Brokers using this controversial practice are ‘skimming rent, getting rich’: Michael Lewis

Max Zahn with Andy Serwer
Thu, April 14, 2022, 10:53 AM

Shares of trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) have plummeted nearly 35% so far this year, taking a 5% tumble last Friday alone after Goldman Sachs issued a Sell rating and raised concerns about soft user growth.

The company's revenue prospects could dim further if the Securities and Exchange Commission banned the controversial practice of payment for order flow, David Trainer, the CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, told Forbes.

High-profile proponents of regulating the practice abound, including best-selling author Michael Lewis.

In a new interview, Lewis said the SEC should make a "big change" on payment for order flow. Lewis, whose landmark 2014 book "Flash Boys" drew attention to the lucrative use of high frequency trading on Wall Street, said that brokers who use payment for order flow are "skimming rent" and "getting rich."

When accepting payment for order flow, brokers accept smaller price improvement for trades in exchange for higher payments from the market makers that fulfill the trades — a practice that can amount to a small surcharge for traders, effectively nullifying the commission-free trading promised by some brokers.

"It's really true that it's cheaper to trade in the stock market now than it was a long time ago, when you paid a broker a ridiculous commission to execute your trade," Lewis says.

To be sure, Robinhood is hardly the only broker that accepts payment for order flow. E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab (SCHW) are among those that deploy the practice.

"But it's also really true that those pennies are unnecessary, and that when you add them up across the whole market, it is billions of dollars, and you have people getting rich in this way," he adds. "These are examples of success to the rest of society, when really what they're just doing is skimming rent."

Last May, SEC Chair Gary Gensler hinted at potential new rules that would apply to Robinhood, market maker Citadel Securities, and others. In turn, Gensler told Baron's three months later that a ban on payment for order flow was "on the table."

Gensler reiterated his openness to a ban on payment for order flow in remarks to Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung in October.

The logo of Robinhood Markets, Inc. is seen at a pop-up event on Wall Street after the company's IPO in New York City, U.S., July 29, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

"Do they have the political will to shut it down?" Lewis asks. "The last two administrations — this one and the last one — have been poking around at this trying to figure out what you do about payment for order flow."

Payment for order flow revenue for the top four brokerage firms — TD Ameritrade, Robinhood, E-Trade and Charles Schwab — nearly tripled in 2020, jumping from $892 million to nearly $2.5 billion, according to Data from Alphacution previously cited by Yahoo Finance.

"I don't think anybody really has any illusions about exactly about what's going on," Lewis says.

Declassified government data reveals an interstellar object that exploded over Earth


By Joshua Hawkins

BGR
April 13th, 2022 


Back in 2014, a fireball exploded in the skies over Papua New Guinea. At the time, scientists believed that the object was a small meteorite measuring around 1.5 feet across. It slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 130,000 mph (roughly 210,000 km/h). Because the object’s speed exceeded the average velocity of meteors found within our solar system, a group of scientists conducted a study on the object in 2019. They found that it was most likely the first interstellar object we had identified.

However, the group never published their paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Instead, it has been available in the preprint database arXiv since its publishing. The reasoning behind this delay is because the data needed to verify the study’s position The team argued that the meteor’s speed, as well as the trajectory that it traveled, proved that it had originated somewhere beyond our solar system.

Unfortunately, the scientists never had the paper reviewed by peers. That’s because the U.S. government considered the data needed to verify the claims classified. At least, until now.

On April 6, 2022, Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, the commander of the USSC, shared a memo on Twitter. The memo says that the analysis by the scientists in 2019 was “sufficiently accurate to confirm an interstellar trajectory.” That makes it the first interstellar object that we’ve identified to date.

It’s a huge step forward, and the confirmation retroactively makes the 2014 meteor even more important than it might have already been. In fact, it currently predates what we believed to be the first interstellar object, a comet named ‘Oumuamua. In fact, it predates it by almost three years.

Of course, there’s no telling what other kinds of interstellar objects are out there that we have yet to find. We still have a lot of space to explore, even inside our own solar system. As such, we could find other interstellar objects waiting to be discovered.

Of course, this isn’t the only interstellar object we have discovered so far. As noted above, scientists previously discovered ‘Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object moving far too fast to have originated inside of our solar system. Unlike the meteor, though, ‘Oumuamua was spotted far from Earth. And, NASA says it is already speeding away from our solar system.

Scientists believe ‘Oumuamua is a comet because of how quickly it is moving, as well as how much it continued to accelerate on its own. However, because it is so far away from Earth, and moving outside of our solar system, it’s impossible to know for sure.

