Tag: companies

California takes on oil companies again with law that could cap profits in state

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“We proved we can actually beat big oil,” Newsom said at a signing ceremony at the Capitol.
That victory came despite the industry deploying “30-plus lobbyists” to stymie the bill, he said.
The industry acknowledges the setbacks.
“I think what we’ve seen is the governor has put this industry in the crosshairs for a number of years now,” said Kevin Slage, a spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, the main lobbyist for the industry in Sacramento. “With a supermajority and the ability of governors to pull levers with legislators, it’s a tough policy environment for us for sure.”
Newsom has aggressively pursued an ambitious legislative climate agenda since last summer, winning praise from environmentalists who once lamented his hands-off approach and adding to executive orders phasing out gas-powered car sales and fracking. And he has regularly denounced oil companies for standing in his way. Last summer, he excoriated the companies for running ads that framed his push last summer as a matter of righteousness and “which side we’re on.”
“Big oil lost,” Newsom told an audience in New York after pushing the package through the Legislature, “and they’re not used to losing.”
He rode the momentum from those victories into a quest to curtail oil industry profits, announcing his plan before the bill-signing period ended. The proposal has evolved substantially, morphing from a windfall profits tax to a framework for the California Energy Commission to investigate earnings. But Newsom’s rhetoric remained the same: oil companies are ripping you off.
Newsom was uncharacteristically engaged with legislators throughout the process, visiting caucuses and speaking with members individually and in smaller groups. After legislators balked at Newsom’s initial idea, expressing fears it would backfire and raise prices, the administration agreed to language requiring the Energy Commission to ensure the benefits to consumers would outweigh harms.

That both assuaged legislators’ fears of unintended consequences and helped lawmakers feel they were being brought in rather than dragged along. A senior legislative staffer called Newsom’s tactic a “sea change” in his approach to the Legislature and a “very significant factor in how this got landed.”
“This is not something the governor is shoving down our throats,” Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) said on the Assembly floor.
Crafting that language took months. The revamped proposal then rocketed through the Legislature in less than two weeks as Newsom and Democrats sought to preempt a counteroffensive. Oil industry opponents protested that Newsom was rushing through an unvetted proposal that would harm consumers by distorting a complex industry. It didn’t matter.
“Fossil fuel obsolescence is on the horizon,” Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-Milpitas) told members.
That hasn’t always been the case. California’s proud environmentalist bent belies the political and economic might of in-state oil extractors and refiners. Industry groups spend millions of dollars to elect allies to the Legislature — often moderate Democrats — where the corridors teem with lobbyists who are tasked with thwarting legislation that hurts companies’ bottom line. The Western States Petroleum Association spent nearly $20 million on lobbying and campaigns in 2021 and 2022.
They have enlisted powerful political allies. That has meant hiring connected players like the former leader of moderate Democrats and California’s former oil and gas regulator. More crucially, the oil industry forged an alliance with a union umbrella group whose members work at refineries — a critical source of influence in a Capitol where organized labor holds significant sway.
Bills to slash emissions or require new oil wells be far from homes and schools could not overcome that opposition. Newsom’s intervention was decisive. Lawmakers revived the measures at the governor’s urging and pushed them to his desk.
“That is perhaps the most powerful political coalition in the state Capitol,” said Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), who has become a vocal critic of oil industry influence. “We’re only able to overcome that with the governor taking the lead and championing climate measures.”
Shifting voter views are also driving political dynamics. A decade ago, a plurality of California voters said strict environmental laws were too costly. By 2021, nearly two-thirds said they were worth the cost. Voters are more likely to call climate change a serious issue as annual wildfires have become more destructive. Both Newsom and the Legislature have taken advantage.
“The governor was more aggressive, and I think that inspired the Legislature to be more aggressive. While there’s allies in both parties to the oil industry, I think a lot of folks were hungry to get stuff done,” said former Assemblymember Cristina Garcia, who helped negotiate last year’s climate package. “The governor deserves some credit but I think here’s some other factors as well with the stars lining up politically so it doesn’t feel like you’re taking such a political hit.”
The money map is changing as well. The climate-focused Energy Foundation spent millions in Sacramento last year, putting it on the same plane as oil companies. The California Democratic Party now refuses oil money. The industry can still shower candidates with cash, but their resources increasingly run up against voter distaste with fossil fuel influence.
The shifting calculus for some lawmakers, Garcia said, has been from “’You’re going to come spend a bunch of money against me, and I could lose my seat” to “you’ll come spend a bunch of money against me and I won’t lose my seat, because the electorate rewards us for being bold.”
Several Democrats who benefited from millions of dollars in oil industry campaign spending voted for Newsom’s oil profits penalty. At the same time, a bloc of Assembly Democrats who were industry beneficiaries withheld their votes.
“A lot of those members rely on campaign support from big oil,” Muratsuchi said.
That support will likely continue. The industry could also undercut Newsom by passing a referendum overturning the oil well setbacks law. But the governor has helped shift the political dynamics around the oil industry, said former Sen. Fran Pavley, an architect of the state’s cap-and-trade system who is now the USC Schwarzenegger Institute’s environmental policy director.
“They are very influential in many parts of the state,” Pavley said, but “I think Gavin Newsom’s done a good job in getting the political wind changing.”
Lara Korte contributed to this report from Sacramento.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 29, 2023
Mahua Moitra takes potshots at govt over Adani issue, shell companies

