Day: August 12, 2022

The EU has allocated an additional €4 million to Uganda, to help the country address the influx of new refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and address the food insecurity in Uganda’s Karamoja region, on the border with Kenya. Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, said: “Prevailing insecurity in the eastern DRC has led to an increase in the number of refugee arrivals in neighbouring Uganda, which is already hosting the largest refugee population in Africa. This funding will enable our humanitarian partners address the most urgent emergency needs, including supporting those newly displaced. In addition, funding has been allocated to Uganda to help the country address the rapidly deteriorating food security situation in its Karamoja region, where half a million people are in urgent need of food assistance.” The top-up amount brings the total funding for Uganda to €34 million in 2022. The security situation in the DRC has resulted in a large number of people seeking refuge in neighbouring Uganda, with more than 57,000 arriving since January 2022. Uganda already hosts the largest refugee population in Africa (1.5 million) and the third largest in the world. The Karamoja area, in Uganda’s northeast, is currently facing the devastating consequences of the drought affecting the Horn of Africa – often described as “the worse in a generation.” More than 500,000 people are in urgent need of food assistance, with around 100,000 children and pregnant and lactating women being acutely malnourished. The additional funding allocated by the EU will allow humanitarian partners to provide food and nutrition assistance, including immediate life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable. (For more information: Miriam Garcia Ferrer – Tel.: +32 229 99075; Daniel Puglisi – Tel.: +32 229 69140)

Source: Cyprus News Agency

The climate crisis is fuelling wildfires in Europe, with high intensity fires arising further North than ever before.

FirEUrisk project is studying scenarios to mitigate fire risk across the continent, leveraging valuable lessons learned in Southern-European countries.

The goal is to share knowledge with countries that have limited previous experience in managing extreme wildfires, so that all citizens are equally protected.

Madrid, 11th August 2022 – With wildfires raging across Europe, Southern European countries have deployed all their strategies for the prevention and management of fires. As fire regimes spread to Northern latitudes due to climate change and socioeconomic changes, experts from the FirEUrisk project are fostering knowledge transfer between European countries to improve their ability to prevent and react to this increased threat.

“We have to prepare ourselves for fires occurring in regions where they did not occur before, and becoming progressively more severe,” explains FirEUrisk coordinator Dr Domingos Xavier Viegas from the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Leveraging on the experience of Mediterranean countries, “FirEUrisk is developing guidelines, directives and recommendations that can be adopted by central and Northern European countries.”

In Portugal, the burned area at the end of July encompassed 70 thousand hectares, larger than any burned surface registered since 2017. In Spain, this year has been worse than the last 25 years (352 fires and 229 645 ha burned). The current year’s events demonstrate that predicted changes, like the reduction of rainfall and the occurrence of repeated and prolonged heat waves, are becoming a ‘new normal’, indicating the emergence of predicted future climate scenarios with increased wildfire risk in Europe.

“Recent forecasts predict that in the near future, fire risk will increase 3-fold, that is, we’ll face two or three times more days of very high to extreme fire risk. We must act to prepare our ecosystem and our society, or we’ll have a very difficult future,” says Dr Viegas.

Different realities across Europe, becoming one

Across Europe, “there are different realities, particularly in terms of combat preparedness, operational experience, equipment, training, and community preparation,” explains Dr Viegas. Wildfires have not been as common or as severe in central and Northern Europe as they have been in the South. “These countries will soon have a similar organizational capacity and preparation to Southern territories. They are concerned and dedicated to learning from our experience,” Dr Viegas adds.

Working with predictions for the next 30 to 50 years, FirEUrisk’s goal is for Europe to move faster, and go through the necessary steps to face the changes in fire weather and the increasingly imminent risk of wildfires. “We need to ensure that all of Europe is a safe area where citizens, in the face of extreme fires, do not have to face material or human losses.”

Determined to share the Portuguese model, put in place after the terrible blazes of 2017, Dr Viegas believes “Europe must promote the sharing of resources, commit to a greater development of scientific knowledge and new technologies. We need rational guidelines that people can understand and stick to.” Interventions that, in Portugal, are based on developing cross-cutting local policies through dialogue and shared activities.

About the FirEUrisk project

FirEUrisk is a EU-funded project (H2020, grant agreement number 101003890) working to develop a science-based strategy to manage major forest fires in Europe.

