Strong cooperation between Germany and China is vital for maintaining global economic stability, particularly amid rising geopolitical tensions, according to Christian Scharpf, mayor of Ingolstadt in southern Bavaria.
Scharpf made the remarks during an interview with Xinhua at the “10th Bavarian China Day” here on Wednesday. The event, organized by the municipal government and the Chinese Consulate General in Munich, drew more than 120 officials and business leaders from both countries, underscoring the promising prospects for bilateral collaboration.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Germany, which has delivered significant progress in trade and economic cooperation, said Lin Kai, acting consul general at the Chinese consulate in Munich.
Highlighting the deep ties between China and the German state of Bavaria, Lin said that around 500 Chinese companies have established operations in Bavaria. Meanwhile, over 600 Bavarian enterprises, including Siemens, Audi, BMW, and Allianz, have set up branches and made investments in China.
Tobias Gotthardt, state secretary at the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, said that China has been Bavaria’s most important trading partner for years, with bilateral trade volume reaching 53 billion euros (57.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023. Bavaria’s exports to China have remained strong, while imports from China have nearly doubled over the past three years, he added.
Gotthardt stressed the importance of foreign trade for the state and Germany as a whole, noting that the Chinese market is indispensable.
“Cooperation in areas such as mechanical engineering, automotive, and energy and environmental technologies has been built on a foundation of trust over many years,” said Gotthardt.
He expressed optimism that this collaboration will continue to drive economic growth and address global challenges like sustainability. “We must remain focused on cooperation in areas where it is possible.”
Yu Guangsheng, deputy head of the investment promotion at China’s Ministry of Commerce, mentioned that German investments in China reached an all-time high in the first half of this year, while Chinese investments in Germany surged by 42 percent year-on-year in 2023. “Companies from both countries are demonstrating their confidence in bilateral economic relations and partnerships through tangible investments,” he said.
During the event, Ingolstadt and Changchun, a major city in northeast China, announced the establishment of a strategic economic partnership.
Scharpf underscored the longstanding relationship between Ingolstadt, home to Audi’s headquarters, and Changchun, where China’s automotive giant FAW Group is based. He noted that economic and cultural exchanges between the two cities have been active for years, and expressed hope for even deeper cooperation in the future.
The mayor voiced his belief that the two countries still have vast potential for collaboration, particularly in areas like climate protection, sustainable development, as well as education and cultural exchanges.
Regarding the European Union’s (EU) recent tariff policy on electric vehicles from China, experts at the event criticized protectionism, and advocated for the promotion of free trade and mutual development between the EU and China.
Gotthardt warned that the tariffs could escalate trade conflicts and undermine the principles of free trade. “A tariff-free alternative would undoubtedly be a better solution for all parties involved,” he said.
Georg Rosenfeld, an economic official from Ingolstadt, echoed this sentiment, saying that protectionism and trade barriers are detrimental. He called for open and fair competition, as well as mutual trust which is essential to fostering such competition. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollar)
Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz visits Bosch Hydrogen Powertrain Systems (Chongqing) Co., Ltd. in Jiulongpo District of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, April 14, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday expressed his opposition to tariff conflicts while delivering a statement to the press in Brussels.
Scholz stressed that such conflicts lead nowhere and emphasized the importance of using the World Trade Organization to resolve trade disputes.
Speaking on the sidelines of the European Council meeting, Scholz reiterated his stance against escalating tariff tensions with China, a point he also made in a speech to the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, the previous day.
He noted that major German carmakers, along with 17 EU countries, oppose the imposition of tariffs on China.
While highlighting the need for Germany to boost its competitiveness in the electric vehicle market, Scholz emphasized that this should not be achieved through tariffs.
This photo taken on July 27, 2023 shows the Euro sign in Frankfurt, Germany. [Photo/Xinhua]
The European Central Bank (ECB) decided on Thursday to lower three key interest rates by 25 basis points, its third rates cut this year, saying that disinflationary process is “well on track.”
The interest rates on the deposit facility, the main refinancing operations and the marginal lending facility will be decreased to 3.25 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.65 percent respectively, with effect from Oct. 23.
The ECB does not expect recession in the eurozone despite economic difficulties in some states, the bank’s President Christine Lagarde said at a press conference after the ECB Governing Council meeting in Slovenia.
The decision to cut interest rates is based on the bank’s updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission, she said. “The incoming information on inflation shows that the disinflationary process is well on track.”
Despite predicted inflation rise in the coming months, Lagarde said the ECB is determined to ensure that inflation return to the 2-percent medium term target in the course of next year. “We will keep policy rates sufficiently restricted for as long as necessary to achieve this aim.”
The eurozone’s annual inflation rate is projected to drop to 1.8 percent in September, down from 2.2 percent in August, according to Eurostat. This marks the first time in three years that inflation has fallen below the ECB’s target.
Lagarde did not specify when further rate cuts might be expected, noting that decisions are data-dependent.
The next ECB Governing Council monetary policy meeting is scheduled for Dec. 12 in Frankfurt.
The ECB cut key interest rates for the first time in five years by 25 basis points in June and again in September.
Hundreds of parliamentarians, from some 130 countries, gathered at the 149th IPU Assembly in Geneva, have adopted a resolution reaffirming unwavering support for multilateralism through the United Nations system and other global institutions.
Against a backdrop of escalating conflicts around the world, the consequences of climate change and the risk of pandemics, resulting in a multiplication of humanitarian crises, lawmakers emphasized the urgency of a collective response and cooperation at the international level.
The resolution, put forward by the IPU’s founding Members, France and the United Kingdom, along with Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, calls for a “complete rejection of the indiscriminate targeting by armed forces of civilians, wherever they may be, particularly emergency personnel, health and education workers, and medical, education and other public infrastructure”.
The resolution was reinforced by the IPU’s Committee to Promote Respect for International Humanitarian Law, which issued a plea for the international community to pressure the parties to the conflict in Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza, to take action to avert a full-scale war.
The Assembly also provided a space for intensive parliamentary diplomacy, including meetings of the IPU’s various international parliamentary bodies which contribute to peace-building efforts, such as the Task Force for the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine and the Committee on Middle East Questions.
Other outcomes on science, technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The global parliamentary also adopted a landmark resolution on The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
The resolution urges parliaments worldwide to swiftly develop and implement robust legal frameworks and policies for the responsible creation, deployment and use of AI technology.
Key demands of the resolution include:
Mitigating risks to democracy, human rights and the rule of law, with a particular focus on the disproportionate impact of AI on women and girls
Legislating against deepfake intimate images and AI-generated content that fuels hate speech or incites violence
Developing tools to verify the origin of online images and content, empowering users to discern authenticity
Reviewing and updating existing legislation to close loopholes exposed by AI advances.
The resolution underscores the need for parliaments to stay ahead of the curve in regulating AI, striking a balance between innovation and the protection of fundamental rights.
IPU Charter on the Ethics of Science and Technology
During the Assembly, the Governing Council adopted a new Charter on the Ethics of Science and Technology.
Drafted by the IPU’s Working Group on Science and Technology, the Charter underscores the critical role of scientific knowledge in parliamentary decision-making and the ethical considerations essential for governing emerging technologies.
Key highlights of the Charter include:
Emphasizing ethical responsibilities in scientific advancements
Advocating for equitable global participation, and addressing gender, social and economic inequalities
Outlining key principles for regulating science and technology, including enacting laws promoting societal values, the preservation of research freedom, international cooperation and sustainability considerations.
The Charter recommends that legislators maintain parliamentary structures for presenting evidence-based information, engage with competent organizations on ethics, develop checklists for scrutinizing legislation and consult civil society.
Geneva Declaration on science and technology
In their final Declaration, legislators expressed resolve to harness and regulate science, technology and innovation (STI) for the benefit of humanity.
The Declaration emphasizes the need to bridge digital divides, protect human rights, and foster international cooperation in STI governance.
Parliamentarians pledged to implement these commitments through legislative, budgetary and oversight actions, striving for an equitable and technologically advanced world.
Background
The 149th IPU Assembly took place from 13-17 October 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. It was attended by over 630 MPs, including 54 Speakers of Parliament and 36 Deputy Speakers. Around 36% of the MPs were women and some 25% were young MPs under 45.
The 150th IPU Assembly will take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 5-9 April 2025.
The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 181 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It promotes peace, democracy and sustainable development. It helps parliaments become stronger, younger, greener, more innovative and gender-balanced. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world.
Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis.
But now the company is on the brink of bankruptcy. This has raised concerns about what will happen to the troves of genetic data it has in its possession.
But what can customers of 23andMe themselves do to make sure their highly personal genetic data is protected? And should we be concerned about other companies that also collect our DNA?
What is 23andMe?
23andMe is one of the largest companies in the crowded marketplace for direct-to-consumer genetic testing. It was founded in 2006 in California, launching its spit test and Personal Genome Service the following year, at an initial cost of US$999. This test won Time magazine’s Invention of the Year in 2008.
Customers eagerly took up the opportunity to order a saliva collection kit online, spit in the tube and mail it back. In a few weeks when the results were ready they could find out about their health, ancestry, and other things like food preferences, fear of public speaking and cheek dimples.
23andMe rode the wave of popular excitement and investor interest in genetics. It wasn’t alone. By 2022 the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market was valued at US$3 billion. The three largest players – 23andMe, AncestryDNA and MyHeritage – together hold the genetic data of almost 50 million people globally.
There are dozens of smaller players too, with some focusing on emerging markets such as MapMyGenome in India and 23mofang and WeGene in China.
What happened to 23andMe?
23andMe has had a rapid downfall after the 2021 high of its public listing.
What this might mean for its vast stores of genetic data is unclear.
When people sign up for a 23andMe test the company assures them: “your privacy comes first”. It promises it will never share people’s DNA data with employers, insurance companies or public databases without consent. It puts choice in the hands of consumers about whether their spit sample is kept by the company, and whether their de-identified genetic and other data is used in research. Four in five people who bought a 23andMe test have agreed to their data being used in research.
In a statement to The Conversation, a 23andMe spokesperson said Wojcicki is “not open to considering third-party takeover proposals”, and that in the event of any future ownership change, the company’s existing data privacy agreements with customers “would remain in place unless and until customers are presented with, and agree to, new terms and statements – and only after receiving appropriate notice of any new terms, under applicable data protection laws”.
Tips for people to protect their genetic data
With 23andMe in the spotlight, people might want to take steps to protect their genetic data (although experts say there’s not really any more risk now than there has always been).
The simplest thing is to delete your account, which opts you out of any future research and discards your saliva sample. But if your data has already been de-identified and used in research, it can’t be retrieved. And even if you delete your account, 23andMe says it will keep hold of information including your genetic data, date of birth and sex, to comply with its own legal obligations.
Buying a DNA test online might feel fun and rewarding and it’s certainly been marketed that way. There are plenty of good news stories about how getting those test results has helped people to connect with lost family or understand more about their health risks. People just need to buy tests with their eyes open about what this might mean.
First, the results might not be all positive. Finding out about health risks without guidance from a health professional can be scary. Learning that the person you thought was your mum or dad actually isn’t, is an outcome for as many as 1 in 20 people who’ve bought a DNA test online.
Second, every company selling DNA tests does so with lots of legal conditions attached. People click through these without a second thought but researchers have shown it is worth taking a closer look. Consider what the company says about what it will do with your data and your sample, how long they will keep it, who else can access it, and how easy it will be to delete later.
