[New Times] The United States' withdrawal from dozens of UN-affiliated bodies and multilateral groups, following the shutdown of USAID, barely registered in Rwanda, or across much of Africa.

[New Times] 10% of all park tourism revenue is channelled back to neighbouring communities.

This study examines transparency in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, with a particular focus on data and information availability, quality, granularity, accessibility, comparability and comprehensibility. Lessons learnt are drawn from the positive examples and shortcomings in transparency identified across National Resilience and Recovery Plans and at EU level. The study puts forward some recommendations, including the adoption of an accessible, consistent and interoperable transparency ecosystem, to enhance the accountability of future EU funding instruments. This document was provided by the Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit at the request of the ECON Committee. Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The RRF has promoted investments and reforms in nearly any area of domestic policy. The legal framework governing the RRF is broad and undefined, with little practical guidance, leaving the Commission wide discretion to negotiate fund allocation with national governments. In practice, this has led to large amounts of EU funding being directed to national projects without clear EU-level impact. The RRF’s wide scope and strict confidentiality regime, combined with the performance-based delivery mode, enable its implementation to escape scrutiny and make rigorous assessment of value for money nearly impossible. The main risk to the financial interests of Union is not fraud or irregularities, but EU money financing projects that have little relevance for European priorities. - The implementation of the RRF relies on the ability to define milestones and targets and measure performance in a sensible manner. This is particularly hard for reforms, which are difficult to pin down to milestones and targets. Funds have often been disbursed on the basis of procedural milestones that bear little relation to actual performance. - Based on the RRF experience, 27 national plans are not an efficient tool for promoting European priorities that are global and Europe-wide. EU priorities need to be incorporated in the forthcoming legal framework in a clear and operational manner, so as to effectively limit and frame Commission and Member State discretion in drawing up the plan. - The Commission’s MFF package fails to address the core problems of the RRF model. It does not define EU priorities. The legislative framework provides no actual ‘requirements’ that would effectively steer national plans. It leaves too much discretion for the national governments to propose, and the Commission to approve, in a confidential setting, nearly any national project that in their determination seems worthy of funding. - The shift to performance-based funding fundamentally alters what ‘management’ of EU funds consists of, creating new risks to the financial interests of the Union Measured error rates may go down because what constitutes ‘management’ in the new system is less demanding. Costing/pricing takes place at a point where only the outlines of the measures are known. At the point of disbursement, the value of each milestone is calculated with a methodology that bears little connection either to real or estimated costs. The eventual actual national cofinancing rates may end up being far from the numbers required in the regulation. - ⁠Trying to make up for these problems through oversight arrangements in the Parliament or Council is unlikely to succeed. Instead, EU legislators need to maintain control over EU priorities and set clearer limits on what EU funding can be spent on, reconsider the central status given to national plans, and address the deep information asymmetries built into the RRF model. Using EU funds requires appropriate accountability structures at EU level, aimed at ensuring that money is effectively steered to policies with EU-wide interest. Funding national policy measures requires strong involvement of national parliaments and civil society. Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The Commission’s NRPP proposal seeks to preserve core features of the Cohesion Policy Funds (regional and local authority involvement under shared management) while drawing on RRF innovations (integration of reforms and investments, performance-based disbursement linked to milestones and targets). • The proposed governance model and oversight regime is a potentially credible hybrid. But some modifications are needed to ensure fairness and comparability in Commission assessments of national Plans, secure meaningful stakeholder participation throughout the policy cycle, and develop effective monitoring systems that support learning and adaptability without imposing excessive administrative burdens. • The Commission's proposals address many criticisms of the RRF and CPF through explicit assessment criteria for milestone and target fulfilment; ex-ante payout values per milestone and target; clarified provisions for recovering unjustified payments; and stakeholder-based Monitoring Committees to review implementation and approve amendments to operations. • But major unresolved problems remain, notably: the absence of a definition of what constitutes addressing 'all or a significant subset' of EU recommendations to Member States; the effectiveness of the proposed 'regional test' in ensuring genuine stakeholder participation; ensuring Monitoring Committees’ capacity to oversee national and regional Plans effectively; and ensuring that performance indicators are genuinely useful in monitoring NRPPs in real time. • The NRPPs are more flexible than the RRF and the CPF, featuring smoother disbursement systems; easier Plan revisions based on 'reasoned requests' without requiring demonstration of changes in 'objective circumstances'; a Mid-Term Review leading to mandatory submission of amended Plans; a new EU Facility to support rapid responses to crises and emerging Union priorities. • Verifiability and auditability are strengthened compared to the RRF through clarified assessment criteria and transparent ex-ante payout values. But the multi-tiered Single Audit approach creates new challenges that will require national audit authorities, the Commission, and the European Parliament to develop expertise in assessing performance information alongside traditional cost-based audits. • The 500+ mandatory common indicators proposed by the Commission are unlikely to provide a satisfactory solution, since most are primarily output-focused and do not provide evidence of intervention effects. Effective ‘diagnostic monitoring’, aimed at detecting and correcting problems in real time, would require a more robust set of programme- and project-specific indicators reflecting intervention logics and expected outcomes. • The NRPPs enhance inclusiveness compared to the RRF through the structural embedding of the partnership principle and the involvement of local actors in Plan design, implementation, monitoring, and revision. Yet inclusiveness could be enhanced, for example, by requiring Member States to publish outline proposals for stakeholder involvement in the Plans at each stage of the process. • The proposed governance model and oversight regime has the potential to improve transparency and accountability by enabling the European Parliament to build on the Commission’s oversight of national audit authorities, ECA investigations, and extensive mandatory information provision on the Plans and their implementation. But transparency could be further enhanced by requiring publication of Monitoring Committee discussions and reports of annual review meetings. Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said there were 'concerns' about the invite for the Russian dictator to join the body given his invasion of Ukraine.

