A former ECB chief says the lack of access to cheap energy from Russia has undermined the bloc’s competitive advantage
The global economic competitiveness of the European Union has been substantially eroded due to the loss of cheap energy from Russia, former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said on Monday.
A wide-ranging report presented by Draghi indicated that reducing energy prices, raising competitiveness, and strengthening defense investment are among the top priorities for the bloc’s policymakers.
According to the politician, who served as Italy’s prime minister in 2021-2022, member states have been struggling to cope with higher energy prices and can no longer rely on open foreign markets.
“Europe has abruptly lost its most important supplier of energy, Russia,” Draghi said, emphasising that geopolitical stability was waning, while the region’s “dependencies have turned out to be vulnerabilities.”
The politician and economist acknowledged that energy prices have considerably fallen from their peaks, but stressed that EU companies are still dealing with electricity prices that are 150% higher than those in the US, while paying nearly 350% more for natural gas....more below
https://www.rt.com/business/603712-draghi-eu-energy-prices-warning/
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
