New director Christophe Leribault is on a fundraising push while seeking to turn the page after the theft of historic crown jewels from the Paris museum

Les nouveaux sommets atteints par les cours du pétrole pèsent lourdement sur le budget des ménages européens et les marges des entreprises, tout en alimentant l’inflation.

Too much doom-mongering may be bad for the bank’s business

Tsar Samuel no longer divides Bulgaria and Greece, but he still stands between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. A thousand years after his wars with Byzantium, and six decades after his grave was found, the Greek state will hand his bones to Bulgaria — as the remains of a Bulgarian ruler. While Sofia and Athens close an old dispute over relics from the past against a backdrop of ever closer cooperation in energy and transport, Sofia and Skopje still have different stories about the dead tsar. A deal unthinkable in the 20th century Behind Athens’s gesture, however, lies not only a reconciliation with history, but a very concrete exchange. In return for the remains of Samuel, his son Gavril Radomir and other members of the royal family, Bulgaria will hand Greece 48 relics taken from Greek monasteries during the First World War. In the Bulgarian government’s official announcement, this is described with the diplomatic formula “reciprocal transfer for safekeeping.” Thus each of the two states will receive what it considers its own. Bulgaria – one of the few remaining material traces of its medieval statehood; Greece – the return of cultural artefacts. Such an exchange would have been hard to imagine in the 20th century, when Bulgaria and Greece fought each other, argued over territory, and after the Second World War found themselves on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. Today, besides belonging to the same alliances – the EU and NATO – they are bound by shared interests: from the gas interconnector and liquefied-gas terminals to transport corridors and energy connectivity. On 3 October, Sofia and Athens will close the deal. The Bulgarian government plans to turn the reception of Tsar Samuel’s bones into a nationwide celebration. His remains will be laid in a marble sarcophagus in the church of St Sophia. Metres from it, in 2015, a six-metre monument to the ruler was erected to mark the millennium of his death. Who takes the credit The identification of the remains as belonging to the Bulgarian king Samuel were made by a Greek scholar on Greek territory. In 1965, the Greek professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos found four graves during excavations at the Basilica of St Achilleios on the island of the same name in Little Prespa Lake. From the location, the burial context and the anthropological data, he identified one of the skeletons as the remains of Tsar Samuel. After 1965 his remains were kept by the Greek authorities in Thessaloniki. The Bulgarian authorities’ efforts to bring his remains to Bulgaria have had mixed success. Only in 2022 – when, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Athens became an important partner for Sofia because of energy security – did the question reach the highest political level. Former prime minister Kiril Petkov says that it was in 2022 that his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, gave him a commitment that the remains would be handed over. Four years later it has happened, under a different Bulgarian government. “For six decades the efforts of the Bulgarian state to return the mortal remains of one of its greatest rulers have never ceased. It has fallen to us to have the historic honour of achieving it,” said Prime Minister Rumen Radev. And Skopje? Sofia and Athens found a way to agree on Samuel. Between Sofia and Skopje it is more complicated. The dispute begins with the name itself. “Samuel’s state” is a later historiographical term. For most contemporary medievalists, Samuel ruled the Bulgarian Empire, even though its political centre was no longer in Preslav but far to the south-west – around Prespa and Ohrid. At different times his power extended over a large part of the Balkans – territories that today fall within Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. It is precisely the geography that is one of the arguments of the Macedonian historical narrative: Ohrid, one of the main political and ecclesiastical centres of Samuel’s state, is today in North Macedonia. In 2019 Sofia and Skopje did manage to find a common formula. The joint historical commission recommended that the two states celebrate Tsar Samuel together. When the agreement was published in 2022, the then co-chair of the commission on the Macedonian side, Dragi Gjorgiev, stressed that it had not dealt with the ruler’s identity. The two sides agreed on a joint commemoration, but not on how Samuel’s state should be presented in textbooks. Meanwhile the historical dispute has already moved far beyond the textbooks. In 2020 Bulgaria blocked the start of North Macedonia’s EU accession talks over disagreements that included history, language and the implementation of the Treaty on Good Neighbourliness. Two years later Sofia lifted the veto after the so-called French proposal, which Skopje also accepted. One of the agreed conditions is that Bulgarians be written into the constitution of North Macedonia before the first negotiating cluster is opened. The change has still not been made, and the VMRO-DPMNE government of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski refuses to accept it on the agreed terms. Now Samuel’s bones have put history back in the news. While the government in Skopje has so far not commented on the transfer of the remains, some Macedonian media and historians have already read it as a move aimed at North Macedonia. The historian Stojko Stojkov even cast doubt on the identification of the bones and said that Sofia and Athens would use their transfer as “propaganda against Macedonia.” Mitko Panov, a member of the joint historical commission, was more restrained. In his view, moving the remains is a contemporary political act and cannot serve as proof of the character of Samuel’s state. Other outlets focused on the deal itself. Nezavisen, Libertas and Telma led with the exchange — the bones in return for 48 ecclesiastical and cultural objects. The sharpest headlines also carried Samuel into domestic Macedonian politics. Večer recalled former prime minister Zoran Zaev with the headline: “If it had been Zaev, he would have given them the fortress in Ohrid as well.” The former SDSM prime minister Zoran Zaev has already stood in tribute before Tsar Samuel in Sofia. In 2017, the day after the Treaty of Friendship was signed, Boyko Borissov took the Macedonian prime minister to the monument of the ruler. The two laid flowers beneath the inscription “tsar of Bulgaria.” Nine years later, Samuel’s bones are coming to Sofia. North Macedonia is still waiting to open its first negotiating cluster with the EU. And here history allows itself one last irony. Samuel’s remains will be brought to Bulgaria and laid in a sarcophagus of white marble quarried near Prilep — in North Macedonia. Caption: The sarcophagus in which Samuel’s mortal remains will be laid [BNT]

