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Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

La rupture brutale avec la France qui s'en est suivie donnera lieu à la volonté de Paris de punir le téméraire dirigeant africain qui a osé infliger un affront à de Gaulle.

Blessing Muzarabani claims a superb 4-17 as Zimbabwe held their nerve to stun Australia with a thrilling 23-run win in the T20 World Cup.

Five former UN Secretaries-Generals
 
United Nations Faces Crisis Amid Global Retreat on Rights and Democracy

By Widad Franco
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 2026 (IPS)

United Nations member countries will select a new UN secretary-general this year to succeed António Guterres in January 2027. The change in leadership comes at a time when human rights and democracy, as well as the international organizations created to uphold those principles and provide lifesaving assistance, are under unprecedented attack.

So far member countries have formally nominated only two candidates: former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi from Argentina.

The threats to the global human rights system demand a courageous leader at the UN who will put human rights at the heart of its agenda. Yet the selection process gives veto power over any candidate to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States.

But human rights are clearly not a priority for China, Russia, or the United States.

Human Rights Watch and others have long documented attempts by China and Russia to defund and undermine the UN’s human rights pillar. More recently, the United States, which played a key role in creating the UN and its human rights architecture in 1945, has rejected and defunded dozens of UN programs promoting rights and humanitarian assistance.

The Trump administration has also withheld billions of dollars in UN dues, which has been a major factor in the organization’s crippling financial crisis. While Washington recently announced an initial payment toward its arrears, its actions have nonetheless seriously affected the UN’s ability to do its work.

US President Donald Trump has also been trying to sideline the UN by establishing a “Board of Peace,” modeled after the Security Council, with himself as chairman for life. Invited leaders include serial rights abusers from China, Belarus, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia, along with two men—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin—facing International Criminal Court warrants.

The UN needs a leader willing to stand up to major powers and abusive governments to defend victims of abuses and marginalized communities, and aggressively support accountability for serious crimes.

As member states nominate additional candidates, they should put forward a diverse pool, especially women and others with proven track records on human rights, and ensure a competitive and transparent process that places an exceptional individual committed to human rights atop the UN.

Widad Franco is UN Advocate, Human Rights Watch

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Dawn is breaking and the world’s biggest refugee camp stirs to life. Smoke rises from small cooking fires among rows of bamboo and tarpaulin shelters as children line up for food. For 38-year-old Mon Bahar, one of over 1.1 million Rohingya refugees in a sprawling network of camps that make up Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, […]

Faire du serbe la langue officielle du Monténégro, légaliser l'usage du drapeau serbe et de la double citoyenneté. Le DNP a claqué la porte du gouvernement et relance les questions identitaires. Probablement sur ordre de Belgrade, afin de parasiter la marche européenne du petit pays.

- Articles / Monténégro, Politique, Questions européennes, Relations régionales, Radio Slobodna Evropa, Après Milo, Monténégro UE

Les législateurs ont accusé le ministère de la Justice de Bondi d'avoir procédé à des expurgations inappropriées dans les dossiers Epstein, ce à quoi elle a répliqué.

Aymo Brunetti und Christoph Schaltegger zählen zu den bekanntesten Ökonomen der Schweiz, beide vertreten liberale Standpunkte. Über die EU-Verträge gehen ihre Meinungen allerdings diametral auseinander.

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The US president has shaken up international relations and the continent is working out where it stands.

Es ist nicht zu leugnen, dass eine hochwertige Matratze einen großen Einfluss auf unseren Schlaf hat. Matratzen beeinflussen nicht nur den Liegekomfort, sondern auch die Haltung der Wirbelsäule und die Entlastung der Muskeln.

Suchen Sie vielleicht nach einer hochwertigen Matratze für Ihr Schlafzimmer, die die nächtliche Regeneration Ihres Körpers fördern kann? In unserem Beitrag finden Sie einige nützliche Tipps, mit denen Sie das richtige Produkt bestimmt finden!

Die richtige Härte der Matratze wählen

Egal, ob Sie eine Matratze 140×200 für ein schmales Bett oder vielleicht eine breite Matratze 180×200 suchen, Sie sollten vor allem den richtigen Härtegrad auswählen. Der Härtegrad einer Matratze entscheidet darüber, ob der Körper während des Schlafs ausreichend gestützt wird. Wenn Sie eine zu weiche Matratze auswählen, kann Ihr Becken während des Schlafs einsinken. Bei einer zu harten Oberfläche wird Ihr Körper hingegen unangenehm gedrückt.

