The Ukrainian leader has no power to decide whether his country will be admitted to the EU, Peter Szijjarto has stated
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has completely “lost his sense of reality” if he thinks he can decide whether his country will be admitted to the EU, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.
The EU granted Kiev candidate status in 2022 and set a 2030 target for membership. Budapest has consistently opposed the move, warning it could escalate tensions with Russia and saddle the bloc’s taxpayers with decades of military aid. Zelensky on Wednesday claimed that Hungary is obstructing accession because Prime Minister Viktor Orban is using criticism of the EU and Ukraine to boost his electoral prospects.
“Ukraine has become one of… the tools with which [Orban] can increase his party’s popularity,” Zelensky claimed at a press briefing, insisting that Kiev will be admitted to the bloc regardless of Budapest’s stance.
Szijjarto ridiculed Zelensky’s claims on the Hour of Warriors program on Thursday.
”I think the Ukrainian leader has completely lost his sense of reality… and maybe that explains why he is saying such crazy things,” Szijjarto stated. “Who becomes a member is not decided by those who want in, but by those who are already in. And it has to be decided unanimously, so as long as not everyone agrees that someone should become a member, they will not become a member – it is not rocket science.”
Szijjarto noted that Hungarians have already made their choice: a national referendum in June showed more than two million voters, or 95%, rejected Ukraine’s EU bid.
Hungary is not alone in opposing Ukraine’s accession. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and several Polish officials have also raised objections. A recent IBRiS poll showed only 35% of Poles support Ukraine’s EU bid, down from 85% in 2022. A Eurobarometer poll last month found that just 28% of Czechs back accession, and more than half the populations of France and Austria oppose it.
Moscow had previously been neutral on Kiev’s EU ambitions, saying Ukraine had a “sovereign right” to join if the bloc stayed focused on economics. However, it has grown more critical amid Brussels’ militarization, with officials warning the EU has become “no less of a threat” to Russia than NATO.
The right-wing politician has called on President Emmanuel Macron to either dissolve the National Assembly or resign
Veteran right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen has vowed to block any new government action, after President Emmanuel Macron promised to appoint a new prime minister within two days amid a deepening political crisis.
Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) is the largest single party in parliament. On Wednesday, she urged Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call new elections, or step down himself.
”I vote against everything… This joke has gone on long enough,” the three-time presidential candidate said.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu resigned on Monday after criticism of his cabinet choices. With France’s debt at a record high and debate over the 2026 budget ongoing, Macron has asked him to remain in office as caretaker until midweek. On Wednesday evening, Macron said he would name a new premier within two days, a move aimed at avoiding the dissolution of parliament and forming a compromise coalition government capable of passing the budget.
Parliamentary leaders rejected a bid to impeach Macron on Wednesday, and Mathilde Panot of left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) blamed abstaining RN lawmakers for blocking the motion. RN has repeatedly framed left-driven impeachment pushes as political theatre, while party president Jordan Bardella has argued the only “solution” is dissolution of the assembly or Macron’s resignation.
France has been mired in political paralysis since Macron’s gamble on snap elections last year resulted in a hung parliament and increased representation for the far right. RN now holds nearly one quarter of the National Assembly’s 577 seats.
Recent opinion polls show RN leading with around 35% of voting intentions, ahead of Macron’s centrist alliance.
Le Pen, who ran for president in 2017 and 2022 but lost both times to Macron, was barred from holding public office earlier this year after a French court found her guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds, a ruling she is appealing. Bardella is meanwhile seen by many as a potential future contender for the presidency.
Analysts have expressed skepticism over the US president’s chances of winning the award, the newspaper has reported
US President Donald Trump is pressuring the Norwegian government and the Nobel Committee in an unprecedented push for the Nobel Peace Prize, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Experts reportedly remain skeptical that the campaign will succeed, however.
Trump has pointed to his recent Middle East peace plan as evidence that he deserves the award, claiming it marks the eighth conflict he has helped resolve since taking office in January. The US president has claimed he ended disputes involving Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as Pakistan and India.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is set to announce the Peace Prize winner on Friday. Analysts are doubtful that Trump will be selected, citing his domestic and international record, as well as the fact that the prize honors actions taken in 2024, when he had not yet taken office.
