Europe Today: Spain crowned World Cup champions as US strikes in Iran continue

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Europe Today: Spain crowned World Cup champions as US strikes in Iran continue  Spain have been crowned World Cup champions for the second time in their history after defeating Argentina 1-0 in extra time last night. Meanwhile, the US has continued to strike Iran for the ninth consecutive night and Andy Burnham is set to become the UK’s new prime minister today.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/20/europe-today-spain-crowned-world-cup-champions-as-us-strikes-in-iran-continue  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:13Good morning, it's Monday the 20th of July and you're watching Europe Today, your morning

00:19dose of European news and analysis here on Euronews. I'm Marit Gwynne and I'll be with

00:25you throughout this week. Coming up today, Spain have been crowned World Cup champions

00:31for the second time in their history after defeating Argentina 1-0 in extra time last

00:37night. Barcelona striker Ferran Torres scored the winning goal in the 106th minute against

00:44a 10-man Argentina after Enzo Fernández received a red card. The Spanish squad will celebrate

00:51the victory in Madrid tonight after a night of parting across Spain. We'll be bringing

00:56you the atmosphere from Madrid. And the US has continued to strike Iran for the ninth consecutive

01:04night with another US serviceman killed, this time in northern Iraq during the controlled

01:10detonation of a downed Iranian drone. A Kuwaiti power and desalination plant was attacked by

01:16Iran for the second time in two days on Sunday, raising fears of a widening conflict. We'll

01:22have the latest from our correspondent in the Middle East.

01:25And Andy Burnham is set to become the UK's new Prime Minister today, taking over from Keir

01:31Sarma. He's tasked with uniting a fractured party and fending off a growing threat from the

01:38far-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage. Burnham has also vowed to decentralise power away

01:45from London. We'll have more analysis. But first, this morning, we're taking you straight

01:50to Madrid. A dominant Spanish side was held by Argentina to a goalless draw during 90 minutes

01:57of play in last night's World Cup final. But despite Argentina's grit and resistance,

02:04Spain striker Ferran Torres broke the deadlock in added time with the only goal of the match.

02:09That was after Argentina's Enzo Fernández was shown the red card in stoppage time.

02:15So let's cross over now to Madrid and to our correspondent, Maria Munoz, who's standing

02:20by for us there. Maria, good to see you. What a night for Spain. Give us a sense of the

02:25atmosphere

02:26there this morning.

02:28Good morning, Maret from Spain. Well, people are still celebrating on the streets. They

02:34are being celebrating all night long. I was coming to the office this early morning and

02:39they were shouting, they were singing. They are all very happy. We've seen that Spain has

02:45gotten better and better match after match. They started with a draw against Cape Verde, but

02:51then they improved. They showed they are a collective team, something Luis de la Fuente

02:56has insisted on. They are not just some bright players. They are not just one single player

03:02who is the star. They are a family. Same philosophy that made the former national team champions

03:09in 2020. They have shown they have improved against Belgium and against one of the main favorites

03:17in this tournament as it was France. Yesterday, there was one team playing football and another

03:23one trying to prevent them from playing. Spain tried to score 20 times. The result is quite short

03:31after all those occasions, more than 20 they had. We may have witnessed last messy match with the

03:40Argentinian squad. He was very sad. We could see him crying. But what can I say? We are very happy

03:46here. Yesterday, we were in the fans zone with the fans celebrating our triumph in this

03:53World Cup. Let's take a look.

03:58The match was incredibly exciting, right until the last moment when we secured the victory.

04:03We beat Leo Messi. Ciao Leo Messi!

04:06The match was very good, but the referee was very very Argentinian.

04:11spectacular. Very good. We came all the way from Puerto Rico. We arrived today to see the game.

04:17We wanted to be here at the heart of it all. We wanted to watch the game from Spain and

04:21see the world champions.

04:24I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, Spanish.

04:29Maria, briefly, we know that there are plans for celebrations in Madrid also later tonight.

