Global Pulse

标签： Europe

欧洲

  • A US license could let Ukraine produce Patriot missiles, but it won’t be simple or quick

    A US license could let Ukraine produce Patriot missiles, but it won’t be simple or quick

    At the NATO summit held in Ankara, Turkey, alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump made a landmark announcement: the United States would grant Ukraine a manufacturing license to produce American-designed Patriot air defense systems, the critical defensive capability Kyiv has pursued for years to shield its population, cities and critical infrastructure from relentless Russian missile and drone attacks.

    “We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump told attendees, adding that he believed domestic production could be stood up relatively quickly. But the announcement left a critical detail unresolved: exactly what components or full systems Ukraine would be permitted to manufacture under the license. Zelenskyy framed the announcement as a symbolic and strategic win Thursday, telling reporters that Washington now recognizes Ukraine’s capacity to take on this manufacturing work, and that Ukrainian and U.S. diplomatic and defense teams will begin immediate work to finalize all licensing terms and arrangements.

    Patriot air defense systems, and their interceptor missiles specifically, are currently manufactured by major U.S. defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX. Defense analysts and Ukrainian officials emphasize that a general production license does not automatically grant Ukraine the right to build an entire Patriot battery from scratch, which includes launch systems, advanced radar arrays, command and control centers, and interceptor missiles. Instead, the license could be limited to narrower production scopes, such as manufacturing interceptor missiles alone, conducting final assembly from imported component kits, or producing only non-sensitive individual components.

    Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine’s minister of defense, explained that standard U.S. defense manufacturing licenses typically include access to full technical documentation, specialist training, connections to approved parts suppliers, and on-site support from foreign consultants to help launch domestic production. Even so, many experts warn that the first phase of any production will be far more limited than full domestic manufacturing of complete systems.

    Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, development director of Ukraine-based defense firm Fly Group Ukraine, notes that Trump’s original announcement was intentionally ambiguous, referencing broad production of “Patriots” without clarifying whether the license covers missiles, launchers, radar, command centers or individual components. Even manufacturing Patriot interceptors alone requires an extensive, interconnected global supply chain, with hundreds of separate suppliers producing specialized parts ranging from control surfaces and rocket engines to precision guidance systems and military-grade communications electronics.

    While the Trump administration has not released official details about the scope of the proposed license, an anonymous senior administration official confirmed that the U.S. is already drastically accelerating and expanding its own domestic Patriot production to meet surging global demand, and is forging new industrial partnerships with allied nations around the world to boost output of the systems. The war in Ukraine has already demonstrated how rapidly domestic weapons production can scale when a country gains access to design documentation, technical support, and a steady flow of core components: Ukraine has already become a global leader in low-cost, mass-produced expendable attack drones, while Russia has scaled up its own domestic production of Iranian-designed Shahed-type attack drones (rebranded as Gerans in Russia) at a dedicated facility in Tatarstan. But experts stress that Patriot systems are orders of magnitude more complex than these unmanned vehicles, requiring cutting-edge precision guidance, advanced radar technology, high-performance solid-fuel rocket motors, military-grade microelectronics, and rigorous quality certification standards that Ukraine’s existing defense industrial base cannot yet meet.

    Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence, projects that while the bureaucratic and legal process for finalizing the license could begin within a few months, actually launching full production will take multiple years. Even if Ukraine receives fully assembled component kits from foreign suppliers, Chernev estimates it would take at least 18 to 24 months to launch the first pilot production line, with additional time required to roll out the first completed finished weapons. The PAC-3 MSE interceptor, the most modern variant designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, takes roughly 24 months to produce in the U.S. alone, with the solid-fuel rocket motor alone requiring around 30 months of manufacturing work. Chernev added that the most sensitive technologies, particularly the interceptor’s active radar seeker, are unlikely to have their full design documentation transferred to Ukraine for domestic manufacturing, meaning Ukraine will almost certainly have to import the most complex high-tech components and focus initial efforts on final assembly, systems integration, or production of less sensitive parts.

    Dr. Thomas Withington, an electronic warfare, radar and military communications analyst at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, emphasized that public expectations for quick results need to be tempered. While Ukraine’s existing defense industrial base can support early steps toward production, the country still requires significant time to construct specialized manufacturing facilities, train a skilled domestic workforce, and secure stable, uninterrupted supply chains for all required components. “This is not going to be a fix for the air-defense threats Ukraine is going to face tomorrow,” Withington noted.

