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Italy’s world high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi and sprint star Marcell Jacobs headline a strong Italian team they say should aim to top the medals table when the European Athletics Championships starts Friday at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.“My team is really well-prepared to do some crazy things at these championships,” said squad skipper Tamberi, who famously shared Olympic gold in Tokyo with Qatari friend and rival Mutaz Barshim. Italy finished seventh at the last Euros in Munich in 2022, with three golds, two silvers and six bronzes in an 11-medal haulTamberi, however, has not had the ideal run-in to the championships on home soil, a knee problem forcing him to miss what would have been his planned season opener at the Oslo Diamond League. In fact, the championships will be the Italian’s first competitive outing of the season.“There’s a lot of pressure,” Tamberi admitted.“My focus is on the performance, to start the season with good confidence. The main goal for me is to jump high,” he added, describing his knee problem combined with some mental fatigue in May as a “total disaster”.Tamberi said he felt “much better and there are positive vibes again”.Alongside the high jumper, key to the Italian team’s lofty goal of topping the medals table will be Jacobs, who stunned the world when he scorched to 100m gold at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics. The Italian set an European record of 9.80sec to seal victory, quickly bagging a second gold as part of the 4x100m relay.He followed that success up by winning the 2022 world indoor 60m title in Belgrade and the European 100m gold later the same year in Munich.A series of injuries ensued, but Jacobs has shown his resolve and tellingly changed coach in Olympic year, moving to the United States to work under Rana Reider.The question is whether Jacobs, like Tamberi, is fit enough to deliver in Rome, with both athletes eyeing the July 26-August 11 Paris Olympics. The last time Jacobs ran a sub-10sec time was winning European gold last time out in Munich, in 9.95sec.His fastest time this season is 10.03sec, set last week when finishing fourth at the Oslo Diamond League meet. “You have to understand how important it is competing in this city,” Jacobs said. “Rome is where I learned everything, it’s where it started for me.“I want to give back something this weekend.”His decision to change from Paolo Camossi to Reider as coach, he said, had had implications.“When you change everything in training it’s difficult, I’ve had to open my eyes on many things.“I learned I had to change many things and start from scratch, but I’m sure this weekend we can do great things.“I can’t wait to compete in front of all my people. There’s a lot of pressure here, to be competing as Olympic and European champion.”Jacobs’ prospects of emerging victorious in the 100m final on Saturday have been bolstered in recent days by the withdrawals of the british duo of Zharnel Hughes and Jeremiah Azu, the 100m silver and bronze medallists respectively in Munich. “Our goal is to arrive at top of rankings,” said Jacobs, with an onlooking Tamberi nodding enthusiastically.“Then there a couple of months to go before Paris and the Olympics, there is time to fine-tune things.”

Damian Warner is excited about the party atmosphere that undoubtedly awaits him at Paris 2024 three years after he captured Olympic decathlon gold in a Tokyo stadium eerily absent of fans amid the Covid-19 pandemic.The Canadian’s Olympic journey played out like a Hollywood movie. Pandemic lockdowns forced him to train in the months leading up to Tokyo in a run-down ice hockey arena.His team brought in space heaters, built a jumping pit and throwing circle and laid down a 60-metre track, but many days were so cold he lost feeling in his fingers.His preparation for Paris has been a breeze in comparison.“Yeah, that was an interesting year. There was so much stuff that was going to be different, like no fans in the stands, the whole isolation stuff and (COVID) tests every day,” Warner told Reuters.“I think the energy in the (Paris) stadium is going to be the best of my career. People are excited to get back out there, and with it in Paris, which is already such a travel destination, it’s going to be very high energy,” he added. “I’m looking forward to getting into an environment like that again, and having some fun and competing.”Paris will be the 34-year-old’s fourth Olympics - he won bronze in 2016 and was fifth in 2012 - and he has competed at numerous world championships, capturing four world outdoor medals.“Scheduling causes a lot of problems for people, but I’ve been able to deal with that,” Warner said of the benefits of experience.“Adverse weather is a big issue and I’ve been able to deal with that. But then also the pressure, dealing with the media, dealing with the Athletes’ Village and how not to get burnt out, I’ve been able to go through those situations so I can handle those things really well.”“Even little things like ‘oh, the buses are late’ -- I’ve been there, done that, so it’s just a matter of leaning on my experience and trusting my technique.”Warner, silver medallist at last season’s world championships behind compatriot Pierce LePage, captured an historic eighth title at the Gotzis Hypo-Meeting - considered an unofficial multi-events world championships - in May, setting him up nicely for the Olympics.Despite already achieving gold on sport’s grandest stage, motivation is never tough to summon, nor goals difficult to set for an Olympics.