China Grants $90M To Sri Lanka

By

Shyamal Sinha

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13 October 2020

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Buddhist Times News – China Grants M To Sri Lanka

By — Shyamal Sinha

New Delhi – China announced Sunday that it was providing a $90 million grant to Sri Lanka, two days after the island nation’s president sought help from a visiting Chinese delegation in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are debt traps.

Calling the financial assistance a timely grant, the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said that it would be used for medical care, education and water supplies in Sri Lanka’s rural areas. and that it would contribute to the well-being of (Sri Lankans) in a post-COVID era.

The announcement follows a visit to the Indian Ocean island nation Friday by a Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, a Communist Party Politburo member and a former foreign minister.

During talks with Yang, Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa asked China to help him in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are debt traps aimed at gaining influence in local affairs.

China considers Sri Lanka to be a critical link in its massive Belt and Road global infrastructure building initiative and has provided billions of dollars in loans for Sri Lankan projects over the past decade. The projects include a seaport, airport, port-city, highways and power stations.

Critics say that the Chinese-funded projects are not financially viable and that Sri Lanka will face difficulties in repaying the loans.

In 2017, Sri Lanka leased out a Chinese-built port located near busy shipping routes to a Chinese company for 99 years to recover from the heavy burden of repaying the Chinese loan the country received to build it.

The facility is part of Beijings plan for a line of ports stretching from Chinese waters to the Persian Gulf. China has also agreed to provide a $989 million loan to Sri Lanka to build an expressway that will connect its tea-growing central region to the Chinese-run seaport.

China expanded its footprint in Sri Lanka during the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the older brother of the current leader. Mahinda Rajakapaksa, who is currently prime minister, held separate talks with Yang on Friday.

Chinas economic influence over Sri Lanka has worried its closest neighbor, India, which considers the Indian Ocean region to be its strategic backyard.

Yangs visit came days after the top diplomats of four Indo-Pacific nations the U.S., Japan, India and Australia met in Tokyo to increase their involvement in a regional initiative called Free and Open Indo-Pacific aimed at countering Chinas growing assertiveness in the region.

India’s relative size by itself, regardless of policies, makes it a threatening actor in the subcontinent. Sometimes, policies add to the problem. It is no surprise that small neighbours would want an extra-regional balancer to temper Indian influence and even to secure better terms from the bureaucrats in New Delhi. China is the most obvious option to balance India. Besides geopolitical balancing, there is genuine need for capital for infrastructure projects in SriLanka . If India cannot service those needs, then China’s bottomless pocket comes in handy. There is also the angle of Chinese money greasing the political economy of small countries.

Book Review: ’150 Glimpses of the Beatles,’ by Craig Brown

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Newsdesk

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13 October 2020

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150 GLIMPSES OF THE BEATLES
By Craig Brown

Unlike so many authors these days, with their long subtitles and longer introductions that tell you what’s about to unfold, Craig Brown just dives right in. No theme, no preamble, just glimpses of the Beatles (although not always of the Beatles themselves), and it’s up to you to put it together. And as with the Beatles’ music itself, I liked it more the more it went along.

The most puzzling part of this often witty book is how much space he devotes at the beginning to (what becomes) a running feud with the curators and guides who take Beatle tourists through the storied Liverpool sites. Why so much punching down to set us off on our journey? Brown concludes one contretemps with the put-down “Yet so far he” — the guide — “hadn’t said anything that I hadn’t read countless times.” Well, I thought the same thing on many pages of this book.

And that’s not a complaint. I like the old stories — frankly, if I wanted something challenging to read, I wouldn’t be reading “150 Glimpses of the Beatles.” (Brown’s previous book was “Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret.”) Glimpse No. 53 begins: “For Christmas 1964, when I was 7, my brothers and I were given Beatles wigs by our parents.” If you change 7 to 8 and brothers to sister, I could have written the exact same sentence. So I knew I was disposed to like this book — and I did.

[ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of October. See the full list. ]

But with a Beatles book, one always has to ask: Who is this for? Ringo is 80; if they remade “A Hard Day’s Night,” Paul could play the part of the granddad he was looking after in the film. For the younger reader who’s heard the music and now wants to know the stories behind it, good news, because they’re only clichés if you’ve heard them a hundred times — so for me, there were quite a few clichés: that the Lennon-McCartney magic came from the “intermingling of the dark and the sunny,” or that each member personified a different element: “John fire, Paul water, George air, Ringo earth” (although I’ve also heard they were like a Chinese banquet, one sweet, one sour, one salty, one spicy). Or the old one about how the timing of the Beatles’ arrival in America was so key — that for many “two events will always be linked: The assassination of J.F.K. was winter; the Beatles are spring.”

