NEW DELHI: India’s restrictions on imports of air-conditioners, tyres and TV sets have drawn the ire of Thailand and the European Union, which raised the issue at a meeting in the World Trade Organization.At the meeting held last week, Thailand said its tyre exports to India fell 31% in July and 43% in August, while some of its AC consignments were returned.The EU wanted details on the procedures and the scope of the import restriction on tyres.
First undocumented National Book Awards finalist says 2016 election ‘ignited a fire in my belly’
The National Book Awards’ first undocumented finalist has said that the 2016 election put a “fire in [her] belly” and spurred her to write about her experience as an immigrant in America.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, one of the first undocumented students to be accepted into Harvard University, was shortlisted in October in the non-fiction category for her book The Undocumented Americans, which was published in March.
In the book, Ms Cornejo Villavicencio details her own family’s story and profiles the lives of different undocumented immigrants across the United States.
She writes that the work is “for everybody who wants to step away from the buzzwords in immigration, the talking heads, the kids in graduation caps and gowns, and read about the people underground.”
“Not heroes. Randoms. People. Characters.”
Speaking to CNN about why she decided to write the book, the 31-year-old said the 2016 election ignited “a fire in [her] belly.”
“I had read a lot of books that I felt did not do a good job of representing migrants in an interesting way. It was mostly bad writing. It relied a lot on caricatures and cliches,” she said.
“And I always thought I could do better, but I just never felt like I had a fire in my belly until the night of the election.”
Those profiled for the book range from labourers on Staten Island to people who were on the front lines cleaning up wreckage after 9/11, families facing the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and women who are forced to turn to herbalists and healers in Miami.
Ms Cornejo Villavicencio explained to the broadcaster that it was important for her to give a “full picture” of those she talked to for the book because she did not choose “to write for a White audience.”
“I chose to write for children of immigrants. I chose to write for immigrants. I chose to write for people of colour. And, you know, that’s why it’s a book that has base notes in it. It’s not a simple fragrance,” she said.
She added: “I chose to not talk about reasons why people chose to come here, because that enables the readers to judge for themselves whether the reasons are worthy or not. And it’s none of their f****** business.
“If people cross deserts or oceans and risk their lives and then have a hell of a time here, who are you to say that this is a worthy enough decision to come here? We just don’t owe that to each other.”
She said she was “offended” that literary agents suddenly began showing intertest after she published an anonymous essay for The Daily Beast about life as an undocumented harvard student.
“It wasn’t about my writing. I knew that’s not why they were reaching out,” she said.
The book finalist told CNN that she would be taking a break from writing about immigration following the book’s publication as it took an “extreme toll on [her] mental health” and said that her next work will be a novel.
“I feel like I did what I set out to, and I stopped thinking that it’s a requirement of good writing to end the day shaken and to be immobilised by trauma the day after,” she said.
Ms Cornejo Villavicencio is no longer undocumented as she recently received her green card and became a legal permanent resident, according to CNN, but she told the outlet that this doesn’t simply fix everything.
“It gives me some amount of safety,” she told the broadcaster.
“But like people who understand the system know, it’s complicated. And it’s not like everything is OK now. My parents, my family, people I love are still undocumented and I could literally be deported for any small thing.”
Speaking of releasing her experiences and such intimate stories into the world Ms Cornejo Villavicencio said: “I hope people love them. I hope immigrants and children of immigrants are inspired by them to create their own art.”
WHO rolls out plan to rid world of cervical cancer, saving millions of lives
“Eliminating any cancer would have once seemed an impossible dream, but we now have the cost-effective, evidence-based tools to make that dream a reality”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The strategy, backed by WHO Member States at the World Health Assembly last week, involves vaccinating 90 per cent of girls by the age of 15, screening 70 per cent of women by the age of 35 and again by the age of 45, and treating 90 per cent of women identified with cervical disease.
‘Big milestone’
“This is a big milestone in global health, because for the first time the world has agreed to eliminate the only cancer we can prevent with a vaccine and the only cancer which is curable if detected early”, WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Princess Nothemba Simelela told a news conference. “We have an opportunity, as the global health community, to end the suffering from this cancer.”
In latest figures, from 2018, 570,000 women acquired cervical cancer and 311,000 died. Without action to stop it, annual case numbers are projected to reach 700,000, with 400,000 associated deaths, by 2030.
