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Europe Today: Trump overshadows NATO summit with renewed Iran strikes
Renewed US strikes on Iran overshadow the close of the NATO summit, where allies pledged record defence spending and support for Ukraine. Meanwhile, the EU faces migration challenges, OLAF uncovers a counterfeit condom network and the World Cup reaches the quarter-final stage.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/09/trump-overshadows-nato-summit-with-renewed-iran-strikes
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Renewed US strikes on Iran overshadow the close of the NATO summit, where allies pledged record defence spending and support for Ukraine. Meanwhile, the EU faces migration challenges, OLAF uncovers a counterfeit condom network and the World Cup reaches the quarter-final stage.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/09/trump-overshadows-nato-summit-with-renewed-iran-strikes
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:13Good morning, it is Thursday the 9th of July. I'm Maid MacMahon and this is Europe Today.
00:19Your morning fix of European news and analysis, live here on Euronews.
00:24Coming up in signs the US-Israel war with Iran may be entering a dangerous new phase.
00:31Donald Trump says the ceasefire is over.
00:34The US launched new strikes on Iran overnight and the conflict dominated the NATO summit in Ankara,
00:40where Donald Trump also met Vladimir Zelensky and announced Ukraine will be granted a licence to produce Patriot missile interceptors.
00:47Also, EU finance ministers are gathering today as the IMF has issued a new report warning inflation could rise faster
00:55than expected.
00:56The fund points to higher energy and commodity prices driven by growing tensions in the Middle East.
01:02Meanwhile, as temperatures climb across northern Europe once again this weekend,
01:07new data confirms June was the hottest June ever recorded across Europe and the world's oceans.
01:13Scientists say the Omega bloc claimed around 3,700 lives here in Belgium, France and the Netherlands
01:20and took a heavy toll on ecosystems, agriculture and labour productivity
01:24while fuelling destructive storms, drought and wildfires.
01:29But first to Ankara, where the much-anticipated NATO summit has come to a close
01:33with record spending commitments for Europe and Ukraine.
01:36But the mood was dampened by the US president, Donald Trump, declaring the ceasefire over in Iran
01:42and reigniting his demand to control Greenland.
01:45For more, let's bring in our NATO correspondent, Shona Murray, who's been following the summit all week for us.
01:51Well, good morning, Maeve.
01:52Look, we know that the object of this summit really was for NATO allies in Europe and Canada to prove
01:56that they're on a credible path to spending 5% of GDP on defence by 2035 as agreed at the
02:03last NATO summit.
02:04And I think we can say that they achieved that part for sure.
02:07We saw at the NATO Industry Defence Forum, there was $50 billion committed to of new capabilities
02:14when it comes to submarines, aircraft, ammunition, interceptors,
02:18all very important to protect the European continent as well as the Arctic in the medium to long term.
02:24There was also this NATO drone edge, which is drones and anti-drone technology,
02:28which also includes the recruitment and training of pilots for use all across NATO territory.
02:33Very important at the moment because we see all these drone incursions taking place
02:37across the Baltics and Poland and other parts of NATO.
02:40In addition, we saw Donald Trump having a better relationship with Vladimir Zelensky,
02:44the Ukrainian president, and appeared to approve the Ukrainians the licence
02:48to manufacture their own patriot defence systems,
02:52which is very important in terms of the Ukrainian air defence.
02:55But as with Donald Trump, you know, you're only one sort of issue away
03:00from the whole summit being upended.
03:02And we nearly had that because when he arrived, he castigated his allies over the war in Iran.
03:08And he also made the comments that the United States would like to control Greenland over Denmark.
03:14Take a listen to John Bolton, his former national security adviser,
03:18saying that Donald Trump does this just to court controversy.
03:21He's trolling people, as they say.
03:23In the first term, I was in his office once, he was dictating a tweet,
03:28and he told the person typing the tweet,
03:30capitalize all the letters in that last sentence,
03:33which a lot of people, it drives them, it just is very distracting for people.
03:38And he turned and said to me, do you know why I just said that?
03:41And I said, no, why?
03:42And he said, because it drives them crazy.
03:45So why does he talk about taking Greenland?
03:48Because it drives them crazy.
03:49That's what it's about.
03:50So that was John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser,
03:54making the point that Donald Trump makes these outlandish statements in order to create division.
03:59But we have to listen to the prime minister of Denmark as well yesterday, Mette Frederiksen.
04:04And she made the point that Denmark takes these comments very seriously.