    The U.S. has a history of allowing allied nations to produce Patriot components under license, and these past examples illustrate that while licensed production is achievable, it proceeds far slower than many observers hope. Japan has produced Patriot missiles under U.S. license for decades: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has assembled PAC-3 interceptors under an agreement with Lockheed Martin, and Japan relaxed its post-World War II arms export restrictions several years ago to allow for the export of U.S.-designed Patriot missiles back to the U.S., a shift that could indirectly help replenish American stocks drawn down by support to Ukraine. A more recent example comes from Germany, where Raytheon and MBDA Deutschland announced a licensed Patriot GEM-T missile production plan in 2022. A major NATO procurement contract for up to 1,000 missiles followed in 2024, with a new production facility in Schrobenhausen set to supply both Ukraine and replenish depleted European alliance stockpiles.

    But Ukraine faces a unique challenge that neither Japan nor Germany has had to contend with: constant, large-scale Russian strikes on Ukrainian industrial and infrastructure targets. Khrapchynskyi explained that any Patriot production facility in Ukraine would immediately become a top priority targeting for Moscow, meaning all production operations would have to be moved to heavily protected locations, likely underground or inside hardened blast shelters. This reality frames the license agreement as a long-term strategic investment rather than an immediate solution to Ukraine’s urgent frontline air defense needs. If successfully implemented, the licensing deal would position Ukraine as a future major producer of air defense weapons, reducing its reliance on Western allies that have already seen their own weapons stockpiles severely strained by months of donations to Kyiv. As Khrapchynskyi put it: “It would not solve the current missile shortage in 2026, but it would lay the foundation for Ukraine to become one of Europe’s leading producers of air-defense systems in the future.”

  • How do England stop Norway – and Haaland?

    How do England stop Norway – and Haaland?

    Ahead of one of the most anticipated quarterfinal matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, European dark horse Norway has defied pre-tournament expectations to reach the final eight, and all eyes are now on how Thomas Tuchel’s England side can shut down Stale Solbakken’s in-form attacking unit led by lethal striker Erling Haaland.

    Few predicted Norway would advance this far, even with their status as an early dark horse pick. After finishing second in Group I ahead of Senegal, the Scandinavian side has knocked out both Ivory Coast and Brazil, netting 12 goals across five matches with Haaland already notching seven tournament goals to his name. Their success stems from a flexible, multi-faceted attacking system built around intelligent build-up play and dynamic off-ball movement that has confounded every opponent they’ve faced so far.

    At the root of Norway’s offensive efficiency is their varied approach to playing out from the back. Starting with goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, who has turned in elite distribution throughout the tournament, Norway typically opens with a short build-up: Nyland joins a wide four-man backline to create a numerical overload in the defensive third, while two holding midfielders drop into central spaces to offer passing options. When short passing lanes are closed off, Nyland has a reliable backup: playing long diagonal balls to 6ft 5in target man Alexander Sorloth, who lines up on the right wing to win aerial duels and bring the ball under control. This puts England’s left-back Nico O’Reilly, a 6ft 4in physical defender, in a far more evenly matched aerial battle than Sorloth has enjoyed in previous rounds.

    To disrupt this well-oiled build-up structure, Tuchel has two primary tactical options, each carrying distinct trade-offs. The most straightforward approach is a full-pitch man-to-man press, which eliminates Norway’s numerical advantage and puts O’Reilly in position to win physical battles against Sorloth. The major risk of this approach, however, is that it leaves Haaland one-on-one with a single center-back in open central space, a matchup nearly any striker in the world would favor. Most coaches would opt to leave an extra defender near Haaland to crowd him out, but that leaves England outnumbered in the press against Norway’s three-man central build-up.

    The second option is a dropped defensive block that prioritizes cutting off passing lanes and limiting space. This approach also carries downsides: it runs counter to Tuchel’s preferred front-foot, aggressive identity, and it allows Norway to control possession, slow the match tempo, and frustrate opponents with patient circulation—something they executed masterfully against Brazil, with playmaker Martin Odegaard dropping deep to dictate play and make it nearly impossible for opponents to win the ball back. This intelligent game management has become a hallmark of Norway’s tournament run.

    Drawing lessons from Brazil’s largely successful tactical approach against Norway could give England an edge. The Seleção successfully forced Nyland onto his weaker left foot by cutting off passing options on the right half of the pitch, positioning wingers to pressure Norway’s full-backs and central attackers to mark holding midfielders and free center-backs. Even with Nyland reliably finding Sorloth from long left-footed passes, forcing this pass and committing players to win the second ball around Sorloth could disrupt Norway’s rhythm. For England, which typically lines up with a front two of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, pushing holding midfielder Declan Rice higher up the pitch to add extra pressing numbers can create chaotic, high-turnover situations that play to England’s strengths.

