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A főképviselőnek az Európai Unió nevében tett nyilatkozata egyes harmadik országoknak a Szudán stabilitását és politikai átmenetét aláásó tevékenységekre tekintettel hozott korlátozó intézkedésekről szóló (KKBP) 2023/2135 határozat módosításáról szóló, 2025. július 18-i (KKBP) 2025/1481 tanácsi határozathoz történő csatlakozásáról.

A főképviselőnek az Európai Unió nevében tett nyilatkozata egyes harmadik országoknak a líbiai helyzetre tekintettel hozott korlátozó intézkedésekről szóló (KKBP) 2015/1333 határozat végrehajtásáról szóló, 2025. július 29-i (EU) 2025/1705 tanácsi végrehajtási határozathoz történő csatlakozásáról.

Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/1577 of 29 July 2025 updating the list of persons, groups and entities covered by Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism, and repealing Decision (CFSP) 2025/207.

On Thursday 14 August, the European Commission approved €264 million in Hungarian state aid for the construction of Sunwoda's electric vehicle battery factory in Nyíregyháza. In a statement, the EU body ruled that the move complies with regulations.

Aujourd’hui dans Les Capitales : La Russie attaque le bâtiment de la délégation de l'UE en Ukraine, l’Allemagne crée un conseil national de sécurité, une première historique, l’Allemagne critique Dassault pour avoir voulu s’approprier le projet d’avions de combat FCAS.

The post Les Capitales : La Russie attaque le bâtiment de la délégation de l’UE en Ukraine appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Des images satellite, des témoignages de témoins oculaires et des images vérifiées obtenues par la BBC révèlent de nouveaux détails sur l'attaque israélienne contre le complexe pénitentiaire d'Evin en Iran et sur les personnes tuées.

« La délégation de l’UE à Kiev a été endommagée par les frappes russes d’aujourd’hui sur des zones civiles », a affirmé la commissaire européenne chargée de l’Élargissement, Marta Kos, ce jeudi 28 août.

The post Des frappes russes endommagent le bâtiment de la délégation de l’UE en Ukraine appeared first on Euractiv FR.

A nyilvánosság segítségét kéri a rendőrség a kassai Mária Kaličová (52) és 17 éves lányai – Zuzana Barošová és Júlia Barošová – megtalálásához. Az asszonyt és a lányait augusztus 15-én látták legutóbb Kassán. A lányok apja aznap bízta őket az édesanyjukra, este kellett volna hazamenniük, de azóta sem kerültek elő.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

The television and video recording studio of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Afghan service, Azadi Radio, in Prague, Czech Republic. Azadi Radio broadcasts to Afghanistan in Pashto and Dari languages. Credit: Bashir Ahmad Gwakh/IPS

By Bashir Ahmad Gwakh
PRAGUE, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)

Ahmad Siyar works in road construction in Balkh province. He wears a safety helmet to protect himself from debris constantly falling from the mountain where the road is being built. Once, he wore the same type of helmet for a very different reason. He was reporting from various parts of northern Afghanistan. Back then, his helmet bore the word “Journalist” in both Dari and English.

“We wore journalists’ helmets to protect ourselves and tell the warring sides that I am a journalist. It was a difficult but golden era. I loved reporting and being the voice of the people. But after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the restrictions and financial problems became overwhelming, and I had to quit,” he said. “Now I work as a construction worker. It’s not an easy job, but I must do it, as I have no other option. I am the sole breadwinner of the family.”

Siyar, a father of three, is not the only journalist who has suffered under the Taliban regime. Since returning to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban government has issued at least 21 directives regulating media activity through June 2025. These directives impose a wide range of restrictions, including a ban on women appearing on state-run television and radio, prohibitions on covering protests, and a ban on music.

These restrictions, along with the ongoing financial crisis and lack of funding, have led to the shutdown of 350 independent media outlets under Taliban rule. Before August 2021, there were over 600 independent media outlets in Afghanistan. According to data reviewed by IPS, these figures are based on weekly and monthly reports from organizations advocating for media freedom, such as the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Four years after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s once vibrant free press is a ghost of its former self. The situation of press freedom remains dire in Afghanistan, while exiled Afghan journalists face growing risks of arbitrary arrests, including those in Pakistan and Iran,” Beh Lih Yi, Regional Director, Asia-Pacific at CJP, told IPS.

