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  • Zelenskiy Says Russia Waited for Bad Weather for Attack on Energy Sites

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    (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia deliberately waited for bad weather before staging a vast attack on Ukraine’s energy system, adding the conditions reduced the efficiency of air defences by between 20% and 30%.

    “The main assault was in four regions,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv. “I believe that the weather conditions affected our capability to repel by something like 20-30%.”

    Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight, plunging parts of Kyiv into darkness, cutting power and water to homes and halting a metro link across the Dnipro river. Ukraine’s energy ministry said 380,000 customers were still disconnected on Friday afternoon.

    “The blow is strong, but it is definitely not fatal,” he said about the strikes.

    Zelenskiy said there were 203 energy facilities in the country which needed air defences to protect them from Russia.

    He said Russian forces had attempted a new assault near the town of Dobropillia in eastern Donetsk region, where Kyiv has reported successes in recent weeks, but had been repelled.

    “The Russians tried to stage some offensive actions,” he said. “They wanted to unblock their troops, but they suffered losses and retreated.”

    Zelenskiy also said Ukraine was waiting for clarification of the status of 10 air defence systems promised by the U.S.

    He said he hoped the “coalition of the willing”, a group of countries pledged to strengthen support for Ukraine, would hold a new meeting this month.

    (Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Editing by Sharon Singleton, Ron Popeski and David Gregorio)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Media Mogul Richard Desmond Seeks $1.58B in Damages from UKGC

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    Billionaire media mogul Richard Desmond has called on a court to lean on the side of “generosity” in evaluating a GBP 1.3 billion (approximately $1.58 billion) damages claim against the United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission (UKGC). This is a sum that would likely be covered by taxpayers if he prevails in the legal battle.

    Richard Desmond Seeks GBP 1.3 Billion in Damages from the UKGC

    Lawyers representing Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell investment firm and his lottery bid vehicle, the New Lottery Company (TNLC), argue that the Gambling Commission committed “manifest errors” during the complex and opaque competition process for Britain’s largest public sector contract. The 10-year licence was awarded in 2022 to Allwyn, a newly formed company ultimately owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komárek, which has operated the National Lottery since 2024.

    If successful, the payout could have a major financial impact on both charities and taxpayers, as the compensation would come from a lottery fund designated to support good causes. If the award exceeds the available funds, which are believed to receive around GBP 30 million (approximately $36.4 million) per week from lottery ticket sales, the shortfall would likely be covered by taxpayers.

    TNLC alleges that the Gambling Commission gave feedback to rival bidder Allwyn at a stage in the process when it should not have, calling this a “very serious breach” of the competition’s rules. 

    Speaking of Allwyn, it is also participating in the case, effectively aligning itself with the Gambling Commission. The company has a vested interest in defending the outcome of the bidding process, as its reputation could be damaged if Desmond’s legal team succeeds in persuading the judge that Allwyn should not have been awarded the license.

    While the UKGC sought a settlement with Desmond’s Northern & Shell PLC, the issue continued, and a bitter case opened this week. At the High Court, Desmond’s legal team told Mrs Justice Smith that the bidding process was fundamentally flawed on multiple grounds, and argued that the competition should have been rerun after the terms of the contract were changed post-award.

    UKHC Responds

    The Gambling Commission has defended its handling of the licensing process, describing it as robust and thorough. In legal submissions, the regulator argued that Desmond’s bid was “fanciful” and performed “extremely badly” in what it called a rigorous competition.

    Sarah Hannaford KC, representing the commission, dismissed Desmond’s claim, seeking damages for potential earnings TNLC might have made if the process were rerun as “hopeless.” She told the court it was “extremely unusual, if not unique, for a bidder who lost so spectacularly to argue that it should have won,” adding that TNLC’s belief it could have succeeded with more detailed early feedback was merely “wishful thinking.”

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  • Analysis-With Flattery and Warnings, Russia Tries to Revive ‘Spirit of Alaska’ With US

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    MOSCOW (Reuters) -Two months after a smiling Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shook hands at a military base in Alaska in what looked like the start of a U.S.-Russia rapprochement, a top Russian diplomat has raised doubts that the “spirit of Alaska” is still alive.

    For Russia, the Anchorage summit on August 15 had two primary goals: to persuade President Trump to lean on Ukraine and Europe to agree to a peace settlement favourable to Moscow, and to encourage a rapprochement in U.S.-Russia ties.

