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☆ President Aoun leaves office as Lebanon's crisis worsens
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A billboard depicting Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, whose term is expected to end on October 31, is placed in Jdeideh, Lebanon October 27, 2022. In his final week in the palace, he signed onto a U.S.-mediated deal delineating Lebanon's southern maritime border with Israel. "Aoun's was the strongest era in all of Lebanon's history,” said Lama Nohra, a 32-year-old supporter and mother of three young children. "He was by far the worst president in Lebanon’s history" said Michel Meouchi, a lawyer and father. In 2006, his Free Patriotic Movement formed an alliance with Hezbollah, which lent important Christian backing to the armed group.

☆ French economy ekes out meagre growth in Q3, inflation hits record high
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Richard Lough | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

France's economy grew 0.2% in the July-September period, in line with market expectations, preliminary data from the INSEE official statistics agency showed. After two consecutive months of slowing inflation in France that bucked the wider euro zone trend, consumer prices surged in October. Food prices were up 11.8% annually while energy prices soared 19.2%. The data came a day after the European Central Bank raised interest rates again, worried that rapid price growth is becoming entrenched. The outlook for France, remained difficult with inventories likely to make a negative contribution to growth from the next quarter, ING analysts said.

☆ Russian assets seized in Ukraine may be used for reconstruction - minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Assets belonging to Russian and Belarusian individuals seized by Ukraine could be used for the country's massive post-war reconstruction effort, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko was quoted on Friday as saying. The government has frozen Russian and Belarusian assets in Ukraine worth some 44 billion hryvnias ($1.21 billion) since the start of Moscow's invasion on Feb. 24, according to the Economic Security Bureau, a state agency. "Money seized on the territory of Ukraine from Russian and Belarusian citizens can be involved in this fund," he added, without elaborating. The European Union is also looking at using Russian assets frozen under Western sanctions against Moscow in the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, said at an EU summit last week. Moscow said on Thursday it would retaliate if the EU moved to confiscate assets belonging to the Russian state or its citizens.

☆ AB InBev raises 2022 outlook as beer sales accelerate
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SummarySummary Companies Q3 core profit up 6.5% vs market consensus 5.2%AB InBev says beer market resilientHeineken, Carlsberg voice concerns over European consumersBRUSSELS, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), the world's largest brewer, reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday as beer sales accelerated, and raised its 2022 outlook to the top-end of its previous forecast range. Third-quarter core profit - earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation - rose 6.5% on a like-for-like basis to $5.31 billion, above the 5.2% climb forecast by analysts in a company-compiled poll. The company said it now expects its core profit to rise by between 6% and 8%. EUROPEAN CONSUMER PINCHAB InBev's largest rivals, far more reliant on Europe, gave a more cautious view of the beer market. For it and Heineken, Europe represented at least 50% of their third-quarter business, against less than 15% for AB InBev.

☆ Israel, Lebanon finalise maritime demarcation deal without mutual recognition
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Israeli and Lebanese leaders finalised a U.S-brokered maritime demarcation on Thursday, bringing a measure of accommodation between the enemy states as they eye offshore energy exploration. Leaders from Lebanon, Israel and the United States have all hailed the deal as "historic" but the possibility of a wider diplomatic breakthrough remains slim. Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed separately in Jerusalem, saying the deal was a "tremendous achievement" that had produced Lebanon's de facto recognition of Israel. But Aoun later said the deal was purely "technical" and would have "no political dimensions or impacts that contradict Lebanon's foreign policy". Lower-level delegations from each country headed to the United Nations' peacekeeping base at Naqoura along their contested land border, which has yet to be delineated.

☆ Lebanon signs maritime border deal, Israel expected to follow suit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BAABDA/JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday signed a letter approving a landmark U.S-brokered agreement laying out the country’s maritime boundary with Israel, Lebanon's top negotiator told reporters. Israel was set to follow suit in approving the deal, which marks a diplomatic departure from decades of hostility, later in the day. Hailed by all three parties as a historic achievement, the deal will be signed separately in Jerusalem by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid following his cabinet's approval. "If one side violates the deal, both sides lose," Hochstein told reporters. An offshore energy discovery - while not enough on its own to resolve Lebanon's deep economic problems - would be a major boon, providing badly needed hard currency and possibly one day easing crippling blackouts.

☆ LAPD Launches Criminal Investigation Into Recording With Councilwoman’s Racist Comments
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Alyssa Lukpat | Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Los Angeles Police Department said it is opening a criminal investigation into whether the leaked audio recording that captured a city councilwoman making racist comments was made illegally. Nearly two weeks after the recording circulated and upended city politics, the officials caught on the tape—Councilwoman Nury Martinez and three others—asked the Los Angeles police to investigate how the recording was made, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday. The officials told police they believed the recording was made illegally without their permission.

☆ Los Angeles police investigating whether council members were recorded illegally
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Phil-Helsel-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Phil Helsel | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police are investigating whether audio of members of the City Council making racist comments was recorded illegally, the police chief said Tuesday. The recording from 2021 was leaked online and published by the Los Angeles Times this month. The 2021 meeting was attended by Martinez, council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and Ron Herrera, the president of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Protesters shouted over council members at their meeting Tuesday, demanding that de León and Cedillo resign, NBC Los Angeles reported. Martinez resigned as a City Council member Oct. 12, two days after she stepped down as council president.

☆ Explainer: What's at stake as Lebanon faces presidential vacuum?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

What makes electing a president so difficult, what's at stake, and who are the candidates? In the event of a vacuum, presidential powers should pass to cabinet led by Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Najib Mikati. The Maronite community is more politically fractured than others in Lebanon, giving rise to many presidential hopefuls. Anti-Hezbollah lawmaker Michel Mouawad has won the most votes in four unsuccessful presidential election sessions so far, but not enough to win. But analysts and political sources say he would face opposition, notably from the Maronite politician Gebran Bassil, President Aoun's son-in-law and a presidential hopeful himself.

That's not the done thing," a senior French official said. "The goal is to make Berlin understand there's a problem," the senior French official said. We even struggled to get them to meet in person," the French official said. German officials say that they are aware they need to reduce their reliance on China, but they add that this should not mean banning all Chinese investment in Europe. read moreGerman officials say France had been invited to join but declined.

☆ Syrian refugees return home as Lebanese repatriation scheme begins
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Syrian refugees sit with their belongings on a pick-up truck as they prepare to return to Syria from Wadi Hmayyed, on the outskirts of the Lebanese border town of Arsal, Lebanon October 26, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed AzakirARSAL, Lebanon Oct 26 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon returned home on Wednesday, the first day of repatriations organised by Beirut, amid concerns from rights groups that the scheme may involve elements of coercion. Lebanese authorities say the repatriations, under a revived programme run coordinated by the country's General Security agency, are voluntary. In 2018, the General Security agency launched a mechanism through which any Syrian refugee could signal a desire to return home, liaise with Syrian authorities to make sure that individual was not wanted there. That pathway saw around 400,000 Syrians return home but was put on hold with the outbreak of COVID-19.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence French ambassador to Ukraine has resigned as of Oct. 25
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Users on social media are sharing a claim that the French ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins has resigned but there’s no supporting evidence. One Facebook user sharing the claim said, “Urgent: The French Ambassador to Ukraine Resigns” (here). There is another unverified French-language Facebook account under the same name and logo that identifies as a “broadcasting & media production company” (here). Jean-Michel Cadenas, a departmental delegate of the Rassemblement National in Mayenne (twitter.com/RassNational53) repeated the claim that Poncins resigned in a since-deleted tweet. There is no evidence that Poncins ever resigned from his post as the French ambassador to Ukraine.

