europe

Borge Brende has resigned from his roles as the president and CEO of the World Economic Forum (WEF), following revelations of his links with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister who became president of the WEF in 2017, announced his departure on Thursday, joining the ranks of prominent figures to have left their jobs or faced criminal investigations after their contacts with Epstein were revealed in files released by the US Department of Justice last month.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to step down as President and CEO of the World Economic Forum. My time here, spanning 8-1/2 years, has been profoundly rewarding,” Brende said in a statement, which made no mention of Epstein.

“I am grateful for the incredible collaboration with my colleagues, partners, and constituents, and I believe now is the right moment for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions.”

Brende’s departure came several weeks after the WEF, organiser of the annual Davos summit,⁠ launched an independent investigation into his relationship with Epstein, following revelations in the files that the Norwegian had three business dinners with the financier and had also communicated with him via email and text message.

Epstein was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, spending about a year in prison before his release.

His contacts with a network of wealthy and influential figures continued in the wake of his conviction until an investigation into the wealthy financier was reopened in 2019. Epstein died by suicide in prison that year while facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.

Dinners, emails

Brende said in a statement earlier this month that during a visit to New York in 2018, he received an invitation from former Norwegian politician Terje Rod-Larsen to join him for dinner with several other leaders, plus “someone who was presented to me as an American investor, Jeffrey Epstein”.

“The following year, I attended two similar dinners with Epstein, alongside other diplomats and business leaders. These dinners, and a few emails and SMS messages, were the extent of my interactions with him,” he said.

“I was completely unaware of Epstein’s past and criminal activities.”

He said that had he known about Epstein’s background, he would have declined any contact with the convicted sex offender, adding that he regretted not having conducted a more thorough investigation into his past.

Investigation concluded

In a separate statement, Andre Hoffmann and Larry Fink, co-chairs of the WEF, said the independent review ⁠conducted by outside counsel into Brende’s ties with Epstein had concluded.

The findings stated there were no additional concerns beyond what had been previously disclosed, it ⁠added.

The co-chairs said the WEF’s Alois Zwinggi will serve ⁠as interim president and CEO, and that the forum’s board of trustees would oversee the leadership transition, including a plan to identify a permanent replacement.

Arrests and resignations

Epstein had ties to a long list of business and political leaders, whose links to the disgraced figure have now come under close scrutiny, resulting in arrests and resignations.

In Norway, Thorbjorn Jagland, former prime minister and former secretary-general of the Council of Europe, has been charged with “aggravated corruption” amid an investigation into his connections to Epstein, while Rod-Larsen and his wife Mona Juul, both diplomats, have also been charged.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the wife of Crown Prince Haakon, heir to Norway’s throne,  has also come under heavy scrutiny following the revelation of her close friendship with Epstein, issuing a public apology for her long association with him.

In the UK, prominent figures including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – formerly Prince Andrew – and Peter Mandelson, the former diplomat, minister, and adviser to multiple Labour Party prime ministers, have been arrested over alleged crimes linked to their relationships with Epstein.

In France, financial crimes prosecutors have opened an investigation into former Culture Minister Jack Lang, while in Slovakia, Miroslav Lajcak, former president of the UN General Assembly, resigned as security adviser to the country’s prime minister amid growing criticism over his correspondence with Epstein, uncovered in the files.

A growing number of prominent business and academic figures have also left their posts after their ties to Epstein were revealed.

Tariffs: The most beautiful word in the dictionary, as Donald Trump says, or unlawful?
The Supreme Court has ruled that the president cannot use emergency powers to impose them.
It’s a significant check on his power and a major setback to his second-term agenda.
But despite the ruling, Trump has already found new ways to keep his trade barriers in place.
Tariffs remain central to his economic policy, both to boost US manufacturing and generate revenue.
The court may have disarmed one of Trump’s trade weapons, but the turn towards protectionism is far from over.

Arrest in town near the Ethiopian border follows Kenyan intelligence report revealing more than 1,000 citizens were trafficked for war.

Police in Kenya have arrested a man accused of being a member of a human trafficking scheme that lured Kenyans to Russia with false promises of work, only for them to end up fighting on the front lines of Ukrainian battlefields.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, Kenyan officials said Festus Arasa Omwamba was being detained in Moyale, a town in the country’s north bordering Ethiopia.

The 33-year-old “is believed to be a key player in a more extensive human trafficking syndicate that exploits vulnerable individuals by promising them legitimate employment opportunities in European countries”, read a statement from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on X. “However, upon arrival, these unsuspecting victims find themselves trapped in illegal and perilous jobs, stripping them of their dignity and safety.”

The suspect was in police custody, undergoing preparation for his “impending” court appearance, it added.

Quoting police spokesperson Michael Muchiri, NTV Kenya reported that Omwamba was arrested after arriving from Russia. He was detained for allegedly recruiting Kenyans into the Russian military, Muchiri said.

The arrest comes after Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) last week unveiled a report which said more than 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited “to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war”, with 89 currently on the front line, 39 hospitalised, and 28 missing in action.

A day after the NIS released its report, dozens of families protested in Nairobi, demanding the government take action against the network of officials and syndicates tricking locals into joining the war. Many are still awaiting news about their loved ones’ whereabouts and when they might return.

Meanwhile, other families are grieving the deaths of their sons and brothers.

The Russian embassy in Nairobi denies the allegations, calling them in a statement last week “misleading propaganda”. It added that it never issued visas to Kenyan citizens who sought to travel to Russia with the aim to fight in Ukraine. However, the embassy added that Moscow does not preclude citizens of foreign countries from voluntarily enlisting in its armed forces.

Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi said he would travel to Russia in March to engage directly with the authorities and secure a safe return of Kenyans believed to be stranded there.

Fraudulent ‘schemes’ to lure foreign fighters

Reports of African men being fraudulently recruited and wilfully duped for work abroad to end up on the front lines in Ukraine have also surfaced from South Africa, Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa.

Ukraine on Wednesday accused Russia of using deception to recruit more than 1,700 Africans to join its war effort as the conflict drags into a fifth year.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha made the allegation during a news conference in Kyiv with his visiting Ghanaian counterpart, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. He accused Moscow of using fraudulent “schemes” to lure the foreign fighters.

A day earlier, South Africa’s presidency announced it had secured the return home of 11 of its nationals who were “lured” into fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The presidency had already repatriated four others.

Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities.

London, United Kingdom – “People here are tired, scared and feel forgotten,” says Nabila*, a Muslim mother of two in Basildon, a town in the English county of Essex.

Sitting in her living room with a mug of tea, a Qur’an visible on the bookshelf and Japanese prints hanging to its right, she recalls a string of incidents in recent months: Glass thrown from a residential building at Muslim children, a racist attack on the local mosque where red crosses were daubed across its walls alongside the words “Christ is King” and “This is England”, and reports of drivers accelerating as Muslim women cross the road with their children.