For this reader, when Brown tells one of the Beatle stories I’ve heard many times and now adds information I didn’t know — or the telling detail that was missing for 50 years — the book is an utter delight. I knew the Beatles were introduced to LSD by their dentist, but now I know exactly who that guy was and how that night unfolded (if you can trust a 55-year-old account from people who were tripping for the first time). The Dylan-turns-them-on-to-pot-for-the-first-time scene, which all Beatlephiles know, also comes to life now in a way it never had before. As does George’s visit to Haight-Ashbury in ’67, which I’d always seen rendered as disillusioning, but according to Brown was life-threatening. I knew the Beatles had their sexual awakening in seamy postwar Hamburg, but I didn’t know that John and Paul actually watched George lose his virginity. This band was tight!

According to Brown, John hit on both Jane Asher before she was with Paul, and on Pattie Boyd while she was with George. Wow. And how fascinating to find out that the famous picture of the Beatles in Miami with the not-yet-champ Muhammad Ali is kind of a lie: It’s not a photo-preserved moment of the rebellious youths of their day recognizing kindred spirits in each other. The Beatles didn’t like Ali (then Clay) at all, and had wanted to pose with the champ, Sonny Liston — and Ali didn’t like them either.

Now, do we know that all these things are true? To quote you-know-who, it doesn’t matter much to me. I doubt if there can ever be solid proof that in 1969 John suggested to Paul they undergo joint trepanning, where you have a hole drilled into your skull. Whether this was related to John’s being with Yoko at that point, the author does not say — but one would not be wrong to infer it. As many writers have been before, he’s pretty hard on Yoko, and his description of Yoko’s pursuit of her prey is riveting. I didn’t know that Yoko wooed John with daily letters the entire time he was in India, or that she camped out on his driveway, and once jumped in his car. “Yoko’s strength lay in perseverance,” he understates.

Again, who knows what’s true — and to his credit, this is something Brown acknowledges, citing how many of the famed moments in Beatle lore are remembered and recounted differently by different Beatles’ biographers and principals, not unlike the way the four Gospels do not everywhere match. The Creation Event — the day John met Paul at the fete in Woolton on July 6, 1957 — is such a moment, and Brown doesn’t try to umpire a final version, he gives you them all. Same with the ugly moment when John beat up a man who joked Lennon might be gay. Yes, not even the Beatles could be totally woke in 1963.

Also like the Bible, “150 Glimpses of the Beatles” is a kind of anthology — from an author who, if I can believe the sources list in the back, read hundreds of books written by Beatle biographers and entourage members, and plucked the moments he found the most … and that’s the question, the most what? Important? Telling? Quirky? One thing most Beatle fans would say makes us love them: On their albums, there was very little filler, all of it was good. Ahem.

For example, there’s a running theme of “What ifs?” that sound like something you’d resort to on a very long car trip, including a really annoying reimagining of history where it was Gerry and the Pacemakers who made it big, and the Beatles who were a footnote in musical history. But it’s dumb, because there’s a reason that it happened the way it did, not a quirk of fate. The Beatles recorded 200 terrific songs, and the Pacemakers two. And if you don’t know who Gerry and the Pacemakers are, I’m not sure this will be all that interesting to you anyway.

“150 Glimpses” is best when Brown poignantly chronicles the toll that being a Beatle took on these four still-young men in the 1960s — the photos of them that went from smiling to unsmiling — “crushed by the weight of the world’s adulation.” And there’s a book within the book about how it turned out for ex-Beatles Stu and Pete, Beatle-for-a-week Jimmie Nicol, the long-suffering, Hera-like Cynthia Lennon, and other supporting cast members and day players caught in the orbit of the sun gods. Spoiler alert: not well.

In describing watching a Beatle tribute band, Brown says: “One half of your brain recognizes that these are not the Beatles: How could they be? But the other half is happy to believe that they are.” It’s like that with this book. Would it have been better if it were 99 glimpses and I didn’t have to wade through glimpsing Margaret Thatcher, or who was standing inadvertently in the background of the “Abbey Road” cover, or whatever happened to the Singing Nun? Yes, I think it would — but you can’t always get what you want. Wait, that’s the Stones.

