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FILE — Coins of the Celtic Treasure are on display at the local Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Germany, May 31, 2006. A senior official said Wednesday that organized crime groups were likely behind the theft of a huge horde of ancient gold coins stolen from a museum in southern Germany this week. (Frank Maechler/dpa via AP, file)
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PARIS — France, Germany and Italy announced an agreement Tuesday for a new-generation European space launcher project as part of apparent efforts to better compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other rocket programs in the U.S. and China.
A statement from the three governments announced an unspecified amount of public funding for the plan, saying it would be based on market prices and economic conditions for each element of the project. The European Space Agency would award contracts to the companies involved.
The next-generation Ariane and Vega launchers will be used to boost Europe’s role in the commercial and government satellite markets, the French Finance Ministry said.
The governments also agreed to support development of European-made mini and micro rocket launch systems.
European government ministers are meeting with ESA in Paris this week. The agency is scheduled to announce its first new team of astronauts in more than a decade on Wednesday, with a focus on more diversity and what are expected to be the first disabled astronauts.
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A protester holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a demonstration in support of Amini, a young Iranian woman who died after being arrested in Tehran by the Islamic Republic’s morality police, on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul on September 20, 2022.
Ozan Kose | AFP | Getty Images
Iran’s judiciary spokesperson reportedly said Tuesday that 40 foreign nationals have been detained for participating in recent anti-regime protests.
The individuals whose nationalities have not been revealed were arrested in accordance with Iranian laws, Iran’s judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said in a regular news briefing, state media Mehr News reported.
As Iran enters its ninth week of public unrest following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the country’s Revolutionary Court has in the past week issued its first slew of death sentences for their roles in one of the largest sustained challenges to Iran’s regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had in earlier stages of the protest blamed foreign “enemies” for orchestrating what he termed as “riots.”
In late September, nine Europeans from France, Sweden, Italy, Germany among other countries were arrested by the Iranian government for their involvement in the protests.
Two weeks ago, Iran’s judiciary announced that 1,024 indictments had been issued in relation to the protests in Tehran alone, according to human rights organization Amnesty International. Out of this number, 21 detainees were charged with security-related offenses punishable by death.
Uprisings against the regime erupted two months ago when 22-year-old Amini, who was arrested by the country’s “morality police” for breaking Iran’s strict rules on wearing the hijab, died while in custody reportedly from suffering multiple blows to the head. Iranian authorities claimed she died of a heart attack, but her family and masses of Iranians accuse the government of a cover-up.
Iran currently holds second place for the highest number of recorded executions, behind China.
At least 378 people have been killed in the nationwide protests, according to Norway-based nongovernmental organization Iran Human Rights.
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Entain has announced this week that licences have been awarded by the State Administrative Office of Saxony-Anhalt, for the operation of its gaming and poker services throughout Germany.
The Group has been granted all five licences it applied for, enabling it to offer gaming under its bwin, Ladbrokes and Sportingbet brands, and poker under bwin and Ladbrokes. Each licence is granted for a term of five years. Entain is the first operator to be licenced to offer online poker.
The new awards are in addition to Entain’s existing licences to offer online sports betting under each brand and will enable the Group to enhance and develop its position as a market leader in sports betting and gaming in Germany.
Robert Hoskin, Entain’s Chief Governance Officer commented: “We’re delighted to now have our licences for gaming and poker services in the regulated German market, enabling us to offer and market them to our customers. It is an important and welcome step towards achieving the goal of a fully regulated online betting and gaming market in Germany. Only through such regulation and its enforcement will we avoid the reality of customers going to the black market where there are none of the safeguards that reputable operators such as Entain guarantee.”
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India will take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) from France, the outgoing Council Chair on November 21, 2022 at a meeting to be hold in Tokyo. The Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar will represent India at the GPAI meeting.
GPAI is an international initiative to support responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This development comes on the heels of assuming the presidency of G20, a league of world’s largest economies.
GPAI is a congregation of 25 member countries, including the US, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and Singapore. India joined GPAI in 2020 as a founding member.
As per the information shared by Ministry of Electronics & IT, in the election to the Council Chair, India had received more than a two-third majority of first-preference votes while Canada and the United States of America ranked in the two next best places in the tally – so they were elected to the two additional government seats on the Steering Committee
For the 2022-2023 Steering Committee, the five government seats will therefore be held by Japan (as Lead Council Chair and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee), France (Outgoing Council Chair), India (Incoming Council Chair), Canada and the United States.
Artificial Intelligence has been Catalyzing the Tech Landscape and is expected to add $967 Billion to Indian economy by 2035 and $450–500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, accounting for 10% of the country’s $5 trillion GDP target, according to the ministry. Artificial Intelligence is a Kinetic enabler for growth of India’s Technology ecosystem & a force multiplier for achieving $1 Trillion Digital Economy goal by 2025.
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World Cup 2022 in Qatar: The wait is almost over for the world’s biggest sporting event. Fans eagerly waiting for the FIFA World Cup 2022, which would kick off on November 20 and culminate on December 18, can now count the remaining hours at their fingertips. Qatar is the first country in the Middle East country, and second in Asia, after Japan and South Korea, to host the prestigious sporting event.
Also, for the first time in its 92-year history, the tournament is taking place in November and December rather than in the middle of the year as Qatar is one of the hottest nations in the world.
Qatar: The host
The selection of Qatar as the host country of the 2022 World Cup was done in 2010. As per reports, the country has spent a whopping $300 billion on the tournament’s preparations. It has developed highways, hotels, recreation areas, and six new football stadiums and upgraded two along with training sites at an estimated cost of up to $10 billion to accommodate world-class players. The stadiums where the matches will be played are Al Bayt Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium, Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Lusail Stadium, Ras Abu Aboud Stadium, Education City Stadium, and Al Janoub Stadium, to hold the tournament. With 80,000 seats, Lusail Iconic Stadium is the largest stadium of the upcoming world cup.
Also read: Who will win the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Brazil is the favourite, Messi may score most goals
Qatar’s investment has caught everyone’s eye as it is much higher as compared to other hosts. Picture this: Russia spent $11.6 billion spent for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, Brazil invested $15 billion in 2014, South Africa shelled out $3.6 billion in 2010. Before that, Germany spent $4.3 billion in 2006, Japan $7 billion in 2002, France $2.3 billion in 1998, and the US $500 million in 1994.
Besides, the host country was in the middle of many controversies starting from the ban of beer sales inside the stadiums, its strict rules on homosexuality, and lastly, serious abuse and mistreatment of migrant workers who built the tournament’s infrastructure.
Match details
Thirty-two countries will be taking part in football’s biggest event. This tournament will kick start with a Group A match between hosts Qatar and Ecuador on November 20. The opening game will be played at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, while the final match takes place on December 18 at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail.
