Latest news bulletin | March 19th – Morning
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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/2025/03/19/latest-news-bulletin-march-19th-morning
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00To target Russian fertilizers without hurting European agriculture, this is the difficult
00:12balance sought by the European Union.
00:15At the end of last week, Member States adopted a European Commission proposal to impose customs
00:21duties on imports of certain agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, in order
00:26to reduce the Union's dependence.
00:29But the measure is worrying the agricultural sector.
00:59Russian fertilizers account for 25% of EU imports.
01:10The additional customs duty per ton of fertilizer could gradually rise from around 40 euros
01:15to around 370 over three years.
01:19For farmers, the Union's food security is at stake.
01:23The Commission assures that this reduction in imports will be offset by a strengthening
01:27of the European fertilizer industry, a view shared by the MEP in charge of the text, who
01:34believes that we need to think strategically here.
01:40My personal view is that this proposal could come or should come three years earlier already.
01:47Now almost all countries have got rid of Russian gas, but Russia has done such a thing to produce
01:55from cheap Russian gas, these fertilizers, and to sell them in the European market for
02:01a very low price.
02:03And it means if we buy these Russian fertilizers, we continue to fuel the Russian war machine.
02:10Is it acceptable?
02:11No, it's not.
02:14The European Parliament will formally take up the issue early next month.
02:19Once its position has been adopted, MEPs will have to reach an agreement with the Member
02:23States on a common position.
02:30Israelis gathered in protest outside the government headquarters in Jerusalem after the military
02:35launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip in its heaviest assault since a ceasefire
02:40took effect in January.
02:43Over 400 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured.
02:50I want wars to be fought for security reasons, for real reasons that we need.
02:55When we need to fight, we will.
02:57We did in the first five or six months of this war, but since then there's been another
03:01year and now restarting it when nothing has changed security-wise makes no sense.
03:07The only explanation one can see for the war restarting now is coalitional needs of Netanyahu.
03:12I came here because, first of all, I asked Hamas to release the hostages, and secondly,
03:19I say to Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu, you cannot achieve peace by this method of killing
03:26more babies.
03:29Israel said they carried out the deadly airstrikes after Hamas refused to release hostages held
03:34in the Gaza Strip, in an operation they warned was open-ended and expected to expand.
03:40A UN spokesperson said they were horrified by the airstrikes and called for all states
03:46with influence to do all in their power to achieve peace.
03:49I'll start off the briefing with the statement that you should...
03:53Israel's resort to yet more military force will only heap further misery upon a Palestinian
03:58population already suffering catastrophic conditions.
04:03This nightmare must end immediately.
04:06The hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.
04:10The strikes come as the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel remains in limbo.
04:15The first stage of the three-phase deal started mid-January and ended on the 1st of March.
04:21Negotiations on the second phase have not yet been hammered out.
04:29Officials ordered the evacuation of hundreds of homes near Malaga in southern Spain after
04:34heavy rains caused riverbanks to burst, unleashing flash floods.
04:39Firefighters were searching for a missing couple in Sevilla on Tuesday morning and found
04:43the body of a woman near the area where their vehicle disappeared.
04:48Andalusia's Interior Chief Antonio San said that 19 rivers in the region were on high
04:52alert for flooding.
04:55A total of 40 highways across the region as well as some rail lines had to be closed due
05:00to rising waters, and school classes were suspended in 16 municipalities.
05:06Spain, which has suffered from a prolonged drought in recent years, has received steady
05:11rainfall especially in its south for the last two weeks, and the latest storm proved too
05:16much for reservoirs and riverbanks.
05:19Scientists and government officials link these swings between extreme dry and wet spells
05:23to climate change, which has also produced increasingly hot summers in Spain.
05:33Officially or not, the issue of defence is crucial on the EU agenda.
05:39Russia's invasion of Ukraine might have caught Europe off guard, but it is the possibility
05:44of the US not committing to Article 5, which came as a harsh wake-up call.
