The European Parliament on Wednesday approved pre-accession funds for the 2021-2027 period. 

The €14.2 billion ($16.8 billion) will support candidate and potential candidate countries to better prepare for EU accession and to implement EU-related reforms, the European Parliament said in a press statement.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey can benefit from the new generation of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III) to implement political, institutional, legal, administrative, social and economic reforms.

IPA III projects will also support climate and environmental protection, human rights and gender equality.

“With IPA III and its historic budget of more than 14 billion euros, the EU reaffirms its continued commitment to the path of these countries towards European integration,” said Zeljana Zovko, a Croatian EU lawmaker in charge of the act.

As a major change compared to the previous budgetary cycles, the disbursement of funds can be altered or suspended if the beneficiaries do not comply with EU fundamental values on democracy, rule of law and human rights.

At the same time, the EU will also ensure that the level of assistance does not become disproportionately low, respecting the fair-share principle.

With the European Parliament’s green light, the adoption procedure officially ends. The act on IPA III funds will enter into force retroactively from Jan. 1./agencies

Major indexes in the US stock market closed strong on Wednesday despite mixed opening with high volatility.

The blue-chip Dow soared 236 points, or 0.68%, to 34,814, while the S&P 500 increased 37 points, or 0.85%, to 4,480.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 123 points, or 0.82%, to 15,161.

Despite earlier gains, VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, fell 6.7% to 18.16. The dollar index was down 0.16% to 92.48.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes, on the other hand, was up 1.5% to 1.299%.

Oil prices continued their increase with strong gains as Brent crude added 2.5% to $75.46 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate rose 3.1% to $72.64.

Precious metals reversed course from gains in previous session. While gold fell 0.6% $1,793 per ounce, and silver declined 0.1% to $23.83./agencies

Internationally-renowned gymnast Simone Biles blasted the FBI and USA Gymnastics on Wednesday, saying they mishandled the sex crime probe into disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar.

“I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse," Biles said in gut-wrenching congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew that I was abused by their official team doctor long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge."

"We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at the FBI, USAG or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us. We have been failed, and we deserve answers," she added, using acronyms to refer to USA Gymnastics and the Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Biles further charged that it "feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us."

Her testimony comes in the wake of a damning report from the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General, which brought to light in July numerous errors in the FBI's probe of Nassar that allowed him to continue his abuse for weeks.

It determined agents failed to respond to allegations of sexual abuse against Nassar "with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies."

"Further, when the FBI’s handling of the Nassar matter came under scrutiny from the public, Congress, the media, and FBI headquarters in 2017 and 2018, Indianapolis officials did not take responsibility for their failures," the report added.

Nassar pled guilty to multiple sex crimes, and has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. He was accused of molesting over 130 former patients, including former Olympic gold medalists./agencies

The UN Human Rights chief Wednesday said that a ban on the sale and use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that pose a severe risk to human rights is urgently needed until sufficient safeguards are in place.

Michelle Bachelet released a report titled "The right to privacy in the digital age" that she will also present at the 48th UN Human Rights Council session on Sept. 22.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also called for AI applications that do not comply with international human rights law to be banned.

"Given the rapid and continuous growth of AI, filling the immense accountability gap in how data is collected, stored, shared, and used is one of the most urgent human rights questions we face," Bachelet said.

"Artificial intelligence can be a force for good, helping societies overcome some of the great challenges of our times."

She warned, however, "AI technologies can have negative, even catastrophic, effects if they are used without sufficient regard to how they affect people's human rights."

World relies on AI tools

At a press conference, Peggy Hicks, director of the thematic engagement division of the rights office, said the world relies on many AI tools in large data sets, including personal data.

There are embedded biases that can lead to discrimination when used for inferences about people or to forecast future behavior.

"There is a lack of transparency regarding artificial intelligence systems," said Hicks, explaining that the report does not examine specific countries.

"The report goes on to look at how these issues play out in practice by examining how AI is having an impact on human rights,” she said.

She said reliance is in crucial areas such as law enforcement, national security, criminal justice, and border management.

Hicks was asked which organization could impose a moratorium on AI sales.

"There's no place that is the magical spot we could turn to that would put in place a moratorium that would be effective across all the jurisdictions where this technology is being used," but there is a debate on the question, she said citing the European Union.

In her statement, Bachelet said that the higher the risk for human rights, the stricter the legal requirements for using AI technology.

It would, however, take time before countries can assess and address AI risks, and they can "place moratoriums on the use of potentially high-risk technology."

Profiling, machine-learning

The report analyzes how AI can include profiling, automated decision-making, examining how machine-learning technologies can affect people's right to privacy and other rights in technology and human rights.

They include the rights to health, education, freedom of movement, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of expression.

"AI systems are used to determine who gets public services, decide who has a chance to be recruited for a job, and of course they affect what information people see and can share online," said Bachelet.

The report examines how states and businesses alike have often rushed to incorporate AI applications while failing to do due diligence.

There have already been numerous cases of people being treated unjustly because of AI, such as being denied social security benefits because of faulty AI tools or arrested because of flawed facial recognition.

