When Sylvia Chiinda’s husband died, she was left to raise seven children on her own. As extreme weather hit more frequently, her farm became less productive, forcing her to look for other ways to make money.
Women in the village of Kanakanatapa in Zambia’s Chongwe District have more economic independence as a result of diversifying their farming activities. UNDP/Moses Zangar Jr.
Help came in the form of a UN-backed project which is supporting vulnerable women like Ms. Chiinda, by training them in goat-rearing and providing them with a stable income, as demand for Zambian goats grows.
Read more here about how women supported through the initiative say they have benefited financially as well as gaining a new sense of independence and respect within their villages.
The EU should do more to deter cyber-attacks from malicious actors targeting the bloc’s critical infrastructure and essential services, according to a draft EU Council response to the European Commission’s new cybersecurity strategy.
The document, obtained by EURACTIV, is currently being debated by representatives from EU member states in the EU Council, after having been drawn up by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU at the start of the year.
Honing in on the efficacy of the bloc’s 2017 cyber diplomacy toolbox, which broadly outlines how EU nations should respond when facing cyber attacks, the EU council document states that further discussions should be held on the scope of the measures, with a view to further “preventing and countering cyberattacks with systemic effects that might affect our supply chains, critical infrastructure and essential services.”
Earlier this year, the EU had executed provisions outlined in its cyber diplomacy toolbox, imposing restrictive measures against six individuals and three entities responsible for the ‘WannaCry’, ‘NotPetya’, and ‘Operation Cloud Hopper’ attacks.
As a potential extension to such punitive measures, the text also notes how future reflection should be made to the “interactions” between the cyber diplomacy toolbox and the possible use of various EU treaty articles.
This includes Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty – the mutual defence clause –, and Article 222 – the solidarity clause –, which allow EU nations to offer assistance to other countries on the bloc when they are faced with attacks, terrorist threats and require assistance.
France was the first EU nation to formally invoke Article 42.7 of the treaty in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, in a bid to contract support from EU partners for ongoing operations against the Islamic State in Syria.
From the EU Council drafts seen by EURACTIV, it appears now that EU nations are beginning to consider cyberattacks under the same terms as general terrorist activity, with regards to calls for joint support from partners on the bloc.
Commission’s cyber strategy
The Council document comes in response to the Commission’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade, presented in mid-December. It is dated February 16, and was recently sent to EU delegations after being debated over in the Council Horizontal Working Party on cyber issues.
EU member states appear to be largely in support of the Commission’s plans, calling for greater deterrent to block harmful cyberattacks against critical infrastructure.
The Commission’s strategy had proposed a revision of the Security of Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS 2), adding new sectors to the scope of minimum cybersecurity requirements as well as attempting to further harmonise sanctions regimes for cyber attacks across EU member states.
As part of these plans, certain “essential and important entities” across critical public and private sectors such as hospitals, energy grids, railways, data centres, public administrations, research labs, and manufacturing of critical medical devices and medicines, will be obliged to adopt appropriate cybersecurity risk management measures as well as new reporting obligations.
Related to this are plans for the Commission to expand the scope of the 2008 European Critical Infrastructure directive, with the introduction of a Critical Entities Resilience (CER) Directive, which now would earmark ten sectors as “critical,” including energy, transport, banking, financial market infrastructures, health, drinking water, wastewater, digital infrastructure, public administration and space.
Threat landscape amid coronavirus
As the EU continues to reel from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, attention has increasingly focused on the vulnerability of certain “essential services,” highlighted in the Council documents.
Last year, members of the NATO alliance released a statement condemning “destabilising and malicious cyber activities directed against those whose work is critical to the response against the pandemic, including healthcare services, hospitals, and research institutes.”
NATO’s comments came after an April statement from the Commission’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, who said “malicious cyber activities” had been recorded across Europe’s healthcare sector, including phishing and malware distribution campaigns, scanning activities and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
A week before, authorities in the Czech Republic reported attacks on critical national infrastructures, with the National Cyber and Information Security Authority (NÚKIB) issuing a cybersecurity warning.
This week, two French hospital groups have been infected with the crypto-virus RYUK ransomware, resulting in the transfer of a number of patients to other sites.
Portugal’s defence minister wants to strengthen political dialogue between the European Union and African decision-makers, which he believes is insufficient despite the fact that most European military missions are in Africa, he told EURACTIV’s partner Lusa in an interview.
João Gomes Cravinho also announced that an informal summit of EU defence ministers, initially scheduled for 2 and 3 March, has been postponed to “the end of May” so that it can take place face-to-face in Lisbon.