Groups and leagues
The 32 countries have been divided into eight groups with four teams each. There will be group matches, followed by knockout matches, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final to crown the champions on December 18.
The groups are:
GROUP A: Qatar (hosts), Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands.
GROUP B: England, Iran, United States, Wales.
GROUP C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland.
GROUP D: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia.
GROUP E: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan.
GROUP F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia.
GROUP G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon.
GROUP H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea.
Ticket prices
Pricing on tickets depends on a variety of factors such as who is playing, the stage of the tournament, and more. As per FIFA, nearly three million tickets have been sold across the eight stadiums in Qatar. The tournament is expected to deliver record revenue for the organising body, much more than what it had earned ($5.4 billion) in Russia. The total ticket revenue is estimated to be about $1 billion, as per news reports.
There are 4 categories in the tickets:
Category 1 is the highest-priced ticket and is located in prime areas within the stadium.
Category 2 and Category 3 are tickets that are placed in seating areas within the stadium that offer a less optimal view of the action.
Category 4 is tickets within the stadium that are reserved exclusively for residents of Qatar.
The estimated base ticket prices are as follows:
| Match | Cat. 1 | Cat. 2 | Cat. 3 | Cat. 4 |
| Opening Match | $618 | $440 | $302 | $55 |
| Group Matches | $220 | $165 | $69 | $11 |
| Round of 16 | $275 | $206 | $96 | $19 |
| Quarterfinals Matches | $426 | $288 | $206 | $82 |
| Semifinals Matches | $956 | $659 | $357 | $137 |
| Third-Place Match | $426 | $302 | $206 | $82 |
| Final Match | $1607 | $1003 | $604 | $206 |
Tournament format
The tournament will start off with group-stage matches, where only the top two teams from each of the eight groups survive. Following this, 16 group-stage teams will advance to the single-game knockout stages — Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final — where the winner moves on and the loser goes home.
The knockout matches, if end without any results, will be decided on extra time, penalty kicks, sudden death methods, if necessary, to determine the victor.
Schedule:
Group stage: Nov. 20-Dec. 2
Round of 16: Dec. 3-6
Quarterfinals: Dec. 9-10
Semifinals: Dec. 13-14
Third-place match: Dec. 17
Final: Dec. 18
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HELSINKI — Investigators found traces of explosives at the Baltic Sea site where two natural pipelines were damaged in an act of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor leading Sweden’s preliminary investigation said Friday.
Mats Ljungqvist of the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the investigators carefully documented the area where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured in September, causing significant methane leaks. The parallel undersea pipelines run from Russia to Germany.
“Analysis carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found” at the site, Ljungqvist said in a statement.
The prosecution authority said the preliminary investigation was “very complex and comprehensive” and further scrutiny would show whether anyone could be charged “with suspicion of crime.”
Investigators in Sweden, Denmark and Germany are looking into what happened. Danish officials confirmed in October that there was extensive damage to the pipelines caused by “powerful explosions.”
The leaks, which stopped after several days, occurred in international waters but within the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Investigators have not given indications of whom they think might be responsible but reported earlier that the blasts were likely to have involved several hundred pounds of explosives.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was “very important to find those who are behind the explosion.”
Sweden’s findings of “a sabotage act or a terrorist act — you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the information that the Russian side has had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.
Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August. Nord Stream 2 never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The governments of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have refrained from speculating over who may be behind the sabotage, saying only that there’s no sufficient proof yet to identify the perpetrator.
But some Nordic and other European media outlets have pointed a finger of blame on Moscow, hosting military experts suggesting that Russia has all the resources to carry out such a precise attack requiring careful advance planning.
Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said late September it was “very obvious” who was responsible of the pipeline sabotage, suggesting Russia’s involvement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of blowing up the pipelines and singled out the United States as profiting from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.
Earlier this week, Germany marked the completion of port facilities for the first of five planned liquefied natural gas terminals it is scrambling to get running as it replaces the Russian pipeline gas that once accounted for more than half its supplies.
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BERLIN — With only six weeks to avoid a transatlantic trade showdown over green industries, the Germans are frustrated that Washington isn’t offering a peace deal and are increasingly considering a taboo-breaking response: European subsidies.
Europe’s fears hinge on America’s $369 billion package of subsidies and tax breaks to bolster U.S. green businesses, which comes into force on January 1. The bugbear for the Europeans is that Washington’s scheme will encourage companies to shift investments from Europe and incentivize customers to “Buy American” when it comes to purchasing an electric vehicle — something that infuriates the big EU carmaking nations like France and Germany.
The timing of this protectionist measure could hardly be worse as Germany is in open panic that several of its top companies — partly spurred by energy cost spikes after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — are shuttering domestic operations to invest elsewhere. The last thing Berlin needs is even more encouragement for businesses to quit Europe, and the EU wants the U.S. to cut a deal in which its companies can enjoy the American perks.
A truce seems unlikely, however. If this spat now spirals out of control, it will lead to a trade war, something that terrifies the beleaguered Europeans. While the first step would be a largely symbolic protest at the World Trade Organization (WTO), the clash could easily slide precipitously back toward the tit-for-tat tariff battles of the era of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
This means that momentum is growing in Berlin for a radical Plan B. Instead of open tariff war with America, the increasingly discussed option is to rip up the classic free-trade rulebook and to play Washington at its own game by funneling state funds into European industry to rear homegrown green champions in sectors such as solar panels, batteries and hydrogen.
France has long been the leading advocate of strengthening European industry with state largesse but, up until now, the more economically liberal Germans have not wanted to launch a subsidy race against America. The sands are now shifting, however. Senior officials in Berlin say they are increasingly leaning toward the French thinking, should the talks with the U.S. not lead to an unexpected last-minute solution.
Berlin is the 27-nation bloc’s economic powerhouse, so it will be a decisive moment if Berlin ultimately decides to throw its might behind the state-led subsidy approach to an industrial race with the U.S.
The clock is ticking for a truce with Biden that looks increasingly unlikely.
Recent attempts by a special EU-U.S. task force to address EU concerns have met little enthusiasm on the American side to amend the controversial legislation, the European Commission told EU countries this week.
“There are only a few weeks left,” warned Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, adding that “once the act is implemented, it will be too late for us to achieve any changes.”
Lange said that the failure to reach a deal would likely trigger a WTO lawsuit by the EU against the U.S., and Brussels could also strike back against what it sees as the discriminatory U.S. subsidies by imposing punitive tariffs. Warnings of a trade war are already overshadowing the runup to a high-level EU-U.S. meeting in Washington on December 5.
It’s precisely the kind of spat that the German government wants to avoid, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes to forge unity among like-minded democracies amid Russia’s war and the the increasing challenges posed by China. Earlier this month, Scholz’s government made an overture to Washington by suggesting that a new EU-U.S. trade deal could be negotiated to resolve differences, but that proposal was quickly rejected.
