WHAT EU LEADERS AGREED ON THE POST-COVID RECOVERY PACKAGE

Cyprus Mail 21 July 2020 - Reuters News Service

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

European Union leaders reached a deal on Tuesday on a package of measures to boost their economies after the coronavirus pandemic, agreeing to borrow and spend hundreds of billions of euros in the next few years and pay them back from new taxes.

1. Key to the deal is a new element in EU policy making: the European Commission will borrow massively on the market and then grant much of the cash, rather than lend it, to countries most in need of economic stimulus.

EU leaders agreed the Commission would cheaply borrow 750 billion euros (677.91 billion pounds) using its triple-A rating. Of that, it would disburse 390 billion in grants and 360 billion in cheap loans.

2. The grants force the bloc to generate cash to repay the borrowing by 2058. Leaders agreed that:

– Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands would lose their current rebate on the amount of VAT they pass on to the EU.

– EU countries will impose a tax on non-recycled plastic and pass on the proceeds to EU coffers.

– From 2023 there would be a tax on goods imported into the EU from countries with lower carbon emissions standards than the bloc.

– A tax on financial transactions is another option as is a getting some money from extending the emissions trading system to maritime and aviation sectors.

Such new taxes will be expressly allotted to the repayment of the 750 billion borrowing, but they will become part of EU reality for the next 38 years.

3. The grants will be disbursed to countries that present plans that strengthen their growth potential, job creation and economic and social resilience of their economies. The plans also have to make economies greener and more digital and be in line with the Commission’s annual recommendations.

The disbursement will need the approval of a qualified majority of EU governments and be linked to meeting milestones and targets. If any EU government believes such targets had not been met it can ask EU leaders to debate it within three months.

The money will also be linked to observing the rule of law — an issue for Poland and Hungary which are under EU probes over their rule of law practice. But there will be a lot of political leeway: if the Commission decides there are “manifest generalised deficiencies in the good governance of Member State authorities as regards respect for the rule of law”, it can propose measures that would have to get the backing of a qualified majority of governments.

4. To secure their backing for the recovery plan, net contributors to the EU budget like the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Germany, will receive much deeper rebates than before on what they have to contribute each year to EU coffers based on the size of their economies.

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A LESS CROWDED PLANET

Cyprus Mail 21 July 2020 

The latest population predictions forecast a global population in 2100 of only 8.8 billion

If you wanted evidence that reasonably competent government – not great, not corruption-free, just not awful – produces good results in the end, here it is.

Back in 1971, when the two countries split apart, Bangladesh had 65 million people and Pakistan had 60 million. By the end of this century, Bangladesh will have around 80 million people – and Pakistan will have 250 million.

Bangladesh is usually seen as a seriously over-populated country, and it still is today: 160 million people.  But its birth-rate is dropping so fast that its population will halve by 2100, leaving it with no more people per square kilometre of farmland than the United Kingdom.

It has achieved this mainly by educating its girls and young women and making contraception easily available. That’s what’s driving the global numbers down, too. The latest population predictions, published last week in the British medical journal The Lancet, forecast a global population in 2100 of only 8.8 billion.

That’s just one billion more than now. True, we will reach a peak in about forty years’ time of 9.7 billion, but by century’s end we will be sliding down the other side of the population mountain quite fast.

These are ‘surprise-free’ predictions, of course, and the future always brings surprises: wars, pandemics, a new religion or ideology. The forecasts don’t even factor in the impact of foreseeable calamities like climate change. Nevertheless, these numbers are not just fictions, and they really are good news.

The numbers come from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington, and they predict an end-of-century world population that is two billion lower than the UN Population Division’s forecast last year of almost 11 billion people. As they say: a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real numbers.

Even better, the assumption is that the global population will continue to go down after that. Give it another century of gentle decline, and we could hope for a global population of four or five billion by 2200, which would make the task of dealing with the long-term impacts of climate change a lot easier. Meanwhile, there are three other big things going on right now.

The first is that more than two dozen countries will lose around half their population by the end of this century, including all the countries of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan) and most of the countries of central, eastern and southern Europe (e.g. Italy, Poland, Spain and Greece). Some will fall even further: Bulgaria from 7 million to 2.6 million, Latvia from 2 million to less than half a million.

The problem for all of these countries will be a huge overhang of elderly people as the younger population shrinks. The ‘population pyramid’ will be stood on its point, more or less, with each person in the working population having to support at least one retired person (unless retirement ages are raised radically, as they may well be).

The second group are countries, almost all in Africa or the Middle East, where population growth is still out of control. These are the only regions where some countries will triple their populations (e.g. Israel and Angola), or quadruple them (Afghanistan and Nigeria), or even more (Chad’s population will grow eightfold, Niger’s ninefold).

