Category: Євросоюз

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized Bitcoin, Facebook’s proposed Libra digital coin and other cryptocurrencies and demanded that companies seek a banking charter and make themselves subject to U.S. and global regulations if they wanted to “become a bank.” “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump wrote on Twitter.”If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International,” …

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An expanded alliance between Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG that includes a partnership in Ford self-driving unit Argo AI could redraw the balance of power in autonomous vehicles. A Ford-VW collaboration with Argo, the Pittsburgh-based startup that has spearheaded Ford’s self-driving development since 2017, could help reduce the engineering and financial burdens on each automaker. It could also accelerate the deployment timetables of both, which have said they plan to put autonomous vehicles into operation in 2021. Argo has been overlooked as Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving subsidiary, has deployed its robo-vans, and General Motors Co.’s Cruise Automation subsidiary has …

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Violence against girls in Mexico by members of their own family has increased sharply in recent years, rising by nearly a third from 2010 to 2014 alone, a UNICEF report said Thursday. Girls suffer far more violence, rape, harassment and abuse at home than boys in Mexico, said Christian Skoog, a representative for UNICEF, the United Nation’s children’s agency, in Mexico.  UNICEF’s report on violence against Mexican children found that about 18,000 girls had suffered family abuse in 2010, but by 2014 the number jumped to about 24,000.  About 1 in 5 girls ages 15 to 17 — almost 700,000 …

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Amazon will spend more than $700 million to provide additional training to about one-third of its U.S. workforce. Amazon, which like other companies has struggled to find technically qualified U.S. employees, said it will provide its workers with the skills to transition into software engineering positions and technical roles.   The Seattle company said Thursday that its U.S. workforce will hit 300,000 this year. It has more than 630,000 employees worldwide.   Amazon.com Inc. has been criticized by labor groups and some politicians, including presidential candidates, over what they see as substandard working conditions. …

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The Democratic presidential field continues to shift as one candidate dropped out this week and another joined an already crowded group hoping to oust President Donald Trump from office next year. At the top of the field, former Vice President Joe Biden remains the leading contender but finds himself fending off increasingly strong challenges from two senators—Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.  And 2016 contender Senator Bernie Sanders continues to lurk in the top tier, offering liberal voters one of several candidates to choose from. The latest to join the Democratic race is billionaire liberal activist Tom …

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Japan says its deep space probe has successfully landed on a distant asteroid and collected samples that scientists hope will unveil the clues about the origin of the solar system. Officials with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency jubilantly announced Thursday that data from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft confirmed the probe had resumed hovering over the Ryugu asteroid after briefly landing inside a crater and collecting underground material.  The crater was formed back in April after the Hayabusa2 fired a 2-kilogram copper projectile into the surface. The probe arrived at Ryugu just over a year ago after a three-and-a-half year journey that …

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The Islamic State terror group is adapting to the loss of its self-declared territorial caliphate by returning to its origins and becoming once again a more local, Iraq-focused insurgency, and is recruiting in remote border areas in Iraq’s western desert. But it still harbors ambitions to strike in the West, warn European officials and analysts. Britain’s Security Minister Ben Wallace on Thursday warned that Islamic State and rival jihadists in al-Qaida remain a serious threat to the West. Exploiting the internet and social media platforms, IS can still recruit Westerners, and if not organize attacks itself at least inspire adherents …

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U.S. President Donald Trump will host Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, at the White House on July 22 for official talks aimed at “creating conditions” for an “enduring partnership” and cooperation to secure a peaceful South Asia.     The White House said Wednesday that that the two leaders would discuss such issues as counterterrorism, defense, energy and trade.     Peace efforts in Afghanistan are expected to be high on the agenda.     “The visit will focus on strengthening cooperation between the United States and Pakistan to bring peace, stability and economic prosperity to a region that has seen far too …

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A former oilfield worker camp off a dirt road in rural Texas has become the U.S. government’s newest holding center for detaining migrant children after they leave Border Patrol stations, where complaints of overcrowding and filthy conditions have sparked a worldwide outcry. Inside the wire fence that encircles the site are soccer fields, a giant air-conditioned tent that serves as a dining hall, and trailers set up for use as classrooms and as places where children can call their families. The long trailers once used to house workers in two-bedroom suites have been converted into 12-person dorms, with two pairs …

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A former Caribbean soccer official has been ordered to pay a $79 million penalty stemming from the FIFA bribery scandal. A federal judge in New York City imposed the judgment against Jack Warner in a lawsuit brought by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. The 2017 suit accused Warner of embezzling millions of dollars from the soccer association. It said he arranged kickbacks in connection with broadcasting rights for regional tournaments. The civil allegations mirrored ones in a U.S. criminal investigation that has resulted in convictions of several top soccer officials. Warner is still fighting extradition …

