Method

• ESAs publish first set of rules under DORA for ICT and third-party risk management and incident classification
  The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) published today the first set of final draft technical standards under the DORA aimed at enhancing the digital operational resilience of the EU financial sector by strengthening financial entities’ Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and third-party risk management and incident reporting frameworks.
• RTS on ICT risk management framework and on simplified ICT risk management framework
  The draft RTS on ICT risk management framework identify further elements related to ICT risk management with a view to harmonise tools, methods, processes and policies.
• The RTS identify the key elements that financial entities subject to the simplified regime and of lower scale, risk, size and complexity would need to have in place, setting out a simplified ICT risk management framework.
• The RTS ensure the ICT risk management requirements are harmonised among the different financial sectors.

• Young people aged below 30 make up about 77% of the country’s population of 47 million people.
• Opportunities remain limited, with two-thirds of Ugandans working for themselves or doing family-based agricultural work.
• Bobi Wine’s run at the presidency in the 2021 election highlights the reality that capturing the youth vote in Uganda is complex.
• The outcome of the 2021 elections defied expectations, given Uganda’s large and underemployed youth population and the emergence of Bobi Wine.

the structural capture of youth representation in Ugandan politics
diverse economic incentives for political loyalty in the form of loan schemes, grants and short-term employment
well-spun political narratives that draw on entrenched views of youth as beholden to their elders and the state.

New wine, old bottles

• Commentators worldwide suggested his candidacy represented a real and unprecedented threat to Yoweri Museveni’s longstanding rule.
• This is about the same proportion of votes that has accrued to the main opposition candidates in Uganda since multi-party elections resumed in 2006.
• There were also reports of the ruling party dishing out money to potential voters, with instructions to vote for Museveni.
• Contemporary tactics used by the ruling party to co-opt the youth converge with these historically rooted methods of regime consolidation.

Splitting the youth

• First, the youth are organised into a “special interest group” reinforced through quota systems.
• Political structures, such as youth MPs and representatives, absorb youth representation under regime authority and entrench regional divisions.
• Ahead of the 2021 election, Museveni gave state appointments to popular musicians with wide youth appeal who had been working closely with Bobi Wine’s party.
• Youth are often recruited as election workers, special police constables and crime preventers.

What hope for Bobi Wine?

• In northern Uganda, for example, young people have lived through a recent history of devastating conflict and still struggle with its legacies.
• Against this backdrop, if Bobi Wine contests in 2026, he is likely to struggle again.
• Arthur Owor, the director for research and operations at the Centre for African Research, is a co-author of this article.

Rebecca Tapscott receives funding from the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID) and the Gerda Henkel Foundation's Special Programme for Security, Society and the State. Anna Macdonald receives funding from the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID).

• For example, Elon Musk
  has reportedly said he wants humans to merge with AI “to
  achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence”.
• His company Neuralink aims to facilitate this convergence so that humans won’t be “left behind” as technology advances in the future.
• While people with disabilities would be near-term recipients of these innovations, some believe technologies like this could be used to enhance abilities in everyone.

God-like role

• It is not hard to understand why: they could be the central protagonists in the most important moment in history.
• AGI is seen as vital to enabling us to take on the God-like role of designing our own evolutionary futures.

• In the short term, the promises and the perils are probably overstated.
• Meanwhile, AI has played a role in fuelling our polarised political landscape, with disinformation and more complex forms of manipulation made more effective by generative AI.
• Indeed, AI systems are already causing many other forms of social and environmental harm.

A familiar story

• Our misuse of the planet’s resources has set in train a sixth mass extinction of species and a climate crisis.
• In addition, ongoing wars with increasingly potent weapons remain a part of our technological evolution.
• If the human is conceived of as an environmental threat, then enhancement is surely that which redirects its exploitative lifeways.
• That would be preferable to colonising and extending ourselves,
  with great hubris, at the expense of everything, and everyone, else.

Alexander Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Climate change and biodiversity loss are arguably the greatest environmental challenges the world faces.
• The way we use land is crucial in finding solutions to these problems.
• Sometimes when taking these actions, however, carbon storage is prioritised at the expense of biodiversity.

Carbon markets don’t always help nature

• Carbon markets encourage farmers and other land managers to help mitigate climate change, through activities such as planting trees or avoiding land clearing.
• These activities are rewarded with “credits” which can then be sold to buyers wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, such as a polluting company.
• For example, a particular tree species planted to store carbon may not be useful to animals in the area.
• We wanted to know if carbon markets could pay for such work.

What we found

• The scheme, which began in 2006, invited private landholders to tender for ten-year contracts to undertake certain restoration activities.
• Monitoring showed the activities restored some components of the woodland systems – most notably the diversity of native plant species.
• We found the additional carbon stored in the woodlands could pay all, or a substantial proportion, of the price of restoring degraded native vegetation.
• Read more:
  Carbon markets could protect nature and the planet, but only if the rights of those who live there are recognized too

Implications for Australia

• This could be achieved either with separate markets, or markets that include both biodiversity and carbon.
• But using markets for both nature repair and carbon storage will only work if the markets are designed well.
• Read more:
  'Untenable': even companies profiting from Australia's carbon market say the system must change

• Patrick O'Connor has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the South Australian, Victorian, New South Wales and Australian governments including the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust.
• She is a board director of the Nature Conservation Society of SA, and a member of the Ecological Society of Australia, Modern Money Lab and Scientist Rebellion.