"Brussels, my love?" EU heads to London for major Reset Summit
In this edition, we are joined by Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, the Irish politician, barrister, and former broadcaster who represents the Ireland South constituency in the European Parliament since July 2024, Yves Bertoncini, the French political scientist and consultant specialising in European affairs and Bruno Waterfield a seasoned British journalist based in Brussels, currently serving as the Brussels correspondent for The Times.
The panel reflect on the EU/UK summit that took place last Monday in London. Called the 'Reset Summit' by some and the 'Surrender Summit' by others, a potential deal was clinched on a range of issues from defence to fishing to the movement of young people between the UK and the EU.
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú said the summit was a 'great start'.
But, Bruno Waterfield warned that the document was very general.
But Yves Bertoncini insisted that the summit was not about Brexit and bad feelings about divorcing, but about a 'fresh start'.
"It is a new phase to go forward in a different political context", he said.
The panel also discussed the so-called 'Pfizergate' that describes the transparency and accountability scandal involving the European Commission President President Ursula von der Leyen, and the CEO of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The controversy centres on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic and the lack of transparency shown to the press regarding text messages between Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer.
Bruno Waterfield called it a 'slap in the wrist' for the European Commission but argued that almost every decision in Brussels takes place 'shrouded in secrecy'.
But Yves Bertoncini recalled that the Commission was improvising to respond to the Covid 19 crisis in an urgent way.
Finally, the panel debated the politics around the Eurovision song contest.
Bruno Waterfield called the contest an 'appalling sort of night of bad taste and bad music" and slammed the "cultural boycott of Israel".
But Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, who actually presented the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1994, insisted the contest was and remains 'wonderful'.
"I thought Basel did a fantastic show", she said adding that artists should not be singeld out for the mistakes of political leaders.
Watch "Brussels, my love?" in the player above.
The leader of an eastern European neo-Nazi group has been extradited to the United States from Moldova following his arrest last summer for allegedly instructing an undercover federal agent to dress as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to Jewish children and racial minorities, prosecutors have said.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 21-year-old originally from Georgia, was arraigned on Friday before a federal judge in Brooklyn on multiple felonies, including soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence.
He pleaded not guilty through an attorney, Samuel Gregory, who requested his client receive a psychiatric evaluation and be placed on suicide watch while in custody.
Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili, who also goes by "Commander Butcher," as the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist group that adheres to a "neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems 'undesirables.'"
They said the group's violent solicitations, promoted through Telegram channels and outlined a manifesto called the "Hater's Handbook," appear to have inspired multiple real life killings, including a school shooting in Nashville earlier this year that left a 16-year-old student dead.
Since 2022, Chkhikvishvili has travelled on multiple occasions to Brooklyn, where he bragged about beating up an elderly Jewish man and instructed others, primarily through text messages, to commit violent acts on behalf of the Maniac Murder Cult, according to court papers.
When he was approached by an undercover FBI agent in 2023, Chkhikvishvili recruited the official to a scheme that "involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities and children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn," according to the Justice Department.
He later suggested narrowing the focus to "dead Jewish kids," prosecutors said, after noting that "Jews are literally everywhere" in Brooklyn.
Describing his desire to carry out a mass casualty attack, Chkhikvishvili said he saw the United States as "big potential because accessibility to firearms," adding that the undercover should consider targeting homeless people because the government wouldn't care "even if they die," according to court papers.
He was arrested last July in Moldova, where he was held prior to this week's extradition.
In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the case was "a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology."
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