Who was Ukrainian philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda?

The Soviet Union once honored Hryhoriy Skovoroda with a museum in Ukraine — that's now been destroyed by Russian bombs. It's an attack on a freedom-loving idol, says philologist Gusan Guseynov.

A damaged statue of Hryhoriy Skovoroda in Kharkiv

The Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Literary Memorial Museum, which was destroyed by a Russian missile, had been built in 1972 to honor the legacy of the poet and philosopher, also known as Grigory Skovoroda.

The museum was located in the theologian's final residence, in a suburb of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where he had spent the last year of his life before dying on November 9, 1794.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was an attack on the legacy of Skorovoda, "who taught humans what a true Christian attitude towards life was and how humans can know themselves."

One man was hurt in the attack. The items in the museum's collection, including several manuscripts, had already been taken out of the area to a more secure location. A statue of Skorovoda survived the attack almost unscathed.

Hryhoriy Skorovoda's name remains present throughout Ukraine. The Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University is one of the oldest universities in the country; the Hryhorii Skovoroda University, founded in 1986 in Pereiaslav, is located south of Kyiv. Skoworoda's likeness also adorns the 500 hryvnia banknote.

Rejection of material possessions

Skorovoda was born in December 1722 in Chornukhy, now in Ukraine, but part of the Russian Empire during the philosopher's time. From 1738 onwards, he studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and later taught himself Latin, Greek and German. He also became interested in classical philosophical literature.

Ukrainian philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda

Skovoroda worked as a teacher of poetry but lost his position after an argument with the school administrators and subsequently became a private tutor.

In 1760, he became professor of poetry at the collegium in Kharkiv. Later, he taught Greek and ethics until he withdrew from all activities in 1769 to dedicate himself to his philosophical writing, all of which was published posthumously. He traveled through Ukraine until he settled down in Kharkiv, at the house that was recently destroyed.

A dream in 1758 is said to have triggered his spiritual rejection of all things material. At this point, Skovoroda had already traveled a lot and faced the problem of spreading philosophy in the Russian Empire, his home, which was much bigger than Greece, the cradle of philosophy.

Today, Skorovoda is referred to as the Ukrainian or Russian Socrates — which can be traced back to a statement of his, where he said he intended and wished to be the Socrates of Russia.

'An interesting and free human being'

"In reality, he was not a particularly significant philosopher," says Gasan Guseynov, classical scholar at the East European Institute of Berlin's Free University. "His texts were not so important; he was more convincing through the power of speech," he told DW. The value of his philosophical works might be "a bit exaggerated," Guseynov adds.

Workers carry a damaged statue of Skovoroda after the destruction of the museum on May 6

But he definitely left his mark throughout his lifetime.

"He was an interesting and a free human being, a rare personality, like a bird of paradise in 18th-century Russia," Guseynov says, pointing out that it wasn't common to travel so much at the time, not only within the Russian Empire, but also to Vienna and Budapest and possibly to Italy.

Through his travels, Skorovoda could assume a position as professor and mediator between Russia and Europe for his students. "He was interested in human beings and remained a learner," says Guseynov.

Striving for happiness

The quest for freedom and happiness through self-discovery were key themes for Skovoroda.

Both were to be achieved in harmony with God. The philosopher, however, had his problems with the Church, Guseynov says: "In those times, he was considered a dissident by the Church because he rejected religious poetry. That is why there were conflicts in his rhetoric courses." Skovoroda was a "peace-loving person with a tendency for freedom and humor," a combination that did not bode well with the strictness of the Church.

A Ukrainian currency note with Skorovoda's image

Not considered 'a dangerous poet' by the Soviets

Gasan Guseynov describes the time after the collapse of the Russian Empire and the creation of the Soviet Union, whose republics had their own national languages, artists and writers: "Out of these republics, the memory of those historical persons was preserved who were not controversial." 

Skorovoda had never been critical of the Russian Empire and mostly wrote in Russian. He was, therefore, "acceptable for the Soviets. They did not see him as a dangerous poet."

Russian President Vladimir Putin also included the historical figure in his attempts to demonstrate that Ukraine's culture is actually Russia's. Last year, in an article entitled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians," he wrote about Skovoroda and artists like Taras Shevchenko, whose statue has also been badly damaged during the war.

"Their works are our common literary and cultural heritage," explains Guseynov.

"In Ukraine, which was suppressed for a long time as 'little Russia,' Skovoroda is an important symbol for the love of freedom," Guseynov says, which is why, he explains, the bombardment of the museum felt for many like an attack on the human soul of the country.

Since the beginning of the invasion, more than 200 cultural sites have been damaged in Ukraine.

This article was originally written in German.

SEE 

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/kharkiv-region-russians-destroy.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/01/mystical-enlightenment-in-late.html

TRY, TRY, AND TRY AGAIN

MPs vote down Bloc motion to scrap daily reading of prayer from House procedure

Wed, May 11, 2022

MPs stand for a moment of silence in commemoration of D-Day in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill on Thursday, June 6, 2019. MPs today voted down a Bloc motion to scrap the reading of the morning prayer from the House of Commons' daily proceedings. 

(The Canadian Press/Fred Chartrand - image credit)

MPs in the House of Commons have voted overwhelmingly against a Bloc motion calling for the elimination of the daily prayer — read out before the start of the parliamentary sitting — in favour of a moment of reflection.

The motion, which was introduced in the House and debated on Tuesday, failed by a vote of 266 to 56 Wednesday.

All Bloc MPs voted for the motion, as did both Green Party MPs and most of the NDP caucus. All Conservatives voted against the motion or abstained, as did all Liberals except for Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.

The Speaker, MPs and table officers are required stand during the reading of the prayer, which is done before the doors to the chamber open to the public and the press and before the House cameras are turned on.

While the prayer, followed by a moment of silence, is usually a closed-door affair, the prayer was televised on Oct. 23, 2014 — the day after the shooting at the National War Memorial and inside Parliament's Centre Block.

The prayer reads:

"Almighty God, we give thanks for the great blessings which have been bestowed on Canada and its citizens, including the gifts of freedom, opportunity and peace that we enjoy. We pray for our sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, and the Governor General. Guide us in our deliberations as members of Parliament, and strengthen us in our awareness of our duties and responsibilities as members. Grant us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to preserve the blessings of this country for the benefit of all and to make good laws and wise decisions. Amen."

The motion's failure to pass the House was not surprising. During Tuesday's debate, MPs from the other major parties said they were opposed to the motion and argued there are more pressing issues facing MPs.

Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen said during debate that the Bloc had refused to explain why the prayer was more important than other issues gripping the country.

"I've never once has this topic been brought up with me, not a single constituent has ever called me and said, 'I want to talk to you, MP Gerretsen, about the prayer that's being said every morning when the House starts at the beginning of the day," he said.

Not an issue, MPs say

Gérard Deltell, the Conservative MP representing Louis-Saint-Laurent in Quebec, told the House that the job of MPs is to address critical issues facing Canadians.

"Maybe I'm wrong, but I think in my riding people are more concerned about inflation, about housing, about affordability. Those are issues that are very concerning to all Canadians," he said.

"I'm not quite sure that the prayer that we have to say here in the House of Commons off-camera is very important for our people that we represent."

While most NDP MPs voted in favour of removing the prayer, Charlie Angus, the MP for the Ontario riding of Timmins—James Bay, did not. During debate, he also questioned the reasons for raising the issue.

"I'd like to ask my honourable colleague ... how important it is at this time, that we are debating key issues that matter to people as opposed to the regulations in the House of Commons that nobody has ever paid attention to," he said.

The prayer has been part of the daily House proceedings since 1877 and was codified in standing orders in 1927.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a municipal council in the Quebec town of Saguenay could not continue to open its meetings with a prayer. The unanimous decision said reciting a Catholic prayer at council meetings infringed on freedom of conscience and religion.

Following the decision, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson replaced the prayer at the beginning of city council meetings with a moment of reflection. Parliament is protected by parliamentary privilege and is able to set its own rules.

Russia Oil Revenue Up 50% This Year Despite Boycott, IEA Says

Grant Smith
Thu, May 12, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s oil revenues are up 50% this year even as trade restrictions following the invasion of Ukraine spurred many refiners to shun its supplies, the International Energy Agency said.

Moscow earned roughly $20 billion each month in 2022 from combined sales of crude and products amounting to about 8 million barrels a day, the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly market report.

Russian shipments have continued to flow even as the European Union edges towards an import ban, and international oil majors such as Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE pledge to cease purchases. Asia has remained a keen customer, with China and India picking up cargoes no longer wanted in Europe.

READ: Russian Crude Keeps Flowing While Europe Wrangles Over Sanctions

The IEA, which advises major economies, kept its outlook for world oil markets largely unchanged in the report. Global fuel markets are tight and may face further strain in the months ahead as Chinese demand rebounds following a spate of new Covid lockdowns, it said.

