
Qatar attends joint workshop of Arab League & EUROJUST
Cairo
The State of Qatar participated in a joint workshop between the Legal Affairs Sector of the Arab League and the European Union Agency for Cooperation in Criminal Justice (EUROJUST), which kicked off Wednesday at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League in Cairo.
The State of Qatar is represented at the two-day workshop by a delegation from the Ministry of Justice. Representatives from Arab ministries of justice and a number of officials from the EUROJUST and the CT JUST project, funded by the European Union and concerned with combating terrorism and strengthening criminal justice, will also participate in the workshop.
The workshop aims to strengthen cooperation between the European Union and the Arab League in various fields and discuss challenges in the field of criminal justice and judicial work.
The workshop's agenda includes several topics, particularly the role of the EUROJUST, international legal cooperation, liaison judges, relations with third world countries, joint investigation teams, and the Arab Judicial Cooperation Network in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Qatar Tribune
3 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Qatar, Arab League, OIC and 9 countries condemn Knesset's approval of bill to impose 'Israeli sovereignty' over occupied West Bank
The State of Qatar, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Republic of Indonesia, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the State of Palestine, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemn, in the strongest terms, the Israeli Knesset's approval of the declaration calling for imposing the so-called "Israeli sovereignty" over the occupied West Bank. They consider the move a flagrant and unacceptable violation of international law and a flagrant violation of relevant Security Council resolutions, most notably resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), and 2334 (2016), which all affirm the invalidity of all measures and decisions aimed at legitimizing the occupation, including settlement activities in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. The mentioned parties reiterate that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory and affirm that this unilateral Israeli action has no legal effect and cannot change the legal status of the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly East Jerusalem, which remains an integral part of that territory. They also emphasize that such Israeli measures will only fuel the growing tension in the region, exacerbated by the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe. These parties call on the international community, including the Security Council and all concerned parties, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and take urgent action to halt illegal Israeli policies aimed at imposing a 'fait accompli' by force, undermining the chances of achieving a just and lasting peace, and eliminating the prospects for a two-state solution. The parties also renew their commitment to the two-state solution based on international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, and the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967, lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.


Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Meta to suspend political advertising as EU transparency law looms
Meta will suspend political and social issue advertising on its platforms in the European Union starting in October. Facebook and Instagram's parent company announced the new policy change on Friday, citing legal uncertainty about the bloc's new rules on political advertising. The Silicon Valley-based social media giant is following in the footsteps of Alphabet, Google's parent company, which made the same decision in November. The EU legislation, called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which will apply from October 10, was prompted by concerns about disinformation and foreign interference in elections across the 27-country bloc. The law requires Big Tech companies to clearly label political advertising on their platforms, who paid for it and how much, as well as which elections are being targeted, or risk fines up to 6 percent of their annual turnover. 'From early October 2025, we will no longer allow political, electoral and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU,' Meta said in a blog post. 'This is a difficult decision – one we've taken in response to the EU's incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which introduces significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties,' it said. Meta said the EU rules would ultimately hurt Europeans. 'We believe that personalised ads are critical to a wide range of advertisers, including those engaged on campaigns to inform voters about important social issues that shape public discourse,' it said. 'Regulations, like the TTPA, significantly undermine our ability to offer these services, not only impacting effectiveness of advertisers' outreach but also the ability of voters to access comprehensive information.' Meta's Facebook and Instagram are currently being investigated by the European Commission over their suspected failure to tackle disinformation and deceptive advertising in the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections. The EU probe is under the Digital Services Act, which requires Big Tech to do more to counter illegal and harmful content on their platforms or risk fines of as much as 6 percent of their global annual turnover. ByteDance's TikTok is also in the EU crosshairs over its suspected failure to tackle election interference, notably in the Romanian presidential vote last November. Meta's political advertising has long been a concern in the United States, as well. Last week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg settled a lawsuit brought on by shareholders over alleged privacy violations. The suit alleged that the company failed to comply with a Federal Trade Commission settlement in 2012 in efforts to protect consumer privacy. The lawsuit came amid the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal in which the social media giant gave user data to the firm – without their consent – for political advertising purposes.


Al Jazeera
16 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Fact check: Did US go from ice cream trade surplus to deficit under Biden?
