Latest news bulletin | December 4th, 2025 – Midday
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond this December 4th, 2025 - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
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00:00Medics in Gaza say an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians and left several wounded
00:06in tents for displaced people in the west of Han Yunis.
00:10European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that Belgium will receive
00:14sweeping guarantees in order to unblock a controversial reparations loan for Ukraine.
00:20Farmers in northern Greece escalated protests over delayed EU-backed subsidy payments linked
00:27to a corruption probe. Five Palestinians including two children were killed by an Israeli strike on
00:34southern Gaza on Wednesday according to local officials. The attack on the shelter camp in
00:40Han Yunis left at least 32 others injured. Israel said it targeted Hamas militants in retaliation
00:48for an earlier assault on Wednesday that injured five of its soldiers. The latest violence came
00:54as another breach of the fragile ceasefire enforced since early October that has largely held up
01:00despite mutual claims of violations. On Wednesday Hamas returned one of the last remaining hostages
01:07identified as a Thai national who was killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel
01:14while Israel indicated it will open the Rafah crossing in the next few days to allow Palestinians in need of
01:20medical care to leave for Egypt. According to the Israeli military arm that oversees humanitarian matters,
01:27the opening of the Rafah crossing will be coordinated with Egypt under the supervision of the EU mission.
01:37European and Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of faking interest in peace efforts after
01:43talks with the U.S. on Tuesday produced no breakthrough or compromise. Ukraine's foreign minister Andrei Severa urged Putin to quote
01:52stop wasting the world's time and UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called on the Russian leader to end the fighting and come to the negotiating table to reach an agreement.
02:03The comments were made as foreign ministers from European NATO countries met in Brussels on Wednesday, a day after U.S.
02:09envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday.
02:16For his part, Putin has accused European allies in Ukraine of sabotaging U.S.-led peace efforts.
02:23The U.S. proposed a peace deal last month. However, the 28-point plan was met with widespread criticism for being too weighted towards Russian demands.
02:32On Thursday, Witkoff and Kushner are set to meet with Ukraine's lead negotiator Rustem Umerov for further talks.
02:45European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that Belgium will receive sweeping guarantees in order to unblock a controversial reparations loan for Ukraine.
02:55Belgium remains opposed to the scheme, which would channel frozen Russian assets to cover Ukraine's financial and military needs for the next two years.
03:03The bulk of the assets, about 185 billion euros, are held at Euroclear, a central securities depository in Brussels.
03:12We have listened very carefully to Belgium's concerns, and we have taken almost all of them into account in our proposal that is today on the table of the reparations loans.
03:25We have very strong safeguards in place to protect member states and to reduce the risks as much as possible.
03:35The reparations loan is von der Leyen's preferred option to cover the 90 billion euros Europe is meant to contribute to funding for Ukraine.
03:44Since the start of discussions in September, Belgium has demanded all-encompassing guarantees from other member states to shield itself against retaliation from Moscow and prevent multi-billion euro losses.
03:56If no deal is found on the reparations loan, the EU will resort to joint borrowing, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
04:04The guarantees outlined on Wednesday present the Commission's most comprehensive attempt to overcome Belgium's resistance before a crucial EU summit on the 18th of December.
04:18The use of drones in the war in Ukraine and the violation of EU airspace by these aircraft requires a realignment of defence strategy, according to the bloc's top military official.
04:30All military, political and economic structures of the EU must be prepared and ready to defend themselves, the chairman of the EU military committee, Irish General Sean Clancy, told Euronews.
04:44To that end, the EU and the NATO alliance need to work together more closely.
04:49There is a stronger relationship required between the EU and NATO.
04:54There is a need for coherence.
04:56There is a need to eliminate, insofar as practical, duplication.
04:59And the drone defence initiative is about actually creating a greater coherence between civil society, the military and the allies in this instance, of course.
05:09And the command and the command and control structure of NATO and NATO's role in terms of the defence and the deterrence in Europe is sacrosanct.
05:19To better react to hybrid threats, the EU has launched the Drone Defence Initiative, Clancy said.
05:25With this instrument, Europe recognises the need for a coherent approach across Europe, as the weaponisation of drones was seen in Denmark, Belgium and Poland.
05:36So this is a pan-European issue, and the hybrid threats are borderless.
05:43They're non-discriminatory when it comes to actually malign actors or deliberate actions that are undertaken in this sphere.
05:52So this is about actually creating a coherent approach across Europe.
05:57The first responsibility, of course, is on individual member states.
06:00The war in Ukraine has led to a combination of trench warfare and the use of drones that has prevented a front line from moving at any important pace, Clancy said.
06:12That's why Europe has to prepare for the next evolution of war, which should ensure that the bloc has the necessary resources for research, development and innovation, he concluded.
06:24When the first version of the US-Russia plan was leaked to the media two weeks ago, Moscow sought to include a specific demand.
06:37Amnesty for Russian forces for all they had done since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
06:44Ukrainian journalist and one of the country's most prominent human rights activists, Maxim Budkovich, spent more than two years in Russian captivity.
06:54He told Euronews that Moscow is deliberately trying to avoid inevitable responsibility.
07:00A violation of the peace world.
07:03He said, how do you think about the peace of all?
07:30On the 20th of November, the Council of the European Union imposed sanctions against 10
07:38individuals involved in human rights violations in Russia, including the torture of civilian
07:44hostages. The sanctioned Russian individuals are responsible for the death of the Ukrainian
07:50journalist Viktoria Roshchina. She died last year after more than a year in Russian captivity.
07:56Her body was returned to Ukraine earlier this year with some of her internal organs missing.
08:26As of November, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office recorded 190,000 facts related to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
08:52The EU is proposing a new strategy to protect the European economy from coercive trade measures in third countries.
09:04The European Security Doctrine is the European Commission's policy to lower dependencies on countries such as China and the U.S.,
09:11where recent actions have raised concerns about hostile or coercive measures which could seriously harm European industry.
09:18The doctrine recommends, among other things, that member states and businesses diversify supply chains in areas such as critical raw materials, rare earths, semiconductors and technology chips.
09:29A recent confrontation between the Chinese and Dutch governments threatened the global automotive industry.
09:35EU Trade Commissioner Mara Shevkovic said this incident was an example of why dependencies are a vulnerability for Europe.
09:41I think that it just put into the new limelight the importance of the economic security for the European Union and it just showed that dependencies could be very dangerous, could be very expensive.
09:56From the longer term perspective, I think what is very important is that we would also diversify and increase the number of suppliers of, in this case, legacy chips.
10:07But I can speak about critical raw minerals.
10:10I can speak about sensitive technologies because simply when you are reliable just on one supplier, usually it also presents a lot of risks.
10:20At the same time, you can do all these trade deals with other countries that stay away from China and you can have an economic security doctrine, but really businesses will decide who they want to do their trade with.
10:32And often they'll choose price over standards or over security.
10:36And that often means China.
10:38Yes, you're absolutely right.
10:39And I think that we are also with this communication trying to bring the new light to the economic security aspect of the business.
10:47I think that you see it everywhere in the world, you see it in the US, you see it in Japan.
10:54I think that this economic security risk premium must be more and more factored in the business plans of European companies.
11:04Simply, we need to learn how to be alerted about the possible shortcomings.
11:09We have to learn how to stockpile critical raw materials or sensitive products.
11:14And we have to be also maybe ready to pay more for the investments, but also for the procuring of the critical minerals or critical components from various sources, because this is how you can guarantee your business continuity.
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