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week there had been scant progress on either front and “powerful momentum” had been lost. Moscow had signalled it was ready to rebuild ties but Washington had not reciprocated, he said.

    “We have a certain edifice of relations that has cracked and is collapsing,” Ryabkov said. “Now the cracks have reached the foundation.”

    PUTIN SAYS COMPLEX ISSUES REQUIRE MORE STUDY

    After Ryabkov spoke, a Kremlin aide and Putin’s spokesman underlined that contacts with Washington continue, and the Russian leader sounded more optimistic than Ryabkov when asked about Ukraine and ties with the U.S. on Friday.

    “These are complex issues that require further study. But we remain on the basis of the discussion that took place in Anchorage,” Putin told a press conference.

    His aide later told the Kommersant newspaper that Russia had agreed to unspecified concessions or reciprocal steps at the Alaska summit it would be ready to make if Trump got certain things from Ukraine and the Europeans.

    Such a contrast in tone among senior officials is rare in Moscow and highlights the delicacy and sensitivity of the twin-track approach Russia is taking – combining flattery and warnings to adapt to diplomatic reversals since the summit.

    While a Trump initiative has raised hopes of peace in Gaza, he is frustrated by his failure to broker an end to fighting in Ukraine and has soured, at least publicly, on Russia.

    There is no new Trump-Putin meeting on the agenda, no date has been set for the next talks on improving ties, and Washington, without an ambassador in Moscow since June, has not sought Russia’s approval to send a successor.

    Trump has spoken of possibly supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, hitting a nerve with Putin, who said it would destroy what is left of U.S.-Russia ties.

    Trump has also said he wants Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to hold direct talks, but there appears no near-term prospect of that happening as the tempo of the war increases.

    In a rhetorical U-turn, Trump has suggested Ukraine could win back all its lost territory, while dismissing Russia as “a paper tiger,” a snipe shrugged off by Moscow.

    In response, Russia has tried playing good cop, bad cop – with officials at times appearing to threaten tough responses to U.S. action and at others underlining shared values.

    Putin offered to voluntarily maintain limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the last arms control treaty with the U.S. once it expires next year if Washington does the same.

    Trump said “it sounds like a good idea,” but there has been no formal U.S. response.

    At a foreign policy conference this month, Putin praised Trump’s efforts to broker peace in Ukraine and made a series of U.S.-focused statements likely to appeal to him.

    Putin praised Michael Gloss, the son of a CIA official killed in Ukraine fighting on Russia’s side, saying he represented “the core of the MAGA movement, which supports President Trump.”

    He also condemned the murder of Trump ally Charlie Kirk , saying Kirk had defended the “traditional values” which he said Gloss and Russian soldiers in Ukraine were giving their lives to defend.

    Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and Putin’s special envoy, often underlines shared views and values with Trump to try to warm up ties – at times denigrating Trump’s opponents and praising his special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

    Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov went so far as to say Russia would back Trump’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.

    PUSHBACK, WARNINGS AND DISAPPOINTMENT

    But warnings have continued, and pushback against Trump’s talk of supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine was immediate.

    Putin said such a step would require the direct involvement of U.S. military personnel, destroy bilateral relations and usher in a new stage of escalation.

    Andrei Kartapolov, who heads Russian parliament’s defence committee, said Moscow would shoot down Tomahawk missiles and bomb their launch sites if the U.S. supplied them, and find a way to retaliate against Washington that hurts.

    In other terse comments, Ryabkov said Russia would quickly carry out a nuclear test if the U.S. did the same, and that Moscow would “get by” if Washington did not take up Putin’s nuclear arms control offer.

    Ryabkov also backed off a Russian offer to discuss the fate of U.S. nuclear fuel at a nuclear plant Moscow controls in southern Ukraine, and spoke of how Russia was withdrawing from an agreement with the U.S. to destroy weapons-grade plutonium.

    “After the summit in Alaska, there was hope that Trump was ready to continue dialogue with Russia and take our interests into account,” wrote Andrei Baranov, a commentator for pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

    “Donald has now thoroughly disappointed us with his trademark inconsistency.”

    (Editing by Timothy Heritage)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Poland Says Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure Rising, Blames Russia

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    WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s critical infrastructure has been subject to a growing number of cyberattacks by Russia, whose military intelligence, has trebled its resources for such action against Poland this year, the country’s digital affairs minister told Reuters.