There are sympathizers for the subsidies approach in Brussels, with officials at the EU’s executive saying powerful Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton is a leading proponent. Breton is already advocating for a “European Solidarity Fund” to help “mobilizing the necessary funding” to strengthen European autonomy in key sectors like batteries, semiconductors or hydrogen. Support from Germany could help Breton win the upper hand in internal EU strategy discussions over the more cautious Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
Breton will travel to Berlin on November 29 to discuss the consequences of the Inflation Reduction Act as well as industrial policy and energy measures with Scholz’s government.
The German considerations even echo calls from top officials of the Biden administration, including U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who are urging the EU to not engage in a transatlantic trade dispute and instead roll out their own industrial subsidies; a strategy that Washington also sees as way to reduce dependence on China.
Scholz first indicated late last month that the EU might have to respond to the U.S. law with its own tax cuts and state support if the negotiations with Washington fail to reach a solution, lending support to similar plans articulated by French President Emmanuel Macron, who will meet Biden on December 1 in Washington.
Although Scholz does not endorse Macron’s framing of the initiative as a “Buy European Act” (which sounds too protectionist for the Germans), the chancellor agrees that the EU cannot stand by idly if it faces unfair competition or lost investments, people familiar with his thinking said late last month.
Negative economic news, such as carmaker Tesla putting plans for a new battery factory in Germany on hold and instead investing in the U.S., or steelmaker ArcelorMittal partly closing operations in Germany, have increased calls in Berlin to consider more state support to counter a negative trend caused by both the U.S. scheme and high energy prices.
Although the official government line remains that Berlin is still holding out hope for a negotiated solution with Washington, officials in Berlin say that it could be possible to increase incentives for industries to locate the production of green technologies in Europe.
A spokesperson for the German Economy Ministry said that faced with the challenges stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act, “we will have to come up with our own European response that puts our strengths first … The aim is to competitively relocate green value creation in Europe and strengthen our own production capacities.”
The spokesperson warned, however, that both the U.S. and EU “must be careful that there is no subsidy race that prevents the best ideas from prevailing in the market,” and added: “Green technologies in particular thrive best in fair competition; protectionism cripples innovation.”
One important condition that could help Germany and the EU to safeguard said fair competition and to avoid the global free trade system descending into protectionist tendencies would be to ensure that any EU state subsidies remain in line with WTO rules. That means, in contrast to the U.S. law, that those subsidies would not discriminate between local and foreign producers.
Crucially, support is also coming from German industry.
“In the area of industrial policy and subsidies, we could look at measures that are compatible with WTO rules — as the EU is already doing in the chip sector,” said Volker Treier, the head of foreign trade at the German Chamber of Commerce.
Treier also stressed that “there must be no discrimination” against foreign investors, but added: “This explicitly does not rule out the possibility of settlement bonuses, which in turn should be available to investors from all countries who would be interested in such investment commitments in Europe.”
In Brussels, the Commission’s competition department has also made clear that it’s looking with an open mind at upcoming proposals.
“There are no instruments excluded a priori” when it comes to the EU’s response to the U.S. subsidies, the department’s state aid Deputy Director General Ben Smulders said Thursday.
Barbara Moens, Suzanne Lynch and Pietro Lombardi in Brussels and Laura Kayali and Clea Caulcutt in Paris contributed reporting.
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Hans von der Burchard
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England captain Harry Kane will not wear a pro-LGBTQ+ armband Monday, during England’s opening match against Iran at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Along with six other European countries, England dropped plans for the captain to wear a “One Love” armband due to FIFA’s threat of “sporting sanctions” — likely yellow cards for offending players. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.
“We cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play,” a joint statement from the Football Associations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland reads. The group of teams added that they are “very frustrated” after a letter sent to world football governing body FIFA in September informing about the wish to wear the armband went unanswered.
Over the weekend, the German and Danish teams had vowed that their captains would wear the armband, but those countries have now reversed their position.
Qatar has faced criticism ever since it was awarded the tournament in 2010 for its treatment of migrant workers, as well as its stance on the LGBTQ+ community and women’s rights.
The armband row follows other debates over strict rules at the Qatar World Cup, including a controversial last-minute decision to ban the sale of alcohol in match stadiums.
On Saturday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino blasted Western critics of Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup, accusing them of “hypocrisy” before the start of the global football tournament.
Slamming FIFA and Qatar’s critics for double standards, Infantino said: “I think for what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years, before starting to give moral lessons to people.”
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Wilhelmine Preussen
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After Elon Musk bought Twitter — and fired almost anyone whose job it was to deal with regulators — the social networking giant is now facing a flood of legal challenges across the European Union.
The question now is whether the EU’s watchdogs can live up to their ambitions to be the world’s digital policemen.
Ireland’s privacy regulator wants to know whether the company’s data protection standards are good enough. The European Commission doesn’t know who to ask about its upcoming online content rules. The bloc’s cybersecurity agencies raise concerns about an increase in online trolls and potential security risks.
Twitter’s unfolding turmoil is precisely the regulatory challenge that Brussels has said it wants to take on. The 27-country bloc has positioned itself — via a flurry of privacy, content and digital competition rules — as the de facto enforcer for the Western world, expanding its digital rulebook beyond the EU’s borders and urging other countries to follow its lead.
Now, the world’s richest man is putting those enforcement powers to the test.
Europe’s regulators have the largest collective rulebook to throw at companies suspected of potential breaches. But a lack of willingness to act quickly — combined with the internal confusion engulfing Twitter — has so far hamstrung the bloc’s enforcement role when it comes to holding Musk to Europe’s standards, according to eight EU and national government officials, speaking privately to POLITICO.
“This will be a major test for European regulators,” said Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics at George Washington University. She is part of the advisory board of the European Digital Media Observatory, a group helping to shape the EU’s online content rulebook, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA).
“If Musk continues to act with intransigence, I think there’s an opportunity for European regulators to move much more quickly than normal,” she added. “These regulators will certainly be motivated to act.”
A representative for Twitter did not return requests for comment.
The bloc certainly has the firepower to bring Twitter to heel.
Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, companies can be fined up to 4 percent of their annual global revenue for failing to keep people’s personal information safe. The Irish regulator, which has responsibility for enforcing these rules against Twitter because the company’s EU headquarters are in Dublin, has already doled out a €450,000 penalty for the firm’s inability to keep data safe.
As part of the bloc’s upcoming content rules, which will start to be enforced next year, the Commission will have powers to levy separate fines of up to 6 percent of a company’s yearly revenue if it does not take down illegal content. Brussels also has the right to ban a platform from operating in the EU after repeated serious violations.
Thierry Breton, the European internal market commissioner, reminded Musk of Twitter’s obligations under the bloc’s upcoming content rules in a call with the billionaire soon after his acquisition of the social network. Musk pledged to uphold those rules, even as he has pushed back at other content moderation practices that could hamper people’s freedom of expression on the platform.
