Archive for February, 2021

EDITORIAL: If elections are a game of chess, then pieces are being put in place – Bahamas Tribune

WE are well and truly gearing up for election season now with every day seemingly bringing another piece being moved around the electoral chess board.

Halson Moultrie set the ball rolling on Thursday with his resignation from the FNM, and now we hear that Peter Turnquest has gone from Deputy Prime Minister to not having a nomination at all for the next election. Thats quite a reversal of fortune for his political career.

Three more incumbent FNM MPs are also reported to be likely to be denied a nomination and on top of that two other names are up in the air. One of those is Frederick McAlpine, and that is no surprise after his frequent battles with his own party. The other is Dr Duane Sands, another who has seen a swift change since being Minister of Health. He has been critical too of the administration, though it was notable that he was out and about in FNM colours in his constituency at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Branville McCartney, who said he has been courted by both parties as a candidate, says hell be sitting this election out. The former DNA leader isnt as outspoken these days as he was in a green shirt. What that means for his political future is very much up in the air.

From here on, you can expect the political atmosphere to keep heating up. Candidates will no doubt be getting their deliveries of red, yellow or green shirts, and hitting the streets in constituencies as much as COVID-19 restrictions allow.

It will likely be a very different election season with the traditional rallies very much in doubt given the pandemic.

It will also very likely have the state of the economy at its heart. Whichever party wins is going to have to rebuild an economy already hard hit by Hurricane Dorian even before the pandemic wiped out tourism. FNM or PLP, either government would have had their plans thrown into disarray by those two hammer blows and many will vote based on the lack of money in their pocket. The question must be, though, which government will be best equipped to deal with the next hammer blow.

Hurricanes remain a constant threat, and this pandemic is far from over yet.

Who will be the steadiest hand for the future, and who will be the candidates in each constituency best equipped to help get us to that future? For many constituencies, we still must wait and see but not for long.

The games afoot.

Peter Nygards legal strategy in The Bahamas has caught up with him but in Canada.

Denying Mr Nygard bail over the nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering that he faces, Judge Shawn Greenberg pointed out Nygards failure to appear in court in The Bahamas for contempt proceedings.

He said: Two warrants for his arrest have been issued by the Bahamian court According to the recently released decision of the Court of Appeal for the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Mr Nygard breached orders to attend court on five occasions.

He also showed up Mr Nygards excuse for not showing up to a Bahamian court, pointing out that the health issues cited by Mr Nygard didnt stop him from travelling by air to Los Angeles in the winter of 2020 and therefore it is difficult to accept it as an excuse for not travelling to The Bahamas.

Well done, Judge Greenberg. Sometimes, court processes and decisions can be baffling but this is as plain and straightforward as they come. Mr Nygard showed no respect for the court in The Bahamas, so he cant expect any leeway from a court elsewhere.

Bring on the court case so Mr Nygards case can be heard in full but in the meantime, there can be no surprise that he has to sit behind bars until that day comes.

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EDITORIAL: If elections are a game of chess, then pieces are being put in place - Bahamas Tribune

Enjoyed the Queen’s Gambit? Now you can make 250/hour as a VIP chess and maths tutor in Knightsbridge – Journalism.co.uk

Press Release

One lucky chess wizard could be in for the part-time job of a lifetime. The right candidate, described as "a high flyer in his/her own right" has the chance to earn an eye-watering 1,000 GBP/week for four hours of work!

After Netflix reported 62 million viewers watched The Queen's Gambit during its first month, it seems that interest in chess has penetrated even the uppermost echelons of society. A London-based family is now offering a top salary for a tutor to turn their son into a chess protege.

The job post, listed on VIP tutor, governor and nanny job site Jobs in Childcare, states that the tutor should help the youngster "to excel in maths at school and nurture his natural interest in mathematics, physics and chess out of school". The tutor should be a 'high flyer', perhaps working in Londons financial district or similar.

The lucky successful applicant will be well rewarded for his or her time; the salary on offer is 250 per hour, totalling 1,000 per week for the four hours of work requested.

James Alger, Director of Jobs in Childcare commented that chess-related job posts have become more common on the site. We have certainly noted a number of clients seeking candidates who can play chess. Its making a comeback!

To find out more, you can view the original job post here:

About the company:

Jobs in Childcare offers jobs to enable nannies, governesses, early years specialists, child carers, and even teachers and tutors to search for a wide range of vacancies suitable for them across the globe.

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Enjoyed the Queen's Gambit? Now you can make 250/hour as a VIP chess and maths tutor in Knightsbridge - Journalism.co.uk

Is Ukraine about to join the open banking race? – Lexology

On 12 November 2020, the Ukrainian Parliament published a draft payment services law (available in Ukrainian), that was prepared with the Ukrainian central bank (NBU). Among other things, the draft law would implement a regulatory framework for open banking similar to the EUs PSD2 (Directive 2015/2366). PSD2 requires banks to share data from their clients payment accounts free of charge with third party providers (TPPs) without any underlying commercial agreement thereby allowing TPPs to offer new payment services to consumers.

Paul Rohan, in his book PSD2 in Plain English has suggested that in practical terms, open banking requires banks to build and publish an Application Programming Interface (API). An API permits a piece of software to read data from the system of the API publisher (in this case, a bank). Therefore, to comply with PSD2, a bank will publish an API, similar to publishing a website, and disclose relevant payment account data to all eligible TPPs.

Is the API economy an entirely new phenomenon in Ukraine?

Publication of APIs was not invented by the authors of PSD2; they were in use before the adoption of PSD2. For instance, many Ukrainian banks publish their own APIs to enable collaboration with the API developers community. In fact, according to one of the largest Ukrainian banks, it was the first bank globally to make a public API available for developers in September 2009, that is used today by approximately 5,000 API developers and clients in both Ukraine and abroad. Moreover, a number of banks publish a partner API, which is available to partner companies to facilitate commercial projects. In Paul Rohans view, a partner API is a stepping stone for a bank to offer a public API.

But the key difference between then and now is that before PSD2, the sharing of account data (i.e., publishing APIs) was not mandatory. In Ukraine, this particular aspect of PSD2 was the subject of much debate and controversy between the NBU and market participants. It was not clear until the publication of the draft law last November whether this requirement would be included in the text as opposed to a discretionary option.

It now looks like the Ukraine is to join those countries wanting to boost their digital economies by way of regulatory intervention Article 54 of the draft law makes it mandatory for banks to share data with TPPs. As result, the Ukraine will join those jurisdictions pursuing the regulatory intervention path. In particular, it may be allocated to a subgroup of countries (e.g., Albania and Northern Macedonia) that implement PSD2 under their existing association agreements with the EU and its Member States. Another group of jurisdictions have non-regulatory initiatives coordinated by market participants without the intervention of the state (e.g. USA, Nigeria etc.). The chart below shows the dynamics in this space, however, as this is a dynamic scenario new jurisdictions may appear on this map as we speak.

Standardization of APIs

It is curious that Paul Rohan compares APIs with an electricity wall socket, which is an interface with an electricity supply, with predictable patterns of opening in the wall sockets, so producers of electric appliances know what to expect. Likewise, APIs are useful in this context because it is not straightforward to pull data from a third party system (i.e., from banks numerous information systems). A standard API can make the operation of a TPP easier in the sense that it need not worry about how to access data, but rather focus on building the service it offers to the consumer. In other words, API developers should know what to expect, in terms of API features, when developing software and avoid reinventing the wheel each time they want to obtain data from a particular bank.

