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Her husband is currently in isolation but has not developed any symptoms, Swiss officials say.

Les devises maintiennent le cap sur le marché parallèle en Algérie. Ce vendredi 23 octobre l’euro se négocie à 277 dinars chez les changeurs algérois, soit […]

L’article L’euro remonte après une légère baisse face au dinar sur le marché noir est apparu en premier sur .

Next week, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, EU and Latin American parliamentarians will assess the bilateral relationship and future challenges, in a context of growing instability.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Next week, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, EU and Latin American parliamentarians will assess the bilateral relationship and future challenges, in a context of growing instability.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Next week, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, EU and Latin American parliamentarians will assess the bilateral relationship and future challenges, in a context of growing instability.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Next week, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, EU and Latin American parliamentarians will assess the bilateral relationship and future challenges, in a context of growing instability.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Nous vous présentons le Premier ministre israélien ayant exercé le plus longtemps à ce poste, qui espère remporter un nouveau mandat lors des élections législatives qui se tiendront en Israël le 27 octobre.

Nous vous présentons le Premier ministre israélien ayant exercé le plus longtemps à ce poste, qui espère remporter un nouveau mandat lors des élections législatives qui se tiendront en Israël le 27 octobre.

L'IA a mis au jour des failles de programmation longtemps restées cachées, déclenchant une réaction mondiale exceptionnelle en matière de cybersécurité.

L'IA a mis au jour des failles de programmation longtemps restées cachées, déclenchant une réaction mondiale exceptionnelle en matière de cybersécurité.

DIGITAL 08H : Avez-vous tenté votre chance ?
Le tirage DIGITAL 08H N°292 a livré son verdict !
Vendredi 23 Octobre 2026

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Avez-vous misé sur vos numéros porte-bonheur ?

RÉSULTAT : 71• 86 • 48 • 68 • 30

Félicitations aux heureux gagnants !

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Rendez-vous au prochain tirage de 11H pour une nouvelle chance.

Jouez dans les centres de jeux ou en ligne : Tapez 590# ou lnbloto.bj

Jouez avec modération et responsabilité. Le jeu doit rester un plaisir.

A TOI DE JOUER #Akaxòa

#LNBSA #XòGbɔnAlɔkpaVo #JeuResponsable #LaChanceAvecModération

LA CROIX DU VENDREDI 23 OCTOBRE 2026

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2026 - EP

Boats in Villa Marina, Falcón State. Credit:Jujovar2010, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By Francisco R. Rodríguez
DENVER, Colorado, USA, Oct 23 2026 (IPS)

 
Money chase

So, if Venezuela claims to be importing from the rest of the world roughly as much as it was exporting during those years, and the rest of the world confirms Venezuela’s story, then where could those additional $11 billion that presumably ended up in the bank accounts of Maduro’s cronies be?

Technically, there are some ways in which a country could spend as much as it earns and still have large sums go missing. The first obvious one is if there were $11 billion lying around to steal. Except we know there weren’t, because the Venezuelan government was broke and had all its international accounts frozen. Even the Central Bank didn’t have access to most of its international reserves at the time. And remember, the Times is telling us that these $11 billion were coming out of unpaid receivables. In other words, the oil was being sold, it was being loaded into ships, and the owners of these ships were promising to pay Venezuela for that oil but, according to the Times, never did.

Another possibility is that Venezuela was accumulating assets because someone was lending it money. But that explanation doesn’t pass the smell test either. Nobody in their right mind would have lent $11 billion to Venezuela in 2021 and 2022. The country was sanctioned, barred from issuing any type of debt in the United States, and even non-US investment funds wouldn’t go near it with a 10-foot pole. The country didn’t even have access to bank accounts where a loan of that size could be wired.

And, quite frankly, if, say, China or Russia had lent Venezuela $11 billion and somehow gotten those dollars to Venezuela, don’t you think the New York Times, or Reuters, or the Wall Street Journal, would have written a story about that? And, by the way, where is that $11 billion creditor trying to get their money back? No other Venezuela creditors seem to know about them, which is quite odd for a country that has just announced that it’s about to start restructuring its debt.