Reduced flows of Russian refined products such as diesel, fuel oil and naphtha have aggravated tightness in global markets, the agency noted. Stockpiles have declined for seven consecutive quarters, with reserves of so-called middle distillates at their lowest since 2008.

But for all the disruption, Moscow has continued to enjoy a financial windfall compared with the first four months of 2021. Despite the EU’s public censure of the Kremlin’s aggression, total oil export revenues were up 50% this year.

The bloc remained the largest market for Russian exports in April, taking 43% of the country’s exports, the IEA said.

Still, there are signs of Russia’s resilience starting to fray.

Supplies were down 1 million barrels a day last month, and these losses could triple in the second half of the year, the agency estimates. EU sanctions against Russian state-linked enterprises such as production giant Rosneft PJSC will take effect on May 15, and the bloc is moving towards a full ban on the country’s supplies.

“If agreed, the new embargoes would accelerate the reorientation of trade flows that is already underway and will force Russian oil companies to shut in more wells,” the IEA said.

Protesters vent fury at French company for staying in Russia


Thu, May 12, 2022


WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A man in a Russian military uniform stood at the entrance of a large home improvement store in Poland's capital, saluting shoppers and thanking them for funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

His chest bedecked with medals, Polish activist Arkadiusz Szczurek was protesting at a French-owned retailer Leroy Merlin store in Warsaw as shoppers flocked to buy plants and gardening equipment with spring's arrival. Some shoppers turned around to go elsewhere. Others were indifferent or irritated.

“Millions of Ukrainians are forced to flee the bombs and shooting, (and) people are dying,” Ukrainian activist Natalia Panchenko said at the rally last weekend. “But they keep doing business and see no problem with financing the war.”

It marked the latest protest in Poland over Leroy Merlin’s decision to keep operating 112 stores in Russia, even as many other Western companies have suspended operations there. Leroy Merlin wouldn't comment other than to say it’s not responsible for the war. It's among the foreign companies with a large footprint in Russia that have had to choose between taking the financial hit of leaving or face damage to their reputation by staying.

It is a painful choice for companies based in countries like France and Italy, which do extensive business in Russia and are keeping their sights on future trade once the war is over. However, many corporations with big stakes in Russia have pulled out and are enduring the hit to their bottom lines.

McDonald’s closed its 850 stores in Russia in March, but is still paying its 62,000 employees. The fast-food chain said it’s losing $55 million per month in sales from Russia and expects to lose $100 million worth of inventory because of store closures. Energy company Shell says it's taking a $3.9 billion charge to cover the cost of exiting investments in Russia, while rival BP said it's taking $25.5 billion in pretax charges to exit its holdings in Russian energy producer Rosneft.

Other companies are still partially operating in Russia. PepsiCo, Nestle and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson are still supplying essentials like medications and baby formula while halting nonessential sales. Italian tiremaker Pirelli and Danish brewer Carlsberg say they are operating just enough to support their Russian workers.

Leroy Merlin, with stores similar to Home Depot, is among the foreign companies with the highest revenue in Russia. It says it has helped Ukrainian refugees, including its workers. Parent company Adeo Group in Paris didn't reply to multiple requests for comment.

Such French companies with significant operations in Russia have been singled out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as aiding Russia’s war effort. In an address to the French parliament in March, he mentioned carmaker Renault, Leroy Merlin and two other retailers belonging to Adeo Group: supermarket chain Auchan and sporting goods chain Decathlon.

Soon after, Renault and Decathlon said they would suspend Russian operations, but Leroy Merlin and Auchan stayed.

To many in Ukraine, where Leroy Merlin shut its six stores amid bombings, that feels like a betrayal. In Poland, which borders Ukraine and has accepted more refugees than another other country, many people are highly critical of the French company.

Poland is a member of NATO, but there are still fears it also could become a target of the Kremlin’s revived colonial ambitions, particularly if Russia claims victory in Ukraine.

Dominik Gąsiorowski, top organizer of the Polish Leroy Merlin Boycott movement, believes withholding business to a company that's a major taxpayer in Russia is one of the few concrete things regular people can do to influence the outcome of the war.

“If we, as Western nations, support businesses staying in Russia, we are paying Putin to invade us eventually,” he said. “I refuse to believe that my people, Polish people, cannot make such a small gesture of solidarity during a genocide as choosing another shop a few kilometers away.”

During last weekend's picketing, activists held a poster of a container alongside Leroy Merlin's green logo, calling it a “bin for a corpse” with the message “Leroy Kremlin supports the Russian invasion.”

It was designed by artist Bartłomiej Kiełbowicz, who also has created fake labels people have been sticking on shelves inside Leroy Merlin stores, including one for a broom and dustpan “for sweeping away guilt.” There is another for hammers — “for killing.”

Andrzej Kubisiak, deputy director of the Polish Economic Institute, said it's too soon to know the full effect of the protests but that an app monitoring movement on streets has showed less traffic going to Leroy Merlin, Auchan and Decathlon stores. A Polish bank analysis of card payments also shows a fall in purchases.

But Kubisiak said historically boycott movements lose steam over time, and he expects this one will, too, as Poles, facing inflation of over 12%, will be guided by consumer prices above all else. All three French retailers are known for their competitive prices.

Polish shoppers' reactions to the protests have been mixed.

Wiesław Bobowik, a 64-year-old teacher, said he found the boycott ridiculous and wasn't persuaded to shop elsewhere.

“I would be hurting the French, and they are our friends," he said, loading potted plants and large bags of soil into his car trunk. "Why would I do that?”

The activists also are encouraging people not to shop at Auchan. But Gąsiorowski said the movement is focusing mostly on Leroy Merlin because it was the foreign company with the second-highest revenue in Russia in 2020, following cigarette maker Philip Morris International, which has suspended investments. Auchan was No. 6.

But the movement, he stresses, is larger than Leroy Merlin.

“Every other company is looking at them as an example," he said. "If they succeed while collaborating with Putin, all the major players will return to Russia.”

___

Colleen Barry in Milan, Anne D’Innocenzio in New York, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, and Kelvin Chan in London, contributed to this report.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc Says Sexism in Finance Has Got Worse

Will Louch and Olivia Konotey-Ahulu
Thu, May 12, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- Aviva Plc Chief Executive Officer Amanda Blanc said that the sexism she encounters has worsened as she has risen through the ranks in finance.

Blanc became the insurer’s first female chief executive in July 2020 but faced a number of offensive comments from shareholders at the FTSE 100-listed firm’s annual shareholder meeting on Monday. These included individual shareholders telling Blanc that she was “not the man for the job” and questioned whether she should be “wearing trousers.”

Blanc responded to the comments yesterday in a post on LinkedIn where she said that after working in the financial services industry for more than 30 years she was “pretty used to sexist and derogatory comments,” like those that were made at the AGM.

“I guess that after you have heard the same prejudicial rhetoric for so long though, it makes you a little immune to it all,” Blanc wrote in the post. “I would like to tell you that things have got better in recent years but it’s fair to say that it has actually increased - the more senior the role I have taken, the more overt the unacceptable behaviour.”

She said that usually derogatory comments were made in private and the fact people were making these comments in public was a new development for her personally.

Blanc became the government’s women in finance champion in March last year, as part of an initiative urging firms in the City to commit to boosting gender diversity. It will take the financial services industry another 30 years to achieve gender parity at senior levels, according to research published by the Women in Finance Charter in 2022.

Blanc is one of the few female chief executives of a listed company in Europe, with only 7% of firms in the region’s richest nations led by women according to a report by European Women on Boards, or EWoB, in January. In 2021, just eight organizations had promoted women to the top job since the previous year.

Hedwige Nuyens, chairwoman of the EWoB, commented in response to Blanc’s statement on LinkedIn on Wednesday, “This must stop. It is disgraceful, unacceptable. Let’s focus on the persons that really matter, bringing added value to the firm as responsible stakeholders.”

Sexism scandals have flared in the financial services sector in recent years. The insurance industry has come under particular scrutiny for how female employees are treated. A 2019 Bloomberg investigation uncovered evidence of endemic sexual harassment at Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest insurance market, including inappropriate comments, unwanted touching and sexual assault. Earlier this year, Lloyd’s fined Atrium Underwriters more than a million pounds for failing to address complaints of harassment and bullying.

CRYPTO CRASHES
England's crypto club takes plunge into the unknown

Thu, May 12, 2022,


So, an American consortium has bought an English soccer team with the ultimate aim of winning the Premier League title.

Nothing especially new there, right?

Well, when it comes to the recent purchase of Crawley Town, an unheralded club located 28 miles (44 kilometers) south of London, there’s a huge catch.

“The Dallas Cowboys of the NFL are America’s Team — no matter where you live in America, there are always Dallas Cowboy fans,” said Preston Johnson, one of the businessmen fronting WAGMI United’s acquisition of the team which plays in England’s fourth division. “We want it to be wherever you live, if you have an internet connection, you are a Crawley Town FC supporter.”

