Tag: Region US

Last week, Nasdaq said that it would delist shares of the corporate majors unless they appeal to a Listing Qualifications Hearings Panel. It added that the securities will remain halted and unavailable to trade until any appeal is resolved. A similar decision was announced last week by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in relation to CIAN, a Russian tech firm that runs a classifieds portal. The company said it would appeal the ruling by submitting a written request to the NYSE’s Committee of the Board of Directors.  Delistings can be suspended if an appeal is filed before a written decision is made by the commission. According to the rules of the exchange, the hearing must be held within 45 days of receiving the request by the company. Trading in the securities of a number of companies operating in Russia was halted on February 28, 2022, after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine. The suspension triggered default clauses on the exchange bonds issued by Yandex and Ozon.

Yandex first went public on the Nasdaq in 2011, via a parent holding company registered in the Netherlands. This was followed by a secondary listing on the Moscow Exchange three years later. The company’s shares hit a record high in November 2021, when its market cap amounted to $31 billion. Ozon raised around $1 billion in its initial public offering in late 2020, a debut that sparked an IPO boom for the Russian corporate sector. 

China lambasted the latest steps taken by the UK and US to supply conventionally-armed but nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, in a diplomatic broadside circulated overnight among international atomic envoys.

Beijing’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Li Song, said the Aukus agreement will undercut global efforts to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear fuel and open new proliferation pathways for other countries. Iran and South Korea are among nations that have also explored obtaining nuclear-powered submarines, and Brazil has already committed to building a fleet.

“If the Aukus partners insist on taking their own course, it is inevitable that some other countries will follow suit, which may eventually lead to the collapse of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime,” China wrote in the statement circulated in Vienna late Tuesday.

China published its criticism during President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Moscow.

The Chinese government pushed back Wednesday against U.S. officials’ criticisms of President Xi Jinping meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was pressed by a reporter for response to remarks made by U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby previously admonished China’s claim to desire peace in the region, stating that China was simply parroting Russian talking points.

“I have noted the remarks by Mr. Kirby you just quoted,” Wang told the reporter Wednesday. “He also claimed that China’s position on the Ukraine issue cannot be seen as impartial. We would like to point out that China is neither the one that created the Ukraine crisis nor a party to the crisis; still less has China provided weaponry to any party to the conflict.”

“We have no selfish agenda on the Ukraine issue. We did not stand by, nor did we add fuel to the fire, or exploit the situation for selfish gain. All that we have done boils down to supporting talks for peace,” Wang continued.

The United States has offered Slovakia 12 new military helicopters as compensation for the MiG-29 fighter jets the European country is giving to Ukraine, Slovakia’s defense minister said Wednesday.

Under the offer, Slovakia would pay $340 million for the Bell AH-1Z attack choppers in a deal worth about $1 billion that also includes 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles and training, Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said.

U.S. foreign military financing would cover the other $660 million, he said. The European Union also would send Slovakia 200 million euros ($213 million) in additional compensation, Nad said.

The Slovak government still needs to accept the offer.

Last week, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen announced that his government could corroborate a report by the Russian gas giant Gazprom, the operator of the undersea pipeline, about a strange object found near Nord Stream 2. The company sent pictures of the item to Danish authorities, while the Russian government made a formal inquiry through its embassy, the minister said. Copenhagen treats the discovery seriously and will investigate further, Rasmussen pledged at the time.

The object was mentioned last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a TV interview. He said it was found during a Gazprom survey about 30 kilometers away from where the pipeline was breached. The device may be an antenna used in remotely detonating a charge, the president suggested, citing experts.

Moscow asked for permission to explore further, Putin added, necessary because the object is located in Denmark’s exclusive zone. Russia could organize a mission “on its own, jointly with [the Danes], or, better yet, with an international group of experts in explosives who are trained to work at such depth.” Rasmussen said such permission would not be granted, triggering a rebuke from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The railroad at the heart of the hazardous train crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border offered vague answers Monday about who agreed to burn the derailed cars carrying vinyl chloride.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw told the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee that a unified command team – led by a local fire chief in East Palestine, Ohio and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine – OK’d the “controlled release” plan on Feb. 6 to prevent a dangerous explosion that would have spread contaminants and deadly shrapnel across the region.

Majority Chairman Doug Mastriano, R-Chambersburg, questioned the use of “controlled” to describe the railroad’s decision to set the train cars on fire and watch plumes of smoke drift for miles over homes and farmland.

“You’re blaming it on a chief in East Palestine, correct?” he said. “So your cars are on fire, it’s your rail, it’s your incident and you’re going to leave it to a local fire chief who’s likley never had to deal with this before?”

Following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio (United States), on February 3, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as local and state agencies, have been monitoring water and air quality in the town. East Palestine residents continue to complain of symptoms such as headaches and shortness of breath and question official reports that chemical levels are low and safe.

“Residents have a disconnect between experiencing some symptoms and being told that everything was fine,” said Ivan Rusyn, director of the Superfund Research Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, who has led research with other scientists to measure air quality in the town. For the researchers there is a lack of clear communication between the government and the residents of East Palestine

Three days after the accident, a 5km square area was evacuated and the chemicals the train was carrying, including vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, were drained into pits. The materials were then burned in a controlled burn to prevent an explosion, creating a black cloud that likely created acrolein and other byproducts.

In fact, weeks after the derailment, the EPA reported that slightly elevated levels of acrolein were detected in East Palestine, concentrations that have “returned to levels below the national average,” according to the same entity. (You may be interested in: Here we explain why some beaches are disappearing in Colombia).

According to the group of researchers from the University of Texas, it is necessary to analyze a broader set of chemicals, extending those that spilled during the derailment or those that were formed with the controlled burning. The group of researchers found that, in addition to acrolein, there would be higher concentrations of four other similar compounds in surrounding areas.