Tackling the disease is expected to bring huge economic dividends because of the improved prospects for women’s participation in the workforce, with $3.20 returned to the economy for every dollar invested – or $26 once the benefits for families, communities and societies are factored in.
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally. Death rates are three times higher in in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
The disease is caused by two types of human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted infection that exists in more than 100 different forms, with symptoms that can be painful and stigmatising.
There are already three vaccines available to combat HPV and several more in the pipeline, but currently their availability is skewed towards richer countries, and the world needs to come together to help poorer countries get access to vaccines, said Dr. Simelela.
Diagnoses using AI, within minutes
“There is also new technology that is based on artificial intelligence, which can be used to screen women for cervical cancer. And if these technologies are used, we would be able to get a diagnosis of cervical cancer within 15 to 20 minutes”, she said.
That would be a huge advance from the current timeframes which can be a month or longer, especially if women live far from their nearest health facilities, she said.
In UK religion rather race is cause of more prejudice study shows
Prejudice around religion, rather than on race or xenophobia, is the “final frontier” for diversity, where individuals are prepared to express negative attitudes, a new study in England and Wales has found.
“How We Get Along: The Diversity Study of England and Wales 2020,” was published Nov. 16 by the UK-based Woolf Institute.
The institute says it combines teaching, scholarship, and outreach, focusing on Jews, Christians, and Muslims, to encourage tolerance and foster understanding between people of all beliefs.
“Attitudes between faith groups are more negative than between ethnic and national groups,” the study found.
“The strongest negative attitudes towards marrying someone from another background are observed when we group the survey respondents by religion.”
Attitudes between faith groups are more harmful than between ethnic and national groups, the study found.
And the most assertive negative attitudes towards marrying someone from another background are observed when we group the survey respondents by religion.
RELIGOUS PREJUDICE TRUMPS RACISM
“Religious prejudice, rather than racism or xenophobia, is the ‘final frontier’ for diversity, a place where individuals are willing to express negative attitudes,” said the study.
About 75 percent of people in England and Wales are comfortable with a close relative marrying an Asian or Black person (70 percent and 74 percent).
At the same time, fewer than half (44 percent) are comfortable with the idea of a close relative marrying a Muslim.
“The word ‘Muslim’ appears to trigger more negative sentiment than the word ‘Pakistani'” the report found.
The great majority of British Pakistani people are Muslim, so the researchers would expect feelings towards both groups to be broadly similar.
“However, feelings towards a close relative marrying a Muslim person appear to be more negative than those towards a Pakistani person,” it said.
The survey sought to find out what people think of their neighbors.
It sought to find out what they think of others.
It looked at race, religion, and immigration, what divides people and
what brings them together.
It examined if they share the same experiences of the diverse everyday world around them.
“Or is diversity something other people do? These are some of the questions that motivated the Woolf Institute to produce How We Get Along: The Diversity Study of England and Wales 2020,” the institute said.
It surveyed 11,701 people across England and Wales and asked questions concerning their attitudes towards ethnic, national, and religious diversity and their experiences,
The study is the largest known study of diversity undertaken in the United Kingdom said the institute.
It says that despite public concern and media narratives that the country is increasingly polarised, there is an emerging national consensus that diversity is good for Britain, but that the pace of change has been too fast for many.
The survey’s findings suggest that ‘prodiversity’ and ‘pro-immigration control’ positions are neither contradictory nor irreconcilable.
“The existence of an emerging consensus on both diversity and change offers policymakers opportunities for coalitions and broader appeal. They should seek to build on this finding when considering issues such as equality and immigration,” says the Woolf Institute.
Europe must follow Czechia in banning hen cages
Good news is in short supply these days as Europe battles Covid-19, but there is something to celebrate: breeding millions of egg-laying hens in cages will be banned in the Czech Republic, from 2027, writes Michaela Šojdrová.
Michaela Šojdrová is a Czech Member of European Parliament for the European People’s Party. She is a substitute member of the Agriculture Committee.
The next step must be to move swiftly to ban such cages throughout the EU. Cages are not only cruel — they are also unnecessary as more welfare-friendly alternatives are already in widespread use.
A vote in the upper house of the Czech Parliament, the Senate, taken on Friday (13 November) confirmed the cage ban approved by the lower house in September. The legislation will become law once signed by the Czech President.
Farmers and businesses have seven years to prepare for the ban and adapt, so any financial impact will be minimised.