That’s because WAGMI United is a group of investors pledging to “shake up the status quo” by using the world of cryptocurrency and “Web 3” technology to fuel the rise of a sports team.

Cryptocurrency is a kind of digital money — bitcoin is the best-known example — that use decentralized databases known as “blockchains” to record encrypted transactions. Web 3 is a trendy technology term used to describe an idealistic goal for a more democratic internet enabled by the growing use of blockchains and blockchain-based items such as nonfungible tokens, known as NFTs.

Cryptocurrency's rising popularity — and meteoric increase in value — has been viewed with widespread skepticism because it is unregulated, making it ripe for wide-eyed speculation among unsophisticated investors and market manipulation by scam artists.

By purchasing Crawley Town, WAGMI United is among about a dozen American owners in English soccer but the group is believed to be the first from the crypto space to buy an entire professional sports team.

“That crypto, NFT, Web 3 audience … doesn’t have a sports team yet,” Johnson told The Associated Press on a video call. “We can give the internet a team … it’s Crawley Town FC.”

Innovation is at the heart of what’s being described by some as an “experiment” on a 126-year-old club that has an average attendance of about 2,200 spectators and a reach that barely extends outside Crawley — a town of 114,000 best known for being the home of Gatwick Airport and rock band the Cure. It's also where England national team coach Gareth Southgate grew up.

The soccer team made the headlines in 2011 when, as a non-league team, it was drawn to play Manchester United in one of the biggest mismatches in the history of the FA Cup. After a pre-match controversy involving a Crawley fan who mocked the plane crash that killed much of the Man United team in 1958, United won 1-0 in a game between two teams nicknamed the “Red Devils.”

Among the ideas of WAGMI United, whose range of investors and advisors includes Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, is using the sale of NFTs to generate extra revenue streams and give buyers voting rights and the chance to have a say on some of the decisions made about the club.

Johnson, a former sports betting analyst, and Eben Smith, a former derivatives trader who is the co-founder of WAGMI United, are targeting promotion to the third division within two years. In order to have full accountability, they say if that objective is not achieved, fans will be able to vote for a change of directors from among the ownership group.

For Johnson, the plan is to invest in analytics, sports science, sports psychology and nutrition to get an edge on opponents. He also spoke of setting up a fan council.

Using the crypto world to expand the fan base and give supporters — local or digital — a greater attachment to the club is at the heart of WAGMI United’s vision, however.

“This whole Web 3 movement is just a matter of time and it’s going to exist,” Johnson said. “It will be a part of everything, whether it’s sport, the music industry, entertainment, as well as art, which we’ve seen in the last year.

“I think it’s here to stay and we want to be the ones to help bridge crypto and NFTs with sport.”

The first NFT drop is scheduled to happen some time this month and Johnson — the face of WAGMI United, at least when comes to Crawley — spoke about “paying homage to some of the NFT historical art of the past” by putting one of those designs on the front of the shirt instead of a traditional sponsor.

Johnson has just moved from his home in southern California to Crawley and will be there practically full time through at least the summer to take a hands-on role. It’s that kind of openness and engagement that has been welcomed by the club’s fans, even if there were — and likely still are — concerns about having owners from crypto space, which remains a mystery to so many.

What might also be alarming is the price of bitcoin, the best-known cryptocurrency, falling sharply since April.

“The word ‘experiment’ has been used quite a lot,” said Sam Jordan, chairman of the Crawley Town Supporters Alliance, “and that does scare a lot of fans, to be honest. But if the experiment pays off, then fantastic.

“It could go one of two ways. It was always going to happen at some point to a football club. We are the chosen football club.”

Jordan said “apprehension is slowly turning into cautious optimism” about the buyout, despite knowing little about NFTs and crypto.

However, he did call for “someone with football experience” to help the consortium run the club and for assurances about what happens if the crypto “dries up.”

“Does the club get pulled,” Jordan asked, “and we just drop back down like a ton of bricks?”

Johnson was eager to stress that WAGMI United acquired Crawley in cash and there was a requirement for the consortium to “overcapitalize,” covering expected losses for the next two years.

“Some people have the idea we’re buying it with coin that can go way up or way down and the club could be in financial ruin if it tanks,” Johnson said. “That’s not the case. We’re not dependent on selling NFTs to let the club run on an ongoing basis.”

It’s still a plunge into the unknown for Crawley, with critics raising ethical and financial concerns about cryptocurrency and questioning whether the new owners' motivation will wane if, for example, their NFTs don’t sell. This is, after all, a club with deep links to the local community and more than a century of heritage, even if that has been solely in the lower echelons of the English game.

It’s over, then, to the new owners to prove that Crawley is not just a plaything. And it’s been a difficult start for them.

They had to make the first big call of their tenure by firing the team's manager, John Yems, last week following allegations he used discriminatory language and conduct toward the squad, including discouraging Black players from using the same locker room as whites. Yems is currently under investigation by the English Football Association. Without a manager, Crawley lost three of its last four games, drawing the other one, to finish the League Two season in 12th place in the 24-team division.

This has to be about the bigger picture, though, for WAGMI, which stands for “We’re All Gonna Make It." And climbing the English pyramid to get into the promised land of the Premier League for the first time is the aim, even if Johnson struck a note of caution.

“That’s the goal,” he said, “but we are cognizant of the fact that when you get to the (second-division) Championship, everyone overspends because of that chance to get to the Premier League.

“We need to have a structural foundation that’s really strong so we can sustain at Championship level. We recognize it’s a very difficult task. We think over the next 7-10 years, getting to the Championship is at least reasonable.”

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Steve Douglas, The Associated Press

Volkswagen's EV profit margins to match combustion engines sooner than planned - CEO


Thu, May 12, 2022, 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen expects its electric vehicle business to be as profitable as its fossil fuel-burning cars sooner than planned, its chief executive Herbert Diess said on Thursday.

Volkswagen previously expected to match its profit margins from combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicle sales in two to three years, but the carmaker was in a robust financial position to do so sooner, Diess said, despite a challenging economic environment.

"We expect that the e-mobility business will be as profitable as the combustion engine business earlier than planned," Diess said, speaking alongside the rest of the board at the carmaker's annual shareholder meeting.

"Through good crisis management, we are financially robust and have strengthened our resilience."

Diess intends for Volkswagen to overtake Tesla and become the world's number-one electric carmaker by 2025, building on its bigger product offering covering luxury and premium cars and volume brands.

Volkswagen delivered some 452,000 battery-electric vehicles globally last year and aims for half of its global output to be all-electric by 2030. It plans to build 800,000 fully electric cars worldwide this year and 1.3 million in 2023, it said on Thursday.

Prices may need to increase further this year amid rising raw material costs, procurement chief Murat Aksel said.

Diess also said he thought the timing was ideal for an initial public offering (IPO) of sports carmaker Porsche, which is planned for the fourth quarter of this year.

A final decision on whether Porsche would enter Formula 1 was still outstanding, the sports carmaker's chief Oliver Blume said.

Volkswagen said in April that it and the Porsche and Audi brands were open to entering the international racing class, but Diess said last week there were some divisions among the board but that the brands had ultimately made the case for the move.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Editing by Rachel More and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T

The SEC is investigating Elon Musk over his late disclosure that he had purchased Twitter stock, a report says

Isobel Asher Hamilton
Thu, May 12, 2022,

Elon Musk.Andrew Kelly/Reuters

• The SEC is investigating Elon Musk's late disclosure of his Twitter stake, per The Wall Street Journal.

• After buying up more than 5% of Twitter stock Musk should have filed a disclosure on March 24.

• He filed on April 4, meaning he may have benefitted from buying up cheaper shares in the meantime.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Elon Musk over his disclosure of buying up Twitter shares ahead of his announcement that he wanted to buy the company, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Journal the SEC is probing Musk over his late submission of a form investors need to file when they purchase more than 5% of a company's shares.

Musk filed the form at least ten days after the date when he was supposed to, The Journal reports.

Musk disclosed on April 4 that he had bought up a 9.2% stake in Twitter, sending the social-media company's shares soaring by almost 25%.

According to SEC rules, he should have filed his disclosure by March 24, The Journal reported.

By not reporting that he'd bought a more than 5% stake in time, he potentially saved $143 million. This is because if public investors had known earlier that Musk was buying up stock, the share price may have gone up, University of Pennsylvania accounting professor Daniel Taylor told The Journal.

A Twitter shareholder filed a lawsuit against Musk on April 12, which claimed that investors would have made significant gains between March 24 and April 4 if he had reported his disclosure on time.

Musk offered to buy Twitter on April 14 and the company accepted his bid on April 25. The deal still needs to pass shareholder and regulatory approval.

Even if the SEC brought a lawsuit against Musk it would be unlikely to upset the deal closing, The Journal reported.

