Important world news

EU has prepared new expansion rules

In October 2019, France blocked the dialogue with Macedonia on EU accession.

New rules were developed after the EU refused to start negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania in October last year.

The European Commission has developed new EU enlargement rules, providing for a stronger weight of member states in negotiations with candidates for accession to the union. This was reported on the eve of Radio Liberty .

It is alleged that this document should be published as early as Wednesday, February 5. In it, the European Commission invites the EU member states "to make a more systematic contribution to the accession process, including through on-site monitoring through its experts, through direct participation in annual reports and through industry expertise."

“Member States will also have the opportunity to more regularly review and monitor overall progress,” the draft document says.

He called for the creation of additional incentives for aspirant countries that showed good results. Among them are increased funding if countries show progress in reforms, and close cooperation with international financial institutions to increase support.

If countries show a rollback or delays in the implementation of necessary reforms, this can lead to sanctions - for example, suspension of financing or accession negotiations.

The document also provides for the possibility of a new opening of already closed chapters in the negotiations.

The volume and intensity of EU funding can be adjusted downward. The exception is civil society support. At the same time, the benefits of closer integration, such as access to EU programs or unilateral concessions in market access, may be reversed.

The proposed plan is planned to be discussed and approved by the EU member states at the Brussels summit in March - before the Balkan summit in Zagreb, which will be held in May.

If approved, the new methodology will apply to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Northern Macedonia. Serbia and Montenegro will not affect the new rules, as they have already begun accession negotiations with Brussels.

New rules were developed after the EU once again refused to start negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania in October 2019 . The driving force behind this decision was France, which demanded a change in EU enlargement rules.

At that time, French President Emmanuel Macron argued that Skopje and Tirana had not shown sufficient progress in carrying out reforms, did not fight corruption enough, and worked too weak to strengthen the rule of law.

Five countries require Iran to give black boxes

Iran promises to continue cooperation with other countries on a plane crash, but does not give flight recorders.

Five countries whose citizens died in the crash of a Ukrainian plane near Tehran again turned to Iran with a request to hand over black boxes. This is stated in a statement by the Foreign Ministry of Canada on Tuesday, January 4.

“All countries are concerned that Iran has not handed over the black boxes. Appendix 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation requires that this be done without delay. To show that Iran is still ready to report this event in a full and transparent manner, it should hand over black boxes immediately, ”the message says

Representatives from Canada, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, and Sweden stated the need for "continued pressure to achieve accountability, transparency, and justice for victims of PS752."

"In addition, the participants committed to agree on legal options for negotiations with Iran regarding responsibility for this act in order to achieve justice, including appropriate compensation for the relatives of victims of PS752," the Canadian Foreign Ministry said.

In turn, the Iranian authorities said they would continue to cooperate with other countries on a plane crash, despite the leak of an audio recording of negotiations between the crew of the Iranian plane and the dispatcher. The recording was recently published by Ukrainian media, after which Iran said it would no longer transfer case materials to Ukraine .

"The organization will continue to investigate various aspects of the crash of the Ukrainian aircraft in accordance with national legislation and international standards in cooperation with countries relevant to this incident," the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization said in a statement.

Earlier, the Office of the Prosecutor General said that after almost a month, Iran had  not handed over the black boxes of the downed aircraft  and did not respond to requests from Ukraine.

US President promised to “crush tyranny”

Washington supports the hopes of Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to restore democracy, Donald Trump emphasized.

US President Donald Trump, during his annual address to Congress on February 4, promised to “crush the tyranny” of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

"The United States leads a diplomatic coalition of 59 countries against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro is an illegal ruler, a tyrant who abuses his people. But the tyranny of Maduro will be crushed and broken," the American leader stressed.

Trump stressed that the United States "supports the hopes of Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans for the restoration of democracy."

After that, he addressed the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who was present in the hall, and indicated that it was his United States that was considered the "true and legitimate president" of the country.

490 victims of coronavirus in China

Over the past day, 65 people have died. More than 24 thousand cases of 2019-nCoV infection have been confirmed.

In China, 490 people became victims of the new coronavirus, more than 24 thousand people became infected. This was announced on February 5 by the State Committee on Hygiene and Health Care of the PRC.

“As of midnight on February 4, the state health committee received information from 24,324 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus from 31 provinces (districts, cities of central subordination), of which 3,219 were in serious condition, 490 died ", The message said.

Over the past day, 65 people have died in China (all in Hubei Province) and 3.8 thousand new cases have been identified.

Separately, 18 confirmed cases of infection were detected in Hong Kong (including one person died), in Macau - ten and in Taiwan - 11.

In addition, another 23.2 thousand cases were suspected with a suspected new type of coronavirus. 

According to the  South China Morning Post  , citing data from the National Health Commission in Beijing, 112 people were infected with the coronavirus in other Asian countries, 26 in Europe, 15 in North America, 12 in Australia, and seven in other regions of the world.

A day earlier, 425 dead and 20.4 thousand patients were officially reported.