15 August 2020 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. The peace agreement brought an end to 30 years of conflict. Aceh’s example serves as an inspiration of how, through negotiations and strong political will, peace can be achieved even in the most dire of circumstances.
The European Union is proud to have contributed to the peace process, mediated by former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, through the Aceh Monitoring Mission deployed under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, jointly with five member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines and Singapore- as well as Norway and Switzerland. The European Union and its Member States have also significantly contributed to Aceh’s reconstruction. We remain committed to Aceh’s socio-economic development and to the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding. The European Union reiterates its intention to further develop partnerships, together with ASEAN and its member countries, aimed at contributing to peace and security in the region.
China Literature, China’s top online publishing and bookselling platform, lost $465 million in the first six months of the year, reversing a $55 million profit from the first six months of 2019. The loss came despite a 10% hike in revenue, to $461 million. The company is owned by Tencent, which in 2018 led a $51 million funding round for Wattpad, the Canadian social writing platform. China Literature attributes a large proportion of this year’s loss to mismanagement of their acquisition of New Classics Media, a film and television production company it acquired in 2018 for $2.2 billion.
Last year, China Literature also encountered challenges when the Chinese government accused affiliated companies of publishing salacious material. China Literature’s stock price plummeted and it’s valuation was cut by nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars. It has since recovered somewhat, but shares were down on the latest earnings release.
Company executives have admitted that China LIterature’s business model may be broken. The firm has long relied on a model in which readers make micro-payments to read on the site, as well as rights sales for print publishing, and TV and film adaptations. The Covid-19 crisis slowed IP sales dramatically in the first six months of the year, with revenue down 41.5% and physical book sales and affiliated revenue dropped more than 50%
In addition, a new free-to-read app introduced last year proved unpopular and proposed changes to the way writers are compensated sparked a backlash among the site’s authors.
“The first half of 2020 presented tremendous challenges for China Literature,” said Cheng Wu, CEO of China Literature in a statement. “The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and a complex and changing macro-environment had a negative impact on our business. The Company recorded a loss for the first time in many years. The disappointing results made us realize that the lack of resilience of our underlying business model and our structural issues that have piled up over the recent years. We will take actions to actively deal with these challenges and have already quickly responded to address some of the most urgent issues affecting the cornerstones of our business.”
In a rare expression of candor for a Chinese business executive, Cheng Wu, continued, “Going forward, we will focus on upgrading our content, platform and ecosystem to unlock the core values of the Company and to achieve a turnaround. In the long run, we are prepared to adopt a new culture and creative ideas from a more strategic and multi-dimensional perspective. We will also work with our strategic partners including Tencent to develop the industry together, with a more open and positive attitude, and invest in our future with greater courage and patience.”
One possible correction may involve putting more effort into building it’s English-language presence: China Literature launched an English-language site, Webnovel, several years ago, and postings to self-publishing forums indicate the company has been actively recruiting more English-language writers to the site in recent months and the company launched a $10,000 writing contest in June.
Germany’s main Protestant church led a crowdfunding effort that purchased the rescue ship Sea-Watch 4 that is ready for work in the Mediterranean Sea to help migrants trying to reach Europe from North Africa.
The Evangelical Church (EKD) initiated the effort by United4Rescue, a broad alliance to support civilian sea rescue.
“We connect all social organizations and groups that do not want to stand idly by the thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean,” says United4Rescue. “Through donation campaigns, we support rescue organizations that act in a humanitarian manner where politics fails.”
The crew on board the “Sea-Watch 4” has spent the past few weeks converting the old research vessel into a sea rescue vessel, the German news agency epd reported.
Aboard is a protection area with 24 beds for women and children along with a hospital ward.
The news agency reported that recent sea tests have shown that all is ship shape aboard the vessel.
When the crew has passed its mandatory quarantine it can start its work.
soon when the crew has passed their mandatory quarantine. Due to the corona pandemic and the lockdown in Spain, the first mission was delayed almost four months.
