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Die Veröffentlichung des Berichts des ehemaligen Präsidenten der Europäischen Zentralbank, Mario Draghi verzögert sich noch bis nach dem Sommer, bestätigte die Europäische Kommission am Mittwoch. In dem Bericht soll es um die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Europäischen Union gehen.

Der britische Verteidigungsminister John Healey und Bundesverteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius unterzeichneten am 24. Juli eine Erklärung zur Schaffung einer umfassenden neuen Sicherheitspartnerschaft. Diese Initiative spiegelt das Bestreben der neuen britischen Regierung wider, engere Beziehungen zu den EU-Mitgliedstaaten zu pflegen.

By CIVICUS
Jul 25 2024 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses the recent US Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity and its potential impact on the 5 November presidential election with Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

On 1 July, the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity for the exercise of their core constitutional powers and are entitled to a presumption of immunity for other official acts, although they don’t enjoy immunity for unofficial acts. The decision comes as Donald Trump faces criminal charges for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. The question now is whether Trump’s actions will be considered official or unofficial. But it’s unlikely he’ll be tried before the election, and if he returns as president he could pardon himself. Critics claim the Supreme Court ruling violates the spirit of the US Constitution by placing the president above the law.

What are the main points of the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity?

This is a ruling in the federal case against Trump for trying to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 election. He is accused of pressuring state officials to overturn the results, spreading lies about voter fraud and using the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021 to delay Biden’s certification and stay in power. Trump pleaded not guilty and asked the US Supreme Court to dismiss the entire case, arguing that he was acting in his role as president and was therefore immune from prosecution.

The Supreme Court didn’t do that, but instead created three new categories of presidential immunity: complete immunity for official acts involving core constitutional powers, potential immunity for acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of official duties and no immunity for private, unofficial acts.

The key question now is whether Trump’s actions will be deemed official, giving him immunity, or unofficial, leaving him open to prosecution. This is the first case of its kind, as Trump is the first American president to be prosecuted.

How does this ruling affect Trump’s other criminal cases?

This immunity ruling is likely to delay all four of his criminal cases, as judges will have to apply these new rules and drop any charges that involve the use of core presidential powers, as these can no longer be used as evidence against him.

As well as being accused of trying to overturn his 2020 defeat, Trump is also accused of paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels hush money during the 2016 election and not properly accounting for it in his business records. This case is unlikely to be affected by the ruling, as his actions don’t involve either core or peripheral presidential powers. Judge Merchan will have to decide whether any of his 34 felony business fraud convictions will stand or be thrown out.

But some of his other crimes occurred during his time in the Oval Office. Trump is accused of conspiring to overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia by asking the state’s top election official to ‘find 11,780 votes’. Trump has pleaded not guilty and could be prosecuted in his personal capacity, as presidents have no role in administering US elections. As in the Capitol case, this was a private action he took as a candidate and it would be difficult to fit into the category of presidential immunity.

The fourth case Trump faces is the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Trump is accused of mishandling classified documents by taking them to his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving office and refusing to return them to the National Archives when he could no longer lawfully possess them. As his alleged crimes took place when he was no longer president, this case shouldn’t be affected by the immunity ruling. However, he could argue he possessed the documents while in office and ask that his case be treated differently from other defendants. This case was dismissed by Judge Cannon. However, the Mar-a-Lago criminal case could come back to life if the 11th Circuit reverses her dismissal.

What are the broader implications of this case for the presidential election?

After this decision, the American public should think about the consequences of who they elect as president, because the presidency can become a wellspring of crime.

An honest president wouldn’t be affected by the Trump v. US decision, because an honest person doesn’t need criminal immunity. Only time will tell whether the Supreme Court has invited future presidents to go on a crime spree. But what is certain is that only US voters can keep criminals out of the White House. So, as I write in my new book, Corporatocracy, the stakes in the 2024 election are incredibly high for the fate of US democracy.

Civic space in the USA is rated ‘narrowed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor.

 

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Energie und Klima sind eines der zentralen Themen in den Beziehungen zwischen der EU und den USA. Die Kandidatur von Kamala Harris als Präsidentin der USA wirft hierbei Fragen über die künftige Zusammenarbeit auf. 

Viele bekannte Gesichter kehren in die Ausschüsse des Europäischen Parlaments zurück, die sich mit der Digitalpolitik befassen. Einige der wichtigsten Schlüsselfiguren der vergangenen Legislaturperiode sind allerdings nicht wieder in das Parlament eingezogen.

