EU agrees on Russian oil price cap

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin says the war in Ukraine has exposed basic weaknesses in Europe's defense and strategy. UK says Russia's withdrawal allowed Ukraine to target transport nodes. Follow DW for more.

To justify the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the false pretexts of "denazification" and "demilitarisation" of the country. Russian state propaganda is built around the myth of a Ukraine in the hands of "Nazis", one where the Russians come to "liberate" the "Russian speakers".

The European Commission has laid out options to get frozen Russian assets, be they central bank reserves overseas or seized yachts, to make money for war-ravaged Ukraine. But the path forward remains unclear.

The European Union approved a plan to cap prices of Russian oil at $60 a barrel, with the deal coming into effect December 5. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy thinks it may not be enough. Follow DW for the latest.

The EU has stopped buying Russian seaborne crude oil as it seeks to deprive Moscow of a key revenue source fueling its war in Ukraine. The move will hurt Russia but not as much as the bloc would have liked.

Massive US subsidies for American companies have sparked concerns in Europe, as the EU views them as anti-competitive. While their talks reached no breakthrough, the two sides said they would intensify discussions.

Judges have ruled that Germany should be able to take part in the EU's €750-billion COVID-19 reconstruction fund. The court rejected two complaints that participation hands too much power from Berlin to Brussels.

More than 100,000 people have entered the European Union via the western Balkans without documentation this year. The Obrenovac camp near Serbia's capital, Belgrade, has become a transit point for migrants from around the world, some of whom have spent years on the road.

Russia is expanding its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. At the start of winter, there are hundreds of thousands of people without electricity or heating. DW reporter Jan-Phillipp Scholz met some of them.

The European Commission wants to ensure that the rights of LGBTQ parents are recognized in all EU countries. But conservative EU member states are expected to push back.

Recent discussions in Europe about a gas price cap are said to have been tough, heated and even ugly. The European Commission has put a proposal on the table, but EU member states are finding it difficult to reach a compromise among themselves – despite giving their political support to a gas price cap in late October.

For years, Brussels has been at loggerheads with the Hungarian government over a host of issues – migrants, the rights of minorities, media freedoms, the independence of the justice system and, most recently, over Russia and Ukraine. Long-standing tensions are coming to a head as Hungary delays a proposed EU aid package to Ukraine, while the EU holds up billions of euros in funding to Hungary over rule-of-law concerns.