00:00U.S. President Donald Trump signed a funding bill to officially end the longest ever U.S. government shutdown.
00:10The European Commission has unveiled Democracy Shield, a roadmap to better protect democracies from foreign interference.
00:21Russia continues to launch airstrikes at Ukraine while its troops further infiltrate Ukrainian positions in Zaporizhia.
00:30France is marking 10 years since the Paris terror attacks with ceremonies at each site to honor the victims.
00:41The longest ever U.S. government shutdown officially ended on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a funding bill negotiated by Republican lawmakers and a small group of moderate Democrats.
00:54After 43 days, the Democrats did not manage to secure guarantees to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage, a demand that led to the shutdown in mid-September.
01:07This outcome was totally foreseeable. I said that this would be the outcome when all this began back in mid-September. They did it anyway.
01:15Democrats admitted that they used the people's leverage and they got nothing for their selfish political stunt here. They didn't achieve anything with this at all.
01:23Democrats said they would not give up on the subsidy extension, even if the vote did not go their way.
01:29Republicans have played a game of chicken with food assistance, travel safety and federal paychecks, all because they will stop at nothing to cut your health care.
01:41The only thing that congressional Republicans are more loyal to than Donald Trump is to cutting the health care of the American people.
01:48Without the enhanced tax credit, premiums on average will more than double for millions of Americans.
01:54More than two million people would lose health insurance coverage altogether next year, the Congressional Budget Office projected.
02:01Republicans promised to hold a vote by mid-December to extend the health care subsidies, but there is no guarantee of success.
02:08The European Commission has unveiled Democracy Shield on Wednesday, a roadmap to better protect democracies and electoral processes from foreign interference and information manipulation, including those originating from within the bloc itself.
02:26The Commission has explicitly and pointedly included EU candidates countries in this defensive plan.
02:32And the communication on the EU strategy at the core of the democracy shield is reinforcing public trust in democracy and democratic institutions.
02:41The European democracy shield rests on three pillars, first safeguarding our information space, second strengthening democratic institutions and third boosting our societal resilience.
02:56The centerpiece of democracy shield is the creation of a European center for democratic resilience to identify destabilization operations and coordinate the work of fact-checking networks.
03:07The Commission also proposed setting up a voluntary network of influencers to hold accountable those influencers who are taking part in political campaigns.
03:16For Nathalie Loiseau, French MEP and head of the Democracy Shield Committee, the Commission must first apply the rules it adopted to regulate its online sphere.
03:24The Commission is the case.
03:54rules aimed at protecting electoral processes have already been adopted, for example, in the
03:59Digital Services Act and the AI Act. Yet under pressure from US tech giants backed by the Trump
04:05administration, commission sanctions have yet to materialize. Moscow continues to launch airstrikes
04:16at Ukraine while Russian troops further infiltrate Ukrainian positions in Zaporizhia.
04:21Overnight into Wednesday, Russian drone strikes struck the central Kharkiv region, injuring at least five people.
04:29The attack comes as the Russian army overran three settlements in the southern Zaporizhia region of
04:51Ukraine, where dense fog enabled Russian troops to infiltrate Ukrainian positions. The cities of
04:58Kupiansk and Liman in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region have also recently witnessed an uptick in
05:04combat. However, the fiercest battles are still in the besieged Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the
05:10eastern Donetsk region. Here, close to half of all frontline clashes took place over the past 24 hours.