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New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Monday took potshots at the government while sharing a Corporate Affairs Ministry’s two years old press release which stated that more than 2.38 lakh shell companies were identified between 2018 and 2021.
She tweeted the official statement while tagging it to her earlier tweet posted in the morning, where she had tagged a response to a Rajya Sabha question on shell companies, with the government saying that data regarding offshore shell companies owned by Indian citizens is “unavailable”.
The question was by MP John Brittas – who had asked for “details of offshore shell companies whose Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) are held by Indian citizens”.
In its reply, the government said: “It is submitted that an offshore shell company is not defined in the Acts administered by the Ministry of Finance. Data/details regarding offshore shell companies owned by Indian citizens is not available.”
Sharing both responses, Moitra tweeted: “Government identified 2,38,223 shell companies without any specific definition in law. Blinkers on only when it comes to Adani Group family shells in Mauritius!”
“How can the government take action against Adani? Finance Ministry does not know definition of shell firm! Written answer in RS says no clue, hence no action,” she tweeted, while sharing a picture of the proverbial “three wise monkeys” and tagging Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
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#Mahua #Moitra #takes #potshots #govt #Adani #issue #shell #companies
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 27, 2023
It’s not just TikTok: French also warn against WhatsApp, Instagram

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PARIS — In a typically French move, France’s top lawmakers are refusing to side with the United States and single out China’s TikTok.
This week, top members of France’s National Assembly strongly encouraged fellow MPs to “limit” their use of social media apps and messaging services, according to a damning internal email seen by POLITICO. The recommendation does include Chinese-owned TikTok — at the heart of a storm on both sides of the Atlantic — but also features American platforms such as Snap and Meta’s WhatsApp and Instagram, alongside Telegram, founded by Russian-born brothers, and Signal.
“Given the particular risks to which the exercise of their mandate exposes MPs using these applications, we wish to appeal to your extreme vigilance and recommend that you limit their use,” wrote Marie Guévenoux and Eric Woerth from Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party and Eric Ciotti from conservative Les Républicains.
France’s narrative of putting Chinese and American companies in the same basket is in stark contrast to moves by other European countries, including the Dutch government, which decided to target apps from countries that wage an “offensive cyber program” against the Netherlands, such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
But refusing to pick sides and follow the United States’ geopolitical lead is a long political tradition in France, which is often accused of anti-American bias. During the Cold War, French President Charles de Gaulle tried to position his country as an alternative between the U.S.’s capitalism and the Soviet Union’s communism.
“France has not mourned the loss of its power and is trying to resurrect the so-called third way, also carried by [European commissioner] Thierry Breton,” said Asma Mhalla, a tech geopolitics lecturer at Columbia University and Sciences Po. “This will serve as a political argument to put French sovereignty and French tech back on the table,” she added, arguing that the next step will likely be to promote French apps instead.
And indeed, the top lawmakers’ letter encourages members of parliament to use French software WIMI for project management and collaborative work.
Their main issue with foreign social media apps is that Chinese and American laws are extraterritorial. The personal data gathered via the platforms — including contacts, photos, videos, and both professional and personal documents — could be used by foreign intelligence services, they argued in their email.