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Ask about Jeffrey Epstein on St. Thomas and rooms go quiet. Some people leave. Those who share stories speak in barely audible tones. The 66-year-old billionaire bought Little St. James Island off this U.S. Caribbean territory more than two decades ago and began to transform it — clearing the native vegetation, ringing the property with towering palm trees and planting two massive U.S. flags on either end. When guides took scuba divers to spots near the island, security guards would walk to the water’s edge. It was off-putting to residents of St. Thomas — a lush tropical island east of …

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A White House initiative spearheaded by Ivanka Trump to help women in developing countries get ahead economically is announcing its first batch of grants, $27 million for 14 projects in 22 countries, mostly in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was launched in February with an initial investment of $50 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development. A little more than half of that amount, $27 million, went to an “incentive” fund for partnerships with private businesses and other partners. The first 14 projects receiving a share of that $27 million were …

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A U.S. court ruling that it is unconstitutional for President Donald Trump to block critics on Twitter has reignited criticism of politicians who ban detractors from their social media accounts.  A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled unanimously Tuesday that because Trump’s Twitter account is a “public forum,” he can’t block users who disagree with him. Since the earliest days of his administration, Trump has used Twitter to make on-the-fly policy, lash out at his critics and voice his opinion on virtually every subject. To many, his Twitter page has become the face of …

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Brazilian mining giant Vale SA has been hit with its first conviction for a rupture of a containment dam that sent a tidal wave of mining waste through a rural community, killing nearly 300 people in January. A state court announced the conviction in a statement posted on its website Tuesday. Judge Elton Pupo Nogueira ordered Vale to pay for repairing “all the damages caused by the tragedy.” He did not set a specific amount for the company to pay, but said the costs will be related to the deaths as well as damage to the environment and local economy. …

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The Trump administration is urging Turkey to stop oil-and-gas drilling off the coast of the divided island of Cyprus. “This provocative step raises tensions in the region,” the State Department said late Tuesday. “We continue to believe the island’s oil-and-gas reserves, like all of its resources, should be equitably shared between both communities in the context of an overall settlement.” There has been no comment so far from Turkey which sent a drilling ship to the Mediterranean off Cyprus Monday, sparking a protest by the Greek Cypriots. Cyprus has been split between a Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south …

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The United States hopes to enlist allies over the next two weeks or so in a military coalition to safeguard strategic waters off Iran and Yemen, where Washington blames Iran and Iran-aligned fighters for attacks, the top U.S. general said Tuesday. Under the plan, which has only been finalized in recent days, the United States would provide command ships and lead surveillance efforts for the military coalition. Allies would patrol waters near those U.S. command ships and escort commercial vessels with their nation’s flags. Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, articulated those details to …

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The Justice Department can’t replace nine lawyers so late in the dispute over whether to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census without explaining why they are doing so, a judge said Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman, who earlier this year ruled against adding the citizenship question, put the brakes on the government’s plans a day after he was given a three-paragraph notification by the Justice Department along with a prediction that the replacement of lawyers won’t “cause any disruption in this matter.” “Defendants provide no reasons, let alone `satisfactory reasons,’ for the substitution of counsel,” Furman …

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The powerful Mojave Desert earthquakes that rocked California ended a years-long lull in major seismic activity and raised new interest in an early warning system being developed for the West Coast. The ShakeAlert system is substantially built in California and overall is about 55% complete, with much of the remaining installation of seismic sensor stations to be done in the Pacific Northwest, said Robert de Groot of the U.S. Geological Survey. Areas that have the appropriate number of sensors include Southern California, San Francisco Bay Area and the Seattle-Tacoma region, de Groot said. The system does not predict earthquakes. Rather, …

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday the extradition bill that sparked the territory’s biggest political crisis in decades was dead, admitting that the government’s work on the bill had been a “total failure.” The bill, which would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China to face trial, sparked huge and at times violent street protests and plunged the former British colony into turmoil. In mid-June, Lam responded to huge protests by suspending the bill, but on Tuesday she said “there are still lingering doubts about the government’s sincerity or worries whether the government …

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People packed the decks of the Japanese whale-watching boat, screaming in joy as a pod of orcas put on a show: splashing tails at each other, rolling over, and leaping out of the water. In Kushiro, just 160 kilometers south of Rausu, where the four dozen people laughed and cheered, boats were setting off on Japan’s first commercial whale hunt in 31 years. Killed that day were two minke whales, which the boats in Rausu also search for glimpses of – a situation that whale-watching boat captain Masato Hasegawa confessed had him worried. “They won’t come into this area – …

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