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State of the Union: sunshine in Ankara, darkness in Tbilisi

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State of the Union: sunshine in Ankara, darkness in Tbilisi

This edition of State of the Union focuses on the continuing diplomatic détente between Turkey and Greece and the escalating domestic upheaval in Georgia.

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Just a year ago, a summit meeting of the leaders of Turkey and Greece would have created sensational news.

But when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Ankara this week, it was almost a routine talk between neighbours.

The meeting was their fourth in 10 months as the two leaders try to put an end to decades of mutual animosity by focusing on trade, tourism, energy and repairing cultural ties, among other areas.

“In the critical area of migration, the cooperation between our two countries and especially between the police and the coast guard is paying off against illegal flows and against the wretched traffickers, who take advantage of desperate people’s pain,” said Mitsotakis in a common press conference.

“This cooperation must continue and be intensified.”

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There are still areas where both sides have agreed to disagree, but it’s good to see one old trouble spot in Europe sort of fading, especially as another trouble spot reignited big time this week.

Thousands of protesters in Georgia rallied near the parliament building in Tbilisi – again – just hours after lawmakers gave the final approval to the controversial foreign influence law, modelled on a Russian version passed more than a decade earlier. 

Lawmakers passed the law despite EU warnings that it would undermine Georgia’s path to EU membership.

Yet, the official reaction in Brussels was muted.

Speaking in Denmark, EU Council President Charles Michel said: “I had a phone call a few days ago with the Prime Minister and I told him that I am disappointed and that I sincerely hope that Georgia will find a way to stick to the democratic principles and also meet the expectations of the population.”

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Meanwhile, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development released its latest economic outlook. The numbers for Georgia, which is part of the area where the EBRD operates, were rather sobering.

In general, the forecast also contained some encouraging news.

To learn more, we spoke to Beata Javorcik, chief economist of the EBRD.

Euronews: So, your latest report is appropriately called “Taming Inflation” – and when I look at the numbers, inflation in the EBRD regions came down from a peak in October 2022 of 17.5 percent to an average of 6.3 percent last March. Explain that number for us, what is behind such a huge drop?

Javorcik: What has helped bring the inflation down was to a large extent, the developments in the international markets. We have seen a sharp drop in the prices of natural gas in Europe, declines in prices of agricultural commodities, and oil prices have remained moderate. But, of course, inflation in our regions of operations still remains above the level before the pandemic, as is the case in advanced economies.

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Euronews: Can you breathe a sigh of relief now or are there still important inflation risks remaining?

Javorcik: Not all central bankers can consider their job done. If you look at cumulative inflation, that is inflation since February 2022 up until now, it has exceeded 30% in several countries. Notably in Egypt, in Turkey, in Hungary and Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine. So, that means that in the absence of wage increases, people in those countries would have lost a third of their purchasing power.

Euronews: Let’s talk about the growth outlook in the EBRD’s EU regions – do you see positive signs going forward?

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Javorcik: This year is going to be much better than last year for the Eastern European EU member states, in particular Poland and Croatia, stand out with expected growth of 3%. Hungary will do well, too. We see real wages increasing. We see fiscal policy helping out and the EU funding, the New Generation EU, also stimulating economic activity.

Euronews: I can’t release you without a word on Ukraine. How is their economy doing in the third year of the war?

Javorcik: The heavy bombings in the last two months mean that the ability of Ukraine to generate electricity has been severely diminished. Electricity production is at 40% of what it used to be before the bombings. And this capacity cannot be easily repaired.

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Looking for something fun to do over the weekend? 

How about jumping from a helicopter at 3,000 feet high, diving down to 35 metres above the River Thames and then soaring through London’s Tower Bridge only to rise up again to 80 metres, the height required to open the parachute before landing safely?

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This is a complex James-Bond-like manoeuvre known among insiders as a “flare”.

Well, two professional skydivers from Austria did it this week and described the experience as “a dream come true”.

And this coming from veteran skydivers with more than 22,000 jumps under their belt…

From take-off to landing, the London wingsuit flight covered more than a kilometer and reached a top speed of almost 250 kilometers per hour – and it lasted 45 seconds.

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That might not be enough fun for an entire weekend, but it’s a start!

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‘Predators’: Amnesty slams Netanyahu Putin, Trump, as human rights decline

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‘Predators’: Amnesty slams Netanyahu Putin, Trump, as human rights decline

London, United Kingdom – Israel, Russia and the United States are leading the destruction of global human rights, Amnesty International has said, describing the three countries’ leaders as “voracious predators” intent upon economic and political domination.

“A global environment where primitive ferocity could flourish has been long in the making,” Agnes Callamard, the head of the global rights group, wrote in an annual report on the state of the world’s human rights that was released on Tuesday.

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In 2025, “sharp U-turns were taken away from the international order that had been imagined out of the ashes of the Holocaust and the utter destruction of world wars, and constructed slowly and painfully, albeit insufficiently, over these past 80 years,” she said.

In a news conference on Monday in London, Callamard said that most governments tend to appease the “predators” rather than confront them.

“Some even thought to imitate the bullies and the looters,” she said.

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Spain, however, which is an outlier in Europe for its criticism of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and US-Israeli attacks on Iran, “is standing above the double standard that is destroying the international system”, Callamard said.

She argued that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who in 2022 sent his forces into neighbouring Ukraine, have had an “absolutely dramatic” impact on the world.