There are guidelines from organisations like Australian Genomics that can help. And bear in mind that if a company holding your DNA profile is sold, it might be hard to make sure that data is protected.
So maybe reconsider giving a DNA test as a Christmas gift.
Megan Prictor is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law.
Source: The White House
On the occasion of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s visit to Germany, the United States reaffirms its commitment to deepening the close and historic bond between the two nations as Allies and friends. For over 75 years, Germany has been a crucial partner in ensuring the stability, security, and prosperity of the transatlantic alliance. In October 2023, President Biden welcomed President Steinmeier to Washington during German-American Day, underscoring the enduring people-to-people ties between our two countries, including the over 40 million Americans who claim German heritage and strengthen the diverse fabric of the United States. In February 2024, President Biden welcomed Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House, where the two leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s war of aggression, discussed regional stability in the Middle East, and prepared for the NATO Summit in Washington.
During his visit to Germany, President Biden will underscore our mutual commitment to upholding democracy, combating antisemitism and hatred, and expanding collaboration to promote economic growth and technological innovation. In addition, he will express gratitude to Germany for its role in hosting approximately 39,000 U.S. service members and its vital contributions to the security of NATO and the broader transatlantic community.
The United States and Germany are partners in a wide range of new and continuing initiatives to address the most pressing challenges of our time, some of which are listed below.
On the occasion of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s visit to Germany, the United States reaffirms its commitment to deepening the close and historic bond between the two nations as Allies and friends. For over 75 years, Germany has been a crucial partner in ensuring the stability, security, and prosperity of the transatlantic alliance. In October 2023, President Biden welcomed President Steinmeier to Washington during German-American Day, underscoring the enduring people-to-people ties between our two countries, including the over 40 million Americans who claim German heritage and strengthen the diverse fabric of the United States. In February 2024, President Biden welcomed Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House, where the two leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s war of aggression, discussed regional stability in the Middle East, and prepared for the NATO Summit in Washington.
During his visit to Germany, President Biden will underscore our mutual commitment to upholding democracy, combating antisemitism and hatred, and expanding collaboration to promote economic growth and technological innovation. In addition, he will express gratitude to Germany for its role in hosting approximately 39,000 U.S. service members and its vital contributions to the security of NATO and the broader transatlantic community.
The United States and Germany are partners in a wide range of new and continuing initiatives to address the most pressing challenges of our time, some of which are listed below.
# # #
SECURITY AND DEFENSE
The United States and Germany cooperate through several multilateral institutions including NATO, the G7, the OSCE, and the UN, to advance security, democracy, and the rule of law globally.
As host to the largest U.S. troop presence in Europe and second largest globally, Germany continues to play a critical role as a platform for U.S. military force projection, including support for NATO’s eastern flank and training for Ukrainian soldiers.
Germany has been a key provider of military assistance to Ukraine in its defense against the Kremlin’s aggression. Contributions include advanced weaponry such as Leopard 2 tanks, air defense systems (such as IRIS-T), artillery, and ammunition. Germany also supplies medical aid, vehicles, and training for Ukrainian forces, continuously adapting its support to Ukraine’s evolving needs in coordination with NATO allies.
As announced by President Biden and Chancellor Scholz on July 10, 2024, the United States looks forward to beginning the episodic deployments of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these conventional long-range fire capabilities in the future.
Germany plays a key role in the U.S-Italy co-led G7+ Coordination Group for Ukraine Energy Security Support. Germany has been a leading provider of financial assistance and critical components such as transformers and power generators to support the repair and strengthening of Ukraine’s energy sector in response to Russia’s continued brutal attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Germany is a robust partner in the fight against terrorism and terrorism financing, in the Financial Action Task Force, and as part of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (D-ISIS). On September 30, State Secretary Tobias Lindner joined Secretary Blinken for the D-Isis Ministerial Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Germany will accede to Operation Olympic Defender, a U.S.-led multinational effort intended to strengthen nations’ abilities to deter hostile acts in space, strengthen deterrence against hostile actors, and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the earth. International partners currently include the UK, Canada, and Australia.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY
As the second-largest provider of assistance to Ukraine after the United States, Germany has provided $37.2 billion (€34 billion) in bilateral assistance since February 2022. This includes humanitarian assistance, budgetary support, military equipment and training, and funding for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Germany hosted an international reconstruction conference for Ukraine in Berlin in June 2024 which generated over €60 billion in commitments to Ukraine and emphasized the human dimension of post-war recovery.
At the September 2024 United Nations General Assembly, the United States, in partnership with Germany and other international allies, reaffirmed its commitment to supporting democratic transitions as part of the Democracy Delivers Initiative, launched by USAID. The initiative mobilized over $517 million to provide financial and technical assistance to countries undergoing democratic renewal, including Guatemala, Armenia, and Moldova, with the aim of strengthening global democratic resilience.
Germany has increasingly recognized the importance of supporting Taiwan as a like-minded democratic partner. Education Minister Stark-Watzinger’s visit to Taiwan in 2023 marked the first visit by a German minister to Taiwan in 26 years. Two German warships recently transited the Taiwan Strait, a visible demonstration of Germany’s commitment to upholding international laws and norms and increasing engagement to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Germany was one of the first of twenty-one countries to endorse the U.S. government’s Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation, the U.S. Department of State’s key initiative to galvanize like-minded democracies to respond collectively to the threat posed by disinformation.
ECONOMICS & TRADE
Germany is the United States’ largest trading partner in Europe, with bilateral trade reaching over $324 billion in goods and services in 2023. U.S. direct investment in Germany was $193.2 billion in 2023. In total, German firms employ an estimated 923,600 people in the United States. Germany is the fourth-largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States and the number one foreign investor in U.S. renewable energy projects. Germany is currently the third-largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States, with investments worth more than $660 billion based on 2023 data.
On September 24, 2024, the United States and Germany held the third round of the U.S.-Germany Economic Dialogue, building on the framework established in the 2021 Washington Declaration. The talks focused on strengthening collaboration to increase economic security, including cooperation in sectors such as digital technologies and clean energy supply chains. Both countries committed to enhancing supply chain resilience and advancing sustainability goals.
Germany and the United States partner on several initiatives to advance women’s economic security around the world, including bolstering women’s participation in climate sectors through the Women in the Sustainable Economy Initiative, closing the gender digital divide through the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative, and supporting women to join the workforce by investing in efforts to close the global childcare gap through the Invest in Childcare Initiative.
COMBATTING ANTISEMITISM:
Germany is a global leader and vital partner in the fight against antisemitism and extremism. Senior officials are unequivocal in condemning antisemitism and federal and state governments have robust strategies for tackling the problem. In July 2024, Germany co-launched the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism in Buenos Aires, an initiative led by U.S. Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt.
Launched in 2021, The U.S.-Germany Dialogue on Holocaust Issues, plays an essential role in combatting Holocaust distortion online and promoting accurate Holocaust education and commemoration.
Germany and the United States cooperate on improving resolution to Nazi-confiscated art to ensure just and fair solutions for survivors and heirs, and salute Germany’s new art restitution policy.
EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGES
The German-American Fulbright program is one of the largest and most varied of the Fulbright Programs worldwide, sponsoring over 40,000 Germans and Americans since its inception in 1952.
Established in 2016 as a public-private partnership, each year the USA For You program brings youth from underserved German communities to the United States for a two-week homestay and community service experience. The program promotes civic engagement and helps counter extremism and xenophobia by fostering cultural understanding. In 2023, the German government launched a reciprocal Germany for You program, allowing American high school students to visit Germany for a similar exchange, further strengthening transatlantic ties.
The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX), jointly funded by the United States and German governments, supports the transatlantic relationship by fostering year-long academic, homestay, and community service opportunities for 700 American and German youth annually. Since 1983, CBYX has promoted cross-cultural understanding, professional skills, and mutual awareness of each nation’s history, politics, and society. With around 15,000 German and 14,000 American participants to date, the program strengthens ties and deepens the transatlantic partnership between the next generation of leaders.
The German Bundestag-Bundesrat exchange (CBBSX) program is an annual two-way exchange between German Bundestag and Bundesrat staff and U.S. Congressional staff members. It was initiated during the 1983 German-American Tricentennial celebration and first implemented in 1984. Participants focus on the U.S. legislative process and U.S.-German relations; examining U.S. Congress and the U.S. political system. In 2024 the IVLP brought 10 German Bundestag and Bundesrat staff members to the United States. For the first time, CBBSX participants also engaged with state and local government.
SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENT, SPACE, & TECHNOLOGY
On January 10, 2024, the United States and Germany held a U.S.-Germany Critical and Emerging TechnologyTrack 1.5 Dialogue to share strategic objectives, outlooks, and lessons learned in technological innovation. The two countries agreed to convene the first of an ongoing AI Dialogue to discuss approaches to AI governance, infrastructure and innovation, and applications of AI for good. They intend to hold the first session of this dialogue in early 2025.
Furthering their commitment to monitoring the effects of climate change, the United States and Germany have partnered on space collaboration through NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission, which monitors Earth’s water movement by tracking shifts in gravity. This mission provides critical data for managing water resources, monitoring sea levels, and understanding climate change impacts on a global scale.
The U.S.-Germany scientific partnership was further strengthened throughfunding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) program, which advances cutting-edge research in brain function and computational neuroscience. This initiative supports interdisciplinary approaches to understanding neural systems.
On September 14, 2023, the United States and Germany held the inaugural U.S.-Germany Space Dialogue, advancing collaboration in space exploration, satellite technology, and space security. This dialogue promotes joint efforts in planetary science, climate monitoring, and managing space debris, while advancing international norms for responsible space operations.
CLIMATE & ENERGY
In July 2021, the United States and Germany launched the U.S.-Germany Climate and Energy Partnership to deepen collaboration on the policies and sustainable technologies needed to accelerate the global net-zero future. Notable outcomes of the Partnership include the first U.S.-Germany Climate and Energy Summit held in Pittsburgh September 2022, and the U.S.-German Clean Hydrogen Conference held in Berlin October 2023.
Beyond our strong bilateral partnership, the United States and Germany are also intensifying our cooperation to accelerate the clean energy transition and promote clean economic growth in emerging and developing economies. This includes leveraging and scaling-up our collective technical, policy, and financial support to catalyze investments in clean energy manufacturing and industrial decarbonization in developing countries, leveraging key international platforms such as the Climate Club and Clean Technology Fund.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
The United States participated in the International Humanitarian Conference on Sudan, hosted by France, Germany, and the European Commission on April 15, 2024, to address the vital need for greater humanitarian assistance for the Sudanese people.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) are strengthening their partnership through a Strategic Development Dialogue. This initiative focuses on joint efforts to tackle global challenges in climate change, food security, gender equality, health, and G7 development priorities.
The United States and Germany have worked closely across multiple presidencies of the G7 Food Security Working Group to support efforts to achieve long-term food and nutrition security. As most recently affirmed in the Apulia G7 Leaders’ Communiqué, both countries have committed to promoting and supporting multi-stakeholder programs to build climate resilience in our food systems. These programs include the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils, launched by the United States in partnership with the African Union and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The regulation of housing in Australia traditionally relies on well-informed buyers being responsible for managing the risks. But our new study found home buyers are often not aware of the long-term risks.
Only after they’ve bought the home do they start thinking about these risks. When faced with unexpected high insurance costs, many opt to take the risk of being underinsured or even uninsured. This leaves them highly vulnerable.
