Source: United Kingdom UK House of Lords (video statements)
Former top diplomat Simon McDonald, Lord McDonald of Salford, is the latest guest on Lord Speaker’s Corner.
Lord McDonald shares his views on a range of current international issues from President Trump and Greenland to the Chagos Islands and British soft power, plus changes to the global approach of the USA, China and Russia:
‘For most of my career, the reasons why the institutions of the late 1940s were fraying were because Russia and then China were not particularly happy with that post Second World War settlement. The surprise in recent years is the United States being a revisionist power, not liking the bill paid by the United States to underpin that settlement.’
Lord McDonald was previously Head of the Diplomatic Service, the most senior civil servant in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has served as Ambassador to Israel and to Germany. In this episode, he speaks to Lord McFall about what drew him to public service both in the Foreign Office and the House of Lords:
‘I think British public service is part of what defines our country and helps us through crisis. And I think it is a fact that in this House there are a group of people who are here to help, to help other people, not to help themselves. They are here to bring their expertise to bear. They’re here to listen to other people. They are here to gather evidence before they make up their minds. And I think those are solid attributes of public service.’
Lord McDonald also talks about the role of the Civil Service and ministers, plus the challenges of planning for successive governments:
‘One reason why our projects across the board are worse than, say, similar projects in Japan or China or even France, is our planning regime, that every single road, bridge, railway has to go through a very protracted planning legal procedure. Every government I’ve worked for identified our planning laws as an obstacle, and every government so far has failed really to grip it. I note that the new Labour government is gearing up to attempt. I hope they succeed. But I note that every previous effort has failed.’
See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Active Citizen has begun series of votes, dedicated to public space improvement projects implemented last year. Muscovites will be able to appreciate the transformation of city parks, squares, sports and playgrounds.
A total of 11 votes will be opened. First will affect the South-West Administrative District. A recreation area with an amphitheater, park swings and an observation deck was arranged near the Derevlevsky pond, and a walking eco-route from Nakhimovsky Prospekt to Remizova Street was created in the floodplain of the Kotlovka River.
More one vote will affect the transformation of the east of the capital. Thus, “active citizens” will appreciate the updated Victorio Codovili square, which has been transformed into a cozy park with a playground and a training area. In addition, Muscovites will speak out about the large-scale improvement of the territory along Krasnoyarskaya Street in Golyanovo. A sports cluster with a skate park, playgrounds and a recreation area by the water have appeared there.
In the next votes, city residents will be presented with the updated Cherry Orchard Park in the north of Moscow and the embankment along the Skhodnensky Canal with a play area in the form of a sailboat in the northwest. Residents will express their opinions on the updated space near the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts on Delegatskaya Street in the Central Administrative District and the eco-trail on Krasnogo Mayaka Street in the Southern Administrative District, which you can climb almost to the level of the tree crowns to admire nature from an unusual angle.
For participating in the voting, “active citizens” will be awarded points in the city’s loyalty program “A Million Prizes”Muscovites are offered to use them to receive goods and services from program partners or souvenirs with logos of electronic projects, to top up the Troika transport card and the parking account of the Parking of Russia application. Points can also be sent to various charitable foundations and organizations.
Project “Active Citizen” has been operating since 2014. During this time, more than seven million people have joined it. Every month, 30-40 decisions made by Muscovites are implemented in the capital. The project is being developed Department of Information Technology the city of Moscow and the State Institution “New Management Technologies”.
The creation, development and operation of the e-government infrastructure, including the provision of mass socially significant services, as well as other services in electronic form, correspond to the objectives of the national project “Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State” and the regional project of the city of Moscow “Digital Public Administration”.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Source: Rosneft – Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
In 2024, the RN-Nyaganneftegaz company (part of the Rosneft oil production unit) received a total economic effect of 2.3 billion rubles from the implementation of measures of the production efficiency improvement program.
The company’s specialists developed and approved 18 new projects to improve production efficiency. Among them are projects aimed at reducing construction costs and increasing the well operation time between repairs, as well as reducing specific energy consumption.
One of the most effective was the project involving the use of split tees – devices that allow new cluster sites to be connected to existing systems without stopping the pumping of the product through the main pipeline. The economic effect of its implementation amounted to almost 600 million rubles.
Another program event is aimed at obtaining additional production – conducting multi-stage acid treatment of the bottomhole zone of horizontal wells using an oil flow diverter. The effect of using the technology amounted to more than 600 million rubles.
In addition, RN-Nyaganneftegaz employees proposed more than 140 initiatives aimed at obtaining additional oil production, reducing costs and improving working conditions. In order to involve personnel in initiative and research activities, the company conducts training and discussions of the most successful technological solutions.
Systematic work to improve production efficiency is one of the key elements of Rosneft’s development strategy. The company is carrying out large-scale work aimed at reducing operating costs, including through the introduction of advanced technologies.
Reference:
“RN-Nyaganneftegaz” is the main oil producing enterprise in the city of Nyagan. The enterprise carries out industrial exploitation of the Krasnoleninsky set of fields in licensed areas located in the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra.
Department of Information and Advertising of PJSC NK Rosneft February 12, 2025
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Rosneft – Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Rosneft continued its joint work with the Yandex Zapravki service to expand the geography of contactless payment for fuel. The service became available at all Rosneft gas stations in the Republic of Khakassia. You can now refuel your car using a mobile application at 95% of the network’s stations in almost all regions where the Company operates.
Today, Rosneft has one of the largest retail sales networks in Russia, including about 3,000 petrol stations/gas stations. The geography of the Company’s retail business covers 61 regions of Russia. In the Republic of Khakassia, the Rosneft petrol station network covers highways in the main directions – Abakan-Krasnoyarsk, Abakan-Ak-Dovurak, Abakan-Sayanogorsk. Almost all stations of the network are presented in a new format – with a set of services and an expanded range of cafes “ZERNO”.
Yandex Gas Stations are integrated into Yandex Go, Maps and Navigator, and are also available in a separate application. Drivers can select the pump number, fuel brand, volume and pay for refueling with a bank card or through the Fast Payment System without leaving their cars.
You can also use points to pay for fuel – members of the Family Team loyalty program can accumulate them by adding their card details to the Yandex Fueling service profile, as well as if you have an active Yandex Plus subscription. In addition, for motorists who refuel using the digital service, there is a special offer until March 7, 2025.
Developing convenient customer services to increase the speed and improve the quality of customer service is one of the priority goals of Rosneft’s retail business.
Department of Information and Advertising of PJSC NK Rosneft February 12, 2025
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
The Government today announced that Jeanne Cheng will assume the post of District Officer (Central & Western) tomorrow, succeeding David Leung.
Since joining the Administrative Service in 2002, Miss Cheng has served in various bureaus and departments, including the Home Affairs Department, the then Economic Development & Labour Bureau, the Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Bureau, the Education Bureau, the then Food & Health Bureau and the Chief Executive’s Office.
She was the Principal Assistant Secretary for Labour & Welfare (Children) at the Labour & Welfare Bureau before taking up the new post.
While the ceasefire in Gaza, Palestine, was implemented on 19 January, after 15 months of all-out war on the people trapped there, all components of society have been destroyed making it almost uninhabitable. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are now able to reach the north of the Strip – which was previously besieged by Israeli forces – to assess the medical and humanitarian needs. The situation is appalling; there is nothing left.
Our colleagues no longer recognise their own neighbourhoods, hospitals have been razed, and people are settling in the rubble of their homes with no other shelter to face the winter conditions. Caroline Seguin, MSF’s emergency coordinator, shares insights and photos from the ground.
1. What is the situation in north Gaza?
In the North Governorate, the level of destruction is total, it’s a flat land. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Our Palestinian colleagues are no longer able to recognise their own neighbourhoods, some were in shock, others literally collapsed.
In Gaza City we were already shocked by the level of destruction, but then we went north to Jabalia, we couldn’t say a word. There is nothing there anymore. Only ruins and the smell of death everywhere because of the dead bodies still trapped under the rubble.
2. What is the state of the health system?
There is no health system anymore in the northern part of the Strip. Kamal Adwan hospital has been razed, while Al Shifa, Al Awda and Indonesian hospitals are seriously damaged and only partially functioning. We were utterly shocked to observe that in Indonesian hospital every medical machine seemed to have been deliberately destroyed; they were smashed to pieces, one by one, to make sure no medical care could be provided anymore. You have to ask, what is the motivation of such action? These machines are made to save people’s lives, mothers, fathers, children. It’s devastating to see the state of these hospitals.
The provision of medical care is largely insufficient compared to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people living in the area. For example, between North Governorate and Gaza city, there are only six paediatric intensive care beds compared to 150 before the war and the number of patient hospital beds has plummeted from 2,000 to 350.
3. Can you move in supplies?
The flow of vital supplies has improved since the ceasefire, but the level of needs is so high that people are still lacking basic items. The need for food, water, tents and shelter materials in this area remains critical. Water shortages are a real challenge given the high level of damage to water facilities and because they are in inaccessible locations in the buffer zones.
Our teams have started water trucking activities in Jabalia and Beit Hanoun and they repair damaged boreholes, but this is a temporary solution and is not sufficient for the massive needs. The problem is that because of the war we have located our activities in the south and it now takes time to redeploy them to the north.
Since 1 February, MSF teams started supporting people in north Gaza with mobile clinics to provide medical care. Services include general consultations, treatment of non- communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health consultations, wound and burn dressings, and health promotion and nutrition activities. Palestine, February 2025.MSF
After four weeks since the implementation of the ceasefire, we are still not seeing the massive scale up of humanitarian aid needed in northern Gaza. The humanitarian community is failing to provide vital services to a population in dire need of humanitarian and medical support. Both Israel and international actors need to urgently ensure the delivery of vital supplies such as shelter and food and to increase the capacities for its distribution.
4. What is the reality for people in northern Gaza today?
People are living in dire conditions. They try to settle as best they can on the ruins of their houses but it’s extremely difficult. The winter weather means people have to face very cold temperatures, heavy rains and strong winds, and they don’t even have walls around them to protect themselves. They don’t have access to healthcare, decent housing or water.