Wichtig! Bei der Wahl der richtigen Härte Ihrer neuen Matratze müssen Sie Ihr Körpergewicht in Betracht ziehen. Bei einem höheren Körpergewicht benötigen Sie eine härtere Matratze.

Unterschiede zwischen Schaum-, Federkern- und Hybridmatratzen

Derzeit werden ganz verschiedene Matratzen angeboten. Jeder Matratzentyp hat seine spezifischen Eigenschaften. Zu beliebten Matratzentypen gehören:

• Schaummatratzen – sie passen sich an den Körper an und bieten eine gleichmäßige Druckentlastung. Sie eignen sich für Menschen, die unruhig schlafen;
• Federkernmatratzen – sie zeichnen sich durch eine besonders gute Luftzirkulation aus. In der Praxis bedeute das, dass sich diese Matratzen für alle gut eignen, die nachts stärker schwitzen. Ferner bieten sie eine sehr gute Unterstützung für den menschlichen Körper. Diese Matratzen reagieren flexibel auf Bewegungen;
• Hybridmatratzen – Modelle, die Schaum- und Federkernschichten miteinander kombinieren. Sie sind vielseitig, weil sie Vorteile der beiden oben genannten Matratzentypen verbinden. Eine hochwertige Matratze dieser Art bietet eine stabile Unterstützung von unten und passt sich an Körperkonturen an.

Fazit

Sie wissen bereits, welche Aspekte zu berücksichtigen sind, wenn Sie eine bequeme Matratze suchen. Benötigen Sie eine bequeme Matratze? MyBed! ist die richtige Wahl! In diesem Online-Shop finden Sie moderne Matratzen, die durch ihre langlebigen Materialien sowie soliden Konstruktionen überzeugen. Es gibt verschiedene Größen – Sie können sich für eine Matratze 160×200, 140×200, 180×200 etc. entscheiden.Wählen Sie das richtige Modell aus und genießen Sie den höchsten Schlafkomfort!

Der Beitrag Eine hochwertige Matratze für einen erholsamen Schlaf. Worauf ist zu achten? erschien zuerst auf Neurope.eu - News aus Europa.

As glaciers shrink and vanish, changes in water flows pose a growing risk to the water, food and livelihood security of billions of people. Credit: FAO

By QU Dongyu
ROME, Feb 12 2026 (IPS)

Glaciers – the world’s hidden water banks – are a source of life for billions. The seasonal melt from mountains and glaciers sustains some of the world’s most important rivers, such as the Indus, the Nile, the Ganges and the Colorado. Those and other mountain-fed rivers irrigate crops, provide drinking water for nearly two billion people, and power electricity generation.

But, as glaciers shrink and vanish, changes in water flows pose a growing risk to the water, food and livelihood security of billions of people.

In the short term, accelerated melting can trigger environmental hazards: flash floods, glacial lake outburst floods, avalanches and landslides.

In the long term, the glaciers as water sources will simply disappear.

By century’s end, most glaciers will contribute far less water than they do today, undermining agriculture in both mountain villages and sprawling lowland breadbaskets downstream.

We need policies and collaboration that address glacier-fed water systems, cross-border cooperation, and risk-sharing and early warning mechanisms – especially as rivers fed by glaciers often span multiple countries

Mountains cover more than a quarter of the world’s land and are home to 1.2 billion people, but these regions are heating up more rapidly than the global average. Mountain communities are especially vulnerable to increasing climate variability and decreasing seasonal water availability for agriculture and irrigation. With often no viable alternative water supply, the loss of agricultural production can lead to climate displacement and greater instability.

Five of the past six years have seen the most rapid glacier retreat on record, and the impacts are already being felt.

Communities from the Andes to the Himalayas are experiencing shorter snow seasons, erratic runoff, and the loss of reliable water. In Peru, dwindling glaciers have slashed crop yields. In Pakistan, reduced snowmelt threatens seasonal planting cycles. Many glaciers have already reached or are expected to reach “peak water” – the point at which meltwater runoff is at its maximum, after which flows will gradually decline – in the coming two or three decades. This means everyone who depends on glacier-fed rivers faces increasing scarcity when population growth will push water demand even higher.

Beyond science and survival, the disappearance of glaciers erases something less tangible but equally profound. For Indigenous Peoples and mountain communities across Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Pacific, glaciers are sacred. Their melting erodes traditions, rituals, identity and cultural heritage bound to mountain landscapes for centuries.