    While disrupting build-up is important, the biggest challenge remains stopping Haaland, who has already proven unmarkable for most defenses this tournament. The most effective strategy to mute Haaland is cutting off his service rather than trying to mark him one-on-one, and Norway creates most of his chances through intelligent wide movement and overlapping runs. Left-back David Moller Wolfe makes regular underlapping runs that pull opposition midfielders deep, opening up space for left wingers Antonio Nusa and Andreas Schjelderup to cut inside and deliver deep in-swinging crosses to the back post—one of Haaland’s favorite goal-scoring scenarios, alongside runs onto through balls on the left and attacking cut-backs against retreating defenses.

    Crowding Haaland out with multiple defenders is one of the only proven ways to limit his influence, as West Ham demonstrated in a 1-1 draw against Haaland’s Manchester City last season, when they used three center-backs and a holding midfielder to man-mark him closely. For England, the challenge is that doubling up on wide players to stop crosses leaves Moller Wolfe free to receive the ball and deliver his own cross into the box—a tricky tactical puzzle that Tuchel must solve.

    It would not be surprising to see Bellingham drop deeper into a five-man midfield when England is out of possession to add extra defensive cover, matching the dynamic attacking structure that Norway uses. Beyond defense, one of England’s best tools to neutralize Norway is sustained possession: keeping the ball pins Norway back and allows England to create their own chances using similar wide attacking dynamics that Norway relies on. Just as Moller Wolfe’s underlaps open space for Norway’s wingers, England’s Nico O’Reilly can use the same runs to create 2v1 opportunities against Norway’s full-backs, with pacy wingers drawing defenders deep and cutting the ball back for late arriving attackers— a tactic that has worked for Anthony Gordon throughout the tournament.

    Finally, Norway’s commitment to attacking possession often leaves them short of defenders when they turn the ball over. Brazil created multiple high-quality chances on the counter-attack after winning the ball back against Norway, and England’s pacey attacking options including Gordon, Bellingham, Rice and Noni Madueke are well-suited to exploit the open spaces left by Norway’s high pushing defense.

    With a spot in the World Cup semifinals on the line, both sides will look to impose their tactical identity, with England tasked with solving a complex puzzle to neutralize one of the most dangerous attacking sides in this year’s tournament.

  • NATO leaders came to Turkey to discuss security. Erdogan gave them each an engraved revolver

    NATO leaders came to Turkey to discuss security. Erdogan gave them each an engraved revolver

    When Western heads of state and senior leaders gathered in Ankara, Turkey for a high-stakes NATO summit focused on mounting global security threats, few could have predicted the most talked-about takeaway from the event would be a personalized engraved revolver and six rounds of ammunition, gifted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The unusual gesture was crafted as a deliberate showcase of Turkey’s rapidly expanding domestic defense industry, a sector that has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent decades. Once heavily reliant on imported military hardware, Turkey has emerged as a self-sufficient producer of advanced defense technologies, from combat drones and naval warships to an in-development next-generation domestic fighter jet. The revolvers distributed to attendees were identified by Turkish media as Gumusay .357 Magnum six-shot models manufactured by MKE, Turkey’s state-owned arms producer. Alongside the firearm, summit guests also received a more traditional souvenir: a copy of Erdogan’s biography, *The Politics of Courage: Erdogan and the Rise of Türkiye*.

    While the gift landed with little domestic controversy — gun culture has long been deeply embedded in Turkish public life — it immediately left alliance officials scrambling to navigate conflicting national firearms regulations, triggering a wave of unexpected logistical challenges. Many leaders were forced to abandon the souvenir entirely, while others arranged for immediate decommissioning or museum donation to comply with their home countries’ strict gun laws.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joked to reporters that his own planned gift of maple syrup paled in comparison to Erdogan’s offering, noting that the revolver had already been turned over to Canadian law enforcement. “I would like to reassure Canadians, they keep guns away from me,” Carney said.

    Hungary’s newly inaugurated Prime Minister Péter Magyar was one of the first leaders to publicly confirm the unusual gift, posting a photograph of the name-engraved revolver and its display box on the social platform X. It remains unclear what Magyar ultimately did with the firearm after leaving the summit.

    For Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, a spokesperson confirmed the leader thanked Erdogan for the gesture before arranging for the gun to be deactivated and donated to a military museum. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters his gift came with a note that waived domestic export restrictions, but he still opted to leave the revolver in Turkey for decommissioning, as importing a personal firearm would violate United Kingdom law.

    Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever turned his revolver over to airport police immediately upon returning home, officials confirmed. The firearms gifted to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten remain at their respective national embassies in Ankara, where they are set to be permanently deactivated. In Italy, the revolver delivered to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been formally logged as an official state gift at Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister’s official residence. Greek officials announced their country’s revolver will be donated to the national War Museum, while Croatian authorities plan to hand their country’s firearm over to a police museum.

    Croatian President Zoran Milanović made light of the situation, telling reporters he did not even learn he had received the gift until he returned home from the summit. “I didn’t take it. I shoot from different weapons,” Milanović said, referencing his own approach to politics.

