A German court on Tuesday told US carmaker Tesla to suspend clearing a forest near Berlin where the company was going to build its first European factory, after environmentalists warned about the impact that cutting down trees could have on hibernating snakes, Reuters reported. Tesla's permission depends on a conditional authorisation by local authorities, responsible for consulting environmental groups and the community. Locals have logged 414 complaints against Tesla.
It remains "totally uncertain" if Britain and the EU can reach a trade deal, as UK prime minister Boris Johnson and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen are expected to meet later this week, German minister for Europe, Michael Roth, said on Tuesday. He added that there was no progress in talks on the main obstacles of level playing field, governance and fisheries.
One possibility for a compromise could be a declaration, attached to the rule-of-law conditionality, on how it will be used - that alleviates the concerns of Hungary and Poland.
While some fear EU leaders are unlikely to strike a deal on the new climate target without first solving tensions over the rule of law and the seven-year budget, others remain optimistic.
Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi presented video testimonies of migrants citing Norwegian NGO Aegean Boat Report as useful in their efforts to get to Greece. Mitarachi said such NGOs contribute to "illegal migratory flows". Aegean Boat Report disputes the account.
Vaclav Havel's 2007 play, Leaving, is about chancellor Rieger, his coterie and their refusal to accept the transfer of power. And now there is Donald Trump, barricaded in the White House. Does farce come first, followed by tragedy?
The UN Agency for Palestine refugees has run out of money. For millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Covid-19 is two pandemics in one: a health crisis and a pandemic of abject poverty.
With all eyes on the pending opening of the accession negotiations with North Macedonia, AFET will welcome its new Foreign Affairs Minister Bujar Osmani. As the government formed following the July 2020 elections continues implementing the EU-related reforms, the country expects that the first intergovernmental conference opening the accession talks could be held without further delay.
In addition to improving neighbourly relations, MEPs are expected to quiz the minister on domestic reforms and the foreign policy agenda.
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© European Union, 2020 - EP
UK prime minister Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels for face-to-face talks with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in a last attempt to break the impasse in Brexit negotiations. In a joint statement following a phone call which lasted over one hour on Monday evening, both leaders said the Brussels meeting will be held in the "coming days".
Hundreds of people recently attended the funeral, in a Chechen village, of Abdullakh Anzorov, the man who murdered French teacher Samuel Paty, according to videos uploaded to Islamist websites, The Guardian reports. Anzorov's hero-like treatment comes after Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov harangued French president Emmanuel Macron for defending the right to show cartoons of Mohammed. Western leaders who antagonised Muslims were "forcing people to commit crimes", Kadyrov has said.
The annual meeting of elite politicians and businessmen, the Davos Economic Forum, is to hold its 2021 event in May in Singapore, where Covid-rates are far lower, instead of in Switzerland, as usual, it has said. Current restrictions in Singapore do not allow meetings of more than five people. But Davos said delegates will be tested on arrival and fitted with special contact-tracing apps to help keep them safe.
EU states have formally approved new sanctions against human rights abusers, modelled on the US 'Magnitsky Act'.
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has set a new deadline for the Brexit negotiations, warning that the talks will not go beyond Wednesday, the Guardian writes. During briefings to MEPs and EU ambassadors in Brussels, Barnier said the negotiation was "not far from the very endgame", and talks are expected to continue into midweek but no further.
A new
report published on Monday revealed that 50 to 80 percent of methane emissions in Hamburg stem from leaky gas pipelines. Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is a highly-potent greenhouse gas responsible for at least 25 percent of global warming. During their research, scientists discovered increased methane concentrations at 145 points in the Hamburg city area, 50 of which are due to gas utility leaks.
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that concerns over human rights violations in Egypt would not affect the sale of French arms, as Cairo should retain its ability to fight terrorism in the region, Deutsche Welle reports. "It is more effective to have a policy of demanding dialogue than a boycott which would only reduce the effectiveness of one of our partners in the fight against terrorism," Macron said.
Sunday's parliamentary elections in Venezuela, which cemented president Nicolás Maduro's grip on power, "failed to comply with the minimum international standards for a credible process," the EU said in a statement on Monday. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó had led a boycott of the vote. The EU urged Maduro to hold "credible" elections instead. It also urged Maduro and Guaidó to create a "Venezuelan-led transition process", amid ever-worsening humanitarian conditions.
A group of 169 climate leaders and scientists on Tuesday urged EU governmets to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, saying this international agreement impedes the transition towards clean energy. "If governments want to be seen as leaders on climate change then they need to step away from investment agreements that tie their hands and continue to protect fossil fuels at the taxpayers' expense," they said in
a letter.
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