While there is still time to act, global responses remain fragmented and inadequate. That’s why the United Nations declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation – a clear reminder that preserving these frozen ecosystems means protecting our future.

To ensure food and water security from the peaks to the plains, a bold shift in policy, investment and governance is urgently needed.

Broadly speaking, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, improving water management, and strengthening early warning systems, adaptative agriculture and sustainable agrifood systems are necessary.

We need to turn the challenges posed by melting glaciers into opportunities to the benefit of all.

Agriculture, both a major water user and a key sector for adaptation, can itself be a solution when developed sustainably. Techniques like terrace farming, agroecology, agroforestry and crop diversification – practiced by mountain communities for centuries – help preserve soil and water, reduce disaster risk and support livelihoods. Such adaptation efforts should be inclusive, drawing on Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and addressing root vulnerabilities like poverty and gender inequality.

We must also mobilize investments in water and agricultural infrastructure. This includes more climate finance to support vulnerable mountain communities that struggle to access training, funding and innovation.

In addition, governments need to align strategies, policies and plans to address this critical nexus between water, agriculture and climate resilience. Mountains are often absent from national climate policies and global adaptation frameworks. We need policies and collaboration that address glacier-fed water systems, cross-border cooperation, and risk-sharing and early warning mechanisms – especially as rivers fed by glaciers often span multiple countries. This also includes reviewing basin-wide water allocation strategies, plans and investment in infrastructure to improve water use efficiency, and step up glacier monitoring and research.

Preparing for a world with fewer glaciers and less of their precious water requires innovation and coordination. In Kyrgyzstan, FAO has been helping experts construct artificial glaciers – ice towers created by spraying mountain water and that gradually melt in summer. In the region of Batken alone, this initiative has helped store over 1.5 million cubic meters of ice, enough to irrigate up to 1,750 hectares.

In Ladakh, India, the social enterprise Acres of Ice has developed automated ice reservoirs to capture unused water in autumn and winter and freeze it until spring. In the Peruvian Andes, a community-based initiative is addressing the deterioration of water quality from minerals exposed by receding glaciers through a natural filtration system using native plants.

But far more needs to be done, together. Glaciers matter because water matters. To ignore their rapid retreat is to gamble with global food and water security.

—

FAO is mandated to lead the global observance of International Mountain Day, coordinated through the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, which is financially supported by the governments of Italy, Andorra and Switzerland. The Secretariat collaborated closely with UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization, co-facilitators of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025.

 

Excerpt:

QU Dongyu is Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Die Schweiz bleibt voraussichtlich noch lange verteidigungsunfähig. Nicht nur bei den Projekten, auch bei der Finanzierung gibt es Schwierigkeiten.

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) will visit Podgorica and Tirana from 16 to 18 February, led by Committee Chair David McAllister (EPP, Germany).
The visit will enable AFET MEPs to evaluate the state of play of accession negotiations and outstanding reform priorities in each country and reaffirm Parliament's commitment to supporting both countries on their European paths.
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) will visit Podgorica and Tirana from 16 to 18 February, led by Committee Chair David McAllister (EPP, Germany).
The visit will enable AFET MEPs to evaluate the state of play of accession negotiations and outstanding reform priorities in each country and reaffirm Parliament's commitment to supporting both countries on their European paths.
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) will visit Podgorica and Tirana from 16 to 18 February, led by Committee Chair David McAllister (EPP, Germany).
The visit will enable AFET MEPs to evaluate the state of play of accession negotiations and outstanding reform priorities in each country and reaffirm Parliament's commitment to supporting both countries on their European paths.
AFET Missions
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) will visit Podgorica and Tirana from 16 to 18 February, led by Committee Chair David McAllister (EPP, Germany).
The visit will enable AFET MEPs to evaluate the state of play of accession negotiations and outstanding reform priorities in each country and reaffirm Parliament's commitment to supporting both countries on their European paths.
AFET Missions
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Yameogo Aminata affirme que ses quatre fils ont été massacrés et que sa fille est portée disparue.

Une histoire de coupe de cheveux qui est devenue virale : voici Frank Ilett, le fan de Manchester United à la célèbre coiffure bouffante.

AMENDMENTS 1 - 148 - Draft opinion Interim report on the proposal for the multiannual financial framework for 2028-2034
Committee on Security and Defence
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP