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Protection of EU funds: EU should do more to detect, prevent and recover frauds 

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

In the report, adopted on Monday (4 December) by 17 votes in favour, none against and two abstentions, the Budgetary Control Committee stresses the great risk to the EU’s financial interests posed by nepotism used when procuring EU funds, CONT.MEPs on the committee are also concerned about the latest data showing that journalists’ safety in the EU has deteriorated and call for better protection of investigative journalists who can significantly contribute to fighting corruption and impunity.UkraineThe adopted text says that the EU funds for assistance in non-EU countries and the money allocated for Europe’s response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine are not adequately monitored and controlled. They call on the Commission to carry out more thorough checks to ensure that EU funds end up going to those most in need.Particularly, MEPs are concerned about the peak in irregularities affecting the Instrument for Pre-Accession assistance (IPA) and call on the Commission to also fraud-p...

US envoy slams Orbán as a leader who ‘embraces Putin’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

The United States’ ambassador to Hungary sharply criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for disregarding the country’s alliance with NATO, describing him as a leader who “embraces” Russian President Vladimir Putin.Ambassador David Pressman said Hungary “relies upon its NATO allies but feels comfortable disregarding the interests of those same allies and our alliance, including during a time of war in Europe,” while speaking to a gathering of business leaders at an American Chamber of Commerce event Tuesday night in Budapest.“That disregard is evident when the [Hungarian] prime minister embraces Putin, when his government threatens to hold up crucially needed aid to its neighbor, Ukraine, while Ukrainian men, women, and children are murdered by war criminals,” Pressman added. Orbán has threatened to veto a planned €50 billion in aid for Ukraine and has adamantly opposed opening accession negotiations with Kyiv, after the European Commissi...

Classified briefing devolves into shouting as senators fight over border provisions in Ukraine-Israel aid package

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

(CNN) — A classified briefing Tuesday on Ukraine devolved into a shouting match about border security as senators described a tense meeting that did little to break the Senate’s stalemate over whether to include tighter immigration policies in the aid package.The meeting came as Republican senators have warned they are prepared to vote against advancing a more than $100 billion supplemental national security package unless it includes major border policy changes, casting doubt on whether the aid will pass this year.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave his description of what unfolded and said the fight over the border erupted when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, asked GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma to present on the border instead of asking a question about Ukraine to the briefers.“It was immediately hijacked by Leader McConnell. The first question instead of asking our panelists, he called on Lankford to give a five-minute talk...

Howie Carr: MassGOP rising from the grave

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

For four miserable years, Jim “Jones” Lyons operated the Massachusetts GOP the way his namesake, the Rev. Jim Jones, ran his suicidal death cult in the 1970s.Now, less than a year after his ouster as capo di tutti frutti, it’s time for the bust-out Republican loser to begin composing his final words to his toothless, destitute followers.And it seems only appropriate that Lyons should use the message of his namesake, the original Jim Jones, when he urged his Kool Aid Kult in Guyana to drink deeply of the poisoned chalice:“Take our life from us. We laid it down, we got tired. We didn’t commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.”An inhumane world – that is exactly how the Kult would describe the forces that are driving them off the political cliff.Their last hope for salvation – in this veil of tears, anyway – was to reclaim control of the state’s GOP state committee in the primary elections in March and reinstall Lyons ...

Turkey’s Erdogan tends to strained relationship with EU with ‘win-win’ trip to neighbor Greece

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will fly to Greece on Thursday on a visit designed to set the historically uneasy neighbors on a more constructive path.Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will oversee joint Cabinet talks and trade consultations. A series of cooperation deals will be signed as part of a so-called “positive agenda,” aimed at bypassing long-standing and often volatile disputes. After years of tension and a looming risk of military confrontation, the NATO allies are seeking to rebuild trust and deliver a timely message of cooperation in the troubled eastern Mediterranean.WHY ARE THE TALKS HAPPENING NOW?Erdogan and Mitsotakis, both re-elected this year, are respectively focused on the economy, with Greece on a growth spurt after a decade of financial turmoil and Turkey battling crippling inflation and shaky international investment.“Of course, we have differences of opinion and there are deep issues that cannot be resolved at...

