Latest news bulletin | April 4th – Midday
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00:00 Gaza is the most lethal place to deliver aid according to an international humanitarian group.
00:08 NATO foreign ministers will continue to plan long-term Ukraine military aid in Brussels.
00:17 Finland and Ukraine sign long-term security agreement.
00:26 The Palestinian Authority will continue to plan long-term humanitarian aid in Brussels.
00:30 After the recent deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza, the Palestinian city is now the most lethal place in the world to be an aid worker, says International Rescue Committee.
00:43 We have seen a significant increase in global attention to this issue, to the safety of humanitarian workers in large part because of the nationalities of those who were killed on Monday.
00:53 And that is an uncomfortable reality, but if any good can come of that attention, perhaps it can be an increase in political and diplomatic attention,
01:01 focused not just on the safety of aid workers, which is important in and of itself,
01:06 but on bringing about the conditions in which aid can be scaled up and provided to Palestinians in Gaza at the level that it's needed.
01:13 Foreign political leaders have also weighed in on the recent deaths.
01:17 White House Press Secretary Kyrgyzstan said US President Joe Biden is heartbroken over those killed.
01:23 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez branded comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the airstrike as insufficient.
01:34 Additional clarification of what happened is needed, he said.
01:38 Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called the attack a violation of international law.
01:47 It comes as internal pressure builds in Israel, with War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz telling reporters on Wednesday Netanyahu should call an early election.
01:56 NATO foreign ministers will continue forging a plan to provide more stable military support to Ukraine.
02:10 Officials descended on Brussels this week to mark 75 years of the military alliance.
02:16 We are now in the process of developing a more robust and enduring institutionalised framework for support to Ukraine.
02:26 There are different ways of ensuring that our support is less dependent on voluntary short-term offers and more on long-term NATO commitments,
02:40 and that we have a stronger organisation that creates a more robust framework for our support.
02:48 Planning will continue on Wednesday.
02:51 It comes as European Council President Charles Michel spoke with European leaders in Romania about the EU's five-year agenda.
02:59 The bloc will focus on security and defence, economic stability and prosperity, enlargement and the EU project, Michel said.
03:07 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb have signed a 10-year security agreement.
03:20 Providing long-term military aid to Ukraine.
03:23 The support package is worth 188 million euros.
03:28 We should never forget the big picture, that a path towards EU membership and NATO membership for Ukraine is by definition a victory for Ukraine and a defeat for Russia and for Putin.
03:49 Zelensky also mentioned at the meeting that Ukraine would lower the military conscription age from 27 to 25 years old.
04:18 Finland also agreed it would participate in rebuilding Ukraine's energy sector and assess environmental damage after the war.
04:26 Parent to the world after the capture of Bucha and Erpin.
04:37 Euronews travelled there to hear how the community is coping on the two-year anniversary of its liberation.
04:47 The bombed out remains of the local hospital and the Bucha cultural centre are a haunting daily reminder of what went before.
04:54 Mikalina was the deputy mayor of Bucha at the time. She had to help families bury and identify those murdered.
05:03 The scale of massacre we saw only after, when we started to collect killed people and exhumation everywhere.
05:15 Because people didn't have the possibility to bury their beloved ones in regular way on the cemeteries.
05:24 They were burying them in the yards, in the squares, in our beautiful parks and that was very shocking.
05:32 And especially it was very hard to identify killed people and negotiations with relatives, with families.
05:41 The most awful was to negotiate with mums.
05:44 What do you mean?
05:46 To bury killed person you need to identify it personally and somebody have to help mum to get the killed kid.
05:55 And that's the most awful experience in my life.
06:00 The Russian army attacked and seized Bucha and Erpin as part of their plan to capture the capital.
06:05 Ukrainian defences destroyed the bridge on the Erpin river, repelling the Russian army's advance to Kiev.
06:11 They had to evacuate before they managed to do that.
06:14 That was direct execution. They had tight arms and they were killed from the back, from very close distance.
06:23 On that crosses we saw at least 12 killed people when Bucha was liberated.
06:30 Russians didn't allow to bury killed civilians to frighten those who stayed.