Oct 25 (Reuters) - Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) on Tuesday said the Alzheimer's disease drug it is developing with Japan's Eisai Co Ltd (4523.T) would be used by doctors in a competitive market as investors wait for data from rival therapies made by Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N) and Roche (ROG.S). The drug, lecanemab was shown to slow the progress of the disease by 27% in a trial last month, and additional data is expected next month. "The data needs to be seen from the other anti-amyloid therapies before we decide what is going to be meaningful," said Biogen interim research chief Priya Singhal. Its costs were about halved as the company significantly cut back on commercial infrastructure around the launch of Aduhelm, its previous Alzheimer's drug that has sputtered amid controversy over efficacy and lack of coverage by health insurers. read moreInvestors have been pinning hopes on the Alzheimer's drug as cheaper generics of Biogen's multiple sclerosis treatment Tecfidera have entered the market, hurting sales.

☆ Bono Is Still Trying to Figure Out U2 and Himself
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +28 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Bono Is Still Trying to Figure Out U2 and HimselfThere are different Bonos to different people, including the man himself. You say, “But you’re U2 — you don’t need that.” What’s interesting is that we want that. But I also wrote the book to try to figure out what was going on with U2. They sound like U2 songs. Do they sound like U2 songs?

Out on Southall High Street, pensioner Asma Choudry said she had been living in Britain for 42 years. YOUTH, WEALTH AND RACE1/2 New leader of Britain's Conservative Party Rishi Sunak walks outside the party's headquarters in London, Britain, October 24, 2022. Whatever the driving forces, Sunak will climb even further on Tuesday to take the top job in the land. Rishi Trivedi, 50, a chartered accountant and Conservative Party member from West Drayton in west London, said he was "happy beyond belief", though worried that wealthy Sunak might lack the common touch. Jignesh Patel, a 49-year-old mural painter and another Conservative Party member from nearby Hounslow, just saw "a proud moment" and a potential turning point.

☆ Lebanon deputy PM says state cannot "save all depositors" who lost funds in crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSpeaking on local broadcaster LBCI, Chami said the state's plan to plug a $72 billion hole in the financial system would not be able to "save all depositors." Chami said the government's total foreign currency reserves - including its gold deposits - amount to between $25 billion and $30 billion "at best." Parliament still needs to approve a banking resolution framework to address Lebanon's bloated commercial banking sector and a capital controls law. Chami said he expected that most banks would not face problems in paying back depositors or undergoing a restructuring. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Andrea RicciOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The 27 are expected to back an alternative price benchmark for liquefied natural gas and joint gas buying, after earlier agreeing to cut consumption and introduce levies on windfall profits in the energy industry. But they remain as split as they were months ago on whether and how to cap gas prices to stem high inflation and stave off recession, after Russia cut gas flows following its invasion of Ukraine. They will also discuss emergency spending to mitigate the effects the acute energy crunch has on their economies and 450 million citizens. But given EU countries' diverse energy mix and interests, the meeting risks falling short on concrete action, with other concerns being whether a gas cap would enable Britain to buy cheaper energy or compromise stability of supplies. EU energy ministers meet again next week but another senior EU diplomat said they did not expect more detailed decisions before November.

☆ Swiss prosecutors appeal against acquittals of Blatter, Platini
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Former UEFA President Michel Platini speaks to the media after a trial at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland July 8, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannZURICH, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Swiss federal prosecutors have filed an appeal to overturn the acquittals of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and France footballing great Michel Platini on corruption charges, they said on Thursday. Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court had cleared the two in July after a seven-year investigation in which both were booted out of the sport. A judge said the pair's account of a 'gentlemen's agreement' for FIFA to pay Platini 2 million Swiss francs ($1.99 million)for consulting work was credible, and serious doubts existed about the prosecution's allegation that it was a fraudulent payment. ($1=1.0049 Swiss francs)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Clarence Fernandez/Peter RutherfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lebanon fails to elect president for third time amid financial meltdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a president for the third time on Thursday, bringing the country closer to institutional deadlock amid a deep financial crisis. Outgoing President Michel Aoun's term ends on Oct. 31 and divisions remain among political blocs over the makeup of a new cabinet. Thursday's session saw 55 blank votes, 42 for anti-Hezbollah lawmaker Michel Mouawad and the rest of the ballots including scattered votes for political slogans. Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri has set the next session for Oct. 24. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

