The EU's relations with Iran have strengthened since the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. These relations have become more important now, as the current US administration is determined to further undermine the agreement by pressing the UN to restore economic sanctions and extend the arms embargo against Iran. The EU’s disagreement with the US position has brought the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the maintenance of international agreements, and the future of European relations with the US and Iran at a crossroads.

Ngofeen Mputubwele is a journalist, lawyer, and podcast producer for the New Yorker Radio Hour based in New York City. He reports on issues of culture, language, and food, with an emphasis on international issues and the black diaspora. His work has been featured on NPR?s Code Switch, Rough Translation, as well as Gimlet Media?s The Nod, Every Little Thing, We Came to Win, and more. Most recently, he produced and narrated the New Yorker Radio Hour podcast episode "Black Italians Fight to Be Italian." He lives in Brooklyn with the 2.3 million yeast in his sourdough starter.

Amir Issaa is an Italian rapper, hip-hop artist, producer,
writer, and social activist who has worked in the Italian
music industry since the late 1990s. Born and raised in
the diverse working-class neighborhood of
Torpignattara in Rome, he is the son of an Egyptian
father and an Italian mother. Issaa was one of the
founders of the Rome Zoo, a collective of rappers and
musicians that helped to define the rap scene in Italy
and launched the careers of many artists. He has won
several awards for his music, in particular for his work

Through much of its history, Italy was Europe’s "seat of the arts," an artistic playground for foreign élites and powers who bought, sold, and sometimes plundered millions of artworks and antiquities. Today, Italy asserts control over its cultural heritage through an activist legal model and influential art police unit, which dedicates itself to the eradication of tomb robbing. Italy has turned heritage into cultural power—a controversial convergence of art, money, and diplomacy.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel to Brussels for the Brussels Study Tour in Summer 2020 was cancelled. To fill this educational gap for the educators already selected for the 2020 cohort, virtual programming was implemented.

In this second session, the 2020 educator cohort engaged in a moderated conversation with David O'Sullivan, former Ambassador of the European Union to the United States (2014-2019). Through this conversation, educators learned more about EU foreign relations, particularly with the U.S., and current issues.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel to Brussels for the Brussels Study Tour in Summer 2020 was cancelled. To fill this educational gap for the educators already selected for the 2020 cohort, virtual programming was implemented.

In this first session, Brianna Howell, a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, will present an Introduction to the European Union to the 2020 educator cohort followed by an interactive Q&A.

The EU's relations with Iran have strengthened since the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. These relations have become more important now, as the current US administration is determined to further undermine the agreement by pressing the UN to restore economic sanctions and extend the arms embargo against Iran. The EU’s disagreement with the US position has brought the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the maintenance of international agreements, and the future of European relations with the US and Iran at a crossroads.

In the past year more people have become familiar with the graph of the epidemic curve than ever before. Beginnings, peaks and endings of COVID-19 occupy everyday discussions, inform policies, shape social interactions and provide bases for criticism and political action. What constitutes an ending, when that endpoint is and what might bring it about is more and more unclear, however. Through historical case studies, this talk explores some of the stakes in how we think about the temporalities of epidemics, and how their historical framing may impact on public health responses.

Around the world, countries are undertaking fiscal stimulus responses in order to accelerate their recovery from COVID-19. On 21 July 2020, EU leaders agreed to a €1,824.3 trillion (ca $2 trillion) package which includes a €1,074.3 billion budget for the next seven years and a major stimulus package of €750 billion. The Next Generation EU (NGEU) stimulus package will help to rebuild and to support investment in green and digital transitions.

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