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EU Commissioner for Environment blasts Orban as 'shameful'

Published

2 years ago

February 16, 2024

EU Commissioner for Environment blasts Orban as 'shameful'

EU Commissioner Sinkevičius claims the Hungarian prime minister is “isolated” among other EU leaders, and that his actions only serve Europe’s enemies in the Kremlin.

EU Commissioner for Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius has described Hungary’s continuous blocking of important milestones in the West’s defence against Russia as “shameful”.

“It’s shameful” – he said, speaking to Euronews – “to postpone decisions; not to have a vote on Sweden joining NATO, these are obvious actions against collective security.”

“It’s against the interests of the EU, against the interests of the Western world. And that’s something that can only satisfy one side: the Moscow regime,” he said.

Victor Orbán’s pre-Christmas refusal to support a €50 billion lifeline for Ukraine resulted in the European Union scrambling to find other legal avenues to provide Kyiv with much needed liquidity.

Ultimately, Orbán relented, but not before insisting that every EU leader attend an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to address the issue.

Moreover, Orbán has the power to block innumerable roads toward a bolstered, strong Ukraine, particularly as it applies to becoming a member of the EU and NATO. Hungary is also currently holding up talks on a thirteenth sanctions package against Russia for its full scale invasion of Ukraine.

“I think the only good thing is that he more or less isolated”, Sinkevičius said on Orbán. Out of the 27 EU member states, Hungary was the only one to block the aid package.

Euronews spoke to Commissioner Sinkevičius in Ukraine, as he was on a visit to meet with President Zelenskyy to discuss EU’s support to Kyiv.

“Making commitments on a month-by-month basis was a mistake”

There is serious apprehension in Ukraine regarding the stability of Western support after two years of a gruelling, country-wide territorial invasion.

Concerns about supplies of basic ammunition, missiles, anti-air guided missiles and other military hardware have been expressed for some time. Sinkevičius said making commitments to the Ukrainian military only on a month-by-month basis was a mistake.

He says the constant brinkmanship over aid to Ukraine aid is only serving the Kremlin, and a long-term plan for Ukraine is required.

“The war won’t be over in one month or the next”. he added.

“For Europe, for the Western world, it’s extremely important that we have a plan to support Ukraine, because now this decision-making, where it’s so long when we have to fight for every decision, that sends a very positive signal to Moscow, and a very negative to Ukraine.”

“And we have to be planning years ahead. I think the mistake is that we’re still thinking that one month or another month, it can be over”.

“But we see that Russia is gambling exactly on that. They’re waiting for elections in the US, on elections in the EU, there might be a completely different EU. We’re already seeing some of the new governments of the EU who are not so supportive of Ukraine.”

Correspondent Shona Murray spoke to Commissioner Sinkevičius in Kyiv, Ukraine.

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World

Live possum discovered hiding among plush toys in an Australian airport gift shop

Published

2 hours ago

March 21, 2026

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Live possum discovered hiding among plush toys in an Australian airport gift shop

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Someone was playing possum — or stuffed animal.

Among plush kangaroos, dingoes and Tasmanian devils ready to be bought by parents of antsy children, a live brushtail possum waited in a gift shop at an Australian airport this week.

The wild animal was first noticed by a shopper in the store on Wednesday, retail manager Liam Bloomfield of Hobart Airport in the state of Tasmania said.

“A passenger reported it to …. one of the staff members on shift who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing,” Bloomfield told The Associated Press. “She then called the (airport) management and said we’ve got a possum in the store.”

TOURISTS IN LAS VEGAS PAY $1,000 FOR DINNER ON THE STRIP WHILE SHARKS EAT LIKE ROYALTY

A live Australian brushtail possum sits on the display shelf at a terminal shop at Hobart Airport in Hobart, Australia, on Wednesday. (Melissa Oddie via AP)

Staff at the airport were able to remove the animal without harming it.

“I’m imaging it saw some of the plush animals that were for sale on the shelf and it decided to make its home with those,” Bloomfield joked of why the possum was hiding with the stuffed toys. “It wanted to blend in.”

EXPERT SOUNDS ALARM AFTER STUDY FINDS POPULAR TRAVEL ITEM CARRIES FAR MORE BACTERIA THAN EXPECTED

The arrivals area at Hobart Airport in Australia. (Steve Bell/Getty Images)

“Can you spot the imposter?” the airport wrote in a Facebook post Thursday that showed the possum curled up in a cubby with its stuffed counterparts.

