, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20201106IPR91014/
New WHO dashboard quantifies and visualizes European countries’ COVID-19 measures
WHO/Europe has just launched its Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM) Severity Index to provide standardized data on the ways in which countries in the WHO European Region have sought to slow or stop community spread of COVID-19. This latest tool systematically captures and analyses individual governmental PHSM responses to COVID-19 in the 53 countries of the Region.
“Public health and social measures often work together and should be considered in view of the larger COVID-19 response,” explains Ihor Perehinets, Programme Area Manager, Country Health Emergency Preparedness and IHR. “This tool is a first in WHO. By presenting epidemiological data and governments’ PHSM interventions, we trust that it will strongly inform countries’ efforts in further strengthening their response to the pandemic.”
The PHSM Severity Index is integrated into WHO/Europe’s COVID-19 Dashboard, which allows quick visualization of the most up-to-date COVID-19 statistics and information pertinent to each country in the Region. It captures 6 types of public health measures: the wearing of masks; closure of schools; closure of offices, businesses, institutions and operations; restrictions on gatherings; restrictions on domestic movement; and limitations to international travel.
These indicators represent common, restrictive large-scale interventions taken by a significant number of countries throughout the Region. The scope, severity and timing of their implementation is also aggregated to produce a composite PHSM Severity Index score, which is an average of these 6 indicators.
This level of analysis enables a comparison of individual public health measures within a country as well as overall responses across countries. It also allows for the nuances of each individual government’s actions to be analysed and understood. Common PHSM strategies, outliers and emergent patterns can be seen through a regional-level analysis and these insights, supported by country-specific examples, provide a comprehensive overview to inform policy-making.
Countries are implementing packages of measures calibrated to the local context and epidemiology of the disease. These measures help to stop chains of transmission and prevent outbreaks and are therefore critical in limiting the further spread of COVID-19 at the community level.
A video of Cardinal Tumi during his captivity has emerged – Vatican News
Paul Samasumo – Vatican City
Armed separatists in Cameroon’s restive northwestern region abducted Christian Wiyghan Cardinal Tumi as he made his way from Bamenda to Kumbo on 5 November. He was eventually released the following day.
A short 05.47 minutes video, seen by Vatican News, is currently circulating on social media. The video shows the ninety-year-old Cardinal Tumi, who is the Archbishop Emeritus of Douala, being interrogated by his captors while in captivity. Below are excerpts from the video.
Voice of Ambazonian (VA) speaks to Cardinal:
We have an allegation about you that you are the one that is creating problems in our territory first, the fighters who are on the ground, the Ambozonia Restoration Forces, you have the routine (habit) of telling them to lay down their arms …
Cardinal Tumi: All of us are fighting for peace. Even you!
VA: You are now free to go and let the Republic (Government of Cameroon) know that we will never lay down our arms until our freedom comes … because we are fighting for our rights. We are not Rebels; we are not barbaric as the Republic says, we are fighting for our rights as a people …
Cardinal Tumi: I am a Cameroonian citizen like you. I am not part of the government. I am totally independent of what I say. I am not the mouthpiece of the government because I am not employed by the government. When I speak, I speak like a pastor and that I can never stop. If I stop doing that, I will not be faithful to God the almighty. If you have done wrong, I will tell you that you have done wrong; if the government has done wrong, I will say they have done wrong!
VA: Another allegation against you is about federation. That is the allegation that we have heard that you are fighting for federation … We are not fighting for federation … we believe that we are a country (Ambazonia) from 1961…according to the allegation, you have made our boys lay down their arms and many of them have been killed.
Cardinal Tumi: Point of correction. I will preach what is true and (based on) pastoral conviction, biblical conviction. Nobody has the right to tell me to preach the contrary, because I was called by God.
No ransom paid for the release of Cardinal Tumi
The separatists, who obviously filmed the video, are keen to emphasise that Cardinal Tumi confirm, on record, that they had not mistreated him. The Cardinal affirms that he had not been mistreated but tongue-in-cheek, reminds his captor that he had not eaten anything from the time they seized him, the previous day. His interlocutor forges ahead. He wants the Cardinal to confirm, on video, that no money had been paid for his release nor had they robbed him of any personal belongings.
Traditional ruler finally released as well
Cardinal Tumi was abducted together with the paramount traditional ruler of the Nso people, Fon Sehm Mbinglo II, of Bui Division in the North West region of Cameroon. Their convoy of cars was, on the 5 November, intercepted between Bamenda and Kumbo. While Cardinal Tumi was released a day after the abduction, the separatist fighters held on to the traditional ruler. The separatists only released the traditional ruler on Tuesday, 10 November..
Pope Francis’ closeness to Cameroon
Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to Cameroon. At the weekly General Audience on 28 October, he prayed that “the tormented regions of the North West and South West of the country would find peace.”
Human Rights Watch has condemned the violence in Cameroon
According to Human Rights Watch, Cameroon’s military and the armed separatists are both guilty of atrocities and human rights violations in the four-year conflict. Over 3 000 civilians and hundreds of security personnel have been killed. The unrest in the regions has also forced more than 700 000 people from their homes. Many are now living as Internally Displaced Persons while thousands have fled across the border into Nigeria, as refugees.
What Moana was doing was against our religion – estranged father speaks
Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Amazon for the use of non-public independent seller data and opens second investigation into its e-commerce business practices
The European Commission has informed Amazon of its preliminary view that it has breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in online retail markets. The Commission takes issue with Amazon systematically relying on non-public business data of independent sellers who sell on its marketplace, to the benefit of Amazon’s own retail business, which directly competes with those third party sellers.
The Commission also opened a second formal antitrust investigation into the possible preferential treatment of Amazon’s own retail offers and those of marketplace sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “We must ensure that dual role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition. Data on the activity of third party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers. The conditions of competition on the Amazon platform must also be fair. Its rules should not artificially favour Amazon’s own retail offers or advantage the offers of retailers using Amazon’s logistics and delivery services. With e-commerce booming, and Amazon being the leading e-commerce platform, a fair and undistorted access to consumers online is important for all sellers.”
Statement of Objections on Amazon’s use of marketplace seller data
Amazon has a dual role as a platform: (i) it provides a marketplace where independent sellers can sell products directly to consumers; and (ii) it sells products as a retailer on the same marketplace, in competition with those sellers.
As a marketplace service provider, Amazon has access to non-public business data of third party sellers such as the number of ordered and shipped units of products, the sellers’ revenues on the marketplace, the number of visits to sellers’ offers, data relating to shipping, to sellers’ past performance, and other consumer claims on products, including the activated guarantees.
The Commission’s preliminary findings show that very large quantities of non-public seller data are available to employees of Amazon’s retail business and flow directly into the automated systems of that business, which aggregate these data and use them to calibrate Amazon’s retail offers and strategic business decisions to the detriment of the other marketplace sellers. For example, it allows Amazon to focus its offers in the best-selling products across product categories and to adjust its offers in view of non-public data of competing sellers.
The Commission’s preliminary view, outlined in its Statement of Objections, is that the use of non-public marketplace seller data allows Amazon to avoid the normal risks of retail competition and to leverage its dominance in the market for the provision of marketplace services in France and Germany- the biggest markets for Amazon in the EU. If confirmed, this would infringe Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) that prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.
The sending of a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of an investigation.
Investigation into Amazon practices regarding its “Buy Box” and Prime label
In addition, the Commission opened a second antitrust investigation into Amazon’s business practices that might artificially favour its own retail offers and offers of marketplace sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services (the so-called “fulfilment by Amazon or FBA sellers”).
In particular, the Commission will investigate whether the criteria that Amazon sets to select the winner of the “Buy Box” and to enable sellers to offer products to Prime users, under Amazon’s Prime loyalty programme, lead to preferential treatment of Amazon’s retail business or of the sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.
The “Buy Box” is displayed prominently on Amazon’s websites and allows customers to add items from a specific retailer directly into their shopping carts. Winning the “Buy Box” (i.e. being chosen as the offer that features in this box) is crucial to marketplace sellers as the Buy Box prominently shows the offer of one single seller for a chosen product on Amazon’s marketplaces, and generates the vast majority of all sales. The other aspect of the investigation focusses on the possibility for marketplace sellers to effectively reach Prime users. Reaching these consumers is important to sellers because the number of Prime users is continuously growing and because they tend to generate more sales on Amazon’s marketplaces than non-Prime users.
If proven, the practice under investigation may breach Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) that prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.
The Commission will now carry out its in-depth investigation as a matter of priority. The opening of a formal investigation does not prejudge its outcome.
Background and procedure
Article 102 of the TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position. The implementation of these provisions is defined in the Antitrust Regulation (Council Regulation No 1/2003), which can also be applied by the national competition authorities.
The Commission opened the in-depth investigation into Amazon’s use of marketplace seller data on 17 July 2019.
A Statement of Objections is a formal step in Commission investigations into suspected violations of EU antitrust rules. The Commission informs the parties concerned in writing of the objections raised against them. The addressees can examine the documents in the Commission’s investigation file, reply in writing and request an oral hearing to present their comments on the case before representatives of the Commission and national competition authorities. Sending a Statement of Objections and opening of a formal antitrust investigation does not prejudge the outcome of the investigations.
More information on the investigation is available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under case number AT.40462.
