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00:00 The leader of the Wagner mercenary group has been laid to rest at a heavily guarded cemetery in St.
00:04 Petersburg after dying in a suspicious plane crash last week.
00:08 A wildfire tearing through a northeastern area of Greece for the past 11 days is the biggest the European Union has ever recorded.
00:18 Time to roll out the Green Deal with a new face at the European Commission.
00:26 Millions of drivers in London now face a minimum charge of £12.50 a day if their vehicles do not meet minimum emission standards.
00:37 A private funeral was held for the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Evgeny Prigozhin, on Tuesday.
00:48 The service, which was shrouded in secrecy, took place at the Porokhovskaya cemetery in St. Petersburg.
00:54 There were no salutes, orchestral tributes or state honours.
00:58 The premises were closed to the public and heavily sealed off by dozens of National Guard members,
01:03 amid concerns of potential disturbances by Prigozhin's supporters.
01:07 Fewer than 50 people, mainly family and close associates, bid farewell to the man who was
01:13 considered a national hero until just two months ago. Prigozhin died last week in a suspicious plane crash.
01:20 This spectacular fall from grace followed a failed rebellion that shook Vladimir Putin on June 23.
01:25 On that day, the President labelled him a traitor and some suspect Kremlin involvement in his demise.
01:31 The plane carried the core of the mercenary group, now leaderless and
01:35 unlikely to pose a threat to Vladimir Putin in the foreseeable future.
01:38 Polls suggest over 80% of Russians approve of Vladimir Putin's presidency,
01:48 a figure which hasn't changed much since the Wagner mutiny in June.
01:52 And analysts say Putin's reaction to it is a signal to the elites.
01:57 "On the one hand, he made a pretty unambiguous statement,
02:02 and then he went and met people, which hadn't happened in a long time,
02:09 when he went to the people in the North Caucasus. I think that this was done for the elite,
02:16 so that the elite wouldn't forget who they liked."
02:23 Experts suggest the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin is likely to harden Putin's grip on power,
02:29 and that Wagner's role will be overtaken by the state.
02:31 "So right now, if we're looking at what's happening at the front lines,
02:37 there is not that much need for Wagner to be there. The Ministry of Defence has been largely
02:45 holding the front. If we had some kind of massive, sudden Ukrainian breakthrough,
02:53 then Wagner might be needed."
02:57 "So now Putin has to demonstrate that a) there is no possibility to sign a deal with Putin,
03:05 you will be killed anyway if you protest, b) he needs to kill his officers to maintain order in
03:12 his own inner circle, and c) he got rid of one more or less capable commander and remained with
03:20 incapable commanders. None of these three characteristics, of these outcomes of the event,
03:27 are good for Putin. You can get rid of Prigozhin or Utkin, his commanding officer, but you cannot
03:34 get rid of this attitude in Russia, praising violence and calling for more violence,
03:41 more unlimited violence, and no need calling for war crimes."
03:45 Three more people infected with Legionella bacteria have died in Zhezhov in southeast Poland.
03:55 It brings the overall total to 14. Cases of Legionella pneumophila have been found in four
04:01 provinces, with 159 people now infected. Elderly and vulnerable people with weakened immune systems
04:08 are particularly susceptible to Legionella, but the Legionella pneumophila infection can be detected
04:13 quickly and easily. Legionellosis is a disease of the respiratory tract. It is infectious but not
04:19 contagious. A massive wildfire was still burning intensively in northeastern Greece for the 11th
04:29 day on Tuesday, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters to control it. The blaze has swept
04:35 through vast tracts of land in the Alexandropolis and Evros region, with the epicenter deep in a
04:40 forest near the border with Turkey, in an area difficult to access. The intensity and spread
04:45 of the fire has prompted a coordinated response from the European Union. "The Commission at this
04:51 moment is coordinating relief efforts on various fronts via the EU civil protection mechanism
04:57 across Europe. So most notably in Greece's Alexandropolis region, we are facing the
05:03 largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU. In this context we have mobilized 12 aircraft from our
05:10 rescue fleet together with over 500 firefighters and 60 vehicles." In Athens, Prime Minister Kyriakos
05:19 Mitsotakis chaired a government meeting on how to rehabilitate the burnt forest in Evros and Parnitha.
05:25 There have been 21 wildfire-related deaths in Greece over the past week, the highest figure
05:30 registered in the EU since records began in 2000.
