Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
Prime Minister’s Question Time, also referred to as PMQs, takes place every Wednesday the House of Commons sits. It gives MPs the chance to put questions to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer MP, or a nominated minister.
In most cases, the session starts with a routine ‘open question’ from an MP about the Prime Minister’s engagements. MPs can then ask supplementary questions on any subject, often one of current political significance.
The Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch MP, asks six questions and the leader of the second largest opposition party asks two. If another minister takes the place of the Prime Minister, opposition parties will usually nominate a shadow minister to ask the questions.
Want to find out more about what’s happening in the House of Commons this week? Follow the House of Commons on:
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
On his first official trip as Secretary of State, Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Panama. American leadership is back in our hemisphere and we’re ready to work with our regional partners.
Last month the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Bristol Bay (WTGB 102) and Neah Bay (WTGB 105), along with the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley, broke the freighter Manitoulin free from the ice, allowing the ship to continue its travels.
The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct icebreaking missions throughout the Great Lakes to ensure maritime safety and protect our nation’s maritime transportation system.
Follow @uscggreatlakes for more posts and imagery out of the Great Lakes Region!
Two former combatants on opposing sides of the decades-old conflict between Palestinians and Israel have come to together to discuss how Israeli Jews and Palestinians can live side by side in peace. Given the brutality of the recent conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, it has become increasingly difficult to imagine a durable peace. Yet, that remains the aim of a remarkable grassroots organization called Combatants for Peace.
The organization, which has been nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, is made up of Israelis and Palestinians who once embraced violence but have since turned to peace and dialogue as the only solution to healing the wounds of both communities.
For a second year in a row, independent auditors verified that the Marine Corps’ financial records are materially accurate, complete, and compliant with federal regulations and issued an unmodified opinion for Fiscal Year 2024.
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio holds a joint press availability with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves in San Jose, Costa Rica, on February 4, 2025.
———-
Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Get updates from the U.S. Department of State at www.state.gov and on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/statedept
X: https://x.com/StateDept
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/statedept
Flickr: https://flickr.com/photos/statephotos/
Subscribe to the State Department Blog: https://www.state.gov/blogs
Watch on-demand State Department videos: https://video.state.gov/
Subscribe to The Week at State e-newsletter: http://ow.ly/diiN30ro7Cw
State Department website: https://www.state.gov/
Careers website: https://careers.state.gov/
White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Terms of Use: https://state.gov/tou
Marian Anderson, one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th century, performed at the United Nations and also represented her country, the United States, as a delegate. Battling extensive racial prejudice, she broke many barriers including as the first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera. United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld hailed her contributions to art and diplomacy, which live on in her legacy as an inspiration for generations to come.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (video statements)
Acting Director Brian Driscoll shares an update on some of the important work the men and women of the FBI have been doing across the country and around the world to keep the American people safe.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (video statements)
A compilation of short videos collected from the night of August 18, 2024, in the area where a triple homicide occurred in Cypress, Texas. The videos capture both the vehicle as well as a suspect believed to be involved in the murders.
—————————————————
Subscribe to Inside the FBI wherever you get your podcasts:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4H2d3cg…
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0…
More ways to follow us: https://inside-the-fbi.transistor.fm/…
Follow us on social media:
X: https://twitter.com/fbi
Facebook: https://facebook.com/FBI
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fbi
YouTube: youtube.com/fbi
Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
The evidence session will examine the UK’s sanctions policy in full and the effectiveness of the different sanctions regimes. The session will also explore when, how and why sanctions might be an appropriate tool of foreign policy. Members are likely to ask whether the Government should be bolder in its use of sanctions, or whether sanctions have become an overused foreign policy tool. Members may also ask what role Parliament should have in scrutinising sanctions, if any.
The session will also focus on UK sanctions against Russia, the evolution of the Government’s strategic aims since the start of the conflict, as well as examining the arguments for and against the confiscation and use of frozen Russian assets for any Ukrainian reconstruction plan. Questions are likely to cover the evasion of sanctions via third countries.
• Tom Keatinge – Director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
• Maya Lester KC – Senior Barrister at Brick Court Chambers
• Freya Page – Director of Global Outreach at Kharon
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio holds a joint press availability with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves in San Jose, Costa Rica, on February 4, 2025.
———-
Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Get updates from the U.S. Department of State at www.state.gov and on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/statedept
X: https://x.com/StateDept
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/statedept
Flickr: https://flickr.com/photos/statephotos/
Subscribe to the State Department Blog: https://www.state.gov/blogs
Watch on-demand State Department videos: https://video.state.gov/
Subscribe to The Week at State e-newsletter: http://ow.ly/diiN30ro7Cw
State Department website: https://www.state.gov/
Careers website: https://careers.state.gov/
White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Terms of Use: https://state.gov/tou
About the U.S. Army:
The Army Mission – our purpose – remains constant: To deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars by providing ready, prompt & sustained land dominance by Army forces across the full spectrum of conflict as part of the joint force.
