00:01Asylum applications in Europe reached a five-year law in the first half of the year, according to new data.
00:10More than 100 members of the European Parliament have called on EU leaders in a letter to reopen talks on
00:16using Russia's frozen assets to support Ukraine.
00:23Asylum applications in Europe reached a five-year law in the first half of the year, according to new data
00:29from the European Union Agency for Asylum.
00:31EU member states plus Switzerland and Norway received about 332,000 applications for international protection in the first half of
00:402026.
00:41It represents a 17% decline compared to the same period last year, following a downward trend since 2024.
00:48The bloc's asylum agency said this decline is due to the ongoing political transition in Syria, as well as the
00:55EU's cooperation with countries of origin and transit.
00:59The EU has, for instance, signed agreements with Tunisia and Mauritania, providing financial aid in exchange of border control in
01:07a bid to curb irregular migration flows.
01:09The countries that received the most asylum applications were France, closely followed by Italy, Spain and Germany.
01:16For its part, Greece received the most applications per capita, with one application for every 400 or so residents.
01:2431% of asylum applicants were granted international protection in the first half of the year.
01:30The countries of origin with the highest recognition rate were Mali, Haiti and Afghanistan.
01:34Meanwhile, the largest applicants' group were Afghans, Venezuelans and Bangladeshi.
01:45Europe's housing crisis has escalated to an emergency, as many young people across Europe find it impossible to buy or
01:53even rent a home.
01:54The European Commissioner for Housing, Dan Jorgensen, has told your news.
01:58Property prices across the EU have skyrocketed by roughly 60% over the past decade, while in the same period,
02:05average rents rose by over 20%.
02:07So prices in many cities in Europe are way too high.
02:11So we see normal people with normal jobs not being able to find a place to live, being crowded out
02:18of the cities where they serve as police officers, nurses and teachers and so on.
02:21So this is totally unacceptable and we need to act.
02:24Despite not holding any direct competence or legislative power over housing, the European Commission unveiled new rules designed to give
02:32local and national authorities legal backing for restricting short-term holiday rentals.
02:37The Commissioner also acknowledged that tightening the screws on short-term rentals is not a silver bullet.
02:43We also need to do more to build more houses, to renovate more houses, to find new purposes for buildings
02:51that are already existing so that they can become houses.
02:54We need to cut red tape so that it's easier to provide more housing.
02:58We need to mobilize more financing.
03:01We need to make it more feasible and easy to build social housing.
03:05While short-term rentals represent just 1.2% of the EU's total housing stock, they can account for up
03:12to 20% in some tourism hotspots.
03:19More than 100 members of the European Parliament have called on EU leaders to reopen talks on using Russia's frozen
03:27assets to support Ukraine.
03:29It comes as Kiev flags a 23 billion euros shortfall in defense funding and EU countries remain reluctant to commit
03:37more money from their national budgets.
03:39The letter sent on Wednesday, seen by Euronews, argues Moscow should pay for the damage caused by its war, backing
03:48a renewed push started by four EU countries at the end of August to unlock the immobilized assets.
03:55The EU holds more than 200 billion euros in Russian assets, most of it in Belgium.
04:01The European Commission put forward a plan last December to convert them into a zero-interest loan to finance Ukraine's
04:09defense against Moscow's full-scale invasion.
04:13But EU countries failed to agree to unlock the funds amid fears over the legal risk, and the plan fell
04:20apart at the leaders' summit in Brussels.
04:23Earlier this year, the bloc gave the final green light to a 90 billion euro support loan for Ukraine.
04:28Still, MEPs warn that it will not be enough, with the estimated cost of Russian destruction already exceeding 600 billion
04:38euros.
04:42The European Commission is preparing a new legislative proposal to close enforcement gaps that allow illegal products sold through e
04:51-commerce platforms to reach EU consumers, according to a leaked draft seen by Euronews.
04:57The bill does not explicitly cite China, but it comes as Brussels steps up efforts to tackle the surge of
05:05low-value e-commerce imports, particularly from Chinese platforms such as Temu and Sheen.
05:10The legislative proposal, named the European Product Act, is expected to be published early October.
05:17It also introduces liability for online marketplaces in certain circumstances, a significant centralization of the market surveillance system, and a
05:27new fee.
05:27The bill aims to crack down on imports of illegal products, particularly from online marketplaces, by ensuring an economic operator
05:36in the EU is always legally responsible for non-compliance.
