Latest / Pollar Sounds / A student revolt, a budget with no deal and a Starlink speed limit

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A student revolt, a budget with no deal and a Starlink speed limit · Pollar Sounds

• 0:00
  Hi there, this is Pollar, and welcome to 3x3.
• 0:04
  Three stories, three angles: what happened.
• 0:08
  How it's being told.
• 0:09
  And what we don't know yet.
• 0:12
  And after each story, we want to hear what you think.
• 0:15
  So, let's begin.
• 0:23
  First up, Albania. What happened?
• 0:26
  Since Tuesday the 13th of October, protesters led by students
• 0:30
  have clashed with police in the capital, Tirana, every day.
• 0:34
  It began outside the Education Ministry.
• 0:37
  Students say university costs too much, campuses are in poor shape,
• 0:42
  and jobs are hard to find after graduating.
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  It turned violent on the first day.
• 0:47
  On Wednesday it got much worse: protesters threw stones and petrol bombs,
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  set part of the Education Ministry and two banks on fire,
• 0:56
  and attacked parliament and the Prime Minister's office.
• 0:59
  Police answered with tear gas and water cannon.
• 1:02
  The health ministry says 89 people were treated in hospital on Wednesday,
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  61 of them police.
• 1:08
  Police say they have arrested more than 70 people,
• 1:11
  and charged well over 100 more.
• 1:13
  On Thursday, there were clashes in Shkodër, Korçë and other towns,
• 1:18
  and parliament put off its session until next week.
• 1:21
  On Friday, a fourth day, they were back outside the Education Ministry.
• 1:26
  The Prime Minister, Edi Rama, told Reuters, in written answers, that he will not resign.
• 1:31
  "We had elections last year, not a revolution," he wrote.
• 1:39
  How it's being told.
• 1:43
  As a student revolt, first. "We will be in the square every day,"
• 1:48
  one organiser, Mateo Yskollari, wrote online.
• 1:52
  But also as part of a bigger fight.
• 1:55
  For months, the so-called Flamingo movement has demanded Rama's resignation,
• 2:00
  over corruption claims and a coastal resort
• 2:02
  linked to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law.
• 2:06
  Rama tells it as an attack by his opponents.
• 2:09
  In a video from the burned-out office of the College of Europe in Tirana,
• 2:12
  he blamed the opposition. Those hands, he said, "cannot grab Albania by the throat."
• 2:19
  The main opposition party, the Democrats, calls it a revolt
• 2:23
  against a government that "has stolen hope from young people."
• 2:27
  And the European Union's office in Tirana first asked police to act in proportion,
• 2:32
  and for claims of excessive force to be investigated.
• 2:35
  On Thursday it condemned the violence and asked protesters for restraint.
• 2:42
  What we don't know yet.
• 2:46
  Who is leading it.
• 2:48
  Whether students and Rama's longer-standing opponents are now one movement,
• 2:52
  or two, marching side by side.
• 2:55
  What it means for Albania's bid to join the EU.
• 2:58
  Albania wants to wrap up its membership talks by next year and join by 2030,
• 3:04
  and Rama says he won't let violence derail that.
• 3:07
  And whether there's a way out.
• 3:09
  Rama says he's ready to talk. The students want him gone.
• 3:14
  Over to you. Is there a line where protest stops being protest,
• 3:18
  and who gets to draw it?
• 3:20
  Should the cost of university be something a government can fall over?
• 3:24
  And does a country's road into the EU give its people more of a say, or less?
• 3:32
  Second, the European Union's money. What happened?
• 3:37
  On Thursday, EU leaders met in Brussels over the Union's next long-term budget,
• 3:42
  for 2028 to 2034.
• 3:45
  The European Commission proposed 1.76 trillion euros, in today's prices.
• 3:51
  Ireland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency,
• 3:55
  proposed about 1.62 trillion, 8% less.
• 3:59
  The talks ran past midnight and ended without a deal.
• 4:03
  The summit's closing press conference was cancelled.
• 4:05
  Instead, they handed the talks to the European Council's president, António Costa.
• 4:11
  He'll write a new proposal for a special summit on the 26th of November.
• 4:15
  And the deadline is slipping.
• 4:18
  On paper, the leaders kept their target of a deal before the end of the year.
• 4:22
  But Sweden's caretaker Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, said:
• 4:26
  Ulf Kristersson: I think we are not in a hurry, honestly.
• 4:30
  Ulf Kristersson: We need to have a budget that could combine…
• 4:33
  How it's being told.
• 4:37
  In the north, it's told as a bill.
• 4:40
  Kristersson called the plan "far too big, far too expensive".
• 4:44
  Germany's Friedrich Merz says no country can afford to pay in "on such a level".
• 4:49
  In the south and east, as fairness.
• 4:52
  17 countries, from Spain to Poland, want money for farmers and poorer regions protected.
• 4:59
  Spain's Pedro Sánchez, who faces an election next month,
• 5:02
  called the plan unacceptable.