“The goal is to win. There’s just that natural excitement that’s always there because it’s the Olympics,” said Warner.“When you’re younger, that’s what you dreamed about, so whenever it’s an Olympic year, everything’s always a little bit easier, motivation is always a little bit easier. So naturally, it just comes easier to just go out there and fight for it.“And it’s not going to be easy because the competition level is so high. But I think that we’re in a good place.”He plans to compete at the 2025 Tokyo world championships because he would like to experience that stadium full of fans, but is not sure of what his career holds beyond that.“Will take it year by year, and ask myself the question: Are you enjoying it? Are you healthy? Do you still have something to give back to the sport? If all those answers are yes, I’ll keep going.”Warner spoke to media as part of the “Feed the Dream” campaign with Empire Company Limited, the Canadian team’s official grocer. The campaign gives fans a chance to leave good-luck notes in the virtual “lunch boxes” of Canadian athletes.The Olympic decathlon is scheduled for Aug. 2 and 3 at the Stade de France.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased last week and unit labour costs rose by less than previously thought in the first quarter, indicating the labour market is cooling but not enough to allay the Federal Reserve's hesitance to begin cutting interest rates.Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended June 1, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 220,000 claims in the latest week.The labour market has been steadily rebalancing back toward pre-pandemic levels after the Fed raised interest rates by roughly 525 basis points since March 2022 to slow demand in the overall economy.The so-called continuing claims tracking those who collect benefits beyond the first week increased 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.792mn during the week ending May 25."The level (of weekly jobless claims) remains in a range that suggests the labour market remains tight," said Thomas Simons, US economist at Jefferies. "Continuing claims are still very low by any historical standard, and we still see the data as supporting the notion that people who lose a job are able to find a new one with relative ease."Data this week showed US job openings in April fell more than expected and the number of available jobs per job-seeker reached its lowest level since June 2021.Yields on US Treasury securities and US stocks were little changed following the jobless claims data, a day after a rally in tech stocks drove the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices to all-time highs. The U.S dollar was largely flat against a basket of currencies.Earlier on Thursday, US employers announced the fewest job cuts last month since December and layoff announcements so far in 2024 are running behind last year's pace, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.Employers announced 63,816 cuts in May, a 1.5% decrease from the 64,789 cuts announced in April and down about 20% from the 80,089 cuts announced a year earlier. Year-to-date layoff announcements are 7.6% lower than in the first five months of 2023.US worker productivity grew slightly less than previously estimated in the first quarter but exceeded market expectations, and unit labour costs rose by less than first thought, data from the Labor Department also showed on Thursday.Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 0.2% annualised rate in the first quarter, revised down from an initial estimate of 0.3% one month ago. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated a revision down to 0.1%.Unit labour costs rose at a 4.0% annualised rate, down from the first estimate of 4.7%. Economists had projected labour costs to be revised up to 4.9%.Productivity accelerated and labour costs were subdued through much of 2023, ending at 3.5% and unchanged, respectively, in the fourth quarter. At the time, that had been seen as one of the arguments favouring Fed rate cuts in 2024 as it was hoped improved worker efficiency would dampen inflation.The near stalling of productivity in the first quarter did not further that cause, though some economists had cautioned after the initial Labor Department estimate was published last month that the data had been influenced by a seasonal quirk and the trend of improving productivity might still hold up.Downward revisions to hours worked and output growth were the main factors behind the slight downward revision to overall productivity, while unit labour costs grew substantially less than first estimated. At 2.9%, however, the year-over-year increase in productivity was nearly twice the average since the Covid-19 recession in early 2020."(T)he big picture remains that productivity growth has been strong over the past few years, which is helping to contain growth in labour costs," said Michael Pearce, deputy chief US economist at Oxford Economics. "In time, that should feed through to a further decline in inflation."Elsewhere, the Commerce Department reported the US trade deficit widened in April as a jump in imports outpaced a slight increase in exports, which is likely to dampen economic growth in the second quarter.The trade deficit increased 8.7% to $74.6bn, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday, the largest since October 2022. Data for March was revised to show the trade gap narrowing slightly to $68.6bn instead of the previously reported $69.4bn.

