Horizon Europe to fund research on genome editing in agriculture

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16 February 2021

Horizon Europe to fund research on genome editing in agriculture

Horizon Europe is to allocate €5 million for projects aimed at understanding the benefits and risks of genome editing technologies in agriculture over the next two years, according to a leaked draft work programme.

The move is in support of the ‘Farm to Fork’ plan to reduce the use of fertilisers by 30 per cent and turn 25 per cent of agricultural land over to organic farming. To reach these objectives, the Commission says the EU needs to “enable major advances in the life sciences and biotechnology, in new genomic techniques, such as gene/genome editing.”

Plans for the €5 million call come after EU agriculture ministers called on the Commission last October to enable the use of “new innovative ingredients and techniques” to boost sustainable food production, once they are shown to be safe for humans, animals and the environment. The headline figure for the call is only indicative, and the Commission could fund proposals that go beyond this figure.

Also last October, French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier, director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, and her collaboration partner Jennifer Doudna, were awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry “for the development of a method for genome editing.”

But as things stand, precision breeding of plants with gene editing technologies cannot be used in the EU, following a 2018 ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which founds genome editing is subject to the 2001 EU directive banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

In an early post-Brexit move, the UK last month launched an industry consultation on gene editing, as it seeks to move away from EU regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Depending on the outcome, there will be a second consultation on changing the definition of a GMO. The UK government view is that organisms produced by gene editing or by other genetic technologies, should not be regulated as GMOs if they could have been produced by traditional breeding methods.

The proposed €5 million for genome editing research is a small part of a total of €1.83 billion that is to be spent in 2021 and 2022 on Horizon Europe’s sixth cluster on food, bioeconomy natural resources, agriculture and environment, the draft work programme from December 2020 has revealed.

The European Commission is expected to publish the official work programmes with final funding figures and deadlines for application by the end of April. However, many research stakeholders have had access to draft versions of the documents posted online. Science|Business has published a trove of such documents, which offer researchers a detailed insight of how the €95.5 billion funding programme will be organised.

Call to lift gene editing ban

Research stakeholders have been calling on the EU to lift restrictions on genetically modified crops, to allow the use of genome editing, which need not involve the introduction of foreign genes. In 2020, in a report by the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, researchers in 120 institutions across Europe appealed to the Commission to help reverse the ECJ ruling.

According to the report, the policy change would help Europe develop more productive, climate-friendly, and resilient crops, and bring the EU up to date with recent scientific developments. “These new technologies may contribute to a reduction of the environmental footprint of agriculture,” the researchers said.

While agriculture ministers expect the Commission to complete a study of the status of novel genomic techniques under EU legislation by April, the Horizon call is still asking researchers to align their proposals with existing EU laws, including the infamous ECJ ruling of 2018.

Proposals are expected to advance “new genomic techniques in bio-based innovation” and to “assess potential critical impacts and bottlenecks with respect to the EU and international governance frameworks.”

Other priorities

According to the draft work programme, the Commission is planning to allocate €404 million over the next two years for research projects supporting its Farm to Fork strategy.

The Commission is also looking for proposals to explore the evolution and spread of microbiomes in the wild and their relationship with biodiversity loss and the growing risk of epidemics.

A €15 million call will be reserved for projects developing innovative digital tools tailored to the needs of small- and medium-sized farms. The Commission wants farmers to increase their uptake of digital technologies and prevent an increased digital divide between small and large farms.

The Commission is also planning to allocate €230 million over the next two years on projects addressing the EU’s push for a ‘circular economy’, by significantly reducing waste and promoting continuous recycling of natural resources.

The projects are expected to improve material selection and product design, but also to promote new value chains and business models focused on the upgrade, refurbishment and remanufacturing, of products to reduce waste.

Some calls will be dedicated to projects that seek to make EU’s industry more sustainable and reduce its dependence on resources, by lowering the use of primary non-renewable raw materials.

Didn’t discriminate on basis of religion, says Delhi Police Commissioner regarding arrest in northeast Delhi violence

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16 February 2021

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Didn't discriminate on basis of religion, says Delhi Police Commissioner regarding arrest in northeast Delhi violence

By ANI
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava on Tuesday said they did not discriminate on the basis of religion and confirmed that nearly 1,800 people were arrested in connection with the northeast Delhi violence.