However, the conditions they had to face during the 15 months of war, being displaced and living in tents were even worse. After this hardship, people need to reunite with their loved ones and want to stay and rebuild their lives. Many of them have no intention of leaving. It is essential to ensure consistent, safe, and secure delivery of humanitarian assistance to people who have suffered unimaginable trauma.
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LOUISVILLE, Colo., Feb. 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Boulder Imaging, a leader in machine vision and artificial intelligence solutions, is proud to announce the world’s first Common Detector Interface 2 (CDI2)-compliant software. This pioneering software, combined with Authentix GemVision™ sensors and image processing and fitness algorithms, is designed to deliver unprecedented speed and accuracy in banknote authentication and quality assessment.
The Common Detector Interface 2 (CDI2) standard, developed by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, represents a significant advancement for central banks globally. This high-tech solution standardizes banknote inspection, reduces currency waste, optimizes quality, and lowers environmental impact by increasing the lifespan of notes in circulation.
Not only does Boulder Imaging’s software comply with the CDI2 standard, but it also exceeds the requirements in many areas. The software assesses the quality of each banknote at a rate of 40 notes per second—or more than 140,000 notes per hour—with an accuracy rate exceeding 99.99%. This commitment to excellence is validated by the company’s Intergraf certification, which ensures compliance with the highest international standards for the banknote and security industry.
“Through Boulder Imaging’s leadership, CDI2 has transitioned from a technical specification to an operational reality, increasing yield and reducing costs for central banks,” said Don Mills, president and chief operating officer at Boulder Imaging. “We remain committed to delivering innovative tools that ensure speed, accuracy, and scalability for years to come.”
The industry-wide adoption of CDI2 is expected to revolutionize currency management, enabling central banks to select the most suitable detection technologies from multiple suppliers. As the banknote industry embraces this new standard, Boulder Imaging is well-positioned to provide flexible and customizable solutions, allowing central banks to optimize their banknote management processes and accommodate future security features and materials for next-generation banknotes.
Founded in 1995, Boulder Imaging develops and delivers innovative machine vision and artificial intelligence solutions that transform quality assurance. With unprecedented speed, accuracy, and scalability, its inspection systems solve the toughest challenges in industries including architectural products, automotive, renewable energy, security paper, and banknotes. Headquartered in Colorado, USA, Boulder Imaging is committed to advancing machine vision technology to address complex inspection needs worldwide. For more information, visit www.boulderimaging.com.
About Authentix As the authority in authentication solutions, Authentix brings enhanced visibility and traceability to today’s complex global supply chains. For over 25 years, Authentix has provided clients with physical and software-enabled solutions to detect, mitigate, and prevent counterfeiting and other illicit trading activity for currency, excise taxable goods, and branded consumer products. The CDI2 sensors are the fifth generation of high-speed sensors that Authentix has sold to central banks. Through a proven partnership model and sector expertise, clients experience custom solution design, rapid implementation, consumer engagement, and complete program management to ensure product safety, revenue protection, and consumer trust for the best-known global brands on the market. Headquartered in Addison, Texas USA, Authentix, Inc. has offices in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Africa serving clients worldwide. For more information, visit https://www.authentix.com. Authentix® is a registered trademark of Authentix, Inc.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Intapp (NASDAQ: INTA), a leading global provider of AI-powered solutions for professionals at advisory, capital markets, and legal firmstoday announced that it has opened a new office in Lisbon, Portugal. The Lisbon Research and Development (R&D) Centre will be an innovation hub for the Intapp R&D team based in western Europe. There they will help develop the Intapp vertical AI solutions that top global accounting, consulting, investment banking, legal, private capital, and real assets firms rely on for modernization and growth.
“We’re excited to open the Lisbon R&D Centre,” said Michele Murgel, Chief People and Places Officer at Intapp. “Our first priority is to build a world-class team that will develop new solutions that bring the power of automation and intelligence to professional and financial services firms. Lisbon’s tech ecosystem — including top engineering and tech talent –– along with its reputation for innovation and a vibrant community — make it the perfect location for our innovation hub.”
Intapp has more than 10 professionals already working in Portugal, and is currently recruiting for 15 additional roles. Many of these roles will focus on R&D, including front- and back-end developers, quality assurance specialists, application security professionals, and DevOps engineers. Support, services, and operational roles are also open.
Intapp’s Lisbon R&D Centre will also offer an internship program in 2025 to provide engineering and computer science students with hands-on project experience, and to develop a pipeline of entry-level talent.
“We’re thrilled to launch our internship program at Intapp’s Lisbon R&D Centre. It provides a unique opportunity for talented students to gain hands-on experience with the latest technology,” said Hugo Sampaio, Director of Product Development Operations and Strategy at Intapp. “This program allows us to mentor the next generation of innovators while benefiting from fresh perspectives that drive creativity and enhance our AI-powered solutions.”
“We are delighted with Intapp’s decision to locate its new R&D Centre in Lisbon. This new venture reflects confidence in Portugal and exemplifies the type of projects AICEP aims to attract — ventures that add value to our economy and leverage the exceptional quality of local talent,” said Ricardo Arroja, Chairman & CEO of AICEP – Portugal Trade & Invest. “In Lisbon, Intapp will find a local vibrant and multicultural ecosystem, where talent plays a strategic role in the success of ventures such as the new R&D Centre. We are confident that the services and products developed locally will have a global impact and contribute to further develop Intapp’s product portfolio. We wish all the best to Intapp’s Lisbon R&D Centre. Bem-vindos!”
Intapp’s Lisbon R&D Centre is located in Parque das Nações, a vibrant area in the heart of Lisbon’s tech corridor. Intapp chose Parque das Nações for its blend of modern infrastructure, accessibility, and technological innovation. Well located near Oriente Station, and surrounded by green spaces and a scenic riverside promenade, the area offers a perfect balance of convenience and leisure.
As a hub for tech companies and startups, Parque das Nações fosters a dynamic professional community, making it an ideal location for Intapp. The office’s open-concept design encourages collaboration, while modern meeting rooms and workspaces — equipped with advanced technology and ergonomic standing desks — reflect Intapp’s commitment to innovation and employee well-being.
Since going public in 2021, Intapp has expanded to over 1,200 employees globally across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Intapp’s culture emphasizes accountability, responsibility, and growth in a diverse, inclusive, and collaborative environment. Team members support each other in a positive, open atmosphere that fosters creativity, approachability, and teamwork. The company is committed to creating a modern work environment that’s connected yet flexible, supporting both professional success and work-life balance.
About Intapp Intapp software helps professionals unlock their teams’ knowledge, relationships, and operational insights to increase value for their firms. Using the power of Applied AI, we make firm and market intelligence easy to find, understand, and use. With Intapp’s portfolio of vertical SaaS solutions, professionals can apply their collective expertise to make smarter decisions, manage risk, and increase competitive advantage. The world’s top firms — across accounting, consulting, investment banking, legal, private capital, and real assets — trust Intapp’s industry-specific platform and solutions to modernize and drive new growth. For more information, visit intapp.com and LinkedIn.
Contact: Ali Robinson Global Media Relations Director press@intapp.com
The United States shares the pathologies of all dying empires with their mixture of buffoonery, rampant corruption, military fiascos, economic collapse and savage state repression.
ANALYSIS: By Chris Hedges
The billionaires, Christian fascists, grifters, psychopaths, imbeciles, narcissists and deviants who have seized control of Congress, the White House and the courts, are cannibalising the machinery of state. These self-inflicted wounds, characteristic of all late empires, will cripple and destroy the tentacles of power. And then, like a house of cards, the empire will collapse.
Blinded by hubris, unable to fathom the empire’s diminishing power, the mandarins in the Trump administration have retreated into a fantasy world where hard and unpleasant facts no longer intrude. They sputter incoherent absurdities while they usurp the Constitution and replace diplomacy, multilateralism and politics with threats and loyalty oaths.
Agencies and departments, created and funded by acts of Congress, are going up in smoke.
The rulers of all late empires, including the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero or Charles I, the last Habsburg ruler, are as incoherent as the Mad Hatter, uttering nonsensical remarks, posing unanswerable riddles and reciting word salads of inanities. They, like Donald Trump, are a reflection of the moral, intellectual and physical rot that plague a diseased society. Cartoon: Mr Fish/The Chris Hedges Report
They are removing government reports and data on climate change and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement,. They are pulling out of the World Health Organisation.
They are sanctioning officials who work at the International Criminal Court — which issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes in Gaza.
They suggested Canada become the 51st state. They have formed a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” They call for the annexation of Greenland and the seizure of the Panama Canal.
They propose the construction of luxury resorts on the coast of a depopulated Gaza under US control which, if it takes place, would bring down the Arab regimes propped up by the US.
Uttering nonsensical remarks The rulers of all late empires, including the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero or Charles I, the last Habsburg ruler, are as incoherent as the Mad Hatter, uttering nonsensical remarks, posing unanswerable riddles and reciting word salads of inanities. They, like Donald Trump, are a reflection of the moral, intellectual and physical rot that plague a diseased society.
These Christian fascists, who define the core ideology of the Trump administration, are unapologetic about their hatred for pluralistic, secular democracies. They seek, as they exhaustively detail in numerous “Christian” books and documents such as the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, to deform the judiciary and legislative branches of government, along with the media and academia, into appendages to a “Christianised” state led by a divinely anointed leader.
They openly admire Nazi apologists such as Rousas John Rushdoony, a supporter of eugenics who argues that education and social welfare should be handed over to the churches and Biblical law must replace the secular legal code, and Nazi party theorists such as Carl Schmitt.
They are avowed racists, misogynists and homophobes. They embrace bizarre conspiracy theories from the white replacement theory to a shadowy monster they call “the woke.” Suffice it to say, they are not grounded in a reality based universe.
Christian fascists come out of a theocratic sect called Dominionism. This sect teaches that American Christians have been mandated to make America a Christian state and an agent of God. Political and intellectual opponents of this militant Biblicalism are condemned as agents of Satan.
“Under Christian dominion, America will no longer be a sinful and fallen nation but one in which the 10 Commandments form the basis of our legal system, creationism and ‘Christian values’ form the basis of our educational system, and the media and the government proclaim the Good News to one and all,” I noted in my book.
