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Cyprus has said Russia's war on Ukraine and related gas cut-offs could help accelerate its efforts to get offshore gas flowing to the EU. Europe's "intention to move away from Russia regardless of when the war ends" means it will need alternative sources, Cypriot energy minister Natasa Pilides told Bloomberg Monday. Exploration of Cyprus' offshore fields was bedevilled by territorial disputes with Turkey before the war.

MTI: Világszerte 571.149.344 ember fertőződött meg eddig a koronavírus-járványban, a halálos áldozatok száma pedig 6.386.127 a baltimore-i Johns Hopkins Egyetem kedd reggeli adatai alapján.

The EU Parliament needs to take stronger measures against MEPs who serve foreign dictators, such as Putin, on bogus election-monitoring missions.

Dank des Einsatzes von Drohnen konnte die Rehkitzrettung zwischen Ende April bis Anfang Juli 3033 Rehjunge vor dem Tod durch eine Mähmaschine retten. Nicht nur die Einsatztage, auch die Zahl der gefundenen Jungtiere steigt damit an.

Le tribunal de première instance de première classe de Cotonou a condamné, ce lundi 25 juillet 2022, un agent de sécurité à une peine de 12 ans de prison. Le mis en cause est poursuivi pour le meurtre d'un présumé voleur de noix dans une palmeraie à Zè, dans le département de l'Atlantique.

Recruté pour assurer la surveillance d'une palmeraie, T. Arnaud fait usage d'une arme de fabrication artisanale et tue un présumé voleur dans la soirée du 23 février 2010 à Zè. A la barre ce lundi, il a reconnu les faits après les avoir nié lors des enquêtes préliminaires. L'accusé affirme que l'arme lui avait été remise par ses employeurs avec pour ordre, de tirer sur tout voleur surpris dans la palmeraie. Une déclaration que les responsables de la coopérative ont rejetée au moments de l'enquête préliminaire. Pour ces derniers, nul ne lui a donné l'ordre de tirer sur les voleurs. L'accusé selon le récit fait par le président de Céans, a varié dans ses déclarations avant de reconnaître les faits ce lundi, jour du procès.
Dans ses réquisitions, le ministère public demande à la Cour de requalifier les faits, et de condamner l'accusé pour meurtre, et un autre pour tentative de vol. Il demande à la Cour d'acquitter les autres accusés au bénéfice de doute, ceci, en raison du flou qui entoure la provenance de l'arme.
Le tribunal dans son délibéré accède à la demande du ministère public, et condamne l'accusé à 12 ans de prison. Son coaccusé est condamné à 24 mois assortis de sursis. Les autres accusés, responsables de la palmeraie pour la plupart, ont été acquittés au bénéfice de doute. Ils avaient bénéficié après leur arrestation d'une liberté provisoire. 06 personnes ont été poursuivies dans cette affaire.

AMENDMENTS 1 - 53 - Draft opinion Upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework: a resilient EU budget fit for new challenges
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Michael Gahler

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

THE HAGUE, 26 July 2022 – The Social Justice Center (SJC) from Georgia has been selected as the winner of the 2022 Max van der Stoel Award. The Award recognizes its work to support and empower vulnerable groups, including national minorities, in Georgia.

Since its foundation in 2012, the SJC (formerly Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre) has worked towards long-term political and socio-economic transformation in Georgia, thereby putting the principles of human rights, equality and solidarity into practice. The SJC gives a voice to minority ethnic and religious groups, and supports their interests, with an emphasis on youth and women.

Commenting on its decision, the international Jury, chaired by OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov, stated: “This non-governmental organization advances equality, solidarity, participation and democracy at the political, economic and social levels through programmes such as the Social Policy Programme, the Equality Policy Programme and the Justice and Democracy Programme. This has resulted in community organizations and campaigns to promote the interests of national minorities. 

“Acknowledging its activism and courage as it tirelessly advocates for equality for all social groups in Georgia, the Jury took the unanimous decision to reward the SJC with the 2022 Max van der Stoel Award.”

The Award of 50,000 euros was established by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001 in honour of the distinguished Dutch statesman and first OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Max van der Stoel. It is awarded biennially to recognize a person, group or institution for extraordinary and outstanding achievements in improving the position of national minorities in the OSCE participating States.

The Award ceremony will take place in The Hague on 17 November 2022.

EU member states should start preparing now for a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in autumn and winter, the EU commissioner for health Stella Kyriakides said on Monday, adding that there had been a "worrying increase" in outbreaks. Kyriakides said that the commission had asked member states to accelerate booster shots now for persons over 60 and vulnerable groups, Reuters reported. "These months should be preparatory months," she said.

The meeting comes as the Russian state-controlled Gazprom announced that supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany would drop to just 20 percent of capacity, starting Wednesday.

Ungarns Ministerpräsident Orban hatte beim Thema Gasverzicht von „deutschem Know-how“ gesprochen. Die jüdische Gemeinde fordert nun ein klärendes Treffen, berichtet der Tagesspiegel, Medienpartner von EURACTIV.

Ismét tüntetést tartottak a kisadózó vállalkozók tételes adójának (kata) módosítása ellen tiltakozók Budapesten. A hétfő esti demonstráció résztvevői előbb a Margit hídon, majd a körúton is akadályozták a gépjárműforgalmat, de a közösségi közlekedést is.

Die Tour de France Femmes ist erst zwei Etappen alt. Mehrere Stürze haben schon für Aufregung gesorgt.

