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After about seven years of frozen diplomatic relations between Greece and Libya, our country regains diplomatic representation on Libyan soil.

Why was this specific time was chosen?

As Libya will have an election at the end of the year, coordinated by the new caretaker prime minister who will immediately form an interim government, Greece is reactivating its diplomatic channels.

In particular, after the developments at the UN regarding Libya where it was decided to change the political situation, the Greek Embassy in Tripoli will immediately reopen, as announced by the Greek Foreign Ministry.

At the same time, the necessary procedures for the opening of the Consulate General of Greece in Benghazi will be launched.

Diplomatic sources tell Sputnik Hellas that the Greek side wants to have an active role in the region after the fall of Fayez al-Sarraj (who co-signed the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum to steal Greek maritime space).

Greek-Libyan diplomatic relations remained virtually frozen after the fall of Gaddafi and the subsequent suspension of the Greek embassy in Libyan territory.

In the midst of the development of the Libyan civil war, the Greek embassy in Tripoli suspended its operation on July 31, 2014.

Its last diplomatic action, in cooperation with Greek supervisory authorities, was to transfer 186 Greek and foreign citizens (Chinese, Belgians, British), who finally arrived in Piraeus with the Salamis frigate.

Greek-Libyan relations returned to the forefront in late 2019 when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan and Sarraj signed a memoranda to recognises a common Turkish-Libyan maritime border, bypassing Greek rights and the UN Law of the Sea.

After Sarrajs departure, Greece wants to show a more active role in the region, said Kostas Yfantis, a professor of International Relations at Panteion University.

It is worth emphasising that the political relations between Greece and Libya are not good, especially after the signing of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, he continued.

For his part, Deputy Professor for International Politics at the Democritus University of Thrace, Sotiris Serbos, said that developments regarding the transitional government in Libya, does not change anything regarding the role that Turkey has in Libya.

Those who make up the transitional presidency have no contact with General Khalifa Haftar or with the president of the elected Libyan parliament in Tobruk, Aguila Saleh Issa (who opposes the Turkish plans), he said.

Of course, Turkey is also satisfied with this development, he added.

This is one of the reasons why, according to the professor, Greece decides to make a change in strategy.

Greeces diplomatic moves are aimed at better capturing our position. There should be a negotiating leverage of developments, within the geopolitical bra de fer that is taking place in Libya with players inside and outside the country, the professor continued.

As he pointed out, it cost Greece that they had no information about developments in Libya since it did not maintain an embassy there.

So this has to do with the fact that two Turkish-Libyan memoranda were signed for maritime zones and military cooperation, something that Greece did not realize until they were signed, he signed.

This does not mean, as he clarifies, that Greece could have done something to prevent it, however the balances may have been formed differently.

Our country clearly needs its own unfiltered channel of communication with a country like Libya, the professor concluded.

The new Prime Minister of Libya and Greece

It is recalled that Mohamed Menfi, the new caretaker Prime Minister of Libya, was deported from Greece at the end of 2019, after the signing of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, while he was the ambassador for Libya in Athens.

Other diplomatic sources estimate that the new Libyan prime minister will not cause any problems with Greece despite the fact that he was expelled as ambassador as he is transitional and of limited power to proceed with major changes.

Participants in the dialogue on Libya, under the auspices of the UN, chose him to undertake to lead the country to elections, on December 24.

The caretaker Prime Minister will have to form an interim government in 21 days and present his program to Parliament for approval.

If he succeeds, he will have another 21 days to receive a vote of confidence from parliament.

See original here:
Why Greece Is Changing Its Libyan Strategy And What Is Turkey's Role - Greek City Times - GreekCityTimes.com

As he assumed functions yesterday, the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Jn Kubi continued his interactions with Libyan interlocutors, following his telephone calls with President of the Presidency Council Mr. Fayez Serraj and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Mohammed Siala the day before.

He held telephone conversations with Mr. Agila Slaeh, the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) and discussed the current situation, following the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) meeting in Switzerland and the way forward, including convening the HoR soon.

Special Envoy Kubi held telephone conversations with Mr. Mohammad Younes Menfi, President of the Presidency Council designate and Mr. Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, Prime Minister designate. They discussed the way forward to ensure a smooth transition of power to the new unified interim executive authority. Mr. Kubi noted the intention of the Prime Minister designate to form an inclusive and representative Cabinet, within the timeline set by the LPDF Roadmap, that will reflect the richness and diversity of the Libyan society and its components, including women and youth, capable of addressing the most pressing issues in Libya including delivery of services to the people on an just and equitable basis and national reconciliation. Of critical importance for the government and the people is to prepare and hold the national elections on 24 December 2021.

Mr. Kubi stressed the United Nations commitment to a stable, prosperous, sovereign and unified Libya, building on the momentum generated by positive developments achieved in the past months in the political, security and economic files, including ceasefire agreement through Libyan-led and Libyan-owned efforts and processes.