“Labour unions, civil-rights laws and public schools will be abolished. Women will be removed from the workforce to stay at home, and all those deemed insufficiently Christian will be denied citizenship. Aside from its proselytising mandate, the federal government will be reduced to the protection of property rights and ‘homeland’ security.”
Chris Hedges talks to Marc Lamont Hill on Up Front on why “democracy doesn’t exist in the United States” today. Video: Al Jazeera
Comforting to most Americans The Christian fascists and their billionaire funders, I noted, “speak in terms and phrases that are familiar and comforting to most Americans, but they no longer use words to mean what they meant in the past.”
They commit logocide, killing old definitions and replacing them with new ones. Words — including truth, wisdom, death, liberty, life and love — are deconstructed and assigned diametrically opposed meanings.Life and death, for example, mean life in Christ or death to Christ, a signal of belief of unbelief. Wisdom refers to the level of commitment and obedience to the doctrine.
Liberty is not about freedom, but the liberty that comes from following Jesus Christ and being liberated from the dictates of secularism. Love is twisted to mean an unquestioned obedience to those, such as Trump, who claim to speak and act for God.As the death spiral accelerates, phantom enemies, domestic and foreign, will be blamed for the demise, persecuted and slated for obliteration.
Once the wreckage is complete, ensuring the immiseration of the citizenry, a breakdown in public services and engendering an inchoate rage, only the blunt instrument of state violence will remain. A lot of people will suffer, especially as the climate crisis inflicts with greater and greater intensity its lethal retribution.
The near-collapse of our constitutional system of checks and balances took place long before the arrival of Trump. Trump’s return to power represents the death rattle of the Pax Americana. The day is not far off when, like the Roman Senate in 27 BC, Congress will take its last significant vote and surrender power to a dictator. The Democratic Party, whose strategy seems to be to do nothing and hope Trump implodes, have already acquiesced to the inevitable.
The question is not whether we go down, but how many millions of innocents we will take with us. Given the industrial violence our empire wields, it could be a lot, especially if those in charge decide to reach for the nukes.
Foreign aid is not benevolent. It is weaponised to maintain primacy over the United Nations and remove governments the empire deems hostile. Those nations in the UN and other multilateral organisations who vote the way the empire demands, who surrender their sovereignty to global corporations and the US military, receive assistance. Those who don’t do not.
Foreign aid builds infrastructure projects so corporations can operate global sweatshops and extract resources. It funds “democracy promotion” and “judicial reform” that thwart the aspirations of political leaders and governments that seek to remain independent from the grip of the empire.
USAID, for example, paid for a “political party reform project” that was designed “as a counterweight” to the “radical” Movement Toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo) and sought to prevent socialists like Evo Morales from being elected in Bolivia. It then funded organisations and initiatives, including training programmes so Bolivian youth could be taught the American business practices, once Morales assumed the presidency, to weaken his hold on power.
Kennard in his book, The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs The American Empire, documents how US institutions such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID and the Drug Enforcement Administration, work in tandem with the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency to subjugate and oppress the Global South.
Client states that receive aid must break unions, impose austerity measures, keep wages low and maintain puppet governments. The heavily funded aid programmes, designed to bring down Morales, eventually led the Bolivian president to throw USAID out of the country.
The lie peddled to the public is that this aid benefits both the needy overseas and us at home. But the inequality these programmes facilitate abroad replicates the inequality imposed domestically. The wealth extracted from the Global South is not equitably distributed. It ends up in the hands of the billionaire class, often stashed in overseas bank accounts to avoid taxation.
Our US tax dollars, meanwhile, disproportionately funds the military, which is the iron fist that sustains the system of exploitation. The 30 million Americans who were victims of mass layoffs and deindustrialisation lost their jobs to workers in sweatshops overseas. As Kennard notes, both home and abroad, it is a vast “transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich globally and domestically”.
Legitimises theft at home “The same people that devise the myths about what we do abroad have also built up a similar ideological system that legitimises theft at home; theft from the poorest, by the richest,” he writes. “The poor and working people of Harlem have more in common with the poor and working people of Haiti than they do with their elites, but this has to be obscured for the racket to work.”
Foreign aid maintains sweatshops or “special economic zones” in countries such as Haiti, where workers toil for pennies an hour and often in unsafe conditions for global corporations.
“One of the facets of special economic zones, and one of the incentives for corporations in the US, is that special economic zones have even less regulations than the national state on how you can treat labour and taxes and customs,” Kennard told me in an interview.
“You open these sweatshops in the special economic zones. You pay the workers a pittance. You get all the resources out without having to pay customs or tax. The state in Mexico or Haiti or wherever it is, where they’re offshoring this production, doesn’t benefit at all. That’s by design. The coffers of the state are always the ones that never get increased. It’s the corporations that benefit.”
These same US institutions and mechanisms of control, Kennard writes in his book, were employed to sabotage the electoral campaign of Jeremy Corbyn, a fierce critic of the US empire, for prime minister in Britain.
The US disbursed nearly $72 billion in foreign aid in fiscal year 2023. It funded clean water initiatives, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. In 2024, it provided 42 percent of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations.
Humanitarian aid, often described as “soft power,” is designed to mask the theft of resources in the Global South by US corporations, the expansion of the footprint of the US military, the rigid control of foreign governments, the devastation caused by fossil fuel extraction, the systemic abuse of workers in global sweatshops and the poisoning of child labourers in places like the Congo, where they are used to mine lithium.
The demise of American power I doubt Musk and his army of young minions in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which isn’t an official department within the federal government — have any idea about how the organisations they are destroying work, why they exist or what it will mean for the demise of American power.
The seizure of government personnel records and classified material, the effort to terminate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of government contracts — mostly those which relate to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), the offers of buyouts to “drain the swamp” including a buyout offer to the entire workforce of the Central Intelligence Agency — now temporarily blocked by a judge — the firing of 17 or 18 inspectors generals and federal prosecutors, the halting of government funding and grants, sees them cannibalise the leviathan they worship.
They plan to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and the US Postal Service, part of the internal machinery of the empire. The more dysfunctional the state becomes, the more it creates a business opportunity for predatory corporations and private equity firms. These billionaires will make a fortune “harvesting” the remains of the empire. But they are ultimately slaying the beast that created American wealth and power.
Once the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency, something the dismantling of the empire guarantees, the US will be unable to pay for its huge deficits by selling Treasury bonds. The American economy will fall into a devastating depression. This will trigger a breakdown of civil society, soaring prices, especially for imported products, stagnant wages and high unemployment rates.
The funding of at least 750 overseas military bases and our bloated military will become impossible to sustain. The empire will instantly contract. It will become a shadow of itself. Hypernationalism, fueled by an inchoate rage and widespread despair, will morph into a hate-filled American fascism.
Despite the aura of omnipotence empires often project, most are surprisingly fragile, lacking the inherent strength of even a modest nation-state. Indeed, a glance at their history should remind us that the greatest of them are susceptible to collapse from diverse causes, with fiscal pressures usually a prime factor. For the better part of two centuries, the security and prosperity of the homeland has been the main objective for most stable states, making foreign or imperial adventures an expendable option, usually allocated no more than 5 percent of the domestic budget. Without the financing that arises almost organically inside a sovereign nation, empires are famously predatory in their relentless hunt for plunder or profit — witness the Atlantic slave trade, Belgium’s rubber lust in the Congo, British India’s opium commerce, the Third Reich’s rape of Europe, or the Soviet exploitation of Eastern Europe.
When revenues shrink or collapse, McCoy points out, “empires become brittle.”
“So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly wrong, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood, just 27 years for the United States, counting from the crucial year 2003 [when the US invaded Iraq],” he writes.
The array of tools used for global dominance — wholesale surveillance, the evisceration of civil liberties, including due process, torture, militarised police, the massive prison system, militarised drones and satellites — will be employed against a restive and enraged population.
The devouring of the carcass of the empire to feed the outsized greed and egos of these scavengers presages a new dark age.
Samsung in collaboration with the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) recently hosted an award ceremony where 31 students graduated from the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC). SIC is a global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) flagship programme that seeks to improve the nation’s youth employment in the technology sector.
The partnership between MUST and Samsung was officiated at the end of 2023, targeting youth on the African continent who are tertiary students or unemployed, with the aim of empowering them to develop their Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills. The SIC programme is aimed at training underserved youths with 21st Century technology knowledge and skills to enable them to stand a better chance of earning a living through employment or business opportunities.
The graduation – a celebration of excellence in technology was attended by the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Malawi, Mr Isaac Katopola as well as representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Information Communication Technology Association of Malawi (ICTAM).
The guest of honour at the graduation, Mr Katopola outlined how this coding and software development training is contributing directly to job creation, innovation and entrepreneurship in Malawi. He explained how this MUST-SIC programme is in precise alignment with the country’s long-term development vision: “the Human Capital Development and Enablement in Malawi 2063”.
Mr Katopola said: “In today’s world, coding and programming skills are essential because they allow youth to compete in both local and international platforms. The MUST graduates’ ability to code will now open doors to global markets, entrepreneurship and innovation. These skills will enable these Malawian young people to become problem solvers, innovators and creators rather than just consumers of any technology that is available to them.
“This coding training is an enabler and a significant contributor to the attainment and realisation of Malawi’s development vision. He added that this vision is dependent on well educated, high skilled and innovative work force. And by equipping young people with digital skills and programming knowledge, we are all ensuring that they can actively participate in 4IR and drive technological advancement.”
Through the SIC programme, MUST in partnership with Samsung have now had the opportunity to develop 4IR skills by teaching Coding and Programming (C&P) education in Python.
Yolanda Chisi, a SIC beneficiary said: “I’m grateful to both Samsung and MUST for bringing this SIC programme into our country and for providing the unemployed youth of Malawi access to technological advancement. This SIC programme has not only provided us with technical skills in C&P, but also other critical soft skills, such as work readiness, communication and teamwork. These technical and soft skills combined are already helping to promote and turn us into talented young individuals who will shape the future of our society.”
