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What types of ETFs are eligible to be listed under Nasdaq Rule 5704?

Publication Date: Apr 10 2020 ETFs that meet the definition of “Exchange Traded Fund” in Nasdaq Rule 5704(a)(1)(A) are eligible to be considered for listing pursuant to Nasdaq Rule 5704. ETFs that are excluded from operating pursuant to Rule 6c-11 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 are not eligible to list under Nasdaq Rule 5704....




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What documentation is required in connection with listing an ETF under Nasdaq Rule 5704?

Publication Date: Apr 10 2020 New Fund Launches In addition to completing the Listing Application, new funds are required to complete a certification prior to receiving approval of an initial listing application. The certification can be found here. Listing Transfers In addition to completing the Listing Application, funds switching from another market to Nasdaq are required to complete a certification regarding compliance with SEC Rule 6c-11. The certification must be completed prior to...




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What the ICJ Decision on Myanmar Means

24 January 2020

Dr Champa Patel

Director, Asia-Pacific Programme
Champa Patel on the implications of the International Court of Justice’s decision to order protection for the Rohingya.

2020-01-24-CB.jpg

Rohingya refugees watch ICJ proceedings at a restaurant in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in December. Photo: Getty Images.

The decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Myanmar should take all measures available to prevent acts of genocide against the persecuted Rohingya minority is truly ground-breaking. The case shows how small states can play an important role in upholding international law and holding other states accountable. 

The Gambia, acting with the support of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, skilfully used Article IX of the Genocide Convention, which allows for a state party to the convention to pursue cases against another state party where it is felt there has been a dispute regarding the ‘interpretation, application or fulfilment’ of the convention.

Seventeen states have entered reservations against this specific provision but Myanmar is not one of them. It was on this basis that The Gambia was able to take its case to the ICJ. This exciting development expands the possibilities of international accountability at the state-to-state level.

But it should be noted that the current ruling is focused on provisional measures – the central case could still take years to conclude. There is still a long road ahead on the court determining whether the Myanmar authorities committed acts of genocide.

And, while the decision was unanimous and binding, the ICJ cannot enforce its ruling. Myanmar has shown itself resistant to international criticism and there is a real risk they will fail to comply.

One way forward, should Myanmar not respect the ruling, is that the UN Security Council could agree a resolution to compel action. However, it seems unlikely that China would ever vote for such a resolution, given its strong stance on non-intervention and its economic interests in the country. 




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Wildlife through the window: what readers have spotted during lockdown

We asked Guardian readers living in cities and towns across the world to share their images of the wildlife they can see from their homes. You answered in your droves, from Canada to Cardiff, and here are some of the best.




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Improving Workplace Safety: What Works

The surprise player in affecting workplace safety overseas? Multinational buyers.




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US-China Economic Relations & COVID-19: What's Next?

The world's two largest economies are both partners and rivals, deeply intertwined but also with divergent interests. How will these contradictions resolve themselves following COVID-19?




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What is best practice to choose social profile username?




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What's Your Favorite Social Media Platform?




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What is the fast back links generation method?




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What is the most efficient way to select element specific to the H1




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What Are The Highest Paying Affiliate Programs?




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What is synthetic data and how can it help protect privacy?

Hazy CEO Harry Keen explains why artificially produced data is gaining favour over information generated by real-world events




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What happens to startups in a recession and how to survive

David Murray-Hundley, our resident Grumpy Entrepreneur, on the eight things for startups to consider if the bubble bursts




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CBD News: Communiqué Conservation community urges United States ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Whatever Happened to Biodiversity?




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CBD News: To better inform policymakers on what needs to be done to secure the ecosystems and species in the Arctic that people rely on for life and livelihood, the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arcti




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CBD News: With the aim of raising public awareness about the importance of biodiversity, a documentary detailing what it is like to spend four weeks over two summers exploring the biodiversity of the Grand Lake protected natural area in the Canadian provi




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CBD News: On 12 April, Sir David Attenborough joins the head of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity and a panel from government, business and civil society to discuss how to mobilise global action to tackle what is said to be the greatest thre




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What startups need to know about new UK immigration rules

The government has unveiled its new points-based immigration system, due to come into force in 2021, we break down what it means for the UK startup sector




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Understanding What Kepler Did--Part I




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What's the 411?




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KRACK Wi-Fi flaw: What you should know

Several fundamental weaknesses have been exposed in the most common Wi-Fi security protocols.




