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Across land, sea, air, space and cyber, military operations increasingly rely on data. That makes access to cloud technologies essential. A European Defence Agency-financed study has concluded that cloud computing can be applied to defence, both at the strategic level and in the field, to help European armed forces achieve information superiority against an adversary.

The EDA study over four years, ‘Cloud Intelligence for Decision Support and Analysis’ (CLAUDIA), looked at the application of civilian cloud technologies in defence, including computing capabilities, data storage and software tools hosted externally. Results of the study were presented on January 25th, with a view to follow-up activities looking at constraints to cloud computing in defence.

Given the pressures of the battlefield, such as relying on a range of connections from satellites to radios in an extreme environment, EDA’s research is crucial to increasing situational awareness and shortening reaction times across multiple domains.

As cloud technology uses virtualisation − creating a virtual version of servers, storage devices and networks using software −  the study focused on the overall advantages for defence. These are simplicity, flexibility and the ability to scale up in military environments, as well as working with ‘big data’ supported by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. These advantages can significantly improve the situational awareness and decision-making process both at strategic and tactical level.

CLAUDIA’s objective was to research using cloud technologies to support analysis of hybrid warfare including:

• Management and processing information from heterogeneous sources
• Tactical cloud infrastructure for Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) − or C4ISR − systems
• Information-process enhancement by using AI and big data
• Joint strategic, operational and tactical level simulators
• Simulation as a Service (SaaS) for computer simulations of theatres of war (synthetic environments) and rapid scenario generation

Thanks to CLAUDIA, a Software Analysis (SWAN) platform has been developed to demonstrate the cloud-based capabilities, with different modules to address the different technology topics, including:

• Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Analysis at the strategic level
• Tactical Cloud
• Internet of Military Things
• 5G for Tactical Cloud and AI in Wargaming

The demonstration showcased the benefits of cloud technologies with the SWAN platform at both the strategic and tactical level. Edge computing – at or near the location of either the user or the data source –  was also introduced to demonstrate the benefits of using such technologies in the field, providing real-time situational awareness with enhanced data and visual capabilities. The demonstration included simulation and wargaming for a hybrid warfare scenario, with the use of wargaming and advanced training and exercises capabilities. The study recommended making the SWAN platform available to all Member States for further testing.

EDA's wider role

EDA supports its 27 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here. 

Russland versucht in der Ukraine durch weitreichende Desinformationskampagnen den möglichen EU-Beitritt in ein negatives Licht zu rücken. Bislang zeigen die Maßnahmen allerdings wenig Wirkung. 

The next ordinary meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 from 9.00-12.30 and 14.30-17.30hrs and Thursday, 15 February 2024 from 9.00-12.30 in Brussels (room SPAAK 5B1).

The meeting agenda and documents will be published here.

SEDE missions 2023:

• India - 17-21 December 2023
• Israel and OPT - 8-10 December 2023
  
• Germany and Poland - 24-26 July 2023
  
• Armenia - 19-22 June 2023
  
• Romania and Moldova - 15-18 May 2023
  
• Djibouti and Somalia - 1-4 April 2023
  
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 20-23 February 2023
  

SEDE meetings' calendar 2024
EP calendar 2024
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Pour dénoncer anonymement les problèmes, les CFF expérimentent un nouveau dispositif depuis janvier avec des codes QR sous les fenêtres des trains.

French 'farmerfluencer' Étienne Fourmont, who is using his YouTube and social media to make farmers' voices heard at a time when they are protesting heavily in France and the rest of Europe, told Euractiv about the urgent need to change the way farming is viewed.

On 24 January, SEDE MEPs will hold an exchange of views on the spill-over from the Israel-Hamas war in the escalation in the Red sea and in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. They will also exchange views with Jiří Šedivý, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, on EU's defence capability priorities and progress in addressing critical capability gaps.

Ukraine remains high on the SEDE agenda with its regular update - in camera - on the European Peace Facility's role in providing military equipment for Ukraine and on the EU's Military Assistance Mission for Ukraine, with Lt Gen Michiel van der Laan, Director General of the EU Military Staff.