“We conducted an impartial investigation in northeast Delhi violence using technology and evidence. One constable lost his life while many personnel got injured. Didn’t discriminate on the basis of religion and registered 755 cases. Nearly 1,800 were arrested,” said Delhi Police Commissioner, speaking at the 74th Raising Day of Delhi Police.

At least 53 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in the violence that took place in northeast Delhi between February 24 and 26 last year sparked by clashes between groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Shrivastava further said the Delhi Police tackled the COVID-19 lockdown in a commendable manner, earning the title of ‘Dil Ki Police’.

“Home Minister Amit Shah also lauded the efforts of the police force. We lost 34 police personnel during this period,” added SN Shrivastava.

Donohoe: EU Covid fund will aid green and digital transformation in Ireland

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16 February 2021

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Donohoe: EU Covid fund will aid green and digital transformation in Ireland

Money from the European Union’s Covid-19 recovery fund will be spent on a green and digital transformation in Ireland, according to the Finance Minister.

Ministers have been taking submissions on how to spend Ireland’s €853 million share in grants from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The RRF will make some €672.5 billion in loans and grants available to support reforms and investments undertaken by EU member states.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the Government is examining some specific areas for spending, though no final decisions have been taken.

“My judgement is that the three priority areas that the RRF plan will look to deliver in Ireland will be about a green transition in Ireland, will be about how we can better fund the digital transformation of our economy, and then finally also in the area of skills,” he said.

Eurogroup meeting

It comes as a meeting of the Eurogroup, chaired by Minister Donohoe who was elected its president in July 2020, took place on Monday.

The informal meeting of finance ministers from across the eurozone was briefed by Dr Mike Ryan and Dr Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on how the Covid-19 pandemic is evolving amid a vaccine rollout.

In a statement, the Department of Finance said a debate on the prospect of a gradual reopening of European economies was informed by the briefing from Dr Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, and Dr Aylward, senior advisor to the WHO’s Director General.

We now need to ensure that we work harder than ever to build on the unprecedented economic support measures

“The expertise and experience of Dr Ryan and Dr Aylward provided the backdrop for an insightful and engaging discussion on the evolving social and economic challenges we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic at a national, European and global level,” Minister Donohoe said.

“We now need to ensure that we work harder than ever to build on the unprecedented economic support measures already agreed to deliver the coordinated support, reforms and sustainable growth our citizens and economies need.”

With the European Commission forecasting that economic growth is expected to resume in spring, eurozone ministers also discussed the coordination of national economic and budgetary policies.

Ministers endorsed a staged approach to budgetary discussions at the Eurogroup, the Department of Finance said.

Developments in the solvency of the corporate sector were also discussed, with the group noting “the need to continue to carefully monitor the solvency situation in the corporate sector, so as to protect jobs and to effectively target supports”.

The “potential opportunities and advantages but also the risks” of an enhanced international role of the euro currency were also assessed.

China becomes EU’s biggest trade partner in 2020

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16 February 2021

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BRUSSELS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) — China became the main trade partner of the European Union (EU) in 2020, with exports and imports both increasing despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Eurostat said on Monday.

According to the EU’s statistical service, the bloc’s imports from China throughout the year 2020 grew by 5.6 percent year-on-year to 383.5 billion euros (465 billion U.S. dollars), and exports grew by 2.2 percent to 202.5 billion euros.

At the same time, the trade in goods with the United States, which had topped the EU’s trade partners list until early 2020, saw substantial decline in both ways.

The EU also witnessed higher trade volume with the rest of the world in December 2020, up by 6.6 billion euros from the same month in 2019, a first year-on-year increase since it was hit by the pandemic.

The single market suffered a decrease of 9.4 percent in exports of goods and 11.6 percent decrease in imports in 2020. With industries largely affected by the containment measures last year, energy recorded by far the sharpest drop among all sectors, followed by food and drink, raw materials and chemicals.

The Eurostat release on Monday coincided with China’s official data published in mid-January, which showed the trade with the EU grew by 5.3 percent to 4495.77 billion yuan, or nearly 600 billion euros, in 2020.

While China’s total goods imports and exports expanded 1.9 percent year on year to 32.16 trillion yuan (about 5 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2020, hitting a record high, the surge in trade with the EU was more than double the average growth rate.