The SEC did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

China’s White Knight Tycoon Can’t Save His Own Firm From Default

David Scanlan
Thu, May 12, 2022, 3:00 a.m.·4 min read



Major China Developer Sunac Defaults as Debt Crisis Spreads


(Bloomberg) -- Sun Hongbin, dubbed the “white knight” in China for bailing out fellow billionaires and their empires, was unable to rescue his own from the property crisis that’s engulfing the world’s second-biggest economy.

Though he dipped into his own pocket to the tune of $450 million, tapped investors to buy shares and raised more than $2 billion in all, it wasn’t enough for Sun to avoid default at his Sunac China Holdings Ltd.

Sunac joins more than a dozen developers including China Evergrande Group that have defaulted on dollar bonds in the past few months, potentially inflicting more pain on global high-yield investors.

The struggles at Sunac -- China’s No. 4 developer by sales -- may herald further distress among property firms that were deemed too strong to fail just a few months ago. They also underscore how developers are straining under Beijing’s crackdown on borrowing and a housing slump that’s being made worse by strict Covid restrictions.

“Sunac’s default means that no private Chinese developer is now safe from default this year” without new financing, said Wei Chong, head of bond research at Fuhui Juli Wealth Management Corp., a hedge fund that owned Sunac’s onshore debt before selling earlier this year.

Sunac declined to comment.

For Chairman Sun, 58, the default is another setback in a roller-coaster career that’s included a separate failed property firm, a stint in prison over embezzlement charges for which he was later exonerated, and a meteoric rise to found one of the country’s biggest developers. He amassed a $12 billion fortune along the way.

Just a few months ago, Sun’s company was projected to be one of the survivors of China’s moves to reduce risk in the financial sector by limiting developers’ ability to borrow in public markets. Sunac, with Harvard University-educated Sun as its biggest shareholder, was rated BB as recently as March last year at S&P Global Ratings, two notches below investment grade. The dollar bonds that slipped into default traded at 82 cents on the dollar in December.

Sunac’s sales blossomed to about 230 billion yuan ($34 billion) in 2020, a 10-fold jump from 2015 as it benefited from surging demand in its top-tier markets of Shanghai and Beijing. The firm ranked third by contracted sales last year, according to China Real Estate Information Corp., a position it maintained in the first two months of 2022 before slipping to fourth. That growth made Sunac a stock darling for a time, gaining more than 400% in 2017 alone.

That lofty perch made Sun popular among tycoons in need.

When China’s Tesla Inc.-wannabe LeEco had cash-flow problems, Sun offered a lifeline of $2.5 billion to founder Jia Yueting’s operations. In 2017, Sun agreed to buy hotels and theme parks from Dalian Wanda Group Co. for more than $6 billion after China planned to cut off funding for billionaire Wang Jianlin. Sun also came close to buying Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. when the troubled developer defaulted on offshore debt. He later dropped the deal.

Yet Sunac’s massive spending spree and expansion into sectors ranging from indoor ski hills to amusement parks has been raising eyebrows for years. The investments in businesses unrelated to property, which included a struggling internet company, prompted Fitch Ratings to cut the firm deeper into junk status in 2017, citing what it called its “acquisitive business approach.”

“He’s quite gung-ho,” said Cheng Wee Tan, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. “He’s always been relying on a strategy of aggressive expansion funded by leverage.”

As the liquidity crunch deepened last year following Beijing’s crackdown, Sun took steps to bolster Sunac’s balance sheet, determined to avoid a repeat of a failed property firm known as Sunco that he ran more than 15 years ago.

Sun, a U.S. citizen, dipped into his own coffers to provide a $450 million interest-free loan to Sunac, which also raised $580 million in a January stock sale and unloaded a stake in its property-services unit.

Bonds Tumble

None of it was enough to avoid default for a company saddled with almost $11 billion in domestic and offshore bonds. Sunac is now the biggest developer to default on a public bond payment this year, as Sun joins fellow billionaire Hui Ka Yan at Evergrande in failing to keep up with massive debt payments.

“The group’s contracted sales have continued to decline significantly, while access to new financing has become increasingly difficult,” Sunac said in a statement Thursday.

Sunac is trying to find state-backed strategic investors to improve the company’s credit status and restore financing capabilities, Hong Kong Economic Times reported, citing unidentified people.

Sun’s personal fortune meanwhile, has tumbled along with Sunac’s share price, which was off 61% this year before it was suspended from trading in March after the company failed to release earnings.

