
EU adopts 18th sanctions package to cripple Russia's war machine
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said the sanctions will strike at the heart of Russia's war machine.
'Welcome the agreement on our 18th sanctions package against Russia. We are striking at the heart of Russia's war machine targeting its banking, energy, and military-industrial sectors, and including a new dynamic oil price cap. The pressure is on. It will stay on until Putin ends this war,' Ursula said in a post on X.
"EU just approved one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date," said the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on X.
"We will keep raising the costs so that stopping the aggression becomes the only path forward for Moscow," added Kallas.
The sanctions package also includes a ban on transactions related to Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines and additional restrictions on Russia's financial sector.
UNI AAB PRS

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Mint
7 minutes ago
- Mint
PM Modi comforts translator struggling with Hindi in UK: ‘Can use English words'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was heard comforting a translator who was struggling to speak Hindi to him during the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the United Kingdom on Thursday, July 24. The video on the internet shows a translator attempting to translate UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's statements from English to Hindi but struggling, prompting a reassuring gesture from PM Narendra Modi. As she finishes a sentence in Hindi with great difficulty, PM Modi tells her, 'It's okay, you can use English words in between,' instantly easing the moment. The moment brought a smile to Keir Starmer's face, who offered to repeat his remarks for the translator. Then, turning to PM Modi with a light gesture, he said, 'I think we understand each other well.' India and the UK signed a landmark free trade agreement, which, starting 2026, will see 99 per cent of Indian exports enter the UK duty-free, while reducing tariffs on British products such as cars and whisky. The deal, which comes days ahead of the US moratorium on higher tariffs coming to an end, aims to double the USD 56 billion trade between the world's fifth and sixth largest economies by 2030. While India has opened its market to various consumer goods, including chocolates, biscuits, and cosmetics, it will gain greater access to export products such as textiles, footwear, gems and jewellery, sports goods, and toys. While PM Modi termed the Free Trade Agreement a 'historic' deal, Keir Starmer said the agreement is one of the most significant since the country left the European Union (EU).


United News of India
16 minutes ago
- United News of India
Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto accuses Ukraine of undermining Central Europe's energy security by blocking gas transits
Budapest, July 24 (UNI) Taking a jab at Ukraine once again, Hungarian Foreign Minster Peter Szijjarto has accused the country of undermining the energy security of Central Europe, through its recent actions which include the blockage of gas transits from its territory, threatening energy supplies throughout the region. In an interview with Russian state media TASS, Szijjarto said 'The TurkStream pipeline is working on full capacity not without a good reason. We have a long- term contract, plus we buy on spot basis, plus Slovakia buys its gas now through Hungary because Ukraine was 'kind enough' to lock down transit through its own territory, endangering the energy safety of supplies in the Central European region.' Stating that Kyiv's calls for solidarity with Europe are made more questionable by such actions, he added 'So when we speak about solidarity, I'm not quite sure that we understand the same definition under that on both sides of the border.' Hungary has long been opposed to Ukraine's bid for joining the EU, stating that Budapest will not allow itself to be dragged into a war with Russia by allowing Kyiv to join the bloc. It has also been one of the few countries which has refused to supply any military equipment to Ukraine, or cut its ties with Moscow. Rather, it has become even closer to Russia, as Budapest is joining the country in construction of new gas pipelines, much to the opposition of Brussels which is seeking to cut its reliance on Russian energy. Slovakia has insisted on maintaining the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, whose authorities stopped supplies at the beginning of this year. As such, Bratislava currently receives energy raw materials from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline, though their volume is less than half of the republic's gas imports. UNI ANV


Time of India
37 minutes ago
- Time of India
Irish watchdog threatens Elon Musk's X over adult content controls
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Ireland's media watchdog, acting on behalf of the EU, has warned Elon Musk 's social network X that it must enact rules to restrict children's access to adult content by Friday or "face action".The regulator, Coimisiun na Mean, is tasked by the European Union with overseeing compliance by tech giants including X, Meta and TikTok , which all have European headquarters in the Irish authority formally adopted an Online Safety Code in October -- following consultation with the European Commission -- introducing binding rules to protect EU users of video-sharing platforms from harmful were given nine months before the more detailed provisions of the code came into force to allow time for any IT changes that may have been rules, which came into force this week, included an obligation for video-sharing platforms that allow pornography to use effective age assurance to ensure that children are not normally able to access also prohibit the uploading of content such as cyberbullying, the promotion of self-harm, suicide, eating disorders or dangerous challenges, as well as pornography and all the platforms based in Ireland, X is the only one that allows a statement sent to AFP on Thursday, the regulator said that X, formerly Twitter, has not so far complied with the an initial review, the watchdog said it "cannot see any evidence of measures taken to comply with the age assurance requirement"."Non-compliance is a serious matter which can lead to sanctions including significant financial penalties," it said.X did not immediately reply to an AFP request for to the code, breaches carry fines of up to 10 percent of a platform's annual turnover or up to 20 million euros ($23.5 million) -- whichever is regulator also said on Thursday it had "further concerns" about X's compliance with some of the other rules "including but not limited to, the availability of parental controls".It said it "will take further action" if X does not provide evidence of compliance with the code by also said it is continuing to review the compliance of other designated video-sharing platforms to assess their compliance "and will take any further supervisory, investigative or enforcement action required".