Author: Press Room

Published on 16/04/2026 – 8:00 GMT+2 Before Russia’s invasion, no European military fielded more than 2,000 drones. Now, both armies are burning through up to seven million units a year. Drones have vaulted from niche gadgets to the backbone of modern warfare, and Europe is racing to catch up. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The numbers alone show an extraordinary transformation. Ukraine doubled drone output from 2.2 million in 2024 to 4.5 million in 2025. But sheer volume is only half the battle. The real race is technological; the guts of these machines are obsolete almost as soon as they roll off the…

US President Donald Trump has turned on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her “unacceptable” and claiming she lacks “courage” to back the US intervention in Iran after she condemned his attacks on Pope Leo XIV. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The unexpected public rift between the two leaders, who cultivated one of the closest transatlantic relationships over the past year, erupted after Trump criticised the pontiff for his anti-war stance on Iran. “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” Trump told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday. Trump previously called Meloni “one of the real leaders of the world”…

Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will not attend next week’s informal summit of European Union leaders, according to several EU officials. It would have been his last summit as Hungarian prime minister in what is usually a customary farewell. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Orbán, who was decisively defeated in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, is expected to remain in office until opposition leader Péter Magyar, who won by a landslide, takes office sometime in May. Officials familiar with the preparations told Euronews they no longer expect Orbán to participate in the gathering, which will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus. The tradition in Brussels…

Hungary’s Prime Minister-designate Péter Magyar said on Wednesday that the country’s president had assured him in a meeting that his new government could take power in the first week of May, an accelerated timeline for the end of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16-year reign. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Following Magyar and his centre-right Tisza party’s landslide victory in Sunday’s election in which it won a two-thirds parliamentary majority, the opposition leader has pushed for the transfer of power to occur as quickly as possible. Under Hungarian law, the inaugural session of the new parliament, which must elect a new prime minister, must…

Published on 15/04/2026 – 20:30 GMT+2 Péter Magyar’s landslide victory in Hungary’s parliamentary elections on Sunday has sparked renewed optimism in Brussels. After years of Viktor Orbán’s controversial rule, including numerous vetoes, the change in government has raised hopes that previously stalled EU support for Ukraine may finally be unblocked. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT While the European Union faces increasing global challenges – from Ukraine to the Middle East – its foreign policy responses often appear slow and fragmented, raising doubts about whether its current structure remains fit for purpose. In this context, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Daniel Freund (Greens)…

Dozens of boats carrying activists and aid for Palestinians in Gaza set sail from the northeastern Spanish city of Barcelona on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say that more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world will participate, with campaigners saying it’s the biggest civilian-led mobilisation of its kind against Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory. Nearly 40 boats left Barcelona while the rest will join the fleet from other ports along the Mediterranean as they sail eastward, according to Thiago Ávila, one of the flotilla’s leaders who spoke at a news conference…

Published on 15/04/2026 – 18:19 GMT+2 MEPs from the Committee on Budgets on Wednesday adopted their position on the long-term EU budget, calling for a 10% increase and for the repayment of Next Generation EU — the joint debt approved in 2020 to address the economic impact of COVID-19 — to be kept outside the EU budget. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The proposed 10% increase would be evenly distributed across the budget’s three main political priorities: national plans, competitiveness funds and Horizon as well as Global Europe. The Competitiveness Fund will support actions to strengthen Europe’s position in the global economy. Horizon…

Published on 15/04/2026 – 17:47 GMT+2 Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of Patriot air defence missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his visit to Germany, admitting it is as bad as it gets. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “The situation is in such a deficit, it could not be any worse,” Zelenskyy told German national broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday. He also admitted that the war in the Middle East is having an impact on Ukraine, reducing Kyiv’s chances of receiving military aid. Patriot missiles are critically important for Ukraine. Made only in the US, they remain by far the best defence…

A video circulating widely on social media appears to show Israeli soldiers pushing bodies from the roof of a building in the West Bank. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The footage has attracted millions of views and gained further traction after it was reshared by South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung. In a post on X, he said he would seek to verify the clip and determine what action, if any, had been taken. He later clarified that the video dates back to September 2024, and emphasised the need to uphold international humanitarian law. The footage has been shared online from multiple angles,…

Published on 15/04/2026 – 11:24 GMT+2 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, is now facing trial on charges of influence peddling and embezzlement, accused of using her position to secure funding for her private university projects. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Second, Sánchez’s inner circle is collapsing. Last June, his former senior aide Santos Cerdán was placed in pre-trial detention for alleged bribery. Then in November, his former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and top aide Koldo García were placed in custody over the so-called “Koldo Case”. The two officials allegedly accepted secret cash payments to award lucrative government face mask…