05:39The draft would also empower the Commission to carry out investigations and enforcement actions if non-compliant products are likely
05:48to have been placed in at least two-thirds of member states and no national authority has opened a market
05:55surveillance investigation after being notified.
06:03The European Central Bank's governing council lifted the deposit facility rate from 2.25% to 2.5% on
06:12Thursday as the ongoing global energy shock pushes inflation higher.
06:17It is the second hike since June, when the ECB moved for the first time in three years.
06:22In its statement, the central bank noted that the conflict in the Middle East continues to generate inflation pressures, and
06:30inflation is said to remain well above target for an extended period.
06:35The ECB staff projections continue to estimate that headline inflation will average 3% this year.
06:42However, it has revised up the expectations for 2027 and 2028 to 2.5% and 2.1% respectively,
06:51compared with June.
06:53Energy costs did nearly all the work, with energy inflation jumping to 14.3% from 10.3%
07:00as fighting around the Strait of Ormuz kept crude supply constrained.
07:05Underneath, the picture is calmer, co-inflation, which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, actually fell to 2.4
07:14% from 2.5% in August,
07:16while services inflation, the component most sensitive to wages, dropped to 3% from 3.3%.
07:29August was the hottest month on record tied with July 2023, according to data published on Thursday by the European
07:38Climate Observatory, Copernicus.
07:40The global average air temperature was 1.65 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial reference value.
07:48August was the first month since November 2025 to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, the limit set by the Paris
07:57Agreement on Climate Change.
07:59The extra-polar oceans also broke a record for their average temperature last month due to global warming, Copernicus points
08:07out.
08:07The average temperature reached 21.07 degrees Celsius in August, the highest ever recorded for that month, surpassing the record
08:17set in 2023.
08:18For the European continent specifically, these figures mark the end of the hottest summer ever recorded in Western Europe,
08:26with prolonged, intense and early heat waves beginning as early as May.
08:31For the region, the summer of 2026 broke the record set during the same period in 2003.
08:39The continent also suffered from widespread drought, with exceptionally low water levels in rivers such as the Rhine, the Danube,
08:47the Vistula, the Rhône and the Po.
08:49The drier-than-average conditions also led to numerous wildfires in several regions across Europe.
08:59Yemen's Houthi seized control of the strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha on Thursday and were advancing towards the
09:06Bab-el-Mandeb Strait,
09:08according to a Yemeni military source.
09:11Witnesses said they saw Houthi forces entering the city while chanting Death to America, Death to Israel.
09:18The rebel group, which controls about one-third of Yemen's territory, is vying to seize and potentially disrupt the narrow
09:25waterway,
09:26which links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
09:30They launched a large-scale offensive last week against Yemeni government forces, who are backed by Saudi Arabia.
09:37They also launched attacks on Saudi territory that left dozens wounded,
09:42leading Riyadh to respond with daily strikes on Houthi-held territory.
09:47The Houthis came to power in late 2014, after storming Sana'a and seizing the presidential palace and key military
09:54sites,
09:55forcing Yemen's government into exile.
09:57They fought a Saudi-led coalition from 2015 until a United Nations brokered ceasefire in 2022.
10:05The ongoing exchanges risk returning Yemen to a conflict that left hundreds of thousands of people dead
10:12and sparked one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
10:18U.S. President Donald Trump slammed Democrats as extremists and staunchly defended the war in Iran
10:25while making the extraordinary pledge to pay every adult American $5,000.
10:30Speaking at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, Trump said the conflict with Iran was necessary
10:36because Tehran was perhaps two, maybe three weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.
10:41He also appeared to acknowledge that the war had hurt the U.S. economy before explaining why he believed he
10:47had to start the conflict.
10:49Trump urged the voters to treat the midterms as if he were personally on the ballot,
10:54highlighting around 35 key House and Senate races and promising to visit those states.
10:59He also attacked Democrats as radical left Democrats,
11:03warning that the country could spend a decade recovering if they won.
11:07Trump then placed a $5,000 Trump dividend to every adult if Republicans retain control of Congress.
11:15And here is my promise.
11:16If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate,
11:22both of them,
11:23because of our economic,
11:26tremendous economic success,
11:28I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America
11:34for $5,000.
11:40The proposal could cost at least $1 trillion and would require congressional approval.
11:45$1 trillion, we're at 1776.
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