“This cheeky lost possum found a clever hiding place among the Aussie plushies in our retail store,” the airport continued. “Luckily it was safely relocated out of the terminal area and the space was cleaned.”

Passengers boarding a plane at Hobart Airport in Australia. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

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Bloomfield said the possum not only found a way into the airport but also their hearts.

“We’ll have a little shrine to the possum,” he revealed, according to The Independent. “There will be a nice little photo; once it gets a name, we will put a nice little post in front of the store to make sure it’s remembered.”

World

Curro Rodríguez: from bankruptcy to global water empire

Published

3 hours ago

March 21, 2026

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Curro Rodríguez: from bankruptcy to global water empire

Published on 20/03/2026 – 15:00 GMT+1•Updated
15:23

From a start-up founded in Malaga in 2015 with a few thousand euros, Ly Company has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing multinationals, and a global leader in the sustainable water packaging sector.

With ten factories located across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, Ly Company produces about 10 million bottles of water in cardboard packaging per month.

Unlike most competitors, Ly Company doesn’t owe its success to mass retail firms.

It sells personalised products to more than 3,000 brands, ranging from airlines and hotel chains to private transport companies and major events organisers. “There is a lot of water in sectors where no one thinks it is consumed”, notes Rodríguez. “An airline, for example, can consume 50 million bottles per year.”

The company is now targeting China and, above all, the United States.

Its positioning is also based on sustainability: factories powered by green energy, cardboard from responsibly managed forest, bioplastic made from sugar cane and water guaranteed to be microplastics-free. Part of the profits fund his “Agua y Vida” Foundation, which is involved in environmental and humanitarian projects.

“I’ve gone through some very difficult times. Now that I’m doing well, I want to give something back to society”, explains Curro Rodríguez.

Behind this rise lies a chaotic journey. While working as a first-responder in emergency medical services for twenty years, he was simultaneously launching businesses, sometimes risky ones. Two successive bankruptcies saw him resort to food aid and doing odd jobs for a while, before he reinvented himself.

“My passion is bringing projects to life”, explains Curro Rodríguez, who has founded a total of 39 companies, 23 of which are currently active within his holding company. “When things are done out of emotion, and not for money, they create value. The money follows. But you have to look for value first”, he concludes, a big smile on his face.

World

Video: What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

Published

13 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Video: What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

new video loaded: What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

transcript

What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

Satellite images show how Iran has tried to bolster its defenses at parts of the Isfahan nuclear facility.

: What you’re seeing here are buried tunnel entrances at a nuclear facility in Iran. It’s one of the most important sites in the country for U.S. and Israeli forces. U.N. inspectors think that roughly half of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is buried here. And these three entrances are the only known ways to access it. If you think about nuclear sites in Iran, three main sites come to mind. They’re pretty well known: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. Natanz and Fordo, They were largely taken out in U.S. strikes last year. So I’ve been focusing on Isfahan. The uranium here is still relatively accessible. It’s actually a pretty large complex. This area here was very important for uranium processing, but it was heavily hit by the U.S. and Israel last June. If you go a little bit further north, that is underground and that requires tunnels to enter. In a terrain view, it gets quite interesting. There are three roads that lead to these tunnel entrances, and these tunnel entrances have become very important, both last year, but also right now. They lead to the underground facility where U.N. inspectors say uranium is stored and a new enrichment site could be located. If this falls into the wrong hands, that would be a problem in the long term. Here’s a great example of how very recent satellite imagery gives us new insights. This is from late January of this year, and what you see here is a line of trucks. And they’re filled with soil, and they’re lining up to go to some of these tunnel entrances. If you look a little bit closer here, you see another one of these trucks that’s just unloading some of the soil and some earthmoving equipment. Iran in preparation for any possible attacks at that point. They try to protect this facility a little bit more. So this is Jan. 29. And if you just look a few days later, we go to Feb. 2. This is the completely buried tunnel entrance, completely covered in soil to protect from any attack. And this is how it still looks in mid-March. The U.S. and Israel have basically two options here: The first one is to heavily bombard the entrances to this underground complex that would block any access, at least in the near future. They haven’t done that yet. So that’s very, very interesting — a little bit surprising. And it might point towards a second option: That would be to go in with ground forces and to extract the uranium. But that would require a really large amount of troops to secure the vast area, bringing in earthmoving equipment to clear the tunnels and a lot of time in hostile territory.
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