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☆ I've worked remotely from 15 different countries. Here's what I've learned and what I'd never do again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

In addition to Italy, over the last five years, Cook has worked in Kenya, Thailand, and 12 other countries. At the time, startups were the only type of company I found that were open to fully remote work. When I started doing this in 2018, remote working like this wasn't as common as it is now. Now, since more people have access to this life because of remote work, a number of companies have cropped up for this exact kind of thing. Cook serving another participant in the Italy program during dinner.

[1/4] A member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) looks at a migrant after he was rescued by the ship 'Geo Barents' during a search and rescue (SAR) operation in the Mediterranean Sea, January 25, 2023. La Spezia is the furthest and northernmost destination that Italy has assigned to an NGO ship. Forcing NGO ships to reach ever-more distant ports increases costs at a time when budgets are stretched by inflation and higher fuel costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last month, the SOS Mediterranee NGO appealed for donations, saying fuel charges for its Ocean Viking rescue ship had increased by over 1 million euros during 2022. The new docking destinations policy adds to a December decree which forces NGO ships to request and head to a port "without delay" after each rescue, rather than continue looking for boats in distress.

☆ The Nord Stream pipeline attack shows what Russia can do, Western officials say, even if they can't prove Russia did it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

After months of investigation, Western officials can't prove Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. While they can't name Russia as the culprit, officials say the attacks illustrate what Russia can do. The vulnerability of undersea infrastructure, like pipelines and data cables, is a growing concern. Four months on, investigators are unable to prove Moscow was behind the attack, but officials say the explosions illustrate the threat malign actors — especially Russia — pose to vital undersea infrastructure. Despite the uncertainty, the attack has only added to concern about threats to undersea infrastructure, particularly cables and pipelines, that connects continents and powers economies.

☆ One of the UK's largest unions announces 10 more days of strikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

COVENTRY, U.K. - Dec. 21, 2022: Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham (centre), joins ambulance workers on the picket line outside ambulance headquarters in Coventry. On Friday, Jan. 20, Unite announced a further 10 days of strikes as a dispute between the government and ambulance escalated. Jacob King/PA Images via Getty ImagesLONDON — One of the U.K.'s largest unions on Friday announced 10 further days of strike action over the coming weeks, as a standoff between the government and ambulance workers intensifies. More than 2,600 ambulance workers in Wales and the West Midlands, North West, North East and East Midlands of England are already set to walk out on Monday as part of an ongoing dispute over pay and staffing. The newly announced strikes will affect the North West (Feb. 6, 22 and March 20), North East (Feb. 6, 20 and March 6, 20), East Midlands (Feb. 6, 20 and March 6, 20), West Midlands (Feb. 6, 17 and March 6, 20), Wales (Feb. 6, 20 and March 6, 20) and Northern Ireland (Jan. 26 and Feb. 16, 17, 23 and 24).

☆ Wintry weather kills 78 in Afghanistan, Taliban say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Taliban officials said Thursday that 78 people have died in just over a week during the harsh winter in Afghanistan, deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis. Shafiullah Rahimi, a Taliban spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Disaster Management, said the deaths occurred since Jan. 10. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Thursday that bitterly cold weather in Afghanistan has reportedly killed thousands of livestock across the eastern, western and northern regions. “We are deeply saddened by that our countrymen have lost their lives in some provinces due to the severe cold weather,” said the statement. Half of Afghanistan’s population, or 24 million people, are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the group.

☆ UK's Crown Estate to lease seabed sites for six offshore wind projects
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Britain's Crown Estate will lease sites for six offshore wind projects capable of generating enough green electricity to power more than seven million homes by 2030 under agreements announced on Thursday. The Crown Estate, which oversees the British monarch's public holdings, manages the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland and awards seabed rights for the development of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy. Germany's RWE (RWEG.DE) said it was one of the companies that had signed a lease agreement with the Crown Estate. Gus Jaspert, managing director in charge of marine at the Crown Estate, said the deal "marks a significant milestone for the UK on the road to net zero". The offshore wind market has grown to become the largest source of renewable electricity in the UK, the Crown Estate said, currently able to power approximately 40% of UK homes.

