Quantum Matters: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Quantum Cybersecurity
With a US inteligence report confirming that President Putin authorised a pro-Trump influence campaign in the latest election, China and the US in a stand-off, and the recklessness of ransomware groups tolerated, and at times abetted, by state actors, geographical risk is at its highest in a long time. See my latest column in The Quantum Daily on how we are skirting the edge. And what steps can be taken to mitigate risk.
An assassination in Sarajevo. The subsequent chain of events ultimately leads to a world war. An estimated 20 million people die.
Green Finance Blossoms
The perfect storm is right now
The world is facing the perfect storm for environmental change. We are at the most exciting time to fight climate disaster in the last four years. The US is set to rejoin the Paris Agreement, China announced it will be carbon neutral in 40 years, and the mid-November Green Horizon Summit hosted by the City of London saw a handful of key regulatory and financial advances.
Despite weather-related catastrophes like wildfires in California and massive flooding in parts of Asia during his term, outgoing President Trump stuck to his early decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Incoming President Biden, instead, affirms his intention to lead a diplomatic initiative to go beyond its current goals of keeping the temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius this century. Sustainability is central to the President-elect’s agenda.
Power to the People
Firstly, many thanks to my dear friend, Alderman, Professor and Sheriff Michael Mainelli for asking me to share some thoughts with you.
INTRODUCTION
Covid-19 and its economic effects are not going away anytime soon. We will be seeing a reconfiguration of our systems, ranging from geopolitical relations to the power of national governments, from company accounts to working patterns.
Some say the new paradigm is but an acceleration of existing trends. I wouldn’t disagree, but there is a point at which acceleration leads us into a new world, one where we must change our outlook. One where the responsibilities of Boards of Directors broaden out into the wider world. THAT is what I will focus on today.
UK General Election 2019
Safeguarding the country
This edition of Karina’s Column is based on an interview with James Arbuthnot, a long-standing Conservative politician who now sits in the House of Lords
With the UK’s momentous General Election a day away, yet another respected career politician is joining the chorus lead by former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair in calling for moderates to vote across parties, be it the Liberal Democrats in some cases, or a “sensible Conservative or a sensible Labour person.”
James Arbuthnot, a Conservative peer whose career encompassed the role of Chief Whip, Minister for Defence Procurement and a decade as Chairman of the influential Defence Select Committee, has a one-word answer when asked if he is still a member of the Party: “No.”
“I cancelled my subscription when Boris Johnson became leader, for two reasons,” he adds. “First, because I didn’t believe the policies the Conservative Party was following over Brexit. And the second because I didn’t have faith or belief or respect for Boris Johnson.”
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator of The Financial Times, argues that a hung Parliament would be the best result of the December 12th election, as it would make the major parties realise the damage arising out of their extreme positions and force them to rediscover their moderate souls.
The lightweight vs the heavyweight
Getting to be a heavyweight boxing champion takes many years of training, a top coach and clear rules of engagement. Talent may well be the least of it.
The UK is sadly bereft of all of these as it bravely makes its way in a world where the boxing ring is riven with cracks and the ropes are frayed and broken. Trade giants of the likes of Peter Sutherland and Pascal Lamy built the global trade structure brick by brick, compromise by comprise, backed most notably and most crucially by the US.
But President Donald Trump’s disdain for traditional allies and alliances extends to the World Trade Organisation and its carefully wrought rules, which are in any case due for modernisation in a services and digital centred world. The application of unilateral tariffs on China, leading to an exchange of tit-for-tat, is not the worst of it. Rather, it is taking the fight outside the ring, as Mr Trump did by pressuring Canada to arrest the CFO of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant, or blackmailing Mexico with a progressive 5% tariff on exports if it did not do more to curb illegal immigrants from Central America.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week held out the exciting prospect of a trade deal with the US in 2020. Here are six home truths on global trade which he might wish to share with the nation.