By providing the unemployed youth in Malawi with relevant skills and knowledge, the SIC programme is empowering the next generation of leaders and innovators, poised to drive positive change and economic growth in the country. The inclusion of C&P in education has ensured that the selected individuals are able to learn at their own pace, improve their understanding of key technological concepts as well as develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
MUST Vice Chancellor, Professor Address Malata, added: “As MUST, we feel that our partnership with Samsung is critical to the advancement of both our educators and students’ knowledge, skills and experience. We are, therefore, thrilled to be part of a programme that is playing a vital role in harnessing the talent of Malawi’s youth and ultimately, contributing positively to the development of our future leaders.”
Lefa Makgato, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for Samsung Electronics in Southern Africa concluded: “We are happy to see a group of passionate and talented students graduating from the SIC programme. With this programme focusing on future technological innovation such as Coding and Programming – as Samsung, we are now able to re-affirm our commitment to creating opportunities that will see the youth becoming technology innovators.”
The 2025–28 country programme marks the start of a twelve-year federal support process for reconstruction, reform and sustainable development in Ukraine. At its meeting on 12 February, the Federal Council defined the priorities of the country programme, namely protection of the civilian population, peace, economic recovery and strengthening institutions. CHF 1.5 billion from the international cooperation budget has been earmarked up to 2028. Ambassador Jacques Gerber, the Federal Council’s delegate for Ukraine, is responsible for implementing the country programme.
In January this year, Andy Roe announced his retirement from the role of London Fire Brigade (LFB) Commissioner.
LFB is the largest fire and rescue service in the UK and among the largest in the world. It deals with a range of serious incidents, notably fires in residential and non-residential buildings, wildfires, terrorist incidents, flooding, road traffic collisions and other incidents where Londoners are in need of rescue.
As an organisation, it employs over 5,800 people made up of firefighters, control officers and fire rescue staff (non-operational). LFB is one of very few fire and rescue services in the UK whose firefighters are all full-time. LFB has faced a number of challenges in recent years which have had a significant impact on how it operates in London as well as having a national impact for the Government and all fire and rescue services. These include the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, two His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services reports, being placed into the Engage process (which it exited in March 2024[1]), an Independent Culture Review and a transformation programme.
Tomorrow, London Assembly Members will discuss those challenges, as well as building safety, lithium-ion battery powered e-bikes and e-scooters, EV buses fire risk, home fire safety visits and more, with guests:
Jules Pipe CBE, Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and the Fire Service
Andy Roe KFSM, London Fire Brigade Commissioner
Following the discussion, London Assembly Members will debate these motions.
The meeting will take place on Thursday 13 February 2025 from 10am in the Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.
Media and members of the public are invited to attend.
The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Environment Agency publication captures latest research about natural flood management to help understand what works best where
Nature can play a major role in improving the nation’s resilience to flooding and coastal erosion, updated research from the Environment Agency underlines.
Informed by significant scientific research including more than 700 papers, the directory summarises the latest evidence for 17 natural flood management (NFM) measures relating to river and floodplain, woodland, run-off, and coast and estuary management.
NFM protects, restores and emulates the natural functions of rivers, floodplains, catchments and the coast to reduce flooding and coastal erosion. It takes many different forms and can be implemented in urban and rural areas, on rivers, and on estuaries and coasts.
The directory shows the wide variety in the benefits of the different measures.
Among the findings, catchment woodland is shown not only to help reduce flood risk but also to provide benefits for soil, biodiversity and water quality, alongside access to nature.
The review showed catchment woodland can reduce the height of flood water, with the greatest reductions during smaller events. One study in Cumbria suggested the flow of flood water was slowed by 14-50% in woodland compared to pasture.
The latest science also showcases the significant wider benefits of saltmarsh and mudflat restoration, including their ability to store large amounts of carbon, helping to mitigate climate change. They can also filter sediments and nutrients, improving water quality.
Managed realignment at Steart Marshes in Somerset created 250 hectares of saltmarsh. A recent study showed the marsh was storing 36.6 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year following restoration, a number which compares favourably with woodland.
For the first time, the updated directory includes emerging evidence for three new measures, highlighting the potential flood risk reduction and wider benefits of coastal reefs, submerged aquatic vegetation, and beavers. There is still more to learn about these measures, including understanding what the best depth for oysters to grow and develop while also effectively reducing wave energy is.
The new Working with Natural Processes directory demonstrates that the evidence for NFM has grown significantly, building confidence in the flood risk reduction and wider benefits.
The directory provides a new evidence baseline for NFM, helping to inform future investment decisions and support the selection of measures on the ground.
Julie Foley, Environment Agency Director of Flood Risk Strategy and National Adaptation, said:
With climate change increasing the threats of flooding and coastal erosion, we must work together with nature to boost resilience across the country.
That’s why the Environment Agency is mainstreaming the use of natural flood management alongside the use of traditional engineered defences.
Our £25 million Natural Flood Management Programme was shaped by the Working with Natural Processes Evidence Directory. Through this fund we are testing our approaches to future investment and the delivery of natural flood management.
New evidence also demonstrates the benefits of combining multiple NFM measures. The five-year Littlestock Brook trial on the River Evenlode in Oxfordshire tested several measures at the same time, including putting in woody dams, creating 230m of new water courses, and planting 14.4 hectares of new woodland. Results from the trial show reductions in the height of flood waters of up to 55.2% across all the storms analysed.
Research suggests the Evenlode project will help remove 8,199 tonnes net of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, attributed to creating the woodland and agroforestry.
The Salmons Brook NFM project in Enfield, north London, combined planting 200 hectares of woodland with reducing the width of the channel by 75% and installing 46 bunds in a rural catchment. Modelling found that, during a once-in-a-25-year storm, the combination could reduce flood flows by half and peak water levels by 10-30cm in the urban areas downstream, with the effectiveness expected to increase with the woodland’s maturity.
Kathryn Brown, The Wildlife Trusts Director of Climate Change and Evidence, said:
Getting the best evidence to support our collective efforts to build resilience is critically important.
I’m delighted to see the latest science on natural flood management coming together in one place through the Environment Agency’s Evidence Directory, with a focus on co-benefits – and to see new recognition of the role beavers can play in natural flood management.
This well-used directory has been pivotal in supporting NFM work across the country, including through The Wildlife Trusts.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova addressed the participants, guests and organizers of the forum “Social Priorities in the Development of Responsible Business – Contribution to Achieving National Goals” with a video greeting.
Video greeting from Tatyana Golikova to the participants, guests and organizers of the forum “Social priorities in the development of responsible business – contribution to the achievement of national goals”
12 hours ago
From the transcript:
T.Golikova: Dear colleagues! I am pleased to welcome the participants, guests and organizers of the forum “Social Priorities in the Development of Responsible Business – Contribution to Achieving National Goals”, which is being held by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has defined the key national goal as preserving the population, strengthening health and improving the well-being of people, and supporting families. To solve these problems, new national projects have been launched since January 2025.
The work that was done within the framework of the national projects “Demography”, “Healthcare”, “Culture”, as well as the Year of the Family, laid a reliable foundation that allows us to build and strengthen a system of comprehensive support for motherhood, fatherhood and childhood, care for the older generation and the preservation of our traditional cultural values within the framework of the national project “Family”. Its main task is to ensure a sustainable increase in the birth rate, increase the number of large families and the growth of their well-being.
Thanks to the measures taken, the poverty level is gradually decreasing. Compared to 2018, the decrease was 37% – to 8% by the end of the third quarter of 2024.
At the same time, within the framework of the national project “Family”, we set ourselves a more serious task – reducing the level of poverty among large families.
In conditions where more and more young people are focused on building a career, the issue of combining family responsibilities, education and professional prospects is becoming increasingly relevant. Both social and financial support measures for families with children, accessibility of preschool education, and the opportunity to maintain competencies and receive additional education while on maternity leave are important.
Within the framework of the national project “Demography”, almost 1 million citizens received free training, including 260 thousand women with preschool-age children.
We continue this event within the framework of the national project “Personnel”, which is aimed at training specialists for the needs of the economy. Its goal is to coordinate the efforts of educational institutions, employment centers, companies and the state. We need to form a flexible, effective system of training specialists, focused on the needs of the economy.
The national projects “Long and Active Life” and “New Health Preservation Technologies” are aimed at increasing life expectancy, increasing the duration of healthy and active life, improving the availability and effectiveness of medical care, introducing modern medical technologies, and preserving the life and health of our citizens.
To successfully solve problems of this scale, it is necessary to consolidate the efforts of the state, business and the whole society.
We are pleased to note the desire of businesses to participate in social projects. In order to maintain the health of workers and stimulate a healthy lifestyle within the framework of the national project “Demography” in 85 regions, enterprises implemented corporate programs to improve the health of workers.
To increase the birth rate and large families, companies are actively implementing healthy lifestyle programs, introducing measures to support employees with family responsibilities, which are aimed not only at employees, but also at creating favorable conditions in the territories where the organizations are present.
The most common corporate social practices are assistance in organizing summer vacations for children, organizing leisure activities for families with children, additional leave in connection with the birth of a child, the possibility of remote work for employees with children, and one-time financial assistance in connection with the birth of a child.
The head of state has made a number of decisions to develop corporate family policy: payments by employers in the amount of up to 1 million rubles at the birth of children have been exempted from personal income taxes, and a decision has been made to introduce a national ranking of employers based on the number of employees with preschool-age children.
On behalf of the President of the country, the National Award “Leaders of Responsible Business” was established in 2023, which emphasizes the importance of social responsibility of business and its contribution to improving the demographic situation, supporting families with children, youth, and developing human capital.
Responsible business leaders invest significant resources in creating jobs based on advanced technologies, training personnel, improving working conditions, providing social guarantees to employees, and participate in solving socially significant problems in the regions where they operate.
Best practices are encouraged within the nominations of the All-Russian competition “Russian Organization of High Social Efficiency” and the All-Russian competition of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs “Business Flagships: Dynamics, Responsibility, Sustainability”. Based on the best practices of our companies, recommendations of the Russian Tripartite Commission for the Regulation of Social and Labor Relations to the parties to social partnership on the development and implementation of corporate social policy measures to support employees with family responsibilities by employers have been developed and approved.