Afghanistan’s largest independent news network, TOLOnews, had to let go of 25 journalists in June 2024. The layoffs followed an order from the Taliban to shut down certain programmes deemed “misleading” and “propaganda against the Taliban government,” according to a senior editor at TOLOnews. Fearing retaliation, the editor requested anonymity. “Beyond the constant stream of restrictive orders and lack of access to information, our funds are drying up. We can no longer have full and free news broadcasts to our people,” he added.

The Taliban have imposed strict rules on how women must dress and appear in the media. Women are barred from participating in plays and television entertainment. The Taliban have also prohibited interviews with opposition figures. Afghan media are no longer allowed to broadcast international television content. The release of films and TV series has been halted. Collaboration with media outlets in exile is also banned.

Yi believes these are the darkest days for media in Afghanistan. “Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have escalated a crackdown on the media in Afghanistan with censorship, assaults, arbitrary arrests, and restrictions on female journalists. The Taliban and its intelligence agency GDI continue to crack down on Afghan journalists on a daily basis,” she said.

Most Afghan women journalists have fled the country. Those who remain live in fear. Farida Habibi (not her real name), a journalist in Kabul, chose not to flee because she could not leave her disabled father behind. She now works in online media after the Taliban declared her on-air voice “un-Islamic”.

“We live in depression, to be honest. The environment is suffocating. I can’t go out freely, and my salary is very low,” she said.

The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has also banned the publication of images depicting living beings. Since the majority of these rules do not specify penalties, the Taliban forces use this ambiguity to punish journalists arbitrarily.

A 2024 report by the Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC), an independent watchdog, documented 703 cases of human rights violations against media professionals between August 2021 and December 2024. These violations included arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, threats, and intimidation by Taliban forces.

Similarly, a 2024 report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the Taliban for “systematically dismantling the right to a free press.”

“Journalists and media workers in Afghanistan operate under vague rules, unsure of what they can or cannot report, and constantly risk intimidation and arbitrary detention for perceived criticism,” said Roza Otunbayeva, head of UNAMA. “For any country, a free press is not a choice but a necessity. What we are witnessing in Afghanistan is the systematic dismantling of that necessity.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban government denies any wrongdoing and claims it is committed to supporting journalists. Speaking to reporters in Kabul on July 2, Khabib Ghafran, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Information and Culture, said the Taliban support a free media but warned that “nobody can cross the Islamic red lines,” without providing further details. He added that the government is working on establishing a financial support fund for journalists.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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L’industrie française souhaite réduire le rôle de l’Allemagne dans un projet européen visant à développer un avion de combat de sixième génération (FCAS) — une tentative critiquée par Berlin dans une lettre au Bundestag.

The post L’Allemagne critique Dassault pour avoir voulu s’approprier le projet d’avions de combat FCAS appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Credit: Corte IDH/Twitter

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)

On 7 August, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking decision that could transform women’s lives across the Americas. For the first time in international law, an international tribunal recognised care as an autonomous human right. Advisory Opinion 31/25, issued in response to a request from Argentina, elevates care – long invisible and relegated to the private sphere – to the level of a universal enforceable entitlement.

The court’s decision emerged from a highly participatory process that included extensive written submissions from civil society, academics, governments and international organisations, plus public hearings held in Costa Rica in March 2024. The ruling validates what feminist activists have argued for decades: care work is labour with immense social and economic value that deserves recognition and protection.

Three dimensions of care

The statistics that informed this ruling tell a stark story. In Latin America, women perform between 69 and 86 per cent of all unpaid domestic and care work, hampering their careers, education and personal development. The court recognised this imbalance as a source of structural gender inequality that needs urgent state action.

The decision defines care broadly, covering all tasks necessary for the reproduction and sustenance of life, from providing food and healthcare to offering emotional support. It establishes three interdependent dimensions: the right to provide care, the right to receive care and the right to self-care.

The court interpreted the American Convention on Human Rights as encompassing the right to care, making clear states must respect, protect and guarantee this right through laws, public policies and resources. It outlined measures states should take, including mandatory paid paternity leave equal to maternity leave, workplace flexibility for carers, recognition of care work as labour deserving social protection and comprehensive public care systems.

