ECB MUST PREPARE TO ISSUE A DIGITAL EURO, PANETTA SAYS

 Reuters 2 October 2020 - By Francesco Canepa

© Reuters/ANNEGRET HILSE Mario Draghi receives the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in Berlin

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should prepare to issue a digital euro to complement banknotes "if and when" it becomes necessary, ECB board member Fabio Panetta said on Friday.

Major central banks around the world are studying digital versions of their currencies to address demand for electronic means of payment and fend off competition from private tokens such as Bitcoin and Facebook 's proposed Libra.

In a study published on Friday, the ECB said a digital euro could help where citizens have abandoned cash, foreign forms of electronic money have taken over, or other means of payments have become unavailable.

"We should be ready to issue a digital euro if and when developments around us make it necessary," Panetta said in a blog post accompanying the study. "This means that we already need to be preparing for it."

The ECB gave itself until the middle of next year to decide whether to go forward with the project, which is now open for public consultation.

Like banknotes, digital euros would give holders a direct claim on the central bank, making them safer than any deposit at a commercial bank.

In addition, they could be transferred directly between users, whether online or in person via Bluetooth or pre-paid cards, rather than going through the banking system.

A main concern is that this form of money might displace traditional deposits, hollowing out commercial banks, particularly at times of financial crisis, and crowding out private solutions.

In the study, the ECB said deposits in digital euros would probably be capped and subject at least in part to the ECB's interest rate on deposits, currently minus 0.5%.

They would ideally be offered by the private sector, rather than just by the ECB itself, it said.

Facebook's announcement last year that it would offer its own token, backed by official currencies, made central banks worry they would lose control over money and triggered a number of competing initiatives.

Sweden's Riksbank has been testing its e-krona for months and the People's Bank of China is also running a trial on a ride-hailing platform.

But cash use is still prevalent in Germany and other euro zone countries, meaning a prospective central bank digital currency may have less appeal in the euro zone.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England have all struck a cautious tone regarding the possible introduction of digital currencies by central banks.

Following intense regulatory backlash, Facebook scaled back its Libra plans. It will now be linked to individual national currencies, rather than a basket of them, and overseen by global watchdogs.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by Balazs Koranyi, Larry King)

Read More

PLANS TO STOP PARLIAMENT 'FALLING APART' ARE A MESS, MPs WARN, WITH NO DECISIONS TAKEN AFTER THREE YEARS

 The Independent 2 October 2020 - by Rob Merrick

Vital plans to stop Parliament “falling apart” are a shambles, MPs warn today, while running repairs cost taxpayers £100m a year.

© Provided by The Independent

Work has yet to begin – almost three years after MPs voted to move out to enable it – with key decisions yet to be taken and a business case still two years away, they warn.

Meanwhile, the historic Palace of Westminster is afflicted by “failing mechanical and electrical systems, falling masonry and the constant risk of a catastrophic fire”.

“Parliament is literally falling apart,” said Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee. “It poses a very real risk to health and safety in its current state.”

Ms Hiller pointed to “nearly 20 years of discussion”, adding: “What we don’t need is for the authorities to keep reopening and reviewing what few decisions have been taken.

“We aren’t even promised a business case for the latest proposals until 2022 – that’s another £100m of maintenance away.

“We need rapid learning from comparable projects, clear vision, leadership and direction, now.”  

The criticism comes after Boris Johnson appeared to try to torpedo the January 2018 decision for MPs to move to a temporary home in Whitehall, from about 2025, for at least five years.

The prime minister wrote to the body overseeing the renovation plan, calling for it to look at “the full range of options” – including a move to York.

The body made clear it would be “inappropriate” to re-examine the plans to move up Whitehall, to behind Richmond House, which was a decision for Parliament.

However, many Conservative MPs oppose moving out – fearing it will be much longer than five years before they return, if ever – and progress has been delayed by the pandemic.

The restoration programme is anticipated to cost up to £6bn, although the bill would be far higher if work had to be carried out, more slowly, with MPs still at Westminster.

Now the PAC has urged the independent sponsor body to stop dragging its heels, demanding an update “within two months” on the key milestones ahead before work can begin.

“Every week of delay increases the risk to life and the integrity of the building and costs £2m,” the committee points out.

The report also highlights “examples where poor understanding of project requirements at the outset can lead to escalating costs”, pointing to the restoration of Big Ben, or Elizabeth Tower.