Spain: EIB provides €50 million to Navarre to strengthen its health response to COVID-19

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Newsroom

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13 October 2020

0

Spain: EIB provides €50 million to Navarre to strengthen its health response to COVID-19

©Unsplash

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing €50 million to the Autonomous Community of Navarre to strengthen its capacity to respond to the COVID-19 health crisis. The EU bank financing will enable the Spanish region to adapt its healthcare infrastructure to meet the additional costs generated by the pandemic.

The EIB is granting these funds under a specific programme it approved to support healthcare investments in Spain and Portugal. The aim of this €750 million programme is to help bolster healthcare infrastructure and support health sector research and development (R&D) investment in both countries. This financing is also part of the extraordinary measures the EIB has taken to speed up its processes and make its internal policies more flexible in order to – among other things – deploy its support as quickly as possible and finance expenses that it would not normally cover, such as the operating costs of businesses and the extraordinary expenditure of public authorities.

Under this agreement, the Autonomous Community of Navarre will have access to the medium and long-term resources it needs to deal with the pandemic. The EIB funds (provided on favourable terms) will enable it to finance the extraordinary operating expenses caused by the crisis. This covers the purchase of medical supplies, including health equipment and mobile units; the use of hospital and hotel facilities; and additional healthcare personnel costs.

The EIB financing will also help create jobs at a time of crisis, with the Autonomous Community of Navarre estimating that it will need employ at least 375 additional people (both medical and administrative staff) during the implementation phase.

EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro, who is responsible for the EU bank’s operations in Spain, made the following comment on this agreement: “The COVID-19 crisis has placed a great deal of strain on healthcare facilities in Spain. At the EIB, we are taking specific measures to alleviate this pressure by providing funds to adapt healthcare infrastructure and finance extraordinary costs caused by the pandemic. We are pleased to be taking a further step in this direction by supporting the Autonomous Community of Navarre’s health efforts in this crisis. As the EU bank, we will do everything in our power to help Europe to handle the pandemic and to drive the economic recovery.”

Speaking on behalf of the government of Navarre, Minister of the Economy and Finance Elma Saiz highlighted: “The importance of being able to conclude an agreement like this one for a more secure response to some of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. An agreement that also features a favourable interest rate.”

EIB response to COVID-19

The EIB Group is playing a key role in directly combating COVID-19 by supporting EU efforts to halt the spread of the pandemic, find a cure for the illness and develop a vaccine. To this end, the EU bank is prioritising all investments related to the health sector and research and development programmes focusing on this goal. The agreement signed today with the Autonomous Community of Navarre is an example of this support. The operation was approved using an accelerated procedure put in place by the EIB for this emergency situation, which will ensure that the funds can reach Navarre as soon as possible.

The EIB’s current project portfolio for supporting both critical healthcare infrastructure and research and development investments in the EU health sector stands at around €6 billion. The EIB and the World Health Organization also recently signed an agreement to drive cooperation between the two institutions and work together to strengthen healthcare systems in the countries most vulnerable to the pandemic.

To combat the economic impact of this crisis in Europe, and in line with the Eurogroup’s 9 April recommendation, the EIB Board of Directors signalled its support for the creation of a €25 billion European guarantee fund for COVID-19 on 16 April. The fund will make it possible to mobilise up to an estimated €200 billion of additional financing, with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

At the same time, the EIB Group is reorienting its operations to meet the financing needs created by COVID-19 and offer immediate assistance to European businesses. In March, the EIB Group announced a package of measures with this objective in mind. As part of this initial response package, the European Investment Fund (EIF – the EIB Group subsidiary specialising in support for SMEs) is offering specific EU-backed guarantees to financial intermediaries that will help to mobilise up to €8 billion in financing. For its part, the EIB is also adapting its existing financing instruments shared with the European Commission to mobilise up to €20 billion in additional financing for European SMEs and mid-caps.

More detailed information on the support offered by the EIB and EIF

UN chief announces major push to transform harmful food systems

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officialinstitutions

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13 October 2020

0

UN chief announces major push to transform harmful food systems

In a video message, Mr. Guterres highlighted the importance of food systems, and their impact on economies, environment and health, but warned that they are “one of the main reasons we are failing to stay within our planet’s ecological boundaries”.

