ReportWire

Tag: europe

  • Why we think we’re in a recession when the data says otherwise | CNN Business

    Why we think we’re in a recession when the data says otherwise | CNN Business

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    It seems like you can’t go anywhere these days without colliding headfirst into another ominous prediction of imminent recession. CEOs, portfolio managers, politicians, news pundits, second cousins and even Cardi B are sounding the alarm: Hear ye! Hear ye! Economic downturn awaits all who dare enter 2023!

    But those predictions contradict the slew of positive economic data we’ve seen: The job market is healthy, wages are growing, Americans are spending and GDP is strong. Business is also good: Companies are largely beating revenue expectations and reporting positive earnings results.

    The Federal Reserve’s regimen of painful interest rate hikes meant to tame persistent inflation could certainly cool the economy — as could events in Eastern Europe and China — but the economy has been able to successfully endure nearly a year of hikes and war in Ukraine with barely a dent.

    It’s possible that recession chatter is just that. Chatter.

    What’s happening: No one would ever accuse investors of shying away from their emotions: Passions run high on trading floors where feelings are often as valid as facts and fear and greed can sometimes run the show. Economists, on the other hand, are a data-dependent, stoic bunch. The US economy is not Wall Street, and market downturns are not recessions — but sometimes they get jumbled together in the public eye and their borders become hazy.

    That appears to be the case: The Fed’s attempts to tamp down sky-high inflation are having an outsized impact on markets — the S&P 500 is down about 18% so far this year — but there has so far been little impact on the US economy as a whole.

    This week, a number of top executives warned of an economic slowdown in 2023. CEOs from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, General Motors, Walmart, United and Union Pacific all said they were making plans for less-profitable times ahead. But hidden behind those “CEO PREDICTS RECESSION” headlines lies a lot of uncertainty.

    Rising interest rates and geopolitical chaos are pointing towards storm clouds on the horizon, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC on Tuesday: “When you look out forward, those things may well derail the economy and cause this mild-to-hard recession that people are worried about.” When pressed to predict what was coming, he deflected. “It could be a hurricane. We simply don’t know,” he said. What was left unsaid was that sunny days are also a possibility.

    Feedback loop: United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby also told CNBC on Tuesday that “we’re probably going to have a mild recession induced by the Fed.” He then went on to say that demand in his industry is higher than ever and United entered the fourth quarter with profit margins near all-time highs. He doesn’t see any indication of a slowdown on the horizon, either.

    So why does he think a recession is coming? “If I didn’t watch CNBC in the morning, the word ‘recession’ wouldn’t be in my vocabulary,” he said. “You just can’t see it in our data.”

    It’s almost as though Kirby predicted recession was imminent because other prominent voices predicted that recession was imminent. And it’s possible that we’re all stuck in a feedback loop that amplifies unjustified fear.

    Prophecies are often self-fulfilling. If CEOs believe recession is coming, they preemptively batten down the hatches — and that means less spending and more layoffs, which in turn can trigger an economic downturn.

    Goldman CEO David Solomon said Tuesday that the bank may soon terminate staff and exercise caution with its financial resources due to the mounting economic uncertainty. Morgan Stanley will reportedly slash its workforce by about 1,600 people, roughly 2% of the total.

    The upside: Some parts of Wall Street seem to be avoiding the recession fervor. ​​A recent study by Goldman Sachs found that smart money is betting on a soft landing. Money managers have been favoring industrial and commodity stocks that are sensitive to economic downturns. Stocks that act as a buffer during economic downturns like consumer staples and utilities have fallen out of favor at investment funds with assets totaling almost $5 trillion, Goldman strategists found.

    “Current sector tilts are consistent with positioning for a soft landing,” they wrote.

    Oil prices have tumbled to their lowest level since Christmas as worries about the health of the economy weigh on crude, overshadowing concerns about new restrictions imposed on Russian energy, reports my colleague Matt Egan.

    Brent crude, the world benchmark, lost nearly 3% on Thursday to around $77.45 a barrel.

    The oil selloff comes after the West hit Russia with new restrictions that, so far at least, do not appear to be derailing global energy markets.

    The European Union on Monday imposed a ban on seaborne oil imports from Russia, while the West placed a $60 cap on Russian oil. Both moves are designed to hurt Russia’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine, without hurting consumers by causing Moscow to slash oil production.

    “Russia oil is still on the market. As of now, it appears Russia is willing to play ball,” said Robert Yawger, vice president of oil futures at Mizuho Securities.

    The tame reaction from energy markets is a welcome gift for Americans heading on long drives this holiday season, as prices at the gas pump are expected to continue their recent plunge.

    US oil this week hit its lowest level since December 23, 2021, before recovering a little on Thursday to trade up 2% at $73.60 a barrel. That leaves oil down by 43% since briefly topping $130 a barrel in March amid fears about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The national average price for regular gasoline dipped by three cents to $3.33 a gallon on Thursday, according to AAA. Gas prices have dropped 14 cents in the past week and 47 cents in a month. The national average is a cent lower than a year ago when they averaged $3.34 a gallon.

    Britain is bracing for further disruption from strikes heading into the Christmas period, as ambulance drivers and nurses join rail operators and postal workers in the worst wave of walkouts the country has endured for at least a decade, reports my colleague Hanna Ziady.

    More than 20,000 ambulance workers, including paramedics and call handlers, are expected to strike on December 21 in a dispute over pay, according to statements from labor unions GMB, Unison and Unite.

    The strike will involve just under half of all ambulance drivers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, although unions have said they will cover life-threatening emergencies during the walkouts. More than 10,000 ambulance workers represented by the GMB Union will strike again on December 28.

    Strikes have swept the United Kingdom this year, as workers grapple with a cost-of-living crisis and stagnating wages. Consumer prices rose by 11.1% in the year to October, a 41-year high. Once inflation is taken into account, average wages fell by the biggest drop on record earlier this year, and were still declining in the June-September period.

    According to The Times newspaper, one million UK workers are set to strike in December and January. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows Britain has already lost at least 741,000 days to strike action this year, putting it on track for its worst year of labor disputes in at least a decade.

    Source link

  • When China and Saudi Arabia meet, nothing matters more than oil | CNN Business

    When China and Saudi Arabia meet, nothing matters more than oil | CNN Business


    Hong Kong
    CNN Business
     — 

    Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Saudi Arabia this week for the first time in nearly seven years, during which he is expected to sign billions of dollars of deals with the world’s largest oil exporter and meet leaders from across the Middle East.

    The visit is a sign that China and the Gulf region are deepening their economic relations at a time when US-Saudi ties have crumbled over OPEC’s decision to slash crude oil supply. As Xi wrote in an article published in Saudi media, the trip was intended to strengthen China’s relations with the Arab world.

    China is Saudi Arabia’s biggest trading partner and a source of growing investment. It’s also the world’s biggest buyer of oil. Saudi Arabia is China’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and the top global supplier of crude oil.

    “Energy cooperation will be at the center of all discussions between the Saudi-Chinese leadership,” said Ayham Kamel, head of Eurasia Group’s Middle East and North Africa research team. “There is great recognition of the need to build a framework to ensure that this interdependence is accommodated politically, especially given the scope of energy transition in the West.”

    Governments around the world have committed to drastically cutting carbon emissions over the coming decades. Countries such as Canada and Germany have doubled down on renewable energy investments to expedite their transition to net-zero economies.

    The United States has significantly increased domestic oil and gas output since the 2000s, while accelerating its transition to clean energy.

