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Companies Us Justice Department FollowWASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is considering new guidance for corporations on employees' use of messaging applications and personal devices, as widespread use can thwart compliance and investigations. Currently, the Justice Department considers whether companies that allow use of disappearing messaging apps are regularly examining their compliance on records retention. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) separately has been scrutinizing how Wall Street firms are handling work-related communications on personal devices and apps such as WhatsApp. The Justice Department is also considering whether it needs to offer more guidance on how prosecutors weigh a company's executive clawback policies in investigations into corporate misconduct, Argentieri said. The Justice Department under President Joe Biden has already detailed a number of policy changes aimed at more aggressive policing of corporate wrongdoing.

☆ Honda to develop advanced level 3 self-driving technology by 2029
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The Honda Motor Co. Ltd's all-new Legend sedan, equipped with level 3 autonomous driving technology, is displayed during an unveiling in Tokyo, Japan March 4, 2021. Honda Motor Co Ltd in March 2021 became the world's first carmaker to sell a vehicle with level 3 self-driving technology. Shikama declined to say how soon Honda would start mass-producing its level 3 self-driving vehicles. When the Japanese carmaker launched its Legend sedan with level 3 automation technology last year, production was limited to 100 units. Among its rivals, Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) late last year won approval from Germany's KBA car watchdog for its level 3 driving system.

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A member of the British royal family's household has left her role after making "unacceptable and deeply regrettable" comments about race and nationality to a woman at a grand reception at Buckingham Palace, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Ngozi Fulani, who was born in Britain and works for a domestic abuse support group, wrote on Twitter that the royal aide had repeatedly asked her: "What part of Africa are you from?" In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made," a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in a statement. Last year, a senior royal source said Buckingham Palace had not done enough on diversity, although it has been endeavouring to boost the number of staff from ethnic minorities. "We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes," the palace spokesperson said.

☆ U.S. deeply concerned about Whelan, American jailed in Russia -White House
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Doina Chiacu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The United States is "deeply concerned" about detained American Paul Whelan in Russia, and has not been able to get information from Moscow on his whereabouts or condition, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday. U.S. diplomats in Moscow were working to get details on what was going on with Whelan, Kirby said. "But yes, we are deeply concerned about the lack of information and the lack of contact from Paul," he added. It's highly unusual," David Whelan said. When transferred to the prison's hospital in the past, his brother had always mentioned the move in his phone calls, David Whelan said.

☆ NATO concerned about China's 'opaque' military buildup -Blinken
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a news conference at the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Bucharest, Romania, November 30, 2022. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File PhotoBUCHAREST, Nov 30 (Reuters) - NATO allies are concerned about China's rapid and opaque military buildup and its cooperation with Russia, and discussed concrete ways to address the challenges posed by Beijing on Wednesday, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "The members of our alliance remain concerned by the PRC's (People's Republic of China) coercive policies, by its use of disinformation, by its rapid, opaque military buildup, including its cooperation with Russia," Blinken told a news conference after a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the Western defense alliance. While NATO continues to be focused on maintaining unified support for Ukraine, members also want to boost the alliance's resilience by considering new challenges, including those posed by China, Blinken said. "But there's also a recognition that wherever possible, we have to find ways to cooperate on the really big issues."

Summary poll dataBUENOS AIRES/MEXICO CITY, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Brazil stocks will rally by double-digits through end-2023, despite uncertainty about new government policies as President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva seeks to balance social priorities and budget constraints, a Reuters poll predicted. The benchmark Bovespa stock index (.BVSP) is set to rally 13% by end-2023 to 123,250 points from 108,976 points on Friday, according to the median estimate of 11 strategists polled Nov. 14-23. The Ibovespa (index) is still at a discount, awaiting government news," said Fernando Bresciani, research analyst at Andbank. Members of his transition group have voiced contrasting opinions on 2023 budget talks and the leadership race for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Private economists in a central bank weekly poll projected an expansion rate of just 0.7%.