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What is Hdac? Blockchain tech advert scores on World Cup TV

Here is some insight into the first ever blockchain advert




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Public health training in climate change: What are prospective employers thinking?

(Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health) Researchers found that 92 percent of employers who responded to a survey on climate change and public health reported need for public health professionals with training in climate change will very likely increase in the next 5 to 10 years. While graduates of public health programs who focus on climate change are in demand in the current job market, these positions appear to be just a small proportion of the total number of jobs available in public health.





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Coronavirus drugs: Where are we, and what's next? (video)

(American Chemical Society) Antiviral drugs could help us fight the new coronavirus, but currently, we don't have a highly potent, effective antiviral that cures COVID-19. Why not? We called a few virologists to find out: https://youtu.be/AIpeZDR9i3E.




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Cold air rises -- what that means for Earth's climate

(University of California - Davis) In the tropical atmosphere, cold air rises due to an overlooked effect -- the lightness of water vapor. This effect helps to stabilize tropical climates, and the impacts of a warming climate would be much worse without it.




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'No one should feel completely safe': what experts think of California's reopening plan

As businesses slowly reopen, experts warn that social distancing may need to be dialed back up: ‘It’s not an on-off switch’ * Coronavirus – latest US updates * Coronavirus – latest global updatesSome California businesses on Friday began opening their doors for business – at least partially.As states and counties across the nation contend with pressure to lift the stay-at-home measures that have destroyed local economies, California is taking an especially cautious approach, walking a fine line between political and economic pressure to reopen and the public health imperative to stop the spread of disease.Public health experts told the Guardian that while no US state was equipped with enough coronavirus testing and surveillance to feel fully confident reopening, California’s slow, piecemeal recovery plan – though far from perfect – seemed like the least risky option. The planSeven weeks after the governor, Gavin Newsom, ordered his 40 million constituents to shelter in place and all non-essential businesses to close, California on Friday entered phase two of its grand reopening plan.Some retail stores, including bookshops, florists, music stores, clothing and sporting goods retailers, can reopen if they organize curbside pickup. Some manufacturing and logistics in the retail supply chain can restart as well, as long as they follow safety and hygiene protocols. And local authorities are allowed to ease regulations further than the state guidelines if they meet certain testing and sanitation requirements.Phase three of the plan – potentially months away – could see salons, gyms, movie theaters and in-person church services resume. Phase four would end all restrictions. The timingFriday’s reopenings come as California has avoided the surge of infections states like New York have seen. And although California has seen more than 61,000 cases and 2,500 deaths, its hospitals have not been overwhelmed.Last week, state officials reported the first week-over-week decline in Covid-19 deaths.The new guidelines also follow small but sustained protests across the state to demand a relaxation of regulations to revive the state’s crippled economy, and some rural counties have partially reopened in defiance of the lockdown measures. The caveatsHowever, California still hasn’t seen the two weeks of declining cases that the White House suggested as a criterion for easing restrictions and that several European countries have used as a benchmark.The state also lacks the robust testing and tracking systems that countries such as Germany and South Korea have used.The state has ramped up its ability to administer and process tests, although for now, its rate of 29,414 tests a day is below the figure required by some analyses.Authorities are working to put a robust contact tracing effort in place to make sure those who test positive get the care they need and are able to isolate themselves until they recover. Although some counties and communities have spearheaded community-wide testing and tracing programs, overall, the state isn’t at the point where its system is as widespread or efficient as a country like Germany’s.Experts say California should also have a system in place to make sure vulnerable, unhoused populations have access to shelter and medical care – to prevent infection flare-ups in homeless shelters and encampments. Progress on those measures heavily varies county by county.And ideally, there would be a treatment or a vaccine before reopening, said Dr Richard Jackson, a professor emeritus at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the former head of the California department of public health. While we await a cure, Jackson cautioned, “no one should feel completely safe as we remove restrictions.” The trade-offsCalifornia’s reopening strategy stands in sharp contrast to the approach of states like Georgia, which suddenly allowed gyms, barber shops, hair salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to welcome customers last week.“What certain places have done, where they’ve just thrown open the doors and said, ‘OK, we don’t have to keep our distance any more,’ is a colossal mistake,” Jackson said. Reopening businesses that put lots of people into close contact and speed the spread of disease will reverse the success of shelter-in-place rules, he noted, and overwhelm hospitals as cases surge. “Doing it very cautiously and carefully does make sense at this point in time,” he said.“I get that governors have to balance the public health goals with the economic goals,” said Dr Robert Tsai, surgeon and health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. “But this stage of the pandemic is really all about trade-offs,” he noted. The weeks aheadIn the coming weeks, state and local leaders will have to watch closely and prepare to dial the distancing back up if the number of cases surges, said Tsai.“Social distancing isn’t an on-off switch. What it needs to be is a dial, which can be turned up or down depending on what the data show on the ground in terms of how the Covid-19 epidemic is progressing.“Reopening is going to be a very complicated process, and it should be complicated,” he added. “Because this is about making sure that people don’t end up in the hospital or dying.”That California’s plan allows for counties to maintain stricter distancing guidelines or ease up measures could be both a strength and a liability.The flexibility has allowed hotspots like the Bay Area and Los Angeles to take a more cautious approach, but it has also already caused confusion. In San Diego, where curbside shopping has already begun, business owners were unsure what, if anything, would change on Friday. In Bakersfield, restaurants allowed patrons to dine in on Monday and Tuesday, in defiance of the state’s guidelines.A hodgepodge reopening could cause surges in cases; Californians who travel between more lax and more strict counties could spread infections. Moreover, a rush to reopen fast in some areas could be counterproductive to economic recovery, said Alessandro Rebucci, an economist at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.“If you reopen when the pandemic is still out there, people and businesses will not just go back to normal,” Rebucci noted. Based on research from China, it seems clear that fear of contracting the illness will keep businesses owners and patrons home until they feel it’s safe enough, he said.