Their conduct is “emboldening all of those that are tempted by similar behaviours,” said Callamard. “It is allowing for the multiplication of copycats around the world, and therefore what we are confronting now is much more aggressive and ferocious than what we had to confront three or four years ago.”

‘Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide’

Amnesty’s review of the state of the world’s human rights makes for grim reading, documenting attacks on fundamental civil liberties in most nations.

“Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide”, the report reads, before running through abuses alleged in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe in 400 pages.

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Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Russia’s “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, and the US-Israeli war on Iran were noted as examples of conflict in which international laws have been ignored.

In a section on repression, the United Kingdom is blamed for cracking down on the Palestine solidarity movement and Palestine Action, the direct-action group that targets sites associated with the Israeli military and is currently fighting a legal battle against its UK proscription as a “terrorist” organisation.

Afghanistan’s Taliban was responsible for further gender-based discrimination in 2025, the report noted, citing measures excluding women from education and work, while Nepalese authorities were said to have failed to investigate instances of gender-based violence against Dalit women.

Amnesty’s report comes as multiple conflicts rage across the world.

The US-Israeli assault on Iran has killed more than 3,000 people, while Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed nearly 2,400. In Gaza, the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023 has surpassed 72,500 as the decimated territory is continually threatened by Israeli bombardment. In Ukraine, more than 15,000 have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than four years ago.

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Conflicts in the Middle East are a “product of the descent into lawlessness, made possible by a vision of the world in which war-making and the killings of civilians are normalised”, said Callamard.

“No effective steps have been taken against Israel for its repeated, constant violation of basic standards of humanity.”

However, there is some room for optimism, Amnesty said.

It listed moments of “resistance” such as Gen Z-led protests; the growing number of states joining South Africa’s case against Israel’s genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ); the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) crimes against humanity charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; the Council of Europe’s special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine; and the ICC’s arrest warrant against two Taliban leaders for “gender-based persecution”.

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Patrick Muldoon, ‘Days of Our Lives’ and ‘Melrose Place’ Actor, Dies at 57

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Patrick Muldoon, ‘Days of Our Lives’ and ‘Melrose Place’ Actor, Dies at 57

Patrick Muldoon, an actor who starred in “Days of Our Lives” and “Melrose Place,” died on Sunday, his manager confirmed to Variety. He was 57.

From 1992 to 1995, Muldoon originated the role of Austin Reed on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” He returned to the soap to reprise the role from 2011 to 2012.

He also had a recurring role as Jeffrey Hunter in the teen television series “Saved by the Bell” in 1991. Muldoon also starred on the primetime soap opera “Melrose Place” from 1995 to 1996, playing the villain Richard Hart.

In 1997, Muldoon played the role of Zander Barcalow in the film “Starship Troopers,” directed by Paul Verhoeven.

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Muldoon was also an active producer, working on a slew of movies including “The Tribes of Palos Verdes,” “Arkansas,” “Marlowe,” “The Card Counter,” “The Dreadful” and “Riff Raff” through his Storyboard Productions. He was set to produce the upcoming feature “Kockroach,” starring Chris Hemsworth. Just two days ago, Muldoon posted on Instagram: “So excited to be a part of this amazing project KOCKROACH directed by Matt Ross starring Chris Hemsworth, Taron Edgerton, Zazzie Beetz and Alec Baldwin.” The production is currently filming in Australia.

His latest acting role was in “Dirty Hands,” a new crime thriller with Denise Richards and Michael Beach. The film is slated to be released later this month.

Muldoon is survived by his partner, Miriam Rothbart; parents Deanna and Patrick Muldoon, Sr.; sister and brother-in-law Shana and Ahmet Zappa, niece Halo and nephew Arrow Zappa.

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Massive 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits off Japanese coast, tsunami alert issued

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Massive 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits off Japanese coast, tsunami alert issued

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A strong earthquake took place off the northern coast of Japan Monday afternoon, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to put out a tsunami alert in the area.

The quake, registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.5, occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan at around 4:53 p.m. local time, at a depth of about 6 miles below the sea surface, the agency said.

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A television screen shows a news report on Japan Meteorological Agency’s tsunami warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 meters (9.84 feet) to reach large coastal areas in northern Japan after an earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan, in Tokyo, Japan April 20, 2026 (REUTERS/Issei Kato)

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A tsunami of around 2.6 feet was identified at the Kuji port in the Iwate prefecture while a tsunami of 1.3 feet was recorded at a different port in the prefecture, the agency indicated.

The Iwate prefecture put out non-binding evacuation advisories for those living in 11 towns.

A tsunami of as high as 10 feet could strike the region, the agency indicated.

RUSSIAN VOLCANO ERUPTS FOR FIRST TIME IN CENTURIES AFTER MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE STRIKES KAMCHATKA PENINSULA

A policeman picks his way through the debris looking for bodies in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, on March 22, 2011, after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.  (TORU YAMANAKA/AFP via Getty Images)

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A powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 wreaked havoc in Japan, leaving over 22,000 dead and compelling nearly 500,000 people to flee their homes, most of them because of tsunami damage.

TRAVELERS MUST PAY FEE, PASS SCREENING BEFORE VISITING POPULAR DESTINATION UNDER NEW RULE

 In this satellite view, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power plant after a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 14, 2011 in Futaba, Japan. (DigitalGlobe via Getty Images via Getty Images)

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Around 160,000 fled their residences due to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant — around 26,000 have not come back because they resettled somewhere else, their hometowns are still off-limits, or they harbor concerns regarding radiation.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

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