Category: All News

According to a recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a growing number of US adults have doubts about President Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s ability to effectively perform the duties required of a US president. Source: https://apnorc.org/projects/many-are-concerned-about-bidens-mental-fitness-and-job-performance/

washington —  Civil liberties declined globally for the 18th consecutive year in 2023, with conflict and flawed elections the biggest factors, a new report has found. Political rights and civil liberties deteriorated for more than one-fifth of the population, the non-profit group Freedom House found. And only one-fifth of the 210 countries and territories the research group analyzed was found to be “free.” Released on Thursday, the Freedom in the World report assesses political rights and civil liberties, then ranks…

  STOCKHOLM – Two of Sweden’s largest property companies on Feb 27 announced multi-billion-crown write-downs in their 2023 results, dealing fresh blows to their beaten-down shares, even though both voiced hopes the worst is over for Europe’s property rout. Heimstaden’s preferential shares dropped more than 30 per cent after Fitch cut its credit rating deeper into so-called “junk” territory and the company said it would defer hybrid bond interest payments. SBB shares fell more than 4 per cent. For years,…

Barclays (BARC.L), opens new tab has agreed to sell about $1.1 billion of credit card debt in the United States to Blackstone. Banks globally have been making greater use of credit risk transfers to shed risk from loan portfolios, Reuters has reported, with investors sharing the risk of losses. (See Corporate home buyouts: homelessness, mortgage & rent crisis rising) Barclays’ investment bank acted as an advisor to Blackstone on the transaction. (Reuters)  Blackstone’s investment has been made through insurance accounts managed…

The Pentagon’s inspector general said its criminal investigators have opened more than 50 cases related to aid provided to Ukraine, including some involving contractors, but have yet to firm up any allegations. The investigations, which are at different stages, are looking at issues including “procurement fraud, product substitution, theft, fraud or corruption, and diversion,” the inspector general, Robert Storch, said in a briefing Thursday. “We have not substantiated any such allegations, though that may well change in the future,” he…

ROME — Italy’s parliament has approved the planned acquisition of two new FREMM frigates with updated electronics and 132 combat-version Leopard tanks as well as 140 other tank versions. The new buys, approved Feb. 21 by the parliament’s defense commission, are part of a uptick in Italian military spending partly spurred by the Ukraine conflict. Italy has previously ordered 10 FREMM frigates; the latest orders, dubbed FREMM EVO, will take the fleet to 12. Italy has already taken delivery of…

Madrid — There was a time when activists and journalists who wanted to evade the ever-listening ear of the Cuban government spoke in code or had to meet in European embassies. The arrival of internet and encrypted messaging services offered some respite. But as quickly as technological advances made communicating and reporting on Cuba’s government easier, Havana found ways to disrupt or block messages. Cuba’s independent journalists run a cat-and-mouse game with the government to make sure their phones do…

  Thermal battery maker Antora Energy on Feb 22 said it has raised US$150 million (S$201.5 million) in a funding round led by a tie-up between the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock and Singapore state investment firm Temasek. The BlackRock-Temasek partnership, called, Decarbonization Partners, led an investor group including Emerson Collective, GS Futures, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and top global miner BHP’s venture capital unit. The fresh financing for the start-up will underpin an increase in…

In a significant legal move, authorities in the United States have brought charges against the head of a prominent Japanese criminal organization, accusing him of orchestrating a scheme to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar, with the intended destination being Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Takeshi Ebisawa, aged 60, stands accused alongside his associate, Somphop Singhasiri, aged 61, of engaging in a range of illicit activities, including drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and the illicit trade of nuclear substances. Anne Milgram, Director of…

ROME — Italy’s Fincantieri and UAE group EDGE have agreed to create a Abu Dhabi-based joint venture to build and sell naval vessels to non-NATO countries, the firms said Tuesday. The JV, which will be 51% owned by EDGE but run by Fincantieri managers, will aim to take advantage of the UAE’s relations with other states and the export credit financing it offers. The venture “will be awarded prime rights to non-NATO orders, especially leveraging on the attractiveness of UAE…

Under a repressive new act, British nationals could face prison for undermining London’s national security line. Intended to destroy WikiLeaks and others exposing war crimes, the law is a direct threat to critical national security journalism. It was the afternoon of May 17 2023 and I had just arrived at London’s Luton Airport. I was on my way to the city of birth to visit my family. Before landing, the pilot instructed all passengers to have their passports ready for…

JERUSALEM: Israel has imposed financial restrictions on the main UN agency providing aid in the Gaza Strip, a measure which prevented a shipment of food for 1.1 million Palestinians from reaching the war-battered enclave, the agency’s director said Friday. The restrictions deepened a crisis between Israel and UNRWA, whose operations have been threatened following Israeli accusations that some of its workers participated in the October 7 attack that triggered Israel’s war in Gaza. Those accusations have led major donor nations,…

ISLAMABAD: Independents backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan won the most seats in Pakistan’s election on Friday after results from over half the constituencies were announced, leaving political parties trailing. Almost 24 hours have passed since the close of polls and the results have been unusually delayed, which the government ascribed to the suspension of mobile phone services – a security measure ahead of Thursday’s election. Of the 136 seats counted by 1045 GMT from 235 contested, independent…

A leaked recording obtained by investigator and writer Sasha Latypova features an executive at the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca stating the following: It wasn’t a surprise to me when I got a call on February 4th from the Defense Department here in the US saying that the newly discovered Sars-2 virus posed a national security threat. This is an astonishing, major-newspaper headline-worthy revelation. But here’s what was happening on February 4, 2020: Virus Activity in the US According to CNN, on…

A former CIA software engineer was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday after his convictions for what the government described as the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history and for possession of child sexual abuse images and videos. The bulk of the sentence imposed on Joshua Schulte, 35, in Manhattan federal court came for an embarrassing public release of a trove of CIA secrets by WikiLeaks in 2017. He has been jailed since 2018. “We will…

Two Army Cyber Command officials worked to get an employee fired following his reporting of misconduct and subsequent participation in investigations, the Pentagon’s inspector general found in a report published Wednesday. The IG recommends that the employee be reinstated to his job with backpay, while the Defense Department officials involved “receive appropriate action.” For one of them, that means just a note in his personnel file, as he retired before the investigation began. “It is important to encourage personnel, at…