During Macron’s tenure, France has fought tooth and nail against the U.S. Cloud Act, a piece of legislation that allows American authorities to seize data stored on American servers even if they’re located abroad. Paris has even come up with a specific set of rules for cloud services to try and shield European data from Washington’s extraterritorial reach.
In China, an intelligence law also requires domestic technology companies to hand over data to state authorities on subjects anywhere in the world.
“The U.S. are well aware that all their arguments used against TikTok — namely that Chinese law is extraterritorial — awkwardly echo what the Europeans have been reproaching them for some time,” said Mathilde Velliet, a researcher in tech geopolitics at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
“On the other hand,” she added, “the U.S. also believes they cannot be put on the same footing as China, because they’re a European ally with a different political and security relationship, and because it’s a democracy.”
Washington and EU capitals including Paris and Brussels also engage in dialogue on data security issues and cyber espionage, which is not the case with Beijing.
In the National Assembly’s corridors, however, the top lawmakers’ decision to call out foreign platforms from both the U.S. and China was very much welcome. “It’s all starting to look like a third way, which would be European sovereignty,” said Philippe Latombe, an MP from Macron’s allied party Modem. “And that’s good news.”
Océane Herrero contributed reporting.
This article has been updated.

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#TikTok #French #warn #WhatsApp #Instagram
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 23, 2023
What the hell is wrong with TikTok?

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Western governments are ticked off with TikTok. The Chinese-owned app loved by teenagers around the world is facing allegations of facilitating espionage, failing to protect personal data, and even of corrupting young minds.
Governments in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and across Europe have moved to ban the use of TikTok on officials’ phones in recent months. If hawks get their way, the app could face further restrictions. The White House has demanded that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, sell the app or face an outright ban in the U.S.
But do the allegations stack up? Security officials have given few details about why they are moving against TikTok. That may be due to sensitivity around matters of national security, or it may simply indicate that there’s not much substance behind the bluster.

