The drone, which was likely to have entered from Belarus, was shot down near Pratkunai village in southern Lithuania, near Kaunas, the second-largest city

International News via Reuters:

An Italian NATO fighter jet shot down a drone over Lithuania shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning, the Lithuanian national crisis management centre said.

The drone, which was likely to have entered from Belarus, was shot down near Pratkunai village in southern Lithuania, near Kaunas, the second-largest city, the centre’s spokesperson said. Its origin had yet to be determined, he said.

Officials did not say whether the drone was believed to be Ukrainian or Russian. In recent months, Ukrainian drones have repeatedly entered NATO air space in the Baltic region. Kyiv says they were steered off course by Russian signal jamming.

A drone alert was issued earlier in the capital Vilnius and surrounding region.

The Lithuanian Army shared video from the site of the crash, showing debris scattered in grass. Some of the parts appeared to be made from wood and some appeared charred.

Fighters with the NATO Baltic Air Defence mission have patrolled the skies of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since the Baltic countries joined the alliance in 2004. The mission’s jets shot down stray Ukrainian drones over Estonia in May, and over Latvia in June and August.

Military drones straying into the airspace of Russia’s neighbours have stoked concerns that Russia’s war in Ukraine is spilling over NATO’s borders.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russia, including in the Baltic Sea area.

Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Stephen Coates

The outbreak is the second most lethal on record, behind one in West Africa that lasted from 2014 to 2016

International News via Reuters:

U.N. officials said on Tuesday that efforts to curb Ebola in eastern Congo were beginning to show results but stressed that the epidemic remained “massive” and would take months to bring under control.

“It remains a deadly and a massive epidemic. There are some areas of progress, but nonetheless, in other areas, we continue to see growth in cases,” Julien Harneis, the U.N. special Ebola coordinator, told a Geneva press briefing.

The outbreak is the second most lethal on record, behind one in West Africa that lasted from 2014 to 2016. 

Asked about reports that the epidemic had reached a turning point, the World Health Organization’s Olivier le Polain said: “It’s too early to confidently say we have passed a peak.”

He said: “It will take many, many months to get this outbreak under control fully, and it will require significant support.” 

CONGO MINISTER POINTS TO ‘ENCOURAGING SIGNS’

On Saturday, Congo Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said there were “encouraging signs” in the fight against Ebola since “the peak reached in mid-August”, and that transmission “has been gradually slowing down”.

He said daily new cases had dropped from approximately 120 “at the peak of the epidemic” to around 80, and that 10 of the 62 affected health zones had recorded no new cases for more than 22 days.

“To me, these figures are a positive sign. They demonstrate that the efforts deployed on the ground are yielding results and that our response strategy is beginning to bend the transmission curve,” he said.

“However, we must remain fully mobilised. While these results are encouraging, they must not lead us to lower our guard.”

Speaking on Tuesday in Ituri province, where the first cases were recorded, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, said the situation there had improved considerably.

“Here in Ituri, the indicators are turning green, whereas they were previously all red. We are not saying that we have ended the epidemic, but we are saying that the response teams… have the situation under control,” he said, adding that he hoped the epidemic would be “behind us” by the end of the year.

There have been 7,258 confirmed cases and 3,510 deaths across seven provinces, according to government figures published on Tuesday.

SITUATION REMAINS ‘ALARMING’ IN NORTH KIVU

U.N. officials on Tuesday said they were seeing progress in parts of Ituri, which remains the most affected province, and that in some areas the outbreak is now “under control”. But they said cases are still rising fast in North Kivu, particularly in the city of Butembo.

“It’s such a vast epidemic that it’s difficult to talk about one epidemic, but there’s rather many different locations,” Harneis said.

“We know from past experience that an epidemic can show early signs of improvement and then pick up again quite quickly,” Le Polain, head of epidemiology and analytics for response at the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said. 

Aid workers say more needs to be done to curb transmission in North Kivu.

“The situation in North Kivu, with its very complex security situation, high population density and mobility, is alarming,” said Thomas Paerisch, a public health specialist recently deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo with Medecins Sans Frontieres.

North Kivu is the second most affected province, with a cumulative number of 1,269 confirmed cases, including 555 reported in the last 21 days, as of September 12.

Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Clement Bonnerot; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Miranda Murray, Alexandra Hudson and Andrew Heavens

The EU’s carbon border levy, which came into force on January 1, imposes CO2 emissions fees on imports of steel, fertilisers and other goods to ensure they do not have an unfair advantage over products made in Europe

International News via Reuters:

European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to scrap a clause that would let the EU suspend its carbon border levy if it makes imported goods more expensive, setting up a clash with member countries who are in favour of the emergency brake.

The EU’s carbon border levy, which came into force on January 1, imposes CO2 emissions fees on imports of steel, fertilisers and other goods to ensure they do not have an unfair advantage over products made in Europe, where industries pay for their CO2 emissions.

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday in favour of deleting a clause that would allow the EU to temporarily exempt goods from the levy in future if “serious and unforeseen circumstances” increase the price of those goods. Instead, they proposed using revenue from the border fee to compensate industries if the scheme raises prices.

EU countries and the European Parliament will now negotiate the final rules, which will also extend the border fee to new products like washing machines and car parts.

EU countries want to keep the option to suspend the carbon fee under certain circumstances, including that the price of the product concerned jumps by more than 50% over six months.

The European Commission proposed the emergency brake last year, amid calls from France to suspend the carbon fee on fertilisers to reduce costs for farmers. However, it has proved divisive, with some companies warning this would knock low-carbon investments and hurt domestic industries, which the border levy was supposed to protect from cheaper imports.

ALUMINIUM LOOPHOLES

EU lawmakers also voted to extend the carbon border fee to cover smaller shipments of aluminium – 5 metric tons, versus the current 50 tons – a change designed to ensure it applies to imports of high-value, low-weight aluminium parts for cars, doors, and solar panels.

They also backed changes to extend the carbon fee to include post-consumer aluminium scrap. This scrap was not initially covered by the levy, prompting concerns among European aluminium firms that foreign suppliers would start using more scrap to dodge the EU border fee and gain a price advantage over European producers.

“Our companies will get absolutely eaten alive if these problems aren’t solved,” said Paul Voss, director general at industry association European Aluminium.

Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Inti Landauro, Kirsten Donovan