Sea-Watch 4 is to set sail from the Spanish Burriana in the the coming day of August, less than a year after a petition was published by the 12th Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, the WCC reported.
The petition asked the church council to continue to campaign for sea rescue, communal reception, safe escape routes, fair asylum procedures and legal migration opportunities.
“We ask for God’s blessing on the crew of Sea-Watch 4 and on their important mission. May each of us, too, become a vessel of hope and instruments of peace for our neighbors,” said Rev. Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
Work to convert the old research vessel into a sea rescue ship is almost complete and the crew is currently undergoing training and drills.
They will soon set out on their first mission.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in Spain, the mission was delayed almost four months.
Since the end of all state-sponsored rescue operations, only private ships have been sailing in the Mediterranean to rescue people who have fled from distress at sea.
It is estimated that around 400 people have drowned in the Mediterranean in 2020.
“One does not let any single human drown, end of discussion,” said Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chairperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany, during the ceremony that launched the mission in February, in the city of Kiel.
The fundraising efforts that enabled Sea-Watch 4 to prepare to operate started in December, with a campaign of the alliance called “United4Rescue” named #WirschickeneinSchiff (“We send a ship”).
The coalition initiated has more than 500 supporting organizations, ranging from congregations and student groups to diaconal agencies as well as secular partners.
In January, the alliance succeeded in auctioning the former research ship “Poseidon” at a cost of 1.3 million euros, including 1.1 million euros donated by United4Rescue.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, related misleading health information, consumer fraud, cybercrime and targeted disinformation campaigns have posed several potential risks to the citizens, their health and their trust in health authorities. As High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell stated “the coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by a massive infodemic.”
This was the case in the Western Balkans as well which kept the region’s fact-checkers busy debunking fake news, exposing disinformation trends, and contributing to media literacy in particular among younger generations.
Due to similarity of the region’s languages, disinformation does not stop at borders and requires close collaboration between the regions’ fact-checkers. That collaboration has intensified during COVID-19 crisis. For instance, the members of the South-East Europe fact-checking network SEE Check – composed of some Western Balkans and EU member states fact-checking organisations – stepped up their collaboration. They exchanged knowledge and practices at the peak of the crisis, proving their key role in building resilience to disinformation in local communities and in that way strengthening democracy.
Regional organisations achieved the highest international standards in fact-checking. They relied on already existing regional fact-checking networks, linked up with partners in the EU and proved to make a highly valuable contribution in the fight against infodemic. A visible recognition of their work is the fact that four organisations from the region – Raskrinkavanje.ba, Raskrinkavanje.me, Metamorphosis Foundation and Truthmeter, and Istinomer – joined the third-party fact-checking program, part of the Facebook’s strategy against disinformation.
Facebook’s Fact-Checking Programme
The work of four Western Balkans organisations continues within Facebook’s Fact-Checking Programme, which currently includes 70 independent fact-checking organisations, working in more than 50 languages around the world with the aim to fight the spread of false news on Facebook and Instagram. All partners are certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network.
When fact-checkers rate an article as false, Facebook (FB) shows it lower in News Feed, reducing future views by over 80% on average. In practice, FB demotes links rated false and provides more context on the social media. When fact checkers rate the content as false, FB reduces its distribution in News Feed and guide people who try to share it on further context and information available on the subject. FB also notifies people who shared it earlier and shows the fact-checker’s reference article in Related Articles immediately below the false story in News Feed. FB claims also taking action against repeat offenders by reducing the overall distribution of the Page or website and by cutting off their ability to make money or advertising on FB.
The Western Balkans fact-checking organisations accepted to the FB Third-Party Program will work in cooperation with Agence France-Presse (AFP).
More information about the Western Balkans fact-checking organisations partnering with Facebook
WHO has published revised interim guidance on public health surveillance for COVID-19 cases. This document includes revision of suspected and probable case definitions to integrate increased knowledge on the clinical spectrum of COVID-19 signs and symptoms.