In sum, nobody lent Venezuela $11 billion in 2021–22 because anyone deluded enough to do so wouldn’t have been lending the money; they would have been giving it away. The country already had a debt that was well in excess of its capacity to pay, and country risk premiums were through the roof. The expected return on any Venezuela debt issuance in those years would have been zero.

Digging in

Now here it is actually worth stopping for a minute and looking carefully at the numbers in the country’s current account, because what the balance of payments data allows us to do is not just look at how much the country receives and spends in foreign exchange, but also where that money comes from and where it goes. And here the story gets interesting because, oddly enough, what these numbers seem to tell us is that the Venezuelan government did borrow around $11 billion (or, more precisely, $10.4 billion) in those two years. They also tell us that it accumulated some $14 billion in accounts receivable, precisely the ones that the New York Times is telling us were not paid.

So, say you had just come down from Mars, knew nothing about Venezuela’s pariah status at the time, and looked at these numbers. You would say: well yes, Venezuela borrowed $10 billion in those years and at the same time accumulated $14 billion in accounts receivable (that is, promises to pay in the future) for its oil sales. And if then, on your short trip from Mars, you picked up a copy of the New York Times and read it, you would say: well, it looks like of those $14 billion, around $11 billion never got paid.

So why does the country’s current account data get us these numbers that are so strange? Herein lies what I think is the resolution of the issue.

Below is a slide from a presentation prepared by PDVSA in late 2022, where it reports all of the oil that was sold between 2020 and 2022.[1] Note that $13.3 billion in invoices were ceded to the Republic. That’s actually a bit higher than the Times’ $11 billion because it includes 2020. In other words, the government was paying for its imports through oil shipments because it could not use international bank accounts as a result of US sanctions. Normally, PDVSA would have sold the oil, received dollars in payment, and sold those dollars to the Central Bank. Then the government would have gone to the Central Bank and bought dollars from it to pay importers.

Exhibit 1: November 2022 PDVSA Presentation Shows Receivables Ceded to Republic

Source: Ministry of Popular Power for Oil.

Since that mechanism could not be used, the government resorted to paying in-kind. It went to the importers and said: look, if you bring this much in imports into the country, we’ll let you go and collect from the people who bought our oil and who owe us money.

In fact, if you look at the decomposition of the supposed borrowing that the government did, you’ll find $6.3 billion of portfolio investment securities being issued by the government. And that rhythm of roughly $500 million per quarter continues until the end of 2025. That’s not because the government is issuing bonds. Believe me, if the government had issued a single bond, we would know about it (and whoever had bought that bond would have become the laughingstock of the securities world). But if you look at the fine print of the IMF’s Balance of Payments Statistics Manual, you’ll find that what characterizes portfolio investment is the fact that securities have to be negotiable. And this is precisely what Venezuela was giving importers: negotiable IOUs that they could exchange for oil receivables entitling them to receive payment for oil that Venezuela had sold.

We find a very direct statement of this in another slide of the PDVSA 2022 presentation, where the board states, in discussing cases of cesión de facturas (assignment of invoices) corresponding to shipments requested by the National Executive, that these were used to compensate debts with providers of the Republic.

There it is: we’ve found our mystery lender: importers who were being issued debt so that they could exchange them for oil shipments. So, when you see the balance of payments accounts say that the government was accumulating receivables and issuing debt, what you are really seeing is the way in which balance of payments statistics handle a practice that is as old as humanity: barter.

Oil and prejudice

Reality is often much more prosaic than what we want it to be. Government cronies did not walk away with $11 billion in unpaid oil shipments. What really happened is something much simpler: Venezuela didn’t have a way to pay in cash for the imports it needed, so it ended up paying with oil. And because PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, is legally distinct from the Republic, it did not directly collect on the shipments but rather transferred them to the Republic in payment of its tax and royalty obligations.