TikTok’s Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew will be questioned in the U.S. Congress on Thursday and can expect politicians from all sides of the spectrum to probe him on TikTok’s dangers. Here are some of the themes they may pick up on:
1. Chinese access to TikTok data
Perhaps the most pressing concern is around the Chinese government’s potential access to troves of data from TikTok’s millions of users.
Western security officials have warned that ByteDance could be subject to China’s national security legislation, particularly the 2017 National Security Law that requires Chinese companies to “support, assist and cooperate” with national intelligence efforts. This law is a blank check for Chinese spy agencies, they say.
TikTok’s user data could also be accessed by the company’s hundreds of Chinese engineers and operations staff, any one of whom could be working for the state, Western officials say. In December 2022, some ByteDance employees in China and the U.S. targeted journalists at Western media outlets using the app (and were later fired).
EU institutions banned their staff from having TikTok on their work phones last month. An internal email sent to staff of the European Data Protection Supervisor, seen by POLITICO, said the move aimed “to reduce the exposure of the Commission from cyberattacks because this application is collecting so much data on mobile devices that could be used to stage an attack on the Commission.”
And the Irish Data Protection Commission, TikTok’s lead privacy regulator in the EU, is set to decide in the next few months if the company unlawfully transferred European users’ data to China.
Skeptics of the security argument say that the Chinese government could simply buy troves of user data from little-regulated brokers. American social media companies like Twitter have had their own problems preserving users’ data from the prying eyes of foreign governments, they note.
TikTok says it has never given data to the Chinese government and would decline if asked to do so. Strictly speaking, ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which TikTok argues would shield it from legal obligations to assist Chinese agencies. ByteDance is owned 20 percent by its founders and Chinese investors, 60 percent by global investors, and 20 percent by employees.
There’s little hope to completely stop European data from going to China | Alex Plavevski/EPA
The company has unveiled two separate plans to safeguard data. In the U.S., Project Texas is a $1.5 billion plan to build a wall between the U.S. subsidiary and its Chinese owners. The €1.2 billion European version, named Project Clover, would move most of TikTok’s European data onto servers in Europe.
Nevertheless, TikTok’s chief European lobbyist Theo Bertram also said in March that it would be “practically extremely difficult” to completely stop European data from going to China.
2. A way in for Chinese spies
If Chinese agencies can’t access TikTok’s data legally, they can just go in through the back door, Western officials allege. China’s cyber-spies are among the best in the world, and their job will be made easier if datasets or digital infrastructure are housed in their home territory.
Dutch intelligence agencies have advised government officials to uninstall apps from countries waging an “offensive cyber program” against the Netherlands — including China, but also Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Critics of the cyber espionage argument refer to a 2021 study by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which found that the app did not exhibit the “overtly malicious behavior” that would be expected of spyware. Still, the director of the lab said researchers lacked information on what happens to TikTok data held in China.
TikTok’s Project Texas and Project Clover include steps to assuage fears of cyber espionage, as well as legal data access. The EU plan would give a European security provider (still to be determined) the power to audit cybersecurity policies and data controls, and to restrict access to some employees. Bertram said this provider could speak with European security agencies and regulators “without us [TikTok] being involved, to give confidence that there’s nothing to hide.”
Bertram also said the company was looking to hire more engineers outside China.
3. Privacy rights
Critics of TikTok have accused the app of mass data collection, particularly in the U.S., where there are no general federal privacy rights for citizens.
In jurisdictions that do have strict privacy laws, TikTok faces widespread allegations of failing to comply with them.
The company is being investigated in Ireland, the U.K. and Canada over its handling of underage users’ data. Watchdogs in the Netherlands, Italy and France have also investigated its privacy practices around personalized advertising and for failing to limit children’s access to its platform.
TikTok has denied accusations leveled in some of the reports and argued that U.S. tech companies are collecting the same large amount of data. Meta, Amazon and others have also been given large fines for violating Europeans’ privacy.
4. Psychological operations
Perhaps the most serious accusation, and certainly the most legally novel one, is that TikTok is part of an all-encompassing Chinese civilizational struggle against the West. Its role: to spread disinformation and stultifying content in young Western minds, sowing division and apathy.
Earlier this month, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency warned that Chinese control of TikTok’s algorithm could allow the government to carry out influence operations among Western populations. TikTok says it has around 300 million active users in Europe and the U.S. The app ranked as the most downloaded in 2022.
A woman watches a video of Egyptian influencer Haneen Hossam | Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images
Reports emerged in 2019 suggesting that TikTok was censoring pro-LGBTQ content and videos mentioning Tiananmen Square. ByteDance has also been accused of pushing inane time-wasting videos to Western children, in contrast to the wholesome educational content served on its Chinese app Douyin.
Besides accusations of deliberate “influence operations,” TikTok has also been criticized for failing to protect children from addiction to its app, dangerous viral challenges, and disinformation. The French regulator said last week that the app was still in the “very early stages” of content moderation. TikTok’s Italian headquarters was raided this week by the consumer protection regulator with the help of Italian law enforcement to investigate how the company protects children from viral challenges.
Researchers at Citizen Lab said that TikTok doesn’t enforce obvious censorship. Other critics of this argument have pointed out that Western-owned platforms have also been manipulated by foreign countries, such as Russia’s campaign on Facebook to influence the 2016 U.S. elections.
TikTok says it has adapted its content moderation since 2019 and regularly releases a transparency report about what it removes. The company has also touted a “transparency center” that opened in the U.S. in July 2020 and one in Ireland in 2022. It has also said it will comply with new EU content moderation rules, the Digital Services Act, which will request that platforms give access to regulators and researchers to their algorithms and data.
Additional reporting by Laura Kayali in Paris, Sue Allan in Ottawa, Brendan Bordelon in Washington, D.C., and Josh Sisco in San Francisco.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 23, 2023
IMF’s Georgieva: ‘Risks to financial stability have increased’

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The outlook for the global economy is likely to remain weak in the medium term amid heightened risks to financial stability, according to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
“We expect 2023 to be another challenging year, with global growth slowing to below 3 percent as scarring from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and monetary tightening weigh on economic activity,” Georgieva said on Sunday at a conference in China. “Even with a better outlook for 2024, global growth will remain well below its historic average of 3.8 percent,” she said.
“It is also clear that risks to financial stability have increased,” Georgieva said. “At a time of higher debt levels, the rapid transition from a prolonged period of low-interest rates to much higher rates — necessary to fight inflation — inevitably generates stresses and vulnerabilities, as evidenced by recent developments in the banking sector in some advanced economies.”
Policymakers have acted decisively in response to threats to financial stability, helping ease market stress to some extent, she said. But “uncertainty is high, which underscores the need for vigilance,” she added.
Georgieva also warned about risks of geo-economic fragmentation, which she said “could mean a world split into rival economic blocs — a ‘dangerous division’ that would leave everyone poorer and less secure. Together, these factors mean that the outlook for the global economy over the medium term is likely to remain weak,” she said.
Georgieva spoke during the second day of the China Development Forum in Beijing. The three-day annual event is a social mixer of politics and business, bringing together members of the Chinese Politburo with dozens of CEOs from Western companies like Siemens, Mercedes-Benz and Allianz.
“Fortunately, the news on the world economy is not all bad. We can see some ‘green shoots,’ including in China,” Georgieva said, adding that Beijing is set to account for around a third of the global growth this year.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 23, 2023
Why Xi Jinping is still Vladimir Putin’s best friend

