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Működésbe lépett a SLIM japán űrszonda – közölte a japán űrügynökség (JAXA). A közösségi médiában megjelent közlemény szerint az űrszonda többsávos kamerája megkezdte a felvételek készítését, és el is küldte az első képeket.

By 2040, the EU's agricultural sector should be able to cut non-CO2 emissions by at least 30% compared to 2015 levels, with livestock and fertiliser use key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a draft communication on the 2040 EU climate target states. 

The EU Commission is reevaluating its funding to UNRWA in light of allegations of 12 staff involvement in the 7 October attack against Israel. Despite the international pressure, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Denmark and Norway will continue their funding.

It comes after the former president said he would not vote for the party he once led.

Kasachstan hat am Montag (29. Januar) angekündigt, seine Häfen Aktau und Kuryk am Kaspischen Meer sowie 22 Flughäfen für europäische Investoren zu öffnen. Man möchte damit einen Transitknotenpunkt zwischen Asien und Europa aufbauen.

E-commerce giant Amazon has given up on its bid to acquire the smart vacuum cleaner manufacturer iRobot, following EU regulators' concerns about it possibly restricting competition in the product’s market.

By 2030, 35 million buildings in the EU will be either renovated or demolished under the Green Deal — yet there is still no directive to determine the extent of asbestos contamination in Europe, the leading cause of workplace fatalities.

Le parti AKP du président turc Recep Tayyip Erdoğan se présentera aux élections européennes en Allemagne, selon plusieurs médias et personnalités politiques allemandes, qui estiment que cela renforcera l’influence de la Turquie au sein de l’UE.

You can herd sheep, but you cannot herd cats. ‘Herding cats’ is an idiom denoting an attempt – futile by default - to control or organise a class of entities that are inherently uncontrollable.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and MPs from all sides of the political spectrum have reaffirmed France's opposition to the EU-Mercosur deal in a timely political move as farmers fiercely opposing the deal have stepped up protests and plan to march on Paris.

La Commission a demandé à l’Office des Nations unies pour les réfugiés de Palestine dans le Proche-Orient (UNRWA) d’autoriser des experts de l’UE à procéder à un audit, après que les Israéliens ont accusé des membres de son personnel d’avoir participé à l’attaque du Hamas contre Israël.

Kazakhstan on Monday (29 January) offered its Caspian Sea ports of Aktau and Kuryk, as well as 22 airports to European investors for management, with the aim of building a strong transit hub between Asia and Europe.

WARSAW/COPENHAGEN, 29 January 2024 – The decision of the Russian Federation not to invite OSCE observers to the upcoming presidential election is deeply regrettable, leaders of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) said today.

“We are greatly disappointed at the decision not to invite the OSCE to observe the Russian presidential election,” said ODIHR Director Matteo Mecacci. “This runs contrary to the OSCE commitments made by the Russian Federation, and at the same time will deny the country’s voters and institutions an impartial and independent assessment of the election."

All OSCE states have recognized the importance for our societies of holding democratic elections. ODIHR is respected worldwide for its credible and reliable assessment of elections across the region, using a comprehensive and uniform methodology. This most recent decision reflects a clear lack of will to cooperate with OSCE international observers, despite the commitments made by all OSCE countries to do so. It also adds to the growing concerns surrounding the shrinking democratic space and erosion of fundamental rights in the Russian Federation. Any system defining itself as democratic welcomes international scrutiny and encourages transparency.

“We regret that conditions have deteriorated so much in the Russian Federation that we cannot deploy observers for the presidential election in March,” said OSCE PA President Pia Kauma. “The very first election observation mission organized by the OSCE PA was to Russia in 1993, and since then we have observed ten national elections in the country. It is very unfortunate that democratic backsliding has reached such a critical point that we cannot be on the ground to observe this year, but we will of course continue to follow the situation closely.”

ODIHR engaged in consultations with the Russian Federation as early as September 2023 to agree on the dates for the deployment of a pre-election needs assessment mission, an initial and crucial step in determining whether to deploy an election observation and in what format. Following the 2021 parliamentary elections, when no OSCE observers were deployed following major limitations imposed by the Russian Federation authorities, the presidential vote on 17 March 2024 will be the second time in a row that the OSCE is unable to observe elections in the country.

All OSCE participating States have committed to inviting observers from other OSCE participating States and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to observe, as well as following up swiftly on ODIHR’s election assessment and recommendations. Parliamentary observers from the OSCE PA put their political expertise and personal experience in electoral processes at the disposal of the OSCE through election observation work conducted across the OSCE region.

While ODIHR will not be able to observe the forthcoming presidential election, the Office continues to monitor the unfolding events in the Russian Federation across all the areas covered by its mandate.