A Terrorelhárítási Központ (TEK) és a Hajdú-Bihar Vármegyei Rendőr-főkapitányság összehangolt akciójának eredményeként egy komádi fiatalember került rács mögé. A férfit azzal gyanúsítják, hogy otthonában jelentős mennyiségű, 109 tő kannabiszt termesztett, valamint illegálisan különböző kaliberű lőszereket tartott.

A nyomozás akkor indult, amikor a rendőrséghez olyan információk jutottak, hogy a 26 éves férfi kábítószert termeszt. A gyorsan összegyűjtött bizonyítékok megerősítették a gyanút, sőt, arra is utaltak, hogy a férfi lőszereket, esetleg fegyvert is rejtegethet.

A rendőrség a TEK segítségét kérte az elfogáshoz, és tegnap reggel rajtaütöttek a férfin. A házkutatás során megtalálták a kábítószerültetvényt és a lőszereket is.

A férfit őrizetbe vették, és a bíróság előterjesztést tett letartóztatására. A gyanúsítottnak jelentős mennyiségű kábítószerre elkövetett kábítószer birtoklás, lőszerrel való visszaélés és más bűncselekmények miatt kell felelnie.

The post TEK-akció Komádiban: 109 tő kannabisz és lőszerarzenál egy házban appeared first on Biztonságpiac.

Written by Andrés García Higuera.

In today’s global, saturated textile and fashion system, obtaining accurate and precise data from upstream actors or from the supply chain can be challenging. Sustainability requires transparency, circularity, and more demand-driven operations; all this could help to bring down the textile production and consumption figures associated with ‘fast fashion’. Customer‑centric product design and production require new operations and business models based on more accurate data. The circular economy also entails new partnerships and open data sharing between actors in the ecosystem.

Transparency and traceability are challenging issues in today’s long, global, and saturated textile supply chains. The further down the supply chain the need for information goes, the harder it is to obtain reliable and accurate data.  Supply chain processes meanwhile generate a huge amount of data which, if correctly collected and precisely analysed, can help companies make more sustainable decisions throughout the entire upstream supply chain (from the fibre to the product phase).

The move towards a circular economy brings with it the need to acquire new kinds of data from downstream actions such as reuse, reselling, and recycling. This data is still largely missing, and new tools, measurements, and standards need to be developed to obtain and share data from these actions.

To realise the European Commission’s vision of a sustainable and circular textile sector, several regulations are on the way. The idea is that this will lead to the development of more sustainable practices in the industry and in business. Moreover, consumers might also change their behaviour if they are better informed. All this requires measurements and evaluations based on reliable data on the resources, materials, products, and processes used during a product’s lifetime.

The European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) recently published a study entitled ‘Identifying data gaps in the textile industry and assessing current initiatives to address them‘. This study examines data gaps throughout the textile supply and value chains, from the fibre to the end-of-product life stage. It also exposes the challenges involved: missing data, data accessibility, data management, reliability, and relevance, mandatory or non-mandatory data collection, data sharing, and data cost challenges. Drawing on a literature review, 17 stakeholder interviews and 2 expert workshops, it gathers essential insights from the field and evaluates current and forthcoming initiatives to address data gaps. It also discusses policy options geared towards harnessing data to contribute to the sustainable transition and implementation of a circular economy in the textile sector.

Read the full STOA study and the options brief to find out more. This research was presented to the STOA Panel at its meeting on 14 March 2024, together with a complementary study on the ‘digital product passport for the textile sector‘, which was followed by the release of a promotional video.

Your opinion counts for us. To let us know what you think, get in touch via stoa@europarl.europa.eu.

Credit: China Daily 2017-08-09

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jul 25 2024 (IPS)

Habits can change extremely fast, particularly within so-called “developed” nations, where children, even more than grownups are affected by life changing events. Gone are the times when kids could move around freely and invent games and adventures together with their friends. Far away from the scrutinizing control of parents and authorities they learned to interact with other kids, taking risks and solving problems. It could be tough and often quite merciless times, but educative, beneficent, and fun as well.

The presence of grownups in children’s worlds has gradually become more and more manifest. Prefabricated toys and gadgets are lured upon on children and quickly forgotten, while adults oversee and control not only schooling, but games and sport as well. Children’s scheduled leisure time hinders them from developing their brains in preparation for adulthood. Free, unsupervised play is disappearing, creating hypersensitive adults demanding not to be exposed to words, topics and ideas they perceive as unpleasant, or offensive. People are increasingly taking refuge within in a virtual reality, where they can find a space of their own among the millions of algorithms provided by Google, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. A never-ending flow of dopamine kicks, conveyed by short messages, reports, comments and publicity spots. A constant scrolling for things that might arouse interest and provide relaxation. On social media, boys watch hard porn even before they have experienced their first kiss, while young girls are fed with unrealistic beauty ideals and exposed to bullying and inappropriate approaches.