Sales over the two most recent weeks totalled 149 million barrels, the fastest rate since early March, in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Similar to the week before, last week’s selling was concentrated in crude (-89 million barrels), specifically in Brent (-71 million barrels). Two-week crude sales totalled 137 million barrels, with Brent totalling 100 million barrels, according to position records published by ICE Futures Europe and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The number of crude positions, WTI as well as Brent, fell to just 306 million barrels (9th percentile for all weeks since 2013) down from 443 million barrels (40th percentile) on Nov. 8. The ratio of bullish long positions to bearish short ones fell to 3.28:1 (27th percentile) from 5.36:1 (62nd percentile) two weeks earlier.

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - China will likely have a stockpile of 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 if it continues with its current nuclear buildup pace, according to a report released by the Pentagon on Tuesday. The figure underscores mounting U.S. concerns about China's intentions for its expanding nuclear arsenal, even though the projections do not suggest China is accelerating the pace of its already-brisk warhead development. The report, which primarily covers activities in 2021, said China currently has a nuclear stockpile of more than 400 warheads. The Pentagon's projection for China's nuclear arsenal of 1,000 warheads by 2030 remained unchanged, the official said, adding the projection for 2035 was based on an unchanged pace of expansion. The United States has a stockpile of about 3,700 nuclear warheads, of which roughly 1,740 were deployed, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think-tank.

☆ ECB warns of losses as it pays price for decade of money printing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

This might eventually force some of these central banks to seek a bailout that would raise questions about their independence and raise the ire of taxpayers. On top of depleting its provisions, it might tap any income that national central banks make on their monetary policy operations - such as bonds and loans. Central banks can generally function even if they make losses that deplete all of their capital - as has happened in recent decades in a number of countries including Germany. "It is important to remember that central banks are not like ordinary companies: they can lose money and still operate effectively," the ECB said. "Still, the principle of financial independence implies that national central banks should ultimately always be sufficiently capitalised."

☆ Stowaways on tanker from Nigeria set for deportation from Spain
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LAS PALMAS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Two of three stowaways who were rescued in Spain's Canary Islands after enduring 11 days on the rudder of a fuel tanker from Nigeria have been returned to the ship with the aim of deporting them. In a photograph on Twitter by the Spanish coast guard on Monday, the three stowaways are shown hunkered on the rudder under the hull, just above the waterline of the Alithini II. The ship's captain confirmed to the Red Cross that it had sailed from Nigeria 11 days earlier. The stowaways were treated for moderate dehydration and hypothermia, the Canary Islands emergency services and the Red Cross said. The Spanish-owned Canary Islands are a popular but dangerous gateway for African migrants attempting to reach Europe.

☆ Indonesia says lithium, anode plants are being built to support EV ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JAKARTA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Indonesia is building a lithium refinery and an anode material production facility to complement its nickel-based battery materials industry, an official said, as it aims to set itself up as a hub for making electric vehicles (EVs). An anode material plant with 80,000 tonnes capacity is set to start construction in January, he added. Indonesia has already started producing EV battery parts extracted from nickel, but other materials are also needed to produce EV batteries, Seto said. He did not elaborate on how the lithium ore for the plant would be sourced. The government has banned exports of unprocessed nickel to attract investment at home and secure material for domestic production of nickel metals and battery materials.

☆ Taliban militants in Pakistan end ceasefire with government - spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Taliban militants in Pakistan will no longer abide by a months-long ceasefire with the Pakistani government, a spokesman for the militant group said on Monday. The Afghan Taliban have been facilitating peace talks between local militants and the government since late last year. The end of the ceasefire comes ahead of a visit by a Pakistani delegation, led by state minister for foreign affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, to Kabul on Tuesday. Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told Reuters in a text message that its leadership had decided to end the ceasefire with Pakistan. The Pakistani military has carried out several offensives against the militants in their strongholds in remote lawless districts bordering Afghanistan.