06:37 We never saw that before on the territory of Ukraine during Donbas and Crimean period of war.
06:45 That's why Bucha case became so shocking for all of us as well.
06:52 Bucha became some kind of a live museum of war crimes.
06:56 While the trauma and nature of the crimes, rape, execution, murder will forever haunt Ukrainians,
07:02 some are returning here trying to rebuild their lives.
07:06 But in the meantime they are pleading with the world not to abandon them as the war marches into its third long year.
07:12 Shona Murray, Euronews, Bucha.
07:20 A new Euronews Ipsos exclusive poll reveals while most European citizens consider EU membership of their country a good thing,
07:29 just one third of them approve of the European Commission's work.
07:33 Portugal and Spain are the most Euro-enthusiast countries,
07:38 while Czech Republic is the only member state where less than half the people appreciate being part of the EU.
07:44 Slovakia, France and Italy also have low rates.
07:47 For expert Francesco Nicoli from Brugel, the results are not surprising.
07:52 I think it is perfectly fine to have, you know, at the stage of European integration as we are now,
07:58 to have 60%, a bit more than 60% expressing a positive view and only about 15% expressing a negative view.
08:07 Since it's about the performance, it's not really about the polity itself.
08:11 This is not a judgment about the European Union, it's a judgment about the current outcomes of the European integration process.
08:18 37% of the respondents consider positively the work of the current European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen,
08:26 which has faced multiple crises, from the Covid-19 outbreak to the war in Ukraine.
08:31 32% do not have an opinion, where 31% have a negative opinion.
08:36 In France, approval rates are particularly low.
08:39 I'm not surprised that if French people are turning against Macron,
08:43 which is quite typical at this stage of a French presidential, you know, parabola.
08:49 I'm not surprised that voters associate von der Leyen very closely to Macron,
08:55 and therefore they dislike Macron and therefore they dislike von der Leyen.
08:58 Von der Leyen is mostly criticized by the left, ECR and ID voters,
09:04 but also one-fifth of the electors of the European People's Party.
09:09 Her own political family disapprove of her legacy.
09:11 The French police removed dozens of migrants from the forecourt of Paris City Hall.
09:20 As the capital gets ready to begin its 100 days countdown at the start of the Olympic Games.
09:26 About 50 people, mostly women and children aged 3 to 10, were relocated on a bus
09:32 to a temporary government housing in eastern France.
09:35 These are families, these are minors, these are our patients, these are people with whom we try to be supportive.
09:39 And here, on behalf of the Olympic Games, all we are offering them is to go far from Paris, to Besançon or Marseille.
09:45 Aid workers have expressed concern that the move is the beginning of a broader effort by Paris authorities
09:50 to clear out migrants in the capital before the Games.
09:53 These proposals are not suitable. There are places in Paris, but they are only places for the Olympic Games.
10:02 So it's only about social cleansing and the invisibilization by the region.
10:06 Many of the families are from French-speaking African countries.
10:10 They said we have to go to Provence, but it's better than staying in Tirol with the children.
10:17 It's not easy.
10:23 Olympic organizers have said they are working to find solutions.
10:28 Aid groups have distributed food, blankets and diapers,
10:31 and helped some of them find temporary housing for a night or two.
10:43 Georgia's ruling party, the Georgian Dream, plans to resubmit to Parliament the controversial draft bill
10:49 on the transparency of foreign influence,
10:51 which drew criticism for resembling a Russian law that has been used to suppress opposition.
10:57 The draft law is expected to pass all three readings by the end of the current parliamentary session.
11:03 In March 2023, protests erupted due to the bill, which led to clashes between demonstrators and police.
11:10 Law enforcement resorted to using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
11:15 Spanish police have detained former Soccer Federation president Luis Rubiales amid an ongoing corruption probe.
11:25 Rubiales was detained at Madrid's airport and released shortly after.
11:29 He denies any wrongdoing.
11:32 Rubiales was returned to Spain amid a judicial probe into business deals
11:36 surrounding the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
11:40 He was in the Dominican Republic two weeks ago when police raided his property
11:44 and offices of the Spanish Football Federation in Madrid.
11:48 (speaking in foreign language)