    Of the 170,000 cyber incidents that have been identified in the first three quarters of this year, a significant portion has been attributed to Russian actors, while other cases are financially motivated, involving theft or other forms of cybercrime, Krzysztof  Gawkowski said.

    He said Poland is a subject to between 2,000 and 4,000 incidents a day and that 700 to 1,000 are “taken up by us, meaning they posed a real threat or had the potential to cause serious problems”, he said.

    Foreign adversaries are now expanding their focus beyond water and sewage systems to the energy sector, he said.

    He did not give exact figures for Russian activity and could not comment on Russia’s methods in Poland’s cyberspace. The information on Russia’s increasing involvement had come from intelligence from Poland’s intelligence agencies.

    Russia has consistently denied claims of such activity. The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately return a request for comment.

    Officials in Warsaw have said Poland, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, is Russia’s main target among NATO states and has accused the Kremlin of repeated efforts to undermine national security. 

    “Russian activity is the most severe because it targets critical infrastructure essential to maintaining normal life,” Gawkowski said. 

    Along with the Russian drone attack on September 10, there was a correlated cyberattack on Poland, the largest since 2022, when the war broke out in Ukraine, he said. 

    Although the government saw from the early hours of the night that the drone attack was coming from Russia, false claims that Ukraine sent the drones to start war, flooded Polish cyberspace, Gawkowski said.

    He added that to do this, bots that had remained dormant for months, even years were reactivated.

    (Reporting by Barbara Erling)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Analysis-How Ukraine’s European Allies Fuel Russia’s War Economy

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    By Marwa Rashad, Kate Abnett and Nerijus Adomaitis

    (Reuters) -European nations, including France, are among the staunchest supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Several have also stepped up their imports of Russian energy which pump billions of euros into Moscow’s wartime economy.

    Well into the fourth year of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the European Union remains in the precarious position of financing both sides in the conflict. Its large deliveries of military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv are countered by commercial payments to Moscow for oil and gas.

    The bloc has reduced its reliance on once-dominant supplier Russia by roughly 90% since 2022. It nonetheless imported more than 11 billion euros of Russian energy in the first eight months of this year, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an independent research organization based in Helsinki.

    Seven of the EU’s 27 member countries increased the value of their imports versus a year earlier, including five countries that support Ukraine in the war. France, for example, saw purchases of Russian energy rise 40% to 2.2 billion euros while the Netherlands jumped 72% to 498 million euros, the analysis shows.

    While LNG ports in countries like France and Spain serve as entry points for Russian supplies into Europe, the gas is often not consumed in those countries but instead sent onwards to buyers across the bloc.

    Vaibhav Raghunandan, EU-Russia specialist at CREA, described increased flows as “a form of self-sabotage” by some countries, given energy sales are the biggest source of revenue for Russia as it wages war against an European-backed Ukraine.

    “The Kremlin is quite literally getting funding to continue to deploy their armed forces in Ukraine,” he said.

    TRUMP SLAMMED EUROPE’S LEADERS

    EU energy payments to Moscow have come under renewed scrutiny after U.S. President Donald Trump dressed down European leaders in his speech to the U.N General Assembly last month, demanding they cease all such purchases immediately.

    “Europe has to step it up,” Trump said. “They can’t be doing what they’re doing. They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia. It’s embarrassing to them, and it was very embarrassing to them when I found out about it.”

    The French energy ministry told Reuters that France’s value of Russian energy imports rose this year as it served customers in other countries, without naming countries or companies. Gas market data suggest part of France’s Russian imports are sent onwards to Germany, according to Kpler analysts.

    The Dutch government said while it supported EU plans to phase out Russian energy, until these proposals are fixed into EU law, it was powerless to block existing contracts between European energy companies and Russian suppliers.

    The EU, which has already barred most purchases of Russian crude oil and fuel, has announced plans to speed up a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 2027, from 2028. LNG now represents the biggest EU import of Russian energy, accounting for almost half the value of total purchases, the data shows.

    The European Commission declined to comment on the 2025 imports data. The bloc’s energy chief said last month the phased retreat from Russian fossil fuels was designed to ensure member countries don’t face energy price spikes or supply shortages.

    The proposals, which envisage a total ban on all Russian oil and gas from 2028, mean European cash could be supporting the Kremlin’s war effort for a year or more to come.