Xander Schauffele, coming off his first major triumph at last month’s PGA Championship, sees his game at a high level as he prepares to defend his Olympic title in Paris.Schauffele returns to competition in today’s first round of the PGA Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village, the final PGA Tour tuneup for next week’s US Open at Pinehurst.World number two Schauffele sank a clutch birdie putt on the final hole to edge fellow American Bryson DeChambeau last month at Valhalla by one stroke and snap a two-year win drought.While Schauffele isn’t getting a swollen ego over the triumph, he does see that his game has reached a level comparable to world number one Scottie Scheffler, who won the Masters in April, and four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, ranked third in the world.“Winning a tournament is just truly a result,” he said. “What separates guys out here are the ability for them to hit certain shots. When you look at someone like Scottie or Rory or you just run through all the top players, when they’re playing at a really high level, they separate themselves from the field.“I feel like I’ve entered a little bit more of that space just playing. I feel like my game has definitely become a little bit more elite.“It doesn’t really change how I feel about myself or anything like that. I think the quality of shots you’re able to hit is what determines that.”The major win ensured Schauffele will be on the US squad to compete for gold in France later this summer, in what figures to be a much-different atmosphere compared to the pandemic-guarded situation in Tokyo three years ago.“It was an unbelievable experience and I think we might feel more of it this year, just with people being available to attend without it being Covid,” Schauffele said on Wednesday.“I think it’s shaping up nice and people are wanting to compete in it and it’s going to be a great tournament.”It will always have special meaning for Schauffele because his triumph in Japan made real a family dream of his German-born father Stefan after Xander’s grandfathers had been stars in athletics and football.“It’s so different with my dad and the way he brought me up and the advice he was giving me and where that came from, with him wanting to be an Olympian himself,” Schauffele said.“It feels like it’s different than other people competing in the Olympics just because I was sort of raised this advice from a person who wanted to be an Olympian, and his dad’s dad and things of that nature.”Golf’s global schedule will help prepare Schauffele for the Olympic challenge.He plans to play the Scottish Open in July the week before the Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland.