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As he jets off for a state visit to Moscow this week, China’s President Xi Jinping is doing so in defiance of massive international pressure. Vladimir Putin, the man Xi once called his “best, most intimate friend,” has just become the world’s most wanted alleged war criminal.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on March 17 for his alleged role in illegally transferring Ukrainian civilians into Russian territories. But that isn’t deterring Xi, who broke Communist Party norms and formally secured a third term as Chinese leader this month.
But why is China’s leader so determined to stand by Putin despite the inevitable backlash, at a time when the West is increasingly suspicious of Beijing’s military aims — and scrutinizing prized Chinese companies like TikTok — more closely than ever?
For a start, Beijing’s worldview requires it to stay strategically close to Russia: As Beijing’s leaders see it, the U.S. is blocking China’s path to global leadership, aided by European governments, while most of its own geographical neighbors — from Japan and South Korea to Vietnam and India — are increasingly skeptical rather than supportive.
“The Chinese people are not prone to threats. Paper tigers such as the U.S. would definitely not be able to threaten China,” declared a commentary on Chinese state news agency Xinhua previewing Xi’s trip to Russia. The same article slammed Washington for threatening to sanction China if it provided Russia with weapons for its invasion of Ukraine. “The more the U.S. wants to crush the two superpowers, China and Russia, together … the closer China and Russia lean on each other.”
It’s a view that chimes with the rhetoric from the Kremlin. “Washington does not want this war to end. Washington wants and is doing everything to continue this war. This is the visible hand,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month.
10-year bromance
To understand Xi’s preference for Putin even though China’s economy is so intertwined with the West, analysts say it’s not just important to factor in Beijing’s vision for the future, but also to grasp the history that the Chinese and Russian leaders share.
“They’re just six months apart in terms of age. Their fathers both fought in World War II … Both men had hardships in their youths. Both have daughters,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank and an expert on Russo-Chinese relations. “And they are both increasingly like an emperor and a tsar, equally obsessed with Color Revolutions.”

Their “bromance,” as Gabuev put it, began in 2013 when Xi met Putin toward the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bali — on Putin’s birthday. Citing two people present at the impromptu birthday party, Gabuev said the occasion was “not a boozy night, but they opened up and there was a really functioning chemistry.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Nusa Dua in 2013 | Mast Irham/AFP via Getty Images
According to Putin himself, Xi presented him with a cake while the Russian leader pulled out a bottle of vodka for a toast. The pair then reminisced over shots and sandwiches. “I’ve never established such relations or made such arrangements with any other foreign colleague, but I did it with President Xi,” Putin told the Chinese CCTV broadcaster in 2018. “This might seem irrelevant, but to talk about President Xi, this is where I would like to start.”
Those remarks were followed by a trip to Beijing, where Xi presented Putin with China’s first friendship medal. “He is my best, most intimate friend,” Xi said. “No matter what fluctuations there are in the international situation, China and Russia have always firmly taken the development of relations as a priority.”
Xi has stuck to those words, even after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago. Less than three weeks beforehand, Putin visited Beijing and signed what China once referred to as a “no limits” partnership. Chinese officials have steered clear of criticizing Russia — and they wouldn’t even call it a war — while echoing Putin’s narrative that NATO expansion was to blame.
Close but not equal
Concerns are mounting over Beijing’s potential to provide Russia with weapons. Last week, POLITICO reported that Chinese companies, including one connected to the government in Beijing, have sent Russian entities 1,000 assault rifles and other equipment that could be used for military purposes, including drone parts and body armor, according to customs data.
Chinese and Russian armed forces have also teamed up for joint exercises outside Europe. Most recently, they held naval drills together with Iran in the Gulf of Oman.
During Xi’s visit this week, the two leaders are expected to conclude up to a dozen agreements, according to Russian media TASS. Experts say Xi and Putin are likely to sign further agreements to boost trade — especially in energy — as well as make more efforts to trade in their own currencies.
Xi is also expected to reiterate China’s “position paper” with a view to settling what it calls the “Ukraine crisis.” The paper, released last month, mentions the need to respect sovereignty and resume peace talks, but also includes Russian talking points such as dissuading “expanding military blocs” — a veiled criticism of U.S. support for Ukraine to potentially join NATO. There are also reports that Xi could be talking by phone with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Moscow visit.
But Beijing’s overall top priority is to “lock Russia in for the long term as China’s junior partner,” wrote Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. “For Xi, cementing Russia as China’s junior partner is fundamental to his vision of national rejuvenation.”
To achieve this, Putin’s stay in power is non-negotiable for Beijing, he wrote: “China’s … objective is to guard against Russia failing and Putin falling.”
What better way, then, to show support than attending a state banquet when your notorious friend needs you most?