• 5:05
  Poland has a second objection:
• 5:07
  a plan to send 30% of each country's carbon permit income to Brussels.
• 5:12
  A Polish government source told RMF FM radio that could block the whole budget.
• 5:18
  And in France, as a fight over Ukraine.
• 5:21
  In Brussels on Wednesday, Marine Le Pen, who is running for president next year,
• 5:26
  said France can no longer afford to give Ukraine money,
• 5:29
  and that the budget should wait until after elections in France, Poland, Spain and Italy.
• 5:35
  That same evening in Paris, the National Assembly approved
• 5:38
  France's payment into next year's EU budget,
• 5:41
  with Le Pen's party and the radical left voting against.
• 5:47
  What we don't know yet.
• 5:51
  What Costa will put on the table.
• 5:53
  France says there'll be no deal without substantial new money of the EU's own.
• 5:58
  Germany's Europe minister has questioned whether Costa is in touch with reality
• 6:02
  for pushing EU-wide taxes.
• 6:05
  And one country is watching from outside.
• 6:08
  Britain's Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, wants closer ties with the EU,
• 6:12
  and says a new referendum is possible one day.
• 6:15
  France's finance minister told the BBC: "Come back, anytime."
• 6:20
  For now, Britain has no seat at the table.
• 6:24
  Over to you. Should richer countries pay more,
• 6:27
  so that farmers and poorer regions keep their money?
• 6:30
  Should the EU be able to raise more money of its own,
• 6:33
  or should that stay with national governments?
• 6:36
  And should a budget that runs to 2034 wait for the next round of national elections?
• 6:45
  Third, a speed limit on Ukraine's satellite internet. What happened?
• 6:50
  Overnight from the 13th to the 14th of October, Ukrainian units say
• 6:54
  their drones started losing their satellite link in mid-flight.
• 6:58
  Officials say the limit hit Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk's Starlink.
• 7:04
  Ukrainian officials say moving terminals were capped at 160 kilometres an hour.
• 7:09
  Ukraine says that hit its interceptor drones, which have to fly far faster than that
• 7:14
  to catch Russia's jet drones.
• 7:16
  By Thursday, Ukraine's Defence Ministry said the service worked on the move again.
• 7:21
  Reports differ on whether the cap still applies.
• 7:24
  So who ordered it? Pollar News asked the White House on Thursday.
• 7:28
  A senior US official told us, on background,
• 7:32
  that no such request was ever made by the President.
• 7:35
  We also asked about anyone else at the White House.
• 7:38
  That part went unanswered.
• 7:39
  Hours later, two US officials and a Western official told Reuters
• 7:44
  the instruction came from inside the White House.
• 7:50
  How it's being told.
• 7:54
  Elon Musk says it isn't his call. Starshield, he wrote,
• 7:59
  is "owned and controlled by the US government",
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  and its limits are "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS",
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  meaning the President. Others disagree on who acted.
• 8:11
  Two US officials told CNN it was not a high-level US policy decision,
• 8:16
  and a source told Bloomberg that SpaceX had limited the connections.
• 8:20
  Kyiv says it was deliberate.
• 8:23
  Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times it was no technical fault,
• 8:27
  and that Ukraine would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries.
• 8:31
  That's the backdrop. Donald Trump told Newsmax on Thursday
• 8:35
  that Zelensky is "making the world oil price higher", and called it "a disgrace".
• 8:41
  In Europe, it's a story about dependence.
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  Germany's public broadcaster ARD headlined it
• 8:47
  "Disappointed by Musk, disappointed by Trump".
• 8:53
  What we don't know yet.
• 8:56
  Who gave the order. Nobody has been named publicly.
• 9:00
  Nine US senators, four of them Republicans,
• 9:03
  have asked the Pentagon's watchdog to find out.
• 9:06
  Whether there's more to come. A Trump administration official told Semafor
• 9:10
  that halting intelligence sharing with Ukraine is being discussed in the White House.
• 9:15
  Trump says the US is still sharing.
• 9:18
  And what Europe does about it.
• 9:21
  On Friday, the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said this.
• 9:25
  Kaja Kallas: Yes, well, Starlink is really necessary for Ukraine,
• 9:30
  Kaja Kallas: and unfortunately, in short term, Europe can't replace this capability.
• 9:36
  Kaja Kallas: That's why we have also, today…
• 9:38
  Over to you. Should one company's satellites matter this much in a war?
• 9:41
  Should Europe pay to build its own, even if it costs billions?
• 9:46
  And when a service like this is quietly limited,
• 9:49
  do we have a right to know who decided?
• 9:55
  Those were three stories, in three angles. The sources for each are at pollar.news.
• 10:01
  Tell us what you think, in the comments or on Pollar's socials.
• 10:05
  In the next episode, we'll read out the best answers.
• 10:09
  Thanks for listening to this episode of Pollar.
• 10:17
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• 10:19
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