Much of the social changes behind the current, everyday existence might be traced back to 2014, when iPhone 4 was introduced. It was a small, clever, and handy device, with multitasking functions, including a front-facing camera and a huge variety of app folders. Furthermore, it provided access to Apple’s new Face Time video chat service. Selling over 600,000 pre-orders within 24 hours, the iPhone 4 was an immediate success. The benefits of a smartphone are apparent to any user. Taking photos, selfies, and making short videos have become part of our every day life, as well as keeping contact with family and friends all over the world. At any given moment we can in an instant find essential information. Smartphones have become an escape from boredom, opening up access to many worlds other than the one right in front of you. They are helping us to feel included and involved in society.

However, like any kind of delight, smartphones might also become an addiction. All around us we meet phone addicts – smombies, smartphone zombies, walking around hooked up to their small devices, oblivious of the surrounding world, risking accidents, harming not only others, but themselves as well. Any back-lit device, such as a smartphone, might seriously affect sleep cycles due to cells at the back of our eyes, which contain a light-sensitive protein picking up wavelengths of light. Such light-sensitive cells send signals to the part of the brain that regulates 24-hourly rhythms. Overuse of smartphones might not only lead to sleep deprivation, but also headaches, atrophy, and uneven nutrition.

Critics of excessive smartphone use have raised concerns about their mental effects, pointing out that while they make us pay attention to a vast amount of incoming information, while doing so at a superficial and limited level they disconnect people from what really matters. Without open spaces and mental rest, the nervous system never shuts down – making us wired and tired all the time. We are getting used to check our phones every minute – in the morning, during working hours, in the evenings, during weekends and vacations. Many of us become anxious and irritable if we cannot interact with our phones, constantly watching them, talking through them or fiddling with their apps. Some even use them to avoid interaction, evading conversations and eye contact.

There is an assumed correlation between social media and anger, anguish, and depression. Even for people who don’t use smartphones, they have created a changed social climate. The web has taken over press and opinion making. It has become easier to limit, control and maintain our own information sources. The smartphone world is dominated by a few large companies whose goal is to reinforce needs and addictions, as well as to collect and sell information, while doing so they even invade and expose our privacy. Lacking a smartphone might mean social marginalisation. At the same time much of the web has been brutalised; hate mongering, generalisations and prejudices are taking over from critical reviews and science-based information. Tech enterprises have been accused of exploiting our psychological shortcomings and exercising the biggest, uncontrolled experiment that humanity has ever been exposed to.

Our attention span is diminishing. A specific worry is that parents have largely been blind to how mobile phones have changed their children’s lives in such a fundamental manner that many of them have missed out on what it takes to grow up and become socially responsible, knowledgeable, and critical thinkers. Since early childhood, kids have been hooked to a screen, or a small rectangular box, often while plugging their ears. Many have during a large part of their lives become bereaved from face-to-face interaction and an actual presence of others; their scent, body language and facial expressions. Immersed in an odourless and abstract web-world they have been able to avoid the annoying interference of an authentic reality. The engagement of parents in their children’s wellbeing have thus been double-edged, at the same time as they have pampered them and tried to protect them from a harmful society, they have left their children at the mercy of a mind-numbing web world, far beyond their control.

Many children do not know how to make a summersault, read an entire novel, hike in the woods, fish, use a scissor, or a saw. They lack patience to watch an entire movie, to concentrate on a given task, or listening to a teacher. After a short while they reach for their smartphone and leave the real world behind, updating themselves on the activities of the Kardashian family, or follow an imaginary motorbike across a rugged landscape.

The Swedish governmental Mediemyndigheten, Media Authority, has since its initiation in 2005 monitored “media habits of young people from 9 to 18 years of age”, publishing its findings every second year. It did in 2023 establish that a majority of Swedish children at the age of nine have a smartphone of their own, while 70 percent of the fifteen years olds use their smartphones daily for at least three hours and has become more used to meet friends digitally, than physically.

