Feed aggregator

‎ L'ambiance était festive, jeudi 30 octobre 2025 à l'hôtel Azalaï, où La Poste du Bénin SA a célébré en différé la Journée mondiale de la Poste, initialement fêtée chaque 9 octobre. La célébration a été marquée par la remise de prix aux 10 écoliers et écolières finalistes de la 54ème édition du Concours International de Compositions Epistolaires (CICE) et aux lauréats du Jeu Tombola CNE (Caisse Nationale d'Épargne).
‎
‎ Dans une salle décorée aux couleurs bleu et jaune, caractéristiques de La Poste du Bénin, le public composé d'employés, de partenaires, de clients et autres invités, a célébré en différé la Journée mondiale de la Poste ce 30 octobre 2025 à Cotonou.
‎
‎Le ton a été donné par Ismaël BAGNAN, président du comité d'organisation, qui a salué « le rôle de sanctuaire que joue la Poste dans la communication, le commerce et le développement social et économique de nos nations ». Il a exprimé sa gratitude envers le Directeur général, Krishnan LOKOSOU, dont « le leadership et la vision portent au quotidien le développement de La Poste du Bénin SA ».

‎L'occasion a aussi permis de célébrer les dix jeunes lauréats du Concours international de compositions épistolaires organisé autour du thème : « Imagine que tu es l'Océan. Écris une lettre à une personne pour lui expliquer pourquoi et comment elle devrait prendre soin de toi ».

‎Les clients gagnants de la Tombola de la Caisse Nationale d'Épargne (CNE) ont également été récompensés. « Merci de continuer à nous faire confiance », a lancé le président du comité d'organisation, à l'endroit des heureux lauréats.
‎
‎Prenant la parole, le Directeur général Krishnan LOKOSOU a mis l'accent sur les défis liés à la digitalisation, à la concurrence de l'informel et des acteurs privés. Mais loin du découragement, le DG de La Poste du Bénin a appelé à la réinvention. « Nous avons l'obligation de nous réinventer constamment, d'être dans une approche transparente de recherche de solutions et d'avoir le sentiment permanent de l'urgence », a-t-il indiqué.
‎
‎ « La Poste a aujourd'hui un chiffre d'affaires de plus de 3 milliards et nous espérons faire un résultat supérieur cette année », s'est félicité le DG Krishnan LOKOSOU. Il a également rendu hommage à la jeunesse et à l'esprit d'innovation des équipes.

Le DG n'a pas manqué de remercier les partenaires dont SOBEBRA, Librairie Notre-Dame, NSIA Assurances, la Bibliothèque nationale, l'Africaine des Assurances, MTN, CELTIIS, etc.

‎Poste du Bénin, 1er service EMS en Afrique et 3è au niveau mondial

‎Représentant le Directeur général de l'Union Postale Universelle (UPU), Eric CONTAYON a salué « le rôle vital joué par le secteur postal, qui tisse un lien essentiel entre les populations du monde entier ».

‎Il a rappelé que le thème retenu cette année, « PostForPeople : Service local, portée mondiale », invite à bâtir « un réseau postal plus accessible, plus fiable et plus inclusif que jamais ».

‎La Poste du Bénin a été distinguée meilleur service EMS d'Afrique en 2024, et troisième au niveau mondial, selon Eric Contayon. « Félicitations, monsieur le Directeur général ! Félicitations à vous les employés, à quelque position que vous soyez », a lancé le représentant de l'UPU, sous une salve d'applaudissements.

Il a remercié le Directeur général de La Poste du Bénin qui a mis disposition de l'UPU « de nouveaux locaux flambant neufs et modernes, améliorant de manière significative la visibilité du Bureau régional parmi les représentations ».
‎
‎Eric CONTAYON a souhaité que le Bénin se hisse au 1er rang du classement mondial 2025. Le représentant de l'Union Postale Universelle (UPU) a également émis le vœu de voir deux représentants du Bénin au prochain congrès de l'UPU.

‎Marc MENSAH
‎

‎

On 6 November, the SEDE Committee will hold, jointly with the FEMM Committee, a public hearing on the 25th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on "Women, Peace and Security" as part of the EP Gender Equality week. This hearing will be an opportunity to take stock on the progress and challenges in the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
The first part of the hearing will focus on Ukraine, with Ukrainian speakers sharing their own experience following Russia's full-scale war of aggression.