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La capitalisation de la société dermatologique a doublé depuis son entrée en bourse en 2024. Elle profite de la banalisation des injections de toxine botulique, un pactole mondial qui devrait atteindre 13 milliards de dollars cette année, malgré des scandales récurrents.

Tensions flared outside Albania’s government headquarters in Tirana on Wednesday as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met Prime Minister Edi Rama, with protesters demonstrating the her host and clashes breaking out with police. Large numbers of demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister’s office as heavily reinforced police units deployed around the building and along Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard. Police established security cordons to prevent protesters from approaching the government headquarters, while some demonstrators attempted to cross the barriers, leading to clashes with officers. Von der Leyen met with protests in Albania. For the first time in the country's history, a top EU official's visit was met with public backlash over EU silence on corruption in 🇦🇱. ​"No EU with Rama" was the message on Day 123 of the protests, as von der Leyen met with the 🇦🇱 PM. https://t.co/gkef2aXhv7 pic.twitter.com/dMWofBLTXt — Tirana Report (@Tirana_Report) September 30, 2026 Security measures were significantly tightened around the government complex as von der Leyen held talks with Rama inside. The protests came as von der Leyen began a four-country tour of the Western Balkans, with Albania’s progress towards European Union membership at the centre of her visit. She was formally received by Rama at the prime minister’s office before holding talks with the Albanian leader and later meeting President Bajram Begaj. Albania is shaken with its Flamingo revolution, the country’s biggest civic uprising since the fall of communism. It began in late May 2026 against luxury resorts linked to Jared Kushner on Sazan Island and in the protected Vjosa–Narta wetlands, home to the flamingos that named the movement, then widened into nightly Tirana marches demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation over corruption and land deals. Four months on it has not stopped. Yesterday, as Ursula von der Leyen met Rama in Tirana, protesters were again outside his office, held back by fences, police and water trucks. Albania’s “Flamingo revolution”: will Rama’s Kushner-backed resort deal cost him his premiership? Speaking at a joint press conference with Rama, von der Leyen offered strong backing for Albania’s accession ambitions, describing the country as one of the frontrunners in the EU enlargement process. “Albania is among the frontrunners in our accession process,” she said, adding that the country had made “remarkable progress” since her previous visit. Rama said that he had informed the Commission president about “progress on the major investment project that has attracted so much interest, to use no other word.” He said a detailed environmental study was expected shortly, and that within a day or two the government would launch a “Transparency Mirror” putting all documents on the “much-discussed project” online. He then moved on to crime, corruption and EU chapters. Coverage in Albanian media treated that passage as a reference to the Kushner-linked plan in the south. Von der Leyen’s public remarks, in the same reports, stayed on accession, not the resort. Von der Leyen highlighted the opening of the final negotiation clusters and the closure of the first three chapters in July. She also pointed to Albania’s alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. She also praised the broader public commitment to European integration, saying that Albanians “hold Europe in their hearts” and that the country’s “European dream” was now within sight. Roadmaps for EU membership Von der Leyen’s visit comes as the EU considers how to manage future enlargement and whether candidate countries can be brought progressively closer to the bloc before full membership. The Commission is preparing accession roadmaps for countries it considers frontrunners. The proposed framework is intended to turn the path towards membership into more concrete steps, setting out priority reforms, indicative timelines and objectives for advancing accession negotiations. The roadmap being promoted during the visit covers Albania, Montenegro, Moldova and Ukraine. The EU is also preparing a broader review of its pre-accession policy, expected on 6 October. EU leaders are then due to discuss enlargement and internal reforms at their 15-16 October meeting. The discussions come as the bloc faces questions over how to accommodate future members without blocking decision-making at EU level. The Commission president is continuing her Balkan tour after Tirana, with visits in Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Sources: EUalive’s partners Albanian Daily News and BGNES Caption: Screenshot from video posted by Tirana Report. The banner reads “No EU with Rama”.

Olga et Sasha Kurovska sont deux sœurs ukrainiennes. L’une vit à Paris, l’autre à Kiev. Face aux frappes russes incessantes, Sasha s’étonne de sa capacité d’adaptation au danger. En France, Olga, bien que prise par son nouveau métier d’institutrice, continue de promouvoir la résistance culturelle de ses compatriotes.