Meeting agenda and documents
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Food insecurity and food waste create a paradox that necessitates us to creatively address these two interlinked issues. Credit: Claudia Ciobanu / IPS

By Ifeanyi Nsofor and Esther Ngumbi
SILVER SPRING, Maryland / URBANA, Illinois, USA, Jan 25 2024 (IPS)

Ten percent of Americans live in food-insecure households. At the same time, the average U.S. family of four spends $1,500 each year on food that ends up uneaten. Food is the single most common material found in landfills; and food waste is responsible for 58% of landfill methane emissions released to the atmosphere. Food insecurity and food waste create a paradox that necessitates us to creatively address these two interlinked issues.

Both these issues are not just American problems, they are global. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, up to one third of all food produced goes to waste. And in a cruel twist, even as so much food goes to waste, more than one billion people are food insecure globally.

On the issue of food insecurity, countries have taken several approaches to address it, including policy level interventions. The White House, for example, created a task force to investigate the issue of hunger and food insecurity. It included it as a social determinant of health.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, up to one third of all food produced goes to waste. And in a cruel twist, even as so much food goes to waste, more than one billion people are food insecure globally

In Kenya, the government in collaboration with the World Bank through initiatives such as the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture and the National Agriculture Rural Inclusive Growth Project project is addressing food insecurity by deploying multiple strategies including providing farmers with inputs, offering them extension and climate advisory services, and facilitating market access.

It is important for governments to address these issues, but we must all do more. Here are five more ideas for tackling food insecurity and food waste.

First, tackle food waste at the production level. A recent study showed that inefficiencies in agricultural supply chains contribute 1.3 billion tons of food waste as it moves along to stores, restaurants and homes.

The U.S. government can promote a range of technological advancements to address this, including utilizing drones and cell phones and other technologies to accurately map what is being produced where and when including the expected yields, and timeframes.

Doing so would facilitate ensuring that all produced food can be marketed. Start-ups focused on ensuring all food that is produced is sold to consumers including through gleaning are at the forefront, championing these kinds of initiatives of urban gleaning programs in the US.

For example, there is a national map of gleaning, that rescues foods that would otherwise go to waste. These gleaning innovations serve a dual purpose – tackling hunger and food waste. Such innovations deserve to be promoted and invested in.

Second, farmers must develop innovative new crops that are resilient to climate change, easy to cultivate and packed with nutrients. An example is the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato developed at the International Potato Center and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This species of potato grows with less water, can withstand disease and contains nutrients necessary for growth and development. For example, it is fortified with vitamin A to protect children from vitamin A deficiency, which typically causes blindness, diarrhea, and immune disorders.

Research published in the International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research shows that orange-fleshed sweet potato improves vitamin A status, increases the availability of different micronutrients and reduces vitamin A deficiency, and therefore reduces child mortality rates.

Third, introduce marketing innovations that encourage consumers to not only focus on buying better looking products, but also ensure that consumers can still buy not so perfect foods.

For instance, Asda recently introduced the UK’s first supermarket ‘wonky vegetable’ box. It contains enough ugly potatoes and knobbly carrots to feed a family of four for an entire week for just £3.50. The ‘wonky vegetable’ box contains in-season winter vegetables and salad ingredients at a price that is 30% cheaper than standard lines. Customers love wonky fruit and veg and sales have steadily increased.

Fourth, integrate artificial intelligence and big data analytics and support these recent innovations. To date, artificial intelligence has been utilized in the modern day to help tackle several challenges and it could be utilized to facilitate tackling this dual challenge.

These technologies can be used to forecast disruptions in the supply chain by using historical data that’s combined with real time data. In so doing, companies involved in food distribution can proactively anticipate and prepare for any logistical and weather-related challenges that may disrupt scheduled food supply and distribution channels.

Lastly, celebrate the use of innovative ways to address food waste in order to inspire others.