Members of the public had spotted the trio, who were wearing high-vis overalls, and alerted police. And it wasn't just luck that the officers were about - the manhole was just yards from a police station.

Former special counsel Jack Smith returns to Capitol Hill to offer his first public testimony defending his efforts to prosecute Donald Trump.

“I get that I’m not a traditional candidate. And that’s exactly why I’m going to win,” the Texas Democrat said. Not everyone in her party sees it that way.

Officials said Lafayette Square, the public park next to the White House, will be improved as part of Trump’s America 250 celebration.

SINGAPORE — A wave of controversy over sexually explicit artificial intelligence (AI) deepfakes has not made billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X or chatbot Grok any less popular in Singapore.Instead, it may have done the opposite.Since late December 2025, X has been at the centre of a storm over users creating AI-generated sexually explicit images of other users without their consent. Users could do so simply by posting a message aimed at Grok's account on the social media platform.In the wake of such controversy, the Grok app has shot up the charts on the Google and Apple app stores for Singapore users, according to data from analytics firm SensorTower.On Google Play Store's top free apps chart, Grok has been in the top 10 for most of January — a feat it last achieved in late November.On the Apple App Store top free apps chart, Grok has hovered in the top 25 since early January, up from around the No. 100 to 130 range in October.X continues to hover in the top 100 apps in both stores, with interest rising in the Google Play Store in January after a late December slump.

SINGAPORE — The Nature Society Singapore (NSS) is proposing that almost a third of the vegetation in and around Paya Lebar Air Base be retained as green spaces, ahead of redevelopment of the area set to begin in the 2030s.The Straits Times has learnt that the society submitted a report to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) detailing its proposal to retain 389ha of land in the area, which comprises forest, parkland and water bodies.URA said it will assess the proposal.Based on NSS' estimates, the area­ slated to be redeveloped for housing and industrial purposes after the airbase is relocated amounts to 1,271ha — an area slightly bigger than the size of Wood­lands.Of this, 805ha comprises areas of biodiversity importance, said the society. These refer to areas that are critical to support flora and fauna, and parts of it, at least, should be preserved, it believes.NSS spokesman Tony O'Dempsey said the greenery in the area represents one of the last «wild growth areas» in north-east Singapore.

A construction firm allegedly allowed its workers to live on its premises without authorisation, and continued to house them even after the building management ordered it to stop.The illegal dormitory is located in an industrial estate at Defu South Street 1, reported Shin Min Daily News on Wednesday (Jan 21).This came to light when a whistle-blower, surnamed Xu, tipped off the newspaper about the workers living there.According to his tip-off, the sleeping quarters had been constructed on top of a metal frame about two storeys high.«Sleeping at such a high place, if a fire breaks out, they might not be able to escape,» Xu told Shin Min.In response to media queries, spokespersons for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and JTC, which manages the industrial estate, said they received feedback about an unauthorised dormitory on Dec 31, 2025.When they inspected the premises of Lian Hup Seng Construction & Tentage on Jan 2 and 5, they found evidence of workers living there. 