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February has triggered a global energy crisis that has left all countries racing to shore up supplies. And the West has further scrambled the oil markets by slapping an embargo and price cap on the world’s second biggest exporter of crude.

    Energy security has also increasingly become a key priority for China, which is facing significant challenges of its own.

    Last year, bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and China hit $87.3 billion, up 30% from 2020, according to Chinese customs figures.

    Much of the trade was focused on oil. China’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia stood at $43.9 billion in 2021, accounting for 77% of its total goods imports from the kingdom. That amount also makes up more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s total crude exports.

    “Stability of energy supplies, in terms of both prices and quantities, is a key priority for Xi Jinping as the Chinese economy remains heavily reliant on oil and natural gas imports,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

    The world’s second largest economy is heavily reliant on foreign oil and gas. 72% of its oil consumption was imported last year, according to official figures. 44% of natural gas demand was also from overseas.

    At the 20th Party Congress in October, Xi stressed that ensuring energy security was a key priority. The comments came after a spate of severe power shortages and soaring global energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    As the West shunned Russian crude in the months that followed the invasion, China took advantage of Moscow’s desperate search for new buyers. Between May and July, Russia was China’s No. 1 oil supplier, until Saudi Arabia regained the top spot in August.

    “Diversity is a key ingredient for China’s long-term energy security because it cannot afford to put all of its eggs in one basket and turn itself into a captive of another power’s energy and geostrategic interests,” said Ahmed Aboudouh, a nonresident fellow with the Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, a research institute based in DC.

    “Although Russia is a source of cheaper supply chains, nobody can guarantee, with utmost certainty, that the China and Russia relationship will continue to shore up 50 years from now,” Aboudouh said.

    The Saudi Press Agency cited Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as saying Wednesday that the kingdom would remain China’s “credible and reliable partner in this field.”

    Saudi Arabia also has strong motivations to deepen energy ties with China, according to Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

    “The Saudis are concerned about losing market share in China in the face of a tsunami of heavily discounted Russian and Iranian crude,” he said. “Their goal is to ensure China remains a loyal customer even when the competitors offer [a] cheaper product.”

    Oil prices have fallen back to where they were before the Ukraine war on fears of a sharp global economic slowdown. The extent to which the Chinese economy can pick up pace next year will have a huge bearing on how bad that slump will be.

    Beyond security of supply, Saudi Arabia could offer Beijing another prize with bigger geopolitical ramifications.

    Riyadh has been in talks with Beijing to price some of its oil sales to China in the Chinese currency, the yuan, rather than the US dollar, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Such a deal could be a boost to Beijing’s ambitions to expand the Chinese currency’s global influence.

    It would also hurt the long-standing agreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States that requires Saudi Arabia to sell its oil only for US dollars and to hold its reserves partly in US Treasuries, all in return for US security guarantees. The “petrodollar system” has helped preserve the dollar’s status as the top global reserve currency and payment medium for oil and other commodities.

    Although Beijing and Riyadh never confirmed the reported talks, analysts said it was logical that the two sides would be exploring the possibility.

    “In the near future, Saudi Arabia could sell some of its oil and receive revenues in Chinese yuan, which makes economic sense as China is the kingdom’s top trading partner,” said Naser Al Tamimi, senior associate research fellow at ISPI, an Italian think tank on international affairs.

    Some believe it’s already happening, but that neither China nor the Saudis want to highlight it publicly.

    “They know too well how sensitive this issue [is] for the United States,” said Luft. “Both parties are overexposed to the US currency and there is no reason for them to continue to conduct their bilateral trade in a third party’s currency, especially when this third party is no longer a friend of either.”

    Xi’s visit could mark another step “in the erosion of the dollar’s status” as reserve currency, he added.

    Nonetheless, there are limits to the growing ties between Riyadh and Beijing.

    “The Biden administration’s approach to the Middle East has concerned the Saudis, and they see a growing relationship with China as a hedge against potential US abandonment and a tool for leverage in negotiations with the United States,” said Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC-based think tank.

    The Biden administration has reoriented its policy priorities with a focus on countering China. At the same time, it has indicated its intention to downsize its own presence in the Middle East, sparking worries among allies there that the United States may not be as committed to the region as it used to be.

    “All that being said, Chinese-Saudi ties pale in both depth and complexity to Saudi-US ties,” Alterman said. “The Chinese remain a novelty to most Saudis, and they are additive. The United States is foundational to how Saudis see the world, and how they have seen it for 75 years.”

    Despite the possibility of shifting to yuan transactions, it’s too early to say Saudi Arabia would ditch the dollar in pricing its oil sales, analysts said.

    Eurasia Group’s Kamal believes it’s “highly unlikely” that Saudi Arabia would take such a step, unless there is an implosion on the US-Saudi relationship.

    “In essence there could be discussion on pricing of barrels to China in yuan, but this would be limited in size and probably only correspond to bilateral trade volumes,” he said.

    Prasad from Cornell University said countries like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are all eager to reduce their dependence on the dollar for oil contracts and other cross-border transactions.

    “However, in the absence of serious alternatives and with few international investors willing to place their trust in these countries’ financial markets and their governments, the dollar’s dominant role in global finance is hardly under serious threat,” he said.

    Source link

  • Microsoft strikes 10-year deal with Nintendo on Call of Duty

    Microsoft strikes 10-year deal with Nintendo on Call of Duty

    LONDON (AP) — Microsoft agreed Wednesday to make the hit video game Call of Duty available on Nintendo for 10 years should its $69 billion purchase of game maker Activision Blizzard go through — an apparent attempt to fend off objections from rival Sony.

    The blockbuster merger is facing close scrutiny from regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. Microsoft, maker of the Xbox game console, faces resistance from Sony, which makes the competing PlayStation console and has raised concerns with antitrust watchdogs about losing access to what it calls a “must-have” game title.

    Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, tweeted that Microsoft “entered into a 10-year commitment” to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo.

    Microsoft President Brad Smith tweeted his thanks to Nintendo, which makes the Switch game console, saying the same offer was available for Sony.

    “Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we’ll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well,” he said.

    Smith said the agreement would bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms, and “that’s good for competition and good for consumers.”

    Sony’s European press office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Adding to the pressure on Sony, Microsoft also said Wednesday it has committed to keeping Call of Duty on the platform Steam, a digital marketplace for PC games, in an agreement with Steam’s operator Valve.

    In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal this week, Smith raised concerns about the possibility that the Federal Trade Commission could take Microsoft to court to stop the deal. Antitrust watchdogs in both Britain and the European Union also are investigating the transaction over concerns it would distort competition.

    At the heart of the dispute is control over future releases of Activision Blizzard’s most popular games, especially Call of Duty, a first-person military shooter franchise. Activision reported last month that the latest installment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, had earned more than $1 billion in sales since its Oct. 28 launch.

    Source link

  • Italy’s La Scala opens season to Ukrainian protests

    Italy’s La Scala opens season to Ukrainian protests

    MILAN (AP) — Italy’s most treasured opera house, Teatro alla Scala, opened its new season Wednesday with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” against the backdrop of Ukrainian protests that the cultural event is a propaganda win for the Kremlin during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, in her first cultural outing since taking office, attended La Scala’s gala premiere in Milan, joining Italian President Sergio Mattarella and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the royal box.

    A group of about 30 Ukrainians gathered outside the theater to protest highlighting Russian culture while President Vladimir Putin wages a war rooted in the denial of a unique Ukrainian culture.

    They were kept across the main piazza, far from any interaction with arriving dignitaries and officials, and politics did not enter the theater.