The £80m bill is “more than double the initial £29m estimate, partly as a result of parliamentary estate team’s lack of understanding of the work required at the outline business case”.

Read More

CAN WE STILL GO TO MARS?

 The Atlantic 2 October 2020 - by Marina Koren

Elsewhere in the solar system, a NASA rover is on its way to Mars. It carries, among other things, several pieces of spacesuit material. Designers want to see how the samples fare in the planet’s dusty, radiation-laden environment—the sturdy fabrics of the suit’s exterior, the cut-resistant fibers of its gloves, the shatterproof plastic of the bubble helmet that might someday reflect the soft light of a Martian sunset. When future astronauts arrive on the surface, the spacesuit designers back on Earth must be sure that they’re appropriately dressed for the occasion.

© VW Pics / Getty

The rover lands in February. Those future Mars explorers—who knows?

Men managed to make it to the moon 50 years ago, and for years now, setting foot on the red planet has felt like the clearest next step. Someday, an astronaut might be hunched over a desk, a wastebasket full of crumpled paper nearby, trying to come up with the right words—something as good as Neil Armstrong’s famous line—before her spaceship lands on Mars. That landing, NASA has said, would come in 2033.

An Armstrong moment on Mars has always been far from guaranteed, but now, in this particular year of American history, that future feels further away than ever. The coronavirus pandemic has diminished all sorts of human endeavors, including space exploration, one of our dreamiest ambitions. “No virus is stronger than the human desire to explore,” the NASA administrator declared in April, when coronavirus cases were rising fast and the country’s response was already stumbling. Even in times like these, the leader of the only organization to send humans to another world has to believe that’s still possible, and on some level, he’s right; COVID-19 will not, in the end, stop humankind from someday reaching Mars. On the timelines required for space travel, a year, or more, of slowed activity counts as a small setback. But the exigencies of the pandemic still could influence America’s ambitions in the cosmos: The national impulse to reach for other worlds might be eroding.

Like many workplaces this spring, NASA sent its most of its employees home and hunkered down. While the agency put some projects on hold, it pressed ahead with others. A pair of NASA astronauts flew to the International Space Station and back in a SpaceX capsule. The Mars rover Perseverance launched on its months-long journey into deep space. These efforts, years in the making, were nearing their finish lines as the coronavirus spread across the country, and NASA deemed them “mission essential.”

Both launches, especially the historic flight of Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—whom NASA affectionately advertised as “space dads”—for a moment drew Americans’ attention from a seemingly ceaseless current of tragedies, including stories of infected Americans dying in ambulances and footage of Black Americans dying at the hands of white police officers. Some people were delighted, grateful for a spot of good news. Others were surprised, even aghast, at the timing. You’re doing this now? Really?

The critique echoed the feelings of many Americans during NASA’s most famous era: the race to the moon. In the late 1960s, the Apollo program unfolded against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, civil-rights demonstrations, and political assassinations. Polling from that time shows that the majority of Americans didn’t think the Apollo program was worth the cost. The exception was a survey conducted on the day of the moon landing, when the mood around the world was euphoric. Even in that moment, though, the problems of our planet firmly grounded the minds of some Americans—Gil Scott-Heron captured this most famously, in his 1970 poem: “I think I’ll send these doctor bills / Airmail special / To whitey on the moon.”

Still, space historians told me, in those halcyon days of human spaceflight, even with all its turmoil, the country functioned on a basic level. In the late 1960s, a different virus known as the “Hong Kong flu” killed roughly 100,000 Americans, but did not destabilize the country the way COVID-19 has. Throughout the decade, the national economy was thriving, and an American passport meant something. Though the Vietnam War roiled American politics, the active front was in a distant country. The war’s toll was heavy—an estimated 47,434 Americans died in battle between 1964 and 1975—but in six months, COVID-19 deaths in the United States outnumbered American casualties in the past five wars combined.

Even before the pandemic paralyzed the country, the prospect of Americans making it to Mars in the 2030s was far-fetched. In February 2019, a year before the first American died from COVID-19, an independent research group published a report about NASA’s Mars dreams. At Congress’s request, NASA had asked the group to evaluate whether the agency could launch astronauts to the red planet in 2033, not to land, but to loop around and come back, as the early Apollo missions did.

