After oat milk, Europe turns to pea milk: the Greek scientist leading the way

By Symela Touchtidou

Published on 11/07/2026 - EURONEWS

Angeliki Triantafyllou, winner of the 2026 European Inventor Award, explains to Euronews why the future of plant-based food lies not in diet fads but in products with high nutritional value and a smaller environmental footprint.

How will the planet be fed in the coming decades, as the global population keeps growing and natural resources become scarcer?

The answer to that question lies at the heart of European research into next-generation foods. The goal is not simply to develop more plant-based substitutes, but to create products that combine high nutritional value with a smaller environmental footprint.

This need is becoming increasingly urgent, since the production of cow’s milk is among the most resource-intensive forms of agriculture in terms of land, water and feed consumption, and is also accompanied by significant greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the scientists at the forefront of this effort is Greek biotechnologist Angeliki Triantafyllou, president of Cerealiq AB and winner of the European Inventor Award 2026 in the “Industry” category. Triantafyllou was a co-founder of Oatly, the world’s largest producer of oat-based drinks, and for more than 20 years she led the company’s research.

The patented enzymatic method she developed significantly improved the taste, colour, texture and foaming ability of oat drinks, while at the same time increasing their nutritional value compared with previous technologies.

This innovation played a decisive role in transforming oat drinks from a niche product into a global market.

Today, however, her research is focused on a new product: pea milk.

As she reveals to Euronews, her team is developing a technology that uses the whole pea, preserving all its nutrients, instead of relying only on isolated protein as is the case in most current applications:

“Our method, with our enzymatic technology, preserves all the properties and the full nutritional value of the pea. And of course it is an environmentally friendly method.”

No more food fads

Angeliki Triantafyllou believes that the future of plant-based foods does not lie in indiscriminate market expansion or in chasing the next trendy product.

The challenge now is to ensure good quality across the entire range of animal and plant-based products. We should not be following fads, but creating foods that genuinely have high nutritional value and a real reason to exist.

 Αγγελική Τριανταφύλλου 

Biotechnologist, Winner of the European Inventor Award 2026

As an example, she indirectly refers to products that have enjoyed great commercial success (such as almond milk) without offering comparable nutritional value.

By contrast, she argues that new plant-based raw materials should be chosen for their nutritional profile and for how much they contribute to more sustainable food production.

Angeliki Triantafyllou won the European Inventor Award 2026 in the “Industry” category European Patent Office

Why we need plant-based alternatives

According to Triantafyllou, plant-based products are not intended to completely replace animal products, but to cover part of the nutritional needs of a planet that will have to feed billions of people over the coming decades:

“Animal production cannot increase indefinitely to meet the needs of a constantly growing population.”

As she explains, peas contain high-quality protein, while oats provide valuable beta-glucans and dietary fibre, which most people consume in quantities far below the recommended levels.

At the same time, plant-based crops generally require fewer natural resources and can offer solutions in regions that already face problems such as water scarcity, soil degradation and the impacts of climate change.

 

Obesity drugs bring weight loss but not better quality of life, study finds

Copyright Cleared/Canva

By Marta Iraola Iribarren

Published on 09/07/2026 - EURONEWS

Obesity drugs are growing in popularity worldwide, but a new study has found that, beyond the weight-loss results, most of these medications do not bring broader quality-of-life benefits after one year of use.

Millions of people have used weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro in the past year — but a new study suggests that lifestyle benefits may not extend much further than the number on the scale.

Published in The BMJ, the study analysed 262 clinical trials involving around 100,000 participants and 19 different drugs.

The researchers found that greater weight loss was consistently associated with higher rates of adverse events and treatment discontinuation.

“Most agents [active ingredients] do not improve quality of life meaningfully and few show cardiovascular benefits,” the authors of the study wrote.

In the trials, participants completed standard health‑related quality‑of‑life questionnaires. Researchers compared how much these scores changed with the weight‑loss drugs versus lifestyle changes alone and found that across the main treatments there were no clinically meaningful improvements in quality of life.

