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20261012 220000 UTC
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[00:00:00] in schools, basically, thank you colleague Indriau Urbaitė, thank you for coming to the studio
[00:00:03] and Vilnius in 2009 and
[00:00:07] Kaunas in 2022
[00:00:10] have been European Capitals of Culture.
[00:00:13] Next year, the title of European Capital of Culture will be shared with the Portuguese
[00:00:17] city of Evora by Liepāja, located on the Latvian coast,
[00:00:20] which presented the theme and program of the Capital of Culture last weekend.
[00:00:24] Jovita Gaižauskaitė and Paulius Juocnukis report from Liepāja.
[00:00:28] Liepāja will become the
[00:00:30] European Capital of Culture next year, the third largest city in Latvia,
[00:00:34] with about 67
[00:00:37] inhabitants. This port city and
[00:00:40] resort will dictate the cultural trends of next year.
[00:00:44] The theme is Unrest. We talk to the city mayor
[00:00:47] about how Liepāja is preparing for this
[00:00:49] title.
[00:00:52] For many years now, a very large team has been working on the Capital of Culture events.
[00:00:56] Next year, we expect even more Lithuanians in Liepāja. Lithuanians love
[00:00:59] Liepāja's beach, but by creating a special
[00:01:02] program for next year, we want to invite more people from Kaunas, Vilnius,
[00:01:06] Tauragė, Klaipėda, Palanga, and all of Lithuania
[00:01:09] to visit Liepāja, because there will be plenty of events
[00:01:12] all year round.
[00:01:17] Everyone in Latvia, Lithuania, or any other country wants to be a
[00:01:20] champion. Next year, we will be European cultural champions. This
[00:01:24] is a huge honor, but also a great responsibility, not only for
[00:01:27] Latvia, but for all Baltic countries. Europe, this
[00:01:30] is an achievement, the city's recognition
[00:01:32] growth.
[00:01:38] Liepāja thrives on traditional economic activities and tourism, so
[00:01:41] it's natural that we want to attract as many guests as possible, which means more
[00:01:45] investment in tourism, in the city, and without tourists, the city
[00:01:48] would develop, but not as fast. We need
[00:01:51] you.
[00:02:00] Liepāja is called the Cradle of Latvian Rock, the city is full of musical accents,
[00:02:04] notes imprinted in the old town, leading past the city's most beautiful objects
[00:02:08] and here is the great Amber, a concert hall. We talk to the General Director of the European
[00:02:11] Capital of Culture about the event's
[00:02:15] theme and
[00:02:16] program.
[00:02:19] The theme is unrest, tranquility, the word "un" in brackets
[00:02:23] creates balance, that's how the city develops, culture grows,
[00:02:27] various things are created.
[00:02:31] "When we started discussing the theme, we, living between the sea and
[00:02:34] land, experiencing paradoxes and strongly feeling
[00:02:37] that state of unrest, we couldn't explain
[00:02:41] it then, but that became the inspiration for our creativity,
[00:02:44] that for balance in the world, both tranquility
[00:02:47] and unrest are needed. The theme was also influenced by the global situation, when
[00:02:51] the war in Ukraine started, we all found ourselves in chaos,
[00:02:54] feeling uneasy, lost, scared, but at the same time
[00:02:58] we had to think logically, strategically, to find
[00:03:01] balance. A team of 35 people has been creating this program for four years,
[00:03:04] but we have many partners and joint
[00:03:08] projects.
[00:03:13] In 1899,
[00:03:16] Liepāja became the first city in the Baltic states to launch
[00:03:19] an electric tram, which successfully runs to
[00:03:22] this day. The city is also full of interesting architecture,
[00:03:26] from ornate Art Nouveau brick buildings, tsarist red brick barracks,
[00:03:30] to melancholic wooden structures. We talk to the European Capital of
[00:03:34] Culture artistic director about whether there will be joint projects
[00:03:37] with Lithuanian
[00:03:38] artists.
[00:03:42] The program is very rich, different genres, different
[00:03:46] performances for all audiences, more than
[00:03:49] 500 events await. If we count how many days a year has,
[00:03:52] more than one event
[00:03:54] daily.