The National Strategy for Disaster Resilience promotes a shared-responsibility concept. However, we found the main responsibility still lies with households. And they are not equipped to cope with the increasing complexity, impacts and costs of extreme weather events.
What’s wrong with the current approach?
The uncertain knowledge about future extreme weather events is challenging the traditional prioritising of individual responsibility. It’s becoming even harder for households to make informed decisions based on past experiences.
Government efforts to regulate increasing flooding events might not be effective when households do not want to relocate or cannot afford housing elsewhere.
Governments are also under pressure to jump in to compensate households for the costs of extreme weather damage.
Our research found a number of issues prevent efficient regulation:
stakeholders such as the insurance industry and home lenders face legal hurdles to sharing data and giving financial advice for housing in high-risk areas
well-intended measures such as buybacks and planned relocations can fail when they do not relate to people’s experiences and life situation, such as limited financial resources and deep connections to a place and community
households’ motivation to insure themselves might decrease if they can expect government to provide compensation as a de facto last insurer.
Who is responsible for what?
In Australia, responsibility for managing extreme weather events is roughly divided among three main stakeholders: the three levels of government, businesses and households.
Within the three levels of government, states and territories bear the main responsibility for managing extreme weather events. They do so through disaster risk management plans and policies, hazard prevention and land-use planning.
Yet housing is still built in flood-prone regions. It happens where commercial interests conflict with regional planning, and governments are under pressure to deliver housing for growing populations.
After extreme weather hits, house and contents insurance cover is key for a household to recover. But insurance costs are based on the risk of events such as flooding. As these risks rise, premiums may also increase and become unaffordable. The Climate Council estimates one out of 25 properties will even become uninsurable by 2030.
When housing is built in at-risk areas, under the current system home buyers are largely responsible for informing themselves about the risks of floods, bushfires and other natural disasters. Our research suggests many are struggling to estimate what insurance is likely to cost them.
To prepare for these costs before they invest in a home, they must assess their own risk, know the value of their house and contents and calculate the costs of rebuilding after a disaster. They must also take into account increasing costs for builders and materials after an extreme weather event.
Climate change is making these already complex calculations even more difficult.
Our study is based on interviews with 26 insurance, legal, financial, policy and urban planning experts. Despite the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience’s concept of shared responsibility, we found most of the burden still falls on households.
Yet households often lack the knowledge to assess the risks. The data and information are either unavailable, or hard to access and understand.
These difficulties, coupled with the complex language of insurance contracts, contribute to high numbers of underinsured and uninsured households.
The Australian government responded in 2022 by setting up a cyclone reinsurance pool. Its aim is to keep premiums for households and businesses affordable.
There are also government buyback programs or relocationplans to move people out of high-risk regions. As noted above, though, these don’t always suit households when offered away from their communities or full costs aren’t adequately covered.
Governments must take on more responsibility
According to the experts we interviewed, households are no longer able to carry the main responsibilities for managing the risks of climate change. Government must take on more responsibility.
At the local level, councils need to better educate their staff on climate change risks. They should ban housing development in at-risk areas.
Better information and data sharing among stakeholders such as insurers and governments will also be crucial. Such data and information also need to be made more accessible and easier for households to understand.
In a climate change world, increasing extreme weather events result in new complexities. Households are not able to assess these new risks and complexities to make well-informed decisions.
Australia needs stronger sharing of responsibilities between different stakeholders such as insurers, governments and households. This includes changes to laws on information and data sharing between insurers, governments and households, bans on building in high-risk areas, and better advice about the costs of buying in high-risk regions.
Jens Zinn received funding from the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg/Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst/Germany (10/2023-05/2024).
Julia Plass has received funding for the data collection in the study mentioned in the article from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Chinese publishers’ exhibition draws visitors at 76th Frankfurt Book Fair
Updated: October 18, 2024 14:57Xinhua
Visitors talk with an exhibitor during the China-Europe Copyright Matchmaking Event at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 17, 2024. The Frankfurt Book Fair officially opened on Tuesday. Chinese publishers are making a significant impact at this year’s fair, showcasing more than 3,500 books, including 1,500 in foreign languages. In addition to new book releases, Chinese publishers are holding numerous premieres and signing ceremonies for copyright agreements, with up to 1,000 books available for copyright trade. The fair will also feature a promotional event for the 2025 Beijing International Book Fair and a session on copyright trade between China and Europe. [Photo/Xinhua]A visitor talks with exhibitors at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 16, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]Visitors are pictured at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 17, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]A visitor looks over a book at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 17, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]A visitors experiences making skills of woodblock new year prints at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 16, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair Juergen Boos (L) visits the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 16, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair Juergen Boos speaks during an interview at the opening ceremony of the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 15, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]A visitor looks over a book at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 17, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]A visitor looks over a book at the Chinese publishers’ exhibition area at the 76th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 17, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]
Agillic has achieved a Danish patent for its unique method for processing large-scale, real-time data processing.
The method reduces the complexity and efforts required to carry out such processing compared to other solutions leading to lower power consumption and lower financial operating costs.
The Agillic platform has long been a leap forward in marketing technology, empowering brands to deliver personalised, real-time, and scalable customer experiences across channels, positioning them – and Agillic – at the forefront of omnichannel marketing.
Says Martin Lindboe, Chief Technology Officer: “We are thrilled to achieve the patent, acknowledging the efforts behind our unique and highly effective solution for large-scale data communication. With this patent, we are reinforcing our commitment to innovation and supporting brands in creating seamless, data-driven customer engagement that drive results in the most efficient way possible.”
For further information, please contact Emre Gürsoy, CEO, Agillic A/S +45 3078 4200 emre.gursoy@agillic.com
About Agillic A/S Agillic (Nasdaq First North Growth Market Copenhagen: AGILC) is a Danish software company offering brands a platform through which they can work with data-driven insights and content to create, automate and send personalised communication to millions. Agillic is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with teams in Germany, Norway, and Romania. Agillic A/S – Masnedøgade 22 – 2100 Copenhagen – Denmark – www.agillic.com
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany at Bellevue Palace to discuss the strong U.S.-German relationship, grounded in our shared democratic values. The two leaders coordinated on support for Ukraine in its self-defense against Russian aggression; countering antisemitism and other forms of hate at home and abroad; efforts to de-escalate conflict in the Middle East and support the protection of civilians; amongst other global issues. President Biden acknowledged the timing of his visit ahead of the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and our countries’ shared commitment to freedom and democracy. The President underscored the close U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military relationship with Germany.
First-ever International Conference of All India Institute of Ayurveda- Advancements of Research & Global Opportunities for Holistic Ayurveda (AROHA-2024) inaugurated today in New Delhi Truly delighted to see how AIIA has made remarkable progress in just eight years; Rooted in generational family wisdom, Ayurveda offers valuable insights into integrated well-being: Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, we are strengthening Ayurveda’s global recognition today: Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Ayush
Posted On: 17 OCT 2024 10:00PM by PIB Delhi
The first-ever International conference of All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA)- Advancements of Research & Global Opportunities for Holistic Ayurveda – AROHA-2024 was inaugurated today by Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India in the august presence of Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Ayush and Health & Family Welfare.
Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush; Dr. Shyama Kuruvilla, Director, Global Traditional Medicine Centre, WHO, Jamnagar, Gujarat was also present on the occasion. Additionally, Lt. Gen. Madhuri Kanitkar, Vice Chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS); Padma Bhushan Prof. Shiv Kumar Sarin, Director, ILBS; and AIIA Director Prof (Dr) Tanuja Nesari also graced the event.
The three-day International conference – Advancements of Research & Global Opportunities for Holistic Ayurveda – AROHA-2024 is scheduled to be held from today 17th October to 19th October 2024.
Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud during his inaugural address said “ I am privileged to be a part of AROHA 2024; the day also marks the 8th foundation day of All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA). I am truly delighted to see how AIIA has made remarkable progress in just eight years, founded with a mandate to foster research based Ayurveda. The institute focuses on three key pillars tertiary care, research and academics. I am an ardent follower of Ayurveda. Beyond addressing specific ailments, Ayurveda promotes holistic wellness through medicine, nutrition, meditation, yoga and lifestyle balance. Rooted in generational family wisdom, Ayurveda offers valuable insights into integrated well-being. The launch of the Ayush Research Portal marks a significant advancement for Ayurvedic research and education,”
Speaking at this event, the Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Ayush and Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav said “As we gather to explore the vast potential of Ayurveda, I applaud your dedication to integrating traditional wisdom with modern science, which is the need of the hour. This conference represents a significant step forward in our pursuit of holistic healthcare solutions. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, we are strengthening Ayurveda’s global recognition today. His encouragement has led to Ayurveda being adopted more than any other medical practice. After the Prime Minister’s efforts, Ayurveda’s credibility has also increased, and I am deeply grateful to him for entrusting me with the Ministry of Ayurveda to serve millions. I am fully committed to fulfilling all the aspirations related to the Ministry of Ayurveda under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision.’ The Ministry of Ayush remains committed to promoting and supporting research, innovation, and the integration of Ayurveda into mainstream healthcare.”
Speaking at the occasion Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush said “The Ministry of Ayush is committed to developing 5 key botanicals of Ayurveda in the next five years. We are developing a benchmark at par with globally accepted traditional medicine for these botanicals. so we have already started working on it, and this is something very new and it is, we are committed to the effort”.
“We really want to thank the Government of India, Ministry of Ayush, for the extreme generosity, the leadership and the vision to make traditional medicine a global good that can benefit all people in the world. Already, this leadership is having global impact. We have seen the leadership at the G20 at the BRICS and other regional conferences. Note traditional medicine and its contribution for the health and well being of all people. It’s also having a technical impact with the research collaborations, with the advancements of methods and guidelines.” Said Dr. Shyama Kuruvilla, Director, Global Traditional Medicine Centre, WHO, Jamnagar, Gujarat.
AROHA-2024 will feature both in-person and virtual participation, offering an unparalleled opportunity for participants. The discourse will be centered on the theme- Advancements in Research and Global Opportunities for Holistic Ayurveda” in this global event. The conference agenda covers a wide range of topics, including Ayurveda, ethnomedicine, quality control, standardization, diagnosis, drug delivery, evidence-based understanding, and globalization. It also features an exhibition showcasing stalls from leading brands and institutions, offering insights into herbal products, wellness solutions, Ayurvedic treatments, research innovations, and educational opportunities.
The conference features three-day workshops and 15 scientific sessions, with over 400 research papers presented. The All India Institute of Ayurveda has a global presence in over 74 countries through academic and scientific collaborations with prominent organizations like the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, FIGZ Germany, AIST Japan, Western Sydney University Australia, UHN Canada, and national institutions like IGIB, AIIMS, CSIR, IIT, and others.
Sgt. 1st Class Fabricio Monterroso, electronic maintenance chief, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, poses for a photo at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy, Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ivan Hernandez | U.S. Army photo illustration by Brenadine C. Humphrey) VIEW ORIGINAL
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U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa
VICENZA, Italy – “You need to leave your computer desk and get into the warrior mentality,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Fabricio Monterroso, electronic maintenance chief with U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF). Such is the effort SETAF-AF soldiers need when preparing for the upcoming Expert Infantry, Soldier and Field Medical Badges (E3B) challenge.