The conclusion was bleak; given NASA’s current plans, an orbital mission would be “infeasible under all budget scenarios and technology development and testing schedules.” The researchers found that astronauts might be able to launch in 2037, without any schedule delays or budget shortfalls, but believed 2039 would be more realistic, which would push a landing to the 2040s. (The institute that conducted the report has not done any analysis on the pandemic’s potential impact on these ambitious plans.)

NASA is not humankind’s only ticket to other worlds. Private companies are developing their own dreams, and their own rockets. As the pandemic set in, NASA paused some work on a rocket designed to send astronauts to the moon, but Elon Musk’s SpaceX continued testing prototypes for its Mars spaceship. SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin have received sizable contracts from NASA to do their work, and Musk often says that SpaceX wouldn’t be what it is today without NASA’s support, financial and otherwise.

But his private company could end up leapfrogging the storied space agency on infrastructure that could send people to Mars. (Musk said recently he believes SpaceX could deliver people to the red planet in the 2020s, but the billionaire entrepreneur is, famously and by his own admission, overly optimistic about schedules, so take that with a grain of Mars dust.) SpaceX might not go it alone in the end, deciding to join forces with NASA, but the world’s top space agency would not be at the controls.

In the business of spaceflight, delays are virtually unavoidable, even under the best of circumstances. A pandemic, then, might slow down NASA’s long-term plans—but something would have, no matter what. Donald Rapp, who worked on Mars programs as a chief technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before he retired, doesn’t think the effects of the pandemic today will be disruptive enough to scuttle any future mission to Mars. The 2030s, in his view, is an overly optimistic goal, and he doesn’t expect astronauts to reach the red planet until potentially the 2060s. Forty years from now, Americans will (fingers crossed!) have a COVID-19 vaccine, and perhaps for other coronaviruses that have yet to emerge.

But the work for a Mars journey in the 2030s must be done in this decade, and for NASA, such an ambitious mission might be a tougher sell now, both to the American public and to lawmakers. Months before the virus struck, the Trump administration was already struggling to persuade Congress to fund its top priority—sending Americans back to the moon in the next four years, with an eye toward Mars after that. To reach that goal, NASA must either make cuts to existing programs or receive billions of dollars in additional funding. “If you try to sell ‘humans to Mars’ this year, next year, or even the next year, I think you’ve got a tough road to travel,” Rapp told me.

Most presidents in modern history give their version of John F. Kennedy’s moon speech—a grand pitch for America’s future in space under their administration—several months after they take office, once they have tackled their most pressing campaign promises and early priorities. Donald Trump has already pushed to accelerate the timeline for a mission to the moon, telling NASA to hurry up and make it there by 2024 instead of 2028. If he wins a second term, he could use space exploration to once again signal his ideas of American greatness. If Joe Biden is elected, space historians predict that he might delay an agenda-setting speech about the country’s future in space, in order to show that he is more concerned with matters at home.

At the same time, the next president might do well to express some enthusiasm about the country’s years ahead in space. Since its inception, NASA has been a tool of American foreign policy, first, to display Cold War dominance, and then, in working together with other space agencies, to model global leadership and to project “a positive image of American power and American democracy abroad,” as John Krige, a history professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, writes. A government that can maintain an awe-inspiring space program signals to the rest of the world that it’s an advanced nation with a bright future.

After all, if a country can focus its time and attention on something as dramatic as sending people to another planet, then it must be doing well. “The job of the next president, presuming it’s Joe Biden, is to turn the phrase ‘Make America Great’ into reality and try to regain the world reputation and leadership role that once belonged to the United States,” John Logsdon, a space historian and a former director of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, told me. “And backing off enterprises like space exploration is not the way you do that.”

But how might the public react to enthusiastic rhetoric about other worlds in 2021, when, for many of us, this world still clearly demands extra attention? If the national unity of the Apollo era is mostly a myth, at some point NASA might have to face down the reality that Americans aren’t so space-happy. The agency runs extensive and often brilliant public-relations campaigns for its missions: recruiting schoolchildren to name space rovers, imbuing spacecraft with lovable personalities, and pitching its astronauts—both space dads and others—as talented yet relatable figures. Even so, Logsdon, the space historian, already sees the national impulse that fueled Apollo, that believed in the idea of America reaching deeper into the cosmos, weakening. “That impulse is certainly less widespread than it was 50 years ago,” he said.

As government agencies go, NASA is looked upon fondly. Although some Americans blanch at spending more than $20 billion on NASA each year, a 2019 poll found that a plurality of participants, when told that the agency’s annual funding accounts for half a percent of the national budget, say that they'd prefer the government spend a greater portion of its resources on NASA.