Gathering 39 expert partners from all over the world (research institutions, universities and private companies), the project is dissecting risk and how to manage it, developing new tools for assessing fire danger and the vulnerability of communities and landscapes. These strategies will be tested in pilot sites and demonstration areas and implemented to adapt all European countries to changing climate conditions.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Seventeen years have elapsed since the “Helios” air tragedy, the worst airline disaster in Greek history, when 121 people, including 22 children were killed.

Member of the Committee of Helios Relatives, Sotiris Soteriades, told CNA that on Sunday a memorial service will be held at the chapel of Theotokos in Grammatikos, where the plane crash occurred.

A small number of relatives will attend the memorial while memorial services will also be held in Cyprus by families.

Wounds remain open, said Soteriades, as families were lost in the crash and those that stayed behind were scarred forever. “These days, the relatives relive the 2005 drama. They remember the moments when they had to identify the victims. They went to Athens to try to identify their loved ones, but for many it was an impossible and painful experience”, he told CN?.

The relatives, he added, feel there has been no vindication for what has happened. Because routine checks were not performed during the flight, mistakes occurred which resulted in the tragedy. “No relative feels that responsibilities were apportioned. Those in charge essentially, bought off their sentence by paying ridiculous amounts to the Greek justice system,” he said.

Flight 522 of Cypriot airline Helios departed at 9:07 am on August 14, 2005, from Larnaca International Airport to fly to Prague with a stopover at Athens International Airport.

En route from Larnaca, the plane lost contact with the Nicosia air traffic control shortly before it entered Greek air space.

Two Greek F-16 fighter jets were sent to intercept the plane after it failed to respond to calls from Athens’ control tower. What they saw was the captain’s seat empty, the person in the first officer’s seat slumped over the controls and three passengers visible were motionless, wearing oxygen masks while other masks were dangling from overhead units. The only movement witnessed by the F-16 pilots was junior steward, Andreas Prodromou who had managed to open the bullet proof cockpit door and attempted to take control of the plane. Clutching a portable oxygen mask, he was heard calling “Mayday”.

The plane was on autopilot circling over Athens and with a fuel capacity to fly only up to three hours. Just after midday the airplane crashed into a hillside near the village of Grammatiko, 25 miles from Athens, five miles northeast of the Athens airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”, killing everyone on board.

On February 2, 2013, a Court of Appeals in Athens convicted three of the four defendants in the Helios air disaster. Helios director Demetris Pantazis, flight operations director Andreas Kikkides and chief pilot Ianko Stoimenov were found guilty of manslaughter with conscious negligence, a misdemeanour.

Chief engineer Alan Irwin, the fourth defendant, who had checked the aircraft before the doomed flight, was found not guilty.

The three executives were given the option to pay €73,000 each instead of serving their ten-year jail sentence which they did.

In Cyprus, the case, which was before the Nicosia Assize Court, was suspended following the Athens ruling. All charges were dismissed and the defendants acquitted.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Non-performing exposures (NPEs) in the Cypriot banking system amounted to €2.93 billion in April 2022 marking a slight increase for the second consecutive month.

According to the data released by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), NPES (including both loans in arrears for over 90 days and restructured loans) amounted to €2,936 million or 11.4% of total loans in the banking system.

The rise is attributed to the increase in both loans in arrears over 90 days and the inflow of new restructured loans which under the EBA directive continue to be classified as non-performing for a one-year cure period.

Net NPLS, loans in arrears excluding restructured facilities in April amounted to €2,117 million in April 2022, compared with €2,109 million in the previous month.

Furthermore, total restructured facilities amounted to €3,323 million in April from €3,314 in the month before, the CBC said.

Accumulated provisions amounted to €1,470 million or 45.4% of total non-performing loans, the CBC added.

According to the CBC, of the total NPEs, 50% or €1,473 million were held by households while corporate NPEs amounted to €1,181 million which represents 40% of total NPEs. Of the total corporate bad loans, €924 million were held by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Two Cypriot football clubs, AEK Larnaca and Apollon Limassol, continue to the Europa League play-offs.

AEK has made it to the play-offs after defeating on Thursday Partisan Belgrade with 4-3 in Larnaca. In the first leg of the qualifying round, in Belgrade, the match ended in a 2-2 draw.

The Larnaca-based football club will now compete against Ukrainian Dnipro. The matches are set for August 18 and 25. The losing team will continue to the Conference League.

