Thursday 3 March 2022

POLITICO

POLITICO

Satellite firm OneWeb suspends missions using Russian rockets

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 05:16 AM PST

LONDON — Telecommunications firm OneWeb, which is partly owned by the U.K. government, has suspended the use of Russian Soyuz rockets to launch broadband satellites because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, the company’s board voted in favor of suspending 36 broadband satellite launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome base in Kazakhstan, which were planned in collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos. All of the missions were booked onto Russian Soyuz rockets and were due to launch in the coming months, with an upcoming departure on March 5.

In recent days Roscosmos had demanded assurances from OneWeb that the company's satellites would not be used for military purposes, and asked the U.K. government, which holds a £400 million stake in the company, to divest. Roscosmos said unless these demands were fulfilled, the space agency would not go ahead with the launches.

Space is an area of intense international cooperation, and the move will leave Moscow isolated in a sector that has historically been one of Russia's biggest sources of national pride. OneWeb is now engaging with French rocket manufacturer Arianespace on new rockets for future launches, according to a U.K. official.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the U.K.'s secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, pre-empted that Roscosmos' demands would not be met, tweeting Wednesday there would be "no negotiation" on OneWeb. "The U.K. government is not selling its share," he wrote. "We are in touch with other shareholders to discuss next steps."

On Thursday, Kwarteng welcomed OneWeb's vote. "In light of Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we are reviewing our participation in all further projects involving Russian collaboration," he said.

According to Russian news agency TASS, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said the OneWeb contract had been paid in full and the funds would not be returned. Darren Jones, the House of Commons business committee chair, has written to the U.K. government asking if OneWeb already made payments to the Russian space agency for the planned launches, and whether these would be subject to sanctions legislation.

Netflix halts all Russian productions after public outrage

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 04:50 AM PST

U.S streaming giant Netflix has put an immediate "pause" on its involvement in the Russian TV and film market in the face of growing public pressure to dial down its presence in the country.

A person close to Netflix confirmed to POLITICO on Thursday that the company has "paused all future projects and acquisitions from Russia" while the company continues to assess the "impact" from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In practice, the decision means that the four Russian-language series that had been in either production or post-production will now be discontinued until further notice.

This includes the series “Anna K” and “Nothing Special,” which finished filming in December last year and have since been in post-production. Filming on the series “Zato,” created by Belarusian filmmaker Darya Zhuk, has been put on hold, as has another series called “Untitled.”

The move comes after the company publicly confirmed on Monday that it would not abide by Russia's so-called Vitrina TV law. The rules, which would have applied to Netflix from March 1, force “audiovisual” firms to carry at least 20 state-supported channels, including the Kremlin-linked Channel One, whose board comprises certain Vladimir Putin insiders — including the president's top spy chief Sergey Naryshkin and Alexey Gromov, Putin's first deputy chief of staff.

Ahead of Netflix's decision to defy the rules, there had been an outburst of public outrage online at the company's reticence in committing to adopt a coherent stance on Russia amid Russian forces’ continuing advances into Ukraine. On Twitter, the hashtags #netflixstopsupportingrussia and #CancelNetflix had attracted thousands of retweets. Users posted screenshots of their interactions with Netflix's customer service team, with the U.S streaming firm saying that it wanted to adopt a "nonpartisan" position. 

Netflix has in the past invested in the Russian market as part of local partnerships, for example with the country's National Media Group (NMG), in a move that had been praised as a "game-changer" that would "set new standards for foreign streaming services in Russia."  

Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, has not yet responded to POLITICO's request for comment. It remains unclear whether Netflix will face government retaliation for its defiance of the country's audiovisual rules.  

Netflix's opposition to Russia's attempts to use it as a platform for carrying state-supported content has, however, been applauded by some Western politicians.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton spoke with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Tuesday and praised the firm's decision to refuse to carry the 20 state channels after fears had surfaced that the platform would be used as a springboard for the dissemination of Kremlin-linked disinformation.

"Media regulators, telecoms operators, streaming services, online platforms — everyone needs to play its role in countering the Kremlin's war propaganda," Breton said, following the meeting with Hastings.

This article is part of POLITICO's premium Tech policy coverage: Pro Technology. Our expert journalism and suite of policy intelligence tools allow you to seamlessly search, track and understand the developments and stakeholders shaping EU Tech policy and driving decisions impacting your industry. Email pro@politico.eu with the code 'TECH' for a complimentary trial.