“In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” Breton, the French commissioner, told Musk — via Twitter.
Yet over the last three weeks, European regulators and policymakers have struggled to navigate Twitter’s internal turmoil, according to four EU and national officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The likes of Damien Kieran, Twitter’s chief privacy officer in charge of complying with Europe’s tough data protection standards, and Stephen Turner, the company’s chief lobbyist in Brussels, were among scores of senior officials who left since Musk took over.
Two of the EU officials, speaking about internal discussions on condition of anonymity, told POLITICO that multiple emails to Twitter executives bounced back after those individuals were laid off. One of those policymakers said he had taken to Twitter — scrolling through the scores of posts from the company’s employees announcing their departures — in search of information about who was still working there. A third official said the current confusion could prove problematic when the company had to reveal long-guarded information about the number of its EU users early next year.
Others have been fostering wider connections within the company, just in case. Arcom, France’s online platform regulator, for instance, has built ties with high-level executives outside of France and still had a contact in Dublin at the company to answer its pressing questions.
The policymaking blackholes — fueled by mass layoffs — have been felt beyond the EU.
Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety commissioner who previously ran Twitter’s public policy team in Asia, told POLITICO she had written to the company last week to remind them about its obligations to clamp down on child sexual exploitation on the platform. She had yet to hear back from Musk or other senior officials.
“We did have a meeting on the books with Twitter,” Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, told POLITICO ahead of her trip to Silicon Valley this week to meet many of the social media companies. “It was canceled.”
Another open question is how Twitter with comply with Europe’s tough privacy rules.
Although the company’s chief privacy executive had been fired — and rumors swirled Twitter could pull out of Ireland in its cost-saving push — the Irish Data Protection Commission told POLITICO it had yet to open an investigation into the firm.
A spokesman for the agency said Twitter executives had assured Irish regulators on Monday that Renato Monteiro had been appointed as the company’s acting data protection officer — because it’s a legal requirement to have one — and no changes to how Twitter handled data had been made.
A key unanswered question is whether, in the wake of the mass layoffs, Twitter’s operations in Dublin are either shuttered or cut back to an extent that regulatory decisions are made in California and not Ireland.
Such a change would lead the company to fall foul of strict provisions within Europe’s privacy regime that require legal oversight of EU citizens’ data to be made in a firm’s headquarters within the 27-country bloc.
A data protection official, who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, said it was likely that Musk would move such decision-making powers to his inner circle in the United States. That potential pullback could allow any European regulator — and not just the Irish agency — to go after Twitter for potential privacy violations under the bloc’s data protection regime, the official added.
This story has been corrected to specify how multiple European privacy regulators may target Twitter for breaching the bloc’s rules if the company pulls out of Ireland.
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Mark Scott, Vincent Manancourt, Laura Kayali, Clothilde Goujard and Louis Westendarp
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MUNICH (AP) — The NFL wants to keep its European tour going now that Germany has joined Britain in hosting games.
Spain and France are atop the league’s wish list as it continues to look internationally for revenue growth.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-16 on Sunday at Allianz Arena — a first for Germany as part of a four-year deal that the league hopes will extend long-term. London has hosted regular-season games since 2007.
Beyond Germany, which could also get additional games soon, the league’s analysis of fan growth and commercial potential puts Spain and France “very much on our radar,” Brett Gosper, NFL Head of UK and Europe, told The Associated Press in an interview.
“We need to do our homework to make sure that there is the possibility of a place to land any games in those markets, gauge interest of the host stadia, gauge interest of the host city, even the government, as to their enthusiasm to help us bring a game,” Gosper said.
Spain has a slight edge because the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins now have “home marketing” rights in the country. The NFL has divvied up international rights to interested teams covering 10 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Mexico and the U.K. No teams have rights in France.
“When you know that there are teams operating in (the international rights program) you want to look at the prospect and the viability of potentially having games in those markets at some point,” Gosper said.
There are five international games this season: three in London, one in Munich, and one in Mexico City on Nov. 21 when the Arizona Cardinals play the San Francisco 49ers.
International expansion was one reason why the NFL added a 17th game to the schedule. The league has committed to playing four international games each season, and teams are required to play a “home” game abroad once every eight seasons.
Outside of that commitment, a team with rights in a country can opt to play home games there, as the Jacksonville Jaguars do in London. The Jags have played nine times in the British capital and currently have a three-year deal to play an annual “home” game at the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium.
“A team might choose to do that. That’s a real possibility but again not imminent,” Gosper said.
“Certainly, in next six months to 12 months we’ll be really testing the viability of our options from a stadium point of view — not just in Europe but elsewhere — and then at the same time in parallel seeing what the appetite is for clubs to potentially exploit those markets with a game,” he said.
In Spain, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is undergoing major renovations that will include a soccer pitch that retracts to make way for an artificial turf field that can be used for American football with a capacity over 80,000. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which has a long-term deal with the NFL to host London games, has a similar system. Atlético Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium seats 68,000.
Camp Nou is Europe’s largest soccer stadium with a capacity of 99,000, but Barcelona plans to begin a long-delayed renovation project that will last into 2026. The city’s Montjuic Olympic Stadium seats about 56,000 and was a former home to the Barcelona Dragons of the NFL Europe league.
Gosper said there are “a lot of synergies” with Spain considering the NFL’s large Spanish-speaking fanbase. Nine teams have marketing rights in Mexico.
The Stade de France just north of Paris has a capacity of just over 80,000 for soccer games.
“France is a little bit outside of that and it’s its own market and culture,” Gosper said, “but at the same time it’s an incredibly strong sports media market where returns could be higher and faster than Spain.
“They’re two very healthy media markets, healthy sports markets, some strong indicators from our streaming platform as well as from our consumer sales,” he continued. “When you mine the data a little bit, they certainly are two markets with high potential.”
Elsewhere in Europe, the Nordic markets would be next and “Sweden in particular,” Gosper said. The country’s largest stadium, Friends Arena, tops out at 50,000 fans.
In August 1988, the Bears played the Minnesota Vikings in a preseason game at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg.
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BALI, Indonesia — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday called on G20 leaders not to offer his country any peace deal that would compromise its independence from Russia, amid recently renewed contact between Washington and Moscow over the future of the war.
Zelenskyy appeared at the Bali summit via videolink at the invitation of the Indonesian hosts, just days after Ukraine liberated Kherson from invading Russian forces — a feat he compared to the D-Day landing of allied troops in Normandy, a key turning point of World War II.
“For Ukraine, this liberation operation of our defense forces is reminiscent of many battles of the past, which became turning points in the wars of the past,” Zelenskyy said in his speech to world leaders, among them U.S. President Joe Biden — and, according to a Western diplomat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “It is like, for example, D-Day — the landing of the allies in Normandy.”
Pointedly addressing his comments to the “dear G19” — the leaders of the Group of 20, with a snub to Russia — Zelenskyy warned against making Ukraine weaker than it was before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion in February.