Apollon Limassol will face Greece’s Olympiacos, after the latter defeated on Thursday Slovan Bratislava with 4-3.

The two matches between Apollon and Olympiacos are scheduled for August 18 and 25.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Cyprus on Friday announced 6 more deaths from COVID-19 and 3,611 new cases, recorded between August 5 and August 11.

According to the Health Ministry, 70,602 tests were carried out with a positivity rate of 5.11%.

The deaths concern 4 men and 2 women, with ages ranging from 72 to 95. This brings the number of deaths from COVID-19 so far to 1,149.

The Ministry said that, 571,994 COVID-19 cases have been recorded so far.

Currently, 84 patients with COVID-19 are being treated in hospital, including eleven who are in a serious condition; six of them are intubated, and five in a high-dependency unit.

Three post-COVID patients continue to be intubated in the ICU.

Total PCR tests in the past seven days was 3,022 with 302 positive results and a positivity rate of 9.99%, while total antigen rapid tests were 67,580 with 3,309 positive results and a positivity rate of 4.9%.

In particular, out of 4 PCR tests carried out through contact tracing, no-one tested positive. Out of 2,574 PCR tests carried out on a private initiative 216 cases were detected. Another 3,070 people tested positive out of 47,317 rapid antigen tests carried out privately.

A total of 20,263 rapid antigen tests were carried out in the context of Ministry of Health screening programmes detecting 239 cases. These include 12,185 tests in testing units with 182 cases, 370 tests in the National Guard with 6 cases, 5,072 tests in homes for the elderly with 44 positives and 2,636 tests in closed structures with 7 positive results.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Cyprus public debt declined to €24.18 billion in the end of June 2022, marking a 3.10% reduction compared with the respective period of last year, according to the latest available data.

Compared with the first quarter of this year, Cyprus’ gross public debt marked a reduction of 3.9%. In May the government repaid a European Medium-Term Note (EMTN) amounting to €1 billion using available cash reserves.

In June 2022, Cyprus’ debt declined to its lowest level since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic but remains significantly elevated compared with the pre-pandemic levels, as the Finance Ministry had proceeded with large debt issuances, in a bid to boost the government’s cash buffers with a view to supporting economic activity during the health crisis.

According to the latest data, a sizeable amount of Cyprus’ gross debt in June 2022, estimated at over 10%, is held in cash reserves, which covers the 2022 financing needs and a significant part of 2023.

Furthermore, the Finance Ministry said in its Stability Programme for 2022-2025 that it estimates that public debt is projected to decline to €23.5 billion or 93.9% of GDP by the end of the year and will continue its downward trajectory in the following years, as the government is winding down its cash buffers.

“The expected reduction of general government debt by 10.1 percentage points is attributed to the repayment of a significant amount of debt due within the year which is expected to be covered both through new debt issuances as well as through the utilisation of the cash buffer,” the Finance Ministry said.

In 2023, gross public debt is estimated to decline to about 88.2% and 81% and 76.7% by the end of 2024 and 2025 respectively, the Ministry added.

In early 2022, Cyprus issued a €1 billion in a 10-year EMTN bond, covering its basic financing needs for the year, while the Ministry’s funding plan also provides for an additional issuance of a €0.5 billion bond.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has referred to the Supreme Court two laws voted by parliament on VAT reduction, Government Spokesperson Marios Pelekanos told CNA on Friday. At the same time, he signed the bill on foreclosures.

Responding to a CNA question, the Spokesperson said that President Anastasiades, after receiving the opinion of the Attorney-General on the matter, has referred to the Supreme Court two legislative texts voted by the House of Representatives concerning the reduction of VAT, since, he said, they violate EU regulations and are against the principle of the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature.

Pelekanos pointed out that the legislations in question “drastically reduce the state’s revenues, affecting the fiscal policy of the Government, which already implements specific horizontal measures to cover households and businesses, as well as measures aimed at our most vulnerable fellow citizens with a fiscal impact to the tune of €350 million.”

With regard to the bill on foreclosures, Pelekanos said the President has signed it.

Parliament rejected on August 2, in an extraordinary session, the referrals of the President of the Republic concerning a proposal to abolish double taxation on fuel, a proposal to abolish the VAT in electricity bills concerning emissions and the law on the suspension of referrals for three months.