Macron to announce re-election bid Thursday: French media

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 04:33 AM PST

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will announce that he is seeking a second term in a letter to be published online on Thursday evening and in regional newspapers the next day, according to multiple media reports.

Macron’s announcement that he will be a candidate in April’s presidential election has been widely expected but the French president had kept the country guessing about its precise timing.

Franceinfo first reported that Macron would make the announcement via the regional press on Friday. News agency AFP reported the letter would be published online Thursday evening.


For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

Macron enjoys a comfortable lead in the campaign, which has been upended by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The conflict has damaged the chances of many of his rivals, due to past Russia-friendly policies and statements.

Presidential candidates have until Friday evening to inform the French Constitutional Council that they are planning to run in the election, whose first round will take place on April 10.

Scottish government drops flag logo over Russian resemblance

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 03:47 AM PST

The Scottish government has dropped a logo based on the national flag from all communications because of its close resemblance to the Russian naval flag.

The logo reverses the colors of Scotland’s Saltire flag, producing a blue cross on a white background. It has been “urgently” retired, senior staff were told in an email seen by POLITICO, and should not be used “under any circumstances.”

It will also be removed from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s COVID briefing backdrop, the Times reported.

A spokeswoman said: "The white with blue Saltire version of the Scottish government logo is part of the organization's approved branding toolkit” but will no longer be used "given the situation in Ukraine.”

The Russian navy ensign, also known as the St Andrew's flag, was first used in the early 18th century and was revived to represent the navy of the Russian Federation in 1992. St Andrew is the patron saint of both Scotland and Russia.

NHS Scotland has sent medical supplies to Ukraine, while Sturgeon has called on the U.K. government to follow the example of Ireland and waive visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals.

This article has been updated.

Le Pen’s niece reportedly joins far-right rival Zemmour

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 03:42 AM PST

Marion Maréchal, an influential voice in the French far right and the niece of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, is reportedly joining her aunt’s nemesis Eric Zemmour to support his own bid for the country’s highest office.

The 32-year-old former MP took a slight step back from politics in 2017, and has long been rumored to consider the move. “Consistency, his vision and strategy mean that I lean toward Eric Zemmour,” she told Le Figaro back in January. “But there’s a family matter.”

The matter has been solved, it appears. According to Le Figaro, Maréchal is planning to get up on stage with Zemmour on Sunday, a month before the first round of France’s presidential election.

During her political hiatus, Marechal directed a small political science school she founded for “conservative” students, and has taken many steps to distance herself from her aunt. She notably cut “Le Pen” from her then-hyphenated family name in 2018.

The granddaughter of far-right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen is closer to the identitarian faction of the National Rally, which has had the biggest share of defections to the Zemmour camp. The former pundit, who has been twice convicted of hate speech, is obsessively running on a radical anti-immigration platform. Even if Marine Le Pen is still defending hard-line anti-immigration propositions, she has been attempting to distance herself from her party’s identitarian and xenophobic reputation.


For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

“Personally, it saddens me, and politically, it plunges me into abysmal confusion, [because] I’m the only one who can win against Emmanuel Macron,” Le Pen said on Tuesday, as rumors about her niece’s move were growing.

Maréchal’s upcoming announcement could give Zemmour a boost while past outspoken admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin is coming back to haunt him. Since Russia has launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zemmour has lost one percent in POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, moving down to 14 percent. Marine Le Pen has remained around 17 percent.

Ombudsman investigates ‘revolving doors’ at ECB after senior economist leaves for US bank

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 03:13 AM PST

The European Ombudsman has opened a case into "revolving doors" at the European Central Bank, after POLITICO revealed a senior economist's speedy move to a U.S. investment bank had prompted questions on timing and access.

Jens Eisenschmidt, a lead economist in the monetary policy division at the ECB until January, made an explicit policy call in a February note to clients in his new position at Morgan Stanley — raising the question of how long a "cooling off" period he had.

The EU Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has now opened a case as part of broader effort to shore up the rules for senior EU staff heading for jobs in the private sector.

"I have now decided to inquire into the ECB's policies and practices in this area," O'Reilly said in a letter to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, sent Tuesday and made public Thursday.

“My inquiry will include a recent case as regards a former ECB 'senior economist', who took up employment with a US investment bank,” she wrote. “The former ECB staff member's new job relates to his previous area of work at the ECB.”

Without naming him explicitly, the Ombudsman requested that the ECB share any documents on Eisenschmidt’s move, including any steps the central bank took to limit conflicts of interest.

