European Union leaders rallied around President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a summit on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump fired another salvo at Ukraine, calling its strikes on Russian refineries a "disgrace".

The EU is hosting Zelenskyy in Brussels at one of the most difficult moments for Ukraine, with missiles and drones raining down on Ukrainian cities and fears that the US could pull back intelligence sharing and weapons support from Kyiv.

A U.S. official has denied that Trump ordered a deliberate slowdown of Starshield, which is the military-grade version of the Starlink service operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Trump said this week intelligence sharing with Ukraine continued.

Iran’s missiles and drones have hit Gulf infrastructure sites at least 135 times, causing cascading failures that Gulf states have often concealed. Despite repeated official statements that the damage came from debris, Reuters found the equipment struck was, time and again, exactly what mattered most.

After oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz rose to post-February highs last month, a new “October window of escalation” is heating up as the Yemeni Houthis dramatically increase their attacks on Saudi Arabia and Iran again takes aim at more tankers and shipping containers, geopolitical and energy analysts said.

The U.S. response thus far? Essentially, crickets. President Donald Trump has accused them of “behaving very badly” and that the U.S. will “move very quickly.” But little military action has been taken thus far.

It seems both the U.S. and Iran are eyeing the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Trump wants to avoid escalation before then, that further increases gasoline and diesel prices, while Iran wants to inflict maximum political damage. Trump has essentially admitted as much multiple times, adding on social media on Tuesday: “I’ll be there after the Elections, and I will never forget!”

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Vladimir Putin is becoming “more creative” in the way he launches so-called ‘hybrid attacks’, the former envoy to NATO warned.

In terms of the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, Ambassador Smith said the bloc potentially faces a dilemma. 

She pointed out that Vladimir Putin is becoming “more creative” in the way he launches so-called ‘hybrid attacks’ below the level of open conflict, and suggested an act of sabotage, for example on a train line, could cause civilian casualties. 

“That puts NATO in a difficult position, because at that point, you're really not talking about hybrid; you're talking about a kinetic attack on NATO territory,” she said.