    The White House has not yet issued any public comment on whether U.S. representatives at the summit received the same gift, or what became of it if it was distributed. Erdogan’s own office has also not released any formal statement addressing the unusual gifting choice.

    Within Turkey, the gesture drew little public pushback, but gun control advocates have pointed to the gift as a stark contrast to the country’s growing public safety crisis. Umut Vakfi, a leading Turkish gun control advocacy foundation, reports that armed violence incidents reached alarming levels last year, with more than 2,700 recorded attacks across the country of 86 million people.

  • EU threatens Meta with fines over ‘addictive’ Facebook and Instagram

    EU threatens Meta with fines over ‘addictive’ Facebook and Instagram

    The European Commission has issued a stark preliminary warning to Meta, demanding the tech giant overhaul addictive design features on its Facebook and Instagram platforms or face substantial penalties that could reach as high as 6 percent of the company’s total annual global turnover.

    In its preliminary investigation findings, EU regulators flagged several core platform features as key contributors to potential compulsive social media use, especially among children and adolescent users. These high-risk design elements include infinite content scrolling, automatically playing video streams, and algorithm-driven personalized content recommendation systems. Regulators argue that the unending flow of content pushes human brains into passive autopilot mode, directly fostering unhealthy digital consumption habits that can spiral into excessive, uncontrolled screen time.

    Regulators specifically highlighted Meta’s short-form video feature Reels and ephemeral content format Stories as particularly problematic, noting that the formats are intentionally engineered to encourage extended, non-stop scrolling. The Commission also called out gaps in Meta’s existing safety frameworks, arguing that the company failed to conduct thorough, transparent risk assessments of how its platform design impacts youth users, including the significant amount of time children spend on the apps, often late at night.

    Even Meta’s existing youth safety tools came under sharp criticism from regulators. Time management features, including those that are supposed to be enabled by default for teenage users, can be easily overridden by users and do not deliver meaningful reductions in overall screen time, the Commission found. Parental control tools offered by the platforms are also only effective if caregivers have enough free time and advanced technical knowledge to set them up and use them correctly, putting less resourced families at a disadvantage, regulators added.

    In response to the findings, a Meta spokesperson pushed back against the Commission’s conclusions, telling the BBC that the preliminary assessment does not accurately account for the substantial steps the company has already taken to protect teen users. Meta countered that it has already rolled out dedicated Teen Accounts, which automatically activate default protections for younger users and give parents direct control over usage: the tools allow caregivers to block Instagram access during overnight hours and cap daily teen screen time at just 15 minutes. The spokesperson added that Meta shares the European Commission’s commitment to delivering safe, positive online experiences for teens and will continue to engage constructively with regulators throughout the process.

    It is important to note that these preliminary findings do not represent a final regulatory decision. Meta now has the opportunity to review all evidence submitted against the company and deliver a formal response to the Commission before any final ruling is issued.

    This action is part of a broader ramp-up of EU regulatory action targeting large technology companies over the past year, as policymakers push major platforms to strengthen online protections for all users, with a particular focus on children and teens. The preliminary findings also come ahead of a highly anticipated set of recommendations due Monday from a special expert panel, which is tasked with proposing new policy frameworks to better shield minors from harmful online content.

    Policymakers across the EU are facing growing public and political pressure to take stricter action on youth social media use. A number of EU member states, including France, have already pushed for formal social media bans for minors, following the lead of Australia, which implemented new restrictions for all users under the age of 16 earlier this year.

  • Passenger ‘nearly sucked out of window mid-air’ on Ryanair plane

    Passenger ‘nearly sucked out of window mid-air’ on Ryanair plane

    A shocking mid-flight incident on a Ryanair Group flight left aviation authorities and passengers shaken Friday, after a passenger came perilously close to being sucked out of a broken cabin window shortly after takeoff from northern Greece. The affected flight, operated by Ryanair’s subsidiary Malta Air, was traveling from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, Germany, carrying dozens of passengers when the emergency unfolded. According to witness accounts shared with local media, the passenger — a 66-year-old Serbian national — ended up hanging head-first out of the broken window, with only his lower body remaining inside the cabin for several minutes, before other travelers on board pulled him back to safety.

    In an official statement released shortly after the incident, Ryanair confirmed that the flight was forced to turn around and return to Thessaloniki Airport immediately after departure, when a passenger window became dislodged during the climb to cruising altitude. The budget carrier confirmed that the aircraft landed without further incident, and all passengers were able to exit safely to the terminal. The 60-year-old passenger affected by the incident requested on-site medical assistance, which was provided to him on the ground in Thessaloniki. To minimize disruption to the remaining passengers’ travel plans, Ryanair arranged a replacement aircraft that completed the journey to Memmingen several hours after the original incident.

