Author: Press Room

French security forces detained more than 600 people while dozens of police and gendarmes were wounded as protests that have seen blockades of high schools and violent clashes escalated, the interior minister said on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The movement in the lycées, attended by students aged 15 to 18 for their final three years of secondary education in France, has angered the government. Since last week, students have staged protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves. The protests started in the Île-de-France region around Paris…

The United States has urged European countries to release more emergency oil reserves to curb soaring energy prices, as Washington announced it would put another 40 million barrels onto the market. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “While the United States and Japan are delivering on their commitments, several European member countries have released only a fraction of the crude oil and petroleum products they pledged,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on September 29. “We urge every member country to fulfil its commitments.” The appeal comes as the Trump administration considers a 90-day diesel export ban in an effort to contain domestic fuel…

Published on 30/09/2026 – 16:13 GMT+2•Updated 16:44 NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has told Euronews there is no immediate threat to the alliance’s territory, adding that he does not take Russia’s nuclear threats seriously because Moscow could never win a confrontation with NATO. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “We have prepared for this, we have planned for this, and this is true for the whole of NATO,” Rutte said at the Euronews Defence & Space Summit in Brussels on Wednesday. “We will defend every inch of NATO territory. That threat is not there, and if anything happens, we are ready to counter it.”…

The Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and French president Emmanuel Macron highlighted the close relationship between their two countries and urged greater European unity to confront key migratory, economic and geopolitical challenges. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The joint press conference at the Moncloa Palace was also marked by the Spanish Senate’s rejection of the Treaty of Friendship between Spain and France. Sánchez apologised to Macron for the Upper House’s no vote and promised that parliament would approve an agreement of this kind before the end of the current term. “All I can do is apologise,” the Spanish premier said of Tuesday’s rejection,…

Published on 30/09/2026 – 19:28 GMT+2 The UK’s Home Office said on Wednesday that its year-old deal with France to return migrants crossing the Channel on small boats had ended. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “The government’s pilot with France to remove asylum seekers in exchange for an equal number of legal migrants is no longer processing new cases,” the Home Office said, confirming the end of the so-called “one in, one out” deal, which was launched in August last year and was due to expire on Thursday. The scheme, known as Operation Hillmore, was part of efforts by London and Paris to…

Published on 30/09/2026 – 21:19 GMT+2 British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Wednesday there were “strong indications” that Iran was involved in suspicious activity near a UK airbase used by the US military, which sparked a major security alert. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham told the BBC, referring to Sunday’s bomb scare near the base in southwest England, which the US has been using in its war against Iran. “Of course it remains an ongoing, complex, and serious police investigation,” he added. Speaking…

Is Europe ready to defend itself? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT That was the central question at the Euronews Defence and Space Summit, which brought together policymakers, lawmakers and industry leaders as Europe grapples with the need to rearm and deter potential threats. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has transformed Europe’s security landscape, exposing longstanding weaknesses and forcing governments to rethink defence spending, military capabilities and industrial capacity. As Russia continues its war in Ukraine and hybrid attacks against European allies increase, the pressure to act is growing. Here are five key moments from Wednesday’s summit. Radev raises the alarm Bulgarian Prime Minister…

For years, Ukrainians have lived with a war raging not only along the front line, but above their heads. In Kyiv, the battle in the sky has become part of daily life, measured in air-raid alerts, the sound of air defence and the explosions that follow. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT At an air-defence position protecting the capital, the work begins before anything appears overhead. Soldiers prepare their weapons and scan for threats that can arrive at radically different speeds and from different directions. The challenge is no longer simply the number of weapons Russia can put into the air. Its attacks increasingly…

Published on 30/09/2026 – 14:17 GMT+2 The Bulgarian parliament passed a law on Wednesday aiming to better protect journalists, activists and others from abusive lawsuits designed to censor or intimidate critics. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT In doing so, Bulgaria has gone beyond the minimum European Union requirement in a bid to protect the media in a country where the freedom of the press has come under sustained pressure. Known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), the use of legal action is intended to silence or financially bankrupt reporters, whistleblowers and rights groups, rather than win the case outright. Most SLAPPs are…

A migrant in a wheelchair, with serious injuries to his ankles, arms and torso, says he was pushed by soldiers from a height of more than six metres. When Amnesty International spoke to him in Ceuta, he complained that he had not even been given an X-ray and had only received an emergency bandage. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT His is one of the accounts included in an investigation that describes beatings, humiliations and summary expulsions from Cueta and which, according to the organisation, reveals abuses that could amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Blows with batons and boots,…