Bachelet also said the use of biometric technologies, increasingly adopted by states, international organizations, and technology companies, need guidance "urgently."/aa

Global economic growth is estimated to hit 5.3% this year with the recovery from the pandemic, its fastest rate in nearly five decades, according to a UN report released Wednesday.

"The recovery, however, is uneven across geographical, income and sectoral lines," the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in the report. "Within advanced economies, the rentier class has experienced an explosion in wealth, while low-earners struggle."

UNCTAD said policymakers in advanced economies have not yet realized the size of economic shock to developing countries, or its persistence, adding: "Many countries in the South have been hit much harder than during the global financial crisis, while their now-heavier debt burden reduces their room for fiscal policy."

The pandemic response in developed countries has suspended fiscal constraints, but international rules and practices lock developing countries into pre-pandemic responses and a state of economic stress, according to UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2021.

UNCTAD noted that it expects global growth to slow to 3.6% in 2022, leaving the world income 3.7% below its pre-pandemic level, while it estimates a cumulative income loss of around $13 trillion between 2020 and 2022.

After international trade in goods and services dropped by 5.6% in 2020, it is forecast to grow 9.5% in 2021, while the report added that "recovery has been extremely uneven, and scars will continue to weigh on the trade performance in the years ahead."

Turkey's economy is expected to grow 3.9% in 2021, and 3.6% in 2022, according to UNCTAD, while its real income growth is estimated to soar 5.8% this year, compared to 2019.

Turkey was one of the few countries to post economic expansion in 2020 with 1.8% growth, the report said, adding that there was "an unprecedented credit boom and a subsequent sharp uptick in economic activity."

"Turkey did see a sharp contraction in the second quarter of 2020, but this was followed by strong growth in the third quarter, largely thanks to accommodative monetary policy and the ensuing credit boom," it said.

"Despite a resurgence in infections during the second quarter of 2021, growth has been driven by the country’s industrial sector and budgetary support to businesses from the government," it also noted./aa

Exporters from Pakistan have resumed supplying goods to Afghanistan after more than three weeks of uncertainty in Kabul.

After the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital on Aug. 15, business was halted in major cities.

"For the last 20 days, I didn't place any order in Pakistan because of fear that the situation could be worse when the Taliban began capturing major cities," Afghan businessman Abdul Rahim QaziZai told Anadolu Agency.

"Now, I meet with my Pakistani counterparts and place orders for sugar and cooking oil," he said while going to Kabul via the Torkham border after spending three days in Peshawar, the capital city of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Hundreds of trucks lined the Khyber Pass, the main road connecting Pakistan and Afghanistan via the Torkham border, on Wednesday. They were full of food products waiting to cross the border toward eastern Jalalabad in Afghanistan.

Most drivers were waiting for three or four days near the border because of a lack of parking on the Afghan side. But the long queues provide a clear picture of economic activity resuming between the two countries.

"I am waiting here for the last three days and don't know when my turn will come to cross the border," said Nadir Shah, who was resting near his vehicle.

Shah’s vehicle was loaded with cement and was headed from Peshawar to Jalalabad.

Trucks were carrying cement, sugar, flour, cooking oil, salt, bananas, and other food items to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is rich in resources like copper, gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, bauxite, coal, iron ore, rare earth, lithium, chromium, lead, zinc, gemstones, talc, sulfur, travertine, gypsum and marble which remain unexplored due to the 20-year war after the US invaded in 2001.

Pakistan facilitates imports, exports from Afghanistan

A Pakistani customs official at the Torkham border, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said trade has increased in the last few days.

"Since earlier August, we observed that most trucks were going back to Afghanistan empty to bring vegetables, fruits, and minerals but now they are taking goods from Pakistan as well," he said.

"We are facilitating these trucks and want to clear as soon as possible but due to lack of parking facilities on the other side of the border, these trucks are waiting here," he said.

The number of trucks crossing increased from 100 to 150 to 300 to 400, he said.

Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Aug. 19 that the situation along the border is "normal," and trade activities have been increased.

Figures from Pakistan's customs showed the number of trucks moving across all border points reached 1,123 on Aug. 17 from 475 on Aug. 15, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan dropped during the last decade from $1.5 - $2 billion to $754 million in 2020, due to tense relations between former Kabul governments and Islamabad, trading accusations of providing a haven to terrorists.

But it slightly increased in the current April - July period to $869 million after Prime Minster Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Kabul last November, according to the Commerce Ministry data.

Drivers happy with new setup

Drivers said the situation has changed since the Taliban seized areas along the Torkham border and now they were not paying bribes for permission to pass.

"Earlier, the Afghan officials at the border and also at different check posts demanded bribes ranging between 10,000 to 20,000 Pakistani rupees ($60 to $120) to allow our vehicles in their respective areas," said Abdullah, a truck driver from Khyber district, a bordering district with Afghanistan.

"Now, in last 20 days, no one has asked me to pay a bribe at the border or any check post," he added.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said last week that businesses resumed across the country and the group assured the business community that they would be secured.

"Now business resumed and we assure all the business community that we will provide full security to them," Mujahid told reporters in Kabul.

The business community, while welcoming the assurances of security, said it wants the new government to provide more security at the border.

"Our bilateral trade with Pakistan could enhance to $5 billion, but both governments need to remove the hurdles at borders and facilitate us," said QaziZai./aa