05:34 He is the new face of the European Green Pact. Maros Zefkovic, vice president of the European
05:45 Commission, succeeds Dutchman Frans Timmermans to lead the EU's efforts to achieve carbon neutrality
05:51 by 2050. In an exclusive interview with Euronews, the Slovak leader makes implementing the adopted
05:56 texts while protecting businesses and citizens his priority. "We are in a new phase because I mean
06:05 until now we've been focusing a lot on legislative work so I think we built this
06:10 new political but also legislative framework for the Green Deal and now we are approaching the
06:15 phase which should be equally challenging if not more and this is rollout, this is proper
06:20 implementation, this is how to make sure that this climate transition will be done in socially
06:27 fair way that it will help our industry to be a top competitor." "Do you know already how you're
06:34 going to manage to bring on board industries?" "So I'd like to introduce like series of I would say
06:40 structured roundtable with the industries which would be the most affected by the green transition
06:47 which are under a lot of pressure from international competitors also jumped on the
06:51 wagon of climate change and I think that also our industry should know that we are here to fight for
06:57 them we want them to not only to stay but to prosper in Europe because we've been the first
07:03 major economy who started to tackle the climate change with all the vigor we have excellent
07:09 innovators great companies and I think that we have to work closely with our citizens and with
07:15 industry to make Green Deal reality and to really demonstrate that this is our strategy for growth."
07:20 "Four years ago you said there was this feeling of urgency to act do you think the feeling is the
07:26 same today or do you feel this fatigue towards regarding climate change?" "I mean non-action
07:33 at this stage would be the worst possible solution because let's look at this summer,
07:42 let's look at the last summer, last summer we saw was was terrible this summer was much worse and we
07:47 just can brace what would be the the next summers look like if we if we wouldn't if we wouldn't act
07:54 and therefore I think that we have to behave responsibly we have to be engaging more and we
08:00 have to work hard to make sure that we would manage these three overarching goals be socially fair
08:09 tackle climate change and make our industry competitive."
08:11 The UK capital's plan to reduce pollution from vehicles known as the ultra-low emission zone
08:21 has been enlarged to cover all of Greater London. Most petrol vehicles built before 2006
08:27 and pre-2015 diesel cars are now charged £12.50 a day for driving into the zone
08:33 in which nine million people live. "For too long the poorest Londoners have been impacted by mass
08:39 car dominance where cars have been put right at the very top of policy infrastructure and this is
08:45 a way of starting to roll back we know by 2030 we need to reduce our car use by at least 25 percent
08:52 and ULES is just one small step to help us get there." But not everyone is impressed with the
08:58 expansion. "So going forward I'm not earning any money to be able to pay the charges to be able to
09:05 go to uni. I will not be able to go to work because of the ULES charges. I will not be able to travel
09:12 to my doctors at Brompton hospital because immediately as soon as I leave my house I
09:16 have to spend £12.50 for ULES and another £15 for congestion charge." Political observers say
09:22 the decision to expand the zone in an era of high inflation could make it a crucial issue in next
09:28 year's London mayoral election. The first criminal trial of former US President Donald Trump will
09:42 begin in Washington DC on March 4th 2024. He's being prosecuted there on charges of attempting
09:49 to overturn the 2020 presidential elections. But despite facing multiple civil and criminal charges
09:56 Trump remains the favourite to become the Republican party candidate in next year's
10:00 presidential elections. If the judicial timeline is met Trump's electoral journey
10:04 would step into uncharted territory leading up to next year's poll.
10:08 "There is a chance that he could be convicted of one of these alleged crimes or one of these
10:17 indictments but not likely that he'd go to jail but if he does in that odd hypothetical he could
10:23 still run for office." The former president also faces charges in Georgia where he's accused of
10:30 conspiring to alter the election outcome in the state allegedly with the assistance of several
10:34 individuals from his inner circle. As yet no date has been set for the case but it could be pivotal
10:40 for Trump's fate. Everything hinges on the distinction between a federal and a state crime.
10:46 "He cannot pardon himself over a state charge. Legal experts don't think he can pardon himself
10:52 over a federal case but they're still debating that. There's no question that he has no power
10:56 over the states to do that. So Trump in other words can't manipulate the legal process in Georgia
11:01 using presidential executive power which is why the fact that he faces hundreds of years in prison
11:06 on these 13 felony charges in some ways is more serious than the hundreds of years that he faces
11:11 in the three other indictments." Trump's agenda for 2024 is piled high with lawsuits both criminal
11:18 and civil but despite the serious accusations against him all of which he denies they've
11:23 barely made a dent in his image in the eyes of his republican fan base. "Yes he can run for president
11:30 but could he actually go into the white house for a second term if he was elected?
11:35 That like so many things with Donald Trump is unprecedented territory."