04:08She said that Denmark was ready to protect all of Danish, Greenlandish and NATO territory,
04:14but she called on the United States to respect the sovereignty of Greenland and Denmark.
04:17And I think it's worth also pointing out that the prime minister of Greenland just a few months ago
04:21said that when he met the US envoy to Greenland,
04:24that the United States had not changed the position when it comes to taking over or having Greenland.
04:30So this is still an issue that is particularly ongoing and should be taken seriously.
04:35I think that's the point as well.
04:37Maeve.
04:37OK, Shona Murray, thank you so much for that update there from Ankara.
04:40Yeah. And now to dive deeper into the outcomes of that NATO summit,
04:44we can bring in Jamie Shea, former NATO security adviser who spent many years here
04:48in the headquarters of NATO in Brussels.
04:50Jamie Shea, thank you so much for joining us.
04:53Curious to hear your view.
04:54Was this a successful NATO gathering?
04:57I think, yes, ultimately it was.
04:59And good morning to you, too.
05:00And thanks for having me on the show.
05:02It ended better than it started.
05:04Clearly, Trump was in a more friendly mood towards the alliance in the private meeting.
05:10And I suppose that's the one that really counts than in some of his public remarks.
05:14For example, he did say that the US is staying in the alliance.
05:17Somebody like Trump hearing that is not always to be taken for granted.
05:22He signed off on a communique, which may not be the most interesting thing for the media,
05:27but it's important for diplomats.
05:29The official text where the US committed itself to NATO Article 5 collective defence and called it ironclad.
05:36These were the kind of things that the allies wanted to hear.
05:39And, of course, he also showed some satisfaction, unsurprisingly, with the fact that his message
05:46on defence spending has been heeded.
05:49Mark Rutter and the other allies were at pains to point out that over the last year,
05:53Europe and Canada have spent 11% more on defence.
05:57The figure now is about an extra $250 billion over the last two years on military budgets.
06:04So, although five allies out of the 32 today are on that 5% target, so there's still a long
06:11way to go.
06:12Allies have until 2035, but all of them practically, with a few laggards, are moving in the right direction.
06:19So, the summit was designed, of course, to be a Trump-pleasing summit by showing that the responsibility for NATO
06:25is moving,
06:26both financially and militarily, onto Europe.
06:29So, I think, yes, you know, people were expecting a rough ride with Trump.
06:32You always get that.
06:34But, you know, as they said about Wagner's music, it's better than it sounds.
06:39And I think it ended up on a more positive note than people had feared when Trump first arrived in
06:44Ankara.
06:45And as you saw, months of work, of course, goes into organising these summits.
06:48As you say, officials are happy for now.
06:51But, of course, Trump was very critical of allies like Spain and the UK.
06:54Is this really the end of NATO, do you think, as we know it?
06:57No, I don't believe so.
06:59But, you know, whether Trump doesn't like NATO or does, the messaging changes.
07:03I think, you know, if you look at the trend line, it's been pretty clear now for a decade or
07:09so already,
07:10which is that the United States is going to stay in NATO, which is good, but it's going to do
07:14a lot less
07:15in terms of holding up the collective defence than allies we used to during the Cold War.
07:19For example, just at a NATO defence minister's meeting a couple of days before the Ankara summit,
07:25the US Secretary of War, Pete Hegsher, announced a number of significant reductions
07:29in US contributions to the NATO full structure.
07:33You know, only one aircraft carrier now instead of two, one strategic bomber instead of two,
07:37two, far fewer drones, far fewer fighter aircraft.
07:42And Europe has had to scramble to sort of find in its own arsenals those capabilities to replace the US.
07:48We have the specter of 5,000 US troops leaving Germany.
07:53They may, some of them may go to Poland, but it's not certain.
07:57I mean, the good news is that the United States continues to uphold nuclear deterrence for Europe.
08:01That's important and stays in the NATO command structure.
08:04But everybody now is talking about NATO 3.0, whereby they mean a NATO which is going to be run,
08:12financed, resourced, operated, you know, Europeans in the front line,
08:16much more a European show and less an American show than the NATO we've all been used to from our
08:21fathers and grandfathers.
08:24And just on Iran, though, we saw, of course, the war flare up in the last couple of days.
08:30And Trump says the ceasefire is over. Where do we go from here, Jamie Shea?
08:34Well, I think we need to wait and see, because clearly the talks with Iran have not yet been broken
08:40off,
08:40even if they're not going anywhere fast.
08:43I think, you know, Trump knows from opinion polling in the United States and even the Senate passing the war
08:48powers resolution,
08:50that this war is not popular at home, even with his own Republican MAGA base.