[00:04:09] Liepāja has long-standing music traditions. We are currently
[00:04:12] in the Great Amber, the concert hall, in the heart of Liepāja.
[00:04:16] We have the longest-playing orchestra of all Baltic countries. We have
[00:04:19] the oldest theater in Latvia, so we have been creating cultural events for centuries
[00:04:23] and want to share that. We say that
[00:04:26] music flows through our veins, we organize a choir festival. Tourists
[00:05:07] in Liepāja. Last year, 18,000
[00:05:11] Lithuanian overnight stays were recorded in Liepāja. Perhaps next year this
[00:05:14] number will be even higher when Liepāja begins its year as the European Capital of Culture.
[00:05:18] year.
[00:05:25] Good afternoon, it's 3 PM and the most important events of the day in the news. The NATO
[00:05:29] forces commander in Europe for the first time publicly announced what
[00:05:33] retaliation he would give if Russia attacked and indicated that he would fight even in enemy
[00:05:36] territory if necessary and defeat the enemy forces command. General
[00:05:40] Alexus Grinkevičius, commanding
[00:05:42] all American forces in Europe at the Warsaw Security Forum, announced that
[00:05:46] the alliance would never escalate the situation itself, but would be able to
[00:05:49] match every enemy step in escalating it. He refuted the constantly
[00:05:53] repeated thesis that the West sought Russia's strategic
[00:05:56] defeat, saying that he had neither plans, nor intentions, nor
[00:06:00] ambitions to do anything more than defend allies, but promised
[00:06:03] to respond to any attack so as to make it
[00:06:06] meaningless and not allow the enemy to even try to occupy a small part
[00:06:10] of NATO. Grinkevičius also said that in his assessment, the conflict is neither
[00:06:14] immediate nor inevitable, but declared that if necessary, he would go
[00:06:18] into battle behind enemy
[00:06:19] lines.
[00:06:23] My theory of victory is simple: we will block the initial attack,
[00:06:27] if the attack continues, we will stop it and prevent the enemy
[00:06:30] from moving forward, and if necessary, we will break through his forces
[00:06:34] and the system of military operations arrayed against
[00:06:37] us. If the enemy decides to continue the attack
[00:06:41] and commit reserves, "we will break the very system of warfare
[00:06:44] directed against us. This includes not only
[00:06:47] attacking forces, but also everything that supports, sustains or
[00:06:51] controls those
[00:06:52] forces."
[00:06:58] Municipalities are flooded with residents' requests for heating cost
[00:07:01] compensation. For example, in Kaunas district, their number has increased by more than
[00:07:05] a third. In Kėdainiai district, by almost a third. The only exception is Vilnius, where
[00:07:09] the number of requests is still lower compared to this time. Most
[00:07:12] municipalities predict that the number of compensation applicants will continue
[00:07:15] to grow. The Ministry of Social Security and Labor estimates that
[00:07:19] 94 million euros will be needed for
[00:07:22] compensation. A Citadelia bank survey shows that six out of ten residents
[00:07:25] will face the heating season by limiting
[00:07:27] their expenses.
[00:07:30] There are some people who plan to completely reduce non-essential
[00:07:33] expenses, that is, let's say, travel, tourism,
[00:07:37] some investments, but there are quite a few people, about
[00:07:40] 23%, who plan to cut even
[00:07:44] essential expenses, that is, food, that is,
[00:07:47] for example, medicine and other things, and this
[00:07:50] survey essentially confirms once again that
[00:07:53] people really feel that heating will become much more expensive and
[00:07:57] some people have already started
[00:07:58] preparing for it financially.
[00:08:01] In buildings in Vilnius city and district and Panevėžys city with
[00:08:04] non-automated heating points, heating is starting
[00:08:07] to be supplied. There are approximately a few percent
[00:08:11] of all such buildings in the capital. Heated buildings. Panevėžys
[00:08:14] municipality announces that heating will be supplied from today to city budget
[00:08:18] institutions, enterprises, organizations and other heat consumers.