In Ghana, Elijah Amoo Adoo, founder of Food for all Africa – West Africa’s largest food bank found that 46% of the food produced on farms in the country goes to waste because of poor logistics and inefficient marketing.

Consequently, Food for all Africa collects leftover food close to its expiry date from local restaurants, supermarkets, food distribution companies, and rural small-hold farmers, and redistributes to disadvantaged children in orphanages, hospitals and lower-income schools. This is significant in a country where 28% of all children aged five years and below are stunted.

Of course, it will be important to consider barriers to innovations that address the dual challenge of food waste and food insecurity. These barriers range from availability of incentives to consumer willingness to accept and pay for these innovations as well as the relevance of these innovations to specific regions and cultures. But the tradeoff is worth the work – reduced hunger and reduced waste, and millions of lives improved.

 

Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, MBBS, MCommH (Liverpool) is Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University, 2006 Ford Foundation International Fellow.

Esther Ngumbi, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, African American Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

Depuis le 1ᵉʳ novembre dernier, dix personnes ont rapporté avoir été victimes d’abus au sein de l’Église valaisanne.

The Belgian EU presidency wants to implement a recent overhaul of EU asylum laws, amid warnings that detention-like centres will mushroom as a result.

Malgré la pression exercée par certains États membres de l’UE, la Commission européenne tente encore d’empêcher les entreprises privées d’être exclues par défaut du traité international sur l’intelligence artificielle.

Americas Lockheed Martin Aeronautics won an $8.4 million modification, which adds scope to procure diminishing manufacturing sources in support of production, retrofit, spares, replenishment and repairs for the F-35 Lightning II program for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Foreign Military Sales customers, and non-US Department of Defense participants. Work will be performed in Fort […]

Nach seiner ablehnenden Haltung gegenüber der Ukraine in dieser Woche schlug Ministerpräsident Robert Fico am Mittwoch (24. Januar) einen milderen Ton an, als er Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz im Vorfeld eines Treffens seine Unterstützung für das Land zusicherte.

En visite de travail au Maroc, le ministre d'État chargé des Ressources pétrolières du Nigéria, Ekperikpe Ekpo, a échangé, mercredi 24 janvier 2024, à Rabat avec la ministre de la Transition énergétique et du Développement durable, Leila Benali sur le projet stratégique du Gazoduc Nigéria-Maroc ainsi que d'autres projets communs dans le domaine énergétique et du développement durable.

Des échanges entre la ministre de la Transition énergétique et du Développement durable, Leila Benali et le ministre d'État chargé des Ressources pétrolières du Nigéria, Ekperikpe Ekpo. Selon la ministre Leila Benali, la visite de son homologue au Maroc a permis d'examiner les projets communs. Au titre des projets, il y a celui du Gazoduc Nigéria-Maroc.

À en croire le ministre d'Etat du Nigéria l'objectif est de fait le point de ce projet stratégique. « Au vu de ce qui a été réalisé, le projet progresse », a confié Ekperikpe Ekpo. Il n'a pas manqué d'apprécier et de saluer les efforts fournis par le Maroc dans le cadre de la mise en œuvre du projet Gazoduc.

استقبلت السيدة ليلى بنعلي @LeilaRBenali، وزيرة الانتقال الطاقي والتنمية المستدامة، يوم أمس بالرباط، السيد إكبيريكبي إيكبو، وزير الدولة للموارد البترولية في نيجيريا، إلى جانب وفد رفيع المستوى مرافق له، بهدف مناقشة سبل تعزيز التعاون pic.twitter.com/DetXqKnrGi

— MTEDD وزارة الانتقال الطاقي والتنمية المستدامة (@MTEDDMAROC) January 25, 2024

Le Maroc et le Nigéria entretiennent de bonnes relations bilatérales au cours de ces dernières années. Elles ont été renforcées avec la visite du roi Mohammed VI au Nigéria en décembre 2016. Les deux pays ont des partenariats dans les domaines de la transition énergétique et du développement durable. Ces partenariats permettent entre autres l'échange d'expériences et d'expertise, le renforcement des capacités et le développement de plusieurs projets.