☆ FTX money trails leading to politicians, media, and other crypto exchanges point to the deep influence of Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here's what Bankman-Fried seemed to be aiming at: Stash money with all the right people, while lobbying for policy favorable to FTX. As CoinDesk reported this week, 37% of Congress took money from Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were among the 196 senators and representatives that received funds. Other lawmakers included some who were just sworn into congressional ranks this month, which points to Bankman-Fried possibly seeking to hold sway over new members. GOLDMAN SACHS stock price on Jan. 19, 2023 Markets Insider10.

☆ U.K. government to veto Scotland’s gender self-recognition law
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Scottish government is likely to challenge the decision at the U.K. Supreme Court. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called the decision by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government “a full-frontal attack” on the Scottish parliament, which approved the bill last month. “The Scottish Government will defend the legislation and stand up for Scotland’s Parliament,” she said on Twitter. This is the first time a U.K. government has blocked a Scottish law since the Scottish government and parliament were established a quarter century ago. The move will provide fodder for nationalists who want Scotland to break away from the U.K. and become an independent country.

☆ The fog in the English Channel is clearing a bit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

But if the two sides can resolve a dispute over Northern Ireland there could be progress on topics such as climate change, foreign policy and financial services. Resolving the dispute over the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is the key to unlocking cooperation on a range of topics. But a deal on Northern Ireland could be. Johnson agreed to such a forum as part of the political declaration accompanying the Brexit deal but then abandoned it. “Fog in the Channel: Continent cut off” is a mythical UK newspaper headline which supposedly summed up Britain’s disdain for its neighbours.

☆ UK first-time home-buyers' mortgage costs highest since 2008: Nationwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Mortgage costs for first-time home-buyers in Britain have risen to their highest since 2008, reflecting a surge in interest rates over the past year, Nationwide Building Society said on Friday. The Bank of England started to raise interest rates in December 2021 - when they were just 0.1% - and they reached 3.5% last month, the fastest tightening in decades. Financial market turmoil caused by Liz Truss's September mini-budget had exacerbated the rise in mortgage rates, Nationwide said. "While wider financial market conditions had stabilised by the end of 2022, with market interest rates falling back towards the levels prevailing before the mini-budget, mortgage rates are taking longer to normalise," Nationwide economist Andrew Harvey said. House price to earnings ratios are down slightly from a year ago, reflecting falling house prices and faster wage growth.

Launched in 2020, the app has previously been used to allow people crossing legally at land ports of entry to submit their information beforehand and for non-governmental organizations to request humanitarian entry for certain migrants. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration touts the app as a more regulated, potentially quicker alternative to crossing the border. Rodriguez has been camping in Matamoros, a Mexican border city across from Brownsville, since late November with over a dozen family members, some of whom have already crossed into the United States. Claudia Martinez, a 38-year-old Venezuelan waiting in Tijuana, was unable to access CBP One despite several tries. Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Daina Solomon in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Jackie Botts in Oaxaca City, Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Delhi fog delays flights, cold wave closes schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"Due to dense fog, flight operations at Delhi Airport may get affected," it said on Twitter. It also said power lines could trip in areas with dense fog. Many private schools were to reopen on Monday. The lowest for Sunday was 3.8 degrees Celsius, which the IMD said was 3 degrees below normal for this time of year. A cold wave is declared in the plains of India when the minimum temperature dips to 4 degrees Celsius or falls 4.5 degrees below normal to 10 degrees Celsius or below.

