Airlines cannot add a fuel surcharge to your ticket after you’ve already paid. Here’s what your rights are if your flight gets cancelled.
✈️ Under EU rules on flight cancellations, airlines must show you the final price before you pay, no hidden fees added later.
If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to:
✅ A full refund, rerouting, or return
✅ Assistance at the airport
✅ Flight delay compensation for last-minute cancellations
Airlines can only avoid paying flight delay compensation if they prove cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances, such as a genuine fuel supply failure. High fuel prices alone do not qualify.
Currently, there is no evidence of jet fuel shortages. You can check your EU Air Passenger Rights here: https://link.europa.eu/btgHcn
Source: World Trade Organization – WTO (video statements)
From field to factory, and fashion to football, African Cotton was in the spotlight at MC14. Events in Cameroon brought together stakeholders to highlight cotton’s importance to global trade and investment opportunities, particularly for Central and West African countries looking to move up the value chain.
Download this video from the WTO website:
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/webcas_e/webcas_e.htm
Briefing via VTC, the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Guang Cong told the Council that “since the start of the war in Sudan in 2023, over 1.3 million Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees have fled to South Sudan,” and added that “this massive influx has compounded an already dire humanitarian situation.”
Cong said his Office continues to engage with the Abyei High-Level Committee and other stakeholders to support preparations for renewed bilateral talks, while urging progress on benchmarks tied to the mission’s mandate renewal and broader concerns.
He said, “I will continue to support efforts to resolve outstanding issues from the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan and South Sudan, and will continue to provide support to the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Sudan, the African Union and IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) as well as other partners in the ongoing efforts to end the war in Sudan and to initiate a political process that should also include South Kordofan and the Blue Nile states.”
Cong said he will also “continue to engage with the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to restart dialogue on the final status of Abyei.”
Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
President Ramaphosa visited South32 Hillside Aluminium smelter as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of South Africa’s primary aluminium producer.
Through the aluminium value chain, Hillside provides the foundation for an estimated 29,000 jobs across the economy.
Being the largest aluminium smelter in the southern hemisphere, the company is pivotal in South Africa’s aluminium value chain.
Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Pobee told the Security Council that the political environment in Abyei has remained “constrained by the conflicts in the Sudan and instability in South Sudan,” limiting progress by the two countries “towards resolving their disputes over the management of the Abyei territory and its final status.”
Pobee noted that the security environment “deteriorated over the past six months, mostly due to criminality, weapons proliferation and the presence of unauthorised armed actors, which have combined to create a complex and volatile threat environment.”
The Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), she said, “recorded 196 security incidents, with 58 fatalities and 69 injuries, marking a significant increase from the previous reporting period.”
Pobee noted that the mission continues to conduct robust patrols and rapid response operations, while also supporting weapons disposal, mine action and humanitarian access, adding that sustained engagement by the Council will remain essential to uphold the demilitarized status of Abyei and advance a durable political solution.
She said, “the immediate withdrawal of all unauthorised forces, including the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and the Rapid Support Forces from the Abyei area, remains essential.”
Iranian Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani told reporters in New York that “the only viable solution in the Strait of Hormuz is a permanent end to the war, the lifting of maritime blockade, and the restoration of normal passage,” and said a Security Council draft resolution tabled by the United States and Bahrain is “flawed, politically motivated” and drafted “under the pretext of freedom of navigation to advance its political agenda and legitimize unlawful actions, not to resolve the crisis.”
Iravani said, “the draft falsely accused Iran of violating the ceasefire of 8th April, while deliberately concealing material facts. It also attributes serious violations to Iran, including attacks on vessels and placement of sea mines without presenting credible and verified evidence.”
He said the text “ignores the unlawful maritime blockade imposed by the United States, as well as attacks on the seizure of Iranian vessels,” constituting “a material breach of the ceasefire, violation of the prohibition on the sea of force, and serious infringement of freedom of navigation.”
The Iranian Ambassador said, “the claim that the current situation constitutes a threat to international peace and security has no objective or credible basis” and the invocation of chapter seven of the UN Charter “is wholly unjustified, disproportionate and based on politically motivated allegation and it serves further military objectives.”
If adopted, he said, the resolution would “seriously damage the credibility and impartiality of the Security Council, it would politicize the Council’s enforcement power and establish a dangerous precedent for legitimizing unilateral coercive measures and unlawful action by the United States against the sovereignty and sovereign rights of coastal states.”
Iravani stressed that “Iran remains fully prepared to resolve normal maritime traffic and ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, provided that the war is permanently ended, and the unlawful blockade is lifted.”
The question today before the Council members, he said, was, “why should a member state located thousands of miles away from the Persian Gulf and acting in a destabilizing manner, be permitted to use the Security Council to advance its political agenda in the Persian Gulf? while Iran, as a coastal state of the Strait of Hormuz, is denied its lawful rights to defend its security and sovereignty and is instead threatened with enforcement action on the chapter seven of the Charter.”
Iravani said, “the United States has neither the legal, political, nor moral standing to portray itself as a defender of freedom of navigation or maritime security” adding that it has “continued its internationally wrongful act by imposing a so-called maritime blockade, unlawfully seizing Iranian commercial vessels like pirates, and taking their crews hostage.”