04:39Yes, the team will arrive around 1 p.m. to Barajas airport. Then they will go visit the royal family.

04:46And then around 6 p.m. the real party will start with a bus parade with all the players offering

04:52the

04:52trophy to the fans. They will arrive around 9 p.m. to Sibeles where the party is going to start

04:58with

04:58concerts and with all the happiness they've brought to us from America.

05:06Okay, Maria Muñoz, in Madrid for us this morning. Thank you. And I'm sure we'll see more of those

05:11celebrations on Euronews throughout the day. But we're moving to the Middle East next,

05:15where the U.S. has carried out the ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran. Meanwhile, Iran's

05:22Revolutionary Guard has vowed not to let a single drop of oil or gas pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

05:28For more, we can cross over to our correspondent, Adel Halim, who's in Qatar for us. So, Adel,

05:34more strikes overnight and the current spiral of violence is showing no signs of subsiding.

05:42Good morning, Maher. Yes, the conflict continues to escalate. The U.S. has completed a nine

05:46consecutive night of strikes inside Iran, targeting military command centers,

05:50air defense systems, and missile sites. Meanwhile, Iran has responded with attacks of its own.

05:56The air defense systems have been activated across the Gulf, with Kuwait intercepting drones,

06:03Bahrain sounding sirens, and Jordan reporting missile interceptions. The U.S. has also confirmed

06:08a third military death over the weekend. A service member was killed in Iraq in what is called a

06:13controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone. This follows the deaths of two U.S. troops in

06:20Jordan. So, despite repeated calls for diplomacy, both sides are continuing to exchange fire and

06:25the conflict is spreading across the region. Marit. And Adel, we also know power and desalination

06:31plants in the Gulf are being increasingly targeted. How much of a worry is that in the region?

06:39Absolutely. One of the biggest concerns now is that critical infrastructure is increasingly being

06:45caught up in the fighting. We've seen allegations of attacks on power plants and water desalination

06:52plants in the Gulf. Those facilities provide drinking water to millions of people. If essential

06:57infrastructure becomes a regular target, the consequences extend well beyond the battlefield

07:02and start to affect everyday life. We're also seeing the conflict spread geographically. As we've heard,

07:07it's no longer just about the U.S. and Iran, where Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait have come under attack.

07:13That's why countries like Qatar and Pakistan continue to push for de-escalation and diplomacy.

07:18But at the moment, the military action is moving much faster than any kind of diplomacy.

07:23Indeed. Adel, for us in Doha, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed there.

07:28Now, we're moving to the UK next, where Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Manchester,

07:33will today become prime minister, taking over from Sir Keir Starmer. Burnham is also expected to name

07:39his cabinet members today. For more, I'm joined live now by Tim Bale, who is a politics professor at

07:45Queen Mary University of London. Tim, really good to have you with us this morning. So listen,

07:51Burnham is promising big change, the biggest change in UK politics in 40 years, he says.

07:56How crucial will his cabinet appointments now be in setting the tone for his government and ensuring

08:02he hits the ground running?

08:04Well, I think you're right to say they will set the tone. There's been quite a lot of speculation

08:08over the weekend and indeed the last week, particularly about the position of Chancellor

08:13of the Exchequer, the key finance ministerial position. It looks like it's slipped away from

08:19Andy Burnham's key ally, Ed Miliband, who is seen by some to risk spooking the markets,

08:26to coin that cliche, and instead go to Shabana Mahmood, who is seen to be more on the right of

08:32the Labour Party and probably will cause a few eruptions in the market. That means Ed Miliband

08:39will probably go to Foreign Secretary. But it is absolutely clear that he does have to

08:46signal a departure from what's gone on before. Otherwise, in some ways, there is no point

08:51replacing Keir Starmer with someone else. So yes, today will be very important.

08:57You don't get a second chance to create a first impression. So everything about today,

09:02the choreography and indeed the choreography for the next week, I think will be absolutely crucial.