The two Conservative MPs fighting to replace Boris Johnson as British prime minister clashed on taxes, inflation and foreign policy in their first head-to-head TV debate on Monday night. Former finance minister Rishi Sunak warned of current foreign secretary Liz Truss's former embrace of China, whilst Truss, promising £40bn [€47.2bn] in tax cuts, accused Sunak of raising taxes. The winner is due to be announced on 5 September.

The ruling conservative New Democracy party (EPP) has rejected a proposal from the opposition to set up a parliamentary committee to monitor the distribution of EU money from the Recovery Fund and the 2021-2027 NSRF funds.

The leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party has warned Moscow could try to interfere in the country's snap elections, called after the collapse of Mario Draghi's government last week, Reuters reports. Enrico Letta said he wanted Italian intelligence agencies and the European Union's disinformation unit to monitor the two-month election campaign. The rightwing parties, the League and Forward Italy, are predicted to win a majority alongside hard-right Brothers of Italy.

The UK will host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, in lieu of war-torn Ukraine, the BBC reported. Ukraine won the 2022 event, earning it the right to host the televised competition, whilst the UK came in second place. Several cities are in the running to host the event, which sees a live audience of around 10,000 spectators, plus a TV audience across the continent.

David Trimble, the former leader of the Ulster Unionist party and the inaugural first minister of Northern Ireland, died at the age of 77 on Monday, his family announced. Trimble, alongside the moderate nationalist leader John Hume, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work putting together the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which led to power-sharing and the end of decades of bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants.

Die Beteiligung Geflüchteter an Entscheidungen über die Ausgaben im städtischen Haushalt kann lokalen Behörden aus Sicht von Expert:innen helfen, Bedürfnisse besser zu verstehen. Doch oft stehen sprachliche und finanzielle Hindernisse im Weg.

MTI: Az eurót 399,51 forinton jegyezték röviddel hét óra előtt a hétfő esti 398,91 forint után. A svájci frank árfolyama 404,76 forintról 405,16 forintra emelkedett, a dolláré pedig 390,65 forintról 390,71 forintra nőtt.

Greenpeace activists submitting a petition by Congolese and international NGOs to the DRC presidency. Credit: Greenpeace - Raphael Mavmbu

By Irène Wabiwa Betoko
KINSHASA, Jul 26 2022 (IPS)

From the fall-out of the pandemic to the interlocking cost of living and energy security crises currently gripping the world, it has been fascinating to see the world’s richest governments bending over backwards to help fossil fuel companies.

Meanwhile households are battling a cost of living crisis while the climate crisis is raging on, threatening lives and livelihoods everywhere – from north to south.

After oil demand and prices briefly fell during the lockdowns of 2020, we’re seeing Big Oil enjoying unprecedented war-time profits, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up prices. Recall BP’s boss Bernard Looney crassly comparing his company to a “cash machine”.

This latest boon for fossil fuel companies makes the pledges from last year’s COP26 climate talks in Glasgow seem like a distant memory. Indeed, a £420m ($500m) deal for the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] has become increasingly useless in protecting its forests, with oil companies set to cash in and eventually paved the way for more forest destruction.

The DRC, home to most territory of the world’s second largest rainforest, prides itself in being a “solution country” for the climate crisis. However, the country, which already sees deforestation rates second only to Brazil, has already stated last year its intention to lift a 20 year ban on new logging concessions.

As of April this year, the DRC is set on trashing huge areas of the rainforest and peatland and – as of this week – it’s set to auction no less than 27 oil and three gas blocks.

Oil exploration and extraction would not only have devastating impacts on the health and livelihoods of local communities, but the oil driven “resource curse” raises the risk of corruption and conflict.

This auction also is sacrificing at least four parts of a mega-peatland complex, often labelled a carbon bomb, along with at least nine Protected Areas (contrary to denials by the Congolese Oil Ministry).

Following the enlargement of the auction this week, it also poses a direct threat (https://www.ft.com/content/5ea6f899-bb55-478f-a14a-a6dd37aae724) to the Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made famous thanks to a Netflix documentary on a previous campaign to keep the oil industry out of it.

Instead of steering us into a climate catastrophe,the international community must stop serving as the handmaiden of Big Oil. Instead, let’s see them focus on ending energy poverty by supporting clean, decentralised renewable energies. Whether it’s the cost of living crisis unfolding on our doorsteps or climate destruction sweeping the globe – the solutions are the same.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi must abandon the colonial notion of development through extractivism and look at its legacy in Africa, which has only deepened poverty and hardship for Africans. It has only served to enrich a small and closed circle of local beneficiaries and foreign nations.

It is telling that Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria, is also the one with the highest number of people suffering extreme poverty (just behind India) and with the highest number of people without access to electricity. Instead of following an economic model that hurts both people and nature, the DRC should resist pressures from greedy multinationals and prioritise connecting 72 million of its people to the grid.

You can bet Big Oil is salivating at the chance to seize yet more profits from climate destruction. Yet shamefully, none of the eight members who are part of the Central African Forest Initiative that is paying £420m of taxpayers’ money to protect DRC’s forests – the UK, the EU, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea – have uttered one word against this prospective oil auction.

That’s not surprising, given the “forest protection” deal does nothing to prevent oil activity in peatlands or anywhere else.

As Boris Johnson approaches his final weeks in office, his own environmental legacy and that of the COP26 risk being all targets, no action. Speeches are made and press releases are disseminated, while the rights of vulnerable people everywhere are being run over by short-sighted extractive industries.

Instead, I would like to see donor countries like the UK government, as host of the COP26 and one of the chief architects behind the DRC forest protection deal, to work with my country to move beyond the model of destructive extractivism and leapfrog towards a future of renewable and clean energy for all.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is the International Project Leader for the Congo Basin Forest, Greenpeace Africa