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☆ Japan approves $13.5 bln Osaka resort, country's first casino
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Kantaro Komiya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The spinning wheel on a roulette table is seen at Japan Casino School in Tokyo, Japan August 4, 2018. U.S. casino operator MGM Resorts International (MGM.N) and local partner Orix Corp (8591.T) have spearheaded the Osaka IR project, with each owning a 40% stake in the company set up to manage the complex. The national government's decision came after the pro-casino Japan Innovation Party retained the prefectural governor and city mayor offices in Osaka on Sunday. Major casino operators Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N), Caesars Entertainment Corp and Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN.O) withdrew from planned projects. The government on Friday said it would need more time to review the Nagasaki plan, led by Casinos Austria International.

☆ Exclusive: ECB policymakers converging on 25-bps rate hike in May - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Balazs Koranyi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The ECB has raised rates by at least 50 basis points each at six successive meetings -- the fastest pace on record -- to fight stubbornly high inflation. The sources said that some are advocating no change in May - mostly the same Southern European policymakers who did not support last month's 50 basis point increase, while others - also a small group - argue for another 50 basis point hike. Klaas Knot of the Netherlands said it was unclear whether 50 basis points would be needed or if 25 was enough. Slovakia's Peter Kazimir said the ECB could perhaps slow down the pace of its increases while Austria's Robert Holzmann meanwhile backed another 50 basis point move. Markets currently price 25 basis point hikes each in May and June, while a third such increase is fully priced in by September.

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - Senior officials from the United States, Europe and Britain met on Thursday with financial institutions to brief them on efforts by Russia to evade Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. Treasury official told reporters. The firms - from the United States, Britain and Europe - assured the officials that they were working hard to avert Russian efforts to evade sanctions and export controls, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on over 120 targets, including entities linked to Russian state-held energy company Rosatom and firms based in partner nations like Turkey in a sign of stepped-up enforcement. Treasury's top sanctions official, Undersecretary Brian Nelson, will visit Switzerland next week to discuss further moves to crack down on sanctions evasion, with additional stops in Italy, Austria and Germany, Reuters reported last week. Elizabeth Rosenberg, Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, will travel separately to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

☆ Exclusive: ECB policymakers converging on 25-bps rate hike in May , sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Balazs Koranyi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

OSLO, April 13 (Reuters) - Norway is expelling 15 Russian embassy officials that the foreign ministry said on Thursday were intelligence officers operating under the cover of diplomatic positions, a move which Moscow said it would respond to. The expulsions amount to a quarter of Russian diplomats currently accredited in Oslo, the Norwegian government said. It is the latest instance of a Western nation expelling Russian diplomats since the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. So far this year, Estonia, the Netherlands and Austria have also expelled Russian diplomats. The Nordic country still seeks to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia, and Russian diplomats are welcome in Norway, Huitfeldt said.

April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. telehealth abortion providers scrambled on Thursday to keep their services available after a federal appeals court ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone could be distributed amid ongoing litigation but with significant restrictions. Mifepristone is used with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions. Jayaram Brindala, founder of Abortion Telemedicine, said the provider would "no longer be able to send the mifepristone medication by mail anywhere." Brindala added the company would still send the misoprostol-only regimen to states that allow it. Other telehealth practices that provide abortion medication said they were waiting to see what happens next in court before announcing any changes in policy.

[1/5] Javier Ramiro, Co-Chief Scientific Officer of Spanish indoor hops farming start-up Ekonoke controls the plantation of hops in Alcobendas, Spain, March 23, 2023. "We're on a mission to save the world's beer," Ines Sagrario, chief executive and co-founder of Ekonoke, told Reuters. Strict hygiene measures such as protective clothing for staff ensure the space remains pest-free, taking the pesticides on which traditional farming often depends out of the equation. The most obvious challenge indoor farming faces, he said, is its high energy cost. "Demand from breweries is quite inelastic; you can't make beer without hops and they don't want to produce less," Sagrario said.

☆ Where to watch Real Madrid vs. Chelsea live stream for free online
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Brendan Griffiths | Senior Commerce Director | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Don't miss out; take a look at our guide on where to watch a Real Madrid vs. Chelsea live stream for free. Where to watch Real Madrid vs. Chelsea in CanadaSoccer fans in Canada will need to stump up some extra cash to enjoy a Champions League live stream of Real Madrid vs. Chelsea tonight, as DAZN Canada holds the local viewing rights. Real Madrid vs. Chelsea free live streamThere are two free options available today. Another option to watch Real Madrid vs. Chelsea for free online is to tune into the Austrian channel, ServusTV, as it's showing a live stream free of charge. How to watch Real Madrid vs. Chelsea with a VPNSign up for a VPN if you don't have one.

The chart showed that Serbia declined to provide training to Ukrainian forces, but had committed to sending lethal aid or had supplied it already. It also said Serbia had the political will and military ability to provide weapons to Ukraine in the future. The Pentagon also did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about the document's reference to Serbia and has previously declined to comment on any of the leaked documents. Vucic's government has professed neutrality in the Ukraine war, despite the country's deep historic, economic and cultural ties with Russia. "We didn't export any weapons or ammunition to Russia or Ukraine," he said during a March 5 visit to Qatar.