By acting responsibly, companies strengthen their market positions, their reputation as a responsible employer, entrepreneur, partner, use opportunities related to sustainable development, and at the same time contribute to positive changes not only in the economy, but also in the social sphere, in the implementation of national projects and the achievement of national development goals.
I wish you interesting discussions, constructive communication, expansion of the circle of responsible companies and new successes!
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Meeting on Thursday with non-governmental entities in Baku for the COP29 climate talks, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the crucial role that cities, regions, businesses and financial institutions must play in driving the worldwide effort towards reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century.
“We need a massive global effort to steer our world onto a path to safety; you are out in the front…helping consumers, investors and regulators understand what credible net-zero looks like,” said the Secretary-General.
As violent weather inflicts human tragedy and economic destruction worldwide and with efforts to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius slipping away, Mr. Guterres convened the high-level meeting of non-State actors to spotlight their actions and strategies since 2022, in line with key recommendations issued in a report he launched at COP27 in Shram-el-Sheikh.
‘The path to safety’
The report, Integrity Matters, set out 10 recommendations that serve as a “how-to” guide for credible, accountable net-zero pledges. They detail what non-State actors need to consider at each stage of their progress towards achieving net-zero ambitions and tackling the climate crisis.
Put simply, net zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount that is removed from the atmosphere. Reaching this goal requires cooperation between businesses and financial institutions, and other entities working alongside governments.
UNFCCC/Kiara Worth
UN Secretary-General António Guterres pictured onscreen at the COP29 High-Level event: Implementation of the report “Integrity Matters” by the High-level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities (HLEG).
‘Fast-track, not backtrack’
On Thursday, the Secretary-General thanked the non-State actors for taking the lead in the global efforts towards the net-zero goal, but said: “Now, we need others to follow.”
He first urged all non-State actors to create robust, accountable transition plans by COP30 next year. The plans must be consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C, and chart a course to net zero by 2050, through milestones in 2025, 2030, 2035, and beyond.
“They must chart a course to fossil fuel phase-out – based in the science. They must disclose policies on lobbying and policy engagement. And they must commit to deep decarbonization across the entire value chain,” said Mr. Guterres
He also stressed that all such plans must not rely on dubious offsets, including for so-called Scope 3 emissions, or indirect emissions, such as those produced by purchased goods and services, business travel or waste disposal.
“Now is the time to fast-track, not backtrack; the time for ambition and transparency. Not greenwashing,” he stated.
Work together with governments
Mr. Guterres called for moving from voluntary pledges to mandatory rules. “The future of humanity is at stake. Action cannot be optional. Disclosing credible transition plans, that align with 1.5 degrees must be mandatory for corporates and financial institutions.”
The UN chief also urged businesses, financial institutions, cities, regions and more, to work with governments on their national climate action plans, or NDCs, due by COP30.
“Help governments ensure that they provide policy and regulatory certainty on a 1.5[C]-aligned future. We must make sure that governments facilitate the work of other actors in this regard, and not that they complicate the work of other actors in compliance with the 1.5[C] aligned future,” said the UN chief.
Later in the day, Mr. Guterres is expected to meet with a group of climate scientists and civil society actors, including young climate activists.
Want to know more? Check out our special events page, where you can find all our coverage of COP29, including stories and videos, explainers and our newsletter.
Leaders in technology and the environment at COP29 in Baku endorsed on Saturday a declaration pledging to use digital technologies to accelerate climate action while reducing the carbon and pollution footprints of tech manufacturing and tackling the growing problem of e-waste.
On the first-ever ‘Digitalisation Day’ for a UN climate conference, the COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action received endorsements from more than 1,000 governments, companies, civil society organizations, international and regional organizations, and other stakeholders.
Pluses and minuses
According to the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which organized today’s digital focused events at COP29, digital technologies can be key tools to accelerate achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as they play a key role for climate monitoring, early warning systems, and overall climate adaptation and mitigation.
Indeed, such technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data can play a central role in optimizing energy consumption of our digital world. For example, by harnessing AI algorithms, data centers can optimize energy efficiency, streamline operations, and reduce their carbon footprint, ITU says.
However, as the use of digital products and services grows, so does the amount of energy and water used, and e-waste produced.
Growing levels of digitization demand more energy, which raises greenhouse gas emissions. AI programmes need servers that run around the clock. These servers and the data centres that house them use a lot of electricity. In addition, even more energy is required to cool the data centers.
These and other issues were debated at a high-level COP29 roundtable on digitization for climate action.
Unlocking digital technology for climate action
The COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action recognises the importance of digital technologies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The objectives in the declaration underscore how digital innovations can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide life-saving tools to inform and warn communities.
“This milestone moment for Green Digital Action at COP29 should propel us forward with the shared belief that we can and must reduce the environmental footprint of digital technologies while leveraging their undeniable potential to tackle the climate crisis,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
“Let’s keep building our green digital momentum all the way to COP30, and with it, a more sustainable digital future for generations to come,” she said.
UNFCCC/Kamran Guliyev
On the first-ever Digitalisation Dayfor a UN climate conference, COP29 in Baku held a roundtable Green Digital Action. Pictured onscreen is ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
Want to know more? Check out our special events page, where you can find all our coverage of COP29, including stories and videos, explainers and our newsletter.
Rich nations pledged to contribute at least $300 billion annually to the global fight against climate change as UN climate talks came to a contentious end early Sunday morning in Baku. Developing nations who had sought over $1 trillion in assistance called the agreement “insulting” and argued it did not give them the vital resources they required to truly address the complexities of the climate crisis.
After two weeks of intense negotiations, delegates at COP29, formally the 29th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed to provide this funding annually, with an overall climate financing target to reach “at least $1.3 trillion by 2035”.
Soundcloud
Countries also agreed on the rules for a UN-backed global carbon market. This market will facilitate the trading of carbon credits, incentivizing countries to reduce emissions and invest in climate-friendly projects.
These were among the big-ticket issues decided upon as the summit, underway since 11 November in the enormous Baku Stadium in the Azerbaijan capital, ran into double overtime.
Other steps forward at COP29 included:
This summit had been dubbed the ‘climate finance COP’, and representatives from all countries were seeking to establish a new, higher climate finance goal.
The target, or new collective quantified goal (NCQG), will replace the existing $100 billion goal that is due to expire in 2025.
In the closing days at COP29, negotiating teams from the developed and developing worlds were deadlocked over a final deal, with reports that representatives for least developed countries and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOIS) had walked out of the talks.
But he continued, this agreement provides a base on which to build and added: It must be honoured in full and on time. Commitments must quickly become cash. All countries must come together to ensure the top-end of this new goal is met.”
For many vulnerable nations, it represents a glimmer of hope—but only if commitments translate into swift action. “Commitments must quickly become cash,” the Secretary-General stressed, urging all countries to work together to meet the upper end of the new financial goal.
Beyond finance, COP29 built on previous gains in emissions reduction targets, the acceleration of the energy transition, and a long-sought agreement on carbon markets. These achievements come despite an “uncertain and divided geopolitical landscape,” which threatened to derail negotiations.
The UN chief commended negotiators for finding common ground, noting, “You have shown that multilateralism – centred on the Paris Agreement – can find a path through the most difficult issues.”
‘An insurance policy for humanity’
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell described the new finance goal agreed at COP29 as “an insurance policy for humanity.”
“This deal will keep the clean energy boom growing and protect billions of lives. It will help all countries to share in the huge benefits of bold climate action: more jobs, stronger growth, cheaper and cleaner energy for all. But like any insurance policy – it only works – if the premiums are paid in full, and on time.”
He acknowledged that no country got everything they wanted, and that the world leaves Baku with a mountain of work to do. “So, this is no time for victory laps. We need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belém,” in the eastern Amazonian region of Brazil, which is set to host COP30 next year.
‘Weak, insulting deal’
While some delegations applauded the deal, many from the developing world, including Bolivia and Nigeria, expressed their deep disappointment at what they argued was an “insultingly low” financing target and that the agreed text failed to significantly build on an agreement last year at COP28 in Dubai calling for nations to “transition away from fossil fuels”.
India’s representative strongly denounced the new goal, calling it a “paltry sum” and emphasizing, “We seek a much higher ambition from the developed countries [and the amount agreed] does not inspire trust that we will come out of this grave problem of climate change.”
A representative from a group of small island nations said: “After this COP29 ends, we cannot just sail off into the sunset. We are literally sinking,” and the conference outcome highlighted “what a very different boat our vulnerable countries are in, compared to the developed countries”.
UNFCCC/Kiara Worth
Civil society actors at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, advocate for climate financing initiatives.
Sierra Leone’s representative said African nations were disappointed in the outcome, which “signals a lack of goodwill by developed countries.” Indeed, the $300 billion deal was “less than a quarter of what science shows is needed and barely enough to forestall a climate catastrophe”.
Striking a different tone, a representative from the delegation of the European Union said the new climate finance goal would “simply will bring much, much more private money on the table, and that is what we need. And with these funds, we are confident we will reach the 1.3 trillion objective.”
Want to know more? Check out our special events page, where you can find all our coverage of COP29, including stories and videos, explainers and our newsletter.
Decisive action is needed to address the financial challenges facing developing nations, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Tuesday in remarks to the Second Preparatory Committee for theForth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4).
The four-day meeting at UN Headquarters began with discussions on international debt architecture, feminist fiscal policy for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and global tax reform.
“The SDGs have stalled,” Ms. Mohammed said, emphasising that their revival depends on “unlocking the scale and quality of finance required to power investments, loosening the grip of debt service that is crippling dozens of countries and protecting economies from external shocks”.
Preparation for Seville Conference 2025
This preparatory meeting, which follows a first session in Addis Ababa in July, has already generated nearly 300 stakeholder contributions ahead of the main conference scheduled for June 2025 in Seville, Spain.
These inputs have informed an Elements Paper containing proposals for transformative change across the Addis action areas, which will be central to discussions at the main conference next year.
Key proposals for financial reform
Ms. Mohammed outlined several key proposals under consideration. A central focus is domestic resource mobilisation, which she described as “the core of development financing and the compact between citizens and states”.
