GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Feb. 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Patria (Nasdaq:PAX) reported today its unaudited results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024. The full detailed presentation of Patria’s fourth quarter and full year 2024 results can be accessed on the Shareholders section of Patria’s website at https://ir.patria.com/.
Alex Saigh, Patria’s CEO, said: “The fourth quarter capped a very exciting and transformational year for Patria. We raised $5.5 billion in 2024, inclusive of $300 million in our Advisory business, exceeding our $5 billion target. A wide variety of strategies and products, most of which did not exist at the time of our IPO four years ago, contributed to our fundraising. Our Fee Earning AUM reached $33 billion representing year-over-year growth of 38%, and we achieved our target FRE of $170 million for the full year, reflecting 15% year-over-year growth. Also, we generated Performance Related Earnings, or PRE, of $41 million, primarily reflecting the sale of Aguas Pacifico, a highly successful infrastructure investment in our Infrastructure Fund III. Overall, driven by strong FRE growth and PRE, we delivered $89 million of Distributable Earnings or $0.58 per share in the quarter and $189 million or $1.24 per share for the full year.As we look ahead to 2025, we believe we are well positioned to generate the $6 billion of fundraising and $200 to $225 million of FRE we are targeting for the full year. Our success highlights how the increased diversification of our platform and the investments we are making in distribution and new product development are translating into stronger and more diverse growth for the firm, leaving us very excited about what lies ahead.”
Financial Highlights (reported in $ USD)
IFRS results included $56.8 million of net income attributable to Patria in Q4 2024 and $73.4 million for the full year. Patria generated Fee Related Earnings of $54.8 million in Q4 2024, up 18% from $46.7 million in Q4 2023, with an FRE margin of 59%. For the full year 2024, Patria generated Fee Related Earnings of $170.1 million, up 15% from $147.7 million in 2023, with an FRE margin of 57%. Distributable Earnings were $89.1 million for Q4 2024, or $0.58 per share, and $189.2 million for the full year, or $1.24 per share.
Dividends
Patria declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share to record holders of common stock at the close of business on February 28th, 2025. This dividend will be paid on March 17th, 2024.
Conference Call
Patria will host its fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call via public webcast on February 12th, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. ET. To register and join, please use the following link:
For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, there will be a webcast replay on the Shareholders section of Patria’s website at https://ir.patria.com/ shortly after the call’s completion.
About Patria
Patria is a global alternative asset manager and industry leader in Latin America. Founded over 35 years ago, Patria has total assets under management of $41.9 billion, and offices in 13 cities on 4 continents. Patria aims to generate attractive long-term investment returns and, through a diversified platform with strategies that include Private Equity, Infrastructure, Credit, Real Estate, Public Equities and Global Private Markets Solutions, serve as the gateway to alternative investments for both local investors in Latin America, as well as global investors. Further information is available at www.patria.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “outlook,” “indicator,” “believes,” “expects,” “potential,” “continues,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “seeks,” “approximately,” “predicts,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates” or the negative version of these words or other comparable words, among others. Forward-looking statements appear in a number of places in this press release and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our intent, belief or current expectations. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update them in light of new information or future developments or to release publicly any revisions to these statements in order to reflect later events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. Further information on these and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in filings we have made and will make with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including but not limited to those described under the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our most recent annual report on Form 20-F, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in our periodic filings.
The company’s mining revenue reached $107 million in 2024, a significant leap from $32 million in 2023 and $5.4 million in 2022. This represents an astounding 1852% increase over two years. This exceptional performance underscores Phoenix Group’s strategic vision and operational excellence in a dynamic market.
Despite industry headwinds, including the Bitcoin halving and a prolonged bearish market until November 2024, Phoenix Group demonstrated resilience and adaptability. The company’s total gross revenue across all verticals reached $206 million. Phoenix Group’s proactive operational efficiencies and strategic initiatives, including global expansion and diversification, have paved the way for sustained profitability and growth.
Commenting on the 2024 results, Munaf Ali, CEO & Co-Founder, stated: “These results are a testament to our unwavering commitment to innovation and strategic growth on a global scale. The past year has been pivotal for Phoenix Group, marked by significant expansion and enhanced profitability. We are not simply navigating the digital asset revolution – we are shaping it. With a strong foundation and a clear vision, we are confident in delivering continued value to our shareholders and stakeholders worldwide.”
The company achieved a total comprehensive income of USD 219 million and a net profit after tax of USD 167 million.
Total assets stood at USD 962 million, along with earnings per share (EPS) recorded at USD 0.028, reinforcing Phoenix Group’s continued profitability and shareholder value growth.
Operational and Financial Highlights during 2024:
Improved Profitability: Self-mining gross margins rose to 24% in Q4 2024, up from just 5% in Q3 2024, driven by an average 37% increase in Bitcoin price and a 6% improvement in efficiency improvement mainly coming from sites in the US and Canada.
Processing Power Contribution: Phoenix Group maintained a robust contribution of 15.0 EH/s to the Bitcoin network, with its market share holding steady at 1.9%.
Expansion and Optimization: The company successfully launched new mining sites in the U.S., Canada, and Oman, adding a total of 160 MW while exiting the CIS region due to regulatory uncertainties.
Diversification into Digital Assets: Investments expanded into key cryptocurrencies including SOL, ETH, FAH, UNCN, LVLY, and TON, reinforcing Phoenix Group’s diversified growth strategy.
New Strategic Agreements: Phoenix Group secured agreements for additional sites, including a 132 MW facility in Ethiopia and a 20 MW site in Texas, totalling 152 MW of upcoming capacity.
Stablecoin Collaboration: Partnered with the Tether Foundation to launch a dirham-backed stablecoin, enhancing the company’s foothold in the broader digital finance ecosystem.
Phoenix Group continues to position itself as a leader in the Bitcoin mining and digital asset sector, leveraging strategic expansion and operational efficiencies to drive sustainable growth.
The company’s preliminary results remain subject to external audit, with audited consolidated financial statements expected by February 14, 2024.
-END-
About Phoenix Group
Phoenix Group, a multi-billion-dollar tech powerhouse headquartered in the UAE, leads the forefront of the blockchain, crypto, and tech revolution, driving innovation to new heights. Phoenix Group operates several mining facilities in the US, Canada, CIS, and the UAE, with each unique company operating in one of four distinct verticals: Mining, Hosting, Trading, and Investments.
Phoenix Group PLC is the region’s first privately owned crypto and blockchain conglomerate listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. It also runs the largest mining farm in the MENA region.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Energy Secretary travels to New Delhi to champion UK businesses, strengthen our partnership with India and accelerate work to tackle climate change.
UK and India agree action to accelerate economic growth from global clean energy transition
Energy Secretary travelled to New Delhi to champion for British interests; supporting UK businesses, increase clean energy investment opportunities and deliver on the government’s Plan for Change
closer working through fourth UK-India Energy Dialogue to boost renewables and cut emissions, protecting British families and businesses from the climate crisis
The UK and India joined forces this week to unlock economic growth from the clean energy transition, supporting new jobs, creating export opportunities and tackling the climate crisis.
During a visit to New Delhi, the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband backed British businesses at India Energy Week – a major international energy event. He met with UK companies who are using their expertise to speed up India’s transition from fossil fuels to clean power, including offshore wind, solar, battery storage and hydrogen.
He met a number of UK companies who are using the UK’s world leading technology to speed up the global clean energy transition, create job opportunities and protect the climate. These include:
Sherwood Power – Sherwood Power has developed energy storage technology that converts excess, low-cost, renewable energy into compressed air and heat. When demand is high, this stored energy is released to generate electricity, reducing grid load and customer costs. The company is based in Richmond, North Yorkshire.
Oomph EV – Oomph EV designs and manufacture a range of rapid, mobile, electric vehicle charging solutions. They are addressing the Indian market with a view to local manufacture. They offer hardware, software and data services to the global EV market and are based in Cambridge.
Flock Energy – London based Flock Energy is building the digital infrastructure for the global energy transition. Using advanced AI, Flock Energy enables energy providers to analyse customer energy data usage in detail, all on one digital platform, to improve demand forecasting, demand-side management and energy efficiency.
Venterra Group – Venterra Group, established in 2021, is a London based offshore wind services company. Venterra operates globally with over 700 employees and specialises in providing comprehensive technical services across the wind farm lifecycle to reduce project risks, time, and costs.
India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and one which is projected to be the fourth largest global importer by 2035. Delivering on the UK Government’s Plan for Change, the Energy Secretary used his visit to increase UK clean energy investment opportunities and place British businesses at the forefront of the global race for renewables.
As one of the world’s biggest emitters, working with India on clean energy and climate is crucial to protecting British families and businesses from the threat of climate change. Increasing investment in renewables and clean technology supports the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower, protecting households from unstable fossil fuel markets and helping keep bills down for good.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:
We are standing up for the British people by fighting for investment into our country, and setting the example for all countries play their part in protecting our planet for future generations.
The UK and India are strengthening our partnership under our Plan for Change to unlock investment and accelerate the global transition to clean, secure, affordable energy.
Both our countries are determined to address the climate emergency to protect our way of life, while reaping the rewards of the industrial and economic opportunity of our time.
The Energy Secretary took part in the fourth UK-India Energy Dialogue with India’s Minister of Power Manohar Lal Khattar, and met with G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.
Both countries agreed:
a new shared ambition on offshore wind, including a UK-India Offshore Wind Taskforce to drive the progress needed across the offshore wind supply chains and financing models
funding to reform in India’s power sector to support decarbonisation through UKPACT, which aims to deliver grid transformation as part of India’s renewables rollout
an extension of the bilateral Accelerating Smart Power and Renewable Energy in India (ASPIRE) programme, which will work to deliver round-the-clock power supply, accelerate industrial decarbonisation and roll out renewables
This builds on the UK and India’s close collaboration to tackle climate change through innovation agreed as part of the Technology Security Initiative in 2024, from using AI to increase resilience, to bringing together experts to safeguard the critical minerals needed for renewable technologies like wind turbines and batteries.