A Spanish court on Tuesday summoned Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife to testify as part of a preliminary corruption probe into her business ties in a case the premier dismissed as a “set-up”.The Madrid court said it had called Begona Gomez to testify on July 5 “as an investigated party” about “the alleged offences of corruption in the private sector and influence peddling”.The move comes nearly a week after it rejected a prosecutors’ request to close the probe, indicating there was “sufficient” evidence to justify continuing the investigation.It was a setback for Sanchez but a boost for his right-wing opponents who see it as vindication of their allegations that he and his left-wing government are corrupt.“There is evidence that an alleged criminal offence was committed” which “goes beyond mere suspicion” and was “sufficient” to let the investigation continue, said court documents seen by AFP.This contradicts a recent Guardia Civil police report that found no evidence of any criminal offence.The opposition welcomed the summons but Sanchez said there was no basis to the graft probe. “We are both absolutely at ease. There is nothing behind this accusation, just a coarse set-up promoted by far-right associations,” he said in a letter posted on social network X, accusing the right of using the case to “try to condition” this weekend’s elections for the European parliament.The Socialist leader said his decision to remain in office is “firmer than ever” and defended his wife as “a hard-working and honest woman”.The court opened the probe into Gomez for suspected influence peddling and corruption on April 16 following a complaint filed by an anti-graft NGO linked to the far-right.The group, Manos Limpias (Clean Hands) says its complaint is based on media reports. It has previously filed a litany of unsuccessful lawsuits against politicians.When the court rejected prosecutors’ request to close the probe last week, it said it was looking into two letters of support Gomez allegedly provided in 2020 for a joint venture bidding for several public contracts.The joint venture’s main shareholder was consultant Carlos Barrabes, who had ties to a department at Madrid’s Complutense University that was run by Gomez.It won the contracts, beating 20 rivals, and was awarded €10.2mn ($11.1mn).Although it did not represent the cheapest bid, it received top marks in the sections on subjective appraisal, beating all its competitors in the final accounting.The court also said it was dropping its investigation into Gomez’s alleged ties to the head of Spanish tourism group Globalia when the company was negotiating a bailout for its airline Air Europa during the Covid-19 pandemic.Gomez, 49, has not spoken publicly on the case but Sanchez has decried it as a political bid to “harass and discredit” him by “media heavily influenced by the right and far-right”.When the court initially confirmed the probe, Sanchez said in a shock announcement that he would consider resigning. He took five days to reflect and in the end, decided to stay on.The opposition denounced the move as pure political theatre, saying Sanchez had never had any intention of stepping down.Opposition leader and PP head Alberto Nunez Feijoo has said Sanchez should resign over the questions regarding his wife’s business dealings.

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF), attended Tuesday the inauguration of the 17th World Congress of Bioethics organised by Hamad Bin Khalifa University in collaboration with World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH).The three-day Congress, held for the first time in the Arab World and the entire Middle East, has brought together over 1,000 participants - including bioethicists, researchers, and stakeholders.Speaking at the opening ceremony, Dr Ahmad M Hasnah, president, HBKU, said: “The role of religion is a crucial one in the biomedical area. Discussions shaping bioethical policies should not neglect people’s beliefs, as they are a part of their lives. It is important that they are captured in the development and creation of any policy.”The Congress is hosted by HBKU’s Research Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) in collaboration with WISH the global health initiative of QF. Sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, and the Primary Health Care Corporation, this edition of the Congress is organised with support from IAB.Following the address by HBKU president, a panel discussion involving experts from various organisations discussed different perspectives on bioethics. Sultana Afdhal, CEO WISH, Dr Voo Teck Chuan, communications officer of the International Association of Bioethics, Dr Mohammed Ghaly, professor / head of CILE, Dr Said Ismail, acting president and chief scientific and operations officer, Qatar Precision Health Institute, Dr Caesar Atuire, president, IAB, Dr Khalid Fakhro, chief research officer, Sidra Medicine and Dr Julian Savulescu, director, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore took part in the discussion.The event provides platform for dialogue centred on vital issues in bioethics, especially in religious and cultural contexts. The event reinforced its theme of “Religion, Culture and Global Bioethics” with a special panel discussion, which featured members of IAB executive leadership delving into the significance of the theme alongside distinguished figures from across academic and bioethics research.WISH CEO Afdhal, said: “We are delighted to see months of hard work come to fruition as we witness the gathering of the world’s most renowned bioethicists and scholars in Qatar for 17th edition of the World Congress of Bioethics. Balancing international perspectives and evidence-based best practices in health with those rooted in the religious values and cultural traditions of Qatar, the Gulf region, and the broader Arab-Muslim world has been a cornerstone of our approach at WISH.”The Congress helped participants exchange insights on prominent and emerging topics in bioethics, including the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, how healthcare can be practiced safely in regions impacted by war and armed conflict, and public health ethics in light of Covid-19 and other pandemics. Prominent experts from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia are participating in the discussions and offer regional perspectives on the wider field and issues such as disability, environmental, genetic, and genomic bioethics.Mohammed Ghaly, head of CILE and chair of the Congress, added: “This special edition of the World Congress of Bioethics gives us the opportunity to approach the study of bioethics from a unique context. Our discussions revolve around the understanding that our field is not only a secular discipline, but also one that acknowledges the importance of respecting diverse socio-cultural and religious-moral traditions.”

