European Union

Over the past decade, analysts have increasingly viewed Iranian transit routes as Central Asia’s most promising path to the sea.

Kyiv offers allies battlefield-tested expertise against Iranian drones

Thursday's European summit was initially billed as a moment to focus on European competitiveness

AMENDMENTS 403 - 762 - Draft report 2025 Commission report on Türkiye
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Nacho Sánchez Amor

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

In Bulgaria, 37% of women smoke, versus 17% in Finland

L'Association du transport aérien international (IATA) publie aujourd'hui un rapport qui démontre le rôle vital du fret aérien pour le commerce mondial et la croissance économique en 2025, dans un contexte de grande incertitude concernant les politiques commerciales. Voici les constatations clés du rapport.

· Le fret aérien a permis l'anticipation d'importations américaines d'une valeur de 157 milliards $ au premier trimestre de 2025.

· Le fret aérien a transporté plus des deux tiers de tous les biens reliés à l'IA dans le monde en 2025.

Ces activités ont soutenu la croissance de 2,4 % du commerce mondial en 2025, ce qui est bien supérieur aux prévisions initiales de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce. Le PIB mondial s'est aussi accru de 3,2 % malgré des vents contraires importants sur le plan politique.

« Le fret aérien est une composante structurelle de la résilience de l'économie mondiale. En 2025, il a aidé les entreprises à absorber les chocs tarifaires, permis une restructuration rapide du commerce et soutenu l'expansion des investissements en intelligence artificielle (IA), favorisant la croissance commerciale et économique dans une année difficile », déclare Julia Seiermann, directrice des analyses industrielles à l'IATA.

Flambée d'importations anticipées

En 2025, les tarifs moyens appliqués par les États-Unis ont atteint environ 17 %, les plus élevés depuis les années 1930, avec plusieurs changements de politique et des frictions commerciales accrues. Plusieurs entreprises ont utilisé le fret aérien pour précéder les tarifs en accélérant les envois.

Au premier trimestre de 2025, les importations américaines se sont accrues de 193 milliards $ en glissement annuel, soit une augmentation de 26 %. La hausse était massivement concentrée dans le transport aérien. La valeur des importations par air au premier trimestre s'est accrue de 81 % en glissement annuel, totalisant 157 milliards $ (82 % des 193 milliards $ d'augmentation au premier trimestre).

Restructuration des corridors commerciaux

En plus de la flambée des importations anticipées, les compagnies ont commencé à restructurer les chaînes d'approvisionnement pour réduire l'exposition aux tarifs. Les importateurs américains ont modifié leurs sources d'approvisionnement pour éviter les partenaires exposés aux tarifs, tandis que les exportateurs ont redirigé leurs envois vers des marchés alternatifs, notamment l'Europe.

La capacité du fret aérien de permettre la redistribution géographique des marchandises de haute valeur et sensibles au facteur temps pour répondre aux chocs politiques a été clairement démontrée. Durant la période d'avril à décembre 2025, le fret aérien a profité de l'expansion des corridors commerciaux davantage qu'il n'a été affecté par les corridors qui se sont contractés.

Pour les États-Unis, sur les corridors commerciaux en expansion, les importations ont augmenté de 213 milliards $, dont 174 milliards $ (82 %) étaient transportés par air. Pendant ce temps, dans les corridors en contraction, les importations américaines ont décliné de 257 milliards $, dont 77 milliards $ (30 %) étaient normalement transportés par air. En Europe, un schéma similaire a été observé : le fret aérien a transporté 48 % des gains dans les corridors en expansion, mais seulement 3 % de moins dans les corridors en contraction.

Stimuler l'essor des investissements en IA

Alors que les investissements en IA ont bondi en 2025, le fret aérien a livré de façon efficiente et fiable des équipements de haute valeur et sensibles au temps, comme des serveurs, des unités de stockage de données et des puces mémoires.

In 2025 :

· plus des deux tiers de la valeur du commerce lié à l'IA ont été transportés par air ;

· les envois par fret aérien de biens reliés à l'IA ont augmenté de 20 % d'une année sur l'autre ;

· les biens reliés à l'IA comptaient pour 53,5 % de la valeur totale du commerce par voie aérienne, tout en représentant seulement 7 % du volume, ce qui fait ressortir la haute densité de valeur de ce segment et son importance stratégique pour l'industrie.

« La rapide augmentation de la demande de biens reliés à l'IA en 2025 a été satisfaite grâce au fret aérien, ce qui a permis que les investissements se transforment en activité économique plutôt que d'être contraints par des problèmes de logistique. Comme les économies dépendent stratégiquement et de plus en plus de biens technologiques de haute valeur, le fret aérien va continuer de jouer un rôle critique en assurant leur livraison en temps opportun », conclut Mme Seiermann.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Les Guépards du Bénin affronteront la Palestine et la Guinée dans le cadre des journées FIFA de mars 2026.

Le Bénin jouera le 27 mars prochain contre la Palestine et le 31 mars contre la Guinée. Ces rencontres qui s'inscrivent dans le cadre des journées FIFA se dérouleront au Maroc.

