Latest news bulletin | August 30th – Evening
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00:00U.S. Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris defends her policy stances and vows
00:06to revive a bipartisan deal.
00:12The EU's foreign policy chief proposes sanctions on Israeli ministers over their remarks on
00:17the war in Gaza.
00:22Emmanuel Macron signs a deal with Aleksandr Vucic to sell Serbia 12 Rafale fighter jets.
00:31Glass needles fall across the Reykjanes Peninsula as a volcano in southwest Iceland continues
00:37to erupt.
00:41Portuguese police have seized more than 6.5 tons of cocaine destined for Europe.
00:53U.S. Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris has given her first televised interview
01:00since her nomination.
01:02She addressed issues on immigration and the economy, subjects she had previously faced
01:07criticism for and has been accused of shifting her stance on.
01:12On the border, she says she will try and revive a bipartisan deal.
01:16Through bipartisan work including some of the most conservative members of the United
01:20States Congress, a bill was crafted which we supported, which I support.
01:27And Donald Trump got word of this bill that would have contributed to securing our border
01:33and because he believes that it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks
01:41in Congress, don't put it forward, he killed the bill.
01:44As Democrats scramble to appeal to the American middle class, Harris says she wants to implement
01:51what she calls an opportunity economy plan.
01:55Which include what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're
01:59going to do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families.
02:05There's the work that we're going to do that is about investing in the American family
02:10around affordable housing, a big issue in our country right now.
02:13Harris faced criticism from Republicans for not holding an in-depth interview sooner.
02:19In it, she aimed for a general consensus, seemingly changing her mind on key issues
02:24such as immigration and climate change.
02:31The EU's foreign policy chief has said the bloc should consider sanctions on some Israeli
02:35government ministers over their remarks about the war in Gaza.
02:40Josep Borrell said some members of the Israeli cabinet who he didn't name had released hateful
02:45messages and proposed things which clearly go against international law.
02:50And I think the European Union has not to have taboos in order to use our toolbox in
02:58order to make humanitarian law respected. But it's not my decision. I only have the
03:04capacity of proposing. Member states will decide.
03:10But the 27 EU member countries are divided over their approach to the war in Gaza and
03:15it's unlikely that all would agree to the proposal. There's already been pushback to
03:20the suggestion from Italy's foreign minister who called it unrealistic.
03:40Those comments come on the same day the World Health Organization announced that Israel
03:53had agreed to limited pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow a polio vaccination campaign
03:58to go ahead. Described as humanitarian pauses that will last three days in different areas
04:04of the territory, the vaccination program will start on Sunday and will be run together
04:09with UNICEF, UNWR and local partners.
04:12I'm not going to say this is the ideal way forward, but this is a workable way forward.
04:18Not doing anything would be really bad. We have to stop this transmission in Gaza and
04:24we have to avoid the transmission outside Gaza.
04:31The WHO says it aims to vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10 and that the
04:36campaign had been coordinated with Israeli authorities.
04:45French President Emmanuel Macron has signed a deal with President Alexander Vucic to sell
04:50Serbia 12 Rafale fighter jets. The announcement was made during a news conference in Belgrade
04:56during Macron's visit to strengthen Serbia's ties with the European Union. Macron called
05:02the deal historic and important.
05:23Serbia needs to upgrade its fleet and Vucic said the Rafale deal was huge news.
05:33Russia has been the traditional supplier of military aircraft to Serbia, which has refused
05:48to join international sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Macron warned
05:53that after the Russian invasion, Serbia's balancing game between world powers was an
05:58illusion. He said Serbia will only be able to protect its interests and preserve its
06:03identity as part of the EU.
06:28But selling Rafales to Russian ally Serbia, which has occasionally expressed an aggressive
06:36stance towards its Balkan neighbors, has raised some concerns. One of those is how France
06:42plans to prevent sophisticated Rafale technology from being shared with Russia.
06:50The European Union says it won't recognize Nicolás Maduro's government in Venezuela
06:55one month after disputed elections were held. Venezuelans refused to give the EU the official
07:01voting records, which it says it needs to see to authenticate the results. There's strong
07:06evidence to suggest that opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a margin of nearly
07:11two to one. On Wednesday, Maduro's opponents once again protested in Venezuela's capital
07:17Caracas, a month after the president was declared the winner.
07:26In a brutal crackdown, more than 2,000 journalists, politicians and students have been arrested
07:33since the election was held. González, who the United States says was the real winner
07:56of the election, addressed an EU foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday. The EU hasn't said who
08:03they think won, but it's considering sanctioning more members of both the government and Venezuela's
08:08National Assembly. That's not likely to be enough, argues one of the opposition's advisers.
08:14The link between Maduro's government and the top ranks of the army must be broken if it's
08:20to be encouraged to democratize, Nelson Dordelli Rosales says. And aid must also be linked
08:26to democratization.
08:29Another action that could be some type of incentive is to create a package, an aid package,
08:36linked to the democratic transition of Venezuela. So once the Venezuelan transition is in place
08:42or is heading to that direction, this package, this financial package will be available for
08:48the reconstruction of the democratic system in Venezuela. Those are incentives that could
08:53be provided in order to break this situation where you have de facto authority relying
09:02on the military for support.
09:05And Rosales has also suggested the creation of an EU special envoy, as has been done for
09:11other turbulent regions of the world.
09:19More than 6.5 tonnes of cocaine destined to be sold in Europe has been seized by Portuguese
09:28police. Three Portuguese men have been arrested and it's suspected they are part of a transnational
09:36criminal organization.
09:38This drug has no destination. After all, our country has destinations in other countries
09:45of the European continent. And according to our data, also naturally, taking into account
09:52the quantity and the circumstantialism that surrounded these transports of drugs to the
09:57national territory, we are naturally talking about the responsibility for these importations
10:02is that of a criminal network, of a transnational criminal group with links to various countries
10:09that has capacity.
10:11Operation Tartarus took place over two months, during which property searches were carried
10:16out and various items and documentation, including several high-end cars, were seized.
10:26Sharp glass needles that are created in volcanic eruptions have started falling on communities
10:32across the Reykjanes Peninsula as a volcano in southwest Iceland continues to erupt.
10:38The Icelandic Meteorological Agency said jets from the latest eruption have been particularly
10:44high and that's spread the so-called witch's hair over a wide area.
10:48The Iceland Review travel website says as it's essentially fiberglass, witch's hair
10:53shouldn't be touched with bare hands.
10:56The eruption, which began on August 22 following a series of earthquakes, continues to pull
11:02in international visitors to Iceland.
11:05This is the sixth time the volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula has erupted since December.
11:11Authorities say the eruption's effects remain localized with road closures but don't threaten
11:16the population.
11:18Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption
11:23every four to five years.
11:26The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption, which sent clouds of ash into
11:31the atmosphere and disrupted air travel for months.