☆ Seeking Northern Ireland solution, UK foreign minister hosts EU talks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - British foreign minister James Cleverly will on Monday seek to inject fresh momentum into talks with the EU on resolving disputes over a post-Brexit trade relationship when he hosts the European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in London. Technical talks between officials resumed in October on the Northern Ireland Protocol, the part of the Brexit deal that mandated checks on some goods moving to the province from the rest of the United Kingdom. The talks will take place at Lancaster House and the Northern Ireland minister Chris Heaton-Harris is expected to take part, according to the UK foreign ministry. The Northern Ireland protocol was a key part of the Brexit deal agreed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but one that successive UK prime ministers have refused to implement. In order to preserve the peace deal and avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, Britain agreed as part of its departure from the EU to effectively leave Northern Ireland within the bloc's single market for goods.

☆ England rushes to discharge hospital patients to ease bed-blocking crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Some patients are being treated in corridors and ambulances have been queuing outside hospitals to hand over patients to emergency wards, as doctors and nurses struggle to discharge patients amid a shortage of staff and beds. The government said in a statement it would make up to 200 million pounds ($242 million) of additional funding available in England to buy short-term care places to allow patients who doctors judge have low medical needs to be looked after outside hospital and 50 million pounds to improve existing faciliites. The statement did not say if the NHS in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would also be putting more funds into care beds. Barclays will address parliament on Monday to outline other measures to reduce the pressures facing the NHS. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said last week that reducing hospital waiting lists was one of his five priorities for Britain this year.

☆ Biden declares emergency in California as more winter storms advance
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House January 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden on Monday declared an emergency in California after a barrage of deadly winter storms have prompted widespread power outages and flooding since last week. National Weather Service forecasters have warned of a "relentless parade of cyclones" over the coming days that will exacerbate the risk of floods in central and Northern California. The president approved the emergency declaration for California during a visit in Mexico City for the North American Leaders' Summit. Gavin Newsom on Sunday evening said he's in close contact with the White House to ensure the state has adequate aid.

☆ Repression, economic turmoil, and gang violence is driving the crisis at the US border, an expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It came amid a surge in the number of undocumented migrants seeking to enter the US. An analyst told Insider that a perfect storm of factors is driving people north to the border. Ariel Ruiz, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said that the factors driving migration are "intersecting and compounding," and driving the surge from Central America, South America and the Caribbean. In Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, increased political repression and inflation related to the COVID-19 pandemic are key factors driving the surge, while in Haiti, he said, a surge in gang violence was the main driver. The wealth available in the US, the relative poverty of other nearby nations, and limited options for legal migration, mean that high undocumented migration is likely to continue, Ruiz concluded.

☆ A Third Major Storm to Bring Rain and Flooding to Northern California
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Talal Ansari | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This will be the third storm system to drench the region since Dec. 26, according to the National Weather Service. The latest in a series of storms is expected to bring heavy rain, strong winds and mountain snow to the West Coast, especially Northern California, just days after another major system produced record-setting rain and flooding. It will be the third storm system to drench the region since Dec. 26, according to the National Weather Service. The latest forecast predicts up to 3 to 6 inches of rainfall over the coastal hills of central and northern California, and up to 8 inches in isolated regions through Thursday.

Flood watches are in effect for 12 million people in Central and Northern California. The cyclone will send a pair of warm and cold fronts over Northern California, which is already rain-soaked. “When you have more water vapor in the air because the air is warmer — you can transport more water vapor quickly,” Ralph said. Although some smaller reservoirs in Northern California have filled up, larger reservoirs still have the capacity to absorb more. “I think we will have largely alleviated the short-term drought in Northern California," Swain said.

☆ Biden highlights bipartisanship during House GOP chaos
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"To have a Congress that can't function is just embarrassing," Biden said before he left Kentucky to return to Washington. The GOP senator called the bridge an example of bipartisanship that the "country needs to see." "The Brent Spence bridge is one of them. The Brent Spence, which carries Interstates 71 and 75 between Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, was declared functionally obsolete by the Federal Highway Administration in the 1990s. "We're going to get it fixed," Trump said about the Brent Spence, which he called "dangerous."