“I want this aggressive Russian war to end justly and on the basis of the U.N. Charter and international law,” Zelenskyy said in his speech, the content of which was leaked to POLITICO. “Ukraine should not be offered to conclude compromises with its conscience, sovereignty, territory and independence. We respect the rules and we are people of our word.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to the summit in Bali but last week decided not to attend, sending Lavrov instead.
In his speech on Tuesday, Zelenskyy rejected any negotiations like those Kyiv held with Moscow in previous years, after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, before seizing, via proxies, territory in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
“Apparently, one cannot trust Russia’s words, and there will be no Minsk 3, which Russia would violate immediately after signing,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the Minsk 1 and 2 agreements, signed in 2014 and 2015 and mediated by the leaders of France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format, which were intended to bring an end to the war at that time.
Zelenskyy’s speech to the G20 came on the same day Chinese President Xi Jinping asked his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to work toward negotiated peace for Ukraine.
According to the Chinese state media Xinhua, Xi “emphasized that China’s position on the Ukrainian crisis is clear and consistent, advocating ceasefire, cessation of war and peace talks. The international community should create conditions for this, and China will continue to play a constructive role in its own way.”
Nevertheless, Zelenskyy thanked countries including China for rejecting Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons.
Slamming the “crazy threats of nuclear weapons,” the Ukrainian president added: “There are and cannot be any excuses for nuclear blackmail. And I thank you, dear G19, for making this clear.”
Bill Burns, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, met his Russian counterpart Sergei Naryshkin in Turkey on Monday and warned Moscow against using nuclear weapons, according to the White House.
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Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has slammed Western countries over what he calls a “reprehensible double standard” in their response to the energy crisis brought about by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a Twitter post on Sunday, Museveni singled out Germany for demolishing wind turbines to allow for the expansion of a coal-fueled power plant as Europe battles an energy crisis triggered by the Russia/Ukraine war.
In September, Russia which had come under a raft of Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, halted gas supplies to Europe, leaving the region that was dependent on Russian oil and gas imports scampering for alternatives.
Germany had proposed phasing out coal-fired power plants by 2030 to reduce carbon emissions. But Europe’s largest economy has now been forced to prioritize energy security over clean energy as gas supplies from Russia froze. Just like Germany, many other European countries are reviving coal projects as alternatives to Russian energy.
Museveni, 78, says Europe’s switch to coal-based power generation “makes a mockery” of the West’s climate targets.
“News from Europe that a vast wind farm is being demolished to make way for a new open-pit coal mine is the reprehensible double standard we in Africa have come to expect. It makes a mockery of Western commitments to climate targets,” the Ugandan leader said, while further describing the move as “the purest hypocrisy.”
CNN has contacted the German Embassy in Uganda for comment.
In a statement released on his official website, Museveni stated that “Europe’s failure to meet its climate goals should not be Africa’s problem.”
The African continent has remained the most vulnerable to climate change despite having the lowest emissions and contributing the least to global warming. While wealthy nations (who are the largest emission producers) are better equipped to manage the impacts of climate change, poorer countries like those in Africa are not.
“We will not accept one rule for them and another rule for us,” said Museveni, who has ruled the east African nation for 36 years.
Uganda aims to explore its oil reserves at a commercial level in the next three years but a resolution by the European Union parliament in September warned that the project will displace thousands, jeopardize water resources and endanger protected marine areas.
Museveni reacted to the resolution at the time, insisting that “the project shall proceed,” and threatened to find new contractors if the current handlers of the oil project “choose to listen to the EU Parliament.”
African leaders have continued to push richer nations for climate adaptation funding at the ongoing COP27 climate summit in Egypt, as many parts of the continent grapple with severe drought, flooding, and other catastrophic effects of climate change.
Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera, who is attending the COP27 summit, said his country and other poorer nations “continue to carry the weight of carbon emissions from biggest polluters elsewhere.”
Chakwera said he lobbied in Egypt for more climate funding from wealthier nations, adding: “Despite our marginal contribution to global warming, we continue to bear the brunt of worsening climate change impacts, with 10% of our economic losses being occasioned by disasters.”
A pledge by developed countries to pay $100 billion every year from 2020 to help the developing world switch from fossil fuels to clean energy has yet to be fulfilled.
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ROME — Lines formed Sunday at Italy’s northern border crossings with France following Paris’ decision to reinforce border controls over a diplomatic row with Italy about migration policy and humanitarian rescue ships that shows no end in sight.
The Ventimiglia-Menton crossing along the picturesque Mediterranean coast has often been a flashpoint of the migrant debate, with makeshift camps giving shelter to migrants who try to cross into France after arriving in Italy. On Sunday morning, several dozen migrants were sleeping on mattresses under a highway overpass — numbers that could swell as France cracks down on crossings.
France announced this week it was sending 500 extra officers to beef up its frontiers with Italy in retaliation for Italy’s delays in helping humanitarian ships that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.
Police patrolled trains and roads across the border Sunday, stopping migrants. Along the winding coastal road that connects the two neighbors, traffic flowed freely from France to Italy but barely crawled in the other direction. An Associated Press reporter saw French border police stopping nearly every car, making drivers open their trunks and boarding large vehicles like camper vans.
Behind them stood a border sign with the word “ITALY” on a blue background and surrounded by the gold stars of the EU flag, symbol of a bloc whose principles of cross-border cooperation are being put to the test by the current France-Italy tensions.
After a weekslong-standoff, Italy allowed three aid groups to disembark their passengers in Italian ports because doctors determined they were all vulnerable, but refused entry to a fourth. The Ocean Viking charity rescue ship, which had been at sea for nearly three weeks, eventually docked in Toulon, France after Paris reluctantly took it in.
Italy’s new far-right-led government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni has vowed that Italy will no longer be the primary port of entry for migrants leaving on smugglers’ boats from Libya and is demanding Europe do more to shoulder the burden and regulate the aid groups that operate rescue ships in the Mediterranean.
France strongly criticized Italy’s handling of the Ocean Viking, which was accompanied by triumphant social media posts by right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini that “the air has changed” before France had publicly agreed to take it in.
In retaliation, France announced it was withdrawing from a European Union “solidarity” mechanism approved in June to relocate 3,000 migrants from Italy.
Italy called France’s response “disproportionate” and “aggressive” and won the support of other front-line Mediterranean countries, including Greece, Malta and Cyprus. The four countries penned a joint statement Saturday calling for a new, obligatory solidarity mechanism to take in migrants.
In addition, the four countries called on the European Commission to initiate talks on better regulating private rescue ships.
“Fines, seizures and more controls in sight,” Salvini tweeted Sunday about threatened new measures against charity rescue ships. “The government is ready to get tough.”
On Sunday, Germany’s ambassador to Italy, Viktor Elbling, defended the aid groups, saying they help save lives and that “their humanitarian commitment warrants our recognition and our support.”