    Trump says U.S. oil and gas could replace lost Russian supplies, and many analysts say such a switch is possible, though it would boost Europe’s dependency on U.S. energy in an era when Washington is using tariffs as a policy tool.

    “The EU has agreed to buy more energy from the U.S to accommodate the very strong U.S. demands to stop Russian imports,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “However, it is an illusion to think that U.S. LNG would replace Russian LNG on a one-to-one basis. U.S. LNG is in the hands of private companies, which do not obey orders from the White House and the European Commission, they optimize their portfolios.”

    HUNGARY, BELGIUM AND OTHERS SEE BILLS RISE

    The EU has come a long way since 2021.

    In that year, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bloc imported more than 133 billion euros of Russian energy, according to CREA data.

    In January-August this year, the EU’s bill amounted to 11.4 billion euros – a fraction of per-war levels and a decline of 21% from the same period of 2024, the figures show.

    Hungary and Slovakia – which maintain close ties with the Kremlin and reject any notion of renouncing Russian gas – remain major importers, together accounting for 5 billion euros of that total. They wouldn’t be affected by the planned EU sanctions on LNG, which requires the unanimous backing of member states, as they could still receive Russian pipeline gas until 2028.

    Hungary was among the seven countries to see the value of Russian energy imports rise this year, by 11%, according to the data. France and the Netherlands are joined by four other countries whose governments support Ukraine in the war: Belgium, which saw a 3% increase, Croatia (55%), Romania (57%) and Portugal (167%).

    Belgium’s energy ministry said the country’s increase was down to separate EU sanctions that took effect in March and banned “transshipments”, or re-exporting, of Russian LNG to outside the bloc, meaning arriving LNG had to be unloaded in Belgium – a global hub – rather than being transferred from ship to ship to be transported onwards to a final destination.

    Portugal’s energy ministry said the country only imported modest amounts of Russian gas and that flows over the course of the year would be lower than 2024. The Croatian and Romanian governments didn’t respond to requests for comment on the data.

    The European Union’s total imports of Russian energy since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, have amounted to more than 213 billion euros, the CREA data shows.

    That dwarfs the amount the EU has spent on aid to Ukraine in the same period, even though it has been the country’s biggest benefactor: the bloc has allocated 167 billion euros of financial, military and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv, according to the Kiel Institute, a German economic think-tank.

    ENERGY FIRMS STICK TO LONG-TERM CONTRACTS

    France’s TotalEnergies is among the biggest importers of Russian LNG into Europe, with other major players including Shell, Spain’s Naturgy, Germany’s SEFE, and trading house Gunvor. They all operate long-term contracts that last into the 2030s or 2040s.

    TotalEnergies told Reuters it was continuing deliveries from Russia’s Yamal plant under contracts that could not be suspended without official EU sanctions in place. The company will maintain supplies as long as European governments deem Russian gas necessary for energy security, it added.

    Shell, Naturgy and Gunvor declined to comment on Russian imports.

    Ronald Pinto, gas research principal analyst at Kpler said companies were reluctant to risk incurring fines from breaching contractual commitments without the solid legal cover of an EU ban on Russian LNG.

    “In the end, market players are buying this LNG, not countries, and for the most part, they are sticking to their long-term contracts,” he added.

    Pinto said flow dynamics studies suggested French imports of Russian LNG often flowed via pipeline to Belgium to then reach Germany, where there’s strong demand from industrial users. He cautioned it was “impossible to track exactly the movement of gas molecules within the European gas grid”.

    A spokesperson for SEFE, which operates 10% of Germany’s gas transmission network, confirmed that the company imports Russian gas via France and Belgium.

    The German economy ministry told Reuters that it welcomed EU efforts to phase out imports of Russian fossil fuels, but that SEFE was bound by a long-standing contract to buy LNG from Russia’s Yamal plant with no option to terminate the agreement.

    “Under the contract’s take-or-pay terms, SEFE would have to pay for the agreed quantities, even if no delivery was taken,” a ministry spokesperson said. “Non-acceptance would enable Yamal to resell these quantities, which would then provide double support to the Russian economy.”