O'Reilly also wants statistics on senior staff who have left the ECB for jobs outside the EU public sector over the last two years, as well as more information on the ECB's internal policies to tackle revolving doors.

The European Banking Authority, the EU’s banking regulator, has previously come under fire from the Ombudsman for allowing its executive director to join a financial lobbying association.

Dutch minister wants limits on RT, Sputnik ban to prevent precedent

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 01:04 AM PST

A top Dutch official warned that the EU’s ban of Kremlin-linked news outlets RT and Sputnik must come with safeguards — reflecting some rumblings over whether the exceptional measure might set a stifling precedent.

In an interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, Dutch Digital Minister Alexandra van Huffelen said that while she fully supported cracking down on Russian state propaganda, the EU ban should be temporary and regularly reviewed. 

"We should try to keep it as short as possible and as long as necessary," said van Huffelen. "It should be the one very, very exception because there is a war."

A few days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to bar RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and Sputnik, EU countries on Tuesday approved sanctions doing just that. The legal texts were published shortly afterward, effectively providing national regulators the grounds to take both Russian state-run organizations off the air and offline within the bloc. 

The EU took the highly unusual move to cut off both channels — described in the West as tools of Moscow's propaganda machine — amid a massive information war unfolding over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where civilian casualties are rising.

While the 27 EU governments unanimously backed the measure, three EU diplomats said the initiative had stirred some worries from a handful of countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

"Some member states raised concerns regarding media freedom or possible counter-measures against EU journalists working in Russia," said one of the diplomats. "But in the end, no one wanted to defend a Russian propaganda tool."

Politicians, legal and media experts, as well as journalist associations, have similarly raised questions about the legal and political impact of the unprecedented prohibition.

Van Huffelen said it would be important to review the sanctions "over the coming days and weeks."

The legal text of the sanctions states that the Russian outlet’s banishment "should be maintained until the aggression against Ukraine is put to an end, and until the Russian Federation, and its associated media outlets, cease to conduct propaganda actions against the Union and its Member States." 

The Dutch politician cautioned that Russian-state disinformation campaigns would carry on, despite the measures. 

"We know that there's all kinds of platforms, Russian bots and so on trying to mis- and disinform people,” she said. “So this will probably not stop just with what we’re doing right now. We have to review that as well and to see how this plays out.”

On Sunday, Facebook announced it had removed organized disinformation campaigns from Russian state actors and hackers using fake accounts. 

Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland last week urged online platforms to ban RT, Sputnik and other outlets including Rossija and Rossija 24. They also called on social media companies to adjust their algorithms to promote trustworthy news.

Moving forward, van Huffelen said it was "urgent" to finalize the EU's revamped charter on disinformation. The voluntary pledge — which could become binding when the EU’s content bill, the Digital Services Act, comes into force — would make social media behemoths like TikTok, Facebook and Google commit to making changes, including altering their algorithms to remove online falsehoods, offering more data to both users and outside researchers and limiting the micro-targeting of ads.

The European Commission, social media and messaging services, advertising lobbies, NGOs and fact-checkers are currently negotiating a new version of the code, expected by the end of March.

Laura Kayali contributed reporting.

This article has been updated to reflect the intent of Dutch Digital Minister Alexandra van Huffelen’s comments.

This article is part of POLITICO's premium Tech policy coverage: Pro Technology. Our expert journalism and suite of policy intelligence tools allow you to seamlessly search, track and understand the developments and stakeholders shaping EU Tech policy and driving decisions impacting your industry. Email pro@politico.eu with the code 'TECH' for a complimentary trial.

UK to block Russian aerospace companies from its insurance sector

Posted: 03 Mar 2022 12:20 AM PST

The U.K. government Thursday announced that it would bring further sanctions preventing Russian aviation and space industry companies to get access to the British insurance sector.

Russian aerospace companies will be prevented from making use of U.K-based insurance, the country’s government announced as a response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. In a statement, the Treasury said that these new economic sanctions “will limit the benefits Russian entities receive from their access to the global insurance and reinsurance market.”

The British government will come up with legislation to prohibit insurance and reinsurance providers from “undertaking financial transactions connected with a Russian entity or for use in Russia,” with further details on the legislation coming “in due course.”

This announcement comes a few days after the U.K. targeted Russian banks, oligarchs and exports, and banned all Aeroflot planes from landing in the country. The move aims at further isolating Russia from the international financial system, especially given the U.K.’s significant share in the global insurance market.