WHO has published revised interim guidance on public health surveillance for COVID-19 cases. This document provides guidance to Member States on the implementation of surveillance for COVID-19 and the reporting requirements for WHO.
What is new in this revised version:
revision of suspected and probable case definitions to integrate increased knowledge on the clinical spectrum of COVID19 signs and symptoms;
updated approaches to surveillance, including environmental and serological surveillance for SARS-CoV-2;
revision of variables included in weekly surveillance to fit with new case definitions and surveillance objectives (that is, inclusion of probable cases, health-care worker cases and updated age groups for reporting cases and deaths);
information on the importance of the collection of metadata for analysis and interpretation of surveillance data;
recommendations for ending case-based reporting for global surveillance and replacing it with aggregate reporting.
HRWF (13.08.2020) – Human Rights Without Frontiers HRWF) condemns the death sentence by hanging issued by a Nigerian Sharia court in Kano against a 22-year-old singer for allegedly insulting the Prophet in a song that he wrote and circulated on WhatsApp.
“Blasphemy laws are inconsistent with freedom of expression, including on religious issues or about religious figues,” HRWF director declared. “They should be repealed and the sentence imposed on the singer should be overturned.”
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Muslim musician, is not well-known in northern Nigeria. His songs were not popular outside his Tijaniya Sufi group of North African origin.
The singer had gone into hiding after he composed the song as protesters had burnt down his family home and gathered outside the headquarters of the Islamic police, known as the Hisbah, demanding action against him.
The leader of the protesters that called for the musician’s arrest in March, Idris Ibrahim, told the BBC that the judgement will serve as a warning to others “contemplating toeing Yahaya’s path”.
Sharif-Aminu can appeal the verdict.
Only one of the death sentences passed by Nigeria’s Sharia courts has been carried out since they were reintroduced in 1999.
Public health systems and independent national verification committees in countries of the WHO European Region have shown continued commitment to measles and rubella elimination even with the COVID-19 pandemic creating an extraordinary burden on health systems.
As part of an annual verification process, a majority of countries have submitted their annual status updates on measles and rubella transmission for 2019 for review by the independent European Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination (RVC).
Exceptional verification process in an exceptional year
The RVC is an independent group of experts that meets each year in June to review surveillance and immunization data submitted by the national verification committees, with the aim of assessing the status of measles and rubella elimination in each country and the Region. This year the RVC meets virtually in a series of sessions, the first of which was held on 29 June 2020 when the Commission reviewed 11 of the submitted annual status update reports. These were from:
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Latvia
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan.
The RVC verified that all countries had maintained their measles elimination status; and all countries that had previously achieved rubella elimination maintained this status. The Commission determined that all 11 countries demonstrated the absence of endemic transmission of both diseases in 2019 and commended these countries for the achievement and for documenting their activities.
The Commission based its conclusions on:
routine and supplemental immunization performance;
measles and rubella surveillance with laboratorial and molecular epidemiology segments;
outbreak response;
activities focused on advocacy, communication and health literacy of the population and health-care workers;
commitment of stakeholders to the elimination goal.
Denmark: elimination of rubella confirmed
This first session provided the opportunity for the RVC to reassess the status of rubella transmission in Denmark, using the latest global guidance and data provided in the annual status updates for 2019 and previous years. Basing its assessment on the review of previous and newly submitted data, the Commission determined that for the first time, Denmark was verified as having eliminated rubella.
Final recommendations and reporting
WHO/Europe will work with countries to support completion of the reporting process where needed. The Commission is expected to review all remaining annual status reports in a series of virtual meetings in the coming months. Once the reports from all 53 countries have been reviewed, the full 9th RVC meeting report with conclusions on elimination status in the Region and country-specific recommendations will be published.
Status of measles and rubella elimination in the European Region in 2018
At its 8th meeting in 2019, the RVC concluded that as of the end of 2018, endemic transmission of measles was interrupted in 37 of 53 countries and endemic rubella transmission was interrupted in 42 countries. Twelve countries were considered measles endemic, 11 were rubella endemic, and nine were endemic for both diseases.