“Putting pressure on the committee, going on talking about ‘I need the prize, I’m the worthy candidate’ — it’s not a very peaceful approach,” Nina Graeger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, told FT.
Halvard Leira of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs added that while lobbying for the prize is not unusual, previous efforts, such as South Korea’s 2000 campaign for Kim Dae-jung, have tended to be more discreet.
According to Norwegian officials, as cited by FT, Trump raised the issue in a call with Norwegian Finance Minister and former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
There is also concern in Oslo about potential retaliation, including tariffs or other punitive measures, if Trump is not selected, the newspaper noted. The controversy has reportedly been exacerbated in recent weeks after Norway’s sovereign wealth fund divested from US company Caterpillar due to its equipment being used by Israel in Gaza.
Trump’s Nobel push has so far received support from several international figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, and Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. He has also been backed by the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, a group of Republican lawmakers, and Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
Member states are considering easing rules of air engagement and deploying drones along Russia’s borders, the paper’s sources claim
NATO is considering allowing its pilots fire at unauthorized Russian aircraft, and drastically increasing its military footprint on the Russia’s borders, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing sources.
The report comes following weeks of Western claims that Russia has repeatedly violated EU airspace, which Moscow has denied.
Last month, Estonia and Poland claimed that Russian aircraft illegally entered their airspace. Western media has also speculated that Russia may be behind drone incidents in other EU nations, which at times disrupted air traffic. Moscow has said the West has not provided any evidence for the claims.
Several NATO members are now debating “a more forceful response” to Russia, according to the Financial Times.
The reported proposals include arming surveillance drones that currently gather intelligence on Russian military movements and lowering the threshold for fighter pilots on NATO’s eastern border to take down perceived threats. Other options under discussion involve conducting military exercises directly along the Russian border, the report said.
Two NATO officials told the FT that one urgent task is to simplify the rules of engagement, which now differ among member states. Some nations require pilots to visually identify targets before firing, while others permit engagement based on radar data or the perceived direction and speed of an approaching aircraft.
FT sources noted that the talks, initiated by states bordering Russia and backed by France and the UK, later developed into a bloc-wide discussion – which, however, is said to be in the early stages. Some governments reportedly advocate for strong deterrence policies, though others urge restraint to avoid direct confrontation.
The article comes on the heels of last week’s EU summit on creating a ‘drone wall’ to deter alleged Russian incursions, with Politico reporting that the meeting “descended into a familiar stalemate.”
Russia has accused NATO of escalating tensions near its borders through expanded military deployments and exercises. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also stated that NATO is “de facto at war” with Russia due to the bloc’s support for Ukraine.
Reporters from both organizations are teaching how to influence news coverage of the Jewish state
A CNN commentator and New York Times reporters are mentoring in a journalism fellowship launched to help Israel win the “information war,” according to investigative outlet Drop Site.
Founded in 2025 by Jacki Karsh and her husband, the program bills itself as “the world’s only journalism fellowship solely dedicated to Jewish topics” and is “resolutely nonpartisan.”
Karsh said she started it to “shift the narrative” in Israel’s favor, citing the need to fight “on the battlegrounds of academia, law, business, [and] media.”
Drop Site described her as an “open and die-hard” supporter of Israel, citing a March interview in which she framed Israel as “on the facts side,” and called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.”
The fellowship has recruited 16 mentors from outlets including The Atlantic, Spectrum News, The Spectator, Ynet, and Times of Israel. Among them are New York Times journalists Jodi Rudoren and Sharon Otterman, according to Drop Site.
Other mentors include CNN’s Van Jones, who apologized after backlash over comments on HBO’s ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’ linking images of dead Palestinian children to an Iranian and Qatari disinformation campaign; and Atlantic writer Michael Powell, who has criticized rights groups like Amnesty International for being “stridently critical of Israel.”
