S. Africa’s Ramaphosa introduces new bills against gender-based violence

As the first-ever Africa Climate Summit kicks off on Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, some representatives in attendance are wondering whether the political elite will match their words with meaningful action.

With the EU voting on new air quality rules, satellite data shows that 98% of people face pollution above limits recommended by the World Health Organization.

Talking Europe hosts Pascal Lamy, co-ordinator of the Jacques Delors institutes, and a distinguished former head of the World Trade Organization and former EU Trade Commissioner. We discuss great power competition in today's world; the EU’s influence when it comes to global trade and regulation; the critical importance of Africa to Europe; and climate adaptation in the light of Lamy’s role as a member of the Climate Overshoot Commission.

The recent announcement of a US-backed rail and shipping project linking India with the Middle East and Europe is seen as a challenge to Beijing's "Belt and Road Initiative."

Beijing has called a European Commission probe into Chinese electric vehicle subsidies, a "naked protectionist act."

Europe's influence in Africa is waning. Germany is now attempting a values-based approach, but without paternalism.

Enlargement of the European Union was one of the priorities outlined by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech on September 13th, and it is likely to become an ever more pressing issue over the next few years. After the speech, Talking Europe sat down with the EU Commissioner in charge of neighbourhood and enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi. He is a distinguished Hungarian diplomat and lawyer. He served as Hungary's ambassador to the EU, and has held prominent positions at the Hungarian ministry of justice and ministry of foreign affairs.

A bus carrying employees from a diamond mine in Limpopo reportedly collided with a lorry. Road safety is a critical challenge in South Africa, despite the country's advanced road infrastructure.

Some rhinoceros species have showed an uptick for the first times in a decade, conservationists report. But illegal killings remain a threat across the continent.

European governments have a duty to rescue asylum seekers who cross the sea to escape conflict, Pope Francis said in Marseille. He called it "a duty of humanity" to save people in difficulty.

The UN chief has called it an epidemic of coups. In Africa, since 2020, military officers have seized power, or attempted to do so, in numerous sub-Saharan countries. Just in the last two and a half months, soldiers in Gabon announced a takeover of power, while in Niger, members of the presidential guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum and announced that they were seizing power.

During a speech in France, the Catholic leader urged a humane pan-European response to migration. French President Emmanuel Macron attended the address as his government deliberates a harsher response to asylum-seekers.