The result fully speaks for “the strong resilience and importance of China-EU economic and trade cooperation,” said Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, at a webinar last month with the European thinktank, Friends of Europe.

China force Tibetans to pay less attention to religion

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16 February 2021

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China force Tibetans to pay less attention to religion

Washington [US], February 16 (ANI): In the latest attempt to tighten its grip in Tibet, China is forcing the Tibetans to pay less attention to their religion and show more enthusiasm for president Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a report by The Economist.

Beijing has also intensified its efforts to eradicate the Dalai Lama from the religious lives of Tibetans to crush their identity.

The Chinese government occupied Tibet in 1950 and has ever since tried to control the region.

The Dalai Lama, whom China views as overseer of an “evil clique” that seeks to split Tibet from China, escaped to India in 1959 and the 10the Panchen Lama (Lobsang Trinley Lhundrup Choekyi Gyaltsen) stayed behind in Tibet. He spoke against Chinese rule many times and wrote a report chronicling Tibet’s famines in the 1960s.

As per The Economist, the Tibetan religion like that of Muslim followers in Xinjiang is undergoing what the CCP term as “sinicisation”.

In Tibetan and Xinjiang, the Chinese authorities have launched attacks on people’s religion and cultural traditions.

While the Uyghurs have been moved to “re-education camps”, the Tibetan farmers have been moved to modern housing in or near towns and cities. Moreover, the Tibetan language has been replaced with Mandarin similar to that in Xinjiang.

“Surveillance has been stepped up. Networks of informers relay information to the state; smartphones are tapped. Just as Uyghurs can no longer make pilgrimages to Mecca, it has become almost impossible for Tibetans to travel to India to attend religious teachings given by the Dalai Lama, as many did before Xi took power in 2012,” The Economist said.

Unlike the Uyghurs, the Tibetans are allowed to use social media apps such as WeChat but with restrictions such as posting images of Dalai Lama can be an imprisonable offence.

“It seems these policies are aimed at creating future Tibetans who will not know about the Dalai Lama as having any role in Tibetan Buddhism except as an enemy,” Robbie Barnett, a scholar of Tibetan culture, was quoted as saying by The Economist. (ANI)

Indonesian cardinal urges ‘right choices’ during Lent – Vatican News

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16 February 2021

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Indonesian cardinal urges 'right choices' during Lent - Vatican News

By Robin Gomes

“No matter how hard the reality we are facing is, we must keep believing that God is love,” wrote Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Jakarta in a pastoral letter. “Just like last year, we enter the Lenten season during a difficult time caused by the coronavirus which has shaken all fields of life,” he recalled in the letter that was read in churches of the archdiocese on Sunday.

Ash Wednesday is the first of the 40 days of Lent (excluding Sundays), during which Christians give in a special way to prayer, penance, fasting, abstinence and good works, in preparation for their most solemn feast of Easter that commemorates Jesus’s glorious resurrection from death. Ash Wednesday takes its name from the ash that is placed on the foreheads or heads, reminding Christians of death and the need for repentance. Ash Wednesday, this year, falls on Feb 17.

Table of Contents

The perspective of faith

In his message, the Archbishop of Jakarta reminds his faithful that the pandemic is “not a punishment given by God because of our sins but is one of the horrible signs of the times, of which we must find the meaning from the perspective of our faith”.

He recalled a prayer that Pope Francis uttered during a special moment of prayer that he presided over in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square on March 27 last year, as death tolls soared in Italy amid a nationwide lockdown to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

Making right choices

“You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing,” the Pope prayed. “It is not the time of your judgement, but of our judgement: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others,” the Holy Father said.

Cardinal Suharyo acknowledged that “choosing what matters and what passes away” is not easy, as many tend to take the easy paths of fun. “Lent,” he pointed out, “is a special time given by the Church to all of us to train ourselves to choose the right way.” “Just like a man with leprosy who refused to give up to his helplessness and chose to get his life back on track with regard to God,” he said Catholics in the Archdiocese of Jakarta want to “choose the right way in this difficult time”.

Lenten slogan

The 70-year old cardinal, who is also president of the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia, formulated a slogan for Lent: ‘Love More, Involve More, Be Blessings More.’ He hopes “it will not be just a nice slogan but will be a guide for all of us to move forward as followers of Christ”. He said Catholics can put this slogan without breaking health and social distancing protocols and by joining in the government’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, officially launched last month.