E3B is a grueling test with multiple graded tasks over a one-week period. It is the combination of the Expert Infantry Badge, Expert Field Medical Badge and Expert Soldier Badge. E3B takes place at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy on Oct. 21st and will feature participants from SETAF-AF, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, as well as units from Germany and foreign national partners.
“Our role is to simply lend a hand,” said Monterroso. “We give our expertise, help in the training and give tips and tricks from when we went through it.”
In order to assist participants this year, SETAF-AF’s Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion established an internal training plan. Additionally, a group of those who have already earned their badges have agreed to provide their own support and expertise during the training.
Monterroso, serving as one of the trainers, has been stationed in Italy for two years, one with the 79th Theater Sustainment Command and one with SETAF-AF. Currently, he primarily serves with the communications directorate, ensuring successful network capabilities at exercises and security cooperation engagements in Africa.
“SETAF-AF Soldiers don’t typically get exposed to as many ‘soldier tasks’ compared to candidates from the 173rd or others who are more infantry orientated,” said Monterroso. “So we decided to set up this internal train-up for one-week to familiarize them.”
During the internal training week, soldiers get refreshed on a variety of essential tasks and skills such as medical knowledge, land navigation, weapon disassembly and other skills. Monterroso joined Sgt. 1st Class Rodd P. Simington and Capt. Joshua A. Salters in leading the land navigation portion.
“We know they won’t learn everything, but you have to break that seal,” said Monterroso. “It certainly helped me when I went through it.”
Monterroso is a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, one of many reservists and guardsmen who work at SETAF-AF on temporary active-duty orders. He said it was an incredible opportunity to compete for and obtain his Expert Soldier Badge.
“When I first heard about it, I was very excited. As a reservist we don’t get a lot of chances to do stuff like E3B.” said Monterroso. “So when I heard about it back in 2022, I threw my hand up. But I had no expectations of actually badging.”
For Monterroso, this was a challenge to see how he measured up both physically and mentally. As a former drill sergeant, this was a chance to prove to himself he could still do it, which was an opportunity he loved.
“My train of thought was to simply throw myself in there,” said Monterroso. “Thanks to the internal train-up we had back then, I was able to improve upon many things like rucking and not be as shocked when doing the actual lanes.”
Monterroso provides more to this year’s participants than simply training or expertise.
“I don’t only train them up, of course; I’m boosting their morale,” said Monterroso. “I like to make sure everyone laughs even during training. They should have a good time and not be overwhelmed by just training all of the time.”
As E3B approaches, Monterroso describes why every Soldier should participate in the grueling event.
“Whether you think you will earn the badge or not, you should do it just for the experience,” said Monterroso. “It’s always good to throw yourself to the fire and see how you come out. E3B is a great way to test yourself and see where you are.”
This year’s E3B is hosted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade and incudes Soldiers from across Europe, including partners and allies from Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain. E3B creates experts at all levels, across all organizations, increasing readiness and lethaity of Soldiers, teams, squaads ad platoons. These events are a key enabler to molding the force into professionals, while stressing commitment to every Soldier’s individual development.
Expert Badges Europe
Soldiers from units across Europe, including service members from other European countries, participate in annual events hosted throughout Belgium, Germany and Italy. For more imagery, video and news, see the Expert Badges Europe feature page.
About SETAF-AF
SETAF-AF provides U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Europe and Africa a dedicated headquarters to synchronize Army activities in Africa and scalable crisis-response options in Africa and Europe.
Follow SETAF on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn & DVIDS
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany at the Chancellery to discuss the longstanding U.S.-German relationship, grounded in our shared democratic values. The two leaders coordinated on support for Ukraine in its self-defense against Russian aggression; efforts to counter antisemitism and other forms of hate at home and abroad; the Middle East; amongst other global issues. President Biden expressed his appreciation for Chancellor Scholz’s leadership in increasing Germany’s investment in NATO’s collective defense and in securing the release of wrongfully detained Americans, along with other human rights activists and political dissidents from Russian prison, earlier this year. He also underscored the U.S. commitment to continue working together to address the challenges of today and tomorrow and deliver results for both our peoples.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
GAD has shared information with European counterparts on our role supporting Scottish and UK governments in their management of public service pension provision.
Credit: Unsplash
The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) has shared insights into how we can help with various challenges facing the UK public sector pensions.
Actuaries at GAD presented at the European Association of Public Sector Pension Institutions (EAPSPI) event, hosted by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) in Edinburgh.
EAPSPI is a network of European organisations involved in public sector pensions. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, best practices and policy developments across various countries.
Pension experts, policymakers, and stakeholders discussed issues around:
pension provision
reform
management
Expertise and insights
Delegates heard from GAD about insights into the actuarial valuation and cost control process for UK public service pension schemes.
Attendees included representatives from various pension systems across Europe, allowing for a broad and comparative discussion on how different regions manage pension provision.
GAD actuaries Greg Donaldson and Martin Smith presented detailed analyses of the cost control mechanism in place in the UK. This aims to maintain a fair balance of risk between the taxpayer and members of the schemes.
Credit: Shutterstock
UK and European comparisons
One of the key themes of the event was comparing pension provision across different regions including the UK, Slovenia, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and Belgium.
The event offered a unique opportunity to draw comparisons between these diverse systems, exploring how various countries address challenges such as:
pension adequacy
sustainability
demographic changes
Evolving challenges
Reflecting on the event, Greg Donaldson commented: “We were delighted to be invited by SPPA to attend this event. We shared information on GAD’s supporting role to both the Scottish and UK governments in their management of public service pension provision.
“It was an excellent opportunity to engage with colleagues from across Europe and discuss the various ways in which pension schemes are adapting to evolving challenges.
“The event facilitated the exchange of ideas and opinions. It’s clear that despite the differences in pension systems across Europe, there are many common themes and shared experiences.”
Martin Smith added: “It was interesting learning about the issues facing other European countries in terms of public sector pension provision and discussing how each were analysing and approaching such issues. The audience were very knowledgeable and were engaged with the sessions presented.”
A total of 36,992 deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced globally during January to September (Q1-Q3) 2024, which represents a 12.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline over 42,288 deals announced during the same period in 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database disclosed that the volume of M&A deals declined by 6.7% during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023 while the number of private equity deals and venture financing deals experienced YoY fall of 8.9% and 22.2%, respectively.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The majority of the decline in global deal activity came from Q1 and Q2 while the impact was relatively much lesser in Q3. Although the deal activity continued to remain subdued in 2024, the impact seems to be diminishing in recent months or quarters. For instance, the decline in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023 remained at just 1%, whereas when compared between Q1 2024 and Q1 2023, the decline stood much higher at around 20% in Q1 2024.
“The relatively lesser decline could be attributed to improving deal-making sentiments in some regions. In fact, the trend across regions also remained a mixed bag during Q1-Q3 2024, with regions like Asia-Pacific showcasing just a single-digit decline while North America experienced a double-digit decline.”
North America experienced a 16% YoY decrease in the number of deals announced during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023, whereas Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America regions saw respective deal volume fall by 13.6%, 6.8%, 7.6%, and 22.3% YoY.
Bose adds: “Deal activity across several countries also remained a mixed bag, with some experiencing significant decline and some witnessing relatively lesser decline while few markets experienced improvement.”
For instance, the US, the UK, China, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden witnessed YoY decline in deal volume by 15.4%, 7.2%, 22.8%, 21%, 17.9%, 30.8%, 9.4%, 16.7%, 20.2%, and 16%, respectively, during Q1-Q3 2024. Meanwhile, India, Japan, and Australia witnessed deal volume improve by 9.6%, 16.2%, and 2.2% during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023, respectively.
A total of 36,992 deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced globally during January to September (Q1-Q3) 2024, which represents a 12.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline over 42,288 deals announced during the same period in 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database disclosed that the volume of M&A deals declined by 6.7% during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023 while the number of private equity deals and venture financing deals experienced YoY fall of 8.9% and 22.2%, respectively.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The majority of the decline in global deal activity came from Q1 and Q2 while the impact was relatively much lesser in Q3. Although the deal activity continued to remain subdued in 2024, the impact seems to be diminishing in recent months or quarters. For instance, the decline in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023 remained at just 1%, whereas when compared between Q1 2024 and Q1 2023, the decline stood much higher at around 20% in Q1 2024.
“The relatively lesser decline could be attributed to improving deal-making sentiments in some regions. In fact, the trend across regions also remained a mixed bag during Q1-Q3 2024, with regions like Asia-Pacific showcasing just a single-digit decline while North America experienced a double-digit decline.”
North America experienced a 16% YoY decrease in the number of deals announced during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023, whereas Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America regions saw respective deal volume fall by 13.6%, 6.8%, 7.6%, and 22.3% YoY.
Bose adds: “Deal activity across several countries also remained a mixed bag, with some experiencing significant decline and some witnessing relatively lesser decline while few markets experienced improvement.”
For instance, the US, the UK, China, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden witnessed YoY decline in deal volume by 15.4%, 7.2%, 22.8%, 21%, 17.9%, 30.8%, 9.4%, 16.7%, 20.2%, and 16%, respectively, during Q1-Q3 2024. Meanwhile, India, Japan, and Australia witnessed deal volume improve by 9.6%, 16.2%, and 2.2% during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023, respectively.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, Honorary Reader in MIgration and Politics, University of Kent
Election workers prepare to mail absentee ballots to Americans, including those living overseas.Allison Joyce/Getty Images
One group of American voters is being largely ignored in the closely watched polling leading up to the Nov. 5 elections: U.S. citizens living abroad, whether as civilians or as members of the military. We know from governmental data that the number of ballots cast by overseas Americans has been greater than the margin of victory in races in the past – and may be again in 2024.
But that one potentially crucial group of American voters – U.S. citizens living abroad – does not get much attention, from pollsters or campaigns.
We are scholars of politicalscience whose research shows that overseas voters can make a difference in elections – and that there is potential for campaigns to mobilize these voters, despite a more complex process of voting than for domestic voters.
But those are likely undercounts. It’s almost impossible to account fully for dual citizens, naturalized U.S. citizens who have returned to the country of their birth or people who split their time between the U.S. and other countries.
Overseas Americans tend to be highly educated: More than three-quarters have a college degree, double the percentage within the U.S. Most overseas Americans do not move from country to country but rather stay in one country, often for a decade or more. But our surveys have found they remain interested in U.S. politics – not least because they pay U.S. income taxes, whether they work for a U.S. or foreign employer. IRS data shows that the vast majority are not ultra-wealthy.
Overseas voters’ absentee ballot requests and their returned ballots are carefully scrutinized by local officials in the state where they last lived in the U.S., making abuse very unlikely. But it is complex for overseas voters to vote: The paperwork is complicated, and there is comparatively little outreach from political parties and candidates.
Barriers to voting from overseas
In 2020, the Federal Voting Assistance Program, which is supposed to help overseas voters exercise their voting rights, estimated that just shy of 8% of eligible American voters overseas cast ballots in that year’s presidential election. Using program numbers to calculate a percentage another way finds that no more than 20% of overseas Americans cast ballots in the 2020 election.
Federal law requires local election officials in the U.S. to mail absentee ballots45 days before an election to overseas Americans who request them. Poor mail service in the U.S. and elsewhere can mean that voters don’t always get the ballots in time, and the ballots mailed back to election officials face similar delays.
