BERLIN/PARIS — The European Commission is working on a new budget fund to compensate farmers for any negative impact from the EU-Mercosur agreement, hoping the cash pot will help overcome French resistance to the trade deal. The plan, confirmed by four officials, comes as the EU and the South American bloc aim to finalize the landmark agreement at the G20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro Nov. 18-19. Crucially, the compensation fund is already being welcomed by France, the biggest opponent of the Mercosur deal, which harbors concerns its farmers will suffer from a glut of South American imports such…
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The crisis is unfolding as Yemeni Government forces, who are backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels – also known as Ansar Allah – continue their nearly decade-long war. Mr. Grundberg urged the Council “to unite in stopping the bloodshed and supporting every effort to bring peace to a region in desperate need of it.” Ceasefire and de-escalation He said the safety of UN personnel has also been increasingly at risk amid the growing regional escalation, which began last year following the start of the war in Gaza. Ansar Allah has been holding more than 50 UN personnel, civil…
Following the closure of the Women TechEU’s project first Open Call on the 20 May 2024, the EU-funded scheme received an impressive 820 applications from 38 eligible countries. After a thorough evaluation process 40 winners were selected, representing 16 countries, including 6 from widening countries. Geographic Diversity of Winners The call saw an incredible diversity in the winners, with startups representing a range of countries. Germany led with 7 winning startups, followed by France with 5, and the United Kingdom, Norway, and Spain with 4 each. Other winners hailed from Portugal (2), Denmark (2), Estonia (2), Ireland (2), and single…
Two additional countries – Bulgaria and Romania – as well as some of their key regional and local stakeholders endorsed today the Charter of the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’, committing to accelerate the restoration of the Danube River and Black Sea region.High-level representatives from both countries, including the Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water, Petar Dimitrov, officially endorsed the Charter at the ‘From the Danube Source to Black Sea – Healthy Waters and Healthy Life’ event in Burgas, Bulgaria. Joined by other key regional stakeholders including the Burgas District and local schools, they pledged national…
In an appeal for help, the World Food Programme, WFP, said that more than 27 million people’s lives from Lesotho to Zimbabwe have been devastated, leaving 21 million children malnourished. A record five countries have declared a national disaster because of the drought and requested international assistance: Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – but Angola and Mozambique have been hit hard, too. Hunger likely to intensify For many communities, this is the worst food crisis in decades, said WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri: “What makes it worse is that October is just the start of the lean season, the peak…
Special Advisor on International Disability Rights (SAIDR) Sara Minkara will travel to Italy, Vatican City, and Finland from October 14-23, to promote the integration of disability rights issues across key U.S. bilateral and multilateral partnerships. From October 14-17, SAIDR Minkara will travel to Perugia, Italy, to participate in the first-ever G7 Ministerial on Inclusion and Disability, where global leaders will discuss disability rights issues related to independent living, artificial intelligence (AI), humanitarian response and emergency management, and sports. From October 18-19, SAIDR Minkara will travel to Vatican City for engagements with the Holy See Secretariat and Pope Francis’s AI advisor…
Department of Labor investigators find Plateau Sawmill employed children illegally Lee esto en Espanol. CLARKRANGE, TN – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent decree requiring a Clarkrange lumber producer to stop violating federal child labor regulations, pay penalties for their violations and surrender profits earned for products made while violations occurred.Entered in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on July 15, 2024, the consent decree comes after the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Plateau Sawmill LLC employed two children – as young as 14-years-old – at the sawmill to unload wooden boards from a conveyor belt…
Addressing the UNHCR Executive Committee in Geneva, High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said that nowhere is “uncertainty and anxiety more palpable at the moment than in Lebanon”. “Uncertainty clouds the lives of ordinary civilians in Lebanon today. Surely, if airstrikes continue, many more will be displaced and some will also decide to move on to other countries,” he said. Mr. Grandi reiterated the urgent need for a ceasefire in Lebanon as well as in the Gaza Strip: “A ceasefire that is sustained by a meaningful peace process, difficult as it may be. This is the only way to break the cycle…
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that developed the popular ChatGPT chatbot and the text-to-art program Dall-E, is at a crossroads. On Oct. 2, 2024, it announced that it had obtained US$6.6 billion in new funding from investors and that the business was worth an estimated $157 billion – making it only the second startup ever to be valued at over $100 billion. Unlike other big tech companies, OpenAI is a nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary that is overseen by a nonprofit board of directors. Since its founding in 2015, OpenAI’s official mission has been “to build artificial general intelligence (AGI)…
South Sudan now ranks as the second largest recipient of people fleeing Sudan, with more than 810,000 new arrivals since April 2023, including returning South Sudanese refugees who were sheltering in Sudan and refugee and asylum seekers from other countries. UNHCR warned that the situation is likely to worsen, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian challenges in the country. “The conflict in Sudan is hitting South Sudan harder than any other country in the region and adds to the immense challenges the nation is facing,” said Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR Representative in South Sudan. “UNHCR and other humanitarian actors have been on…