    (Reporting by Marwa Rashad in London, Kate Abnett in Brussels and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; Additional reporting by America Hernandez in Paris, Francesca Landini in Milan, Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert in Frankfurt, Shadia Nasralla in London, Pietro Lombardi in Madrid and Andrey Khalip in Lisbon; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Pravin Char)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Russia Strikes Ukraine Dwellings, Targets Energy Sites in Mass Attack

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    (Reuters) -A mass Russian attack triggered a fire in a high-rise apartment building in central Kyiv and targeted energy sites early on Friday, officials said.

    Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk said Russian forces were striking energy sites in the country and crews would be attempting to minimise the effects of the assault.

    Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko eight people had been injured, with five of them in hospital. He said power cuts had hit the city.

    Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said both drones and missiles had been deployed in the post-midnight assault on the capital.

    Tkachenko said a drone set apartments on fire on the 6th and 7th floors of a high-rise block in the central Pecherskyi district.

    Pictures posted online showed apartments ablaze as firefighters moved into position.

    Grynchuk, writing on Facebook, said: “Energy experts are taking all necessary measures to minimise negative consequences.”

    “As soon as safety conditions allow, energy experts will begin clarifying the consequences of the attack and conducting restoration work.”

    In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, drones had struck several targets, injuring three people and triggering at least one fire in a dwelling, the regional governor said.

    (Reporting by Gleb Garanich and Ron Popeski; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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  • Nobel Peace Prize Winner to Be Announced, in a Year Overshadowed by Trump

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    OSLO (Reuters) -The winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, in a year overshadowed by a months-long campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump to win what is arguably the world’s most prestigious award.

    Trump has been outspoken about his desire for a prize won by four of his predecessors – Barack Obama in 2009, Jimmy Carter in 2002, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. All but Carter won the award while in office, with Obama named laureate less than eight months after taking office – the same position Trump is in now.

    But when Joergen Watne Frydnes, the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, steps to the microphone at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT), experts on the award believe it is extremely unlikely Trump’s name will be read out.

    GAZA DEAL LIKELY TOO LATE FOR THIS YEAR

    To be sure, Trump announced the conclusion of a ceasefire and hostage deal on Wednesday, under the first phase of his initiative to end the war in Gaza.

    But according to Norwegian daily VG the committee took its decision on Monday – before the announcement of the deal – and even if its five members had known about it before making their choice for this year’s award, it is unlikely they would have rushed into a decision they usually spend months debating.

    Experienced Nobel-watchers have argued that a Trump win was extremely unlikely, citing what they see as his efforts to dismantle the post-World War Two international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.

    Instead, they say the committee may wish to highlight Sudanese volunteer network the Emergency Response Rooms, a U.N. body such as the UNHCR, UNICEF or the ICJ, or an aid organisation like the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.

    It could also put the spotlight on journalists, following a year when more media workers than ever before were killed reporting the news, most of them in Gaza. If so, the committee could reward the Committee to Protect Journalists or Reporters Without Borders. And surprises are not unknown.

    SPIRIT OF ALFRED NOBEL’S WILL

    The foundation the five-strong Norwegian Nobel Committee follows as its basis for decisions is the 1895 will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, which established the peace prize alongside those for literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.

    Nina Graeger, head of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the 2015 Paris climate accords, and his trade war with allies, went against the spirit of Nobel’s will.

    “If you look at Alfred Nobel’s will, it emphasizes three areas: one is the achievements regarding peace: brokering a peace deal,” she said. “The other is to work and promote disarmament and the third is to promote international cooperation.”

    Asle Sveen, a historian of the award, cited Trump’s attempted rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, among other reasons.

    “His admiration of dictators counts also against him,” Sveen said. “This goes against Alfred Nobel’s will.”

    HOW THE NOBEL COMMITTEE DECIDES

    Insiders say the award follows a year-long, deliberative process, during which candidates’ strengths and weaknesses are debated by the five-strong committee.

    Nominations for the prize must reach the committee by January 31. Committee members can also make nominations but they have to be made by the committee’s first meeting in February.

    After that, the committee meets roughly once a month. The decision tends to be taken in August or in September, but it can also be later, as was the case this year.

    The Nobel committee says it is used to working under pressure from people, or their supporters, who say they deserve the prize.

    “All politicians want to win the Nobel Peace Prize,” Frydnes, the Nobel committee leader, told Reuters.

    “We hope the ideals underpinned by the Nobel Peace Prize are something that all political leaders should strive for … We notice the attention, both in the United States and around the world, but outside from that, we work just the same way as we always do.”

