'Too early to draw conclusions' as bomb threat hoaxes target European countries

And for more on this, we can go to France 24's Dave Keating in Brussels. Good afternoon, Dave. Can you tell me the latest about this succession of bomb threats around Europe? There's been more today, but there have been several others this week. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to keep track of because there's been so many, but we're now looking at at least 35 bomb threats on flights in Europe with a big geographic scope. These are stretching all the way from Spain to Italy to Ireland to Bulgaria to Czechia. It's really everywhere, and it's obviously very, very alarming. We've had some reaction from the European Commission, the EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tsitsikostas. ...said, quote, any threat against civilians is unacceptable. Now, if that sounds vague, it's because it is, because the commission is not yet saying who is behind these threats or even whether they're all connected in any way. So the commissioner added that it is too early to draw conclusions on whether the reported incidents are linked. Now, it seems hard to believe that these aren't linked, but there's always the possibility that we're looking at... So as this is going through the news, it's possible that people are saying, OK, now is the time to do it without coordinating, although that seems unlikely. The other reason why the commission is not really weighing in on trying to ascribe these threats or even say that these are all connected is because it's not an EU competence to do so. It's up to national authorities to assess these threats, make any kind of designation. Now, the Commission has said that it has activated the EU's information-sharing mechanism on aviation security, that that's been acted, and that also they are coordinating with the EU Aviation Safety Agency. But that's really all they can do. The Commission's powers here are pretty limited. And so we're now waiting for the national authorities in the countries involved to say whether all of these incidents are linked and who might be behind them. Now, the Irish state broadcaster RTE has said that the hoax calls that caused it and several other media outlets to evacuate their premises this morning were linked to the aviation threats. What more do we know of this? Yeah, this is when it gets like... It's sounding really alarming, because now it's not just threats. It appears to be extending to other entities, in this case, Ireland's public broadcaster. And of course, there's a big question about whether the timing of this is also related to the recent hacking of fridges across Europe. Earlier this week, we saw refrigerators at supermarkets, butchers, all across Europe, from Finland to Estonia to Ireland to here in Belgium to France, Being targeted by these sites. Cyber attacks that turned up the temperature of these fridges majorly up to 40 degrees, 50 degrees, spoiling all of the food and meaning the supermarkets had to throw out all their food, particularly meat. And, you know, whenever there's these hybrid attacks, there is the suspicion that a state actor is behind it, and namely Russia. Now, no national authority nor the European Commission. has blamed Russia for this, these coordinated attacks yet. And again, they have not even said whether these attacks are coordinated, whether the bomb threats on the airlines, the bomb threats at RTE, and the cyber attacks on the refrigerators are related in any way. But a lot of people, their first thought here is of Russia, because the European Commission has been warning that Russia would try to do things like this. Again, these so-called hybrid attacks, which are not out-and-out warfare, but they're actions against European countries, against the European Union, in order to try to intimidate citizens, scare citizens, and make citizens think twice about, for instance, supporting Ukraine, if they think that Russia has this power to disrupt their daily lives. Again, to stress, Russia has not been identified as the culprit here, but this is the overriding concern that we've been hearing about for For months, from the European Commission, that Russia would do something like this. Thank you very much for that. France 24's Dave Keating in Brussels.