The Special Envoy Jn Kubi continued also with his telephone and video calls, reaching out to high representatives of regional countries and broader international community.

Continued here:
Jn Kubi takes up functions as the UN Secretary-General special envoy for Libya, stresses UN commitment to a stable, prosperous, sovereign and unified...

Alexa von Tobel has always felt strongly that too many people are shut out of the stock market. She felt this as a 23-year-old who didnt have $5,000 to open a brokerage account. She felt it while building LearnVest, a financial planning startup she launched in 2009 and sold in 2015 to Northwestern Mutual for what she says was ultimately $375 million. In fact, von Tobel who two years ago launched her own venture firm with fellow entrepreneur and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker cares so much about the yawning gap between investors and non-investors that she has written books about how to take control of ones money. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, she is also a certified financial planner.)

Little wonder that in late January, for a podcast that von Tobel routinely hosts for Inc., she interviewed Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the companys quest to make investing accessible to all. Neither foresaw what would happen days later, when a Reddit community of amateur investors didnt try to occupy Wall Street so much as turn it upside down by using Robinhood, in part, to drive up the share price of companies like GameStop and AMC Theatres then unwind those positions. As a 21-year-old college student who lost $150,000 over the course of several days told the outlet Vice, This whole thing has numbed me to money.

What happened? Education, in the view of von Tobel, who says it never became an integrated part of the bigger picture. While the GameStop saga has brought a lot of new learnings and new things that people have to process and consider, paramount among these is the inadequate financial training that Americans receive.

I want the tools to be democratized, where everyone can get equal access to the financial system, said von Tobel in a lively chat with us late last week that you can hear here. But I also want equal education, and thats where were woefully falling behind as a society. Its not taught in high schools, colleges or grad schools. Very few schools even teach the basics.

The issue only grows more important to address each year, she says. People are living longer, and theyre more responsible than ever for their financial well-being. Meanwhile, because of innovations in fintech, including at Robinhood which became wildly popular very quickly precisely because it dispensed with many of the barriers to participating in the stock market there is little to keep someone from making lousy decisions with outsize consequences.

So whats to be done? For starters, she suggests that society begin to place as much emphasis on financial health as physical wellness. If youre close to having a major health crisis, doctors do a really good job of saying, Heres all the things that you need to do to protect yourself; heres what needs to happen. The same needs to exist in the financial world.

It will take a number of stakeholders, she believes. One of these is platforms all of them that provide you with [financial] tools and resources, so you can understand the kind of risks youre taking on [to the extent] that they can provide it.

Another, she said, is regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Created in 2010 to safeguard consumers in banking, mortgage, credit card and other financial transactions, the CFPBs very constitutionality was called into question by the Trump administration, yet its guidance is sorely needed, suggests von Tobel. (Regulation is always a step behind, and thats a little bit of what were feeling as a society right now.)

Of course, the third and biggest stakeholder of all is the U.S. educational system, says von Tobel, adding that you need all three, working in unison in order to have real impact.

As for any structural changes in the meantime that von Tobel thinks should happen according to CNBC, for example, Robinhood is preparing to lobby against a trading tax thats been floated as a way to dampen some of the frenzied activity seen in recent weeks she declines to pontificate too much.

Still, she said she thinks that getting a Citadel and everyday Americans on equal footing is where we want to end up, and she isnt without hope that well get there.

For example, she thinks crypto is here to stay and that the infrastructure being created around it will be positive for innovators as well as end users. Shes also expecting self-driving wallets that pay bills and make investments to become the new normal, and she thinks they could minimize some of the financial distress we might continue to see otherwise.

Considering the chaos of late, the latter almost sounds too easy, but the wallet is simply a math equation every day, she says. If you have so much [money] available free, where should it go? Whats the most optimal place? Its a math equation that updates every single hour, and I do think elements of it will be self-driving based on your goals and what you want to accomplish.

Adds von Tobel, I cant wait for the day that that actually exists in a way where it automates on its own. I do believe thats the future.

Read the rest here:
Investor Alexa von Tobel on the biggest driver of social media-fueled stock trading - TechCrunch

When army generals in Myanmar staged a coup last week, they briefly cut internet access in an apparent attempt to stymie protests. In Uganda, residents couldn't use Facebook, Twitter and other social media for weeks after a recent election. And in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, the internet has been down for months amid a wider conflict.

Around the world, shutting down the internet has become an increasingly popular tactic of repressive and authoritarian regimes and some illiberal democracies. Digital rights groups say governments use it to stifle dissent, silence opposition voices or cover up human rights abuses, raising concerns about restricting freedom of speech.

Regimes often cut online access in response to protests or civil unrest, particularly around elections, as they try to keep their grip on power by restricting the flow of information, researchers say. It's the digital equivalent of seizing control of the local TV and radio station that was part of the pre-internet playbook for despots.