The Commission has informed Amazon and the competition authorities of the Member States that it has opened a second in-depth investigation into Amazon’s business practices.
This investigation will cover the European Economic Area, with the exception of Italy. The Italian Competition Authority started to investigate partially similar concerns last year, with a particular focus on the Italian market. The Commission will continue the close cooperation with the Italian Competition Authority throughout the investigation.
More information on the investigation will be available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under case number AT.40703.
There is no legal deadlines for bringing an antitrust investigation to an end. The duration of an antitrust investigation depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of the case, the extent to which the undertakings concerned cooperate with the Commission and the exercise of the rights of defence.
USCCB Statement on Holy See’s Report on Theodore McCarrick – Vatican News
By USCCB
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
November 10, 2020
I welcome the report of the Holy See’s investigation into its knowledge and decision-making regarding Theodore McCarrick during his long career as a priest, bishop, and cardinal. We are studying these findings, and we are grateful to our Holy Father Pope Francis for his pastoral concern for the family of God in the United States and his leadership in calling the Church to greater accountability and transparency in addressing issues of abuse and the mishandling of abuse claims at every level.
This is another tragic chapter in the Church’s long struggle to confront the crimes of sexual abuse by clergy. To McCarrick’s victims and their families, and to every victim-survivor of sexual abuse by the clergy, I express my profound sorrow and deepest apologies. Please know that my brother bishops and I are committed to doing whatever is in our power to help you move forward and to ensure that no one suffers what you have been forced to suffer.
To all those who have suffered abuse by a priest, bishop, or someone in the Church, I urge you to report this abuse to law enforcement and to Church authorities. You can find detailed information on how and where to report abuse at www.usccb.org/committees/protection-children-young-people/how-report-abuse.
This report underscores the need for us to repent and grow in our commitment to serve the people of God. Let us all continue to pray and strive for the conversion of our hearts, and that we might follow Jesus Christ with integrity and humility.
Amazon hit with antitrust charges over data use by European Union
European Union regulators filed antitrust charges Tuesday against Amazon, accusing the e-commerce giant of using its access to data to gain an unfair advantage over merchants using its platform.
The EU’s executive Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, issued the charges after it started looking into the company two years ago. Adding to Amazon’s regulatory headaches, EU officials also opened a second investigation into whether the company favors product offers and merchants that use its own logistics and delivery system.
It’s the latest effort by Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of competition issues, to curb the power of big technology companies. She has slapped Google with antitrust fines totaling nearly $10 billion and opened twin antitrust investigations this summer into Apple. The U.S. has started taking a tougher line as well, suing Google this year for abusing its dominance in online search and advertising.
It’s not a problem that Amazon is big and successful, said Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of competition. But “our concern is very specific business conduct which appears to distort genuine competition.”
EU officials focused on the company’s dual role as a marketplace and retailer. In addition to selling its own products, the U.S. company allows third-party retailers to sell their own goods through its site.
The commission took issue with Amazon’s systematic use of business data that it has exclusive access to to avoid the normal risks of competition and leverage its dominance for e-commerce services in France and Germany, the company’s two biggest markets in the EU.
Amazon faces a possible fine of up to 10% of its annual worldwide revenue, which could amount to as much as $28 billion based on its 2019 earnings. The company rejected the accusations.
“We disagree with the preliminary assertions of the European Commission and will continue to make every effort to ensure it has an accurate understanding of the facts,” the company said in a statement. Under EU rules, it can reply to the charges in writing and present its case in an oral hearing.
Investigators analyzed data covering 80 million transactions and 100 million products listed on Amazon’s site. Vestager said they found that “very granular, real time business data” on third party product listings and transactions was fed into algorithms for Amazon’s retail business that decide which new products to launch, their price and supplier.
“In other words, this is a case about big data,” Vestager told a press briefing.
Ordinary retailers take risks when they invest heavily to find new products, bring them to market and decide how much to sell them for, Vestager said. “Our concern is that Amazon can avoid some of those risks by using the data it has access to.”
The stakes have risen for retailers as many European countries have shut nonessential shops temporarily to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic, pushing more shopping online, where Amazon is a major presence.
The EU’s second investigation will look at the criteria Amazon uses to decide which seller’s product gets chosen for the “buy box” and for its Prime membership service, and whether that means they get preferential treatment by the company’s logistics and delivery services.
The buy box, found on the right side of Amazon’s site, lets shoppers add items directly to their shopping baskets. The box features a single seller’s product even though multiple merchants might offer it.