08:55The Americans want him to end the war and he's got the midterm elections coming up.
08:59So, you know, I don't think he voluntarily wants to get back into a full scale war against Iran.
09:06And for Europe, of course, it's very bad news, because if Trump, on the one hand,
09:10wants Europe to spend all of this extra money on defence,
09:13the last thing you want to do is tank the European economies with higher oil prices and inflation
09:18and higher debt costs, which are going to make it so much more difficult to fund defence.
09:23And, you know, Europe was sort of hoping for a breathing space with the oil price going down to $60
09:28a barrel.
09:29It's now up 5 percent. You know, who knows where it's going to go.
09:32And therefore, all of the kind of pressures that we had a couple of months ago,
09:35including, of course, things like, you know, fertiliser, not getting out of the Gulf to feed hungry people in Africa.
09:40All of those difficult scenarios are going to return.
09:43But let's wait and see, because I think it's Trump's interest to keep this memorandum of understanding going
09:49and talks with Iran going. And therefore, you know, both sides may choose after, you know,
09:54a flurry of activity to de-escalate once more.
09:58Okay. Jamie Shea, always a pleasure to have you on the programme.
10:00Thank you so much for joining us live this morning.
10:02And now for the humanitarian lens on all of this,
10:05we're joined here in the studio by Jean-Nicolas Beuse from the UNHCR here in Brussels.
10:10Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us.
10:11And of course, as we're reporting there, the war in Iran really flaring up again.
10:15What does that mean for your job and for, of course, migration flows and the humanitarian aspect?
10:20So every time that bombs are being dropped or drones attacks occur,
10:25we have people who are forced to leave their home, whether it's in Iran, in Ukraine or in Sudan.
10:30So we can expect that some people last night had to flee their home because they were destroyed.
10:35But also many others will flee as a preventative measure
10:39because they are afraid that they are the next target.
10:41What we saw in the case of Iran, specifically earlier this year,
10:45is that more, according to official figure, more than one million people were displaced,
10:49mainly to rural areas to avoid the urban centre, which were targeted, but have no come back.
10:56Except that for 150,000 families who have their house destroyed,
11:01they will not be able to come back.
11:03So that's where the humanitarian, UNHCR and others have to step in to provide some support
11:08with the authorities in the case of Iran.
11:11And how are you providing that support when cuts are being, you know,
11:14there's many cutbacks to your organisation.
11:16We're hearing as well Trump saying that the bombing could get, quote, much worse.
11:21Every time we have to make choice, we have to decide, we have to prioritise who we are going to
11:26help.
11:26Are we going to help the mothers with three children or the mother with seven children?
11:30Are we going to help the elderly people who have no support?
11:34Every time it's a choice, because indeed, over the last two years, three years,
11:39the humanitarian partners have seen the budget put at their disposal by donor countries,
11:46the US, the European Union, the Gulf countries,
11:50really shrink to almost less than half of what we had three years ago.
11:54And the needs are continuing rising.
11:56So therefore, we are unable to help everyone.
11:58And meanwhile, it's already one month since the EU's migration and asylum pact has come into force.
12:03What has changed, in your view?
12:04So we will see the test is really the implementation in every of the 27 member states.
12:10We will see whether it will make the decision faster, fairer,
12:14whether it will make the life of the decision maker easier and less costly for us, the taxpayer,
12:19because it will be a more rapid decision,
12:22but also whether the principle, the protection principle behind the asylum system in Europe will help.
12:29Are we going to continue not detaining people or people who seek asylum will be systematically detained?
12:35Are we going to give them legal aid so they can navigate the asylum procedure, which are quite complex?
12:41Or are we going to leave them alone, figuring out what needs to be done with appeal,
12:47and appeal which are very costly for us?
12:49So the test now is really in the implementation.
12:51And a big focus now, of course, on returns.
12:53And we saw technical talks take place recently here between officials from the Commission and the Taliban.
12:58What was your view of this encounter?
13:00So what we need to remind everyone is that a country may be in different phases.
13:06We're speaking about Afghanistan with the Taliban.
13:08We're speaking about Syria with a new regime and probably more hope for people to return.
13:13And we're speaking about Sudan, where the return is not possible because it's a dire situation with the conflict and
13:20famine increasing.
13:21What is really important for the European Union is to keep the principle that nobody shall be returned to a
13:28possible situation of harm.
13:30And the harm can come from different actors, from different situations.