The first images from Ben Gurion on Wednesday evening already looked like the last reel of a film. A Flydubai rescue jet rolled in after dark. Families pressed against the glass. Medics waited on the tarmac. Then the cabin door opened and passengers came down in the clothes they had fought in – one of them, Yaniv Hayun, still in a shirt stiff with blood. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was there to meet them. Hayun apologized for the stains. Netanyahu pulled him into an embrace. “I see you and I see a lion,” he said. “You are a great hero.” Hayun’s reply was already a line written for a poster: “We are a nation of lions.” Israeli hero aboard nearly-hijacked FlyDubai flight FZ 1073: Yaniv Hayoun Hayoun has no background in security. But when he realized there was an attempted hijacking, he knew he had to do something. He ran to the cockpit and physically fought with the co-pilot, who had stabbed… pic.twitter.com/HHHnKPXETx — Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) September 30, 2026 It had started as an ordinary Dubai–Tel Aviv run, flight FZ1073, 174 people on board, 27 of them children, 166 of them Israeli. Hours earlier those same passengers had been screaming through a dive that felt, one of them said, like a roller coaster with the lights going out. They had watched a captain collapse in blood. They had tied a man with headphone cords. Some had refused, at first, to board another flydubai aircraft out of Tabuk until Israeli security services cleared the replacement crew. When they finally reached Israel, passenger Lital Shachaf called it a miracle. “We didn’t think we would make it.” An ambulance service took a 51-year-old man to hospital with upper-body wounds. The rest walked into a welcome that mixed relief, flags, and cameras. Hollywood will not have to invent the beats. It will have to decide which version of them is true. The story did not arrive as a finished investigation. It arrived live, in the language of hobbyist radar and unfinished posts. Flightradar24 showed a Boeing 737 MAX 8 leaving Dubai at 03:05 UTC, leveling near 34,000 feet, then, at 05:21 UTC, falling off the sky. Reuters, reading that data, reported a drop of nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. The transponder went to 7700, the general emergency code, then to 7500 — the code that means unlawful interference, the one that in every cockpit manual still means hijack. Israel scrambled fighters. The jet scratched the edge of Jordan, turned back into Saudi Arabia, and vanished toward Tabuk. Last ADS-B came at 06:58 UTC, on the ground. Anyone with a phone could watch a possible massacre in colored altitude tape. What they could not watch was the cockpit. That vacuum filled with social media: screams forwarded from the cabin, a bloody shirt, a man on the floor, a claim of a knife, a claim of “Allahu Akbar,” a claim of a fight, a claim of a suicide dive. Some of it was later echoed by passengers who gave their names. Some of it was not. Newsrooms had to publish while the aircraft was still airborne. The result was not one narrative. It was several, stacked on top of each other before any of them had been checked. The most contagious of those early versions was also one of the least durable: that the two men at the controls were Russian and Ukrainian, and that the emergency was a brawl between them. Israeli Channel 12 put the pairing on air. It travelled because it was complete. A war on the ground, two enemies in a locked flight deck, a plane full of Israelis paying the price. Russia’s consulate in Dubai called reports of a Russian pilot “unfounded.” Later identifications of the operating captain as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, and of the first officer — according to Israeli officials — as an Omani, left the Russian–Ukrainian cockpit story without a crew to attach to. Some outlets then tried to move the same labels onto the spare pilots who landed the jet. That has not been confirmed either. The only passenger who described those extras with any precision, Almog Itali, called them European, one of them British. Snopes left the original claim unproven. It looks less like a hoax with an author than like first-day television inventing a plot that fit the geopolitics of 2026 better than it fit the men on the airplane. Strip away the plots that did not survive the afternoon, and a narrower sequence still stands. FZ1073 is in the cruise when violence breaks out on the flight deck. The aircraft pitches into a dive. Emergency codes go out. Tabuk hears a distress call at 08:44 local time. Israeli officials say the first officer stabbed Captain Machchhar and tried to crash or sabotage the aircraft. A Netanyahu spokesperson told Reuters the wounded captain, on the floor and covered in blood, released the cockpit door. Passengers and crew went in. Hayun later told the prime minister he found the attacker between the seats, going at the instruments, the nose still down; he said he put the man in a chokehold, pulled him off the panel, called two others, and pulled the yoke up. 🔴 Yaniv, le passager qui aurait neutralisé le pilote soupçonné d’avoir provoqué la mise en piqué du vol Flydubai, a raconté à Benjamin Netanyahu : « J’ai tiré sur le manche pour redresser l’avion et stopper le piqué. Heureusement, j’avais quelques notions d’aviation grâce à la… pic.twitter.com/iSAYmIgQFt — air plus news (@airplusnews) September 30, 2026 Other passengers describe the same minutes as a pile-on: charging cables, headset cords, three or four Israelis on one man. Both operating pilots were injured. Tabuk’s airport operator sent them to hospital. India’s embassy said Machchhar was stable. This man is a hero. Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian captain of flydubai Flight 1073, fought back after being stabbed in the cockpit. Despite being severely injured, he managed to unlock the cockpit door – allowing Israeli passengers and the Emirati crew to intervene and save… pic.twitter.com/x4W3mtQkag — Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) September 30, 2026 Then the part the airline, not the passengers, is the authority on. Flydubai said “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight” secured the aircraft, diverted it, and landed it at Tabuk. The Jerusalem Post was told the extras were there in case a regional reroute blew the original crew’s duty time. A passenger said one of them took the controls while the second was, at first, in shock. The jet landed at 09:45 local. The first officer was detained. Hours later the passengers went home. Flydubai suspended the Dubai–Israel route and asked the world not to speculate. That is the confirmed spine: dive, codes, blood, passengers in the doorway, spare flydubai pilots on the landing, two men to hospital, a plane on the ground in Tabuk, another plane into Tel Aviv. Motive is not on that list. Neither is a named pilot flying the approach. By the time the rescue flight landed, the incident was already campaign material. Israel votes on 27 October, the first election since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. Security is the argument. The day before FZ1073 left Dubai, Netanyahu had warned that enemies might strike before the vote and had briefed opposition leader Yair Lapid. Lapid came out of that meeting telling the public there was no reason to panic. On Wednesday the prime minister was at the airport, in the photographs, calling passengers lions, announcing tighter checks on every pilot flying into Israel, and describing a “highly severe security incident.” Defence Minister Israel Katz went further: an “attempted jihadist terror attack.” Far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reached for the older vocabulary of no deals with terrorism. Donald Trump told reporters he had heard the story “at length” from “Bibi,” then added that he did not know if it was true. Lapid called the airport reception “cheap politics.” He said nothing resembling a cockpit attack had been in Tuesday night’s briefing, “not even a hint,” and accused government mouthpieces of hitching “a pathetic ride on heroic Israelis.” A political official shot back that Lapid had been warned of a spike in threats abroad. Al Jazeera recorded the clash as an attempt by Netanyahu’s allies to treat the flight as proof of the warning issued a day earlier. Whether the greeting at Ben Gurion was gratitude, electioneering, or both is a matter of interpretation. That it happened in the last weeks of a security campaign, with the blood still on the shirt, is not. Flydubai and the UAE did not join the wartime language. The airline called an altercation. The GCAA opened a file on a “security incident.” Saudi investigators have the first officer and the recorders. Those institutions have an interest in facts that survive an election cycle. What a future script will have to mark as unknown is still most of the second act. The first officer has no public name. His Omani nationality comes from Israeli officials, not from Muscat, Riyadh or Dubai. How he was rostered onto an Israel service, and whether he held a second passport, is an Israeli question, not yet an answer. Nobody in authority has said who was flying during the 05:21 UTC descent, or which of the two spare pilots was flying the landing. Passenger testimony splits: Hayun says he pulled the yoke himself; Itali says relief pilots did; the airline says crew travelling on the flight landed the aircraft. Those statements can all be partly true in different minutes. They have not been reconciled. The 7500 code is a fact. What it meant – a declared hijack, a hand on the wrong knob, a struggle – is not. Motive is the largest blank. Crash the plane into Israel, crash it anywhere, a personal collapse, a fight that became a dive: Israeli ministers have chosen the first. The operator has chosen silence. Until cockpit voice, flight-data and medical files are public, the gap between “altercation” and “Israel’s 9/11” is politics as much as evidence. The passengers are home. The captain is in a Saudi hospital. The man accused of putting them there is in Saudi custody. The movie will know how it ends. The investigation, as of 1 October, does not. Caption: Israeli passengers arrive on a Flydubai flight from Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, 30 September 2026. The arrival follows an in-flight incident aboard Flydubai flight FZ 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv that was safely diverted to Saudi Arabia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the flight deck altercation as a ‘serious security incident,’ confirming that all passengers are out of danger following an emergency landing and that the pilot responsible for the stabbing was arrested and is being interrogated by Saudi authorities. EPA/ABIR SULTAN