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Motivational Interviewing and Diabetes: What Is It, How Is It Used, and Does It Work?

Garry Welch
Jan 1, 2006; 19:5-11
Lifestyle and Behavior




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Blood Glucose Awareness Training: What Is It, Where Is It, and Where Is It Going?

Daniel J. Cox
Jan 1, 2006; 19:43-49
Feature Articles




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What Drives Musk? Making the Most of Markets and States

How have government incentives helped to fuel the success of Elon Musk’s entrepreneurial ventures—and what role should the government play in supporting corporations promising to deliver social value for society?




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What about entertainment? - Industry insider feels sector under-represented in COVID recovery task force

Last month, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the establishment of an Economic Recovery Task Force, chaired by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke. The multisectoral task force, which is mandated to oversee Jamaica's economic recovery from...




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Setting Policy for What Comes After COVID-19: Dr. Faheem Ahmed ’20

Like many of his classmates, Dr. Faheem Ahmed started the spring semester, primed to put the finishing touches on his MBA. But after COVID-19 began to spread, he relocated to his home in London to complete his degree remotely and work on the frontline of the crisis.




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What Next After the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Revelations?

Research Event

2 July 2018 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Chatham House, London

Event participants

Silkie Carlo, Director, Big Brother Watch
Professor David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, University of California, Irvine, School of Law  
Professor Lorna McGregor, Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the ESRC, Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project
James Williams, Oxford Internet Institute
Chair: Harriet Moynihan, Associate Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House

Please note this event was originally scheduled on 13 June 2018 and has been postponed to 2 July 2018.

Technology companies, social media platforms and other internet intermediaries dominate the digital age, and harnessing data in algorithmic and artificial intelligence systems is widespread, from political campaigns to judicial sentencing.

The recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica revelations provide a sharp illustration of the risks to human rights and democracy posed by data-mining and "platform capital".

These revelations have focused public and policy debate on two key issues. First, they raise questions of how accountability and remedies can be effectively achieved, particularly where companies close in the wake of such revelations. Second, key questions arise on what regulation should look like.

Facebook has pledged to respect privacy of its users better, but how effective is self-regulation? There has been heavy emphasis on the role that the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can play to improve the protection of privacy and data protection, but will it be enough? What are the implications for international law - how can the established standards in human rights and data protection respond to these challenges?

This event, co-hosted with the ESRC, Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project, will be followed by a drinks reception.

Read the meeting summary on the Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project website. 




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Armed Conflict and Starvation: What Does the Law Say?

Research Event

12 October 2018 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

Event participants

Professor Dapo Akande, Co-Director, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict 
Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, Associate Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House
Ahila Sornarajah, Senior Lawyer, International and EU Law
Chair: Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Distinguished Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House

Millions of civilians suffer hunger and starvation in times of armed conflict. This panel discusses the legal prohibitions on the use of starvation as a method of war, and the obligations on the warring parties to allow access for humanitarian relief.

Department/project

Chanu Peiris

Programme Manager, International Law
+44 (0)20 7314 3686




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Seventy Years of the Geneva Conventions: What of the Future?