☆ UK PM Rishi Sunak to propose compulsory math for students up to 18
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Britain's new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, October 25, 2022. Henry Nicholls | Reuterswatch nowSunak's education proposals would only affect pupils in England. Education is a devolved issue, with Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish authorities managing their own systems. The prime minister is expected to say in his Wednesday speech that the issue of mandatory math is "personal" for him. This would leave the future of the policy uncertain, if Sunak's Conservative Party loses the next general election slated for 2024.

☆ California braces for powerful atmospheric river storm
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

An aerial view shows the damage after rainstorms caused a levee to break, flooding Sacramento County roads near Wilton, California, U.S., January 1, 2023. Another atmospheric river storm is threatening California with flooding, landslides, and power outages on Wednesday as millions of residents recover from several destructive storms, one of which caused a levee breach this weekend. Flood watches are in effect across Central and Northern California, where the ground has become more saturated and vulnerable to flooding and rapid runoff. San Mateo County, located south of San Francisco, declared a local state of emergency and activated its emergency operations center. In south Sacramento County, responders are attempting to repair part of a 34 mile levee system along the Cosumnes River, which protects land made up mostly of vineyards and cattle ranches, before the storm is set to arrive on Wednesday.

Millions of people in the South and the Southeast are at risk of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and flash floods Tuesday and Wednesday, while a messy winter storm is expected to hit the Midwest and a separate storm slams California later this week. Threats of severe thunderstorms, flash floodsAs many as 20 million people from southeast Louisiana to south-central Alabama are at risk for severe thunderstorms Tuesday that could bring damaging wind gusts, large hail and some strong tornadoes, classified as having winds of more than 111 mph. The thunderstorms are expected to continue through the day and last into the overnight hours. In addition to the severe thunderstorms, flash flooding will also be a threat. St. Louis could see a high in the early 70s Tuesday before expected highs plunge to the high-30s and the mid-40s the rest of the week.

☆ Winter storm expected to bring snow, freezing rain and tornadoes to parts of U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Steve Strouss | Chantal Da Silva Is A Breaking News Editor For Nbc News Digital Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A winter storm moving across the central Plains and Upper Midwest this week is expected to bring heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain to parts of the United States, while tornadoes could form farther south, officials have warned. The storm is expected to bring snowfall to the Central High Plains as it tracks northeast into the Great Lakes, likely producing moderate to heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain by Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. More than 12 inches of heavy snow is expected to quickly accumulate from the Panhandle of Nebraska through southwest Minnesota, it said. NOAAThe weather system is also expected to bring significant freezing rain to parts of northeastern Nebraska through southern Minnesota, the National Weather Service said. The thunderstorms could bring frequent lightning, severe thunderstorm wind gusts, hail and "a few tornadoes," the National Weather Service said.

☆ Mali sentences 46 Ivorian soldiers to 20 years for conspiring against government
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BAMAKO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A court in Mali sentenced 46 soldiers from Ivory Coast to 20 years imprisonment on Friday for conspiring against the government, and three others to death in absentia. Forty-nine Ivorian soldiers were arrested at the airport in Mali's capital Bamako in July, three of whom were later released. Mali's ruling junta said the soldiers were acting as mercenaries, while Ivory Coast said they were part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Ivory Coast said its troops were being held hostage, and has made repeated pleas for their release. The country announced last month it would withdraw its remaining soldiers from the U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Poloncarz updated the death toll from the blizzard on Wednesday, reporting 37 deaths in Erie County, with one other storm-related fatality in neighboring Niagara County. The goal was to get at least one lane of traffic open on each street by Wednesday night, Poloncarz said. The mercury climbed above freezing on Wednesday, and forecasts called for the thaw to continue with spring-like temperatures and showers likely by week's end. "We're actually expecting a rapid melt over the next two days, because we're going to hit 50 degrees (Fahrenheit)," Poloncarz said. Showers and thunderstorms are expected in the Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley, the weather service said.

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