Talks come ahead of expected negotiations with India on a Free Trade Agreement and Bilateral Investment Treaty, led by the Business and Trade Secretary, at the end of the month.
Striking a deal would increase economic growth across both countries, facilitating the trade of renewable technologies and sustainable materials, supporting the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower.
There are over 950 Indian-owned companies in the UK and over 650 UK companies in India supporting over 600,000 jobs and driving innovation across both economies.
Engagement with India comes ahead of COP30, due to take place in Brazil later this year, where both countries will be pushing for ambitious outcomes to address the climate emergency.
Statement from Minister McLean on International Day of Women and Girls in Science zaburke
Minister of Education and Minister responsible for the Women and Gender Equity Directorate Jeanie McLean has issued the following statement:
“On February 11 we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, an opportunity to recognize the remarkable contributions of women and girls in scientific research and careers. Today, we uplift trailblazers like nuclear physicist Harriet Brooks, neuro-psychiatrist Lillian Dyck and health researcher Dr. Janet Smylie. From these past groundbreakers to today’s innovators, these incredible women in STEM continue to pave the way for women to take their rightful place in academia and make significant contributions to research.
“This day also reminds us of the work still ahead. Despite progress that has been made, women and girls continue to face systemic barriers in pursuing scientific careers. Women make up 47.3 per cent of the Canadian labour force and 34 per cent of STEM degree holders and yet still represent only 23 per cent of Canadians working in science and technology.
“This inequity stems from deeply rooted gender stereotypes and prejudices which can discourage girls from pursuing scientific studies and careers. Closing the gender gap in science requires dismantling these stereotypes, highlighting role models to inspire youth and fostering inclusive environments through policies and actions. Right here in the Yukon, inspiring work is being done to recruit and retain girls, women and gender-diverse individuals in science—helping to shape a future where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
“Diversity drives progress and innovation and this International Day of Women and Girls in Science is a powerful reminder of the need to break down barriers and create opportunities for all. By championing gender equity, fostering inclusive environments, and celebrating the achievements of women and girls in science, we can unlock new discoveries, solve complex challenges, and build a brighter future for all.”
On May 15, 2025, the 2025 rent index will be set at 2.0 percent.
As required by the Regulation to amend the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the residential rent index is adjusted yearly on May 15 to align with the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Whitehorse, which was 2.0 per cent in 2024.
Landlords may not increase rents more than the prescribed rent index. Landlords may also choose to not increase rent.
The rent index came into effect as part of the 2023 Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Yukon Liberal Party and the Yukon New Democratic Party.
olunteers from the Oregon Department of Revenue will be at the Salem Public Library, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday, February 20 to assist taxpayers in using the free combination of IRS Direct File and Direct File Oregon to complete their returns. The library is located at 585 Liberty Street SE in Salem.
Taxpayers can find more information on the department’s Free Direct File assistance at local libraries webpage.
Before coming to the library, taxpayers should use the IRS eligibility checker to see if they’ll be able to use IRS Direct File and Direct File Oregon. IRS Direct File does not support all return types. Specifically, taxpayers with dividends reported on Form 1099-DIV and capital gains or losses are not supported. Income from pensions, reported on Form 1099-R, won’t be supported until later in March.
The IRS estimates that 44,000 people in Salem and Keizer are eligible to use IRS Direct File and Direct File Oregon in addition to 18,000 others in Marion County.
To use IRS Direct File taxpayers must have an IRS online account. Taxpayers who don’t already have IRS online account should sign up with ID.me and create an account before arriving at their library to expedite the filing process.
Taxpayers who want to import their federal return information into Direct File Oregon must have a Revenue Online account to file their state income tax return. Taxpayers who don’t already have a Revenue Online account can create one by following the Revenue Online link on the department’s website. Taxpayers who can’t use IRS Direct File or don’t want to import their federal return information can use Direct File Oregon to file their state income tax return without a Revenue Online account. However, the process is simpler and faster for those logged into their Revenue Online account.
The department believes that helping taxpayers file their own returns using direct file will help maximize the number of Oregonians who choose to use the new free option and make it possible for many who don’t have a filing requirement to file and claim significant federal and state tax credits for low-income families. The IRS estimates that nearly 25 percent eligible Oregon taxpayers are not claiming the EITC. One Oregon organization says that added up to almost $100 million in unclaimed credits in 2020.
Taxpayers should bring the following information with them to the library.
Identification documents
Social security card or ITIN for everyone on your tax return
Government picture ID for taxpayer and spouse if filing jointly (such as driver’s license or passport)
Common income and tax documents
Forms W2 (wages from a job)
Forms 1099 (other kinds of income)
Form SSA-1099 (Social Security Benefits)
Optional documents
Canceled check or bank routing and account numbers for direct deposit
Last year’s tax return
Taxpayers can sign up for the new “Oregon Tax Tips” direct email newsletter to keep up with information about tax return filing and how to claim helpful tax credits.
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/
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.
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.
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”.
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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.
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.
The latest round of UN climate negotiations, COP29, opened this past Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan, following a year that broke multiple extreme heat records and saw widespread climate-driven chaos – from wildfires to destructive floods and hurricanes – hit nearly every corner of the world. A major increase in financial commitments to assist vulnerable countries in mitigating and adapting to climate impacts is the main goal of this year’s conference, which has been dubbed the “climate finance COP.”
Can countries agree on a new climate finance target?
The UN’s main climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has issued increasingly dire warnings about the accelerating pace of global warming. To limit temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, substantial investments are needed in clean energy technologies, infrastructure, and adaptation measures.
Developing countries, particularly small island nations and least developed countries, are disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts like sea level rise, extreme weather events, and droughts. They require significant financial support to build resilience, transition to low-carbon economies, and compensate for loss and damage.
Round-the-clock negotiations in Baku on the always thorny topic of money are reportedly moving slowly. Delegates from developing nations are calling for more and faster progress on new funding for loss and damage and accelerated clean energy goals.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convenes the annual COP meetings, had a message for G20 leaders early on Saturday before they hopped on their planes for Rio de Janeiro:
“Climate finance progress outside of [the UNFCCC process] is equally crucial, and the G20’s role is mission-critical…the global climate crisis should beorder of business Number One, in Rio next week. The [G20] Summit must send crystal clear global signals. That more grant and concessional finance will be available; that further reform of multilateral development banks is a top priority, and G20 governments – as their shareholders and taskmasters – will keep pushing for more reforms.”
Finally, the UN climate chief said that “in turbulent times and a fracturing world, G20 leaders must signal loud and clear that international cooperation is still the best and only chance humanity has to survive global heating. There is no other way.”
Earlier in the week, Mr. Stiell gave a stark assessment of the stakes: Worsening climate change and the socioeconomic damage it inflicts mean “billions of people simply cannot afford for their government to leave COP29 without a global climate finance goal.”
“So, for leaders here and back in capitals – make it clear that you expect a strong set of outcomes. Tell your negotiators – skip the posturing – and move directly to finding common ground,” he said.
In his opening remarks on Tuesday to the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that 2024 has been “a masterclass in climate destruction.” He emphasized the critical role of climate finance in addressing the crisis: “The world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price…climate finance is not charity, it’s an investment. Climate action is not optional, it’s an imperative.”
Mr. Stiell later echoed this sentiment: “Let’s dispense with the idea that climate finance is charity. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every single nation, including the largest and wealthiest.”
Beyond the $100 billion pledge
In 2009 at the 15th Conference of UNFCCC Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen, developed countries committed to mobilizing $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020. While this target was finally met in 2022, it has been criticized as insufficient and delayed.
At COP29, negotiators are aiming to set a new, more ambitious target for climate finance. Developing countries are pushing for a significantly higher figure, potentially in the trillions of dollars per year. However, discussions on the exact amount and the modalities for delivering the funds remain contentious.
An early breakthrough on carbon
A significant breakthrough on the opening day at COP29 was the adoption of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, paving the way 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.
James Grabert, head of the Mitigation Division at UN Climate Change, the shorthand by which the UNFCCC secretariat is known, said that this historic agreement will provide countries with a “valuable tool” to meet their climate targets and drive sustainable development.
With COP29 coming on the heels of presidential polls in the United States, impact of a new US Administration on global climate action has been on the minds of many in the corridors of Baku Centre.
At a press conference, President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands and Ireland’s Environment Minister Eamon Ryan stressed that despite worries about a US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the combat against climate change is a global effort that requires global cooperation towards a better economy for all. The two leaders also cited the ongoing progress by states and cities as reasons for hope.
UNFCCC/Kiara Worth
Around the clock negotiations are underway at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on a new global climate finance deal.
A just transition, not a ‘stampede of greed’
Before heading to the G20 summit in Brazil, Mr. Guterres held several climate-related meetings, including one on critical minerals essential for renewable energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles.
These minerals, such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements, are crucial for the transition away from fossil fuels, with demand expected to triple by 2030.
Many of these minerals are found in Africa, which could benefit financially. However, there’s concern about a “resource curse,” where countries where these resources are located don’t benefit.
Mr. Guterres emphasized managing demand without triggering a “stampede of greed” that exploits and crushes the poor but instead ensures local communities benefit.
Dario Liguti from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) also highlighted the need for “sustainable exploitation of these minerals”, especially in emerging markets, to protect the environment and support local communities. In April, the UN chief formed a High-Level Panel to ensure countries and communities with these resources benefit the most.
