Latest news bulletin | February 20th – Midday
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Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/02/20/latest-news-bulletin-february-20th-midday
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00Donald Trump plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on auto imports as well as semiconductors
00:06and pharmaceuticals.
00:10Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday as a part of the peace
00:14negotiations.
00:15The militant group claims they were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
00:21German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and opposition leader Friedrich Merz faced off in a final
00:25debate on Wednesday ahead of elections next Sunday.
00:30U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he plans to impose 25 percent tariffs
00:37on auto imports as well as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
00:41It comes after he already announced the same rate on steel and aluminum imports.
00:47Trump has long railed against what he calls the unfair treatment of U.S. automotive exports
00:52in foreign markets.
00:55The European Union collects a 10 percent duty on vehicle imports, four times the U.S. passenger
01:01car tariff rate of 2.5 percent.
01:03You know, the EU has been very unfair to us.
01:06We have a deficit of $350 billion.
01:08They don't take our cars.
01:10They don't take our farm products.
01:12They don't take almost anything.
01:14They take very little.
01:16And we're going to have to straighten that out.
01:17And we will.
01:18I have no doubt about it.
01:19Trump claims the playing field is tilted against American companies as other countries usually
01:25tax American exports at a higher rate than America taxes theirs.
01:29But many economists that criticize the move argue that the additional tax on importers
01:35usually gets passed on to consumers.
01:43Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including a mother and
01:47her two children, who have long been feared dead.
01:51Hamas claimed they were killed in Israeli airstrikes early in the war.
01:57Hundreds of people, mostly masked Hamas fighters, gather at the handover site on the outskirts
02:01of the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunus.
02:07Israelis have celebrated the return of 24 living hostages in recent weeks under a fragile
02:11ceasefire that paused over 15 months of war.
02:17The handover on Thursday will provide a grim reminder of those who died in captivity as
02:22the talks leading up to the truce dragged on for over a year.
02:28On the other hand, it could also provide impetus for negotiations on the second stage of the
02:33ceasefire that have hardly begun.
02:37The first phase of the negotiations is set to end at the beginning of March.
02:50German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and opposition leader Friedrich Merz faced off in a final
02:55debate on Wednesday ahead of elections next Sunday.
03:00During the debate, the candidates touched on migration, the economy and security.
03:07While pre-election polls have put Merz's center-right union bloc in the lead, Scholz said he believes
03:12many voters remain undecided.
03:30Merz has made migration and the economy central to his campaign.
03:41Merz's call for a more restrictive approach to migration prompted opponents, including
04:06Scholz, to accuse him of willingness to work with the far-right AfD.
04:11Merz insists his position is unchanged and that he won't work with the party.
04:15While Merz and Scholz discuss their differences, they seem to agree on a fair amount of issues
04:20as well.
04:34Emmanuel Macron's gamble is starting to pay off after organising two emergency summits
04:39in Paris this week with EU nations and NATO member states to come up with a united front
04:45to the lightning rapprochement between Moscow and the US while it looks like Europe is finally
04:50invited to the negotiating table.
04:53Just after the second emergency meeting in Paris this Wednesday, US President Donald
04:58Trump's National Security Adviser Mike Waltz announced that both Macron and British Prime
05:04Minister Keir Starmer will be invited to the White House next week.
05:08One of the main fears today is that Trump could reach an agreement with Russia that
05:13would work against the security interests of both Ukraine and the EU.
05:18But other than the general consensus that Russia is a threat, the 27 bloc is still deeply
05:24divided on how to respond to this, especially when it comes to whether or not to send peacekeeping
05:30troops to Ukraine.
05:32However, the French President announced on his ex-account, former Twitter, that decisions
05:38concerning European security will be taken in the coming days and weeks, stating that
05:43the 27 bloc is convinced of the need to increase the defence and security spending and capabilities
05:50of Europe.
05:51Sofia Katsenkova reporting from Paris for Euronews.
05:59Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his US counterpart Donald Trump is living
06:03in a Russian disinformation space.
06:07That comes after Trump claimed on Tuesday that Zelensky's approval rating among Ukrainians
06:11stands at just 4%.
06:14But the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said Zelensky's rating had risen to 57% at
06:19the beginning of February.
06:49Trump also criticized Ukraine for not holding a presidential election that was originally
07:01scheduled for March or April last year.
07:04That vote was postponed as the constitution doesn't permit elections to take place under
07:08martial law, which was declared in 2022, the day of the Russian invasion.
07:13The Kremlin has repeatedly tried to use the delay to portray Zelensky as illegitimate.
07:19Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Zelensky said he's open to discussing
07:23elections in Ukraine but is reluctant to lift martial laws that could weaken the country's
07:28defence.
07:29Also on Tuesday, Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for the Russian invasion, saying the Ukrainians
07:33should never have started it.
07:36That came in response to criticism from Zelensky and other Western leaders that Ukraine wasn't
07:40invited to participate in peace talks with Russia and Saudi Arabia.
07:50Crowds of well-wishers have gathered outside Rome's Gemelli Hospital as news of Pope Francis'
07:55pneumonia has raised concerns about the 88-year-old pontiff's health.
08:00The Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday morning that Francis slept well, got out of
08:05bed and ate breakfast earlier this morning.
08:08His respiratory infection also involves asthmatic bronchitis, which requires the use of cortisone
08:13and antibiotics.
08:15The statement said the pope, who had the upper lobe of his right lung removed as a
08:19young man, is in good spirits.
08:22He was admitted to hospital on Friday after a week-long bout of bronchitis worsened.
08:45Meanwhile, all public engagements on the Pope's agenda have been cancelled through Sunday.
08:57The Pope has thanked health workers at Rome's Gemelli Hospital.
09:02He also expressed gratitude to the public for their prayers and affections.
09:10In fact, many people have gathered here to show their support for the Pope, lighting
09:17candles, leaving flowers and cards at the stage of the late Pope John Paul II at the
09:24hospital's main entrance.
09:26Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
09:40Soon, all children in the whole country will only be taught in Estonian.
09:45In the Baltic states, many people live who have Russian as their native language, especially
09:50in Latvia and Estonia.
09:53In the Estonian capital Tallinn, almost every second child grows up with Russian.
09:57In the northeast of the country, Russian is even more widespread.
10:03I'm on my way to Narva, Estonia's third largest city, located directly at the border
10:07with Russia.
10:08Over 90% of the people speak Russian.
10:18Stalin had tens of thousands of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians deported to Siberia.
10:25In return, tens of thousands of Russians were settled in the Baltic states.
10:29Ethnic deportations and Russification went hand in hand.
10:33Russification continued even after Stalin's death.
10:36Thousands of industrial workers and soldiers settled in the big cities.
10:43The official language in the Soviet-occupied areas of the Baltic was Russian.
10:48With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia regained their state independence
10:54and Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian replaced Russian as their official language.
11:00Today, the Baltic EU states fear that Putin is trying to manipulate the Russian minorities.
11:07Moscow-controlled broadcast stations were therefore stripped of their licenses
11:11after the Russian attack on Ukraine.
11:15And Latvia and Estonia are covering all schools with their own language,
11:19Latvian and Estonian.
11:24The latest studies in Estonia show that almost half of the Russian minority is poorly integrated.
11:30This should change with the school reform.