According to the 2021 census, Basildon is 93 percent white, and Muslims make up less than 2 percent of the population. Campaigners have warned that in areas where ethnic minority communities are smaller and more geographically isolated, they face heightened risks, as visibility increases vulnerability.

A single mother working full time, Nabila has been documenting incidents of racism, supporting victims and organising meetings with local authorities.

She said she no longer feels safe in the place she calls home.

After being racially abused while walking through her favourite park, she stopped going there altogether. Women, she said, are increasingly changing their daily routines, constantly watching over their shoulders. Racism now permeates every aspect of their lives, she added.

At a women’s listening circle organised by Nabila in collaboration with the local authority at the Wat Tyler Centre, another Muslim woman, Zarka*, spoke about her experiences as a young mother in Basildon who wears the hijab.

After being told to “take that rag off your head” during the school run by a passer-by, she stopped taking her children to school for two weeks. Beyond verbal abuse, she described the cumulative effect of everyday hostility, from cars failing to stop at zebra crossings and hostile looks from passersby.

‘I can’t do this any more, Mum.’

Hundreds of miles north, similar experiences are unfolding in Scottish classrooms.

Etka Marwaha’s daughter Anisa was seven when she first experienced racist taunting at her primary school in Glasgow.

Marwaha said Anisa became quiet and withdrawn. She was isolated on the playground and subjected to racial slurs. Months later, she broke down in tears in front of her mother, explaining the abuse she had suffered.

On multiple occasions, Marwaha contacted the school, urging them to take action, even offering her own support on understanding racism. But, she said, they failed in their duty of care, and the extent of the problem was kept hidden.

It went on for two years before Etka felt compelled to take her daughter out of the school.

“The plan was never to move her into a different school,” she told Al Jazeera. “But she was refusing to go to school; she would come home very, very upset. She was isolated.

“She was in tears, saying, “I can’t do this any more, Mum.’ So she made the decision, at that young age, that ‘I want to get out of here.’”

The girl’s new school is not in the catchment area, nor is there a direct bus to it, causing further inconvenience. But it has a zero-tolerance approach to racism, and Anisa is happier.

At her new school, Anisa can speak about her experiences of racism and how it made her feel.

The ordeal brought back painful memories for Marwaha’s own experiences at school.

“The racist bullying, for me, started at secondary school. You’d think times have changed, that people have been educated, but I think things have changed for the worse when a seven-year-old can openly make a racist comment and that’s accepted by society, and parents don’t address it.”

Sam*, a doctor in northwest Scotland with dual heritage children, said he has been surprised by the level of racism in local schools.

“There has been a clear normalising of racist jokes and name-calling. Every one of our kids has been affected,” he said. “Perhaps the biggest surprise is how few other students stand up against racism. When I was growing up, if someone was racist, they would be the person being socially excluded. Now, silence. It has forced us to look at moving out of the UK.”

‘Racism is out of control’

In the latest incident of alleged and potentially dangerous racism, a man walked into Manchester Central Mosque on Tuesday, reportedly with an axe and weapons. The man was arrested. There had been 2,000 worshippers in the mosque at the time, for the evening tarawih prayers during Ramadan.

Official figures underline the scale of the problem.

In October 2025, the UK Home Office revealed that the number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales had risen for the first time in three years, including increases in racially and religiously motivated offences.

Religious hate crimes against Muslims rose by 19 percent, with a spike following the Southport murders and subsequent riots in mid-2025, the Home Office said.

The rise comes as hard-right politicians and activists, such as Reform leader Nigel Farage and the Islamophobic activist Tommy Robinson, rail against immigration. According to recent YouGov polling, if a general election were held tomorrow, Reform would lead with 24 percent.

Shabna Begum, head of Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, said, “Mainstream political and media actors have played in normalising and enabling racist narratives that have scapegoated migrants, people seeking asylum, Muslims and people of colour generally.”

In a report released last year, How Racism Affects Health, Runnymede highlighted the hypervigilance that people of colour have to operate with in order to guard their safety, and which causes long-term physiological damage, affecting life expectancy and mental health outcomes.

“For those that live in more disparate communities where they show up as minorities in a more visible way, that sense of threat is acute,” said Begum.

School suspensions for racist incidents have more than doubled in recent years, according to UK Department for Education data.

“Children as young as four are being sent home for racist behaviour,” Begum said. “This shows a society where racism is out of control, and that our school systems are failing to deal with the problem.

“They are making calculated decisions about where they will go, what travel routes they will take; withdrawing from regular social and community activities because they can no longer trust that those spaces will be safe for them.”

The 2025/26 Champions League playoff round has now concluded, with the likes of Real Madrid, defending champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and Atletico Madrid booking their places in the last 16.

The remaining teams will discover their opponents and potential route to the final on Friday when UEFA holds the last 16 draw.

Here is everything you need to know about the timing, format and seeding of the draw, as well as the teams still vying for glory in European football’s largest club competition.

When will UEFA hold the draw?

The draw is set to take place at 11:00 GMT on Friday, February 27, 2026, in Nyon, Switzerland.

It will determine which teams play each other in the last 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.

How does the draw work?

The eight winners of the playoffs will face the teams that finished in the top eight of the league phase in a knockout format.

The draw will determine the potential path to the final, as every team will know their possible quarterfinal and semifinal opponents.

The last 16, quarterfinal, and semifinal fixtures will be played over two legs, while the final will be a single match.

Which teams have made it through to the last 16?

Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Sporting Lisbon, and Tottenham Hotspur had already made it through to the last 16 as top-eight league stage finishers.

Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Bodo/Glimt, Galatasaray, Newcastle United, Paris Saint-Germain, and Real Madrid made it through the playoffs.

When will the last-16 ties be played?

The first legs of the last 16 ties will take place on March 10-11, with the second legs scheduled for March 17-18.

When are the quarterfinals, semifinals and final?

The quarterfinals will take place on April 7-8 and April 14-15.

The semifinals will be held on April 28-29 and May 5-6.

The Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary, will host the final on May 30.

Who could the biggest teams play in the last 16?

Real Madrid will face either Manchester City or Sporting Lisbon. If Man City are not drawn against Madrid, they will face Bodo/Glimt.

Paris Saint-Germain will face either Barcelona or Chelsea. Barcelona could also end up facing Newcastle United.

Liverpool will face either Atletico Madrid or Galatasaray.

Arsenal or Bayern Munich will play Atalanta or Bayer Leverkusen.

Who are the surprise packages?