Further details will follow in due course.
Location : SPINELLI 3G3
Programme
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On 5 November, the SEDE Committee will hold a public hearing on "EU strategic Defence and Security Partnerships", where experts will assess the current CSDP defence partnerships and put forward recommendations for the future, in line with the Strategic Compass and in view of strengthening the European Defence Union and relations with key defence partners. This hearing will be followed by the presentation of a draft report on "EU Strategic Defence and Security Partnerships".
Location : SPAAK 1A2
Programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On 6 November, Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius KUBILIUS will present the state of play of the Defence readiness agenda–2030 and the priorities for 2026 to SEDE Members. Members will discuss next steps in the implementation of EU defence readiness, including the recently proposed Defence Readiness Roadmap. Following this item, Members will discuss the current challenges facing UN Peacekeeping missions with Jean-Pierre LACROIX, UN Under-Secretary-General Department of Peace Operations.
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On 6 November, the SEDE Committee will hold, jointly with the FEMM Committee, a public hearing on the 25th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on "Women, Peace and Security" as part of the EP Gender Equality week. This hearing will be an opportunity to take stock on the progress and challenges in the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. ....
The first part of the hearing will focus on Ukraine, with Ukrainian speakers sharing their own experience following Russia's full-scale war of aggression.
Further details will follow in due course.
Programme
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On 5 November, the SEDE Committee will hold a public hearing on "EU strategic Defence and Security Partnerships", where experts will assess the current CSDP defence partnerships and put forward recommendations for the future, in line with the Strategic Compass and in view of strengthening the European Defence Union and relations with key defence partners. This hearing will be followed by the presentation of a draft report on "EU Strategic Defence and Security Partnerships".
Programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Lidl senkt konsequent die Preise. Laut Länderchef Nicholas Pennanen geschieht dies, ohne bei Qualität oder Lieferanten Abstriche zu machen. Während einige Kunden die Angebote loben, bleiben andere skeptisch.

Jérémy Desbraux (39) von der «Maison Wenger» in Le Noirmont JU ist neuer Koch des Jahres. Wenige Wochen nach der Auszeichnung hat er jetzt Ärger am Hals: Auf seiner Karte führt er auch Waldschnepfe und Alpenschneehuhn. Die Vögel sind bedroht. Der Spitzenkoch reagiert.

Der Monat der Toten: Anfang November gedenken Katholiken am Doppelfest Allerheiligen und Allerseelen. Grund genug, auch mal berühmten Persönlichkeiten seine Ehre zu erweisen. Blick stellt die sieben grössten Stars vor, die in Schweizer Erde begraben liegen.

Das letzte 1000er-Turnier des Jahres geht langsam aber sicher in die heisse Phase. Während der Sieger neben den 1000 Punkten für die Weltrangliste eine knappe Million Euro an Preisgeld erhält, gibts schon ab den heutigen Viertelfinals den dicken Scheck.

Der Rechtspopulist Geert Wilders kommt nach einer neuen Hochrechnung auf 26 Sitze, ebenso wie die linksliberale Partei D66. Trotzdem dürfte Wilders an einer neuen Regierung nicht beteiligt sein.

Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General, CIVICUS Global Alliance. Credit: CIVICUS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO & BANGKOK, Oct 31 2025 (IPS)

From the streets of Bangkok to power corridors in Washington, the civil society space for dissent is fast shrinking. Authoritarian regimes are silencing opposition but indirectly fueling corruption and widening inequality, according to a leading global civil society alliance.

The warning is from Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General of CIVICUS Global Alliance, who points to a troubling trend: civil society is increasingly considered a threat to those in power.

That is a sobering assessment from CIVICUS, which reports that a wave of repression by authoritarian regimes is directly fueling corruption and exploding inequality.

“The quality of democracy on hand around the world is very poor at the moment,” Tiwana tells IPS in an exclusive interview. “That is why civil society organizations are seen as a threat by authoritative leaders and the negative impact of attacking civil society means there is a rise in corruption, there is less inclusion, there is less transparency in public life and more inequality in society.”