Some states allow voters to receive or return their ballots electronically, which is faster; an overseas voter casting a ballot in Massachusetts can request a ballot, receive a blank ballot and return it all by email, while an overseas voter from Pennsylvania must return it by mail or courier, following exact procedures for enclosing their ballot in multiple envelopes.
In 2023, the Federal Voting Assistance Program estimated that as many as 150,000 U.S. citizens overseas did not cast ballots in the 2022 elections because of administrative hurdles, such as slow or irregular mail service and difficulties in communicating procedural changes to prospective voters abroad.
Interest in US politics
Another possible reason Americans abroad don’t vote is that they have lost interest in U.S. politics. But our own research, and the work of others, finds that not to be true.
Even given the logistical challenges, U.S. citizens living in Canada, as one example, have very similar levels of interest in American politics compared with citizens back home.
During the 2020 and 2022 campaign seasons, two of us surveyed American citizens who had moved north of the border. In 2020, 55% indicated they were very interested in American politics, as did 44% in the midterm year of 2022. This is comparable with levels of attention to politics within the U.S. during those campaigns, as gauged by the Cooperative Election Study.
So although Americans in Canada indicated interest levels as high as those in the U.S. during the past two national election cycles, the vast majority of them did not cast a vote. Administrative barriers play a role, but they’re not enough to explain such low turnout among citizens overseas.
Ignored by campaigns
Another key factor driving low turnout from abroad is a lack of communication from campaigns and parties. Research demonstrates that contacts by campaigns and parties significantly increase a person’s likelihood of voting.
U.S. citizens living abroad are unlikely to hear from campaigns, even in nearby Canada. When asked in 2020 or 2022 whether they had been contacted by American political campaigns, most potential voters in the U.S. had. But our surveys of Americans living in Canada show less than one-third reported contact from parties or candidates.
Because overseas citizens vote in their last state of residence in the U.S. but are not physically resident there, campaigns find it harder to identify them as swing-state residents or members of favorable demographic groups.
Overall, Americans living overseas are as eligible to vote as citizens in the U.S. They are as attentive to politics as Americans living in the U.S. On the other hand, they face major administrative hurdles and are generally not contacted by American parties or campaigns.
James A. McCann has received support for his research on migration from Purdue University, the US Fulbright Program, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels and Ronald Rapoport do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The French authorities must immediately stop the use of a discriminatory risk-scoring algorithm used by the French Social Security Agency’s National Family Allowance Fund (CNAF), which is used to detect overpayments and errors regarding benefit payments, Amnesty International said today.
On 15 October, Amnesty International and fourteen other coalition partners led by La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) submitted a complaint to the Council of State, the highest administrative court in France, demanding the risk-scoring algorithmic system used by CNAF be stopped.
“From the outset, the risk-scoring system used by CNAF treats individuals who experience marginalization – those with disabilities, lone single parents who are mostly women, and those living in poverty – with suspicion. This system operates in direct opposition to human rights standards, violating the right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to privacy,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International.
In 2023, La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) got access to versions of the algorithm’s source code – a set of instructions written by programmers to create a software – thereby exposing the discriminatory nature of the system.
Since 2011, CNAF has used a risk-scoring algorithm to identify people who are potentially committing benefits fraud by receiving overpayments. The algorithm assigns a risk score between zero and one to all recipients of family and housing benefits. The closer the score is to one, the higher the probability of being flagged for investigation.
Overall, there are 32 million people in France living in households that receive a benefit from CNAF. Their sensitive personal data, as well as that of their family, is processed periodically, and a risk score is assigned.
The criteria that increase one’s risk score include parameters which discriminate against vulnerable households, including being on a low income, being unemployed, living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood, spending a significant portion of income on rent, and working while having a disability. The details of those who are flagged due to having a high-risk score are compiled into a list that is investigated further by a fraud investigator.
“While authorities herald the rollout of algorithmic technologies in social protection systems as a way to increase efficiency and detect fraud and errors, in practice, these systems flatten the realities of people’s lives. They work as extensive data-mining tools that stigmatize marginalized groups, and invade their privacy,” said Agnès Callamard.
Amnesty International did not investigate specific cases of people flagged by the CNAF system. However, our investigations in Netherlands and Serbia suggest that using AI-powered systems and automation in the public sector enables mass surveillance: the amount of data that is collected is disproportionate to the purported aim of the system. Moreover, evidence by Amnesty International also exposed how many of these systems have been quite ineffective at actually doing what they purport to do—whether it be identifying fraud or errors in the benefits system.
While authorities herald the rollout of algorithmic technologies in social protection systems as a way to increase efficiency and detect fraud and errors, in practice, these systems flatten the realities of people’s lives. They work as extensive data-mining tools that stigmatize marginalized groups, and invade their privacy.
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International
It has also been argued that the scale of errors or fraud in benefits system has been exaggerated to justify the development of such tech systems, often leading to discriminatory or racist or sexist targeting of particular groups, particularly migrants and refugees.
“France is relying on a risk-scoring algorithmic system for social benefits that highlights, sustains and enshrines the bureaucracy’s prejudices and discrimination. Instead, France should ensure that it complies with its human rights obligations in the first place that of non-discrimination. The authorities must address current and existing AI-related harms amid the country’s quest to become a global AI hub,” said Agnès Callamard.
Under the newly adopted European Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AI Act), AI systems used by authorities to determine access to essential public services and benefits are considered to pose high risk to rights, health and safety of people. Therefore, they must meet strict technical, transparency and governance rules, including an obligation on deployers to carry out an assessment of human rights risks and guarantee mitigation measures before deployment.
In the meantime, certain systems, such as those used for social scoring, are considered to pose unacceptable level of risk and therefore must be banned.
It is unfortunate that EU lawmakers have been vague in explicitly defining social scoring within the AI Act. The European Commission must ensure that its upcoming guidelines provide a clear and enforceable interpretation of the social scoring ban, especially as it applies to discriminatory fraud detection and risk-scoring systems.
Agnès Callamard
It is currently unclear whether the system used by CNAF qualifies as a social scoring system due to a lack of clarity in the AI Act on what constitutes such a system.
“It is unfortunate that EU lawmakers have been vague in explicitly defining social scoring within the AI Act. The European Commission must ensure that its upcoming guidelines provide a clear and enforceable interpretation of the social scoring ban, especially as it applies to discriminatory fraud detection and risk-scoring systems,” said Agnès Callamard.
Regardless of its classification under the AI Act, all evidence suggests that the system used by CNAF is discriminatory. It is essential that authorities stop employing it and scrutinize biased practices that are inherently harmful especially to marginalized communities seeking social benefits.
In August 2024, the AI Act came into force. Amnesty International, as part of a civil society coalition led by the European Digital Rights Network (EDRi), has been calling for EU artificial intelligence regulation that protects and promotes human rights.
In March 2024, an Amnesty International briefing outlined how digital technologies including artificial intelligence, automation, and algorithmic decision-making are exacerbating inequalities in social protection systems across the world
In 2021, Amnesty International’s report Xenophobic Machines exposed how racial profiling was baked into the design of the algorithmic system by the Dutch tax authorities that flagged claims for childcare benefits as potentially fraudulent.
Authorities must immediately stop using discriminatory algorithm used by the social security agency
The risk-scoring system treats marginalised individuals with suspicion
‘This system operates in direct opposition to human rights standards, violating the right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to privacy’ – Agnès Callamard
The French authorities must immediately stop the use of a discriminatory risk-scoring algorithm used by the French Social Security Agency’s National Family Allowance Fund (CNAF), which is used to detect overpayments and errors regarding benefit payments, Amnesty International said today.
On 15 October, Amnesty and 14 other coalition partners led by La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) submitted a complaint to the Council of State, the highest administrative court in France, demanding the risk-scoring algorithmic system used by CNAF be stopped.
In 2023, LQDNgained access to versions of the algorithm’s source code – a set of instructions written by programmers to create a software – exposing the discriminatory nature of the system.
Since 2011, CNAF has used a risk-scoring algorithm to identify people who are potentially committing benefits fraud by receiving overpayments. The algorithm assigns a risk score between zero and one to all recipients of family and housing benefits. The closer the score is to one, the higher the probability of being flagged for investigation.
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International, said:
“From the outset, the risk-scoring system used by CNAF treats individuals who experience marginalisation – those with disabilities, lone single parents who are mostly women, and those living in poverty – with suspicion. This system operates in direct opposition to human rights standards, violating the right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to privacy.
“While authorities herald the rollout of algorithmic technologies in social protection systems to increase efficiency and detect fraud and errors, in practice, these systems flatten the realities of people’s lives. They work as extensive data-mining tools that stigmatise marginalised groups and invade their privacy.
“France is relying on a risk-scoring algorithmic system for social benefits that highlights, sustains and enshrines the bureaucracy’s prejudices and discrimination. Instead, France should ensure that it complies with its human rights obligations in the first place that of non-discrimination. The authorities must address current and existing AI-related harms amid the country’s quest to become a global AI hub.”
Putting people at risk
There are currently 32 million people in France receiving a benefit from CNAF. Their sensitive personal data, as well as that of their family, is processed periodically, and a risk score is assigned.
The criteria that increase one’s risk score include parameters which discriminate against vulnerable households, including being on a low income, being unemployed, living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood, spending a significant portion of income on rent, and working while having a disability. The details of those who are flagged due to having a high-risk score are compiled into a list that is investigated further by a fraud investigator.
Amnesty did not investigate specific cases of people flagged by the CNAF system. However, its investigations in theNetherlands andSerbia suggest that using AI-powered systems and automation in the public sector enables mass surveillance and the amount of data collected is disproportionate to the purported aim of the system.
Amnesty has also exposed how many of these systems have been quite ineffective at doing what they purport to do—whether it be identifying fraud or errors in the benefits system.
It has also been argued that the scale of errors or fraud in benefits system has been exaggeratedto justify the development of such tech systems, often leading to discriminatory or racist or sexist targeting of particular groups – particularly migrants and refugees.
Under the newly adopted European Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AI Act), AI systems used by authorities to determine access to essential public services and benefits are considered to pose high risk to rights, health and safety of people. Therefore, they must meet strict technical, transparency and governance rules, including an obligation on deployers to carry out an assessment of human rights risks and guarantee mitigation measures before deployment.
In the meantime, certain systems, such as those used for social scoring, are considered to pose unacceptable level of risk and therefore must be banned.
It is currently unclear whether the system used by CNAF qualifies as a social scoring system due to a lack of clarity in the AI Act on what constitutes such a system.
Regardless of its classification however, all evidence suggests that the system is discriminatory. It is essential that authorities stop employing it and scrutinise biased practices that are inherently harmful – especially to marginalised communities seeking social benefits.
In August 2024, the AI Actcame into force. Amnesty, as part of a civil society coalition led by the European Digital Rights Network,has been calling for EU artificial intelligence regulation that protects and promotes human rights.
In March this year, an Amnestybriefing outlined how digital technologies including artificial intelligence, automation, and algorithmic decision-making are exacerbating inequalities in social protection systems across the world.
In 2021, Amnesty’s report Xenophobic Machines exposed how racial profiling was baked into the design of the algorithmic system by the Dutch tax authorities that flagged claims for childcare benefits as potentially fraudulent.
Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – In English
Annual financial reports / halfyearly financial reports are available in the Company Register. However, companies must provide information about when and where their financial reports are published in addition to this.
An appeal may be lodged against the administrative fine order.
Background information:
Financial reports provide information on companies’ assets, financial position and results of operations. This information is important to investors because it allows them to make informed investment decisions.
