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Vladimiras Putinas: Rusija Ukrainoje palei sieną kuria saugumo zoną, dėl kurios nebus deramasi
Rusija Ukrainos teritorijoje palei bendrą sieną kuria „saugumo zoną“, dėl kurios nebus deramasi jokiose būsimose derybose su Kyjivu, penktadienį pareiškė prezidentas Vladimiras Putinas.
BBC News
Inside Ukrainian offensive pushing Russia back - with Starlink playing a key role
The BBC joins Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi as it regains crucial territory in the Donbas, but optimism has been dampened by souring relations with President Trump.
BBC News
Trump denies limiting Ukraine access to Starlink network
Speed curbs limited Ukraine's defences against deadly Russian attacks on Tuesday night.
BBC News
Banks expect to be hit with higher taxes in Budget
Senior banking executives have told the BBC they expect to be "on the menu" in the chancellor's Budget tax later this month.
BBC News
Watch: Did Tesla really just unveil a flying car?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk showcased the vehicle at a facility owned by his SpaceX company, which helped develop the model.
POLITICO
EU leaders clash over migration, Ukraine and budget in Brussels — but delay big decisions
EU leaders locked horns over everything from climate rules to migration policy and Ukraine’s long-term financial needs during two days of tense discussions in Brussels. But despite calls for urgent action, the main takeaway from Thursday and Friday’s European Council summit is that key decisions have been delayed to a later date. With elections looming in Spain and France, and as leaders’ positions seem more entrenched than ever, nothing of substance was put down in ink. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who made the trip to Belgium, did not receive much more than warm embraces and kind words. Speaking to journalists during a packed news conference, Ukraine’s wartime leader urged his European counterparts to come up with a financial plan or risk facing an unprecedented migration crisis with “20 million Ukrainians” fleeing to Europe. “The war will cost €155 billion next year. And we need at least €70 billion more from you — for defense, for weapons, and for our resilience,” Zelenskyy said. “This is a realistic amount. And I ask you to find this support. It will help us hold Russia back.” But two diplomats told POLITICO that capitals would continue exploring a range of options to meet Kyiv’s needs, including a potential further loan from the EU. Luc Frieden and Emmanuel Macron speak ahead of a round table during the EU summit in Brussels on Oct. 15, 2026. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images A debate over whether to mobilize some €300 billion in Russian frozen assets to help Ukraine is a case in point. Nearly a year after EU leaders rejected using the assets amid objections from Belgium, France and Italy, several countries have asked for the option to be revisited, and top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas had said frozen assets would be on the table when leaders met in Brussels. But after hours of talks about Ukraine, “nothing has changed,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “The money is not lost but in my belief nothing has happened since we had the discussion last time.” “In the short term, money to support Ukraine must come from other sources than the frozen assets,” he concluded. Two EU diplomats told POLITICO that the European Commission and EU capitals were working on other financing options, including seeking funds from Ukraine’s non-EU allies, mobilizing as yet untapped EU funds and drawing up another joint EU loan to complement the €90 billion loan they agreed on last year. The leaders “didn’t spend a lot of time” trying to come up with a plan to fund Ukraine in 2027, after Zelenskyy said his country would face a €70 billion budget hole next year, European Council President António Costa said. “We agreed immediately that we need to address the additional needs of financing Ukraine in 2027 and asked Commission to come up with concrete proposal.” Yet leaders declined to endorse any of those options during news conferences at the end of the summit. Money talks drag on The gathering had also been billed as a chance for leaders to break a months-old deadlock over the size and shape of the EU’s nearly €2 trillion long-term budget. French President Emmanuel Macron, who leaves office next year ahead of a presidential election in April and June, warned leaders that he would no longer have a political mandate to ink a deal if no deal was concluded by the end of this year. But despite hours of talks on Thursday, neither the frugal camp led by Germany — which advocates a smaller budget — nor the “Friends of Cohesion” group calling for a larger envelope had made any substantial step toward each other. “I think [a decision] is possible by the end of the year,” Macron told journalists at the summit’s conclusion, adding that failure to strike a deal this year would not “be a good method from a democratic standpoint.” Instead, leaders spent much of the two-day summit trying to gain a tactical upper hand over rivals on EU climate rules and migration policy. Trench warfare A push led Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to water down an emissions trading scheme known as ETS2 hijacked discussions for hours on Thursday. But despite wider support for Tusk’s position than at previous summits, it was easily defeated by countries that support the current scheme. Donald Tusk and Peter Magyar shake hands before a round table during the EU summit in Brussels on Oct. 15, 2026. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images On migration, Denmark, Italy and Poland led a determined effort to harden the EU’s position, proposing tweaks to the summit’s conclusions that would have explicitly linked irregular migration to crime rates and branded the phenomenon a threat to the cohesion of European societies. The proposal, which ultimately won support from a group of around 10 countries including Hungary, according to two EU diplomats, also indirectly took aim at Spain, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to regularize some 1 million irregular migrants has sparked clashes with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen. Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that the Commission would put forward an emergency response framework before the end of the year to allow EU countries to respond to a sudden mass movement, such as the one that caused chaos in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta over the summer. But the effort led by Meloni and Frederiksen ended in defeat, with the proposed paragraphs deleted from the summit’s final conclusions, which only contained a truncated version. Macron criticized the discussions on migration, saying they had been excessively “politicized.” “It was a bad debate because it has been highly politicized and it has been a major source of division around the table,” the French president said.
POLITICO
EU faces growing pressure to plug Ukraine’s Starlink gap
BRUSSELS — The European Union is under pressure to keep Ukrainian troops fully online after Elon Musk’s Starlink was restricted amid volatile U.S. support for Kyiv. “It was a very dangerous and unpleasant surprise,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters after EU leaders met in Brussels, referring to Starlink speed limitations experienced by military troops in recent days. “We were using Starlink to intercept jet-powered Shaheds [combat drones] that are attacking our civilian infrastructure and killing our families … When the speed limits were lowered, we became incapable of shooting [them] down.” Ukraine has long relied critically on Musk’s satellite constellation for wartime efforts. Reuters reported Friday that the order to slow Ukraine’s military-grade Starshield service came from the White House, days after Washington pressed Kyiv to halt strikes on Russian refineries, amid soaring energy prices and ahead of November’s midterm elections. “It is unacceptable for Ukraine’s defense — and therefore Europe’s security — to depend on the goodwill of a single American billionaire or on Donald Trump’s decisions,” French centrist Member of the European Parliament Christophe Grudler told POLITICO. Ahead of Thursday’s high-level meeting, European lawmakers had been calling on the EU executive to fast-track Kyiv’s access to satellite capabilities already pooled under the bloc’s Govsatcom program — which gives participating governments secure communications capabilities. Negotiations between the EU executive and Ukraine over this access have been ongoing since March, with no breakthrough. Norway and Iceland secured such an agreement earlier this year. “What I don’t understand is why the European Commission and the Member States have not done everything possible to quickly reach an agreement that would allow Ukraine to benefit from it,” added Christophe Grudler, who wrote to EU leaders. He also called on them to speed up work on IRIS² — the EU’s in-house, planned satellite network and full-fledged match to Starlink, which is only expected to come online in 2030. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier confirmed in a statement that it is “currently in talks with Ukraine to fully associate” the country with the EU’s Govsatcom program. “The war in Ukraine shows that our security also depends on space. And the EU has been doing quite a lot. We are ready to support Ukraine where we can support Ukraine,” he added. Calls to crack down on dependence on foreign providers and boost alternatives to Starlink also come at a time when legislators are negotiating a series of laws that could tame Musk’s ambitions in Europe. “Ukraine’s dependence on Starlink highlights the vulnerability of European defence systems that rely on U.S. technology, Another reminder that Europe must reduce its dangerous technological dependencies — ASAP,” center-right Finnish lawmaker Aura Salla said on social media. Policymakers across Europe have been joining forces to curb Starlink’s dominance in low-Earth orbit, where satellites fly close to Earth to deliver faster connections. “As legislators, we must ensure that European operators are well positioned in the market and limit the dominance of foreign players,” German center-left lawmaker Matthias Ecke said. In Brussels, lawmakers, including Ecke, are backing European telcos gunning for prized satellite frequencies, currently licensed to U.S. operators until next year and eyed by Starlink. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was working bilaterally with EU countries to secure more capabilities, citing France. He also expressed hopes that Starlink restrictions could be lifted. “My partners told me there were signals from the White House that they would return these capabilities.” SpaceX — Starlink’s parent company — didn’t respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Yemen’s government says Houthis fired two missiles at Aden airport
Attack comes as Yemeni gov't forces claim advances in Marib and say they 'neutralised' 430 Houthi fighters in 24 hours.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
Meta employees say Lula’s accounts restricted in Brazil election: Report
The messages, reported by a Brazilian daily, say the platform recommended Bolsonaro's profile and his WhatsApp channel.
Europe | The Guardian
No 10 leaves option open to impose Chinese EV tariffs if UK joins EU scheme
Beijing warns against ‘discriminatory’ step after France drops opposition to British role in Made in Europe packageNo 10 has left the door open to imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of the Made in Europe package, prompting a warning from Beijing that such a move would be “discriminatory”.Downing Street said on Friday that it would “welcome the objective to have the UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act” after France dropped its opposition to Britain joining the scheme. Continue reading...
Europe | The Guardian
Starlink access still not fully restored for Ukraine’s military, says Zelenskyy
Ukrainian president says US limiting access was a ‘dangerous and unpleasant surprise’, amid reports the order came from inside White HouseEurope live – latest updatesVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said the Ukrainian military’s access to the Starlink satellite internet service has not yet been fully restored, as media reports suggested the order to throttle the service had come from within the White House.Zelenskyy met European leaders on Friday in Brussels, where he asked the EU for another €70bn (£60bn) next year to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia. Continue reading...
Europe
Italy secures EU deal to lower its electricity prices
Agreement marks a boost for PM Giorgia Meloni as nation struggles with higher fossil fuel prices
Europe
EU eyes more financial support for Ukraine after US pivot
European leaders close ranks around Volodymyr Zelenskyy following Donald Trump’s fuel deal with Moscow
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
Zelensky turns to Europe for backing as ties with Trump deteriorate
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky turned to his European allies on Friday, asking Brussels for an additional €70 billion to fund the war against Russia next year. Zelensky's relationship with US President Donald Trump deteriorated after the US eased sanctions on Moscow as part of a diesel-supply deal.
France 24 - International breaking news, top stories and headlines
KENYA CONFIRMS THIRD EBOLA CASE
In tonight's programme, Kenya confirms a third case of Ebola, a relative of a man who died earlier this month after travelling from DR Congo. Also,Cameroonian journalist Ambe Macmillan is recovering in hospital after being shot in the legs by gunmen in Bamenda. And we meet Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama... And finally, we meet Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, who digs deep into his country's colonial and industrial past to lay new creative foundations for generations to come.
Africanews RSS
Kenya confirms third Ebola case as health officials race to contain outbreak
Kenya has confirmed its third Ebola case, raising concerns over the spread of the deadly virus across East Africa. The Health Ministry says the latest patient is a 65-year-old woman and a close relative of the country’s first two cases. She had been in quarantine since October 6.
Africanews RSS
DR Congo bans activities of 13 political parties linked to Joseph Kabila as opposition cries repression
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government has banned the activities of 13 political parties, including the PPRD of former president Joseph Kabila. Presented as a national security measure, the decision has divided the political class and reignited debate over democratic pluralism in the country.