Latest news bulletin | December 4th, 2025 – Evening
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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00:00A new poll revealed over two-thirds of Europeans believe their country would not be able to defend
00:07itself militarily against a Russian attack. The findings come just days after President
00:13Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready if Europe wants to wage war. The country with the highest
00:19confidence in its military's ability to take on Russia was France, although the majority of the
00:25respondents still had a negative outlook. The lowest rates were registered in Belgium, Italy and
00:30Portugal. According to the authors of the poll, geography plays a key role. Countries that feel
00:37less capable are geographically distant from Russia and therefore least likely to engage in direct
00:43military confrontation with Moscow. In response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
00:50the EU has been pushing a massive rearmament effort, with hundreds of billions of euros poured
00:55in defense spending by EU countries. Yet the lack of confidence of the general public suggests that
01:02the many announcements made by member states to do so is not resonating with a large segment of
01:08the European population.
01:13Cypriot President Nikos Kristodoulidis met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday during his first visit since the Russian invasion.
01:23The two leaders discussed EU-Ukraine relations, the progress of the country's accession negotiations and the contribution of the incoming Cyprus presidency of the EU to Ukraine.
01:35In a period of time, when the geopolitical political increases increases, the EU needs to be united, the EU needs to be united, the EU needs to be united, the EU needs to be united, the EU needs to be united.
01:50The EU needs to be united, the EU needs to be united.
01:53The EU needs to be united.
01:57of the support of the European Union for Ukraine
02:02is the main priority of the Cyprus Council of the Assembly.
02:27Cyprus is taking over the Council for the European Union Presidency from Denmark in January
02:42and will be followed by Ireland in the second half of 2026.
02:49The EU's former High Representative Federica Mogherini
02:54has resigned as Rector of the College of Europe following accusations of fraud and corruption.
03:00An investigation into Mogherini was launched by the European Public Prosecutor's Office
03:06after she and two other suspects were questioned on Tuesday,
03:10with Belgian authorities searching the offices of the European External Action Service,
03:16the College of Europe in Bruges and several private homes.
03:20Mogherini had led the elite institution which specialises in European affairs since 2020.
03:27The investigation is centred on whether tendering roles were broken
03:31in the award of a nine-month training course for young diplomats at the College between 2021 and 2022.
03:39On Wednesday, the three suspects were formally notified of accusations,
03:43including procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy.
03:50Stefano Sanino, former EEAS Secretary-General, is also under investigation
03:56and has taken early leave from his current role at the European Commission.
04:01Five Palestinians, including two children, were killed by an Israeli strike on southern Gaza on Wednesday,
04:10according to local officials.
04:13The attack on the shelter camp in Han Yunis left at least 32 others injured.
04:18Israel said it targeted Hamas militants in retaliation for an earlier assault on Wednesday
04:23that injured five of its soldiers.
04:26The latest violence came as another breach of the fragilisies fire in force since early October
04:32that has largely held up despite mutual claims of violations.
04:37On Wednesday, Hamas returned one of the last remaining hostages,
04:41identified as a Thai national,
04:43who was killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel,
04:48while Israel indicated it will open the Rafah crossing in the next few days
04:52to allow Palestinians in need of medical care to leave for Egypt.
04:57According to the Israeli military arm that oversees humanitarian matters,
05:01the opening of the Rafah crossing will be coordinated with Egypt
05:05under the supervision of the EU mission.
05:10A grand reception at Beijing's Great Hall of the People
05:14welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday
05:18for talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
05:21The war in Ukraine was the first topic on the agenda.
05:26While China says it wants peace, it has never condemned Russia's invasion
05:30and has hosted President Vladimir Putin several times since the conflict began.
05:36Brussels also suspects China of supplying military components to Russia.
05:41Macron urged Xi to pressure Moscow,
05:44but Xi rejected any responsibility for the crisis.
05:48Macron, joined by 35 business leaders,
05:51also pushed for cross-investments to rebalance trade
05:55and called for cooperation with the G7 on rules-based economic governance.
06:00Trade imbalances from electric cars to steel
06:04remain a major point of friction with China.
06:07At the end of the talks,
06:08the two countries signed a letter of intent to strengthen cooperation.
06:12We spoke to our correspondent in Paris,
06:15Sophia Katsinkova, who tells us more.
06:19Despite these tensions,
06:21Macron and Xi Jinping still signed 12 cooperation agreements
06:24on bilateral investment, nuclear energy and even panda conservation.
06:29The EU is proposing a new strategy to protect the European economy
06:35from coercive trade measures in third countries.
06:38The European Security Doctrine is the European Commission's policy
06:41to lower dependencies on countries such as China and the US,
06:46where recent actions have raised concerns about hostile or coercive measures
06:49which could seriously harm European industry.
06:53The doctrine recommends, among other things,
06:55that member states and businesses diversify supply chains
06:58in areas such as critical raw materials,
07:00rare earths, semiconductors and technology chips.
07:04A recent confrontation between the Chinese and Dutch governments
07:06threatened the global automotive industry.
07:09EU Trade Commissioner Mara Szefkovic said this incident
07:12was an example of why dependencies are a vulnerability for Europe.
07:15I think that it just put into the new limelight
07:20the importance of the economic security for the European Union
07:24and it just showed that dependencies could be very dangerous,
07:29could be very expensive.
07:30From the longer term perspective,
07:32I think what is very important is that we would also diversify
07:37and increase the number of suppliers of, in this case, legacy chips.
07:41But I can speak about critical raw minerals.
07:44I can speak about sensitive technologies
07:46because simply when you are reliable just on one supplier,
07:49usually it also presents a lot of risks.
07:54At the same time, you can do all these trade deals
07:57with other countries, let's say, away from China.
07:59You can have an economic security doctrine,
08:02but really businesses will decide who they want to do their trade with.
08:06And often they'll choose price over standards or over security
08:10and that often means China.
08:12Yes, you're absolutely right.
08:13And I think that we are also, with this communication,
08:16trying to bring the new light to the economic security aspect of the business.
08:21I think that you see it everywhere in the world.
08:25You see it in the U.S.
08:26You see it in Japan.
08:28I think that this economic security risk premium
08:32must be more and more factored in the business plans of European companies.
08:38It's simply we need to learn how to be alerted about the possible shortcomings.
08:43We have to learn how to stockpile critical raw materials or sensitive products.
08:48And we have to be also maybe ready to pay more for the investments,
08:53but also for the procuring of the critical minerals or critical components
09:00from various sources,
09:03because this is how you can guarantee your business continuity.
09:08Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has admitted to a recent phone conversation
09:15with U.S. President Donald Trump.
09:18Speaking about the details of the government event in Caracas,
09:21Maduro on Wednesday said the call to him was made from the White House in Washington.
09:26The Venezuelan leader hinted at why he had not spoken about it publicly until now.
09:31When there are things important in silence, they have to be, until they do it, right?
09:42I received, I had a call and talked with the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
09:48I can say that the conversation was in a tone of respect.
09:52Inclusive, I can say that it was cordial between the President of the United States and the President of Venezuela.
10:03Trump had spoken about the phone call the two men had on 21 November,
10:10reportedly giving Maduro an ultimatum to leave Venezuela.
10:14The talks came amid a U.S. threat to carry out land attacks in Venezuela against drug cartels.
10:22In recent weeks, the U.S. Navy has sunk several suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean
10:27and sent its largest aircraft carrier to the region, putting pressure on Maduro.
10:32The U.S. Navy has sunk several suspected drug traffickers in the U.S. Navy.
11:02The U.S. Navy has sunk several suspected drug traffickers in the U.S. Navy.
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