Latest news bulletin | August 31st – Evening
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Experts say the war in Ukraine is reaching a pivotal point as Russia sends in reinforcements
00:05 to try to prevent a breach of its defensive lines.
00:10 As the coup leaders in Gabon name a new interim leader, the ousted president of the West African
00:15 nation appears in a video and asks the world for help.
00:21 Five railway workers in Italy are killed after being hit by a train travelling at over 150
00:26 kilometres an hour.
00:33 The battle on Ukraine's eastern front is reaching a pivotal point in the war with Russia.
00:41 Experts say Robotny in the south and Kupyansk and Donetsk remain focal points of dueling
00:45 offensives.
00:48 Ukraine's troops are coming under constant drone fire but the mission remains to cleave
00:52 out a land bridge between Russia and Crimea and cut off Moscow's forces in the occupied
00:57 areas to the south.
01:00 The Russian command realises the dangers of a breakthrough.
01:03 Large reserves of the Russian armed forces have begun to arrive in the Robotny area.
01:08 But neither army can function without ammunition and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu
01:13 has told workers at a military plant in the Tula region to set up non-stop round-the-clock
01:19 production.
01:22 Shoigu has also recently travelled to North Korea to try to convince Pyongyang to sell
01:27 artillery ammunition to Russia.
01:32 Any arms deal between the DPRK and Russia would directly violate a number of UN Security
01:36 Council resolutions.
01:38 We're continuing to monitor this situation closely and we urge the DPRK to cease its
01:44 arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has
01:48 made to not provide or sell arms to Russia.
01:53 Meanwhile Russian officials vowed that Tuesday night's drone attack on Pskov airport would
01:58 not go unpunished.
02:01 Gabon's co-organisers have announced a new leader of the West African country.
02:08 Here's General Bryce Olegui Nguema and one of the first things he did was order the reconnection
02:13 of international radio and television channels.
02:16 Officially named the transitional president, Nguema has not appeared in public in the three
02:21 communiques made so far by the junta.
02:25 But one person who has appeared is the deposed president Ali Bongo, who is under house arrest
02:30 and has been accused of high treason against state institutions.
02:35 In a video released by an anonymous source, the president asks his friends around the
02:39 world to speak out against the coup plotters.
02:43 Meanwhile in the streets there are signs of euphoria, but not in the way that Ali Bongo
02:47 would appreciate.
02:49 Thousands of people are demonstrating their support for the coup that has put an end to
02:53 his family's ruling dynasty, at least for now.
02:56 They've been in power since 1967.
03:11 An investigation is underway after five railway workers were killed by a speeding train in
03:16 northern Italy.
03:17 They were working on replacing parts of the track at the Brandizzo station near Turin
03:21 when the locomotive slammed into them.
03:25 Two other members of the team were injured.
03:27 The train was moving empty carriages on the line between Milan and Turin.
03:33 It was reported to have been travelling at 160km/h and officials said the investigation
03:38 would focus on why it was rolling so fast.
03:46 A judge has ruled that former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent
03:51 to stand trial.
03:53 The charges, accusing the 93-year-old of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in Massachusetts,
03:58 have been dismissed.
04:00 A psychologist testified that McCarrick was unfit to participate with his lawyers in his
04:04 own defence.
04:07 The once powerful American prelate had faced charges that he abused the teenage boy at
04:11 a wedding reception in 1974.
04:14 McCarrick has always maintained his innocence.
04:21 Chile's President Gabriel Boric has launched an initiative to search for people who disappeared
04:26 during the Pinochet dictatorship.
04:28 It comes in the same week that the country's Supreme Court awarded posthumous degrees to
04:32 eight dictatorship victims.
04:35 From 1973 to 1990, during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet, it's believed some 3,200
04:42 leftist activists and other suspected opponents were killed by the regime.
04:47 Pinochet died in 2006 without ever being convicted of the crimes.
04:57 Tropical storm Italia heads for Georgia and the Carolinas after leaving a trail of destruction
05:02 in Florida.
05:06 Arriving in the Sunshine State Wednesday morning, winds of an estimated 200 km/h triggered a
05:12 catastrophic storm surge.
05:17 All states hit by the storm have had to declare a state of emergency.
05:24 Most coastal areas heeded the warning to evacuate, but some further inland thought they could
05:29 brazen it after pure luck in previous hurricanes.
05:34 "I hear literally my fan go off and I said, 'Okay, the power went out.
05:40 That could be the worst case scenario.'
05:41 And then I open my door and I see a river outside."
05:46 The focus now is to clear debris and restore power to the hundreds of thousands of homes
05:51 that have been cut off from the electricity grid.
05:55 Anyone thinking of profiting from the situation has been warned with signs emblazoned with
05:59 "You loot, we shoot."