09:06You mentioned the importance of the Chancellor and this resetting what many would call a broken

09:12economy. But he's also prioritising this push for more devolution or the idea of delegating power

09:19to the regions, even creating a number 10 north, he says. How much of a shift in thinking is this

09:25for a UK Prime Minister? I'm not sure it's as big a shift as people think, actually. Prime Ministers

09:31for a long time, whether they be Conservative or Labour, have been talking about the over-centralisation

09:38of the UK and particularly the over-centralisation of the UK economy. Even under the Conservatives,

09:44you saw an outpost of the Treasury being created in Darlington in the north-east of the country.

09:50So in some ways, I think this is more about mood music than it is necessarily about substance.

09:57That said, obviously, given that some of our more peripheral regions feel that they have been left

10:04out from whatever growth there has been in the British economy, it is important that we spread

10:10the wealth out from the south-east and London, where it is at the moment concentrated. And that

10:15obviously has a particular knock-on effect for the kind of jobs that are available in those areas.

10:21So I think devolution is important, but I don't think it is the magic bullet that some,

10:26and indeed possibly Andy Burnham, suggest it is.

10:29Very, very briefly, Tim, if I may, just to close. We're watching intently here from Brussels,

10:33of course. Do you expect a big shift in Burnham's EU and foreign policy compared to the Sama government?

10:42Very briefly, no. Strong support for Ukraine, trying to handle an erratic US president and

10:48trying to move towards closer relationships with the EU, but in some ways, unfortunately,

10:54not really making a big move on the single market or the customs union. There'll just be incremental

10:58moves until possibly the next parliament if Burnham gets re-elected.

11:02Okay. Thank you so much for that analysis for us from London. But we're moving on now,

11:08because last Friday, the European Commission unveiled proposals aimed at making European

11:12banks more competitive. It's widely seen as a move to close the gap with US rivals. Well,

11:19on Friday, our correspondent, Sasha Vakulina, caught up with the European Commissioner for Financial

11:23Services, Maria Luiz Albuquerque, and started by asking her what impact she hoped the proposals could

11:29have for European citizens and businesses. Banks are very important in the European economy. They're

11:36important for citizens. They're important for businesses, for financing. So we need them to be

11:42efficient and to work well. We have found a few problems which need to be addressed. And we have,

11:49with this diagnosis also indicated the way forward. So it is about making our banking sector better

11:58prepared to support citizens, businesses, and the Europeans' ambitions and vision for the future.

12:05And what is the key aspect here when it comes to the Europeans, to ordinary save? You focus on this

12:11category. What is the key? People typically go to banks for one of two things. Either they need to borrow

12:19money for a mortgage, for whatever objective. They should have banks which are efficient but also

12:27competitive so that people can compare different offers and choose the one which is best. But also

12:34people save money and put money aside for a rainy day, for a pension, for whatever reason. And banks are

12:42often the agents, the intermediaries that people go to. So the more efficient the banks are, the more

12:52competitive the system is, the better will be the offer of such opportunities for our households wanting

12:58to save and invest their money. When we look at the world of big powers, does Europe need more cross

13:04-border

13:04mergers, meaning probably fewer but bigger European banks and therefore more consolidation?

13:11Yes, we need a few big banks. But if we compare the average size of even the bigger European banks

13:21and our

13:22competitors who also operate in Europe, by the way, namely American banks, the size is completely different.

13:31And for some areas of business, that scale really matters. We have identified the fragmentation of the

13:38banking sector or the incompleteness of the single market in banking as the main problem holding us back

13:47in terms of competitiveness. That is actually the bigger problem we have discovered. This makes

13:52it very inefficient. This perspective of looking at member states in isolation is actually very

14:00costly to the European economy. I think that member states, they come from the past where we looked

14:08at this from a national perspective. But I think we have all realized that our true competitors are

14:16other blocks. So it's Europe together with our other competitors. And that requires that change in

14:24mindset. Of course, it's difficult. It's a significant change and there is a normal resistance to change.

