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Today and tomorrow there will be a meeting of EU heads of state and government in Brussels. They are discussing whether there should be EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The European Commission would like to pay the Ukrainian government 50 billion euros in short-term financial aid, until the end of 2027. The EU Commission decides on laws for EU member states. Before the EU meeting, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, met with the leader of the Hungarian government, Viktor Orban. Von der Leyen wants to convince Orban to end his resistance to EU accession negotiations with Ukraine. Orban has repeatedly threatened to vote against accession talks with Ukraine and more aid money for the country. He believes that Ukraine is not yet ready for EU accession negotiations. ZIB 13/PCMS “EU Summit Ukraine + Moldova – Lohr”
There was an Israeli drone attack on the West Bank city of Jenin last night. Many Arab Palestinians live in the West Bank region. Drones are combat devices controlled by soldiers. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, there are 3 deaths. According to Palestinian sources, Israeli soldiers have been attacking the West Bank since December 12. According to the Ministry of Health, there are a total of 10 deaths and several injuries. Hamas terrorists continue to fire rockets, according to Israeli soldiers. On October 18, Israeli soldiers created a protection zone for residents in the Gaza Strip. Since then, there have been rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists. According to Israeli soldiers, Hama terrorists are taking advantage of the resident protection zone to continue putting residents in danger.
From tomorrow there will again be collective contract negotiations for Austrian retail employees. A collective agreement regulates, among other things, employees' working hours or salary amounts. So far, negotiations on a new collective agreement for retail workers have failed. According to the “GPA” union negotiator, Helga Fichtinger, there will be temporary strikes today and tomorrow. For example, during a strike, people do not work because they demand more wages. Union representatives demand 9.4% more salary. If there is no agreement between union representatives and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, there must be a salary increase. This is what the “Commerce” section of the “Austrian Chamber of Commerce” would like to recommend. The “Economics Chamber” represents the interests of company bosses.
The US central bank “FED” did not change its interest rates. The Federal Reserve is the most important bank in the USA. The base interest rate remains between 5.25 and 5.50 percent. The prime rate is set by central banks and determines the interest rates at which a country's banks can borrow money. The “European Central Bank” in Frankfurt left the interest rate unchanged at 4.5 percent. The “European Central Bank” monitors the monetary policy of EU member states. The central bank “FED” last increased the key interest rate by 0.25 percent in July 2023. The central bank “FED” did this to combat inflation.