His comments come ahead of the 16th International Civil Society Week (ICSW) from 1–5 November 2025 convened by CIVICUS and the Asia Democracy Network. The ICSW will bring together more than 1,300 delegates comprising activists, civil society groups, academics, and human rights advocates to empower citizen action and build powerful alliances. ICSW pays tribute to activists, movements, and civil society achieving significant progress, defending civic freedoms, and showing remarkable resilience despite the many challenges.

The ICSW takes place against a bleak backdrop. According to the CIVICUS Monitor, a research partnership between CIVICUS and over 20 organizations tracking civic freedoms, civil society is under attack in 116 of 198 countries and territories. The fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly face significant deterrents worldwide.

Protests at COP27 in Egypt. Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General of CIVICUS Global Alliance, is hopeful that COP30, in Belém, Brazil, will be more inclusive. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

“It is becoming increasingly dangerous to be a civil society activist and to be the leader of a civil society organization,” Tiwana tells IPS. “Many organizations have been defunded because governments don’t like what they do to ensure transparency or because they speak out against some very powerful people. It is a challenging environment for civil society.”

Research by CIVICUS categorizes civic freedom in five dimensions: open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed, and closed. Alarmingly, over 70 percent of the world’s population now lives in countries rated in the two worst categories: ‘repressed’ and ‘closed.’

“This marks a regression in democratic values, rights, and accountability,” Tiwana noted, adding that even in the remaining 30% of nations, restrictions on civic freedoms remain.

Repression Tools in Tow

The ICSW, being held under the theme ‘Celebrating citizen action: reimagining democracy, rights, and inclusion for today’s world,’ convenes against this backdrop.

Multifaceted tools are used by governments to stifle dissent. Governments are introducing laws to block civil society organizations from receiving international funding while simultaneously restricting domestic resources. Besides, laws have also been enacted in some countries to restrict the independence of civil society organizations that scrutinize governments and promote transparency.

For civil society activists, the consequences are sobering.

“If you speak truth to power, uncover high-level corruption and try to seek transformative change in society, whether it’s on gender equality or inclusion of minorities you  can be subjected to severe forms of persecution,” Tiwana explained. “This includes stigmatization, intimidation,  imprisonment for long periods, physical attacks, and death.”

Multilateralism Tumbles, Unilateralism Rises

Tiwana said there is an increasing breakdown in multilateralism and respect for international laws from which civil society draws its rights.

This erosion of civic space is reflected in the breakdown of the international system. Tiwana identified a surge in unilateralism and a disregard for the international laws that have historically safeguarded the rights of civil society.

“If you look at what’s happening around the world, whether with regard to conflicts in Palestine, in the Congo, in Sudan, in Myanmar, in Ukraine, in Cameroon, and elsewhere, governments are not respecting international norms,” he observed, remarking that authoritarian regimes were abusing the sovereignty of other countries, ignoring the Geneva conventions, and legalizing attacks on civilians, torturing and persecuting civilians.

This collapse of multilateralism has enabled a form of transactional diplomacy, where narrowly defined national interests trump human rights. Powerful states now collude to manipulate public policy, enhancing their wealth and power. When civil society attempts to expose these corrupt relationships, it becomes a target.

“They are colluding to game public policy to suit their interests and to enhance their wealth.  The offshoot of this is that civil society is attacked when it tries to expose these corrupt relationships,” said Tiwana, expressing concern  about the rise in state capture by oligarchs who now own vast swathes of the media and technology landscapes.

Citing countries like China and Rwanda, which, while they have different ways of functioning, Tiwana said both are powerful authoritarian states engaging in transactional diplomacy and are opposed to the civil society’s power to hold them to account.

The election of Donald Trump as US President in 2025 has shattered the foundation of the US as a democracy, Tiwana noted. The country no longer supports democratic values internationally and is at home with  attacks on the media and defunding of civil society.

The action by the US has negative impacts, as some leaders around the world are taking their cue from Trump in muzzling civil society and media freedoms, he said, pointing to how the US has created common cause with authoritarian governments in El Salvador, Israel,  Argentina, and Hungary.

