Mediaboss Marketing

The National Sheep Association (NSA) has responded to the vote in the House of Commons on a Lords amendment to the Agriculture Bill that would force future trade deals to meet UK animal welfare and food safety rules.

The vote which saw MPs reject the amendment with 332 votes to 279 will potentially allow food products with lower standards than that produced in the UK to be accepted into the country once new trade deals are secured following the UKs departure from the EU.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said:

This amendment provided opportunity to uphold and protect our animal welfare standards, some of the highest in the world.

With this being rejected by MPs last night there is now the very real risk, despite governments assurances, that the UKs standards that our nations farmers are proud to work to, could be undermined by lower standard imports.

The government may have already given a verbal commitment to farmers and consumers that the current high UK standards will not be threatened by imported goods.

However, even if this commitment is upheld it comes from the current government only and therefore is for the present Parliamentary term; four years down the line there is a risk this commitment could be lost and the UK farming sector could be left to fight this battle again.

Farming Minister George Eustice last week stated that the amendment was unnecessary and would be opposed by ministers as it could cause technical issues and disrupt existing trade deals with countries such as South America that already bring small amounts of product into the UK.

Stocker continued:

Any suggestion by the government that importing just relatively small quantities of lower standard products is worth it in order to safeguard other trade flies in the face of the UKs stated aim to see animal welfare standards increase across the world.

We simply will not achieve this if we allow our markets to support standards we wouldnt find acceptable here.

We sincerely hope the British public will get behind the countrys farmers more than ever now in supporting their hard work producing the highest quality, good value farm produce whilst caring for their livestock and upholding animal welfare standards at all times.

As we leave the EU and further trade deals are secured it will be more important than ever to support UK agriculture and buy British to be assured of food traceability and quality.

NSA Scottish Region chairman Jen Craig added:

It is incredibly disappointing that the UK government has voted against the amendment to ensure imports to the UK are produced to the same standard as our own.

However, we should not allow this vote to undermine what we do in the UK. We will continue to be world leaders in animal health and welfare whilst producing food to the highest of standards.

This allows our consumers to have the utmost trust and confidence that when they buy Scottish and British food, they can have pride in knowing where it has come from and that it is safe.

RELATED STORIES

Here is the original post:
Agriculture Bill rejection leaves a 'real risk' to UK animal welfare standards - NSA - Agriland.co.uk

Forbes and Walker Tea Brokers said National average for the month of September 2020 totalled Rs. 619.33 ($3.38) vis--vis Rs. 618.32 of August 2020, showing a marginal increase of Rs. 01.01 month on month.

However, in comparison to the September 2019 average of Rs. 511.31 (USD 2.84), shows a significant increase of Rs. 108.02 ($ 0.48) YOY. This was due to the sharp decline in the tea crop.

In terms of respective elevational averages for September 2020 High Growns, totalling Rs. 555.98 ($ 3.03) has recorded a decrease of Rs. 16.40 month on month vis--vis Rs. 572.38 of August 2020. When compared to September 2019 average of Rs. 458.55 ($ 2.55), a fairly significant increase of Rs. 97.43 is recorded YOY.

Mediums, averaging Rs. 538.04 ($ 2.93) for September 2020, have recorded a decrease of Rs. 25.74 vis--vis Rs. 563.78 of August 2020. When compared to September 2019 average of Rs. 436.55 ($ 2.42), shows a substantial increase of Rs. 101.49 YOY.

Low Growns, totalling Rs. 661.61 ($ 3.61) for September 2020, recorded a marginal decrease of Rs. 03.26 vis--vis Rs. 664.87 of August 2020.

Forbes said the average shows a significant increase of Rs. 117.68 YOY when compared to Rs. 543.93 ($ 3.02) of September 2019.

During January-September 2020 cumulative national average of Rs. 623.49 ($ 3.39), an increase of Rs. 81.61 ($ 0.34) is recorded vis--vis Rs. 541.88 ($ 3.06) of January-September 2019.

High Growns for the period January-September 2020 of Rs. 565.11 ($ 3.08) have shown an increase of Rs. 58.29 vis--vis Rs. 506.82 ($ 2.86) of January-September 2019. Mediums averaging Rs. 546.91 ($ 2.98) have shown an increase of Rs. 78.25 vis--vis Rs. 468.66 ($ 2.64) of January-September 2019. Meanwhile, Low Growns totalling Rs. 665.81 ($ 3.63) for January-September 2020 have shown the highest increase of Rs. 92.84 vis--vis Rs. 572.97 ($ 3.23) of January-September 2019.

Continued here:
Poor crop boosts year on year NSA in Sept. by Rs. 108 per kilo - ft.lk

The headlines arent always kind to the National Security Agency, a spy agency that operates almost entirely in the shadows. But a year ago, the NSA launched its new Cybersecurity Directorate, which in the past year has emerged as one of the more visible divisions of the spy agency.

At its core, the directorate focuses on defending and securing critical national security systems that the government uses for its sensitive and classified communications. But the directorate has become best known for sharing some of the more emerging, large-scale cyber threats from foreign hackers. In the past year the directorate has warned against attacks targeting secure boot features in most modern computers, and doxxed a malware operation linked to Russian intelligence. By going public, NSA aims to make it harder for foreign hackers to reuse their tools and techniques, while helping to defend critical systems at home.