“In 2022, 1,300 people have already died or gone missing in the Mediterranean. NGOs have saved 12% of the survivors,” he tweeted.
The German groups Mission Lifeline and SOS Humanity were able to disembark all their passengers in Italy last week, and the budget committee of the Bundestag decided to provide another group, United4Rescue, with 2 million euros for civil sea rescue in 2023, with similar funding through 2026.
Italy has justified its hard line by noting that it has already welcomed nearly 90,000 migrants this year, far more than any other European country. However, only a fraction of them stay in Italy and apply for asylum, with most continuing their journeys north in hopes of reaching relatives and better established migrant communities in France, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere.
France far outranks Italy in terms of processing asylum applications. Data from January to August shows that Germany received the most applications this year, topping 100,000, followed by France with 82,535. Italy trailed Spain and Austria in fifth place with 43,750 applications.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran reaffirmed Sunday that France would no longer welcome the “just over 3,000 people from Italy, including 500 by the end of the year” as part of the European solidarity mechanism. He called Italy the “loser” in the scenario.
“We will not maintain the proposal that was planned,” Veran said on BFM TV.
———
Daniel Cole contributed from Menton and Thomas Adamson contributed from Paris.
———
Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
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—
The German government has blocked the sale of one of its semiconductor factories to a Chinese-owned tech company because of security concerns.
Germany’s economic ministry said in a statement that it had prohibited Elmos Semiconductor, which makes chips for the automotive industry, from selling its factory in Dortmund to Silex, a Swedish subsidiary of China’s Sai Microelectronics.
The decision had been taken “because the acquisition would have endangered the public order and safety of Germany,” the ministry said in a statement.
Silex announced in December that it had signed an agreement with Elmos to buy the factory for €85 million ($85.4 million).
Silex did not immediately respond to CNN Business’ request for comment. Elmos said in a statement that both companies regretted the government’s decision.
“The transfer of new micromechanics technologies … from Sweden and significant investments in the Dortmund location would have strengthened semiconductor production in Germany,” Elmos said, adding that it was considering whether to take legal action.
Sia Microelectronics said in a statement Thursday that it “deeply regretted” the decision by the German government. Its shares fell more than 9% in Shenzhen.
“We have to take a close look at company acquisitions when important infrastructure is involved or when there is a risk of technology flowing to acquirers from non-EU countries,” German economy minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.
He added that the semiconductor industry in Europe, in particular, needed to guard its “technological and economic sovereignty.”
The planned deal had rattled German authorities concerned that Chinese investment in its critical infrastructure could compromise its intellectual property and leave it exposed to political pressure from Beijing.
Similar concerns motivated the German government to intervene in plans by Chinese shipping giant Cosco to buy a 35% stake in the operator of a Hamburg port terminal last month.
Officials limited the planned investment in Hamburger Hafen und Logistik to 24.9%. Several government ministers, including Habeck, has pushed for the deal to be blocked entirely.
The tensions have arisen at a difficult time for the German economy, which is sliding into a recession triggered by the crisis over Russian energy. Germany’s manufacturers and exporters are eager to maintain their close relationship with China.
Only last week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the first visit by a G7 leader to Beijing in roughly three years, a trip designed to shore up export markets as Germany’s ties with Russia — once its biggest supplier of natural gas — continue to unravel.
A delegation of top industry CEOs, including the bosses of Volkswagen
(VLKAF), Siemens
(SIEGY) and chemicals giant BASF
(BASFY), traveled with Scholz to Beijing to meet with Chinese business executives.
But Habeck struck a note of caution on Wednesday. Addressing the blocked chip deal, he stressed that “Germany is and will remain an open investment location” but that it was not “naive”.
The visit came just a month after the United States introduced stringent controls on chip exports to China, a move designed to protect its national security and bolster its domestic semiconductor industry.
In early October, the Biden administration banned Chinese firms from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license.
The rules threaten to strike a huge blow to China’s ambitions to become a tech superpower as they not only bar exports of chips made anywhere in the world using US technology, but also the export of the tools used to make them.
— Laura He contributed reporting.
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Serge Gnabry has scored six goals in his last six Bundesliga games, hitting top form just in time … [+]
The timing could not be any better for Serge Gnabry. The Bayern Munich striker has scored six goals in his last six Bundesliga games. That brings his overall tally to eight goals and four assists in 15 Bundesliga games as he made an appearance in every one of Bayern’s domestic games so far this season.
With 12 scorer points, Gnabry ranks second among Bayern players, just behind Jamal Musiala (nine goals and seven assists). Across all competitions, Gnabry’s tally is even more impressive, as he has scored ten goals and ten assists in 23 games.
Those numbers will be fantastic news for German national team head coach Hansi Flick ahead of the World Cup. The Germany boss will very much look to the Bayern attack when it comes to putting together his starting XI.
Like has been the case for Bayern, Flick will very much look to build the attack around young Musiala, who, on current form, might be the best player on the planet at the moment.
“[Musiala] improved a lot and played an outstanding first half of the season,” Bayern head coach Julian Nagelsmann said about Musiala after yet another outstanding game for the Rekordmeister on Saturday against Schalke (2-0). “I hope he plays a great World Cup and then the second half of the season as well. He has extremely quick feet and is very talented.”
The 19-year-old will likely play the same role for Germany as for Bayern. But the same might not be true for Gnabry. Much of Bayern’s success in recent weeks has been due to Nagelsmann making Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting the center-piece of the attack. With a true no.9 in the team, Bayern has a proper outlet and, as a result, has been unplayable.
Musiala (l.), Choupo-Moting (c.) and Gnabry (r.) have been in incredible form for Bayern Munich over … [+]
Choupo-Moting, even though he has played for Germany at the youth level, represents Cameroon, which means someone else will have to take up that role for Germany. The case has been made for Werder’s Niclas Füllkrug and Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko. Both have a strong case, but there are doubts about whether Füllkrug can translate his Werder success to the world stage and whether the 17-year-old Moukoko is ready.
Another option is Kai Havertz. The Chelsea attacking midfielder has sometimes played as a no.9 and has an aerial presence that the other candidates, including Gnabry, lack. But what Havertz lacks over all other candidates is scoring regularly.
Gnabry, on current form, is making the strongest case in this regard. But there would also be a downside to employing the 27-year-old as a no.9. Even though there was a brief stretch at the start of the season where he played with Sadio Mané in a two-man striker formation, Gnabry has been predominantly successful as a right-winger this season.
Trying to replicate Bayern’s starting XI at the start of the season could be an interesting approach by Flick. The German national team coach could field Sané and Gnabry in a two-man attack right in front of Musiala and Thomas Müller, if he is fit on time.