Press Conference by EP President Sassoli on the MFF and Own Resources | News | European Parliament
, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20201110IPR91212/
A HORRIFYING MURDER OF AN ELDERLY MEMBER OF THE AHMADIYYA MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN
The world community would be shocked to hear of the murder of another innocent Ahmadi, Mahboob Khan, brutally murdered in Peshawar, Pakistan, because of his faith and belief. Ahmadis are continuously being targeted in various cities of Pakistan and more recently in Peshawar while the Government of Pakistan has repeatedly failed to protect and stop the violence against the members of the Ahmadiyya community.
Mehboob Khan, 82 years old and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community was killed in Peshawar on 8th November 2020. He was a retired official from the Public health services. He was on his way back home after visiting his daughter when unknown assailants shot at him while he was waiting for a bus at the stop. He was shot at a very close range, close to his head, killing him instantly. As a member of he Ahmadiyya Muslim community Mehboob Khan was facing persecution and threats to his life because of his faith.
This is the fourth murder of an Ahmadi in Peshawar during the past few months. Several governments and NGOs have condemned such murders and have demanded that the Government of Pakistan must take decisive action against such heinous acts of violence that are the direct result of the ongoing religious hatred spread by the Clerics against the Ahmadis in Pakistan. As a result of such hatred and targeted attacks, Ahmadis in Pakistan live under a threatening sense of insecurity and fear. Such killings are clearly an evidence that the government and law enforcing agencies are less bothered and intentionally ignoring to protect and safeguard the lives and properties of Ahmadis.
Hate campaigns against Ahmadis in recent months are on the increase. The Government of Pakistan has turned a blind eye towards the plight of members of the Ahmadiyya Community and has failed to act against those behind such hate campaigns.
Despite the repeated rhetoric of the Pakistan Government that Ahmadis are free and not persecuted, nothing is further from the truth. Pakistan is unable to safeguard and protect Ahmadis who are citizens of Pakistan. The evidence is compelling, overwhelming and beyond dispute. The Government of Pakistan needs to get its act together to ensure the safety and protection of all its citizens.
Web: www.hrcommittee.org – Address: International Human Rights Committee – 22 Deer Park Rd, London, SW19 3TL
Parliament and EU ministers Agree on New EU Export Rules
The reviewed rules, agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators, govern the export of so-called dual use goods, software and technology – for example, high-performance computers, drones and certain chemicals – with civilian applications that might be repurposed to be used in ways which violate human rights.
The current update, made necessary by technological developments and growing security risks, includes new criteria to grant or reject export licenses for certain items.
Human rights and cyber-surveillance
Parliament negotiators, mandated by a 2018 report, have succeeded in substantially strengthening human rights considerations among those new criteria to avoid that certain surveillance and intrusion technologies exported from the EU contribute to human rights abuses.
Parliament negotiators
- got agreement on setting up an EU-wide regime to control cyber-surveillance items that are not listed as dual-use items in international regimes, in the interest of protecting human rights and political freedoms;
- strengthened member states’ public reporting obligations on export controls, so far patchy, to make the cyber-surveillance sector in particular more transparent;
- increased the importance of human rights as licensing criterion; and
- agreed on rules to swiftly include emerging technologies in the regulation.
Bernd Lange (S&D, DE), the head of the negotiating delegation
“Parliament’s perseverance and assertiveness against a blockade by some member states has paid off: respect for human rights will become an export standard. The revised regulation updates European export controls and adapts to technological progress, new security risks and information on human rights violations. It is an EU milestone, as export rules for surveillance technologies have been agreed for the first time. Economic interests must not take precedence over human rights.
“This new regulation, in addition to the one on conflict minerals and a future supply chain law, shows that we can shape globalisation according to a clear set of values and binding rules to protect human and labour rights and the environment. This must be the blueprint for future rule-based trade policy”, the leader of the Parliamentary delegation said.
Markéta Gregorová (Greens/EFA, CZ), rapporteur
“Today is a win for global human rights. We have set an important example for other democracies to follow. We will now have EU-wide transparency on the export of cyber surveillance and will control the export of biometric surveillance. Authoritarian regimes will no longer be able to secretly get their hands on European cyber-surveillance. We still do not have a level-playing field among EU countries but several new provisions allow for autonomous controls, better enforcement and coordination. I expect that member states’ obligation to uphold human rights and their own security will be the foundation of further work ahead”, said the rapporteur, who has led the negotiating team since July 2020.
Next steps
The informal political agreement now needs to be formally endorsed by the International Trade Committee and Parliament as a whole, as well as the Council, before it can enter into effect.
Background
The Commission tabled the original proposal to review the export controls regime in 2016, with the goal of updating the rules under which member states license companies to sell dual use goods, software and technology to third countries. The Commission also included cyber-surveillance technologies among dual use products. Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate in January 2018, and was waiting for the Council’s position to start talks until October 2019.