The President of the Republic had the right to request an opinion from the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of laws or their provisions.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Mary Kay Inc. continues its support of women’s entrepreneurship, empowerment and thought leadership as a sponsor of the 2022 International Women’s Forum (IWF) Cornerstone Conference. Taking place on 17-18 May in Santiago, the Conference convened global decision makers who explored the most pressing challenges to progress on gender equality for the Latin American region.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220812005257/en/

IWF Latinobarómetro MKI Latin American Women Democracy & Society from a Gender Perspective Research (Graphic: Mary Kay Inc.)

For the first time ever, IWF commissioned groundbreaking research as part of its annual conference programming with funding by Mary Kay. Conducted by the Latinobarómetro founded by Marta Lagos, this research, titled “Latin American Women: Democracy & Society from a Gender Perspective,” is the first-ever analysis of a quarter of a century (1995-2020) of public opinion and attitudes towards and by women on gender equality issues in 18 Latin American countries.

“Marta Lagos, one of the world’s foremost pollsters, revealed key findings from over 25 years of gender research by her firm Latinobarómetro. For decades she has had her finger on the pulse of Latin America, tracking shifts in attitudes on politics, society and culture,” said Stephanie O’Keefe, CEO of International Women’s Forum. “We are truly proud to share these important findings with the world thanks to our partnership with Mary Kay.”

“Now, more than ever, the collection of gender data is crucial to inform advocacy and policy work. I am so pleased for Mary Kay to support this impressive compilation of research, ‘Latin American Women: Democracy and Society from a Gender Perspective.’ It is our collective and individual responsibility to learn from the experiences of women in Latin America and to use this data to keep pushing the needle to achieve gender equality in the region and around the world,” said Deborah Gibbins, Chief Operating Officer at Mary Kay Inc.

Not only does this research reveal the most important changes in the opinions, attitudes, and behaviors of Latin American women over the last 25 years, but it also looks at the barriers to change. The latest data was gathered in October 2020 at the end of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and, therefore, reflects the initial impact of the pandemic and the rollback on gender equality progress which we have witnessed globally.

Access the full study and the executive summary here.

453,817 interviews conducted over the last quarter of a century by Latinobarómetro in 18 Latin American countries from 1995 to October 2020.

List of countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The study is available in Spanish and English.

ABOUT MARY KAY

One of the original glass ceiling breakers, Mary Kay Ash founded her dream beauty company in 1963 with one goal: enriching women’s lives. That dream has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar company with millions of independent sales force members in nearly 40 countries. As an entrepreneurship development company, Mary Kay is committed to empowering women on their journey through education, mentorship, advocacy, networking, and innovation. Mary Kay is dedicated to investing in the science behind beauty and manufacturing cutting-edge skincare, color cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and fragrances. Mary Kay believes in enriching lives today for a sustainable tomorrow, partnering with organizations from around the world focusing on promoting business excellence, supporting cancer research, advancing gender equality, protecting survivors of domestic abuse, beautifying our communities, and encouraging children to follow their dreams. Learn more at marykayglobal.com, find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S FORUM

The International Women’s Forum (IWF) is an invitation-only network of the most accomplished women in the world. IWF connects women leaders across every professional sector in support of each other and the common mission of advancing women’s leadership and championing equality worldwide. Established in New York City in 1974, today IWF is comprised of over 7,500 preeminent women leaders in 33 countries. IWF is the only organization of this scale that builds significant relationships between C-level women from every sector across the globe.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Commercial flights in the European Union decreased by 15% in July 2022 compared with July 2019, that is the summer before the pandemic, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical service of the EU.

In Cyprus, flights during July 2022 had decreased by 14% compared to July 2019, which was slightly below the EU average.

In absolute numbers, a total of 595,965 flights were recorded in all of the EU and 7,626 flights in Cyprus during July 2022.

The only country where there was an increase of commercial flights compared to the summer before the pandemic was Greece. A total of 70,071 flights were recorded in July in absolute numbers, which marks a 7% increase compared to July 2019.

Flights decreased most in Slovenia, by 42% compared with July 2019 (1,612 flights in July in absolute numbers).

Most flights in July 2022 were recorded in Spain (156,199 flights, a decrease of 7,3% compared to July 2019), Germany (135,256, a 24,2% decrease), France (123,323, a 11,8% decrease) and Italy (118,825, a 9,5% decrease). Greece follows in fifth place.

Source: Cyprus News Agency