Still, knowing that there are interstellar objects entering our solar system from beyond the edges of space as we know it is both terrifying and exhilarating. As scientists continue to explore space and search for alien life, there’s no telling what we’ll find as our spacecraft branch out into the more unknown parts of our universe.

Fearing civil war amnesia, activists fight to preserve Beirut port silos

A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion reacts during a protest in Beirut

Families of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion hold pictures during a protest near Beirut port




FILE PHOTO: Aftermath of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area



A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion holds a picture during a protest in Beirut



FILE PHOTO: Site of Tuesday's blast, at Beirut's port area

By Timour Azhari
April 13, 2022

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Families of victims of the 2020 Beirut port blast are pressuring Lebanon's government to keep its silos as a memorial, arguing the move would be a powerful acknowledgement of suffering in a country still struggling to come to terms with years of war and strife.

Ghassan Hasrouty worked at the towering white grain silos for nearly four decades - even through Lebanon's 15-year civil war, when he would tell his wife he felt protected by the thick walls of the storage facility.

"He used to tell my mum, 'I'm scared for you (at home), not for me because there is nothing, no shrapnel, that can harm the silos... nothing can bring them down," Hasrouty's daughter Tatiana recalled.

On August 4, 2020, Ghassan was working late when a massive chemical blast at the port ended his life and those of at least 215 others, and cleaved off part of the cylindrical towers.

As Lebanon marks the 47th anniversary of the start of the war on Wednesday, Ghassan's daughter and other relatives of those killed in the blast are fighting government plans to demolish the disembowelled silos.

Lebanese officials say the ruined silos should make way for new ones, the proposed move gaining momentum amid projections of global grains shortages due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

But activists and bereaved families say the columns, which stand like a great tombstone at Beirut's northern entrance, should stay as a monument - at least until an investigation into the blast can serve justice in a country accustomed to moving on from violence without accountability.

"In Lebanon we got used to the fact that something happens, and then they bring us something bigger and more intense than that, and we forget," Hasrouty said.

"They (politicians) work so that we wake up every day with new fears and new worries, and that's why I say they (the silos) should remain, because maybe people pass by them and recall: 'people really died here'".

'LIVING WITNESS TO THEIR CRIMES'

The probe into the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, has faced pushback from a political system installed at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, when an amnesty was issued for warlords who gained government seats.

The war left some 100,000 dead and 17,000 are still missing - but is left out of school curricula and Beirut's most damaged areas were rebuilt with no public monuments. Historians say that has led to a collective amnesia about the war - something the families of blast victims are desperate to avoid.

"We all grew up with the civil war and remember how the rockets would fly above our heads. The Lebanese people forgot it because it was erased, because, simply, they reconstructed everything," Rima Zahed, whose brother Amin died in the blast, told Reuters.

Zahed has since helped organise protests in support of the investigation and of the silos' preservation. "Now we need the silos as the living witness to their crimes," she told Reuters.

Lebanon's government says it has other priorities.

'COLD HEART, COLD MIND'

Culture Minister Mohamed Mortada told Reuters the Cabinet had decided to demolish the silos and rebuild new ones based on a "purely economic assessment" of Lebanon's food security needs.

Lebanon needs more wheat storage to cope with global grains shortages resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine, from where Lebanon imports most of its wheat, officials say.

Mortada said the building could not be renovated for technical and sanitary reasons, so it had to be destroyed.

While the minister has put the silos on a list of heritage buildings, he noted the protected status could be removed if an alternative is found.

"What satisfies the families of victims or does not satisfy the families of victims, despite its importance, is not what's asked of the culture minister. What's asked of the culture minister is to approach it with a cold heart and cold mind. Is it tied to history or not?" he said.

Urban activist Soha Mneimneh said the move to destroy the silos amounted to "the erasure of a crime scene."

An engineers syndicate of which she is a member has commissioned a report on the silos to study the feasibility of renovating them. Mneimneh said they should be reinforced "so they stay in peoples' collective memory, so it is not repeated."

For Tatiana Hasrouty, the silos evoke painful memories - but are also a symbol of strength.

"I think now after he died there, the silos, some standing and some destroyed, symbolize for our family that (despite) everything that happened to us and all the sadness we have experienced, our family is still standing, steadfast, as if nothing can shake it."

(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Editing by Maya Gebeily, William Maclean)

Want to know why India has been soft on Russia? Take a look at its military, diplomatic and energy ties

Sumit Ganguly, 

Distinguished Professor of Political Science 

and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, 

Indiana University

April 14, 2022,
THE CONVERSATION

A close relationship based on strategic needs.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

As global democracies lined up to condemn the actions of Russia in Ukraine, one country was less forthcoming in its criticism – and it was the largest democracy of them all: India.

Throughout the ongoing crisis, the government in India has carefully avoided taking an unequivocal position. It has abstained on every United Nations resolution dealing with the matter and refused to join the international community in economic measures against Moscow, prompting a warning from the U.S. over potentially circumventing sanctions. Even statements from India condemning the reported mass killing of Ukrainian civilians stopped short of apportioning blame on any party, instead calling for an impartial investigation.

As a scholar of Indian foreign and security policy, I know that understanding India’s stance on the war in Ukraine is complex. In considerable part, India’s decision to avoid taking a clear-cut position stems from a dependence on Russia on a host of issues – diplomatic, military and energy-related.

Moscow as strategic partner

This stance is not entirely new. On a range of fraught global issues, India has long avoided adopting a firm position based on its status as a nonaligned state – one of a number of countries that is not formally allied to any power bloc.

From a strategic standpoint today, decision-makers in New Delhi believe that they can ill afford to alienate Russia because they count on Moscow to veto any adverse United Nations Security Council resolution on the fraught question of the disputed region of Kashmir. Since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, and the region continues to be a source of tension.

Harking back to the days of the Soviet Union, India has relied on Russia’s veto at the U.N. to protect itself from any adverse statement on Kashmir. For example, during the East Pakistani crisis of 1971 – which led to the creation of Bangladesh – the Soviets protected India from censure at the U.N., vetoing a resolution demanding the withdrawal of troops from the disputed region.

In all, the Soviets and Russia have used their veto power six times to protect India. India has not had to rely on Russia for a veto since the end of the Cold War. But with tension over Kashmir still high amid sporadic fighting, New Delhi will want to ensure that Moscow is on its side should it come before the Security Council again.

In large part, India’s close relationship with Russia stems from Cold War allegiances. India drifted into the Soviet orbit mostly as a counter to America’s strategic alliance with Pakistan, India’s subcontinental adversary.

India is also hopeful of Russian support – or at least neutrality – in its long-standing border dispute with the People’s Republic of China. India and China share a border of more than 2,000 miles (near 3,500 km), the location of which has been contested for 80 years, including during a war in 1962 that failed to settle the matter.

Above all, India does not want Russia to side with China should there be further clashes in the Himalayas, especially since the border dispute has again come to the fore since 2020, with significant skirmishes between the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Russia as supplier of weapons

India is also acutely dependent on Russia for a range of weaponry. In fact, 60% to 70% of India’s conventional arsenal is of either Soviet or Russian origin.

Over the past decade, New Delhi has sought to significantly diversify its weapons acquisitions. To that end, it has purchased more than US$20 billion worth of military equipment from the U.S. over the past decade or so. Nevertheless, it is still in no position to walk away from Russia as far as weapons sales are concerned.

To compound matters, Russia and India have developed close military manufacturing ties. For nearly two decades, the two countries have co-produced the highly versatile BrahMos missile, which can be fired from ships, aircraft or land.

India recently received its first export order for the missile, from the Philippines. This defense link with Russia could be severed only at considerable financial and strategic cost to India.

Also, Russia, unlike any Western country including the United States, has been willing to share certain forms of weapons technology with India. For example, Russia has leased an Akula-class nuclear submarine to India. No other country has been willing to offer India equivalent weaponry, in part over concerns that the technology will be shared with Russia.

In any case, Russia is able to provide India with high-technology weaponry at prices significantly lower than any Western supplier. Not surprisingly, despite significant American opposition, India chose to acquire the Russian S-400 missile defense battery.

Energy reliance

It isn’t just India’s defense industry that is reliant on Moscow. India’s energy sector is also inextricably tied to Russia.

Since the George W. Bush administration ended India’s status as a nuclear pariah – a designation it had held for testing nuclear weapons outside the ambit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – India has developed a civilian nuclear program.

Although the sector remains relatively small in terms of total energy production, it is growing – and Russia has emerged as a key partner. After the U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement of 2008 allowed India to participate in normal civilian nuclear commerce, Russia quickly signed an agreement to build six nuclear reactors in the country.

Neither the U.S. nor any other Western country has proved willing to invest in India’s civilian nuclear energy sector because of a rather restrictive nuclear liability law, which holds that the manufacturer of the plant or any of its components would be liable in the event of an accident.

But since the Russian government has said it will assume the necessary liability in the event of a nuclear accident, it has been able to enter the nuclear power sector in India. Western governments, however, are unwilling to provide such guarantees to their commercial companies.

Away from nuclear power, India also has invested in Russian oil and gas fields. India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Commission, for example, has long been involved in the extraction of fossil fuels off Sakhalin Island, a Russian island in the Pacific Ocean. And given that India imports close to 85% of its crude oil requirements from abroad – albeit only a small fraction from Russia – it is hardly in a position to shut off the Russian spigot.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently noted that India’s “relationship with Russia has developed over decades at a time when the United States was not able to be a partner to India” and suggested that Washington was prepared now to be that partner. But given the diplomatic, military and energy considerations, it is difficult to see India deviating from its balancing act over Russia any time soon.


This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University.

Read more:

Ukraine war: while most Americans express outrage, Putin’s spell continues to hang over Republicans

Sumit Ganguly has received funding from the US Department of State.

This tiny carnivore could be the key to tracking nearly a dozen declining Maine species


Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Apr. 12—If you want to learn about the health of wild animals in the forests of Maine, pay attention to what's going on with the American marten.

Research at the University of Maine led by Alessio Mortelliti, an associate professor in UMaine's department of wildlife, fisheries and conservation biology, found that studying marten can tell scientists a great deal about 11 other mammals living in the state.

It showed that the marten could serve as an effective "umbrella monitoring species" for other species living in the same or nearby habitat, including fishers, snowshoe hares, red squirrels and black bears, because tracking martens will automatically detect declines in these other species.

"This is great news for conservation and management agencies as they show that by focusing the efforts on one species, the marten, they will automatically be able to detect declines for many other species," Mortelliti said.

Funding for the American marten study, which is in its fifth year, was provided by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit.

However, the marten here in Maine may require more detailed study as disruptions to forests and climate change threaten their existence.

One of the primary benefits achieved by the study, which was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, is that the habitats of so many different mammals overlap and can be studied simultaneously. UMaine researchers gathered the data by using camera traps to capture more than 800,000 images of 27 different mammals over a span of four years.

The animals were photographed automatically when they triggered infrared sensors on the cameras.

"This could lead to huge savings, which is not a small thing in a world where conservation resources are so limited," Mortelliti said of the ability to monitor multiple species by using the camera traps.

Researchers have focused their monitoring protocols during the winter, when interactions with protected species such as the Canada lynx are more likely.

Mortelliti and his team are paying particular attention to how martens and fishers have adapted to increased harvesting of Maine forest habitats. Their efforts compared factors such as latitude, snow depth, level of forest disturbances and the numbers of marten and fisher reported by fur trappers.

According to results published in the journal Ecosphere, the researchers discovered that marten actually are not being disturbed by sharing the landscape with their larger cousin, the fisher.

"Instead, marten are choosing areas with the least forest disturbance, regardless of fisher presence," said Bryn Evans, recently graduated Ph.D. student and co-author of the study.

"Climate change is also likely to impact marten more intensely than fisher. It's critical to have a watchful eye over the coming years, so declines in the marten population can be identified quickly."

El Salvador president's mass arrests 'punitive populism'

MARCOS ALEMÁN and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
April 14, 2022,

An elderly woman watches as soldiers patrol in the San Jose del Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. El Salvador's congress, pushing further in the government's crackdown, has authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from the gangs, alarming press freedom groups. 

SANTA TECLA, El Salvador (AP) — A day after the bloodletting -- 62 gang killings that convulsed El Salvador -- the crackdown began.

Before dawn on Sunday, March 27, just hours after congress approved a state of emergency, heavily armed police and soldiers entered the packed, gang-controlled neighborhood of San Jose El Pino.

Freed from having to explain an arrest or grant access to a lawyer, they went door to door, dragging out young men. They established a perimeter with barbed wire barricades where they controlled who entered and who left, demanding identification and searching everyone.

President Nayib Bukele has responded to the surge in gang killings with mass arrests in poor neighborhoods like San Jose El Pino, each day posting the growing arrest total and photos of tattooed men. The highly publicized roundups are not the result of police investigations into the murders in late March, but propel a tough-on-crime narrative that critics are calling “punitive populism.”

In just over two weeks, more than 10,000 alleged gang members have been arrested — a huge number for a small country of 6.5 million people. They can be held for 15 days without charges, one of the measures decried by international human rights groups and the U.S. government.

“They came in with everything,” said 36-year-old Héctor Fernandez on his way to his factory job on a recent morning. “Whoever didn’t open the door, they knocked it down. They were looking for the guys. I think they took almost all of them, but others managed to get out.”

Critics say the mass arrests are more show than substance. They note that amid all of the chest-thumping rhetoric and slickly produced videos of roughly handled prisoners, authorities are not talking about the investigations or arrests of those suspected of actual involvement in the March 26 killings. But many Salvadorans are pleased to see action against gangs that have long-terrorized their communities.

“It’s for everyone’s safety,” Fernandez said, nervously looking around to see if anyone was watching. He said he minds his own business and hasn’t had trouble with the Mara Salvatrucha, the gang that controls his neighborhood. “I leave, (police and soldiers) search me. I go to work, come back in the evening, they search me. I pass and go home.”

Bukele, a highly popular master of social media, has filled his platforms with photos of handcuffed and bloodied gang members, orders to his security cabinet and attaboys from his supporters. At the same time, he has lashed out at human rights organizations and international agencies critical of some measures.

“If we don’t rid our country of this cancer now, then when will we ever do it?” Bukele said to a parade ground of soldiers -- and the world -- in a video he released last week. “We will go and find them wherever they are. Regardless of who protests. Regardless of how angry the international community gets.”

Gangs control swaths of territory through brutality and fear. They’ve driven thousands to emigrate to save their own lives or the lives of their children who are forcibly recruited. Their power is strongest in El Salvador’s poorest neighborhoods where the state has long been absent. They are a drain on the economy, extorting money from even the lowest earners and forcing businesses that can’t or won’t pay to close.

The wave of violence at the end of March -- it stretched across the country and its victims included a municipal maintenance worker, a taxi driver, a farmer-- demanded a government response. Bukele chose a state of emergency provided for in the constitution.

But El Salvador’s security forces and justice system had the legal tools to investigate and prosecute those involved in the killings without the suspension of fundamental rights, critics say. What they did not have was the carte blanche that has yielded the media spectacle of the past two weeks, starring Bukele as savior-in-chief.

“There are a lot of doubts about whether the measures that Bukele’s government has taken to confront the wave of murders are really aimed at investigating the crimes and responding to the victims,” said Leonor Arteaga, a Salvadoran who is program director at the Due Process of Law Foundation in Washington.

Instead, she said, it seems Bukele is using the situation “to advance his authoritarian plans and in his intention to control all critical voices and squash any dissident.”

Bukele’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Abraham Ábrego, director of the strategic litigation program at Cristosal, a non-governmental organization in El Salvador, said his group was working to document arbitrary arrests and other abuses.

Bukele has shown himself to be masterful at building and controlling narratives, he said. “There is a term that we use called ‘punitive populism,’ which is using the state’s powers of criminal persecution to show strength, to show toughness,” Ábrego said.

On Tuesday, the head of a national police union said some high-ranking police officials had pressured officers to make false statements justifying some arrests to meet arrest quotas, including in a small remote town with no gang presence.

Omar Serrano, vice rector at Central American University José Simeón Cañas, said that like previous administrations, the president has opted for a more militarized approach to dealing with the gangs.

“This is not going to solve the country’s serious problems,” Serrano said. The government line is that the problem of the gangs is one of national security, “when deep down it is a social problem.”

After the congress approved the state of emergency, Bukele returned to lawmakers multiple times for changes to the country’s criminal code. Among other things, they lengthened sentences, reduced the age of criminal responsibility to 12 and established prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for journalists who disseminate gang messages that could cause anxiety or panic among the people.

He had already ordered his head of prisons to keep all gang members confined to their cells 24 hours a day and to reduce their meals to twice daily. “Message for the gangs: because of your actions, now your ‘homeboys’ will not be able to see a ray of sunlight,” Bukele wrote on Twitter.

Human Rights Watch, the international advocacy organization that Bukele has taken to mocking as “Homeboys Rights Watch,” said the government had overreached.

“The Salvadoran government should adopt rights-respecting measures to protect people from heinous gang violence, dismantle these groups, and bring those responsible for crimes to justice,” said Juan Pappier, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, Bukele’s government has enacted overbroad, harshly punitive laws that undermine the fundamental rights of all Salvadorans.”

But Salvadorans seem to be ambivalent about the crackdown. In a leafy park in front of Santa Tecla’s municipal market and short distance from San Jose El Pino, Adela Maravilla Ceballos walked with her groceries on a recent morning.

“It’s good what they’re doing, they took long enough,” the 52-year-old homemaker said. “These guys don’t understand anything else. Who is going to be against security? Only the criminals.”

Still, some of the images had bothered her. Her two sons went to the United States years ago looking for better opportunities.

“I am a mother and sometimes it hurts me when they grab them and hit them and I see how they cry,” she said.

___

Sherman reported from Mexico City. AP writer E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Men are detained by the police, suspects in a homicide near a market in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022. 

A soldier guards the perimeter of a crime scene at a small market in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022. 

Heavily armed police guard the streets in down town San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022. 


Soldiers man a checkpoint at the entrance to the Las Palmas Community, a neighborhood that is supposed to be under the control of Barrio 18 Gang in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sunday, March 27, 2022.


FILE - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks to the press at Mexico's National Palace after meeting with the President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City, March 12, 2019. El Salvador’s president has threatened Tuesday, April 6, 2022, that he will cut off food for imprisoned members of street gangs if they “unleash a wave of crimes.” 

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)



Children walk behind concertina wire as soldiers guard the entrances of the San Jose del Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. El Salvador's congress, pushing further in the government's crackdown, has authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from the gangs, alarming press freedom groups. 


Soldiers search the backpacks of locals as they walk in the San Jose del Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. 


A woman talks to her son who has been arrested by the police, as he is taken to El Penalito temporary prison in Ciudad Delgado, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. 

A couple of youths are taken to El Penalito temporary prison in Ciudad Delgado, El Salvador, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele's has declared a state of emergency in a crackdown against gangs, suspending constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly and loosening arrest rules for as much as thirty days, or more. 

(AP Photos/Salvador Melendez)

BMW CEO warns against electric-only strategy

 German Economic and Climate Protection Minister Habeck at BMW in Munich

By Doyinsola Oladipo

April 14, 2022


NEW YORK (Reuters) -BMW Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse said companies must be careful not to become too dependent on a select few countries by focusing only on electric vehicles, adding that there was still a market for combustion engine cars.

"When you look at the technology coming out, the EV push, we must be careful because at the same time, you increase dependency on very few countries," Zipse said at a roundtable in New York, highlighting that the supply of raw materials for batteries was controlled mostly by China.

"If someone cannot buy an EV for some reason but needs a car, would you rather propose he continues to drive his old car forever? If you are not selling combustion engines anymore, someone else will," said Zipse.

He has long advocated against all-out bans on combustion engine car sales in the face of rising pressure from regulators on the auto industry to curb its carbon emissions and environmental impact.

Offering more fuel-efficient combustion engine cars was key both from a profit perspective and an environmental perspective, Zipse argued, pointing to gaps in charging infrastructure and the high price of electric vehicles.

Companies also needed to plan for energy prices and raw materials to remain high by being more efficient in their production and stepping up recycling efforts to keep costs down, he said.

"We have a peak now, they might not stay at the peak, but they will not go back to former prices," he said. "How much energy you need and use, and circularity, is important - for environmental reasons but even more for economic reasons."

(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo; Writing by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Mike Harrison)

Mercedes-Benz completes 1,000 km electric drive on energy-efficient design

April 13, 2022, 4:06 PM2 min read

Bangkok International Motor Show

BERLIN (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz aims to produce electric cars consuming as little as 10 kilowatt hours of energy per 100 km (62 miles), its chief technology officer (CTO) said on Thursday, a third more efficient than the current average for electric cars.

Speaking as the carmaker celebrated the successful test drive of its EQXX prototype vehicle over more than 1,000 km from Sindelfingen in Germany to the Cote d'Azur on a single charge, CTO Markus Schaefer said efficient design was key to maximising an electric car's range.

"First we optimise efficiency, and then we can see how many battery modules we put in the car," Schaefer said at a media roundtable, adding that customers should be able to decide the size of the battery they want based on their needs.

Carmakers from Mercedes-Benz to Tesla to China's Nio are in a neck-to-neck race to produce higher range cars that dispel consumer anxiety over the lack of widespread charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Mercedes unveiled its Vision EQXX prototype, boasting a 1,000 km-range with a battery half the volume of its flagship EQS model, in January, promising that some of the car's components would make their way into series vehicles in 2-3 years time.

The car spent 8.7 kilowatt hours of energy per 100 km on its 11-and-a-half hour drive to France, Mercedes-Benz said, about twice as efficient as Mercedes models on the market and Tesla's longest-range car on offer, the Model S 60.

Mercedes' EQS has the highest range on the market as of yet, according to car comparison portal carwow, with 768 km, followed by Tesla's Model S Long Range with up to 652 km.