☆ Irish privacy regulator fines Facebook 265 mln euros
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Padraic Halpin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBLIN, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Ireland's data privacy regulator imposed a 265 million euro ($277 million) fine on social media giant Facebook on Monday, bringing the total it has fined parent group Meta (META.O) to almost 1 billion euros. It is Meta's lead privacy regulator within the European Union, and has 13 more inquiries into the social media group outstanding. In September the watchdog hit its Instagram subsidiary with a record fine of 405 million euros, which Meta plans to appeal. The DPC said mitigating factors in Monday's decision - which had been approved by all other relevant EU regulators - included the actions Facebook had taken. "We'll keep going until the behaviour does change," Ireland's Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC) Helen Dixon told Irish national broadcaster RTE on Monday.

☆ China's lockdown protests spread to campuses and cities abroad
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Jessie Pang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Expatriate dissidents and students staged small-scale vigils and protests in cities around the world including London, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney, according to a Reuters tally. In most cases, dozens of people attended the protests, though a few drew more than 100, the tally showed. The protests on the mainland were triggered by a fire in China's Xinjiang region last week that killed 10 people who were trapped in their apartments. On Monday evening, dozens of protesters gathered in Hong Kong's Central business district, the scene of sometimes-violent anti-government demonstrations in 2019. BLAME, SLOGANSIt has been common in recent years for overseas Chinese students to rally in support of their government against its critics, but anti-government protests have been rare.

☆ Twitter lacks transparency in misinformation fight -French regulator
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A spokesperson for Twitter in France did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The spokesperson has not responded to queries since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter last month. Arcom has no power to sanction online platforms for the spread of false information. The 12 online platforms include Alphabet's YouTube, online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, Meta's Facebook and -- for the first time -- the fast-growing short-video platform TikTok, owned by China-based firm ByteDance. French laws also compel large online platforms to provide means to its users to report false information that could alter the potential outcome of an election.

☆ Twitter answering privacy concerns 'so far' - lead EU regulator
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Padraic Halpin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBLIN, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The lead privacy regulator for Twitter in the European Union said it was concerned about the potential impact of layoffs at the social media company on its ability to meet privacy obligations, but said it was so far getting answers to its questions. Twitter has fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts with little warning following billionaire Elon Musk's tumultuous takeover of the company last month. Prior to the cuts, Twitter employed around 500 people at its European headquarters in Dublin where - like many other tech giants - Ireland's Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC) is the social media platform's lead privacy regulator within the EU. So far we're getting answers to our questions," DPC head Helen Dixon told Irish national broadcaster RTE on Monday. The watchdog said it had also been able to continue with six investigations into Twitter relating to potential privacy breaches that pre-date Musk's acquisition.

☆ Global regulators to target crypto platforms after FTX crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The crash of FTX exchange has injected greater urgency into regulating the crypto sector and targeting such 'conglomerate' platforms will be the focus for 2023, the new chair of global securities watchdog IOSCO said in an interview. Jean-Paul Servais said regulating crypto platforms could draw on principles from other sectors which handle conflicts of interest, such as at credit rating agencies and compilers of market benchmarks, without having to start from scratch. Cryptoassets like bitcoin have been around for years but regulators have resisted jumping in to write new rules. "Is it the case for the crypto market? "For investor protection reasons, there is a need to provide additional clarity to these crypto markets markets through targeted guidance in applying IOSCO’s principles to crypto assets," Servais said.

☆ Shares rise, U.S. Treasury yields drop as Fed minutes suggest slower rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Chibuike Oguh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A "substantial majority" of Fed policymakers agreed it would "likely soon be appropriate" to slow the pace of interest rate hikes, the meeting minutes showed. Traders had expected the Fed minutes would affirm officials' softening stance after recent data showed a moderation in economic conditions. U.S. Treasury yields traded lower after the Fed minutes. The U.S. dollar fell across the board after the Fed minutes. Gold prices climbed as the U.S. dollar fell.

