Friday, March 29

Author: Michael Kitching

Fallen Car Magnate Ghosn Wants to Get Rid of Renault Shares
Business, News

Fallen Car Magnate Ghosn Wants to Get Rid of Renault Shares

Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Renault and Nissan, is no longer a shareholder in Nissan and also wants to get rid of his Renault shares. He let us know now that the reissue of his memoirs is being published.   According to Ghosn, the alliance between the car companies Nissan/Mitsubishi and Renault is not going well because of a power struggle between the groups. He gives that as the reason that he wants to get rid of his Renault shares. But he can't cash out quickly because the French government has seized the shares due to a tax investigation. It is unclear how many shares Renault Ghosn still has. The fallen car magnate has lived in Beirut since his spectacular escape from Japan in late 2019, where he was detained on suspicion of fraud. Ghosn is accused of, among other things, mi...
Polish Region No Longer LBGT Free Zone
Europe, News, Poland

Polish Region No Longer LBGT Free Zone

A Polish region has withdrawn a resolution against "LGBT ideology" after pressure from the EU. The regional parliament of Święty Krzyż decided to delete the statement from 2019.   In Poland, dozens of cities and areas have declared themselves 'LGBT-free zones'. That abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The European Commission, the day-to-day management of the EU, finds this discriminatory and threatens to take measures. The commission has warned regions that subsidies could be frozen if they stick to their anti-LGBT policies. The head of Święty Krzyż's regional administration said Brussels has explained that it is contrary to European treaties to "mark areas, companies or services to be LGBT-free".
Chinese Real Estate Giant Evergrande Tries to Calm Things Down: We Have Agreed to Pay Off Debt
Business, China, News

Chinese Real Estate Giant Evergrande Tries to Calm Things Down: We Have Agreed to Pay Off Debt

Chinese real estate giant Evergrande says it has an agreement with investors to repay interest owed. The deadline for that refund was tomorrow. Evergrande is on the brink of bankruptcy, and that is weighing on the stock markets worldwide.   Financial markets have plummeted on fears that the Chinese concern could collapse, threatening to derail the world's second-largest economy. In a statement to the stock exchange of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Evergrande affiliate Hengda says a plan has been negotiated to pay the interest owed on its 2025 bond. That deadline expires typically tomorrow, September 23. According to Bloomberg News, this concerns an amount of 232 million yuan or 30.5 million euros. Small beer compared to the total debt mountain of 260 billion euros that th...
Number of Koalas Living in the Wild has Shrunk Significantly in Three Years
News

Number of Koalas Living in the Wild has Shrunk Significantly in Three Years

Australia's koalas are in bad shape. The population has shrunk significantly in the past three years, the Australian Koala Foundation (AFK) reports after its own research.   According to the non-profit organization, this is the result of drought, forest fires and felling of trees. Australia is currently estimated to have between 32,000 and 58,000 koalas. In 2018 there were more than 80,000. The decrease is most significant in the state of New South Wales, at 41 percent. The estimate of the AFK is therefore considerably lower than the 300,000 koalas that scientists still assumed in 2016. Because koalas are usually high in the trees and move little, they are easy to miss, making reliable counts difficult. The chairman of AFK describes the new figures as "dramatic" and believes that ...
India to Start Exporting Coronavirus Vaccines Again This Year
India, News

India to Start Exporting Coronavirus Vaccines Again This Year

India will resume exports of corona vaccines this year. The Asian country is the largest producer of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide but stopped sharing the resources in April due to the enormous corona outbreak among its own population.   The first doses are sent in October, November or December, while the production capacity is further increased. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya says all vaccines not needed domestically will be exported. India prioritizes delivery to neighbouring countries and countries receiving vaccines through the Covax program. India wants to have its own adult population vaccinated by December. 64 percent of all adults have had their first corona jab. 22 percent are fully vaccinated. The vaccination campaign is getting better and better because more vaccines ar...
England Gets New Travel Policy Due to High Vaccination Rate
News, UK

England Gets New Travel Policy Due to High Vaccination Rate

The British government will "simplify" the travel policy for travellers to and from England because of the large number of people who have been vaccinated.   The measures should ensure lower costs, Transport Minister Grant Shapps reports. What that exactly means is not yet clear. The details will be announced later on Friday. Colleague Sajid Javid, the health minister, implied that cheaper rapid tests might replace the mandatory PCR tests before departure abroad. He did so when asked about it. Shapps wrote in a short announcement on Twitter that "the high vaccination rate that keeps us all safe should be taken advantage of". Government statistics say that more than 80 percent of the UK population aged 16 and over has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Of the over 16s, 90 perc...
Pope Does Not Fire Archbishop Over Suspicion of Concealing Abuse
News

Pope Does Not Fire Archbishop Over Suspicion of Concealing Abuse

Pope Francis does not accept the resignation of the Archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Hesse, and asks him to continue his work "in the spirit of reconciliation and service to God".   Hesse had tendered his resignation in March after being accused in an investigative report of negligent conduct in multiple reports of child abuse in the Catholic Church. He denies these allegations. Hesse says he is aware that "it will not be easy to continue my work". The allegations come from when Hesse was not yet an archbishop, but when he was still working for the Archdiocese of Cologne. It concerned eleven incidents in which, for example, he had not passed on reports of abuse. On the day the report came out, Hesse denied the allegations but tendered his resignation anyway. He said he was doing this...
Formula 1 Team Aston Martin Wants to Continue with Vettel for Years to Come
News, Sports

Formula 1 Team Aston Martin Wants to Continue with Vettel for Years to Come

Aston Martin's Formula 1 team wants to continue for years with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.   The contract of the 34-year-old German driver, who came over from Ferrari at the end of last year, will expire after this season. However, both parties have been discussing the future for some time now. "We are very happy with Sebastian," said Lawrence Stroll, the wealthy Canadian owner of the stable. "We are committed to continuing with him next year and beyond." However, Vettel is in no rush to re-sign for the time being. The German is in twelfth place in the World Cup with 35 points. The 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 world champions (all achieved at Red Bull) came second in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. However, he also often finished outside the points. Vettel forms the driver...
New York Stocks Higher After Recent Price Declines
Business, News, US

New York Stocks Higher After Recent Price Declines

Stock markets in New York opened higher on Monday, after the recent declines in the US leading indicators. Bargain hunters seem to be hitting Wall Street.   Apple managed to recover from Friday's minus when the stock was lowered due to a setback in a legal dispute with computer game company Epic Games. The Dow-Jones index rose 0.6 percent shortly after the start at 34,815 points. The broad S&P 500 also rose 0.6 percent to 4487 points, and the technology gauge Nasdaq gained 0.5 percent to 15,186 points. Apple advanced 1.2 percent. The tech group lost 3.3 percent in market value on Friday. A judge ruled in a case brought by Epic, the maker of the popular game Fortnite, that Apple must allow developers to use their own payment systems outside of the company's App Store. This dire...
US President Biden calls Chinese President Xi: US Attitude is the Cause of Problems
China, News, US

US President Biden calls Chinese President Xi: US Attitude is the Cause of Problems

US President Biden has called his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time in more than 6 months. However, during that one and a half-hour conversation, they mainly talked about their - complicated - relationship.   This has been done almost entirely over the telephone or the internet for almost 2 years now. It had been more than six months since the two presidents had spoken, their first phone call being around the Chinese New Year, shortly after Biden took office. According to US sources, Biden took the initiative because lower-level talks on global warming and other thorny issues had failed to produce any breakthroughs. The main theme of the telephone conversation was Sino-American relations. They have been in the doldrums for several years since Biden's predecessor Tr...