Young people around the world are increasingly demanding climate action and climate justice. They are calling on governments and businesses to take bold steps to reduce emissions, protect vulnerable communities, and create a sustainable future for all.
After meeting with youth representatives and climate advocates at COP29, the Secretary-General posted on social media that he understood their frustrations: “You have every right to be angry. I am angry too…because we are on the verge of the climate abyss, and I don’t see enough urgency or political will to address the emergency.”
Basmallah Rawash, a Climate Activist with Care About Climate, said, “We are not the ones that are supposed to carry the burden of mitigation. We are not the ones who have caused this, but we are the ones that will carry the burden of the biggest struggle at the moment.”
The decisions made in Baku will have far-reaching consequences for generations to come. It is imperative that negotiators reach an ambitious agreement that delivers the finance needed to build a resilient and low-carbon future for all.
Stay tuned to UN News! Our team in Baku will be following the action through the end of next week.
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.
This Info Hour will provide an overview and facilitate a discussion on legal metrology devices that incorporate emerging technologies and the challenges associated with their use. This discussion will encompass devices that utilize measurement technology new to the Weight and Measures Community as well as devices that use established technology in new or unique legal metrology applications.
Date: February 20, 2025
Time: 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
OWM Technical Contact: Loren Minnich
Add to your calendar
Host: Loren Minnich
Following a description of each technology and the applicable Handbook 44 General Code paragraphs, Loren will moderate a discussion encouraging participants to share knowledge, insight, concerns, and questions related to emerging technology.
These will include:
Bi-direction Metering for EV’s
Wireless Charging of EV’s
Caper Cart Mobile POS System
MDMD Volumetric Measuring Systems
Driverless Taxi’s
Other “New” Technology
There is no fee to attend the event, and no certificates will be issued.
As part of theJARVISworkshop series, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is organizing the 4th Quantum Matters in Materials Science (QMMS) workshop in-person on Feb 19-20, 2025. The workshop will be focused on quantum phenomena in emerging materials for next generation devices. All materials are inherently quantum in nature, but when quantum phenomena manifest at the classical scale can we hope to leverage their properties for applications. Large scale initiatives such as the Materials Genome Initiative, the National Quantum Initiative, and the CHIPS for America Act represent compelling approaches to investigate quantum materials and accelerate their development for quantum information systems (QIS), for the use in future integrated circuits, and other practical industrial applications. For these approaches and initiatives to be successful, it is essential to have good synergy between experimental and computational efforts. This workshop aims at streamlining this effort. To make the workshop as effective as possible, we plan to mainly focus on 2D and 3D inorganic superconductor, topological, magnetic, and semiconducting materials, but we are not limited to those systems.
Some of the key topics to be addressed by both theory and experiments are:
1) discovery and characterization of new superconductors/topological, magnetic, and semiconducting materials,
2) optimization of known quantum materials,
3) investigation of defect induced behavior and transitions,
4) electronics, spintronics, and quantum memory applications,
5) challenges in applying QIS technologies at industrial scale,
6) successes and challenges in integrating next-generation materials into integrated circuits (microchips),
7) the role of material interfaces at the quantum level,
8) high fidelity many-body computational methods to treat quantum materials,
9) applications for quantum computing and quantum simulations.
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
If registered participants are interested in presenting a poster, please send name, affiliation, title, and abstract to nia.rodney-pollard [at] nist.gov(nia[dot]rodney-pollard[at]nist[dot]gov) no later than 1/31/2025.
A room block has been reserved at the following location:
Sheraton Rockville
Address: 920 King Farm Blvd, Rockville, MD 20850
Rate: $119/person (plus tax). Rate includes shuttle to and from NCCoE for both days of the workshop.
The International System of Units (SI), commonly known as the metric system, is easy to use and learn when taught using metric tools. The ability to interpret measurement scales, magnitude, and approximate a quantity are essential Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) competencies.
This 1.5-hour session will explore NIST Metric Program education publications and other resources teachers, parents, and students can download and freely reproduce. These resources are helpful to students as they become familiar with metric units, develop measurement quantity reference points, and learn more about SI basics.
National Metric Week, a collaboration between the NIST Metric Program and the U.S. Metric Association (USMA) will be discussed, as well as related USMA online education resources that include scholarships, awards, national Science Fair Program, and the Certified Metrication Specialist Program.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, using your notes, you will be able to:
LIST five best practices for teaching the International System of Units (SI), commonly known as the metric system.
DESCRIBE how you will use at least one SI education publication or resource to educate students in a traditional classroom, distance learning environment, or community outreach event.
REQUEST a free NIST Metric Teacher Kit.
PREPARE to celebrate National Metric Week (the 10th month of the year and the week containing the 10th day).
Minimum Requirements
Successful completion includes participation in all activities and discussions. Session participants will receive a Certificate of Attendance (does not include participant name or CEUs) by email after the session. Attendance is recorded in the unofficial transcript, which is available in the OWM Contacts System.
Audience
This session is ideal for K-12 educators and Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) professionals and other outreach ambassadors responsible for instructing middle school students on measurement techniques and STEAM careers. Parents and academic coaches who assist with student homework completion and science fair participation may also attend.
Cost
There is currently no registration fee for this webinar.
Instructor
Elizabeth Benham Phone: (301) 975-3690 Email: elizabeth.benham [at] nist.gov(elizabeth[dot]benham[at]nist[dot]gov)
Technology Requirements
The webinar will be a live stream, so participants must have a constant connection during the webinar (hard-wired is preferred). Review these system requirements to verify that MS Teams may be used on your computer, mobile device, or web browser. The performance of MS Teams may be influenced by other factors, such as network connectivity or other device applications.
Operating System (browsing) configurations:
Windows
Windows 8.1 and later, 64-bit;
Google Chrome;
Mozilla Firefox; and
Microsoft Edge.
macOS
One of the three latest MacOS versions;
Mozilla Firefox;
Apple Safari (no calls via Teams possible); and
Google Chrome.
Linux
Operating system: DEB or RPM;
Desktop environment: GNOME, KDE;
Mozilla Firefox; and
Opera.
Web Browsers:
On computers running Windows, Mac, or Linux, ensure you have the latest release of one of these browsers:
This 2-hour webinar introduces the Laboratory Management Review process, an important tool to foster communication between top management and laboratory personnel to improve laboratory operations to produce quality calibrations and highly satisfied customers.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of (or during) this session, using your notes, ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and NIST HB 143, you will:
IDENTIFY management review criteria (Section 8.9) in ISO/IEC 17025, NIST HB 143, and your laboratory quality manual and related procedures;
LIST the personnel that should participate in a management review;
LIST the 15 elements that are typically discussed during a management review;
SELECT sources of objective evidence that are used during a management review;
DISCUSS the value and benefits of management reviews; and
APPLY the management review and process to laboratory scenarios.
Materials & Supplies:
None.
Prerequisite(s):
There are no prerequisites for this webinar.
Pre-Work:
To complete the pre-work, participants will need the following resources:
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 (Section 8.9 Management Reviews) and NIST HB 143
Laboratory policy and procedure for conducting a Management Review.
Laboratory’s most recent Management Review.
If you are planning on opening (or reopening) a laboratory, please contact the instructor for an alternative pre-work assignment.
Pre-Work Deadline:
Pre-work should be submitted to the instructor COB by Thursday, January 30, 2025.
Post-Work:
None.
Minimum Requirement(s):
Completion includes completing pre-work assignment, full attendance, and active participation in the session activities and discussions.
Audience:
Laboratory personnel who have responsibilities for developing, implementing, and/or improving the quality management system in their laboratory as well as those who are seeking OWM recognition and/or accreditation or improvements to support recognition/accreditation. This webinar is especially useful for administrative or management staff who participate in management reviews and monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the resulting action items. This webinar is especially helpful for laboratory personnel and for the managers/administrators involved in the regular management review sessions. This course is available for non-weights and measures participants.
Registration Fee:
The current registration fee for webinars is $350. The payment deadline is COB Monday, February 3, 2025, and confirmed participants will be sent payment instructions when their training request is confirmed. Registration fees for State weights and measures metrologists are funded by NIST OWM.
Instructor:
Elizabeth Koncki Email: elizabeth.koncki [at] nist.gov(elizabeth[dot]koncki[at]nist[dot]gov)
Technology Requirement(s):
The webinar will be a live stream, so participants must have a constant connection during the webinar (hard-wired is preferred).
1. Operating System (browser) configurations:
Windows
Windows 10, 8.1 (32-bit/64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or later, Windows Edge browser, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome
For HTML Client – Google Chrome (v70.0 & above), Mozilla Firefox (v65.0 & above), and Edge (v42.0 & above)
Mac OS
Mac OS X 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14
Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome
For HTML Client – Google Chrome (v70.0 & above), Apple Safari (v12.0 & above), and Mozilla Firefox (v65.0 & above)
Linux
Ubuntu 16.04; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
No application support is available for Linux. Users on Linux can attend meetings in a browser.
Google Chrome, Adobe Flash Player 23.0
2. Mobile
The Adobe Connect app for iOS and Android requires Adobe Connect Server version 8.2 or later
Google Android 4.4 or later
Apple iOS: iOS 8.1.2 or later
Some features may not be enabled in all Adobe Connect meetings if one is using an Adobe Connect Server older than version 9.4.2 (required for Custom pods)
NOTE: OWM discourages using the Adobe Connect app for iOS and Android because engaging with highly technical content and interactive polls are challenging on a small screen.
3. Media players
In order to access the event, you must have, at a minimum, Adobe® Flash® Player 13 or higher installed on your computer. Please visit http://get2.adobe.com/flashplayer/ to download the Flash Player.
