Latest news bulletin | December 5th – Morning - video Dailymotion

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00:00Violent demonstrations carried out for a sixth night in a row on Wednesday in Georgia's capital

00:10Tbilisi. Protesters showed no sign of backing down amid water cannons and arrests by riot

00:17police. The opposition is calling for new elections following the October 26 vote,

00:22which has been labelled as fraudulent. The election that returned Georgian Dream to power

00:26was also criticised by President Salome Zurabichvili. The ruling party's

00:31latest decision to pause EU accession has worsened the situation.

00:40Opposition parties in South Korea submitted a motion on Wednesday

00:44to impeach President Yun Suk-hyo after he imposed a martial law.

00:51The law was lifted just hours after the president announced it following mass

00:56protests and parliament opposition.

01:00Lawmakers that had managed to defy security forces and enter parliament

01:05unanimously voted against the law.

01:09Impeaching Yun would require the support of two-thirds of the parliament and the backing

01:14of at least six constitutional court judges. Voting is set for Friday or Saturday.

01:21Calls are also mounting for members of Yun's cabinet to resign.

01:26If Yun is impeached, he'll be stripped of his constitutional powers

01:31until the court can rule on his fate.

01:38The Romanian political scene embattled second round of the presidential elections

01:42have been thrown in disarray by the Romanian presidency decision to unseal the intelligence

01:48agencies reports indicating a foreign interference in the elections in favour of far-right candidate

01:56Kalin Georgescu. Romania's foreign intelligence service states in the released documents that

02:02Romania is the target of aggressive hybrid actions by the Russian Federation.

02:08The dramatic move by the Romanian state to release the National Security Council's

02:13secret documents showed that major sums of money together with an elaborate foreign operation

02:19on social media influencing lead to the unexplained rise of the obscure

02:24extremist candidate Kalin Georgescu. The secret documents from three Romanian intelligence

02:30agencies details that 797 TikTok accounts created in 2016 for Georgescu and left dormant

02:40were activated to maximum capacity two weeks before the elections. Telegram accounts created

02:47in 2022 coordinated the TikTok and offer operations in favour of Kalin Georgescu who

02:54called himself an independent candidate with zero campaign spending. The documents which list a wide

03:01array of show that 1 million euros were mobilized by foreign state actors to drive Georgescu's

03:08campaign and the TikTok LHD confirmed that it received over 300 000 euros from Kalin Georgescu

03:17campaign. But Georgescu always maintained that he did not spend one euro for his campaign which

03:25opens the door to allegation and investigation of illegal campaign financing. The major question

03:32following now is the fate of the second round of the presidential elections the light of this

03:38revelations. For Euronews, Andrea Gourban.

03:44Michel Barnier becomes the French fifth republic's shortest serving prime minister after a vote of

03:50no confidence topples his government. The left new popular front alliance and the far right

03:56national rally party joined forces to bring him down with 331 votes backing the motion of censure.

04:04Barnier's government the first to be ousted by a motion of censure in over 60 years faced

04:10two separate no confidence votes on Monday after the prime minister invoked a constitutional

04:15article to bypass a parliamentary vote and push through the social security budget.

04:24Chancellor Olaf Scholz battled questions from German MPs in the Bundestag on Wednesday ahead

04:30of the vote of confidence that the chancellor has called for December the 16th.

04:36Scholz has drawn the line at sending German soldiers into Ukraine after the foreign ministers

04:40suggested that peacekeeping troops could be stationed in a demilitarized zone if a ceasefire

04:47between Russia and Ukraine was agreed. The chancellor was grueled about the shrinking

04:51economy which has continued to deteriorate over the past three years while Scholz has been in

04:57power due to repercussions stemming from Covid and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine

05:02which have arguably been outside the government's control. While Scholz said that he would continue

05:08to work on policies over the next couple of months ahead of the vote scheduled for February,

05:13it's clear that he's already in full election campaign mode. Liv Stroud in Berlin for Euronews.

