Two Russian oligarchs came off the EU's blacklist after intense negotiations between EU countries, another neat reminder that the Brussels apparatus can move fast when the right people are in the room. The sanctions dispute that gripped Brussels ended with two Russian businessmen being removed from the list, while US President Donald Trump said he expects the war in Ukraine to end sooner than people think.
Brussels and the blacklist
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs spoke exclusively to Euronews' Angela Skujins about the sanctions dispute that gripped Brussels and led to the removal of the two Russian businessmen from the EU's blacklist. The language is tidy enough. Intense negotiations. A dispute. A blacklist. But the machinery underneath is plain: EU countries haggled over who stays punished and who gets to walk away, with the decision landing in the hands of governments and their diplomats rather than anyone living with the consequences of war, sanctions, or the economic squeeze that follows both.
The program said Trump told the UN that he expects the war to end sooner than many people think. He also said he expects the war in Ukraine to end sooner than people think. That’s the sort of line world leaders like to toss around when they want to sound like they’re steering history instead of reacting to it. The war keeps grinding on, and the public gets predictions.
Washington, Brussels, and the war machine
Sasha Vakulina was breaking down the meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York as Washington stepped up efforts to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting itself sits inside the familiar choreography of state power: presidents, prime ministers, and diplomats arranging the terms of violence and its possible pause, while ordinary people are left to absorb the costs. The article gives no sign of any popular say in the matter. None is expected.
The same broadcast also said Shona Murray was reporting on a deal signed by the US, Denmark and Greenland to strengthen Arctic security, ending over a year of tensions after US President Donald Trump threatened to "take" the world's largest island by force. That threat hangs over the deal like a stain that never quite washes out. First comes the boast about taking territory by force. Then comes the agreement to strengthen security. The state system keeps its vocabulary polished, even when the underlying message is naked coercion.
The Arctic deal shows how quickly governments can turn threats into administration. One year of tensions, then signatures. Security, in this register, means more state capacity, more military posture, more control over territory and movement. The people who live under those decisions are not the ones signing them.
Elections, headlines, and the same old order
Aboubakr Jamai, a Moroccan writer and dean of the Donna Dillon Manning School of Global Affairs at The American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, was speaking as Morocco went to the polls in legislative elections. The broadcast places the election in the same frame as the rest of the day’s state business: sanctions, war talks, Arctic security, and the managed rituals of representation. Ballots get cast. Power stays where it is.
Euronews anchors Méabh Mc Mahon and Stefan Grobe present Europe Today live every weekday at 8 a.m. Brussels time, and the show runs for 20 minutes. It is also available as a newsletter and podcast. The format is efficient, polished, and built for the same institutions it reports on. Brussels sets the pace. Washington sets the terms. National governments negotiate the leftovers. The rest of us get the bulletin.
The episode aired on September 23, 2026, the same day it was published. That’s the rhythm of the modern border-and-war regime: immediate, managed, and always presented as if the people affected were spectators rather than subjects of the decisions.