00:00The suspected gunman in Sydney's Bondi beach massacre has been charged with 59 offences,
00:05including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act.
00:12The Trump administration is expanding its travel bans and restrictions to 20 new countries.
00:20Russia's foreign minister says Moscow will not accept any compromise regarding the occupied
00:26territories of Ukraine.
00:32The suspected gunman in Sydney's Bondi beach massacre was charged with 59 offences on Wednesday,
00:38including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act.
00:44Police said 24-year-old Naveed Akram was charged after waking from a coma in a Sydney hospital,
00:50where he has been since police shot him and his gunman father, who died at the scene.
00:54Akram was also charged with 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the
01:01wounded and with placing an explosive near a building with intent to cause harm.
01:07The charges came as funerals began for the 15 victims of the massacre that targeted an
01:12event to mark the start of an eight-day Hanukkah festival at Bondi beach.
01:17Hundreds of mourners gathered to honor the victims, all of whom identified so far were Jewish.
01:22They ranged in age from a 10-year-old girl to an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
01:29A heavy police presence was visible on nearby streets,
01:32with officers checking identification cards of people making their way to the service.
01:38Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to take action to fight rising anti-Semitism
01:43and tighten the country's already strict gun laws.
01:51The Trump administration is expanding its travel bans and restrictions to 20 new countries,
01:57doubling the number of nations affected by sweeping travel limits to 39.
02:03Five more countries were added to the list facing a full ban – Burkina Faso, Mali,
02:08Niger, South Sudan and Syria. People traveling on documents issued by the
02:13Palestinian Authority are also included in the ban. An additional 15 countries are facing increased
02:20restrictions. The restrictions apply to both people seeking to travel to the U.S. as visitors
02:26or to emigrate there. People who already have visas are lawful permanent residents of the U.S. or have
02:32certain visa categories such as diplomats or athletes or whose entry into the country is believed to
02:38serve the U.S. interest are all exempt from the restrictions. The Trump administration cited
02:44immigration enforcement, foreign policy and national security concerns for the move. But critics have
02:50argued that the administration is using national security concerns to collectively keep out people
02:55from a wide range of countries.
02:57Russia will not accept any compromise regarding the occupied territories of Ukraine, the country's
03:07deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday. He said Moscow has not scaled back its demands and wants
03:14to retain control of five Ukrainian regions, these being Crimea, Donetsk, Luansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
03:22Aside from the annexed Crimea and all of the Luansk region, Russia does not control the entirety
03:29of any of the other three areas of Ukraine. In Zaporizhia and Kherson, Moscow forces do not have
03:35control of the regional capitals either. The Kremlin also said on Tuesday that Russia is unlikely to
03:41participate in any possible Christmas truce. Following the Ukraine-U.S. talks in Berlin, Ukrainian
03:48President Vladimir Zelensky said significant progress had been made. Zelensky said that Trump's team had
03:55quote, heard of Ukraine's and Kyiv's positions, which they will now present to Russia.
04:06Several people were injured in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia on Tuesday in a Russian drone strike
04:12that hit a nine-story residential building. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said five
04:18people were rescued from the building's upper floors and three people were receiving treatment
04:22for injuries. The attack also led to temporary power outages across the region and damaged a
04:28commercial facility. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 69 drones into Ukraine overnight,
04:3557 of which were shot down by Ukraine's air defenses.
04:38In Odessa, energy workers restored electricity to 330,000 households on Tuesday after Russian strikes
04:47targeted energy infrastructure a day earlier. 288,000 families in Odessa are still without
04:53electricity as reparations are ongoing. The strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
05:00met in Berlin with European leaders and U.S. negotiators for peace talks.
05:05He announced that a final peace deal could be presented to the Kremlin within days.
05:16Authorities in Lithuania said they have arrested 21 people allegedly connected to a criminal network
05:22that smuggled cigarettes using weather balloons from Belarus. Investigators conducted more than 80
05:28searches, seizing cigarettes, SIM cards, communication and tracking signal jammers and firearms, as well
05:34as luxury cars and property. The prosecutors alleged that the suspects had direct contacts with accomplices
05:42operating from Belarus. They faced charges of participating in a criminal organization,
05:47illegal handling and smuggling of excise goods, and aiding another state in acting against Lithuania.
05:52Earlier this month, Lithuania declared a national emergency over security risks posed by the
05:59meteorological balloons sent from Belarus. The balloons forced Lithuania to repeatedly shut down
06:06its main airport in the capital Vilnius, stranding thousands of people, and led to the temporary closure
06:12of two land border crossings with Belarus. Officials in Lithuania have accused Belarus,
06:19which is closely allied with Russia, of using the balloons as a form of hybrid warfare against the
06:24country. The European Commission on Tuesday announced a reversal of a wholesale ban on new
06:34combustion engine vehicles from 2035 after pressure from ailing carmakers. Under the revised plans,
06:43carmakers will have to comply with the 90% tailpipe emissions reduction target compared to
06:482021 instead of a 100% reduction. First, we're staying the course towards zero emissions mobility,
06:58but we're introducing some flexibilities for manufacturers so they can meet their CO2 targets
07:05in the most cost-efficient way. The remaining 10 emissions will need to be compensated through
07:10European low-carbon steel, e-fuels or biofuels, the Commission said.
07:15Fuel electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles will also be encouraged, with car manufacturers eligible
07:22to receive super credits for producing small, affordable electric cars made in the EU27.
07:29Europe's ailing car industry has been struggling with increasing Chinese competition
07:34in the transition to electric vehicles, resulting in financial losses and major job cuts.
07:39China is to impose up to 19.8% tariffs on pork imports from the European Union, slashing its preliminary figures
07:55of between 15 and 62%, the country's commerce ministry has announced. The move follows a lengthy Chinese
08:04Chinese investigation into imports of pork from the EU, launched in June last year, which concluded
08:10that EU products were harming the domestic industry. Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark are said to be the most affected.
08:20The probe was prompted by the EU's decision to impose provisional tariffs on China-made electric vehicles last year.
08:27The EU runs a massive trade deficit with China, which came to over 300 billion in 2024.
08:35However, the trading bloc is a major exporter of pork and a key supplier of by-products such as ears,
08:42snouts, feet and other items considered to be delicacies in China.
08:46The European Consumer Organization is raising the alarm about hidden advertising practices of influencers on social media for fast fashion and unhealthy food.
09:00You might have spotted some of these practices on Instagram or TikTok.
09:04In the fast fashion sector, content creators unpack and try on large quantities of clothing to showcase how much can be purchased with little money.
09:12This marketing practice is known as holes.
09:16Influencer marketing also promotes unhealthy food advertising.
09:21In Portugal, McDonald's collaborated with a popular streamer exploring a Minecraft world.
09:26The European Consumer Organization raises issues of a lack of transparency, undisclosed commercial partnerships and incentives to overconsume.
09:34In some cases, we believe that there is a breach of EU law, particularly when it comes to promoting something for what you are being paid off and you are not telling that to the consumer.
09:46So that is covered by consumer protection laws.
09:49But something that in EU law we do not have cover is this relationship between influencers and the brands, influencers and the platforms.
09:59Hence, the European Consumer Organization recommends to establish joint liability between influencers, their agencies and brands if consumer law is breached.
10:08The European Commission is expected to present the draft Digital Fairness Act next year to tackle unfair online practices and misleading influencer marketing.
10:17The European Union is redefining its partnership with Central Asia, shifting from political dialogue to concrete economic cooperation.
10:29Speaking in Tashkent, EU ambassador Toiva Klar outlined Breston's priorities for the coming years, from transport corridors and connectivity to critical raw materials and green transition, as the region moves closer to the EU's long-term strategic agenda ahead of 2026.
10:47We have had discussions on critical raw materials, on how we can extract and how we can process critical raw materials in Central Asia and then transport them to Europe.
11:03We have already seen positive results, but certainly there is much more potential.
11:09For Brussels, the focus is not only on access to resources, but on building value chains with local processing,
11:16technology transfer and reliable transport routes linking Central Asia to European markets.
11:21Think tanks like Central Asia are just making sure that the agenda for the EU-Central Asia partnership is filled with some sub-sales and some tangible outcomes.
11:34With new agreements, growing investment and a renewed regional strategy, both sides say the EU-Central Asia partnership is entering a new phase focused on delivery, resilience and long-term development.
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