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30 October 2026
Latest news from Euronews 
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Spain: minute of silence for train crash victims as king visits hospital
30 October 2026
Spain is mourning 69 people killed in a high-speed train collision near Toledo. As King Felipe VI visits a hospital treating the injured, rescuers continue searching the wreckage and a minute of silence is held at the crash site.
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Kazakhstan's Tokayev calls for faster construction of nuclear power plants
29 October 2026
President Tokayev outlined the country's priorities for the coming year in his annual address, urging the government to accelerate energy and construction projects, while criticising inefficiencies in public policy.
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Latest news bulletin | October 29th, 2026 – Evening
29 October 2026
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond this October 29th, 2026 - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
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Netenyahu's Likud party alleges interference and fraud in Israel's election
29 October 2026
Qatar has denied interfering in the election or funding efforts to influence the result, calling the accusations “ridiculous and dangerous”.
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Breaking news and world news from France 24 on Business, Sports, Culture. Video news. News from the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, America
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ECB President Lagarde steps down in order to speak out
29 October 2026
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will step down from her post several months early, in order to have more "freedom to engage on matters that are not monetary policy." The comments will fuel speculation about her future plans, ahead of a presidential election in her native France. The resignation also sparks a succession race, as Europe faces a turbulent fiscal future. Also in the show - oil giant TotalEnergies reports record profits as the EU warns on household energy bills.
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Patrick Stewart, star of 'Star Trek' and 'X men', dies at 86
29 October 2026
The British actor Patrick Stewart has died at 86, a statement released on Thursday said. Stewart was an acclaimed actor in Britain with the Royal Shakespeare Company before he starred in the beloved sci-fi TV show "Star Trek" in the 80s and later in the "X-Men" franchise.
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'Extremist right-wing ideologies' an increasing threat in France & 'across much of democratic world'
29 October 2026
François Picard is pleased to welcome Dr Joseph Downing, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Politics at Aston University. In modern France, the politics of insecurity increasingly extends beyond questions of crime and public order to encompass deeper struggles over national identity, disappearance of the political centre and erosion of democratic values. The emergence of far-right extremist violence, alongside the persistent stigmatization of ethnically diverse working-class suburbs, raises urgent questions about the relationship between fiery and divisive political rhetoric and far-right radicalization. Downing examines these interrelated challenges against the backdrop of a deadly shooting in the Paris suburbs, allegedly motivated by racist and anti-Muslim hostility.
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'Extremist right-wing ideologies' an increasing threat in France & 'across much of democratic world'
29 October 2026
François Picard is pleased to welcome Dr Joseph Downing, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Politics at Aston University. In modern France, the politics of insecurity increasingly extends beyond questions of crime and public order to encompass deeper struggles over national identity, disappearance of the political centre and erosion of democratic values. The emergence of far-right extremist violence, alongside the persistent stigmatization of ethnically diverse working-class suburbs, raises urgent questions about the relationship between political rhetoric, radicalization and the erosion of democratic moderation. Downing examines these interrelated challenges against the backdrop of a deadly shooting in the Paris suburbs, allegedly motivated by racist and anti-Muslim hostility. For Downing, the attack illustrates a broader shift in Europe's extremist landscape, in which the rise of far-right political violence demands greater public and institutional attention: "This is really one of the first and one of the most serious right-wing nationalist, nativist-inspired terror attacks that you see in France."
Yet Downing's analysis reaches beyond the horrific attack. He challenges the political representation of France's working-class suburbs as centres of Islamist radicalism, describing such portrayals as a divisive rhetorical strategy that stigmatizes communities whose residents are overwhelmingly engaged in ordinary civic and economic life.
His central political concern is the weakening of the democratic centre. Amid rising living costs, social insecurity and the circulation of polarizing identity narratives through digital media, he argues that political movements on the ideological fringes gain an advantage by offering apparently simplistic, and often divisive solutions, to deeply complex problems. "The centre of politics in France, as in many other democracies, is struggling to hold."
Perhaps most revealingly, Downing identifies the deliberate or careless conflation of racial identity, migration status and religious extremism as a particularly damaging feature of contemporary political discourse. By treating French citizens of African or Arab heritage as perpetual outsiders, political commentators risk reinforcing the very divisions that undermine national cohesion.
The interview therefore opens onto a wider question at the heart of contemporary democratic politics: what happens when narratives of national insecurity become more politically influential than the social realities they claim to describe?
Downing's reflections illuminate not only the challenges facing France but also the wider vulnerabilities of democratic societies confronting political polarization, economic anxiety and the normalization of exclusionary rhetoric.
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29 October 2026
Europe - Discover all the articles, videos and infographics in the Europe section on Le Monde.fr.
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