Out of all the treatments studied in the clinical trials, tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound — and CagriSema — which is not currently approved for clinical use — provided the greatest reductions in body weight among drugs for overweight adults.

Subcutaneous semaglutide — used in Ozempic and Wegovy — currently has the strongest evidence for reductions in mortality and major cardiovascular events, the study found.

However, both tirzepatide and semaglutide were also linked to a harmful reduction in lean mass, the total weight of the body minus fat mass. Low lean mass has been associated with a higher risk of falls, bone fractures, and early death.

Related

• Study sheds light on why some people benefit more from weight-loss drugs than others

The study's authors noted that most of the trials analysed had short follow-up periods and that more research is needed into newer drugs to fully understand their long-term impact.

Researchers not involved in the study warn, however, that findings on quality of life require particularly careful interpretation, as the way it is measured can vary widely.

“Quality of life is complex and varies between individuals. While standardised measures provide valuable information, they may not capture all aspects of treatment experience that matter to people living with obesity,” noted Marie Spreckley at the University of Cambridge.

Treating obesity is more than losing weight

Obesity is increasingly recognised as a complex chronic disease, and relying on weight loss alone as a measure of treatment success may oversimplify its benefits and harms while reinforcing stigma around the condition, the authors warned.

“The study fits with what we already knew: some medications lead to substantial weight loss, but losing weight does not automatically mean improving every aspect of health,” said José M. Ordovás at Tufts University, who did not participate in the study.

“The scale tells part of the story, but not all of it,” he noted, adding that in obesity, success should not be measured only in kilos but in health, function, and quality of life.

 

UK took 'unlawful' decision on migrants sent to France, High Court judge rules

Copyright AP Photo

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 10/07/2026 - EURONEWS

As of early March, 377 people had been returned to France and 380 people had arrived in the UK under the "one in, one out" scheme, according to the Home Office.

A High Court judge ruled on Friday that the UK government took an "unlawful" decision that restricts the legal rights of migrants facing removal to France under the countries' one-in one-out deal.

The ruling was a victory for a group of five asylum seekers and other people returned to France under the controversial deal who brought the legal challenge against Britain's interior ministry.

The ministry vowed to appeal the judgement, insisting the removal of migrants could continue.

Under the treaty, which came into force in August last year, the UK can forcibly return irregular migrants who crossed the Channel if they are deemed ineligible for asylum.

In return, London will accept an equal number of migrants from France who have not taken the small boat route.

The judgement concerned the UK government's decision to curtail the possible legal process for those migrants facing removal who claim to be victims of human trafficking.

Police conduct a search operation at a makeshift camp of migrants who want to cross the English Channel to Britain near Dunkirk, 27 May, 2026 AP Photo

Judge Clive Sheldon ruled the government in September made an "unlawful" change to its modern slavery guidance to say those facing removal to France and some other European countries could not request that a negative decision on a trafficking claim be reconsidered.

The Home Office responded to the judgement by saying "last-minute modern slavery claims must not be used to frustrate the removal of illegal migrants."

But the judge said removing the right to request reconsideration "was unlawful."

Initial decisions on trafficking claims made by those arriving in small boats are taken "at considerable pace," usually within five days, the judge argued.

The government's decision meant potentially decisive evidence could be disregarded because it arrived after this cut-off point, he warned.

A vessel of the French Gendarmerie Nationale patrols in front of the Wimereux beach, 4 September, 2024 AP Photo

The Guardian daily reported the ruling "was likely to have significant implications" since many arriving in small boats were potentially victims of trafficking.

The interior ministry said it was "not a systemic challenge" to the deal with France, however, and "operational activity can continue."

As of early March, 377 people had been returned to France and 380 people had arrived in the UK under the "one in, one out" scheme, according to the Home Office.