Norway’s Bodo/Glimt, a tiny club based in the Arctic Circle, made it through to the last 16 after beating Inter Milan in the playoffs and humbling Manchester City and Atletico Madrid in the league stage.

Turkish champions Galatasaray also reached the last 16 following thrilling playoff games against Juventus. The Istanbul club beat Juve 5-2 at home, before falling to a 3-0 deficit in the second leg – only to win the tie with two extra-time goals.

How does seeding affect the draw?

Seeded teams – those that finished in the top eight of the league stage – will have the supposed advantage of playing their second last 16 legs at home.

Where teams are placed in the league stage will also affect the seeding for subsequent rounds.

The teams that finished in the top four of the league stage – Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, and Tottenham – would be given home advantage for the second legs of their quarterfinals, should they reach that stage.

As number one and two finishers in the league stage, Arsenal and Bayern would get the advantage of playing their semifinal second legs at home, should they get that far in the tournament.

If a seeded team does not reach the quarterfinal or semifinal stages, the team that knocks them out will gain their seeding.

Can teams from the same country play each other?

Yes, teams from the same country can play each other in the knockout rounds.

Clubs can also face sides they have already played against during the league phase.

German Chancellor visits eastern city, home to AI firm DeepSeek and e-commerce giant Alibaba, with business leaders.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has arrived in the tech hub of Hangzhou on the second day of his first official trip to China, flanked by a delegation of business leaders seeking contracts in the eastern city.

Merz travelled from Beijing to the city of some 12 million people on Thursday, where he was due to tour some leading companies, including Germany’s Siemens Energy and Unitree, a Chinese firm producing humanoid robots.

Hangzhou is a major hub in China’s tech sector, home to giants, including artificial intelligence company DeepSeek and e-commerce platform Alibaba.

Before leaving Beijing, Merz, who is being accompanied by a delegation, including executives of German car giants Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, visited a Mercedes plant in the Chinese capital where he tested a self-driving vehicle.

‘Improved’ trade relationship sought

Merz’s trip to China, which became Germany’s largest trading partner last year, seeks to deepen decades-old economic ties with the world’s second-largest economy in the wake of tariffs imposed by the United States last year.

But he has also sought to address “challenges” in the relationship, most notably tackling the massive imbalance which saw Germany’s trade deficit with China hit a record 89 billion euros ($105bn) last year, fuelling complaints from German businesses that Chinese competitors are flooding the market with cheaper goods.

In a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Wednesday, before he met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Merz said he wanted “to improve and make fair” the cooperation between the countries.

Following the talks with Xi and top Chinese leaders, Merz said China had agreed to buy up to 120 Airbus aircraft, and said other contracts were in the pipeline.

The two leaders stressed their commitment to developing closer strategic relations, with Xi telling Merz he was willing to take relations to “new levels”.

Ukraine, Taiwan discussed

The talks between Xi and Merz also touched on geopolitical issues, with the German leader saying any “reunification” with Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its territory, must be done peacefully.

Merz also told reporters that he asked the Chinese government to use its influence with Russia to help end the war in Ukraine, amid frustrations among European leaders that Beijing was not doing enough to bring the war to an end.

“We know that signals from Beijing are taken very seriously in Moscow,” Merz said.

Following the meeting, the two countries released a joint statement saying they supported efforts to achieve a ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine, emphasising the importance of fair competition and mutual market access, and committing to resolving any concerns through dialogue, Chinese state media reported.

Merz is the latest in a string of Western leaders to visit Beijing in recent months, including the United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney, amid the fallout from the Trump administration’s tariffs on long-established trade partners.

Kyiv hopes progress in talks in Geneva will pave the way for a direct meeting between Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

Russia pounded Ukraine with a barrage of missile and drone attacks across the country overnight, wounding at least eight people, in advance of the latest high-level meeting between Kyiv and Washington aimed at ending the war, now in its fifth year.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the latest attacks on the capital in the early hours of Wednesday caused damage to a nine-storey residential building in the Darnytskyi district, and resulted in fires in a home and garages elsewhere in the city.

The strikes on the capital prompted the activation of air defence systems to counter the attack, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, said, advising residents to remain in shelters until the assault was over. No casualties were reported in the capital.

Ukraine has faced regular overnight barrages as Russia targets cities with missiles and drones in harsh winter conditions in recent months, also targeting civilian energy infrastructure, even amid an ongoing push by Washington to try to negotiate an end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Attacks also took place in the regions of Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk, with officials reporting seven wounded in Kharkiv and another in Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk, the AFP news agency reported.

US, Ukrainian delegations to meet

The strikes came before a scheduled meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva between Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, being held in advance of a full session of talks involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington expected in early March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he had spoken with US President Donald Trump before the talks, with Witkoff and Kushner part of the 30-minute call, to discuss the issues that their representatives would cover in Geneva, “as well as preparations for the next meeting of the full negotiating teams in a trilateral format at the very beginning of March”.

Zelenskyy, who has repeatedly sought face-to-face meetings with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to resolve the most challenging issues, said he expected the meeting in Geneva would “create an opportunity to move talks to the leaders’ level”.

“President Trump supports this sequence of steps,” he said. “This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war.”

Putin has dismissed such a meeting repeatedly in the past, calling into question Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Ukraine’s leader.

Meanwhile, Russian state news agency TASS reported the Kremlin’s economic affairs envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, was also due to be in Geneva on Thursday, where he would “pursue negotiations with the Americans on economic issues”.

Negotiations stalled

Despite Trump’s desire to bring an end to the conflict, one he claimed he could end in 24 hours after he retook office, the talks so far have failed to bear fruit.

Negotiations, based on a US plan unveiled late last year, have hit a roadblock over the thorniest territorial issues, such as control of the eastern Donbas, an industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has been at the heart of the fiercest fighting.

Russia is pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, in the Donbas, and has threatened to take it by force if Kyiv does not cave in at the negotiating table.

But Ukraine has rejected the demand and signalled it would not sign a deal without security guarantees that deter Russia from invading again. The Ukrainian constitution also forbids the ceding of territory.

Hundreds of thousands of people on both sides are believed to have been killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Robinson is notorious in the UK where he has been accused of promoting hatred against Muslims and organising mass anti-migrant protests.

British far-right activist Tommy Robinson says he visited the United States Department of State as part of a recent trip to Washington, DC, where he was welcomed by government officials and supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

“In America making alliances & friendships, today I had the privilege of an invite to the @StateDept,” Robinson posted on X on Wednesday, alongside a photo of himself next to a US flag.

Robinson is a household name in the UK, notorious for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and multiple prison terms. He was also a cofounder of the now-defunct far-right English Defence League – a street protest movement.

US State Department official Joe Rittenhouse, who is a senior adviser for the department’s Consular Affairs bureau, said he met with Robinson, calling him a “free speech warrior”.

