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☆ Biden administration sanctions makers of commercial spyware used to surveil US
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Bad actors have used commercial spyware to target at least 50 US government officials, the Biden administration said last year as it unveiled an executive order banning federal agencies from using the technology. In 2021, the US government said NSO Group’s spyware had been used against roughly a dozen State Department employees serving in Africa. The US government has sought to build international support for curbing the use of commercial spyware, and last month, it announced visa restrictions for anyone seeking to enter the United States who has been involved in the commercial spyware industry. The use of commercial spyware “has been linked to arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings in the most egregious of cases,” the State Department said at the time. On Tuesday, the Biden administration vowed to watch closely for signs that Intellexa may seek to circumvent the sanctions.

Persons: Washington CNN —, ”, Tal Jonathan Dilian, Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, Côte, Biden, Oregon Democratic Sen, Ron Wyden Organizations: Washington CNN, Biden, Treasury Department, Intellexa Consortium, US, Google, Pegasus, Intellexa, Amnesty International, State Department, Commerce Department, Oregon Democratic Locations: Egypt, Armenia, Greece, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Serbia, Spain, Indonesia, Africa, States

☆ With a low cocoa supply, this Valentine’s Day chocolate prices are up
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-12 | by ( John Towfighi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Rising cocoa prices aren’t the only concern for customers this Valentine's Day. Last Thursday, Hershey Co. said it would cut 5% of its workforce after historic cocoa prices and inflation-weary consumers dampened fourth quarter earnings. “And it looks like it’s not necessarily going to subside anytime soon.”The Supreme Valentine’s Day SweetRoughly 92% of Americans say they plan to share chocolate and candy for Valentine’s Day this year, according to the National Confectioners Association. In 2023, Valentine’s Day chocolate and candy sales exceeded $4 billion, the NCA says. Issaka said that while high demand and low supply raise prices, cocoa farmers are getting squeezed.

Persons: ”, Michele Buck, Billy Roberts, ” Roberts, Lindsey Nicholson, Marnie Ives, Ives, ” Ives, “ It’s, Karl Schneider, Roberts’s, Issifu, Issaka, ” Issaka, “ I’m, Cote, Will Kletter, Sabi Ibarra Guerrero, Uwe Gneiting, Gneiting, Joke Aerts, Aerts, ” Aerts, Sia Kambou, Price, Tony’s, “, they’ve, CNN’s Eva Rothenberg Organizations: CNN, Hershey Co, National Confectioners Association, NCA, Cocoa, Oxfam America, Getty, Fairtrade, Cote d’Ivoire, “ Locations: West Africa, North America, Manhattan, Queens , New York, Neck, NY, Bloomfield , NJ, Ghana, North Region, Cote d’Ivoire, Silicon, Africa, Accra, Cote, Hermankono, AFP

☆ Cloudline: The blimp is back – and this time it’s tiny
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-13 | by ( Tom Page | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —You’d be forgiven for thinking the resurgence of airships and blimps was a load of hot air. South African startup Cloudline has received millions of dollars in investment for its mini blimps. Cloudline first received venture capital backing in 2019, and after years of research and development and prototyping, the company is preparing to launch commercial operations. “The ability of companies like Cloudline to expand is highly subject to the complexity of regulations experienced across the continent,” Chokossa adds. However it looks to fill its airships, Cloudline is hoping it can break through in this revived transport sector.

Persons: CNN — You’d, Cloudline, Spencer Horne, ”, Horne, Christele Chokossa, “, Chokossa, ” Horne Organizations: CNN, Helicopters, Harvard University, Gross, Euromonitor International, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic, UNICEF Locations: firma, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Kenya, East Africa, Africa, Cameroon, Cote, Democratic Republic of Congo

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 30 Atlantic countries on four continents committed Monday to bolster coordination on economic development, environmental protection, maritime issues and more, the White House said. The adoption of the Declaration on Atlantic Cooperation was completed Monday evening at a meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ahead of the start of the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. The White House pitched the forum as a way to improve cooperation between northern and southern Atlantic countries on key issues and come to agreement on a set of principles for the Atlantic region. The activists are pushing world leaders to act with greater haste to curb climate change. Many of the leaders of countries that cause the most heat-trapping carbon pollution will not be in attendance for this year's General Assembly.

Persons: Antony Blinken, ” Blinken, ”, Biden, Joe Biden, Antonio Guterres Organizations: Atlantic Cooperation, U.S, Atlantic, Partnership, White, Bank, General Assembly, U.N Locations: Atlantic, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Canada, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Dominican Republic , Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Iceland, Ireland, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Spain, Togo, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, New York

Last week, for instance, Nigeria's central bank allowed the naira currency to drop as much as 36% on the official market. Nestle, which is replacing imported corn starch in Nigeria with cassava starch, told Reuters it has helped seven local suppliers to boost capacity to meet the company's supply needs. ONION POWDER AND TURMERICNestle said it was working to develop local suppliers of vegetables and spices used in Maggi products, for instance onion powder in Nigeria and Senegal, and turmeric powder in Nigeria. Nestle did not comment on whether its position in Nigeria would help insulate it from foreign exchange volatility, neither did it give an indication of the economic impact of the local sourcing. ($1 = 0.8967 Swiss francs)Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Arnd, Kat, Nestle, Richa Naidu, Emelia Sithole Organizations: Swiss, Nestle, REUTERS, LONDON, Reuters, Unilever, Thomson Locations: Bern, Konolfingen, Switzerland, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Swiss, Asia, East, Africa

☆ Why this in-flight magazine is the fashion industry’s new must-read
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Nick Remsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Model Ismael Savane pictured in an Air Afrique T-shirt during Paris Fashion Week Mens Spring-Summer 2023 on June 23, 2022 in Paris. “We want to revive the African transcendence that Air Afrique represented,” Lamine Diaoune, the founder and creative director of the Air Afrique collective, said in a statement. It really was about more than just flights.”An Air Afrique stewardess, pictured during training in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in 1971. The cover of Air Afrique magazine's first issue, featuring the French rapper Tiakola (far right). (All members of the Air Afrique collective have backgrounds in creative fields; each also has projects outside of the group, too.)