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 15, 2023
Recruitment Agencies Should Not Hire Already Blacklisted Companies : GN Azad

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SRINAGAR: Amid growing resentment and widespread protests by the JKSSB aspirants over latter’s purported hiring of ‘blacklisted’ APTECH company for conducting various written examinations, Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) patron Ghulam Nabi Azad slammed the authorities for allowing a previously blacklisted agency to operate in Kashmir.
Speaking to media on the sidelines of a function in Sopore , Azad alleged that all the recruitment agencies in Jammu and Kashmir choose to conduct exams through the companies which otherwise have already been rejected and blacklisted by many states. “The trend to hire such companies has resulted in the postponement of exams many times in the last 5 years, something that hasn’t happened in the last 75 years.”
“At a time when thousands of youth are facing trouble in getting jobs, it is beyond one’s understanding as to why the authorities are hiring these blacklisted companies and end up putting the careers of youth at stake” , Azad said, adding, ironically why such blacklisted agencies are being allowed in JK only.
“The government should properly investigate such agencies for the sake of the careers of youth”, he said.
Pertinently, several political leaders, cutting across the party lines have backed the protests by job aspirants and have sought disallowance of the APTECH Company to hold any exams in Jammu and Kashmir. (GNS)

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#Recruitment #Agencies #Hire #Blacklisted #Companies #Azad
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 15, 2023
EU nears deal to restock Ukraine’s diminishing ammo supplies

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BRUSSELS — The EU is finalizing a €2 billion deal to jointly restock Ukraine’s dwindling ammunition supplies while refilling countries’ stocks, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
The plan has two major elements.
First, the EU will spend €1 billion to partially reimburse countries that can immediately donate ammunition from their own stockpiles. Secondly, countries will work together to jointly purchase €1 billion in new ammunition — the idea being that together they can negotiate bigger contracts at a lower price-per-shell.

EU ambassadors will discuss the proposal — prepared by the EU’s diplomatic wing, the European External Action Service — during a meeting on Wednesday.
The scheme — which POLITICO first reported on earlier this month — has come together rapidly in recent weeks in response to Ukraine’s pleas for more ammunition, specifically the 155-millimeter artillery shells it desperately needs to both hold territory and launch a spring counteroffensive.
And the figures, one of the documents notes, respond “to a specific request made by the Ukrainian minister of defense.”
The numbers are stark.
Estonia, which helped start the conversation in February about how the EU could jointly help fill a looming munitions shortage, has estimated that Russia is burning through 20,000-60,000 shells per day while Ukraine is trying to judiciously only use between 2,000 and 7,000.
Covering that figure will not come easy — or cheap.
Thus far, EU countries have only provided Ukraine with 350,000 155-millimeter shells in total, with the EU spending €450 million on partial reimbursements, said one EU official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic. But the official pegged the cost for each new shell at €4,000, meaning costs are growing.
To cover both the losses of countries dipping into their stockpiles and funding new ammunition buys, the EU is tapping the so-called European Peace Facility. The little-known fund sits outside of the EU’s normal budget, giving officials the flexibility to use it to cover weapons purchases — once a verboten concept within the EU, a self-proclaimed peace project.
Thus far, the facility has been used solely to partially reimburse countries for their weapons donations to Ukraine. Now, documents show countries are willing to funnel an additional €2 billion into the facility — €1 billion to cover some ammunition donations and €1 billion to support joint purchases of replacement shells.
Ukrainian artillerymen in the vicinity of Bakhmut, Donetsk | Ihor Tkachov/AFP via Getty Images
The documents foresee the European Defense Agency, an EU agency meant to better coordinate members’ security efforts, possibly playing a role in coordinating the joint procurement efforts. But individual countries could also help spearhead these negotiations, as long as the country is working with at least two other EU members and not creating competing bids for the shells that drive up prices.
The joint procurement plan covers not just EU countries but Norway as well — as POLITICO first reported — potentially opening the door to some of the money going to non-EU-based companies. Norway, however, which produces ammunition, is already relatively integrated into the EU market.
EU officials are now aiming to get a consensus agreement on the plan during a meeting on Monday of foreign and defense ministers, before getting final sign-off from the 27 EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.