    The crowd of mostly prominent figures from Italian business, culture and politics showered the production with 13 minutes of applause. The loudest praise was reserved for Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role along with a cascade of flowers for chief conductor Riccardo Chailly.

    Asked about Ukrainians’ objection to putting a spotlight on Russian culture as war rages in its tenth month, von der Leyen praised Ukrainians as “fantastic, brave and courageous people,” but said that Russian culture should not be conflated with Putin.

    “We should not allow Putin to destroy all this,” von der Leyen said, referring to great Russian writers and composers, including Modest Petrovic Musorgsky, author of “Boris Godunov.” She added: “Full solidarity with our friends in Ukraine, and let’s make sure that we stand together.”

    Meloni, who has maintained Italy’s support for Ukraine in defending itself against Russian aggression, also sought to draw a line between culture and politics.

    “We don’t have anything against the Russian people, Russian history, Russian culture,” Meloni said. “We have something against those who have made the political choice to invade a sovereign country.”

    A letter of protest from Ukraine’s consul in Milan and a petition by the Ukrainian diaspora failed to persuade the theater to drop “Boris Godunov.” La Scala officials say Chailly chose the opera as the 2022-23 season opener three years ago at Abdrazakov’s suggestion, and it was too late to substitute the production.

    Abdrazakov was heralded for his sixth La Scala season premiere performance, the first in his native language, leading a mostly Russian cast along with La Scala’s chorus.

    “I have sung here in Italian, in French, once in Italian, but in Russian, it is another thing entirely. And then, this opera, I adore it very much,″ Abdrazakov said backstage.

    Danish director Kasper Holten’s said he sought to emphasize the opera’s message about “the cynicism of power,″ which he said remains relevant more than 150 years after it was written. In Holten’s staging, Godunov is haunted by the bloody presence of the child prince he killed to become czar, and then has to confront bloody depictions of his own cherished children, foreshadowing their own fate.

    “This is sadly a reminder to us that wherever there’s a lust for power, it’s also the language of blood,″ Holten said backstage.

    La Scala management have insisted that “Boris Godonov” was not propaganda for Putin. Still, Russian media widely reported on the production, focusing on officials’ dismissals of the Ukrainian protests. Russian state TV was also on hand for opening night.

    In the piazza, Ukrainian protest organizers were unpersuaded by the attempt to keep politics out of culture.

    “I don’t know why Italians tend to think Russian culture does not have anything to do with Russian government or the Russian people. It is all intertwined with the medieval mentality that created Putin,” said Valeriya Kalchenko, a native of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and long-time Milan resident who organized a protest.

    She noted that the Polish National Opera in Warsaw canceled its scheduled April performances of the same opera just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, citing the suffering of the Ukrainian people. It said it would consider staging the opera in peacetime.

    “They could have reacted in the same way, because La Scala at the beginning of the war had nine months to substitute the opera with an Italian opera. There is no shortage of them; it is an Italian art form,” Kalchenko said.

    Other Ukrainian organizations, including a youth association, decided against physically joining the protest despite objections to the Russian production. Instead, they gathered silently, holding sheet music written by a Ukrainian composer.

    Zoia Stankovska said that “muting” Russian culture during the war “would be a gesture, a sign of solidarity, with Ukrainians, and a clear message as long as the aggression is ongoing.”

    La Scala management has emphasized its support of Ukraine, including a benefit concert that raised 400,000 euros ($421,000). La Scala was also the first theater in the West to cut off relations with Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who was engaged at the Milan theater when the war broke out, after he failed to express a desire for a peaceful solution.

    The gala season opener, which is held on the Dec. 7 holiday for Milan’s patron St. Ambrose, is one of the top events on the European cultural calendar, and often attracts protests aimed at grabbing the attention of Italian movers and shakers in attendance.

    In that tradition, climate protesters early Wednesday threw paint on the opera house’s columns to promote more urgent actions to curb climate change. The paint was quickly removed. And union protesters set up near the Ukrainian protest, adding “no war” to their manifold slogans.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    Source link

  • South Korea’s truth commission to probe foreign adoptions

    South Korea’s truth commission to probe foreign adoptions

    SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission will investigate the cases of dozens of South Korean adoptees in Europe and the United States who suspect their origins were falsified or obscured during a child export frenzy in the mid- to late-1900s.

    The decision Thursday opens what could be South Korea’s most far-reaching inquiry into foreign adoptions yet. Frustration over broken family connections and laundered child statuses and identities grew and demanded government attention.

    The adopted South Koreans are believed to be the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees. In the past six decades, about 200,000 South Koreans — mostly girls — were adopted overseas. Most were placed with white parents in the United States and Europe during the 1970s and ′80s.

    After a meeting Tuesday, the commission decided to investigate 34 adoptees who were sent to Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and the United States from the 1960s to the early 1990s. The adoptees say they were wrongfully removed from their families through falsified documents and corrupt practices.

    They were among the 51 adoptees who first submitted their applications to the commission in August through the Danish Korean Rights Group, led by adoptee attorney Peter Møller. The applications filed by Møller’s group have since grown to over 300, and dozens of adoptees from Sweden and Australia are also expected to file applications on Friday, which is the commission’s deadline for investigation requests, Møller said.

    The investigation will likely expand over the next few months as the commission reviews whether to accept the applications submitted after August. Cases that are seen as similar will likely be fused to speed up the investigations, commission official Park Young-il said.

    The applications cite a broad range of grievances that allege carelessness and a lack of due diligence in the removal of scores of children from their families amid loose government monitoring.

    During that time, the country was ruled by a succession of military leaders who saw adoptions as a way to deepen ties with the democratic West while reducing the number of mouths to feed and removing the socially undesirable, including children of unwed mothers and orphans. South Korea was a rare country that enforced special laws aimed at promoting adoptions, which allowed profit-driven agencies to manipulate records and bypass proper child relinquishment.

    Most of the South Korean adoptees sent abroad were registered by agencies as legal orphans found abandoned on the streets, a designation that made the adoption process quicker and easier. But many of the so-called orphans had relatives who could be easily identified and found.

    Some of the adoptees say they discovered that the agencies had switched their identities to replace other children who died or got too sick to travel, which often made it impossible to trace their roots.

    The adoptees called for the commission to broadly investigate agencies for records falsification and manipulation and for allegedly proceeding with adoptions without the proper consent of birth parents.

    They want the commission to establish whether the government was responsible for the corrupt practices and whether adoptions were fueled by increasingly larger payments and donations from adoptive parents, which apparently motivated agencies to create their own supply.

    Source link

  • Corruption: Europe Doing Nothing – Part II

    Corruption: Europe Doing Nothing – Part II

    While corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, in Western Europe and the European Union, 84% of countries have declined or made little to no progress in the last 10 years, report finds. Credit: Shutterstock.
    • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
    • Inter Press Service

    MADRID, Dec 07 (IPS) – “Western Europe and the European Union remains the highest scoring region in the world’s corruption index, progress has halted and worrying signs of backsliding have emerged.”

    This is how Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report introduces its section: A Decade of Stagnating Corruption Levels In Western Europe Amidst Ongoing Scandals.

    The report shows that while corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, “in Western Europe and the European Union, 84% of countries have declined or made little to no progress in the last 10 years.”

    An excuse

    The COVID-19 pandemic has given European countries “an excuse for complacency in anti-corruption efforts” as accountability and transparency measures are “neglected or even rolled back.”

    Transparency International further explains that “weakening good governance and checks and balances heightens the risk of human rights violations and further corruption.”

