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00:00 The Spanish Congress has voted against the Catalan separatists amnesty bill that would
00:04 have benefited those who took part in the 2017 failed illegal secession bid.
00:11 Northern Ireland's Unionist Party has agreed to restore the regent's government after a
00:16 near two-year boycott.
00:20 After months of fighting, Russian troops have reached the heavily damaged eastern Ukrainian
00:25 town of Avdivka, the gateway to the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
00:32 A controversial amnesty law that would have benefited Catalan separatists has been blocked
00:39 by the Spanish Congress.
00:41 The bill was rejected by one of the two Catalan parties, the Junts or Together, who wanted
00:47 to ensure that their leader, Carles Puigdemont, could return home from Belgium where he's
00:51 a fugitive.
00:54 They argued that the proposed law did not give them enough protection. The Conservative
00:58 People's Party in the far-right Vox also voted against it, meaning the bill received 171
01:03 votes, five short of the majority it needed.
01:08 The bill must now go back to a parliamentary commission to be drawn up again within two
01:12 weeks.
01:15 Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had agreed to push through the law in exchange
01:20 for parliamentary support from two small Catalan separatist parties. This enabled him to form
01:27 a new minority leftist government late last year.
01:33 Two years after walking out of the stormant parliament in Belfast, the pro-British DUP
01:38 have decided to return. At issue for the past two years has been the notional trade border
01:44 in the Irish Sea as part of the Brexit-Windsor framework. The DUP say it isolated Northern
01:49 Ireland from GB, but now say two years on they have persuaded the British government
01:54 and the EU to drop the notional border. However, the real story arising from the change of
02:00 heart from the DUP is that the pro-British party has agreed to enter a parliament where
02:04 Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O'Neill will become the first ever Irish nationalist
02:10 to head up the Northern Ireland regional government.
02:12 It's the first time ever that Sinn Féin has come in as a nationalist party. It's the largest
02:19 party in Northern Ireland. It's a big shock for many unionists, including for many in
02:23 the DUP.
02:24 The elevation of Catholic Michelle O'Neill to the role of First Minister gives Irish
02:29 nationalism in Northern Ireland the dominant political position. On the streets of Belfast,
02:34 the proposed resumption of the parliament has been welcomed.
02:37 I think she'd be very capable, but we need all our politicians working for us.
02:42 We're now seeing more Catholics than Protestants. Finally there's that shift that's happened.
02:48 That might mean a nationalist First Minister. It might mean 10, 15 years' time we'll be
02:54 looking at a referendum the same way that Scotland has.
02:56 However, some British unionists say Michelle O'Neill and Sinn Féin are being rewarded for
03:01 bombing their way to the negotiating table.
03:04 Well, in the morals of Northern Ireland it's a horrendous shift because this is a lady
03:09 who tells us that there's no alternative to mass murder, no alternative to the incineration
03:14 of people in hotels, no alternative to atrocities like Inneskillen on Remembrance Day, like
03:21 King's Mills where Protestants were taken off of buses and done to death because they
03:27 were Protestants.
03:29 The future of the Stormont Parliament here in Belfast now falls on Brussels and London
03:33 to make the appropriate amendments to the Windsor Framework document. Would Sinn Féin,
03:38 set to occupy the First Minister seat for the very first time in its history, expect
03:42 calls to grow louder for a unification of Ireland referendum in the coming years?
03:47 This is Ken Murray for Euronews, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
03:54 After months of fighting, Russian troops have reached the heavily damaged eastern Ukrainian
04:00 town of Avdivka. Avdivka is a gateway to the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk. All attempts
04:06 by Russian troops to advance there have failed until now.
04:10 Russians left have been fleeing the town as Ukrainian forces try to repel the attacks.
04:15 Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting Sweden for a roundtable discussion
04:21 on the future of European security.
04:24 The cost, the real cost on the short to long run of a Russian victory is too high for all
04:31 of us. This is why the reasonable answer is to put ourselves in a situation to support
04:37 Ukraine during this year and the years to come.
04:44 Whatever it takes, whatever it costs.
04:47 Meanwhile, Switzerland has sent nine Leopard 2 battle tanks to Germany. Under the agreement,
04:52 Germany cannot transfer the tanks to Ukraine, but dismantled parts from the tanks will be
04:57 used by the German Army's active fleet. The Swiss Defence Minister has said by sending
05:02 the tanks, Switzerland is doing its part for the security of Europe.
