Latest news bulletin | May 14th – Morning - video Dailymotion

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00:00The EU's enlargement commissioner is in Serbia for talks about the country's membership bid

00:07to the bloc. Thousands of trade union members protest in

00:14Bucharest saying the state takes too much of their wages in tax.

00:24The Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office says at least one person has been killed and four

00:29others injured in a Russian strike on a commercial facility.

00:33Officials say the building was hit with an X-59 missile in the late afternoon.

00:39Kharkiv's governor says Russian troops are attacking new areas with small assault groups

00:44in a bid to stretch Ukraine's forces. Russia's military entered Kharkiv on Friday,

00:50opening a new northern front in a war that's largely been fought in the east and south.

01:00Clear-up operations are ongoing at a partially collapsed apartment block in the southern

01:04Russian city of Belgorod. The regional governor says it was hit in a

01:09Ukrainian missile strike and at least 15 people were killed.

01:15The Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, has been the target of a large number

01:19of Ukrainian strikes. Although most cross-border shelling happens

01:25in rural areas, attacks have also been seen on the region's capital.

01:35Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic has welcomed the EU's enlargement commissioner to Belgrade

01:40for talks about the country's membership. Oliver Vahey said the next European commission

01:46would have to be an enlargement commission and hope to see Serbia join.

01:51But he also said that Belgrade needs to continue with democratic reforms.

01:57One cannot forget about the need to align further with the EU foreign policy. This is

02:05again something that we have discussed and where we need Serbia to move along.

02:11Vucic was optimistic that Serbia's non-alignment with EU foreign policy would not hamper efforts

02:17to join the bloc. Serbia has been an official EU candidate country

02:28since 2012, but since then there have been several bumps in the road.

02:36The country was rocked by protests last year following two mass shootings which left 18

02:41people dead. Initially demanding tougher gun control laws, the rally soon morphed into

02:46anti-government protests. Protesters were angry about democratic backsliding,

02:52accusing the Vucic government of authoritarianism and corruption.

02:58Serbia raised eyebrows in Brussels after refusing to join in with EU sanctions on Russia following

03:04its invasion of Ukraine. Vucic claims to follow a neutral policy, balancing

03:10ties with Moscow and Brussels. But Serbia has also purchased Russian gas

03:16on favourable terms and added Russian hardware to its military arsenal.

03:24And there's Kosovo. It declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade refuses

03:30to recognise. Last month EU foreign affairs ministers agreed

03:35to freeze Serbia's accession process if it didn't implement an agreement on normalising

03:40its relationship with Kosovo. The main condition is that Serbia stop obstructing

03:46Kosovo's efforts to join key international organisations such as the UN, the Council

03:51of Europe and NATO.

03:59Romania's National Trade Union has held a protest outside the parliament in Bucharest

04:04to demand lower rates of tax. Around 3,000 protesters took part, accusing

04:11the government of taking too much money in social contributions.

04:16The World Bank says some 5 million Romanians have emigrated in search of better salaries

04:21abroad since 1989.

04:47Romanians claim that more than 42% of their gross income goes to the state, compared to

04:52the EU average of 38%. According to Eurostat data, low wages and

04:59high taxation caused Romania to register the third lowest employment rate in the EU in

05:042023 after Italy and Greece. Only 69% of Romanians aged between 20 and 64

05:14employment, meaning that almost a third of the adult population doesn't work.

05:19In 2023, Romania had an employed population of 7.7 million people, but only 5.6 million

05:26paid social security contributions. 2.1 million employed people didn't pay any

05:33contributions at all, although in some cases they received benefits.

05:42Students and employees from several universities in the Netherlands have walked out in protest

05:47at Israel's military operation in Gaza. Demonstrators entered the University of Amsterdam

05:53building and built barricades using office furniture.

05:57The university reported trespassing and vandalism and requested police intervention.

06:02The mayor of Amsterdam, the police chief and the public prosecutor deployed riot police

06:07to break up the protest. It's unclear how many protesters were arrested.

06:17Pro-Palestinian student demonstrations are intensifying in several European countries.

06:24In the Netherlands, students and staff at the University of Amsterdam protested on Monday

06:29against how the university administration handled pro-Palestinian demonstrations last

06:33week. During violent clashes, police dispersed a

06:38student demonstration in support of Palestine last Wednesday.

06:41The demonstrators are denouncing Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and call

06:46on their university to end its academic relations with Israel.

06:53On Monday in Belgium, about 50 students occupied a building of the Brussels Flemish University.

06:58They also urged the authorities to cease all cooperation with Israeli universities.

07:04Arriving with sleeping bags, water and food, the students were determined to occupy the

07:09building until their calls are heeded. Similar events have also taken place in Ghent,

07:14Liege and Brussels Francophone University.

07:21Brussels is hitting back after the Eurovision Song Contest banned the display of European

07:26flags. Fans who carried the blue flags for the grand

07:30final on Saturday were told to relinquish them in order to be allowed entrance into

07:35the venue. The European Commission says the decision

07:38is completely regrettable and is demanding explanations from the organiser, the European

07:44Broadcasting Union. In a statement, the EBU says this year's policy

07:49did not include an express ban on the European flag, but that the rules against flags had

07:54been more vigorously enforced due to heightened geopolitical tensions.

08:00This was an apparent reference to the Israel-Gaza war, the protests in Georgia and Russia's

08:05invasion of Ukraine. The Commission maintains that the EBU should

08:09avoid making geopolitical assessments.

08:24The European Commission says this year's policy did not include an express ban on the

08:55The controversy over flags follows a string of controversies that marked this year's Eurovision,

09:01including the divisive participation of Israel and the last-minute expulsion of Dutch entry

09:07Joost Klein. A payment card designed only for asylum seekers

09:15has come into force in Germany after the new rule was passed by Parliament last month.

09:22Migrants are not able to transfer money outside Germany in a bid to prevent them from sending

09:27money to family and friends abroad or to smugglers.

09:31I tried to buy in a shop and they said that this card is not our partner, you can't buy

09:37from here and it's also not working in all of Germany.

09:42There are half money and half cash. With half money that are in the card I can buy groceries

09:49and with the other half I can buy in every shop whatever I need for me and my children.

09:57Migrant advocacy groups have criticised the new regulation as discriminatory.

10:19Especially in the rural area, asylum seekers are dependent on buses and trains and you can only pay in cash.

10:26I like to pay in cash and I think both are nice.

10:31We have many nationalities who grew up with cash, they don't know how to pay cards.

10:36That's too modern for them.

10:38Germany has been trying to clamp down on migration for months and this latest measure comes just

10:43weeks before the European Union election.

10:47US tech giant Microsoft has announced it's investing 4 billion euros in France this year.

10:54It's the company's biggest investment in France to date.

10:58The money is going to be used to build what Microsoft called a world leading AI and data centre as well as cloud infrastructure.

11:06French President Emmanuel Macron said the investment is fundamental for Europe to stay competitive in the battle for AI.

11:14It's a fundamental step but we just talked about it, it's just one step.

11:18Because with you I'm looking at the rest.

11:21We're entering a totally different world where the competition is going to be fierce.

11:27And this competition can only be won if we have trusted partners and you are one of them.

11:34Microsoft will also bring up to 25,000 advanced graphic processing units to France by the end of 2025

11:43and launch an AI skilling initiative that aims to train one million French people.

Latest news bulletin | May 14th – Morning

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