[00:08:21] Heating is also switched on in all buildings in Klaipėda and Alytus cities
[00:08:24] with non-automated heating points. This year,
[00:08:28] with the new regulation coming into force, the heating season in Lithuania officially began on October
[00:08:32] first.
[00:08:35] The European Union has approved the largest package of sanctions against
[00:08:38] Russia to date. Over 1,500 military
[00:08:42] figures responsible for the production of ballistic missiles have been added to the blacklist. The Lithuanian Prime Minister
[00:08:46] proposes attacking more data centers in Russia, but as the confrontation
[00:08:50] with Donald Trump deepens, European leaders no longer hide
[00:08:53] that they do not believe his announced energy ceasefires. When, after
[00:08:56] new Russian strikes, Volodymyr Zelensky joked that Vladimir Putin
[00:09:00] does not read Trump's posts on social networks.
[00:09:04] The reality in Ukraine, Donald Trump's posts on social media
[00:09:07] do not change, says Volodymyr Zelensky, as Kyiv admitted to learning about
[00:09:11] the American President's announced immediate ceasefire
[00:09:15] from the media. Immediately after the post, Russia targeted
[00:09:18] the power plant in Kharkiv, causing even more damage to our energy
[00:09:22] system. It is clear that Putin does not read True
[00:09:25] Social. When Naftogaz targets were also attacked. The French
[00:09:29] leader says he has not noticed any energy ceasefires, so
[00:09:33] Europe's position will not change as long as Russia bombs civilians and
[00:09:36] energy.
[00:09:38] So yes, to seek energy ceasefires, I would add, also in the Black
[00:09:42] Sea and to restore peace talks, but essentially to
[00:09:46] surrender to the Russian threat. But when
[00:09:49] the Financial Times announced that American officials threatened European
[00:09:52] capitals over the weekend that they would stop selling weapons to Ukraine for
[00:09:56] European money, the Polish Prime Minister calls on the entire
[00:09:59] Western world, not only Europe, but also America, to show that the free
[00:10:03] world will not break and will deter Moscow with even stricter
[00:10:07] sanctions. Russia is not interested in
[00:10:10] ceasefires, de-escalation,
[00:10:13] peace, it is interested only in dominance, that is why I will go to
[00:10:16] Brussels to urge European partners to seriously consider tightening
[00:10:20] sanctions against Russia.
[00:10:22] The Lithuanian Prime Minister proposes a stricter step. "We should
[00:10:26] ask Mr. Zelensky to attack more data centers
[00:10:29] in Russia, this could help." So far,
[00:10:32] the European Union has approved new sanctions. The largest
[00:10:36] expansion of the blacklist to date, over 1,500 individuals and
[00:10:39] companies, according to the Community's foreign policy chief, will significantly
[00:10:42] hinder Russia from producing weapons to kill
[00:10:45] Ukrainians. We want to end this war, the only
[00:10:48] way is to pressure Russia more, we will also invite the United States
[00:10:52] to impose sanctions so that we can truly end the war.
[00:10:56] All that effect, as attacking processing plants, would not be necessary if
[00:10:59] the war were over. But when Donald Trump complains
[00:11:03] about Ukrainian strikes on processing plants and announced a deal to get
[00:11:07] diesel from Russia, European representatives no longer try to hide
[00:11:11] the split. Where there is a dangerous direction, it is
[00:11:14] to conclude agreements with Russia,
[00:11:17] while not seeing any changes in Russia's behavior
[00:11:20] towards Ukraine. And if these two paths
[00:11:23] diverge, we. we can go here into a very bumpy,
[00:11:27] bumpy stretch and period, so Europe
[00:11:30] must stand very firm and clear and
[00:11:33] communicate very precisely. Trump's former Secretary of State, in an interview with Fox and
[00:11:37] Friends, accused Europe.
[00:11:40] Europeans gave Russia more money since the beginning of the war, more
[00:11:44] than to Ukraine, because they cannot disconnect from Russian
[00:11:47] energy. Their energy policy has failed and they
[00:11:51] continue to finance Vladimir Putin. So explaining to them.
