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  • 20/06/2025
Latest news bulletin | June 20th – Midday

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00:00Hundreds of residents of Tel Aviv have opted to sleep in underground subway stations as the threat of Iranian strikes continues to loom.
00:09The conflict has now entered its second week, with the intensity of strikes only increasing.
00:14On Thursday, an Iranian attack struck a hospital complex and residential buildings in southern Israel, wounding at least 240 people.
00:22Another missile also struck the vicinity of the European Union delegation in Tel Aviv.
00:27A spokesperson for the European Commission stated that all personnel were safe, but expressed grave concern that diplomatic premises were damaged in the attacks.
00:37The area struck houses several European embassies, including those from the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, North Macedonia and Ireland.
00:46In late of the strikes, Israel's defense minister Israel Katz stressed that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quote, cannot continue to exist.
00:55In a post on X, Katz called Khamenei a dictator and labeled him a modern-day Hitler.
01:02The U.S. appears to be weighing options as it too considers joining the conflict militarily.
01:08U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Iran to unconditionally surrender and says he'll decide within two weeks on whether or not to directly attack.
01:17Trump noted that the two weeks are to allow for any potential diplomatic solutions to run their course before further escalating regional tensions.
01:25Several European foreign ministers will meet with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva to discuss Iran's nuclear program on Friday.
01:39Top diplomats from France, Germany and the United Kingdom will be meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Ravchi.
01:48The EU previously acted as a key facilitator of a UN-brokered agreement back in 2015,
01:55which aimed at lifting sanctions in exchange for Iran's compliance with nuclear obligations.
02:01The U.S. and Iran held nearly two months of nuclear talks mediated by Oman before Israel's major attack on Iran last Friday,
02:11to which Iran responded with missile strikes.
02:13In an interview with Euronews, Ali Bahraini, Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva,
02:28said Europe is partly to blame for intensifying hostilities between Israel and Iran,
02:34because its leaders have failed to condemn Israel's aggression.
02:37It comes a day before the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the U.K. meet with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva to discuss Iran's nuclear program.
02:47First of all, we will explain for E3 about the failures they have had and the shortcomings that they have had,
02:58which has resulted to this situation.
03:00Because Europe did not try to stop Israel from committing such a crime,
03:08and because Europe sometimes, and some of them unfortunately, are justifying the aggression committed by Israel,
03:15the impunity which has been given to Israel is something which encourages that entity to continue committing new crimes,
03:26and this impunity is because of inaction by Europeans, by the United States, and by the Security Council.
03:35Bahraini also warned that Iran would respond directly to the U.S. if it becomes involved,
03:41and did not rule out strikes on the country.
03:45It's quite clear for us that the United States has been a complicit to what Israel is doing now,
03:52the crime that Israel is committing against the Iranian people.
03:57If the United States crosses some red lines, then it will receive the same reaction we gave to Israel.
04:07We will very firmly respond to the United States if it crosses the red lines.
04:14Iran will respond to the United States in the United States?
04:19Bahraini told Euronews that there is still a window for diplomacy to reach a new nuclear deal,
04:40but first the fighting with Israel has to stop.
04:49For nearly a week, Israel and Iran have been trading strikes in an escalating conflict
04:55that has already claimed hundreds of lives.
04:58In an interview with Euronews, Israel's ambassador to the EU and NATO, Chaim Regev,
05:03said Israel had no choice but to attack.
05:06I would like to mention that Iran possesses a threat not only to Israel,
05:11not only to Israel, to the region and also to Europe.
05:13They are involved in promoting terror, they are involved in provocation,
05:19they are involved in many, many acts, prisoners, European prisoners as a whole.
05:26And so they are already the main cause for disability in the region and for the world.
05:34In his view, Israel's strikes on Iran's military capabilities also indirectly benefit Ukraine.
05:41Iran is part of the group, anti-Western group, the group that supports Russia in the war.
05:50By the way, harming Iranian missiles facilities is saving Ukrainian life.
