Latest news bulletin | May 9th – Midday
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NewsTranscript
00:00Washington has suspended a shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel over concerns the country
00:07is about to launch a full-scale ground offensive in Rafah.
00:12Israel launched a limited operation in the city on Tuesday, seizing the border crossing
00:16with Egypt in a bid to choke off supply lines to Hamas.
00:22We continue to have concerns about a potential Rafah operation.
00:25We have made that quite clear.
00:26We have made it clear with the Israeli government privately and of course everyone from the
00:30president on down has made that clear publicly.
00:34There's been fierce international criticism towards Israel's plans to move into Rafah
00:38to eliminate the Hamas battalion's Itzeh Zabest there.
00:43More than 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter in the city, moving there on the advice
00:48of the Israeli military who declared it a safe zone.
00:53The day before the military moved into Rafah, it ordered around 100,000 Palestinians to
00:58evacuate from the east of the city.
01:01We have been evacuated because of the Jewish messages sent to us by the Israeli army.
01:08In addition, we have received phone calls from all over the area.
01:13The United Nations says the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains extremely fluid and that staff
01:19continue to face a range of challenges.
01:24But the Israeli military said one key crossing at Kerem Shalom was reopened on Wednesday
01:29and that aid had passed through.
01:32One of the major land routes into Gaza, it was closed at the weekend following a Hamas
01:37rocket attack.
01:45Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Hungary, his third and final stop on his tour
01:50of Europe.
01:52He was met at the airport by Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and in a speech said
01:57China and Hungary are good partners of mutual trust.
02:03Shortly after Xi's arrival, Orban took to X simply saying, welcome to Hungary, President
02:08Xi.
02:11This year marks the 75th anniversary of China-Hungary ties and that relationship is expected to
02:17get closer.
02:19Hungary was the first member of the European Union to join China's Belt and Road development
02:23program, seen by many in Europe and China as Beijing's gateway to the European continent.
02:30Part of that project will see the construction of a railway line between Budapest and Belgrade
02:35financed mainly by Beijing.
02:38But not everyone in Hungary is convinced.
02:42There is democracy in Europe, with all its flaws and difficulties.
02:47This is not the case in China.
02:49China is a communist, capitalist, techno-hybrid empire which doesn't seem to have a good future.
02:58We don't want these ideas to be exported to Hungary, which they practice in China.
03:05Brussels, meanwhile, is advocating for protectionist measures to limit China's economic ambitions
03:11in Europe.
03:13And the European Commission has opened investigations into Chinese subsidies to electric vehicles
03:18and solar panels, accusing them of distorting competition.
03:28Riot police in the Netherlands have broken up a pro-Palestine protest at the University
03:32of Amsterdam.
03:35Protesters began building barricades made of desks, fences and wooden pallets on Tuesday
03:39following news reports of an Israeli military operation in Rafah.
03:44Students had blocked access to several campus buildings to put pressure on the university
03:48to sever all ties with Israel.
03:51They say the Israeli institutions the university works with profit from the oppression of Palestinians.
04:03For the first time ever, sanctioning Russian gas is on the EU's agenda.
04:08But the scope of the measures will be limited. EU countries will continue to be able to buy
04:13Russian LNG, but will not be able to re-export it after transforming it.
04:19After coal and oil, gas was the next big move for the EU to sanction.
04:24The EU has so far been hesitant to touch gas, as it risks harming the EU's economy.
04:30This expert explains how the EU waited for the right conditions.
04:34With the storage basically at a very safe place, and with new suppliers and new contracts,
04:44the EU feels like it can start sanctioning Russian gas.
04:50I think the rationale behind all the sanctions so far has been we want to make damage to
04:58Russia more than to ourselves, and that's why natural gas was never sanctioned before.
05:07The EU has reduced its dependency from Russian pipeline gas from 40% in 2021 to 8% in 2023.
05:15According to EU data, LNG's imports have increased in recent years, especially in countries like
05:20Belgium and Spain.
05:23Re-exporting, also known as transshipment, remains relevant.
