Feed aggregator

It is estimated that between €275bn to €400bn will be lost for the tourism and travel sector because of the pandemic, the commissioner of the internal market, Thierry Breton, told MEPs from the parliament's committee on tourism on Tuesday.

EU candidate countries such as Albania, Montenegro and Serbia have relatively poor press freedoms - but still fare much better than Bulgaria, an EU state whose ranking in the World Press Freedom index has plummeted.

By March, the emergency had forced every government in Europe into an impossible choice - letting many people die and health systems collapse, or ground much of public life and inflict massive harm on their economic lives.

Covid-19 is no excuse to allow authoritarian minds more leeway. While Polish government uses the pandemic to conduct unfair elections, EU countries must see it as an existential political threat alongside the health and economic crisis.

Italians were hit hardest when the coronavirus landed in Europe but the European Union was slow to help the country. The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has apologised — twice.

Construction firms continued to suffer from a near-standstill in Belgium, were working as normal in the Netherlands, and just returned to work in Luxembourg, Besix, a Belgian company, told Reuters Tuesday, highlighting disparities in EU anti-pandemic restrictions. "There [in the Netherlands] we never had to close or slow down ... which is partially strange because it's the same business and only a few kilometres away," a Besix spokeswoman said.

European fatalities from seasonal influenza fell by half this winter, in what might have been a side-effect of anti-coronavirus lockdowns, early data from 11 EU states seen by Reuters indicated. "The flu season ended earlier than usual this year and this is probably due to the measures taken regarding [coronavirus]," Holger Rabenau, a virologist at Frankfurt University Hospital, said. Seasonal influenza killed 152,000 people in Europe in the 2017-2018 winter.

NGO BirdLife International urged the United Nations (UN) secretary-general António Guterres to declare "a healthy natural environment a fundamental human right" in an open letter on Wednesday - on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The letter asks for this article to be included on the agenda of the UN summit on biodiversity in September 2020, with the ultimate goal of its approval in December 2023.

The European Environmental Bureau revealed on Tuesday that air pollution is returning to China after it eased lockdown restrictions, and warned the EU about a similar outcome. "Our governments and the European Commission must prevent harmful air pollution from returning and develop exit strategies which avoid taking us back to a dirty future," said EEB policy officer Margherita Tolotto. The EU committed to cut air pollution under the Green Deal.

The EU should get "new tax-raising powers" and "clamp down on tax havens", as it looks to curb economic damage wrought by coronavirus, Polish finance minister Tadeusz Kościński told the FT Tuesday ahead of an EU summit on pandemic bailouts Thursday. The EU should be "looking at tax havens, a digital tax, also a financial transactions tax, a carbon border tax: taxes that will hit other [non-EU] economies", he said.

Coca-Cola, its biggest bottling partners in Europe and 20 other businesses come together to support EU’s Water Framework Directive. Industry, NGOs and EU citizens urge that the Directive is kept intact in order to maintain stability and protect Europe’s freshwater resources.

A központi válságstáb kedden jóváhagyta a járványellenes óvintézkedések enyhítésének első fázisát. Szerdától adott feltételek mellett újra kinyithatnak egyes 300 m2-nél nem nagyobb alapterületű boltok, egyes szálláshelyek, szolgáltatások, étkezdék, kültéri piacok, szabadtéri sportpályák, autószalonok és használtautó-kereskedések.

Al-akhbar - Une enquête réalisée par le site «Al-akhbar» sur les projets de décret attribuant des parcelles au cours de la dernière année...

Selon notre sondage en ligne, une majorité s’oppose à une rentrée scolaire le 11 mai.

A Gazdasági Versenyhivatal (GVH) is csatlakozni kíván az Állami Számvevőszék (ÁSZ) által kezdeményezett nemzeti korrupcióellenes együttműködéshez – közölte a számvevőszék.

A közlemény szerint Rigó Csaba Balázs, a GVH elnöke, aki 2020 április 15-óta tölti be posztját erről azon a minapi megbeszélésen tájékoztatta Domokos Lászlót, az ÁSZ elnökét, amelyen megállapodtak a két szervezet együttműködésének szorosabbá tételéről.

Rigó a közlemény szerint kifejtette: az integritás, a közélet tisztasága olyan értékek, amelyeket a GVH-nak is mindenek felett biztosítania kell működésében, hiszen csak így garantálható, hogy beavatkozásai a torzítatlan verseny érvényesülését eredményezik a piacokon.

A közlemény emlékeztet arra: 2011 novemberében az ÁSZ kezdeményezésére jött létre az a nyilatkozat, amelyben a számvevőszék elnöke, a közigazgatási és igazságügyi miniszter, a legfőbb ügyész és a Legfelsőbb Bíróság (Kúria) elnöke, erkölcsi kötelezettséget vállaltak az általuk vezetett állami szervek korrupcióval szembeni ellenálló képességének erősítésére, a korrupcióellenes eszköztár fejlesztésére. Az összefogáshoz 2012-ben csatlakozott az Országos Bírósági Hivatal, 2014-ben a Belügyminisztérium, 2016-ban pedig a Közbeszerzési Hatóság és a Magyar Nemzeti Bank.

Depuis février dernier, le Canada fait face à la pandémie du Coronavirus. Selon la mise à jour du 20 avril 2020 faite par l’agence d’informations QMI, cette maladie a causé le décès de plus de 1690 personnes dans ce pays. Face à la propagation de la pandémie, le gouvernement canadien avait pris des mesures drastiques […]

L’article Covid-19 au Canada : le confinement à Ottawa vécu par un ressortissant de la RDC est apparu en premier sur Afrik.com.