Rusyn insists that more sampling is needed, as the cleanup work will continue to excavate the contaminated soil, as well as aerate the stream water to extract the chemicals, something that could release more compounds into the air.

A federal court in the District of Columbia unsealed two indictments yesterday charging multiple defendants with violations of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) for their roles in separate schemes to procure and export U.S. technology to Iran between 2005 and 2013. In connection with this announcement, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated three of the defendants and four entities for their involvement in the procurement of equipment that supports Iran’s ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and weapons programs.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bowed to pressure from the opposition and agreed to allow his top aide to testify before a parliamentary committee probing alleged Chinese election interference, his office said on Tuesday.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called for Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, to speak in a parliamentary committee looking into the foreign election tampering.

The government had refused until the leader of the New Democrat Party, which supports Trudeau in key parliamentary votes, on Tuesday backed the Conservative call.

Demands for Telford’s testimony stem from allegations in unconfirmed media reports that Trudeau’s aides were made aware of specific Chinese interference attempts.

Trudeau says that China attempted to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 votes, but did not change the outcome. He has pointed to closed-door, bipartisan investigations that found attempted foreign interference was unsuccessful.

A new lawsuit accuses Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms Inc executives and directors of failing to do enough to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. The complaint made public late Monday by several pension and investment funds that own Meta stock said Meta’s leadership and board have failed to protect the company’s and shareholders’ interests by turning a blind eye to “systemic evidence” of criminal activity.

Given the board’s failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem, “the only logical inference is that the board has consciously decided to permit Meta’s platforms to promote and facilitate sex/human trafficking,” the complaint said. Meta rejected the basis for the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has long faced accusations that its platforms are a haven for sexual misconduct.

Contrary to the findings of the Ohio EPA (Ohio Environmental Protection Agency), an “independent environmental group” has found carcinogens in the water. According to the group and common scientific knowledge, “there is no level of carcinogen that is safe.” While independent experts have found such contamination, official agencies and contractors hired by Norfolk Southern found nothing, telling residents it was safe to return to their homes and even to drink the water.

The first lawsuit against JP Morgan, filed by an unnamed “Jane Doe” representing a group of the pedophile’s victims, argues the US-based bank “knowingly benefited from participating in a sex trafficking venture” led by Epstein, who was a client there from 1998 through 2013, and “negligently failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent physical harm.”  The US Virgin Islands’ own suit against JP Morgan alleges the bank enabled the late predator’s sex trafficking operation, though Judge Rakoff also threw out three of the four claims in that suit. 

Eight of the 12 claims from Doe’s lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, which took on Epstein as a client in 2013, even though he had been a registered sex offender since 2008, were also dismissed.  Rakoff’s decision allows the plaintiffs to pursue further pretrial discovery. Former JP Morgan CEO Jes Staley, a central figure in both lawsuits against the bank who resigned in 2021 over his links with Epstein, is reportedly due to be deposed later this week. Court filings show he exchanged over 1,200 emails with Epstein, with more than a few referencing young women. Last week, Rakoff tentatively scheduled trial dates for both JP Morgan cases for October 23.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced Russia’s readiness to switch to the yuan in foreign trade settlements with countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

He said this during the Russian-Chinese talks with the participation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, RBC reports.

Currently, the share of the yuan in Russia’s export calculations is about 16%.

“We are in favour of using the Chinese yuan in settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I am sure that these forms of payments in yuan will be developed between Russian partners and their colleagues in third countries,” Putin said.

According to [Putin], national currencies are already actively used in Russian-Chinese trade.

Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors landed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines last week in a move signaling increased defense efforts between the two countries.

During the exercise, U.S. pilots from the Alaska-based 525th Fighter Squadron joined aviators from the Philippine Air Force’s 5th Fighter Wing for low-altitude flyovers, air combat maneuvering, formation training, and, with help from a KC-135 Stratotanker, air-to-air refueling over the heavily contested South China Sea.

“This was the first time that F-22s, or any fifth-generation aircraft, have landed on and operated out of the Philippines,” Capt. Karl Schroeder, one of the Raptor pilots, said in a release. “This milestone with a regional ally aids in providing stability and security to the Indo-Pacific.”

Regional stability has become an increasingly glaring focus of the two militaries as threats continue to emerge out of Beijing. While the Philippine Constitution prohibits permanent basing of foreign troops, the two nations’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement does allow for an increased footprint of American forces by way of rotations to a handful of predetermined locations.

Florida companies Kingwood Orlando Reunion Resort LLC (Orlando Reunion) and Kingwood Crystal River Resort Corp. (Crystal River) have agreed to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) by knowingly providing false information in support of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application submitted by Crystal River.

Russia’s defence ministry has said a Russian Su-35 combat plane was scrambled over the Baltic Sea after two United States strategic bombers flew in the direction of the Russian border, but that the fighter jet returned to base after the US planes moved away from Russian territory. The encounter on Monday follows last week’s diplomatic furore following the crash of a US surveillance drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by two Russian Su-27 fighter jets in what was the first known direct military contact between Russia and the US since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said that the National Defence Control Centre of Russia’s Ministry of Defence identified the two US planes as B-52H strategic bombers. “On March 20, 2023, the radars of the air defence forces of the Western Military District on duty detected two air targets flying in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation over the Baltic Sea,” the ministry said, according to TASS. The Su-35 fighter was scrambled to prevent “a violation of the state border” by the US aircraft, the ministry said, adding that the aircraft reached a “designated air patrol area”. “After the foreign military aircraft moved away from the state border of the Russian Federation, the Russian plane returned to its home base,” the ministry said, adding that the Su-35 was strictly in line with international air law. “No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” the ministry said.