Volkswagen-commissioned audit finds no signs of forced labor at plant in China’s Xinjiang region

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — An audit commissioned by Volkswagen has found no indication of forced labor at its plant in China’s Xinjiang region, where Western governments have accused the Chinese government of human rights violations against the Uyghur ethnic minority.The German automaker has come under fire for operating in Xinjiang, a remote western region that borders Central Asia. The U.S. government has blocked imports from Xinjiang unless it can be proven that the products were not made with forced labor.The auditor, Loening — Human Rights and Responsible Business, conducted 40 interviews and was able to inspect the factory freely, said Markus Loening, a former German human rights commissioner who founded the consultancy.“We could not find any indications or evidence of forced labor among the employees,” he said in remarks provided by Volkswagen from a media briefing in Germany on Tuesday.China launched a harsh crackdown in Xinjiang around 2017 in response to a series of bombings, kn...

Iran arrests a popular singer after he was handed over by police in Turkey

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have arrested a popular singer who had criticized the government after he was handed over by police in Turkey, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. Amirhossein Maghsoudloo, better known as Tataloo, has been critical of Iran’s leaders since he had moved to Turkey. It wasn’t clear why he was arrested by Turkish police on Monday, but IRNA reported he was facing complaints for allegedly inviting underage people to his home in Istanbul. IRNA said Turkish police handed over him to Iranian authorities in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan. Iran’s hard-liners regularly criticize artists and celebrities and authorities have summoned many of them in recent months on various charges, including violations of chastity. Tataloo has never been allowed to hold a concert in Iran but was a popular underground singer with many young fans. During a 2017 presidential campaign, he met with the current presiden...

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to defend his record in high-stakes grilling at COVID inquiry

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who led Britain through the coronavirus pandemic before being ousted by scandal, is set to defend his record on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the country’s handling of COVID-19.Johnson will be grilled under oath by lawyers for the judge-led inquiry about his initial reluctance to impose a national lockdown in early 2020 and other fateful decisions.Johnson arrived at the inquiry venue at daybreak, several hours before he was due to take the stand, avoiding a protest by relatives of COVID-19 victims.Among those wanting answers from the inquiry are families of some of the more than 200,000 people in the U.K. who died after contracting the virus. A group gathered outside the office building where the inquiry was set, some holding pictures of their loved ones. A banner declared: “Let the bodies pile high” — a statement attributed to Johnson by an aide. Another sign said: “Johnson partied while people died.” Johnson was pushed out of...

Europe was set to lead the world on AI regulation. But can leaders reach a deal?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The generative AI boom has sent governments worldwide scrambling to regulate the emerging technology, but it also has raised the risk of upending a European Union push to approve the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules.The 27-nation bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act has been hailed as a pioneering rulebook. But with time running out, it’s uncertain if the EU’s three branches of government can thrash out a deal Wednesday in what officials hope is a final round of talks.Europe’s yearslong efforts to draw up AI guardrails have been bogged down by the recent emergence of generative AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which have dazzled the world with their ability to produce human-like work but raised fears about the risks they pose. Those concerns have driven the U.S., U.K., China and global coalitions like the Group of 7 major democracies into the race to regulate the rapidly developing technology, though they’re still catchin...

In the news today: Canadians to Ottawa: spend on health care, housing and AFN votes

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:24:13 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Ottawa should spend on health care, housingA majority of Canadians think the federal government should spend more on health care, a housing strategy and initiatives to ease inflation and cost-of-living issues, a new poll suggests — but they also want it to freeze or reduce other spending. Nearly three-quarters of respondents to the new Leger poll, or 71 per cent, said the federal government should spend more on health care and health transfers to the provinces.When it comes to a housing strategy and initiatives to tackle inflation and cost-of-living issues, 66 per cent said they were in favour of increasing government spending, and only six per cent said it should decrease.However, most respondents wanted the government to reduce or maintain other spending, including on national defence, services to Indigenous communities and international aid.Pass gun bill, fa...