But just 18 percent think going to Mars should be a top priority, the survey found, and even fewer think NASA should focus on sending astronauts back to the moon. Instead, survey participants thought NASA should focus more on climate-change research and the study of asteroids that could strike Earth, two areas that receive far less funding than human spaceflight. “If it was up to the public to set space priorities, the NASA budget would be flipped,” Teasel Muir-Harmony, a historian and a curator of Apollo artifacts at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, told me.

The agency will have a chance to see, in February, how eager Americans are to think about a place that’s not this one. Perseverance will land on Mars and start to dig for evidence of fossilized alien life. Perhaps people will latch on to this distant robot as a distraction from the strain of the pandemic; perhaps the concerns of Mars will seem extra hard to care about. What might the country look like then? How many more Americans will have died?

The swatches of spacesuit material that Perseverance carries are, in a way, an emblem of American optimism. They posit that one day these fabrics might be wrapped around the bodies of astronauts, sheltering them from an environment they weren’t made to survive. These Armstrongs and Aldrins might walk up to Perseverance, its batteries long dead, and see, next to one of its wheels, beneath a blanket of rust-colored dust, a plaque of a snake coiled around a rod. A symbol of medicine, added as a tribute to the brave people who tended to others during the 2020 pandemic, years before—in this future, a distant memory.

Read More

NASA UNVEILS FIRST NEW SPACE POTTY IN DECADES - A €17.8m TITANIUM TOILET

 The Telegraph 2 October 2020 - by Associated Press

NASA's first new space potty in decades - a $23 million (£17.8m) titanium toilet better suited for women - is getting a not-so-dry run at the International Space Station before eventually flying to the moon.

© Norah Moran/NASA via AP Astronaut Kate Rubins and support personnel review the Universal Waste Management System - Norah Moran/NASA via AP

It's packed inside a cargo ship that should have blasted off late on Thursday from Wallops Island, Virginia. But the launch was halted with just two minutes remaining in the countdown.

Barely 100 pounds (45kg) and just 28 inches (71cm) tall, it's roughly half as big as the two Russian-built toilets at the space station. It's more camper-size to fit into the NASA Orion capsules that will carry astronauts to the moon in a few years.

Station residents will test it out for a few months. If the shakedown goes well, the toilet will be open for regular business.

With SpaceX now launching astronauts to the space station and Boeing less than a year away from sending up its first crew, more toilets are needed. The new one will be in its own stall alongside the old one on the US side of the outpost.

The old toilets cater more towards men. To better accommodate women, NASA tilted the seat on the new toilet and made it taller. The new shape should help astronauts position themselves better for No2, said Johnson Space Centre's Melissa McKinley, the project manager.

"Cleaning up a mess is a big deal. We don't want any misses or escapes," she said.

Let's just say everything floats in weightlessness.

As for No1, the funnels also have been redesigned. Women can use the elongated and scooped-out funnels to urinate while sitting on the commode to poop at the same time, Ms McKinley said. Until now, it's been one or the other for female astronauts, she noted.

Like earlier space commodes, air suction, rather than water and gravity, removes the waste. Urine collected by the new toilet will be routed into NASA's long-standing recycling system to produce water for drinking and cooking. Titanium and other tough alloys were chosen for the new toilet to withstand all the acid in the urine pre-treatment.

Going to the bathroom in space may sound simple, but "sometimes the simple things become very difficult" without gravity, said NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, commander of the second SpaceX crew, due to launch on October 31 from Kennedy Space Centre.

While the old design isn't that hard to use, subtle design changes can make all the difference for women, noted NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, a former space station resident who's also on the next SpaceX crew.

"Trust me, I've got going to the bathroom in space down, because that is a vital, vital thing to know how to do," she told The Associated Press earlier this week.

© Provided by The Telegraph The new potty - James Blair/NASA via AP

The typical space station population will go from six to seven with the next SpaceX flight, and even more when non-professionals like tourists start showing up as early as next year. Astronauts normally stay six months.

The last time NASA ordered a new toilet was in the early 1990s to accommodate two-week space shuttle missions. The agency contracted with Collins Aerospace to provide the latest model; the company also worked on the shuttle potties.

Also in the 8,000-pound (3,600kg) shipment aboard Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsule: air tanks to make up for a slight space station leak, radish seeds for greenhouse growing and a cinematic 360-degree VR camera for you-are-there-spacewalk shots.