Many countries in this category have more modest growth rates, of course, but the fact remains that if these two regions are excluded from the count, the population of the rest of the world in 2100 would be lower than it is today.

And finally comes the oddest group: the countries where the birth rates are already far below replacement level, but the populations will hold steady or even grow somewhat by the end of the century. They include not only the rich countries of Western Europe, North America and Australasia, but also many of the Latin American republics.

What’s their secret? Immigration. They almost all have a well-established tradition of accepting immigrants from other continents and cultures, and they’re prosperous enough to be attractive to immigrants.

So Sweden, Norway, France and the United Kingdom will each add a few million people by 2100.  Canada, Australia and the USA will each add around ten million (and New Zealand gets a million). The rest will attract at least enough newcomers to plug the holes left by their very low birth rates.

This may seem unfair, but it gets worse. When the researchers factored predicted economic growth into the study, the ten countries with the biggest GDP eighty years from now were, in order: the US, China (whose population will have fallen to 731 million), India, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Australia, Nigeria and Canada.

Six of those ten countries use English as their primary national language. To them that hath shall it be given.

 

Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work)’.

 

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ANASTASIADES HAPPY WITH EU DEAL

Cyprus Mail 21 July 2020 - by Annette Chrysostomou

President Nicos Anastasiades expressed his satisfaction with the European Council conclusions on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-27 and the Recovery Fund in a written statement issued following the EU27 Summit in Brussels. EU leaders agreed on pumping a massive amount of money into economies to keep them going.

“I express my full satisfaction because after many days and intensive negotiations, Cyprus has achieved the economic goals it had set in relation to the MFF and the European Union Recovery Plan,” he said.

“After the agreement reached, Cyprus will be able to raise a total amount of over €2.7 billion. The amount of €1,451 billion will be raised from the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, and the rest from the Recovery Fund, aimed at addressing the consequences of the pandemic and promoting the development of the Cypriot economy”.

“A detailed analysis of the distributions will follow at a later stage in the context of a press conference to be held in the coming days by the minister of finance”, he added.

“In addition, in view of Turkey`s delinquent behaviour and following my intervention, a provision was included according to which the financing of third countries, including Turkey, by the European Union, is subject to their respect for the principles of the Charter United Nations and International Law”, he concluded.

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TUESDAY JULY 21 - CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL UPDATE

Associated Press 21 July 2020

© Provided by Associated Press A man wearing a face mask to protect against the new coronavirus walks past a shop with sales discount sign in Hong Kong Tuesday, July 21, 2020. Hong Kong’s health officials said tighter anti-virus measures may be required if the new coronavirus infections do not come down over the next few days. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

NEW DELHI — A surge of 37,140 new cases in the past 24 hours has taken India’s number of coronavirus infections to 1,155,191.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday also reported 587 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 28,084. The number of recoveries stand at 724,577.

India’s top medical research body, the Indian Council for Medical Research, has asked states to add more labs and increase testing capacity of the approved labs. A country of 1.4 billion people, India has been conducting nearly 10,000 tests per million population.

© Provided by Associated Press A worker wearing a protective gear sprays disinfectant as a precaution against a new coronavirus at a theater in Sejong Center in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. South Korea’s new virus cases have bounced back Tuesday, a day after it reported its smallest daily jump in local COVID-19 transmissions in two months. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

With a surge in virus cases in the past few weeks, local state governments in India have been ordering focused lockdowns in high-risk areas to slow new infections.

Experts say India is likely to witness a series of peaks as the virus spreads in rural areas where the healthcare system is weak.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Weary EU leaders finally clinch $2.1 trillion budget and coronavirus recovery fund

— Trump to resume virus briefings Tuesday after 3-month hiatus as virus cases spike nationwide

— With the pandemic worsening and aid expiring, Washington's divisions thwart new relief package

— A job that pays the bills becomes an alternative to unemployment for some Israelis

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BEIJING — Numbers of new cases in China’s latest coronavirus outbreak fell on Tuesday, with just eight reported in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Another three cases were brought from outside the country, according to the National Health Commission, bringing China’s total to 83,693 with 4,634 deaths.

Xinjiang cases have been concentrated in the regional capital and largest city of Urumqi, where around 50 people and possibly more have been infected.

China has largely contained local transmission of the virus and responded swiftly to the Xinjiang outbreak by reducing subway, bus and taxi service in Urumqi, closing some communities, imposing travel restrictions and ordering widespread testing.

Elsewhere in China, containment measures continue to be relaxed while masks and social distancing remain the norm. Economic activity has partially recovered and China reported an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in its GDP during the latest quarter after lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened.

