Cover photo: The Kherson Regional State Administration building hit by Russian rocket fire on December 14, 2022. KHERSON REGIONAL STATE ADMINISTR / VIA Portal

• Basic services have been restored in Kyiv on the evening of December 17 said Vitali Klitschko, mayor of the capital. He added that residents were reconnected to the water network in the morning.
• Mr. Klitschko also stated that a third of the city was still without electricity. He warned that emergency cuts would be made to conserve energy. “Because the lack of electricity is important,” he wrote on the messaging app Telegram.
• Almost 6 million Ukrainian households have been restored to power across the country, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video address. “The repair work continues uninterrupted after yesterday’s terrorist attack (…) Of course there is still a lot to do to stabilize the system,” he said.
• Russia fired more than seventy rockets on Friday, one of the heaviest bombings since the Russian invasion of the country began on February 24. There were emergency power outages across the country.
• Iranian suicide bombers delivered to Russia. A representative of the intelligence services of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine quoted by the media Ukrainian claims that Moscow has received a new shipment of Iranian-made Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones. According to Ukrainian intelligence, this delivery is less important than the previous one. Ukrainian intelligence adds that the Russians have not yet used Iranian ballistic missiles against Ukraine.
• Moldova blocks channels that retransmit Russian TV programs. Russia has accused Moldova of “political censorship” after the small eastern European country suspended the broadcasting licenses of six TV stations accused of disinformation. Chisinau explained this decision on Friday with the “lack of correct information” in these channels’ coverage of national events and, in particular, Russian military operations in Ukraine.

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According to Katzian, collective negotiations are still ongoing in some sectors, in breweries and in the private bus sector. However, he is very pleased with the results so far. Despite “difficulties and arguments”, the results are good in times of high inflation. The all-day railway strike in December, exceptionally strong for Austrian conditions, was also a necessary pressure measure: “We are not known to be the strikers”, explained the main trade unionist – the result was not possible through negotiations to the time being.

After the fall salary round, now will be the time to take stock in the spring. The focus is also on the demand for a gross minimum wage of 2,000 euros for all sectors. “If it is not possible to negotiate, we will study measures and actions”, says Katzian. Differences are currently large, there are sectors in which the lowest wages are well above this limit, and some are even below it. In trade, the target has not yet been achieved in the last round of negotiations, where the minimum wage is still around 1,945 euros.

demand for a minimum wage

Confirmed price limit demand

Asked about his demand for a rental price cap, Katzian explained that he was “bummed out” that price caps were dismissed as a “watering can solution”. “The same discussion” would also have taken place with the ÖGB’s demand for a VAT reduction on everyday groceries. Weekly purchases were 14% more expensive. Nor can one pretend that “only the poorest of the poor are affected by inflation”.

TV library

The “press hour” to research

The fact that the European Central Bank (ECB) has again raised the benchmark interest rate to 2.5% also means that many borrowers will have problems with repayment: “Let’s have fun there”.

While Katzian welcomed the electricity price cap, he called for the same for all forms of heating – gas, pellets, oil, etc. – and also electricity price measures for heat pumps. “People are slowly going crazy” in the face of “immorally high” gas regulations or huge electricity costs because they switched to heat pumps – to “save the world” – warned the union boss. “We have to invent something” and not just for vulnerable groups.

Better working conditions against the shortage of skilled workers

Katzian sees companies as having a duty to provide better working conditions in response to the widespread shortage of skilled workers. It’s not always just about wages – “good working conditions aren’t always about money”, he explained: shift schedules, working hours and similar factors are also important.

Economic forecast and labor shortage

Furthermore, the shortage of skilled workers is self-produced: some professions have been on the shortlist of occupations for years and have not yet been tackled by a training offensive. “That’s why I suggest more people need to be retrained,” says Katzian. The successful model of training in dual learning, which other countries – such as the US – would take as a model, must be strengthened. The number of young people educated in this way has been falling for years, and a reversal of the trend is needed here.

Katzian also spoke out in favor of giving young asylum seekers who have a good chance of staying in the country access to the job market and internships. On the subject of asylum, she explained that, according to the Refugee Convention, asylum is “non-negotiable”. But a common European approach is needed – and obviously “a new beginning”. It is conceivable for him to process asylum claims at the EU’s external border.

Katzian is running for re-election in June

Katzian, 66, who has been president of the ÖGB since 2018, will be re-elected in June. “As long as I have the feeling that a fire is burning” and have the passion “that I want to achieve something”, he is available for the job – “if my body and family allow it. I have positive signs from both.”

Asked how long he thinks the government will last, Katzian explained that he believes the turquoise-green coalition will last until 2024. SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner has his full support and is also the main candidate for the next election of the National Council.

Shortage of skilled workers: IV agrees with Katzian

“The shortage of labor and skilled labor now affects all sectors and companies in all sectors, and we are dealing with a structural problem, because in the coming years there will be a shortage of about 540,000 labor and labor – that is, approximately the population of the state of Salzburg”, said Georg Knill, President of the Federation of Industrialists (IV). “It is gratifying that the ÖGB has also recognized that there is a great need for action in this area”, said the IV President “Increasing the potential of workers and skilled workers must be addressed quickly.”

SPÖ supports Katzian demands

The SPÖ announced in a broadcast that it supports Katzian’s demands in the fight against inflation and rising prices. “Instead of one-off payments that disappear quickly, the government must finally implement effective price-cutting measures to fight inflation. Like the chairman of the ÖGB, the SPÖ is also demanding a cap on the price of petrol, a reduction in VAT on food and a cap on rent.” Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (both ÖVP) should finally become active and no longer ignore the fact that more and more people, “deep in the working middle class,” said SPÖ Federal Manager Christian Deutsch.