PSD2 itself did not address this issue. Rather, it instructed the European Banking Authority to develop the requirements for common and secure open standards of communication (RTSs), i.e., only technical framework conditions with no interface standard. To help fill this gap of a common standard, a number of market initiatives have emerged in EU, including a group of European banks and payment service providers, the Berlin Group, whose API framework is called NextGenPSD2. Similarly, the draft Ukrainian law envisages that the NBU will adopt data security and communication requirements concerning end users, banks and TPPs when accessing consumers accounts. Apparently, the question of an API standard is about to emerge.

The NBU have indicated that (i) the open banking launch may be feasible in Ukraine in 2022 and (ii) that it would launch a market stakeholders working group shortly to consult on the issue of API standardization. It seems that one of the options to move this initiative forward might be to leverage existing market experience of tech savvy banks in developing an API economy.

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Is Ukraine about to join the open banking race? - Lexology

The ‘Wagner Affair’ in Belarus and Its Implications for Ukraine – Jamestown – The Jamestown Foundation

At the end of last year, former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (June 2014May 2019) announced in an interview that, back in 2018, he had initiated a special operation to detain mercenaries belonging to the notorious Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner Group (News.ru, December 31, 2020)a shadowy paramilitary outfit allegedly culpable in war crimes committed in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and Sub-Saharan Africa. Poroshenko additionally accused Ukraines current ruling elites of sabotaging the operation last summer and promised to pursue the matter until all traitors have been punished. This highly controversial episode established a dangerous new precedent with potentially far-reaching repercussions for Ukraine.

The story Poroshenko was referring to first came to light on July 29, 2020, when Belarusian law enforcement detained 33 men near Minsk (Tut.by August 7, 2020). The local authorities claimed that the groupapparently all Wagner mercenariesarrived in Belarus to take part in igniting mass anti-governmental provocations ahead of the approaching presidential elections (August 9, with early voting August 48). Despite the seriousness of the accusations and vigorous protestation of the Ukrainian government, which demanded the arrested individuals extradition, almost all members of the group were soon sent back to Russia. In time, however, the story developed further, revealing new details and stunning claims. Specifically, Ukrainian sources alleged that the detention of the Wagner militants in Belarus was, in effect, part of a failed special operation that sought to trick the mercenaries into arriving in Kyiv, where the group was to have been apprehended and brought to justice (News.ru, October 12, 2020). According to Ukraine, at least 9 out of the 33 men were Ukrainian citizens, and all of them allegedly took part in hostilities in southeastern Ukraine. Kyiv accused some of them of, among other crimes, shooting down (on July 17, 2014) Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which resulted in 298 fatalities. Interestingly, while official Russian information sources either remained silent or shrugged off these charges, one Russian conservative writer who had himself volunteered to fight in Ukraine, Zakhar Prilepin, openly admitted that there are two or three fighters [among the detained Wagner members] from my battalion (Ura.news, July 29, 2020).

The incident triggered an acute political fracas inside Ukraine, particularly after Minsk handed 32 of the mercenaries (one had Belarusian citizenship) over to Moscow on August 14. Rival Ukrainian political factions began to accuse one another of treason and/or of spreading disinformation. Two main claims emerged from this infighting in Kyiv.

According to the firstprimarily expressed by representatives of the current Ukrainian ruling elitethe entire narrative regarding the detention of the Wagner members in Belarus was nothing more than Russian disinformation aimed at compromising Ukraine. Denying the basis of the story entirely, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy harshly criticized those who spread disinformation [] about some sort of a special operation (NV, January 5). Zelenskyys statement echoed earlier disavowals by Andriy Yermak, the head of the Presidential Administration, who, in mid-August, suggested that the failed Wagner kidnap theory had been concocted by forces within Ukraine eager to derail the ceasefire in the Donbas region. Likewise, Kirill Budanov, the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (HUR MOU), claimed that no special operation was taking place since it would have been impossible to trick Wagner fighters to come to Belarus without Russias knowledge (NV, August 19, 2020).