En prélude à cette trêve internationale, Gernot Rohr, le sélectionneur national des Guépards a mobilisé 25 joueurs.
M. M.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Larijani was "eliminated last night", although this has not been confirmed by Iran

The episode feeds into broader concerns about the EPP’s voting patterns this mandate, with the group increasingly relying on far-right support

€180 million call will fund at least three projects, per maximum requested grant size

Remarks follows MAGA-led committee pressing US tech companies to hand over messages from EU officials

A gathering organised for the families of victims of Duterte's war on drugs in Quezon City ahead of the opening of the ICC confirmation hearing. The signs which are held up in a few of the pictures read: 'Justice! Jail everyone involved in the war on drugs.' Credit: IDEFEND

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Mar 17 2026 (IPS)

Gito* had just arrived at his father’s house in Caloocan City in the Philippines on December 7, 2016, when three armed policemen burst into the home, grabbed his father, took him outside and shot him multiple times. Gito told IPS his father had put his hands up when the officers told him they had come to arrest him, but they opened fire anyway.

Then they turned on Gito, who was 15 at the time and had come to see his father to get his lunch money for school. He says they told him his father was a drug dealer and that he would be facing charges because he was with him. He was taken away and tortured – beaten and forced to drink urine – and later jailed for three years. He and his four siblings were all forcibly separated; his mother’s mental health deteriorated, and even after release, Gito needed years of mental health help.

Andrea*, from the same city, told IPS a similar story. One day in October 2017, she and her husband and father-in-law were watching television at their home when two men wearing masks and black jackets and carrying guns burst in, shouting the name of a person none of them knew. Despite their protestations, the two men executed her husband and father-in-law, shooting them many times while they knelt in front of them. Andrea, who was five months pregnant at the time, was also injured in the shooting – a bullet hit her leg.

A priest prays at a gathering organised for the families of victims of Duterte’s war on drugs in Quezon City, ahead of the opening of the ICC confirmation hearing. Credit: IDEFEND

Left without any means of income with both the family’s breadwinners dead, she had to drop out of the vocational course she was on and spiralled into a deep depression. She eventually recovered. “When I looked at my baby, I saw my husband in her, so I picked myself up and faced life bravely,” she explained. She said, though, it is still hard financially, as she also supports her mother-in-law.

Gito’s father, and Andrea’s husband and father-in-law, were just a few of the estimated tens of thousands of victims of the brutally repressive anti-drugs policy implemented by former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

For years, people like Gito and Andrea have fought an often seemingly futile battle for justice for their loved ones even as local and international rights groups have detailed the horrific crimes committed under Duterte’s “war on drugs”.

But a recent hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, has given them, and others, hope that they could see justice.

Both Gito and Andrea, along with other relatives of people who were killed under Duterte’s violent crackdown on drug use, were at the Hague during confirmation hearings between February 23 and 27 to decide whether Duterte should stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity linked to his deadly anti-drug crackdown.

Launched in 2016, it remains one of the deadliest anti-narcotics campaigns in modern history, activists say. While official police figures show 6,252 people killed by May 2022, human rights groups estimate there could have been as many as 30,000 deaths, including vigilante-style executions.

The case against Duterte covers 49 incidents of alleged murder and attempted murder, involving 78 victims, including children. But prosecutors at the hearing said these incidents are only a fraction of the thousands of killings attributed to police and hired hitmen during Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.

At the trial the prosecution said that Duterte played a “pivotal” role in a campaign of extrajudicial killings that saw thousands murdered, alleging he personally drew up death lists, incited murders and then boasted about them afterwards.

The court was shown videos of Duterte threatening to murder alleged drug users and boasting of his own skills in extrajudicial killing.

Statements from victims’ relatives submitted at the trial also highlighted the devastating toll the repressive policy had taken on not just individual families but also wider communities which were already impoverished and marginalised.

Illegal drug use in impoverished communities was often a mechanism, the prosecution said when submitting witness testimony, to cope with terrible living conditions. They said victims’ marginalised and vulnerable conditions were exacerbated exponentially when targeted by police and that the campaign against them targeted their humanity.

The prosecution pointed out that victims were often killed in front of their families, usually in their homes and local neighbourhoods, which subsequently became crime scenes. Following the killings, the families were left with not just lasting personal trauma but stigma within their close-knit communities.

Meanwhile, by targeting marginalised groups, law enforcement authorities were specifically going after those who would be least likely to be able to file complaints in the domestic justice system, human rights lawyers at the hearing argued. They said this was calculated to ensure no one was held accountable ultimately for what happened.

Duterte’s defence claimed the 80-year-old did not issue specific orders to kill drug suspects as part of his policy to take down the illegal drug trade in the country. They said that what actions he took were within the law. Duterte himself waived his right to attend the hearing and said he does not recognise the court’s authority.

The ICC has 60 days in which to issue a decision on whether to proceed with the case against Duterte, ask for more evidence, or stop the process against him.