    The Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

    According to the 2021 ranking, the Western Europe and European Union average holds at 66, and these are the region’s most signalled States:

    • Countries like Poland (56) and Hungary (43) have backslid, with harsh crackdowns on rights and freedom of expression.
    • Others still near the top like Germany (80), the United Kingdom (78) and Austria (74) faced serious corruption scandals.
    • Denmark (88) and Finland (88) top the region and the world (alongside New Zealand), with Norway (85) and Sweden (85) rounding out the top.
    • Romania (45), and Bulgaria (42) remain the worst performers in the region.
    • Switzerland (84), Netherlands (82), Belgium (73), Slovenia (57), Italy (56), Cyprus (53), and Greece (49) are all at historic lows on the 2021 Index.

     

    For each country’s individual score and changes over time, as well as analysis for each region, see the region’s 2021 CPI page.

    In short, in the last decade, 26 countries in the region have either declined or made little to no significant progress.

    Allowing corruption to fester

    On this, Flora Cresswell, Western Europe regional coordinator of Transparency International said:

    “Stagnation spells trouble across Europe. Even the region’s best performers are falling prey to major scandals, revealing the danger of inaction. Others have allowed corruption to fester, and are now seeing serious violations of freedoms…

    … Nor does the region exist in a vacuum: lack of national enforcement in Europe means corruption is exported globally as foreign actors utilise weak laws to hide money and fund corruption back home.”

    In the last decade, 26 countries in the region have either declined or made little to no significant progress, it warns.

    Since its inception in 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The Index uses data from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies, think tanks and others.

    The scores reflect the views of experts and business people. (See: The ABCs of the CPI: How the Corruption Perceptions Index is calculated.”

    Europe waters down a law to clean up business

    The European Justice ministers on 1 December 2022 agreed on a proposal for a law to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet.

    In response, Oxfam EU’s Economic Justice Policy Lead, Marc-Olivier Herman, said:

    “Today, European countries watered down a landmark proposal to clean up business and stop corporate abuse. It is a loss for the women and men who work in terrible conditions around the world to make the goods that end up in our shopping trolleys. The only ones celebrating today is the regressive business lobby.”

    The original proposal was already a far cry from the game-changer law we expected. Now, after EU countries played their part, it is only weaker, warns Herman.

    Many loopholes

    “There are more and more loopholes allowing companies to escape their obligations to clean up their business.”

    “The financial sector can continue to bankroll human rights violations and damage to the planet without being held accountable as it remains up to each European country to decide whether they want to make banks and other financial players clean up business.”

    Anti-Corruption?

    The 2022 International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December, states that the world today faces some of its greatest challenges in many generations – challenges which threaten prosperity and stability for people across the globe. The plague of corruption is intertwined in most of them.

    An outstanding world body fighting crime: the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), reveals the following findings about the consequences of corruption:

    Two Trillion US dollars in procurement is lost to corruption each year (OECD 2016)

    89 billion US dollars a year is lost to corruption in Africa, close to double its 48 billion US dollars in foreign aid (UNCTAD 2020).

    What else is needed to fight this human rights violation?

    Part I of this story can be found here: Corruption: The Most Perpetrated –and Least Prosecuted– Crime – Part I

    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

    Global Issues

    Source link

  • UK government greenlights first new coal mine in three decades | CNN

    UK government greenlights first new coal mine in three decades | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The UK has greenlit a controversial plan to open the country’s first new coal mine in three decades, a little more than a year after the nation tried to convince the world to ditch coal at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.

    Michael Gove, the UK housing and communities secretary, on Wednesday approved the plan to open the Whitehaven coal mine in Cumbria, a county in northwestern England that is home to the World Heritage-listed Lake District.

    The controversial mine is expected to create more than 500 jobs. But the environmental trade-off is steep: The UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), an independent group that advises the government, has estimated the mine and the coal it will produce will emit around 9 million tons of planet-warming emissions every year.

    Supporters of the mine argue the project will create jobs and secure the fossil fuel for British steelmaking; however, 85% of the coal mined is due to be exported.

    The CCC has criticized the decision. Committee chairman Lord Deben said in a statement: “Phasing out coal use is the clearest requirement of the global effort towards Net Zero. We condemn, therefore, the Secretary of State’s decision to consent to a new deep coal mine in Cumbria, contrary to our previous advice. This decision grows global emissions and undermines UK efforts to achieve Net Zero.”

    The mine’s approval was also met with fierce criticism from scientists and environmentalists.

    “A new coal mine in Cumbria makes no sense environmentally or economically,” said Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, in a statement. “It will add to global CO2 emissions, as the new supply will not replace other coal but divert it elsewhere, and it will become stranded in the 2030s as the steel industry globally moves away from coal.”

    Ekins also said that the mine’s approval “trashes the UK’s reputation as a global leader on climate action and opens it up to well justified charges of hypocrisy – telling other countries to ditch coal while not doing so itself.”

    The government initially approved the project, but then put it on hold after a wave of protests, including a 10-day hunger strike by two teenage activists.

    It came under intense pressure to reject the plan in 2021, the year it hosted the COP26 talks in Glasgow.

    Alok Sharma, the COP26 President and a lawmaker for the governing Conservative Party, campaigned against the mine.

    “Opening a new coal mine will not only be a backward step for UK climate action but also damage the UK’s hard-won international reputation, through our COP26 Presidency, as a leader in the global fight against climate change,” he said ahead of the announcement on Wednesday.

    The decision comes a little more than a year after the conference, and after lengthy discussions between the UK government, local authorities and the public.

    The Cumbria County Council had also approved the plan three times, but it backtracked its decision last February and called for a planning inquiry, effectively shifting the decision to the national government.

    The Whitehaven mine, also known as the Woodhouse Colliery, is scheduled to operate until 2049, which is just a year before the UK’s self-imposed deadline to slash greenhouse gas emissions to net zero (emitting as little greenhouse gas as possible, and offsetting any emissions that cannot be avoided).

    According to the International Energy Agency, investment into new fossil fuels infrastructure must stop immediately if the world wants any chance of achieving net zero by 2050. The latest climate science shows that achieving net zero by mid-century is necessary to keep temperatures from rising well above 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with pre-industrial times. Beyond that threshold, the world will face climate crisis impacts that could take millennia to correct, or could be irreversible altogether.

    Climate activists have protested against the project, while West Cumbria Mining, which is developing the mine, said the project would bring hundreds of new jobs into a struggling region. Its opponents argue these jobs may not be secure, given the huge momentum in Europe to phase out coal.

    “Opening a coal mine in Cumbria is investing in 1850s technology and does not look forward to the 2030s low carbon local energy future,” Stuart Haszeldine, a professor at the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.

    Source link

  • Train collision in Spain hurts 155, no serious injuries

    Train collision in Spain hurts 155, no serious injuries

    BARCELONA, Spain — Two trains collided near Barcelona early Wednesday, injuring 155 people but none seriously, Spanish officials said.

    Emergency services for Catalonia said that although three people were taken to medical centers none of the passengers was considered seriously hurt. No further details on the nature of the injuries were given by officials.

    Officials say that the collision occurred on a train line in Montcada i Reixac, a town just north of Barcelona.

    Firefighters said that no passengers were trapped.

    Ester Capella, the Catalan government’s representative in Madrid, told Spanish National Radio that officials were studying the incident.

    Source link

  • Report: 25 people detained in far-right raids across Germany

    Report: 25 people detained in far-right raids across Germany

    BERLIN — German news agency dpa reports that 25 people have been detained as part of a series of raids against suspected far-right extremists across the country early Wednesday.