Persons: Michel Renaudeau, Côte, Senegal —, Ismael Savane, Melodie Jeng, ” Lamine Diaoune, ”, Djibi Kébé, ” Kébé, “, Côte d’Ivoire, they’ve, Bottega, Tiakola, Lamine Diaoune, Djiby Kébé, Jeremy Konko, Amandine Nana, Zhedy Nuentsa, Bamba Thiam, Axel Pelletanche, ” Nana, Paul Kodjo, Marie, Hélène Tusiama, Tusiama, ’ ” Pope Jean, Paul II, Jean, Claude Delafosse, Pope Jean, Abdel El Tayeb, El Tayeb, Matthieu Blazy, El Tayeb’s Organizations: France CNN, Afrique, Air, Central African, Paris, Centre Pompidou, Air Afrique, “, Air Afrique Air Afrique’s, Franco, El Locations: Paris, France, New York City, Mauritania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Niger, Republic of, Congo, Senegal, West Africa, New York, Abu Dhabi, Europe, Abidjan, Côte, Dakar, West, Africa, Ivory Coast, ”, ‘, Sudanese, El

☆ Cocoa prices are soaring. Here’s what that means for your chocolate
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —If you have a sweet tooth, take note: Cocoa prices have been soaring — and that could drive chocolate prices higher. Because of that, there is an “outsize impact of the region’s weather patterns on world cocoa prices and supplies,” according to Gro Intelligence’s post. Tony's Chocolonely welcomes higher cocoa prices. Petra Figueroa/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images“We are very happy that cocoa prices are rising,” said Pascal Baltussen, chief of impact and operations at Tony’s. “Cocoa prices have been way too low for West African cocoa farmers to earn a living income.”Cocoa futures are used to determine the prices paid to farmers for cocoa in Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Persons: El, Paul, Christophe Gateau, Niño, ”, Intelligence’s, Tony's Chocolonely, Petra Figueroa, Pascal Baltussen, Alex Assanvo, Côte, “ Price, Tony’s, Baltussen, Steven Voskuil, Hershey, “, we’ll, —, Laura Paddison, Rachel Ramirez Organizations: New, New York CNN, Rabobank, International Cocoa, Getty, Cocoa Organization, Gro Intelligence, Hershey Locations: New York, Europe, Asia, Agboville, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Amsterdam, Tony’s, NIQ

☆ Liz Mills: How coach became the first woman to lead a men's basketball team in an international tournament
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Alasdair Howorth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But as the first woman to coach a men’s national team at a major FIBA tournament, Liz Mills must think of everything – even what she wears. Like many of us when watching a sports team, Mills thought that she could do better; but unlike most of us, she did something about it. Members of the network have experienced discrimination of all kinds, particularly those working in the men’s game. AS Salé was the first job in men's basketball that Mills was paid for. “I want to be the first woman to coach at the World Cup as a head coach of an African [men’s] team,” she asserts.

☆ Exporturile R. Moldova au crescut cu 5,6% în primele luni ale anului 2021. România, pe prima poziție în topul țărilor în care R. Moldova exportă cel mai mult
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-19 | by ( Buzdugan Loredana | ) www.zdg.md time to read: +5 min

Exporturile R. Moldova în primele trei luni ale anului curent au ajuns la 712,7 milioane dolari SUA, valoarea acestora fiind mai mare cu 5,6%, comparativ cu perioada corespunzătoare din anul 2020. În același timp, importurile realizate în luna martie 2021 au constituit 630,2 milioane dolari SUA, fiind în creștere cu 20,8% față de luna februarie 2021 și cu 25,9%, comparativ cu luna martie 2020. Reexporturile de mărfuri străine (după prelucrare și clasice) în ianuarie-martie 2021 s-au cifrat la 172,9 milioane dolari SUA (24,3% din total exporturi), cu 12,5% mai mult comparativ cu aceeași perioadă din anul 2020. Această creștere a influențat majorarea pe total exporturi cu 2,9%. Importurile de mărfuri realizate în luna martie 2021 au constituit 630,2 milioane dolari SUA, fiind în creștere cu 20,8% față de luna februarie 2021 și cu 25,9%, comparativ cu luna martie 2020.

Organizations: Uniunii Europene, CSI Locations: Moldova, SUA, România, Germania, Turcia, Federația Rusă, Italia, Regatul Unit al Marii Britanii, Irlandei de Nord, Polonia, Ucraina, Republica Cehă, Belarus, Spania, Bulgaria, Ungaria, Elveția, Olanda, Franța, Portugalia, Liban, Belgia, Canada, Egipt, Uzbekistan, Macedonia de Nord, Slovacia, Serbia, Swaziland, Letonia, China, Cote, Danemarca, Liberia, Tunisia, Coreea de Sud, Chile, Elveţia, Cipru, Indonezia, Grecia, Statele Unite ale Americii, Austria, Estonia, Filipine, Iordania, Irak, Taiwan, Chinei, Arabia Saudită, Maroc, Israel, Georgia, Australia, Lituania, Singapore, Vietnam

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