05:28Russia makes about 8 to 9 billion a year in LNG exports to the EU. I think in 2023 it
05:41was 8 billion euros. And transshipment is still a quite considerable chunk of that.
05:49It's 10 to 15% of overall exports of the Yamal LNG terminal.
05:59So it has the potential to affect these companies.
06:05EU ambassadors are having a first discussion on what would be the 14th package of sanctions
06:10against Russia this Wednesday.
06:12The goal is to approve it before Hungary takes over the council presidency next July, as
06:17Budapest has previously presented opposition to previous packages.
06:25It's a daily occurrence. For over one year now, rescue services have been disembarking
06:30dozens of migrants in the Canary Islands who are trying to reach European soil from Africa.
06:36It's a journey increasingly undertaken by minors as young as 15 travelling alone.
06:41Babacar arrived in the Canary Islands from Senegal. Many of his fellow travellers didn't
06:46make it to the coast.
06:58Along with other boys, Babacar has tried to overcome his trauma in this reception centre
07:03in Tenerife, where they learn the language and hope to be able to work once they come
07:07of age.
07:17Authorities have had to double the number of reception centres to deal with the arrival
07:24of minors. Half of them will be transferred to the mainland, but the southern border is
07:29looking to Europe for solutions.
07:32We proposed at some point that a family reception programme be launched at the level of the
07:39European Union, so that we could provide an answer to the states involved.
07:45The new migration pact oversees the distribution of migrants to other EU countries, but Spanish
07:51National Conservative Party, VOX, opposes the measure and is calling for the total closure
07:55of borders.
07:57For VOX, sovereignty of the states is fundamental, and if the states want to have safe borders,
08:03it is necessary to block those borders. We can perfectly use our armed forces to, for
08:09example, propose a naval blockade.
08:11The Coalition Canaria candidate is calling for action to tackle the root causes of illegal
08:16immigration and for the islands to become a hub for development cooperation.
08:21It is about the origin and the use of regions like the Canary Islands, not only as a platform
08:26to contain the migratory phenomenon and give them resources to manage that problem, but
08:31also as a platform to help development.
08:36The European Migration Pact was approved just a few months before the current European Parliament
08:41dissolves, but its implementation will depend on the outcome of June's EU elections. Meanwhile,
08:47the southern border expects to break records this year, with the arrival of 70,000 migrants
08:52on the Canary Island coasts.
08:59Swathes of protesters took to Dublin as part of an anti-immigration march in Ireland's
09:04capital. Chants of, get them out, as well as criticism of opposition political parties
09:10could be heard over the marching demonstrators, who were carrying placards that stated,
09:16Irish lives matter and economic migrants are not refugees.
09:22The protesters walked from the Garden of Remembrance to O'Connell Street and were accompanied by
09:27the police.
09:30According to local media reports, the protest was organised by a local town which has been
09:35gripped by intense protests against asylum seeker accommodation centres in recent weeks.
09:41Immigration is an increasingly hot topic in Ireland, with almost 20,000 asylum seeker
09:46cases in the backlog. The crisis is compounded by the UK firming up its tough stance against
09:52new arrivals, who are now increasingly heading north.
10:00A vessel from the Scandinavian NGO Ship to Gaza has arrived at the Swedish port of Malmö
10:07amid protests against Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Several hundred
10:13people were at port to see the ship arrive from Norway.
10:17Stopping in several European ports, the NGO aims to raise awareness of the humanitarian
10:22situation in Gaza. Activists say they will also try to break Israel's sea blockade of
10:28the Gaza coast.
10:36The Olympic flame has arrived in the southern French city of Marseille, aboard the 19th
10:41century sailing ship the Bellem.
10:44French Olympics swimmer Florent Manadou became the first torch carrier in France after the
10:49flame arrived from Greece.
10:53The ship sailed into Marseille's old port, accompanied by the French national anthem
10:57and an Air Force flyover.
11:00The 2024 Summer Olympics start in Paris on July 26.
11:075, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition and liftoff. Go Falcon, go Starlink.
11:19SpaceX has launched 20 Starlink communications satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
11:26The rocket took off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
11:31The Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth eight minutes after launch, touching down
11:36on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.