    (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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  • Opinion | Ukraine is Starving Russia of Oil

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    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has labeled his military’s strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure “the most effective sanctions.” Meanwhile, reports indicate that alongside urging Europe and India to halt purchases of Russian oil, Washington plans to share additional intelligence with Ukraine on Russian refineries, pipelines and other energy infrastructure.

    Most discussions about these “sanctions” have focused on their financial implications for Russia. Vladimir Putin relies heavily on corruption and patronage, with oil and gas serving as key revenue streams. Disrupting the flow could force Mr. Putin to choose between sustaining the war and maintaining the payouts to oligarchs and citizens that secure his political backing—though such an economic squeeze would take some time.

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  • French Chaos Delays Meeting on Future of European Fighter Jet

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    BERLIN (Reuters) -A trilateral ministerial meeting on the future of France, Germany and Spain’s 100-billion-euro project to develop a European fighter jet has been postponed due to the political crisis in France, a German defence ministry spokesperson told Reuters.

    The defence ministers of the three countries had been scheduled to meet mid-October in a bid to resolve obstacles blocking the next phase in the development of the project, known as FCAS, the spokesperson said on Thursday evening.

    But France has been left with just a caretaker government after outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tendered his and his government’s resignation on Monday, hours after announcing the cabinet line-up. French President Emmanuel Macron is now searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years.

    “I confirm that the meeting is not taking place mid-October any more,” the spokesperson said. “We would like to schedule it as quickly as possible when there is a new French defense minister.”

    Macron’s office had no immediate comment.

    France’s Dassault Aviation, Airbus and Indra are involved in the scheme to start replacing French Rafale and German and Spanish Eurofighters with a sixth-generation fighter jet from 2040.

    But the project has been plagued by delays and rifts between the companies and governments over workshare and intellectual property rights.

    (Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Sabine Siebold in Berlin; Additional Reporting by Michel Rose in Paris and Aislinn Laing in Madrid; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)

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  • French Court Rejects Appeal of Man Convicted of Raping Gisele Pelicot, Increases Sentence

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    (Reuters) -A French court on Thursday rejected the appeal of a former construction worker found guilty last year of the aggravated rape of Gisele Pelicot, and increased his prison sentence by a year to 10 years, France Info reported.

    (Reporting by Alban Kacher; Editing by Richard Lough)

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  • László Krasznahorkai Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

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    Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, known for his dense prose and apocalyptic themes, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    The Swedish Academy in Stockholm credited Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”

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  • Putin Tells Azerbaijan’s Aliyev How Russian Air Defences Downed a Passenger Plane

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    MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijan’s leader that two Russian missiles had detonated beside an Azerbaijan Airlines plane last year after Ukrainian drones entered Russian air space and promised compensation to those affected.

    Flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, crash-landed on December 25 near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several targets.

    At least 38 people were killed.

    Video footage on Thursday showed Putin and Aliyev shaking hands and smiling before a bilateral meeting in Tajikistan at which Putin spoke about the plane crash.

    Putin last year issued a rare public apology to Aliyev for what the Kremlin called a “tragic incident” over Russia in which the plane crashed after Russian air defences were deployed against Ukrainian drones.

    On Thursday, he went further.

    “Of course, everything that is required in such tragic cases will be done by the Russian side on compensation and a legal assessment of all official things will be given,” Putin told Aliyev..

    “It is our duty, I repeat once again… to give an objective assessment of everything that happened and to identify the true causes.”

    Putin told Aliyev that two Russian air defence missiles had detonated several metres away from the plane after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace.

    The Embraer jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya, where the incident occurred, and had then travelled, badly damaged, another 280 miles (450 km) across the Caspian Sea.

    Aliyev was angry about the crash and has publicly criticised the initial reactions from Moscow which he said sought to cover up the cause of the incident.

    (Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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  • EU’s Von Der Leyen Survives No-Confidence Votes in Parliament

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    BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen comfortably survived two bids to remove her when the European Parliament rejected no-confidence motions from hard-right and left groups on Thursday.

    EU lawmakers rejected the two motions of censure with 378 members of the 720-strong parliament expressing support for von der Leyen in the first vote and 383 in the second.

    Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she deeply appreciated the support and that her team of commissioners would work closely with the parliament to tackle Europe’s challenges.

