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☆ North Korea says it will not negotiate sovereignty with 'double-faced' US
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, arrives at the Vostochny Сosmodrome before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, September 13, 2023. Sputnik/Vladimir Smirnov/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsSEOUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) - North Korea said it will never negotiate its sovereignty with the United States, criticising Washington as "double-faced" for offering talks while ramping up military activities in the region, state media KCNA reported on Thursday. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and North Korean Ambassador Kim Song, both arguing that their countries' military activities are defensive. Kim Yo Jong said Thomas-Greenfield highlighted efforts to reopen talks with North Korea even as she lacked "justifiable ground" for denying its sovereign right to space development. The U.S. and South Korea have condemned the satellite launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning North Korea's use of any ballistic technology.

Persons: Kim Yo Jong, North, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Smirnov, Washington, Linda Thomas, Kim Song, Thomas, Greenfield, Kim, KCNA, Carl Vinson, Yoon Suk, Hyonhee Shin, Ed Osmond, Josie Kao Organizations: Sputnik, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, . Security, North Korean, North, U.S, DPRK, Democratic People's, Kadena, White House, Pentagon, South, Falcon, Thomson Locations: Amur, Russia, Rights SEOUL, North Korea, United States, U.S, Greenfield, South Korea, DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, San Diego, Japan, Pyongyang, Korean, Guam, Italy, Seoul, Washington

☆ Greek Lawmakers Quit Leftist Syriza Party in Protest Against New Leader
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Nov. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

ATHENS (Reuters) - Nine Greek lawmakers quit the leftist Syriza party on Thursday after breaking ranks with its new leader, formalising a split in the country's main opposition party which they said could now disintegrate. They resigned in protest over the leadership of 35-year old Stefanos Kasselakis, a former banker who was picked as party leader in September after Syriza's heavy defeat in June's national election. "SYRIZA is experiencing a dissolution crisis," the lawmakers said in a letter, accusing Kasselakis of contradictory positions and an ideological shift from leftist principles. The lawmakers who quit Syriza have the numbers to form a separate parliamentary group and could launch a new party ahead of European Parliament elections next year. "It is very uncertain how Syriza can succeed under these circumstances," head of ALCO pollsters Costas Panagopoulos told Reuters.

Persons: formalising, Kasselakis, Syriza, Euclid Tsakalotos, Goldman Sachs, Alexis Tsipras, ALCO pollsters Costas Panagopoulos, Renee Maltezou, Gareth Jones Organizations: New Democracy, Socialist PASOK, ALCO, Reuters Locations: ATHENS, United States

☆ Exclusive: Iraq to end all dollar cash withdrawals by Jan. 1, 2024, central-bank official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Timour Azhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But dollars deposited in 2024 could only be withdrawn in local currency at the official rate of 1,320. The parallel market rate of the Iraqi dinar sat at 1,560 on Thursday, roughly 15% percent below the official rate. Here you go, you can use the card inside Iraq at the official rate, or if you want to withdraw cash, you can at the official rate in dinars," Ahmed said. "But don't talk to me about cash dollars anymore." He added: "As long as all transparent and legal financing operations happen via us (at the official rate), the rest does not matter."

Persons: Mazen Ahmed, It's, Ahmed, Timour Azhari, William Maclean 私たち Organizations: New York Federal Reserve, CBI, Reuters Locations: BAGHDAD, Iraq, Iran, Iraqi, U.S, Syria, Tehran, Baghdad

☆ Canada releases framework to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

July 24 (Reuters) - Canada on Monday released a framework for eliminating inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, making it the first G20 country to deliver on a 2009 commitment to rationalise and phase out government support for the sector. Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies is part of a deal signed between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberal and the New Democratic Party (NDP), formalising NDP support. Climate campaigners Environmental Defence also criticised the framework for not applying to public financing of fossil fuel projects through government-owned crown corporations, such the loan guarantees for the C$30.9 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. Ottawa plans to release a framework to phase out public financing of fossil fuel projects within the next year. "The Government of Canada must quickly take the final step and end all fossil financing – without any loopholes for fossil gas, fossil hydrogen or CCS," Environmental Defence program manager Julia Levin said in a statement.

