India is modifying its 2020 National Cybersecurity Policy to take into account the shift to teleworking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Lt. Gen. (Retd) Rajesh Pant, national cybersecurity coordinator.

Meanwhile, Video Conferencing Firm Acquires Start-Up Encryption Company
Zoom has reached a settlement with the N.Y. attorney general's office to provide better security and privacy controls for its video conferencing platform. Meanwhile, the company announced it's acquiring a start-up encryption company.

We have made some exciting enhancements to the NameStudio API, including the launch of the Online Presence Endpoint (OPE) feature. The OPE feature allows for even more personalized domain name suggestions based on information users choose to share with registrars and resellers about their online presence, such as: Marketplace store and business social media account […]

The post NameStudio® API Enhancement Enables Registrars and Resellers to Drive Domain Name Registrations appeared first on Verisign Blog.

The EU's disease prevention agency says more funds will be needed to shore up surveillance of infectious diseases, which it wants to make less reliant on humans.

A new report from the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) on the implementation of the EU Commission's 2018 code of practice on disinformation reveals "significant weaknesses" linked to the lack of transparency and voluntary approach. ERGA proposes shifting from the current flexible self-regulatory approach to co-regulatory. The code targeted companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.

The EU will insist on progress on fisheries and level-playing fields, in talks with Britain on their future relationship, parallel to the trade deal, Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney said Monday after talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Negotiations have stalled as the UK pushes for sectorial, streamlined agreements, while the EU wants a comprehensive deal. June is the deadline for any extension to the December 2020 exit date.

Chinese spies have targeted Belgian biological warfare experts, vaccine-maker GSK, and other high-tech firms in the country, Belgium's intelligence service suspects.

Romania violated the rights of its former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi when they fired hire. The judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg follows a long catalogue of high-level corruption in Romania.

France will not make a decision on holidays until early June - while Germany is warning against a "race to allow tourism first", and some smaller EU states, such as Greece, Denmark and Austria, are considering allowing foreign holidays.

The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK reached 29,427 Tuesday, surpassing Italy (29,029), to become Europe's worst-struck country and the second-worst globally after the US, while prompting calls for a public enquiry into government handling of the crisis. "I really don't like this league table of who's top and who's not, but there's no denying that these are really serious numbers," Cambridge University expert David Spiegelhalter told The Guardian.

MEPs have voiced concern over the definition of "fossil fuel sectors" used by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) in their consultation paper on technical standards for environmental, social and governance disclosure for financial market participants. "ESA's definition is in striking contradiction with the disclosure and taxonomy regulations, climate science and commonly used definitions," MEPs said in a letter. ESA's paper defines "fossil fuels" as solid fossil fuels only.

Oxford University study says fiscal stimulus for green projects offer higher returns on government spending in the short and long term than traditional incentives on fossil fuels.

The chief of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Wednesday that "the risk of returning to lockdown remains very real if countries do not manage the transition extremely carefully and in a phased approach" during a virtual briefing. Previously, the WHO established a list of conditions to lift restrictive measures in place to stop the spread of coronaviruses, such as surveillance control and healthcare preparedness.

The app would need to be paired with more than 100,000 daily tests in order to have effect. And far more than 60 percent of the population will need to use the app in order for it to be effective.

Doctors and nurses around the world are asking tech giants to correct the record on health misinformation and tweak their algorithms which decide what people get to see on social media platforms.

"The coronavirus has ending blowing up the model of global multilateral governance that has been functioning over the past few years," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a group of reporters on Thursday.

The European Commission is floating plans to beef up the fight against money-laundering, including possibly giving a supervisor role to the European Banking Authority. Yet the authority's board refused to act on a €200bn money-laundering scandal involving Danske Bank.

Support services for victims and witnesses, the police and other relevant authorities are stretched to the limits because of staff shortages, travel restrictions or other demands related to Covid-19.

MEPs said the Czech PM should fully resolve the possible conflict of interest in a company that receives EU funds - or resign.

Polish ruling party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is trying to turn the country into a Roman Catholic dictatorship, Poland's former foreign minister has said.

Estonia is marking 75 years since the end of WW2 on European soil on Friday at a vide-meeting of the UN Security Council, which it currently chairs. The event, which is public and live-streamed, will discuss "lessons learned to prevent future atrocities" and "the responsibility of the Security Council", which has failed to stop egregious war crimes in Syria in recent times. US historian Timothy Snyder will also take part.

70 years later, after decades of comparative peace, todays European Union - perhaps the world's greatest experiment in state integration - finds itself at a crossroads.

Russia wants more respect for its role in defeating the Nazis in World War 2, its EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, says in an op-ed.

India's solar energy installed capacity has swelled from practically nothing to more than 2 GW in the three years since the creation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase 1 (JNNSM). Impressively, costs have come down rapidly (to roughly $0.12/kWh for solar PV, and $0.21/kWh for CSP) to be competitive with grid-connected solar PV in many other regions.

After being shut out of previous renewable energy auctions, and delaying its own auction by two weeks, the state government of Pernambuco held the nation's first solar energy auction on December 27, registering 122.82 MW of energy, six times the country's current entire solar energy output (20 MW). The auction involved 34 bidders proposing roughly 1 GW of capacity; at the end it was narrowed to six companies from Brazil, Italy, Germany, China and Spain. Average price of power finished trading at 228.63 Brazilian reais/MWh (just under U.S. $97), about 9 percent lower than the starting price of R 250.

We here at RenewableEnergyWorld.com value each and every one of our excellent contributors that share their important and thought-provoking insights with our readers. But we have a special affinity for our outstanding blogging community.

Wind and solar power producers say they're at risk of losing investment after the European Union's executive arm scrapped proposals for a mandatory target on renewable energy use in 2030.

Greenpeace issued its annual report on the energy efficiency of Internet companies, praising Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and other major providers of online services for improved use of energy resources.

Research reports and study findings related to hydropower for June 2014

Billionaire Rubens Ometto’s Cosan SA has the potential to triple its power generation by burning sugar-cane leftovers if the government offers power-purchase contracts for biomass producers.

Renewable energy may reap as much as two-thirds of the $7.7 trillion in investment forecast for building new power plants by 2030 as declining costs make it more competitive with fossil fuels.

A government-appointed panel gave Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott two options to cut emissions more cheaply: either scrap or weaken its main clean energy program.

Perspectives: Let's Give Hydropower a Boost

Shinzo Abe’s re-election as prime minister risks undercutting Japan’s commitment to clean energy at a time when incentives are under review and the nation’s utilities say they can’t accommodate capacity already planned.

California’s bet on green energy is paying off, with clean technology companies creating more jobs and investing more money than competitors in any other state.

An Obama administration proposal last month to cut quotas for renewable fuels led to a rout in ethanol credits and handcuffed the industry’s growth, biofuel groups said Thursday.

The European Commission raised concern that the U.K. and France may not meet their 2020 renewable energy targets, saying the two countries should examine whether they’re doing enough to reach the goals.

In West Virginia, where workers have harvested coal seams for centuries, Pope Francis’ new warning about the risks of fossil fuels will find skepticism even among the faithful.

RWE AG, the German utility whose coal-fired plants make it Europe’s largest carbon emitter, officially started the company’s largest renewables project on Thursday: a wind farm in Liverpool Bay off Britain’s coast.

The World Bank has approved US$390 million in additional financing to be used by Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority for extensions of its Tarbela hydroelectric plant.

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