“Honored to have free speech warrior @TRobinsonNewEra at Department of State today. The World and the West is a better place when we fight for freedom of speech and no one has been on the front lines more than Tommy. Good to see you my friend!” Rittenhouse said in an X post.

Rittenhouse posted photos of what appeared to be Robinson touring the State Department.

The State Department did not answer questions from the Reuters news agency on who else Robinson met, what was discussed and what the objective of his visit was.

A representative for the United Kingdom’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has become an icon for British nationalists and one of the UK’s most high-profile anti-migration campaigners, organising a large rally last September in London attended by about 150,000 people.

Social media posts show that during his trip to Washington, Robinson also met far-right US influencer Jack Posobiec and filmed a video with Congressman Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, who has a history of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Robinson said on X that he will next travel to Florida.

Robinson’s visit to the US State Department follows a surge in support from the administration of President Donald Trump for far-right activists in the UK and Europe under the pretext of protecting “free speech”.

In December, the Trump administration accused Europe of engaging in “civilisational erasure” due to demographic and cultural changes from what Washington has described as weak immigration policies.

US Vice President JD Vance took aim at European countries during his first international trip last year, accusing the region’s leaders of stifling free speech – particularly voices from the far right – and being lax on migration to the detriment of their societies.

“No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,” Vance said in remarks that shocked European leaders.

The UK and European countries have stronger rules on hate speech than the US, and the European Union has taken a proactive stance on regulating social media and internet content – positions that have angered the White House.

Robinson was banned from Twitter in 2018, but his account was restored in 2022 following its acquisition by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

After its failure to strike a deal to tap into the EU’s defence for loan scheme, the UK is now on a charm offensive to secure “Made in Europe” access for its industry.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

UK Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle is in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday to press the case for UK involvement in the European preference scheme the Commission is drafting, as speculation circulates that it will be limited to EU countries only.

“We have a shared challenge on the continent of Europe about economic security,” Kyle told journalists after meeting Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera, adding that “the continent of Europe should come together” to build “resilience” at a time of increasing worldwide economic tensions.

The UK fears Brussels’ push to favour “Made in Europe” products will shut London out of EU public procurement and state aid, escalating post-Brexit trade tensions.

London argues that the EU and UK economies are too deeply intertwined to withstand a strict EU-only European Preference.

The EU’s “Made in Europe” strategy is set to feature in the long-delayed Industrial Accelerator Act, held up for months by divisions among member states and within the European Commission. Baltic and Nordic countries have warned that the plan could curb innovation and restrict access to non-EU technologies, joining Germany in calling for a broad definition of “Made in Europe” that includes the bloc’s “trusted” trade partners.

France, by contrast, wants to limit eligibility to members of the European Economic Area – including Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland – as well as countries with reciprocal procurement agreements with the EU.

Limits of participation

London has previously sought to secure preferential access to the EU’s €150-billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence loan scheme – so far, to no avail.

That programme also contains a European preference, with member states required to ensure that at least two-thirds of the weapon systems they buy using loaned EU money are manufactured in an EU or EEA/EFTA country or Ukraine. Third-country participation is capped at 35%.

Talks to bring the UK to the same level as a member state collapsed last November when they failed to find a compromise over how much London would have to contribute financially.

Euronews understands that those talks fell apart over a major gap between the two sides: whereas the final offer on the table from the EU was around €2 billion, the UK estimated it ought to contribute just over €100 million.

But the UK also wants to participate in the EU’s €90 billion loan to Ukraine, two-thirds of which is earmarked for military assistance.

Starmer said last month that “whether it’s SAFE or other initiatives, it makes good sense for Europe in the widest sense of the word – which is the EU plus other European countries – to work more closely together.”

But the British premier is walking a difficult political tightrope. His Labour party is consistently polling several points behind the right-wing populist Reform UK, led by arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage.

Yet, a recent YouGov poll showed that a majority of British people (58%) now believe that it was wrong for the UK to leave the EU, with 54% supporting rejoining the bloc. An even bigger majority – 62% – support having a closer relationship without rejoining the EU, the Single Market, or the Customs Union.

Brussels, however, has always been clear that the UK cannot pick and choose privileged access to the Single Market without accepting the EU’s “four freedoms”: the full freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and people – the latter of which would feed into Farage’s anti-immigration platform.

London, United Kingdom – Legal experts have documented almost 1,000 incidents in which pro-Palestine voices have been allegedly targeted in the United Kingdom, data that they say represents a “systematic effort” to repress the country’s solidarity movement.

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) said on Wednesday that it has verified 964 cases of “anti-Palestinian repression” from January 2019 until August 2025, including students being investigated over their solidarity, activists being arrested, employees facing disciplinary procedures and artists having their events cancelled.

The findings of the study, carried out in collaboration with researchers at Forensic Architecture, are a “sample indicative of a far wider and deeper pattern”, said the group comprising lawyers and legal officers.

The ELSC pitched the report as an Index of Repression, a database that is open to the public.

“We’re launching this database to show that repression of the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain is pervasive,” Amira Abdelhamid, ELSC’s director of research and monitoring, told Al Jazeera.

One documented case involves a University of Warwick student who was reported to police by their university for carrying a sign that drew parallels between Israel and Nazi Germany during a campus rally in November 2023.

The student was arrested for “racial aggravation against the Jewish community” and investigated by their university. But in January 2024, after the ELSC stepped in, the police dropped the student’s caution and deleted all associated records. The university confirmed in March that there would be no further disciplinary action.

ELSC said “Zionist advocacy” groups, journalists and media outlets were involved in 138 incidents – including UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), a pro-Israel organisation that it said played a part in 29 of the documented cases.

“The goal of this analysis is to denaturalise this politically produced process,” the group said. “This strategic targeting across sectors represents a kind of division of repressive labour. It aims to dismantle solidarity at every stage, from the formation of political consciousness in universities and schools, to its expression in culture, to its organisation in public spaces.”

Another incident involved a football club’s kit manager who was dismissed after posting his views about Israel’s conduct on social media.

The case of Dana Abuqamar, a University of Manchester student, is also analysed in the database. The Home Office revoked her visa after she told Sky News that, after 16 years of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, “We are both in fear (of) how Israel will retaliate … but also we are full of pride.”

She later clarified that her comments were not in support of the October 7 attacks into southern Israel, during which more than 1,000 people were killed. The UKLFI reported her to the police and her university, but in 2024, she won a human rights appeal.

“The main immediate goal of this anti-Palestinian repression is to depoliticise the movement, to make it seem as though it’s not a legitimate political and ethical struggle, but rather a security problem, a problem of so-called anti-Semitism or a breach of compliance,” ELSC’s Abdelhamid said.“I don’t think that has succeeded … two years on we still see people resisting the repression happening in Britain [and] speaking up and acting for Palestine and against the genocide.”