4. International Phone Calls
Before the webinar – Participants are responsible for verifying and testing that international calling is enabled on any telephone extension that will be used during the webinar. Some organizations permit only domestic calls, which may restrict the participant from making an international call to the OWM toll free number. A request to enable international call services may be necessary. Failing to test the international phone service could prevent participation in the webinar.
5. Optional: If you have never attended an Adobe Connect meeting before:
* Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat and Adobe Connect are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
Important note regarding inclement weather:If the U.S. government is closed or delayed, the ISAM Seminar will be postponed to a later date. Please contact Dianne Poster (dianne.poster [at] noaa.gov(dianne[dot]poster[at]nist[dot]gov)) or Carolyn Pace (carolyn.pace [at] noaa.gov(carolyn[dot]pace[at]noaa[dot]gov)) for further information.
The deadline for registration for in-person attendance for foreign nationals has passed. At this time, only virtual attendance is available for foreign nationals.
The NOAA Office of Space Commerce and NIST are hosting an event to explore the circular space economy. This innovative approach aims to utilize space-based resources sustainably by minimizing waste and maximizing the reuse and recycling of materials in space operations. As humanity expands its presence beyond Earth, this model becomes vital for reducing the need for costly resupply missions and mitigating the environmental impact of space activities.
By rethinking how resources are extracted, processed, and reused in orbit, a circular space economy can enhance mission longevity and improve the efficiency of various space missions, including space station utilization, in-space manufacturing, satellite servicing, and establishing off-world habitats. This approach supports broader sustainability goals on Earth and addresses urgent challenges like orbital debris and resource scarcity, ensuring a responsible and thriving space industry for future generations.
Attending this event is a crucial opportunity for policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and entrepreneurs to engage in shaping the future of space sustainability. The event will showcase cutting-edge advancements, including in-orbit recycling technologies, sustainable satellite manufacturing practices, and innovative policies for managing shared space resources. It provides a platform for collaboration on scalable solutions, sharing ideas, and forging partnerships that drive economic growth and environmental stewardship in the growing space sector. Participants will gain valuable insights into how the circular space economy can tackle critical challenges, unlocking new opportunities for economic resilience and long-term sustainability in the final frontier.
Commission 2025 Work Programme and new competitiveness strategy
At 9.00, Commissioner Śefčovič will present the Commission’s 2025 work programme, followed by a discussion with MEPs and Polish EU Affairs Minister Szłapka. In an afternoon debate, starting around 14.00, plenary will review the recently tabled proposal for a new competitiveness roadmap, with Commission Vice-President Séjourné and Minister Szłapka.
Repression in Russia one year after Navalny’s murder
MEPs will examine the Kremlin’s continued repression of Russia’s political opposition a year after the murder of Alexei Navalny, in a debate starting around 10.30.
US withdrawal from WHO and the Paris deal and suspension of external aid
Starting around 16.30, MEPs and Commissioner Lahbib will debate the consequences of the US Administration’s decision to pull out of the World Health Organisation and the Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as the impact of the suspension of US humanitarian and development aid.
Support to EU regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. From around 15.00, plenary will debate with Commission Vice-President Fitto and Minister Szłapka EU support to regions sharing borders with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Seven years after the Kuciak murders: threats to journalists in the EU. MEPs will assess with Commissioner McGrath the state of media freedom across the EU and discuss how to ensure the protection of journalists.
Mental health of Europe’s youth. MEPs and Commissioner Micallef will discuss how to tackle increasing mental health issues among European young people.
Human rights in Türkiye, Nicaragua and Nigeria. MEPs and Commissioner Micallef will consider the recent dismissals and arrests of mayors in Türkiye, repression in Nicaragua and the risk of the death penalty in Nigeria for blasphemy charges. Three draft resolutions will be put to a vote by plenary on Thursday.
Collaboration between conservatives and far right. In this session’s topical debate at 13.00, MEPs will discuss with Commission Vice-President Séjourné and Polish Minister Szłapka whether collaboration between conservatives and far right threatens competitiveness in the EU.
Votes
At noon, plenary will vote, among others, on:
New VAT rules for the digital age, and
Improved administrative cooperation in the field of taxation.
Växjö, Sweden, 12February2025 * * * JLT Mobile Computers, a leading supplier of rugged computers for demanding environments, today publishes its Year-end report for the full year 2024.
Summary of key figures
Order intake MSEK 103.0 (135.4)
Net revenues MSEK 118.4 (158.8)
EBITDA MSEK -2.1 (4.8)
Depreciation and amortization of development expenses MSEK -8.1 (-2.5)
Operating profit MSEK -9.7 (1.9)
Profit after taxes MSEK -7.7 (1.6)
Cashflow +6.8 (-21.5)
No dividend is proposed (SEK 0.00)
In short
Challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions resulted in lower-than-normal demand for JLT products, a rough year for JLT as well as for many other industry colleagues where reports of layoffs and closures occurred.
Order intake for the year amounted to MSEK 103 compared to MSEK 135 last year, and sales amounted to MSEK 118, a decrease from MSEK 159 last year.
Starting to see a recovery in the market – several major deals booked in the US during the first quarter of 2025, of which one for a leading American food producer to a value of MSEK 22 plus service agreements (press release 2025-01-10). The total order intake in Q1 2025 so far exceeds MSEK 40.
To create a more cost-effective and market-adapted structure that enables efficient management and customer-driven development of JLT’s software solutions, the operations of the subsidiary JLT Software Solutions AB have been discontinued (press release 2025-01-17). Capitalized development expenses in the company have been written down and, together with other discontinuation costs, impact the group’s results in the fourth quarter by MSEK 5.0, of which MSEK 1.2 affects cash flow. Software development, including the JLT Insights product, has been integrated with the group’s other product development.
Development expenses related to Android have been written down by MSEK 1.7, as the product’s sales did not develop as expected.
In 2024, organizational and R&D costs were reduced by MSEK 5.4, despite one-time costs of MSEK 1.2. EBITDA ended at MSEK -2.1, compared to MSEK 4.8 the previous year. For 2025, the mentioned measures are expected to provide additional savings of MSEK 1.5 and reduce amortization of development expenses to MSEK 0.5 compared to MSEK 8.1 for 2024.
In October, a senior marketing manager with extensive industry experience was recruited to JLT’s American subsidiary to lead marketing and partner strategy in the USA (press release 2024-10-15).
The organization in the French subsidiary, JLT France, has been expanded with a salesperson, and a planned generational shift in leadership has been carried out (press release 2024-10-01).
As a result of strategic measures implemented during 2024, inventory was reduced by 6.9 MSEK. Cash flow was positively impacted, and JLT added 6.8 MSEK to its cash reserves. Inventory is expected to be gradually reduced further during 2025.
2024 marked an important milestone for JLT, celebrating 30 years as an innovator of rugged computer solutions (press release 2024-12-12). Since its inception in 1994, JLT has been part of the extensive transformation that the rugged IT solutions industry has undergone.
The full interim report is attached to this press release and available for download at the company’s website, jltmobile.com. Additional financial information is available online on JLT’s investor pages.
This information is information that JLT Mobile Computers AB (pub) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out below, at 08:00 pm CET on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.
About JLT Mobile Computers
JLT Mobile Computers is a leading supplier of rugged mobile computing devices and solutions for demanding environments. 30 years of development and manufacturing experience have enabled JLT to set the standard in rugged computing, combining outstanding product quality with expert service, support and solutions to ensure trouble-free business operations for customers in warehousing, transportation, manufacturing, mining, ports and agriculture. JLT operates globally from offices in Sweden, France, and the US, complemented by an extensive network of sales partners in local markets. The company was founded in 1994, and the share has been listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market stock exchange since 2002 under the symbol JLT. Eminova Fondkommission AB acts as Certified Adviser. Learn more at jltmobile.com.
“What do I want the river to carry away? The deforestation,” Sandra Donado says, her voice competing with the sudden storm lashing her canoe as it floats down the Guaviare River in Colombia’s Amazon biome region.
This waterway, a silent witness to the turmoil of the municipality of Mapiripán, has seen it all – the wildlife trafficking, the coca harvests that fuelled conflict, the human bodies left behind amid a heinous massacre and the relentless erosion of the rainforest it once nourished.
Now, Sandra hopes it will carry away the pain of the past and usher in an era of healing for her community and for its land.
Mapiripán has long been trapped in a cycle of conflict and environmental degradation exacerbated by climate change. Many years ago, it was known for its illegal wildlife fur trade; later, it became a coca-growing region, attracting armed groups that turned the lush rainforest into a battleground.
Promise of prosperity
A young Sandra, facing extreme poverty and violence, arrived in Mapiripán in the early 2000s, drawn by a promise of prosperity. “There was an economic boom,” she recalls, “but it came from illicit crops – there was no other way to live.”
But the area’s prosperity was short-lived. Eventually, the conflict escalated, and the coca trade collapsed, leaving the community in ruins. “We lived with both prosperity and conflict,” Sandra says, her voice trembling as she recounts harrowing experiences of hiding from armed groups.
By 2009, most of the people in the rural communities in the region were forced to leave.
Many, including Sandra, returned after the signing of the Colombia Peace Agreement in 2016 which ended a decades-long rebel insurgency.
But the land, scarred by conflict and unsustainable cultivation, now struggled to produce. With a lack of infrastructure and limited market access, farmers like Marco Antonio Lopez turned to cattle ranching for survival.
Deforestation boom
This meant clearing more forests. “We would deforest 15 or 20 hectares with our own hands for our cattle,” he admits, “not to destroy biodiversity, but to find a way to survive.”
They also watched helplessly as newcomers took over abandoned areas and deforested even larger swaths of land. “They didn’t care about deforesting 700 to 1,000 hectares,” Sandra says with disgust. “They would just cut right through the centre of the mountain.”