    Multiple passenger accounts shared with Greek and German media outlets have offered more detailed accounts of the chaotic emergency. Passengers reported that moments after the Boeing 737-800 lifted off from Thessaloniki, a loud bang echoed through the cabin before the window shattered, triggering the aircraft’s emergency oxygen mask deployment. Witnesses have hypothesized that the window was broken by flying debris from one of the jet’s engines, though Ryanair has not yet issued any comment confirming or denying this account of the cause.

    Christina, one of the passengers on board the flight, spoke with local outlet Radio Thessaloniki about the terrifying moments immediately after the window failed. “We immediately realized there had been a decompression. There were screams… for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” she recalled. “The masks dropped and there was a strong smell [of jet fuel]. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt.” That seat belt, multiple witnesses noted, is what prevented the man from being fully pulled out of the aircraft into the thin, high-speed outside air.

    The aircraft involved in the incident is reported to be 18 years old, a detail that may draw additional scrutiny during the official investigation. The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) confirmed to the BBC that it had been notified of the incident, which occurred on an aircraft registered and operated by Malta Air, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Irish Ryanair Group. “The IAA will provide any requested assistance to the aviation safety investigation authority in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate, to aid their investigation,” the authority said in a statement.

    This incident is not the first of its kind in recent aviation history. In 2018, a fatal accident on a U.S.-based Southwest Airlines flight saw a passenger die after engine debris shattered a cabin window, leading to the passenger being partially sucked out of the opening. That incident prompted widespread reviews of engine safety protocols and aircraft maintenance schedules across the global aviation industry. Investigators from Greek and Maltese aviation authorities are expected to release a full report once they complete their examination of the aircraft and interviews with crew and passengers.

  • ‘What old-timers can do’ – the evolution of Belgium’s golden generation

    ‘What old-timers can do’ – the evolution of Belgium’s golden generation

    When the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off 30 days ago, barely any football pundits or fans counted Belgium among the tournament’s potential contenders. Many of the star names that anchored the Red Devils’ campaigns in past iterations of the competition had retired or moved on from international football, and few expected the current squad to advance deep into the knockout stage. That scepticism only grew deeper when Belgium found themselves trailing Senegal 2-0 with just five minutes of regulation time left to play in their Round of 32 clash. What has followed since that dire opening, however, has been one of the most remarkable turnaround stories of this World Cup: a legendary comeback to eliminate Senegal, followed by a dominant 4-1 victory over the United States on American soil that has carried Belgium into the tournament’s quarter-finals.

    Gone are iconic Belgian figures like Eden Hazard, Mousa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini, and Vincent Kompany, who led the side to quarter-final finishes in 2014 and a historic semi-final run at the 2018 Russia World Cup – widely considered the peak of the country’s so-called golden generation. After a dismal 2022 Qatar World Cup campaign that saw Belgium crash out in the group stage, many wrote this veteran core off entirely. But the remaining veterans of that golden era – goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, forward Romelu Lukaku, midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, and midfielder Axel Witsel – have helped transform a shaky start into a legitimate shot at World Cup glory. Now, as Belgium prepares to face Spain for a semi-final spot on Friday at 20:00 BST, the question looms: was the Belgian golden generation written off too soon, or has manager Rudi Garcia unlocked a new way to harness their veteran experience alongside emerging young talent?

    Courtois, the Real Madrid shot-stopper competing in his fourth World Cup, framed this squad as a new chapter for Belgian football ahead of the USA match. “It is true that there are some players from the golden era, but the World Cup in Qatar for us was not that good,” he explained. “Now we have another generation with younger people, new people, willing to do great things and writing in the history pages for Belgium.”

    Courtois’ assessment holds up under scrutiny. Of the four remaining veterans from the 2014 and 2018 squads, only 34-year-old Courtois has played every minute of the 2026 tournament. De Bruyne, 35, suffered an injury early in the Senegal clash, while 37-year-old Witsel has seen limited minutes off the bench. Thirty-three-year-old Lukaku has racked up an impressive three goals, but has played fewer than 50% of the team’s total minutes, mostly coming off the bench to exploit tired defences stretched thin by the high pressing of 25-year-old Atalanta forward Charles de Ketelaere. Full-back Thomas Meunier, another 2018 World Cup veteran, has also seen his playing time decrease as the tournament has progressed.

    This does not mean the veteran core has not been integral to Belgium’s run. Courtois remains one of the top goalkeepers in the world, Lukaku’s clutch goals have swung critical matches, and De Bruyne delivered some of the squad’s best performances before his injury. But their role has shifted: rather than carrying the full weight of the team’s performance over 90 minutes, they now step up to make the difference in high-stakes key moments. So far, Garcia and Belgium have navigated this generational transition far more smoothly than most international sides manage when their golden generation begins to age.