One concrete proposal calls for ensuring all developing countries can raise their tax-to-GDP ratio above 15 per cent. The conference is also tackling the challenge of private investment mobilisation.
“After 10 years of billions-to-trillions discussions, we still don’t see results at the scale or impact required,” Ms. Mohammed emphasised, calling for firm commitments “to do better on blending: to focus on impact, to utilise instruments at scale and to align with national priorities”.
Reforming financial architecture
The Deputy Secretary-General also highlighted the FfD4’s important role in fulfilling the vision articulated in the recently adopted Pact for the Future on financial architecture reform. Ms. Mohammed called for “bold ambition to create a debt architecture that truly empowers sustainable development”.
Proposals for this include “expanding the capital bases of Multilateral Development Banks” she said.
The conference also aims to transform Special Drawing Rights to make them more effective for future crises response.
Concrete action needed in the future
A key focus will be strengthening the voice and representation of developing countries in International Financial institutions. “This would be real and transformative change,” Ms. Mohammed said.
Additionally, she stated that “we must pledge concrete actions to strengthen the voice and representation of developing countries in International Financial Institutions, ensuring that they become genuinely inclusive and more effective”.
The Deputy Secretary-General also called on participants to “push boundaries” and ensure that reforms match the ambition needed for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted nearly a decade ago.
“Together, let us honour our 2015 commitments for a more sustainable, peaceful and prosperous world for all,” she concluded.
The Security Bureau’s dedicated task force will continue to follow up on cases in relation to Hong Kong residents alleged to have been detained in Southeast Asian countries and not being able to leave, Acting Secretary for Security Michael Cheuk said at the Legislative Council meeting today.
In response to lawmaker Yung Hoi-yan’s questions, Mr Cheuk explained that from 2023 to January 2025, law enforcement agencies received 28 such cases. Among them, 19 people have already returned to Hong Kong. For the remaining nine individuals, the Security Bureau believes that eight are in Myanmar while one is in Cambodia.
Last month, Mr Cheuk led the task force, comprising members from the Security Bureau, Police and Immigration Department, to Bangkok, Thailand, to meet Thai authorities.
The task force then established direct contacts with relevant Thai authorities to enhance future communication and exchange of intelligence, with a view to handling the cases more effectively, Mr Check highlighted.
Separately, he noted that from 2023 to January 2025, Police arrested 11 people in connection with job scam cases where victims were lured to Southeast Asian countries and detained to engage in illegal work. The suspects were involved in offences such as conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and obtaining property by deception.
During the same period, two individuals charged with conspiracy to defraud were convicted and sentenced to 36 months’ and 56 months’ imprisonment respectively.
In view of the recent scam cases, Mr Cheuk stressed that the Government will continue to strengthen publicity, including a promotion on social media platforms, distribution of anti-scam leaflets to travellers heading to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, and making good use of media reports.
He added that in light of cases where suspects met victims in bars and entertainment venues, Police have also sent officers to hand out leaflets in such places across the city.
The Federal Council resolved at its meeting of 12 February 2025 to enable international organisations headquartered in Switzerland to import non-authorised medicinal products into the country for their own personnel under certain conditions. The new provisions cover medicinal products such as vaccines for employees of the United Nations and its specialised agencies.
2. Preparedness for a new trade era: multilateral cooperation or tariffs (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Preparedness for a new trade era: multilateral cooperation or tariffs (2025/2551(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) and Maroš Šefčovič (Member of the Commission) made the statements.
The following spoke: Jörgen Warborn, on behalf of the PPE Group, Iratxe García Pérez, on behalf of the S&D Group, Klara Dostalova, on behalf of the PfE Group, Daniele Polato, on behalf of the ECR Group, Karin Karlsbro, on behalf of the Renew Group, Anna Cavazzini, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Manon Aubry, on behalf of The Left Group, René Aust, on behalf of the ESN Group, Michał Szczerba, Kathleen Van Brempt, Christophe Bay, Stephen Nikola Bartulica, Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, who also answered a blue-card question from Manon Aubry, Diana Riba i Giner, Lynn Boylan, Fabio De Masi, Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez, who also answered a blue-card question from Petras Gražulis, Yannis Maniatis, Anna Bryłka, Svenja Hahn, who also answered a blue-card question from Damian Boeselager, Majdouline Sbai, Rudi Kennes, Lídia Pereira, who also answered a blue-card question from João Oliveira, Bernd Lange, Jorge Buxadé Villalba, who also answered a blue-card question from Cristina Maestre, Sophie Wilmès, Virginijus Sinkevičius, Željana Zovko, Stefano Bonaccini, András László, who also answered a blue-card question from Radan Kanev, Barry Cowen, Luděk Niedermayer, who also answered a blue-card question from Maria Grapini, Raphaël Glucksmann, Ľubica Karvašová, Sebastião Bugalho, Javier Moreno Sánchez, Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, Loucas Fourlas, Dirk Gotink and Salvatore De Meo.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Sebastian Tynkkynen and Billy Kelleher.
IN THE CHAIR: Roberts ZĪLE Vice-President
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Lukas Sieper.
The following spoke: Maria Grapini on the organisation of the debate.
The following spoke: Maroš Šefčovič and Adam Szłapka.
The debate closed.
3. Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (2025/2528(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) and Marta Kos (Member of the Commission) made the statements.
The following spoke: Michael Gahler, on behalf of the PPE Group, Yannis Maniatis, on behalf of the S&D Group, Csaba Dömötör, on behalf of the PfE Group, Adam Bielan, on behalf of the ECR Group, Petras Auštrevičius, on behalf of the Renew Group, Villy Søvndal, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Danilo Della Valle, on behalf of The Left Group, Petras Gražulis, on behalf of the ESN Group, Rasa Juknevičienė, Kathleen Van Brempt, Pierre-Romain Thionnet, Reinis Pozņaks, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who also answered a blue-card question from Alexander Sell, Mārtiņš Staķis, Jonas Sjöstedt, Petar Volgin, Ľuboš Blaha, Sandra Kalniete, Sven Mikser, Viktória Ferenc, Alberico Gambino, Hilde Vautmans, Sergey Lagodinsky, Hans Neuhoff, Fabio De Masi, Michał Szczerba, Thijs Reuten, Petra Steger, Jaak Madison, Bernard Guetta, Markéta Gregorová, Zsuzsanna Borvendég, Pekka Toveri, Pina Picierno, Michał Dworczyk, Helmut Brandstätter, Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, Raphaël Glucksmann, Sebastian Tynkkynen, Davor Ivo Stier, Marcos Ros Sempere, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, Reinhold Lopatka, who also answered a blue-card question from Alexander Jungbluth, Tonino Picula, Mika Aaltola, who also answered a blue-card question from Merja Kyllönen, Tobias Cremer, Riho Terras and Ana Miguel Pedro.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Hélder Sousa Silva, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Dainius Žalimas, Siegbert Frank Droese and Ondřej Dostál.
The following spoke: Marta Kos and Adam Szłapka.
Motions for resolutions to be tabled under Rule 136(2) would be announced at a later stage.
The debate closed.
Vote: next part-session.
(The sitting was suspended for a few moments.)
IN THE CHAIR: Roberta METSOLA President
4. Resumption of the sitting
The sitting resumed at 12:22.
5. Formal sitting – Address by Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada
The President made an address to welcome Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.
Ruslan Stefanchuk addressed the House.
(The sitting was suspended for a few moments.)
6. Resumption of the sitting
The sitting resumed at 12:42.
7. Voting time
For detailed results of the votes, see also ‘Results of votes’ and ‘Results of roll-call votes’.
7.1. Conclusion of an agreement between the European Union and the government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on certain aspects of air services ***(vote)
Recommendation on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Union and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on certain aspects of air services [10844/2024 – C10-0111/2024 – 2015/0188(NLE)] – Committee on Transport and Tourism. Rapporteur: Tomas Tobé (A10-0005/2025)
(Majority of the votes cast)
DRAFT COUNCIL DECISION
Approved (P10_TA(2025)0008)
Parliament consented to the conclusion of the agreement.
(‘Results of votes’, item 1)
7.2. Conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Protocol (2024-2029) implementing the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Cabo Verde ***(vote)
Recommendation on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol (2024-2029) implementing the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Cabo Verde [11267/2024 – C10-0087/2024 – 2024/0133(NLE)] – Committee on Fisheries. Rapporteur: Paulo Do Nascimento Cabral (A10-0004/2025)
(Majority of the votes cast)
DRAFT COUNCIL DECISION
Approved (P10_TA(2025)0009)
Parliament consented to the conclusion of the agreement.
(‘Results of votes’, item 2)
7.3. Renewal of the Agreement on cooperation in science and technology between the European Community and Ukraine ***(vote)
Recommendation on the draft Council decision on the renewal of the Agreement on cooperation in science and technology between the European Community and Ukraine [14848/2024 – C10-0196/2024 – 2024/0240(NLE)] – Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Rapporteur: Borys Budka (A10-0007/2025)
(Majority of the votes cast)
DRAFT COUNCIL DECISION
Approved (P10_TA(2025)0010)
Parliament consented to the renewal of the agreement.
(‘Results of votes’, item 3)
7.4. European Central Bank – annual report 2024 (vote)
Report on European Central Bank – annual report 2024 [2024/2054(INI)] – Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Rapporteur: Anouk Van Brug (A10-0003/2025)
The debate had taken place on 10 February 2025 (minutes of 10.2.2025, item 13).
(Majority of the votes cast)
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
Adopted (P10_TA(2025)0011)
(‘Results of votes’, item 4)
(The sitting was suspended at 12:53.)
IN THE CHAIR: Javi LÓPEZ Vice-President
8. Resumption of the sitting
The sitting resumed at 12:58.
9. Approval of the minutes of the previous sitting
The minutes of the previous sitting were approved.
10. The need to address urgent labour shortages and ensure quality jobs in the health care sector (debate)
Commission statement: The need to address urgent labour shortages and ensure quality jobs in the health care sector (2025/2529(RSP))
Roxana Mînzatu (Executive Vice-President of the Commission) made the statement.