05:58By harming their ability to supply missiles and drones to Russia,
06:03by that we are contributing or diminishing their capability to harm, through Russia, Ukrainian.
06:12While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wouldn't rule out targeting Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
06:20Regev said regime change is not the main goal.
06:22The target of this military operation is to remove the nuclear threat and the missile threat.
06:31As I mentioned, Iran has a plan, a concrete and operative plan.
06:36And this is the main, main goals of our military operation right now.
06:43At the same time, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that to achieve the military objectives,
06:51Khamenei should no longer continue to exist.
06:58Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez rejected a NATO proposal to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.
07:05The proposal is due to be announced next week at the NATO Leaders' Summit in The Hague.
07:10The Spanish Premier called the proposal unreasonable.
07:13In a letter sent to NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta,
07:16Sanchez stated that his country cannot commit to any spending targets in terms of GDP.
07:21Any agreement to adopt a new spending guideline must be made with the consensus of all 32 NATO member countries.
07:28Sanchez's decision risks derailing next week's summit, which U.S. President Donald Trump is set to attend.
07:34Trump has, on numerous occasions, threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO
07:37if members don't increase defense spending to at least 5%.
07:41Spain is the lowest spender on defense in the entire alliance,
07:45with last year's defense expenditure totaling less than 2% of GDP.
07:49And NATO officials said on Thursday that discussions between allies are ongoing about a potential new spending plan.
07:55The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda are set to sign a peace agreement.
08:04The deal was brokered by the United States and is set to be signed on the 27th of June.
08:09The provisional agreement, announced by the U.S. State Department, covers issues including disarmament,
08:15the integration of non-state armed groups,
08:17and the return of refugees and internally displaced people in Eastern DRC.
08:21Eastern DRC has been gripped by a violent conflict spanning back decades.
08:27Several armed groups are competing for access to precious natural resources including gold,
08:32copper, cobalt, and lithium.
08:34Congo has accused its neighbor Rwanda of backing one of the largest groups in the conflict,
08:39known as the M-23.
08:41The UN estimates that 4,000 of the group's fighters are troops from Rwanda,
08:45though Kigali has strongly rejected those allegations.
08:48M-23 is one of approximately 100 armed groups involved in the conflict vying for control in the region.
08:56Congo and Rwanda are not formally at war,
08:58and in the past have held peace talks aimed at resolving disputes in Eastern DRC.
09:03Angola stepped down in March as mediator between the two countries after several attempts at brokering peace.
09:09Other nations, like Qatar, also attempted to mediate the conflict in the past with no success.
09:18Wake Up, Wake Up is the chorus of the song that Jennie BSG choreographed for the Dance for Refugees campaign.
09:36The dancer spoke to Your News about this call for action ahead of World Refugee Day celebrated every year on the 20th of June.
09:43Donate into me because wake up means also everyone needs to wake up.
09:49It's time to talk about it. It's time to help. It's time to react.
09:53We can't stay silent. We have to speak up for oppressed people, and this is what I'm doing.
09:59The social media campaign challenges people to post their versions of the choreography on Instagram and donates funds.
10:06It's aimed primarily at young people who Jennie works with at her dance school and when she travels abroad.
10:13Try to target the new generation because for me they are the change.
10:19They can do the difference in this world.
10:22Dance was, for me, the good way to attract attention and to change this narrative, to celebrate the strength, the potential, the resilience of refugees.
10:39Jennie BSG was born in Belgium where her family sought refuge from the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
10:46A background that left its mark on the artist and led her to activism in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
10:53My family, they fled violence in the 90s and, you know, my two elder brother, they spent time in refugee camp.
11:05My mother, she has experienced displacement.
11:10My dad too, violence, fear, struggle.
11:14Today, I'm the living proof that refugees' background doesn't limit the, you know, it doesn't define the limits of refugees.
11:27It defines their strengths.
11:29The United Nations says there are currently 123 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, twice more than a decade ago.
11:37Almost 37 million of them are refugees.
11:39The organization warns that recent drastic cuts in humanitarian aid funding are putting their lives at risk.

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