Qatar organised an event in Geneva entitled 'Aligning for Country Impact: 2024 progress report on the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All', in collaboration with Germany and Ghana.HE the Minister of Public Health, Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, attended the event, which was held on the sidelines of the 77th session of the World Health Assembly. Also present were Ghana's Health Minister, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye; Deputy Head of Unit Global Health, German Federal Ministry of Health, Bjorn Kummel; along with over 60 high-level participants in the World Health Assembly, including a number of heads of delegations and directors of health, development and humanitarian agencies.During the event, HE Dr al-Kuwari launched the executive summary of the Sport for Health report on promoting health and well-being through sporting events, which includes the main points of work in the Sport for Health programme at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.Established in October 2021 between Qatar, the World Health Organisation and the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the Sport for Health partnership aimed to make the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 healthy and safe and a model for future major sporting events.Addressing the event, HE Dr al-Kuwari highlighted the importance of innovation and investing in opportunities arising from government initiatives in various fields to promote health, citing Qatar's Sport for Health programme that used the World Cup to help protect and promote health locally and globally.She said the programme offered opportunities with the mega sports event serving as a powerful channel for disseminating health messages to millions of people through media outlets and the social media. Yet, HE the Minister highlighted some challenges including healthy food options to World Cup fans and measuring physical activity progress.Meanwhile, HE Dr al-Kuwari stressed the need for countries and 13 participating agencies to join ranks and resources to accelerate progress in implementing the SDG3 related to Good Health and Well-Being.This needs to devise new ways of working that focus on achieving tangible results with a real impact on public health, and to develop strategies that ensure that health is a top priority for all governments, HE the Minister added, noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the close connection between health and the economy and society.In this respect, the approach must go beyond healthcare to consider societal determinants responsible for the majority of the populations health and well-being, she added.Among the speakers was HE Hassan al-Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the organisation responsible for co-ordinating amongst public and private entities to ensure that infrastructure and development projects were delivered in readiness for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. He said this report details how Qatar and its stakeholders delivered a healthy and safe World Cup amid a global pandemic.The report covers the positive local and global impacts of Qatar's approach and will serve as a guide for countries to stimulate similar approaches to collaboration and innovation when organizing similar future tournaments, HE al-Thawadi said.In his opening message to the executive summary of the Sport for Health report, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that health promotion, advocacy and security can be adopted during all mega sporting events, with the WHO committed to ensuring that sporting events continue to be powerful drivers of sustainable health.During the event, a World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) team made introductory presentations on the global initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, scheduled to be held Nov 13-14 in Doha. The conference brings together leaders, pioneers, innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs and healthcare workers from around the world, with the aim of searching for innovative solutions to the major global health challenges.