06:03 Meteorologists meanwhile say a rare blue supermoon could further raise tides above normal levels,
06:08 on top of Italia's destructive impact.
06:17 Top US Republican Mitch McConnell has suffered another health scare before the cameras, his
06:21 second in recent weeks.
06:24 The senator appeared motionless and unable to speak while taking questions after an event
06:28 in Kentucky.
06:29 He froze and fell silent for about 30 seconds.
06:33 The 81-year-old's aides came to his assistance and helped him to hurriedly finish the press
06:38 conference.
06:39 McConnell was struck by a similar malaise in July while talking to the media.
06:43 President Joe Biden, who's a year younger, has expressed his concern.
06:50 Trump said in the 2016 campaign, "I could shoot a man in the middle of Fifth Avenue
06:54 in New York and people would still vote for me.
06:56 And there are some Americans who will do that."
06:59 He was a media whirlwind in 2016.
07:02 And in 2023, Donald Trump is back in the media spotlight with his criminal trials and his
07:07 hopes of winning the 2024 presidential election again.
07:11 The former president insists on his innocence and accuses the media of a witch hunt against
07:16 him.
07:17 His narrative resonates with his supporters who are increasingly committed to his cause.
07:21 A conviction or even just the indictments probably hurts him more than helps him.
07:27 However, in the primary process, in the nomination process, it's clearly helping him.
07:32 It's taking attention away from the other candidates.
07:34 But the bigger issue with simply saying Trump is leading in the polls is that the media
07:39 is buying into a self, basically a reinforcing narrative.
07:45 What happens here is, is the media give all the attention to Trump.
07:48 If the media actually made this a level playing field in terms of covering candidates and
07:53 issues rather than treating this as a circus with Donald Trump as the ringmaster, then
07:59 you might get a true democratic process rather than one where the media effectively is an
08:04 accomplice to what is an attempt by Trump to anoint himself as the Republican nominee.
08:12 Despite Trump's shadow continuously looming over the Republican candidates and overshadowing
08:16 their electoral platforms, there's a broad understanding that the former president's
08:21 figure remains crucial for winning the party primaries.
08:26 There's an immediate answer regarding the Republican candidates in their debate on Wednesday
08:30 night in Wisconsin and why six of the eight said, look, even if he's convicted, I support
08:37 him becoming president.
08:38 And that is, is that the political calculations for almost all the candidates is if you say
08:43 that Trump shouldn't take office, you lose any chance of getting voters who are Trumpists.
08:49 And to be honest with you, that has been the phenomenon for the Republican Party since
08:53 Trump became president in 2016.
08:55 Outside the Republican ranks, the national mood might be pointing in a different direction.
09:00 A significant percentage of American citizens say it's time to turn the page, even for Joe
09:05 Biden.
09:06 Twenty five percent of American voters do not want a repeat of Trump v. Biden.
09:11 You know, 66 percent of Republicans don't want him to run again.
09:16 And a similar number of Democrats don't want Biden.
09:19 So I think a lot of Republicans will say it's time to move on.
09:26 A blue supermoon is currently lighting up night skies, providing a celestial treat for
09:32 stargazers.
09:35 To be clear, disappointingly, the moon isn't actually blue.
09:39 Rather, the sighting of this type of moon at this time only happens once in a blue moon.
09:47 A supermoon means that the moon is reaching the point of its orbit at which it's closest
09:51 to the Earth.
09:52 That's why it looks its largest and seems to shine its brightest.
09:58 A blue moon refers to the phenomenon that finds two supermoons taking place in one calendar
10:03 month.
10:06 It only comes about due to a special juggling of the dates in the year that results in 13
10:11 moons in a year instead of the typical 12.
10:16 The last time a blue supermoon was seen was back in 2009.
10:20 NASA says the next one won't happen until 2037.
10:31 Venice rolls out the red carpet and fills with glamour at the opening of its famous
10:35 film festival.
10:37 An edition with more Italian and European flavour than ever.
10:41 And it's for a matter of principle.
10:43 Hollywood actors have been on strike since mid-July.
10:46 The president of the jury, American director Damien Chazelle, has expressed his support
10:51 for the walkout and for cinema as art, not as content to feed a channel.
10:55 David Morricone does more from the Serenissimo.
10:59 The 80th edition of the Venice film festival kicked off with the Italian World War II film
11:03 Comandante, which replaced Luca Guadagnino's Challengers due to the ongoing writers and
11:08 actors' strikes in the US.
11:11 It's a strong sub as the film finds humanity in the darkest of places as World War II submariners
11:16 disobey their orders and save some of their enemies.
11:21 But the main talking point on the Lido at the moment is still the inclusion in the line-up
11:25 of three controversial directors, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.
11:31 It remains to be seen how these films are received, but they will premiere in the coming
11:35 days.
11:36 From Venice, David Morricone, Euronews.
11:39 (whooshing)