Perhaps the most unique payload: Estee Lauder's newest wrinkle serum. The cosmetics company is paying $128,000 for an out-of-this-world photo shoot, part of NASA's push to open the final frontier to marketing, industry and tourism.

Don't count on perfumed aromas, though, to counter bathroom odours.

The serum is fragrance-free and the 10 bottles will remain sealed until returned to Earth early next year.

Read More

EU LEADERS BREAK BELARUS DEADLOCK, KICK CAN DOWN THE ROAD ON TURKEY SANCTIONS

 Cyprus Mail 2 October 2020 - by Reuters News Service

President Nicos Anastasiades departs an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels

EU leaders broke a diplomatic deadlock in the early hours of Friday and imposed sanctions on Belarus after hours of summit talks, assuring Cyprus that the bloc would also punish Turkey if it continues oil and gas drilling in disputed areas of the Mediterranean.

The compromise struck at the summit that satisfied Cyprus was an agreement to review Turkey’s behaviour in December and impose sanctions then if its “provocations” have not stopped, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit.

“We want a positive and constructive relationship with Turkey, and this would be also be very much in Ankara’s interest,” she told a news conference.

“But it will only work if the provocations and pressures stop. We therefore expect that Turkey from now on abstains from unilateral actions. In case of such renewed actions by Ankara the EU will use all its instruments and options available.”

The deal on sanctions against about 40 officials accused of rigging August’s presidential election in Belarus means the EU can make good on a promise to support pro-democracy protesters in Minsk and regain some credibility after weeks of delays.

“The European Union is taking action against those who stand in the way of democracy,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after fraught discussions among the 27 EU member states that dragged past midnight. “I think that is an important signal.”

While Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on Minsk to show support for pro-democracy demonstrations there, the impasse in the EU, where decisions are taken by unanimity, has dented the credibility of the bloc’s foreign policy, diplomats say.

Cyprus, one of the EU’s smallest countries, had blocked the action against Belarus for a month, insisting that sanctions also be imposed on its neighbour Turkey for oil and gas exploration along the coast of the Mediterranean island.

The 27 EU heads of states and government taking part at the European Council, in Brussels, agreed that “the EU has a strategic interest in a stable and secure environment in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the development of a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with Turkey.

“Pursuing dialogue in good faith and abstaining from unilateral actions which run counter to the EU interests and violate international law and the sovereign rights of EU Member States is an absolute requirement in this regard. All differences must be resolved through peaceful dialogue and in accordance with international law. In this context, the European Council reiterates its full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus, whose sovereignty and sovereign rights must be respected” the Council Conclusions said.

At the same time, the European Council strongly condemns violations of the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus “which must stop.” The European Council calls on Turkey to abstain from similar actions in the future, in breach of international law. It also underlines that the delimitation of the Continental Shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone should be addressed through dialogue and negotiation in good faith, in full respect of international law, and calls on Turkey to accept the invitation by Cyprus to engage in dialogue with the objective of settling all maritime-related disputes between Turkey and Cyprus.

The European Council also supported the speedy resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus problem, under the auspices of the UN.

Germany pushed back against a tough stand on Turkey, fearing it would disrupt efforts to cool tensions with EU member Greece.

Turkey, both a candidate to join the EU and a member of NATO, has slid towards authoritarianism under President Tayyip Erdogan but remains a strategically located partner that the EU cannot ignore.

In a sign that the diplomatic stand-off is easing at least between Athens and Ankara, NATO announced on Thursday that the two alliance members had set up a “military de-confliction mechanism” to avoid accidental clashes at sea.

“The EU issues a clear threat of sanctions against Turkey should it continue to violate international law,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter after the meeting.

European Council President Charles Michel described it as a “double strategy” towards Ankara, offering closer relations on trade and other fronts but holding out the threat of sanctions if it fails to de-escalate tensions in the Mediterranean.

“It was the most that Merkel would bear,” said an EU diplomat after the talks. “She felt the Union should give Turkey a chance for another few weeks. But Turkey has been put on notice and the ball is in its court.”

The European Council called for a Multilateral Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and invites the High Representative to engage in talks about its organisation. Modalities such as participation, scope and timeline will need to be agreed with all involved parties, it is noted. “The Conference could address issues on which multilateral solutions are needed, including maritime delimitation, security, energy, migration and economic cooperation” Council Conclusions said.