Student protests have grown in scale and intensity, with violent clashes in some places leading to hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries.

Atteinte d’un cancer du poumon en phase terminale, l’ancienne présentatrice avait relancé le débat sur l’aide à mourir dans son pays, ces dernières années, plaidant jusqu’au bout pour une évolution de la législation.

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Dans un bilan provisoire, la défense antiaérienne ukrainienne affirmait avoir abattu ou neutralisé 254 drones, dont 146 à réaction, entre 6 h 30 et 18 h 30, mercredi. Moscou a également tiré plusieurs missiles dans l’est du pays. Ces attaques ont succédé à une importante offensive nocturne contre les infrastructures énergétiques, qui a fait au moins sept personnes, dont un enfant.

UK and Brussels to go ahead with key November meeting after agreeing to kick talks on industrial subsidies into next year

Greece, Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands are moving forward with plans to establish deportation centers outside the EU. An African partner country has reportedly already been selected.

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Sans parti ni majorité, le président roumain, Nicusor Dan, voit échouer un deuxième candidat à la tête du gouvernement. Il écarte pour l’heure des législatives anticipées, qui pourraient profiter à l’extrême droite.

A travers le droit, les deux grandes puissances font peser une menace permanente sur les entreprises européennes, analysent, dans une tribune au « Monde », les deux avocates Jessica Madesclair et Lucie Mongin-Archambeaud, qui listent les outils existants leur permettant de se protéger.

Senior Downing Street officials reach out to thinktanks and pollsters as they look to test backing for reversing Brexit

Média de centre gauche critique du gouvernement islamo-nationaliste du président Recep Tayyip Erdogan, « T24 » a reçu l’ordre de fermer son site, pour 118 contenus jugés comme relevant de la propagande LGBT+. Les attaques contre la presse, constantes depuis plusieurs années, ont connu une très nette accélération depuis cet été.

A Madrid, le président français, Emmanuel Macron, et le premier ministre de l’Espagne, Pedro Sanchez, ont affiché leur proximité malgré le rejet par le Sénat espagnol, dominé par la droite, du traité d’amitié entre les deux pays.

Les documents publiés en janvier par la Maison Blanche avaient révélé des liens entre des diplomates norvégiens et le prédateur sexuel. A Oslo, 11 anciens ministres des affaires étrangères sont auditionnés au Parlement depuis mercredi 30 septembre.

Faced with rising mortgage costs, governments should resist stoking demand

Alors que l’Union européenne commence à débourser 90 milliards d’euros pour soutenir Kiev d’ici à la fin de 2027, l’Ukraine demande déjà une rallonge de plusieurs dizaines de milliards d’euros. L’Europe cherche des solutions et pourrait devoir rouvrir le débat sur l’utilisation des avoirs russes immobilisés sur le Vieux Continent.

En visite en Espagne, Emmanuel Macron y a vanté la vitalité culturelle, linguistique et scolaire française. Pourtant, dans la capitale catalane, l’Institut français et les écoles françaises rencontrent de grandes difficultés financières.

La police britannique est intervenue près de la base de Fairford, dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche, après un appel passé aux services d’urgence signalant « trois véhicules suspects ». L’Iran avait « catégoriquement » démenti, lundi, tout lien avec cette affaire.

French president, speaking alongside Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, says EU bid would be good news for UK and Europeans

Ces coupures dans certains secteurs de la capitale ukrainienne et des régions de Kiev, Tchernihiv et Jytomyr ont été décidées par l’opérateur Ukrenergo en raison d’une surcharge des équipements provoquée par les bombardements, selon l’entreprise publique.

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The prime minister has reopened the debate on EU membership, a decade after the Brexit referendum

On Tuesday 29 September 2026, one of the European Parliament’s buildings have been officially renamed to honour former European Parliament president David Sassoli. David Maria Sassoli was an Italian journalist and politician, elected President of the European Parliament on 3 July 2019, and succeeding Antonio Tajani. Sassoli served in this role until his death at the age of 65 on 11 January 2022. In one of his speeches, he said: “The European Union is not an accident of history (…). We are not an accident of history, but the children and grandchildren of those who managed to find the antidote to that nationalist degeneration that poisoned our history”. For more information: www.instagram.com/reel/Dd4TthVulJb/?stkn=ODdtdW02NzVhbzM4 This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2026– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

On Tuesday 29 September 2026, one of the European Parliament’s buildings have been officially renamed to honour former European Parliament president David Sassoli. David Maria Sassoli was an Italian journalist and politician, elected President of the European Parliament on 3 July 2019, and succeeding Antonio Tajani. Sassoli served in this role until his death at the age of 65 on 11 January 2022. In one of his speeches, he said: “The European Union is not an accident of history (…). We are not an accident of history, but the children and grandchildren of those who managed to find the antidote to that nationalist degeneration that poisoned our history”. For more information: www.instagram.com/reel/Dd4TthVulJb/?stkn=ODdtdW02NzVhbzM4 This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2026– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

On Tuesday 29 September 2026, one of the European Parliament’s buildings have been officially renamed to honour former European Parliament president David Sassoli. David Maria Sassoli was an Italian journalist and politician, elected President of the European Parliament on 3 July 2019, and succeeding Antonio Tajani. Sassoli served in this role until his death at the age of 65 on 11 January 2022. In one of his speeches, he said: “The European Union is not an accident of history (…). We are not an accident of history, but the children and grandchildren of those who managed to find the antidote to that nationalist degeneration that poisoned our history”. For more information: www.instagram.com/reel/Dd4TthVulJb/?stkn=ODdtdW02NzVhbzM4 This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2026– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

On Tuesday 29 September 2026, one of the European Parliament’s buildings have been officially renamed to honour former European Parliament president David Sassoli. David Maria Sassoli was an Italian journalist and politician, elected President of the European Parliament on 3 July 2019, and succeeding Antonio Tajani. Sassoli served in this role until his death at the age of 65 on 11 January 2022. In one of his speeches, he said: “The European Union is not an accident of history (…). We are not an accident of history, but the children and grandchildren of those who managed to find the antidote to that nationalist degeneration that poisoned our history”. For more information: www.instagram.com/reel/Dd4TthVulJb/?stkn=ODdtdW02NzVhbzM4 This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2026– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