When Drop Site asked how the program could be “resolutely nonpartisan” given its stated aim, fellowship director Rob Eshmen said it aims to foster “fairness and accuracy on Israel and Jewish issues.” He added that “the best response to misinformation is journalism grounded in evidence, integrity, and independence.”
Karsh has described Hamas as “real life monsters” and compared them to Nazis. She also challenged Gaza casualty figures – which the UN and IDF say are broadly accurate – telling eJewishPhilanthropy that figures “influence how people perceive the story.”
Over 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian authorities, since Israel launched its military operation in response to the Hamas surprise attack that killed around 1,200 people and resulted in more than 250 taken hostage. The war has also led to unprecedented destruction and a humanitarian disaster in the enclave.
HarperCollins UK has recalled a title repeating a claim that the US president’s wife has said is defamatory
Publishing house HarperCollins UK has apologized to Melania Trump and withdrawn a book that claimed convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to her husband, US President Donald Trump.
The company said in a statement on Wednesday that it had “decided to remove several pages” from an unauthorized biography of Prince Andrew by historian Andrew Lowine. The passages in question repeated the unverified allegations crediting Epstein for the meeting of the US presidential couple.
“Copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady,” the statement read. Melania Trump later shared the message on her X account.
The biography, first released in mid-August, explored Prince Andrew’s connection to Epstein, the American financier who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. NBC News previously reported that the book alleged Epstein had “facilitated” the meeting between Melania and Donald Trump in an article detailing her efforts to distance herself from the disgraced businessman.
A spokesperson for the US first lady told Axios that her legal team was “actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods,” emphasizing that her own memoir states she met Donald Trump at a New York party in 1998 through a different acquaintance.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump pledged to release “Epstein files” supposedly detailing ties between the financier and powerful figures. After taking office, however, Trump dismissed the documents’ existence as a “Democratic hoax,” a reversal critics have said deflects from his past association with Epstein.
Melania Trump has previously secured retractions from the Daily Beast and a podcast hosted by Democratic strategist James Carville over similar claims.
Donald Tusk has recently justified the Nord Stream sabotage, arguing the project should never have been built
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday accused Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk of “defending terrorists,” over comments about the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Tusk had claimed the day before in a post on X that “the problem with North Stream 2 is not that it was blown up. The problem is that it was built.”
The Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian natural gas to Germany along the Baltic Sea floor, were blown up soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
Szijjarto condemned the Polish prime ministers post in a reply, asking what else the Polish prime minister could find “forgivable or even praiseworthy.”
“According to Donald Tusk, blowing up a gas pipeline is acceptable,” he wrote.
“That’s shocking… One thing is clear: we don’t want a Europe where prime ministers defend terrorists,” he added.
According to @donaldtusk, blowing up a gas pipeline is acceptable. That’s shocking as it makes you wonder what else could be blown up and still be considered forgivable or even praiseworthy. One thing is clear: we don’t want a Europe where prime ministers defend terrorists. https://t.co/39wYJkRgfL
Tusk also argued on Tuesday that it is not in Poland’s interest to hand over a Ukrainian man German investigators believe was involved in the Nord Stream sabotage.
While Berlin’s prosecutors have attributed the sabotage to a small group of Ukrainian nationals, Moscow has dismissed the version of events as “ridiculous.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the US likely carried out the operation.
The EU has called for a total cut of Russian energy by 2027, but some bloc members like Slovakia and Hungary rely on Russian crude delivered via the Soviet-era Druzhba oil pipeline.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy networks linked to the pipeline in recent months have exacerbated tensions between Kiev and Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of working to compromise his nation’s energy security because of his opposition to Kiev’s EU bid.
Bern has tightened asylum seeker rules in response to demands from parliament
Switzerland has announced it will now only extend asylum status to Ukrainian migrants from regions in close proximity to the front line, following pressure from lawmakers.
From November 1, new Ukrainian asylum seekers will only be granted ‘S’ protection status if their last place of residence was close to the line of contact in the conflict, the Swiss Federal Council said in a statement on Wednesday. Such status allows foreigners to travel abroad and return to Switzerland without a travel permit.