President Donald Trump's administration dished out a cold burn to Trump's ice-cream-loving predecessor, Joe Biden, saying he led the US ice cream industry down an economic rocky road. 'America had a trade surplus in ice cream in 2020 under President Trump's leadership, but that surplus turned into a trade deficit of $40.6 million under President Biden's watch,' the Office of the US Trade Representative wrote July 20 on X. The post included a chart that shows the US ice cream trade deficit with Japan, South Africa, the European Union, Brazil, Canada and Turkiye. The US ice cream trade balance did change dramatically in 2021, the year Biden took office. The trade balance officially flipped negative – which means imports outnumber exports – in 2022 and has remained so since then. But industry experts caution that US ice cream imports account for a minuscule fraction of all the US ice cream consumed in the US, and exports account for a tiny fraction of all US ice cream produced. The trade change was driven mostly by a jump in imports. Exports have remained largely unchanged since 2020. And the cherry on top? Disagreement over which products to classify as 'ice cream' also affects data, experts say. For example, the data referenced by the office of the US Trade Representative also includes 'edible ice', which some experts (and dairy defenders) say doesn't qualify as ice cream. Removing edible ice shows that 'the US is a net exporter by a significant margin of ($193 million) or +85% larger by value,' International Dairy Foods Association Executive Vice President Matt Herrick told PolitiFact via email. Ice cream imports increase causes US trade deficit From 1995 to 2020, the US had an ice cream trade surplus, ranging from about $20m to about $160m, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an online economic data platform. Longtime customers include Mexico, followed by Saudi Arabia and Canada. In 2021, that surplus nearly vanished, and in 2022 and 2023, the US notched up an ice cream trade deficit of $92m and $33m, respectively. At first glance, importing frozen foods doesn't seem practical. 'Shipping refrigerated and frozen products overseas is expensive,' dairy economist Betty Berningat of HighGround Dairy said. 'Mexico is the top destination for US dairy exports.' But many US and European companies have tapped into global markets. 'Consumers may also want a specific treat that is styled after or known to be from another country,' Herrick said. Italy, the birthplace of gelato, is now the United States' largest single source of imported ice cream. Italian ice cream imports more than quintupled from about $12m to almost $65m between 2020 and 2021 alone, before decreasing somewhat in 2023, the last year for which data is available. Some of this stems from increased consumer demand for specialty pints. A report by Mordor Intelligence, a global market research firm, said 'product innovation and premiumisation' have become key in the US ice cream industry. 'This trend is particularly evident in the growth of premium pint offerings and individually wrapped novelties that cater to both indulgence and portion control preferences,' the report said. The US produces far more ice cream than it imports or exports To get to the pint: The vast majority of ice cream consumed in the United States is made there, not overseas. The Trump administration is cherry-picking stats from a fraction of a sliver of the US ice cream industry. According to US Agriculture Department data, US ice cream makers churned out 1.31 billion gallons of ice cream in 2024. This includes regular ice cream, low-fat and nonfat ice cream, sherbet and frozen yoghurt. By comparison, the US imported 2.35 million gallons of traditional ice cream in 2024 – that's 0.18 percent of the amount produced domestically, Herrick said. The US exported 16.4 million gallons of that domestic production, which is also a tiny fraction of 1.31 billion gallons of ice cream – a little more than 1 percent. Factoring in ice cream mixes, excluding 'edible ice' products Another caveat about the international trade data: It does not include 'mixes', which skews the totals, said Herrick of the International Dairy Foods Association. Mixes are used to make ice cream shakes and soft-serve products, and they account for a significant portion of US ice cream exports. 'Inclusion of such data points would change the picture quite significantly,' said Herrick. 'While it is true that traditional ice cream and edible ice exports have seen decreased exports, the same cannot be said for exports of mixes.' US milk-based drink exports increased 621 percent over the past five years, he said. In 2024, the US exported nearly $35m in mixes to the European Union. Americans and dairy-based ice cream: A centuries-old love affair melting away? The White House has churned out plenty of ice cream devotees. George Washington stocked the capital with ice cream-making equipment. Thomas Jefferson is credited as being the first American to record an ice cream recipe. Ronald Reagan declared July National Ice Cream Month in 1984. Barack Obama even slung scoops back in the day. Biden, who was often sighted with a cone in hand, proclaimed while visiting Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream headquarters in 2016: 'My name is Joe Biden, and I love ice cream.' But consumption of regular dairy ice cream – a category that does not include frozen yoghurt, sherbet or nonfat and low-fat ice creams – has been trending down for years. In 1975, Americans ate an average of 18.2 pounds each of ice cream per year. That figure fell to 11.7 pounds by 2023. Our ruling The office of the US Trade Representative purported a summertime scoop: 'America had a trade surplus in ice cream in 2020 under President Trump's leadership, but that surplus turned into a trade deficit of $40.6 million under President Biden's watch.' It's accurate that the US ice cream trade balance had a surplus for a quarter of a century before turning negative while Biden was president. But the US Trade Representative's statement makes the US ice cream deficit appear out of cone-trol. There are three scoops of context on this trade sundae: The change was driven mostly by a jump in imports. Exports have remained largely unchanged since 2020. US ice cream imports and exports are a negligible amount compared to domestic production. There's also disagreement over which products should or shouldn't be included in the data set, which can skew trend interpretations. Excluding edible ice products and factoring in ice cream mixes leaves the US with a surplus. The statement is accurate but needs a sprinkling of clarification and additional details, so we rate it Mostly True. Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.