☆ Austria to extend checks at Hungarian, Slovenian borders
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

VIENNA, April 11 (Reuters) - Austria plans to extend checks at its borders with Slovenia and Hungary by another six months from May 11, when the current six-month suspension of free travel over those boundaries expires, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told ORF radio on Tuesday. "We will inform the European Commission in the coming days that we will have to extend these border checks," Karner said, adding that the continued suspension of the Schengen area's free-travel rules at those boundaries was necessary in order to fight illegal immigration. Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Austrian banks unaffected by banking turmoil - finance minister tells NZZ
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

They are very well prepared," Brunner told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung. He also defended Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) (RBIV.VI) which has come under fire for continuing to operate in Russia despite the war in Ukraine. "As for RBI, the bank complies with all international sanctions," Brunner told NZZ. "Incidentally, there are other European banks that continue to operate legally in Russia. The minister also said Austrian inflation, which fell to an estimated 9.2% in March, was still too high and called on the European Central Bank to do more to contain price increases.

☆ Austrian banks unaffected by banking turmoil, finance minister tells Neue Zuercher Zeitung
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

They are very well prepared," Brunner told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung. He also defended Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) (RBIV.VI) which has come under fire for continuing to operate in Russia despite the war in Ukraine. "As for RBI, the bank complies with all international sanctions," Brunner told NZZ. "Incidentally, there are other European banks that continue to operate legally in Russia. "The European Central Bank (ECB) in particular can do something about this, as a member of the euro zone we are dependent on the ECB," Brunner said.

Credit Suisse's investment bankers are not waiting around to find out if UBS will give them jobs. UBS executives have pulled no punches when discussing the future of Credit Suisse's investment banking teams and trading desks. Jeff CohenA two-decade Credit Suisse veteran, Cohen heads up Credit Suisse's leveraged and acquisition finance business from New York. Previously, Cohen was Credit Suisse's head of global credit products and global head of leveraged finance capital markets. Marco SuperinaA Credit Suisse veteran since 1997, Superina heads Credit Suisse's M&A efforts in the firm's native Switzerland.

☆ China has not provided extensive assistance to Russia as part of its war against Ukraine even as the two countries forge closer ties, senior Treasury officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Sam Fossum | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

One senior Treasury official said that China is, as of now, unwilling to provide material support to Russia at scale and in a significant way, pointing instead to Russian efforts to source material from North Korea and Iran. The US and its allies have also taken more direct action, sanctioning a Chinese satellite company providing intelligence to Russian forces in January and putting some Chinese companies on the US export control list. But in recent months officials have also begun to see some results from their public and private efforts. Turkish officials told the US last month that their government has been taking further action to block the transit of sanctioned goods directly to Russia, according to a source familiar with the discussion. In a speech earlier this year on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo publicly warned Russian intelligence services that the US is monitoring their efforts and is cracking down.

☆ Germany warns EU over tampering with schemes for struggling banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The EU's executive European Commission is due on April 18 to set out draft reforms to rules for handling stricken banks. The schemes link banks in a national network, allowing a struggling lender to get financial aid from the scheme's other members, forming part of a country's protections for bank depositors. CARVE OUTLindner said the commission's current plans would introduce a "number of new and significant restrictions" on IPS schemes by treating them like deposit guarantee schemes. A "clear and precise carve-out for IPS from newly introduced restrictions would be the easiest and cleanest way" to respect last year's agreement not to tamper with IPS, Lindner said. A report for the European Parliament last year said IPS represents a central and substantial component of depositor protections in Germany.

REUTERS/Nacho DoceMADRID, April 5 (Reuters) - A 68-year-old Spanish TV actress said that her newly adopted daughter was conceived using her dead son's frozen sperm and is in fact her granddaughter, reigniting a debate over the bioethics of surrogacy and children's right to privacy in Spain. The weeks-old baby, named Ana Sandra, was born to a surrogate mother identified on Wednesday by the Lecturas magazine as a Cuban woman living in Miami, Florida. "This girl isn't my daughter, but my granddaughter," TV actress Ana Obregon told celebrity magazine ¡Hola! Obregon's only biological child, her son Aless Lequio, died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 27. Obregon rose to prominence in the 1980s and starred in Spanish sitcoms in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

"The new cuts are underpinning that the OPEC+ group is intact and that Russia is still an integral and important part of the group," SEB analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said. Higher prices will likely spell more income for Moscow to fund its expensive war in Ukraine, upsetting Saudi-U.S. relations further, Schieldrop said. "The U.S. administration may also argue that higher oil prices will counter its efforts to put out the inflation fire," he added. [1/2] An OPEC flag is seen on the day of OPEC+ meeting in Vienna in Vienna, Austria October 5, 2022. "Producing countries apparently want to see oil prices rise to $90-$100/bbl, but higher oil prices also mean higher risk of economic downturn and sluggish demand," he added.