Companies such as Wild Bunch AG that are domiciled in Germany and issue securities that are traded on an organised market in Germany must publish an announcement about the date from which and the website where their annual financial reports and half-yearly financial reports are made publicly available, in addition to their availability in the company register.
For annual financial reports, the announcement must be published no later than four months after the end of each reporting period and before the annual financial report; for half-yearly financial reports, the announcement must be published no later than three months after the end of each reporting period and before the half-yearly financial report.
Failure to publish financial reports and announcements stating when and where these reports are made publicly available, or failure to publish such reports and announcements within the prescribed period, constitutes a contravention of sections 114 et seq. of the WpHG. BaFin may in each case impose administrative fines on companies that fail to comply with this obligation. The maximum amount for this fine is 10 million euros or up to 5% of total revenue.
Priority question for written answer P-002018/2024 to the Commission Rule 144 Arkadiusz Mularczyk (ECR)
Nazi Germany established its largest extermination camps in occupied Poland. For decades, the responsibility for preserving and maintaining these camps fell on the Polish people. To date, the cost of maintaining these sites has far exceeded the total compensation Germany paid to Polish victims of the Nazi-German occupation.
Memorial sites of former Nazi-German concentration camps and forced labour camps are currently funded by the budgets of the countries in which they are located, e.g. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibór, Gross-Rosen, Stutthof, Płaszów and many others. The victim states of World War II have the financial responsibility for preserving and maintaining these sites, despite them having been established by Nazi Germany.
It seems unjust for the victim states to bear the entire cost of preserving these sites.
In reference to Parliament’s resolution of 19 September 2019 on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe[1], specifically point 12, I would like to ask:
1.Will the Commission support Poland and other World War II victim states in seeking funding to maintain the memorial sites of former Nazi-German concentration camps from the states that established them?
2.Can the Commission clarify its stance on this issue?
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, October 16, 2024/APO Group/ —
International exhibitors presented the most groundbreaking innovations helping shape the future of society and industry
“Cybersecurity Day” next up as world’s largest and best-rated tech event reaches halfway stage on Wednesday
Hot on the heels of a memorable first day where GITEX GLOBAL 2024 (http://apo-opa.co/4hlR7gj) opened the doors for its biggest-ever international edition, the entire global tech ecosystem experienced another action-packed agenda on Tuesday at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).
Taking place from 14-18 October, GITEX GLOBAL presents a record-breaking edition in its 44th year – welcoming over 6,500 exhibitors, 1,800 startups, 1,200 investors alongside governments from more than 180 countries.
With five themed days locked in across the 2024 event programme, a technology taking the world by storm was the focal point as “AI Super Tuesday” presented the most groundbreaking innovations helping shape the future of society and industry.
A technology with vast transformative potential
As AI takes centre stage in drug discovery, the world could soon witness the most significant shift in medicine since the advent of modern pharmaceuticals. But with such rapid advancements, a mesmerising Tuesday session – ‘The Next Leap in Medicine: Are we on the Edge of a Breakthrough?’ – saw experts discuss whether AI transformation is fast approaching or further away than some anticipate.
Dr. Shameer Khader, Global Head and Executive Director – Computational Biology Cluster, Precision Medicine and Computational Biology at global pharmaceutical company Sanofi, gave AI an emphatic endorsement. He said: “Drug discovery on average takes 10-15 years and one project around $1.5-2 billion in cost. Is that something sustainable? The model must change, and we should harness AI capabilities and value across the ecosystem. We should optimise every single process to reduce development costs, streamline the drug discovery lifestyle, and build data disease models and infrastructure.”
In a special case study, audiences became acquainted with ‘BabyX’ – an interactive simulation of a lifelike infant through AI. This virtual animated baby learns and reacts like a human infant with a built-in virtual brain with detailed likeness to that of a human. Functioning through biological AI and an operating system called Brain Language, stimulated neurochemical reactions help BabyX decide how she will react – something that could prove revolutionary in the future AI economy.
Elaborating on the significance of BabyX, Dr. Mark Sagar, its creator who co-founded New Zealand-based Soul Machines, pointed out the defining difference between human and AI intelligence, adding: “As humans, we learn from a young age though exploring the world and experimenting. Play is such a key part of making intelligence open-ended and inventive, but it’s one thing what’s missing from current AI. If we’re ever going to regulate general AI intelligence, we need to build cognitive architecture that yields intelligent behaviour through a comprehensive approach.”
A catalyst for forward-facing collaboration
Alongside the profound transformative potential of AI, GITEX GLOBAL’s status as a catalyst for collaboration and forward-facing projects was on full display. A number of exciting high-profile partnerships were officially unveiled at the world’s largest and best-rated tech event, with one involved KAOUN – the world-leading organiser of business events and trade fairs, leading all GITEX events outside the UAE.
Tuesday saw KAOUN sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Digital Dubai Authority to grow the GITEX ecosystem, support Dubai’s internationalisation strategy, and explore new partnership opportunities. Additionally, AWS and e& entered into a $1 billion-plus agreement as part of new strategic alliance to deliver cloud solutions and supporting AI deployment and digital transformation across the region.
Tuesday casts spotlight on AI’s cross-sector impact and demands
Elsewhere on the Super AI Tuesday agenda, another applauded show illustrated how high-performance computing is steering humanity’s quest for the next generation of aircraft. During ‘Quantum Maturation: Introducing The “Quantum Mobility Quest”’, companies were urged to move beyond the physical limits of present-day computing today and scale up future-focused solutions to unlock aviation’s vast potential.
Isabell Gradert, Vice President of Central Research & Technology, Airbus, Germany, said: “Aviation is embedded in the tapestry of our global-leading industries and is one with the highest computation needs. Quantum computing is seen as the next big gamechanger in the aviation industry and has the potential to solve the most complex aerospace challenges and create a paradigm shift in the way aircrafts are built and flown. This is a very exciting time.”
Additionally, audiences familiarised themselves with a wide of services and solutions being showcased by GITEX GLOBAL exhibitors. UAE-based Presight, the region’s leading big data analytics company powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), unveiled its Intelli Platform, an AI-powered management and operations platform that lets cities, transport, energy, and infrastructure organisations immediately use Generative AI.
AWS also cast a spotlight on AWS Bedrock, a fully managed service that enables enterprises to easily build, customise, and deploy generative AI applications using foundation models from top AI providers, all through the AWS platform.
GITEX GLOBAL 2024 continues Wednesday as “Cybersecurity Day” welcomes an ensemble cast of thought leaders and experts to explore the emerging threats landscape, counter-infringement strategies, and tools organisations require in an increasingly digital world.
GITEX Editions (https://apo-opa.co/4h8xBn9) also presents Intelligent Connectivity (https://apo-opa.co/4hayjAy) with visitors set to explore how industry leaders can bridge digital divides and harness emerging technology to drive innovation and economic growth. The World Future Economy Digital Leaders Summit (https://apo-opa.co/4hlR8kn) also continues with another star-studded cast of world-renowned experts and innovative minds.
GITEX GLOBAL is seamlessly connecting with the world’s largest network of tech events, including GITEX EUROPE Berlin, GITEX ASIA Singapore, GITEX AFRICA Morocco, and GITEX NIGERIA. These events are fostering collaboration and driving innovation to shape the tech landscape of tomorrow.
Current account surplus down Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €14.4 billion in August 2024, down €3.3 billion on the previous month’s level. This was chiefly attributable to a smaller goods account surplus. In August, the surplus in the goods account fell by €3.5 billion to €17.6 billion because receipts recorded a sharper decline than expenditure. The deficit in invisible current transactions decreased slightly by €0.2 billion to €3.2 billion. Small changes were also recorded in the sub-account balances. Net receipts in primary income rose by €0.5 billion to €12.9 billion. In the secondary income account, the deficit narrowed somewhat to €5.2 billion. In both sub-accounts, the individual sub-items changed only slightly, with declines predominating and expenditure falling somewhat more sharply than receipts on balance. The deficit in the services account widened by €0.5 billion to stand at €10.9 billion. Here, too, receipts were down overall, with receipts from other business services and charges for the use of intellectual property decreasing above all. Although declines in these areas in particular as well as lower expenditure on computer services also depressed the expenditure side, the increase in travel expenditure – typical for this time of year – contributed substantially to expenditure narrowing less strongly than receipts on balance. Portfolio investment sees net capital imports Germany’s cross-border portfolio investment recorded net capital imports of €28.6 billion in August, after net capital exports of €8.7 billion in July. Foreign investors acquired German securities worth €48.4 billion net, purchasing bonds in particular (€39.7 billion), which were roughly split evenly between instruments issued by the public and private sectors. In addition, they bought money market paper (€7.8 billion) and, to a lesser extent, mutual fund shares (€0.6 billion) and shares (€0.3 billion). Domestic investors acquired foreign securities to the tune of €19.8 billion net, adding foreign bonds (€10.8 billion), mutual fund shares (€9.8 billion) and shares (€0.7 billion) to their portfolios, but disposing of money market paper (€1.5 billion). In August, transactions in financial derivatives resulted in net outflows of €7.5 billion (€5.9 billion in July). Direct investment generated net capital imports of €5.7 billion in August, up from €1.0 billion in July. German enterprises decreased their direct investment funds abroad by €10.3 billion. Although they increased their equity capital abroad by €1.2 billion, redemptions predominated in intra-group credit transactions (€11.5 billion). Non-resident enterprises, meanwhile, withdrew €4.6 billion in direct investment from Germany. This was chiefly attributable to redemptions in intra-group credit transactions (€5.9 billion), which more than offset inflows in the form of equity capital (€1.3 billion). Other statistically recorded investment – which comprises loans and trade credits (where these do not constitute direct investment), bank deposits and other investments – registered net outflows of capital amounting to €12.3 billion in August (following €28.8 billion in July). The higher net claims of monetary financial institutions amounting to €16.4 billion made a particularly large contribution to this figure. The Bundesbank’s net external claims also rose (€8.3 billion), due to TARGET claims on the ECB rising by €26.8 billion. However, the Bundesbank’s external liabilities in the form of currency and deposits also increased at the same time. Enterprises and households (€11.4 billion) and general government (€1.0 billion) recorded net capital imports in August. The Bundesbank’s reserve assets declined – at transaction values – by €0.6 billion in August.
As species go extinct and a habitable climate teeters, it’s understandable to feel despair.
Some of the world’s top climate scientists have expressed their mounting hopelessness at the prospect of reaching 3°C by 2100. This hellish scenario, well in excess of the 1.5°C countries agreed to aim for when they signed the 2015 Paris agreement, would indeed spell disaster for much of life on Earth.
As a lecturer in sustainability, I often hear my anxious students bemoan the impossibility of building a way out of ecological collapse. However, the greatest danger is fatalism, and assuming, as Margaret Thatcher claimed, that “there is no alternative”.
There is a vast ocean of possibility for transforming the planet. Increasingly, cities are in the vanguard of forging more sustainable worlds.
Car-free futures
Since the early 1900s, the car has afforded a sense of freedom for some while infringing on the freedoms of others.
Global sales of electric vehicles are projected to continue rising. Yet even these supposed solutions to an unsustainable transport sector require a lot of space and materials to make and maintain.
With cities set to host nearly 70% of all people by 2050, space and livability are key concerns. As such, cities across Europe and beyond are beginning to reclaim their streets.
