for global citizens..
The European Parliament has, from an immediate effect, banned the representatives (also lobbyists) of Russian companies from entering its premises. So as to not grant them an #opportunity to spread propaganda and lies about the Ukraine invasion – President Roberta Metsola said in a tweet.
Credits: Bloomberg
Till now we know that red meat is bad for health as it was understood to be high in saturated fat. But recently a new study revealed that saturated fat is in fact good for your health.
While red meat was being vilified, people turned towards consuming chicken which until recently was considered good as it was considered a leaner alternative to red meat. But now the tables have turned against chicken which has come to be known as high in omega-6 fatty acids – due to the reason that chickens are fed GMO varieties of corn.
The reason why it is not good news is that the corn fed to chicken is high in omega-6 linoleic acid thus making your body gain weight and become obese. The omega-6 linoleic acid is bad for you because it is a form of trans-fat – which is widely known to be detrimental to heart health among other indicators of good health.
Source: News Concerns
Major financial institutions have woken up to the threat posed by climate change, and have started disinvesting from polluting industries to limit their risk exposure. But recently a Norwegian hedge fund has come up with a new methodology to do so.
The said methodology adopted by the Nordic asset manager, Storebrand, is to divest first from companies that are lobbying to slow the pace of reforms targeted towards climate action.
Lobbying by corporations such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BASF to undermine solutions in the works to deal with biggest challenge facing the humanity at the moment is being viewed as “unacceptable” by major investment firms.
Climate lobbying watchdog InfluenceMap has brought to notice, the attempt made by ExxonMobil lobbyists to water down the European green deal by meeting key European commission officials before it was negotiated and agreed upon.
Source: The Guardian
Contrary to the need being felt by numerous businesses globally for diversifying their suppliers out of China, no country is in a position to weed out China completely from either it’s supply chain or it’s list of buyers for high-tech products, as China features on top for both categories.
Following lockdown in Italy and China, many jewellery makers for example were unable to source precious metals and gift boxes which they used to source from these countries. Forcing them to learn the lesson of not being over-reliant on any single country for the supplies. The said businesses along with others are now looking at alternative suppliers from different countries to mitigate such risk, if the possibility of a global lockdown arises again in the future.
For companies which sell high-tech goods, China remains on their list of top buyers. To cite an example, China is one of the biggest buyers of industrial computers in the world presently, as it is pursuing the expansion of both – 5G as well as high-speed rail network in the mainland.
From being the biggest supplier to world economy, China today has become one of its most important buyers. And is expected to be the only country that is going to witness economic growth. In the same way as China has been a major driver of world trade for the past couple of decades, it is still going to retain this position for the foreseeable future.
Which country do you think is going to emerge in the future as a fitting substitute for the role played by China in today’s world economy?
In the second round of US-China trade talks which is expected to take place soon, ensuing trade tensions between both the countries is not expected to ease anytime soon.
The commitment given by China to import $200bn worth of US goods to minimise the mammoth gap in balance of trade figures between both the nations may also not be honoured by China due to the coronavirus related economic slowdown faced by its economy. It was for this assurance that the US agreed to cut back the tariffs on Chinese imports by 50%.
The key topics for discussion are largely going to be centered around the new security law introduced by China in Hong Kong, sanctions levelled by US against dozens of Chinese firms with the most prominent of those being on communications firm Huawei and apps such as TikTok and WeChat due to national security concerns, and the origin of coronavirus.
Some other areas of concern are going to be how to stop the storage of US data on Chinese owned cloud based systems and its resulting impact on the use of undersea optical fibre network by US as a part of global internet.
— China has recently arrested Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy activist and owner of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong based media publication. The arrest confirmed fears of pro-democracy activists around the recently introduced National Security Law (came into effect on June 30) being used as a tool to silence dissenters.
-Jimmy Lai, has been long known to be a critic of Beijing’s authoritarian government’s crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests which occurred in 1989. Lai regularly mentioned about it in his publication, Apple Daily and Next Digital, and was detested by Beijing for the same.
-Lai also met with US vice president Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year which further added to the displeasure which China had for Lai.
-Apart from Lai, his two sons and two senior executives of Next Digital have also been arrested as reported by China’s propaganda outlets, which also accused all arrested to be ‘traitors’.
-Lai’s arrest is particularly viewed as a hit to press freedom in Hong Kong. Commenting on the development, Nigel Adams at UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “Media freedom must be upheld. More evidence the National security law being used as pretext to silence opposition.”
Source: Indian Express
– Foreign state actors such as China, Iran and Russia are interfering in US elections according to a recently concluded assessment from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
– China is meddling with the aim of toppling Donald Trump, who it views as unpredictable. And for the recent stances taken by US on issues such as:
-Russia, on the other hand, is working to damage Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. For the role Joe Biden’s played in forming policies against Russia’s advances in Ukraine, and the support he lent to anti-putin dissenters inside Russia while he was serving as a vice-president in the Obama administration.
-Iran is believed to be acting against President Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign by pushing a misinformation campaign on social media – highlighting his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and stoking racial tensions in the aftermath of George Floyd & Breonna Taylor’s killing by local police.
Source: DW
As cyber attacks on private businesses and households have risen in Australia recently, the country has announced a host measures to deal with the menace.
One such measure announced by Australian government entails spending about $1.2 billion on enhancing it’s cyber security defence, through which hopes to bring the vulnerability under control.
Continue reading “Australia to spend $1.2 billion on cybersecurity for private sector”
The right answer is Sweden.Continue reading “Which European nation’s economy is least hit by coronavirus?”
A Dutch MP, Pia Dijkstra, who is the medical ethics lead for D66 has proposed to create a law which will give healthy over-75 year olds the option to voluntarily end their life in case they have a serious death wish for more than two months.
Dijkstra decided to go ahead with the Euthanasia law in January after a government research found about 10000 people of over-55 year old had serious death wish.
Challenges ahead for Euthanasia law
The law is expected to stoke controversy as the two christian parties who are in a coalition to form government are both opposed to it.
Source: Dutch News
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