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s new virus cases have bounced back to above 40, a day after it reported its smallest daily jump in local COVID-19 transmissions in two months.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday the 45 latest cases included 20 people infected locally and 25 associated with international arrivals. They brought the country’s total to 13,816 with 296 deaths.

South Korean officials consider imported cases as a lesser threat than local transmissions because two-week quarantines are enforced on all people arriving from abroad.

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MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s hot spot Victoria state has reported 374 new cases of COVID-19, the second-highest daily tally ever recorded.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews also announced on Tuesday three more deaths in the state, bringing the national toll 126.

Andrews said a lockdown in Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne that began two weeks ago was having an impact.

“You’d like to see numbers coming down. At the end of the day though, we’re not seeing the doubling and doubling again” of cases, Andrews said. “So what that says to me ... is that the sorts of measures we’ve put in place are having a direct impact.”

Since a record 428 cases were reported on Friday, Victoria has recorded 217, 363 and 275 cases on consecutive days.

Tighter regulations will come into force on the Victoria-New South Wales border on Wednesday that will only allow border communities to cross for essential work, health and education reasons.

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MEXICO CITY — Mexico continues to register high levels of new coronavirus cases, as the Health Department reports 5,172 new infections, bring the total to almost 350,000.

Daily deaths fell to 301, for a total of almost 39,500.

The continued high rate of transmission has caused some Mexican tourist areas to walk back previous reopenings and crack down on mask rules. The southern area of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo reimposed limits on hotel occupancy, and the Baja California resort of La Paz closed beaches again.

Over the weekend, the local government of the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende said police had arrested two tourists for refusing to wear face masks.

The city has decreed face masks obligatory in public spaces, and violators could receive a warning, up to 36 hours in jail and/or a fine of up to $385.

The city government said two Mexican tourists were approached by police in the picturesque city square on Saturday night and reminded of the face mask rule. The man and a woman refused to put on masks. They were detained, held for 12 hours and fined the equivalent of about $67.

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EU REACHES DEAL ON POST-PANDEMIC RECOVERY AFTER MARATHON SUMMIT

in-cyprus 21 July 2020 - by Annie Charalambous

European Union leaders reached a deal on a massive stimulus plan for their coronavirus-blighted economies at a pre-dawn meeting on Tuesday after a fractious summit that went through the night and into its fifth day.

Summit chairman Charles Michel tweeted “Deal” shortly after the 27 leaders reached agreement at a 5.15 a.m. plenary session.

While another official present at the summit said: “Conclusions adopted!”.

Officials said the deal, which came after Michel presented compromises on a 750 billion euro recovery fund, is critical to dispel doubts about the bloc’s very future.

The EU was slow to coordinate its initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, already weakened by Britain’s departure from the bloc, a united front on economic aid would demonstrate that it can step up to a crisis and stay united.

“It has been a long summit and a challenging summit but the prize is worth negotiating for,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said as the Brussels summit approached the record length set at a 2000 meeting in the French city of Nice of almost five full days.

European nations have done a better job of containing the coronavirus than the United States after a devastating early few months that hit Italy and Spain particularly hard, collaborating on medical, travel and economic fronts.

The European Central Bank has pumped unparalleled money into economies to keep them going, while capitals hammer out their recovery fund.

Diplomats said the leaders appeared to put aside the rancour that stood in the way of a compromise over hours of haggling through the weekend.

“STINGY AND EGOTISTICAL”

Emotions had ran high at a dinner on Sunday as a group of fiscally frugal northern nations led by the Netherlands stood their ground on the level of free grants within a proposed special recovery fund of 750 billion euros overall.

French President Emmanuel Macron lost patience in the early hours of Monday, banging his fist on the table in frustration at “sterile blockages” by the “frugals”, two diplomats said.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also railed against the “frugals”, branding them “a group of stingy, egotistic states” that looked at things through the prism of their own interests.

Poland would be a top beneficiary of the recovery package, receiving tens of billions of euros in grants and cheap loans, along with high-debt Mediterranean-rim countries that have taken the brunt of the pandemic in Europe.

But the rhetorical skirmishing faded on Monday, and the leaders homed in on an agreement on the stimulus package and, linked to it, the EU‘s 2021-2027 common budget of around 1.1 trillion euros.

Hopes for a deal to help address Europe’s deepest recession since World War Two sent Italy’s borrowing costs to their lowest since early March and pushed the euro to a 19-week high.

Michel proposed that within the 750 billion euro recovery fund, 390 billion should be non-repayable grants, down from 500 billion originally proposed, and the rest in repayable loans.