It also allows Flick the luxury to experiment with a formation that looks like Bayern’s attack with either Moukoko, Füllkrug, or Havertz playing the Choupo-Moting role. Either way, Gnabry’s form is excellent news for Flick; it opens up possibilities and further underlines that the attack will be Germany’s strength at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Manuel Veth is the host of the Bundesliga Gegenpressing Podcast and the Area Manager USA at Transfermarkt. He has also been published in the Guardian, Newsweek, Howler, Pro Soccer USA, and several other outlets. Follow him on Twitter: @ManuelVeth
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LONDON — A former security guard at the British embassy in Berlin has admitted spying for Russia and faces up to 14 years in prison.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act. Prosecutors say he gave Gen. Maj. Sergey Chukhurov, Russia’s military attache in Berlin, information about the activities, identities, addresses and phone numbers of British civil servants.
Smith also collected intelligence, some of it classed secret, on the operation and layout of the embassy, which prosecutors said would be useful to “an enemy, namely the Russian state.”
Smith admitted guilt during a hearing last week at London’s Central Criminal Court, but the pleas were covered by reporting restrictions until Friday, when prosecutors dropped a ninth charge that Smith had denied.
Prosecutors say Smith was motivated by a hatred of Britain and its embassy, where he had worked for eight years, and had expressed sympathy with Russian authorities. They claim he was angry that the embassy flew the rainbow flag in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Smith’s lawyer, Matthew Ryder, said his client denied prosecutors’ description of “why he did what he did and the seriousness of the allegations.” He said Smith did not have “a negative intention towards the U.K.”
Smith was arrested by German police at his home in Potsdam, southwest of Berlin in August 2021 and extradited to the U.K. in April.
He will be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum 14-year sentence.
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The US Department of Treasury on Friday removed India along with Italy, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam from its Currency Monitoring List.
China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are the seven economies that are a part of the current monitoring list, the Department of Treasury said in its biannual report to the Congress.
The countries that have been removed from the list have met only one out of three criteria for two consecutive reports, it said.
“China’s failure to publish foreign exchange intervention and broader lack of transparency around key features of its exchange rate mechanism makes it an outlier among major economies and warrants Treasury’s close monitoring,” said the report.
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Western security advisers are warning delegates at the COP27 climate summit not to download the host Egyptian government’s official smartphone app, amid fears it could be used to hack their private emails, texts and even voice conversations.
Policymakers from Germany, France and Canada were among those who had downloaded the app by November 8, according to two separate Western security officials briefed on discussions within these delegations at the U.N. climate summit.
Other Western governments have advised officials not to download the app, said another official from a European government. All of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss international government deliberations.
The potential vulnerability from the Android app, which has been downloaded thousands of times and provides a gateway for participants at COP27, was confirmed separately by four cybersecurity experts who reviewed the digital application for POLITICO.
The app is being promoted as a tool to help attendees navigate the event. But it risks giving the Egyptian government permission to read users’ emails and messages. Even messages shared via encrypted services like WhatsApp are vulnerable, according to POLITICO’s technical review of the application, and two of the outside experts.
The app also provides Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which created it, with other so-called backdoor privileges, or the ability to scan people’s devices.
On smartphones running Google’s Android software, it has permission to potentially listen into users’ conversations via the app, even when the device is in sleep mode, according to the three experts and POLITICO’s separate analysis. It can also track people’s locations via smartphone’s built-in GPS and Wi-Fi technologies, according to two of the analysts.
The app is nothing short of “a surveillance tool that could be weaponized by the Egyptian authorities to track activists, government delegates and anyone attending COP27,” said Marwa Fatafta, digital rights lead for the Middle East and North Africa for Access Now, a nonprofit digital rights organization.
“The application is a cyber weapon,” said one security expert after reviewing it, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect colleagues attending COP.
The Egyptian government did not respond to requests for comment. Google said it had reviewed the app and had not found any violations to its app policies.
The potential security risk comes as thousands of high-profile officials descend on Sharm El-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort town, where so-called QR codes, or quasi-bar codes that direct people to download the smartphone application, are dotted around the city.
Participants at COP27 include global leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, though such high profile politicians are unlikely to download another government’s app.
The experts who spoke to POLITICO said that much of the data and access that the COP27 app gets is fairly standard. But, according to three of these specialists, the combination of the Egyptian government’s track record on human rights and the types of people who would downloaded the app represent a cause for concern.
Three of the researchers said the app posed surveillance risks to those who download it due to its widespread permissions to review people’s devices, though the extent of the risk remains unclear.
Elias Koivula, a researcher at WithSecure, a cybersecurity firm, reviewed the Android app for POLITICO and said he had found no evidence people’s emails had been read. Many of the permissions granted to the climate change conference app also have benign purposes like keeping people up-to-date with the latest travel information around the summit, he added.
But Koivula said other permissions granted to the app appeared “strange” and could potentially be used to track people’s movements and communications. So far, he said he had no evidence that such activity had taken place.
Not all the experts agreed on the risks.
Paul Shunk, a security intelligence engineer at cybersecurity firm Lookout, said he had found no evidence the app had access to emails, describing the idea that it posed a surveillance risk as “strange.” He was confident the app was not built as typical spyware, pouring cold water on claims the app functioned as a listening device. Shunk said it could not record audio if it was running in the background, which makes it “almost completely unsuitable for spying on users.”
The COP27 app uses location tracking “extensively,” Shunk said, but seemingly for legitimate purposes like route planning for summit attendees. It lacked the ability to access location in the background, based on Android permissions, which would be what the app would need for continuous location tracking, he added.
The other two cybersecurity analysts who reviewed the app spoke on the condition of anonymity to safeguard their ongoing security work and to protect colleagues attending the climate change conference.
“Let me put it this way: I wouldn’t download this app onto my phone,” said one of those experts. Those two the researchers also warned that once the application had been downloaded onto a device, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to remove its ability to access people’s sensitive data — even after it had been deleted.
POLITICO checked the app’s potential security risks via two open cybersecurity tools, and both raised concerns about its ability to listen to people’s conversations, track their locations and alter how the app operates without asking for permission.
Both Google and Apple approved the app to appear in their separate app stores. All of the analysts only reviewed the Android version of the app, and not the separate app created for Apple’s devices. Apple declined to comment on the separate app created for its App Store.
Adding to rights groups’ concerns is the track record of the Egyptian government to monitor its people. In the wake of the so-called Arab Spring, Cairo has clamped down on dissidents and used local emergency rules to track its citizens online and offline activity, according to a report by Privacy International, a nonprofit organization.
As part of the smartphone app’s privacy notice, the Egyptian government says it has the right to use information provided by those who have downloaded the app, including GPS locations, camera access, photos and Wi-Fi details.
“Our application reserves the right to access customer accounts for technical and administrative purposes and for security reasons,” the privacy statement said.
Yet the technical review, both by POLITICO and the outside experts of the COP27 smartphone application discovered further permissions that people had granted, unwittingly, to the Egyptian government that were not made public via its public statements.