13:34So before sending anyone to Afghanistan, Syria or Sudan, we need to ensure that there is an individual assessment.
13:42Will this person be able to regain control over their life without being put at risk?
13:48Okay.
13:49Jean-Nicolas Boos, thank you so much for coming into us here and being our guest on Europe Today.
13:53But now moving on to another story.
13:55The EU's anti-fraud wing, OLAV, has caught an international trafficking operation responsible for counterfeit condoms.
14:01They're untested, uncontrolled and unsafe.
14:04Jacob Yanis has the story.
14:08It would be an easy topic to laugh at if it wasn't a matter of public health.
14:12Brussels' anti-fraud investigators at OLAV just broke up an international smuggling group.
14:17And criminals tried to slip their illegal cargo past European border checks using a bizarre disguise.
14:23They declared their shipments as children's toys to evade customs controls.
14:28But there was a problem because the boxes did not contain toys at all.
14:33The cross-border network distributed more than 200,000 counterfeit condoms across the continent.
14:40Smugglers targeted three specific nations as their main entry hubs.
14:44Romania, Serbia and Spain.
14:46And when the border teams intercepted the fakes, it turned out they all come from a single source in China.
14:52And the total black market value of this illegal shipment sits at over 200,000 euros.
14:57But you see, potential health costs will be much higher.
15:00The European anti-fraud office warns these fakes are untested and unsafe.
15:05Or, in plain English, they can spread infections and cause unplanned pregnancies.
15:10But there is also a bigger picture here.
15:13Fake condoms are just one part of the massive black market boom across the continent.
15:18And I'll give you an example.
15:20Last year, a global Interpol crackdown seized 57 million euros worth of counterfeit medicines.
15:27And this part is important.
15:29When it comes to Europe, the main targets were fake weight loss pens
15:32and cosmetic and performance enhancing peptide supplements.
15:35For distribution, criminals do not even need to use the dark web anymore.
15:40They simply flood social media to sell their knockoffs straight to your feed.
15:45But back to our fake condoms.
15:47Brussels claims this raid proves European enforcement works.
15:51But it also shows how criminals exploit the system.
15:54The continent still remains open to black market fakes.
15:57And with countless cases going unnoticed,
16:00it might look like Europe is left without protection.
16:07Yeah, I could be honest there.
16:08And now it's time for our World Cup segment.
16:16Well, following a day without World Cup action,
16:19after 27 days of games, goals and emotions,
16:22just eight teams remain.
16:24Six European, one African and one from the Americas.
16:27One side will be eliminated every day until Sunday.
16:30So here's four things that you should know about the quarterfinals.
16:34First, France probably remains the favourites.
16:37But standing in their way are Morocco,
16:39who just like in 2022, are the only African team left at this stage.
16:43This time, though, they arrive as African champions
16:46and have a much more mature side.
16:47So expect a very good fight.
16:50Then Spain, who's the only team yet to concede a goal,
16:53with Unai Simone breaking the record for the longest run
16:56without conceding in the tournament's history.
16:58The question now, of course, can Belgium end that run?
17:01Now, the Red Devils definitely have some renewed confidence
17:04after knocking out one of the tournament's co-hosts, the United States.
17:08They've also faced Spain in the World Cup twice,
17:10losing in 1990 and winning in 1986 with a penalty shootout.
17:15And third, one team will be playing its first ever World Cup quarterfinals,
17:19and that's, of course, Norway.
17:21They've risen 12 places in FIFA's World Cup ranking
17:24since the start of the tournament, from 31st to 19th.
17:27If they beat England, they could enter the top 10.
17:31The clash will see two of the tournament's deadliest strikers go head-to-head.
17:34I'm talking, of course, about Erling Haaland and Harry Kane.
17:37So that is a match not to be missed.
17:40And finally, Messi.
17:41After leading Argentina to a late victory over Egypt with a goal and an assist,
17:45he became the very first player to score in nine consecutive World Cup matches.
17:50Messi is the tournament's all-time assist hero,
17:52and he's the first player, aged 30 or over, to score eight goals at a single World Cup.
17:58What record is left for him to break, and can he keep it going against Switzerland?
18:02Stay tuned and enjoy the games.
18:04But that brings this edition of Europe Today to an end.
18:07Thank you so much for tuning in, as always.
18:09Reach out to us if you have any points, comments or questions.
18:12EuropeToday at euronews.com, that is our email address.
18:15But from all of us, thank you so much for tuning in.
18:18Take care and see you very soon on Euronews.
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19:54Bye.
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