---

 

Read More

PAPHOS GREENS SLAM MUNICIPALITY OVER DEEP PRUNING

 Cyprus Mail 2 October 2020 - by Bejay Browne

Paphos Greens have hit out at the mayor and municipality for cutting dozens of trees and carrying out what they described as “indiscriminate deep pruning” on others.

The trees were lining the dual carriageway, Dimokratias Avenue, which forms part of the ring road around the town and leads from the Paphos stadium roundabout and down to the tourist area, a Paphos green party spokesman told the Cyprus Mail.

“This was such a beautiful road lined with trees and shrubs and many people commented on it. But now trees have been felled and others pruned so deeply they may not ever recover,” he said.

There is no way to know how many trees have been felled, as the crews cut the trees at dawn, according to the greens, who said this is now the ‘normal’ practice of the municipality, and calling it a “criminal act!.

The excuse used is that the poplar trees were not in good shape but that does not negate the fact that they were “beheaded”, he added.

Poplar trees may not be liked by everyone, but they were alive and created a good amount of shade and should have had the dead branches cut instead of just “being killed”, he said.

The greens agreed that some of the trees needed cleaning up, but noted that living things, including human beings, get diseases and can be respected and saved.

“It is unbelievable the way this mayor behaves, and it makes no sense. The crews go so early in the morning that so no-one knows how many were destroyed and it’s very sad.”

The spokesman added that forestry department specialists have noted the recent practice being witnessed in all towns of, “deep pruning”, which was concerning as not all trees are the same and need to be treated differently.

“We have known for a long time that there were dry branches on some of the poplars, but cleaning could have been undertaken and not the easy solution of cutting them down or deep pruning. Unfortunately, deep pruning has become fashionable not only in Paphos but also in other districts. When will this ever stop.?”

Read More

CYPRUS LOW ON TAKING OUT INSURANCE AGAINST ICT INCIDENTS

 Cyprus Mail 2 October 2020  - by Annette Chrysostomou

Cyprus is ranked number 16 of EU countries when it comes to having taken out insurance against ICT security incidents, Eurostat reported on Friday.

The member state with the highest share in 2019 was Denmark with 56 per cent of all enterprises, followed by Ireland, France and Sweden, all 39 per cent.

By contrast, less than 5 per cent of the enterprises were insured against ICT security incidents in Bulgaria (3 per cent), Lithuania, Hungary and Slovenia (all 4 per cent).

Italy has the same share as Cyprus, 13 per cent, while Latvia, with 12 per cent, is next on the list.

“In 2019, 21 per cent of EU enterprises with 10 or more people employed reported having insurance against ICT security incidents. The share varies from 20 per cent of small enterprises and 28 per cent of medium enterprises to 35 per cent of large enterprises. This can be partially explained by the fact that large enterprises are more likely to be affected by problems resulting from ICT security incidents,” the report explained.

12 per cent of small enterprises in Cyprus were insured against such incidents last year, 19 per cent of medium-sized businesses and 39 per cent of large ones.

The average of 13 per cent can be explained by the fact that the country has few large enterprises and the overwhelming majority are small.

According to Eurostat, small enterprises are those where 10 to 49 people are employed, medium-sized enterprises employ 50 to 249 persons and large enterprises are defined as employing 250 or more.

Read More

POLICE ISSUE EMAIL FRAUD WARNING

 in-cyprus 2 October 2020 - by Josephine Koumettou

The Office for Combating Cybercrime (OCC) warned on Friday of a surge in email fraud and urge the public to be particularly cautious.

The fraud concerns emails from scammers purporting to represent a particular Cyprus banking institution.

The email asks bank customers to follow a link for verification purposes and bank logos and other details of the organisation are used in the communications to add credibility to the exchanges.

The OCC calls on the public to be very wary when receiving such emails and before following any such instructions it is preferable to reach out to their bank to mention the email and obtain relevant instructions.

Police finally advised that citizens can reach out to the OCC by phone or electronically via cyberalert.cy for further information and in the event of money loss to submit a complaint with their bank and their district’s Crime Investigation Department (CID).

Read More

TRUMP AND WIFE MELANIA TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

 in-cyprus 2 October 2020 - by Josephine Koumettou

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he and his wife Melania had tested positive for COVID-19 and were going into quarantine, upending the race for the White House.

“We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” the president said in a late night tweet.

Trump, 74, is at high risk for the deadly virus both because of his age and because he is considered overweight. He has remained in good health during his time in office but is not known to exercise regularly or to follow a healthy diet.

