NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Terror case: More than four years after suicide bombings killed 32 people and injured hundreds in the Brussels subway and airport, pretrial hearings started Monday on the outskirts of the Belgian capital to determine which suspects will eventually be tried. The hearings are set to last 10 days and are the final step before a trial on terror charges can begin next year. Around 900 people suffered physical or mental trauma in the March 22, 2016, attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic State group. Earlier this year, the prosecutor’s office requested that eight of the 13 main suspects should be referred to criminal court for charges of assassinations in a terrorist context, and for belonging to a terrorist group.
2 Humanitarian crisis: Yemen is “on the edge of a precipice” after years of civil war, a senior U. N. official warned Monday, with millions of children suffering from malnutrition and facing the risk of famine. Ted Chaiban sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation as the United Nations Children’s Fund launched an appeal for a record $ 2.5 billion in emergency funds from global donors. UNICEF estimates that virtually all of Yemen’s 12 million children require some sort of assistance. This can include food aid, health services, clean water, schooling and cash grants to help the poorest families scrape by.
3 Turkey tensions: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday called for negotiations over energy exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean, days ahead of a European Union summit that could impose sanctions on Turkey. EU leaders are meeting Thursday and will address Turkish missions to explore gas reserves in waters claimed by EU members Greece and Cyprus. Tensions between NATO allies Turkey and Greece escalated over the summer with a military buildup after Turkey sent a survey vessel, escorted by navy frigates, into disputed waters. The move prompted Greece to also send its warships, and both countries conducted military exercises to assert their claims.
4 Romania election: Ludovic Orban, Romania’s centerright prime minister, resigned Monday after a general election in which voters delivered a nominal victory to the leftleaning, populist opposition party. With nearly all votes counted in Sunday’s election, Orban’s National Liberals were defeated by the populist Social Democrat Party. However, the Social Democrats appear unlikely to emerge on top in what promises to be prolonged postelection wrangling to form a new coalition government. The progressive USR-Plus alliance, which has pledged not to be part of any Social Democratled government, won about 15% of the vote. The National Liberals have controlled Romania’s minority government since October 2019 when the Social Democrats lost a confidence vote in the parliament after a chaotic tenure.
5 Coal plants: A Czech government advisory body has agreed to a proposal for the country to phase out coal as an energy source by 2038, a plan that environmental groups criticized as an unjustifiably late date. The panel says the government will invest some 355 billion Czech crowns ($ 16 billion) by 2050 to generate energy from other sources. The country is planning to become more reliant on nuclear power. The Czech Republic approved the European Union’s plan to make its economy carbon neutral by 2050 after EU heads of state and government agreed that nuclear energy will be recognized as a tool to fight climate change. The local industry has relied heavily on coal with coal power plants still generating almost 50% of its total electricity. The Czech government must approve the plan.