Since Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began in October 2023, tens of thousands of Britons have rallied in support of Palestine.

According to YouGov, one in three Britons have “no sympathy at all for the Israeli side in the conflict” after Israel killed more than 70,000 people in two years and decimated the Gaza Strip.

The government, led by Labour leader Keir Starmer, has long been accused of cracking down on pro-Palestine solidarity because of a wave of arrests during demonstrations and due to its proscription of Palestine Action as a “terror” organisation – a ruling recently deemed unlawful by the High Court.

In January, Human Rights Watch said that its research found a “disproportionate targeting of certain groups, including climate change activists and Palestine protesters, undermining the right to protest freely and without fear of harassment”.

Who: Real Madrid vs Benfica
What: Champions League playoff, second leg
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain
When: Wednesday at 9pm (20:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.

Real Madrid carry a slender 1-0 lead over Benfica going into the second leg of a Champions League playoff tie that has been overshadowed by allegations of racism.

UEFA has suspended Benfica midfielder Gianluca Prestianni from the second leg on Wednesday after he was accused of racially abusing Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr, who scored the only goal in the first game in Lisbon last week.

Meanwhile, Benfica coach Jose Mourinho, who is also suspended for the second leg, has come under fire for criticising Vinicius for his effusive goal celebration.

So the Portuguese side will be expecting an especially hostile welcome at the Bernabeu as they try to overturn their one-goal deficit and reach the last 16.

Courtois ‘disappointed’ in Mourinho’s response

Vinicius wrote that “racists are above all cowards” on social media after the game while Madrid striker Kylian Mbappe backed his teammate and said he had heard Prestianni calling the winger a “monkey”.

The 20-year-old Benfica midfielder, who hid his mouth with his shirt during the confrontation with Vinicius, insisted he did not racially abuse the Brazilian forward after his stunning goal at the Estadio da Luz.

Prestianni could miss at least 10 games if European football’s governing body finds he racially abused Vinicius.

Mourinho waded into the controversy by saying Vinicius’s goal celebration was disrespectful and insisting Benfica was not a racist club because their biggest icon, Eusebio, was Black.

Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said he disagreed with Mourinho’s words.

“At the end of the day, Mourinho is Mourinho. As a coach, you’re always, I think, going to defend your club and what your player has told you,” Courtois said.

“The only thing that disappoints me a bit is using Vini’s celebration. I don’t think Vini did anything wrong there,” he added.

“I don’t think we can justify alleged racism because of a celebration.”

Mourinho’s Bernabeu homecoming upended by suspension

Benfica’s boss has not set foot in the Santiago Bernabeu since leaving Real Madrid in 2013, and he cannot sit in the dugout for the playoff’s second leg after being sent off during his team’s 1-0 first-leg defeat in Lisbon last week for making vituperative complaints about the officials from the touchline.

Mourinho said referee Francois Letexier was avoiding booking Madrid players who were at risk of suspension for the second leg.

“I’ve had my butt on the bench for 1,400 games and [I could see that] he knew perfectly well who he could book and who he couldn’t,” Mourinho complained bitterly.

“I [won’t be] sitting on the bench. I can’t go to the dressing room. I can’t communicate with the team,” he added. “It’s hard for me, but my teammates and my assistants are there. They’ll do their job.”

Benfica also said Mourinho was not going to attend the pregame news conference on Tuesday and his assistant would take over.

Arbeloa says UEFA have chance for ‘turning point’ against racism

Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa called on UEFA to make their fight against racism into more than just a slogan after the alleged abuse of Vinicius Jr.

“We have a great opportunity to mark a turning point in the fight against racism,” Arbeloa told reporters on Tuesday.

“UEFA, which has always been and has led this fight against racism, now has the chance not to leave it at just a slogan, at just a nice banner before matches, and I hope that they seize this opportunity.”

Arbeloa said he believed Vinicius will thrive on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu as the record 15-time champions bid to reach the last 16.

“Vinicius Jr has always shown a lot of bravery and a lot of character,” Arbeloa said. “That is always his response. It always has been, and I think it always will be.

“He is a fighter, and I’m sure tomorrow he will go out to fight and have a great game and keep showing he’s one of the best players on the planet.”

Head-to-head

This is only the sixth meeting between two of the biggest clubs from Spain and Portugal. Benfica have won three of the games while Real Madrid have won two.

The two clubs also faced each other in a league stage match in January when Mourinho’s team stunned his former club in a 4-2 win that allowed Benfica to qualify and prevented Madrid from automatically reaching the round of 16.

How many times have Madrid and Benfica won the Champions League?

Madrid are the record winners of Europe’s premier club competition with 15 titles to their name, the last coming in 2024.

Benfica have lifted the trophy on two occasions, and both of those came in consecutive years.

In what was regarded as Benfica’s golden era, Portuguese legend Eusebio helped the team to wins against Barcelona in 1961 and Real Madrid in 1962.

A hat-trick from Hungary’s finest export, Ferenc Puskas, could not save Madrid as Benfica earned a 5-3 win that included a double from Eusebio.

Real Madrid’s team news

Jude Bellingham, Dani Ceballos and Eder Militao have all been ruled out through injuries while centre back Dean Huijsen, who missed the 2-1 defeat at Osasuna over the weekend with a muscular problem, is a major doubt.

Winger Rodrygo will be unavailable due to a suspension but would anyway be a doubt as he struggles to recover from a hamstring issue.

Raul Asencio is available again after returning from suspension.

Vinicius Jr will be looking to score for the fifth game in a row as he is set to start up front alongside Mbappe.

Predicted starting XI

Courtois (goalkeeper); Alexander-Arnold, Asencio, Rudiger, Carreras; Valverde, Guler, Tchouameni, Guler; Mbappe, Vinicius Jr

Benfica’s team news

The Portuguese side’s only injury concern appears to be midfielder Joao Veloso, who will miss the game with a shoulder issue.

Richard Rios could come into the midfield to replace the suspended Prestianni.

Benfica will look to Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis to add to his 28 goals in all competitions this season as he is set to lead the line.

Predicted starting XI:

Trubin (goalkeeper); Dedic, Araujo, Otamendi, Dahl; Rios, Aursnes; Lukebakio, Rafa, Schjelderup; Pavlidis

Appearing in a London court, Brand denies accusations of raping one woman ​and sexually assaulting another in 2009.

British comedian and actor Russell Brand ⁠has pleaded not guilty to two further charges of rape and sexual assault nearly ⁠two decades ago.

Brand appeared at Southwark Crown ⁠Court in London on Tuesday and denied accusations of raping one woman and sexually assaulting a second woman in 2009.