24 March 2020

Seventy years after the adoption of the Geneva Conventions, there are challenges that remain to be addressed. This briefing takes three pertinent examples, and discusses possibilities for addressing them.

Emanuela-Chiara Gillard

Associate Fellow, International Law Programme

GettyImages-913468402.jpg

Rescue of the wounded in Duma city by Syrian Red Crescent paramedics, 2 February 2018. Photo: Samer Bouidani/NurPhoto/Getty

Summary

  • The 70th anniversary of the adoption of the 1949 Geneva Conventions was commemorated in 2019. But violations of the Conventions and of the 1977 Additional Protocols are widespread.
  • Contemporary conflicts have been marked by violations of some of the foundational rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) relating to the protection of the wounded and sick and of providers of medical assistance.
  • A further area of IHL that has come under strain and scrutiny are the rules regulating humanitarian relief operations and their application to sieges and blockades.
  • War has a huge impact on children, and the treatment of children in armed conflict is another area of the law that requires further attention.
  • In the current political climate, it is unlikely that new treaties will be negotiated to address emerging issues or uncertainties in the law.
  • Other measures must be explored, including the adoption of domestic measures to implement existing law; support for processes that interpret the law; and initiatives to promote compliance with the law by organized armed groups.
  • One overarching challenge is the interplay between IHL and counterterrorism measures. It can undermine the protections set out in IHL, and hinder principled humanitarian action and activities to promote compliance with the law by organized armed groups.




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Learning During the Pandemic: What we wish our professors and mentors knew

Student Authors: Mayleen Cortez, Brooke Keene-Gomez, Lucy Martinez, Amaury V. Miniño, Jenna Race, Kelemua Tesfaye, and Stephanie. Blog post compiled by Melissa Gutiérrez González, Pamela E. Harris, and Alicia Prieto Langarica. In this blog we center the voices of mathematics students as … Continue reading




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POSTPONED: What Impact of Sovereignty in the Internet?

Research Event

26 March 2020 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Chatham House

Event participants

Konstantinos Komaitis, Senior Director, Policy Development & Strategy, Internet Society
Gregory Asmolov, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Russia Institute, King’s College London
Further speakers to be announced.
Chair: Joyce Hakmeh, Senior Research Fellow, International Security Programme, Chatham House and Co-Editor of the Journal of Cyber Policy.

 

Several governments have been moving towards a stronger sovereignty narrative when it comes to the internet with some trying to impose borders in cyberspace to extend their physical borders in cyberspace. From attempts to create isolatable domestic internets to data localization laws and to increased calls for sovereignty in the digital space, all these approaches are raising concerns regarding the fate of the internet.

While the impact of these approaches varies and the motivations behind them are arguably different too, all governments have been working towards the pursuit of greater technological independence and in some instances greater control.

The panellists will discuss the impact that these approaches have on the internet. They will address the question of whether the era of an 'open web' is drawing to an end and whether these territorialization efforts lead to a fragmentation of the internet, making a 'splinternet' inevitable?

This event is being organized with the kind support of DXC Technology.

This event will be followed by a reception. 

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Esther Naylor

Research Assistant, International Security Programme
+44 (0)20 7314 3628




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What You See Is Not What You Get - On the Accuracy of Voxel-Based Dosimetry in Molecular Radiotherapy

Due to improvements in quantitative SPECT/CT, voxel-based dosimetry for radionuclide therapies has aroused growing interest as it promises the visualization of absorbed doses at a voxel level. In this work, SPECT/CT-based voxel-based dosimetry of a 3D printed 2-compartment kidney phantom was performed, and the resulting absorbed dose distributions were examined. Additionally, the potential of the PETPVC partial-volume correction tool was investigated. Methods: Both kidney compartments (70% cortex, 30% medulla) were filled with different activity concentrations and SPECT/CT imaging was performed. The images were reconstructed using varying reconstruction settings (iterations, subsets, and post-filtering). Based on these activity concentration maps, absorbed dose distributions were calculated with pre-calculated 177Lu voxel S values and an empirical kidney half-life. An additional set of absorbed doses was calculated after applying PETPVC for partial-volume correction of the SPECT reconstructions. Results: SPECT/CT imaging blurs the two discrete sub-organ absorbed dose values into a continuous distribution. While this effect is slightly improved by applying more iterations, it is enhanced by additional post-filtering. By applying PETPVC, the absorbed dose values are separated into 2 peaks. Although this leads to a better agreement between SPECT/CT-based and nominal values, considerable discrepancies remain. In contrast to the calculated nominal absorbed doses of 7.8/1.6 Gy (cortex/medulla), SPECT/CT-based voxel-level dosimetry resulted in mean absorbed doses ranging from 3.0-6.6 Gy (cortex) and 2.7-5.1 Gy (medulla). PETPVC led to improved ranges of 6.1-8.9 Gy (cortex) and 2.1-5.4 Gy (medulla). Conclusion: Our study shows that 177Lu quantitative SPECT/CT imaging leads to voxel-based dose distributions largely differing from the real organ distribution. SPECT/CT imaging and reconstruction deficiencies might directly translate into unrealistic absorbed dose distributions, thus questioning the reliability of SPECT-based voxel-level dosimetry. Therefore, SPECT/CT reconstructions should be adapted to ensure an accurate quantification of the underlying activity and, therefore, absorbed dose in a volume-of-interest of the expected object size (e.g. organs, organ sub-structures, lesions or voxels). As an example, PETPVC largely improves the match between SPECT/CT-based and nominal dose distributions. In conclusion, the concept of voxel-based dosimetry should be treated with caution. Specifically, it should be kept in mind that the absorbed dose distribution is mainly a convolved version of the underlying SPECT reconstruction.