    Dpa cited federal prosecutors as saying officers conducted searches in 11 of Germany’s 16 states against members of the so-called Reich Citizens movement. Some members of the grouping reject Germany’s postwar constitution and have called for the overthrow of the government.

    Weekly Der Spiegel reported that locations searched include the barracks of Germany’s special forces unit KSK in the southwestern town of Calw. The unit has in the past been scrutinized over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers.

    Federal prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Source link

  • Ukraine leader defiant as drone strikes hit Russia again

    Ukraine leader defiant as drone strikes hit Russia again

    KYIV, Ukraine — Drones struck inside Russia’s border with Ukraine on Tuesday in the second day of attacks exposing the vulnerability of some of Moscow’s most important military sites, experts said.

    Ukrainian officials did not formally confirm carrying out drone strikes inside Russia, and they have maintained ambiguity over previous high-profile attacks.

    But Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia was likely to consider the attacks on Russian bases more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border with Ukraine as “some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since its invasion of Ukraine.”

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian authorities will “take the necessary measures” to enhance protection of key facilities. Russian bloggers who generally maintain contacts with officials in their country’s military criticized the lack of defensive measures.

    A fire broke out at an airport in Russia’s southern Kursk region that borders Ukraine after a drone hit the facility, the region’s governor said Tuesday. In a second incident, an industrial plant 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Ukrainian border was also targeted by drones, which missed a fuel depot at the site, Russian independent media reported.

    “They will have less aviation equipment after being damaged due to these mysterious explosions,” said Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “This is undoubtedly excellent news because if one or two aircraft fail, then in the future, some more aircraft may fail in some way. This reduces their capabilities.”

    Moscow blamed Kyiv for unprecedented attacks on two air bases deep inside Russia a day earlier. The attacks on the Engels base in the Saratov region on the Volga River and the Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region in western Russia were some of the most brazen inside Russia during the war.

    In the aftermath, Russian troops carried out another wave of missile strikes on Ukrainian territory that struck homes and buildings and killed civilians, compounding damage done to power and other infrastructure over weeks of missile attacks.

    Approximately half of households in the Kyiv region remain without electricity, the regional governor said Tuesday, while authorities in southern Odesa — which was hard hit Monday — say they have managed to restore power to hospitals and some vital services.

    In a new display of defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled near the front line in the eastern Donetsk region. Marking Ukraine’s Armed Forces Day, he vowed to push Russian forces out of all of Ukraine’s territory.

    “Everyone sees your strength and your skill. … I’m grateful to your parents. They raised real heroes,” Zelenskyy said in a video address to Ukrainian forces from the city of Sloviansk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the east.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Washington, said the United States has “neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia.” But he said the U.S. is determined — along with many other countries that back Kyiv — to make sure that the Ukrainians have “the equipment that they need to defend themselves, to defend their territory, to defend their freedom.”

    Russia’s Defense Ministry’s charged that the attack was launched with Soviet-made drones. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which split Russia and Ukraine into separate countries, Ukraine inherited some Soviet-designed Tu-141 Strizh drones, which entered service in the 1970s and have a range of 1,000 kilometers (over 600 miles.)

    They were designed for reconnaissance duties, but can be fitted with a warhead that effectively turns them into a cruise missile. Unlike modern drones, the Strizh, or Swift, drones can stay in the air only for a limited amount of time and fly straight to a designated target. Their outdated technology makes the drones easily detectable by modern air defense systems — and easy to shoot down.

    A Russian pro-war blogger posting on the Telegram channel “Milinfolive” on Monday hit out at Russian military leadership, alleging that incompetence and lack of proper fortifications at the airbases made Ukrainian drone strikes possible.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said three Russian servicemen were killed and four others wounded by debris, and that two aircraft were slightly damaged in the strikes Monday.

    After Ukrainian forces took control in November of the major Russian-occupied city of Kherson, neither side has made significant advances.

    But Ukrainian officials have indicated that the country plans to pursue counteroffensives during the winter when frozen ground is conducive to moving heavy equipment. Kherson city is still being hit by Russian rocket attacks but if Ukrainian forces establish firm control there it could be a bridgehead for advancing toward Crimea.

    Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov said the latest strikes by Ukraine “have raised questions about security of Russian military air bases.”

    The Engels base hosts Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear-capable strategic bombers that have been involved in strikes on Ukraine. Dyagilevo houses tanker aircraft used for mid-air refueling.

    In a daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, Britain’s Defense Ministry said the bombers would likely be dispersed to other airfields.

    Speaking in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Peskov said that “the Ukrainian regime’s course for continuation of such terror attacks poses a threat.”

    Peskov reaffirmed that Russia sees no prospects for peace talks now, adding that “the Russian Federation must achieve its stated goals.”

    Ukrainian rocket attacks killed six people in the separatist-held city of Donetsk, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of where Zelenskyy spoke, said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russia-backed Donetsk People’s Republic. He said one of those killed was a 29-year-old member of the DPR parliament.

    Russia, meanwhile, maintained intense attacks on Ukrainian territory, shelling towns overnight near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that left more than 9,000 homes without running water, local Ukrainian officials said.

    The towns lie across the Dnieper River from the nuclear plant, which was seized by Russian forces in the early stages of the war. Russia and Ukraine have for months accused each other of shelling at and around the plant.

    The head of Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, which borders Russia, said that Moscow launched over 80 missile and heavy artillery attacks on its territory. Governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said the strikes damaged a monastery near the border town of Shalyhyne.

    Ihnat, the Ukrainian air force spokesman, said the country’s ability to shoot down incoming missiles is improving, noting there had been no recent reports of Iranian-made attack drones being used on Ukrainian territory.

    ———

    Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    Source link

  • Oxford Dictionaries names ‘goblin mode’ its word of the year

    Oxford Dictionaries names ‘goblin mode’ its word of the year

    LONDON (AP) — Asked to sum up 2022 in a word, the public has chosen a phrase.

    Oxford Dictionaries said Monday that “goblin mode” has been selected by online vote as its word of the year.

    It defines the term as “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.”

    First seen on Twitter in 2009, “goblin mode” gained popularity in 2022 as people around the world emerged uncertainly from pandemic lockdowns.

    “Given the year we’ve just experienced, ‘goblin mode’ resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point,” said Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl.

    The word of the year is intended to reflect “the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the past twelve months.” For the first time this year’s winning phrase was chosen by public vote, from among three finalists selected by Oxford Languages lexicographers: goblin mode, metaverse and the hashtag IStandWith.

    Despite being relatively unknown offline, goblin mode was the overwhelming favorite, winning 93% of the more than 340,000 votes cast.

    The choice is more evidence of a world unsettled after years of pandemic turmoil, and by the huge changes in behavior and politics brought by social media.

    Last week Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year is “gaslighting” — psychological manipulation intended to make a person question the validity of their own thoughts.

    In 2021 the Oxford word of the year was “vax” and Merriam-Webster’s was “vaccine.”

    Source link

  • As Musk is learning, content moderation is a messy job

    As Musk is learning, content moderation is a messy job

    Now that he’s back on Twitter, neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wants somebody to explain the rules.

    Anglin, the founder of an infamous neo-Nazi website, was reinstated Thursday, one of many previously banned users to benefit from an amnesty granted by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk. The next day, Musk banished Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, after he posted a swastika with a Star of David in it.

    “That’s cool,” Anglin tweeted Friday. “I mean, whatever the rules are, people will follow them. We just need to know what the rules are.”

    Ask Musk. Since the world’s richest man paid $44 billion for Twitter, the platform has struggled to define its rules for misinformation and hate speech, issued conflicting and contradictory announcements, and failed to full address what researchers say is a troubling rise in hate speech.

    As the “ chief twit ” may be learning, running a global platform with nearly 240 million active daily users requires more than good algorithms and often demands imperfect solutions to messy situations — tough choices that must ultimately be made by a human and are sure to displease someone.

    A self-described free speech absolutist, Musk has said he wants to make Twitter a global digital town square. But he also said he wouldn’t make major decisions about content or about restoring banned accounts before setting up a “ content moderation council ” with diverse viewpoints.

    He soon changed his mind after polling users on Twitter, and offered reinstatement to a long list of formerly banned users including ex-President Donald Trump, Ye, the satire site The Babylon Bee, the comedian Kathy Griffin and Anglin, the neo-Nazi.

    And while Musk’s own tweets suggested he would allow all legal content on the platform, Ye’s banishment shows that’s not entirely the case. The swastika image posted by the rapper falls in the “lawful but awful” category that often bedevils content moderators, according to Eric Goldman, a technology law expert and professor at Santa Clara University law school.

    While Europe has imposed rules requiring social media platforms to create policies on misinformation and hate speech, Goldman noted that in the U.S. at least, loose regulations allow Musk to run Twitter as he sees fit, despite his inconsistent approach.

    “What Musk is doing with Twitter is completely permissible under U.S. law,” Goldman said.

    Pressure from the EU may force Musk to lay out his policies to ensure he is complying with the new law, which takes effect next year. Last month, a senior EU official warned Musk that Twitter would have to improve its efforts to combat hate speech and misinformation; failure to comply could lead to huge fines.

    In another confusing move, Twitter announced in late November that it would end its policy prohibiting COVID-19 misinformation. Days later, it posted an update claiming that “None of our policies have changed.”

    On Friday, Musk revealed what he said was the inside story of Twitter’s decision in 2020 to limit the spread of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

    Twitter initially blocked links to the story on its platform, citing concerns that it contained material obtained through computer hacking. That decision was reversed after it was criticized by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Facebook also took actions to limit the story’s spread.

    The information revealed by Musk included Twitter’s decision to delete a handful of tweets after receiving a request from Joe Biden’s campaign. The tweets included nude photos of Hunter Biden that had been shared without his consent — a violation of Twitter’s rules against revenge porn.

    Instead of revealing nefarious conduct or collusion with Democrats, Musk’s revelation highlighted the kind of difficult content moderation decisions that he will now face.

    “Impossible, messy and squishy decisions” are unavoidable, according to Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety who resigned a few weeks into Musk’s ownership.

    While far from perfect, the old Twitter strove to be transparent with users and steady in enforcing its rules, Roth said. That changed under Musk, he told a Knight Foundation forum this week.

    “When push came to shove, when you buy a $44 billion thing, you get to have the final say in how that $44 billion thing is governed,” Roth said.

    While much of the attention has been on Twitter’s moves in the U.S., the cutbacks of content-moderation workers is affecting other parts of the world too, according to activists with the #StopToxicTwitter campaign.

    “We’re not talking about people not having resilience to hear things that hurt feelings,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, which works to combat caste-based discrimination in South Asia. “We are talking about the prevention of dangerous genocidal hate speech that can lead to mass atrocities.”

    Soundararajan’s organization sits on Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, which hasn’t met since Musk took over. She said “millions of Indians are terrified about who is going to get reinstated,” and the company has stopped responding to the group’s concerns.

    “So what happens if there’s another call for violence? Like, do I have to tag Elon Musk and hope that he’s going to address the pogrom?” Soundararajan said.

    Instances of hate speech and racial epithets soared on Twitter after Musk’s purchase as some users sought to test the new owner’s limits. The number of tweets containing hateful terms continues to rise, according to a report published Friday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a group that tracks online hate and extremism.

    Musk has said Twitter has reduced the spread of tweets containing hate speech, making them harder to find unless a user searches for them. But that failed to satisfy the center’s CEO, Imran Ahmed, who called the rise in hate speech a “clear failure to meet his own self-proclaimed standards.”

    Immediately after Musk’s takeover and the firing of much of Twitter’s staff, researchers who previously had flagged harmful hate speech or misinformation to the platform reported that their pleas were going unanswered.

    Jesse Littlewood, vice president for campaigns at Common Cause, said his group reached out to Twitter last week about a tweet from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that alleged election fraud in Arizona. Musk had reinstated Greene’s personal account after she was kicked off Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

    This time, Twitter was quick to respond, telling Common Cause that the tweet didn’t violate any rules and would stay up — even though Twitter requires the labeling or removal of content that spreads false or misleading claims about election results.

    Twitter gave Littlewood no explanation for why it wasn’t following its own rules.

    “I find that pretty confounding,” Littlewood said.

    Twitter did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story. Musk has defended the platform’s sometimes herky-jerky moves since he took over, and said mistakes will happen as it evolves. “We will do lots of dumb things,” he tweeted.

    To Musk’s many online fans, the disarray is a feature, not a bug, of the site under its new ownership, and a reflection of the free speech mecca they hope Twitter will be.

    “I love Elon Twitter so far,” tweeted a user who goes by the name Some Dude. “The chaos is glorious!”

    Source link

  • Prada charts line of business succession, tapping new CEO

    Prada charts line of business succession, tapping new CEO

    MILAN (AP) — The Prada fashion house began charting a line of succession on its business side, announcing Tuesday that it is tapping a former LVMH executive as its next CEO and confirming that Miuccia Prada will continue in her creative roles.

    Andrea Guerra is set to be confirmed by the board next month as the new CEO, succeeding Patrizio Bertelli, who will stay on as chairman. The move is intended as a step toward ultimately handing the reins of Prada Group to Bertelli and Miuccia Prada’s son, Lorenzo Bertelli. The younger Bertelli now oversees digital marketing and sustainability.

    The statement emphasized that Miuccia Prada will remain co-creative director of Prada with Raf Simons, creative director of Miu Miu and a board member.

    “This is a fundamental step we have decided to undertake, while completely engaged in the company, to contribute more to the evolution of the Prada Group, and to ease the succession of Lorenzo Bertelli, the future leader of the group,” Patrizio Bertelli and Prada said in a statement.

    Guerra, 57, is one of Italy’s highest-profile executives, serving as the long-time CEO of Luxottica, the world’s largest eyewear company, followed by a stint at the Eataly global chain of eateries and marketplace for Italian-produced specialties. Most recently, he was in executive positions at the French conglomerate LVMH.

    Succession is an issue at Italy’s family-run companies, and not only in fashion, and the move appears intend on sending a message to financial markets that a plan is in place. Guerra has longtime experience in a family-run company, serving for a decade as CEO at Luxottica before owner and founder, the late Leonardo del Vecchio, took back day-to-day operations following disagreements.

    Prada denied that bringing on Raf Simons in 2020 was a move designed to set up the creative succession at the fashion house specializing in luxury handbags, footwear and understated apparel. Still, speculation started anew after the Belgian designer announced last month that he is closing his eponymous fashion brand after 27 years.

    Besides the Prada and Miu Miu fashion houses, the Prada Group also includes the footwear companies Church’s and Car Shoe, as well as the pastry shop Marchese with 627 stores in 70 countries.

    Prada trades in Hong Kong, where shares closed down 2.33% just before the announcement was made.