The consequences were becoming all too clear: “That’s when we started to feel the heat, to notice the change in the climate,” she adds.
A silvopastoral system in the Amazon integrates trees and shrubs into livestock pastures. This increases carbon storage in trees and soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and fertilizer and boosting resilience to climate change.
Sandra and Marco now long for a future where they can improve their lives while protecting the forests, a desire shared across the country.
In fact, Colombia has made significant progress in curbing deforestation. The nation demonstrated that, between 2015 and 2016, deforestation rates in its Amazon Biome dropped substantially, preventing almost seven million tons of CO2 emissions.
This success helped the nation secure a $28.2 million Results-based Payment (RBP) from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2020 to implement the Colombia REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project, known in the country as Vision Amazonia.
Led by theUN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Vision Amazonia promotes conservation and sustainable land management in rapid deforestation areas like Mapiripán.
A silvopastoral system in the Amazon integrates trees and shrubs into livestock pastures. This increases carbon storage in trees and soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and fertilizer and boosting resilience to climate change.
‘We, the community’
In coordination with the Colombian government and local communities, the FAO project which runs until the end of 2026, protects the Amazon biome through forest monitoring and sustainable management practices, benefitting smallholders, farmer associations and local authorities alike.
“We, the community, are already aware of the problem caused by climate change. Now when we go out into the field to do work, the sun is so strong that we cannot resist the heat anymore. We have truly begun to develop an awareness of the need for preservation of these beautiful ecosystems that we have in the territory,” says Marco.
“If the forest thrives and we thrive, the animals thrive,” Sandra adds.
Deforestation releases carbon into the atmosphere, which fuels climate change and further harms forests.
“With this project,” explains Sandra Vanegas, FAO local markets coordinator, “we are ensuring forest conservation while families generate resources through associative projects.
“We are promoting agroforestry gardens where they can produce for their own consumption and conserve seeds and endemic plants.”
Indeed, Marco and Sandra’s communities have now gained a deep understanding of agroforestry, a sustainable land use practice that combines agriculture and forestry. Through educational visits, they’ve witnessed firsthand how to revitalize their soils with organic fertilizer and grow their own food.
Marco recounts a gradual awakening regarding their livestock. “We didn’t know at the time,” he admits, “that we didn’t need a huge extension of pastures for our cows to have good nourishment.”
The initiative, he says, opened their eyes through a series of training sessions. Now they have started to implement silvopastoral systems by planting trees on their family farms.
“They gave us a broader perspective, helping us realize the damage and consequences of continued deforestation. That’s when we, as leaders, took a stronger stance to protect the forest.”
This newfound awareness led them to form the AGROCIARE association to pursue sustainable projects. For instance, they have been actively working to plant and commercialize the cacay tree, a native Amazonian species known for its nutritious fruit.
With training in legal and organizational skills, they’ve strengthened their association’s capacity to advocate for environmental protection and better livelihoods.
“Our vision is to ensure that the treasure of our environment and rainforest is protected by those of us who live here,” Marco declares.
By working with the rural communities, the programme is finding climate solutions that are effective, equitable and offer a different future for the Amazon.
Agrifood systems solutions are climate, biodiversity and land solutions
This story is part of a three-part series from FAO on climate, biodiversity and land solutions in Colombia. These stories take you from the arid landscapes of La Guajira, where the SCALA programme is supporting climate resilience and food security, to the Pacific coast, where a Global Environmental Facility-supported project is working to conserve rich biodiversity while also contributing to the pursuit of peace.
As COP29 climate talks in Baku enter their final week, the UN climate chief told negotiators on Monday to “cut the theatrics,” get down to business and hammer out a new finance deal to compensate countries for climate-driven damages and pay for a clean-energy transition.
“We can’t lose sight of the forest because we’re tussling over individual trees,” said Simon Stiell, urging delegates to wrap up “less contentious issues” as early as possible this week, so there is enough time for the major political decisions.
COP29 opened in the Azerbaijan capital this past Monday with the main goal of reaching agreement on scaling up finance to address the worsening impacts of global warming.
Despite an early breakthrough on standards that will pave the way for a UN-governed carbon market, the talks on climate finance have been slow and contentions, with delegations digging in their heels rather than looking for common ground.
Time for business, not brinkmanship
“Bluffing, brinksmanship, and pre-mediated playbooks” are burning up precious time and running down the goodwill needed for an ambitious package, emphasized Mr. Stiell, who is the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convenes the annual COP meetings.
The stakes are too high for “an outbreak of ‘you-first-ism’…where groups of parties dig in and refuse to move on one issue, until others move elsewhere,” he said and the only way to get the job done is “if Parties are prepared to step forward in parallel, bringing us closer to common ground.”
Mr. Stiell’s plea comes after UN Secretary-General António Guterresalso voiced concern over the state of negotiations at COP29, noting that countries must agree to an ambitious climate finance goal that meets the scale of the challenge faced by developing countries.
Speaking to reporters in Rio on Sunday ahead of the G20 summit, the UN chief said that “now is the time for leadership by example from the world’s largest economies and emitters. Failure is not an option.”
Beyond the negotiations, other meetings and high-level events at COP29 touched on a range of topics – from the climate-health nexus to human development and education.
UN News/Nargiz Shekinskaya
Catarina from Brazil (left) and Francisco from Columbia (right) call for a UN children’s COP during a UNICEF press conference on youth-led climate action, held at COP29 in Baku
‘No decisions about us without us!’
Children and young people also made their voices heard at several lively and well attended events, as they called for protection from the effects of climate change; measures to prevent further destruction of the planet; and stepped-up efforts to preserve nature.
They urged decision-makers at COP29 to give them a seat at the climate negotiating table and to urgently consider organizing a separate UN climate conference specifically for children.
According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), climate change impacts the well-being of nearly 1 billion children – half of the world’s child population. Air pollution, infectious diseases, environmental degradation, and extreme weather events compromise children’s health, hinder their education, and deprive them of the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.
During heatwaves, young children are at risk of dehydration because their bodies cannot regulate temperature effectively. Floods and droughts impoverish families, leaving children to bear the consequences.
“Floods force school closures in Liberia, and children miss school,” said Juanita Tamba of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the world’s largest volunteer movement for the empowerment of girls and young women.
“And during the dry season, we have to travel long distances to fetch water, and girls often face violence while trying to get water,” she told UN News.
UNICEF estimates that climate-related disasters cause approximately 40 million children to miss school each year, and the number is rising.
Zunaira, from Pakistan, one of the youngest participants in Baku, is attending COP29 with the support of UNICEF.
She told UN News: “When there are floods in my country, resources become limited, and there are not enough for everyone. Children, especially girls, are the most affected.”
Speaking at a UNICEF press conference on youth-led climate action, Rasul, a youth from Azerbaijan highlighted the dire condition of the Caspian Sea. “Due to rising temperatures and prolonged heatwaves, the water level in this amazing body of water is falling,” he said.
Baku is situated on the coast of the Caspian, the biggest inland body of water in the world. Rasul observed that the effects on Azerbaijan’s people are becoming more noticeable as the shoreline recedes, particularly the rising temperatures: “Both summer and winter in Azerbaijan are getting warmer.”
‘The future needs a voice!’
Catarina, a 16-year-old environmental activist from Salvador, Brazil, a city on the Atlantic Ocean, also shared her experiences.
A passionate surfer since childhood, she noted: “When I was nine years old, I actually felt the ocean warming. I was constantly in the water and… I realized something was wrong when [it] was much hotter than normal in areas I frequented. Then I noticed coral reefs covered in white spots – coral bleaching was something I had never seen before.”
Despite her young age, Catarina is an experienced climate activist. When she was just 12 years old, she joined other children in filing a complaint with the Geneva-based UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to protest government inaction on the climate crisis.
“It was the first time children brought a global complaint through a UN mechanism. We denounced five countries, and as a result, the UN officially recognized that children’s rights are affected by the lack of climate action,” Catarina said.
In an emotional speech, she emphasized: “Children have things to say, and we know how to say them. We need the space… not at COP30. We need a COP for children right now!”
According to Catarina, she was fairly certain that it might be too late to make significant change by the time she started her job or rose to a position of influence.
“Effective actions must happen now. That’s why children need to be included in the decision-making process. If we are the future, then this future needs to have a voice,” she concluded.
UNICEF Executive Director Katherine Russell has echoed Catarina’s sentiments, saying earlier this month: “At COP29 and through Nationally Determined Contributions, governments must prioritize children’s rights,”
“Children need to be included in the solutions, and global leaders must make health care, education, water, and sanitation systems more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Now is the time to act.”
Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to submit updated national climate action plans, or NDC’s, next year at COP30.
In that context, UNICEF has warned that less than half of the current plans are child- or youth-sensitive, and only three percent were developed through participatory processes involving children.
Against this background, 16-year-old Payton Esau from Canada brought a manifesto to the climate conference, signed by 800 of her peers.
“We demand that governments communicate in a language young people can understand so we know what measures are being taken to combat climate change. Governments must act without delay to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius,” Payton told UN News.
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.
Source: United States Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
Watch Senator Rosen’s Full Remarks HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) spoke on the Senate floor to oppose the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. In her remarks, Senator Rosen emphasized Gabbard’s lack of qualifications to lead the U.S. Intelligence Community. She also voiced her serious concerns about Gabbard’s connections to America’s adversaries, including Vladimir Putin and other brutal dictators.
Below are excerpts of Senator Rosen’s floor remarks:
Every member of this body is sworn to protect our national security and safety and the well-being of the American people. There is no more important responsibility for Congress to fulfill than this.
Senators take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
And when the American people go to sleep at night, they rest assured that our homeland will be kept safe.