The above might be perceived as a world-renouncing lament of an old man hostile to change. A techno-hostile alarmist and nostalgically tainted warning cry directed smartphone addiction and toxic social media. It might rightly be pointed out that throughout history, people have been warned about train travelling, reading of comic magazines, telephones, radio listening, TV watching, and a huge amount of other modernities. However, it is an undeniable fact that members of the so-called Generation Z, i.e. those born after 1995, in a great part of the world have been growing up with smartphones and become attracted by an alternative, thrilling and interesting world, which for many of them has created a dependency that often has proved to be unsuitable for both adults and children. It is quite possible that improved smartphones have among youngsters contributed to an alarming increase in mental illness – anxiety disorders, depression, anorexia, self-injury, and even suicide. Smartphones might have created an intensified awareness of appearance, comparisons with others, while sincere friendships have been superseded by superficial relationships, feelings of loneliness, status-seeking, rumour-mongering, demands for constant attention, stalking, bullying and a host of other harmful phenomena. Time spent within a world of fake news and make-belief is combined with an avalanche of demands on already stressed and immature child- and teenage brains, in which implanted opinions, mistakes and annoyances might become viral and a future burden.

Already twenty years ago, some medical expertise had found that children’s increased screen watching made them unconcentrated and might cause ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), a neurodevelopmental affliction manifested through inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional imbalance, which impair children’s ability to cope with difficult situations.

In Sweden there is an ongoing debate whether smartphones have to be banned from schools and universities. Supporters of a law that makes this obligatory point to several facts. Foremost among them are concerns that smartphones might influence child development. The human brain is constantly developing, especially during childhood and adolescence, creating neural connections with a vital role in cognitive, emotional, and social functioning. It has actually been statistically established that children who spend more than two hours a day using electronic devices, including smartphones, had lower cognitive and language scores than children who spent less time on electronic devices. Excessive smartphone use can lead to changes in brain chemistry, including reduced grey matter volume in certain regions of the brain, associated with cognitive control, emotional regulation, and decision-making.

Smartphone use can of course not be forbidden, but it does not hurt to be reminded of dangers connected with their excessive use. When children got access to smartphones hey left behind their old, “stupid” mobile phones and their online time increased enormously. In those, not too distant, times we lacked knowledge of how to protect our children from companies which designed their products to create what could be a dangerous dependency. While protecting their children from the harmful influences of a real world, many parents under-protected them within a virtual reality. The American social psychologist Jonathan Heidt has stated that “the transition from a play-based to a mobile-based childhood has been a disastrous mistake – let’s bring our children home.”

Main sources: Haidt, Jonathan (2024) The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. New York: Allen Lane, and Statens medieråd (2023) Ungar & medier 2023 En statistisk undersökning av ungas medievanor och attityder till medieanvändning. Stockholm: Statens medieråd.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Senior citizens are exercising at a park in Bangkok. Out of 67 million Thais, 12 million are elderly. Credit: UNFPA Asia and the Pacific

By Michał Podolski
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 25 2024 (IPS)

Several Asia-Pacific countries are ageing fast. This transition is neither unique nor limited to the region — it is a global megatrend. However, this time it is different. Why? Because ageing proceeds quite fast.

While France and Sweden took 115 and 85 years, respectively, to progress from being an ageing society (with 7-14 per cent of the population aged 60 or older) to an aged society (14-21 per cent aged 60 or older), the same transition in China, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam is expected to take only 19-25 years.

Compared to other global megatrends that are shaping economies, such as digitalization or climate change, demographic shifts remain relatively foreseeable and slower by nature. This provides some soothing yet misleading comfort to policymakers. The impact these shifts have on economies is far from being simple, and analysts struggle to fully understand and/or quantify them.

The economy is the people. Therefore, demographic shifts stand out as one of the most influential factors shaping any aspect of an economy. Changing demographics means altering the essence and purpose of all economic activities.

As the purpose changes, so do the needs. Changes in productivity, the share of population in job markets, fiscal policy conduct and effectiveness, and how monetary policy affects economies – all these processes introduce high uncertainty into long-term economic and fiscal policy planning.

Why do the analysts struggle with quantifying the economic impact of ageing? The net change is a sum of multiple factors, often working in opposing directions. As people age, their productivity tends to fall. On the other hand, this trend is offset by technological progress, though to a largely unknown extent, making the net impact difficult to predict.

Ageing societies also exhibit a shift in consumption from durables (e.g. cars) to essential services (e.g. health care), thus affecting a country’s composition of demand for goods and services and tax revenues. Ageing also changes labour force participation. In simple terms, the share of working people in aged societies is lower than in young ones.

Furthermore, the more developed a society is, the greater the temptation to withdraw from the workforce as older people have the possibility to withdraw faster from labour force and enjoy the comfort of retirement. In contrast, in developing societies older people must work up until very old age to avoid poverty. No stone remains unturned.