Feminist advocacy vindicated

The court’s decision reflects the profound influence of feminist scholarship. For decades, feminist activists have insisted that care work, overwhelmingly performed by women, is invisible and undervalued despite being central to sustaining life and economies. The court’s recognition validates these arguments, affirming that care work isn’t a natural extension of women’s roles confined in the private sphere, but labour with immense social and economic value.

The court’s intersectional approach represents another crucial victory for feminist movements. The advisory opinion acknowledged that care burdens aren’t evenly distributed among women: Indigenous, Afro-descendant, migrant and low-income women face disproportionate responsibilities and multiple layers of discrimination. This recognition aligns with feminist movements’ emphasis on the ways gender, race, class and migration status intersect to shape inequality.

Significantly, the court explicitly connected self-care with access to sexual and reproductive health services, recognising that genuine wellbeing requires the ability to make free and informed decisions about pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood and bodily autonomy. It stressed that all people – including women, transgender people and non-binary people who can become pregnant – should be free from imposed mandates of motherhood or care.

Civil society’s crucial role

This victory belongs to civil society. Feminist and human rights organisations across Latin America campaigned to bring the issue before the court and provided crucial expertise. Groups such as ELA-Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género, Dejusticia, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Women in Informal Employment-Globalizing and Organizing submitted arguments and evidence that shaped the court’s reasoning.

Organisations documented the realities of women caring for incarcerated relatives, migrant women working care jobs in precarious conditions and communities lacking basic services such as water and sanitation that make unpaid care work even more burdensome. This helped ensure the court’s opinion reflected social realities rather than abstract principles.

The opinion’s transformative potential extends beyond gender equality. By recognising care as a universal human need, it positions it as a cornerstone of sustainable development. Investments in care infrastructure create jobs, reduce inequality and support women’s workplace participation while ensuring that children, older people and people with disabilities can live with dignity and autonomy.

The road to implementation

While advisory opinions aren’t binding, they carry considerable legal and political weight, setting regional standards that influence constitutional reforms, strategic litigation and policy development. This decision provides a blueprint for societies where care isn’t an invisible burden but a shared and supported responsibility.

However, feminist organisations have noted a crucial limitation: the court’s decision not to designate the state as the primary guarantor of care rights creates an ambiguity that risks allowing governments to offload duties onto families, perpetuating the inequalities the decision aims to address.

Civil society faces the crucial task of ensuring that implementation prioritises state responsibility. The test lies in transforming legal recognition into laws, policies and practices that reach those most in need. The struggle now shifts from the courtroom to the political arena. Feminist movements are already preparing strategic cases and launching campaigns to pressure governments to pass laws, allocate budgets and build required infrastructure.

States must pass laws recognising the right to care, design universal care systems, integrate time-use surveys into national accounts and build robust care infrastructure. Employers must adapt workplaces to recognise caregiving responsibilities. Civil society and governments must challenge gender stereotypes and engage men and boys in care work.

The Inter-American Court has shown what’s possible: societies where care is valued, supported and shared. For the millions of women across the Americas who have carried this burden in silence, the work of turning this historic recognition into lived reality begins now.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

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An Asian mother is taking care of her baby while cooking with traditional stove. Approximately one billion people in Asia and the Pacific still rely on traditional polluting cooking fuels that lead to poor indoor air quality. Credit: Unsplash/Quang Nguyen Vinh

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)

The future of the global energy landscape will be shaped by Asia and the Pacific. Over the past two decades, our region has been the principal driver of global energy demand and emissions. Energy has powered prosperity, lifted millions out of poverty and transformed societies.

This progress, however, has come at a cost: widening inequalities, entrenched fossil fuel dependencies and increasing climate vulnerability – which make achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate objectives challenging.

The gaps we must close

What will it truly take for the region to realize the energy transition and achieve SDG 7 – clean, affordable, reliable and modern energy for all – by 2030? The new Regional Trends Report on Energy for Sustainable Development shows that universal access to electricity is within reach. Yet other dimensions of sustainable energy require urgent acceleration.

