European Parliament to debate motion against EU Commission

The European Parliament is set to debate a motion of no-confidence against the European Commission on Jan 19, with a vote scheduled for Jan 22, according to documents released by the Parliament on Friday.

The motion alleges that President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has failed to listen to citizens and has not adequately addressed urgent challenges facing the European Union. Specific issues cited include the decline of agriculture and rural areas, worsening food security, and a lack of transparency.

According to the EU treaties and the rules of the European Parliament, if the motion of no-confidence is passed, the entire European Commission must resign.

To be adopted, the motion must secure a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of the component members of the Parliament.

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.