    For Garcia, the constant focus on the veterans’ age misses the point entirely, and downplays the quality he has in his squad. “I really can’t stand it when my four leaders are called ‘veterans’,” he said earlier in the tournament. “It is ugly. It is awful. If you are lucky enough as a country to have players of this calibre, then encourage them. This is what Belgium’s ‘old-timers’ can do.”

    The veterans’ leadership has been complemented by standout performances from a new cohort of players who did not experience the pressure of the 2014 and 2018 runs, but already hold extensive experience at top European clubs. Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard has been particularly outstanding: he has created more chances (17) than any other player in the tournament so far, and notched two goals and two assists to put him 15th in the tournament for total goal contributions. De Ketelaere, while not a prolific goalscorer, has contributed two goals and one assist while creating critical space for wide attackers to operate inside the penalty area. Club Brugge midfielder Hans Vanaken, 33, who has spent his entire domestic career in Belgium, has added one goal and two assists, while captain Youri Tielemans scored both the equalizer and match-winner to pull off the incredible comeback against Senegal.

    Of the 13 squad members aged 25 or younger, only Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku is already considered an elite talent at this stage, though fellow wingers Diego Moreira and Matias Fernandez-Pardo have shown clear potential, and Aston Villa midfielder Amadou Onana turned in strong performances before suffering an ACL injury against the USA.

    The squad was further galvanized by controversy surrounding FIFA’s last-minute decision to uphold a one-match suspension for USA striker Folarin Balogun ahead of the Round of 16 clash. In a show of unity and defiance, Belgian players mocked former US President Donald Trump by mimicking his signature campaign trail dance on the pitch after scoring. After the match, Garcia praised the squad’s tight chemistry: “The group is very mature. We have leaders to help us.”

    Beyond on-pitch chemistry, Belgium’s dressing room has a unique quirk that has shaped its leadership dynamic: linguistic diversity rooted in the country’s history and position at the heart of the European Union. The Belgian squad includes players with heritage from across the globe, including DR Congo, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Lukaku alone speaks six languages fluently. With native Dutch speakers from northern Flanders and native French speakers from southern Wallonia, the team has intentionally adopted English as its primary shared language to avoid the political and identity tensions that can surround language use in Belgian public life.

    “It’s a very strategic thing to do,” explained Dr. Jim Ureel, senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the University of Antwerp. “Language is a very sensitive topic in Belgium – it’s heavily linked to identity and politics. Dutch-speaking people don’t necessarily want to adapt for the French, and vice-versa. If the players were choosing one or the other, it could become a problem. English therefore becomes very useful – you can avoid those issues and it all becomes neutral, especially because young footballers almost always speak good English and lots play in English-speaking countries. When things become more personal, in smaller groups, they might switch into what they’re most comfortable with. I think it’s very clever how they do it.”

    As Belgium prepares for their quarter-final showdown with Spain, the team’s veteran leaders will need to draw on all their experience to inspire the young squad to another upset. This run is not just the last hurrah for Belgium’s golden generation; it is a transition: a core of seasoned veterans stepping into new leadership roles, guiding the young players who will soon take over the future of Belgian football.

  • Wildfires across Europe have killed hundreds over the last decade

    Wildfires across Europe have killed hundreds over the last decade

    Across the European continent, decades of rising temperatures tied to climate change have turned wildfires into a growing public health and humanitarian catastrophe, leaving a staggering trail of fatalities over the past 10 years — and scientists warn the death toll will climb even higher in the years ahead if current warming trends continue.

    The most recent deadly incident unfolded overnight into Friday, when an intense wildfire tore through southern Spain amid a countrywide heatwave, killing at least 11 people. Separate updates later confirmed the death toll had risen to at least 12, with another 23 residents still unaccounted for, marking this blaze as one of the deadliest wildfire events in Spain’s modern recorded history.

    Data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms Europe is warming faster than any other continent on the planet. Since the 1980s, regional temperatures have risen twice as quickly as the global average, and 2025 ranks as the third hottest year ever recorded globally, bringing a string of severe, prolonged heatwaves that gripped much of Europe. Climate scientists agree that human-caused warming, driven largely by the combustion of fossil fuels including gasoline, oil, and coal, has worsened extreme heat and drought conditions across the continent. These shifts have dramatically increased both the frequency and intensity of wildfires, leaving many populated and forested regions far more vulnerable to catastrophic blazes.

