Latest news bulletin | October 21st – Midday - video Dailymotion

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00:00Tens of thousands of Georgians march through Tbilisi in a show of support for their country

00:06joining the European Union.

00:11Israel's military launches more strikes on Lebanon, it says, to target financial institutions

00:16run by the militant group Hezbollah.

00:20With two weeks to go before the U.S. presidential election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump increase

00:25the campaigns in the must-win Pennsylvania swing states.

00:35Tens of thousands of Georgians march through Tbilisi in a show of support for their country

00:40joining the European Union.

00:42The rally comes just a week ahead of parliamentary elections set to take place on 26 October.

00:48That vote is widely seen as a test to determine whether Georgia returns to Russia's orbit

00:53or continues on its pro-European path.

00:56Last year, the EU granted Georgia candidate country status, but since then, opposition

01:01supporters argue that the ruling Georgian Dream Party has derailed the country's chances

01:05of joining the bloc.

01:07Two recent pieces of legislation in particular raised eyebrows in Brussels.

01:12Earlier this month, Georgia's parliament speaker signed a controversial anti-LGBTQ plus rights

01:18bill into law.

01:19That includes bans on same-sex marriages, adoptions by same-sex couples and limitations

01:25on the depiction of LGBTQ plus couples in the media.

01:29And in May, parliament passed a controversial foreign agent law that requires media organizations

01:34and NGOs to register as foreign agents if they receive at least 20 percent of their

01:39funds from abroad.

01:41The ruling Georgian Dream Party claimed the bill would curb alleged foreign attempts to

01:45sway domestic politics.

01:47But critics dubbed it the Russian law because they say it mirrors similar legislation adopted

01:52by the Kremlin to target, discriminate and ultimately outlaw political opponents.

01:58Pro-European President Salome Zubishvili has long been at odds with the Georgian Dream

02:02and refused to sign both bills into law.

02:05The laws have been roundly criticized by the European Union, leading to the freezing of

02:09Georgia's EU accession process.

02:16Moldova is now a step closer to the European Union, but it wasn't a landslide victory at

02:23the polls.

02:25On Sunday, citizens of the Eastern European country voted by a narrow margin in favor

02:31of a constitutional amendment with a view to accession to the EU.

02:37Turnout was much higher than the required minimum of 33 percent to make the result binding,

02:44but only slightly more than half of the voters chose yes, leaving supporters of European

02:51integration and President Maia Sandu visibly disappointed.

02:56She blames Russian propaganda for the result.

02:59She didn't mention Russia by name, alluding only to foreign forces and denouncing what

03:04she called an unprecedented assault on her country's freedom and democracy.

03:14We have evidence and information showing that Russian propaganda, along with foreign

03:21forces hostile to our interests, attacked our country with tens of millions of euros,

03:28lies and propaganda, with the most miserable means to bring our citizens and our country

03:35into an area of uncertainty and instability.

03:41We have evidence and information showing that the purpose of the criminal groupings

03:47was to buy 300,000 votes.

03:52The size of the fraud is unprecedented.

03:56The purpose was to compromise a democratic exercise.

04:02Sandu received the most votes in the presidential race held parallel to the EU referendum,

04:08but she couldn't make it past the 50 percent plus one vote treasured needed for an outright

04:15win, and now has to face a run-off on the 3rd of November.

04:22It was a sad night for Maia Sandu and the supporters of Moldova in the EU, who were

04:27expecting a significant victory on the eve of the referendum.

04:32The outcome of the vote is set to make waves in Eastern Europe and in Brussels.

04:38Vincenzo Genovese, Euronews, Chisinau.

04:45Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the majority of his Western allies were supportive

04:50of his so-called victory plan.

04:53He said he got positive signals on the use of long-range missiles.

04:57However, he criticized the fact that some countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and

05:02France, wanted to coordinate their decisions with each other whether to give permission

05:07to use the missiles into Russian territory.

05:11Oleksandr Kornienko is the deputy spokesperson for the Ukrainian parliament.

05:15He said it has been a crucial factor for Ukraine since the start of the war.

05:20We ask for that even in 2022, because we all understand that one of the biggest and

05:27important, you know, part of stress to Russia, it's to stress to Russian military objects

05:39near Ukraine, close to Ukraine, but not close maybe.