"Internet shutdowns have been massively underreported or misreported over the years," said Alp Toker, founder of internet monitoring organization Netblocks. The world is "starting to realize what's happening," as documenting efforts like his expand.

Last year, there were 93 major internet shutdowns in 21 countries, according to a report by Top10VPN, a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group. The list doesn't include places like China and North Korea, where the government tightly controls or restricts the internet. Shutdowns can range from all-encompassing internet blackouts to blocking social media platforms or severely throttling internet speeds, the report said.

Internet cuts have political, economicand humanitarian costs, experts warned. The effects are exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns that are forcing activities like school classes online.

The shutdowns play into a wider battle over control of the internet. In the West, efforts to rein in social media platforms have raised competing concerns about restricting free speech and limiting harmful information, the latter sometimes used by authoritarian regimes to justify clampdowns.

In Myanmar, internet access was cut for about 24 hours last weekend, in an apparent bid to head off protests against the army's seizing of power and the detention of leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her allies. By Sunday afternoon, internet users reported data access on their mobile phones was suddenly restored.

Norway's Telenor ASA, which runs one of Myanmar's main wireless carriers, said the communications ministry cited "circulation of fake news, stability of the nation and interest of the public" in ordering operators to temporarily shut down networks.

Telenor said it had to comply with local laws. "We deeply regret the impact the shutdown has on the people in Myanmar."

It's a familiar move by Myanmar's government, which carried out one of the world's longest internet shutdowns in Rakhine and Chin states, about 260 kilometres west of the capitalNaypyitawand 360 km northwest of the city respectively,aimed at disrupting operations of an armed ethnic group. The cutoff began in June 2019 and was only lifted on Feb. 3.

Another long-running internet shutdown is in Ethiopia's Tigray region, which has been choked off since fighting started in early November the latest in a series of outages with no sign of service returning anytime soon. That's made it challenging to know how many civilians have been killed, to what extent fighting continues, or whether people are starting to die of starvation, as some have warned.

In Uganda, restrictions on social media sites including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube took effect ahead of a Jan. 14 presidential election, along with a total internet blackout on the eve of polling. Authorities said it was to prevent opposition supporters from organizing potentially dangerous street protests.

The social media curbs were lifted Wednesday, except for Facebook. Longtime leader Yoweri Museveni, who was facing his biggest challenge to power yet from popular singer-turned-lawmaker Bobi Wine, had been angered by the social network's removal before the vote of what it said were fake accounts linked to his party.

In Belarus, the internet went down for 61 hours after the Aug. 9 presidential election, marking Europe's first internet blackout. Service was cut after election results handed victory to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, but the vote was widely seen as rigged and sparked enormous protests.

Access remained unstable for months, particularly around weekend protests, when mobile internet service repeatedly went down.

The risk is that regular shutdowns become normalized, said Toker.

"You get a kind of Pavlovian response where both the public in the country and the wider international community will become desensitized to these shutdowns." It's the "greatest risk to our collective freedom in the digital age."

Internet shutdowns are also common in democratic India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has increasingly used them to target his political opposition. His Hindu nationalist government has ordered hundreds of regional shutdowns, according to a tracking site.

Most have been in disputed Kashmir, which endured an 18-month blockade of high-speed mobile service that ended last week. But they've also been deployed elsewhere for anti-government demonstrations, including massive farmers' protests that have rattled Modi's administration.

Darrell West, a vice-president of governance studies at the Washington-based Brookings Institution who has studied internet shutdowns, said:"It used to be authoritarian governments who did this, but we are seeing the practice become more common in democracies such as India.

"The risk is that once one democracy does it, others will be tempted to do the same thing. It may start at the local level to deal with unrest, but then spread more broadly."

Read the original here:
From Myanmar to Ethiopia, internet shutdowns become favoured tool of regimes - CBC.ca

Wearing a mask is one of the easiest things individual people can do to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is partnering with WarnerMedia in the hopes that fan-favorite characters like Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, the Joker, and Imperator Furiosa can convince people to mask up.

The ad, which was created by a partnership between WarnerMedia, the Ad Council, and the CDC, features a wide variety of WarnerMedia characters from iconic films but with digitally inserted masks.

Whether its heroes (like members of the Fellowship of the Ring or the Justice League) or villains (like the Joker doing his iconic stair dance), everyone masks up. Even the murderous clown demon Pennywise from It sports a mask albeit, a creepy, clown-faced one.

According to AdAge, the ad will run across the US in donated media time, and its free for broadcast and digital news outlets to use. WarnerMedia, of course, will run the commercial on its own channels and platforms, including HBO and Turner TV channels.

Recently released guidance from the CDC actually recommends doubling up on masks, with a cloth mask worn over a surgical one for better protection. Alternatively, the agency advocates that people tie the ear loops on their surgical masks so they fit tightly.

Lets get back to doing our favorite things, the ad reads, whatever that might be.

Originally posted here:
The CDC hopes Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, and Neo can actually convince people to wear masks - The Verge