The Netherlands had pushed for a veto on aid for countries that backslide on economic reform, but diplomats said it was now willing to back a “stop-the-clock” mechanism by which member states could put a brake on disbursements for three months and have them reviewed.

Disbursements will also be linked to governments observing the rule of law. Hungary, backed by eurosceptic ally Poland, had threatened to veto the package if funds were made conditional on upholding democracy, but diplomats said a way forward on that was found.

(Reuters)

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ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING STATIONS TO BE PROVIDED AT ALL PUBLIC PROJECTS

in-cyprus 21 July 2020 - by Annie Charalambous

Transport, Communications and Works Minister Yiannis Karousos has given instructions for all new public projects in Cyprus to also include provisions for electric car charging stations, Philenews reported on Tuesday.

Insiders also said technical details on the fledgling charging infrastructure that will be binding for all public projects and housing developments, are to be determined at a Ministry meeting to be convened shortly.

In February, the cabinet decided to expend a scheme promoting the acquisition of electric cars, as applications for the project exceeded the target within a day of its launch.

The plan was extended to accommodate as many applications for electric cars as possible since the government’s goal is to promote the use of the vehicles for environmental reasons.

However, sector experts have warned that the state should address the charging infrastructure as it is extremely inadequate so as to maintain the momentum.

One also said that domestic consumers have also been trying to get information on services, battery life and other matters.

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POLICE LOOK INTO CAUSE BEHIND ROAD ACCIDENT WHERE BRITON DIED

in-cyprus 21 July 2020 - by Annie Charalambous

Police are investigating the cause behind the car accident in Paphos on Monday afternoon during which British national Ian Henri Pringle, 76, lost his life.

Pringle was a permanent resident of the coastal town.

The accident took place on the Paphos-Kouklia road, near the Kouklia exit.

Police said the car appears to have diverted from its course, first crashed into a road railing and then overturned in an adjacent field before coming to a standstill.

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TRIAL OF FIRST CYPRIOT NATIONAL EXTRADITED TO THE US BEGINS

in-cyprus 21 July 2020 - by Annie Charalambous

The trial of the first Cypriot national extradited to the United States began on Monday in the Northern District of Georgia.

Joshua Polloso Epifaniou, a 21-year-old resident of Nicosia who was extradited in mid-July, is facing charges of cyber intrusion and extortion. He was arrested in Cyprus in February 2018.

He is alleged to have defrauded entities of $56,850 in bitcoin, while two victims incurred losses of over $530,000 from remediation costs associated with the incident, according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.

A five-count indictment filed charges Epifaniou with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and identity theft, and extortion related to a protected computer, a press release from the US Justice Department said.

According to the indictment, between approximately October 2014 and November 2016, Epifaniou worked with co-conspirators to steal personal identifying information from user and customer databases at victim websites.

This is in order to extort the websites into paying ransoms under threat of public disclosure of the sensitive data.

The indictment also alleges that Epifaniou obtained confidential personal identifying information from these websites including from a free online game publisher based in Irvine, California.

As well as a hardware company based in New York, an online employment website headquartered in Innsbrook, Virginia, and an online sports news website owned by Turner Broadcasting System Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia.

This was done either by directly exploiting a security vulnerability at the websites and stealing user and customer data, or by obtaining a portion of the victim website’s user data from a co-conspirator who had hacked into the victim network.

After obtaining the personal identifying information, Epifaniou allegedly used proxy servers located in foreign countries to log into online email accounts and send messages to the victim websites threatening to leak the sensitive data unless a ransom was paid.

A Lebanese national, Ghassan Diab, 37, who was extradited from Cyprus to the US the same day as Epifaniou is alleged to have conspired to engage in the laundering of drug proceeds through the use of the black market peso exchange in support of Hezbollah’s global criminal-support network.

Diab is charged in the State of Florida with two counts of money laundering over $100,000, two counts of conspiracy to launder over $100,000, and two counts of unlicensed transmission of currency over $100,000.

As well as with two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communications device to further the commission of money laundering, all felonies under Florida law.

Cyprus amended its Constitution in 2013 to allow for the extradition of Cypriot nationals to a European country or to a third country on the basis of a European arrest warrant or on the basis of a bilateral or multilateral treaty that the Republic of Cyprus has signed.

The understanding was that the corresponding country would extradite its citizens as well.  In 2003, the United States and the European Union entered into an extradition agreement.

 

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SOUVLA LUNCH - Kamares Club - 24 July

SOUVLA LUNCH

Kamares Club

Friday 24 July - 1230 to 1500

€10pp - menu choice must be pre-ordered at Kamares Reception or 26 880576

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KAMARES RESTAURANT CLOSED 25 JULY

Please note that due to a private function, the Kamares Club Restaurant will be closed on 25 July.

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