Author: Press Room
Published on 18/06/2026 – 10:25 GMT+2•Updated 10:31 US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said Europe must take the lead on building out a revamped “NATO 3.0” and creating a “real, hardline military alliance”. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Hegseth made the comments while speaking ahead of a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Brussels on Thursday. “NATO 3.0 is post-Cold War recognition that needs to go back to a real, hardline military alliance that has real military capabilities capable of deterring right here on the continent and taking the lead for the conventional defence of Europe,” Hegseth said. US president Donald Trump…
By Alessio Dell’Anna & video by Damaso Jaivenois and Loredana Dumitru Published on 18/06/2026 – 10:46 GMT+2 Good news for EV drivers out there in Europe planning to set off with their car this summer. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The continent’s public EV charging network has now grown to 1.3 million public charging points. That’s up by 6% in the first four months of 2026. But where is it most and least expensive? In Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Belgium and the UK, being an electric car owner doesn’t look that much convenient, as a full recharge for a Tesla Y RWD can cost between €30…
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov confirmed that Kyiv is deliberately isolating Crimea from Russian supplies and ultimately from Moscow’s control. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “Crimea is being isolated by drones. In the near future, it appears that the Crimean peninsula will turn into an island,” Fedorov said in an interview on Wednesday. “And this could lead to very unexpected consequences for the Russians. I can’t say anything more,” Fedorov added. Fedorov said Kyiv secured 300% more middle-strike drones in the first four months of 2026 than in all of 2025. Middle-strike drones have a range between 20 and 200 km and allow…
Hello and welcome to Thursday. I’m Mared Gwyn. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT In the last few hours, the presidents of the US and Iran have signed copies of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, with mediator Pakistan saying the peace deal is now in effect. Oil prices are down this morning on the prospect of the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent crude futures falling below €70 per barrel, the lowest level since the war began at the end of February. But there are lingering doubts. Speaking live to Europe Today earlier, former US commander general Ben Hodges said that the…
A new psychoactive substance appears on Europe’s drug market about once a week. EU officials say synthetic opioids pose a risk so acute that a single gram can contain several thousand lethal doses. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The warning comes from the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), which published its 2026 European Drug Report on 9 June. The report found 50 new drugs detected for the first time across Europe in 2025 alone, many synthetic opioids and cathinones. The agency now monitors more than 1,000 new psychoactive substances through its Early Warning System, including over 100 synthetic opioids, a category that barely…
Published on 17/06/2026 – 8:34 GMT+2 G7 leaders have adopted a joint statement committing to increased deliveries of weapons, including air defence systems and long-range capabilities, while signalling the “right moment” has come to tighten the screws on Russia’s energy sector. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The leaders of the G7 countries have been gathering in Évian-les-Bains, France, for the past two days. On Tuesday night, they endorsed a statement expressing “unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its freedom, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” The statement praises Ukraine for the new momentum it has built on the battlefield, and commits to sustaining that momentum…
Portugal is urging the European Commission to reconsider its recent decision to reduce free polluting allowances for the industry under the bloc’s carbon market, fearing the move would weaken companies’ ability to invest in decarbonisation, according to a document seen by Euronews. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Portugal’s energy minister, Maria da Graça Carvalho, argues that the Commission review of the industry’s free allocations for the 2026–2030 period under the Emissions Trading System comes at a particularly difficult moment for Europe’s energy-intensive industries, which have been struggling with high energy prices and production costs. Under the ETS, industries need to pay for the…
Published on 17/06/2026 – 16:25 GMT+2 Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has undergone a successful lung transplant at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, the Royal palace has announced. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, a condition which causes lung scarring and difficulty breathing. “I have had occasional health challenges for a number of years, and now we know more about their underlying causes,” Mette-Marit said at the time, adding that the condition could affect her work schedule at times. Arnt Fiane, a professor of medicine at the University of Oslo and a cardiothoracic…
The United Kingdom’s Minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said that his government is on course to sign a triple deal designed to bolster post-Brexit cooperation with the European bloc when both sides convene for a summit on 22 July. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The deal would seek to slash barriers to agri-food trade by aligning sanitary and phytosanitary rules, bring the UK back into the EU’s internal electricity market and grant special visas to young Europeans and Brits under a youth experience scheme. “Of course, we will get moments of difficulty, as you always do in the final parts of the…
Germany and Poland signed a new defence agreement on Wednesday, putting aside their complicated past to strengthen European military cooperation amid heightened tensions with Russia and growing uncertainty over US engagement in Europe. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Relations between the two neighbours in recent years have become more pragmatic in the wake of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the coming to power of a liberal government in Poland in 2023. “We are not forgetting the past,” Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said in Warsaw during a press conference with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius. “But the politics of the future,…