American journalist Sydney Harris once wrote that “we believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions.” And yes, the idea that Maduro’s henchmen walked off with $11 billion in oil shipments feeds well into many stereotypes of Venezuela under Maduro. Even if it sits awkwardly with the fact that he doesn’t seem to have money to pay for his defense in a Brooklyn court, most of us are predisposed to believe it.

Yes, Maduro’s regime was highly corrupt. No one puts that in doubt. But there is a long distance between recognizing its corruption and claiming that regime insiders walked away with half of the country’s oil exports. That image may fit a lot of political stereotypes and be useful for many political narratives. It just doesn’t fit the facts.

Francisco R. Rodríguez is a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (cepr.net) in Washington, DC and a professor and fellow at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies.

[1] I obtained this presentation two years ago from reporters who wrote stories on it and who asked me to see it to discuss their interpretation of it.

IPS UN Bureau

 

 

 

 

Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 2026 (IPS)

The international day for the eradication of poverty, commemorated last week, was a grim reminder that the UN will not achieve its highly-ambitious target of helping eradicate extreme poverty—”in all its forms”– by 2030.

According to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres eradicating poverty by 2030 requires urgent political will, massive investments, and a commitment to justice rather than charity.

But that is unlikely to happen by the targeted date?

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters last week the message to donors is that there is a crucial importance towards focusing aid on eliminating poverty as much as possible.

“It’s a disgrace that so many people – really, hundreds of millions of people around the world – still face acute poverty. Because of that, and because there’s still such a large gap in the needs that are to be addressed, it’s unlikely that we’re going to meet the targets by 2030. But the Secretary-General, as you know, continues to push for determination. The idea being, as he puts it, that he is neither hopeful nor pessimistic, but determined. And that’s what we have to do in the fight against poverty.”

Guterres has described poverty as an “insult” to human dignity, a denial of fundamental human rights, and an issue of social justice.

In 2026, an estimated 826 million people (or 1 in 10 people worldwide) were living in extreme poverty. If current trends continue, 9% of the world’s population will still live in extreme poverty by 2030.

Richard Ponzio, Director of the Global Governance, Justice & Security Program and a Senior Fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, told Inter Press Service (IPS) ending poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030 is Goal #1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“While we saw tremendous progress on a similar Millennium Development Goal poverty alleviation effort from 2000-2015 — thanks in large part to advances in two large developing countries at the time (China and India) — we have seen less progress overall during the present period (2015-2030) for multiple reasons, including growing debt burdens, the COVID-19 pandemic, continued environmental degradation, and the drag on global economic growth stemming from tariffs and new major wars.”

Despite these obstacles, he pointed out, the Secretary-General and his UN system’s continued determination to fight acute global poverty merits the support and commensurate levels of commitment and determination by the world body’s 193 member states.

In the run-up to next September’s SDG Summit in New York, international efforts, including innovative developments strategies and new financing approaches, should be redoubled in support of the “No Poverty” SDG — while ensuring that steps to eradicate extreme poverty remain a central plank of an emerging Post-2030 Development Agenda, he declared.

Max Lawson, Oxfam International’s Head of Inequality Policy, told IPS extreme poverty can be ended by 2030—“but only if we radically reduce inequality.”

“Right now, for every new dollar of wealth created in the world, the richest one percent pocket 41 cents ―and the entire bottom half of humanity gets just a single cent. While everyday people are hit hard by rising prices, wars, and pandemics, billionaires have more than doubled their fortunes,” said Lawson.

According to one report, poverty has many dimensions. Its primary causes include unemployment, social exclusion, and the high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, disease, and other crises that prevent them from earning a productive living.

The UN’s SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals and 169 specific targets adopted by UN Member States in September 2015 under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

These goals also include an end to worldwide hunger, the need for quality education, good health and well-being, among others.

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, The Oakland Institute, told IPS: “As we look for solutions to end poverty, we need to focus on the causes of poverty.”

The international day for the eradication of poverty should be the day to eradicate wars around the world, she argued.

Global military spending continues to rise. Trump’s proposed defense budget for 2027 – a record high of US$1.5 trillion, nearly doubling the 2023 budget – is in line with projections estimating global military spending could reach $6.6 trillion by 2035.