The fight Goes On

Despite facing repression and threats, civil society continues to resist authoritarian regimes. From massive street protests against corruption in Nepal, and Guatemala  to pro-democracy movements that have removed  governments in Bangladesh  and Madagascar,

“People need to have courage to stand up for what they believe and to speak out when their neighbors are persecuted,” Tiwana told IPS. “People still need to continue to speak the truth and come out in the streets in peaceful protest against the injustice that is happening. They should not lose hope.”

On the curtailing of civil society participation in climate change negotiations, Tiwana said the upcoming COP30 in Brazil offered hope. The host government believes in democratic values and including civil society at the table.

“Past COPs have been held in petro states—Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt—which are all authoritarian states where civil society has been attacked, crushed, and persecuted,” he said. “We are hopeful that there will be greater inclusion of voices and the commitments that will be made to reduce emissions will be ambitious but the question is really going to be after the COP and if those commitments will be from governments that really don’t care about civil society demands or about the well-being of their people.”

Young people, Tiwana said, have shown the way. Movements like Fridays for Future  and the Black Lives Matter have demonstrated the power of solidarity and unified action.

But, given the massive protests, has this resistance led to change of a similar scale?

“Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in military dictatorships around the world,” Tiwana admitted, attributing this to a fraying appetite by the international community to uphold human rights and democratic values.

“Conflict, environmental degradation, extreme wealth accumulation, and high-level corruption are interlinked because it’s people who want to possess more than they need.”

Tiwana illustrated what he means by global priorities.

“We have USD 2.7 trillion in military spending year-on-year nowadays, whereas 700 million people go to bed hungry every night.”

“As civil society, we are trying to expose these corrupt relationships that exist. So the fight for equality, the struggle to create better, more peaceful, more just societies—something CIVICUS supports very much—are some of the conversations that we will be looking to have at the International Civil Society Week.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');   Related Articles

• ‘Turkmen Authorities Are Carrying out a Systematic Campaign to Eliminate Independent Voices’
• ‘No Solution Will Work If the Institutions Responsible for Abuses Remain in Charge of Implementing It’

Egy 53 éves férfi még májusban több mint 23 000 euró értékben készpénzt és ékszereket csalt ki egy idős nőtől. A rendőrök azonosították a gyanúsítottat, előzetes letartóztatásba helyezik.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2025 - EP

Kinder, die an Halloween Süsses sammeln, kommen manch einem ganz gelegen zum Entrümpeln der Schoggi-Schublade. Sind alte Gummibärli und Co. gefährlich? Wir haben beim Luzerner Kantonschemiker Silvio Arpagaus nachgefragt.

Geglückte Premiere! Die Opel GSE Vision-Night am Donnerstagabend im Blick Café war die erste von drei Sonderveranstaltungen im Rahmen der Auto Zürich. Und dank des 800-PS-Showcars und dem Auftritt seines Erschaffers ein grosser Publikumserfolg.

Vor über einem Jahr entwichen zwei Häftlinge aus einem Basler Gefängnis – nun konnte einer von ihnen in Belgien gefasst werden.

Die Protestwelle der Bauarbeiter hat am Freitag die Region Bern erreicht. Mehrere hundert von ihnen versammelten sich gegen Mittag in Bern zu einer Protestversammlung.

Közkívánatra az NKFIH NCP csapata megszervezi a „feketeöves” kutatásmenedzser webináriumot! Az online találkozón alkalmat biztosítunk a pályázás és a projektmenedzsment olyan kérdéseiben való elmélyülésre, jógyakorlatok megosztására, amely néha még a tapasztalt kutatásmenedzsereket is kihívások elé állítja, például a költségvetés tervezése, az Annotated Grant Agreement értelmezése, vagy egy Systems and Process Audit. Az NKFIH NCP csapata tájékoztatást ad a jogi és pénzügyi NCP-k aktuális ülésének témáiról.

Seit Mai stehen drei verlassene Autos der Marke Jaguar auf dem Parkplatz der Raststätte Heidiland. Jetzt wurden sie auf einen nahe gelegenen Parkplatz verschoben. Es sei rechtlich ein heikler Fall, meint eine Expertin.