Pope offers to hold talks with Russia after meeting Zelenskyy – Europe live | Europe

Police raid headquarters of French far-right National Rally party

Jon Henley

in Paris

Police have raided the headquarters of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) and seized documents as part of an investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing that was denounced by the party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, as “a harassment campaign”.

Police and investigating magistrates had seized “emails, documents and accounting” relating to “the last regional, presidential, parliamentary and European elections”, he said, calling the operation “a serious attack on pluralism and democratic choice”.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the raid was part of an investigation launched in July last year that sought to establish whether campaigns in 2022 and 2024 were funded through “illegal loans from individuals to the party or to RN candidates”.

The raid came a day after EU financial prosecutors in Brussels said they had launched a separate investigation into the alleged misuse of €4.3m by the former far-right Identity & Democracy (ID) group in the European parliament, which included the RN.

It also represented a fresh setback for the party after its figurehead, Marine Le Pen, was convicted in March of embezzling EU funds and barred from running for office for five years, effectively scuppering her hopes of running in 2027 presidential elections.

Jakub Krupa

We now have a big more background on the French police’s raid on the far-right National Rally party headquarters that I mentioned earlier (10:52).

Over to Jon Henley in Paris.

Italy plans to unveil a support scheme worth €300m for small and medium enterprises involved in the reconstruction of Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said.

The announcement comes a day before the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, starting tomorrow, which will be attended by over 4,000 delegated from 90 countries, including 50 heads of states, Tajani said.

EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has been speaking in the European parliament in the last ten minutes.

He told the lawmakers the bloc “has made good progress” in trade talks with the US as their negotiations “intensified considerably” in the last few days.

“We have made good progress on the text of the joint statement or agreement in principle, and I hope we can soon finalise our work.”

He added:

“I hope to reach a satisfactory results, potentially even in the coming days.

The agreement in principle we are striving to finalise is not the end, but rather the start of the new beginning.

It would provide a framework upon which we can continue to build defining the exact parameters of the later agreement.

In other words, I see it as a foundational framework that paves the way for future fully fledged EU US trade agreement.”

And, as expected (11:47), we are now getting first pictures from the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome, where Pope Leo XIV welcomed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, earlier today.

A statement from the Vatican just now said the pair “discussed the ongoing conflict and the urgent need for a just and lasting peace.”

“During the cordial conversation, the importance of dialogue as the preferred means of ending hostilities was reaffirmed.

The Holy Father expressed his sorrow for the victims and renewed his prayers and closeness to the Ukrainian people, encouraging every effort aimed at the release of prisoners and the search for shared solutions.”

The statement added that “the Holy Father reiterated the willingness to welcome representatives of Russia and Ukraine to the Vatican for negotiations.”

Russia has previously rejected this offer, with Russian foreign minister Sergiei Lavrov suggesting it would not be appropriate for two Orthodox Christian countries to hold talks there.

A top European court ruled Russia committed a string of human rights violations in backing anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014, the downing of the MH17 flight that year and invading Ukraine in 2022, AFP reported.

The European court of human rights, part of the Council of Europe rights body, is tasked with implementing the European human rights convention in signatory countries.

A panel of 17 judges found Russia violated the convention through “extrajudicial killing of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel” outside of combat, “torture”, “forced labour”, “unlawful and arbitrary detention of civilians” as well as looting.

The judges also ruled that Russia had violated the European rights convention through “the transfer to Russia and, in many cases, the adoption there of Ukrainian children”.

The largely symbolic ruling comes after the Council of Europe excluded Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow dropped out of the European rights convention in September that year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Russia had no intention of compling with the decision of the court, whose rulings it considered to be “null and void”.

Elsewhere, Poland said it was going to report Elon Musk’s xAI to the European Commission after its chatbot Grok made offensive comments about Polish politicians, including prime minister Donald Tusk.

Poland’s digitisation minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, told RMF FM radio that the government will ask Brussels to investigate the chatbot’s offensive comments about its politicians, Reuters reported.

“I have the impression that we are entering a higher level of hate speech, which is driven by algorithms, and that turning a blind eye or ignoring this today… is a mistake that may cost humanity in the future.