Once one of the United Kingdom’s most high-profile broadcasters, he was charged last year with two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two ‌counts of sexual assault against four women between 1999 and 2005.

Brand pleaded not guilty in May last year to those five charges and is due to stand trial in June. A hearing will be held next month to decide whether the new allegations should be joined to that case, with Brand’s lawyer ⁠saying his client needs more time to address ⁠the latest offences.

“These new charges are in relation to two further women and are in addition to the charges issued to Brand in April 2025, which involved four women,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement in December.

Brand, 50, arrived at court wearing a white cowboy hat and sunglasses. Asked how he was feeling, the actor, who said in 2024 he had become ⁠a Christian, told reporters he was feeling “blessed”.

Born in 1975 to working-class parents in Essex, east of London, Brand began his stand-up career as a teenager, eventually working as an MTV presenter and host of a reality TV series.

A regular on British screens in the ⁠2000s, he was known for his flamboyant ⁠style and appearance. He also worked as a radio presenter for the BBC.

Brand starred in several films, including Get Him to the Greek in 2010, the ‌same year he married American pop star Katy Perry. They divorced in 2012 after 14 months of marriage.

By the early 2020s, Brand had faded from ‌mainstream ‌culture and has since largely appeared online, airing his views on US politics and free speech.

A number of European leaders prayed with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, during a service to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Hennady Kolesnik never expected the full-scale Russian invasion to last this long.

“These are the worst and longest years of my life,” the 71-year-old retired welder told Al Jazeera four years after the aggression that began on February 24, 2022.

In the first days of the war, he and many Ukrainians were afraid Kyiv would be lost, as well as the third of their France-sized nation that lies on the left, eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops, including elite airborne units and motor rifle brigades, occupied north of the Kyiv region, while the Kremlin’s supporters triumphantly touted that the capital would be seized “within three days”.

Months later, “we were ecstatic about what we’d regained” after Russian forces withdrew from around Kyiv and were ousted from northern Ukraine, said Kolesnik, a grey-haired, pallid-faced and emaciated pensioner, clutching a cane.

He is recovering from a case of pneumonia that he feared he would not survive amid days-long power outages and disruptions of central heating caused by Russian drones and missiles during a cold spell, when temperatures plunged to as low as -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

“But we’re still standing, and that’s the most important thing in a fight,” Kolesnik, who used to dabble in boxing, said with a smile.

His wife, Marina, 70, agreed: “Nobody expected us to last that long, and we’re still here.”

However, Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive failed to cut Moscow’s “land bridge” from western Russia to annexed Crimea, and Russian troops keep inching forward.

But their advance is glacial amid staggering losses. Last year, they occupied less than 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 sq miles), or about 0.8 percent of Ukraine’s total area, according to Ukrainian officials and Western analysts.

Overall, Russia controls about 19 percent of Ukraine’s territory.

“The front line froze like during World War I,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University told Al Jazeera. “So far, Russia doesn’t have enough forces or new technologies for a decisive and successful advance, but it can still squander thousands of [its soldiers’] lives.”

This month, Russian forces encountered a dual communication problem that reversed their progress.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX company shut down smuggled Starlink satellite internet terminals used by Russian soldiers, while Moscow’s efforts to block the Telegram messaging app further disrupted coordination.

Ukrainian forces counterattacked, regaining about 200 sq km (77 sq miles) in the eastern Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

But in other front-line areas, the pressure is mounting.

Russian drones with attached optic fibre immune to jamming began reaching a heavily-fortified town in the southeastern Donetsk region.

“It has gotten a lot noisier. There are more outages; some locals are panicking,” Sviatoslav, a serviceman stationed in Kramatorsk, told Al Jazeera. He withheld his last name in accordance with wartime protocol.

Moscow insists Kyiv surrender Kramatorsk and the rest of Donetsk – about 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles).

What could affect Ukraine’s stance is further Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

“Ukraine keeps the front line well, but the functionality of its energy system is hanging by a thread, which may affect a lot,” Mitrokhin said.

Eighty-eight percent of Ukrainians think Russia’s strikes are designed to “force them to capitulate”, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Sociology Institute (KMIS) conducted in late January.

Nevertheless, two-thirds of those polled said Ukraine’s armed forces should fight for “as long as it takes”.

“People en masse are more ready to keep resisting [the invasion] than to capitulate,” Svetlana Chunikhina, vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists, a Kyiv-based group, told Al Jazeera.

And even though there is a spike in depression, anxiety, and chronic stress among Ukrainians, there are no “abrupt jumps” in these conditions, she said.

“People adapt – including through depression – to the war’s horrible circumstances; people keep functioning,” she said.

Ukrainians still hope for a better future, she said.

Only one in five polled Ukrainians hopes the war will end this year, but two in three are sure that in 10 years, Ukraine will be a “thriving” member of the European Union.

“This is the literal realisation of the philosophic principle: ‘get ready for the worst, hope for the best,’” Chunikhina said.

However, brain fog and cynicism are on the rise, she said.

“For the Ukrainian public whose fight against the Russian aggression is largely fuelled by moral virtues – including high ones, such as altruism, patriotism, responsibility to future generations – cynicism could be really destructive,” she said.

News brings little relief.

United States President Donald Trump has so far failed to deliver on his pre-election pledge to end the war “in 24 hours”.

Meanwhile, Russian public figures who support the Kremlin still try to present the invasion as a step to “protect” Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

Moscow-based analyst Sergey Markov claims that the war began on February 23, 2014, when pro-Russian protesters began rallying in Crimea, urging the Kremlin to annex the Ukrainian peninsula.

“It was a peaceful uprising of the Russian people for freedom, peace and true democracy,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday.

Ukraine officials say infrastructure damaged as Russia strikes Zaporizhzhia on the war’s fourth anniversary.

European Union fails to approve further Russia sanctions and a $106bn loan to Ukraine after Hungary refuses to agree.

The European Union has imposed sanctions on a new group of eight Russian individuals suspected of serious human rights violations, as EU member state Hungary vetoed additional sanctions on Moscow and a crucial loan for Ukraine on the eve of the war’s fourth anniversary.

The European Council on Monday said the individuals were members of the judiciary responsible ⁠for sentencing prominent Russian activists on politically motivated charges, as well as heads of penal colonies where political prisoners were held in inhuman and degrading conditions.

Under the sanctions, the individuals are banned from ⁠travelling to or transiting through the EU, their ⁠assets are frozen, and EU citizens and companies are prohibited from making funds available to them.

So far, 72 individuals have been hit by similar measures, including members of the judiciary, Ministry ⁠of Justice officials, and senior figures within Russia’s prison ⁠network.

