The US Justice Department indicted two companies based in China and Taiwan and three individuals saying they conspired to steal trade secrets from US semiconductor company Micron relating to its research and development of memory storage devices. Source: Al Jazeera
Information Technology
A Japanese digital currency exchange has been hacked, and 6.7 billion yen ($60 million) worth of cryptocurrencies are gone. Source: The New York Times
Google says it has disabled dozens of YouTube channels and other accounts linked to an Iranian state broadcaster that it said was running a political influence campaign. Source: Radio Free Europe
Google was fined 4.3 billion euros ($5 billion) by the European Union and ordered to change the way it puts search and web browser apps on Android mobile devices, setting a global record for antitrust penalties. Source: Bloomberg
Apple launched a new $100bn share buyback scheme and lifted its dividend by 16 per cent, as it reported a 30 per cent jump in earnings and issued a confident outlook for iPhone sales in spite of concerns of a slowdown. Source: Financial Times
Cheaper Japanese cars and European cheese are on the way as the EU’s trade agreement after the European Commission announced on April 18 that it had cleared the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement with Tokyo. Source: New Europe
Russia’s state communications regulator on Tuesday said it had blocked IP addresses owned by Google and Amazon, saying they were being used by the Telegram messaging service which Moscow moved to ban this week. Source: CNBC
Cassandre Fristot, 34, was photographed at the demonstration in the city of Metz on August 7 holding a sign scrawled with the surnames of several well-known figures from politics, business and the media labelled “traitors!!!” Source France24
Authorities said the suspects, allegedly linked to the far-right extremist group “Berserker-Clan,” had talked about “an armed uprising” against German institutions. Police said on Wednesday they have searched 14 premises across Germany that are allegedly linked to far-right extremist groups. Source DW
The Italian Coalition for Freedom and Civil Rights (CILD) has reported that between 2018 and 2021, nearly €44 million were spent by private agencies to manage ten Centers for Residence and Repatriation (CPR) for migrants in Italy — a sign that detention has become a “very profitable sector” in Italy, according to CILD. Source Info Migrants
Joint Serbian-Hungarian border police patrols started on Friday (October 15) to increase surveillance along the border and to intensify the fight against irregular immigration.
The interior ministers of Serbia and Hungary, Aleksandar Vulin and Sandor Pinter, on Friday inspected joint Serbian-Hungarian border patrols at the Horgos-Razske crossing. The patrols started Friday morning to bulk up border control and step up the fight against irregular immigration. Source InfoMigrants
Israel has approved a budget of some 5 billion shekels ($1.5 billion) to be used to prepare the military for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear program, Channel 12 reported Monday. Source Times of Israel
- The Chinese military on Sunday condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week.
- It said they were threatening peace and stability in the region.
- China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei. Source CNBC
Police on Monday started the operation to clear protestors against the obligation to have the Green Pass COVID-19 health certificate to access all Italian places of work from a section of the port of Trieste. Source ANSA
After a successful launch to the new Chinese Space Station earlier this year and the initial 90-day “shakedown cruise” of the Shenzhou 12 crew, three taikonauts launched to the station aboard the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft to begin the first long-duration stay aboard.
Shenzhou 13 launched atop a Chang Zheng 2F (CZ-2F) rocket at 16:23 UTC (00:23 local time on Saturday), from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, in north-central China. Source Nasa
Port workers in Trieste – the seventh-largest port in Europe for handling goods and the leading oil terminal in the Mediterranean – have announced a total block of operations starting Friday in protest against the national health pass mandate for all workers. The move could also impact several other logistical hubs throughout the country. Source Euractiv
Too many asylum seekers are staying in emergency accommodation next to the Ter Apel registration centre and urgent action is needed, local councillors have told broadcaster RTV Noord. The emergency housing – large white tents – has space for 125 people but more people than that stay there on a regular basis, local officials say. Source Dutch News
China’s President Xi Jinping has said that “reunification” with Taiwan “must be fulfilled”, as heightened tensions over the island continue. Mr Xi said unification should be achieved peacefully, but warned that the Chinese people had a “glorious tradition” of opposing separatism. Source BBC
The chaos in gas and electricity markets is set to hit one group of people the hardest this winter: the four million households that use prepayment meters (PPMs).
While most people pay their bills monthly for energy they have already used, PPMs require people to pay for energy before they use it. PPMs take whatever money is in the meter and supply energy to the household. Source Open Democracy
Russia’s Gazprom has damped hopes for additional gas exports to Europe next month as the continent struggles with record prices, despite recent hints from President Vladimir Putin that more could be forthcoming.
UK and European gas prices surged as much as 18 per cent on Monday after a keenly awaited pipeline capacity auction showed no increase from Russia either through the Ukrainian pipeline system or lines passing via Poland to north-west Europe. Source FT
As of Sunday, the national price of a litre of Diesel was €1.555, according to the European motor association ADAC. This is just above the previous record price of €1.554 per litre set on August 26th, 2012. Source The Local
French ministers floated the possibility of petrol vouchers for low-income households on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government seeks to limit the damage from surging energy prices to his economic record six months from a presidential election. Source France24
Skoda started a two-week cut in output on Monday as the Czech brand contends with the global shortage of chips and other components, the company said. The Volkswagen Group unit wants to complete 10,000 unfinished cars during the outage, which will leave only one production line running, a spokesman said. Source Automotive News
“What is happening today in the energy markets of Europe is, to a certain extent, a man-made result of short-sighted policy,” the Russian President added Source TASS
India is facing an impending energy crisis as several states saw coal-fired power plants shut down due to a coal shortage. Major cities such as the capital New Delhi experienced electricity cuts that ran for hours over the weekend. Source DW
India is grappling with an escalating crisis as stockpiles of coal, the fuel used to generate about 70% of the nation’s electricity, dwindle to the lowest in years just as power demand is set to surge. Source EconomicTimes
Soaring gas prices are forecast to drive a switch to oil and put more energy suppliers in Britain out of business, while industry groups called on Thursday for government action to ensure there is no supply interruption this winter. Source GCaptain
- November contracts at the Dutch TTF hub — a European benchmark for natural gas — were trading at around 118 euros per megawatt hour (MWH) just after midday in London.
- The front-month contract has risen almost 400% since the start of the year.
- Several British energy suppliers have collapsed amid the gas price crisis. September alone reportedly saw nine companies cease trading.
- In recent weeks, governments in Spain, Italy, Greece, and France have taken drastic actions to minimize the impact of wholesale price rises on consumers. Source CNBC
EU environment ministers are set to discuss speculation in the bloc’s carbon market as part of a debate on high energy prices on Wednesday, with Poland and Spain pushing for curbs.
“We urgently need to reduce the influence of financial market participants on ETS allowance prices,” said the Polish government in a note to the ministers ahead of the meeting. Source Montel