Le mardi 23 janvier dernier, Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI du Maroc a eu un entretien téléphonique avec le président de la République Fédérale du Nigéria, Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu. Ils ont aussi échangé sur le projet Gazoduc Nigéria-Maroc. Sa Majesté le Roi a d'ailleurs adressé au président du Nigéria une invitation pour une visite officielle au Maroc.

Gazoduc Nigéria-Maroc est un projet structurant qui « sera un levier stratégique pour l'intégration régionale et le développement économique, social pour l'ensemble des pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest ». Avec une capacité annuelle de 30 à 40 milliards de mètres cubes de gaz, le gazoduc devrait mesurer plus de 5700 kilomètres. Il doit relier le Maroc au Nigéria en traversant 13 pays africains et à terme être connecté au marché européen.

A.A.A

Au début de l'année, les autorités ukrainiennes ont affirmé pour la première fois qu'elles avaient pu repousser une attaque de missiles russes en utilisant la guerre électronique. Il s'agit vraisemblablement d'un système secret Pokrova.

Six European NGOs and five in France announced on Thursday they had filed two separate requests to the European Commission for an “internal review”, the first step of a legal challenge, over the recent reapproval of the contentious but widely used weedkiller glyphosate.

The EU is already implementing projects together with Italian, French and German state apparatus development partners to strengthen the Tunisian navy and coast guard's capacities to intercept migrants at sea, several documents and a European Commission spokesperson confirmed to Euractiv.

Freshly-elected Renew Europe president Valérie Hayer is looking to address farmers’ concerns ahead of the EU election campaign while ensuring a “balanced view” on agricultural policy and refusing to reopen Green Deal files as right-wing political forces urge, she told Euractiv in an exclusive interview.  

Am Donnerstag sprach Irene Shashar, eine Überlebende des Warschauer Ghettos, vor den Abgeordneten im Plenum in Brüssel anlässlich des Internationalen Holocaust-Gedenktages.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2024 - EP

Written by Hendrik Mildebrath (1st edition).

Ever since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became applicable in May 2018, the European Parliament and civil society organisations have been flagging deficits in its enforcement and pushing for better implementation, but little has changed. To address the situation, in July 2023 the Commission tabled a proposal aimed at improving GDPR enforcement.

The proposal seeks to support the smooth functioning and timely completion of enforcement procedures in cases of cross-border processing. To this end, the Commission suggests harmonising parties’ procedural rights, streamlining and frontloading cooperation among supervisory authorities, and detailing the GDPR’s dispute resolution mechanism.

Views on the Commission proposal diverge. Digital rights organisations advocate for enhanced complainant rights, an equal say for the lead supervisory authority and the supervisory authorities concerned on the substance of enforcement decisions, a stronger role for the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), new mechanisms to facilitate cross-country enforcement, and stricter deadlines. Industry and allied organisations favour increased transparency for the parties under investigation, a stronger role for the lead supervisory authority and lesser roles for the supervisory authorities concerned and the EDPB.

The Parliament and the Council are in the process of assessing whether the Commission’s proposal presents an adequate response and are working on their respective positions.

Versions

• January 2024: ‘Newly proposed rules to strengthen GDPR enforcement in cross-border cases‘ (1st edition)

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/98/EC on wasteCommittee responsible:Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)COM(2023) 348
4.7.2023Rapporteur:Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, Germany)2023/0202(COD)Shadow rapporteurs:Axel Voss (EPP, Germany)
Petar Vitanov (S&D, Bulgaria)
Yana Toom (Renew, Estonia)
Beata Kempa (ECR, Poland)
Clare Daly (The Left, Ireland)Ordinary legislative
procedure (COD) (Parliament
and Council on equal footing
– formerly ‘co-decision’)Next steps expected: Committee vote

Some say the comments are insensitive after 2,200 died of starvation and related illnesses in 2022.