Human rights breaches in Russia, Afghanistan and Nigeria

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions on the respect for human rights in Russia, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Repression in Russia, in particular the cases of Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny Following the recent sentencing of Russian-British journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years […]

Human rights breaches in Afghanistan, Belarus and Democratic Republic of Congo

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions on the respect for human rights in Afghanistan, Belarus and Democratic Republic of Congo. Human rights situation in Afghanistan, especially the deterioration of women’s rights and attacks against educational institutions The staggering regression in women and […]

The Afghanistan situation: humans

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Martina Trevisiol, a third-year Medical student at the University of L’Aquila (Italy). She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s […]

Afghanistan: EU supports the education, health and livelihoods of the Afghan people with €268.3 million

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. In the major humanitarian crisis Afghanistan is facing, the EU has launched projects worth €268.3 million, stepping up vital support to the Afghan population. The EU support focusses on maintaining education, sustaining livelihoods, and protecting public health, including for refugees, migrants and internally displaced […]

Afghanistan: Commission announces €1 billion Afghan support package

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. During the G20 meeting on Afghanistan, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will announce a support package worth around €1 billion for the Afghan people and neighbouring countries, addressing the urgent needs in the country and the region. The socio-economic situation […]

EU Humanitarian Air Bridge delivers life-saving medical aid to Afghanistan

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, an EU Humanitarian Air Bridge flight has delivered over 25 metric tonnes of life-saving medical cargo to Kabul to address the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. Due to the ongoing conflict and the recent drought, up to half of Afghanistan’s population is dependent […]

MEPs call for special visa programme for Afghan women seeking protection

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament deplores the violent takeover of Afghanistan, calls for more humanitarian aid and a coordinated response to protect those most vulnerable. MEPs are appalled by reports of violations, including executions, of child soldiers being recruited, peaceful protest and expressions of dissent being repressed, and […]

Where are fleeing Afghans finding refuge?

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: John Letzing, Digital Editor, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic Forum A number of countries have stepped up to take in people escaping from the chaos in Afghanistan. Those managing to leave are the latest additions to the world’s third-largest […]

‘They’re not able to govern without 50% of the population.’ Former mayor speaks out for women in Afghanistan

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content Zarifa Ghafari, one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors, has spoken out on behalf of the country’s women. She’s called for dialogue and offered her services to negotiate for Afghan women. Ghafari fled to […]

Afghanistan: lead MEPs demand safe departure of EU nationals and Afghan partners and urgent tackling of humanitarian crisis

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. After the dramatic developments of the last days and hours, leading MEPs issued the following statement on Monday. “We deeply deplore the recent political, military and moral calamity in Afghanistan and express our deep concerns about the situation. The hasty withdrawal of US and […]

EU reconfirms support for Afghanistan at 2020 Geneva Conference

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Union today reconfirmed its long-standing solidarity and partnership with the people of Afghanistan, pledging support of €1.2 billion over the period 2021–2025 in both long-term and emergency assistance at the 2020 Afghanistan Conference “Peace, Prosperity and Self-Reliance”. EU High Representative for Foreign […]

Coronavirus global response: EU Humanitarian Air Bridge to Afghanistan and further support

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. As part of the EU’s global coronavirus response, an EU Humanitarian Air Bridge flight will depart on 15 June from Maastricht, Netherlands to Kabul, Afghanistan. The flight will deliver 100 tonnes of life-saving materials to supply EU-funded humanitarian partners. The flight is fully EU […]

Human Rights breaches in Russia, Afghanistan and Burkina Faso

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions taking stock of the human rights situation in Russia, Afghanistan and Burkina Faso. Russia MEPs call on the Russian authorities to immediately repeal the country’s law on ‘foreign agents’ and to bring existing legislation into line […]

Afghanistan: EU reinforces humanitarian support with €40 million as crisis worsens

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has allocated an additional €40 million in emergency assistance for those affected by the worsening humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, as well as for Afghan refugees in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. This brings total EU humanitarian aid for the Afghan crisis to […]

Afghanistan: UN ‘unequivocally condemns’ attack in Kabul

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, known by its acronym UNAMA, condemned an attack on a government compound in the country’s heavily populated capital city of Kabul on Monday night, which news reports say left more than 40 dead. “These attacks cause untold […]

How energy infrastructure is shaping geopolitics in East Asia

This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Miyeon Oh, Director and Senior Fellow of the Asia Security Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council Large-scale, cross-border energy infrastructure connects states in long-term relationships. A choice of a pipeline route or a decision about […]

Erdogan vies to become Middle East Sultan over Khashoggi’s killing

It’s plain by now that the Turkish ‘Sultan’, President Tayyip Erdogan vies to directly implicate Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or MbS, the actual ruler of his country in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The victim was for decades a very high placed systemic journalist in Riyadh, loyally serving the […]