Activists who were at the trial have expressed hope that the case against him will go ahead.

“It was very clear that the prosecution had enough [evidence] to convince the judges that the case should proceed to trial.

“The truth of the matter is that the evidence presented by the prosecution was backed up by true narratives by witnesses and by families themselves who saw how their loved ones were killed,” Rowena Legaspi, spokesperson for the Philippine group In Defense of Rights and Dignity Movement (IDEFEND), told IPS.

Both Gito and Andrea said they were convinced of the strength of the evidence presented, although Gito admitted he feared Duterte might still somehow not be tried.

“This is a grave concern for me. There are fears around political interference or procedural issues that Duterte’s defence may raise in an attempt to stop the proceedings. But I also trust the ICC process and the sufficient documents they have,” he said.

Activists also see the fact that the confirmation hearings have taken place at all as a step towards justice for the victims of Duterte’s drug crackdown.

“For the families of the victims in the court and those watching back in the Philippines, this was like seeing light at the end of the dark day when Duterte was the president. Reaching this stage of confirmation charges continues to at least gradually break the pain that is embedded in them,” Legaspi added.

“This case moving to trial is a step towards healing for all of us,” said Andrea.

Campaigners also see it as essential to ongoing campaigning for justice in the Philippines.

For years, domestic institutions failed to deliver justice, local rights groups say, with findings by rights institutions stonewalled, courts offering no meaningful accountability, and families of victims silenced by fear.

And while Duterte’s arrest and transfer to The Hague was a breakthrough in itself, activists say. They also point out that at the same time, his allies at home continue to push immunity bills and resolutions questioning ICC jurisdiction.

IDEFEND said the hearings are a political and moral test of whether international law can pierce impunity and whether Filipino society will stand with victims against state-sanctioned violence and a litmus test of the Filipino people’s pursuit of accountability.

“Duterte’s arrest and the ICC process prove persistence matters. Leaders cannot forever hide behind power, sovereignty, or dynasties. The law may be slow, but history bends toward accountability when people insist on truth.

“This case is not just about putting Duterte on trial. It affirms that the lives lost — mostly the poor and voiceless — mattered. It restores dignity to families. It exposes the machinery of state violence. And it warns future leaders that mass killings will not be tolerated,” Legaspi said.

“It also challenges the culture of impunity shielding not just Duterte but also his enablers and successors. Senate resolutions, immunity bills, and denial campaigns show the fight is far from over. But every manoeuvre is proof of accountability’s power: they are afraid because truth is catching up,” she added.

Meanwhile, other drug policy reform campaigners say it serves as an example of the massive damage that can be caused by repressive drug policies and sends a strong signal to other leaders implementing similarly brutal, hardline anti-drug campaigns.

“The large-scale human rights violations committed under Duterte’s war on drugs – which have resulted in tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings – are one of the starkest examples of the devastating impacts of punitive drug policies. And the Philippines is not an isolated case. Around the world, lethal force continues to be justified in the name of drug control – mostly in contexts of entrenched impunity,” Marie Nougier, Head of Research and Communications at the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), told IPS.

“The decision by the International Criminal Court to pursue the case of Duterte sends an important signal: drug control cannot be used as a pretext for unlawful killings and the erosion of fundamental rights, and that political leaders are not beyond the reach of international law,” she added.

Back in the Philippines, the drug policies Duterte implemented remain in place and there continue to be drug-related killings, although not at the levels seen under Duterte.

And nearly a decade on from when Duterte’s hardline policies were introduced, only nine police officers have been convicted. Rights groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) say the vast majority of those responsible, including senior officials, have not faced any repercussions.

Legaspi said there have been some bills introduced by lawmakers on possible investigations of extrajudicial killings and discussion of treating drug use as a health issue rather than criminal and looking at harm-reduction measures to combat it.

She added, though, that Duterte’s drug policies had “an impact so huge that it continues to be felt to this day”.

Both Gito and Andrea said they were hopeful the hearings may bring about some change in the country’s drug policy.

In the meantime, though, both are waiting to see what the ICC decides and hoping for justice.

“For me, justice will be fully served when Duterte has been convicted and his co-perpetrators of the drug war have also been arrested, detained, and convicted. That is justice for me,” said Gito.

*Identity protected for their safety.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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La candidate du ⁠parti Reconquête pour les ​élections municipales à Paris, Sarah Knafo, a annoncé mardi son choix de retirer sa ​liste, qui a recueilli 10,4 % des voix au premier tour, pour préserver les chances de la droite de l'emporter dimanche prochain.

Lead legislator for Parliament's civil liberties committee also warns against 'core' changes to the definition of personal data

EU carbon market under pressure as lawmaker warns against dismantling

The chair of Parliament's Committee on Fisheries wants to trigger the EU’s crisis and transition temporary framework due to the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
Committee on Fisheries

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The chair of Parliament's Committee on Fisheries wants to trigger the EU’s crisis and transition temporary framework due to the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
Committee on Fisheries

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

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“This is not the world we want to participate in,” Síkela said