The buildup of the military industrial complex comes at the expense of common good. A small fraction of annual military budgets – less than $300 billion could help eliminate extreme poverty. $93 billion per year – less than 4% of yearly global military spending – could help address global hunger, she said.

Today, over half the world’s 1.1 billion poor live in conflict situations. War diverts necessary funds for public health, education, and social safety nets. Destruction and pillage of war manufactures poverty and then maintains it,” said Mittal.

Danielle Nierenberg, President and Founder, Food Tank, told IPS “determination is good but in order to be effective, we need to have courage.”

With the cutbacks to international aid including the systemic dismantlement of USAID, we need to stand up to those who the aid is a waste of money, she said.

Millions of people are dying unnecessarily when only a very small percentage of rich countries budgets could help save them. Aid benefits us all—it’s not only the moral thing to do, but it helps strengthen national security, declared Nierenberg.

Frederic Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute, told IPS focusing on “donors” to address the poverty and climate crises that the world faces today is misdirected.

Poverty goes hand in hand with growing inequities and cannot be addressed separately. There is plenty of money to go around to solve both these crises.

According to Oxfam, US$9 trillion could be raised just from increasing taxes on the wealth and income of the top one percent richest people and the profits of 722 of the world’s biggest corporations.

As the wealth of the billionaires and the largest corporations keeps increasing to insane levels, there is no other way to address poverty than to tax it. The UN should lead the way on an international tax reform that will allow a redistribution of the wealth towards the poor and the adaptation to the climate crisis, declared Mousseau.

According to the SDG 2026 report, poverty has many dimensions. Its primary causes include unemployment, social exclusion, and the high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, disease, and other crises that prevent them from earning a productive living.

Why should I care about other people’s economic situation?

There are many reasons, but the simplest is that as human beings, our well-being is deeply interconnected. Growing inequality hurts economic growth and undermines social cohesion. This raises political and social tensions and, in some circumstances, drives instability and conflict.

Why is social protection so important?

Strong social protection systems are essential to cushion the blow of economic shocks and prevent vulnerable families from falling into poverty.

While social protection measures did expand during the COVID-19 crisis, approximately 46% of the world’s population—about 3.8 billion people, including 1.4 billion children—remained entirely unprotected in 2023.

In response to the subsequent cost-of-living crisis, 105 countries and territories announced nearly 350 social protection measures between February 2022 and February 2023. However, 80% of these programs were only short-term. To truly achieve the SDGs, nations must build permanent, universal, and sustainable social protection systems for all.

The contribution of science to end poverty has been significant. For example, it has enabled access to safe drinking water, reduced deaths caused by water-borne diseases, and improved hygiene to reduce health risks related to unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation.

• If current trends continue, 9% of the world’s population may still live in extreme poverty by 2030, and only one in five countries will succeed in halving their national poverty levels.
• In 2025, 7.9% of the global workforce (284 million workers) lived in extreme poverty, down from 11% in 2015.
• For the first time on record, over half of the world’s population receives at least one social protection benefit. Despite this milestone, 3.8 billion people remain completely uncovered.
• Development aid focused on poverty reduction has fallen sharply, erasing a decade of progress and returning to 2015 levels.
• Advanced economies spend a significantly higher share of government budgets on essential services (like education, health, and social protection) compared to emerging and developing nations.
• Guaranteeing basic social security floors in low- and middle-income countries requires an additional $1.4 trillion annually, equal to 3.3% of their combined GDP in 2024.

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

 

 

 

Le train relie déjà Alger à Laghouat. Sur les 2 036 km du corridor vers Tamanrasset, 308 km sont en service et 924 km entrent […]

L’article Train Alger-Tamanrasset : 924 km prêts à être lancés, le point sur le chantier du Grand Sud est apparu en premier sur .