Qatar, represented in Qatar Tourism, participated in the 12th session of the Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers (ICTM), which was held Monday in Khiva, Uzbekistan, under the theme "Development of the Tourism Industry in a Sustainable and Resilient Way." The conference endorsed Qatar as the host country for the 13th Session of ICTM in 2026 and urged member states and OIC institutions to actively participate in that session.The ICTM aims to develop and co-operate in tourism and decisions related to this field, in addition to implementing a road map based on a unified strategy among the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation OIC) on the progress made to implement tourism infrastructure projects.During the opening session, Minister of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change of Uzbekistan Aziz Abdukhakimov emphasised Uzbekistan's aspiration to strengthen cooperation between member states in tourism and achieve further development in this field.For his part, Secretary-General of the OIC Hussein Ibrahim Taha pointed out that tourism is a strong catalyst for growth and has the ability to enhance cultural heritage and facilitate entrepreneurship opportunities and tourism projects, describing it as the backbone of the OIC's member states. He stressed that the tourism sector has the transformative potential to alleviate poverty crises by providing job opportunities.He thanked Uzbekistan for hosting this session of ICTM in the historical and cultural city of Khiva.In turn, Fatima Al Sada, from the International Co-operation Department at Qatar Tourism, highlighted in her speech the most important joint developments between the State of Qatar and Uzbekistan with regard to tourism co-operation, in addition to an organised work plan between the two sides.She noted that tourism in Qatar has made big strides toward achieving its goals and future aspirations, as 2023 witnessed an influx of more than 4mn visitors. During the last four months of 2023, Qatar received more than 2mn visitors, which is double the number of visitors in 2022, which increases the country's aspirations to double the numbers by 2030.Regarding the Qatar Airways launching of direct flights between Doha and Tashkent, Al Sada said that these flights in turn enhance the consolidation of relations between the two countries and increase bilateral co-operation at various levels, as this new line provides multiple travel options.In remarks to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Fatima Al Sada indicated that one of Qatar Tourism's goals is to establish a special executive program for the cooperation between Qatar and Uzbekistan, based primarily on a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries that includes the implementation of all the items that were agreed upon. She pointed out that Qatar was chosen as vice president of the coordination office for the Arab group with regard to the tourism field.During the conclusion of the conference, three cities won the Tourism City Award of the OIC. The 12th ICTM approved the selection of Dakar, Senegal, as the OIC City of Tourism for 2025, Cairo, for 2026, and Lahore, for 2027.The conference commended the elaborate plans by the relevant OIC institutions for the commemoration of Khiva, as the OIC City of Tourism for 2024 and urged OIC Member States to actively participate in the various activities in awardee cities for 2025, 2026, and 2027.The 12th ICTM also urged all OIC Member States and relevant institutions to implement the Strategic Roadmap for the Development of Islamic Tourism and organise annual events on Islamic tourism to promote intra-OIC tourist flows, through visa facilitation, investment promotion, branding and standardization, and capacity building.The Conference invited the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) to work closely with the OIC and relevant International Organizations, including but not limited to UN Tourism, on the revised Strategy for the Development of Sustainable Cultural Tourism in the Islamic World.In addition, the Khiva conference called upon the OIC Member States to invest in 'digitalisation' for promoting and marketing their respective destinations as well as improving international visitors' experiences in the tourism sector with a view to speeding up the recovery efforts from the Covid-19 pandemic and hosting more international tourists.

Airlines are expecting to fly nearly five billion passengers in 2024, a record beating the pre-Covid pandemic high, trade industry association IATA said on Monday.IATA also said it expected the world's airlines to post $30 billion in net earnings this year, up from its previous estimate of $25.7 billion.

More than 350mn people across 27 countries are called on to participate in one of the West’s largest democratic events from June 6 to 9, when EU residents will elect 720 members of the European Parliament.Here are five things to know about the vote:Keeping things in proportionAll countries must use proportional representation, meaning that a party’s share of the vote is reflected in its seat tally.But each member state has its own variant.Here are the three main types of electoral system, ranked from least to most complicated:Closed-list votingSix countries, including Germany, France and Spain use this system, in which voters can only vote for a party list and cannot change the order of the party’s candidates on the list.Preferential votingVoters can express their preference for one or more candidates.In some countries, they may only change the position of candidates on a single list. In others, they can pick candidates from different lists.Candidates who win the most preference votes win seats.This