☆ European Parliament declares Russia a state sponsor of terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The European Parliament on Wednesday designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing Moscow's military strikes on civilian targets such as energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools and shelters violated international law. European lawmakers voted in favour of a resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the United States and other countries to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing its forces of targeting civilians, which Moscow denies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has so far refused to list Russia despite resolutions in both chambers of Congress urging him to do so. In the EU, the parliaments of four countries have so far designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to the European Parliamentary Research Service: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.

REUTERS/Yves HermanSummary Attack followed EU declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorismBRUSSELS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The European Parliament's website was unavailable for several hours on Wednesday due to a denial-of-service attack by "Pro-Kremlin" hackers, after its lawmakers designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, the institute's president said. The parliament's website was up again shortly after 1700 GMT, around two hours after the institution had reported the outage. "The European Parliament is under a sophisticated cyberattack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility," European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in a tweet shortly after the website went down. The move is largely symbolic, as the European Union does not have a legal framework in place to back it up.

☆ Twin blasts in Jerusalem kill one in suspected Palestinian attack
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Maayan Lubell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"There has not been such a coordinated attack in Jerusalem for many years," police spokesman Eli Levi told Army Radio. [1/6] A damaged bus is seen following an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem November 23, 2022. In Gaza, a spokesman for Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the Jerusalem explosions but stopped short of claiming responsibility. The coordinated blasts appeared to be a step up from a string of mostly Palestinian lone-wolf stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks this year. But families of slain Palestinian militants whose remains are in Israeli custody called for an exchange of corpses.

A source familiar with the situation in Zhengzhou said production at the plant was unaffected by the worker unrest and output remained "normal". It makes most of the phones at the Zhengzhou plant, though it has other smaller production sites in India and southern China. Shares of Foxconn have slipped 2% since the unrest emerged in late October. Before the unrest, the Zhengzhou plant employed some 200,000 people. To retain staff and lure more workers Foxconn has had to offer bonuses and higher salaries.

☆ Shares brush off China COVID curbs, dollar retreats
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Amanda Cooper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The dollar pulled back from strong overnight gains while oil edged up after Monday's volatile sell-off. The MSCI All-World index of shares (.MIWD00000PUS) rose 0.2%, putting it on course for a second month of increases - its longest stretch of gains since late 2021. The dollar of the gains that took it to a 10-day high on Monday, when investors ditched risk assets over China's COVID flare-ups and was last down 0.2%. The dollar came under pressure in particular against the euro and the yen , which rose by 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. Oil rose on Tuesday, a day after Saudi Arabia denied a media report that it was discussing an increase in oil supply with OPEC and its allies.

☆ Updated COVID vaccines offer better protection than original -U.S. study
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Updated COVID-19 boosters offer increased protection against new variants in people who have previously received up to four doses of the older vaccine, a real-world study in the United States showed. The study of over 360,000 people, published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, offers the first evidence that the new vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech (PFE.N)(22UAy.DE) and Moderna (MRNA.O) provide better protection compared to the original shots. Since their introduction in September, the vaccine boosters, which contain both original and Omicron BA.4/5 coronavirus strain, provided greater benefit to younger adults aged 18-49 years that those in the older age group. The variation in effectiveness was lower, in the range of 28-31%, when the boosters were given 2-3 months apart. The authors warned that the study may not be generalizable to future variants, as the dominant variants keep changing.

☆ Explainer: Who is Malaysia's king and why is he picking the prime minister?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

King Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah ascended the throne in 2019 at the age of 59, becoming Malaysia's 16th monarch since it gained independence from Britain in 1957. The silver-haired, bespectacled Al-Sultan Abdullah became king after the surprise abdication of the previous king. The king appointed Muhyiddin prime minister in February 2020 when then-premier Mahathir Mohamad resigned due to coalition infighting. The king has summoned 30 lawmakers from the Barisan Nasional alliance for a meeting on Wednesday to determine who becomes prime minister. Whoever is eventually named prime minister is likely to face more political turbulence of the kind that has plagued the country in recent years.

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