Alors que les dirigeants européens s’apprêtent à approuver cette semaine 50 milliards d’euros pour venir en aide à l’Ukraine, avec ou sans le feu vert hongrois, à Bruxelles, nombreux sont ceux qui se rendent compte du coût élevé de cette mesure.

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 29 2024 (IPS)

The Republic of Mauritius, an island nation, experienced its latest flash floods since the last bad one in 2013. These floods resulted in the loss of lives and hefty bills for car insurers with over 3000 cars have been damaged.

Unfortunately, we will go through more climate-related traumas because as an island nation we are sorely ill-prepared and we seem to be blithely oblivious to climate challenges especially when one takes a look at our development trajectory.

There is an urgent need to factor in resilience of our infrastructure; our adaptation strategy, the use of appropriate technology to inform and educate our people for better awareness and preparedness. When we look at recent tragedies, we cannot and must not put everything on the back of a changing climate, although I am sure the temptation is great in order to absolve one of his/her responsibilities. Urgent measures need to be put in place to counteract this new reality and also address our vulnerabilities.

There is no doubt that we will experience more devastating cyclones and they will take our economies back several decades.

It is the becoming increasingly clear that the way we urbanise, the resilience of our infrastructures, how ‘green’ we keep our buildings and landscape will all underscore how well we adapt to a changing climate.

Locally and in many parts of the world, there is a high proclivity to cut down big swath of forests, drain the ‘Ramsar-protected’ swamps which are the lungs the world; build bungalows on sea fronts; sacrifice century-old trees in the name of ‘development’; century-old drains which have survived the test of time, are now increasingly seeped in cement!

In many surrounding islands including Mauritius, buildings are seen popping up on the slopes of mountains. There’s also massive investment in infrastructure projects with no visibility on the ‘Environment Impact Assessments – EIA’ (absence of Freedom of Information Act in Mauritius prevents the public from accessing to these critical documents).

There’s also locally, no visibility on the Flood-prone zones which imply that people will keep building in these regions with the surreal consequences we have seen last week in Port Louis – cars piling up, flooded cemeteries reaching people’s homes, people being carried away by the sheer force of the water.

It is becoming abundantly clear that climate-related events will recur and we, as the human race, we have no choice but to adapt to our new realities. Time and time again, the rhetoric of ‘saving the planet’ is mentioned. It has to be brought home to all of us that Nature has existed before our appearance 200.000 years ago and will do well after we have gone. So let us not be presumptuous to even think that we can ‘tame’ or ‘save the planet’.. Our rhetoric must be couched in a the following language ‘how we save ourselves in the light of the crisis we have unleashed’!.. That would be more appropriate and much more in line of this truism which is facing us.

Part of our adaptation realities demand a culture of transparency, participatory-leadership, promote greater awareness among the general public on what’s at stake and more importantly, there has to be accountability from those who we vote to decide on our behalf. They cannot suddenly go mum when they are questioned or pass the buck to technical staff whose roles are, often purely advisory, when things start going south. The personal and material loss for the general public are simply too painful to see when entire lifetime efforts and savings are washed away by the gushing waters.

I am a resident of town called Quatre Bornes and which got badly affected by the recent floods. I am tempted to ask for this ‘confidential’ EIA report for the Quatre Bornes tram project so that we can be enlightened on the remedial actions going forward?

May be those who were at the helm in 2016 when the decision was taken to start this mega project can enlighten us ? No?

But this is where “Real politik” kicks in..

Those who were vociferously against this project during the electoral campaign, when they were in the Opposition (that was before they switched side and joined the winning party) are now its greatest defenders.

Some of those who actioned the decisions when in government are now in the Opposition and are expressing outsized aspirations for higher posts ..hmm.. at the next general elections??.

Really?

Transparency, Justice and Accountability are the virtues that the public demands what we certainly DONOT need are empty rhetoric and promises … The survival of our children and grandchildren depends on it and we have NO right to sacrifice their future through our inaction.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, PhD, Former President of the Republic of Mauritius

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Die EU-Kommission kündigte an, sie werde das palästinensische UN-Flüchtlingshilfswerk auffordern, einer Überprüfung der Einrichtung zuzustimmen. Hintergrund sind israelische Vorwürfe, wonach einige Mitarbeiter in den Hamas-Angriff vom 7. Oktober verwickelt gewesen sein sollen.

Die Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) hat im Jahr 2023 insgesamt 467.000 gefälschte Euro-Banknoten aus dem Verkehr gezogen. Das entspricht einem Anstieg von 24,2 Prozent gegenüber 2022, was zum Teil auf die Corona-Pandemie zurückzuführen ist.

La présidente de la Commission européenne, Ursula von der Leyen, et la Première ministre italienne, Giorgia Meloni, semblent avoir noué une relation solide, que certains qualifient de « gagnant-gagnant ». Que se cache-t-il derrière leur rapprochement ?