But six months after the directorate started its work, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and large swathes of the world and the U.S. went into lockdown, prompting hackers to shift gears and change tactics.

The threat landscape has changed, Anne Neuberger, NSAs director of cybersecurity, told TechCrunch at Disrupt 2020. Weve moved to telework, we move to new infrastructure, and weve watched cyber adversaries move to take advantage of that as well, she said.

Publicly, the NSA advised on which videoconferencing and collaboration software was secure, and warned about the risks associated with virtual private networks, of which usage boomed after lockdowns began.

But behind the scenes, the NSA is working with federal partners to help protect the efforts to produce and distribute a vaccine for COVID-19, a feat that the U.S. government called Operation Warp Speed. News of NSAs involvement in the operation was first reported by Cyberscoop. As the world races to develop a working COVID-19 vaccine, which experts say is the only long-term way to end the pandemic, NSA and its U.K. and Canadian partners went public with another Russian intelligence operation aimed at targeting COVID-19 research.

Were part of a partnership across the U.S. government, we each have different roles, said Neuberger. The role we play as part of Team America for Cyber is working to understand foreign actors, who are they, who are seeking to steal COVID-19 vaccine information or more importantly, disrupt vaccine information or shake confidence in a given vaccine.

Neuberger said that protecting the pharma companies developing a vaccine is just one part of the massive supply chain operation that goes into getting a vaccine out to millions of Americans. Ensuring the cybersecurity of the government agencies tasked with approving a vaccine is also a top priority.

Here are more takeaways from the talk, and you can watch the interview in full (embedded above).

TikTok is just days away from an app store ban, after the Trump administration earlier this year accused the Chinese-owned company of posing a threat to national security. But the government has been less than forthcoming about what specific risks the video sharing app poses, only alleging that the app could be compelled to spy for China. Beijing has long been accused of cyberattacks against the U.S., including the massive breach of classified government employee files from the Office of Personnel Management in 2014.

Neuberger said that the scope and scale of TikToks apps data collection makes it easier for Chinese spies to answer all kinds of different intelligence questions on U.S. nationals. Neuberger conceded that U.S. tech companies like Facebook and Google also collect large amounts of user data. But that there are greater concerns on how [China] in particular could use all that information collected against populations other than its own, she said.

The NSA is trying to be more open about the vulnerabilities it finds and discloses, Neuberger said. She told TechCrunch that the agency has shared a number of vulnerabilities with private companies this year, but those companies did not want to give attribution.

One exception was earlier this year when Microsoft confirmed NSA had found and privately reported a major cryptographic flaw in Windows 10, which could have allowed hackers to run malware masquerading as a legitimate file. The bug was so dangerous that NSA reported the vulnerability to Microsoft, which patched the bug.

Only two years earlier, the spy agency was criticized for finding and using a Windows vulnerability to conduct surveillance instead of alerting Microsoft to the flaw. The exploit was later leaked and was used to infect thousands of computers with the WannaCry ransomware, causing millions of dollars worth of damage.

As a spy agency, NSA exploits flaws and vulnerabilities in software to gather intelligence on the enemy. It has to run through a process called the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, which allows the government to retain bugs that it can use for spying.

Read the rest here:
How the NSA is disrupting foreign hackers targeting COVID-19 vaccine research - TechCrunch

Two states, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, accounted for most of the detentions under the National Security Act in 2017 and 2018. 66% or two-third of NSA detentions were in MP and 28% in UP. For these two states, these are worrying statistics. NSA allows preventive detention without trial for up to two years and several cases of misuse of this law have cropped up in these two states.

The most high profile case in recent times was Kafeel Khans detention for over six months just after he secured bail in a criminal case lodged against him. Similar instances of using NSA to keep people behind bars have also been reported in cow slaughter cases to prevent the accused from stepping out of prison after securing bail. Recently UP has mulled using NSA even in rape and murder cases.

Preventive detention laws like NSA are laws of last resort to detain those whom the state suspects are on the verge of breaching law and order. However, concerns about preventive detention militating against civil liberties makes it a grey area. This demands that states use this law sparingly. It is a good sign that most states in India havent followed the MP and UP example. Delhi, for instance, hasnt detained anyone under NSA even once in the past five years. UP and MP must review the tendency to invoke NSA frequently.

More here:
What makes MP and UP invoke the National Security Act so often? - The Times of India Blog

Wells Fargo analyst Todd Stender maintained a Buy rating on National Storage Affiliates (NSA) yesterday. The companys shares closed last Monday at $33.97.

According to TipRanks.com, Stender is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 5.3% and a 57.3% success rate. Stender covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as Lexington Realty, Store Capital, and NETSTREIT.

The word on The Street in general, suggests a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating for National Storage Affiliates with a $33.60 average price target.

See todays analyst top recommended stocks >>

National Storage Affiliates market cap is currently $2.36B and has a P/E ratio of 264.30. The company has a Price to Book ratio of 3.61.

TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.

National Storage Affiliates Trust operates as a real estate investment trust. It focuses on the ownership, operation, and acquisition of self-storage properties located within the metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. The company was founded by Arlen D. Nordhagen in April 2013 and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, CO.

Follow this link:
Wells Fargo Reaffirms Their Buy Rating on National Storage Affiliates (NSA) - Smarter Analyst