    To understand the scale of the threat, a look back at the deadliest European wildfires of the past decade reveals the consistent human cost of this growing crisis:

    In 2018, Greece suffered its deadliest wildfire event on record, when a massive blaze swept through Mati, a popular seaside town just east of Athens. The fire spread so rapidly that it trapped residents and visitors as they tried to escape, leaving more than 100 people dead. Some of those victims drowned while attempting to swim away from the advancing flames. Just five years later, in 2023, another season of extreme wildfires across Greece killed more than 20 people. Among the dead were 18 migrants trapped by what became the largest single wildfire ever recorded in Europe, as they crossed a forested area in northeastern Greece. Last week, the country recorded another fatal loss: a 12-year-old boy and his father were killed by a fast-moving wildfire in northern Greece.

    In northwestern Turkey, 10 firefighters and rescue workers lost their lives last July while battling a major wildfire in the forested landscapes of Eskisehir province. The victims included both professional forestry workers and volunteers from the AKUT search and rescue organization. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli explained at the time that sudden, unexpected shifts in wind direction pushed flames to rapidly surround the team, cutting off their escape route. One of the fallen workers was a 28-year-old man who had returned to his post just two days after returning from his honeymoon, and one AKUT volunteer had spent a full month leading rescue efforts after the catastrophic February 2023 southern Turkey earthquake just months earlier.

    Portugal’s deadliest wildfire disaster struck in 2017, when a blaze near Pedrogao Grande, 120 miles northeast of Lisbon, killed 66 people. Most of those victims died trapped in their cars on a single road as they tried to outrun the fast-spreading flames. By the end of that devastating fire season, additional late-year blazes pushed Portugal’s total annual wildfire death toll to more than 120, making 2017 the deadliest year for wildfires in the country’s history. Victims included a one-month-old infant and the baby’s parents. In response to the catastrophe, the Portuguese government implemented sweeping reforms to improve wildfire prevention and response: public education campaigns targeting accidental fire ignition, a new rapid-response firefighting task force, thousands of kilometers of fuel-reducing firebreaks, and expanded access to firefighting equipment and resources across high-risk regions.

    On the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, officials have directly linked growing wildfire severity to long-term climate change, with at least six people killed in extreme blazes over the past five years. In July 2021, the most destructive wildfire in Cyprus’ modern history swept through mountain villages, leaving the charred remains of four Egyptian laborers found outside a burned-out community. Last July, another major blaze killed an elderly couple, whose bodies were found inside their gutted car on the side of a mountain road. That blaze burned roughly 50 square miles of forested hillside in just hours, a speed of spread that led President Nikos Christodoulides to note there had never been a wildfire of that scale or ferocity in the country’s recorded history. The blaze was fueled by a perfect combination of extreme conditions: strong gusty winds, record high temperatures, and extremely parched vegetation after three consecutive winters of far-below-average rainfall.

    Last August, a major analysis by international climate research initiative World Weather Attribution confirmed the link between human-caused climate change and extreme Mediterranean wildfire severity. The study found that warming-driven temperature increases and reduced rainfall made massive 2023 wildfires across Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus burn far more intensely than they would have in a pre-warming climate.

  • EU demands Facebook and Instagram dismantle design features it calls addictive for users

    EU demands Facebook and Instagram dismantle design features it calls addictive for users

    On Friday, the European Commission, the European Union’s executive governing body, issued formal preliminary charges against Meta Platforms, accusing the social media giant of violating the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) by intentionally designing Facebook and Instagram to drive compulsive user engagement and harm consumer mental health. The regulator is demanding Meta immediately disable high-risk addictive design features that are enabled by default across its platforms.

    This latest enforcement action comes as part of an ongoing DSA investigation launched earlier in 2024, focused on widespread failures by Meta to protect minors from harm on its two largest platforms. The DSA, the EU’s sweeping new regulatory framework for large digital platforms, requires all major tech services operating in the bloc to conduct rigorous risk assessments of their product designs and mitigate documented harms to users — with non-compliant companies facing fines of up to 6% of their total global annual revenue.

    In its official statement of preliminary findings, the Commission outlined that Meta has failed to carry out adequate, transparent assessments of how core product features on Facebook and Instagram damage the physical and mental health of all users, and particularly children and adolescents. Regulators found that while Meta does offer optional tools and parental controls to manage user screen time, these safeguards are poorly designed: they are easy for users to override or dismiss, require significant technical knowledge to activate, and do not create meaningful reductions in excessive platform use.

    The Commission specifically called out two ubiquitous default features as high-risk addictive design elements: infinite scroll, which delivers an unending stream of content to users without requiring an active choice to load more posts, and automatic video autoplay. Regulators argue these features, alongside personalized content recommendation algorithms and constant push notifications, push users’ brains into passive “autopilot” mode that encourages compulsive, unchecked scrolling. The regulator also proposed additional required changes, including building more prominent prompts to encourage users to take regular screen time breaks, and restructuring Meta’s content recommendation system to reduce its overfocus on maximizing user engagement at the cost of user well-being.