    The results were slightly better for the EU executive chief than in July, when 360 lawmakers voted against a motion brought by mainly far-right lawmakers, although below the 401 votes for von der Leyen’s re-election for a second term in July 2024.

    Although the motions of censure had almost no chance of reaching the two-thirds majority required to unseat von der Leyen, some lawmakers said they could expose more general disquiet over her leadership and destabilise the EU assembly, whose backing is required to pass legislation.

    Parties outside the mainstream have realised that previously seldom-used censure motions are easy to trigger after the 2024 elections swelled the far right to more than 100 lawmakers, with only 72 required to back one.

    Both censure motions criticised von der Leyen for accepting an unbalanced tariff deal with the United States and proposing a trade agreement with South American bloc Mercosur, which critics say threatens farmers and the environment.

    The U.S. and Mercosur deals will be put to votes in the European Parliament in the coming months, with the outcomes unclear.

    (Reporting by Inti Landauro and Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Bart Meijer and Ros Russell)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Turkey Pleased With Gaza Ceasefire Deal, Will Monitor Implementation

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    ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday he was very pleased that Hamas-Israel negotiations had resulted in a Gaza ceasefire deal, adding that Turkey would closely monitor its strict implementation and continue to contribute to the process.

    Turkey, which participated in the ceasefire negotiations in Egypt, has been one of the harshest critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza, calling it a genocide. It has halted all trade with Israel, repeatedly called for international measures against its government, and demanded a two-state solution.

    “I am very pleased that the Hamas-Israel talks taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, with contributions from us as Turkey, have resulted in a ceasefire in Gaza,” Erdogan posted on X.

    TURKEY WON’T REST UNTIL PALESTINIAN STATE SET UP

    He thanked U.S. President Donald Trump “who demonstrated the necessary political will to encourage the Israeli government towards the ceasefire”, and also thanked Qatar and Egypt.

    “As Turkey, we will closely monitor the strict implementation of the agreement and continue to contribute to the process,” he added, saying Ankara would not stop until a sovereign Palestinian state was established.

    Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin attended the talks in Egypt. Ankara, which calls Hamas a resistance group, has taken an increased role in discussions after last month’s White House meeting between Erdogan and Trump.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said ahead of the truce announcement that after the sides declare a ceasefire as a first step in Trump’s plan to end the war, they would work on “heavier” issues like ensuring security in Gaza and post-war scenarios.

    In a statement, Turkey’s foreign ministry said it hoped the momentum in these talks could lead to a two-state solution.

    “We welcome the establishment of a ceasefire in Gaza and hope that this ceasefire will bring an end to the genocide that has continued for the past two years,” it said.

    “With the ceasefire in place, it is imperative that humanitarian aid be delivered to Gaza … and that efforts for the reconstruction of Gaza be launched without delay,” it added, saying Ankara would continue providing humanitarian aid.

    (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu. Writing by Daren Butler. Editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Potter)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Celebrations Erupt in Gaza and Israel at News of Deal to End Two-Year War

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    KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza/TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Palestinians and the families of Israeli hostages broke into wild celebrations on Thursday after news of a pact between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza and return home all the Israeli hostages, both living and dead.

    In Gaza, where most of the more than 2 million people have been displaced by Israeli bombing, young men applauded in the devastated streets, even as Israeli strikes continued in some parts of the enclave.

    “Thank God for the ceasefire, the end of bloodshed and killing,” said Abdul Majeed Abd Rabbo in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

    “I am not the only one happy, all of the Gaza Strip is happy, all the Arab people, all of the world is happy with the ceasefire and the end of bloodshed. Thank you and all the love to those who stood with us.”

    In Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostages Square, where families of those seized in the Hamas attack that sparked the war two years ago have gathered to demand the return of loved ones, Einav Zaugauker, the mother of a hostage, was ecstatic.

    “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t explain what I’m feeling … it’s crazy,” she said, speaking in the red glow of a celebratory flare.

    “What do I say to him? What do I do? Hug and kiss him,” she added, referring to her son, Matan. “Just tell him that I love him, that’s it. And to see his eyes sink into mine … It’s overwhelming — this is the relief.”

    Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for the Palestinian enclave, a ceasefire and hostage deal that could open the way to ending a bloody two-year-old war that has disrupted the Middle East.  

    “I have no words to describe it,” said former hostage Omer Shem-tov, when asked how the moment felt.  

    Just a day after the second anniversary of the cross-border attack by Hamas militants that triggered Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, indirect talks in Egypt yielded a deal on the initial stage of Trump’s 20-point framework for peace.

    In Gaza, circles of young men in the streets applauded the news, one of them clapping as he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a friend. 

    “These are moments … long awaited by Palestinian citizens after two years of killing and genocide,” said Khaled Shaat, a Palestinian in the city of Khan Younis.

    If fully adopted, the accord would bring the two sides closer than any prior effort to halt a regional war that drew in neighbours Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, deepened Israel’s international isolation and changed the Middle East.

    Gaza authorities say more than 67,000 people have been killed and much of the enclave flattened since Israel began its military response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. 

    About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli officials, with 20 of the 48 hostages still held believed to be alive.

    (Reporting by Rami Amichay and Andreea Popescu; Writing by Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Russian Drones Turn the Streets of Kherson Into a Civilian Kill Zone

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    By

    Oksana Grytsenko

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    Jane Lytvynenko

    | Photography by Emanuele Satolli for WSJ

    MYKOLAIV, Ukraine—Yaroslav Pavlivskiy waved his hands as he sprang from his car, pleading for mercy with the operator of a Russian drone circling overhead as he drove home from a market in the southern city of Kherson.

    The operator flicked a switch to release a grenade, which exploded and tore into the legs of the 69-year-old pensioner. A passerby used a belt as a tourniquet to stop him from losing too much blood, saving his life.

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  • France’s Macron to Name New PM, Shelving Threat of Snap Elections

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    PARIS—President Emmanuel Macron is moving to name a new prime minister rather than calling snap elections, an approach that buys time for the country’s political establishment to pull France out of its fiscal disarray.

    Macron had been wielding the unspoken threat of dissolving the National Assembly and holding parliamentary elections after his latest prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, abruptly resigned Monday amid bickering over his cabinet choices.

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  • UK Synagogue Attacker Claimed Allegiance to Islamic State in Call to Police, Media Reports Say

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    LONDON (Reuters) -The man whose attack on a synagogue in northern England last week resulted in the deaths of two Jewish worshippers phoned police to say he was acting for Islamic State, British media reported on Wednesday.

    Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, made the call after driving a car into pedestrians and attacking people with a knife the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall district, the reports said, citing police.

    (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by William James)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • U.K. Public Borrowing Estimate Cut by $4 Billion Over Tax Data Error

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    The U.K.’s troubled statistics office cut its estimate for net government borrowing by 3 billion pounds ($4.03 billion), a further setback for the agency that has faced criticism from the Bank of England and lawmakers.

    The Office for National Statistics said the U.K. government’s tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs, informed it of an error in value-added tax receipts data it supplied to the data agency.

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  • Romania’s Top Court Delays Ruling on Two Fiscal Measures

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    BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Romania’s top court on Wednesday rejected two challenges brought against measures to lower the budget deficit but said it would postpone a decision on two others, prolonging uncertainty over the stability of the broad coalition government.

    The measures, which the government fast-tracked through parliament, are part of wider efforts aimed at bringing down the fiscal shortfall towards 6% of economic output next year from more than 9% last year.

    The measures, with an overall budget impact of roughly 10.6 billion lei ($2.42 billion), were broken down into five bills to avoid having the court strike all of them down. The court initially met on September 24 before postponing a ruling on four of the five bills to October 8.

    COURT POSTPONES RULINGS ON JUDGES’ PENSIONS, OTHER MEASURES

    On Wednesday, the court rejected challenges to bills on corporate governance of public enterprises and on healthcare, saying they were in line with the constitution. It again postponed ruling on two of the bills until October 20.

    These include the most eagerly awaited ruling on judges’ pensions. The government wants to gradually raise the retirement age for judges and prosecutors to the standard 65 from an average now of 48-49, while capping their pension at no more than 70% of their final salary.

    The top court has struck down previous attempts to change judicial pensions.

    Other measures include job cuts and remuneration caps for state companies, as well as higher property and vehicle taxes, among other increases.

    Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has said his government would lack legitimacy should the top court strike down the measures, although he later said he was focused on governing rather than considering his resignation.

    Centrist President Nicusor Dan has dismissed concerns over a potential strikedown of measures capping pensions for judges and magistrates, saying the government could draft a new law taking the top court’s arguments into account.

    (Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Luiza IlieEditing by Gareth Jones)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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