Dans le cadre du projet de construction de son nouveau siège, le Conseil économique et social (CES) porte à la connaissance du public, de ses usagers ainsi que de ses partenaires institutionnels et techniques que ses organes et services seront provisoirement relocalisés à compter de ce vendredi 23 octobre 2026. L'annonce a été faite à travers un communiqué signé du secrétaire général de l'institution.

Le CES quitte ses locaux actuels pour deux nouveaux sites. Et ce, dans le cadre des travaux de construction de son nouveau siège. Ce déménagement selon un communiqué du secrétariat général du CES, concerne le Cabinet du Président, les membres du Bureau ainsi que l'ensemble du personnel administratif civil et militaire, y compris les agents relevant des services de l'ancien Médiateur de la République. Afin d'assurer la continuité de ses missions et le maintien de ses activités, le CES déploiera ses organes et services sur deux sites provisoires situés à Cotonou :
• Site 1 : Immeuble Marina Tower, bâtiment B, 6ᵉ étage. Le site est situé en face de Nigeria House, entre l'hôtel Novotel Orisha et le siège de l'opérateur de téléphonie mobile MTN.
• Site 2 : Rue de l'UEMOA, deuxième bâtiment à gauche. Le site se trouve entre le centre commercial Erevan et la Résidence Stella.
Cette relocalisation temporaire vise à libérer le site historique de l'Institution en vue du lancement des travaux de construction de son nouveau siège. Ce projet ambitionne de doter le CES d'infrastructures modernes, fonctionnelles et adaptées à ses missions ainsi qu'à ses exigences institutionnelles.
Durant cette période transitoire, le CES rassure ses usagers et ses partenaires quant au maintien de l'ensemble de ses activités et à la continuité du service public. L'Institution veillera à assurer le fonctionnement régulier de ses organes et services sur les sites provisoires.
Le Conseil économique et social remercie le public, ses usagers et ses partenaires institutionnels et techniques pour leur confiance, leur compréhension et leur collaboration durant cette phase de transition.

F. A. A.

Le Président du Conseil économique et social (CES), Abdoulaye BIO TCHANÉ, a reçu en audience, ce jeudi 22 octobre 2026, une délégation du Système des Nations Unies au Bénin, conduite par la Coordonnatrice résidente, Aminatou SAR. Cette rencontre s'inscrit dans la dynamique de consolidation du partenariat entre les deux institutions, au service des priorités nationales de développement durable.

Audience au Conseil économique et social. Le président, Abdoulaye BIO TCHANÉ, a reçu en audience, ce jeudi 22 octobre 2026, une délégation du Système des Nations Unies au Bénin, conduite par la Coordonnatrice résidente, Aminatou SAR.
Au cœur des échanges, le renforcement du dialogue institutionnel, la concertation et la recherche de synergies autour des grands enjeux économiques, sociaux et environnementaux du Bénin. Les discussions ont notamment permis d'explorer les domaines d'intérêt commun ainsi que les perspectives d'une meilleure complémentarité des interventions, en cohérence avec les orientations nationales de développement.

À travers cette audience, le Conseil économique et social réaffirme l'importance du partenariat avec les acteurs du système international pour accompagner les efforts de développement du pays. La collaboration avec le Système des Nations Unies constitue, à cet égard, un cadre de dialogue et de coopération susceptible de favoriser une meilleure prise en compte des défis auxquels les populations sont confrontées.
La rencontre témoigne également de l'intérêt accordé à la concertation entre les institutions nationales et les partenaires au développement, dans la perspective de promouvoir des réponses adaptées aux besoins du pays et de soutenir la réalisation des objectifs de développement durable.
Cette audience ouvre ainsi un espace de dialogue propice à l'identification de nouvelles pistes de collaboration entre le CES et le Système des Nations Unies au Bénin, autour des priorités nationales et des enjeux d'un développement inclusif et durable.

F. A. A.

Lange Monate des Wartens werden dieses Wochenende endlich belohnt: Am Samstag erfolgt in Sölden der Startschuss in den Ski-Weltcup 2027. Sowohl die Frauen als auch die Männer bestreiten einen Riesenslalom – und die Schweiz hofft auf eine Wiederholung der Ereignisse.