Latest news bulletin | May 10th – Midday
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00:00 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will fight with its fingernails if the US
00:05 withholds offensive weapons ahead of Israel's Rafa offensive.
00:10 Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets of Malmo against Israel's
00:16 participation in the Eurovision Song Contest.
00:25 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he hopes to overcome disagreements with
00:31 US President Joe Biden over Israel's invasion of Rafa, stressing Israel's need for precision
00:36 weapons to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
00:40 Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an
00:48 all-out assault on Rafa, which Israel claims is the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
00:53 Senate Republicans are slamming President Biden's decision.
00:57 Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder told reporters in a press briefing that "as we assess the
01:21 situation in Rafa, we made the decision to pause this one shipment."
01:25 An estimated 80,000 Palestinians are attempting to flee the overcrowded Rafa, thrown into
01:40 panic and chaos by Israel's seizure of the nearby border crossing with Egypt and as the
01:45 possibility of a full-scale invasion looms.
01:48 Displaced and exhausted Palestinians and their families have packed up their tents and other
01:53 belongings from Rafa and will move on.
01:55 Not everyone in Malmo was welcoming the Eurovision Song Contest to town.
02:08 Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the Swedish city to protest against
02:14 Israel's participation in the pan-continental pop competition, waving Palestinian flags
02:20 whilst police looked on.
02:22 Israel's government warned its citizens of a tangible concern Israelis could be targeted
02:27 for attack in Malmo during the contest.
02:30 Not far away from where the pro-Palestinian demonstration marched in Malmo, roughly 100
02:51 people demonstrated to support the Israeli delegation in the competition.
02:56 Police detained over 30 people in the Dutch capital after breaking up a pro-Palestine
03:16 demonstration.
03:18 Protesters erected barricades and blocked several venues at the Amsterdam university.
03:23 Footage from the scene shows some of them confronting the police and getting beaten
03:28 with batons before being cleared off.
03:32 Scuffles and arrests took place also at the University of Vienna.
03:37 Students erected a tent camp inside the building.
03:40 They were told to leave by the police, but some of them refused, resulting in three arrests.
03:46 Another campsite sprung up at Cambridge University in the UK with nearly 50 tents.
03:53 Protesters, both students and staff, demanded the university stop investing in companies
03:59 that supply arms to Israel.
04:02 They also insisted Cambridge should not accept research funding from such firms.
04:08 More protests occurred in Italy, Finland, Denmark, Spain and France.
04:21 Polish farmers have threatened to go on a hunger strike over the EU Green Deal and Ukrainian
04:27 imports, which they say harm their livelihoods.
04:30 The group, from the National Farmers Union, Orca, were invited to the Polish parliament
04:35 by deputies from the opposition PIS and Confederation parties.
04:39 The protesters said they would not leave until they met Prime Minister Tusk.
04:44 It coincides with a farmers' protest in Warsaw.
04:47 A historic moment for North Macedonia as it elected its first female president, Gordana
04:58 Seljanovska-Defkova, this week.
05:00 She was backed by the right-wing VMODPMNE party and won with nearly 65% of the vote.
05:08 But the win could spell danger for the Balkan country's EU accession talks.
05:13 In terms of the European integration, the main thing, the constitutional changes, that
05:18 remains to be seen how and whether Vumrao will agree to adopt them.
05:23 There is a consensus from what we hear from the Albanian parties overall that they will
05:28 not go into a coalition with some of them, will not vote for them.
05:30 So we might expect here to see some shifts.
05:35 Despite being the Western Balkan region's early frontrunner to join the EU, North Macedonia
05:40 has encountered bumps on its road to membership.
05:43 A Greek veto over the country's name, followed by a block by Bulgaria over history and language
05:49 claims, halted negotiations for decades.
05:55 As European Union institutions mark the bloc's embryonic founding with Europe Day, they are
06:00 also preparing themselves for the 2024 EU elections, which are less than four weeks
06:06 away.
06:07 The EU's achievements were celebrated in member state capitals 74 years after French
06:11 Foreign Minister Robert Schuman's historic speech that led to the political and economic
06:16 union's founding.
06:18 Citizens were invited to visit EU institutions to celebrate, with European parliaments in
06:22 Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg opening their doors to the public.
06:26 Outside of Brussels' European Parliament, 18-year-old German Carlo Walter says all young
06:31 people should vote.
06:34 "It's important to me that I can vote because we are young people, me and my generation
06:41 are always in the future of Europe and then our opinion counts for what's going to happen
06:47 in the future."
06:48 The election could be one of the most consequential in history, shaped by the war in Ukraine,
06:53 climate emergencies and fundamental questions of the bloc itself.
06:57 Inside European Parliament, Italian MEP Nicola Procaccini says the current composition of
07:02 the European Parliament swings too far left and the upcoming elections could redistribute
07:06 the scales.
07:07 "What I would like to see, obviously something new, something different, a new balance in
07:17 the parliament because for now it's too on the left.
07:23 So I would like to see this balance moving to the right and I think this is possible
07:32 because if I look at the polls all over Europe, more or less I can see always the same scenario,
07:44 the centre-right movements are going forward."
07:49 Former Belgian Prime Minister and outgoing MEP Guy Verhofstadt believes results at the
07:54 ballot box could determine more than just the parliament's political make-up.
07:57 "I think it will be an existential fight against those who want less Europe and then those
08:06 political forces will understand that in the world of tomorrow you need a far more integrated
08:12 European Union to defend the interests of the Europeans in this new brutal world of
08:20 tomorrow."
08:21 EU elections will take place next month.
08:27 Europe Day was celebrated in Kiev by the President of the European Parliament.
08:32 In her speech at the International Summit for Cities and Regions, Roberta Metsila spoke
08:38 about her promise to make Ukraine a full-fledged member of the EU.
08:43 "The European Union and the European Parliament stand ready to help.
08:49 We will come back from this together because Ukraine is Europe and Europe is Ukraine and
08:58 that is our partnership for victory.
09:01 Slava Ukraini."
09:05 More than 250 representatives from Ukrainian and foreign communities participated in the
09:11 summit with the goal of guaranteeing peace and security.
09:16 "Everyone can see that Putin came to our country just like Hitler came to the country
09:29 of our ancestors.
09:35 We are happy to see you."
10:00 "Hello, good morning, I am Tani Garcia, I live in the primary sector and if I were
10:15 a member of the European Parliament I would take off half or more of the ties that we
10:20 are maintaining."
10:21 "Hello, I am Gilles Mintre, I am leading the list of the European elections, which
10:33 is a pro-European list but which is worth another Europe in which the territories and
10:38 citizens are at the heart of the decision.
10:40 The first measure that we will propose when we are elected is that the European debaters
10:45 in France are elected by department.
10:47 There are 101 French departments, 81 European deputies and so there will be one deputy per
10:53 department or departmental couple, it will be the European deputy of proximity, it is
10:57 him that the farmer, the PME boss, the association manager, the student will be able to see,
11:03 to ask questions, to ask how to access subsidies, to make their voices heard, to ask for accounts
11:09 too and it will profoundly change the way Europe is organized."
11:15 No surprise as Chad's interim president General Mohamed Idris Deby Itno has been declared
11:22 winner of the country's presidential poll.
11:25 He secured an overwhelming 61% of the vote, far ahead of his nearest rival Prime Minister
11:31 Soukse Masra who got 18%.
11:34 Deby Itno seized power three years ago after his father, who spent three decades in power,
11:39 was killed apparently on the battlefield fighting rebels.
11:43 As gunfire erupted in the capital, Masra has contested the results which were announced
11:47 more than ten days early.
11:49 (whooshing)