More than 41,000 migrants landed on England's southern coast last year, the second-highest annual number since records began in 2018.

 

Congo Ebola deaths rise to 600, as new cases are suspected in a previously unaffected province

Copyright AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne

By Marta Iraola Iribarren with AP

Published on 09/07/2026 -  EURONEWS

Previously unaffected Congo regions report suspected Ebola cases as oubtbreak keeps spreading faster than the response, while healthcare workers are walking off their jobs amid payment delays.

New suspected cases of Ebola have been reported in parts of Congo that were previously unaffected, the government said, as the death toll in the country's latest Ebola outbreak reached 600. The total number of confirmed cases across the country has now reached 1,759

The Congolese government's latest report said two new cases were suspected in Kisangani, in Tshopo province, in the north-central part of the country, which borders Ituri province, where the outbreak started and where cases had not previously been recorded.

One of the two suspected cases was linked to the Nia-Nia health zone in Ituri, while the other case “has no apparent geographical connection to known outbreaks,” according to the report.

The virus continues to spread, fuelled by population movements and insecurity, while some treatment centres are at near-full capacity, according to Anne Ancia, WHO’s representative in Congo.

Healthcare workers protest salary delays

Moreover, some healthcare workers in Ituri say they haven’t been paid since the outbreak was declared.

“Since the Ebola virus disease outbreak was declared, we've been demanding payment for our work,” Biensi Kano, a member of the epidemiological surveillance committee in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, told AP.

The non-payment of benefits “exposes us and our families to significant socio-economic difficulties and seriously undermines our living conditions,” said Kano.

Healthcare staff also alleged they were working with limited equipment and were being treated unfairly by authorities as well as response teams.

Congo’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the situation. Officials in Ituri, however, said they’ve met with the workers and their concerns are being addressed.

“The fact that Bunia airport is closed is hampering the very implementation of the response, particularly certain aspects of the flow of funds. This is one of the reasons that may account for the delay in payment,” Akilimali Pierre, incident manager at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, told AP.

Health workers face other challenges as well, including attacks from angry residents and scepticism about the virus.

The Congolese authorities declared the Ebola outbreak on 15 May, after the disease had been transmitted for weeks without official detection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The latest outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment. Last week, researchers launched a highly anticipated clinical trial in the hope of finding a treatment for the virus.

Ebola outbreak in DR Congo leaves hundreds dead and children orphaned

Issued on: 10/07/2026 - FRANCE24


Health officials say DR Congo is facing its fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever, with nearly 1,800 confirmed cases and at least 600 deaths. In the epicentre of the crisis, children who have lost their parents to the virus are left to rebuild their lives while communities struggle to contain the disease.

 

Italy's poorest region relies on Cuban doctors despite US pressure to cut ties

Copyright AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro

By Marta Iraola Iribarren with AP

Published on 10/07/2026 - EURONEWS

Calabria is opposed to the US push to end Cuba's medical missions in the region, saying the region can't afford to lose the doctors.

Italy’s southern Calabria region is the rare place in Europe where Cuba sends medical professionals under a long-running programme that the United States wants to stamp out.

Cuba has more doctors per person than almost any country on Earth — around 9.5 physicians per 1,000 people according to WHO data, nearly three times the OECD average — and its community-based prevention model is studied by health systems worldwide.

The country has sent its doctors to developing nations such as Gambia and Venezuela for decades, particularly due to their skills in providing care with scarce resources.

Over 200 are working in remote hospitals across Calabria, Italy’s poorest region, where shortages of homegrown healthcare workers had forced some hospital departments to close.

“It was a disaster. I was keeping the emergency room open all by myself,” the chief physician of Polistena hospital, Francesco Moschella, told The Associated Press, recalling the days before the Cubans arrived in January 2023.

Their presence triggered a visit from United States officials amid criticism from Washington, which calls the programme a moneymaker for the socialist government that the Trump administration has isolated and sanctioned.