[…]
At a time of rising global threats, having Tulsi Gabbard serving in this role would make America less safe. And I want to say that again – would make us less safe. Full stop.
Our allies are dumbfounded, and our adversaries, well, in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and all over the world – they’re laughing at us.
They’re laughing at the idea that the United States of America would weaken its national security by placing someone so deeply unqualified in such a critical role for our safety, for our security.
Our adversaries, well, they are overjoyed that they’re going to have an ally leading the American Intelligence Community.
And my concerns, they’re not political. After all, Ms. Gabbard and I used to serve in Congress together in the same caucus when she represented a district from Hawaii as a Democrat.
My concerns are that she not only lacks the qualifications needed, but that she has also peddled talking points straight from the Kremlin.
Think about it. Tulsi Gabbard has never worked in intelligence before. As a member of the House of Representatives, she didn’t even serve on the House Intelligence Committee.
During her time in the House, Ms. Gabbard actually voted against – she voted against – critical national security-related legislation, like increased funding for preventing terrorism in high-density, high-threat level urban areas like my city of Las Vegas. She voted against all of that security for Nevada.
This funding was actually pursued by former Nevada congressman Joe Heck, who’s a Republican, and it’s something I’ve continued working to secure in the Senate.
And yet, Tulsi Gabbard, she voted against [the] bipartisan proposal to protect our cities from terrorism.
And she was the only member of [the] House Armed Services Committee to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act every year during markup.
As concerning as her lack of experience and tendency to vote against our security is, Ms. Gabbard’s history of cozying up to America’s adversaries is far, far more troubling.
Her actions and words suggest that she has been directly influenced by foreign propaganda, whether that comes from Russia, from Syria, or other brutal dictatorships.
[…]
Just look at her justification of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, which she did not blame [on] Vladimir Putin, who, let’s be clear, is entirely responsible for the invasion.
Instead, Ms. Gabbard has parroted Putin’s talking points and placed blame on the United States and on NATO for Russia’s vile assault upon the Ukrainian people.
We can also look at her attempts to give cover to Syria’s former dictator Bashar Al Assad, who used chemical weapons on his own people, killing kids, killing babies – killing babies in his own attempt to hold onto power.
Ms. Gabbard even went to Syria to buddy up with Assad and then came back to the U.S. to defend his killing of innocent men, women, and children. Those babies he killed to hang onto power.
It’s sickening actually.
It’s a betrayal of our country’s values.
Time and time again, Ms. Gabbard has rejected the findings and conclusions of our own intelligence officials, and has instead chosen to, well, cozy up to dictators and our adversaries.
[…]
I urge my colleagues to review Ms. Gabbard’s recent hearing before the Senate […] Select Committee on Intelligence. In response to almost every question, Tulsi Gabbard avoided providing any real answer. Whether it came from a Democrat or a Republican, she simply dodged the questions over and over and over.
And that’s not leadership; this is not an example of someone who is qualified; and this is not a candidate who will keep America safe.
I urge my Republican colleagues to join me in listening to common sense, to thinking about our men and women who serve, to think about folks around the globe, to think about everyone here in America to reject this clearly unqualified and dangerous nominee.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s have President Trump nominate someone else who we can agree is qualified for this critical and consequential role who has our nation’s best interests in their heart.
Tulsi Gabbard is not that person.
The safety and well-being of our country depend on having a qualified nominee.
Again, I urge my Republican [colleagues] to join us, to reject Tulsi Gabbard and put someone up who has the heart and experience to do this important job.
Thank you.
Some, often more quietly, will welcome it from an anti-imperialist or “Southern” perspective, believing that the agency was at worst a blunt instrument of US hegemony or at least a bastion of Western saviourism.
I want to come at this topic from a different angle, by providing a brief personal perspective on USAID as an organisation, based on several decades of occasional interaction with it during my time as an Australian aid official.
Essentially, I view USAID as a harried, hamstrung and traumatised organisation, not as a rogue agency or finely-tuned vehicle of US statecraft.
Peer country representative My own experience with USAID began when I participated as a peer country representative in an OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) peer review of the US’s foreign assistance programme in the early 1990s, which included visits to US assistance programmes in Bangladesh and the Philippines, as well as to USAID headquarters in Washington DC.
I later dealt with the agency in many other roles, including during postings to the OECD and Indonesia and through my work on global and regional climate change and health programmes, up to and including the pandemic years.
An image is firmly lodged in my mind from that DAC peer review visit to Washington. We had had days of back-to-back meetings in USAID headquarters with a series of exhausted-looking, distracted and sometimes grumpy executives who didn’t have much reason to care what the OECD thought about the US aid effort.
It was a muggy summer day. At one point a particularly grumpy meeting chair, who now rather reminds of me of Gary Oldman’s character in Slow Horses, mopped the sweat from his forehead with his necktie without appearing to be aware of what he was doing. Since then, that man has been my mental model of a USAID official.
But why so exhausted, distracted and grumpy?
Precisely because USAID is about the least freewheeling workplace one could construct. Certainly it is administratively independent, in the sense that it was created by an act of Congress, but it also receives its budget from the President and Congress — and that budget comes with so many strings attached, in the form of country- or issue-related “earmarks” or other directives that it might be logically impossible to allocate the funds as instructed.
Some of these earmarks are broad and unsurprising (for example, specific allocations for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment under the Bush-era PEPFAR program) while others represent niche interests (Senator John McCain once ridiculed earmarks pertaining to “peanuts, orangutans, gorillas, neotropical raptors, tropical fish and exotic plants”) — but none originates within USAID.
Informal earmarks calculation I recall seeing an informal calculation showing that one could only satisfy all the percentage-based earmarks by giving most of the dollars several quite different jobs to do. A 2002 DAC peer review noted with disapproval some 270 earmarks or other directive provisions in aid legislation; by the time of the most recent peer review in 2022, this number was more like 700.
Related in part to this congressional micro-management of its budget — along with the usual distrust of organisations that “send” money overseas — USAID labours under particularly gruelling accountability and reporting requirements.
Andew Natsios — a former USAID Administrator and lifelong Republican who has recently come to USAID’s defence (albeit with arguments that not everybody would deem helpful) — wrote about this in 2010. In terms reminiscent of current events, he described the reign of terror of Lieutenant-General Herbert Beckington, a former Marine Corps officer who led USAID‘s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) from 1977 to 1994.
He was a powerful iconic figure in Washington, and his influence over the structure of the foreign aid programME remains with USAID today. … Known as “The General” at USAID, Beckington was both feared and despised by career officers. Once referred to by USAID employees as “the agency’s J. Edgar Hoover — suspicious, vindictive, eager to think the worst” …
At one point, he told the Washington Post that USAID’s white-collar crime rate was “higher than that of downtown Detroit.” … In a seminal moment in this clash between OIG and USAID, photographs were published of two senior officers who had been accused of some transgression being taken away in handcuffs by the IG investigators for prosecution, a scene that sent a broad chill through the career staff and, more than any other single event, forced a redirection of aid practice toward compliance.
Labyrinthine accountability systems On top of the burdens of logically impossible programming and labyrinthine accountability systems is the burden of projecting American generosity. As far as humanly possible, and perhaps a little further, ways must be found of ensuring that American aid is sourced from American institutions, farms or factories and, if it is in the form of commodities, that it is transported on American vessels.
Failing that, there must be American flags. I remember a USAID officer stationed in Banda Aceh after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami spending a non-trivial amount of his time seeking to attach sizeable flags to the front of trucks transporting US (but also non-US) emergency supplies around the province of Aceh.
President Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller has somehow determined to his own satisfaction that the great majority (in fact 98 percent) of USAID personnel are donors to the Democratic Party. Whether or not that is true, let alone relevant, Democrat administrations have arguably been no kinder to USAID than Republican ones over the years.
Natsios, in the piece cited above, notes that The General was installed under Carter, who ran on anti-Washington ticket, and that there were savage cuts — over 400 positions — to USAID senior career service staffing under Clinton. USAID gets battered no matter which way the wind blows.
Which brings me back to necktie guy. It has always seemed to me that the platonic form of a USAID officer, while perhaps more likely than not to vote Democrat, is a tired and dispirited person, weary of politicians of all stripes, bowed under his or her burdens, bound to a desk and straitjacketed by accountability requirements, regularly buffeted by new priorities and abrupt restructures, and put upon by the ignorant and suspicious.
Radical-left Marxists and vipers probably wouldn’t tolerate such an existence for long. Who would? I guess it’s either thieves and money-launderers or battle-scarred professionals intent on doing a decent job against tall odds.
Robin Davies is an honorary professor at the Australian National University’s (ANU) Crawford School of Public Policy and managing editor of the Devpolicy Blog. He previously held senior positions at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and AusAID.
Having just returned from the G20 Summit in Rio, Mr. Guterres shared the resounding message he delivered there: an ambitious climate finance goal is not only essential, but urgent.
“Failure is not an option,” he emphasized, warning that the result of inaction could be catastrophic.
Just 24 hours before COP29 is due to wrap up in the Azerbaijan capital, negotiators reportedly remained at loggerheads over a new climate finance goal to help developing countries combat flash flooding, drought, wildfires and other natural shocks made worse by human activity.
The first draft text on a potential outcome dropped in the early morning hours on Thursday and received mixed reactions from government negotiating teams and civil society groups.
Largely divided in two parts, the draft reportedly sets out proposals from developing and developed countries, with some sticking points still unresolved, including on funding goals.
‘Clock is ticking’
Emphasizing the urgency of the moment, the Secretary-General said: “The clock is ticking. COP29 is now down to the wire.”
While progress has been made and areas of convergence are emerging, significant differences still remain, the UN chief continued.