    Source link

  • ‘Hiccup!’ Spirits low after vodka brand auction runs dry

    ‘Hiccup!’ Spirits low after vodka brand auction runs dry

    THE HAGUE (AP) — Shareholders of dismantled Russian oil company Yukos were low in spirits Tuesday after the top bid in an auction of several iconic vodka brands came up short.

    Financial holding company GML, which was the majority shareholder in Yukos before the Kremlin dismantled the energy giant in 2003, was hoping to sell the rights to Russian vodka brands Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya.

    Two bidders each placed a $250,000 deposit to take a shot at winning the rights to use the Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya trademarks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The auction lasted less than two minutes.

    GML had reserved the right to reject the winning bid, which it did, deeming the offer too low. CEO Tim Osborne told reporters that regardless of the outcome, he was pleased his company could hold the auction after 17 years of legal wrangling.

    “It’s a hiccup,” Osborne said.

    Osborne said this wouldn’t be the last round for GML. He told The Associated Press that the company plans to put the vodka brands up for sale in the future. “We will try again,” he said.

    The shareholders are currently pursuing enforcement proceedings against Russian assets in 169 other countries.

    The vodka brands were owned by Russian state-owned company Soyuzplodoimport before a Dutch court turned them over in 2020.

    Source link

  • Fans’ wild World Cup fashion draws praise, scorn in Qatar

    Fans’ wild World Cup fashion draws praise, scorn in Qatar

    DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The World Cup in Qatar has become a political lightning rod, so it comes as no surprise that soccer fans’ sartorial style has sparked controversy.

    Forget your classic soccer jerseys – the streets of Doha have been transformed into a chaotic runway show in terms of fashion.

    Visitors from around the world are wearing revamped versions of traditional Gulf Arab headdresses and thobes. Western women have tried out hijabs. England fans have donned crusader costumes. The politically minded have made statements with rainbow accessories in Qatar, which criminalizes homosexuality.

    Fan fashion has drawn everything from amusement to outrage from locals in the tiny Muslim emirate that has seen nothing remotely like the spectacle of the World Cup before.

    The most popular style among foreign fans at this World Cup is the ghutra, the traditional head scarf worn by men across the Arabian Peninsula.

    If photographed at a Halloween party back home in Cape Town, South Africa, 60-year-old Gavin Coetzee admits his wardrobe choice might seem ill-conceived — even cringe-worthy. He asked a tailor to stitch together four African flags into a ghutra and stereotypical Arabian thobe, the long flowing tunic that Qatari men wear in crisp white.

    “I wouldn’t wear this in a Western country,” he said, referring to heightened cultural sensitivity there. But to his surprise, his costume has drawn elation and praise from locals in Qatar.

    “It’s been amazing. Everyone wants to take our photo, ask us where we’re from, they’re interested in why we put this outfit together,” he said, alongside two friends wearing the same get-up.

    The narrow alleys of Doha’s central Souq Waqif teem with vendors hawking ghutras in various national colors, from Brazil’s bright blue, green and yellow to Mexico’s tricolor red, white and green. The sellers iron and fold them to create a widow’s peak effect, carefully fitting the cloth to fans’ heads in the so-called cobra style of worn by Qataris.

    “I wanted to immerse in the culture. It’s fun to get to try new things,” said 41-year-old Ricardo Palacios from Venezuela, wearing a red-and-white checkered headdress. “Locals are in shock … that someone wearing a Spanish shirt is wearing this.”

    Qataris’ only complaint so far, Palacios added, is that “I don’t know how to do it right.” He said locals stop him in the street, restyling his headgear so it looks the way it should. Similar videos have been widely shared on social media.

    Qatari citizen Naji al-Naimi, a board member of Majlis al-Dama, a lively hub of coffee and backgammon in Doha’s outdoor marketplace, said the scores of international fans wearing his national dress don’t bother him in the least. Instead, he finds the trend endearing. He compared it to citizens of the Arabian Peninsula wearing jeans or suits when traveling in Europe.

    “We’re always trying to adjust and appeal to the customs and traditions of the host country,” he said.

    Among non-Muslim visitors, even the hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf showing piety to Allah, has emerged as trendy World Cup wear. Online videos show foreign women on the streets of Doha donning colorful headscarves, exclaiming how secure and cute they feel.

    Qatari-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera published a video last week showing a woman off-camera wrap hijabs around female fans she encountered in the street.

    “Amazing!” shrieked one Brazil fan.

    Qatar’s local population hasn’t taken kindly to other outfits, particularly England fans’ caped crusader costumes. The outfits, featuring a suit of chainmail armor, plastic helmet and shield emblazoned with an upright cross, are a nod to the Christian conquests of the Holy Land from the 11th to 13th centuries that pitted European invaders against Muslims.

    Footage circulating on Twitter showed Qatari security turning away fans dressed as crusaders before the England-Iran match in the tournament’s group stage. Others reported they were asked to surrender their costumes before England played the United States a few days later.

    “What is so painful is to see some visitors in our country praising the glories of Crusader Europe, which disgraced the honor of all Muslims,” said Ashraf al-Khadeer, a 33-year-old Qatari citizen in Doha.

    But the biggest flashpoint at the tournament so far has been rainbow clothing and other multicolored accessories as Qatar’s criminalization of homosexuality triggered a storm of criticism. After FIFA threatened European teams wearing “One Love” armbands with in-game discipline, some fans have taken it upon themselves to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community.

    Days after fans complained they were blocked from stadiums because of rainbow attire, FIFA offered assurances that Qatari security would allow the items into matches. The rule has been unevenly enforced.

    To avoid the hassle, a French advertising agency has promoted World Cup armbands printed with black-and-white Pantone cards that identify rainbow colors with numbers. Others have gone to extremes, such as the protester who stormed the field with a rainbow flag during the match between Portugal and Uruguay before being tackled by a steward.

    More broadly, the question of what to wear at the World Cup in Qatar, a conservative Muslim emirate, has sparked anxiety for female fans long before the tournament kicked off.

    Fan groups circulated advice for newcomers, discouraging women from wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts. The government-run tourism website asks visitors to “show respect for local culture by avoiding excessively revealing clothing,” and recommends men and women cover their shoulders and knees.

    So when Ivana Knöll, an Instagram model and former Croatian beauty queen, showed up to stadiums this week wearing a minidress that exposed much of her chest, some feared an international incident. But Knöll said she felt comfortable and that locals assured her she could wear whatever she wanted.

    On Friday, Knöll posted a photo on Instagram of Qatari men snapping photos as she strutted down stadium bleachers in tight leggings and a bra.

    “Thank you so much for your support!” she wrote to celebrate her 1 million followers, drawing comments in Qatar reflecting a mix of admiration, outrage and puzzlement.

    ___

    AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

    Source link

  • Poland says it will accept German Patriot air defense system

    Poland says it will accept German Patriot air defense system

    WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s defense minister said Tuesday that his country will accept a Patriot missile defense system which Germany offered to deploy to Poland last month.

    The German offer was made after an errant missile fell in Poland near the border with Ukraine, killing two Polish men.

    Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak had initially said he accepted the offer with “satisfaction.” But he and other Polish officials later said they felt the Patriot system should be placed in Ukraine, something Germany was unwilling to do.

    What appeared to be Poland cold-shouldering Germany’s offer created strains in the relationship between the two neighboring countries, which have a difficult history but today are important trade partners and allies in NATO.

    Blaszczak said Tuesday on Twitter he was sorry Germany did not want to place the Patriot system in Ukraine.