method is favoured by 19 countries including Italy, Poland, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries.Single transferable voteVoters rank candidates in order of their preference.Candidates are elected once they reach a certain threshold of votes.Any surplus votes are then passed down to the voter’s next-preferred candidate to help them get across the line. And so on down the choices, through successive rounds of counting, to the least-preferred candidate.Malta and Ireland both use this system.A right or a duty?Four countries have made voting in the EU elections mandatory: Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria and Luxembourg, though action is rarely taken against abstainers.In other countries, voters decide whether to make their voices heard or not.Lowering the voting ageIn most EU countries you must be 18 to vote.But Germany and Belgium have recently joined Austria, Greece and Malta in lowering the voting age for the ballot to 16.To stand in the European election, you have to be 18 in most countries.But in Poland and the Czech Republic, you have to be 21, in Romania at least 23 and in Italy and Greece at least 25.Postal voting in, e-voting outThirteen states, including Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries, allow postal voting, mostly for citizens living abroad. This year, Greece’s sizeable diaspora will for the first time test the procedure, which gained in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic.As for voting online, forget it.Only tech-savvy Estonia allows its citizens to cast their ballots electronically.Gender quotasTen countries including France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg, impose gender quotas on party listsIn Spain, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia, parties must field at least 40% of candidates of each gender, compared with 35 percent in Poland.Romania passed a law to promote gender equality in its elections, but the vague wording made it ineffective.With a mere 15% of women in Romania’s current clutch of MEPs, it is the most male-dominated in the European Parliament.Luxembourg’s group has the most women (67%), followed by Finland (57%) and Sweden (52%) — the latter two notably electing more women without any quotas in place.Currently, 39.8% of MEPs are women.

Generative artificial intelligence has captured the world’s imagination because it appears likely to automate tasks that previously required advanced cognitive skills. With it, there is a real prospect that many highly educated and experienced workers may be replaced by algorithms. What happens when machines come for the jobs not of handloom weavers and autoworkers, but of scriptwriters, lawyers, middle managers, and even high-level executives?One response is to think that skills no longer matter, or even that we should de-emphasise education. On the contrary, while the potential for increased productivity (and higher incomes for all) through human-machine interaction has never been greater, we humans will need to up our game. We must get better at everything the computers struggle with, including understanding context, thinking outside the box, and managing relationships with other humans.According to a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute, up to 30% of current work hours in industrialised countries could be automated by 2030, under a scenario of moderate automation. While automation has squeezed workers for decades, generative AI heralds a significant acceleration and gut-wrenching change for many people who assumed their careers were stable.In the United States and the European Union, the number of people employed as office workers, in manufacturing, and as customer-service representatives will almost certainly decline as generative AI takes hold. (The report considers nine EU countries – the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden – representing 75% of the European working population, as well as the United Kingdom).But the news is not all bad. The report estimates that demand for workers in health care, clean energy, and other high-skill professions (such as scientific research and development) is likely to rise in those same countries. Of course, there are other factors at work here, including efforts to achieve net-zero emissions (important for new job creation across all industrialised countries), an ageing workforce (particularly in Europe), the continuing expansion of private sector e-commerce, and the strengthening of government-financed infrastructure.Rather than mass unemployment, the most likely outcome is that many people will soon face pressure to change jobs. Under reasonable assumptions, Europe could experience up to 12mn occupational transitions over the next six years.While the projected annual occupational transition rate (0.8% of employed people) is lower than the relatively high rate observed in Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic (1.2%), it is twice as high as the pre-pandemic norm (0.4%). In the US, employment transitions over the same period could also reach almost 12mn, although this seems more manageable, as the US already had an elevated pre-pandemic transition rate (1.2%) compared to Europe.Executives on both sides of the Atlantic are already concerned about existing skill shortages and mismatches in a tight labour market. It is good news for suitably qualified humans if demand for social and emotional skills rises with the new technologies. The more than 1,100 executives that the McKinsey team surveyed in Europe and the US not only stressed the need for advanced information-technology and data-analytics skills but also for more workers who are competent in critical thinking, creativity, and “teaching