[00:11:55] "We cannot get a diesel price break" is
[00:11:57] hypocritical. The Kremlin, regarding energy ceasefires,
[00:12:01] wants neither to annoy Trump nor to admit the truth, it only
[00:12:05] says that contacts continue, but rejects Zelensky's proposal
[00:12:08] to cease fire for two months to hold the elections Trump wants,
[00:12:12] it would only agree not to attack on election day.
[00:12:15] The Kremlin and President Putin and representatives
[00:12:18] at other levels have repeatedly stated that we want, not just
[00:12:22] a ceasefire, we want long-term peace and we are prepared
[00:12:26] to do everything to
[00:12:27] achieve it.
[00:12:30] Zelensky says, if Russia wants Ukraine's long-range strikes to stop,
[00:12:34] then let it stop targeting energy facilities and killing its
[00:12:37] people. This winter, if Russia does not agree to
[00:12:41] energy ceasefires, we will respond. That is why
[00:12:44] yesterday the American President's post generated real interest and
[00:12:48] we believe that energy ceasefires can truly
[00:12:51] work. We in Ukraine immediately supported this idea.
[00:12:55] He says that such ceasefires require American pressure on Russia, not
[00:12:59] the lifting of sanctions or concessions, but this must be done
[00:13:03] in reality, not just on the Truth Social social
[00:13:05] network.
[00:13:08] Minister of Interior Martynas Katelynas intends to propose limiting the opportunities
[00:13:12] for foreign students to work under an individual activity
[00:13:15] certificate. According to him, this is currently being abused. He says that some
[00:13:18] immigrants coming to study only want to work in Lithuania.
[00:13:22] According to Katelynas, higher education institutions also
[00:13:25] abuse accepting such students due to increased funding. Director of the Migration
[00:13:29] Department, Indre Gasperė, says that the department recorded cases of abuse
[00:13:32] last year, but this year the situation has changed.
[00:13:36] It is estimated that out of more than 230,000
[00:13:39] arrivals, 12,000 received temporary residence permits
[00:13:42] for studies. Entire study programs are filled
[00:13:46] only with these migrants from foreign countries, but even the
[00:13:50] lecturers themselves say that, well, migrants often only come for
[00:13:54] an assessment to get a positive grade so that their residence
[00:13:57] permit based on studies is not revoked, so this shows that
[00:14:01] in fact, the system is used not entirely, probably,
[00:14:04] but a certain part for abuse to obtain a temporary
[00:14:07] residence permit in Lithuania. What I want to note is that this year we do not see any particular
[00:14:11] trends that procedures are being abused.
[00:14:14] It is necessary to report any change regarding a student to the
[00:14:18] migration department, that he terminates his studies, that he
[00:14:22] does not collect credits, all this information is necessary to
[00:14:25] report, otherwise it will incur a fine
[00:14:28] stipulated in the Code of Administrative Offenses, so universities
[00:14:31] really listen to us.
[00:14:35] The Vatican has just announced that Pope Leo will be operated on tomorrow,
[00:14:39] planning to remove a small mass found in his lungs.
[00:14:42] According to the Pontiff, the nodule was detected at a very early stage, so,
[00:14:46] following the doctor's recommendations, he decided to operate.
[00:14:49] The Vatican press service stated that the operation is scheduled at a Roman
[00:14:53] hospital, where most popes since John Paul
[00:14:57] Andrew's time have been treated. The Pope is expected to recover from the operation within
[00:15:00] a week.
[00:15:03] As Poland faces a surge in teenage violence, Prime Minister Donald
[00:15:07] Tusk promises to further strengthen security near schools and
[00:15:10] educational institutions in the coming days. Last week, the country was shaken by three incidents
[00:15:14] where teenagers and young people, without a clear motive, began to harm people
[00:15:18] near them. One case ended in death. Officials fear that
[00:15:21] the crimes are fueled by violent content online
[00:15:25] and teenagers' desire to blindly imitate each
[00:15:27] other.