"There'll be a further increase for some time before a fall, which will happen once charging infrastructure is as available as petrol stations," Schaefer said, although he declined to state what range Mercedes was targeting in future models.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Ilona Wissenbach; editing by Richard Pullin)

Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov's $735 million superyacht, Dilbar — the largest in the world — has been impounded in Germany

Dominick Reuter
April 13, 2022, 

The Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov "indirectly transferred assets" including the Dilbar yacht to his sister, according to the EU.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images, Sabri Kesen/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


German authorities have impounded a $750 million superyacht associated with Alisher Usmanov.


Police said an investigation into "offshore concealment" found the owner was Usmanov's sister.


Dilbar was speculated to have been seized last month, but officials denied it at the time.

Germany's Federal Police have seized the largest megayacht in the world after determining it to be owned by the sister of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

The police said they were able to find the owner after an investigation into "offshore concealment" and that the boat would remain at a shipyard in Hamburg.



The European Union's sanctions lists include Alisher Usmanov's sister Gulbakhor Ismailova and say that he "indirectly transferred assets," including Dilbar, to her.

The 512-foot yacht was thought to be under German government control in March when it was spotted at the Blohm+Voss shipyard, where it had been undergoing a refitting since October. Officials denied those reports at the time.

Shortly afterward, the yacht's crew was fired after wages could not be paid because of sanctions, Forbes reported.

With two helipads and the largest indoor pool ever installed on a yacht, Dilbar is worth between $600 million and $735 million and costs $60 million a year to maintain, according to the US Treasury Department.

The UK government estimated Usmanov was worth $18.4 billion from interests in metals, mining, and telecoms, and the EU called him one of "Putin's favorite oligarchs."

Dilbar is named for Usmanov's mother.

'We want to use our own names': Language experts explain importance of Ukrainian cities' spellings

Ella Lee, USA TODAY
April 13, 2022, 

Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, is nearly empty on Feb. 24, 

the day Russian forces invaded.

In March, Ukraine asked the world to practice its spelling.

"High time to finally discard the outdated Soviet spelling of our cities and adopt the correct Ukrainian form," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet, adding the hashtag #KyivNotKiev.

As the war between Russia and Ukraine rages in its second month, a leader's focus on spelling might seem trivial. But Ukrainian language experts said the distinctions between Russian and Ukrainian spellings and pronunciations, particularly of cities, are vital to recognizing the two countries as separate.

"The way a place name is spelled has far-reaching political implications, particularly in the context of two countries, one of which is an imperial metropolis and another one that used to be its colony," said Yuri Shevchuk, a Ukrainian language lecturer at Columbia University with expertise in languages' ties to culture, identity and politics.

Here's what you need to know about the distinctions.

Languages at odds

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the cultures of Russia – then known as Muscovy – and Ukraine grew closer, Shevchuk said. Threatened by that, Muscovite czars ordered Ukrainian Gospels be deemed heretical. More than 150 laws and rules were passed aimed at prohibiting and disappearing Ukrainian language from public use.

"The Ukrainian language was viewed as something hostile, as something to be destroyed," Shevchuk said. "The history of Russian-Ukrainian relations has always, for centuries, been a history of culture war."

Unlike other colonizing empires, such as Britain or France, Russia didn't simply ban public use of the Ukrainian language. It sought to take it apart.

Russia interfered with the inner structure of the Ukrainian language, trying to bring it closer to the Russian language at the levels of phonetics, vocabulary and syntax. For example, Ukrainian has a vocative case – the noun or pronoun used to address a person directly – while Russian does not. In the early 1930s, Russia declared there was no need to use the vocative case, causing generations of Ukrainians to learn the language without using it, despite its presence in classical Ukrainian writings, Shevchuk said; that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia's intent, Shevchuk said, was to strip Ukrainians of anything that made the language interesting, attractive or unique.

"Then, Ukrainians themselves would decide 'independently' or 'voluntarily' to switch from Ukrainian to Russian, because Ukrainian is a poor, pale simulacrum of Russian, lacking prestige and lacking political and symbolic capital – and Russian having it all galore," he said.
Cities' names

Russia's actions against Ukraine's language and historical status affected city names.

Many of Ukraine's cities are named after saints or rulers. To make names possessive, Ukrainian adds an -iv while Russian adds an -ov or -ev, because of a 12th-century sound change in Ukrainian that didn't occur in Russian, according to Michael Flier, professor of Ukrainian philology at Harvard University.

Take Kyiv: The founder of Ukraine's capital was named Kyi in Ukrainian, or Kiy in Russian. So Kyi's city became "Kyiv" in Ukrainian, whereas it became "Kiev" in Russian.