The Khashoggi affair: A global complot staged behind closed doors

For two weeks now practically all Western governments and media are at rooftops for the barbaric murder of Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul. Very few people outside the oil Kingdom and the circles of Middle East ‘experts’ knew about the man, before he was massacred by his compatriots. […]

Civilian deaths in Afghanistan hit record high – UN

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan hit a record high in the first half of the year, despite last month’s unprecedented ceasefire between the Afghan Government and the Taliban, the United Nations reported on Sunday. According to the latest figures released on Sunday […]

LETTER FROM AFGHANISTAN: Elections serve up food for thought, for Afghan youth

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. By Philip Smucker At the newly-established “50/50” fast food restaurant on the tree-lined streets of Herat, in the west of Afghanistan, business is brisk as deliveries are whisked away, on the back of motorbikes to hungry customers across the ancient city. But for the […]

Afghanistan: UN envoy urges further extension of ceasefire with Taliban, as Eid ul-Fitr gets underway

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Expressing solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, the United Nations envoy in the country has expressed hope that the temporary ceasefires marking the final days of the holy month of Ramadan in the war-battered nation, will lead to the lasting peace that Afghans so […]

Afghanistan: UN condemns blasts that leave 8 dead at cricket stadium

The United Nations has condemned Friday’s attack in eastern Afghanistan that killed at least eight people and injured at least 55 at a cricket stadium. UN Secretary-General António Guterres “condemns yesterday’s attack,” his Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement issued on Saturday, which also stated “attacks targeting civilians are grave violations of human rights and […]

19th EU-China Summit: A historical advance in the Chino-European rapprochement

Mainstream media and the two EU Presidents (Donald Tusk of the Council and Jean-Claude Juncker of the Commission), during and after last week’s groundbreaking 19th EU-China Summit (1-2 June), focused on the joint and unreserved pledge of Europe and China to wholeheartedly uphold the Paris Climate Agreement. This was a direct reply to Donald Trump’s […]

US, Russia oblige each other in Syria and Ukraine selling off allies

The US – Russia rapprochement, as having been set in motion by the new tenant of the White House, is to be tested first and foremost in Syria and Ukraine. Washington and Moscow support opposing sides in two catastrophic and bloody civil wars, which have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and thrown millions of […]

The impossible end of the war in Syria

The United States and the Russian governments without the slightest remorse announced that it was with their guns the Syrians have been killing each other for the last six years. This is the translation in plain English of last weekend’s news, which is that Washington and Moscow agreed on a truce in Syria, after very […]

Europe bows to Turkey’s rulers, sends Syrian refugees back to chaos

Last Saturday we learned from his own lips that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk has “thick skin”. Of course, people who follow the political day-to-day of the Council already knew it. Tusk made this statement last Saturday from Turkey, a country where thick skin politicians are in abundance. The President of the […]

EU-Turkey deal on migrants kicked off but to who’s interest?

Last Monday, 4 April, Greece and Turkey kicked off the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement. For migrants and refugees alike it foresees deportation from the Greek islands to Turkey, just some dangerous miles eastwards, over rough sea straights at times. Ankara is to receive from Brussels € 3+3 billion for that. During the past twelve […]

For how long will terror and economic stagnation be clouding the European skies?

Some days ago the European statistical service, Eurostat confirmed that the inflation rate in the euro area for February was well into the negative part of the chart at -0.2%. This is an infallible sign that Eurozone remains in the stagnation or even the recession region of the economic cycle for a sixth year in […]

Is there a chance for the West to win the war on terror?

On the night of 13 November 2015 in Paris, after the ISIS operatives had hit almost simultaneously a concert hall, a major football stadium and some restaurants and bars leaving 130 dead and hundreds injured, the French President Francois Hollande said “we are at war”. Last Tuesday morning the same kind of ‘armed forces’ and […]

The 28 EU leaders unable to start a relevant debate on migration and Brexit

The poor results of last week’s meeting of the 28 EU leaders are reflected in the triviality of the remarks by the Council President Donald Tusk, in summarizing the outcome of the 17 – 18 December gathering in Brussels. His most vivid comment was about the “hard work done and the extreme efficiency of the […]

Unemployment and immigrants haunt the EU; who can offer relief?

On Tuesday 1st December, Eurostat the EU statistical service reminded us all that in the euro area the October unemployment rate still remained in the double digit region with 10.7%. Understandably, this is the official percentage of people without a job, while the real unemployment rate may be double that, as this newspaper has proved, […]

Drowning in the Mediterranean this summer? Many happy returns

This month the European Commission approved 23 multiannual national programs “under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF). The total funding for the agreed programs is approximately €2.4 billion, for the period 2014-2020… 22 national programs were already approved in March, and an additional 13 programs will be approved […]

A few, or rather two, trade and economic alliances may rule our brave new world

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President together with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a Press conference following the 23rd EU-Japan Summit which took place in Tokyo on 29 May. The focal point of the meeting was supposed to be the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides. However the EU dignitary spoke […]