[00:15:29] Poland, in general, lives in a climate of daily anxiety, but
[00:15:33] another threat struck where it was least
[00:15:36] expected. Among young people, in four
[00:15:39] days last week, there were three attacks
[00:15:42] in educational institutions, one ending in death. It seems
[00:15:46] some curse is spreading among children, seeing such incidents.
[00:15:50] All three occurred in Central Poland. The first attack
[00:15:53] was carried out by a 19-year-old who wielded a knife at school,
[00:15:56] injuring 10 people and himself.
[00:16:00] The second, a 15-year-old fatally stabbed the school's
[00:16:03] janitor. The third, a 21-year-old girl.
[00:16:07] at a vocational school, injuring two minors
[00:16:11] and a woman older than herself. As a mother of four children, this fills Mantas
[00:16:14] with horror. Last week, a rumor
[00:16:17] even spread about an unplanned, even bigger wave of violence.
[00:16:20] Dubbed "Bloody Friday" on social
[00:16:24] media and in the press, although this was not
[00:16:28] confirmed, several tens of thousands of police
[00:16:31] officers were deployed to guard thousands of educational
[00:16:34] institutions.
[00:16:37] with people, as well as with teachers, first of all, they seek to explain what
[00:16:41] happened, but also to reassure them, because in this situation
[00:16:45] there is a lack of security, they will be taught how to react not only to
[00:16:48] situations that pose a direct threat, but also in cases
[00:16:52] when a classmate acts or says something that causes
[00:16:55] concern. In a massive operation, about 100
[00:16:59] children, mostly teenagers, were arrested
[00:17:02] for spreading various threats online. It was investigated whether
[00:17:05] the violence was fueled by organized
[00:17:08] action, but this version was rejected by Donald Tusk
[00:17:11] over the weekend. We are not dealing with some organized
[00:17:15] group whose goal is to incite danger. Often these are spontaneous
[00:17:18] actions arising from online activity. Although at
[00:17:21] first another version was seriously considered, that other teenagers were encouraged
[00:17:25] to harm by an online challenge, when
[00:17:29] in one case the attacker had a camera attached to his helmet,
[00:17:33] but now the police consider it unlikely.
[00:17:35] The police do not confirm that there is any challenge or game, it is understood
[00:17:39] that they are rather inspired by something else.
[00:17:43] Services fear that teenagers resort to violence by imitating
[00:17:46] each other, when one violent attack becomes
[00:17:49] a dangerous example for others, and the environment for them is created
[00:17:53] online, in digital media, especially among
[00:17:56] gatherings of radical views, a flourishing cult
[00:17:59] of violence. They are actively involved in this extremely
[00:18:02] radical far-right environment, which, unfortunately, very often
[00:18:06] attracts even the youngest children, these are also groups
[00:18:09] operating in various computer games. The atmosphere was further
[00:18:13] inflamed by yesterday's announcement about an investigated
[00:18:16] assassination attempt, the targets of which, it is claimed, were the Polish
[00:18:20] Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense himself. Law enforcement
[00:18:23] later arrested a man suspected of planning the crime,
[00:18:27] although more details about him and his motives have not yet
[00:18:30] been revealed. Some threats turned out
[00:18:34] to be foolish jokes. Radicalization and outbreaks of aggression
[00:18:43] at a time when the country's services are forced to focus
[00:18:47] on external threats and warning that forces hostile to Poland
[00:18:50] are actively operating in the social sphere as well. Tusk promises that
[00:18:54] increased security near schools will remain in place
[00:18:58] for the coming days.
[00:22:33] on Thursday. Stay with Laba diena,
[00:22:35] Lietuva.
[00:22:43] The upcoming night will be partly cloudy, with occasional rain in some areas,
[00:22:47] light rain will prevail, heavy fog, it will be between one
[00:22:50] and six, in some places 7-9 degrees Celsius,
[00:22:54] frost on the ground surface up to 3 degrees Celsius.