My party, the Christian Democrats, fully supports the ban. The conditions in which some farmed animals are kept today are simply unacceptable: caged hens have about the same amount of space as an A4 sheet of paper and cannot even flap their wings.
We strongly believe that all animals should be treated with respect to their natural needs. That is why we want to see hen cages banned as soon as possible across the whole of the EU. I warmly welcome the Czech government’s commitment to press for this.
Getting rid of cages is feasible as viable alternatives such as barns, aviaries and outdoor free-range or organic systems are already used widely.
Indeed, Czechia’s ban is not the first. Luxembourg and Austria have already ended the use of hen cages, and Germany and Slovakia plan to do so by 2025 and 2030, respectively.
What is the rest of Europe waiting for?
Increasing numbers of consumers, appalled at the cruelty of caging hens, are refusing to buy battery eggs. The good news is that just over half of the hens on commercial egg farms in the EU today are kept in cage-free systems.
But that still means the other half of commercial hens are caged, and they make up 182 million of the 300 million or more farmed animals confined in cages each year across the EU.
The Czech ban will free from cages around 4.5 million hens a year. Now we must do the same for the millions other caged hens elsewhere in Europe.
It is clear that there is strong public support for this across the EU.
A ‘Eurobarometer’ survey of EU public opinion conducted for the European Commission found that 94% of people believe protecting the welfare of farmed animals is important, and 82% want farmed animals to be better protected.
And last month a European Citizens’ Initiative calling for an end to the use of all cages in animal farming was handed to the Commission, signed by 1.4 million citizens from every member state.
The Commission has already made a welcome commitment to improving animal welfare legislation and making agriculture more sustainable with its recently published ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy to reform the way the EU produces and consumes food.
However, Commission officials have since indicated that their proposals for improving the legislation will not be ready until the end of 2023. This is much too late, and not only in terms of animal welfare.
It may mean there will not be enough time for the European Parliament to consider the proposals before Parliament is dissolved for the next elections in spring 2024. That will delay the final adoption of the legislation even longer.
If we can end the use of cages in Czechia from 2027, I see no reason why the EU cannot work to a similar timetable.
I urge the European Commission to make revising the legislation a priority and to present its proposals as soon as possible, to ban the use of cages at least from 2027.
It may already be too late for Brexit trade deal: EU official
BRUSSELS: A senior EU official said on Monday it “may be too late already” to put in place any trade deal with Britain before its informal membership of the European Union expires at the end of this year if Brexit negotiators seal a deal this week or next.
Ireland, the EU state most exposed to Britain’s exit from the EU, said earlier in the day that Britain and the bloc had up to 10 days to unlock talks to prevent sudden tariffs and quotas from eating into an estimated trillion dollars worth of annual trade in just over six weeks.
“They haven’t quite reached where they had hoped to be,” one of EU diplomats following Brexit said as talks between the bloc’s negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart, David Frost, resumed in Brussels.
A senior EU diplomat, also speaking under condition of anonymity, added: “Britain has choices to make.”
A third EU diplomatic source said: “One cannot say things haven’t moved, since the negotiators are writing a legal text together. So there is some movement. But also way to go still.”
“The (issues of) level playing field, governance and fisheries are pending. As are serious decisions to be taken by the UK.”
While Brexit negotiators were still looking for mutually acceptable solutions to the three most contentious issues, the senior EU official said it might already be too late for the necessary ratification by the European Parliament even if Brexit negotiators nail down a deal this week or next.
“It’s getting terribly late and may be too late already,” said the official, adding that the 27-nation EU would decide next steps once Barnier and Frost produce a deal, if at all.
Upheaval In Johnson’S Circle
The European Parliament has previously said it could give the necessary consent at its last plenary meeting scheduled for this year on Dec. 15-16 – if the lawmakers received a finished text of a trade treaty on Monday at the latest.
“We remain determined, patient, respectful. We want our future cooperation to be open but fair in all areas,” Barnier said on Monday as he resumed talks with Frost.
EU sources also wondered if the upheaval this month in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson‘s inner circle – in which his top adviser and Brexit mastermind Dominic Cummings was ousted – was distracting London’s attention. This, they said, may be making it harder for Frost to know exactly how far he could go towards a compromise to clinch a deal.
Johnson’s Downing Street office said there had been no change to its Brexit strategy after Cummings’ departure, and it reiterated its uncompromising line in a statement on Monday.