“When granting temporary protection, a distinction is now made between regions to which return is considered reasonable and unreasonable,” it said in a statement.
The western Ukrainian regions of Volyn, Rovno, Lviv, Ternopol, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankovsk, and Chernovtsy were listed as “reasonable” for refugees to return to.
The government agreed to continue extending asylum to other Ukrainian refugees until March 4, 2027, to stay in lockstep with other Schengen Area states.
The decision follows other European countries’ moves to tighten support for Ukrainians. Last month, Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a bill that tightened rules for Ukrainian migrants on welfare.
Under the new measure, only refugees who can prove that at least one parent is employed and their children are enrolled in school are eligible for child support benefits. The move also limits other welfare programs to Ukrainians that work.
The IDF will reportedly withdraw from most of Gaza, with prisoner exchanges expected within several days
US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan entails Israeli forces withdrawing from large swathes of the Palestinian enclave and Hamas releasing the remaining hostages within several days, according to media reports.
An Egyptian source involved in the talks told Sky News Arabia that negotiators agreed to a “complete ceasefire” and a “gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army from 70% of Gaza.”
Ynet meanwhile reported that Israeli forces would be required to withdraw to a pre-set line within 24 hours, leaving Israel in control of around 53% of the Palestinian enclave. This would include an IDF withdrawal from Gaza City and several other central areas, the report said.
According to Reuters, Hamas would release all living hostages within 72 hours of Israeli government approval. In return, Israel would free 250 Palestinians serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans detained since 2023, including all women and minors. Hamas still holds around 48 hostages; Israel believes that around 20 are still alive.
After announcing the breakthrough in the negotiations, Trump told Fox News that the hostages will probably be released on Monday, while promising that Gaza “will be rebuilt.”
“Gaza… is going to be a much safer place… other countries in the area will help it reconstruct because they have tremendous amounts of wealth, and they want to see that happen,” Trump said, without revealing the nations to be involved.
Despite the reported breakthrough, several questions remain unanswered – including Gaza’s post-war administration and the fate of Hamas, which Israel has vowed to completely destroy. Trump’s original peace plan envisioned a limited administrative role for the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, but only after major reforms.
The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked the Jewish state, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages. Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to local officials. It also led to unprecedented destruction and a humanitarian disaster in the enclave.
Over 10,000 personnel will have to be sent home across nine missions globally, according to Reuters and AP
The United Nations will have to cut roughly a quarter of its peacekeeping personnel in the coming months due to funding shortfalls, in particular caused by a lack of US financing, Reuters and AP reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
A senior unnamed UN official cited by Reuters stated that the organization “will have to repatriate… around 25% of our total peacekeeping troops and police, as well as their equipment,” adding that a large number of civilian staff will also be affected.
The reduction equates to 13,000-14,000 military and police out of more than 50,000 deployed, with the UN support office in Somalia also impacted, according to AP. In addition, the peacekeeping budget will be cut by about 15% this year, the outlet added.
Operations in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Kosovo, Cyprus, the Central African Republic, Western Sahara, the Golan Heights demilitarized zone, and Abyei will be affected, UN officials told Reuters.
US funding uncertainty is central to the UN’s financial strains, with Washington – which accounts for more than 26% of mandatory UN peacekeeping financing – being $1.5 billion in arrears even before the new financial year began on July 1, a Reuters source claimed. He added that the total US outstanding bills now exceed $2.8 billion. At the same time, the UN expects a $680 million US payment shortly, according to the agency.
During his second term, US President Donald Trump has sought to trim foreign expenditure, and in August canceled about $800 million in peacekeeping funds for 2024-2025. His budget office has proposed eliminating US peacekeeping funding in 2026.
Last month, media reports indicated that the UN was facing the need to cut $500 million from next year’s budget and furlough 20% of its staff, with the organization poised to axe 3,000 jobs due to US funding uncertainty.
UN peacekeepers – often called blue berets or blue helmets – are deployed to help stabilize conflict zones and support humanitarian efforts. However, critics say the missions are frequently underfunded, slow to respond, and constrained by weak mandates that limit action when violence flares.