Calabria’s president has refused to shut down the programme. Even if Cuba’s socialism doesn’t fit with his political views, he says the region depends on the doctors.

Relat

Countries under US pressure

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused the Cuban missions of being a “form of human trafficking” — a reference to Cuba's government keeping most doctors' salaries and allegedly confiscating some passports.

The US head of mission to Cuba, Mike Hammer, flew to Calabria in February alongside the American consul-general in Naples.

“I had some pressures also during the Biden administration. But pressure grew under Trump,” Occhiuto said. He told Hammer his government is working on incentives to lure Calabrian doctors home.

“But at the same time, I have also reiterated to the US Ambassador Hammer that I needed to keep hospitals open and that I intend to keep the Cuban doctors who are currently in Italy in their posts,” Occhiuto said.

Italy is not the only country under US pressure to stop collaborating with Cuba. In March, Jamaica ended its 50-year medical cooperation agreement with the country, affecting nearly 300 healthcare workers. In the same month, Honduras expelled more than 150 Cuban medical staff.

Relate

Calabria’s strained healthcare system

Despite growing tourism and a strong farming economy, wages in Calabria are about 30% lower than the Italian average, and the unemployment rate is double the national rate.

The region ranks last in Italy in public healthcare access, according to the health ministry.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba sent doctors to several areas of Italy and Calabria continued employing them after the health emergency ended.

“For a first-world country, Europe, we had a completely different idea. We didn’t think that the shortage of doctors was so serious,” said Zoila Yakelin Arevalo Cruz, an emergency medicine specialist who left Cuba in 2023.

The emergency room where she works in Polistena sees 30,000 patients annually, and six Cuban doctors make up half its staff.

“In this hospital there were lines that lasted up to eight or 12 hours. Now, thanks to our work, in less than an hour a doctor visits you.”

Related

The region pays Cuban doctors directly

Calabria signed individual contracts with the doctors and makes deposits in their Italian bank accounts rather than paying the Cuban government agency that runs the medical missions.

Cuban doctors told the AP they still send as much as half their salaries back to their government.

“We are all aware of the economic situation Cuba is going through. It’s a contribution that we make voluntarily because Cuba trained us, educated us and made us doctors,” Arevalo Cruz said.

Daisy Luperon Loforte, Cuban cardiologist, echoed that sentiment: “We do not consider ourselves modern-day slaves at all, as somebody called it. We love our country, we give an economic contribution and we are happy to do so.”

Occhiuto confirmed that 63 Cuban doctors, some of them previously involved in Cuba’s international medical mission, recently applied to work in its healthcare system independently.

 

Who is Count Binface – the alien space warrior standing against Brexit champion Nigel Farage?

Copyright AP Photo

By David Mouriquand

Published on 09/07/2026 - EURONEWS

In a week when the race to become Britain’s next prime minister is effectively a one-horse race, there seems to be more suspense in another contest pitting Brexit champion Nigel Farage against a comedian going viral online. Is this a joke too far for Brits and their famous sense of humour?

It’s easy to look across the Atlantic and despair at the state of American politics under Donald Trump, but the Old Continent has its fair share of shenanigans.

Brexit champion, prominent Eurosceptic, fervent Trump supporter and leader of right-wing populist party Reform UK Nigel Farage has regularly made headlines for his antics, the most recent being his resignation as an MP to trigger a by-election in his Clacton constituency.

Farage claimed an “establishment stitch-up" after facing scrutiny over an unregistered £5 million donation from a cryptocurrency tycoon and gifts from a convicted criminal.

Many have seen this move on his part as a way to dodge the investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and distract from the serious allegations regarding Farage's funders.

Still, by standing in the resulting by-election, Farage will attempt to win his seat back.

Nigel Farage announcing his resignation - 7 July 2026 AP Photo

Major political parties have all refused to field candidates in the by-election dubbed by Farage as a “people versus the establishment” fight.

Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move was a “desperate stunt,” Green leader Zack Polanski branded it a “circus”, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described the race as "fake" and accused Farage of having a “hissy fit”.

As for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, she said: "It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better. But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him."

A bin?

Yes. You read correctly. The refusal from the other parties to field candidates has resulted in boosted odds for a joke candidate who is considered Farage’s main – and currently only - opponent in the by-election.

His name? Count Binface.

He looks like this:

Count Binface AP Photo

So, instead of facing the “establishment”, Farage will face off against a man with a rubbish bin on his face.

While this may seem incongruous or downright absurd, it isn’t unheard of. The UK have a long and proud tradition of novelty candidates, with the likes of Screaming Lord Sutch, Captain Beany, Lord Toby Jug or Howling Laud Hope as notable eccentrics who have run as parody candidates in elections as a form of satire or protest. Plus, the British have always shone when it comes to embracing silliness and leaning into self-deprication – as exemplified by some strange outfits and props over the years.

And now, the hopes of a nation hang on the Darth Vader-shaped shoulders of Count Binface, who is going viral online and amassing followers.

 

Chat Control 1.0 passed the European Parliament — through the back door

Copyright Jenny Kane/AP

By Egle Markeviciute, EU Tech Loop with Euronews

Published on 10/07/2026 - 

A loophole in parliamentary procedure allowed MEPs to extend mass scanning of private communications until 2026 — without a direct vote on the substance of the law.

Chat Control 1.0 — a temporary derogation from ePrivacy rules designed to detect online child sexual abuse — was adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday.

The regulation will remain in effect until 3 April 2028, providing a substantial buffer while lawmakers negotiate an agreement on the updated framework, Chat Control 2.0.

How the file resurfaced

In March, MEPs rejected extending Chat Control 1.0 after subsequent talks failed.

In late June, the European Parliament President Roberta Metsola reopened the file, sending it to the Council, warning that the expired rules left a dangerous gap in online child protection.

The Council then sent the file back to Parliament at the beginning of the vacation season, where it was difficult to secure the necessary majority to dismiss it again.

What happened at the Parliament

At the EP, a simple majority initially supported rejecting the position with 314 MEPs voting in favor, 276 against, and 17 abstentions.

As there was no absolute majority (currently equal to 360 MEPs) to reject the amended EP position (276 MEPs voted in favor, 286 against, 30 abstentions), the second reading was closed, and the amended package has now been sent to the Council for approval within 3 months.

The amended EP position adopts a positive, yet rather cosmetic amendment proposed by the liberal RENEW group that would “exclude communications to which end-to-end encryption is, has been, or will be applied” from the scope of the law.

While some MEPs have called this "a glimmer of hope," and it was likely one of the contributing factors why the whole text was not rejected in the second hearing, it is not clear how extensive the list of such communication channels could be.

Since this amendment may run counter to the very idea of mass scanning of private communications, the Council is likely to reject these amendments.

The previous Council positions on Chat Control 2.0 have also included minor statements about protecting privacy and end-to-end encryption, but no technical debate about how aligning the goals of Chat Control and end-to-end encryption is possible in practice.

While social media is buzzing with criticism of both proposals, the conversation at the member state level about the files is scarce.

At the member state level, the files for both Chat Control proposals are normally led by representatives from the Ministries of the Interior.

Currently, only a small number of countries are engaged in an active debate on the matter, evaluating the proposal not only from a law enforcement perspective but also through the lens of data protection, private communication and cybersecurity.

Relate

Big-tent opposition

Both proposals for the mass scanning of European private communications have ignited widespread opposition, spanning left-wing, liberal and right-wing politicians, privacy advocates such as former MEP Patrick Breyer, cybersecurity specialists and even human rights advocates with extensive experience in freedom of expression and information issues outside the EU.

