Missiles over Kharkiv drones over Moscow Midday Report.

Hello everybody and good afternoon. My name is Don Arleth and you're watching a midday report where we're chasing the day's top stories. Let's go ahead and get started. Now who gets what and how much? That's the question dividing Europe's top table. 27 EU leaders are back in Brussels for a second day of wrangling over the bloc's next budget. Still at odds over funding priorities after contentious talks on Russia and Beijing dominated day one. Now let's go to our chief international correspondent Alex Codier in Brussels. Good afternoon Alex. So how close are we on the next budget and what are the main bones of contention? Well good afternoon Don. The simple answer to that question is we're not that close at all because the budget has to be agreed by 2028 but that process is extremely complicated, extremely contentious and extremely long. There is a pressure to get things moving faster. We heard from the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christensen very much on the side of having a smaller budget, a controlled budget. We'll hear from him in a moment but he said in the last few hours, I should say yesterday, that this will not really be decided until October, December this year. Now you may be asking if there's an entire year between, more than a year between now and when the budget needs to be agreed, what's the rush? Well 2027, lots of big elections. France, Italy, Spain could disrupt this process so those leaders want to get cracking on it now. How do the so-called frugal western European nations who contribute the most to this European budget feel about the current negotiations? The Swedish Prime Minister. I have told Cyprus directly that this is not even a conversation starter. I mean this implies a massive increase in the budget. What we need is a better budget, not a bigger budget and I have said along with several other colleagues with strong clarity in a way that neither the presidency nor anyone else could misunderstand. This added proposal is not on the table. So clearly that is the crux of the debate. Should the budget be bigger? Should it be smaller? Now Ulf Christensen, the Swedish Prime Minister, they're saying Cyprus. That isn't directed at the country itself but the fact that they hold the presidency of the European Union at the moment until they hand over to Ireland very soon indeed. So the crucial thing is the debate is whether or not this budget is too big. The answer from Germany, from the Netherlands, from Sweden as you just heard is yes it has to come back down. Then there will be a discussion about priorities. Should we focus on the kind of legacy programmes of the European Union, the common agricultural policy that subsidises farmers across the bloc or should new priorities like security, defence, tech and boosting modern industries in the European Union have centre stage? All of that will be debated behind the scenes here. All of that will be debated for months yet to come. Another interesting factor is that some countries are in that pivotal moment of whether or not they are contributing member states or beneficiary member states. We heard from Latvia this morning proudly announcing it would become a contributor country so there are a lot of questions there Don on this debate about the budget. There will be a lot of discussions, this will be strained, this will be tense because dividing two trillion euros is no easy task. All right, Alex Kadier reporting for us from Brussels, thank you. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk have held their first face-to-face meeting since a contentious shared history reopened old wounds. During the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels, two leaders discussed bilateral issues, Ukraine's EU integration as well as combating Russian threats. The meeting on Thursday was held in a four-on-four format with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sevykh and Agnieszka Partol, Poland's representatives the EU joining the talks. President Zelensky later took to social media to thank Poland for its unwavering support for Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. The meeting between Tusk and Zelensky came amid a diplomatic row between Warsaw and Kiev over Ukraine's decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian insurgent army which killed a hundred thousand Polish civilians during World War II. The meeting between Tusk and Zelensky came amid a diplomatic row between Warsaw and Kiev over Ukraine's decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian insurgent army which killed a hundred thousand Polish civilians during World War II, leading to Polish President Karol Nowroczki's announcement of plans to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state honor. It also took place ahead of the Ukraine recovery conference in Gdansk, scheduled for the end of June. Missiles over Kharkiv, drones over Moscow and a war that's At least six people have been injured after overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine, as Kiev's own drone offensive torched a major oil refinery in the Russian capital. Now a former U.S. general is warning the Kremlin is running out of room to fight back. Despite videos and comments from local residents circulating online, Russian authorities have been denying that any oily rain has fallen on Moscow. It comes a day after Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on the Russian capital, hitting a key oil refinery and sending thick clouds of smoke billowing across the city. The region's environmental authorities urged residents to stay indoors. Experts say that even staying indoors does not protect against the effects of oil rain or black rain formed when unburned hydrocarbons mix with precipitation. They add that the impact of such contamination can last a long time and is not limited to immediate harm. Even normal traffic already produces emissions, and modern cars have multiple systems to reduce them, like catalytic converters and particulate filters, and even that has an impact. Here you have an entire refinery burning in the city. It is not comparable in scale. It is extremely harmful. Some residents said they want the war to end. What can we do about it? We can only adapt to the situation. That's awful. I don't know what can be done about it. I want the war to finally come to an end and for a peace agreement to be signed. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia will carry out massive coordinated strikes on a regular basis against Ukraine. But attacks such as this and other long-range strikes show that the momentum of the war has shifted in Ukraine's favour. Former commander of US Army Europe General Ben Hodges told TVP World. The only thing that Russia can continue to do is to have their soldiers killed on the ground and to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians with their drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian cities. So that's the best that the Russians can do. And those killings continue. Russian airstrikes against Ukraine killed at least four people overnight into Friday. And within the past hour, there are reports of further Ukrainian drone strikes aimed at Moscow. We'll bring you more details as we get them. The cancellation of US-Iranian talks in Switzerland, initially scheduled for Friday, has cast a shadow of uncertainty on how quickly a permanent peace agreement can be reached. Future discussions could be rendered difficult by escalating hostilities in Lebanon and France's demands to be included in the negotiations. Blow for blow, Israel continues striking Lebanese territories, with Iran's proxy Hezbollah answering in kind. The hostilities continue in violation of the first out of 14 points in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the US and Iranian presidents on Wednesday. The document also explicitly states that Iran will never produce nuclear weapons and that the fate of Tehran's enriched uranium would be adequately addressed in a final agreement. We're going to have people on the ground actually driving the technical talks, the nuclear talks, how do you destroy this highly enriched uranium, all that stuff that you really just have to get into the nitty gritty on. So, you know, I plan to go to Switzerland. But the plans changed even as preparations for the technical talks in the Swiss mountaintop resort of Burgenstock were well underway. According to Reuters, the decision to scrap the meeting came from Vance himself. Point seven of the memorandum says that the United States commits itself to ending all types of sanctions imposed on Iran, including those stemming from resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council. But France, which is a permanent veto-wielding member of the Security Council, wants to play a role in talks dealing with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and Iran's support for proxies, including Hezbollah and the Houthis. If France is not invited to the negotiating table, it will not approve the lifting of sanctions, which to date remains a condition for a final peace agreement set to end the war that has been raging for over three months, shaken global markets and claimed the lives of at least 7,000 people. Foreigners are fleeing South Africa, some in body bags and thousands more in makeshift camps. Months of anti-immigrant violence has left at least two dead, driven thousands to seek shelter in Durban and triggered mass repatriations across the region. As President Ramaphosa admits, the state failed on migration while warning that mob justice will not be tolerated. South Africa has been gripped by several months of xenophobic protests. The recent trend of looting non-native businesses and attacking foreigners has prompted citizens from Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana and Zimbabwe to accept voluntary repatriation organized by respective governments. President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged concern over illegal migration but warned that authorities will not tolerate vigilant justice. The government clarified that most of the people repatriated were undocumented immigrants. The responsibility for enforcing immigration laws rests with the state and the state alone. There have been gaps in our systems that have undermined public confidence. South Africans are entitled to expect better. South Africa's inter-ministerial committee on migration addressed the press this past weekend with an update on measures implemented to combat illegal immigration. This comes in response to South Africans who have been violently demanding the removal of all undocumented immigrants by the end of the month of June. At least two Mozambicans have been killed by the anti-immigrant movement. In Durban, thousands of Malawian citizens have gathered in a makeshift camp to escape the violence. Protest organizers denied their actions are xenophobic. They claim they are sick of other Africans abusing their system illegally. But the countries documented for rainers say they too are being targeted and fear for their lives. I'm Sophia Bar reporting from Dakar, Senegal for TVP World. A Warsaw public hospital, a doctor earning nearly 400,000 euros in a single year and now a cleared out boardroom. Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski has axed the entire management board of the city's southern hospital after a probe into resident physicians reported earnings and claims that figures tied to Poland's ruling party were given preferential care. Prosecutors now investigating and fresh board on the way. A Warsaw-run public hospital is getting a new supervisory board. The Friday announcement comes after Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski said that he dismissed the entire board of the public hospital Thursday amid investigations into a doctor's earnings as well as allegations of the hospital offering preferential treatment to politicians from Poland's main governing party. I want to say today that a new supervisory board will be appointed at the southern hospital. The supervisory boards of municipal health care providers will be strengthened and will exclude politicians. This is not about singling anyone out but about ensuring people that there is not even the slightest hint of political influence over Amid the allegations, proofs have been launched into a case involving Dawid Kacprzyk, a resident doctor at the Warsaw Southern Hospital who once acted as local consular for civic coalition Prime Minister Dola Tusk's party. Kacprzyk, who worked at the hospital's emergency unit, reportedly earned around 377,000 euro in 2025. The hospital has since notified prosecutors of suspected fraud. The mayor of Warsaw who is part of Tusk's party said that the new hospital director will have to cooperate with investigators and auditors. Poland's cities have some new residents and they don't pay rent. Wild boars have made themselves at home in urban streets, parks and on tram lines with incident reports leaping from 432 in 2020 to nearly 9 000 last year and attacks on people are up to 121 in 2025 alone. Wild animals have apparently decided they've had enough nature because why struggle in the wilderness when cities offer free food, comfortable parks and endless opportunities to befuddle and scare humans. If there's one animal that has fully embraced urban living it's definitely the wild boar. Over the past five years a report tracking resident boar sightings across Polish cities says that the amount has increased by 35 percent. They have adapted so well to the city life that they can now be spotted on the sidewalks, parks, between apartment blocks and even tram tracks. Whether they are simply exploring or trying to catch a ride remains unclear. Wild boars are not the only animals checking out what the city living is like. Recently a bear trekked through Przemysl, a city where according to a local legend a prince established a settlement after killing a great Sheba during a hunt through the surrounding forests. Interpreting the encounter as a good omen he adopted the bear as a symbol of his new town. In due time the bear even found its way onto the city's official crest. For decades the bear existed mainly in stories and statues. Now it seems one has finally decided to check whether the city is living up to its branding. And that concludes this edition of Midday Report. Thank you for joining us and stay with us for more here on TVP World. Goodbye.