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Après la promulgation de la nouvelle constitution qui bascule le Togo dans la 5e République, beaucoup de changements vont s'opérer dans le fonctionnement des institutions, notamment au niveau de l'exécutif et du législatif.

Après la promulgation de la nouvelle constitution qui bascule le Togo dans la 5e République, beaucoup de changements vont s'opérer dans le fonctionnement des institutions, notamment au niveau de l'exécutif et du législatif.

Après la promulgation de la nouvelle constitution qui bascule le Togo dans la 5e République, beaucoup de changements vont s'opérer dans le fonctionnement des institutions, notamment au niveau de l'exécutif et du législatif.

Citizens in the EU Member States will elect their representatives to the European Parliament during the European elections of 6 to 9 June. The newly elected Members, representing EU citizens until 2029, will meet in July to elect their President, Vice-Presidents and Quaestors. They will decide on the composition of Parliament's standing and sub committees - thereby launching the new legislative term. The committees will then hold their first meetings to elect their respective Chairs and Vice-Chairs.
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As rapporteur and co-rapporteur on several health-related files, MEP Tiemo Wölken (Germany, S&D) has consistently prioritised fair access to medicines and transparent pricing, and with EU elections looming, he is eyeing a third mandate.

In Uvira, eastern Congo, Lake Tanganyika waters have risen so high that the town is flooded. People have been forced to move from their homes, and fields and houses have been destroyed. An estimated 180,000 people have been affected, and over 142,000 people have been displaced. 4,500 homes, 53 schools, and over 124 hectares of farmland were destroyed. Credit: WFP/Benjamin Anguandia

By Paul Virgo
ROME, Jun 4 2024 (IPS)

Kaponde Likando does not know how his family will survive until the next farming season. “We are not going to have anything (to harvest),” said the 60-year-old from Chingobe village in southern Zambia after his maize, sorghum, groundnut and sweet potato crops failed. “This has been the very opposite of what we expected.”

He is among 9.8 million people in Zambia to have been affected by a severe drought linked to the ongoing effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon.

Likando, who is married and has five children, now faces some grim choices.

“Our hope…we expect maybe to sell some of our animals so we can buy maize for food (consumption),” he said.

Across southern Africa, the current El Niño has dealt a devastating blow to some of the world’s hungriest and most fragile communities, where 70% of the population rely on agriculture for their livelihoods

The problem is that once that food runs out, with his livestock gone, there will be nothing standing between his family and starvation.

Likando’s plight is not limited to Zambians.

Across southern Africa, the current El Niño has dealt a devastating blow to some of the world’s hungriest and most fragile communities, where 70% of the population rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.

From Angola to Zimbabwe, it has left normally fertile soils arid, interrupting the production of staples such as maize, and curtailing people’s access to food, as stock dwindle as prices soar.

The three hardest-hit countries – Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi – have declared states of drought disaster. They face widespread crop losses, with between 40% and 80% of their maize harvests decimated.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says that, across the three countries, nearly five million people need humanitarian assistance.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kato Kasingabalwa is facing the other extreme of El Niño’s impact.

He lost everything, including his maize and rice harvests, in extensive flooding in Uvira, eastern Congo, after torrential rain caused Lake Tanganyika to overflow.

He and his five children have had to move three times to evade the rising water levels and they are living in a makeshift shelter on a vacant piece of land along with many other families whose homes have also been washed away.

Over one million people are estimated to have been impacted by the flooding in DRC, including many who, like Kasingabalwa, have been displaced, while homes, schools, and vast areas of farmland have been destroyed.

“The flooding caught us by surprise,” Kasingabalwa said.

“The water level is so high. We have been forced to move to places we could not have imagined settling in. Right now, the family is seriously struggling. Look at the state of my house there.

“I cannot even start describing the state in which my family members are. Some have wounds caused by water infections. The water is full and keeps coming closer to our settlement.

“It is confusing because in the morning, you wake and see the water level go down, but in the evening, the waves from the lake push the water up again, and we rush to move our belongings. This worries us the most..

“I’m a farmer, and all our harvests and seeds were gone.”

Although this El Niño cycle is coming to an end, the consequences will continue for months to come.

At an Extraordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on the current crisis in May, leaders said that 61 million people in the region were impacted by El Niño.

They launched an appeal for US$5.5 billion to meet the urgent humanitarian needs and a UN-led event takes place in Pretoria, South Africa, on June 5 to raise funds for the response.

The meeting was convened by UN Assistant Secretary-General Reena Ghelani, the Climate Crisis Coordinator for the El Niño/La Niña Response, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), WFP, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UNHCR Office in Pretoria.

El Niño events, which typically occur every two to seven years, have a major influence on temperature and rainfall in many parts of the world, raising the global average temperature and driving extreme weather events including drought, flooding and storms.

It is a natural phenomenon – a disruption of rainfall patterns caused by the warming of surface waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean – although recent studies suggest that global heating may be leading to stronger El Niño events.

Indeed, the most recent El Niño event is one of the five strongest on record.

“Climate change has affected us,” Likando said. “Seeing this drought, it’s more than in previous years.”

WFP says these climate extremes are a reminder of the urgent need to increase investment in activities that build resilience, especially in Southern Africa, so that communities can be empowered with climate adaptation solutions to mitigate, reduce and absorb the effects of such shocks.

WFP anticipated the effects of the El Niño season as soon as predictions were released in 2023, allowing anticipatory action plans and early warning messages to be prepared.

But the UN agency ability’s to respond to the emergency and avert a hunger catastrophe has been limited after its appeal for funding went unheeded earlier this year.

“El Niño disproportionately affects women and girls,” said Dr Menghestab Haile, WFP Regional Director for Southern Africa.

Haile explained that this is because it is often women who have leave the safety of their homes to go “miles and miles trying to find wood and food,” while girls are the first to leave schools to help their mothers.

“We need irrigation,” added Hailem who has a PhD in Meteorology.

“Water, water, water – if we’d had the resources to expand irrigation, farmers could produce more food.”

It is estimated that over 7 million people are living with Alzheimer’s Disease in Europe, and there is increasing concern about the ability to combat the disease with Europe’s ageing population. In this series of articles, Euractiv will explore the...

Le parti populiste ANO de l’ancien Premier ministre Andrej Babiš devrait remporter les élections européennes en République tchèque, alors que le débat public en amont du scrutin est dominé par son programme eurosceptique.

The Nigerian musicians are added to the festival line line-up, with just three weeks to go.

Le maire prokurde de Hakkari, une ville de l’extrême sud-est de la Turquie, a été destitué et remplacé par le gouverneur pour « appartenance à une organisation armée terroriste », suscitant une vague de réprobation au sein de l’opposition.

Security was tight and access restricted to Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Tuesday, the 35th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, while Hong Kong also increased policing as activists in Taiwan and elsewhere prepared to mark the date with vigils.

Der griechische Ministerpräsident Kyriakos Mitsotakis hat erklärt, dass er nach den Europawahlen am 9. Juni wahrscheinlich der Hauptverhandlungsführer der konservativen Europäischen Volkspartei (EVP) sein wird.

L’Union européenne a déposé une demande de conformité auprès de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) concernant les droits de douane colombiens sur les importations de frites congelées belges, allemandes et néerlandaises, que la Commission européenne a jugés discriminatoires.

Die rechtspopulistische Partei VOX werde eine zweite Amtszeit von EU-Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen (CDU/EVP) nicht unterstützen, so der Spitzenkandidat der spanischen Partei, Jorge Buxadé, gegenüber dem öffentlich-rechtlichen spanischen Sender RNE.

Von seinen Anhängern als „Macrons Klima-Trumpf“ gefeiert, von seinen Gegnern als „Greenwashing“ für den französischen Präsidenten abgetan. Der Vorsitzende des Umweltausschusses im Europäischen Parlament, Pascal Canfin, verteidigt seine Bilanz in einem Interview mit Euractiv vor den Wahlen.

Les agences humanitaires affirment que la quantité d'aide qui entre à Gaza est si faible qu'il y a un risque de famine.

Les agences humanitaires affirment que la quantité d'aide qui entre à Gaza est si faible qu'il y a un risque de famine.

The European Parliament elections are fast approaching, and agrifood policies have taken the spotlight following a wave of protests and demonstrations across the EU in recent months.

By External Source
Jun 4 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Ecosystems are being threatened all over the world.

From forests to drylands.

From farmlands to lakes.

Drought and desertification are threatening freshwater and soil ecosystems the most.

These are the connective tissues that makes life on Earth possible.

Drylands are areas which face great water scarcity.

They cover 41% of the Earth’s land surface and 78% of the world’s rangelands.

They also generate 44% of global crops – feeding half of the world’s livestock.

They support the lives and livelihoods of more than 2 billion people.

Approximately 1.4 billion livelihoods worldwide are directly reliant on access to fresh water.

Yet, up to 40% of the planet’s land is now degraded, affecting half the world’s population.

Every five seconds, the equivalent of one football pitch of soil is eroded.

Yet, it takes 1,000 years to generate 3 centimeters of topsoil.

The number duration of droughts has increased by 29% since 2000.

By 2050, droughts will affect 75% of the world’s population.

Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

It is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world.

That’s why World Environment Day 2024 focuses on land restoration, halting desertification and building drought resilience. We cannot turn back time, but we can grow forests, revive water sources, and bring back soils.

We are the generation that can make peace with land.

 

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Der bulgarische Präsident Rumen Radev hat angedeutet, dass Sofia seine Unterstützung für den EU-Beitritt Serbiens überdenken könnte. Grund dafür sei der Umgang Belgrads mit der bulgarischen Minderheit im Land.