Indonesia has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. The health ministry reported 10,029 new cases of infection on Feb. 16, bringing the total to 1,233,959. The death toll rose by 229 to 33,596.

Lent culminates with the Holy Week, which celebrates the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, or Easter, which this year falls on April 4. (Source: UCANEWS)

Amsterdam overtakes City of London as Europe’s share trading hub – EU Today

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16 February 2021

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Amsterdam overtakes City of London as Europe's share trading hub - EU Today

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                    Posted on Feb 14, 2021
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                        <strong>In January, an average of €9.2 billion in shares was traded in Amsterdam per day, according to Britain's <em>Financial Times</em> (FT). That trading volume was a four-fold increase over December, the final month of the UK's Brexit transition period.</strong>

Most significantly, this statistic means Amsterdam is now the largest European centre for equity trading.

Turquoise, a trading platform, moved because Brussels does not grant the British stock exchange regulator the same status after Brexit as regulators in the European Union. In other words, the EU and the UK do not recognise each other’s rules.

Without a so-called “equivalence clause”, European trading platforms had to move to Amsterdam, Dublin, and Paris. As a direct result, about €6.5 billion in deals disappeared from London.

According to Bloomberg, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs actively lobbied to entice financial trading firms to relocate there. In addition, managers of those companies would be driven around Amsterdam free of charge for appointments with regulators, real estate agents and executives of flash trading companies.

CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) and FT declared Amsterdam the “early winner of Brexit”.

Analyst Anish Puaar of Rosenblatt Securities remains positive about the situation on the London stock exchange. He calls it “symbolic” that London is losing its status as a European trading centre, but also sees it as an opportunity for the British to “find their own trading niche,” NL Times reported.

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When religion was present — and notably absent — at the impeachment trial

By

Jack Jenkins

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16 February 2021

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When religion was present — and notably absent — at the impeachment trial

WASHINGTON (RNS) — References to faith were a constant at last week’s impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump, with Democrats appearing especially comfortable invoking religion when discussing the attack on the U.S. Capitol by insurrectionists on Jan. 6.

Religious rhetoric was common during Trump’s first impeachment proceedings in 2020 as well, when Republicans and Democrats engaged in a theological war of words that culminated with Trump delivering a scathing speech before the National Prayer Breakfast in which he challenged the public faith expressions of political opponents such as Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The pattern repeated this go-round, but it was Democrats who appeared most eager to utilize faith-infused arguments, signaling a resurgence of religious rhetoric among liberals.

One of the trial’s earliest religious moments surrounded Trump defense lawyer David Schoen, who was seen repeatedly covering his head when he paused to drink water in the Senate chamber. Some mocked Schoen’s habit, but the move likely had religious origins: Schoen, an Orthodox Jew who often wears a kippa, reportedly declined to wear the traditional Jewish head covering during his remarks because he didn’t “want to offend anybody.”

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, many Jews not only recite a blessing that mentions God when eating or drinking, but also believe one’s head must be covered to say God’s name.

Attorney David Schoen covers his head for a moment during the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, Feb. 9, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. Video screengrab via CSPAN

However, most other religious references were made by the Democratic House managers. On Wednesday, the gaggle of lawmakers was spotted by a New York Times photographer huddling for a prayer led by Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. According to a spokesperson for Dean’s office, the congresswoman told Rep. Jaime Raskin of Maryland about a brief prayer she learned from her uncle, who served as a Catholic priest for 50 years. Upon hearing it, they called over the group of House managers.

“May God grant success to the work of our hands,” she said.

Religion showed up again later that day when Rep. Eric Swalwell referenced Scripture while discussing police officers who defended the Capitol from the violent mob. The congressman noted he comes from a law enforcement family, then highlighted the efforts of Officer Daniel Hodges, a Washington D.C. Police officer who was on the frontlines of the skirmish with the insurrectionists.

“In many law enforcement families, we pray for our loved ones, and we know the Scripture of Matthew 5:9, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,’” Swalwell said. “In the (video) you will see how blessed we were on that hellish day. We had a peacemaker like Officer Hodges protecting our lives, our staffs’ lives, this Capitol and the certification process.”