    Henna Virkkunen, European Commission Executive Vice-President leading tech policy enforcement, emphasized the bloc’s commitment to holding large platforms accountable for harmful product design. “Protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority for social media platforms,” Virkkunen said in a written statement, noting that the EU will consistently enforce its rules to force meaningful change.

    This is not the first time regulators have flagged Meta’s failures to protect minors this year. Earlier in 2024, the EU issued preliminary charges finding that Meta had failed to block children under the age of 13 — the company’s own stated minimum age for service access — from creating accounts on Facebook and Instagram, and had not put effective systems in place to identify and remove underage accounts after they are created.

    Meta now has the opportunity to formally respond to the new charges and present its defense before the Commission issues a final binding decision. In a prepared statement released Friday, Meta pushed back on the regulator’s findings, arguing the Commission failed to acknowledge proactive changes the company has already implemented to protect teen users.

    “Since this investigation began, we rolled out Teen Accounts that automatically protect teens and put parents in control – allowing them to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at just 15 minutes,” Meta said. The company added that it shares the Commission’s goal of delivering safe, positive online experiences for teens and plans to continue constructive engagement with regulators on the issue.

  • At least 1 million women have lost access to aid after funding cuts, UN says

    At least 1 million women have lost access to aid after funding cuts, UN says

    GENEVA – In a stark briefing held Friday, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) delivered alarming findings showing that widespread funding cuts over the past 18 months have stripped at least 1 million women and girls of access to life-saving humanitarian aid and essential support services.

    The crisis traces directly to policy shifts implemented after the Trump administration took office in January 2025. As the United States remains the single largest contributor to the United Nations’ overall budget, the administration’s rollback of global foreign assistance has triggered cascading disruptions across U.N. humanitarian programs. Eighty-four percent of women’s organizations surveyed by UN Women confirmed that demand for their services has risen sharply since the new U.S. policy took effect, even as their operating budgets have shrunk.

    “Every dollar pulled out of women’s organizations is a dollar taken away from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced out of school, and communities fighting to stay alive,” stated Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s head of humanitarian action, during a press conference in Geneva.

    UN Women’s research drew responses from 855 women’s organizations operating across 52 countries, painting a grim portrait of systemic breakdown. The data shows 89% of these groups can no longer meet the growing demand for services from vulnerable women and girls, forcing frontline organizations to turn away people in need. One out of every five surveyed groups warned they will likely suspend operations permanently or temporarily within the next 12 months.

    Calltorp emphasized that the recorded figure of 1 million women affected is almost certainly an underestimate of the true scale of harm. “We know that this number, at least 1 million women and girls, is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

    The report arrives amid broader global aid contraction that is worsening already dire conditions for at-risk populations globally. UN Women noted that conflict-related sexual violence incidents doubled worldwide over the past year, just as OECD data revealed a 24% drop in global development assistance—from previous levels to $174 billion, marking the largest single-year decline in development aid on record. The OECD is a research and policy collective made up of 38 primarily developed nations.

    “Without immediate action to reverse these cuts, the organizations that have kept women and girls alive through the world’s worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war,” Calltorp added.

    Funding shortfalls triggered by U.S. cuts and reductions from other major donor nations have already forced multiple U.N. agencies to slash thousands of staff positions and scale back life-saving aid programs across every region of the world. Amid a broader U.N. restructuring effort labeled UN80, top U.N. officials are currently evaluating a proposal to merge UN Women with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the agency focused on global sexual and reproductive health rights.

  • Firefighters battle flames as deadly wildfire rages in Spain

    Firefighters battle flames as deadly wildfire rages in Spain

    A catastrophic wildfire has torn through Spain’s southern province of Almería, leaving a trail of death and destruction that has gripped the region. Emergency responders have been working around the clock to contain the out-of-control blaze, which has already claimed the lives of at least 11 people, according to preliminary official reports.

    The inferno, fanned by unseasonably high temperatures and strong dry winds, has spread rapidly across vast swathes of forest and rural land in Almería, threatening residential communities and forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes. Firefighting teams from neighboring provinces have been deployed to reinforce local crews, who have struggled to keep up with the fire’s unpredictable advance. Aircraft carrying water and fire retardant have also been mobilized to attack the blaze from the air, though difficult terrain and smoky conditions have hampered their efforts.

    This deadly wildfire is the latest in a growing string of severe wildfire events impacting southern Europe, a region that has become increasingly vulnerable to extreme wildfire risk due to rising global temperatures and prolonged drought conditions linked to climate change. Local authorities have issued urgent warnings to residents in at-risk areas, advising them to follow evacuation orders immediately and avoid travel through affected regions. Search and recovery teams are still working through burned areas to confirm the final death toll and locate any people who may still be missing.