"Some city names sound differently in Russian and in Ukrainian – say, Kharkiv is Kharkov in Russian; Lviv is Lvov in Russian," said Serguei Oushakine, a professor of Slavic languages and literature at Princeton University. "It is like, English Moscow is Moskva in Russian or Paris is Parizh in Russian."

The Ukrainian city of Odesa is spelled “Odessa” when transliterated from its Russian form.

"There are two different pronunciations, but since history will show you that it was the Russian empire that had the attention of the world, (Ukraine) was always in a position not to forge ahead with his own name because the Russians were in charge," Flier said. "And so therefore, it was the Russian spelling and pronunciation that held true until now."

Opinion: Why do we say 'Kyiv,' not 'Kiev'? The political history behind Ukraine's capital city

Why it's relevant

Though the names of Ukrainian cities have historically been transliterated from Cyrillic using their Russian spellings, years of tension between the nations and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February have caused many to question why.

"This is a technical issue, but nothing in language is technical; everything is political," Oushakine said.

Ukrainian became the official state language in 1989, but the Russian spellings of Ukraine's cities persisted. There are often emotional and historical attachments to the names of cities, amplifying the desire to have others get it right. Flier compared the misspellings of cities to the misspellings of names, akin to insisting on calling an American "Pierre" instead of "Peter."

"It's recognition that Ukraine is no longer a part of the Soviet Union; it's no longer under the command of Russia, and therefore, you know, we want to use our own names," Flier said.

In 2018, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry launched the campaign "CorrectUA" to hold Western media outlets accountable for spelling its cities wrong.

The ministry's online campaign used the hashtag #KyivNotKiev and featured posts with incorrect spellings of Kyiv by The New York Times, BBC and Reuters, according to a news release on the effort.

As a result, those outlets and others, including The Associated Press and The Washington Post, adjusted their style guides to reflect the Ukrainian spellings. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names within the Department of Interior retired the spelling of "Kiev" and adopted "Kyiv." Kiev is considered an unofficial variant name.

"I think it was always the case that in Ukrainian, (city names) were pronounced the way that they're now written, the Ukrainian way, but it's just that Ukrainians always had to play second fiddle to Russia because the Russians were in charge of the country. ... It really comes down to just letting Ukraine show itself for what it is – letting Ukraine have its own identity," Flier said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyiv or Kiev? Why the spellings of Ukrainian cities matter

Stranded seafarers escape Ukraine, others trapped - ILO, sources

Emma Farge
April 14, 2022, 

FILE PHOTO: Cargo ship is docked in Black sea port of Odessa

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Some of the estimated 1,000 seafarers trapped in Ukraine have escaped, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and industry officials told Reuters, while voicing concern for those remaining trapped onboard ships or unaccounted for.

Several foreign cargo ships have been struck by crossfire in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24 and U.N. agencies have called for urgent action https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_841806/lang--en/index.htm to protect some 1,000 seafarers, including in the besieged port city of Mariupol that has been under bombardment for weeks.

An estimated 100 vessels have been prevented from departing because of risks of drifting sea mines https://shipping.nato.int/nsc/operations/news/-2022/risk-of-collateral-damage-in-the-north-western-black-sea-2, industry sources say.

Fabrizio Barcellona, seafarers' section coordinator at the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), said the "vast bulk" of the seafarers, from at least 20 countries including India, Syria, Egypt, Turkey the Philippines and Bangladesh, as well as Ukraine and Russia, had left, traveling overland to Poland and Romania.

He cited information from Philippine government sources saying seafarers of the Philippines had left. The Philippine Labour Ministry said 371 had been repatriated, 68 had resumed work outside of Ukraine, and some 15 remained there.

"A small number (of the estimated 1,000) remain stranded and unable to return home due to the ongoing threat of potential military crossfire," Barcellona said.

An ILO spokesperson said in an email that some seafarers were still trapped on their ships, within earshot of shellfire, without giving details. Others had been disembarked, including some who were repatriated home, while others were under the protection of the Ukrainian army.

Russia said on Wednesday it had taken control of Mariupol's trading port and had freed what it called "hostages" from vessels.

On April 11 a letter was circulated to International Maritime Organization members by Dominica maritime authorities about its ship that sank in Mariupol this month, saying the crew was hiding on other vessels "under an immense amount of intense fear and distress."

Barcellona said the ITF, which represents some 200 seafarers' unions, had been seeking to establish "blue corridors", or safe passage routes, but this was impossible due to mines.

The International Committee of the Red Cross urged parties to the conflict to allow civilians, including commercial crews, to leave and said it would raise this with authorities.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by William Maclean and David Holmes)