Swalwell then played footage of Hodges crushed in a doorframe between police officers and the mob, bleeding and howling in pain as insurrectionists forcibly removed his mask and screamed in his face. (Hodges survived the encounter.)

Notably absent from the arguments of House managers were any references to the faith of the insurrectionists, despite numerous examples of religious expression during the attack — especially forms of Christian nationalism. House managers played clips of insurrectionists Jacob Chansley and Couy Griffin, for instance, but did not focus on their religious leanings: Chansley led a prayer in the Senate chamber during the attack, and Griffin was filmed praying before the masses in front of the Capitol.

Trump’s team also largely ignored the religious elements of the attack, although they did cite religious terminology as part of an unusual argument. They rejected the insinuation by House managers that a Trump supporter’s reference to bringing the “calvary” to Washington on Jan. 6 — a quote from a tweet that was later retweeted by then-President Trump — was an appeal to warlike violence.

A Trump supporter carries a Bible outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Instead, Schoen insisted the phrase was not a misspelling of cavalry, or mobile soldiers, but an intentional reference to Christianity.

“The tweeter promised to bring the Calvary, a public display of Christ’s crucifixion, a central symbol of her Christian faith with her to the president’s speech, a symbol of faith, love and peace,” Schoen said. “(House managers) just never want to seem to read the text and believe what the text means.”

Schoen did not explain what, exactly, “the calvary is coming, Mr. President!” would mean for attendees of a Trump rally.

Their arguments did not appear overly persuasive to lawmakers like Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana who repeatedly praised the presentation of House managers. But when asked midway through the trial if he had “any doubt” Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol, he demurred by citing the Bible, saying: “There is a Proverb: Your mind is persuaded but you should hear the other side.”

On Friday, U.S. Virgin Islands House Delegate Stacey Plaskett — who often wore a gold cross around her neck during media interviews about the trial — pushed back against efforts by Trump’s legal team to compare unrest surrounding racial justice protests in the summer of 2020 to the insurrection. While decrying what she argued was a tendency by the defense to use clips featuring women of color, she made a reference to a religious group that protested in solidarity with racial justice protesters.

“This summer, things happened that were violent,” Plaskett said. “But there were also things that gave some of us Black women great comfort — seeing Amish people from Pennsylvania standing up with us. Members of Congress fighting up with us.”

It was unclear which instance Plaskett was referring to, although one group that was often described as Amish that participated in protests last year was in fact part of the Church of God.

Faith reappeared on Saturday during closing arguments delivered by Raskin, a co-founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus who identifies as both a humanist and “emphatically Jewish.” While discussing the horrors of the attack on the Capitol, Raskin explained he was “never a great Sunday school student” but could recall at least one Scripture passage from memory.

He said: “One line always stuck with me from the Book of Exodus as both beautiful and haunting — even as a kid, after I asked what the words meant: ‘Thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil.’”

Religious references persisted even after the trial concluded with Trump’s acquittal, with Cassidy and six other Republicans siding with Democrats in a 57-43 vote that nonetheless fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict. When Swalwell was asked by MSNBC to explain why House managers ultimately decided against calling witnesses in the trial, he defended their decision by invoking the almighty.

“We could have called God herself and the Republicans weren’t going to be willing to convict (Trump),” he said. “So we’re proud of the case we put forward.”

Swalwell’s use of female pronouns for God sparked pushback from some conservative outlets, but the idea that God can be referred to by multiple gender pronouns — or transcends gender altogether — is common in many Christian circles.

Latest news of Europe and the world.

Horizon Europe to fund research on genome editing in agriculture

Didn’t discriminate on basis of religion, says Delhi Police Commissioner regarding arrest in northeast Delhi violence

Donohoe: EU Covid fund will aid green and digital transformation in Ireland

Eurogroup meeting

China becomes EU’s biggest trade partner in 2020

China force Tibetans to pay less attention to religion

Indonesian cardinal urges ‘right choices’ during Lent – Vatican News

The perspective of faith

Making right choices

Lenten slogan

Amsterdam overtakes City of London as Europe’s share trading hub – EU Today

When religion was present — and notably absent — at the impeachment trial

EU calls for bold measures to control deteriorating economic situation in Sudan

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