The announcement came as the bloc failed to agree on a 20th sanctions package targeting the ‌Russian authorities more broadly and ‌a $106bn loan for Ukraine.

Hungary, the friendliest EU state to the Kremlin, vetoed the measures – which required unanimous approval within the EU bloc – following claims that Kyiv is delaying restarting the flow of Russian oil via a Soviet-era pipeline.

Kyiv says the Druzhba pipeline, which still carries Russian oil over Ukrainian territory to Europe, was damaged a month ago by a Russian drone strike, and it is fixing it as fast as it can.

Hungary and Slovakia, which have the EU’s only ⁠two refineries that still rely on oil via Druzhba, blame Ukraine for the delay.

Tensions were further exacerbated on Monday as Ukrainian security officials claimed to have launched a drone attack that sparked a fire at a Russian pumping station serving the Druzhba oil ⁠pipeline.

‘Message we didn’t want to send’

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters ahead of the EU meeting that Budapest would block the loan as Kyiv had taken the “political decision” to “endanger our energy security”.

“The Druzhba pipeline has not been hit by any Russian attack, the pipeline itself has not been harmed, and currently there is no physical reason and no physical obstacle to reinstall the deliveries,” he said.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the failure to approve the new package a “setback and message we didn’t want to send today, but the work continues”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X that Hungary and Slovakia should not be allowed to “hold the entire EU hostage” and called on them to “engage in constructive cooperation and responsible behaviour”.

Maximilian Hess, an analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the loan was “crucial for keeping Kyiv able to finance itself going forward in this conflict”.

Hess argued Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is using the issue to his political advantage ahead of elections on April 12.

“Orban is trying to make this a political issue, and he’s trying to blame his own economic difficulties on Ukraine [to boost] his chances in this election,” the analyst told Al Jazeera.

Independent polls suggest the right-wing nationalist leader is facing the most serious challenge yet in his 16 years as prime minister.

Part of award-winning filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr’s speech in which he says ‘Free Palestine’ was not aired.

The BBC is facing backlash for editing out a section of its coverage of the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) in which prize-winning filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr says, “Free Palestine”, even while a racial slur remained audible in the same programme.

Davies Jr, who was awarded outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for his film My Father’s Shadow, ended his acceptance speech on Sunday with words of solidarity to “those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide”.

“To those watching at home, archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, Congo, Sudan, Free Palestine,” he said.

The remarks were absent when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired the event on a two-hour delay, prompting accusations of censorship from some viewers and advocacy groups.

Rights group Amnesty International’s United Kingdom chapter described the move to cut the speech as “shameful”.

“Thank you Akinola Davies Jr for using your platform to speak out for the rights of migrants and people facing and fleeing from persecution and mass atrocities – from the Congo to Sudan to Palestine,” said Amnesty UK.

The controversy was further amplified after a racial slur was heard during a separate segment of the broadcast. The offensive language was shouted by someone in the audience while Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo read out an award for best visual effects.

The event’s host Alan Cumming had earlier informed the audience that one attendee was John Davidson, who advocates for people with Tourette syndrome, a motor disorder that sometimes causes quick repetitive movements or sounds, including inappropriate language.

The broadcaster apologised for not omitting the outburst when airing the event. It said it would remove it from the version of the broadcast available on its streaming service

“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards,” said the BBC statement. “This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional.”

When contacted by Al Jazeera English, the broadcaster declined to comment further on its editorial decisions regarding the BAFTA Awards, including the removal of Akinola Davies Jr’s “Free Palestine” remarks.

The BBC has previously faced criticism for coverage related to Israel and Gaza.

In June last year, the BBC opted not to broadcast a documentary it commissioned about medical workers in Gaza due to what it described as “partiality” issues, a decision more than 100 of the broadcaster’s own journalists petitioned against.

The BBC was also previously accused of editing out pro-Palestinian displays during its coverage of the 2023 BAFTA Awards, including several appeals for a ceasefire in war-battered Gaza.

Slovakia had issued a two-day ultimatum to Ukraine to reopen the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline so that it could receive Russian oil deliveries.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said his country will halt emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine until Kyiv reopens a key pipeline transporting Russian oil to Slovakia, making good on an ultimatum he issued to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Fico’s announcement on Monday came two days after he warned Zelenskyy on social media that he would ask state-owned company SEPS to halt emergency supplies of electricity if flows of Russian crude oil via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline crossing Ukraine did not resume.

“As of today, if the Ukrainian side turns to Slovakia with a request for assistance in stabilising the Ukrainian energy grid, such assistance will not be provided,” Fico said in a video on his Facebook page.

Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement that it had not been officially informed yet, but that it would “not affect the situation in the unified power system of Ukraine”.

“The last time Ukraine requested emergency assistance from Slovakia was over a month ago and in a very limited volume,” it said.

Fico said the stoppage would be lifted “as soon as the transit of oil to Slovakia is restored”.

“Otherwise, we will take further reciprocal steps,” he said, adding his country would also reconsider “its previously constructive positions on Ukraine’s EU membership”.

He said the stalled oil supply was a “purely political decision aimed at blackmailing Slovakia over its international positions on the war in Ukraine”.

Slovakia and neighbouring Hungary, which have both remained dependent on Russian oil since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago, have become increasingly vocal in demanding that Kyiv resume deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline, which was shut down after what Ukraine said was a Russian drone strike hit infrastructure in late January.

Ukraine says it is fixing the damage on the pipeline, which still carries Russian oil over Ukrainian territory to Europe, as fast as it can.

Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage and have declared emergencies over the cut in oil deliveries.

The EU imposed a ban on most oil imports from Russia in 2022, but the Druzhba pipeline was exempted to give landlocked Central European countries time to find alternative oil supplies.

Meanwhile, the European Union failed to agree on new sanctions on Russia for the fourth anniversary of Europe’s biggest war since World War II, after Hungary vetoed the move.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban – the friendliest EU leader to the Kremlin – is stalling the sanctions and a 90-billion-euro ($106bn) EU loan to Ukraine until Kyiv reopens the oil pipeline.

Fico also said he has refused to “involve the Slovak Republic” in the latest EU loan due to Zelenskyy’s “unacceptable behaviour”, alluding to Ukraine’s earlier halting of Russian gas supplies after a five-year-old transit agreement expired on January 1, 2025, which Fico claimed is costing Slovakia “damages of 500 million [euros; $590m] per year”.

Hungary and Slovakia have accounted for 68 percent of Ukraine’s imported power this month, according to Kyiv-based consultancy ExPro. It was not immediately clear if emergency electricity supplies were included in that figure.

At the BAFTA Film Awards, a guest with Tourette syndrome involuntarily shouted a racial slur during the BBC’s tape-delayed broadcast, prompting apologies after it aired unedited. The BBC did cut filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s “free Palestine” line, sparking criticism.