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Defining hyper-progressive disease using tumor growth rate: what are limitations and shortcuts?




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What Uber tells us about disruption

Uber's digital component is only part of it's success and there are other important lessons for any business.




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What it's like to be Australia's top tech talent

They're highly mobile, highly sought after, and tend to "upskill" off their own bat. The ball is most definitely in their court.




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Apple v FBI: what the fight is about and why you should care

Apple is in the middle of a legal fight with the FBI over creating a 'back door' to unlock a terrorist's iPhone.




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Financial Markets: Lessons Learned Since the Financial Crisis and What the Future Holds

Invitation Only Research Event

2 September 2019 - 5:15pm to 6:30pm

Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

Event participants

Professor Robert Shiller, Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University
Chair: Marianne Schneider-Petsinger, Research Fellow, US and the Americas Programme Chatham House

The 2007-08 financial crisis wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people across the globe, and upended the faith of many in the prevailing economic system, with many countries still recovering a decade on.

Drawing on extensive research in his new book, Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events, Professor Shiller will draw on a rich array of historical examples and data and outline a new way to think about economic change, and the narratives that shape it, to provide answers to questions such as whether lessons have been learned since the last financial crisis, are the same dislocations likely to occur again and what toolkits, if any, are there for anticipating the next financial crisis or recession?

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Event attributes

Chatham House Rule

Department/project

US and Americas Programme




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Brexit: What Now for UK Trade Policy? (Part 2)

Research Event

1 October 2019 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

Event participants

Professor Jagjit S. Chadha, Director, NIESR
Dr Kamala Dawar, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex; Fellow, UKTPO
Dr Michael Gasiorek, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Sussex; Director, Interanalysis; Fellow, UKTPO
Chair: Professor Jim Rollo, Deputy Director, UKTPO; Associate Fellow, Chatham House

In the five months since the last extension of the Brexit deadline, the questions about the UK’s trading relationship with the EU remain as open as before, as do those about what sort of relationship it should seek with other partners.

The world has not stood still, however, and so the UKTPO is convening another panel to consider constructive ways of moving forward. The panel will discuss potential trajectories for UK trade policy, followed by a question and answer session.

The UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) is a partnership between Chatham House and the University of Sussex which provides independent expert comment on, and analysis of, trade policy proposals for the UK as well as training for British policymakers through tailored training packages.




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UK General Election 2019: What the Political Party Manifestos Imply for Future UK Trade

Research Event

4 December 2019 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

Event participants

Michael Gasiorek, Professor of Economics, University of Sussex; Director, Interanalysis; Fellow, UK Trade Policy Observatory, University of Sussex
Julia Magntorn Garrett, Research Officer, UK Trade Policy Observatory, University of Sussex
Prof Jim Rollo, Deputy Director, UK Trade Policy Observatory, University of Sussex; Associate Fellow, Global Economy and Finance Department, Chatham House
Nicolo Tamberi, Research Officer in the Economics of Brexit, University of Sussex
L. Alan Winters, Professor of Economics, Director, UK Trade Policy Observatory, University of Sussex

The upcoming UK general election is arguably a 'Brexit election', and as such, whoever wins the election will have little time to get their strategy for Brexit up and running to meet the new Brexit deadline of 31 January 2020. But what are the political parties’ policies for the UK's future trade? This event will present and discuss what the five main parties’ manifestos imply for future UK trade. Each manifesto will be presented and analysed by a fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) and will be followed by a Q&A session. 