“I have planned for the informal summit to invite a set of African ministers and counterparts to dialogue with European Defence ministers. Because the European missions are almost all in Africa and yet the political dialogue with African decision-makers is insufficient, we need to build this bridge, to improve this bridge,” he told Lusa.
According to Gomes Cravinho, several defence ministers from African countries and leaders of regional organisations, such as the president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the seven east African countries in the regional organisation for the Horn of Africa, have already accepted the invitation to the informal defence meeting.
A second aspect the Portuguese minister wants to introduce in the “construction of the European Defence identity”, is giving greater importance to the maritime component.
“With the new central role of the Atlantic and the importance that the seas have for our trade and with the resurgence of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea”, it is necessary to have in the “European defence identity a maritime dimension that has been undervalued”.
He stressed that the European Defence Fund will become operational during the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU. EDF is an instrument that will allow the financing of investment projects in the military and defence area with a return for the European economy, he said.
Gomes Cravinho also highlighted the so-called Strategic Compass’,’ a guiding document which aims “to be the script for the European Defence identity” that translates the priorities of the European Union’s Global Strategy and the consequent missions.
Presented by EU defence ministers in June 2020, the Strategic Compass covers three phases: an analysis of threats to the EU, the establishment of strategic objectives to strengthen the EU as a security and defence actor, and the creation of political guidelines for military planning procedures.
The EU’s energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, has revealed details of upcoming fuel legislation, saying a certification scheme for renewable and low-carbon fuels and gases is on the horizon.
“This will include a comprehensive certification for renewable and low-carbon fuels and gases. And it will come with an updated set of incentives to promote the use of these fuels in various sectors,” she said.
Those criteria are expected to be based on full life cycle greenhouse gas emission savings.
The EU’s energy taxation directive will also be revised in line with the EU’s updated climate goals for 2030, as part of a package of EU laws to be tabled in June, Simson said. That “will be relevant for various fuels” as well, she added, “as it directly affects consumers’ choices”.
The commissioner made the comments at the Tenth High level EU Refining Forum, a gathering of representatives from the oil refining industry, members of the European Parliament, European Commission staff, and others in the field.
Oil refiners called for the EU to recognise liquid fuels as a necessary part of achieving decarbonisation, saying that from a chemistry standpoint “liquid fuels are still simply the best form of energy storage”.
“Many parts of the transport system would benefit from retaining the liquid fuel but of course in a low-carbon form,” said Béla Kelemen, president of FuelsEurope, the European oil refining industry association. FuelsEurope members include major oil companies such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Total.
Kelemen compared the industry’s decarbonisation drive to a “transformation where we want to be a butterfly from a caterpillar”.
Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, a Greek MEP from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) called low-carbon liquid fuels “instrumental to the EU’s transition in energy by 2050” and criticised the European Commission for putting them on the taxonomy ‘brown list’ – fuels considered to have a negative impact on the environment
“We need to consider transitional energy like natural gas and potential breakthrough technologies like low-carbon liquid fuels as part of climate solutions and not treat them as a lingering problem,” said Asimakopoulou.
“The Commission brushes off the right of member states to decide their own energy mix and to choose the most appropriate technologies to collectively achieve the 2030 climate target. This clearly limits solutions available to reduce the CO2 emissions in, for instance, the transport sector, where electric is not always technologically possible,” she added.
The European Commission and industry acknowledge that liquid fuels will primarily play a role in hard-to-decarbonise transport modes such as aviation and maritime. The EU executive aims to have the majority of light duty vehicles on European roads powered by electricity and biofuels by 2050.
John Cooper, the director general of FuelsEurope, said the industry will move towards a new business model aimed at supplying some of Europe’s transport energy needs, one that is “entirely complementary to the electrification and hydrogen strategies”.
“We still need to operate petroleum refining for some years, well beyond a decade or two, because the demand is there. 90% of new cars and trucks sold last year need liquid fuels and while we would like to scale up the renewables massively overnight, this is unrealistic,” he warned.
Cooper went on to call for “equivalent recognition for renewables in transport, with fair competition between renewable electricity, gases and liquids as energy sources”.
“When technology competes fairly, customers will decide,” he added.
Over half of all power will be provided by electricity by 2050 according to EU estimates, predicating a significant drop in the use of liquid fuels, particularly petrochemicals. The EU is targeting a rise in clean energy production to meet the demand.
Scania, the Swedish manufacturer of heavy trucks and buses, announced during the forum that they will only sell fossil-fuel free vehicles by 2040, ensuring that the majority of Scania trucks on the road are clean vehicles by 2050.
