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Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent gives updates on European wildfires · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Kevin Gray are UK. You're correspondent with us. Givin nice
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  Speaker 1: to heavy on the show as always.
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  Speaker 2: Hither we've had.
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  Speaker 1: So I know the firefighting has been going on for
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  Speaker 1: weeks now, but we've had a pretty bad crash between
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  Speaker 1: two helicopters who are tackling the blaze.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, these are fire fighting helicopters and they collided while
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  Speaker 2: tackling a fire just west of Athens. Now, of the
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  Speaker 2: four people believed to be involved to aboard each helicopter,
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  Speaker 2: two have been found. One was a British pilot and
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  Speaker 2: a Greek Fire Service liaison officer. They were rescued and
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  Speaker 2: taken to a general hospital in Athens for treatment. However,
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  Speaker 2: the other two have now been confirmed as being killed.
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  Speaker 2: They were a Danish pilot and a Greek fire liaison officer.
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  Speaker 2: Now might be wondering why there's a British pilot there
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  Speaker 2: was a Danish pilot there. It's because so much of
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  Speaker 2: Europe is trying to help one another fight these terrible
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  Speaker 2: wildfires that are striking the area. And indeed, it is
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  Speaker 2: reported as well that there are some French and Roumanian
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  Speaker 2: personnel among those assisting their Greek counterparts in fighting these wildfires.
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  Speaker 2: Now an investigation, as you would expect, is underway why
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  Speaker 2: the helicopters were flying so close that they then touched
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  Speaker 2: and hit one another. But at least two have been saved,
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  Speaker 2: is the good news. The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsattakis
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  Speaker 2: said that it was his deepest sorry for the tragic accident.
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  Speaker 2: As a post on x and these wildfires, I'm afraid
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  Speaker 2: show no signs of abathing. It is the strong winds
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  Speaker 2: that are found in the flames and as we know,
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  Speaker 2: has been close to reaching Bordeaux in France, Madrid in Spain,
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  Speaker 2: and around Athens as well. The fires are pretty severe.
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  Speaker 1: The migrants that are swimming from Morocco to Spain, fifty
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  Speaker 1: sixty thousand of them, I know half of them have
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  Speaker 1: been turned back now. But do you think this could
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  Speaker 1: see the closure or exclusion of Spain from the open borders.
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  Speaker 2: I can see it kicking a a large splinter into
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  Speaker 2: the and a wedge into the relationships between Spain and
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  Speaker 2: some of the others. So, as you said, it was
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  Speaker 2: estimated sixty thousand migrants entered the Spanish enclave called Sueta,
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  Speaker 2: and it's literally part of North Africa. But it's a
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  Speaker 2: little enclave belongs to Spain. They're poor, part of the
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  Speaker 2: European Union, and it's right next door to Morocco. And
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  Speaker 2: what the numbers doing. I mean, it was just swarming around,
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  Speaker 2: using swimming or some sort of buoyancy aid to swim
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  Speaker 2: around the fence in the sea and then get back
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  Speaker 2: in as it were on land, but this time in
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  Speaker 2: Spain part of the EU. Well, such was the fear.
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  Speaker 2: Sixty seven tragically died, but such was the fear among
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  Speaker 2: others of the EU partnership. And of course once in
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  Speaker 2: the EU you are allowed to go from country to
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  Speaker 2: country without showing your passport. The leaders of the Netherlands,
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  Speaker 2: Finland and Belgium, along with very angry words from Italy
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  Speaker 2: saying look, we need to we need to close the
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  Speaker 2: borders to Spain effectively and stop this free movement of people.
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  Speaker 2: And indeed Italy went as far as doing that, but
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  Speaker 2: Spain hit back and just said this is a selfish,
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  Speaker 2: polarizing and unlawful, saying you can't just shut the border
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  Speaker 2: free Schengen Arrangement zone with Spain. So there's been a
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  Speaker 2: lot of pushback on this and this big meeting really
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  Speaker 2: I think to look at now what happens. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's it's rather amusing to us here in the UK. Ryan,
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  Speaker 2: that Spain always going on about with the you know,
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  Speaker 2: we shouldn't have Gibraltar because that's on the edge of Spain,
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  Speaker 2: and here are the Spanish getting in trouble, perhaps things
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  Speaker 2: something in North Africa, and this problem would seem set,
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  Speaker 2: I think, to only get worse as the EU look
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  Speaker 2: to protect its border.
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  Speaker 1: Gevin A good update, thank you. That's Kevin Gray. How
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  Speaker 1: you can europe correspondent. That meeting, by the way that
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  Speaker 1: Maliney has called with the EU leaders happening tomorrow night.
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  Speaker 1: Our time for more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:55
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