreign nationals — an Italian, a Colombian and an Indian citizen — were arrested. Authorities say Portugal has now seized around 28 tonnes of cocaine so…