Cutting emissions by 2030
The ‘fit for 55’ package, which is due to be published in June, will include a possible extension of the EU’s carbon market to include the transport and building sectors and tighter CO2 emission standards for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
Representatives of the oil refining industry sought to defend the sector’s role in transitioning Europe to carbon neutrality.
“The EU refining sector is of crucial importance to decarbonise our transport systems by delivering low and zero carbon solutions for the future, allowing affordable and sustainable mobility for all,” said Judith Kirton-Darling, IndustriAll deputy general secretary, a trade union federation.
Kirton-Darling called on the EU to deliver a “just transition for industrial workers”, expressing concern that the regulations driving changes to the industry would harm their livelihood.
“Blacklisting entire sectors within the EU taxonomy rules which were originally meant to be a non-binding instrument to steer investment, will undermine the rolling out of low-carbon technologies and processes that we urgently need,” she added.
Kirton-Darling also criticised an overreliance on the Emissions Trading Scheme, saying one size fits all policies will “inevitably increase regional inequalities within and between countries”.
The Iranian foreign minister has called on the European countries to demand an end to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran by former US President Donald Trump.
“Instead of philosophizing and shifting the responsibility onto Iran, the European Troika/the European Union should make good on their obligations and demand the legacy of Trump’s economic terrorism against Iran end,” said Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
He also touched upon Tehran scaling down its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in response to Washington’s unilateral and illegal withdrawal from the agreement, and urged them to correct their approach if they are anxious about the action that Iran has taken.
“Our measures are remedial ones adopted in response to violations by the US and the European Troika. If you fear the effect, eliminate the cause,” he added.
(MENAFN – Kuwait News Agency (KUNA))
BRUSSELS, Feb 18 (KUNA) — The European Union’s trade chief Thursday said the EU is ready to engage with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to develop trade relations between the two blocs. “We are open for engagement and open to seek ways for future cooperation,” EU Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, told an online press conference in Brussels. He made the comment while presenting a report on EU trade strategy for the coming years, in reply to a question by KUNA on EU-GCC trade relations. He said the EU intends to intensify its engagement with Africa and its neighbouring countries, and to consolidate its partnerships with key growth regions, notably in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Dombrovskis explained that today’s report did not specifically “outline our future cooperation with the GCC as we cannot outline and specify our future relations with many different countries in the world.” “But this does not mean that we would not engage with other countries and other partners in the world and that definitely concerns our cooperation with the GCC,” he stressed. “The challenges we face require a new strategy for EU trade policy. We need open, rules-based trade to help restore growth and job creation post-COVID-19,” he said. The report says that the EU has a strong network of trade agreements: 46 deals with 78 partners. Across the EU, 35 million jobs depend on trade. “There is the potential to build on this strong foundation but to do so we have to look beyond our borders, given that 85 percent of global growth will take place outside Europe in the next decade,” he said. The best way to ensure the EU’s prosperity is to keep trading with our global partners, rather than turning inwards, he added. The six-member GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. (end) nk.sd
MENAFN18022021000071011013ID1101623506
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Rail Shippers Defeat BNSF, CSX, NS, and UP’s Attempts to Insulate Anticompetitive Conduct from Liability – Book Publishing Industry Today – EIN Presswire
UK manufacturers’ order books improved in February and output fell slightly but at a more moderate rate than in the first lockdown, the Industrial Trends Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed Friday.
The order book balance improved to -24 percent in February from -38 percent in January. However, the export order books balance fell to -39 percent from -33 percent in the previous month.
Output volumes in the three months to February fell at a moderate pace of -8 percent versus -2 percent in January.
“Manufacturing activity remains patchy, but so far appears to have taken a smaller hit than in previous lockdowns,” Alpesh Paleja, CBI lead economist, said.
However, a stubbornly mixed picture persists among the different manufacturing sub-sectors, pointing to the asymmetric impact of restrictions, Paleja added.
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
Julien Baker doesn’t believe in hell any more. She doesn’t believe in original sin either, or in predeterminism. She doesn’t believe that people are born “saved” or “reprobate”. “Those things seem obvious now, and I think they were always obvious to me,” Baker told me in early February<strong>, </strong>“but there was an ingrained unwillingness to deviate too far from the canon because it would be perceived as doubt. But I don’t doubt God. I am, in fact, certain that there’s something out there, even if it’s just God manifested in the dignity of other human beings.”