But without decisive action, the consequences could ripple far beyond this summit, potentially undermining near-term efforts and complicating preparations for COP30 in Brazil, he noted.
“Failure might jeopardize both near-term action and ambition in the preparation of new national climate action plans,” Mr. Guterres warned, adding that it could accelerate the approach of irreversible climate tipping points.
A clear path forward
The Secretary-General underscored the critical need for an ambitious new climate finance goal: a comprehensive financial package designed to mobilize resources for developing countries, enabling them to implement climate action plans aligned with the 1.5-degree Celsius target.
He emphasized the importance of financing initiatives that support nations in transitioning to clean, affordable energy while reducing emissions.
Additionally, he highlighted the necessity of strengthening disaster resilience by securing funds to protect vulnerable populations from the escalating impacts of climate disasters. Restoring trust between nations was also a key focus, with a call to build solidarity through international cooperation under the framework of the Paris Agreement.
Mr. Guterres underscored the significance of this agreement as more than a mere negotiation. “This is a COP to deliver justice in the face of climate catastrophe,” he said.
An investment, not a handout
Challenging the notion of climate finance as a form of charity, the UN chief argued that it is a critical investment in the planet’s future. “It’s a downpayment on a safer, more prosperous future for every nation on Earth,” he asserted.
He recalled that multilateral development banks have pledged to increase their climate finance to $120 billion annually by 2030, with an additional $65 billion mobilized from the private sector.
Meanwhile, the Pact for the Future – adopted in New York this past September by the 193-member UN General Assembly – commits to improving access to finance and increasing the lending capacity of development banks.
A call for unity
Recognizing the geopolitical divisions that could undermine progress, the Secretary-General urged leaders and negotiators to “soften hard lines”, navigate their differences and “keep eyes on the bigger picture”.
Appealing for unity and reminding all parties of what is at stake – a liveable planet for future generations – he stated: “Never forget what is at stake…This is not a zero-sum game.”
Deliver for all humanity
Wrapping up his remarks, Mr. Guterres said: “The need is urgent. The rewards are great. And time is short.”
He emphasized that COP29 must deliver not only for those in the negotiation halls but for all humanity.
Alongside the Secretary-General’s press conference and the ongoing intense negotiations, discussions at COP29 today also spotlighted the critical importance of gender equality in combating the climate crisis.
UNFCCC/Kiara Worth
Participants at the High-Level event on Gender Transparency, a highlight of ‘Gender Day’ at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A high-level session on gender and transparency emphasized the necessity of integrating gender considerations into climate policies.
Women, particularly in low-income and marginalized communities, often bear the brunt of climate-induced disasters due to their roles as primary caregivers and food providers.
Meanwhile, in many regions, their limited access to resources, education, and decision-making power further deepens their vulnerability. Women frequently shoulder the burden of securing water, food, and fuel for their families, often at great personal risk.
By ensuring that women have equal access to resources, education, and opportunities to participate in climate solutions, more effective and sustainable strategies can be created for mitigating and adapting to the effects of our rapidly warming planet.
UN News/Nargiz Shekinskaya
Jemimah Njuki, Chief of the Economic Empowerment section at UN Women, speaks to UN News at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
‘200 million hours fetching water’
“Women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa are spending 200 million hours [daily] just fetching water,” said Jemimah Njuki, Chief of Economic Empowerment and Head of the Economics Division at UN Women, in an interview with UN News.
“To put this into context, this is equivalent to the entire workforce of the UK’s working hours per day.”
Ms. Njuki said women and girls are more likely to face food insecurity as a result of climate change.
“Our analysis already shows us that in the worst climate case scenario, 236 million more women and girls will become food insecure, and 158 million more women and girls will fall into poverty,” she warned, ad added: “We also see climate change significantly increasing the unpaid care work performed by women and girls.”
While noting that there has been significant progress on girls’ education, reducing maternal mortality, and reducing child mortality, she underscored that at the same time, “we are seeing huge pushbacks against women’s rights.”
With all this in mind, Ms. Njuki stressed the vital importance of the outcome of COP29 for gender equality.
“As people working on gender equality, we are concerned not just about the quantity of climate finance but also about its quality,” she said.
She posed a few questions that negotiators could consider: “How do we make the financing more gender-responsive? How do we ensure that we are directing funds toward issues of gender equality? How do we ensure that feminist movements, indigenous movements, and the women working on climate action can actually access this finance?”
Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Hernande
Dr. Jessica Hernandez (Binnizá & Maya Ch’orti’) is an Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest.
Indigenous women and land rights
UN News also spoke with Jessica Hernandez, an indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. In her current role at Landesa, a non-profit organization, she advocates for indigenous peoples’ land rights and tenure in the Global South.
“One of our goals for COP29 is to advocate for the inclusion of land rights and tenure into the nationally determined contributions (NDCs),” she said.
“We know that 2.5 billion people in rural and indigenous communities worldwide already safeguard these ecosystems, especially land ecosystems crucial for human survival.”
Ms. Hernandez, recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 most powerful and influential women in Central America, highlighted the critical role of indigenous women in sustainable land and resource management and food security.
“Unfortunately, only a minority of this land is legally recognized, leaving these communities vulnerable to exploitative land grabs and without the foundations needed for long-term planning and access to government services,” she added.
Carolina Santos from Engajamundo, a youth-led civil society organization in Brazil, told UN News, “I would like to see more women and girls taking leadership roles in discussions about land rights and access to climate financing, as their bodies are also on the line when it comes to the climate crisis.”
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.
The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday called for some $16.9 billion to address the escalating global hunger crisis – or roughly what the world spends on coffee in just two weeks.
This call follows the release of the agency’s Global Outlook 2025, which assesses global food security needs.
According to WFP, hunger continues to rise, with 343 million people across 74 countries experiencing acute food insecurity – a 10 per cent increase from last year.
This includes 1.9 million people who are on the brink of famine, with catastrophic hunger recorded in regions such as Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali.
Cindy McCain, WFP’s Executive Director, described the gravity of the situation: “Global humanitarian needs are rising, fuelled by devastating conflicts, more frequent climate disasters, and extensive economic turmoil. Yet funding is failing to keep pace.”
Funding shortfalls in 2024 forced WFP to scale back activities, often leaving some of the most vulnerable behind.
Sub-Saharan Africa, ground zero
In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 170 million people face acute hunger, making the continent the focus of half of WFP’s funding needs for 2025.
Conflict in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Sahel, combined with climate extremes exacerbated by El Niño, has deepened the crisis.
Humanitarian operations are under significant strain, with rising displacement and reduced access to essential resources creating further challenges.
WFP distributes hot food to Haitians in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Urgent support needed in Latin America
Latin America and the Caribbean are also severely affected, with over 40 million people food insecure and 14.2 million identified as needing immediate assistance.
WFP’s focus in the region includes strengthening food systems, building climate resilience, and supporting social protection programmes to stabilise vulnerable communities and prevent further deterioration.
A global call to action
The $16.9 billion funding would allow the organization to feed 123 million of the hungriest people globally in 2025.
“At WFP, we are dedicated to achieving a world without hunger. But to get there, we urgently need financial and diplomatic support from the international community to reverse the rising tide of global needs and help vulnerable communities build long-term resilience against food insecurity,” Ms. McCain emphasised.
In 2025, WFP will continue prioritising and adapting its responses to each country’s specific needs and aligning its capabilities and resources to deliver high-quality programmes, the agency concluded.
The high-level diplomatic push for climate action shifted southward on Tuesday as G20 leaders meeting in Rio sent a clear signal to negotiating teams at stalled UN climate talks in Baku on the need to rapidly and substantially ‘scale up climate finance from billions to trillions from all sources.’
While the statement from the world’s leading economies – and biggest emitters – stopped short of explicit reference of ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels’, to which all nations agreed last year at COP28 in Dubai, the G20 leaders did ‘welcome the balanced, ambitious outcome’ of those talks.
The G20 communiqué comes as the clock ticks down on COP29, which is set to wrap up this Friday in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku. The complex negotiations on new and significantly scaled-up funding for loss and damage and accelerated clean energy goals are moving slowly, as some countries dig into their positions while waiting for others to pull back from their own.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell who earlier warned against brinkmanship and what he called ‘you-first-ism’, said today that G20 leaders sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: “A successful new finance goal… is in every country’s clear interests.”
“Leaders of the world’s largest economies have also committed to driving forward financial reforms to put strong climate action within all countries’ reach,” said Mr. Stiell, who is the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convenes that annual COP meetings.
He added: “This is an essential signal in a world plagued by debt crises and spiraling climate impacts, which are wrecking lives, disrupting supply chains, and fueling inflation in every economy.”
‘Failure is not an option’
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who is in Rio to participate in discussions on sustainable development the combat against poverty and hunger, as well as climate change, noted during a session earlier this morning that Brazil is set to host COP30 next year in the eastern Amazon region.
“Failure [in Baku] is not an option. It might compromise the ambition in the preparation of the new national climate action plans, with potential devastating impacts as irreversible tipping points are getting closer. The preservation of the Amazon is a case in point,” he said.
Missing the opportunity to reach agreement on a new climate finance deal in Baku “would inevitably also make the success of COP30 in Brazil much more difficult,” the Secretary-General said, and added: “I appeal to the sense of responsibility of all the countries around this table to help ensure that COP29 will be a success.”
Some climate and environment activists in Baku said they were cautiously optimistic about the communique, while others gave it a mixed verdict, saying the statement was vague on climate finance and failed to explicitly mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels.
Harjeet Singh, a climate activist who is the Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, shared his views with UN News: “Developed nations remain unmoved, failing to quantify the trillions needed or to ensure these funds are provided as grants – essential for achieving climate justice.”
