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00:00 Georgia has work to do. That`s according to the EU`s top diplomat Joseph Bourret, who
00:05 was in Tbilisi to discuss EU integration.
00:10 The European Commission unveils plans for an EU-wide disability card, which would allow
00:14 people to prove any condition they have throughout the continent.
00:23 The EU`s doors are wide open for Georgia. That`s according to the EU`s top diplomat
00:28 Joseph Bourret, who arrived in Tbilisi on Thursday. He`s on a two-day visit to discuss
00:33 European integration.
00:35 The Balkan state applied for EU candidacy status in March 2022, but the foreign policy
00:40 chief says progress is slow.
00:44 Candidate status is not something that countries are entitled to. It needs to be earned. It
00:53 needs to be earned through serious reforms and adherence to the European Union values.
01:02 And to be frank, there is still quite a bit of work to be done.
01:10 While President Salome Zurabishvili expresses clear pro-EU views, she represents the minority.
01:16 Earlier this month, she met with EU officials and reportedly pleaded with them to give Georgia
01:20 a chance, but the move was not approved by parliament and the ruling party threatened
01:25 to impeach her.
01:27 Brussels has slammed the government`s pro-Kremlin stance and its attempt to adopt a foreign agents
01:32 law in March, which sparked mass protests in the capital.
01:37 U.S. President Joe Biden is on his way to New Delhi to participate in the G20 summit.
01:44 The leaders of nine additional countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, have
01:47 also been invited. In Chinese President Xi Jinping`s absence, Washington says Biden will
01:52 be trying to convince the world that the U.S. and its allies can offer more reliable partners
01:57 to Beijing. The White House says the Biden administration wants to increase the lending
02:01 powers of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a significant but smaller alternative
02:07 to China`s Belt and Road Initiative, facilitating more trade links.
02:14 France`s highest court for complaints against state authorities has ruled in favor of a
02:19 government ban on the Abaya Muslim dress for women in schools. The state council in Paris
02:24 on Thursday ruled that prohibiting the full length dress did not constitute a violation
02:29 of fundamental freedoms, but others argue the ban lacks clarity.
02:33 "This ban does not rely on any legal text. It is a purely political announcement from
02:40 the Ministry of Education as part of the school year. And it is a dress that has not been defined
02:48 and is considered as a dress that is not religious."
02:52 France`s education minister Gabriel Attal says the garment violates France`s strict
02:56 rules on secularism, which openly bans demonstrating religious symbols in schools. He added that
03:03 67 girls refused to change out of the dress on Monday and were sent home.
03:08 President Macron has supported the ban as protection of secularism in French schools.
03:15 U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk allegedly prevented a Ukrainian covert attack on a Russian
03:23 naval ship last year. According to writer Walter Isaacson in his new biography, Ukrainian
03:29 submarine drones strapped with explosives suddenly lost connection with Musk`s Starlink
03:34 satellite network off the coast of Crimea and washed ashore. It`s a claim that has sparked
03:39 outrage in Kiev.
03:40 On the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, President Zelensky`s advisor,
03:45 Mikhailo Podolyak, says Musk`s interference enabled the Russians to fire missiles at Ukrainian
03:50 cities. The novelist said Musk was concerned a Ukrainian attack could spark a mini Pearl
03:56 Harbor.
03:57 Kiev has been using Musk`s Starlink satellite terminals to aid its counter-offensive.
04:01 Rescue experts from around the world are working to save an American researcher who
04:09 became trapped after falling ill in a cave in southern Turkey. Experienced caver Mark
04:15 Dickey became unwell while making his descent into the Morca cave in the Taurus mountains.
04:20 Speaking in a video from the cave, he praised the cooperation between international rescue
04:25 teams.
04:26 As you can see, I`m up, I`m alert, I`m talking, but I`m not healed on the inside yet, so I
04:32 need a lot of help to get out of here. And it`s - this is often in the caving world a
04:40 great opportunity to show just how well the international world can work together.
04:47 Communication takes about five to seven hours and is carried out by runners who also transport
04:51 food and medicine to Dickey from above ground. Experts say the rescue operation could take
04:56 days or even weeks depending on conditions. Rescue teams at the site hail from Bulgaria,
05:01 Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey.
05:07 Antarctica is disappearing. And while the EU is still pushing to limit global warming
05:12 and become climate neutral by 2050, at this rate, sea ice will continue to melt slowly,
05:19 but surely for generations to come.