    “I was disappointed to accept the decision to reject the support of Ukraine,” he wrote. “Placing the Patriots in western Ukraine would increase the security of Poles and Ukrainians.”

    Nonetheless, he said the two side were proceeding “with arrangements regarding the placement of the launcher in Poland and connecting them to our command system.”

    Germany has said the Patriot system offered to Poland was part of NATO’s integrated air defense and only to be deployed on NATO territory.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    Source link

  • Idaho authorities continue to investigate whether one of the slain university students had a stalker, police say | CNN

    Idaho authorities continue to investigate whether one of the slain university students had a stalker, police say | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Three weeks after four Idaho college students were found stabbed to death in an off-campus house, Moscow police said they are still looking into the possibility that one of the victims had a stalker.

    Police outlined a situation in October when a man appeared to be following Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims, outside a local business, according to a news release from the department. Police said this was an isolated incident, and the man and an associate were trying to meet women at the business, which police said was corroborated through additional investigation. It was not an ongoing pattern of stalking. There is currently no evidence tying the two men to the killings, the release said.

    Last month, investigators looked “extensively” into hundreds of pieces of information about Goncalves having a stalker, but “have not been able to verify or identify a stalker,” police said.

    Police are still asking for tips from the public on information regarding a possible stalker.

    “Investigators continue looking into information about Kaylee having a stalker. Information about a potential stalker or unusual occurrences should go through the Tip Line,” according to the release.

    Goncalves, 21, along with roommates Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20; as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, who did not live in the house, were found dead November 13. Police initially said the slayings took place after 1:45 a.m., but no one called 911 until noon that same day. In the updated release Monday, police said the surviving roommates called friends to the home because they believed one of the victims had passed out and was not waking up. This prompted someone, using one of the surviving roommates’ cell phones, to call 911 for an unconscious person. Police arrived and found all four victims whose cause and manner of death was ruled four days later to be homicide by stabbing, the release said.

    A coroner determined the four victims were each stabbed multiple times and were likely asleep when the attacks began, police have said. Local, state and federal investigators have all been working to find a suspect. They are starting to receive forensic testing results from the crime scene, Moscow police spokesperson Rachael Doniger told CNN last week.

    On Saturday, Moscow police said they’ve received more than 2,000 email tips, phone tips and more than 1,000 submissions to an FBI link. The killings have unnerved the town of Moscow, with its 26,000 residents, because it had not recorded a murder since 2015.

    At this point in the investigation, police have not identified a suspect or found the murder weapon, believed to be a knife. Police have also not released the names of the surviving roommates who were said to have been in the home at the time of the killings. CNN did not report their names until they were publicly identified during a memorial service Sunday when a pastor read letters written by the two roommates – identified as Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke.

    In the letters that were read aloud Sunday, Mortensen and Funke wrote how much they would miss the victims and what they meant to them as both roommates and friends.

    “My life was greatly impacted to have known these four beautiful people,” the pastor read in Mortensen’s letter. “My people who changed my life in so many ways and made me so happy. I know it will be hard to not have the four of them in our lives, but I know Xana, Ethan, Maddie and Kaylee would want us to live life and be happy and they would want us to celebrate their lives.”

    Source link

  • Morocco and Spain go to penalty shootout at World Cup

    Morocco and Spain go to penalty shootout at World Cup

    Spain’s Marco Asensio, top, and Morocco’s Nayef Aguerd challenge for the ball during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Morocco and Spain, at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

    The Associated Press

    Source link

  • What is in Al Jazeera dossier for the ICC on Abu Akleh’s killing?

    What is in Al Jazeera dossier for the ICC on Abu Akleh’s killing?

    Testimonies in the dossier show that Israel’s killing of the reporter has led to widespread, crippling fear among Palestinian journalists about their safety.

    The Hague, the Netherlands – A dossier submitted by Al Jazeera to the International Criminal Court (ICC) with a formal request to investigate the killing of veteran television correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh shows how her death unfolded and how it has had a “chilling effect” among Palestinian journalists, a lawyer for the global TV network says.

    Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American correspondent with Al Jazeera for 25 years, was killed by Israeli forces on May 11 on a road in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

    The request received by the court on Tuesday includes statements from witnesses and their video footage, including new unseen footage, lawyer Rodney Dixon KC said.

    The chronology produced from the evidence shows “the only firing that was going on” when Abu Akleh and her colleagues were on the road was “firing at the journalists”, Dixon explained.

    Abu Akleh and her colleagues at the time were wearing protective helmets and jackets emblazoned with “PRESS”. The evidence produced by Al Jazeera counters claims by Israeli authorities that Abu Akleh was killed in a crossfire.

    In September, it said there was a “high probability” an Israeli soldier “accidentally hit” the journalist but that it would not launch a criminal investigation.

    The submission also includes cases of other Palestinian journalists who have been targeted by the Israeli authorities, including the bombing of Al Jazeera’s Gaza office in 2021.

    “That’s all to show that this has been going on for some time and that Al Jazeera has been targeted generally,” said Dixon, who investigated the killing of Abu Akleh, compiled the evidence and submitted it to the ICC on behalf of Al Jazeera.

    Another witness statement that the dossier includes is from Al Jazeera journalist Givara Budeiri. In 2021, Israeli police arrested and assaulted Budeiri and destroyed the equipment of Al Jazeera cameraman Nabil Mazzawi. They were covering a sit-in in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah to mark the 54th anniversary of the Naksa, the event in 1967 when Israel seized what remained of the Palestinian homeland.

    “She was detained and beaten and tortured on the 5th of June 2021,” Dixon said.

    “What we’ve emphasised in this submission is that those who were interrogating her kept saying that this is because you are with Al Jazeera,” he said.

    ‘Chilling effect’

    Witness testimonies in the dossier point to fear among journalists and how such attacks are affecting Palestinian journalists’ ability to work on the ground, Dixon said.

    Al Jazeera journalists who were interviewed highlight how Abu Akleh’s killing has had a “chilling effect” and has created concerns about how to go about their work safely.

    The evidence shows that “Shireen was such a cautious journalist, always going to every measure to protect herself and others,” Dixon said. “And on the day they had taken all those measures. And the witnesses have consistently said that this was a shock – that they were suddenly fired on, directly.”

    Previously, he explained, there was an unwritten code under which Israeli forces would tell journalists they were not welcome in an area or shoot tear gas or even warning shots.

    The fact Abu Akleh’s killing happened “in a situation where they did not expect it at all has made people realise that they could be next”, Dixon said.

    “So it’s completely new ground where they are deeply concerned there are no boundaries,” the lawyer said. “Wherever they go now, they could be fired at because this has happened once, and there have been no consequences.”

    Source link

  • Man arrested after egg allegedly thrown at King Charles III

    Man arrested after egg allegedly thrown at King Charles III

    LONDON — A man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assault after an egg was allegedly hurled towards King Charles III during a visit to a town center, police said.

    Bedfordshire Police said a man in his 20s was being questioned over an alleged common assault.

    Charles was meeting members of the public outside the town hall in Luton, 30 miles (46 kilometers) north of London, when the projectile was apparently thrown. He was moved to a different area by his security guards and resumed shaking hands with members of the public.

    The king has traveled widely across Britain since becoming monarch on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September. He was due to visit several sites in Luton on Tuesday, including a transit station and a Sikh house of worship, a gurdwara.

    Last month a 23-year-old man was arrested after eggs were hurled at Charles and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, during a visit to York, northern England. The man was later released on bail.

    Source link