EU summit press-room smell sparks ‘phantom farter’ jokes

Journalists waiting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at an EU summit in Brussels repeatedly encountered a foul smell in the European Council press briefing room, India Today reported on October 17. Its account cited social-media posts describing the disruption, including a similar episode during a diplomatic briefing the previous evening that reportedly drove several correspondents outside.

Political economy analyst and correspondent Shankkar Aiyar, whose October 16 X post said he was among those who had left the earlier briefing, turned the discomfort into a question: “Hilarious! Who is the phantom farter?” POLITICO Europe also highlighted the mystery on X. The accounts did not establish who was responsible.

The episode drew knowing jokes from other journalists. Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko expressed nostalgia for press centres, while US political reporter Ben Jacobs invoked Senate bean soup. National security reporter Robbie Gramer offered a mock geopolitical explanation involving Russia and NATO—a joke, not evidence of any foreign involvement.