and training.”The wage implications are likely to be significant. Demand for labour will shift toward occupations that already have higher wages in both Europe and the US. And there is a real risk of some employment reduction in lower-wage white-collar occupations. These workers will need to acquire new skills to obtain better-paying work. If they can acquire these skills – by themselves, through employers, or with the assistance of government – they will have an opportunity to climb the wage ladder.But there is a real risk of an even more polarized labour market in which there are more high-wage job openings than qualified workers (further driving up the top wages), and many more workers compete for increasingly limited lower-wage positions (further driving down the lower end of the wage distribution). This outcome would be a disappointing reversal of the reduced wage inequality in the post-pandemic labour market. Fortunately, it is avoidable.For policymakers, the major takeaway is that human capital matters more than ever for national competitiveness and shared prosperity. Some manual jobs will remain with humans (robots have a relatively hard time with many basic mobility and cleaning tasks).But executives are currently convinced they need to retrain many workers in order to meet all their skill needs. Public policy should encourage employers as much as possible to maintain this disposition and reskill workers rather than replace them.Significantly faster productivity growth, especially in Europe, and shared prosperity can flow from new technology, but only if its adoption is accompanied by upgraded human skills and more proactive worker redeployment.To achieve this in the age of generative AI, executives should be as candid as possible about nascent skills gaps, and governments should focus on making it as easy as possible for all workers to upgrade their skills in a timely and appropriate fashion. — Project SyndicateSimon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a co-author (with Daron Acemoglu) of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. Eric Hazan is a Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company and a member of the McKinsey Global Institute Council.

Norwegian track stars Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Karsten Warholm lit up the Oslo Diamond League and the Nordic country’s two Olympic champions now insist all their attention will turn to next week’s European championships and then the Paris Games.Ingebrigtsen rounded off a high-octane evening of action at the famed Bislett Stadium on Thursday, lurching over the line in dramatic style to beat Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot by just three-hundredths of a second in the 1,500m.Warholm, however, had to be happy with second place behind Alison Dos Santos in the 400m hurdles, the Norwegian having stumbled after clipping the final hurdle to hand his Brazilian rival the advantage at the line. “I am happy with the race but of course I always come to win so there is no way around that,” said Warholm, a three-time world champion and two-time European gold medallist.“I hit the last hurdle quite badly so that didn’t help and gives me a lot to do. But then again there is plenty to work on and that is the important take away from today.”Warholm, known for his kamikaze starts, is running in new spikes in a bid to improve his final 200m, which will be put to the test at the June 7-12 Europen champs in Rome.“I am on a very good path, I went out fast and I am working on my new stride pattern, 14/14 and I was pleased with how that went today,” he said. “It is only my second race of the season but I do always come to win so that is disappointing. But I am really looking forward to Rome which will be awesome and I can’t wait.”Warholm produced one of the most memorable Olympic moments in recent times when he scorched to victory in the 400m hurdles at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 in a blistering world record time.Also raising the Norwegian flag in the Japanese capital was Ingebrigtsen in the 1,500m, although he was then pipped to world golds in 2022 and 2023 by the British duo of Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr, while also winning the 5,000m twice.Ingebrigtsen has made a longer-than-expected return from an achilles injury, but improved on his second place in the mile behind Kerr at last week’s Eugene Diamond League meet with his dive over the line in front of a baying home crowd.“I really do not think that it was the decision I made to dive into the finish line because everything just happened so fast,” said the 23-year-old who won 1,500/5,000m doubles at both the 2018 and 2022 European champs in Berlin and Munich respectively.“But I can tell you that that was a sprint off! It was a good race, I felt stronger than last time. So it was all about my improvement and at the same time, I wanted to do my best and to give the crowd the show. I was getting sore in the last 50 metres. I was expecting someone to come from the outside so I was very prepared to give it 100 percent.”The vociferous crowd, he added, “wanted a Norwegian victory. They are very enthusiastic and it helps a lot. Especially in the last lap and in the finish, the whole volume of the stadium rises and I wanted to give it the best, I did not want to lose even a second”.Ingebrigtsen said he was confident of defending his European and Olympic titles.“I feel lucky that I was able to get healthy and get a couple of months of a good training before the summer. Without that, we would definitely not be here in this position,” he said. “Still, every day I feel better and better. And defending the titles at the Europeans and Olympics - I think yes.”