International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Ukraine

Posted: 02 Mar 2022 10:31 PM PST

The International Criminal Court will "immediately proceed" with an investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Ukraine, the court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced in a statement Wednesday.

The move comes after 39 countries — including France, Italy, Poland, Canada and the United Kingdom — referred the case to the court. "Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced," Khan said in his statement.

Khan's predecessor completed a preliminary examination in December 2020, concluding that there was a "reasonable basis" to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed since the early days of Ukraine's 2014 revolution. But she cited "capacity constraint," "overextended resources" and the COVID-19 pandemic as obstacles to proceeding with a formal investigation.

Khan said he was seeking "the partnership and contributions of all States in order to address our need for additional resources" for the court's work.

Human rights groups have been collecting evidence of what they say are apparent war crimes by Russian military forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week.  "We're now seeing attacks on civilian objects much outside the Donbas region," said Marie Struthers on Monday, director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, referring to the eastern part of Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the government since 2014.

Unlocking the potential of digital health

Posted: 02 Mar 2022 08:00 PM PST

Dr Shibeshih Belachew, head of science, Biogen Digital Health | Via Biogen

Over the past few decades, the health care sector has witnessed groundbreaking digital advancements at all stages of patient care, from R&D to diagnosis and treatment, triggering a radical shift in the way we think of and deliver health care. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated this process, leading to the acknowledgement that digital solutions are essential for patients and health care systems.

Dr Shibeshih Belachew, head of science at Biogen Digital Health, part of Biogen, the biotech company pioneering breakthroughs in neuroscience for over 40 years, explores how bringing together biology and technology can improve our understanding of neurological diseases. Digital health has immense potential to enable more prevention-focused, personalized care and deepen our understanding of diseases to improve care for people living with neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. 

The health care industry overall is transforming with the direct and indirect effect of technological innovation

Digital technologies are transforming Europe's health sector and it is essential to align and advance policies to unlock transformative digital innovation in the health care space.

Q: What are the key trends in digital health?

A: The health care industry overall is transforming with the direct and indirect effect of technological innovation. For example, we are witnessing a rise in health care that relates to people's lives, with increased personalization, customer-orientation, and data-driven, mobile and remote care. We also see that the health care ecosystem overall is reshaping, in the context of global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and that non-traditional entrants including tech players are emerging and revolutionizing health care, from R&D to patient experience. Third, we are experiencing unprecedented breakthroughs in computational automation and device technology, for example, with machine learning and artificial neural networks, virtual reality solutions and digital therapeutics, which are changing the face of modern health care.

Q: What can you tell us about evolution of digital technologies — particularly related to neuroscience?

A: Neuroscience is a field of immense unmet medical need, and an area in which Biogen has been pioneering breakthroughs for over 40 years. Neurological diseases are highly complex, devastating and there are significant challenges in how they are understood, with respect to the underpinnings of their paramount heterogeneity. This is due in part to the structural and functional complexity of the human central nervous system. It is also due to the limitations of how, as a society, we currently study, explore and monitor the brain and neurological diseases, by relying largely on subjective and human observation-based information. Let us take Parkinson's disease as one example. Because signs and symptoms for this degenerative nervous system disorder often develop slowly, it can be difficult for physicians to pick up disease progression at an early stage. Typically, neurologists will ask patients to perform motor tasks and walk across their office to observe symptoms of subtle motion slowness or gait difficulties, which hardly provides enough data to be definitive. 

By using quantifiable digital sensor-derived data (also known as digital biomarkers), neurologists can capture months' worth of physiological and behavioral data in minutes

However, by using quantifiable digital sensor-derived data (also known as digital biomarkers), neurologists can capture months' worth of physiological and behavioral data in minutes, highlighting how an individual's gait can develop over time. When combined with AI-enabled pattern detection, neurologists can gain access to a wide array of clinical patient insights — potentially allowing them to spot signs of Parkinson's disease at an earlier stage.   

 Q: What is the role of policymakers in unlocking the power of digital health?

A: True innovation in digital health requires robust evidence generation, often involving large-scale, multi-country, multi-language and sometimes multi-device clinical trials. Biogen believes that optimizing the use and applicability of these digital tools will require an agile, progressive regulatory framework for digital health technologies which may be enabled through the establishment of collaborative models and accompanied by the development of joint guidance by medicine and medical device regulators. Indeed, increasing harmonization of medical device requirements for digital health technologies is essential across different member countries to minimize ambiguity and inconsistency for digital health research. Policymakers and regulators need to ensure that regulatory frameworks are standardized and future looking.
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