The following spoke: Dennis Radtke, on behalf of the PPE Group, Gabriele Bischoff, on behalf of the S&D Group, Gerald Hauser, on behalf of the PfE Group, Ruggero Razza, on behalf of the ECR Group, Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu, on behalf of the Renew Group, Maria Ohisalo, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Leila Chaibi, on behalf of The Left Group, Tomislav Sokol, Estelle Ceulemans, Marie-Luce Brasier-Clain, Aurelijus Veryga, Brigitte van den Berg, Tilly Metz, Catarina Martins, Jan-Peter Warnke, Liesbet Sommen, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Pál Szekeres, Adrian-George Axinia, Olivier Chastel, Pernando Barrena Arza, Maria Zacharia, András Tivadar Kulja, Marianne Vind, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Michele Picaro, Kathleen Funchion, Adam Jarubas, Nicolás González Casares, Marie Dauchy, Beatrice Timgren, Elena Nevado del Campo, Johan Danielsson, Valérie Deloge, Mariateresa Vivaldini, Romana Tomc, who also answered a blue-card question from João Oliveira, and Alessandra Moretti.
IN THE CHAIR: Roberts ZĪLE Vice-President
The following spoke: Philippe Olivier, Claudiu-Richard Târziu, Marit Maij, Malika Sorel, Francesco Ventola, Victor Negrescu and Evelyn Regner.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Sérgio Humberto, Maria Grapini, Oihane Agirregoitia Martínez, Ana Miranda Paz, João Oliveira, Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, Dennis Radtke, Idoia Mendia and Rudi Kennes.
The following spoke: Roxana Mînzatu.
The debate closed.
11. Boosting vocational education and training in times of labour market transitions (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Boosting vocational education and training in times of labour market transitions (2025/2530(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) and Roxana Mînzatu (Executive Vice-President of the Commission) made the statements.
The following spoke: Dennis Radtke, on behalf of the PPE Group, Romana Jerković, on behalf of the S&D Group, Catherine Griset, on behalf of the PfE Group, Chiara Gemma, on behalf of the ECR Group, Brigitte van den Berg, on behalf of the Renew Group, Li Andersson, on behalf of The Left Group, Marcin Sypniewski, on behalf of the ESN Group, Maravillas Abadía Jover, Hannes Heide and Pál Szekeres.
IN THE CHAIR: Pina PICIERNO Vice-President
The following spoke: Georgiana Teodorescu, Laurence Farreng, Nikos Pappas, Fidias Panayiotou, Gheorghe Falcă, Idoia Mendia, Elisabeth Dieringer, Marlena Maląg, Anna-Maja Henriksson, Andrzej Buła, Marc Angel, Mélanie Disdier, Ivaylo Valchev, Sérgio Humberto, who also answered a blue-card question from João Oliveira, Sabrina Repp, Annamária Vicsek, Elena Donazzan, Eleonora Meleti, Isilda Gomes, Juan Carlos Girauta Vidal, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė and Marie Dauchy.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Nina Carberry, Nikolina Brnjac, Marcos Ros Sempere, Alicia Homs Ginel, Kateřina Konečná and Lukas Sieper.
The following spoke: Glenn Micallef (Member of the Commission) and Adam Szłapka.
The debate closed.
12. Wider comprehensive EU-Middle East strategy (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Wider comprehensive EU-Middle East strategy (2024/3015(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) and Dubravka Šuica (Member of the Commission) made the statements.
The following spoke: David McAllister, on behalf of the PPE Group, Yannis Maniatis, on behalf of the S&D Group, Jorge Martín Frías, on behalf of the PfE Group, Ana Miranda Paz, on certain remarks made by the previous speaker, Rihards Kols, on behalf of the ECR Group, Hilde Vautmans, on behalf of the Renew Group, Hannah Neumann, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Lynn Boylan, on behalf of The Left Group, Petras Gražulis, on behalf of the ESN Group, Antonio López-Istúriz White, Hana Jalloul Muro, António Tânger Corrêa, Joachim Stanisław Brudziński, Urmas Paet, Villy Søvndal, João Oliveira, who also answered a blue-card question from Ana Miranda Paz, Alexander Sell, Nikolaos Anadiotis, Hildegard Bentele, Francisco Assis, György Hölvényi, Marion Maréchal, Irena Joveva and Martin Schirdewan.
IN THE CHAIR: Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ Vice-President
The following spoke: Ruth Firmenich, Ingeborg Ter Laak, Lucia Annunziata, Cristian Terheş, Abir Al-Sahlani, Elena Yoncheva, Andrey Kovatchev, Evin Incir, Emmanouil Fragkos, Billy Kelleher, Alice Teodorescu Måwe, Davor Ivo Stier, Michał Szczerba, Wouter Beke, Nicolás Pascual de la Parte and Reinhold Lopatka.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Sebastian Tynkkynen, Ana Miranda Paz, Marc Botenga and Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă.
The following spoke: Dubravka Šuica and Adam Szłapka.
The debate closed.
13. Escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (2025/2553(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) and Dubravka Šuica (Member of the Commission) made the statements.
The following spoke: Ingeborg Ter Laak, on behalf of the PPE Group, Marit Maij, on behalf of the S&D Group, Thierry Mariani, on behalf of the PfE Group, Alberico Gambino, on behalf of the ECR Group, Hilde Vautmans, on behalf of the Renew Group, Sara Matthieu, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Marc Botenga, on behalf of The Left Group, Petras Gražulis, on behalf of the ESN Group, Wouter Beke, Francisco Assis, György Hölvényi, Charles Goerens, Majdouline Sbai, Marcin Sypniewski, Lukas Mandl, Laura Ballarín Cereza, Jan-Christoph Oetjen, Saskia Bricmont, Hildegard Bentele, Murielle Laurent, Yvan Verougstraete, Giorgio Gori and Udo Bullmann, who also declined to take a blue-card question from Lukas Sieper.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Juan Fernando López Aguilar.
The following spoke: Dubravka Šuica and Adam Szłapka.
The following spoke: Hilde Vautmans, again on the subject of the debate.
Motions for resolutions tabled under Rule 136(2) to wind up the debate: minutes of 13.2.2025, item I.
The debate closed.
Vote: 13 February 2025.
14. Welcome
On behalf of Parliament, the President welcomed a delegation from the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, who had taken a seat in the distinguished visitors’ gallery.
15. Political crisis in Serbia (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Political crisis in Serbia (2025/2554(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) made the statement on behalf of the Council.
IN THE CHAIR: Katarina BARLEY Vice-President
Marta Kos (Member of the Commission) made the statement on behalf of the Commission.
The following spoke: Davor Ivo Stier, on behalf of the PPE Group, Tonino Picula, on behalf of the S&D Group, Annamária Vicsek, on behalf of the PfE Group, Alessandro Ciriani, on behalf of the ECR Group, Helmut Brandstätter, on behalf of the Renew Group, Vladimir Prebilič, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Konstantinos Arvanitis, on behalf of The Left Group, Petr Bystron, on behalf of the ESN Group, Loucas Fourlas, Alessandra Moretti, Thierry Mariani, Şerban Dimitrie Sturdza, Eugen Tomac, Gordan Bosanac, Kostas Papadakis, Reinhold Lopatka, Thijs Reuten, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Rasmus Nordqvist, Zoltán Tarr, Matjaž Nemec, Irena Joveva (The President explained how the interpreting system worked), Matej Tonin, Andreas Schieder, Dan Barna and Tomislav Sokol.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Seán Kelly, Nikos Papandreou, Sebastian Tynkkynen, Lukas Sieper and Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă.
The following spoke: Marta Kos and Adam Szłapka.
The debate closed.
16. US AI chip export restrictions: a challenge to European AI development and economic resilience (debate)
Question for oral answer O-000001/2025 by Borys Budka, on behalf of the ITRE Committee, to the Commission: US AI chip export restrictions: a challenge to European AI development and economic resilience (B10-0002/2025) (2025/2539(RSP))
Borys Budka moved the question.
Henna Virkkunen (Executive Vice-President of the Commission) answered the question.
The following spoke: Wouter Beke, on behalf of the PPE Group, Matthias Ecke, on behalf of the S&D Group, Kris Van Dijck, on behalf of the ECR Group, Bart Groothuis, on behalf of the Renew Group, András László, on behalf of the PfE Group, Virginijus Sinkevičius, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Dario Tamburrano, on behalf of The Left Group, Eszter Lakos, who also answered a blue-card question from András László, Lina Gálvez and Barbara Bonte.
IN THE CHAIR: Ewa KOPACZ Vice-President
The following spoke: Francesco Torselli, Michał Kobosko, Alexandra Geese, Aura Salla, Maria Grapini, Paulius Saudargas, Elisabeth Grossmann, Mirosława Nykiel, Brando Benifei, Paulo Cunha and Oliver Schenk.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, Marc Botenga, Kateřina Konečná, Seán Kelly and Lukas Sieper.
The following spoke: Henna Virkkunen.
The debate closed.
17. Protecting the system of international justice and its institutions, in particular the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice (debate)
Council and Commission statements: Protecting the system of international justice and its institutions, in particular the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice (2025/2555(RSP))
Adam Szłapka (President-in-Office of the Council) and Michael McGrath (Member of the Commission) made the statements.
The following spoke: Alice Teodorescu Måwe, on behalf of the PPE Group, Francisco Assis, on behalf of the S&D Group, András László, on behalf of the PfE Group, Małgorzata Gosiewska, on behalf of the ECR Group, Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle, on behalf of the Renew Group, Mounir Satouri, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group, Mimmo Lucano, on behalf of The Left Group, Hana Jalloul Muro, Alessandro Ciriani, who also answered a blue-card question from Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle, Catarina Vieira, Gaetano Pedulla’, Brando Benifei, Jaume Asens Llodrà, who also answered a blue-card question from João Oliveira, Rima Hassan (the President reminded the speaker of the rules on conduct), Chloé Ridel, Benedetta Scuderi, Alessandro Zan and Ana Miranda Paz.
The following spoke under the catch-the-eye procedure: Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Billy Kelleher, Tineke Strik, João Oliveira, Lukas Sieper and Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis.
The following spoke: Michael McGrath and Adam Szłapka.