Measles outbreaks
The surge in measles cases that began in 2017 peaked in 2019, with over 100 000 cases reported. Monthly case reports in the initial months of 2020 show a significant decrease in transmission compared to 2018 and 2019, with 12 028 reported for January–June 2020. However, this is still higher than for the same period in 2016 and 2017, and may be an underestimation due to disruptions in laboratory surveillance for measles during the peak of COVID-19 outbreaks in the Region.
Under these circumstances, it is commendable that national health systems have recognized the necessity of continuing efforts to fight against devastating vaccine-preventable diseases, by ensuring prioritization of immunization programmes as a vital part of essential health services, continuation of disease surveillance and detection of and response to outbreaks.
Despite insecurity near the border with Somalia, and the threats associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Safari Doctors, which has won several commendations, including a UN award, for its work, continues its monthly visits to the marginalized communities of Lamu.
Ms. Omar shares her story as part of the #RealLifeHeroes campaign, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of this year’s World Humanitarian Day, on 19 August.
“I am from Pate Island, in the Lamu archipelago. I went to graduate school in the United States and worked in Washington DC, but I decided to return home and, in 2015, founded Safari Doctors.
Safari Doctors
Umra Omar, from the Lamu archipelago in Kenya, is the founder of Safari Doctors, a mobile doctor unit that provides free basic medical care to hundreds of people every month.
In Kenya, some 70 per cent of the population live in remote areas, where it’s hard to get quality healthcare, and difficult for sick people to reach hospitals. That’s why we decided to bring healthcare to the community.
Finding medicine was the easy part, as it is readily available. The challenge was to get it to those in need. I had to figure out how to raise around $500 a month, to pay for a nurse and fuel for a motorbike. I did that for a whole year. The following year, we added more villages and gained more visibility, especially once we won an award from the international broadcaster, CNN.
Lamu is one of Kenya’s worst performing counties in terms of health. It has an understaffed and understocked health system, which leaves the population particularly vulnerable during the current COVID-19 pandemic. This makes our work even more critical.
Between March and June, our outreach team, travelling by boat, treated over 4,000 patients across 17 remote villages, who otherwise lack access to consistent, quality healthcare.
We also have a Safari Vets programme, which treated over 400 animals during this period, explaining how to prevent the spread of animal to human viruses: the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that human health is connected to the health of animals and the environment.
Investing in youth
Safari Doctors
Umra Omar, from the Lamu archipelago in Kenya, is the founder of Safari Doctors, a mobile doctor unit that provides free basic medical care to hundreds of people every month.
I will always accompany our team if we’re going into a new village, or an area where there is insecurity. We are a very young team: I’m the oldest, at 37. When other organizations repatriate their staff due to crises, such as the current pandemic, we stay. We have also created a Youth Health Ambassador programme: these are young humanitarians, based in their own villages.
For me, Safari Doctors is about working at a community level, on the ground, seeing issues and taking action immediately, rather than being held up by bureaucracy. And, because of our contacts, we are able to connect all the way up to a global level.
For example, one time, when we had guests visiting us from the US, we met a woman complaining of headaches. We noticed that she had a lump in her neck, and it turned out that it was a bullet: she had been shot two years previously, during an attack on her village.
Because of our network and our contacts, we were able to get her on a plane to a hospital that could treat her. This was just a one-off case, but it was very satisfying to be able to make decisions with very little bureaucracy.
I think we should stop seeing humanitarian work as something that needs to be celebrated: it should be seen as normal. This is part of our aim with Safari Doctors. That’s why we’re putting more investment into civic engagement and youth leadership.”
E-book and audiobook sales have been robust throughout the period that saw many bricks-and-mortar bookstores shut down across Europe as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, according to a new report by German digital distributor Bookwire and Austrian industry consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart. (The lockdown is identified in the report as running from week 11 to week 19 of 2020).
