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☆ King Charles' rating dips, but half of Britons still happy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - King Charles' approval rating has dipped since he took the throne but nearly half of Britons still think he is doing a good job, according to a poll released a week before his coronation, while his daughter-in-law Kate is the most liked royal. The Ipsos poll released on Friday found 49% of the public believed Charles, who will be formally crowned on May 6, was doing a good job versus 9% thinking otherwise. "With less than two weeks until the coronation, King Charles may be happy to know that half of Britons think he is already doing a good job, numbers recent prime ministers would envy," said Kelly Beaver, chief executive of Ipsos UK and Ireland. A separate Ipsos survey also found 57% were satisfied with how Charles was doing his job, down 8 percentage points from when a similar poll was carried out in May last year. Among the least favourite members were Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, and the king's second wife Camilla, now the Queen Consort, the pollster said.

☆ Screen to shield sacred moment of King Charles' coronation unveiled
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The three-sided screen will shield Charles when he is anointed with holy oil, consecrated in Jerusalem, on his hands, breast and head, shortly before he is crowned at London's Westminster Abbey on May 6. Buckingham Palace said it was historically regarded "as a moment between the sovereign and God" with the screen there to protect its sanctity. "Now this three-sided screen provides absolute privacy." "It is such a private, sacred moment," she told Reuters "It's a mystic moment." "It's utilising stuff that might have been used as firewood but actually we're using it for something very special," Gutfreund said.

☆ Opinion | Biden’s Highest Hurdle Isn’t Age, It’s Passion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The age question is major concern for Biden, according to political advisers I’ve spoken to recently — and according to the chatter on cable news and online. And the sense that he has underwhelmed is particularly problematic for Biden when it comes to young voters. Younger voters can also be barometers of how much a candidate’s passion factors into his appeal. I reached out to several voting rights advocates and political organizers to discuss Biden’s bid, and the overall impression settles somewhere between cautious optimism and dampened enthusiasm, not so much about Biden’s age, but how voters, including younger voters, look at his policy priorities. As Clifford Albright, the co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, told me, although younger voters would generally like to see younger candidates, “the age thing can be overcome if you’re talking about the right issues.”

☆ Big money donors rally behind Biden as he launches his reelection bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Big donors in the business world started rallying around President Joe Biden soon after he announced Tuesday that he's running for reelection next year. A Biden campaign spokesperson didn't return a request for comment before publication. Katzenberg told CNBC in an exclusive interview Tuesday night that he believes the Biden campaign will raise more this time around than in 2020. Biden's campaign raised over $400 million from donors that gave under $200 during his last run for president, according to OpenSecrets. Venture capitalist Ron Conway has told friends he will help the president's campaign, according to a person close to him.

☆ Opinion | The Harry Belafonte Speech That Changed My Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the summer of 2013, I participated in a daylong series of talks at the Ford Foundation in Midtown Manhattan. The event, the Road Ahead for Civil Rights: Courting Change, was meant to mark the semicentennial of the civil rights movement. My panel was in the morning, but I stayed for the lunch session because Harry Belafonte was participating in it, along with the activist Dolores Huerta. I didn’t know the Belafonte my parents knew, the young, handsome calypso singer. But there were no notes that I could see; we were witnessing the brilliance of Belafonte in real time.

Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin via REUTERS/File PhotoApril 25 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of two foreign energy firms, signaling Moscow could take similar action against other companies if need be. The decree - outlining possible retaliation if Russian assets abroad are seized - showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper SE's (UN01.DE) Russian division and the assets of Finland's Fortum Oyj (FORTUM.HE). Rosimushchestvo said more foreign firms could find their assets under temporary Russian control, TASS reported. Last October European Council President Charles Michel said the EU was looking at using Russian assets frozen under sanctions against Moscow towards rebuilding Ukraine. Fortum had already warned shareholders there was a risk its Russian assets could be expropriated.

☆ EU leaders will discuss China relation during June summit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - EU leaders will discuss the bloc's stance towards China and its future relations with the country during their next summit in June, EU Council President Charles Michel said on Monday. "EU-China policy will be on the agenda of our European council in June," Michel said in a post on Twitter. "Foreign affairs ministers will prepare this discussion under the leadership of the High representative Josep Borrell." EU foreign affairs ministers, speaking before a joint meeting on Monday, expressed their dismay over recent remarks by China's ambassador to France, who questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine. Reporting by Bart Meijer and Marine Strauss; Editing by Sudip Kar-GuptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Queen Camilla’s son, Tom Parker Bowles, says his mother ‘married the person she loved’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Tom Parker Bowles, the son of Britain’s Queen Camilla and her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, has said that his mother “married the person she loved.”Speaking two weeks before his mother is due to be crowned alongside King Charles III, food writer Parker Bowles told the News Agents podcast: “I don’t care what anyone says, this wasn’t any sort of endgame. She married the person she loved and this is what happened.”Camilla and Charles have been married since 2005. Tom Parker Bowles is a food writer and critic. “I think anyone would be anxious in an occasion of this sort of importance,” Parker Bowles said. “I don’t think he knows quite how big it’s going to be,” Parker Bowles said when asked about his son’s reaction.

☆ Opinion | Harlan Crow Is Not a Nazi, but That’s Beside the Point
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ben Shapiro is a right-wing media personality who does not appear to have any direct ties to Crow, but he defended him all the same. Harlan Crow, by his own testimony and according to his defenders, goes to get angry. I don’t think Crow is a Nazi or an admirer of dictators and authoritarians. But I don’t think we should take his explanation for his collection at face value either. A monument to Robert E. Lee stood for Robert E. Lee.

☆ 'Unfinished business': Biden visits Northern Ireland as political tensions persist
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

He will give a speech in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, before traveling south of the border to the Republic of Ireland, where he will remain until Friday. Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. while the Republic of Ireland is a separate nation state that remains part of the EU. "Whilst it's positive in many ways — particularly on movement of food and medicines between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it really removes a lot of the frictions — it doesn't deal with all the problems of the Northern Ireland protocol, so I'm afraid it's unfinished business," Villiers told CNBC's Tania Bryer. Clinton became the first sitting U.S. President to visit Northern Ireland and the first to appoint a U.S. special regional envoy. Though Biden is expected to use the trip to promote a return to functioning government in Stormont, his previous support for the Northern Ireland Protocol has drawn criticism from DUP politicians.

☆ King Charles backs research into monarchy's slave links
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Michael Holden | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Britain's King Charles III arrives on a boat for a trip at the port in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, March 31, 2023. Matthias Schrader/Pool via REUTERSLONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - King Charles has given his support to research that will examine the British monarchy's links to slavery, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday, after a newspaper report said a document showed a historical connection with a transatlantic slave trader. The issue of the British Empire's slavery links and calls for possible reparations from the monarchy has been growing in the Caribbean where Charles remains head of state of a number of countries including Jamaica and the Bahamas. That process had continued with "vigour and determination" since Charles succeeded his mother on the throne last September, it said. "Given the complexities of the issues it is important to explore them as thoroughly as possible," the Palace statement said.

☆ 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' is set for a big opening weekend — despite bad reviews
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In this article 7974.T-JP Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTChris Pratt and Charlie Day voice Mario and Luigi in Universal and Illumination's "The Super Mario Bros. Universal"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" isn't looking like a smash with the critics. And box office analysts don't foresee poor critical reviews deterring moviegoers, particularly families, from venturing to the cinema to see "The Super Mario Bros. Jack Black voices the villainous Bowser in Universal and Illumination's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" UniversalRadheyan Simonpillai, Globe and MailLong before critics sat down to watch "Super Mario Bros.," there was a big question about the film's top-billed voice actor — Chris Pratt. "I wonder whether the filmmakers were too timid to draw outside the lines with this copyright protected material, lest they end up with something like the disastrous live-action 1993 movie, 'Super Mario Bros.,'" he said.

☆ Matt Gaetz's legislative aide is a convicted war criminal who murdered an Afghan civilian and dumped his body in a latrine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Sonam Sheth | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A legislative aide who works for GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz is a convicted war criminal, The Intercept reported. The aide, Derrick Miller, spent eight years in prison after murdering an Afghan civilian, the report said. Gaetz's office defended its decision to hire Miller, saying he was "wrongfully convicted." According to The Intercept, Miller shot Mohammed in September 2010. The Florida congressman also repeatedly criticized the war in Afghanistan before President Joe Biden withdrew US troops in 2021.

☆ Sunlight in your bedroom could become a luxury as cities debate allowing landlords to rent windowless rooms in former office buildings to alleviate the housing crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Housing advocates are debating whether windowless bedrooms are the solution to the housing crisis. Enter windowless bedrooms. Journalist Matt Yglesias argued last year that windowless bedrooms would "save downtowns" by facilitating the mass retrofitting of office buildings into apartments. Supporters argue that building apartments with windowless bedrooms could both help alleviate the severe housing shortage and affordability crisis and repopulate urban business districts. But in recent years, windowless bedrooms have become somewhat normalized on college campuses.

That will be discussed over lunch with Guterres before the U.N. secretary-general takes his leave and EU leaders get an update on the war from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via video link, officials said. "We will, as always, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine," declared Charles Michel, president of the European Council of EU leaders. Diplomats involved in preparing the summit of the 27 national EU leaders were sceptical of an imminent breakthrough. AMMUNITIONBeyond food security and sanctions, the leaders will also discuss bringing those responsible for the 13-month war to justice, as well as providing more military aid to Ukraine. "We will need to take measures to boost the manufacturing capacity of the European defence industry," Michel said in his letter inviting fellow EU leaders to the summit.

☆ Georgian protesters rally in Tbilisi after violent clashes with police
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Jake Cordell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The ruling Georgian Dream party say it is modelled on U.S. legislation dating from the 1930s. In violent clashes on Tuesday evening, protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at police, who used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds. Critics say Georgian Dream is too close to Russia and has taken the country in a more repressive direction in recent years. Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze defended the bill again on Wednesday, saying it would help root out those working against the interests of the country and the powerful Georgian Orthodox Church. He criticised Georgia's "radical opposition" for stirring up protesters to commit "unprecedented violence" during Tuesday's rallies, according to Georgian news agencies.

REUTERS/Tingshu WangHONG KONG/BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 3 (Reuters) - As unprecedented protests against China's zero-COVID policies escalated in November, Li Qiang, the man recently elevated to No.2 on the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, seized the moment. Meanwhile, some local-level party workers and healthcare officials were grappling with growing challenges in implementing the zero-COVID policy. "From my perspective, it's not that we set out to relax the zero-COVID policy, it's more that we at the local level were simply not able to enforce the zero-COVID policy anymore," the official said. In mid-November, when Xi was still in Southeast Asia, he ordered Chinese authorities to "unswervingly" execute the zero-COVID policy, said two of the people, after which some cities retightened curbs. Xi's vacillating led to renewed debate on COVID policy among top leaders during mid to late November, one of these people and another person said.

☆ People are fleeing Arizona's heat for upstate New York and Florida's flooding for North Carolina. Have you moved over climate concerns?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Nearly 40% of Americans moving say climate concerns have influenced their decision, said Redfin. Have you moved states over concerns about the climate crisis? We want to hear from you: Have you moved over concerns about the climate crisis? Tell us in this form how the climate crisis is affecting you and where you live. An estimated 30 million Americans moved between March 2021 and March 2022, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of the latest available US Census Bureau data.

☆ China's EU ambassador says EU leaders may visit China by mid-2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Chinese ambassador to the European Union Fu Cong said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel may visit China in the first half of 2023, China's state-backed Global Times reported. Preparations for the visit by the EU's top two officials are under way and "very frequent high-level mutual visits" between the EU and China are expected to begin soon, Fu said in an interview published on Friday. The two sides have taken divergent positions on the year-long war in Ukraine, with EU diplomats criticising China's refusal to describe the conflict as an invasion or to call for a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. Fu said in the interview that EU anger with China over Ukraine was "very irrational" and that China did not want the issue to affect the development of ties with the bloc. Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Edmund KlamannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Investing in Space: Texts from orbit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter offers a view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox. Recently I woke up to a text message from a satellite, sent by Lynk Global co-founder and CEO Charles Miller. "I asked them to send that text message from one of our phones," Miller said. So far, the satellite operators of Globalstar , Iridium , SpaceX and AST SpaceMobile are also chasing this untapped market. It plans on "launching many more this year" and has an eventual goal of up to 5,000 satellites in orbit.

☆ Merrick Garland's stonewalling about multiple investigations is annoying lawmakers on both sides of aisle ahead of his Capitol Hill visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Warren Rojas | Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want Merrick Garland to debrief them about DOJ investigations. Garland is scheduled to join the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 1 for a general oversight hearing — his first of the 118th Congress. In early February, both Durbin and his Republican counterparts leading the House Judiciary Committee requested briefings about McGonigal. The Senate letter requested information from Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray; the House letter was addressed to Wray but not Garland. "Everything is on the table," a staff member from House Judiciary told Insider.

☆ Exclusive: British authorities surveilled FBI spy chief Charles McGonigal's secret 2018 meeting with a Russian contact
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

An FBI spy chief's secret meeting with a Russian contact was detected by UK officials. McGonigal should have realized that the London meeting would be noticed, one source said. During his years in New York, McGonigal oversaw 150 FBI agents tasked with shadowing foreign operatives and turning them into spies for the US. He would have had intimate knowledge of surveillance penetration in world capitals, which makes the London meeting all the more mystifying. McGonigal had investigated Russian operatives earlier in his career, but it is unclear whether he was involved with the FBI's Deripaska recruitment effort.

☆ TSMC out of favor with slew of funds alongside Berkshire, filings show
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The announcement drove shares in TSMC down 6% on Wednesday, although they remain up 23.5% this year. Equity long-short hedge fund Tiger entirely sold its 1.3 million shares in TSMC in the fourth quarter, a stake worth $119 million at current prices. Fund manager Capital Group also sold over 9.5 million shares in the chipmaker, regulatory filings showed. JPMorgan and BlackRock dumped roughly 4 million shares in TSMC each. On Tuesday, Charles Munder, a director and vice-chairman of Berkshire, said TSMC is the "strongest semiconductor company on earth," without elaborating on the reasons for the sale.

☆ Zelenskyy completes a tricky charm offensive in Europe as Ukraine prepares for next phase of war
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, visited the European headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Weapons, weapons, weaponsZelenskyy was direct in his message to European leaders asking for long-range artillery and ammunition, air defense systems, missiles, fighter jets and battle tanks. He pressured EU leaders to start the process this year. He has a sharp focus and is committed to the Ukrainian cause — he is a very sensible man," one EU official said regarding the Ukrainian president. The official working for a Nordic nation said: "Seeing him in person made [an] impact after a year of video addresses."

☆ Malawi cholera death toll crosses 1,300: health official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The death toll from a cholera outbreak in Malawi has crossed 1,300, a senior Malawian health official said on Thursday, as the southern African country battles its deadliest outbreak yet. Cholera outbreaks happen regularly in Malawi, usually in the rainy season from November to March, but they only average an annual death toll of about 100. Malawi has conducted two oral cholera vaccination campaigns, but a global surge in cholera outbreaks means vaccine supplies are under strain. Other African countries, including Malawi's neighbours Mozambique and Zambia, have reported cholera cases. On Sunday, South Africa reported two imported cholera cases from Malawi, with the husband of one of the first two cases subsequently testing positive.

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