POSITIONS FAR APART1/6 European Council President Charles Michel attends the European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium, October 20, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman Read MoreThe most contentious issue facing the leaders is whether and how to cap gas prices. The leaders will also discuss emergency spending to cushion their economies and 450 million citizens from the energy crunch. Given EU countries' diverse energy mix and interests, the meeting risks falling short on short-term action to tackle high energy prices ahead of winter. EU energy ministers meet again next week and aim to agree on joint crisis measures in November.

BERLIN/PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The French and German governments have postponed a meeting planned for next week until January, officials said on Wednesday, after what sources told Reuters were divisions including over energy policy and defence. French officials have expressed frustration with what they say has been a series of unilateral decisions by Germany, including a 200 billion euro energy package unveiled by Berlin without advanced warning to Paris. A French presidency official echoed Berlin's comments saying the two sides needed "more time" to reach agreements on issues including energy policy and defence cooperation. But others say they feel Germany is throwing its weight around and taking decisions that are sometimes against French interests. But French officials say they worry that the 200 billion euro German plan could distort the European market because other countries do not have the same means to protect their citizens.

☆ Lebanese president calls on Totalenergies to start drilling after deal with Israel
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

CAIRO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on Totalenergies (TTEF.PA) to quickly start drilling in block 9 in the Mediterranean sea. The Lebanese Presidency said Aoun met with a delegation from the company and called for a start to drilling to offset the time spent in indirect negotiations with Israel to demarcate the southern maritime borders. Earlier this month, Lebanon and Israel reached an agreement demarcating a disputed maritime border between them after years of U.S.-mediated negotiations. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Nayera Abdallah, Writing by Yasmin Hussein, Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ EU leaders will discuss gas price cap for power generation, Michel says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Oct 18 (Reuters) - European Union leaders will discuss putting a cap for the price of gas used to generate electricity - over which member states are divided - when they meet for a summit at the end of this week, European Council President Charles Michel said on Tuesday. "We must intensify our three lines of action: reducing demand, ensuring security of supply and containing prices," Michel said in his invitation letter to leaders for the Thursday-Friday meeting in Brussels. "This includes: jointly purchasing gas, developing a new benchmark that more accurately reflects conditions on the gas market, and examining a temporary dynamic price limit," Michel said. "I also expect us to address other short and long-term market interventions, such as an EU framework to cap the price of gas for electricity generation." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Bart Meijer and John ChalmersOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The measure must not affect EU security of gas supply, cause an increase in gas use, or disrupt the functioning of gas markets, it said. The move to curb TTF gas prices would require a separate proposal from Brussels and require approval from EU countries. The EU package includes other measures aimed at lessening the impact of high prices on consumers and businesses. The EU package is unlikely to placate all 27 EU countries - whose leaders will discuss the proposals at a summit on Oct. 20-21. Most EU countries have urged the Commission to urgently propose a gas price cap, but disagree on its design.

☆ Lebanon MPs pass second attempt at new banking secrecy law
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Lebanon's parliament on Thursday passed another round of amendments to a banking secrecy law after the International Monetary Fund said a previous draft retained key deficiencies. The IMF has laid out a list of reforms, including amending its banking secrecy law, that Lebanon must implement before it can gain access to $3 billion to relieve its economic crisis, one of the worst in modern history. Parliament passed an amended banking secrecy law in late July but the IMF recommended a slew of changes and Lebanese President Michel Aoun sent it back to parliament to make them. The latest draft still does not lift banking secrecy as a whole. The law still needs to be signed into law by Aoun, whose term ends on Oct. 31.

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