Between 2019 and 2022, the number of low-emissions zones, areas that regulate the most polluting vehicles in order to improve air quality and help to protect public health, expanded by 40% in European cities. Research suggests that policies to restrict car use such as congestion charges and raised parking fees can further discourage their use. However, providing viable and accessible alternatives is also crucial: as such, many cities are also widening walkways, building bike lanes and making public transport cheaper and easier to access.
An estimated 80,000 cars used to pass daily through the centre of Pontevedra, a city in north-west Spain. Mayor Miguel Anxo Fernandez Lores instituted a ban on cars in 1999 and removed on-street parking spaces. The city has since drastically reduced air pollution and hasn’t had a vehicular death in over a decade.
Cement and concrete are widely used to make major infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings and dams. The cement industry accounts for up to 9% of global emissions. Moreover, the open-pit quarrying of limestone, a key ingredient in cement, involves removing topsoil and vegetation which rips up ecosystems and biodiversity and increases flooding risks.
A burgeoning “depaving” movement originated in Portland, Oregon in 2008 and has removed concrete and asphalt from cities including Chicago, London and several cities across Canada, replacing it with plants and soil.
Depaving is an example of the wider urban rewilding movement which aims to restore natural habitats and expand green spaces in cities for social and ecological wellbeing.
Multispecies coexistence
A new report by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has documented an average 73% decline in the abundance of monitored wildlife populations globally since 1970. Despite such unfathomable losses, many cities are being transformed into oases of multispecies life.
Prized for their fur, beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK by the 16th century. Their water damming activities create homes for other species such as birds and invertebrates and help prevent flooding. Eurasian beavers have been thriving in Sweden, Norway and Germany since their reintroduction in the 1920s and 1960s, respectively.
In 2022, beavers were designated a protected species in England. In October 2023, London saw its first baby beaver in over 400 years.
Melbourne has launched a project to create a 18,000 square-metre garden in the city by 2028, with at least 20 local plant species for each square metre. An 8-kilometre long pollinator corridor is also being created to allow wildlife to travel between 200 interconnected gardens and further help local pollinators flourish.
Living alongside larger predators brings unique challenges. However, as with any functional relationship, respect is key for coexistence. Los Angeles and Mumbai are two major cities that are learning to live alongside mountain lions and leopards. Local officials have launched public education initiatives urging people to, for instance, maintain a safe distance from the animals and not walk alone outside at night. In cases where wildlife conflicts occur, such as between wolves and farmers who have lost livestock, non-lethal methods such as wolf-proof fences and guard dogs have been found to be more effective solutions than culls.
Cities, particularly in wealthy countries, are only a small part of the story.
At just over 500 years old, the modern capitalist system, imposed globally through European colonialism, is a relatively recent development. Despite its influence, the visionary author Ursula K. Le Guin reminded us that “any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings”.
Indigenous peoples numbering 476 million across 90 countries represent thousands of distinct cultures that persist as living proof of the enduring possibilities of radically different ways of living.
These examples demonstrate hope in action, and suggest that the radical changes required to avert climate and ecological breakdown are often a simple question of will and collective resolve.
Reality, like the future, is never fixed. Whether the world is 2, 3 or 4-degrees warmer by 2100 depends on actions taken today. The terrain ahead will be full of challenges. But, glimmers of a better world are already here.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Heather Alberro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Reacting to the Polish government’s new migration strategy which cites the threat of Russia and Belarus using migration to ‘destabilize the country’ and proposes temporary suspension of the right to seek asylum, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake said:
“Suspending the right to seek asylum is flagrantly unlawful and Prime Minister Tusk knows this. EU member states like Poland are playing politics with the rights of refugees and migrants. From Poland to Finland, Greece and Germany, so-called emergencies are being weaponized to enact laws that gravely undermine access to asylum and the protection from refoulement.
“These proposals endanger the rights of people seeking safety. They penalize people who may have been subject to violence and trafficking, or lured to EU borders under false pretenses. They provide for a temporary and territorial suspension of ‘the right to submit asylum applications’, affecting both people crossing ‘irregularly’ along the land border and to those at official border crossing points, referring to Finland’s recently passed law on this issue.
“These proposals are also blatantly inconsistent with the newly approved EU crisis and force majeure regulation as part of the Pact on Migration and Asylum. States have a range of tools available to respond to security concerns, which must in all cases uphold human rights, including the right to asylum, as protected by the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights.
“Since 2021, the EU has been tolerating practices enacted by Poland, Latvia and Lithuania at their borders with Belarus that go beyond all powers granted to them under EU law, and more recently at Finland’s border with Russia. It is high time for the European Commission to take its role as guardian of the treaties seriously and send a clear message that fundamental rights cannot be bent to political interests.”
Background
States refer to “instrumentalization” of migration to designate actions by third states or other actors that facilitate irregular migration movements into another country in an attempt to destabilize it.
The plans for the suspension of asylum applications form part of Poland’s strategy on migration for 2025-2030, approved by the Government on 15 October 2024.
These plans are the latest in the Polish government’s efforts to undermine the human rights of refugees and migrants arriving at the Polish-Belarussian border. The proposal also comes as Poland, together with Lithuania and Latvia (in separate but similar cases), faces imminent scrutiny at the European Court of Human Rights for the situation of a group of Afghan people seeking asylum who were stranded at the border with Belarus in 2021, as the Polish authorities allegedly prevented from accessing asylum and summarily returned them.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Several countries gave a joint statement on the establishment of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) in response to the termination of the mandate of the Panel of Experts for the UNSC 1718 Sanctions Committee in April this year.
The Republic of Korea, Japan, the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and New Zealand gave a statement on their recent establishment of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions regarding the DPRK:
We, the participating states of the MSMT, are aligned in our commitment to uphold international peace and security and to safeguard the global non-proliferation regime and address the threat arising from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs, which are in violation of UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs).
In light of the veto which disbanded the UN Security Council’s 1718 Committee Panel of Experts this year, we hereby express our intention to establish the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), a multilateral mechanism to monitor and report violations and evasions of the sanction measures stipulated in the relevant UNSCRs. The goal of the new mechanism is to assist the full implementation of UN sanctions on the DPRK by publishing information based on rigorous inquiry into sanctions violations and evasions attempts.
We underscore our shared determination to fully implement relevant UNSCRs regarding the DPRK, reaffirm that the path to dialogue remains open, and call on all states to join global efforts to maintain international peace and security in the face of the ongoing threats from the DPRK.
Projects on the Indus River in Pakistan are helping to tackle biodiversity loss. Salik Javed/Shutterstock
When negotiations at Cop15 – the UN’s biodiversity conference – ended in December 2022, many delegates breathed a sigh of relief.
Threatening snowstorms outside the convention centre in Montreal, Canada seemed to lift just as the political weather changed and the long-awaited Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework was agreed. It’s mission: to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 in order to achieve the ultimate goal of a society living in harmony with nature by 2050.
Fast forward two years and governments, businesses, representatives of Indigenous people and local communities, experts from environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and scientists will gather for the follow-up Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia, from October 21. Many due to attend, including myself, wonder whether the promise made to “halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030” is achievable.
Initial signs are not promising. For starters, no international targets for biodiversity have ever been met.
Only a handful of countries, including China, Canada and France, have submitted new national biodiversity plans demonstrating how they will implement the promises made two years ago. Most countries, including the UK, (that’s more than 80% in total) haven’t submitted their full plans.
Countries can also submit updates for the 23 targets listed in the framework. The UK and others have submitted targets such as promising to reduce the impact of pollution on nature and ensuring that 30% of land is effectively protected in line with the framework.
But crucial questions remain about how those goals will be reached. To make Cop16 effective, three things need to happen.
1. Decide on a plan
When delegates gather in Cali, questions of implementation will be front and centre of the negotiations. The first challenge is that the approach for monitoring progress on all 23 targets – including issues such as improving access to nature in cities, reducing harmful subsidies and restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems – is yet to be agreed.
For some, the approach that has been developed so far lacks ambition in crucial areas. Indicators suggested for monitoring progress on reducing the impacts of consumption on nature remain very weak for example. For others, it may prove too challenging.
For example, countries with limited access to data might not be able to track alien species or assess how critical services provided by nature to make societies more resilient might be affected by climate change. Getting agreement at the Cop16 negotiations will be vital in order to hold countries to account as the 2030 deadline set to achieve all of the targets approaches.
2. Find the funds
Another crucial issue is funding: who will pay for the action required? The global biodiversity framework fund (GBFF) was established in 2023 to provide financial support.
Yet so far, it has only attracted contributions of around US$230 billion (£176 billion) from a small group of countries including Canada, the UK, Germany, Japan and Spain. Leaders gathering in Cali, and especially those from developing countries, are calling for more funding and for greater control over how it is allocated.
The next UN biodiversity conference will be held in Cali, Columbia from October 21 to November 1. Tudoran Andrei/Shutterstock
In Montreal, countries agreed to make sure that the impacts on nature were considered across different policy areas (such as building new roads or developing new energy sources) and in economic sectors, from fishing to agriculture and mining to tech.
They agreed that groups most likely to be affected by the loss of nature, including Indigenous people and local communities, women and youth, should help make key decisions. While targets such as protecting 30% of the land and sea for nature are crucial, progress will only happen if nature is put on everyone’s bottom line.
Delivering real change
The urgent need for action is not lost on delegates gathering in Cali. There is a real risk that the promise countries made in Montreal to deliver “transformative action by governments, and regional and local authorities, with the involvement of all of society” won’t be met.
But there are some hopeful signs of transformative change to conserve and restore nature and ensure its sustainable use.
Take, for example, the Tree Equity Partnership in Detroit, US. This partnership between the city, US-based charity American Forests and the local non-profit charity Greening of Detroit aims to plant 75,000 trees. This will create places of beauty, biodiversity and climate resilience in underserved neighbourhoods and generate 300 new jobs in the city.
In Pakistan, the Living Indus initiative is an umbrella organisation that has identified 25 projects involving local and regional governments, businesses and communities working together to restore the ecological health of the Indus river.
Businesses are also calling for real change. More than 170 investors have signed a pledge developed by a coalition of financial institutions called the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation to take action for nature across their portfolios.
New science-based standards are being developed to drive the mainstreaming of biodiversity action through their companies and associated supply chains. Cop16 is expected to see increased interest from the private sector and a focus on tackling climate change and biodiversity together.
These projects are successfully tackling the root causes of global biodiversity loss. They integrate solutions and deal with social and environmental issues – poverty and exploitation, climate risks and land use change. Tackling these problems is just as vital as the need for sustainable production and consumption plus investment that works for, not against, nature.
Projects such as these are the ones that give scientists and conservationists like me – and organisations like WWF that I work with – hope. We want to see more projects that take action on nature, climate and social justice together. If Cop16 can make even a small step in this direction, the world will be travelling towards making real progress by the end of this decade.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Harriet Bulkeley receives funding from the European Commission and currently serves as an advisor to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Headline: Azure Cobalt 100-based Virtual Machines are now generally available
We are excited to announce the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100 Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first fully custom Arm-based Cobalt 100 CPU and represent a significant milestone in our end-to-end approach to building cloud infrastructure.