These included the application having the right to track what attendees did on other apps on their phone; connecting users’ smartphones via Bluetooth to other hardware in ways that could lead to data being offloaded onto government-owned devices; and independently linking individuals’ phones to Wi-Fi networks, or making calls on their behalf without them knowing.
“The Egyptian government cannot be entrusted with managing people’s personal data given its dismal human rights record and blatant disregard for privacy,” said Fatafta, the digital rights campaigner.
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There is mounting anxiety about what Tuesday’s American midterm elections may mean for Ukraine and U.S. support for the country, amid fears that a Republican surge could weaken American backing for Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials and lawmakers are scrutinizing the opinion polls and parsing the comments of their counterparts.
“We hope that for our sake that we don’t become a victim to the partisan debate that’s unfolding right now in the U.S.,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a former Ukrainian deputy prime minister and now opposition lawmaker, told POLITICO. “That’s the fear, because we are very much seriously dependent on not only American support, but also on the U.S. leadership in terms of keeping up the common effort of other nations.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the potential next speaker if the Republicans prevail, said last month that there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine if the House comes back under Republican control. The Biden administration has tried to assuage concerns about the government’s commitment to supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, but populist Republican sentiment in Congress is urging less support for Kyiv and more attention on U.S. domestic problems.
“I’m worried about the Trump wing of the GOP,” said Mia Willard, a Ukrainian-American living and working in Kyiv. “I have recently read about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s promise that ‘not another penny will go to Ukraine’ if Republicans retake control of Congress.”
According to the latest poll data, the Republicans are favored to take over the House and possibly the Senate in Tuesday’s voting.
“I do hope that regardless of the election results,” said Willard, “there will be a continued bipartisan consensus on supporting Ukraine amid Russia’s genocide of the Ukrainian people, which I cannot call anything but a genocide after firsthand witnessing Russia’s war crimes in the now de-occupied territories,” said Willard, who is a researcher at the International Centre for Policy Studies in the Ukrainian capital.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is confident that U.S. military and financial support for his country will continue after the midterms. “I don’t see a critical number of people among the Republicans calling for cuts in aid,” he told POLITICO. At the same time, Klimkin acknowledged that the procedure for congressional consideration of Ukraine aid may become more complex.
Klimkin said he believes that the U.S. stance toward Ukraine is “critical” for Washington beyond the Ukrainian conflict — “not only with respect to Russia, but also to how the U.S. will be perceived by China.”
For Ukraine, Klimkin said the “real risk” is the debate taking place in Washington on both sides of the aisle about the fact that “the United States is giving much more than all of Europe” to Kyiv’s war effort.
According to the Kiel Institute of the World Economy, the U.S. has brought its total commitments in military, financial and humanitarian aid to over €52 billion, while EU countries and institutions have collectively reached just over €29 billion.
“The U.S. is now committing nearly twice as much as all EU countries and institutions combined. This is a meager showing for the bigger European countries, especially since many of their pledges are arriving in Ukraine with long delays,” said Christoph Trebesch, head of the team compiling the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine support tracker.
If the Republicans prevail in Tuesday’s vote, the anxiety is also that without U.S. leadership, Ukraine would slip down the policy agenda of Europe, too, depriving Ukraine of the backing the country needs for “victory over the Russian monster,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
If the worst happened and U.S. support weakens following the midterms, Klympush-Tsintsadze said she has some hopes that Europe would still stand firm. She has detected in Europe “much more sobriety in the assessment of what Russia is and what it can do, and I hope there would be enough voices there in Europe, too, to ensure there’s no weakening of support,” she said.
Others are less sanguine about how stout and reliable the Europeans would be without Washington goading and galvanizing. Several officials and lawmakers pointed to the Balkan wars of the 1990s and how the Clinton administration stood back, arguing the Europeans should take the lead only to have to intervene diplomatically and militarily later.
“We in Ukraine have been watching closely the developments in the USA and what configuration the Congress will have after the midterm elections,” said Iuliia Osmolovska, chair of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center and a senior fellow at GLOBSEC, a global think-tank headquartered in Bratislava.
“This might impact the existing determination of the U.S. political establishment to continue supporting Ukraine, foremost militarily. Especially given voices from some Republicans that call for freezing the support to Ukraine,” she said.
But Osmolovska remains hopeful, noting that “Ukraine has been enjoying bipartisan support in the war with Russia since the very first days of the invasion in February this year.” She also believes President Joe Biden would have wiggle room to act more independently when it comes to military assistance to Ukraine without seeking approval from Congress thanks to legislation already on the books.
But she doesn’t exclude “the risk of some exhaustion” from allies, arguing that Ukraine needs to redouble diplomacy efforts to prevent that from happening. What needs to be stressed, she said, is that “our Western partners only benefit from enabling Ukraine to defeat Russia as soon as possible” — as a protracted conflict is in no one’s interest.
“There’s a feeling in the air that we’re winning in the war, although it is far from over,” said Glib Dovgych, a software engineer in Kyiv.
“If the flow of money and equipment goes down, it won’t mean our defeat, but it will mean a much longer war with much higher human losses. And since many other allies are looking at the U.S. in their decisions to provide support to us, if the U.S. decreases the scale of their help, other countries like Germany, France and Italy would probably follow suit,” Dovgych said.
Yaroslav Azhnyuk, president and co-founder of Petcube, a technology company that develops smart devices for pets, says “it’s obvious that opinions on how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine are being used for internal political competition within the U.S.”
He worries about the influence on American political opinion also of U.S.-based entrepreneurs and investors, mentioning David Sacks, Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya, among others. “They have publicly shared concerning views, saying that Ukraine should cede Crimea to Russia, or that the U.S. should stop supporting Ukraine to avoid a global nuclear war.”
Azhnyuk added: “I get it, nukes are scary. But what happens in the next 5-10 years after Ukraine cedes any piece of its territory or the conflict is frozen. Such a scenario would signal to the whole world that nuclear terrorism works.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that regardless of the results of the U.S. midterms, Kyiv is “confident” that bipartisan support for Ukraine will remain in both chambers of the Congress. Both the Republicans and Democrats have voiced their solidarity with Ukraine, and this stance would remain “a reflection of the will of the American people,” he said.
The Ukrainian side counts on America’s leadership in important issues of defense assistance, in particular in expanding the capacity of the Ukrainian air defense system, financial support, strengthening sanctions against Moscow, and recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, Podolyak told POLITICO.
And this isn’t just about Ukraine, said Klympush-Tsintsadze, the former deputy premier.
“Too many things in the world depend on this war,” she said. “It’s not only about restoring our territorial integrity. It’s not only about our freedom and our chance for the future, our survival as a nation and our survival as a country — it will have drastic consequences for the geopolitics of the world,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
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Jamie Dettmer and Sergei Kuznetsov
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