Persons: Steven Guilbeault, Justin Trudeau's, Laurel Collins, Collins, Laura Cameron, Julia Levin, Nia Williams, Jonathan Oatis, Grant McCool Organizations: Monday, Liberal, New Democratic Party, NDP, International Institute of Sustainable Development, Trade, Pathways Alliance, CCS, Environmental Defence, Thomson Locations: Canada, Ottawa, Alberta, British Columbia

Two OPEC+ sources said they did not expect the group to agree further output cuts on Sunday, when OPEC+ ministers gather at 2 p.m. in Vienna (1200 GMT). Before then, OPEC ministers will meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday. As the economic outlook worsened, several members of OPEC+ in April pledged voluntary cuts starting from May, adding to a 2 million barrels per day (bpd) reduction agreed last year. A fourth source said the idea of formalising the voluntary cuts as an OPEC+ decision was being looked at. Last week, Prince Abdulaziz told investors he said were shorting the oil price to "watch out", which many market watchers interpreted as a warning of additional supply cuts.

Persons: Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Prince Abdulaziz, Alexander Novak, Ahmad Ghaddar, Alex Lawler, Maha El, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: OPEC, Organization of, Petroleum, Saudi Energy, United, Thomson Locations: VIENNA, OPEC, Russia, Vienna, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Russian

☆ Delay in security treaty with Australia as PNG consults 'domestic processes'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Lillian Suwanrumpha/Pool via REUTERS/File PhotoSYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea said a proposed security treaty with neighbour Australia would be delayed as it consults "domestic processes", a week after signing a defence agreement with the United States that sparked student protests. Papua New Guinea (PNG), a few kilometres (miles) to Australia's north, is being courted by China and the United States amid rising tensions between the two major powers. PNG Prime Minister James Marape met with Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles on Monday on the sidelines of the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul and discussed the "proposed bilateral security treaty", Marape's office said in a statement on Tuesday. Marape had "conveyed his apologies to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the delay in formalising this proposed Treaty with Australia", it added. Marles has said Australia wants to strike an "ambitious" security treaty that will see navy, airforce and army personnel from each nation working alongside each other more often.

In a full page statement published in The Sydney Morning Herald, Rugby Australia (RA) said the proposed referendum is "too important a contest to watch in silence". "Provision for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in our Constitution is long overdue," it added. RA and the AFL join the National Rugby league (NRL), several AFL clubs, and other sports governing bodies like soccer's Football Australia, Tennis Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee in formalising support for Indigenous recognition through a referendum. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has staked significant political capital on the referendum, has been keen to get the support of leading sports bodies and players. Some of Australia's top athletes are Indigenous, like NBA star Patty Mills, former Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman and former woman's tennis world number one Ash Barty.

Hyundai and partner SK On, a battery unit of SK Innovation Co Ltd (096770.KS), will set up a new battery manufacturing plant in the state of Georgia, the companies said, formalising an earlier provisional agreement. Accompanying Yoon on the trip are top executives of some of South Korea's biggest companies, including Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung. Rivals General Motors Co (GM.N) and Samsung SDI (006400.KS) said they would invest over $3 billion to build a joint venture EV battery manufacturing plant in the United States. That compared with a Refinitiv SmartEstimate for first-quarter profit of 2.3 trillion won from 16 analysts. Hyundai and Kia cars are competitive in the U.S., based on their prices and a favourable exchange rate, he added.

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - The problems around artisanal cobalt mining in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will take "a coalition to solve", according to Microsoft (MSFT.O). Yet the West still needs Congo's cobalt and everyone agrees that formalisation is the solution to the high human and economic costs of artisanal mining. ETHICAL DILEMMAThe ethical dilemma facing Western cobalt users, which is just about everyone with a mobile phone, is headline news again after the publication of "Cobalt Red" by Siddarth Kara. Mutoshi's artisanal miners have lost their collective pricing power and their cobalt is once again flowing down opaque channels into the industrial supply chain, the report claims. Most of the country's estimated 150,000-200,000 cobalt miners have never even had the chance of formalisation.

[1/7] Farmer Wang Zhanling sits next to his wife in their house in Quansheng village, Heilongjiang Province, China, February 8, 2023. The state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences sees the pension system running out of money by 2035. "If the pension system does not change, this is unsustainable," said Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow in the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University in Australia. The province has the lowest birth rate in China, with just over 100,000 births in 2021 and 460,000 deaths. Many experts, including Macquarie's chief China economist Larry Hu, suggest implementing a unified national pension system, backstopped by the more resourceful central government rather than cash-strapped local administrations.

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