05:16Lawmakers in France's lower House of Parliament, the National Assembly approved a measure on Wednesday
05:25to suspend a controversial pension reform. The vote, which passed with 255 in favor and 146 against,
05:34followed a major concession by the country's new Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to the Socialist
05:39Party to avoid censure. One of the biggest was offering them a suspension of President Emmanuel
05:45Macron's plan to raise retirement age from 62 to 64. Budget debates in France have recently gained
05:52significance, since Macron's snap election last year resulted in a hung parliament. Earlier this year,
05:59lawmakers voted to remove Prime Minister François Bayrou after he called an unprecedented confidence
06:04vote over his controversial 2026 budget plan. France, which has had five premieres in just
06:11two years, is continuing to struggle to rein in a budget deficit, which has become the largest in
06:16the eurozone. The country's public deficit hit 5.8% of GDP in 2024, totaling 168.6 billion euros,
06:26a figure well above the maximum allowed by EU rules. UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting has denied
06:37allegations that he's plotting to take down Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The senior British
06:43cabinet minister described the rumors from inside No. 10 Downing Street as, quote,
06:47self-defeating and self-destructive. Close supporters of Starmer in briefings to the media said that
06:53challenging the UK premier would be reckless and have dire consequences for the country's economy
06:59and international standing. Streeting, who's widely tipped as a future Labour Party leader,
07:05said that Starmer should fire those responsible for the remarks. It's totally self-defeating
07:12briefing, not least because it's not true. And I don't understand how anyone thinks it's helpful
07:17to the Prime Minister either to suggest he's fighting for his job at a time when,
07:21last time I saw him on Monday evening to talk about violence against women and girls and how
07:25we tackle it, he's fighting for the country and trying to turn it around from the absolute mess
07:30that we inhabit. Starmer has been struggling since taking office in July last year,
07:35with his public opinion dwindling week on week, amid the rise in far-right anti-immigration
07:41Reform UK's popularity. Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has consistently topped British polls for months,
07:49creating a difficult situation for Starmer, who's been unable to deliver on his campaign objectives.
07:55One of his flagship promises included economic growth. Recent statistics, released on Tuesday,
08:02showed unemployment figures climbing from 4.8 percent to 5 percent.
08:11Ten years ago, Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers rampaged through cafes,
08:16restaurants and the Baraklan concert hall in Paris, leaving 130 people dead and hundreds injured.
08:25They struck within minutes of one another. Suicide bombers detonated outside the Stade de France.
08:31Gunmen fired on café terraces and three attackers stormed the Baraklan at 9.47 pm, killing 90 people
08:38before police ended the siege. Two survivors who later died by suicide have since been recognized
08:45among the victims. The attacks were the deadliest in France since World War II, prompting the hardening
08:53of security while deepening a civic reflex for solidarity that endures a decade on. As France prepares to
09:00commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attacks that reshaped the country's sense of safety and purpose,
09:07the date reopens wounds for many survivors. Paris is marking the anniversary with a sequence of tributes
09:14led by President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo at each attack site. The commemorations will
09:21culminate with the opening of a memorial garden opposite City Hall that includes plantings that
09:26echo the attack sites and benches for reflection. After a two-year break, the World Press cartoon
09:38exhibition has returned to Portugal. Political figures including US President Donald Trump and Russian
09:44President Vladimir Putin dominate many of the works. Topics such as global warming in Israel's war in
09:50Gaza also took center stage.
09:52A press cartoon is not a reference to the humor graphic published in the press,
09:57whether it be cartoons editorial, caricatures or a cartoon. Today, with the fake news, with the censure,
10:03with the censure, with the censure, with the censure, with the censure. This year's big winner was Darko,
10:23a cartoonist from Montenegro. His work depicts the Statue of Liberty with her mouth sewn shut by Trump's signature.
10:30In my opinion, Trump has stopped every freedom of people in America. He made the borders between Mexico and the USA.
10:44He has, in my opinion, very bad plans in general. And that's why I made it so that every
10:51citizen of the censure will open the eyes of every free person.
10:56And a rather grotesque drawing of Vladimir Putin won Germany's Frank Hoppmann the first prize in the
11:02caricature category.
11:03The world press cartoon displays around 300 works that have been published in newspapers.
11:33newspapers, magazines, and websites from across the globe.
11:37The exhibition can be seen at the Palacio Anjos in El Gess until February 8th.
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