Table of Contents

A timely Nobel Prize

This year, the coronavirus pandemic has brought the fragility of the world’s food supplies to the fore, with millions going hungry. At the same time, the climate crisis continues to wreak havoc on food security.

To address these issues, the Secretary-General is convening a Food Systems Summit next year to raise global awareness and spur actions to rethink food systems, so that they can play a more positive role in ending hunger, reducing diet-related disease, and help in the fight against climate change.

The event will be held at UN Headquarters in New York in September, in conjunction with the next UN General Assembly opening session and, said Mr. Guterres, will focus the attention of world leaders on the issue.

“The awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP) highlights the Summit’s timeliness”, he added, underlining the need for global engagement and action for inclusive and sustainable food systems, and calling on everyone to join these conversations.

Raise ambition, change direction

The Summit will be run by a specially appointed envoy, former Rwandan Minister for Agriculture, Agnes Kalibata. At a press briefing on Monday, she emphasized the need for food systems – which are responsible for trillions of dollars in wasted food, and significant greenhouse gas emissions – to radically change.

The Special Envoy told reporters that the Summit puts food and food systems at the heart of the UN’s Decade of Action, the 10 years left we have left to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Work to make sure the Summit is a success has already begun, she explained, with a scientific group, made up of experts drawn from a range of disciplines, having met over the summer to ensure that the event is based on sound scientific principles.

This November, dialogues will begin at a national level, involving governments and other stakeholders. These discussions, said Ms. Kalibata, will be critical, and will culminate in a meeting in Rome next Summer, at which actions for inclusive and sustainable food systems will be identified, and taken forward as recommendations for the Secretary-General to submit to world leaders at the September Summit.

‘Grow, nourish, sustain. Together’

This Friday, on World Food Day, the Summit team is holding a 24-hour global relay conversation, involving actors, celebrity chefs, and young people, to raise awareness about the unsustainable nature of the global food system, and will also serve as the launch of the Summit dialogues.

The main World Food Day events will begin at 2pm, Central European Time, with an opening ceremony involving key UN officials, Pope Francis, Queen Letizia of Spain and other prominent figures.

Other events include a video mapping show, which will be broadcast live from the Colosseum, and the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the Italian capital.

Czech Republic: EIB signs a CZK 1.3 billion loan with Central Bohemia Region to improve healthcare and other key infrastructures at #EURegionsWeek

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Newsroom

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13 October 2020

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Czech Republic: EIB signs a CZK 1.3 billion loan with Central Bohemia Region to improve healthcare and other key infrastructures at #EURegionsWeek

More than half of the loan will back healthcare infrastructure

Financing will also cover transport, social care, education and energy efficiency of public buildings

New partnership will support regional cohesion

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a CZK 1.3 billion loan (equivalent to €48 million) with Středočeský kraj, the Region of Central Bohemia in Czech Republic, to improve healthcare, transport, social care and education infrastructures, as well as to increase energy efficiency of public buildings.

EIB loan will cover the construction, modernisation and optimisation of the medical facilities of the region. It will enable the medical infrastructures to achieve higher efficiency, increased service quality, energy savings, as well as improved emergency preparedness, notably to cope with pandemics such as the COVID-19.

Investment in the transport sector will include improvements of the intra-regional connectivity, which will result in safer roads and reduced traffic congestion. The project will also contribute to improve the quality of public services in the sectors of education and culture, thanks to the construction and rehabilitation of dedicated buildings.

EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova said: Supporting cohesion so that each European region can achieve its full potential is one of the original raisons d’être of the EIB and is now more than ever one of our priorities. I am very pleased to announce this partnership with the Central Bohemia Region of the Czech Republic during the European Week of Regions and Cities. I am convinced that our joint projects will contribute to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure that will enable the region to cope with current and future health, economic and climate challenges. Together we will enhance the attractiveness of the region and increase economic opportunities and the quality of life of all citizens.”

„In the next four years, the loan will be drawn in the Central Bohemia Region on the basis of individual applications and contracts. The first drawdown should be this year for a total of 52 projects, of which 17 are projects in the field of healthcare (CZK 2 billion), 15 projects in the field of road transport (CZK 449 million), 2 projects in the field of education (CZK 176 million), 4 projects in the field of social affairs (CZK 255 million) and 14 projects in the field of energy savings (CZK 152 million),” specified Gabriel Kovács, Deputy Governor for Finance (ANO 2011).