05:58Former Polish defence minister says the idea itself sounds premature, although for Poland,
06:03the largest defence spender in Europe, there is a lot in it.
06:09The notion of the Armed Forces of Europe as just a sum of the Armed Forces of individual
06:16member states is so premature that the question would arise as to who should be the disponent
06:23of these forces.
06:26If you were to ask about such a disponent, the EU would have to remove a body which
06:33would be the European government, and NATO is too early for that.
06:39Europe has to take responsibility, which has always been a burden on it, but which has
06:46often been rejected, historically justified, but rejected by the United States.
06:53Europe, after the Russian aggression on Ukraine and now the change of Trump's policy towards
06:59Europe, has finally made the decision we have been waiting for for many decades.
07:06What Europe can benefit from is Ukraine's warfare experience and its defence tech industry.
07:12Integrating Ukraine's military-industrial sector would not only help pave the way for
07:16the country's EU membership, but also would boost Europe's defence capacity.
07:21A little earlier, Euronews talked to the soldiers of Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade,
07:26asking them what Europe can learn from Ukrainian battlefield experience.
07:30If earlier conflicts were not of this scale, now they are much bigger.
07:35We use drones, artillery, a lot of new weapons in the military.
07:41At that time, there were no such robotic troops, drones and so on.
07:48We used RPGs, tanks, that was all.
07:52So we have something to learn, and I think they will take us as instructors not only in Ukraine.
08:00On the day Italy commemorates its Covid victims, survivors of the pandemic feel blessed.
08:07Sergio is among them.
08:09Today, he is more thankful than ever to the doctors who saved his life at this hospital in Rome five years ago.
08:18It made me very emotional, you can feel it.
08:24To see Dr Magliacani again, to see the whole department,
08:29to understand that I went through this and I came back home.
08:33Others did not.
08:35He recalls the moment that changed everything for him.
08:39Triple gloves, triple mask, so they were really unrecognisable.
08:44But I was struck by this look, which was a look as if it said calm, peace, tranquility, serenity.
08:53We are here.
08:55Instead, the moment he told me, you are swollen,
08:59my eyes were closed, they were frozen.
09:04I had become a professional.
09:07I was no longer just the doctor who comforted me.
09:11There I had to decide in a moment what to do.
09:14Dr Magliacani compares the pandemic to a monster.
09:19He tells us that the most difficult part was seeing patients in pain.
09:23It was a tragic thing.
09:27We saw people die,
09:31they asked for a hand, they could not see anyone.
09:35Tragic.
09:38I saw people die tragically.
09:41Like this, alone.
09:44And that was the worst thing.
09:47But not all have shown gratitude for the work we have done.
09:52Dr Magliacani tells us, society and institutions, he says,
09:57seem to have forgotten how crucial our role was.
10:01Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews in Rome.
10:10EU government ministers debated ways Radio Free Europe could be kept afloat
10:15after the Trump administration announced sweeping cuts
10:18to the pro-democracy media outlet over the weekend.
10:22The Czech Republic, which has hosted Radio Free Europe for 25 years,
10:26is leading an EU push to keep the network alive.
10:29Sweden's EU affair minister expressed support for the initiative on Tuesday.
10:35Today we will also support a Czech initiative, which Sweden has co-signed,
10:40with the ambition of making sure that Radio Free Europe
10:43really continues to be an important voice for freedom and democracy,
10:48especially in those places where it is most needed.
10:52But EU foreign chief Kaya Kalas said finding funding may not be easy.
10:57It is sad to hear that the US is withdrawing its funding.
11:02Now the question for us is can we come in with our funding
11:06to fill the void that the US is leaving.
11:12The answer to that question is that not automatically,
11:16because we have a lot of organizations who are coming with the same request to us.
11:21But there was really a push from the foreign ministers to discuss this and find a way.
11:28Radio Free Europe began broadcasting during the Cold War,
11:31and its coverage has played an important role in countries
11:34across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.