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00:00 The EU's top diplomats has expressed concern over a coup in Gabon,
00:04 saying it's the latest development in a difficult political situation in West Africa.
00:09 A day after Yevgeny Prigozhin's funeral,
00:13 the Kremlin has admitted that what it called wrongdoing might have led to the plane crash in which he died.
00:18 Two people have been killed in an air raid on Kiev,
00:23 as both Russia and Ukraine used drones to attack targets behind the front lines.
00:28 Hurricane Adalia has struck Florida's Gulf Coast,
00:33 with winds expected to reach speeds of up to 200 km/h.
00:37 There have been scenes of celebration on the streets of Gabon
00:46 after the army announced it had overthrown President Ali Bongo on Dimba.
00:50 A group of officers appeared on state TV early on Wednesday,
00:54 saying they'd seized power and that they intended to dissolve all institutions of the republic.
01:00 The fate of Bongo, who has ruled Gabon since taking over from his father in 2009, remains unclear.
01:09 There are reports that he's under house arrest and that one of his sons has also been detained.
01:14 At a meeting of EU defence ministers,
01:16 the bloc's top diplomat said Europe was increasingly concerned by political turmoil in the region.
01:22 The whole area, starting with Central African Republic,
01:27 then Mali, then Burkina Faso, now Niger, maybe Gabon,
01:34 it's in a very difficult situation.
01:37 And certainly the ministers, today defence ministers and tomorrow foreign affairs ministers,
01:42 have to have a deep thought on what is going on there.
01:47 The coup erupted shortly after the result of the weekend's presidential election,
01:52 which returned Bongo to power, was announced on Wednesday morning.
01:56 But the country remains gripped by uncertainty.
01:59 A similar revolt in 2019 failed within days.
02:03 A day after Yevgeny Prigozhin's private funeral,
02:10 the Kremlin has said the plane crash in which the mercenary chief died may have been foul play.
02:16 A trickle of mourners continue to lay wreaths at his graveside in St Petersburg
02:21 as the investigation into the crash, which killed 10 people, including other Wagner leaders, gathered pace.
02:27 Among the theories being put forward, a criminal act.
02:30 There are different theories, among which there is a theory,
02:35 you know what I'm talking about, let's say, of a criminal act, and so on.
02:45 So let's wait for the results of the investigation, our Russian investigation,
02:51 which was conducted by the investigation committee.
02:53 Many in the West believe Vladimir Putin was behind the incident
02:58 and is seeking revenge for Prigozhin's short-lived uprising against Kremlin authorities in June.
03:03 Putin's aides have dismissed the suggestion.
03:06 The warlord was once a close ally of Putin,
03:08 but he came to represent the greatest threat to the president's rule
03:11 with his relentless attacks on Moscow's military leadership over their handling of the Ukraine invasion.
03:23 At least two people have died in Kiev in what Ukrainian authorities say
03:27 was the biggest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital since the spring.
03:31 They were reported killed by falling debris from a drone shot down over the Shevchenkivsky district.
03:37 A number of others were injured in the incident.
03:40 It's not clear how many missiles targeted the city,
03:44 but regional military commanders said air defences downed more than 20.
03:49 (Explosion)
03:52 There were also reports of drone attacks on the southern port of Odessa.
03:57 In Russia, drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region
04:03 as part of what authorities claim was the biggest air assault by Ukraine on Russia since the war began.
04:09 Drones were also reportedly shot down over five other areas across the country, including the Moscow region.
04:15 There were no reports of casualties.
04:18 Hurricane Idalia has struck its first blow in Florida,
04:26 making landfall on Wednesday near Keaton Beach on the west coast of the state.
04:30 The US National Hurricane Center says it expects the storm to bring wind speeds of up to 205 km,
04:36 that's just over 125 miles an hour.
04:38 The governor of Florida has appealed to people not to take unnecessary risks.
04:42 Do not go outside in the midst of this storm.
04:45 If it's calm where you are, it may be because you are in the eye of the storm
04:51 and those conditions will change very, very quickly.
04:54 So wherever you are, hunker down and don't take anything for granted here.
05:00 This is a very, very powerful storm.
05:02 Everything points towards Idalia weakening.
05:06 A couple of hours before making landfall, it was a Category 4 hurricane
05:09 with wind speeds of up to 225 km per hour.
05:13 The US National Hurricane Center expects it to continue advancing through southern Georgia or southern Carolina.
05:20 Protesters against enlarging London's ultra-low emission zone, known as ULEZ,
05:29 gathered in the UK's capital to oppose the move as it came into effect this week.
05:38 Despite the opposition, much of it on grounds of cost,
05:41 London's Mayor Sadiq Khan is pressing ahead with the politically charged extension of the toll across Greater London.