Trump played down the virus in its early stages and has repeatedly predicted it would go away.

More than 200,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States alone, with the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions especially hard hit.

The president rarely wears a mask and has ridiculed others, including Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, for doing so regularly. Health professionals say that face coverings are key to preventing the spread of the virus.

Biden has criticized Trump sharply for his response to the pandemic, while the president has touted his own management of it.

Trump, who is tested regularly for the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, has held rallies with thousands of people in recent weeks in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election, despite warnings from public health professionals against having events with large crowds.

On Thursday night the president predicted that the end of the pandemic was in sight. Shortly thereafter, news broke that Hope Hicks, a top adviser and trusted aide, had tested positive for the virus. Hicks traveled with the president on Air Force One on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The development alters the presidential race dramatically.

The White House issued a new schedule for Trump‘s activities on Friday that did not include his planned trip to Florida. Biden is scheduled to campaign in Michigan on Friday. Both states are swing states that could decide the U.S. election.

Trump, who has been criticized for questioning the efficacy of wearing a face covering, produced a mask from his pocket in the first presidential debate on Tuesday and said, “I wear masks when needed. When needed, I wear masks.”

He then ridiculed Biden for wearing them regularly: “I don’t wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from them and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

Trump has held regular rallies around the country to drum up enthusiasm for his candidacy against the former vice president, who has eschewed campaign events with large numbers of people. Trump has taken pride in his big campaign rallies, with crowds of people who do not wear masks or maintain social distance.

Futures for the S&P 500 fell 1.8% in Asian trading after the news, extending earlier losses, while barometers of risk sentiment, such as the Australian dollar and Treasury yields, dipped.

“Trump has been trailing behind Biden and he has clearly failed to narrow the gap after the first debate … I suspect markets will lean towards the view that Biden will likely win the election,” said Naoya Oshikubo, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management. “What I am worried is that he will become even more aggressive against China after he caught the virus himself.”

British Prime Minister Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent two weeks recovering after contracting COVID-19 in late April. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went into quarantine in March after his wife was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro called it a “little flu” after being infected in July.

(Reuters)

FILE PHOTO – U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from the Marine One helicopter back to the White House after traveling to Fort McHenry in Baltimore for Memorial Day holiday commemorations from Washington, U.S., May 25, 2020. REUTERS/Erin Scott

Read More

EC - CYPRUS RECORDED 120 CORRUPTION PROBES IN 5 YEARS

 in-cyprus 2 October 2020 - by Josephine Koumettou

Cypriot authorities investigated a total of 120 corruption cases between 2013 and 2018, of which 98 have been completed and 22 are ongoing, the European Commission reported in its 2020 Rule of Law Report published on Wednesday.

The report presents the rule of law situation in the EU and also evaluates the situation in each Member State.

The chapter on Cyprus mentions that 47 cases are either pending trial or are under trial, 37 people were convicted for corruption in 26 cases of which 12 were “high-level corruption convictions, including the deputy Attorney General, members of the House of Representatives and ex-ministers.”

Cyprus scores 58/100 in the 2019 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index and was ranked 12th in the EU and 41st globally. 95% of respondents to a 2020 Eurobarometer survey consider corruption to be a widespread problem (EU average: 71%) and 60% of people feel personally affected by corruption in their daily lives (EU average: 26%).

As regards business, 88% of companies consider that corruption in Cyprus is widespread (EU average: 63%), 48% consider that corruption is a problem when doing business (EU average: 37%) while only 11% of companies consider that people and businesses caught for bribing a senior official are appropriately punished (EU average: 31%).

The Commission’s report notes that, overall, Cyprus has made some progress in tackling and investigating corruption. However, key legislation for the prevention of corruption is still pending, lobbying and whistle-blower protection remain unregulated by law and an independent anti-corruption authority has yet to be established.

It was further noted that Cyprus’ justice system suffers from a nearly complete lack of digitalisation as very little information is publicly available about the judicial system and there is also no electronic information on case progress and no electronic case management system.

In addition, the justice system in Cyprus is still facing serious efficiency challenges as the time needed to resolve civil, commercial and administrative cases in first instance courts remains among the highest in the EU (737 days in 2018, compared to 1118 in 2017). It was, however, mentioned that an action plan to address these efficiency challenges has been adopted and its implementation is ongoing, albeit with some delay.

Read More