00:01FIFA President Gianni Infantino's plans to create a 17.5 billion euros company to run the World Cup with private
00:10investors has sparked fierce opposition from football's governing bodies.
00:15UEFA was among the first organisations to condemn the proposal.
00:19European football's governing body made clear that football is not for sale, warning against turning the sport into a commercial
00:26asset.
00:26UEFA will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss its response, according to French sports minister Marina Ferrari.
00:35La Liga President Javier Tebas lashed out at Infantino, accusing him of mixing politics, discipline, money and power without transparency.
00:44England's Football Association said it had not been informed of FIFA's proposal before it emerged publicly and raised concerns about
00:53the way it had been handled.
00:54The German Football Association has joined UEFA in criticising FIFA President's reported plan to sell a 20-30% stake
01:03in the World Cup to private investors.
01:05Philippe Diallo, President of the French Football Federation, also criticised the complete lack of communication surrounding the proposal.
01:19Wildfires continue to ravage swaths of France and Spain, leaving ground crews battling to contain the blazes as summer heat
01:26intensifies and dries out vegetation.
01:31Operating around the clock, Brussels officials pull emergency assets from across 27 EU member states and 10 partner nations to
01:39reallocate limited resources.
01:42Following France's request for assistance last week, aircraft from Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal and Turkey deployed to the southwest, with Serbia
01:51offering additional helicopters.
01:55The EU has steadily expanded its aerial fleet and stationed 25 weather and fire specialists in Brussels to assess fire,
02:02spread and identify emerging risks.
02:04The team is monitoring the situation, monitoring the risk in France, how it will develop.
02:09And it's in continuous contact with the French authorities to see whether they would need additional support, whether they would
02:15need additional planes.
02:16And if that would be the case, they would put this information in the system to all member states and
02:21participating states to try to get these additional resources.
02:24While officials confirmed all current aid requests have been met, upcoming heat waves risk triggering fresh blazes across the continent,
02:32keeping emergency teams on high alert.
02:40Thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate from the region of Madrid returned home on Wednesday, as the wildfires
02:46have been stabilized.
02:48Regional authorities said weather conditions improved overnight, which helped firefighting teams reduce the intensity of the fires.
02:55Also in Valencia, the regional government lifted similar measures on Tuesday, however, firefighting crews were still tackling the blazes, which
03:03were fueled by high temperatures and strong winds.
03:23And in France, officials in the Gironde region also reported a second calm night, adding that a major fire near
03:31Bordeaux is stable.
03:32However, authorities and firefighting crews stay on alert as the country is faced with yet another heat wave, the fourth
03:39one so far this year.
03:41Both the Gironde and Lende regions are under an orange level warning, with temperatures expected to reach 41 degrees Celsius
03:48inland and 38 degrees Celsius on the coast.
03:52The wildfires that swept across Spain and France, which were fueled by extreme heat, are among the largest the two
03:59countries have experienced in recent history.
04:02Scientists and climate experts have warned that human-induced climate change is making heat waves more frequent and intense, and
04:09increasingly likely to occur earlier and later in the year.
04:18Russia has issued an international warning notice for Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov over accusations of complicity in terrorism.
04:27Moscow accuses Russian born Durov of failing to remove channels, chats and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies and quote
04:36extremist organizations that it says contributed to attacks killing civilians.
04:42Russia's investigative committee said it was separately examining criminal cases involving the recruitment of teenagers into alleged terrorism and sabotage
04:53to a chatbot.
04:54The Kremlin frequently targets its political enemies on charges of supporting terrorism or extremism.
05:02Durov, who has lived outside Russia for years and holds French and UAE passports, described the case as politically motivated.
05:09The 41-year-old lives in France, where he has also faced legal issues over allegations over the spread of
05:17illegal content on Telegram.
05:28In a visit to the divided island of Cyprus, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced his intention to convene fresh
05:35talks on resolving the decades-long division of Cyprus.
05:38Guterres did not set a specific date for the talks and said that sufficient preparation must take place beforehand.
05:45The announcement came after an extra-lateral meeting between the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Khristov-Livis, and
05:53the Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erkirman.
05:55Under the 5 plus 1 format, the two Cypriot sides would be joined by current powers, Greece, Turquie and the
06:02United Kingdom, as well as the United Nations.
06:05Based on our discussions on the way forward, I decided that I would convene another 5 plus 1 meeting after
06:15adequate preparations on confidence-building, methodology and substance, taking into account the convergencies already achieved.
06:25The Secretary General said there is a consensus among the two sides and the guarant of powers regarding the new
06:32meeting.
06:33He also clarified that there is no meeting scheduled on the Cyprus issue during the high-level week of the
06:39UN General Assembly in September.
06:42I don't want to have more 5 plus 1 meetings without results.
06:47I want a successful 5 plus 1 meeting in order to pave the way for a solution to be achieved.
06:54The substantive talks on the Cyprus issue remained at a standstill following the collapse of the process in Kran-Montana,
07:01Switzerland, in 2017.
07:03Nikos Khristov-Livis welcomed Guterres' commitment and emphasized that the new effort must build on the negotiating achievements,
07:11the points of convergence and everything that had been agreed upon up to Kran-Montana.
07:16We have this reassurance in relation to the constitutional agreement of the negotiations.
07:22We don't start from 0.
07:24The constitutional agreement is worth the constitutional agreement.
07:28It is very important.
07:30And this, if you want, is a positive opposition that exists,
07:35something that doesn't exist in the previous one,
07:37in relation to the role that is able to defend the European Union.
07:41President Khristov-Livis said preparation would begin immediately with Guterres' personal envoy Maria Angela Olgin and the European Union.
07:49He announced that he will meet on Friday in Nikosia with the European Union Special Envoy for Cyprus, Rafaela Fito.
07:56On his part, Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erkerman, described Guterres' visit as positive.
08:02He welcomed the emphasis on confidence-building measures and a new methodology.
08:08He said he was now more hopeful, arguing that any renewed process must focus on achieving results rather than holding
08:16talks for their own sake.
08:19The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage
08:24and worked with Saudi Arabia's forces to strike Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
08:28In its announcement, the U.S. said that militias had launched a barrage of drone attacks in recent days and
08:34warned Iran to halt its attacks.
08:37Riyadh confirmed intercepting multiple drones while Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an investigation after a similar attack took
08:44place on Monday.
08:46The strikes on Iraq killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups, the
08:52alliance said,
08:53as they have denied any role in drone attacks, calling the Saudi claims fabrications.
08:57Tensions expanded across key maritime routes as Houthi militants claimed responsibility for targeting a Saudi oil tanker and blockading the
09:06Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
09:07This risks further disruption beyond the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of global oil flows.
09:13The escalation coincides with growing political and financial pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump as military costs continue to
09:21rise in Washington.
09:26The Bait Beirut Museum's Tell Me South exhibition is taking many visitors in Lebanon down memory lane,
09:34evoking emotions of all kinds in a showcase that aims to preserve the memory of villages destroyed by Israel in
09:42southern Lebanon.
09:43Keys hang like wind chimes from the ceiling of the Bait Beirut Museum, each one symbolizing what was once a
09:51home.
09:52Taking place in the Sadeqo district venue in the Lebanese capital, the exhibition has generated massive attention
09:58due to its display of family photos, testimonies and personal stories of visitors that have made their way to the
10:06city.
10:08Organizers say the aim is to show South Lebanon, through its people, far from an image that reduces it to
10:15devastation.
10:17One of the projects on display is, quote, Keys Without Homes, which comprises videos of three southerners who kept keys
10:25to their houses even though they no longer exist.
10:48The exhibition also explores the violence that continues long after ceasefires and the liberation of the South in the year
10:562000.
10:56Videos of Nabatia and Notebooks, in which visitors wrote down their memories of the South, are also on display.
11:07We opened Hikili Ajnub six weeks ago and until today we received more than 7,200 visitors.
11:13That is quite totally unexpected, depending on the actual situation in Lebanon.
11:18One part of the exhibition was to let the South explain their story by themselves, by their voice themselves,
11:28but also for the country to stay connected to what's happening in the South.
11:32Tell Me South exhibition will close during the summer vacation and will return in September
11:38with new pictures, memories and stories that will be added by visitors.
11:44The South.