05:05 At least 11 people were killed, including four children, when an Israeli strike hit
05:12 a residential building in central Gaza on Tuesday, according to reporters who saw the
05:19 bodies at a local hospital. The strikes came as the Israeli army continued to expand its
05:25 assault on the southern half of the war-striken territory, with a focus on the city of Khan
05:31 Yonis. A truck carrying around 80 bodies was sent to a cemetery in Rafah on Tuesday, where
05:38 they were later buried. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a meeting on
05:46 Tuesday with representatives of donor countries at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss
05:51 the fallout from accusations that 12 employees of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees
05:57 were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas.
06:04 On Tuesday, the Israeli army released footage of battles with Palestinian militants in Khan
06:25 Yonis, saying that their forces eliminated terrorist operatives, conducted target raids
06:31 on terrorist infrastructure and located large quantities of weapons.
06:36 The heavy rain over the past days in Gaza's city has made conditions for displaced people
06:41 sheltering in makeshift camps even more desperate. Since the war began, 85% of the region's population
06:48 has been displaced.
06:56 The use of facial recognition could increase, despite European efforts to regulate it. Last
07:02 December, the EU closed an initial agreement on artificial intelligence that would limit
07:07 its uses to very specific contexts and under judicial authorization. Specific contexts
07:13 could include a terrorist attack or searches for missing people, but for some, the loopholes
07:18 are still there.
07:20 They've brought in some really broad conditions within which police can use these systems
07:25 and so what we fear is that this will have a legitimizing effect. These systems that
07:31 so far we've been able to contest and say we don't want these in a democratic society,
07:37 it will become harder to push back and we might see other countries around the world
07:41 saying well the EU has rubber stamped these technologies.
07:47 While the European Parliament wanted a ban, countries like France have pushed for a series
07:51 of exceptions that would allow a more extensive use of facial recognition technology. France
07:57 even announced the use of AI to control suspicious activity during the Olympic Games. Digital
08:02 rights organizations have said the new European legislation does not rule out massive surveillance.
08:09 What we can expect is potentially an increase in the use of facial recognition systems in
08:15 our public spaces, especially when these systems are used live. So the idea that as you are
08:21 walking around a public space, going to the shops, going to school, to the doctors, to
08:27 a demonstration, that there might actually be increased powers for law enforcement agencies
08:33 to be using this live facial recognition technology to track you across time and place wherever
08:40 you're going.
08:44 But some MEPs say the proposed law strikes a good balance between security and civil
08:49 rights.
08:51 I think it's a very good way that we can balance the integrity but also safety. And if we would
08:58 have banned this technique, then two things would happen. First, we would, the society
09:04 is, why should the integrity of a terrorist is more important than the security of our
09:10 citizens? And secondly, this technique would continue to be developed by other countries
09:17 and especially by China.
09:20 This Friday, the EU countries will vote on the final version of the law. Some of them
09:25 are still undecided. If it falls, the EU will have to restart the negotiation of the AI
09:31 Act.
09:39 Members of a rock band that has been critical of Moscow's war in Ukraine remains locked
09:44 up Tuesday in a Thai immigration prison.
09:48 On Sunday, the group explained that its members were detained for bureaucratic formalities
09:53 relating to a concert in Phuket, which was sold after a fine was paid. Due to the band
09:58 openly criticising the Russian invasion of Ukraine, if they are sent to Russia, they
10:03 risk imprisonment.
10:05 Russia's ambassador to Thailand said Russian diplomats were not responsible for the group's
10:10 detention.
10:14 Twin sisters who were stolen and sold at birth to different families have been reunited 19
10:19 years later. The girls found each other thanks to a TV talent show and a TikTok video. Neither
10:26 Amy nor Anno knew they were adopted until they found out they were identical twins.
10:31 The case of Amy and Anno brings to light the thousands of children who were illegally taken
10:36 from their birth parents in maternity wards and sold to different families from the 1950s
10:43 until 2005 in Georgia.
10:50 Seville's official Holy Week poster is causing controversy. The poster is supposed to depict
10:55 the resurrected Christ, but opinions are divided over whether the image is beautiful or in
11:01 appropriate. Spanish painter Salustiano Garcia, who chose his son as the model, dismissed
11:07 the criticism as unfounded. On the streets of Seville, opinions are divided.
11:12 "I don't like it. I don't feel represented, much less. It doesn't represent Seville. It's
11:19 something else."
11:22 "We are used to other types of posters and it hasn't caught us by surprise. But I don't
11:27 see it well or badly. I see something new and we are not used to it. We are used to other
11:34 types of posters in the Holy Week of Seville."
11:38 The eye-catching image has drawn lots of attention, going viral on social media upon
11:44 its release.
11:44 [WHOOSH]