Why is that all troublesome from the perspective of fiscal policymaking?

First, policymakers would like to know how much of goods and services are and will be produced so that they can plan how to redistribute them through taxes and fiscal expenditures. In plain words, policymakers need to know how to cut and redistribute the “economic pie” (GDP) – and it is not easy to predict its size in the future.

Second, some fiscal expenditures increase and some fall as societies age. Fiscal expenditures on pensions rise along with health care and other forms of social protection. In contrast, education expenditures fall given less demand for children education.

Third, the exact scale and time of these shifts is not easy to determine.

However, Governments do not have to remain passive observers of the demographic shifts, as they have multiple tools to soften the negative impact and boost positive processes. For example, premature retirement results in excessive burden on the fiscal system. Reskilling and upskilling of older people do retain them in work force, increase economic output and reduce poverty among older persons.

At the same time, governments may implement society-wide policies that support healthy and active ageing. With the help of modern technologies and experience from other aged countries, such as Japan, much can be done to keep people active into old age.

All such actions not only improve quality of life and economic performance among older people, but also, directly alleviate the fiscal burden of pension systems as retirement is postponed.

Finally, all the challenges highlighted above and policies needed to address them are closely linked. Therefore, policymakers should seek to address few problems at a time looking for synergies.

For example, greater investments in health care, education, social protection, and environment protection do not only improve the quality of life but also allow people to stay employed for a longer time period.

A better environment improves people’s health condition, which supports economic activity and decreases public spending needs for social protection and health care. In turn, saved social protection and health care expenditures can be used to support other development priorities.

This holistic approach must become the norm of government policy planning. Socioeconomic policies must embrace the idea of synergies between their goals, so that spending on one policy target also supports other goals.

For more insights into how demographic shifts are reshaping Asia-Pacific economies, fiscal policy, and the overall development agenda please delve into the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2024, prepared by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Michał Podolski is Associate Economic Affairs Officer

IPS UN Bureau

 

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L'Allemagne et l'Union européenne ont-elles troqué la démocratie et l'État de droit en Serbie contre une mine de lithium ? L'opposition serbe va-t-elle se relever et la mobilisation citoyenne reprendre ? Entretien avec le politologue Florian Bieber.

- Articles / Courrier des Balkans, Lithium, Serbie, Economie, Environnement, Questions européennes

Olympic swimming and triathlon events can now take place in the Seine, which now meets European bathing water standards, an NGO controlling water quality confirmed, following massive cleaning efforts by the French authorities and a spell of dry weather.

C'était un des témoignages les plus attendus dans le procès d'Hashim Thaçi et de ses co-accusés. Durant trois semaines, Bislim Zyrapi a expliqué qu'il existait bien une chaine de commandement au sein de l'UÇK, mais qu'elle n'était pas toujours fonctionnelle...

- Le fil de l'Info / Kosovo, Défense, police et justice, Courrier des Balkans, Kosovo juger crimes de guerres

Les épreuves de natation et de triathlon des Jeux olympiques et paralympiques (JO) de Paris pourront se dérouler dans la Seine, dont la qualité de l’eau est désormais suffisamment bonne, d’après les derniers prélèvements.  

Dans les commissions parlementaires chargées des questions numériques, se retrouvent de nombreux visages familiers, bien que plusieurs figures emblématiques ont quitté soit le Parlement européen, soit leurs précédentes commissions. Euractiv fait le point.

Italy will host an event in the autumn to present a network to transport hydrogen from the southern Mediterranean to northern Europe, its energy minister told Reuters on Wednesday, saying Switzerland could also be involved.

The Paris Olympic Games will welcome thousands of athletes from all over the world, as well as police officers from some forty countries, who will be supporting the French police forces in providing security for the world's biggest sporting event.

The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN met in Laos on Wednesday (24 July) as it seeks to advance a stalled bid to resolve a crisis in Myanmar and cool tensions in the South China Sea, days ahead of a gathering of top diplomats from the world's biggest powers.

While EU countries are generally making progress on rule of law, Slovakia, Hungary face criticism when the European Commission presented its fifth annual report on Wednesday (July 24).

The war in Ukraine and the US presidential election dominated a NATO summit in Washington this month but, away from the public stage, the alliance's military planners have been focused on assessing the enormous cost of fixing Europe's creaking defences.

The Paris Olympic Games will be welcoming thousands of athletes from all over the world, as well as police officers from some forty countries, who will be supporting the French police forces to provide security for the world's biggest sporting event. Focus on the European forces.