FPÖ criticizes demands

The rejection of Katzian’s statements came from the FPÖ – on the labor market access point for asylum seekers. The ÖGB president was “completely in agreement with the anti-Austrian and anti-official advances of the ÖVP and the SPÖ”, said club deputy head Dagmar Belakowitsch. The FPÖ rejects the admission of asylum seekers because wage dumping could “encourage” and act as an “additional magnet” for illegal immigrants.

Developing countries are calling for an increase to $100 billion in rich countries’ annual conservation aid, currently estimated at €7-10 billion.

The goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s land and seas by 2030, announced as a key focus of the UN’s biodiversity talks, is included in the draft agreement unveiled by China’s President Summit on Sunday.

This target, the most prominent of the twenty actions to be taken to halt the destruction of nature by the end of the decade, was presented as the biodiversity equivalent of the Paris target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. To date, 17% of the land and 8% of the seas are protected.

A closed session will be held at noon with environment ministers or their designated negotiators, at which China’s Environment Minister Huang Runqiu will seek approval for what he hopes will be the final text.

The final draft comes after nearly two weeks of negotiations between 196 nations that are part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and are seeking a new agreement to stop human destruction of nature and start restoring what has already been destroyed became.

The United Nations says three quarters of the Earth’s land area has been modified by human activities and that one million species are threatened with extinction this century.

As the final hours of talks drew near, a sort of showdown had erupted between developed and developing countries over whether a new dedicated biodiversity fund was the best way to channel fresh funding for conservation.

Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said on Saturday morning that both sides had come a little closer to a compromise, but had not gone far enough.

China officially chairs the COP15 and as such oversees the negotiations. However, the meeting itself has been moved to Canada due to China’s COVID-19 restrictions.

The main reason Montreal was chosen as a location is that it is home to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

The move gave Canada more leverage in the talks, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country was clear when it agreed to host the event: China should help Canada meet a very ambitious goal.

This includes protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030, which is what most developed countries are aiming for. Minister Guilbeault warned this week that the funding requested by developing countries would only come about if an agreement was also ambitious with its ambitions.

Mr Guilbeault worked in several rooms to try to carry out the agreement. He had bilateral meetings with several ministers from developed and developing countries on Saturday.

Many saw the Montreal nature talks as an opportunity to do for conservation what the 2015 Paris climate talks did to drive action on climate change. Mr Guilbeault said it was this type of bold agreement that was needed.

“We did this in Paris, we can do it here in Montreal. The whole world is watching. We have the power to change the course of history. Let’s give nature the “Paris” moment it deserves. »

— A quote from Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Minister for the Environment

Diplomatic tensions between Canada and China ahead of COP15 have worried some observers that shared hosting duties could cause problems, but Dr. Huang and Guilbeault jointly expressed their gratitude and trust on Saturday.

Greenpeace East Asia global policy adviser Li Shuo noted their alignment in a later Twitter post.

This is interesting because China and Canada disagree on many issues these days, he said.

Pope Francis said Sunday he was “concerned” about the blocking of a vital supply route to the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh amid fears of a worsening humanitarian situation as winter approaches.

“I am concerned about the situation in the Lachin Corridor in the South Caucasus,” the Pope said during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been vying for control of Nagorno-Karabakh for more than thirty years and clashed in the fall of 2020 in a war that ended in Armenia’s military defeat and the deployment of peacekeeping forces.

Dozens of Azerbaijani protesters have been blocking the Lakhin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, since December 12, claiming to protest illegal mineral mining and the environmental damage it causes.

Armenia, in turn, accuses its rival of having organized these demonstrations under false pretenses.

The High Priest said he was particularly “concerned about the population’s vulnerable humanitarian situation, which could worsen over the winter”.

“I urge all parties to work towards peaceful solutions for the benefit of the people,” he added.

US diplomatic spokesman Ned Price warned that the closure of the Lachin corridor would have “serious humanitarian consequences” and set back “the fragile peace process” between the two countries.

These two Caucasian nations clashed in the early 1990s when the USSR disintegrated to control Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan.

This first conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives, ended in an Armenian victory. But Azerbaijan retaliated in a second war that claimed 6,500 lives in the fall of 2020 and recaptured many territories.

In September, fighting on the direct border between the two countries, rather than in Nagorno-Karabakh, claimed nearly 300 lives and raised fears of a new major war.

Silvio Berlusconi returns to comment on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but this time in more distant tones towards his historical friend Vladimir Putin. At the Forza Italia congress in Milan, ahead of the regional elections in Lombardy, the former prime minister said that the one in Ucriana “is a war that nobody knows when it will end, a war that has repercussions on all European countries , and a war that is too paradoxically, it often leads to absurd hypotheses about the use of nuclear weapons», as does «Putin four days ago». However, Berlusconi also remains critical of Europe’s diplomatic role, which “unfortunately does not count at international level today, but by switching the voting system from unanimity to qualified majority, as I have been demanding since 2000, would be possible in the United Kingdom with absolute freedom of all states, a common defense policy with a single vote, the coordination of the armed forces of the individual European countries”.

Negotiations for Russia in the EU

Berlusconi regrets the missed opportunity years ago when he undertook to start the process of Russia’s accession to the European Union: “We hoped to be able to convince Russia, which is an absolutely European country by history, tradition, religion, its literature, its music, for his lifestyle to invade our Europe and thus put an end to the danger hanging over us of Chinese globalism spreading on our continent”. with the exception of Germany and France, who, on the other hand, rightly feared that Russia’s accession to the European Union would lose its primacy in Europe. It was a great pity, and today, unfortunately, the situation has returned to that of the Cold War.”

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