The recently re-elected ALDE Party President and German MEP, Svenja Hahn, was openly critical of the parliamentary vote in her comment for EUTechLoop:

“It’s a disgrace that the Chat Control instrument has passed in the European Parliament. It opens the door for mass surveillance of all private communication of our European citizens instead of the targeted fight against child sexual abuse as proposed by the Parliament."

"The surveillance of private chats pushed by EU-states is a threat for our freedom and democracy. We need to continue fighting against Chat Control.”

The President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, Lyudmyla Kozlovska commented for EUTechLoop that the vote on Chat Control 1.0 should be viewed in a broader context of erosion of privacy in the EU:

“That vote should trouble anyone who cares about how democracy in the EU works, not just about privacy. It’s the same approach to normalising the erosion of privacy that we’ve seen before — first with financial privacy, then travellers’ data, now our communications: a sweeping power justified by an urgent-sounding purpose, then quietly normalised."

"And the result? Financial, security and cybersecurity laws are now heavily weaponised by adversaries of the EU against its own citizens and entities, for transnational repression."

"The real fight for encryption and the privacy of communication is in September, over Chat Control 2.0. Between now and then, the resistance has to be strong enough that no procedural trick can carry it.”

This story was originally published on EU Tech Loop and has been shared on Euronews as part of a syndication agreement.

 

News outlets seek sanctions against OpenAI in copyright battle

Copyright AP Photo

By Una Hajdari with AP

Published on 09/07/2026 - EURONEWS

OpenAI has been "hiding and destroying evidence" of how it trained ChatGPT on copyrighted news content, US media organisations allege as legal costs in the landmark copyright battle top $28 million.

Media organisations including the New York Times and the Daily News are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a legal fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could reshape the future of a struggling news industry.

The newspapers allege the ChatGPT maker is concealing evidence central to what could be a landmark copyright infringement trial over how OpenAI and its business partner, Microsoft, built their AI systems using millions of news articles.

At stake is whether AI chatbots are unfairly competing as an information source, draining web traffic without doing the journalistic work involved in gathering the news.

A filing on Thursday in a Manhattan federal court alleges OpenAI "chose obstruction" over releasing datasets and ChatGPT logs that could show how the AI system used copyrighted news content.

The plaintiffs are asking the judge to penalise the company for "discovery misconduct" that could distort evidence, saying a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee contradicts the company's earlier claims.

New York Daily News attorney Steven Lieberman said OpenAI had been "making misrepresentations" for two years about its ability to search for copyrighted content in its AI training datasets and logs.

"This motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism," said Lieberman, who represents the Daily News and seven of its sister papers.

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, about a year after ChatGPT's debut sparked a commercial AI boom and began changing the way people search for information online.

Relate

The threat to news publications became more acute in 2024, when Google introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, cutting off the advertising revenue generated when readers click through to an original source.

The Times has since been joined by other news organisations, including Daily News and Chicago Tribune parent MediaNews Group, digital media publisher Ziff Davis and the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting.

OpenAI and other tech companies have argued that training their AI systems on digitised books, online articles and other web content is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of US copyright law — a theory being tested in dozens of lawsuits as visual artists, novelists, music labels and other creative industries take AI companies to court, with mixed results.

In the largest copyright settlement so far, OpenAI rival Anthropic agreed to pay book authors $1.5 billion (€1.35bn) for training its Claude chatbot on their works without authorisation.

The Times's arguments differ from those brought by book authors.

In its original lawsuit and an amended complaint filed last month, it focused on the unfair competition of companies that seek to profit from its journalism without permission or payment to build rival products.

The Times has already spent more than $28 million (€25m) fighting AI companies in court, according to regulatory filings disclosing its litigation costs — including a separate lawsuit filed last year against AI company Perplexity.

Among the sanctions sought on Thursday are attorney fees to cover the cost of securing what the newspapers call "improperly withheld" evidence.

The escalating legal costs come as a growing number of media organisations have signed licensing deals with OpenAI and other AI companies, including Google and Meta, that pay outlets a fee to train AI systems on their news feeds or archives.