[00:22:57] Tomorrow will be partly cloudy, with occasional light rain, heavy fog in the morning,
[00:23:01] warming up to
[00:23:16] 10-15 degrees Celsius. After US President Donald
[00:23:20] Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and China, the news outweighed
[00:23:23] the impact of a new wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia on
[00:23:26] markets. Most stock markets recorded
[00:23:29] growth, oil prices fell by slightly more than
[00:23:33] a percent. The Ukrainian President admitted to learning about the ceasefire
[00:23:36] from the media, but says that his country supports all
[00:23:40] real and reliable ways to end the war. Moscow's
[00:23:44] reaction is not yet available. Today we ask you how you
[00:23:47] evaluate Donald Trump's decision to conclude
[00:23:51] a deal with Vladimir Putin on diesel supplies, and so
[00:23:55] far a larger portion of the more than 400 viewers and
[00:23:58] respondents believe that this is the same
[00:24:02] or very similar to making
[00:24:05] a deal with the devil. If you have your opinion and have not yet expressed it,
[00:24:09] the QR code is on the screen or below the live broadcast window, you can
[00:24:12] do so for the rest of this hour, we will review the results
[00:24:16] at the end of the show, and now I am talking to the head of the Geopolitics and Security
[00:24:20] Studies Center, political scientist Linas Kojela. Good
[00:24:22] day. Hello! Linas, you are
[00:24:26] at the Warsaw Security Forum. An hour ago
[00:24:29] we spoke with colleague Milda Vilkanskytė, who works
[00:24:32] in Luxembourg, where the European Union's foreign ministers meet, and she says
[00:24:36] that their assessments regarding Donald Trump's
[00:24:39] agreement with Vladimir Putin on
[00:24:42] diesel, as well as calls for energy ceasefires
[00:24:46] and to change Ukraine's leadership
[00:24:49] are quite restrained. What do you
[00:24:52] hear while at
[00:24:54] this forum?
[00:24:56] History seems to be repeating itself a bit, so the reactions here
[00:25:00] are quite cautious, trying
[00:25:02] to understand what really happened and where it's just background noise,
[00:25:06] and current events show that lessons have indeed
[00:25:10] been learned, because this is probably, by my calculations, President Trump's fifth
[00:25:13] announcement about one kind of ceasefire or another,
[00:25:17] previous cases have shown
[00:25:20] that even a very short-term the result was difficult,
[00:25:24] perhaps a little too through the prism of the case
[00:25:27] judging the shellings, for a while
[00:25:31] decreased, but this did not really change the overall trajectory of the war,
[00:25:35] especially since here in Warsaw the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky
[00:25:39] emphasized that there are no ceasefires, Russia attacked
[00:25:42] tonight Ukrainian energy
[00:25:46] facilities, as well as other targets in Ukrainian territory,
[00:25:49] and this shows that that announcement was probably not based
[00:25:52] on anything more than perhaps only that direction, that direction certainly
[00:25:56] does not contradict Ukraine's interests, Ukraine would also very much want a ceasefire,
[00:25:59] and Ukraine agreed on a ceasefire with Washington
[00:26:03] on March 11 of last year, but the main obstacle remained the
[00:26:07] same, that is Russia, which believes that it can achieve
[00:26:10] a result by military means, and essentially, both at the political and
[00:26:14] undoubtedly at the military level, it rejects ceasefires as an idea
[00:26:18] every day.
[00:26:21] Would it be correct to state that Trump sacrifices Ukraine's interests
[00:26:25] for fuel prices and upcoming
[00:26:27] elections?
[00:26:29] I think that the burning of Republicans means that... in
[00:26:32] the next few weeks the logic will be followed that
[00:26:36] the end justifies the means, and there is one goal:
[00:26:39] to improve the positions of Republicans as much as possible
[00:26:43] in the context of the midterm elections. So far, the forecasts, as I mentioned, are certainly not favorable
[00:26:46] for this party. In the House of Representatives, there are almost no polls
[00:26:50] that would show that Republicans could retain the
[00:26:54] fragile majority they currently have. The Senate is more competitive, because only
[00:26:57] about a third of the members are elected there. Republicans may have a chance to
[00:27:01] retain the majority, but even... those states, which we have talked about,
[00:27:04] where Republicans are usually very strong, have recently
[00:27:08] appeared competitive, which means that Trump's main
[00:27:11] problem recently is the economy,
[00:27:14] inflation, people's dissatisfaction because prices
[00:27:18] are rising and the standard of living is
[00:27:20] slowly declining, at least for a part of the electorate. This will be tried
[00:27:24] to be addressed by all possible means, so even this
[00:27:27] announcement is probably not a policy towards Russia, not a policy towards
[00:27:30] if it wants domestic political calculations
[00:27:34] and domestic political calculations.