Clean cooking remains the most pressing challenge. Nearly one billion people in Asia and the Pacific still rely on traditional fuels, exposing households – especially women and children – to dangerous levels of indoor air pollution. Renewable energy is growing, although the pace still falls short of what is needed to meet rising demand and lower emissions at the scale required.

Per capita, Asia and the Pacific’s installed renewable energy capacity remains lower than in other parts of the world. At the same time, energy efficiency continues to be underutilized, leaving untapped potential to reduce consumption, lower energy costs and reduce carbon emissions.

These challenges are compounded by emerging pressures. Securing access to and sustainably developing critical raw materials is essential for advancing energy transitions, while expanded regional power grid connectivity is crucial to improving energy security and keeping electricity affordable.

Rapidly growing sectors, such as data centres, also need to shift toward low-carbon pathways. Meeting these priorities will demand strategic planning, coordinated action and a strong commitment to fairness and equity.

Emerging momentum

The Asia-Pacific region is showing encouraging signs in recent years with many emerging initiatives to draw inspiration from. Subregional initiatives, including the ASEAN Power Grid and the Nepal-India-Bangladesh trilateral power trade, are fostering cross-border electricity exchanges, improving reliability and enabling greater renewable integration.

China and India are at the forefront of renewables, while Pacific countries such as Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have set targets for 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2030. Indonesia and the Philippines are expanding geothermal capacity. Grid-scale battery storage in Australia is helping manage renewable fluctuations and strengthen system resilience.

Industries, urban centres and the transport sector are also driving change. Countries are rapidly expanding the adoption of electric vehicles through investment and infrastructure. Japan and Singapore are improving building energy efficiency with strict standards and incentive programmes, and the Republic of Korea is deploying smart grid technologies to optimize usage.

These examples illustrate that innovation, investment and cooperation are creating the conditions for scalable energy progress across the region.

A just transition for all

The energy transition is not only a technological shift, but also a social transformation. For many such as workers in fossil fuel industries, those in energy-poor households and youths entering the job market, the transition will be a lived reality. Reskilling, education and social protection must accompany this shift, while creating decent jobs in the renewable and energy efficiency sectors.

Women are disproportionately affected by energy poverty and remain underrepresented in the energy workforce and decision-making roles. Unlocking women’s full participation in the sector is needed to accelerate innovation and inclusive growth. A just energy transition must be gender-responsive, with policies and investments designed to close gaps in access, employment and leadership.

Turning ambition into action

Three ingredients stand out:

1. Ambition in policy and planning. Countries need bold, integrated policies that align national energy plans with climate commitments, including net-zero targets. This means setting higher renewable energy ambitions, phasing down coal dependency, embedding energy efficiency into every sector, and ensuring policies are just and inclusive.
2. Scaled-up investment. Delivering SDG 7 requires mobilizing trillions in sustainable energy investment. Governments alone cannot bear this burden. De-risking mechanisms, innovative financing and public-private partnerships will be critical to unlock capital flows.
3. Regional cooperation. Regional grid integration and cross-border power trade, and shared approaches to the development of critical energy transition minerals and technology standards can create efficiencies and resilience.

The region has shown that transformative change is possible. Just twenty years ago, hundreds of millions lacked access to electricity. Today, universal access is within reach, proving that the seemingly insurmountable gaps in clean cooking, renewable deployment and efficiency can be overcome with decisive political will and bold action.

As Asia-Pacific countries gather in September at the ESCAP Committee on Energy, the message is clear: we must act with urgency, ambition and solidarity, or risk being locked in high-carbon pathways. The decisions made in the coming years will define the region’s energy future well beyond 2030.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP

Elsőfokú meteorológiai riasztást adott ki csütörtökön (8. 28.) 9:00 órától holnap hajnalig (5:00) a Szlovák Hidrometeorológiai Intézet (SHMÚ) a Tátra vidékére a szélviharok fenyegetései miatt (70-85 km/ó-s szél, 110-135 km/ó-s széllökések). Pozsonyban és az Erdőháton 12:00 és 20:00 óra között elsőfokú figyelmeztetés lesz érvényben az erős szél miatt (45 km/ó-s szél, 65-70 km/ó-s széllökések). Délnyugaton (Dunaszerdahelytől Nagykürtösig) délután (14:00-18:00) elsőfokú hőségriasztás (+33/+34°C) várható!