00:00The European Commission announced 28 billion euros in loans for east-of-border regions affected by the war in Ukraine.
00:10Ukraine has imposed new sanctions against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for helping Russia to sustain its war against Ukraine.
00:20The European Commissioner for Sport has condemned the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Milan-Kotina Paralympic Games
00:27under the national flags.
00:30The European Commission has released a strategy to support eastern border regions struggling with economic decline, demographic pressure and hybrid
00:40threats stemming from the war in Ukraine.
00:4328 billion euros in loans will be distributed in cooperation with the European Investment Bank and the World Bank to
00:52revive investment and business activity in the affected regions.
00:56The nine EU member states set to benefit from the initiative called East Invest are Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
01:05Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
01:08The strategy also covers the European Drone Wall Initiative to strengthen border security.
01:15Support for integrating Baltic electricity networks into the broader European grid and educational and employment programs aimed at addressing population
01:26decline in border areas.
01:28The detailed allocation of funds among member states has not yet been determined,
01:33but EU officials are expected to meet country representatives at an East Invest event scheduled for the end of February.
01:44The European Commissioner for Sport has condemned the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Milan-Kotina Paralympic Games
01:53under their national flags.
01:55Glenn Mikhelev has announced a boycott of the opening ceremony for that reason.
01:59While Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine continues, I cannot support the reinstatement of national symbols, flags, anthems and uniforms
02:08that are inseparable from that conflict he wrote on X.
02:12Russians and Belarusians have been prohibited from competing under their flags in the Olympics and Paralympics since Russia's full-scale
02:20invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
02:23They are, however, allowed to participate as individual neutral athletes, a category that allows people who have qualified for the
02:32Games to join the competition under certain conditions,
02:35such as not actively supporting the invasion and not being contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security
02:43agencies.
02:44These conditions were applied in Paris 2024 and are also the rules for the current Milan-Kotina Olympics,
02:52with 13 Russian and 7 Belarusian athletes participating in the competition.
03:02Ukraine has imposed new sanctions against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for helping Russia to sustain its war against Ukraine.
03:12Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya spoke to Euronews about her country's influence on Russia's war.
03:20Russia can use Belarus as a platform for pressure and even aggression against Europe.
03:26Under Lukashenko, Belarus has become deeply integrated into Russia's war machine.
03:32Russian troops train there.
03:34Joint military infrastructure is being modernized.
03:37Russia has deployed nuclear weapons in Belarus and is building infrastructure for systems like the Russian missile.
03:45This creates direct threats not only to Ukraine, but also to Poland, the Baltic states and actually wider Europe.
03:53It shortens warning times and increases escalation risks.
03:57Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that without the assistance,
04:01the number of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure and railways in northern Ukraine would likely have been lower.
04:07Belarusian society is overwhelmingly against the war.
04:11The army's loyalty in such a scenario is not guaranteed.
04:15And Lukashenko understands that direct participation could destabilize his own regime.
04:20So, yes, Moscow will continue to pressure Minsk.
04:23But Belarus remains one of the weakest link in Russia's regional architecture.
04:29A democratic Belarus would remove major military footholds from Russia's western flank.
04:34This is why the Belarusian dimension must be part of any serious discussion about European security and the end of
04:42this war.
04:43The sanctions package comes after the U.S. eased some of its sanctions on Belarus.
04:48And the country joined the controversial Board of Peace introduced by President Donald Trump.
04:56Five days after a violent brawl that led to the death of Quentin, a far-right and identitarian activist,
05:0411 people have been arrested.
05:06Six are suspected of having taken part in the violence and three of having provided support,
05:13according to a source close to the case.
05:15Among those arrested is an aide to far-left France-embaude MP Raphaël Arnaud,
05:21who said he had begun terminating his contract.
05:24Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste said university meetings will be banned if they risk public disorder.
05:32Mathilde Panot, president of the France-embaude group in the National Assembly, denounced the decision.
05:38Cela veut dire que derrière, il suffira que des groupuscules d'extrême-droite qui vont à chacune de nos manifestations,
05:45à chacun de nos meetings, à chacune de nos conférences, mettent la pression pour qu'ensuite l'ensemble de nos
05:51événements soient annulés.
05:52Et je rappelle là aussi que c'est au gouvernement de prendre des mesures pour assurer des conditions démocratiques du
05:59débat politique.
06:01In Parliament, Sébastien Lecornu said he wouldn't prejudge the investigation,
06:06but urged France-embaude to clean up its ranks and reject political violence.
06:13Soit on lutte et on refuse la violence, soit on ne lutte pas contre elle.
06:17Il n'y a pas de double standard. Il n'y a pas, au fond, deux poids deux mesures.
06:21Ça vaut pour tout le monde, pour toutes et chacun.
06:23The left-wing party LFE has denied any involvement in the killing, which remains under investigation.
06:30On French television, political scientist Xavier Chrétier said that in 40 years, 50 people have died during ideological violence.
06:41The Trump administration has helped Europeans stop hitting the snooze button and wake up.
06:48U.S. ambassador to the EU, Andrew Posder, told Euronews.
06:51He hailed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's call for greater alignment between the two in his speech at
06:58the Munich Security Conference
06:59as positive for the transatlantic alliance.
07:03Posder also praised European progress in aligning its approach to migration policy with the U.S.,
07:08pointing to what he thinks is one of Europe's key issues, the impact of mass migration.
07:13There's a difference between managed migration and mass migration.
07:16And I think what we've seen over the past decade is just flows of people coming in onto the continent.
07:21And the reaction has not been positive.
07:24And if you take a look at Frontex...
07:26When probed with numbers showing that migrants' arrivals in the EU have in fact declined compared with previous years,
07:33Posder argued that Rubio was, quote, talking about the impact of the past mass migration
07:38and the civilizational challenge that poses.
07:43Four departments in Western France remain on red alert for flooding until Thursday
07:49and nine others are on orange alert for rain and flooding with the arrival of Storm Pedro.
07:55After a lull on Tuesday afternoon,
07:57Météo France announced further widespread disruption in the west of the country.
08:02Already experiencing some of its worst flooding in decades after days of rain,
08:07authorities have spoken of record levels of humidity not seen since 1959 and linked it to climate change.
08:14Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Lotte-Gaon and Maine-et-Loire are the departments most affected.
08:21The floodwaters forced the evacuation of nearly 2,000 residents between Agen and Bordeaux
08:27and caused thousands of power outages, officials said.
08:31The French government said it will provide support to communities affected by the bad weather.
08:35With most of France still on flood alert, weather authorities have said Storm Pedro,
08:41arriving from Brittany, is set to impact France on Wednesday and Thursday,
08:45bringing another bout of heavy rainfall and winds.
08:53The European Central Bank has denied reports that its president, Christine Lagarde,
08:59would resign before the end of her term.
09:01Reports on Wednesday indicated Christine Lagarde could vacate her Frankfurt seat
09:05before the French elections in April 2027,
09:08month before her mandate expires in October 2027.
09:12The European Central Bank asserted that no decision has been made
09:16and that the president is focused on her mission in a response to Euronews.
09:20Lagarde would allow outgoing French President Emmanuel Macron
09:24and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to oversee the appointment of her successor,
09:28with Macron constitutionally barred from running for a third term.
09:32Fears are mounting in Brussels and Paris regarding the rise of the far-right party's national rally
09:37and the alternative for Germany.
09:39Klaasnot, the former Dutch Central Bank chief, and Pablo Hernandez de Kos,
09:43the former governor of the Bank of Spain,
09:45are the most probable successor to Christine Lagarde,
09:47according to a Financial Times poll.
09:53Nicosia International Airport.
09:55In July 1974, when the Turkish invasion began,
09:59everything came to a standstill.
10:03More than five decades later,
10:05a group of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,
10:07led by Alexis Ofocleus,
10:09united by a shared sense of duty towards Cyprus's history and cultural heritage,
10:13entered the airport senior premises in operations office,
10:16with UN permission.
10:19They became the first people to set foot there since 1974.
10:26Hundreds of pages of history were recovered,
10:29valuable documents, flight plans and archives of Cyprus airways
10:32that had remained trapped since the day of the invasion.
10:36The last Cyprus Airways aircraft to land there has remained abandoned ever since,
10:41resting where the heart of Cyprus's air connection with the world once beat.
10:49Now, 52 years later,
10:50a major bicommunal initiative led by ordinary citizens,
10:53is underway to restore the historic aircraft
10:56and transform it into a living, physical and digital museum.
11:02Alexis Ofocleus and his fellow supporters have secured backing from
11:05embassies and international cultural heritage protection organization in Cyprus.
11:10They are gathering signatures online and stand ready to operate the museum inside the aircraft,
11:15pending approval from the UN and UNFICIP.
11:19The museum aims to connect the past with the future,
11:22belong to all Cypriots and serve as a tangible symbol of peace, respect and solidarity.
11:30The vision of the initiative supporters on both sides of the buffer zone
11:33is for students, researchers and citizens from every corner of the island
11:36to once again meet on this shared ground under UNFICIP supervision and grow closer together.
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