Baker wore a bandanna around her neck and a black T-shirt when she spoke to me over Zoom from her apartment in Nashville, Tennessee. The 25-year-old songwriter was raised in a deeply Christian family across the state in Memphis. She writes emotional, guitar-led indie-rock songs with raw, exposing lyrics. Across the course of three solo records – the latest of which, <em>Little Oblivions</em>, is released this month – Baker has become known for the clarity with which she expresses her vulnerabilities and her flaws. “Cause if I didn’t have a mean bone in my body, I’d find some other way to cause you pain/I won’t bother telling you I’m sorry for something that I’m gonna do again,” she sings over broken piano chords on “Relative Fiction”. As part of the supergroup Boygenius, she – alongside her fellow acclaimed US songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus – proved that an instinct for ruthless self-examination can be resolutely cool too.
<em><strong>[See also: <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2021/02/fight-over-britney-spears" rel="nofollow">The fight over Britney Spears</a>]</strong></em>
Baker has tattoos on both arms, and when we spoke, had Biro scrawls on the back of one hand. Early in her career, interviewers would note how she addressed them as “Sir” or “Ma’am”, a quirk she seems to have moved on from, though when she occasionally paused our conversation to retrieve pieces of “trash” from her dog’s mouth – a minor disturbance – she apologised with a profuse, and typically Southern, politeness.
Her Christian faith is not simply a theme in her music<strong>,</strong> but a lens through which she views much of her life – from her queer identity (she came out to her devout parents at 17 years old; they embraced her), to her teenage struggles with substance abuse. But that faith has, over the past few years, changed – not because of one “paradigm-shifting event”, she explained, but a gradual loss of any “emotional, mental attachment to liturgy and tradition”. She doesn’t attend church any more, or pray as such. “I think the church is super-flawed.” Organised Christianity in the US, she said, “has extrapolated some really harmful things from a text that’s theoretically about how to treat people, how to live in a loving community with each other”. Worship, for her, has taken on new forms. “I just really think about human beings. I sit around and think about my friends. I think about my behaviours and I try to do better things with my time and with my energy, that will serve a body – not the people in my church, but the people in my city.”
Baker’s earliest relationships with music were formed at church, where she played in a band every week. Even when she played outside church, her band mates were people she had met there. As an only child, she didn’t have older siblings to pass down “contraband” music to her, she said, and without her own money, she relied on her parents to approve artists before she could listen to them. So she sought out Christian hardcore that she knew they would permit. “Well look,” she would say. “There’s this band that is a metal band or a screamo band, and they’re singing about Jesus! So you should let me listen to this.”
<em><strong>[See also:<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2021/02/broken-record-music-streaming-spotify-tom-gray" rel="nofollow"> How a new campaign aims to fix a broken music industry</a>]</strong></em>
The access to music that church offered Baker was exciting: it gave her a place, every week, to play with a full band. But discovering new music in such a religious context also complicated the experience. “Instead of seeing church as a group of people using this non-religious tool, music, as part of a collaborative ritual, I saw music as religion,” she said. When she started going to local post-punk house shows as a teenager, she found a different sort of musical community, but it was still one in which she knew the crowd, and where the crowd always sang along, “super-loud” – just like in church.
When Baker’s fan base began to expand beyond her local community – an emo-folk record she made as a student was picked up and formally released as her debut, <em>Sprained Ankle</em>, in 2015 – the atmosphere at her live shows shifted. In contrast to her punk days, her new audience would listen quietly while she played: Baker grew concerned with how “one-sided” the dynamic had become. Realising she had a platform, Baker decided her music would be “noble” or “honest”, she said. “Songwriting fell into a moral realm for me. I had always imagined music as conversation; if it couldn’t be that, then it had at least to be a vehicle for ideology.”
But when Baker’s relationship with her faith changed, her songwriting had to change, too. Writing <em>Little Oblivions</em>, she sought to free herself from “the weight of trying to say something true or good, something loving or righteous”. Her new songs are more expansive and complex than ever before: on “Highlight Reel” murky synths undercut Baker’s vocals, leaving her lyrics difficult to make out. “Faith Healer”, a song about how easy it is to relapse into addiction, is driven by a burgeoning rhythm section which, for just moments at a time, she allows to roll over the listener like a wave.
This period of change was significant for Baker. Throughout it, she resisted thinking of herself in binary terms of the devout teenager she once was and the wiser, more sceptical adult she is now. “That’s something that’s taught by church: this prodigal and reconciled nature. But when you stop thinking about that ultimatum, it’s really helpful. I don’t want to think of ‘old’ and ‘new’ me; I’m the same me. I have the same tendencies and personality traits – I just changed the way that I thought about God.
“And even though I have felt a personal resentment towards those institutions, I have no interest in othering or eliminating that part of myself,” she added. “I don’t want to villainise a self that does wrong in order to try to love a self that’s doing better.”
<em>“Little Oblivions” is released on 26 February on Matador Records</em>
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