[00:27:37] How much does that situation alleviate the fact that some Republican senators,
[00:27:41] together with Democrats, criticize this deal with
[00:27:44] Putin, how much support does Donald Trump have for this step
[00:27:48] in his own
[00:27:49] party? Time will tell, of course, whether that
[00:27:53] decision will be implemented comprehensively, or whether
[00:27:57] it will again be more of an announcement, as an end in itself. We understand that
[00:28:01] the promised quantities are "very modest and unlikely
[00:28:04] to significantly affect the situation
[00:28:07] in the energy market, at least in the long-term perspective. It is unlikely to
[00:28:11] affect prices at gas stations in the United States. Rather, it is
[00:28:15] an attempt to create a narrative that President Trump is doing everything to make
[00:28:19] those prices fall, so in this case, again, the announcement is an end in itself.
[00:28:22] Republicans are reacting quite skeptically so far, and this is quite
[00:28:25] illustrative, because it is evident that some
[00:28:28] candidates in the midterm elections, fully understanding
[00:28:32] how "powerful and influential President Trump is to the majority
[00:28:35] of the Republican electorate, are still trying to create a certain
[00:28:38] distance from their party leader, seeing that he is
[00:28:42] unpopular and that an association with him, support for his policy
[00:28:45] decisions, can become a problem when trying
[00:28:48] to attract especially
[00:28:51] wavering voters, who might
[00:28:54] vote for Republicans, but are also considering
[00:28:58] the prospect of Democratic Party candidates, so the adoption
[00:29:02] of that distance is partly indicative, because last year
[00:29:05] it was really quite difficult to imagine, because if you opposed
[00:29:09] President Trump, your future in the Republican Party seemed
[00:29:13] completely hopeless and
[00:29:15] without prospects.
[00:29:17] From that safe distance or safe remove, all this
[00:29:21] situation is undoubtedly being observed by
[00:29:24] North Korean and Chinese leaders, and the
[00:29:28] European Union has long talked about China and unfair
[00:29:31] competition, but avoids stricter
[00:29:35] actions, but now something has changed, I
[00:29:38] ask what, that even Germany is urging to pressure
[00:29:41] Beijing.
[00:29:45] Indeed, perhaps we have seen an episode that in the future
[00:29:48] we will be able to call a turning point, although today it doesn't seem like something very
[00:29:52] significant. And that episode is, in essence, a letter from the French
[00:29:55] President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, very clearly
[00:29:59] sending a signal to China, although it is not directly named in that letter,
[00:30:03] that the European Union must better protect its single
[00:30:06] market, must understand that competition with other actors,
[00:30:09] especially, again, China not directly mentioned, does not always take place
[00:30:12] on fair grounds, and if Europe wants to continue
[00:30:15] to maintain at least some growth perspective, as we know, the growth
[00:30:19] trajectory of large countries has recently been very slow or zero. If it wants
[00:30:23] to remain competitive in the development of new technologies,
[00:30:27] to preserve production volumes in industry,
[00:30:30] from cars to those sectors, then a trade deficit of approximately one billion
[00:30:34] euros with China cannot continue,
[00:30:38] because as we saw when President Trump imposed tariffs on China, trade flows with
[00:30:42] the United States, from China's perspective, decreased, but a large part of that
[00:30:46] surplus, the surplus of goods, reached the European market, and this creates great
[00:30:49] difficulties for European companies, and at the moment we see
[00:30:53] the first serious episode from the side of the large European Union countries
[00:30:56] agreeing that this is a problem and even outlining.