Today we are announcing the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100-based Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first 64-bit Arm-based Azure Cobalt 100 CPU, which has been fully designed in-house. They represent a significant milestone in our journey in designing and building out our cloud infrastructure, with optimization and customization across every layer of the infrastructure stack—from silicon, to servers, to services. Through vertical integration across hardware and software, Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs are one of Microsoft’s latest examples of innovating to enhance and optimize our cloud infrastructure with an end-to-end systems approach, to deliver the right mix of performance, power efficiency, and scale for our customers.
The Cobalt 100-based VMs consist of our new general purpose Dpsv6-series and Dplsv6-series and our memory-optimized Epsv6-series VM series. They offer up to 50% better price performance than our previous generation Arm-based VMs, making them an attractive option for a wide range of scale-out and cloud-native Linux-based workloads, including data analytics, web and application servers, open source databases, caches, and more.
The new Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs deliver leading performance across various workloads compared to previous generations of Azure Arm-based VMs: up to 1.4x CPU performance, up to 1.5x performance on Java-based workloads, and up to 2x performance on web servers, .NET applications, and in-memory cache applications compared to the previous generation Azure Arm-based VMs. These VMs also support 4x local storage IOPS (with NVMe) and up to 1.5x network bandwidth compared to the previous generation Azure Arm-based VMs.
The new VMs are broadly available in Canada Central, Central US, East US 2, East US, Germany West Central, Japan East, Mexico Central, North Europe, Southeast Asia, Sweden Central, Switzerland North, UAE North, West Europe, and West US 2. The number of regions will continue to expand in 2024 and beyond with Australia East, Brazil South, France Central, India Central, South Central US, UK South, West US 3, and West US coming soon.
Customer adoption and scenarios
We have been working with several internal and external customers during the preview period. For example, IC3, the platform that powers billions of customer conversations in Microsoft Teams, is serving its growing customer base more efficiently, achieving up to 45% better performance on Cobalt 100-based VMs.
We’re also delivering Cobalt 100-based VMs to many of our independent software vendor (ISV) partners offering platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) solutions on Microsoft Azure.
“The Cobalt 100, Microsoft Azure’s new Arm-based processor, represents a huge step forward for optimizing performance and productivity. Cadence and Microsoft’s collaboration helps our mutual customers tackle the demands of giga-scale compute that advanced-node silicon design demands. The Cobalt 100 helps our thousands of electronic design automation (EDA) and systems customers meet their ever-increasing demands for throughput to speed time-to-market.” —Mahesh Turaga, Vice President (VP) of Cloud Business Development, Cadence
“We are really excited about the new Cobalt 100 VMs. We are making them the primary platform for our Databricks SQL Serverless offering on Azure, as they offer outstanding efficiency and allow us to deliver significant price-performance improvements to our customers. Customers using our Azure Databricks classic Jobs offering will also greatly benefit from Cobalt VMs by selecting them for their Jobs cluster nodes, achieving noticeable performance improvements while keeping operating costs down.” —Michael Kiermaier, VP of Business Strategy and Operations, Databricks
“At Elastic, we are driving innovation and cost-efficiency by enabling customers to leverage our Search AI-powered observability, security, and search solutions on Arm-based architecture. Azure Virtual Machines with Cobalt 100 Arm CPUs enables Elastic to deliver better throughput and up to 37% improved performance compared to Azure’ previous generation Arm based VMs.” —Uri Cohen, Vice President, Product Management, Elastic
“At Rescale, our mission is to elevate innovation by providing the best tools in high performance computing, data, and AI to organizations of every size to deliver engineering and scientific breakthroughs that enrich humanity. We have tested the Azure Cobalt 100 VMs to power our high-performance computing platform and found it to deliver about a 40% improvement in performance compared to Azure’s previous generation Arm-based VMs. We look forward to upgrading our Azure infrastructure to these new VMs and offer comparable performance improvements to our customers so they can tackle complex challenges with greater speed and efficiency.” —Adam McKenzie, Chief Technology Officer, Rescale
“Siemens EDA continues to expand its partnership with Microsoft to develop innovative solutions for our mutual silicon and electronic systems customers. Our collaboration around Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 Arm-based VMs running analog, standard-cell, memory, and digital verification workloads has demonstrated compelling performance and economic benefits. The general availability of these new VMs marks an important milestone for the industry, highlighting its fast-growing reliance on continuously advancing hardware and software platforms optimized for high throughput and efficiency.” —Craig Johnson, Vice President, Siemens EDA Strategy
“We have extensively tested Azure’s new Cobalt 100 VMs and compared them to the previous generation Arm VMs on Azure using Snowflake workloads. We’re thrilled with the significant improvements in performance. And now, we’re excited to adopt these latest Cobalt 100 VMs and share that performance improvement with our customers!” —Gabe Bryant, Senior Manager, Snowflake
“In the face of unprecedented compute and memory demands driven by increasingly sophisticated systems, designers are leveraging the cloud to scale their computing resources. Our close collaboration with Microsoft Azure facilitates the adoption of Arm architecture-based compute resources by providing customers with industry-leading, AI-driven EDA tools enabled on the Azure cloud to help them address the escalating workload demands.” —Sanjay Bali, senior vice president of EDA strategy and product management at Synopsys
“Templafy relies on the stability and scalability of Microsoft Azure to run our document generation platform for enterprises worldwide, and we’re excited about the new Azure Cobalt 100 VMs. After evaluation we’ve observed significant performance improvements, including approximately 25% higher throughput and 35% lower CPU usage compared to Azure’s previous generation Arm-based VMs. We look forward to harnessing these advancements to enhance our platform’s performance and deliver even better experiences for our customers when it comes to their critical business documents.” —Marco van Kimmenade, Director of Engineering, Templafy
Synergy with our technology partners
We value the collaboration with our technology partners.
“The Cobalt 100 processor is a fantastic example of how Arm-based silicon, supported by a robust software ecosystem, is addressing the growing compute complexity of modern infrastructure,” said Mohamed Awad, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infrastructure Business, Arm. “Following years of collaboration with Microsoft to bring Arm-based VMs to market, the general availability of Cobalt 100 marks an important milestone in our partnership, and demonstrates the power, efficiency and flexibility of Arm Compute Subsystems in driving the workloads of the future.”
The journey to Arm: Embracing innovation and customer benefits
Microsoft has a longstanding history of contributing to Arm architecture and integrating Arm technology. This experience has enabled us to develop important industry standards that prepared the Arm architecture for datacenter-scale computing. We have also been working closely with Arm on industry initiatives such as ServerReady and SystemReady and received industry recognition for both initiatives. Our journey into Arm-based VMs is based on a vision to deliver superior price-performance and power efficiency. The Cobalt 100-based VMs embody this vision by offering these benefits. By embracing Arm-based VMs, we have been able to offer our customers a unique combination of performance and cost effectiveness.
Developer ecosystem
The developer ecosystem for Arm continues to thrive and has seen tremendous progress in the last couple of years. Major developer platforms and languages such as C++, .NET, and Java provide Arm-native versions. We have invested in Arm-specific optimizations for each of these platforms and languages so we’re fully leveraging the capabilities of the Arm architecture.
The larger ecosystem has embraced Arm with many popular infrastructure and deployment solutions now available with native Arm support. GitHub Actions, GitHub’s continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflow engine, is an integral part of many developers’ workflows and used to continuously build, test, and deploy apps. This is now available for Arm in two flavors—self-hosted runners that can be hosted on an Arm VM or on local Arm hardware, and GitHub-hosted runners.
Containers are a popular deployment target for many reasons: a streamlined development workflow, isolation and security, efficient resource utilization, portability, and reproducibility. Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports the creation of Arm agent nodes as well as mixing x86 and Arm architecture nodes within a cluster.
Specifications
You can select from a range of Azure Virtual Machines of three memory ratios for a given vCPU size, giving you the flexibility to choose the configuration that works best for your workloads in terms of CPU performance and memory needs. All these VM series are available with and without local disks so that you can deploy the option that best fits your workload.
The new Dpsv6-series and Dpdsv6-series general-purpose VMs offer up to 96 vCPUs and 384 GiB of RAM (4:1 memory-to-vCPU ratio). They are ideal for scale-out workloads, cloud-native solutions like AKS, small to medium open-source databases, application servers, and web servers. Arm developers can use these VMs in CI/CD pipelines, development, and test scenarios.
The new Dplsv6-series and Dpldsv6-series VMs provide up to 96 vCPUs and 192 GiB of RAM (2:1 memory-to-vCPU ratio). They are perfect for media encoding, small databases, gaming servers, microservices, and workloads that don’t need high RAM per vCPU.
The new Epsv6-series and Epdsv6-series memory-optimized VMs offer up to 96 vCPUs and 672 GiB of RAM (up to 8:1 memory-to-vCPU ratio). These VMs are designed for memory-intensive workloads such as large databases, in-memory caching applications, and data analytics.
The new virtual machines support all remote disk types such as Standard SSD, Standard HDD, Premium SSD and Ultra Disk storage. To learn more about various disk types and their regional availability, please refer to Azure managed disk type. Disk storage is billed separately from virtual machines. You can deploy these new VMs using existing methods including the Azure portal, SDKs, APIs, PowerShell, and the command-line interface (CLI).
You can learn more about the new Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs by visiting the specification pages: Dpsv6-series, Dpdsv6-series, Dplsv6-series, Dpldsv6-series, Epsv6-series, Epdsv6-series.
Pricing
To learn more about the pricing of Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs, please visit the Azure Virtual Machines pricing and Pricing calculator pages.
You can also take advantage of Reserved Instances, Azure savings plan for compute, and Spot Virtual Machines to lower your costs. Reserved VM Instances can reduce costs and improve your budget forecasting through upfront one-year or three-year commitments. For a limited time, you can save up to 15% more when you purchase one-year Azure Reserved Virtual Machine (VM) Instances for select Linux VMs. This offer is available between from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. See here for more details. The Azure savings plan for compute gives you the flexibility to save across multiple Azure services, including Azure VMs. Spot Virtual Machines can significantly reduce the cost of running in Azure and further optimize your cloud spend for workloads that can tolerate interruptions and have flexible execution time.
A new era of price performance and power efficiency
The general availability of Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs marks the beginning of a new era in Azure’s infrastructure. With our custom silicon program, we are delivering exceptional price performance and power efficiency to our customers. We are excited to see the impact of these innovations on our customers’ businesses and we look forward to bringing even better solutions to our customers in the future.
Thank you for joining us on this exciting journey.
For questions, please go to Azure Support and our experts will be there to help you.
We, the participating states of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), are aligned in our commitment to upholding international peace and security, safeguarding the global non-proliferation regime and addressing the threat arising from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK’s) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, which are in violation of UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs).
October 16, 2024- Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada
“We, the participating states of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), are aligned in our commitment to upholding international peace and security, safeguarding the global non-proliferation regime and addressing the threat arising from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK’s) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, which are in violation of UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs).
“In light of the veto which disbanded the UN Security Council’s 1718 Committee Panel of Experts this year, we hereby express our intention to establish the MSMT, a multilateral mechanism to monitor and report violations and evasions of the sanction measures stipulated in the relevant UNSCRs. The goal of the new mechanism is to assist in the full implementation of UN sanctions on the DPRK by publishing information based on rigorous inquiry into sanctions violations and evasion attempts.
“We underscore our shared determination to fully implement relevant UNSCRs regarding the DPRK; reaffirm that the path to dialogue remains open; and call on all states to join global efforts to maintain international peace and security in the face of the ongoing threats from the DPRK.”
Signed: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, U.K, and U.S.