The Ministry of Digitisation will react in accordance with current regulations, we will report the violation to the European Commission to investigate and possibly impose a fine on X.

Freedom of speech belongs to humans, not to artificial intelligence.“

Reuters noted that a Turkish court earlier blocked access to some content from Grok after authorities said the chatbot generated responses insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and religious values.

Let’s go back to Ukraine for the latest updates there, with local prosecutors saying that eight civilians were killed in Russian drone and bombing attacks in the war-scarred Donetsk region in the east of the country, as reported by AFP.

The confirmation comes shortly after the Kremlin dismissed US president Donald Trump’s overnight criticism of Vladimir Putin, saying “we are quite calm about this.”

“Let’s just say that Trump in general has quite a harsh rhetorical style in terms of the phrases he uses,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov said that Trump had come to an understanding that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would not be easy to resolve.

In comments reported by Reuters, he said:

“We also heard a very important statement by Trump that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict turned out to be much more difficult than he thought from the very beginning.”

During its midday briefing, the EU was also asked about the case of Palestinian man who worked for the EU in Gaza but after the closure of his office was left in Cairo without a job or residency rights.

Mohammed Baraka, who served at the EU border assistance mission at Rafah in southern Gaza and was evacuated to Egypt when the war broke out, has accused Brussels officials of “coldly” dismissing him from his job by email and “abandoning” a loyal employee.

EU foreign policy spokesperson Anouar El Anouni responded to the story by saying:

“What I can say, and this is also what has been reflected in the story that has been also published, is the following: that in view of the exceptional circumstances, the EU is providing Mr Baraka with a comprehensive financial severance package following the end of his contract.”

Pressed further, he insisted the EU was “assisting the person in question as much as we can,” and said the EU foreign chief Kaja Kallas will separately respond to his letter to the EU, first reported by the Guardian.

Elsewhere, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has just told the parliament that Greece will suspend processing asylum applications for migrants arriving on boat from north Africa.

In comments reported by Kathimerini, he said the government would adopt a “legal, but absolutely strict” policy on migration, working with the Libyan authorities to prevent the boats from leaving the Libyan coast.

The recent spike in migration flows, including what he described as the emergency situation on Crete, required an urgent response from the government, he argued.

“The road to Greece is closing … any migrants entering illegally will be arrested and detained,” Mitsotakis told parliament.

The suspension will initially apply for three months.

The European Commission was earlier asked about reports of over 500 migrants arriving in Greece from Libya and whether the commission had any notification of this move from Athens.

“We are aware of the arrivals, we are in close touch with the authorities, and we will continue our engagement with partner countries across the Mediterranean as we’ve done in the past,” EU spokesperson Markus Lammert responded.

EU ‘on standby for announcement’ on EU-US tariff deal

Lisa O’Carroll

in Brussels

The EU is on standby for an announcement on the EU-US deal as early as tonight with ambassadors meeting again this afternoon.

Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič spoke to commerce secretary Howard Lutnick yesterday and will speak to Jamieson Greer this afternoon.

EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill added that the EU “does not expect a letter” from Donald Trump and that the agreement in principle will be seen as a way of opening fuller negotiations on “all the other trade issues”.

The EU also said a deal would restore the certainty desperately sought by member states and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

“We have consulted with our member states consistently and in detail, we have consulted with our industry consistently and in detail, we believe that has created a situation of strong EU cohesion, where we can speak and negotiate with our American counterparts with confidence.

That is what we will continue to do … to reach an agreement that avoids the worst pain of tariffs and give stability and predictability to businesses here in Europe, but also in the US.”

EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill has just confirmed that the bloc aims to reach a trade deal with the US before 1 August, “potentially even in the coming days.”

He said “EU teams have been working tirelessly at technical and political level to conclude an agreement in principle.”

“Reaching a deal now depends on the willingness to find an outcome that is acceptable to both sides,” he said.

Responding to a follow-up question from the Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll, he added:

“When I say in the coming days, I mean, in the coming days. That’s what we’re pushing for. It requires two sides to get an agreement over the line, and we believe an agreement is possible,” he said.

He earlier said the EU was locked in “intensive negotiations” with the US, with trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič engaging with US counterparts, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer.