Author: Press Room

But first, some breaking news: The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has just told Europe Today that the US-Russia diesel deal is a “gift to Putin”, while defending Ukraine’s right to hit Russian oil refineries. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “The core issue is that Russia should stop this war,” Kallas said. “If we look at the big picture, the majority of the financing of this war comes from oil.” Asked by our EU editor Maria Tadeo if Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was right in saying that he would continue strikes on Russian oil refineries, Kallas said: “Yes, if we look at…

Published on 15/10/2026 – 12:25 GMT+2•Updated 12:26 Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev stunned Brussels on Thursday morning by backing the controversial diesel supply deal agreed between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in defiance of Western sanctions. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “You know what is our problem right now in Europe? High fuel prices,” Radev said in English as he arrived at a two-day summit of leaders. “Any step in reducing fuel prices and to guarantee our competitiveness, we appreciate.” His comments put him at odds with his fellow EU leaders, who have strongly condemned the deal as risky,…

The EU’s High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, has defended Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries as a legitimate means of ending Russia’s war of aggression, saying the quickest way to stop them is to end the war. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “If we look at international law, it is clear that [hitting refineries] is in defence of Ukraine because that is where the funding comes from for this war to kill Ukrainian people every day,” she told Euronews in an exclusive interview. The remarks come after US President Donald Trump announced a deal…

Pope Leo XIV had a “good night” in hospital and has eaten breakfast as he recovers from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “The pope had a good night in the hospital. He got up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said in a short statement on Telegram. The 71-year-old leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics announced on Sunday that he would undergo an operation to remove a nodule from his lung. After the procedure at Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Tuesday, the Vatican revealed that the growth was cancerous and that surgeons had removed part of…

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Euronews that Brussels must step up its support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a turbulent week in which US President Donald Trump suggested Kyiv needed a new leader. Kallas said Moscow was betting on a prolonged war, seeking to outlast Ukraine while intensifying attacks on civilians. She also defended Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries as legitimate targets, arguing that oil revenues are a key source of funding for Moscow’s war effort. Trump has urged Kyiv to stop targeting energy infrastructure. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT

The European Commission is moving to enforce its new rules on leading AI labs after a string of incidents, EU digital chief Henna Virkkunen said. But applying the rulebook is far from straightforward, and these early cases will set important precedents. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Commission’s AI Office is investigating OpenAI and Anthropic after AI agents autonomously hacked into other organisations, the first test of the limits of the EU’s AI rules. “Our AI Office has started enforcing these rules, and sent requests for information addressing issues such as security, external evaluation and monitoring how models are used,” Commission Executive Vice-President…

Published on 15/10/2026 – 6:10 GMT+2 SpaceX boss Elon Musk said that any disruptions Ukraine reports in its use of the Starshield satellite communications system would be the responsibility of the US government, and not his company. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk stressed, referring to US President Donald Trump. Musk underlined the distinction between the Starshield system, which Ukraine relies on for battlefield communications, and the parallel Starlink civilian satellite system, which Ukraine also uses but is…

Published on 14/10/2026 – 16:25 GMT+2 Mark Rutte has urged NATO countries to step up military aid to Ukraine – in particular air defences – as Russia continues to pummel Kyiv with hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles every day. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Over 600,000 people across Ukraine were left without electricity on Wednesday after deadly Russian strikes, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said. “With winter coming, and with Russia’s aggression unrelenting, Allies need to do more, especially in support of air defence,” Rutte told journalists in a press conference in Tallinn alongside Estonian Prime Minister, Kristan Michal. The NATO chief is meeting…

Published on 14/10/2026 – 16:32 GMT+2•Updated 20:30 The Ring, the Euronews weekly debate show, travels to Budapest to find out how Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar is resetting relations with the EU after years of tension under the previous government. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Magyar, who won a landslide victory in April’s parliamentary election, has been warmly welcomed by Brussels. In May, he reached a deal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the release of €16.4 billion in funds blocked over longstanding rule-of-law and corruption concerns. Hungary has also lifted its veto on opening of EU accession negotiation clusters…

Published on 14/10/2026 – 21:47 GMT+2 The Trump-Putin deal on the purchase of Russian diesel “is a very risky choice” and “a legitimisation for Moscow while its bombs are still falling on Ukrainian cities”, Giorgia Meloni said in Rome on Wednesday, swiftly winning Kyiv’s approval and provoking a prickly response from Russia. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Italian prime minister, speaking in Parliament before heading to Brussels for Thursday and Friday’s European Council, warned of an “implicit weakening of the sanctions lever”, which she said runs counter to what has so far been done, including by the United States, “to push Putin…