Michela Gariboldi

Research Assistant, Global Economy and Finance Programme
02073143692




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Episode Nine - The Internet of Li-Fi in Dubai-Fi (IoLFiDF) Huawei, Whatsapp, Panama Papers and Li-Fi

This week host Matt Egan kicks things off by chatting to staff writer Lewis Painter about the (genuinely) impressive Huawei P9 phone release. Then, acting editor at Macworld.co.uk David Price jumps in to discuss Whatsapp encryption (12:30) and the Panama Papers. Finally, Christina Mercer, online editor at Techworld.com, introduces you to the wonderful world of Li-Fi (24:30).  


See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.




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Episode 59 - The Internet of What They Know About You (IoWTKAY)

In this week's missive from Planet Pod, Dominic Preston, Tamlin Magee and Thomas Macaulay join host Henry Burrell to discuss such lightweight, frothy tech issues as data privacy, Project Scorpio, and cyber warfare. Sleep well, and don't have nightmares.  


See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.




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Nuclear Weapons: Trident is the Answer, Now What was the Question?

1 February 2007 , Number 3

Next month, parliament will vote on whether to replace Britain’s Trident nuclear missile submarines with a new and similar system. There is little doubt the proposal will be approved with support from the Conservative opposition. But the facts used to back the government’s favourite option raise as many questions as answers. The future of Britain’s defence is in doubt.

Andrew Norman

Senior Lecturer, Defence Studies, King's College London

GettyImages-51273218.jpg

Trident Submarine USS Georgia




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What Putin's Constitutional Shakeup Means

16 January 2020

Professor Nikolai Petrov

Senior Research Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House
Nikolai Petrov on the key takeaways from the Russian president's latest move.

2020-01-16-STP.jpg

A live broadcast of Vladimir Putin's annual address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, seen on the Leader Tower screen in St Petersburg. Photo: Getty Images.

Vladimir Putin’s proposed constitutional reforms will transform Russia’s political regime and allow him to prolong his grip on power when his fourth presidential term expires in 2024.

The proposals suggest that he will not seek another term as president after 2024, but is preparing the ground for retaining power after he leaves the presidency. The changes will introduce checks and balances on his close associates and ensure the country’s judiciary, legislative and executive bodies remain passive.

The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, is unlikely to rock the boat with legislative elections approaching in 2021. Former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev’s cabinet has been replaced by an acting government headed by a new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin. The highest courts will be weakened further by Putin’s proposal to give the president the power to dismiss judges.

Most of the proposed changes are vague. Notable specific proposals include the requirement that any presidential candidate must be resident in Russia for a minimum of 25 years prior to the elections, and that anyone who has held a residency permit abroad at any point in their life would not be eligible to run. This is clearly aimed at eliminating political opposition based abroad.

While Putin mentioned a popular vote on the constitutional changes (which is not required by law), it is important to note that he didn’t use the term ‘referendum’, which would have mandated that the results be acted upon. Regardless, it is clear that, with no easy foreign policy and military wins in the offing, Putin will seek to boost his legitimacy through a popular vote. The current federal electoral cycle starts next year and will end in 2024 with the presidential election.

The key question now is how Putin will maintain control over the siloviki, Russia’s political elite, though he has made this task easier for himself by replacing some of the strongest players with mid-level officers and weakening the authority of those who remain.

The proposals to consult with the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, when appointing siloviki and to keep the president in charge of law enforcement are a smokescreen. Putin will consolidate his power through his leadership at the Security Council and by chairing the State Council. For this reason, Putin is seeking to enshrine the State Council, which was reshaped in 2018 to include senior government ministers, in the constitution. 

It is too early to be certain of the major beneficiaries of these sweeping reforms, though Sergey Sobyanin, the current mayor of Moscow, is likely to become Putin’s deputy at the State Council. The head of the audit chamber, Alexei Kudrin, and Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko are also likely to benefit from the changes, after helping to develop Putin’s political and economic strategies prior to the 2018 presidential election.

Notably, the audit chamber, headed by Kudrin, will now have the power to check Rostekh, Rosneftegaz and Gazprom, organizations associated with major siloviki figures Sergey Chemezov and Igor Sechin. The role offered to Medvedev – deputy chair of the Security Council – will be newly created: the scope is unclear but it is unlikely that Putin will relinquish any of his influence over the siloviki.