On Tuesday 29 September 2026, one of the European Parliament’s buildings have been officially renamed to honour former European Parliament president David Sassoli. David Maria Sassoli was an Italian journalist and politician, elected President of the European Parliament on 3 July 2019, and succeeding Antonio Tajani. Sassoli served in this role until his death at the age of 65 on 11 January 2022. In one of his speeches, he said: “The European Union is not an accident of history (…). We are not an accident of history, but the children and grandchildren of those who managed to find the antidote to that nationalist degeneration that poisoned our history”. For more information: www.instagram.com/reel/Dd4TthVulJb/?stkn=ODdtdW02NzVhbzM4 This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2026– Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

Romania’s months-long government crisis entered a new phase on 30 September 2026 when Parliament rejected Siegfried Mureșan’s proposed cabinet. The vote produced 182 “yes” ballots and 15 “no” votes, well short of the 233 needed for investiture. Only 197 of 464 lawmakers actually voted. The outcome was widely anticipated. Mureşan’s formula rested on PNL, USR and UDMR, which together hold roughly 169–170 seats. Even adding the 17 minority deputies would have left the bloc around 186 votes — still dozens short. PSD and AUR had already announced they would not support he cabinet; George Simion’s AUR lawmakers stayed away entirely while PSD members attended but declined to vote. This was the second failed investiture after Adrian Veștea’s cabinet received only 189 votes in June. The political deadlock began when Ilie Bolojan’s government fell in May. President Nicușor Dan has now seen two formal attempts collapse, meeting the constitutional conditions that allow him to dissolve Parliament. He has repeatedly said he does not want snap elections, arguing they would prolong instability. Dan now faces a choice: nominate a fourth prime-minister candidate or begin the dissolution process. PSD has signalled it is ready to try forming an alternative majority. AUR, for its part, has pushed for early elections and described them as preferable to continued deadlock. Polls help explain why the prospect of new elections matters. Recent surveys place AUR first, with figures ranging from 34 percent (CURS) to nearly 40 percent (INSCOP). PSD follows at 19–25 percent, PNL at 16–18 percent and USR in single digits. Simulations based on those numbers suggest AUR could emerge as the largest parliamentary group, potentially with well over 100 seats. That would not automatically give the party a governing majority, but it would place AUR in a far stronger position to lead or shape any new coalition than it holds today. Mureșan’s team presented the vote as a choice between ending the crisis or extending it. After the result he said the parties that started the deadlock had voted to prolong it and that the next move belongs to the president. Whether Dan nominates another candidate or opens the path to elections, Romania remains without a fully empowered government more than four months after the last one fell. The arithmetic that doomed the Mureșan cabinet has not changed; the political incentives of the largest parties have. Mureșan, who as an MEP steers the important EU budget file in the European Parliament, is now likely to return to his Brussels routine. Caption: Romanian Prime Minister-designate Siegfried Muresan (C-L) is chased by reporters after his proposed cabinet was rejected by the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, 30 September 2026. The government proposed by Muresan failed to win the vote of confidence during a joint plenary session of the two chambers of Parliament, securing 182 votes out of 233 needed for approval. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT

Le gouvernement espagnol veut renforcer la protection contre les expulsions et interdire jusqu’en 2028  les achats immobiliers par les fonds dits « vautours ». Mobilisés depuis qu’une Madrilène de 87 ans a dû quitter l’appartement dont elle ne pouvait plus payer le loyer, des manifestants jugent ces mesures insuffisantes.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has called on Europe to put diplomacy at the centre of efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, warning that continued escalation could increase the risk of a nuclear confrontation. Speaking at the Euronews Defence and Space Summit in Brussels on Wednesday, Radev said European countries should not rely primarily on military support for Kyiv and should instead reopen channels of communication with Moscow. “We always need to think about the worst-case scenario,” Radev said, arguing that Europe needed to assess the risks of confronting a nuclear power. “There is a limit to just delivering weapons and supporting, because the final peace set-up will be done by diplomacy, not by delivering weapons,” he said. “We have not exhausted the power of diplomacy, and we need to do and to speak more.” Radev said Europe should consider the possibility that a conflict involving Russia could escalate beyond conventional warfare. He referred to recent comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that a war between Russia and Europe would be “completely different” and “very short”, while rejecting what he called such rhetoric from Moscow. But the Bulgarian prime minister argued that European governments nevertheless needed to take the nuclear dimension into account. “We cannot close our eyes to the fact that there are nuclear weapons on our continent,” he said, adding that Russia could be more inclined to use its nuclear capabilities if it felt weakened or cornered. Radev also criticised what he described as Europe’s attempt to achieve a “conventional victory” against Russia, saying that the war had exposed weaknesses in Western strategic thinking. “The war in Ukraine challenged our critical thinking and realistic approach,” he said. It had also, he argued, raised questions about how Europe defined its political objectives and translated them into military strategy. A long-standing position Radev’s call for greater engagement with Moscow is consistent with positions he has taken since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He is often described as Russia-friendly or pro-Russian, and as president he repeatedly argued that more weapons to Ukraine would not bring an end to the war and called instead for diplomatic efforts. Radev stepped down at the end of his second presidential term to enter party politics and won the April parliamentary election with his Progressive Bulgaria movement. His government took office in May. Bulgaria initially declined to provide weapons directly to Ukraine in 2022, although it agreed to repair Ukrainian military equipment. Parliament later approved the country’s first military assistance package to Kyiv in December that year, despite opposition from Radev, who was then president. Bulgaria subsequently supplied Ukraine with anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, howitzers and infantry weapons in 2024 and 2025. In 2022 and 2023, Bulgarian arms and ammunition were instead exported mainly to European intermediaries, with Bulgarian officials saying they could not control what buyers did with the shipments. That policy changed in June, when Bulgaria stopped providing military aid from its army stocks. Radev said the country had exhausted what it could supply without compromising its own defence capabilities. The decision did not affect Bulgaria’s defence industry, which continues to produce and commercially export ammunition, including supplies destined for Ukraine. Bulgaria’s “end” to Ukraine aid: rhetoric vs. reality in Sofia’s balancing act In July, Bulgaria also stayed away from a Paris meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing”. Radev said that “Bulgaria’s place is not in the coalition of the willing” and called instead for stronger diplomatic efforts to end the war. Asked by Euronews anchor Maria Tadeo whether his position amounted to supporting Russia, Radev rejected the characterisation, saying: “I don’t care about supporting Russia, I care about finally finding the road to peace.” At the same time, he has stressed that Bulgaria remains committed to its European direction, while arguing that Europe needs more “critical thinking” and pragmatism in dealing with the war. "I don't care about supporting Russia, I care about finally finding the road to peace," Bulgarian PM Rumen Radev says. #EuronewsDefenceSpace2026 pic.twitter.com/988n17kYqV — euronews (@euronews) September 30, 2026 Defence pressure across Europe Radev’s comments on Wednesday came as European governments seek to increase defence spending and strengthen cooperation on military procurement and production, amid growing concern over Russian attacks and hybrid threats. Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken told the summit that Europe faced what he called a “dark winter” as hybrid threats multiplied. He urged European governments to accelerate efforts to expand air-defence capabilities, particularly against increasingly fast drones. U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder, meanwhile, criticised proposals to give preference to European-made defence equipment in the bloc’s rearmament efforts. He argued that NATO allies should prioritise capability and availability rather than the geographic origin of equipment, and advocated a broader “Made in NATO” approach. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius and European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen are also among the senior officials taking part in the Brussels summit. April forecast: exit Orbán, enters Radev, its Bulgarian edition Sources: Euronews, Reuters, AP Caption: Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev/Euronews

Co-op Group is sharing a £2.4m fund to help young people pursue green careers as part of its efforts on sustainability and social mobility