This new EIB financing contributes to the Central Bohemia regional plans for development and land-use, which seek to improve the backbone infrastructure of the region and thus boost the economy and improve the quality of public services in the region. The energy efficiency measures included in the project for the rehabilitation and construction of new public buildings are in line with the Central Bohemia Energy Policy. The EIB is also providing technical assistance through its European Local ENergy Assistance (ELENA) for deep energy efficiency renovation projects in buildings of organisations administrated by the Central Bohemia Region. As Cohesion Priority Region, Central Bohemia is also receiving EU support to implement its development plans.

The Central Bohemia Region Development Programme 2014-2020 comprises five development priorities for the Region: entrepreneurship and employment, infrastructure and territorial development, human resources and education, countryside and agriculture and environment.

About the Central Bohemia Region

The Central Bohemia Region is located in the centre of Bohemia. It is the largest region of the Czech Republic in terms of size, number of municipalities and population. Its area is 10,929 km2 and the region represents almost 14% of the territory of the Czech Republic. The region features a high proportion of municipalities with a population of up to two thousand (1,031 municipalities), in which 40.9% of the population lives. As of 30 September 2017, the Central Bohemia Region had a population of 1,348,840 and was the most populous region in the Czech Republic. The population density was 123 people per square kilometer. Economic activity and employment of the population, their average wages and household income have been increasing in the Central Bohemia Region for a long time and the numbers are the second highest in the Czech Republic, with Prague being the first.

Qatar University awarded EU funding to teach EU law

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Newsdesk

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13 October 2020

0

Qatar University awarded EU funding to teach EU law

Doha: The Center for Law and Development (CLD) at the College of Law (LAWC), Qatar University (QU), has been awarded the European Union (EU) Jean Monnet Module funding to deliver courses on EU law to students and professionals in Qatar.

The ‘Doha Courses on European Union Law’ will be the first Jean Monnet Module in Qatar and the GCC, and the courses will be delivered annually for three years. In a funding competition, the CLD won a competitive grant and was one of 360 awarded applications out of the 1447 eligible funding applications in 2020.

The Module aims to create interest in the European Union and constitute the basis for future European knowledge and research poles in Qatar. The Module will allow the CLD to deliver tailor-made courses on specific European Union law issues relevant to graduates’ professional lives.

The Module will promote research and teaching experience among young researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the EU issues. Further, it seeks to foster the publication and dissemination of academic research in EU law and create interest in the EU amongst Qatar students. This will help Qatar-based lawyers develop skills and knowledge in EU law to equip local businesses and organizations better to trade with EU businesses and deal with EU institutions.

Firstly, the Module components focus on introducing the European Union’s legal history and institutions, and secondly, on legal areas where the European Union plays a leading role. It aims to promote international organisations’ knowledge and integration using the European Union as a model, environmental protection, and human rights, critical pillars of QNV2030. The focus on protecting the environment and human rights represents an essential contribution towards promoting environmental and human rights issues in the Qatari society. Increasing education quality on the above issues will have essential spill-overs on Qatari education and community. Finally, there will be a Research Seminar on Conducting Research on European Union Law.

The Jean Monnet Module and its components will contribute to the strategic objectives of promoting the role of Qatar University as a source of expertise to serve the nation’s needs; strengthening local, regional, and international partnerships in strategic areas and be a catalyst development of Qatar. It also seeks to enhance Qatar’s innovation in collaboration with Qatar’s government, industry, and funding organizations. The project will result in improved competencies in law programs.

QU College of Law Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Khalid Al Shamari, commented: “This will allow for better job placement of graduates and benefits for the national workforce and institutions. It will have a very positive impact on Qatari companies and institutions, thus contributing to the knowledge-based economy and the diversification of growth.”

Several organizations in Qatar have departments dealing with European affairs. Teaching personnel in the Module activities will improve capacities to develop and teach modern European Union law courses that exhibit state-of-the-art European standards.

Latest news of Europe and the world.

China Grants $90M To Sri Lanka

Book Review: ’150 Glimpses of the Beatles,’ by Craig Brown

Spain: EIB provides €50 million to Navarre to strengthen its health response to COVID-19