Latest news bulletin | August 17th – Midday
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
Transcript
00:00Ukraine's army chief tells President Volodymyr Zelensky the situation is under control as
00:06the military incursion into Russia continues.
00:11Health officials report the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.
00:16The U.N. calls for a truce to roll out vaccines.
00:21The Grafen Reinfeldt nuclear power plant is demolished as Germany continues to move towards
00:27renewable energy sources.
00:35Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has been briefed by Army Chief Oleksandr Sirsky
00:40about the ongoing incursion into Russia's Kursk region.
00:44Sirsky said battles are ongoing and that Ukrainian forces continue to make territorial gains.
00:50He also said he hoped a number of Russian soldiers would be taken captive to exchange
00:55for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
00:59In his nightly address, Zelensky said the operation aimed to destroy Russia's logistics
01:03and drain their reserves.
01:06He added, the occupier is suffering losses and this is very helpful for our defense.
01:12The Ukrainian military push into Kursk has seen Kiev's forces seize several villages,
01:18take hundreds of prisoners and force the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians.
01:23It's the largest attack on Russia since World War II, but Ukrainian officials have repeatedly
01:29said that the aim of the operation isn't to occupy Russia, but to force Moscow to negotiate
01:34peace on Kiev's terms.
01:41Palestinian health officials have reported the first case of polio in Gaza in an unvaccinated
01:4610-month-old child in the city of Deir al-Bala.
01:50After discovering the child's symptoms, tests were conducted in Jordan's capital Amman and
01:55the case was confirmed to be polio.
01:58It's the first case of the disease in at least 25 years in the coastal enclave, which has
02:03seen health and sanitation facilities devastated by the Israel-Hamas war.
02:10On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for seven-day pauses in fighting to
02:16allow agencies to roll out a vaccination campaign across the Strip.
02:21Two rounds of polio vaccinations are expected to be launched at the end of August and September
02:26across Gaza in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.
02:31Over 1.6 million vaccine doses will be delivered to Gaza and vaccinations will be administered
02:36by 708 teams across the Strip.
02:44Germany's decommissioned nuclear power plant at Grafen Reinfeldt has been demolished after
02:49a short delay.
02:50The demolition of the plant's two cooling towers was pushed back by almost two hours
02:55after a pro-atomic energy activist scaled a pylon and protested its destruction.
03:01Grafen Reinfeldt began commercial operations in 1982 and was Germany's oldest nuclear power
03:07plant.
03:08But as part of the government's policy to transition away from nuclear power, it was
03:12closed in 2015.
03:14Under its Energiewende strategy, Germany is aiming to have around 80 percent of its electricity
03:20supplied from renewable sources by 2050.
03:23In the time that Grafen Reinfeldt was operational, it provided over 11 percent of Bavaria's energy,
03:29according to the German utility company E.ON.
03:33The 55,000 tons of concrete rubble produced by the demolition will be used to fill the
03:37two collecting basins below the towers.
03:46A large fire has broken out in a car park in the southern city of Loris where dozens
03:51of vehicles are said to be parked.
03:53The fire started in an industrial area which has no homes but is next to several warehouses.
04:00The car park is believed to be used by a car rental company and the cause of the fire is
04:05unknown.
04:07The Portuguese National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority said 56 firefighters
04:12and 21 vehicles are on site trying to put out the blaze.
04:21SpaceX has launched an epic rideshare mission carrying 116 payloads from nine different
04:27companies.
04:28A Falcon 9 rocket took off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday morning.
04:36SpaceX is expected to confirm the deployment of the payloads later.
04:40The Transporter 11 launches SpaceX's 80th this year and more than 70 percent of the
04:46satellites on board will be deployed to the Starlink communications network.