Author: staff

French firefighters gathered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Monday to demand more resources and staff. Unions say fire and rescue services have faced funding shortages for years, while climate-related emergencies are increasing. Protesters displayed a model of a Canadair water bomber and banners highlighting deaths, suicides and cancer among firefighters. Union representatives said France had 3,871 wildfire trucks in 2024 but needs around 5,000 to ensure nationwide coverage and provide reinforcements during major fires. They also called for enough trained personnel to operate the vehicles.

On a special edition of Westminster Insider from Labour Party conference, Pat and Sascha sat down with the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool. In a conversation recorded in front of a live audience on Tuesday, shortly before Andy Burnham’s conference speech, Craig opened up about what it’s really like taking over from her predecessor — and how she plans to make the job her own. Fresh from a trip to New York, she revealed what she learned from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and what Greater Manchester might borrow from his playbook. Craig told…

The blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea export routes is becoming “critical”, with potentially far-reaching implications for global food prices, Ukraine’s Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotskyi, has told Europe Today. “We can already see that on average, grain prices have increased by 25 percent,” Minister Vysotskyi said. “If you multiply it by the overall grain and food consumption out of grain, within a year, it could mean up to $60 billion in additional costs (for) consumers throughout the world.” Russia has recently intensified strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea vessels and infrastructure, on which Kyiv relies for the export…

Published on 29/09/2026 – 9:15 GMT+2•Updated 10:06 Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to boost the army by 15,500 troops in the fourth such order this year. “The authorised … strength of the Russian armed forces is to be set at 2,441,630 units, including 1,550,500 military personnel,” the decree said. Putin previously signed decrees boosting the army’s size in March, June and July. The combined increase since March amounts to 47,860 soldiers. Russia’s president did not state the reason for the decision, but it has been taken against the backdrop of rising losses in Moscow’s full-scale war in…

Published on 29/09/2026 – 11:09 GMT+2•Updated 11:11 The leaders of six “frugal” net contributors to the EU budget have written to the Irish presidency, stepping up their push for a lower overall figure in its upcoming compromise proposal. The letter, dated 28 September and seen by Euronews, is the latest attempt by the frugal camp to shrink the EU’s next long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Talks have entered a crunch phase, with a deal targeted by the end of the year. “We are now entering the decisive phase of the negotiations, in which we must determine the overall…

The president of the United Arab Emirate, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the UAE on Sunday, official news agency WAM said, confirming earlier Israeli media reports about the meeting. “The two sides discussed bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and develop them,” the brief statement said. It appeared to be the first time Abu Dhabi acknowledged the meeting. On Monday, Israel said that Netanyahu had visited the UAE the day before to discuss the Iran war and regional issues. “The visit focused on strengthening relations between the…

But during a meeting of fisheries ministers on Tuesday, a majority of EU countries pushed back against this, arguing that EU money allocated for fisheries should prioritize efforts to modernize and increase their fleets while respecting the availability of fish stocks. “It is in the best interest of our fishing and aquaculture sectors to deliver clarity on accessing funding in the future MFF,” said Ireland’s Martin Heydon, Ireland’s minister for agriculture and fisheries. The deal passed after EU countries agreed to make a last minute change to the compromise text to highlight that these funding rules for the fishing sector should…

Published on 29/09/2026 – 12:11 GMT+2•Updated 12:22 A school attack by a pupil in northwestern Slovakia on Tuesday left one 61-year-old woman dead and another woman and a child wounded, rescue workers told the AFP news agency. The two injured, including a 44-year-old “with a stab wound to the chest,” were admitted to hospital following the attack at the school in Staskov, Emergency Medical Services Operations Centre spokeswoman Petra Klimesova said. Slovak media said the dead woman was a teacher and the two people wounded were another teacher and a pupil. The attacker was a teenage pupil in eighth-grade (typically…

Members of five housing unions broke through security at the Social Housing Agency (AVS) headquarters and staged a sit-in. They called for a formal negotiating forum with the authorities to discuss eviction cases, debt and disputed housing situations. Activists chanted slogans calling for secure housing and collective negotiations as police arrived at the building. The protesters were eventually removed from the offices and their identities were checked by police as they left. The action follows widespread protests triggered by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her Madrid home last week.

A l’occasion de cette même réunion à Dublin, le commissaire européen chargé de l’Energie, Dan Jørgensen, s’est réjoui des déclarations publiques du secrétaire américain à l’Energie, Chris Wright, affirmant qu’une interdiction des exportations de diesel ne fonctionnerait pas. La semaine dernière, Donald Trump a semblé se rallier à l’idée de bloquer temporairement les exportations de ce carburant, alors que les prix augmentent en raison de la guerre en Iran et des restrictions que Moscou a décidées sur ses propres exportations à la suite des frappes ukrainiennes contre des raffineries russes. Une telle mesure provoquerait une onde de choc sur les…