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00:00As protests erupt in the country, Slovakia's prime minister accused opposition of attempting to organize a coup.
00:11The leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, vowed to crack down on illegal immigration if he is elected as chancellor next month.
00:22A mass bomb scare has caused hundreds of schools to shut in Hungary this Thursday.
00:31Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico accused opposition of attempting to organize a coup amid escalating demonstrations against his supposed pro-Moscow stance.
00:43During his address to the Slovakian parliament, Fico also rejected claims about the country's alleged change of foreign policy orientation and reaffirmed membership of both the European Union and NATO.
00:56We see a structure that wants to misuse these meetings, especially possible meetings with the security forces of the state, to further escalate the tension, to be more aggressive.
01:16Fico's comments come as protests continue to erupt in Slovakia over his ties to Russia.
01:22These protests started last December after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
01:28Fico has also faced accusations by the country's largest opposition party of trying to take the country out of the EU, earlier this week surviving an attempt at a no-confidence vote.
01:39The leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, vowed to crack down on illegal immigration if he is elected as chancellor next month.
01:52The opposition party leader said he would bar people from entering the country without proper papers and that he would increase deportations.
02:00His statement comes just a day after two people were killed and three injured in an attack in Bavaria.
02:30The attack comes at a politically sensitive moment with Germany's national election to be held on February 23rd.
02:46Support for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, the Greens and the Liberal Free Democrats has declined.
02:54Meanwhile, opinion polls show that support has increased for opposition parties Christian Democratic Union and Far-Right Alternative for Germany.
03:07More than 260 schools in Hungary received bomb threats on Thursday morning, said the national police.
03:14A message sent out to the official email address of the institution said a device had been planted in the buildings to avenge insults to Muslims.
03:21The letters were identical and were read out at a government press conference later on.
03:52The affected schools have been evacuated. It is not yet known when classes will resume.
04:00Harer Pál High School in Óbuda is one of the institutions affected by the bombing.
04:06The children were all taken out of the building, but their bags had to be left here.
04:11They are being examined by firefighters along with the building.
04:14In parts of Budapest, students waited for their parents in municipal buildings.
04:21The principal of one high school said the pupils had mixed feelings about the bomb scare.
04:26One part was happy, the other part almost froze, because many were scared.
04:33Because a bomb scare does not happen every day, thank God.
04:57Romanian potato farmers are struggling with rising costs and labour shortages.
05:05This has caused a years-long decline in the country's potato production.
05:10Farmers say labour is increasingly expensive and hard to find.
05:14In 2024, Romania saw its lowest harvest of potatoes in eight years, despite accounting for almost a third of Europe's potato farms.
05:23And while production is at a historic low, demand continues to grow, driving increased imports, which is reflected in prices.
05:32The harvest is over. It is very weak. It has shrunk.
05:36Before it was 2 lei, 2.50 lei, and now it is 3, 3.50 lei. It depends on each one how much they give.
05:43To keep up with demand, Romania imports potatoes mostly from Poland.
05:48But Poland's production has also been in decline in recent years, which could pose further problems for Romania's shortage in the future.
05:59NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte urged Ukraine's Western allies to enhance their support towards Kiev
06:06and backed US President Donald Trump's push for increasing the defence budget.
06:11Europe's defence budget is currently on average 2 percent.
06:15Rutte agreed with Trump and said there should be much more.
06:18Speaking at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos,
06:23he added that the European defence industry is innovating too slowly and that the focus should be on establishing an industrial base.
06:29It has to be much more. I think Donald Trump is right here that we are spending not enough
06:35and anyway we have to get it into a balance with what the US is spending.
06:39But particularly here we have to look out for the industry base.
06:44So what our defence industry is producing and they are not producing enough.
06:49But also in terms of innovation we are too slow in innovating.
06:54The NATO chief also warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would damage the alliance's credibility
07:00and that it could potentially cost trillions to restore.
07:03Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum,
07:06Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a minimum of 200,000 troops are required
07:12to ensure Ukraine's security in the case of a ceasefire with Russia.
07:21As Palestinians return to their homes in Gaza under the terms of a long-awaited ceasefire deal,
07:27Israeli armoured vehicles were seen in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
07:32A major Israeli military operation has been launched in the area
07:37and suspected Israeli settlers have torn through two Palestinian towns.
07:43Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants who reportedly carried out a deadly attack
07:49on a bus in the West Bank earlier this month.
07:52At least nine others were reported killed earlier in the week, including a 16-year-old child.
07:58The violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces domestic pressure
08:04from his far-right allies after agreeing to the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange with the Hamas militant group.
08:12Palestinians view such operations and the expansion of settlements
08:16as ways of cementing Israeli control over their territory,
08:20where three million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule.
08:27South Korean investigators have asked prosecutors to indict the impeached president Yoon Suk-hyo,
08:39accusing him of rebellion, abuse of power and obstruction of parliament.
08:46The corruption investigation office has been leading a probe into Yoon
08:50with police and military authorities and detained him last week.
08:54They said Yoon staged a riot seeking to undermine the constitution when he declared martial law in December.
09:02At the same time, Yoon and his former defense minister appeared at a hearing on Thursday
09:08at a separate trial on his impeachment.
09:11Yoon has insisted that his actions were not intended to undermine parliament
09:16but as a warning to break political deadlock.
09:19His team claims that Yoon's detention and the criminal investigation are illegal.
09:30Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince said that the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion
09:36in the United States over the next four years and potentially beyond that.
09:41The remarks from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came after a phone call
09:45with recently inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump.
09:51And after Trump mused about returning to Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip back in office.
09:57There was no immediate response from the White House regarding the call.
10:01It also wasn't clear whether Trump's call with the Crown Prince
10:05was his first with a foreign leader since returning to the Oval Office.
10:09The billion-dollar pledge, which dwarfs the gross domestic product of many nations,
10:15comes as the kingdom faces budgetary pressures of its own.
10:19Global oil prices remain depressed years after the height of the coronavirus pandemic,
10:25affecting the kingdom's revenues.
10:28In recent years, the U.S. has increasingly pulled away from relying on Saudi oil exports,
10:34which was once the bedrock of their relationship for decades.
10:45We can love, we love equally, legally, and we can build our families,
11:15in our own ways, because I believe that every kind of love, every kind of family,
11:21is as beautiful as it is.
11:25And we are now allowed to build our own kind of family with the support of the law.
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