14:32But I think the fact that there is awareness and the conscience that the costs of not moving are

14:38increasing, I think we have now better conditions to deliver on those objectives.

14:43The report argues that Europe's banks need to take more risk if they are to finance,

14:49growth and compete globally. Where do you draw the line between encouraging certain risk-taking

14:56and avoiding the mistakes that led to previous financial crisis?

15:00It's not banks that need to take more risk. It's the whole Europe that needs to have a different

15:07approach to risk. So because of how we are, I don't know, also because of cultural elements,

15:16but because of some inefficiencies in our system and still the legacy of the previous crisis, we focused a lot

15:25on reducing and trying to eliminate risk. But if you eliminate risk, you eliminate opportunities.

15:30We know that risk-taking is indispensable for innovation, for economic growth. So what we are

15:37talking about here is a recalibration. Now, we need to adjust the parameters of the framework to say

15:44that some more risk-taking should be considered in the system as a whole when it comes to financing

15:52certain activities. But this is the political discussion. How much risk are we comfortable to

15:58allow into the system preserving financial stability? Because financial stability is a precondition.

16:05Without financial stability, nothing else works. So we need to find the right balance. What we are

16:10talking about here is rebalancing, allowing some more risk while preserving financial stability. It's a

16:17recalibration. It's not going back to the past because we have learned the lessons and we are much better

16:23prepared to manage risk in a sound and prudent manner now.

16:30Now, Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, has said that online ecosystems are reshaping

16:37terrorist threats. In a report released last week, the agency also said that violence has become a means of

16:43gaining identity and belonging for a number of perpetrators, and that this creates a more

16:49complex threat across Europe. To discuss those findings in more detail, I'm joined now by Anna Sjöbri,

16:55head of the European Counterterrorism Center at Europol. Good morning, Anna. Great to have you with us.

17:02Your report states that the lines between established terrorist ideologies and other forms of violent

17:08extremism and extremism are being blurred. Why is that a reason to be worried?

17:14Yeah, we need to follow the development. And this is also what we have been describing since,

17:20if we go back the 10 years since Europe experienced the wave of mass casualties and major attacks,

17:26and also when European Counterterrorism Center was created. And since that, we have done these

17:32trend and situation reports to describe the development of the threat. And this year, we actually describe

17:39that the threat is persistent, it still exists, and it's a major threat against European security.

17:45And the development, as you say, the blurred lines, it's because we are seeing an increasing

17:52number of different ideologies that are diversitized ideologies, also not only the traditional ones.

18:00So you mentioned diversifying ideologies, but what would you say, based on your analysis,

18:06is the biggest threat that Europeans should be concerned about right now?

18:11Yeah, we need to understand that the threat is persistent. If you go back to 2025 and look at the

18:18numbers of arrests, you have almost 500 arrests, terrorist-related arrests in the European Union. This

18:25shows that the threat is persistent. We also see that the major threat comes from

18:30jihadism, and that's also the most lethal threat. But we also need to understand the development of these

18:37new ideological platforms that are also popping up.

18:41And finally, I want to ask you, because the report also points to more lone actor attacks,

18:47doesn't that make preventing or addressing the threat almost impossible for law enforcement?

18:54Yeah, that's one of the challenging elements that we are also pointing out, because of course, if you have a

19:00lone actor using simple methods, and that doesn't actually require a lot of preparation, but they are

19:09radicalized online. And it also, this provides a lack of possibility for law enforcement to intervene in

19:16timely matters.

19:18Okay. Anna Siobery, speaking to us from Europol, thank you so much for your time this morning.

19:24But that's all we have time for today, I'm afraid. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll be back

19:30at the

19:30same time, same place tomorrow. So we hope to see you then. In the meantime, take care.

19:44We'll see you then.

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