05:44And we do it right now with our, you know, creative solutions like using long-range drones

05:53and someone else, but of course if you talk about real serious part like military strategy

06:00of that, we need to use long-range artillery, of course.

06:04Meanwhile, Ukraine says Russia is attempting to beef up its forces by using 10,000 North

06:09Korean soldiers, escalating and widening the scope of the war.

06:13President Zelensky warned about this development in Brussels, where he outlined the victory

06:17plan with allies in the EU and NATO.

06:20So, we know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea that they are preparing to send fight

06:30against us.

06:34This is really urgent thing because Iran, they gave, you know, drones, licenses to produce

06:42these drones and missiles, yes, but not people, not officially, yes?

06:50And here we see this first step in this war and this is the first step to a world war.

06:58Allies are yet to give official responses to the victory plan, which sources say it

07:04requires a major upgrade in military support.

07:10However, the majority of allies recognize that time is running out to help Ukraine win.

07:16Great.

07:18Thank you very much.

07:19Thank you very much.

07:26Israel's military has launched more strikes on Lebanon, it says, to target banks and financial

07:31institutions that support the militant group Hezbollah.

07:35The IDF issued evacuation warnings for 24 areas, including 14 in the capital, Beirut,

07:41warning that strikes were likely throughout the night.

07:51A senior Israeli intelligence official said the main target of the strikes was the Hezbollah-run

07:57banking system Al-Qaeda Al-Hassan.

08:01It provides cash-based financial services and is used by hundreds of thousands of ordinary

08:04Lebanese.

08:07We attack them during the night and we will update you on the results of the attack in

08:12the coming days.

08:13A senior Israeli intelligence official said the main target of the strikes was the Hezbollah-run

08:17banking system Al-Qaeda Al-Hassan.

08:20It provides cash-based financial services and is used by hundreds of thousands of ordinary

08:25Lebanese.

08:27the bank said the strikes were a sign of Israel's bankruptcy and assured customers their funds were

08:32safe. A year of escalating tensions and frequent cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah

08:39over the conflict in Gaza turned into all-out war last month. Israel launched what it called

08:45a targeted ground operation into Lebanon at the end of September with as many as 15,000

08:51troops said to be inside the country. The IDF said Hezbollah fired more than 170 rockets into

08:58Israel on Sunday with three people slightly injured from a fire sparked by a strike on the

09:03northern city of Safed. Red and orange weather alerts are in place across Italy as heavy rainfall

09:13causes flash flooding throughout the country. The region of Emilia-Romagna has so far been

09:20the worst hit with one person killed after a car was swept away by a flood wave in the town

09:26of Pianoro near Bologna. Tuscany's river Elsa and Sicily's river Salso have both burst their banks

09:33and residents in both areas have been advised to avoid non-essential travel.

09:39Weather warnings are expected to remain in place until Tuesday.

09:44Meanwhile in central France, severe flooding has caused widespread damage and power outages.

09:50Many residents have returned to find their homes destroyed.

09:56On Friday, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier said that firefighters and other

10:01rescuers have been involved in roughly 2,300 operations so far.

10:09Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state that could hold the keys to the White House,

10:14is getting set for a neck-and-neck contest in the US presidential election,

10:19with two weeks to go before the polls. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have become

10:23fixtures in America's largest battleground state. With its 19 electoral votes,

10:29Pennsylvania is the largest prize of the most important swing states.

10:34Pennsylvania is a state that went for Trump in 2016, went for Biden in 2020.

10:41It's got a lot of white working class voters. So it's got large urban centers,

10:48rural communities. So Pennsylvania serves as sort of a microcosm of the country as a whole,

10:54I think, in many ways. The winner of the last two presidential elections in the state won by just

11:00tens of thousands of votes. I think it's split pretty even even right now. Half of my friends

11:07are voting for Kamala and the other half are voting for Trump. So if that's any indication,

11:12then I think it's a pretty tight race here. It's really going to be literally on election

11:17day. Does it rain? Is it sunny? And who's knocking on doors? And who's most excited

11:23about their candidate and going to the polls for them? Voters in the US go to the polls on

11:29November 5, with polls showing the race essentially tied here. Once again, it could be the state that

11:36tips the election.

Latest news bulletin | October 21st – Midday

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