The sun sets behind the coal-fired power plant 'Scholven' of the Uniper energy company in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Oct 22, 2022. (PHOTO / AP) BRUSSELS – European countries' bill to shield households and companies from soaring energy costs has climbed to nearly 800 billion euros ($853 billion), researchers said on Monday, urging countries to be more […]
Tag: billion
Polish parliament allows judicial reform to help access EU funds
The lower house of Poland's parliament, or Sejm, filled with new lawmakers, and foreign diplomats as guests, during the gala inauguration of a new four-year term of the national parliamentin Warsaw, Poland, on Nov 12, 2019. (PHOTO / AP) WARSAW – Polish lawmakers gave final approval to a key judicial reform bill intended to unblock […]
Meloni: Italy to use EU funds to become energy hub for Europe
The July 13, 2022 file photo shows a view of the Edison Angelo Bertini Hydroelectric power plant at in Cornate D'Adda, on the Adda river, northern Italy. Italy intends to use funds coming from the European Union under the so-called REPowerEU plan to completely wean itself off Russian gas and turn the country into energy […]
US identifies $5.4b in potentially fraudulent COVID loans
In this file photo taken on May 12, 2020 Healthcare workers wait for patients to be tested at a walk-in COVID-19 testing site in Arlington, Virginia. The White House said on Jan 30, 2023, that the national and public health emergencies declared just as the COVID-19 pandemic took grip three years ago will officially end […]
EU grants 500m euros more in military aid to Ukraine
Journalists queue at a bus as they leave the meeting of the 'Ukraine Defense Contact Group' at Ramstein Air Base in Ramstein, Germany, Friday, Jan 20, 2023. Defense leaders are gathering at Ramstein Air Base in Germany Friday to hammer out future military aid to Ukraine, amid ongoing dissent over who will provide the battle […]
IMF: Ukraine to require at least $39.5b external financing in 2023
A resident pushes his bike on a snow covered street next to destroyed residential buildings in Borodyanka, near Kyiv on Dec 4, 2022. (DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP) KIEV/MOSCOW – Ukraine will require at least $39.5 billion in external financing next year to keep its economy afloat, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Friday, citing a recent […]
Bill Gates upbeat on climate innovation, even if 1.5C unlikely
Bill Gates, billionaire and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, gestures as he speaks during a panel sessionon the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan 22, 2019. (BLOOMBERG) WASHINGTON – When it comes to climate change, Bill Gates considers himself a realist – even if that […]
Ministers near global deal at landmark UN nature talks
People take part in a march during COP15, the two-week UN Biodiversity summit in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Dec 10, 2022. (CHRISTINNE MUSCHI / FILE PHOTO / REUTERS) MONTREAL – Negotiators at a UN summit to protect nature were closing in on a new global deal on Sunday that could see 30 percent of the world's […]
European ministers tackle sharp increase in space funding
A photograph shows the European spacecraft JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) in a clean room at the ESA (European Space Agency) headquarters in Toulouse, southwestern France, on 5 April, 2022. (LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP) PARIS – European ministers are meeting in Paris to negotiate a more than 25 percent funding boost for space over the […]
Climate justice gets harder as world population passes 8 billion
In this photograph taken on October 31, 2022, people walk through a crowded commercial street in Chennai. India is projected to see an explosion in its urban population in the coming decades, but its cities already cannot cope and climate change will make living conditions harsher still. (ARUN SANKAR / AFP) SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – […]
Farm climate innovation commitments double to $8b
Demonstrators shout slogans on Nov 10, 2022 during a protest outside the venue hosting the COP27 climate conference, at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre, in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of the same name. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) An initiative led by the United States and the United Arab Emirates to help agriculture adapt […]
UN report: World falling short on climate adaptation funding
This aerial photo taken on Aug 15, 2019, shows icebergs as they float along the eastern cost of Greenland near Kulusuk. (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP) LONDON – The world is falling far short at rounding up money to help struggling nations adapt to the increasingly dangerous impacts of climate change, according to a report released […]
UK reverses bulk of tax-cutting package to calm markets
A shopper puts fruit in her basket in a supermarket in London, Aug 17, 2022. (FRANK AUGSTEIN / AP) LONDON – The United Kingdom government on Monday announced a reversal of the bulk of its September tax-cutting measures in yet another emergency action to ensure economic stability and provide confidence in its commitment to fiscal […]
Malta spends over 1.6 billion euros on COVID-19 measures
People queue outside tents set up for either COVID-19 positive or in quarantine voters to cast their vote in Zejtun on March 26, 2022 during Malta's general election. (PHOTO / AFP) VALLETTA / MOSCOW – Malta has spent more than 1.6 billion euros (US$1.58 billion) on support measures since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, […]
UK: Truss’s government makes U-turn on tax plan
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng (left) and Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss attend the opening day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, central England, on Oct 2, 2022. (OLI SCARFF / AFP) LONDON – The government of British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced on Monday into a humiliating U-turn, reversing […]
New UK finance minister seeks end to ‘cycle of stagnation’
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng arrives in Downing Street in London, Wednesday, Sept 7, 2022 for the first cabinet meeting since Liz Truss was installed as British Prime Minister a day earlier. (ALBERTO PEZZALI / AP) LONDON – New British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng will detail close to 200 billion pounds ($225 billion) […]
Africa losing up to 15% of GDP growth to climate change, AfDB says
A child walks by as women sit in the camp for internally displaced people of Farburo 2 in the village of Adlale, near the city of Gode, Ethiopia, on April 6, 2022. (EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP) JOHANNESBURG – Africa is losing 5 percent to 15 percent of its per capita economic growth due the effects […]
EU ministers back 5-billion-euro loan to Ukraine
This July 20, 2022 photo shows the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and the transfer station of the OPAL gas pipeline, the Baltic Sea Pipeline Link, lit by the evening sun in Lubmin, Germany. (MARKUS SCHREIBER / AP) PRAGUE – Finance and economy ministers of the European Union member states discussed in Prague on […]
Toyota to Invest Up to 730 Billion Yen in Japan/U.S. Battery Production
TOKYO, Aug 31, 2022 – (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) – Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) has decided to invest up to 730 billion yen (approximately $5.6 billion) in Japan and the United States toward supplying automotive batteries for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), for which demand is growing, and aims to begin battery production between 2024 and […]
US state attorneys: CDC lacks authority to set mask rules
A sign displays mask wearing information at Penn station in New York on Aug 2, 2021. (KENA BETANCUR / AFP) WASHINGTON / BERLIN – A group of 23 state attorneys general led by Florida told a federal court on Monday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacks the legal authority to impose a nationwide […]