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#nears #deal #restock #Ukraines #diminishing #ammo #supplies
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 14, 2023
California court lets gig companies keep treating workers as contractors

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But the ruling could still hand a significant victory to unions and worker advocates. It invalidated a provision of Prop 22 that sets a high bar for the Legislature to pass laws allowing workers to organize.
“We are grateful that the California Court of Appeal has affirmed that companies like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Instacart can’t keep drivers from joining together in a union through their deceptive ballot measure,” plaintiff and driver Mike Robinson said in a statement.
The legal battle has extended a long-running fight over the status of gig workers in California. In 2019, the state passed a law that made effectively compelled companies to classify their workers as employees, not contractors, by enshrining a California Supreme Court Decision.
After failing to block the law in Sacramento, tech companies fought back at the ballot box by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into passing Prop 22. A labor-backed coalition then challenged the law as unconstitutional.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 14, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank collapse sets off scramble in London to shield UK tech sector

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LONDON — The U.K. government was scrambling on Sunday to limit the fallout for the British tech sector from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a big U.S. lender to many startups and technology companies.
The government is treating the potential reverberations as “a high priority” after a run on deposits drove California-based SVB into insolvency, marking the largest bank failure since the global financial crisis, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said in a statement Sunday morning. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other policymakers were on alert that problems at SVB could spread.
Hunt said the British government is working on a plan to backstop the cashflow needs of companies affected by SVB’s implosion and the halt in trading of its British unit, Silicon Valley Bank UK. The Bank of England announced on Friday that the U.K. unit is set to enter insolvency.

Silicon Valley Bank’s “failure could have a significant impact on the liquidity of the tech ecosystem,” Hunt said.
The government is working “to avoid or minimize damage to some of our most promising companies in the U.K.,” the chancellor said. “We will bring forward immediate plans to ensure the short-term operational and cashflow needs of Silicon Valley Bank UK customers are able to be met.”
Hunt told the BBC Sunday morning that the government would have a plan that deals with the operational cashflow needs of companies “in the next few days.”
Discussions between the governor of the Bank of England, the prime minister and the chancellor were taking place over the weekend, according to the statement.
Speaking on Sky News Sunday morning, Hunt said that Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey had made it clear that there was “no systemic risk to our financial system.” But Hunt warned that there was a “serious risk” to the technology and life-sciences sectors in the U.K.
Ministers held talks with the tech industry on Saturday after tech executives in an open letter warned Hunt that the SVB collapse posed an “existential threat” to the U.K. tech sector. They called for government intervention.
Britain’s science and technology minister on Saturday pledged to do “everything we can” to limit the repercussions on U.K. tech companies.
Michelle Donelan, who heads the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said in a tweet: “We recognize that the tech sector is often not cashflow positive as they grow and I am determined to stand with them as we do everything we can to minimize impact on the sector.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said protecting the U.K. sector from the impacts of SVB’s collapse was a “high priority” | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
A bank insolvency procedure for Silicon Valley Bank UK would mean eligible depositors would be paid the protected limit of £85,000, or up to £170,000 for joint accounts.
The Bank of England said in its Friday statement that SVB UK “has a limited presence in the U.K. and no critical functions supporting the financial system.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 9, 2023