“The Prime Minister has been clear that we will not accept any proposals in the negotiations that undermine our status as a sovereign, independent country and if the EU don’t respect the sovereignty of the UK we will leave on Australian terms and the Prime Minister is confident that we will prosper,” it said.
Unlike Britain’s current free-trade arrangements, Australia’s trading terms with the EU include costly barriers such as quotas and tariffs.
The 27 national EU leaders will hold a videoconference on Thursday to discuss their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Should no Brexit agreement transpire by then, they are expected to focus again on preparations for a chaotic breakdown in trade at the end of 2020 when Britain’s continued participation in the EU customs union and single market ends.
Should they fail to overcome their differences, the economic fallout would worsen the recession already wrought on Britain and the EU by the coronavirus pandemic this year.
Privacy activists file EU complaint over iPhone tracking
European privacy activists have filed a complaint against Apple over software that tracks the behaviour of iPhone users.
The Vienna-based non profit group noyb which stands for “none of your business” says it has asked data protection authorities in Germany and Spain to examine the legality of Apple’s tracking codes.
The codes, known as Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), are similar to the cookies that websites use to store information on a user’s behaviour.
But the non-profit group says that Apple’s iOS operating system creates unique codes for each iPhone that allow the company and other third parties to “identify users across applications and even connect online and mobile behaviour.”
The group argues that this amounts to tracking without users’ knowledge or consent, and violates the European Union’s electronic privacy rules.
The privacy group said it is also currently reviewing a similar system used by Google.
“Tracking is only allowed if users explicitly consent to it,” said Stefano Rossetti, a lawyer for noyb in a statement.
“While Apple introduced functions in their browser to block cookies, it places similar codes in its phones, without any consent by the user. This is a clear breach of EU privacy laws.”
“Smartphones are the most intimate device for most people and they must be tracker-free by default,” says Rossetti.
Apple has dismissed the claims, made by the group, saying they were “factually inaccurate”.
“We look forward to making that clear to privacy regulators should they examine the complaint,” the company said.
“Apple does not access or use the IDFA on a user’s device for any purpose. Our aim is always to protect the privacy of our users”.
The tech giant has also stated that the latest version of its software gives users greater control over whether apps can track them, including whether their information can be linked with data from third parties for the purpose of advertising, or sharing their information with data brokers.
“Our practices comply with European law,” Apple said.
The non profit group has filed numerous cases against major tech companies, including one against Facebook that recently led the European Union’s top court to strike down an agreement that allows companies to transfer data to the United States over snooping concerns.
No time for complacency as COVID-19 cases surge: WHO chief
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency is “extremely concerned” by the surge in cases in some countries, particularly in Europe and the Americas, which is pushing health workers and health systems to breaking point.
“In this moment when some governments have put all of society restrictions in place, there is once again a narrow window of time to strengthen key systems”, he told journalists.
‘Playing with fire’
WHO and its partners are working with national authorities, to ensure health workers who fall ill will receive proper coverage and that health systems will be ready when safe and effective vaccines are rolled out.
Tedros again highlighted the actions that have helped to prevent COVID-19 spread, such as contact tracing and cluster investigations, noting that countries which have invested in these areas are facing much less disruption.
“Those countries that are letting the virus run unchecked are playing with fire”, he stated
The WHO chief stressed the need for greater action to support health workers but also to keep schools open, protect the vulnerable and safeguard the economy.
“From calling up students, volunteers and even national guards to support the health response in times of crisis, to putting strict measures in place that allow pressure to be removed from the health system. There is no excuse for inaction. My message is very clear: act fast, act now, act decisively”, he said
Encouraging but cautious
Although welcoming the latest news on COVID-19 vaccines, WHO is awaiting further data on these potential treatments.
Biotech company Moderna announced on Monday that its experimental vaccine has shown a nearly 95 per cent efficacy rate, according to interim results.
This follows a recent similar announcement by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech.
Responding to a journalist’s question, WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan called the development “quite encouraging”, while also expressing caution.
“Of course we need to wait and see what the final efficacy and the safety profile of this vaccine will be when the whole data is analyzed after they reach their primary endpoint, and also have enough follow-up of at least two months of half the trial participants for the side effects. And that will then be submitted to the regulatory agencies”, she said.
Ensuring equitable access
The Moderna vaccine is among nine candidates in the COVAX Facility: a global initiative for equitable vaccine access led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and WHO.
More than 170 countries have joined the Facility, including some 92 low and middle income nations.