Interested in joining the U.S. Army?
Visit: spr.ly/6001igl5L
Connect with the U.S. Army online:
Web: https://www.army.mil
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USarmy/
X: https://www.twitter.com/USArmy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/usarmy/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/us-army
#USArmy #Soldiers #Military #Army250
Every minute, five people learn they have cancer, and more than two lose their lives to the disease. In 2021, cancer was the second-leading cause of mortality, with 1.15 million lives lost. In 2022, over 2.7 million new cancer cases were expected to be diagnosed.
Four years after its adoption, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is making a real difference. By boosting collaboration and advancing efforts in prevention, early detection, treatment, and care, it’s improving the quality of life for cancer patients and survivors. Together, we can continue to make progress in the fight against cancer, providing hope for a brighter, healthier future.
If you want to have more info: https://europa.eu/!Wf3v6r
Factsheet Country Cancer Profiles: https://europa.eu/!C8fhXr
Factsheet on the EU Cancer Plan: https://europa.eu/!jgP67q
Watch on the Audiovisual Portal of the European Commission:
Follow us on:
-X: https://twitter.com/EU_Commission
-Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/europeancommission/
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanCommission
-LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-commission/
-Medium: https://medium.com/@EuropeanCommission
During her visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN Victims’ Rights Advocate Najla Nassif Palma engaged directly with survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel to ensure their voices are heard and their rights prioritised.
Press conference by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, on the Middle East and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
———————————
The Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said, the fall of the Assad government in Syria and the “entry, presence and activities” of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the area of separation, “has made it particularly challenging” for the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) and the Observer Group Golan (OGG).
Briefing journalists in New York upon visiting Syria and Israel, Lacroix said, “I obviously reiterated our concern about the presence of the IDF in the area of separation. It’s clearly a violation of the 1974 agreement between Israel and Syria. I also indicated that UNDOF had received a number of complaints from the local inhabitants of particularly in the centre of the area of operations. And we, expressed the importance of addressing these concerns.”
He said he had conveyed a message to both the Israeli government and Syria’s caretaker government, “to fully facilitate UNDOF’s mandated activities, including inspections in the respective, areas of limitation that are adjacent to the area of separation, ensure freedom of movement to UN personnel.”
Turning to the DRC, Lacroix said, “the situation remains tense and volatile, with occasional shooting continuing within the city.”
He said the UN Mission in the country’s (MONUSCO’s) positions “were again resupplied, which is critically important because in those positions, we do not only have MONUSCO personnel, but we have also, significant number of people basically, who have been seeking shelter in those bases.”
The airport’s runways, the peacekeeping Chief noted, “is currently not operable” as it has “sustained significant damages in the recent fighting, and we cannot use it for now.”
Lacroix underlined that “MONUSCO bases are under stress, but also in some cases, they have been under threat in terms of, you know, the presence of, disarmed FRDC soldiers. And I want to really again call for the respect, the full respect, of the inviolability of our UN premises.”
He said, “we are concerned not only as far as the eastern DRC is concerned, but this has if you look at the past, some of this has the potential of triggering a wider regional conflict and therefore it is of the utmost important that all diplomatic efforts should be geared to avoiding this and bringing about this decision of hostilities.”
Lacroix said, the rebel group M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militias “are about 60km, north of, Bukavu; seem to be moving quite fast. There is an airport, in the vicinity of where they are, I think, a few kilometres south, which is Kavumu.”
He noted that Secretary-General António Guterres has spoken to Rwandan President Paul Kagame as well as Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi emphasising the importance of the protection of civilians and the safety and security of UN personnel.
He said, I think, “the protection of respect to the safety and security of UN personnel, is an international obligation for all member states. And that applies to Rwanda, that applies to all.”
Humanitarian organizations in Goma continue to assess the impact of the crisis, including the widespread looting of warehouses and the offices of aid organizations.
The World Health Organization and partners conducted an assessment with the Government between 26 to 29 January and reported that 700 people have been killed and 2,800 people injured and that are receiving treatment in health facilities. These numbers are expected to rise as more information becomes available.
In Goma itself, access to safe drinking water remains cut off, forcing people to rely on untreated water from Lake Kivu. Without urgent action, OCHA cautions that the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks will just continue to increase.
For its part, the International Organization for Migration says today that several displacement sites, including on the outskirts of Goma – where over 300,000 have been displaced have been partially or completely emptied.
Source: United States of America – Federal Government Departments (video statements)
VA disability compensation provides tax-free monthly payments to eligible Veterans with an illness or injury that was caused by, or got worse because of, their active military service.
To learn more about how to file a claim, visit https://www.va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim.