White House says union membership among federal employees rose by 80,000 in one year

BY JULIA SHAPERO - 03/17/23 

Annabelle Gordon
Union workers in support of the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act attend a press conference outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., with House and Senate Democrats on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

The White House said on Friday that union membership among federal employees increased by about 80,000 workers in the past year, amid the administration’s push on workers’ rights.

The Biden administration’s task force on worker organizing and empowerment, led by Vice President Harris, also touted a 53 percent increase in petitions for union representation and an increase of 273,000 in union membership overall.

Support for unions has also increased, reaching its highest rating since 1965. A 2022 Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, a number that has been steadily increasing over the years after a low of 48 percent in 2009.

The White House task force, which was created “to reduce barriers to worker organizing and position the federal government as a model employer,” has sought to ensure that federal grant money is tied to quality job standards, inform employees with “Know Your Rights” campaigns and remove limitations on organizing on federal property, according to a press release.

Biden, who vowed during his 2020 campaign to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” has earned much praise from union leaders throughout his presidency. However, a rail dispute late last year has cast a shadow over his legacy on the issue.

The president signed a resolution from Congress in December that imposed an agreement between rail companies and workers to prevent a rail strike. The deal, opposed by four of the 12 rail unions, did not include sought-after sick leave provisions.

US States Cannot Block Hazardous Waste From Ohio Derailment -EPA

By David Shepardson
03/17/23 

General view of the site of the derailment of a train carrying hazardous waste, in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., March 2, 2023. REUTERS

U.S. states cannot block shipments of hazardous waste from a Feb. 3 Ohio train derailment to licensed disposal sites, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan's warning came after Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said earlier this week he had blocked a shipment of hazardous waste from the derailment to a facility in his state.

The derailment of the Norfolk Southern operated train in East Palestine, Ohio, has shone a spotlight on railroad safety as residents worry about the health impacts of living near the toxic material.

Regan told reporters he sent letters to all states warning "any attempts to impede interstate shipments of hazardous waste threatens the integrity of the system." He said the Oklahoma site has a permit to receive the waste.

The EPA said there are typically 97,000 shipments of hazardous waste in the U.S. per month and two-thirds may cross state lines.

Regan said he would hold Norfolk Southern accountable and demanded it enforce its contracts to dispose of contaminated materials from the site.

"EPA will take all actions to ensure the safe hazardous waste handing continues across this country," he told reporters. "We expect Norfolk Southern to execute and implements its contracts and hold contractees accountable for receipt of this waste."

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine praised the EPA statement for making clear states must accept shipments.

Both Regan and DeWine said there was nothing unusual about the material from the East Palestine derailment.

"It's kind of crazy because what we're sending from here is no worse than stuff they are taking every other day," DeWine told reporters. "In fact, they are taking a lot worst stuff than we're sending them."

Regan said to date the railroad has excavated nearly half of contaminated soil from the tracks and transported 6.8 million gallons of liquid waste and 5,400 tons of solid waste. Regan estimated it would take another three months to complete the site cleanup.

"EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the mess it made -- and no one should impede or prevent this cleanup as we return East Palestine to the beautiful community residents know it to be," he said.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw has said the railroad is fully committed to cleaning the site and will testify next week before the Senate Commerce Committee, his second appearance this month before senators.

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On Tuesday, the state of Ohio sued Norfolk Southern over the derailment that released over a million gallons of hazardous materials and pollutants.

F-16 Fighting Falcon vs. A-10 Thunderbolt II. What’s Better for Ukraine? Talking Tactics

UNITED24

Mar 17, 2023

Ukraine`s air force has publicly declared that the “best Ukrainian pilots have been selected and are prepared to start training in any country ready to receive them.” It was a bold statement, but Ukraine’s air force urgently needs an upgrade, and fighter jets have become a hot topic of discussion. But why are they so important? Watch Talking Tactics to find out.

 

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Deloitte Hit By Record China Fine, Suspension Over Huarong

Huarong had several internal and risk control failures and distorted its accounting which Deloitte missed, according to the statement.

Bloomberg News
17 Mar 2023

Motorists along a near empty road in the central business district in Beijing, China. Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- China suspended the operations of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.’s Beijing office for three months and imposed an unprecedented fine over lapses in its auditing work of bad-debt manager China Huarong Asset Management Co.

After several on-site inspections, personnel interviews, a review of paperwork and a hearing, the Ministry of Finance found that Deloitte had “serious audit deficiencies” in its work with Huarong between 2014 and 2019, according to a statement. The firm was fined 212 million yuan ($30.8 million), or more than 25 times the combined fines the ministry meted to accounting firms during inspections last year.

The accounting firm failed to properly look into the status of Huarong’s underlying assets, ignored compliance approvals on major investments and failed to apply a sense of skepticism in its audit work on Huarong, the ministry said. Huarong had several internal and risk control failures and distorted its accounting which Deloitte missed, according to the statement.

The local unit, Deloitte Hua Yong, said in a statement Friday that there’s no suggestion by the ministry that its Beijing branch or any of its people have done anything unethical. “We have cooperated fully with the MOF throughout its inspection,” it added. “We respect and accept the MOF’s penalty decision. We regret that, in this matter, the MOF considers certain aspects of our work fell below the required auditing standards.”

Huarong roiled Asian credit markets in 2021 as it failed to release its annual report on time, eventually revealing a massive loss for 2020. It later received a $6.6 billion government-orchestrated bailout.

The suspension and fine come as Chinese authorities, including the Ministry of Finance, have urged state-owned firms to stop using the four biggest international accounting firms as recently as January, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last month. China is seeking to rein in the influence of the US-linked global audit firms and ensure the nation’s data security, as well as to bolster the local accounting industry, the people said.

In its statement, Deloitte Hua Yong also said it has received no information from Huarong that there is any intention to make any prior period restatement to the company’s historic consolidated financial statements. “No changes to the relevant audit reports have been found to be necessary,” it said.

This is the second large fine Deloitte’s China operations has received in the past year. In September, the affiliate agreed to pay the $20 million over US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations it broke auditing rules. The SEC said that in audits for 2016 to 2018, employees at the affiliate asked clients to select their own samples of financial statements for review and create documents showing the auditor had tested the statements when there wasn’t evidence it had.

Deloitte China didn’t admit or deny the SEC’s allegations and said in a statement that it self-reported “deficient procedures” and that the SEC acknowledged the firm’s cooperation and remedial efforts.

Deloitte’s China clients include state-owned giants such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China United Network Communications Ltd. The firm has more than 20,000 professionals across 30 Chinese cities, which provide audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, business advisory and tax services, according to its website.

The Big Four firms earned a combined revenue of 20.6 billion yuan from all Chinese clients in 2021, according to Finance Ministry data. Deloitte’s revenue in China amounted to 4.2 billion yuan.

Huarong was one of four asset management companies created following the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s to buy bad loans from China’s banks and provide a safeguard. But the company and its peers later expanded beyond their original mandates, creating a maze of subsidiaries to engage in other financial businesses and borrow billions from the bond market.

Huarong and seven of its subsidiaries were also fined 100,000 yuan each, according to the statement.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

China announces Xi’s Russia visit day after minister’s rare phone call to Kyiv

BySutirtho Patranobis
Mar 17, 2023 

The announcement of the visit comes a day after China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, called for peace talks during a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia from March 20 to 22, the Chinese foreign ministry and the Kremlin announced on Friday, a month after Beijing floated a 12-point peace plan in an attempt to end the conflict triggered by Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

This photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, and China's President Xi Jinping. 

China says Xi will visit Russia from March 22 (AP File)

The announcement of the visit comes a day after China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, called for peace talks during a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

Beijing has so far refused to describe Moscow’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine as an invasion and instead blamed the US and NATO for provoking Moscow.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

In Moscow, the news agency Associated Press quoted a statement issued by the Kremlin which announced that Xi and Putin would discuss “issues of further development of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China,” and exchange views “in the context of deepening Russian-Chinese cooperation in the international arena”. The report described Xi’s visit as an apparent show of support for President Putin.

China is concerned about the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the situation spiralling out of control, Qin told Kuleba on Thursday evening amid speculation that Xi is also likely to soon speak with Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We hope that Russia and Ukraine will keep hope for dialogue and negotiation, and will not close the door to a political solution, no matter how difficult and challenging it is. China will continue to play a constructive role for a ceasefire to stop the war, ease the crisis and restore peace,” Qin said.

News agency AFP said Xi last visited Russia in 2019, while Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing last year. The two leaders also met at a regional security gathering in Uzbekistan in September.

Zero tolerance: EU Commission targets Amazon, Spotify, Apple for violating content law

‘There are a few online platforms that have not respected’ Digital Services Act obligations, Thierry Breton says.

Amazon, Apple and Spotify are not respecting the EU’s content moderation law, the Digital Services Act | Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

BY CLOTHILDE GOUJARD
MARCH 17, 2023 

The European Commission will “go after” companies including Amazon, Apple and Spotify for not respecting the EU’s content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, the EU’s internal market chief Thierry Breton said Friday.

“I regret to say that there are a few online platforms that have not respected their obligations and have either failed to provide user numbers altogether or simply stated that they do not meet the designation thresholds,” Breton said at a Commission conference.

“We will not tolerate delaying tactics when it comes to enforcing the DSA; we will take action and go after the companies which have not complied,” he added.

Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Booking.com, eBay, OnlyFans, AliExpress and Pinterest are among the online platforms that haven't disclosed details about how many Europeans use their services under a February deadline set by the Digital Services Act.

The law, adopted in 2022, aims to get platforms to step up their content moderation, including cracking down on illegal material such as photos of child sexual abuse and videos promoting terrorism.

Breton confirmed that the European Commission, which will oversee platforms and search engines with more than 45 million users in the EU, would proceed with the formal designation of very large online platforms “in the coming weeks.” Nearly 20 companies such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Google have already been declared to fall within this category.

Breton had already told Spotify CEO Daniel Ek of “the importance of complying with all requirements” under the DSA, including publishing the exact number of users in the EU, in a video call on March 16, according to a readout.

“The world is watching us — we have a huge responsibility to prove that our European rules work not only in theory but also in practice, bringing tangible results to our citizens,” said Breton.

CLIMATE CRISIS

Malawians search for relatives buried under the mud as death toll jumps

Mar 18, 2023 

BLANTYRE, March 17 (Reuters) -In Malawi, where floods swept awayentire villages this month after a storm tore through its southern districts, police officers and soldiers on Friday dug for victims buried under the mud and rocks as the death toll rose sharply.

The storm has pounded the southern African country as tropical Cyclone Freddy swept through the region killing more than 500 people in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar since it first made landfall in Africa in late February and circled backfor a second time over the weekend.

While the storm haddissipated, rain continued to hamper rescue efforts as vehicles struggled onflooded roads.

In Malawi, which has suffered the brunt of the storm with 438 killed, soldiers used shovels and picks to exhumebodies in the commercial capital Blantyre and laid themon the ground for identification.

Lieutenant ColonelDickens Kamisa, who participated inthe search, said local authorities identified about eight areas where dead bodies should be buried and were using sniffer dogs to find trapped Malawians.

Chifundo Chilimba, a local resident, told Reuters he could not find his family members as the depth of the mud was too deep.

"My relatives could be deep down under the debris," Chilimba said in his local language of Chichewa, adding that the only thing he was able to find were his family's clothes.

"We are going to bury these clothes I am carrying in the case that they are not found," he added.

To help in search and rescue efforts, foreign aircraft and boats were arriving in Malawi on Friday, officials said.

The country's police inspector, Casper Chalera, told Reuters by telephone that the first rescue vessels will arrive from Zambia and Switzerland, adding that the U.S. and South Africa were also planning to send aid aircraft and boats.

"Two Zambian planes, one carrying relief items and a helicopter for aerial operations have landed," Chalera said.

Lameck Kalenga, Defence Force Deputy Chief of military operations, told media on Thursday that the United Kingdom and Mozambique had also pledged to send military equipment.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said it was providing food assistance by distributing partially pre-cooked food called corn-soya blend to displaced people.

"(Severe flooding) has inundated farmlands and destroyed produce – just as farmers were about to harvest the only crop of the year - compounding an already difficult year in which 3.8 million people need food assistance," the WFP said in a statement.

It added that the country has been affected by high maize prices and the worst cholera epidemic in decades.

At least 76 people have died in Mozambique, according to government figures. The storm had already killed about 27 people in Madagascar and Mozambique before it lashed Mozambique a second time.

Cyclone Freddy claims at least 326 lives in Malawi after lashing southern Africa a second time

Issued on: 17/03/2023 - 

The death toll in Malawi from Cyclone Freddy has risen to 326, the country's president said Thursday, bringing the total number of victims across southern Africa to more than 400 since February.

Rescuers were unearthing more bodies as the chances of finding survivors faded after the cyclone followed a highly unusual course by returning to lash southern Africa's mainland a second time.

"As of yesterday, the death toll from this disaster has risen from 225 to 326," Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera said in the devastated southern region near the commercial hub Blantyre.

"The number of people displaced has more than doubled to 183,159, as has the number of households displaced, which now stands at 40,702," he added.

Chakwera renewed his appeal for global aid as rescuers continued to seek survivors on Thursday from the flooding and mudslides caused by torrential rains this week.

More than 300 emergency shelters have been set up for survivors, while the army and police have been deployed to deal with the crisis.

Two weeks of national mourning and a state of emergency have been decreed in the country.

"The cyclone has destroyed property, homes, crops, and infrastructure, including bridges that have cut off communities that desperately need help," Chakwera said.

The cyclone first struck southern Africa in late February, striking Madagascar and Mozambique but causing only limited damage in landlocked Malawi.

The storm then moved back out over the Indian Ocean, where it drew more power from the warm waters before making a rare course reversal to slam into the mainland a second time.

05:46

The rains have eased since Wednesday but Freddy is still on track to become one of the world's longest tropical storms.

In Mozambique, the storm has caused at least 73 deaths and displaced tens of thousands of people over the past weeks and killed a further 17 people in Madagascar.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has also appealed for emergency aid to rebuild destroyed infrastructure after visiting the stricken province of Zambezia, which borders Malawi.

'Overwhelming stench'

Lacking sniffer dogs and armed just with shovels, rescuers in Malawi made a grim hunt for buried and decomposing bodies lying amid the debris from destroyed homes.

In Manje, a township around 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Blantyre, five bodies were recovered after locals said they had spotted bubbles forming under the muddy rubble.

"The overwhelming stench in the air is a clear sign that the corpses are rotting underneath," said an elderly resident, Rose Phiri, as she watched the machine spade through the rubble.

Meteorologists say the cyclone is exceptional in its duration and has characteristics consistent with warnings about climate change.

"It's been an incredibly long lasting storm. We can see from today's satellite imagery and from the last couple of days it has dissipated," Randall Cerveny of the World Meteorological Organization told AFP.

Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said the warm ocean "is a key aspect contributing to rapid intensification of cyclones".

"Cyclone Freddy underwent rapid intensification seven times during its lifetime," he said.

(AFP)

‘Feels like a nightmare’: Cyclone Freddy survivors weep in Malawi

The storm, likely the longest lasting in the southern hemisphere, has killed hundreds of people displaced hundreds of thousands.

Hendry Keinga weeps after losing a family member in a mudslide in Mtauchira village in the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy in Blantyre, Malawi [

Esa Alexander/Reuters]

By Rabson Kondowe
Published On 17 Mar 2023

Blantyre, Malawi – Four days after Grace Mastala was forced to flee her home at the foot of the Soche Quarry community at the base of a hill in Malawi’s commercial capital of Blantyre, she is still looking for her 13-year-old son, dead or alive.

Mother and child were separated by Cyclone Freddy, a record-breaking storm that made its way into the southern African country and its eastern neighbour Mozambique last weekend.

As of Thursday, there have been more than 300 documented deaths in both countries and nearly 90,000 people have been displaced as their homes were swept away.

Mastala who works as a housekeeper, was on her way home on Monday at about 11am when mudslides came roaring down Soche Hill, interrupting her journey.

“It was right in front of me, it was scary,” the mother of two recounted to Al Jazeera on Thursday. “Fortunately, some people from the area who were running away managed to grab my daughter but my son was never with them.”

The World Meteorological Organization has said the cyclone which formed in February off the northern coast of Australia before making its way to southeastern Africa, may be the longest lasting storm in the southern hemisphere.


In neighbouring Mozambique, officials report at least 20 people have died since the cyclone made landfall in the port town of Quelimane on Saturday night.

(Al Jazeera)

‘We need help’

Freddy, which has now dissipated, caused widespread devastation in Malawi, including to critical infrastructure. Roads have been cut off and electricity poles have fallen down, according to the Electricity Generation Company Limited (EGENCO).

Malawi has declared a state of emergency.

“Even though the cyclone is gone, the country is expected to keep receiving heavy rains along lakeshore areas which are likely to trigger flash floods, ” a statement from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, DODMA on Thursday read.

Schools have also been shut down in Blantyre and across the entire southern region of Malawi. Consequently, 165 camps have been built in schoolyards and classrooms across the city to provide shelter for affected households.

Malinga Namuku, the manager at Manja Primary School camp in the heart of the city said well-wishers and nonprofit organisations have provided a lot of support in the form of food and clothes.

“We hope that more support will keep coming because the people here are just too many,” he said. “We have asked the government to find us a place somewhere with tents erected because we don’t know how long people are going to be here, as schools also need to continue, especially for the examination classes.”

During a visit to the affected areas on Wednesday, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a 14-day national mourning period.

In his speech, Chakwera said he authorised the release of 1.6 billion kwacha ($1.5m) to assist Malawians affected by the cyclone.

“I can already tell you that this money will not be nearly enough,” he said. “The level of devastation we are dealing with here is greater than the resources we have at our disposal.”

The president appealed to the international community to “please look at us with such favour because we need help“.

Some private citizens, multinational companies as well as the United Nations and United States Agency for International Development have started proving some relief.

The United Nations released a statement on Wednesday indicating that it has provided support to establish an operations emergency centre in Blantyre for humanitarian coordination among government and NGOs.

The UN said it is also “providing critical logistical support, including transportation for search and rescue operations as well as to ferry humanitarian workers, equipment and supplies to communities that have been cut off by flooding and landslides, as well as medical supplies and equipment to improve water and sanitation infrastructure to address immediate health needs”.

Some of the Cyclone Freddy survivors at a camp in Blantyre, Malawi 

[Rabson Kondowe/Al Jazeera]

‘Feels like a nightmare’

Many of the 5,000 people to have sought refuge at Manja are distressed. Some have lost their homes and barely escaped alive.

Yohane Pangani, also from Soche, managed to escape just before the home he shared with nine relatives was engulfed by mudslides.

“We have lost everything, our house is gone, but we are grateful that every one of us still has life, and we all made it to this camp,” the 25-year-old said.

Before leaving the area, Pangani worked alongside his friends to rescue seven people, including a pregnant woman, buried in the mudslides. He was set to begin a programme at a teacher’s training college in Blantyre in April but now has to wait longer because the cyclone has disrupted life in the city.

Belita Freyal, a 45-year-old mother of six, was at the market selling vegetables on Saturday when she saw the floodwaters approaching. She panicked and fled, leaving behind all her goods and sustaining injuries in the process.

The floods washed away her vegetable farms, the main source of income for her family, and she is now worried about how to repay debts she took on for her business.

“I am happy that my family is safe but I am also worried because the business was the bread and butter for my family, considering that my husband is out of work,” she told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon, Mastala arrived at Manja with only one child by her side and has been searching for the missing one since.

“I don’t know where my son is,” she said, sombrely. “I’m just coming from Queen Elizabeth [Central Hospital] to see if he was maybe being treated in the wards. I even went to the mortuary to see if I could find his body there.”

Earlier in the day, bodies were brought to the camp for the survivors to identify. Her son was not among them.

For Mastala, sifting through the ruins left behind by the cyclone is hard, but is compounded by the knowledge that her son is yet to be found and her family is homeless.

“I just cannot afford to move on from this,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Where will I even go when it is time to leave the camp? It all just feels like a nightmare.”

KEEP READING

Malawi’s president appeals for immediate aid after Cyclone Freddy

Over 300 dead in Malawi, Mozambique as Cyclone Freddy losses pile

Floods in Turkey kill 13 people in earthquake-affected provinces

Lack of cross-border flood alerts adds to disaster fears in Nepal

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Wizz Air 'worst in UK for outstanding court judgments'

The Hungarian airline is among four of the biggest carriers ordered to pay more than £4.5 million in refunds to passengers

Wizz Air was found to have 1,601 county court judgments it failed to pay. 

Gillian Duncan

Mar 17, 2023

Four of the biggest airlines operating in the UK have been ordered to pay more than £4.5 million in outstanding court judgments, with Wizz Air accounting for almost half of the total.

The county court judgments have been made against the airlines after they failed to pay passenger refunds, expenses and compensation. A High Court enforcement officer has issued dozens of writs against Wizz Air.

READ MORE

New UK budget makes flights more expensive

The Hungarian budget carrier was found to have 1,601 county court judgments it failed to pay, amounting to £2,166,044, according to official records.

EasyJet was the second worst offender, with 884 outstanding judgements amounting to £611,436. Ryanair has 840 worth £549,892 and Tui has 313 worth £1,261,897.

Jet2 has just four.

EasyJet told consumer group Which? that none of the court judgments listed as outstanding were unpaid.

And Wizz Air said it had paid 400 of the outstanding county court judgements since December, adding that the third-party records were not current. It said it was trying to get the record updated.

The other airlines did not respond to Which?.

Trust Online, the official register of court judgments, told Which?: “Even when a judgment is paid, the judgment will continue to show as ‘unsatisfied’ until the court records are updated.”

It added that it was the defendant’s responsibility to update the court when the payments were made.

Wizz Air was named the UK’s worst for delays last summer.

Two thirds of Wizz Air’s flights in and out of the UK were delayed by 15 minutes or longer last summer, according to data from the national Civil Aviation Authority.

It had the longest average delay among all its rivals, at 55 minutes, according to research based on data from more than 385,000 flights from June to August.

Wizz Air made more than 15,000 flights in and out of Britain in that period and 10,431 of those were at least 15 minutes late.

The airline suspended on Tuesday all its flights to and from Moldova this week due to security concerns linked to growing tensions with Russia.

“Due to recent developments and the high, though not imminent, risk in the country's airspace, Wizz Air has taken the difficult but responsible decision to suspend all its flights to Chisinau as of March 14,” the airline said.

Moldova, a pro-European republic of 2.6 million people located between Romania and Ukraine, has feared that it could be Moscow's next target ever since Russia launched its offensive in Ukraine a year ago.

In recent weeks the EU-candidate nation has reported “attempts at destabilisation”.

Its territory has been hit by debris from the war in Ukraine several times and Moldova has occasionally shut down its own airspace during the Ukraine conflict.

Moldova has also suffered energy blackouts after Ukraine stopped exporting electricity because of Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure.

But Wizz Air is the first airline to announce such a suspension of flights.

Two weeks ago, Moldova's president Maia Sandu accused Russia of plotting to overthrow the country's pro-European leadership with the help of saboteurs disguised as anti-government protesters.