Discussions with several vaccine manufacturers from across the world is ongoing, said Dr. Swaminathan, who explained other considerations for procurement besides efficacy and safety.
“There is an independent prioritization group that is being set up that will look at the dossiers, that will look at the data, that manufacturers are submitting,” she told the briefing.
“Then there are the cost considerations as well. There is the affordability, and then there are practical considerations like the need for cold storage, the number of doses of vaccine that will be required, the number of doses that may be available early in 2021.”
Limited supplies
Dr. Swaminathan expressed hope that results from other vaccine trials currently underway will be released in the coming weeks.
She underscored the need for the COVAX Facility to have the widest possible selection of vaccine candidates as some will be more applicable in certain situations, or among sub-groups such as the elderly, for example.
“I think we’re looking at at least the first half of next year, as being a period of very, very limited doses”, she said.
“Supplies are going to be limited. There are bilateral deals that many of the companies have done, so many of the doses have already been booked by some countries.”
She stressed the overall goal of ensuring that health workers and others at high risk of COVID-19 are protected wherever they are located, underscoring the need for global solidarity.
Tensions simmer over EU-Africa trade relations
Trade relations are likely to be at the heart of the delayed EU-Africa ‘strategic partnership’, but only if long-standing tensions can be resolved, including different views on the content and form of the future trade partnership.
The EU-African Union summit, originally planned for mid-October, was delayed until 2021; officially because of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, but long-standing disagreements are simmering over future trade policy between the two continents.
The main demand of African leaders is expected to centre on the continent’s ability to develop local industries and productive capacity to export high-value products rather than raw materials.
‘It is our hope that the new partnership will create new global value chains, to increase exports of finished goods,’ Botswana’s trade minister Peggy Serame told European Commission officials at an event in late-October.
“We as Africa need to look at our productive capacity to put in place measures to be competitive but of course there are ways where we can work with the EU, who can also encourage and help us to develop our own local productive capacity,” Serame told EURACTIV.
African ministers are also likely to request new instruments on infrastructure investment, and to improve the ease of access to existing EU funds such as the External Investment Programme and European Investment Bank funds.
Serame said that in Botswana’s case EU trade relations can be improved within the context of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Southern African Development Community, of which Botswana is a member. The SADC Economic Partnership Agreement is the only EU trade deal with an African regional bloc to have been fully ratified and implemented.
“I wouldn’t re-write it (the EPA) completely,” Serame said.
“The EU will say that we have the best terms in the world in terms of what the EU will usually offer but, of course, we believe there are still areas where we can still engage further and find new opportunities. There are other (African) countries with no agreement at all and I would encourage them to have an agreement with the EU that can guide the partnership going forward,” she added.
Progress in ratifying the EPAs has ground to a halt in recent years. Africa’s least developed economies enjoy tariff-free access to the EU market with or without the EPAs, while wealthier countries complain that the terms of the EPA prevent them from protecting local industries and developing the capacity to export finished goods.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested that some EU-Africa trade deals could be renegotiated to include more preferential trade terms.
There are similar tensions between African regional trade blocs and the United States over the terms of the latter’s African Growth and Opportunity Act, which precludes the imposition of tariffs on a number of US exports to Africa.
While 54 African countries have agreed to create continent-wide free trade area, insiders to the EU-AU talks suggest that the EU insists that EU-Africa trade must remain based around the Economic Partnership Agreements.
At a EURACTIV event last month, a European Commission official argued that the African Continent Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) should be aligned with the EU’s green deal, the Commission’s flagship ten-year €1 trillion programme, designed to shift Europe to a low-carbon economy.
There are fears among African governments that the EU’s proposed introduction of a carbon tax as an own resource to fund future EU budgets could also catch them, since many African countries are unlikely to move as fast on green value chains as their EU counterparts.
In the meantime, the disruption to regional trade and supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a number of African countries to prioritise local industrial production, particularly agriculture, to ensure food security.
“We saw serious disruptions to our supply chains and had to put in place a number of protocols to protect ourselves and guard against the spread of the virus. That delayed the flow of goods into Botswana,” Minister Serame told EURACTIV.
“We also saw our private sector quickly identify new opportunities. We are seeing a lot more companies go into food production,” the minister added.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
Hungary, Poland Block EU Budget Over Rule-Of-Law Provisions
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During a meeting of EU ambassadors on November 16, … center-right group in the European Parliament, called Hungary and Poland … by the Soviet Union.
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