Americas

Timken Gears and Services won a $76.2 million contract modification to exercise options for main reduction gear shipsets for DDG-51 or Arleigh Burke Class guided-missile destroyers. The DDG 51 Arleigh Burke Class is a multi-mission warship. It features an advanced anti-submarine warfare system, the AEGIS combat system, the Vertical Launching System, two embarked SH-60 helicopters along with advanced anti-aircraft missiles and land-attack missiles. The main reduction gears transmit the power from two main propulsion gas turbines to the propulsion shaft. Each DDG 51 Class destroyer has two gear assemblies, one for each propulsion shaft. The DDG 51-Class guided-missile destroyer is a multi-mission surface combatant with 67 delivered ships, and 21 more are currently under contract. Work will take place in Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware and Wisconsin. Work is expected to be finished by November 2023.

The US Air Force has decided to focus on Raytheon’s design for the Long-Range Standoff Weapon program. Elizabeth Thorn, LRSO’s program manager said the decision is not a down-select. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were given Technology Maturation and Risk contracts for the program in 2017. “We are reframing our relationship with Lockheed Martin to focus on specific technology maturation we believe either has future applicability for the final LRSO design or will reduce overall program risk,” Thorn said. The LRSO is designed to be a nuclear-armed cruise missile to replace the AGM-86.

Middle East & Africa

Iraq became the latest country to consider acquiring the Russian-made S-400 Triumf, local news reports. The country’s Parliamentary Security and Defense committee had submitted a report to the Iraqi prime minister’s office recommending the acquisition of the S-400. The country had previously announced in January that it would be examining potential offerings from China, Russia, and Ukraine. The acquisition will have to await approval of the country’s prime minister, with the post currently vacant. Former director of the country’s National Intelligence Service Mustafa al-Khadimi is currently the prime minister designate and is negotiating with other parties to form a coalition government.

Iran now has armed versions of its Ababil-3 UAV. This was revealed during a ceremony held to mark the delivery of three types of unmanned aircraft to the military. The Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics released photographs showing a hangar at the Aerospace Industries Organization facility in Isfahan with 11 Ababil-3s, one of which was carrying a television-guided munition on a hardpoint under a wing. This appeared to be a member of the Ghaem family of small-guided bombs that has previously been seen on Mohajer-6 UAVs. Iranian television showed an Ababil-3 with a different livery apparently carrying out a precision air strike against an old tank using a munition labelled as a Ghaem. The MODAFL cited Defense Minister Amir Hatami as saying the Ababil-3 has a range of 150 km.

Europe

The German government has approved the procurement of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler to partially satisfy its Tornado replacement requirement, national media has reported. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has told the US government that Berlin has given clearance for the Luftwaffe to acquire 45 Super Hornet and Growler aircraft as part of its wider plans to replace 90 Panavia Tornado Interdiction and Strike (IDS)/Electronic Combat Reconnaissance (ECR) aircraft with 85 new platforms from 2025. The 30 Super Hornet multirole and 15 Growler electronic attack (EA) jets would enable the Luftwaffe to fulfil its airborne nuclear strike and EA requirements within the required timeframe,

Asia-Pacific

The Turkish defense company Aselsan announced that it had signed a new contract with Kazakhstan to supply its Stabilized Advanced Remote Weapon Platform (SARP)-Dual remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS). The Turkish company has strong links with Kazakhstan via its Kazakhstan Aselsan Engineering subsidiary, which was established to increase ‘manufacturing capacity in order to meet Kazakhstan’s military and civilian needs’. No details were provided about the delivery schedule, the size of the order, the value of the contract or the platforms the RWCSs are set to be installed upon. In November 2016 Kazakhstan had awarded the company a contract for an undisclosed number of SARP RWCSs, deliveries of which began the following year. However, these are believed to have been single weapon systems.

Today’s Video

Watch: NEW SORYU SUBMARINES ARE THE FIRST TO HAVE LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES MAKING THEM DEADLY SILENT !

Die Staatschefs der EU und die Kommission arbeiten an einer Wiederaufbau-Strategie nach der Corona-Krise. In Deutschland hat sich eine breite Allianz formiert und fordert die Einhaltung des Green Deals. Frans Timmermans beschwichtigt derweil das EU-Parlament.

Jogerősen két év, három év próbaidőre felfüggesztett fogházbüntetést szabott ki az emeletről kizuhant mezőtúri kislány édesanyjával szemben a Szolnoki Törvényszék – közölte a törvényszék sajtóosztálya.

A törvényszék gondatlanságból elkövetett életveszélyt okozó testi sértés miatt ítélte el a nőt. A nő 2019. március 3-án délelőtt óvodáskorú gyermekét egyedül hagyta a harmadik emeleti társasházi lakásban, amikor vásárolni indult. A kislány a konyhába ment, az egyik székről felmászott az ablak alatti konvektorra, kinyitotta az ablak alsó, bukónyíló részét, amelyen előbb kidobta a párnáját, majd maga is kimászott és tíz méter magasról az épület előtti térkő burkolatra zuhant. Életveszélyes sérüléseket szenvedett, de a szakszerű orvosi ellátásnak köszönhetően életben maradt.

Az ügyben 2020. március 17-én emelt vádat a Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Főügyészség. A Szolnoki Törvényszék március 24-én tárgyalás mellőzésével büntetővégzést hozott, amelyet az ügyészség tudomásul vett, a vádlott és védője sem kérték tárgyalás megtartását.