India and the EU have agreed to move forward with a new security and defense partnership, Kaja Kallas has said Read Full Article at RT.com

US President Donald Trump has praised the proposal on Greenland outlined by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte Read Full Article at RT.com

[Maka] The proposed Law on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that the ruling MPLA is preparing to approve on January 22, 2025, is an act of political desperation. It is designed to conceal the disastrous governance of João Lourenço and to divert attention from Angola's ongoing structural plunder. It is the latest manoeuvre by a party that has ruled the country without interruption since independence in 1975 -- after five decades of state capture.

[New Times] It was January 2020 when Janvier Igabe walked into a salon in Kigali for a haircut and noticed a beautiful woman, Josiane Tuyishimire. He was instantly drawn to her and told her he was interested in starting a relationship. Before their conversation could go any further, Tuyishimire shared that she was living with HIV.

[UN News] The land flattens on the approach to Birao, a cut-off town ringed by savannah in the far north of the Central African Republic, where roads dissolve into dust and motorcycles vastly outnumber cars. Less than two hours' drive from the Sudanese border, this is the edge of a fractured country still piecing itself back together, while absorbing the shockwaves of a neighboring conflict.

The draft framework approved by President Donald Trump will reportedly allow the US to control parts of Greenland Read Full Article at RT.com

The alliance was built for the Cold War, and it shows Read Full Article at RT.com

A Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian Black Sea port has killed three people and injured eight, according to officials Read Full Article at RT.com

Russia has said 524 bodies were found in mass graves in Kursk Region after repelling a Ukrainian incursion last year Read Full Article at RT.com

The land issue was the pillar of Kenyan resistance against colonialism Read Full Article at RT.com

Mobiliser, informer et engager les médias comme acteurs stratégiques de sensibilisation, de pédagogie citoyenne et de lutte contre la désinformation autour du Recensement Général de la Population et des Logements (RGPL) était un des objectifs du séminaire d'information initié à l'endroit des médias gabonais. Ce rendez-vous du donner et du recevoir a eu lieu ce mercredi 21 janvier 2026 à Libreville dans l'enceinte du ministère en charge de la Planification et de la Prospective. Les (...) - SOCIETE / SUJET_ECRIT_MAISON

Le Ministre d'État, Ministre des Transports, de la Marine marchande, chargé de la Logistique, Monsieur Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi, a reçu en audience Son Excellence Fabrice Mauriès, Haut Représentant de la République Française près la République Gabonaise. Cette rencontre a permis d'aborder plusieurs dossiers d'intérêt commun relatifs aux secteurs ferroviaire, aérien et maritime, piliers essentiels de la coopération entre la République Gabonaise et la République Française. À cette (...) - COOPERATION / SUJET_ECRIT_MAISON

Le Président du Conseil National des Églises de Réveil et Pentecôtistes du Gabon (CNERPG), le Révérend Pasteur Obiang Gaspard, a accordé une audience au Coordinateur Général du Forum National des Organisations de Jeunesse, Emmanuel Ombana. Cette rencontre visait à présenter le Forum et à mobiliser la jeunesse chrétienne des Églises de réveil en faveur du développement et de la gouvernance du pays. Saluan​t cette initiative qu'il juge pertinente et porteuse d'espoir, le Révérend (...) - SOCIETE / SUJET_ECRIT_MAISON

The Bluefields Bay region in eastern Westmoreland comprises several districts, including Belmont, Cherry Hill, Mount Airy, Mearnville and Auldyr. It was near this area that Category-5 Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Tuesday, October 28 last year...

When Jamaica went from being virtually an economic basket case to being the economic wonder of the world, Jamaican international financial professional Courtney Christie-Veitch decided that this was a story that had to be told. To this end, he...

Six children with severe congenital heart defects recently received life-saving cardiac surgery led by London-based Professor Victor Tsang, a world-renowned specialist in paediatric valve repair and replacement. The procedures were carried out at...