05:30It's quite a commotion for a former EU justice commissioner to be subject to an investigation

05:36by the Belgian authorities for money laundering. Didier Reynders is suspected of having bought

05:41tickets of the national lottery for which he was responsible during his term as finance minister

05:46and transferring the laundered profits to his private account. Could these alleged

05:52misdeeds undermine the credibility of the European institutions? Is the commissioner

05:58responsible for justice and the rule of law? So if he is implicated in money laundering or

06:07illegal activity that would be a particular blow. On the other hand he is now out. There is a new

06:14commission that started its work just this Monday so it's also a bit in a way the problem

06:21is already solved as far as the EU institutions are concerned. As justice commissioner from 2019

06:29to 2024, Reynders led the fight back against democratic decline in Hungary and Poland during

06:35which EU funds for these countries were temporarily suspended.

06:39In the previous term I worked in the LIBE commission.

06:42Many times commissioner Reynders was on it. He was spreading fake news about allegedly broken

06:49rule of law in Poland. He was demanding to block funds for Poland. Today I as a Polish

06:55and people in Poland perceive the situation of Reynders as a peculiar hiccup in history.

07:01The allegations span a period of several years and date back to his time as Belgian federal minister

07:06for finance and later for foreign affairs. The investigation was opened last year but

07:11the authorities waited with their raids until the end of his EU mandate. Five years ago a former

07:16Belgian intelligence officer accused Reynders of corruption and money laundering in connection with

07:20various projects including arms deals. At the time the accusations were dismissed for lack of evidence.

07:31The European Commission was unaware of the investigation into the alleged money laundering

07:35by former European commissioner Didier Reynders. The Belgian politician was commissioner for

07:40justice until last Saturday. So first of all did you have any indications that Mr. Reynders was

07:46engaging in any malpractice during his mandate? We do not have any further information about this

07:52matter. Of course if the Belgian authorities were to contact us we are going to collaborate with them.

08:00Reynders still enjoys a certain immunity linked to his former position.

08:04If it were to be withdrawn the decision would be up to the current college of commissioners.

08:09So indeed members of the college are accorded immunity but solely only in the interest of

08:18the union. What does that mean? It means that they benefit from immunity for acts

08:23performed by them in their official capacity. So it's a functional immunity.

08:30According to French daily Le Soir and investigative platform follow the money

08:34Reynders homes were searched by police on Tuesday apparently following suspicions

08:38that he may be laundering money through the Belgian national lottery.

08:49Starting this Christmas Eve the Eternal City will welcome an estimated 35 million pilgrims

08:54for the 2025 jubilee and Rome is gearing up for the occasion with much of the city

09:00transforming into an open-air construction site for the past few months. Monuments are being

09:06restored, roads repaired and pedestrian areas redesigned to prepare for the stream of visitors.

09:14Despite opposition claims that the city is falling behind on numerous projects

09:19Rome's mayor says the city will be ready in time.

09:25This will be the second jubilee led by Pope Francis. Following the one in 2015 the central

09:38message of the holy year is to foster hope and trust. The pontiff has called on clergy

09:43and religious orders to lead by example and to help tackle the housing crisis.

09:54The jubilee will officially begin with the opening of the holy door at Saint Peter's Basilica.

10:18Over the following days the doors of Rome's major basilica will also open and will remain

10:23so until the end of the celebrations.

10:32NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said we should not be naive about how Russia may be supporting

10:38nuclear programs in North Korea. The alleged Russian support of Pyongyang's nuclear program

10:43as well as the involvement of North Korean troops in Russia's invasion of Ukraine

10:47demands broader collaboration between NATO and countries outside of the alliance.

10:52There's every reason to make that statement that nuclear technology and missile technology is

10:59flowing into North Korea and therefore is a risk now that North Korea will use it not only to

11:04be a threat to us here but also to the US mainland and of course to the region

11:09including the Republic of Korea, South Korea and Japan.

11:14Amid fears that Donald Trump might withdraw key USA to Ukraine when he enters office

11:20Rutte recently met with the US President-elect in Florida.

11:24He said that he'd underlined that China, North Korea and Iran were weighing in on Russia's side

11:30putting the United States and the Asia-Pacific region at risk.

11:34When asked about Russia's own nuclear threat Rutte accused the Kremlin of saber-rattling.

Latest news bulletin | December 5th – Morning

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