He added: “Their rehashed rhetoric offers no solace for the fraught COP29 negotiations, where we continue to see a deadlock on climate finance.”
Agrifood solutions
Alongside the negotiations, dozens of meetings and events are underway COP29, with the bulk of today’s activities focused on agriculture, food security and water. Delegations from around world shared experiences on sustainable food production practices and addressed agriculture-related challenges.
Just in time for COP29, new analysis from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has found that nearly all countries identify agrifood systems as a priority for climate change adaptation (94 per cent) and mitigation (91 per cent) in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
According to the FAO, this highlights the tremendous potential of agrifood systems as climate solutions, especially as countries prepare to submit their third round of NDCs in 2025.
“Agrifood systems are key to achieving food security and hold the solutions to multiple challenges: climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, and water scarcity,” FAO Assistant Director-General Viorel Gutu said, as climate change is a significant driver of food insecurity in a world where around 730 million people still live in hunger.
He noted, “Unfortunately, current financing and investment are not sufficient to affect the transformation we need.” He added that, over the past two decades, funding for agrifood systems has declined from 37 per cent to 23 per cent of all climate-related development finance.
While agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, if done right, the industry can also help overcome the climate crisis.
Also spotlighting the importance of agriculture – for climate action and broader sustainable development efforts – was Jemimah Njuki, Chief of Economic Empowerment and Head of the Economics Division at UN Women
In an interview with UN News, she called on governments to provide special support to women-led farms.
“Without women, we will not be able to feed the world,” Ms. Njuki stressed. At the same time, she lamented that women are less likely than men to own the land they cultivate, and it is more difficult for them to secure loans to develop their businesses.
It is not only women who are affected but also other vulnerable groups, such as Indigenous peoples.
Andrea Echiverri of the Global Forest Coalition, an international nongovernmental organization advocating for social and gender justice for rural communities, said that she believes current agricultural practices are destructive to the environment.
“Take livestock, for example, which requires more and more pasture, meaning forests continue to be cut down, and Indigenous peoples are being expelled from their lands,” Ms. Echiverri said.
Governments, she emphasized, do not pay enough attention to the sustainability of livestock farming, although this industry accounts for about 16 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions and 15 per cent of all fossil fuels consumed.
UN News
View of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku from the Caspian Sea
Action on Water
Elsewhere in the giant Baku Stadium complex where COP29 has been running since last Monday, water-related challenges were in the spotlight at a panel discussion where experts and participants stressed that floods, droughts, shrinking water sources, and rising water levels threaten the well-being of populations, provoke forced displacement, and undermine food security.
For example, in countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, glaciers are shrinking rapidly, threatening long-term water supplies.
“The climate knows no borders, and water knows no borders,” emphasized Sonja Koppel, Secretary of the UN Water Convention. “At the same time, water can be both the cause of conflict and the key to its resolution.”
Speaking to UN News, she noted that 153 countries share water bodies with other nations, but only 28 per cent of them have agreements with their neighbors to cooperate most of their shared water resources. One successful example is the Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which have overcome differences and established cross-border cooperation on the Chu Talas River.
Ms. Koppel called on countries to use water resources to establish peace with their neighbors and effectively manage shared natural resources.
Formally the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, the treaty is a unique international legal instrument and intergovernmental platform which aims to ensure the sustainable use of transboundary water resources by facilitating cooperation. Initially negotiated as a regional instrument, it has been opened for accession to all UN Member States in 2016.
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.
Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich
VIDEO
Heinrich uplifts New Mexicans’ concerns, emphasizes how Gabbard’s poor judgment will impact all Americans
WASHINGTON — This evening, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, delivered remarks on the Senate floor amplifying the voices of New Mexicans opposing the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for the Director of National Intelligence.
Heinrich voted against advancing Gabbard’s nomination out of the Intelligence Committee, pointing to her poor judgment and lack of national security experience. Specifically, during her nomination hearing, Gabbard refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor and, in response to Heinrich’s questioning, falsely denied knowledge of comments by a Syrian cleric she met with in 2017 who threatened to unleash suicide bombers in the United States.
“As a member of the Senate Select Committee of Intelligence for the last 12 years, I don’t say this lightly: I do not believe that Ms. Gabbard has demonstrated the judgment to merit our trust as Director of National Intelligence,” said Heinrich.
VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) delivers remarks on the Senator floor opposing the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for the Director of National Intelligence, February 11, 2025.
During his speech, Heinrich emphasized the risk Gabbard’s nomination poses to our national security, “Ms. Gabbard’s statements and actions leading up to and during the confirmation process should make all of us question her qualifications for this essential national security role. And they should make us seriously question her basic judgment. Time and again, Ms. Gabbard has elevated conspiracy theories, parroted dictators’ talking points, and repeatedly undermined our country’s national security.”
Heinrich discussed Ms. Gabbard’s lack of qualifications and judgment, particularly relating to her 2017 trip to Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, saying, “Her trip to Syria and her visit with Assad himself should be alarming to all of us. Normally, if any member of Congress goes on a foreign fact-finding trip like this, we take precautions to not jeopardize our vital national security interests. We coordinate with the State Department and the Pentagon. We carefully account for our schedules. And we sure as hell make sure we are not giving a platform to state sponsors of terrorism or terrorist leaders. Ms. Gabbard did none of these things on this rogue trip into Assad’s Syria.”
Heinrich zeroed in onMs. Gabbard’s false denial during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committeeabout meeting with Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, Syria’s most senior Sunni Muslim cleric during the Assad regime who made threats to conduct suicide bomb attacks in the United States.
Heinrich said, “During her confirmation hearing last month, I asked Ms. Gabbard directly about this meeting with Mr. Hassoun. he claimed this was the first she had ever heard about Mr. Hassoun’s threats to set up suicide bombers to target America and our European allies. However, records from her congressional office suggest that almost immediately after returning from her controversial trip, she was fully aware that she had met with a leader with direct ties to terrorism.”
Heinrich continued, “I want to be clear than I am not suggesting that Ms. Gabbard endorsed or endorses the despicable views or actions of this Syrian terrorist leader. But her false denial to me at her confirmation hearing of any prior knowledge of this terrorist leader whom she met with should be evidence enough that we cannot trust her to tell the truth. And in the position that we are being asked to confirm her for, telling the truth is the entire point.”
Heinrich concluded by amplifying the concerns of New Mexicans who have written or called into his office expressing concern over Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination. Watch a video of Heinrich uplifting New Mexicans’ voices here.
Last week, in an interview with Jim Sciutto on CNN’s The Situation Room, Heinrich vocalized the concerns of his constituents who continue to write-in and call his office opposing Trump’s harmful actions, which are impacting New Mexico families and their financial security. Watch the full video of that interview here.
Since Trump took office in 2025, Heinrich:
Introduced a resolution condemning Trump’s pardons of people found guilty of assaulting police officers on January 6.
Led Senate Democrats in sounding the alarm on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s destructive actions that are wreaking havoc on Americans, weakening our economy, and threatening the livelihoods of New Mexicans.
Source: United States Senator for Alaska Dan Sullivan
02.11.25
WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, led a press conference with Senator Lisa Murkowski and Representative Nick Begich (both R-Alaska), U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy for Alaska media regarding their shared focus on enhancing aviation safety in Alaska. This conference followed the tragic crash of a commuter aircraft in Alaska in the Bering Sea near Nome last weekend that took the lives of 10 Alaskans.
Click here or the image above to watch the full press conference.
Senator Sullivan is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee which has oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation, and the National Transportation Safety Board. He has strongly advocated for critical infrastructure to provides greater flexibility to meet Alaska’s unique aviation needs in this role. In May 2024, the FAA Reauthorization was signed into law which included several Sullivan-authored provisions specifically for Alaska.
Source: United States Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) Complete COVID Collections Act to extend the life of the watchdog tasked with tracking down criminals who stole COVID relief designed for small businesses.
“During the pandemic, small business owners in need of financial assistance were turned away because criminals, gang members, and drug traffickers stole money from the relief program,” said Senator Blackburn. “This legislation would help ensure we recoup every penny of funding that was wrongly awarded to criminals who gamed the system.”
“I will not allow fraudsters to get away with stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers,” said Senator Ernst. “We are going to recoup every cent and end the cycle in Washington of shrugging off a few billion here and a few hundred million there. That irresponsible mindset is why the federal government is more than $36 trillion in debt. I’m proud to lead this step forward to treat tax dollars like a family treats its budget instead of like a bottomless slush fund.”
“Programs designed to provide relief to our small businesses were repeatedly taken advantage of, leaving small businesses hurting and taxpayers on the hook,” said Senator Young. “I’m glad to see this effort to recover taxpayer dollars and protect Americans from fraud and abuse pass out of committee. I look forward to voting for this bill on the Senate floor.”
“Family-owned businesses in Utah played the rules and used COVID-19 relief funds as intended, but bad actors exploited the system and defrauded taxpayers,” said Senator Curtis. “By extending oversight authority over these programs, our legislation strengthens enforcement efforts and holds criminals accountable for stealing from the American people. I’m proud to see our bill pass out of the Small Business Committee.”
BACKGROUND:
While SBA ran the relief programs on a “first come, first serve” basis, the money ran out quickly, and many qualifying businesses were turned away as felons, gang members, and drug traffickers raked in cash. Some swindlers uploaded pictures of Barbie dolls as photo identification on SBA loan applications that were approved.
One alleged fraudster took home $8 million while nearly 2,000 struggling restaurants in Iowa were left empty-handed.
Senators Blackburn and Ernst led several of their Republican colleagues in introducing the bill after the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) warned its authority was expiring and con artists would get away with stealing more than $200 billion.
CO-SPONSORS:
The bill is cosponsored by Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), and John Curtis (R-Utah).