☆ Barcelona refereeing scandal one of most serious in football, says Ceferin
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin attends a news conference during the 46th UEFA congress in Vienna, Austria, May 11, 2022. REUTERS/Leonhard FoegerApril 3 (Reuters) - UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said that Barcelona's refereeing scandal is one of the most serious incidents he has seen in football ever since he became involved with it. "I cannot comment directly on this for two reasons," Ceferin told Slovenian newspaper Ekipe SN in an interview published on Monday. So serious that it is, in my opinion, one of the most serious (ones) in football since I have been involved in it." In a statement in February the club denied any wrongdoing, saying it had paid an external consultant who supplied it with technical reports related to professional refereeing, which it claimed was a common practice among professional football clubs.

☆ Italy's ski industry fires cannon against climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Stefano Bernabei | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/7] Skiers pass on an artificial snow slope as end of the ski season nears, in Monte Cimone, Italy, March 31, 2023. "The ski-lifts were closed, the ski instructors and seasonal workers had nothing to do and we lost 40% of our revenue for the whole season," said Luciano Magnani, head of the local consortium of ski tourism operators. Some 90% of Italy's pistes rely on artificial snow, compared with 70% in Austria, 50% in Switzerland and 39% in France, according to data from Italian Green lobby Legambiente. Italy's ski sector directly or indirectly employs 400,000 people and generates turnover of 11 billion euros ($11.92 billion), according to Anef data, equal to about 0.5% of national output. Some economists and climatologists argue that trying to keep low-altitude ski resorts in business is destined to fail, and snow-making merely delays the inevitable.

[1/6] Spanish Labour Minister and Second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz applauses as she presents new political platform 'Sumar' in Madrid, Spain, April 2, 2023. REUTERS/Isabel InfantesMADRID, April 2 (Reuters) - Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz launched her bid to become the country's first woman prime minister on Sunday at a packed event in Madrid, where the absence of two government ministers signalled a deepening rift among the progressive left. Today, I want to become our country's first female prime minister," Diaz told the crowd to a standing ovation. Although she has yet to release a detailed platform, Diaz outlined the broad outline of her manifesto, including a new "bill of rights" and a democratic, economic and social "contract" for the next decade. She also touted her ministry's accomplishments, such as raising the minimum wage and a pro-union labour law reform.

Multiple experts identified the presence of malware on the Pinduoduo app that exploited vulnerabilities in Android operating systems. Evidence of sophisticated malware in the Pinduoduo app comes amid intense scrutiny of Chinese-developed apps like TikTok over concerns about data security. Pinduoduo has previously rejected “the speculation and accusation that Pinduoduo app is malicious.”CNN has contacted PDD multiple times over email and phone for comment, but has not received a response. Google Play is not available in China, and Android users in the country download their apps from local stores. Engineers also found their access to big data, data sheets and the log system revoked, the source said.

☆ One of Russia's longtime allies said it will arrest Putin if he goes there, leaving him a pariah in a region where he was once dominant
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Armenia, a longtime Russia ally, has been increasingly distancing itself from Vladimir Putin. Its ruling party said that if Putin visited Armenia, he would get arrested, Moscow Times reported. The party was referring to an international arrest warrant for Putin issued earlier this month. Armenia is among a growing group of countries that have said they would enforce an international warrant issued by the International Criminal Court earlier this month. Pashinyan has previously accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to take a more active role around the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabak.

☆ A growing list of countries say they will arrest Putin if he goes there, enforcing an international warrant accusing him of war crimes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A growing number of country in Europe say they will arrest Putin if he crosses their borders. Ireland, Croatia, Austria, and Germany said this week they arrest him, in line with an ICC warrant. Other countries — including the UK and France — welcomed the ICC decision but did not explicitly commit to arresting Putin. President Joe Biden called the ICC's warrant "justified," but noted that the US is not part of the ICC system. One European country is a standout, however, after Hungary said on Thursday it would not arrest Putin if he were to travel to the country.

☆ Morning Bid: Bank angst persists, unnerves Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

But banks boosted borrowing under the Fed's newly launched Bank Term Funding Program to $53.7 billion - almost 5 times its first outing the previous week. European bank stocks fell 3% early on Friday, with Deutsche Bank shares (DBKGn.DE) down for a third day - losing 5% amid rising market costs for insuring against the risk of default. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is due to attend Friday's European Union summit in Brussels and update leaders on the state of affairs in the financial system. Wider markets were lower in Asia and Europe and U.S. stock futures were in the red again ahead of the open. With less than a 50% chance of another Fed rate rise in this cycle now priced into the futures, almost 80 basis points of rate cuts are now seen by year-end.

[1/5] The logo of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is seen on their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 14, 2023. REUTERS/Leonhard FoegerVIENNA, March 23 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is pressing Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) to unwind its highly profitable business in Russia, five people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. One person said such a plan could include the sale or closure of its Russian bank. A Raiffeisen spokesperson said that it was examining options for its Russia business "including a carefully managed exit" and that it was "expediting" its assessment, adding that it had also reduced lending in the country. HIGH STAKESIn January, the U.S. sanctions authority launched an inquiry into Raiffeisen over its business related to Russia.

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