Moscow denied the claim.

Energy company drops idea of shipping LNG to Europe, cites associated costs

Story by Darren Major • Yesterday 

Spanish energy company Repsol says it won't be expanding its Saint John LNG terminal to export liquefied natural gas to Europe because the associated costs make the project unviable.

Europe faced a serious supply crunch last year as it weaned itself off Russian oil and gas following Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

As they scrambled to replace Russian gas, Germany and other EU members turned to Canada as a possible solution to their supply woes.

Repsol's current import terminal in Saint John, New Brunswick was considered as an option to export natural gas across the Atlantic.

But as Bloomberg News first reported, the company considers the project too costly. Company spokesperson Michael Blackier told CBC News that Repsol conducted a viability study on the project.

"The overall costs to ship the gas to our terminal are too high," Blackier said in an email to CBC.

U.S. LNG exporters boosted shipments to Europe by more than 137 per cent in the first 11 months of 2022 — an increase that has resulted in tens of billions of dollars in new revenue, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data.

During his visit to Canada last summer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was open to the idea of accepting more gas from Canada but added the country lacks infrastructure and a proven business case to boost exports across the Atlantic.


German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined the CBC for an interview in Toronto on August 23, 2022.© Evan Mitsui/CBC

Over the past decade, businesses have pitched 13 LNG export terminals for Canada's West Coast and five for the East Coast.

These projects have failed for a variety of reasons.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen poured cold water on the idea of Canada exporting more natural gas to Europe during her recent visit.

Both Scholz and von der Leyen have said they're interested in buying clean hydrogen energy from Canada.

"We will continue to support our European friends and allies as they accelerate their clean energy transition and eliminate their dependence on Russian energy," a spokesperson for Natural Resource Minister Jonathan Wilkinson's office told CBC in an email.

"In the case of [Saint] John LNG, the project proponent has informed us that their evaluation concludes there is no business case, as the cost of transporting gas across the significant distances [is] too high to support project economics."

The New Brunswick government hoped an expansion of the Saint John terminal could provide a rationale for ending the moratorium on shale gas development in New Brunswick.

Gas from New Brunswick is a "possible solution" for Europe, Premier Blaine Higgs said last spring, adding that it would be less expensive than gas shipped to a Saint John terminal over long distances via pipelines.

CBC reached out to the New Brunswick government for reaction but didn't receive a response by publication time.

US denies providing helicopter piloting training to 'SDF partners' in Syria after crash in Iraq

Pentagon spokesperson was asked about 'mysterious helicopter' carrying PKK elements crashing in northern Iraq

Dilara Hamit |17.03.2023 - Update : 17.03.2023


ANKARA

The US has denied providing helicopter piloting training to 'SDF partners' in Syria after "a mysterious helicopter" carrying PKK elements crashed in northern Iraq.

SDF is the label the PKK terror group uses in Syria. In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Following the crash of a helicopter carrying PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the questions of how the helicopter ended up in the hands of the PKK terror organization and the source of the training and weapons assistance to the terror organization's affiliate in Syria, remained to be answered.

"Today a helicopter, a mysterious helicopter was crashed -- crashed in Northern Iraq and it came out that it was carrying PKK elements. My question is, does the United States provide helicopter piloting training to 'SDF partners' in Syria or not?" Anadolu asked during a news conference on Thursday.

"I -- not to my knowledge. No. We do not. Thank you," Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.

The Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) issued a statement on their official Facebook page in response to the helicopter crash in Duhok.

The statement said the relevant institutions alerted the Iraqi central government, international coalition forces, and Türkiye about the crashed helicopter, "although it was later revealed that it did not belong to them." The security forces started a preliminary inquiry into the helicopter, and the initial results showed it was a Eurocopter AS350 model, and that some of the dead were PKK terrorists, while a thorough inquiry is ongoing to discover who owns the helicopter, it added.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said the allegations in various social media posts, claiming that a Turkish Armed Forces helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, did not reflect the truth.