05:47 You've got people here today, they've got elderly parents, they are carers,
05:54 they have got children that they need to get to school, they just need to get to work.
05:59 They are going to be affected by this tax. It's unfair.
06:03 We have clean enough air in Greater London as it is, it is quite clean.
06:09 There is no case for expanding ULEZ to the outer London.
06:14 ULEZ is already in operation in central London,
06:18 but now the expansion to the suburbs means it becomes the largest pollution charging scheme in the world.
06:23 Mayor Khan says it's not about raising revenues.
06:26 Look at those with illnesses in London linked with air pollution.
06:31 More than two thirds live in, guess where? Outer London.
06:34 They've not seen the benefits of ULEZ. After today, they will.
06:38 The contentious move has its political implications.
06:42 ULEZ has been blamed for costing Khan's main opposition Labour Party victory in a by-election last month.
06:48 Labour's opponents see it as a weapon against a socialist surge in opinion polls.
06:58 Stigemann's love of trains started young when he worked at this model train store in Berlin.
07:04 Now, as a railway engineer, he's choosing trains to go across the continent.
07:10 An airliner seat just isn't as comfortable and you don't have the leg room.
07:15 You've got that on a first class train, certainly.
07:18 I like the landscapes. It's just more relaxed.
07:22 He's not the only one that feels that way.
07:26 A German NGO promoting train travel says there was a big uptick in demand in recent years
07:32 as night trains were being fully booked well ahead of schedule.
07:36 National rail operators and companies are adding new routes this year and next
07:42 with more direct trips connecting Germany to cities across Europe.
07:46 Germany's Deutsche Bahn says there were record sales for long distance transport this year.
07:51 This is where one of the more highly anticipated new routes will be, Paris to Berlin.
07:56 But that doesn't mean everyone's going to be jumping on board.
07:59 A study by Greenpeace compared prices between train and plane tickets for certain routes.
08:04 It found that flying was cheaper more than 50 percent of the time.
08:09 The EU is aiming to double high speed rail by 2030.
08:14 This train travel analyst says passenger numbers can massively increase.
08:18 But that's being hampered by airlines getting tax breaks.
08:22 You should subsidize the mode of transit that you want more of,
08:27 not the one that you actually want to reduce.
08:30 This is no level playing field where the different modes of transit can really compete against each other.
08:37 And this is the reason why air travel is so cheap at the moment.
08:41 Price is an obstacle even for Eric, despite his preference for trains.
08:48 It's just so energy efficient compared to flying and it's also of course motivation.
08:54 Then again, it's so expensive that I cannot omit flying completely, unfortunately.
09:01 They call her Amarena and for a few minutes she held center stage
09:10 in the village of San Sebastiano di Marsi in central Italy.
09:14 A Maseken bear, a non-aggressive subspecies of the European brown bear,
09:19 walked through the streets with her two cubs under the astonished gaze of the villagers.
09:24 It's not the first time she's done it.
09:26 The residents call her Amarena because of her predilection for that particular local variety of cherry.
09:33 It's increasingly multinational and more crowded every year.
09:43 La Tomatina, the festive tomato war that's put the Valencian town of Buñol on the map.
09:48 This year it's brought together more than 20,000 participants from all over the world.
09:53 Ammunition is in abundance in the form of 150,000 kilos of very ripe pear tomatoes.
10:00 The tradition began by chance after a dispute between young people during a party in 1945.
10:06 Over the years it's become an international event that people have copied in other parts of the world.
10:12 The lights are up and the red carpet laid for this year's Venice Film Festival.
10:16 But even though many Hollywood stars are opting to stay away for fear of breaching the Screen Actors Guild strike,
10:22 it's still set to be a cinema showcase.
10:24 For more, here's Euro News culture journalist David Moriquand.
10:28 The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival kicks off this week with an impressive lineup of films,
10:32 both European and American.
10:35 Despite the ongoing strikes in the U.S.,
10:37 several actors will be present on the Lido in the end this year,
10:41 including Adam Driver and Jessica Chastain,
10:44 who have both been given special dispensation by the unions in order to promote their films.
10:49 This is specifically important for Venice as it is not only the first festival of the four season,
10:54 but also a festival that has garnered the reputation for premiering major Oscar-winning films.
10:59 Early buzz this year suggests that Bradley Cooper's "My Strife"
11:03 Michael Mann's "Ferrari" biopic and Priscilla Presley biopic helmed by Sophia Coppola are ones to look out for.
11:10 Another eagerly awaited title is Ava DuVernay's "Origin,"
11:14 which explores the entrenched racism in the U.S.
11:17 It is also a historical inclusion as Ava DuVernay becomes the first African-American female director to premiere in competition.
11:24 From Venice, David Moriquand, Euro News.
11:28 .
11:29 From Venice, David Morricone, Euronews.
11:31 (whooshing)