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

Three stories, three angles: what happened, how it's being told, and what we don't know yet.

In Albania, student protests over the cost of university turn into four days of clashes in Tirana, and Prime Minister Edi Rama says he won't resign. In Brussels, EU leaders talk past midnight about the next long-term budget and leave without a deal. And Ukraine's drones lose their Starlink link in mid-flight after a speed limit nobody will own: we asked the White House who ordered it.

After each story, we ask what you think. Tell us in the comments or on Pollar's socials.

Everything in this episode comes from reporting already published, plus one question Pollar put to the White House. The stories behind it are at pollar.news.

Reporting: Pollar (pollar.news/en/event/violent-protest-rocks-tirana, /eu-budget-cut-8, /senate-demands-starlink-throttling-probe), Reuters, EU Delegation to Albania, RMF FM, BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Newsmax, ARD, Semafor.

Archive sound: European Union audiovisual service, European Council in Brussels (15 and 16 October), © European Union, 2026.

Cover photo: Kristina Millona, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), cropped and toned by Pollar. The cover is shared under the same licence.