This refutation, however, met with staunch opposition from a number of authoritative Ukrainian and foreign experts. For instance, Christo Grozev, of the open-source investigative team Bellingcat, contended that, according to unearthed evidence, the Ukrainian intelligence services came up with a brilliant plan to upstage Russian military intelligence, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Wagner Group, but that this plan was derailed by the Ukrainian authorities. In his comment, Grozev characterized the alleged actions of the Ukrainian ruling circles as either treason or [driven by] political fear (Censor.net, December 22, 2020).

An even harsher assessment came from a renowned military journalist and the editor-in-chief of the information outlet Censor.net, Yurii Butusov, who de facto openly accused members of the Presidential Administration (Andriy Yermak and others) of treasonous behavior and sabotaging a special operation as a means to avoid tensions with Moscow (NV, August 19, 2020). Butusov claimed that Yermak is not the only person keenly interested in normalizing Russian ties, whatever the cost might be. According to the Censor.net editor, the National Security and Defense Councils First Deputy Secretary Ruslan Demchenkoa political figure tolerated by Poroshenko and promoted by Zelenskyyhas been playing a largely destructive role, remaining a direct threat to Ukrainian national security. With these remarks, Butusov implicitly accused Zelenskyy (not just his inner circle) of treachery against the state (Censor.net, August 18, 2020).

That said, the publicly available information on the purported foiled special operation lacks key details needed to confirm it; although some more recent developments have raised additional suspicions. For example, following the outbreak of the scandal, Zelenskyy without explanation denied a motion of the then-head of the HUR MOU, Vasyl Burbareportedly, in charge of the special operationto administer polygraph tests to Yermak and others who claimed knowledge of the failed Wagner capture scheme. On top of that, Burba was fired soon afterwards by presidential decree. Similarly, according to some Ukrainian sources, the aforementioned special operation collapsed due to the fact that the date of the final stage was changed by Zelenskyy, which allowed the Belarusian special cervices to apprehend the mercenaries on their territory to later hand them over to Moscow (Plus.obozrevatel.com, October 11, 2020).

Irrespective of whether the reported failed special operation is true or not, the scandal carries serious consequences. With respect to Belarus, this incidentas well as post-election domestic developments in generalclearly demonstrated the extent of President Alyaksandr Lukashenkas current dependency on Russia. Yet it is Ukraine that has attracted most of the negative consequences of the Wagner fighters arrest just outside Minsk. Specifically, the affair spotlighted two important issues. First, the dueling charges and denials underscored the intolerably high level of internal division within Ukraines ruling elite, where conflicting factions are eager to use all means necessaryeven reveal purported state secretsto hurt their opponents, with little consideration of the repercussions for national security. Second, if the alleged special operation was, indeed, derailed because of treasonous actions of some policymakers (as certain experts have argued), then this shows that Moscows penetration of the statewhich facilitated Russias hybrid annexation of Crimea and separatist war in southeastern Ukrainehas still not been effectively dealt with by Ukrainian counter-intelligence since 2014.

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The 'Wagner Affair' in Belarus and Its Implications for Ukraine - Jamestown - The Jamestown Foundation

Council for development of secondary education to be established in Ukraine Zelensky – Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that the Council for the Development of General Secondary Education will be established in Ukraine.

He said this during the forum "Education of Ukraine 2021: Strategic Goals and Priorities", an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"A decree on the establishment of the Presidential Council for the Development of General Secondary Education will be published today," Zelensky said.

He told educators that the Ukrainian education would have a "reliable ally and lobbyist" in his person.

The President also assured that the construction of modern schools in all regions of Ukraine would be continued.

According to him, every Ukrainian school, either in a city or in a small village, should have a modern material and technical base, quality meals, Internet access, infrastructure for sports and inclusive education.

The partnership forum "Education of Ukraine 2021: Strategic Goals and Priorities" kicked off in Kyiv on February 9. The purpose of the event is to determine the strategic goals of education development during the administrative and territorial reform and decentralization of power in Ukraine, to discuss a wide range of topical issues of reforming the industry.

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Council for development of secondary education to be established in Ukraine Zelensky - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news