His net worth has slipped to $1.3 billion, a decline of $2 billion in 2022 alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Years late, London's 'game-changer' subway line set to open


Thu, May 12, 2022, 



LONDON (AP) — Andy Byford points out the cathedral-like ceiling, the crystal-clear acoustics, the “pureness of the aesthetic” that surrounds him.

The head of London’s public transport system is rhapsodizing about a subway station — part of a new line he says will be “the envy of the world” when it opens this month.

“It really gives people a sense of grandeur, but there is also a sense of calm,” said Byford as he showed journalists around Liverpool Street Station on London’s gleaming new east-west Elizabeth Line, due to open on May 24.

The 19 billion-pound ($23 billion) mixed overground and underground railway, named in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, is three-and-a-half years late and 4 billion pounds ($5 billion) over budget. But Byford says it will be “a game-changer” for Britain’s pandemic-scarred capital city.

“I think when it opens it is going to be a huge morale boost for London, post-COVID," said Byford, who is commissioner of Transport for London. "What could be a greater symbol of London’s emergence from COVID than this spectacular railway?”

Yet there’s a question mark over whether London still needs the Elizabeth Line.

Since ground was first broken on the project — also known as Crossrail — in 2009, London has been through recession, a rocky British exit from the European Union and a coronavirus pandemic that shut down the city for months and transformed work and travel patterns, potentially for good.

Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the Elizabeth Line “is a remarkable and beautiful thing.”

“But it was built — after a lot of effort and over a very long period of time — for a different economy,” he said. “Its entire economic case was very heavily predicated on the continued growth of the economy of central London.”

Britain’s biggest infrastructure project for decades, the new line involved digging 26 miles (42 kilometers) of new tunnels under Europe’s biggest city — uncovering 68,000-year-old mammoth bones, Roman ruins and the skeletons of medieval plague victims along the way.

It was scheduled to open in late 2018. But with just months to go the launch was postponed, and then postponed again as workers struggled to finish 10 new stations and link up three separate signalling systems on the western, central and eastern stretches of the 60-mile (100-kilometer) railway.

In 2020, the builders turned to Byford, a veteran public transport executive who ran the Toronto Transit Commission and then the transit authority in New York, where he was nicknamed “Train Daddy” as he grappled with the Big Apple’s often frustrating subway and bus systems.

Byford has staked his reputation on getting the Elizabeth Line up and running.

“It’s had its challenges,” he acknowledged. “This has been a labor of love for us. We’ve sweated blood over this thing.”

The largely underground central section from Paddington Station in west London to Abbey Wood in the southeast opens to paying customers this month, days before the U.K. celebrates the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, though it won’t be fully integrated with the aboveground eastern and western legs until the fall.

Builders say the Elizabeth Line will provide a speedy new link between Heathrow Airport west of London, the City financial district in the center and the Canary Wharf business hub in the east.

For anyone who has ridden London’s cramped Underground, parts of which are more than 150 years old, the scale of the new line is a pleasant shock. The spacious trains can carry more than 1,000 passengers each. They are also air conditioned, something that’s a rarity on London’s sweaty Tube. The tunnels seem to curve on forever and the stations soar — Paddington is 10 stories high and as long as the Shard, London’s tallest skyscraper.

Crossrail’s builders are proud of the attention to detail, from the purple patterned fabric on the train seats to the playful station design touches, like a ceiling of Liverpool Street Station in the City that is striped to evoke a banker’s pinstriped suit. Lighting is cool in the concourse, warm on the platforms — a “nudge” to subtly encourage people towards the trains.

The Elizabeth Line opens in a city, and country, facing economic uncertainty, with the war in Ukraine fueling record inflation and the city center still quieter than before the pandemic as many officers work at least part time from home. The line's expected ridership has been scaled back from a predicted 250 million people a year before the pandemic, to about 200 million a year.

The transit network, London's circulatory system, needs even more investment. But Britain’s Conservative government is focused on spreading economic opportunity from the wealthy south of England to the poorer Midlands and north, and is reluctant to spend money on the capital city — especially since London is a stronghold of the opposition Labour Party.

A planned Crossrail 2 that would slice through London from southwest to northeast is on hold, though Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild hopes it will be completed one day.

He is certain the new line will help get London back on track.

“If there’s ever going to be a railway that’s pandemic-proof, it’s this one,” Wild said. “It’s airy, fast, the stations are cathedral-like, the air’s fresh. It’s modern, clean. If there’s ever a railway that can stimulate a return to the office, it’s going to be this one.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press