Source :Compte X, le 9 septembre 2026 Etiqe :Douteux Contenu : C’est un sujet sensible en Ukraine. Les femmes du pays seront-elles prochainement conscrites dans la guerre contre la Russie ? La rumeur se fait insistante sur les réseaux sociaux depuis quelques semaines. Plusieurs internautes déduisent cette information d’une soi-disant commande par le ministère de la Défense de 150 000 vestes militaires adaptées à la physionomie féminine. « C’est un indicateur clair d’un [ordre de] mobilisation » , écrit le 9 septembre sur X le compte Military Summary,  déjà épinglé chez nos confrères de TF1 pour avoir relayé de la désinformation relative au conflit ukrainien. L’internaute aux 47 000 abonnés joint à son message deux images : l’une est une capture d’écran de Prozorro, la plateforme ukrainienne de passation des marchés publics, l’autre est le scan d’un document notifiant l’appel à marché public, supposément, donc, pour 150 000 vestes d’hiver pour femme. Absente des registres officiels disponibles en ligne, cette commande a été ouvertement démentie par Kiev. Qui plus est, elle ne suffirait pas, à elle seule, à attester d’un projet de conscription forcée des femmes ukrainiennes. Un appel d’offres introuvable De fait, le ministère de la Défense ukrainien n’a jamais caché sa production de matériel militaire conçu pour les femmes – dont l’engagement dans l’armée s’effectue uniquement sur la base du volontariat . En avril 2025 , Kiev annonçait le développement de «  vestes et pantalons d’hiver coupe-vent pour militaires [de sexe] féminin » classifiés comme « type 3 ». Les spécificités de ces équipements étaient ensuite précisées, deux mois plus tard, dans un document officiel de 36 pages . Les captures d’écran publiées sur X par Military Summary évoquent, elles aussi, des équipements de « type 3 ». Il s’agirait donc bien de vêtements uniquement à destination des soldates ukrainiennes. Pour autant, il n’existe aucune trace dans les registres officiels du soi-disant appel d’offres relayé par l’internaute. Que ce soit directement sur le site Prozorro , développé par la branche ukrainienne de l’ONG anticorruption Transparency International, ou sur son module d’analyse, bi.prozorro.org , qui recense et ordonne chronologiquement les données de la plateforme, la commande dont Military Summary affirme avancer la preuve est introuvable. Du matériel militaire pensé spécifiquement pour les femmes, comme des gilets pare-balles, des vestes et des pantalons d’hiver, a bien été acheté par le gouvernement ukrainien au printemps 2026, selon la Ukrainska Pravda . Mais aucune source fiable ne fait état de commandes avoisinant les 150 000 exemplaires. Qui plus est, un tel achat ne permettrait en rien d’attester d’une conscription forcée à venir des femmes ukrainiennes. Le gouvernement ukrainien a par ailleurs formellement démenti ces propos le 10 septembre, indiquant qu’il n’existait « aucune information concernant une telle acquisition par le ministère de la Défense » . «  Il n’y a pas non plus d’initiatives législatives, de projets de loi ou de discussions internes en Ukraine concernant la mobilisation des femmes » , a ajouté Kiev. Des exceptions bien spécifiques à cette règle semblent toutefois alimenter le doute sur les réseaux sociaux. Pas d’ordre de mobilisation En effet, depuis plusieurs jours, des internautes francophones reprennent les dires de Military Summary en les illustrant de photos de documents qui seraient des convocations dans des centres de recrutement militaires reçues par des Ukrainiennes. Un élément supplémentaire, selon les publications, de la mise en place de la conscription forcée des femmes. Néanmoins, rien n’indique que ces documents soient des ordres de mobilisation. Les convocations ainsi partagées sur les réseaux sociaux – dont l’authenticité n’a pas pu être établie et dont la forme change en fonction des publications – présentent le même motif : vérification ou actualisation des données personnelles. En Ukraine, la loi martiale en vigueur depuis le début de l’invasion à grande échelle du pays par la Russie le 24 février 2022, impose la mobilisation générale des hommes âgés de 25 à 60 ans. Les femmes en sont exclues. La loi prévoit toutefois que «  les femmes ayant obtenu une spécialité médicale ou pharmaceutique doivent s’inscrire au service militaire » , précise SUD.UA , un média ukrainien consacré au traitement de l’actualité juridique. Une information déjà rapportée ces dernières années par différentes sources, comme le Kiev Independent et le cabinet d’avocats CMS . «  L’inscription en soi ne constitue pas un motif de mobilisation forcée » , ajoute le site spécialisé. Autrement dit, l’enregistrement des soignantes auprès des instances militaires ne conditionne en aucun cas leur conscription. Concernant le reste de la population, l’Ukraine n’a annoncé aucune mesure en faveur d’un quelconque enrôlement obligatoire des femmes. Faute d’informations sur le contexte de ces convocations, leur motif reste, pour l’heure, difficile à déterminer… Contacté pour obtenir plus de précisions, le ministère de la Défense ukrainien n’avait pas répondu à nos sollicitations au moment de la publication.   Auteurs : Auteur : Jean-Baptiste Breen, journaliste Relecteur : Nicolas Turcev, journaliste Liens d’intérêts ou fonctions politiques déclarés des intervenants à l’article : aucun Secrétariat de rédaction : Nicolas Turcev, journaliste L’article Attention à ces prétendues preuves de la mobilisation forcée de femmes en Ukraine est apparu en premier sur Les Surligneurs .

Bosnia goes to the polls on October 4 to elect several parliaments and presidents. While voters worry about the economy and emigration, the campaign is focused on ethnicity, exposing the country's political paralysis.

A rebours des échecs au Moyen-Orient, où les discussions sont conduites par des non-diplomates proches du président américain, l’accord signé le 22 septembre entre le Danemark, le Groenland et les Etats-Unis s’est fait dans le respect des règles, au bénéfice de ses signataires, constate dans sa chronique Gilles Paris, éditorialiste au « Monde ».

Illégale, chère, non ciblée, anti-écolo… Passage en revue des principales critiques à propos de la promesse phare du Rassemblement national pour faire baisser les prix à la pompe.

Sacré bleu

A timely biography strips away the myths of the muse and restores this 19th-century virtuoso to her rightful place in the Romantic canon

« Il y aura davantage d’actions liées aux menaces hybrides dans les prochains mois. Ce sera un hiver sombre pour l’Europe », a averti mercredi Theo Francken.

Impeach Trump. Sign the petition NOW to defend democracy and demand accountability! He is disqualified from office, and has violated the U.S. Constitution.

L’examen de la réforme électorale voulue par la présidente du conseil doit commencer à la Chambre des députés mercredi 30 septembre.

Kremlin accuses western defence alliance of preparing to blockade Russian exclave on Baltic Sea

Curbs imposed in response to Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries threaten to worsen global supply crunch