05:22 That was a conclusion that the Potsdam Institute for Research made in its recently published
05:27 impact of climate change report. With record temperatures across much of the world this
05:32 year, 2.7 million kilometers square of sea ice has been lost and that`s much more than
05:38 experts expected.
05:41 So that`s about the same as ten times the area of the United Kingdom. So this is a massive
05:46 negative sea ice anomaly that we haven`t really seen on this scale before within the past
05:52 period that we`ve monitored over the past 45 years.
05:56 This dramatic loss of sea ice is causing catastrophic failures in the reproduction of local wildlife.
06:03 The report says there are no visible signs of irreversible retreat yet, but we could
06:08 reach the point of no return sooner rather than later.
06:11 Now, unless we want to see a lot more of these things happening in the future, we`ve really
06:14 got to get on with decarbonizing. That won`t solve the problem. There will be adaptation
06:19 that`s absolutely needed.
06:21 The complete collapse of the Antarctic could take hundreds or thousands of years, but would
06:26 mean several meters of global sea rise for 10,000 years. A more intense warming in the
06:32 future would further accelerate this process.
06:38 Thirty years to life in prison for U.S. actor Danny Masterson after he was found guilty
06:43 of raping two women in 2003.
06:48 Both attacks took place in his Hollywood era home when he was at the height of his fame
06:53 on the Fox network sitcom "That 70s Show." Prosecutors claim that Masterson used his
06:59 prominence in the Church of Scientology, where all women were the members at the time, to
07:03 avoid consequences for decades after the attacks.
07:13 Pierre Haesling has a disability and was also one of the first people in Europe to hold
07:18 a European disability card, a document that allows him to prove all over the continent
07:23 that he`s disabled.
07:25 The card is already available in eight European countries, like Belgium, through a pilot program.
07:31 This week, the European Commission presented a proposal to extend it to all member states.
07:40 When I was in Italy, I asked assistance in a museum, and a long time ago, I could not
07:48 get assistance because I could not prove I was a - in those days, I didn`t use a wheelchair.
07:54 I was walking with a stick, but not a wheelchair. So, luckily, the person was willing to get
08:05 me an e-scooter so I could visit the museum.
08:09 The card will grant disabled people equal access to any special treatment, including
08:13 assistance, free and priority entrance to museums or preferential parking spots.
08:20 By recognizing disabilities all over the EU, it can also encourage both travel and mobility.
08:25 It will also help to reduce extra costs encountered when going abroad.
08:30 For the president of the European Disability Forum, it`s a major step forward.
08:36 When we cross borders, our disability does not disappear. And the disability card and
08:45 the parking card are proofs of the disability status. So, when you go from Belgium to Germany,
08:58 a citizen of Belgium cannot need to prove that he or she is a person with disability.
09:06 The disability card will do it for that person.
09:09 The proposal by the commission comes more than 13 years after the first request to introduce
09:13 one and will now have to be discussed by the European Parliament and Council before it
09:17 can become a reality.
09:20 But disabled Europeans will have to wait at least a few more years to be able to officially
09:24 use their cards.
09:35 High in the mountains above Lake Prespa that connects North Macedonia to Greece and Albania
09:40 is the 12th century Church of St. George. It`s considered an important part of European
09:47 cultural heritage. And that`s because its fresco paintings offer a rare and interesting
09:52 example of Byzantine art in the region.
09:57 According to some scientists, we can see the first maybe first signs of starting the pre-renaissance
10:09 period, which we can see in the expression of the representing of the saints, also in
10:19 their dresses.
10:24 The governments of North Macedonia and Greece, alongside the European Center for Byzantine
10:28 Monuments have agreed a deal to ensure the preservation of the frescoes.
10:35 And that`s the challenge facing restoration teams from both countries tasked with the
10:39 tricky upkeep of these centuries old masterpieces.
10:42 The paint, as we said, comes from mainly minerals, from stones and also from the vegetables or
10:52 even animals, some of the most rare paints. So the paint was coming in powder, in very
10:59 fine powder. And they mixed this fine powder with lime in water. They make an aqueous dispersion
11:08 of lime. The painter then would apply the paint on fresh mortar before the mortar dries.
11:19 Since North Macedonia and Greece signed the Prespa Agreement in 2017, bilateral cooperation
11:24 has gained momentum. A concrete result of that cooperation is this joint project for
11:30 the preservation of the rich cultural heritage in the region of Lake Prespa, in whose water
11:36 is the border between those two countries. In Prespa region, North Macedonia, for EURONEWS,
11:42 Borjan Jovanovski.
11:43 (whooshing)
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