UEFA announces suspension of Gianluca Prestianni after accusations he racially abused Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) said on Monday it has provisionally suspended Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni for one match following accusations he racially abused Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior.

The decision means that Prestianni will miss Wednesday’s second leg of the Champions League playoff between Real and Benfica at the Bernabeu. Madrid won the first match in Lisbon last Tuesday with Vinicius scoring a second-half winner for a 1-0 victory.

The game was halted for nearly 10 minutes after the Brazil forward scored and celebrated by the Benfica corner flag, upsetting local fans and players. After being confronted by Prestianni, Vinicius accused the Argentine player of calling him “monkey.”

Prestianni has denied racially insulting Vinicius.

The anti-racism protocol was activated but no further action was taken during the match as there was no evidence against Prestianni, who covered his mouth with his shirt while talking to Vinicius. The Madrid forward was shown a yellow card after his celebration.

UEFA said the decision from its control, ethics and disciplinary Body (CEDB) is related to a discriminatory behavior.

“This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies,” it said in a statement.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said after the match he was “shocked and saddened to see the incident of alleged racism” and praised the referee for activating the anti-racism protocol.

Benfica showed support for Prestianni, with the Portuguese club claiming that Madrid players who said they heard the insult were too far away. Benfica later released a statement saying it welcomed UEFA’s investigation and that it “fully supports and believes the version presented” by Prestianni, “whose conduct while with the club has always been guided by respect” toward everyone.

Benfica fans had reacted angrily to Vinicius celebrating his 50th-minute goal by dancing at the corner flag, throwing bottles and other objects toward the Madrid players. Prestianni then confronted Vinicius and said something while covering his mouth with his jersey.

Prestianni insisted that Vinicius misunderstood what was said, while Benfica players after the match reportedly said the Argentine provoked the Brazil forward but never racially insulted him.

Kylian Mbappe was among the Madrid players who strongly defended Vinicius and posted on X: “Dance, Vini, and please never stop. They will never tell us what we have to do or not.”

The France star also said Prestianni should never play in the Champions League again.

The Winter Olympics ended as the twin flames in host cities Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo were extinguished during a closing ceremony at the ancient Verona Arena, roughly mid-distance between the far-flung mountain, valley and city venues that made these the most spread-out Winter Games ever.

In declaring the 2026 Games over on Sunday, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told local organisers that they “delivered a new kind of Winter Games and you set a new, very high standard for the future”.

The next Winter Games will be held in neighbouring France, which received the Olympic flag in the official handover earlier in the ceremony. Following the same spread-out model, the 2030 Winter Games will stage events in the Alps and Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea, while speed skating will be held either in Italy or the Netherlands.

A total of 116 medal events were held in eight Olympic sports across 16 disciplines, including the debut of ski mountaineering this year, over the course of 17 days of competition. With the final events wrapping up just hours before the ceremony, the 50km mass start men’s and women’s cross-country medals were awarded by Coventry inside the arena.

Hosts Italy won their highest Winter Olympic tally of 30 medals, including 10 gold and six silver, surpassing the previous record of 20 medals, set at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994.

The closing ceremony paid tribute to Italian dance and music, from lyric opera to Italian pop of the 20th century to the DJ beat of Gabry Ponte, who got the 1,500 athletes on their feet and dancing while colourful confetti exploded on stage. Italian artist Achille Lauro delivered the last word with the song “Incoscienti Giovani”, or “reckless young people”, just before athletes who had so aptly harnessed their youthful energy for these games filed out.

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics spanned an area of 22,000sq km (8,500sq miles), from ice sports in Milan to biathlon in Anterselva on the Austrian border, snowboarding and men’s downhill in Valtellina on the Swiss border, cross-country skiing in the Val di Fiemme north of Verona, and women’s downhill, curling and sliding sports in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The closing ceremony concluded with the Olympic flames extinguished at the unprecedented two cauldrons in Milan and Cortina, viewed in Verona via videolink. A light show substituted for fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona to protect animals from being disturbed.

The Milan Cortina Paralympics’ opening ceremony will also take place in the Verona Arena, on March 6, and the games will run until March 15.

The offbeat thriller has won six BAFTAs, including best film and best director for Paul Thomas Anderson.

The dark comedy One Battle After Another has swept the United Kingdom’s top film honours, picking up six BAFTA awards, including best film and best director for Paul Thomas Anderson.

The film beat the Shakespearean family tragedy Hamnet, and the vampire thriller Sinners, to take the top prizes at Sunday evening’s ceremony.

The UK prizes, officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards, often provide hints about who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held this year on March 15.

One Battle After Another, an explosive film about a group of revolutionaries in chaotic conflict with the state, won awards for directing, adapted screenplay, cinematography, and editing, as well as for Sean Penn’s supporting performance as an obsessed military officer.

“This is very overwhelming and wonderful,” Anderson said as he accepted the directing prize. “We have a line from Nina Simone that we used in our film: ‘I know what freedom is: It’s no fear’,” the director said. “Let’s keep making things without fear. It’s a good idea.”

Sinners, which has a record 16 Oscar nods, won best original screenplay for writer and director Ryan Coogler, best supporting actress for Wunmi Mosaku, and best original score.

The gothic horror story Frankenstein won three awards each, while Hamnet won two, including best British film.

The documentary about Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, The Voice of Hind Rajab, was among the top contenders for BAFTA’s best director and non-English language film categories. But the film Sentimental Value won in the non-English language category.

The biggest surprise of the night was Robert Aramayo winning the best actor category for his performance in I Swear, a fact-based British indie drama about a campaigner for people with Tourette syndrome.

The 33-year-old British actor beat Timothee Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B Jordan, Ethan Hawke and Jesse Plemons for the honour.

“I absolutely can’t believe this,” he said. “Everyone in this category blows me away.”

Jessie Buckley won best actress for playing Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet, based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell and directed by previous Oscar winner Chloe Zhao.

The best documentary prize went to Mr Nobody Against Putin, about a Russian teacher who documented the propaganda imposed on Russian schools after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The film’s American director, David Borenstein, said that teacher Pavel Talankin had shown that “whether it’s in Russia or the streets of Minneapolis, we always face a moral choice”, referring to the protests against US immigration enforcement in Minnesota.

“We need more Mr Nobodies,” he said.

It beat documentaries including Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing Ukraine war portrait, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, co-produced by The Associated Press and Frontline PBS.

The guests of honour at the awards were Prince William and Princess Kate. The event, hosted by Alan Cumming, was the first joint engagement for the pair since William’s uncle, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested on Thursday.

William, the president of the film academy, presented the BAFTA Fellowship to Donna Langley, studio head at NBC Universal.