The following spoke: Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle, concerning the last intervention by the Council (the President gave explanations).
The debate closed.
18. Explanations of vote
Written explanations of vote
Explanations of vote submitted in writing under Rule 201 appear on the Members’ pages on Parliament’s website.
19. Agenda of the next sitting
The next sitting would be held the following day, 12 February 2025, starting at 09:00. The agenda was available on Parliament’s website.
20. Approval of the minutes of the sitting
In accordance with Rule 208(3), the minutes of the sitting would be put to the House for approval at the beginning of the afternoon of the next sitting.
Working with natural processes (WWNP) or natural flood management (NFM) protects, restores or emulates the natural functions of rivers, floodplains, catchments and the coast to reduce flooding and coastal erosion.
The directory shows NFM evidence has grown in recent years, building our confidence in the flood risk and wider benefits these approaches can bring. It provides a new evidence baseline for NFM, helping to inform future investment decisions and support the selection of measures on the ground.
These benefits vary across measures and help us understand what works best and where. There is still more to learn about NFM, but the research gaps are closing and are becoming more detail orientated.
Among the findings, the evidence is telling us that:
catchment woodlands can reduce the height of flood water, with the greatest reductions during smaller events
there is growing research that soil and land management can help with flood resilience, especially in grasslands
for some NFM measures, the wider benefits are even greater than the benefits to flood risk such as with floodplain or river restoration
ponds in floodplain areas can reduce flood risk by decreasing flows and storing water
run-off pathway management can reduce flood risk by storing water, and slowing the flow downstream and includes wider benefits related to water resources and biodiversity
the flood risk benefits of saltmarsh and mudflat restoration, dune management and beach nourishment is consolidating
restoring salt marshes and mudflats offers significant environmental benefits including storing carbon
there is emerging science on the flood reduction benefits of beavers, coastal reefs, and submerged aquatic vegetation – these are new additions to the directory
Charity Fashion and Fizz takes place at the Beacon Centre, Wolverhampton Road, on Tuesday 25 February. Doors open at 6pm and the fashion show, featuring over a dozen models, starts at 6.30pm.
Tickets, which must be booked in advance, are available at Beacon Centre for the Blind and cost £15, including a glass of prosecco or alcohol free alternative on arrival. Clothing will be on sale on the night.
All proceeds will go to the Mayor’s chosen charities, the Beacon Centre, Age UK Wolverhampton and Samaritans Wolverhampton.
Mayor Councillor Leach said: “Join us for an unforgettable evening of style, fun and community as we come together to support good causes that truly make a difference.
“This Charity Fashion and Fizz show is more than just a runway – it’s an opportunity to make a lasting impact. For only £15, you’ll experience a great charity fashion show using sustainable clothes from the Beacon’s amazing network of charity shops. Please come along and support these 3 fantastic local charities.”
Beacon Centre Chief Executive Lisa Cowley added: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be hosting a fabulous fashion show on behalf of the Mayor of Wolverhampton here at the Beacon Centre.
“It promises to be an evening full of style, all in support of some great causes. Whether you’re a fashion enthusiast or just looking for a fantastic night out, we’d love to welcome you. Come along, bring your friends, and let’s make it an event to remember!”
Leeds Valentine’s Fair at Millennium Square, Victoria Gardens and Cookridge Street
The UK’s best known Valentine’s event returns to Leeds with a range of rides, attractions and games will be available for families and thrill seekers to enjoy.
Friday 14 to Sunday 23 February, cost: free admission with individual admission fees for all rides and attractions.
Wrongsemble presents… ‘The Lost Property Library’ at Leeds libraries
An interactive performance welcoming you to the Lost Property Library – a place where lost stories, memories, and objects come to be archived and kept safe.
Monday 17 to Wednesday 19 February, cost: pay what you can
Help your little Explorers discover how our cute couples show their love for each other! Find out who likes to show off their dance moves, which animal changes colour and who loves to sing to their sweetheart.
Are you sitting comfortably? Uncover a love of reading in this family-friendly exhibition. A playful look at children’s story telling and imagination, featuring younger children’s books, songs and games from the museum collections.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
The NSU Scientific Library will be located on the first floor of the flow auditorium building, which is part of the facilities modern campus of NSU, being built as part of the national project “Youth and Children”, and is part of a multifunctional space with an area of about 2.5 thousand square meters. Permission to commission the new facility was received on December 28, 2024. In total, more than 600 thousand books with a total weight of about 180 tons will be transported in the coming months. In total, the capacity of the book depository in the new building will be almost 1 million copies.
— The locations in the flow auditorium building will be equipped with technologies from the NSU Artificial Intelligence Center based on the “smart home” principle. The state-of-the-art scientific library with elements of artificial intelligence in the new NSU campus is part of a multifunctional space: it includes a free-plan area where students can gather and work in groups, as well as quiet areas with media screens, acoustic panels with content generation that will be selected to suit the mood of the students. This is the most comfortable environment that sets students up not only for learning, but also for full self-realization, which corresponds to the objectives of the new national project “Youth and Children”, developed on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, — noted Vice-Governor Irina Manuilova.
Library staff have already started packing books into bundles; the actual move will begin at the end of May, when the new building is completed with the necessary furniture and equipment. By September, the entire library collection will need to be moved and all books and magazines will need to be placed on shelves.
— The new building will have comfortable rooms for independent work of students with 24-hour access. Students will be able to use self-service stations to check out books that will appear in the open collection. They will be able to take them home and return them at any time. In the reading room, all literature will also be in open access — students will have the opportunity to independently choose the textbook or scientific publication of recent years that they are interested in, — said Tatyana Markova, Deputy Director of the NSU Scientific Library.
The library will have modern technical capabilities for its employees. Publications with open access will be equipped with radio frequency tags, which will allow for an automated inventory of this part of the collection.
The library will be equipped with a machine for automatic dust removal and maintenance of stored books, Depulvera. Books are cleaned of dust and particles of harmful microorganisms from six sides, directly in the machine chamber. Rotating self-cleaning brushes made of natural materials that are safe for processing books and documents are used for this.
The book depositories will also be equipped with mobile shelves with an electric drive and computer control. The compact storage system will allow free placement of library funds, while the capabilities of the existing book depository of NSU have long been exhausted.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
February 12 marks the Lantern Festival of 2025 in China, falling on the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar. In Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province, an exciting drum competition has taken place in celebration. Team members went all out with dynamic drum formations and majestic rhythms, offering audiences an atmosphere of festivity. Various folk performances were also interwoven throughout the event.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Lantern fairs held in Beijing to mark Lantern Festival
Updated: February 12, 2025 16:21Xinhua
People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Garden Expo Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 10, 2025. Two major lantern fairs are held in Beijing to mark the Lantern Festival, which falls on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Wenyuhe Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 11, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Wenyuhe Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 11, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Wenyuhe Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 11, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Wenyuhe Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 11, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Wenyuhe Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 11, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]People visit a lantern fair at Beijing Wenyuhe Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 11, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]A child watches a light installation while visiting a lantern fair at Beijing Garden Expo Park in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 10, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
The EU has launched a new initiative to boost AI in Europe, InvestAI. This will mobilise €200 billion for investment in the sector, including in AI gigafactories. A large AI infrastructure will allow open, collaborative development of the most complex AI models and make Europe an AI continent.
The fresh measures will enhance resource efficiency, encourage a more circular use of materials, increase competitiveness and improve economic security.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
On February 7, in anticipation of two important dates in Russian history – the 300th anniversary of the death of Russian Emperor Peter I and Russian Science Day, the House of Books hosted a presentation of the monograph “Peter the Great: Meanings and Discourses of Time”, written by Marina Arkannikova, Director of the Higher School of Media Communications and Public Relations of the SPbPU Institute of Geography.
The Arts Hall of the Book House brought together students and teachers of the Polytechnic University, residents and guests of the city for an important conversation about the legacy of the first Russian emperor. The discussion combined a historical assessment and analysis of existential threats, geopolitical challenges to Russia’s sovereignty, as well as tools for protecting the Russian world. Introducing her scientific work, Marina Sergeevna spoke about the idea of the publication and emphasized that the key task of the book was to rethink the contours of Russia’s civilizational future through the prism of Peter’s legacy.
“Three centuries later, the genius of Peter the Great not only continues to amaze and excite the imagination, but has also determined the development of Russian social and political thought throughout this time, and has been the starting point for discussions about the historical fate of Russia and discussions about Russian civilization. His geopolitical vision and political rhetoric today, more than ever, are in tune with the country’s national security strategy, which defends sovereign rights to identity and statehood, the preservation of the nation’s cognitive code, and the protection of the mentality of the Russian world,” Marina Arkannikova addressed the meeting participants. “And today, on the eve of the date of Peter I’s death, this is not only a tribute to his memory, but also a relevant dialogue with the past, which helps us understand the present and future of our country.”
The research conducted by Marina Sergeevna is fundamentally important for modern science, since it is a calm constructive attitude to the colossal potential of the Peter the Great theme, which records the museumification of Peter’s legacy, the politics of memory. Therefore, this book is very important today, – noted the author of the preface to the publication, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation Grigory Tulchinsky.
Speaking about the empirical part of the study, Marina Sergeevna thanked the Director General of the State Hermitage, Honorary Doctor of SPbPU Mikhail Piotrovsky for the opportunity to carry out sociological research of visitors to the Peter the Great Gallery, as well as for the provided photo materials from the exhibition. She expressed sincere gratitude for the support in the work on the publication to the reviewers, designer, editor, and administration of the Publishing and Printing Center of the Polytechnic University.
Marina Arkannikova emphasized the value of the fact that the book presentation took place in the year of the 115th anniversary of the Polytechnic being given the name “St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Peter the Great”. She told the audience that on January 19, 1910, Emperor Nicholas II signed a decree on assigning this status, which the university held until 1918, and only in 2015, on the initiative of SPbPU Rector Andrei Rudskoy, the Polytechnic was returned to its historical name.
After the presentation, the audience asked questions. They noted the multifaceted and contradictory nature of Peter’s image, the influence of his reforms on Russian society and culture. Concluding the meeting, the presenter reminded that the book can be purchased at the Dom Knigi store.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