The study looked at some two million digital transactions across Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) and found e-book sales spiked 26% during the period of lockdown compared with the weeks prior to the order. Audiobook downloads more than doubled, seeing a 109% increase during the period, bolstered by targeted marketing campaigns by publishers and discounts. Once the lockdown period ended, sales at bricks-and-mortar stores bounced back in Germany and across the region, and while the level of e-book and audiobook sales flattened, they remained higher than prior to the lockdown.
“Our data analysis has revealed that the top genres of romance and crime thrillers were not solely responsible for growth during the Covid-19 period. Even books for children and adolescents or nonfiction books can become e-book bestsellers,” said Jens Klingelhöfer, CEO of Bookwire.
Perhaps even more important than the sales rise was the news that the number of people signing up for new digital audiobook subscriptions was up 37% over the period before the lockdown. “We get a strong hint that interest in subscriptions is on the rise,” said Wischenbart. “For so long, the gospel was that this wouldn’t work with trade books. We saw how the model caught on with STM and professional books, yet said, ‘Nah, not with consumer books.’ What we see in our data is strong evidence for a shift in consumer behaviour.”
Wischenbart added that the report also suggests, “E-books aren’t as dead as we read in reports for years.” Like Klingelhöfer, he cited the interest in a broad range of categories, and underscored that marketing was essential to prompting sales. “Smart PR works!,” he said. “Both publishers and retailers can create a huge impact, provided they do the right thing, such as very targeted promotions at the right time for the right audience, and they agree to work together in a coordinated fashion.”
Storytel Sees Gains
Separately, Storytel, the Swedish e-book and audiobook retailer subscription service with wide distribution across Europe, reported big gains in streaming sales, which rose 43% for the first six months of the year, compared with 2019, and a 42% jump in subscription sales over the same period. The company, which is present in 20 countries and is strongest in the Nordic countries of Europe, said it expected to see slower growth for the remainder of the year. The company has 1.2 million paying subscribers and is aiming for 1.5 million by the end of the year. The company continues to expand by acquiring affiliate companies, including Kitab Sawti, an Arabic-language audiobook retailer, and is preparing to launch services in Thailand and Indonesia before the holiday season. The company continues to operate at a loss due to its rapid expansion.
Handwashing facilities – “Access to water, sanitation and hygiene services is essential for effective infection prevention and control in all settings, including schools”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General.
“It must be a major focus of government strategies for the safe reopening and operation of schools during the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic.”
COVID-19 has created the largest disruption to education ever recorded, affecting nearly 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries, according to UN data.
The study found that last year, 43 per cent of schools globally lacked access to basic handwashing with soap and water: a key condition for schools to be able to operate safely in the midst of the pandemic.
Of the roughly 818 million children worldwide who lack basic handwashing facilities at school, more than one third are in sub-Saharan Africa.
In the 60 countries at highest risk of health and humanitarian crises due to the virus, three-quarters of children lacked the basic ability to wash their hands at school at the start of the outbreak, while half lacked basic water service.
Balancing act for governments
The report stressed that governments seeking to control coronavirus spread must balance the need for implementing public health measures against the social and economic impacts of lockdown measures.
The partners said evidence of the negative impacts of prolonged school closures on children has been well documented.
“Global school closures since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have presented an unprecedented challenge to children’s education and wellbeing”, said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “We must prioritize children’s learning. This means making sure that schools are safe to reopen – including with access to hand hygiene, clean drinking water and safe sanitation.”
Solutions for safe return
The report identifies resources for COVID-19 prevention and control in schools, including 10 immediate actions and safety checklists.
It builds on guidelines on the safe reopening of schools issued in April by UNICEF and partners, geared towards national and local authorities.
The guidelines include several protocols on hygiene measures, use of personal protective equipment, cleaning and disinfection, as well as providing access to clean water, handwashing stations with soap, and safe toilets.
UNICEF and WHO underlined their commitment to achieving equitable access to adequate water, sanitation and hygience services worldwide, including through the Hand Hygiene for All initiative that supports vulnerable communities.
