DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Amazon will not cut jobs in Italy, unions say after meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) does not plan to cut any jobs in Italy despite a drop in volumes last year, trade unions said on Tuesday after a video meeting with a company representative. Italian trade unions FIT-CISL, Filt-CGIL and UIL Trasporti said in separate statements that during the meeting, called in response to news reports, an Amazon Italy manager said there was no reason for Italian workers to worry. The manager added that there would likely be cuts in the workforce in Britain and Spain, according to FIT-CISL. Amazon Italy declined to comment on the meeting but said the company stood by the comments made by Chief Executive Andy Jassy on Jan. 5 about its plans to cut over 18,000 jobs. Reporting by Elvira Pollina, writing by Federico Maccioni; editing by Alvise Armellini, Jon Boyle and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia criticises Reuters story on Russian hackers targeting U.S. nuclear scientists
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday criticised Reuters for spreading what it said was poorly sourced anti-Russian propaganda with a story about a Russian hacking team which targeted three nuclear research laboratories. Reuters on Jan. 6 reported the Russian hacking team, known as Cold River, had targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, according to internet records reviewed by Reuters and five cyber security experts. "The latest pseudo investigation was unfortunately published by Reuters news agency," Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters. A Reuters spokesperson said: "We stand by our reporting, which was fair, accurate and in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles." Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The government uses the estimates as a basis for its growth and fiscal projections for the next budget due on Feb. 1. Since September, economists have been cutting their 2022/23 growth projections to around 7% due to slowing exports and risks of high inflation crimping purchasing power. India's nominal growth, which includes inflation, is projected to be at 15.4% for 2022/23, up from an earlier 11.1% estimate. "The nominal GDP growth is higher, implying that the government's fiscal deficit target will be achieved," said Sabnavis. "Buoyant albeit mixed domestic consumption should help to stave off some of the pain arising from weak exports during this period," Aditi Nayar, economist at ICRA.

☆ Fed's Bostic: jobs data another sign economy is gradually slowing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Lindsay Dunsmuir | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 6 (Reuters) - The latest U.S. jobs figures are another sign that the economy is gradually slowing and should that continue the Federal Reserve can step down to a quarter percentage point interest rate hike at its next policy meeting, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on Friday. "I've been looking for the economy to continually slow from the strong position it was at in the summer time," Bostic said. The Fed's main policy rate currently sits in a target range of 4.25% to 4.50%. In his interview, Bostic said that he see rates topping out at between 5.00% and 5.25%. Bostic said he does not see a recession this year and revealed he sees the unemployment rate rising to only 4% by year end, lower than many of his rate-setting colleagues.

☆ Unemployment among Saudi citizens increases to 9.9% in Q3/22
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Unemployment in Saudi Arabia among citizens increased to 9.9% in the third quarter, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter but the overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.8 percent, data released on Thursday showed. Unemployment in this category fell to 20.5% in Q3 from 21.9% in the year-ago period, making up 37% of the Saudi labour force. Expansion of the private sector is a key pillar of the government strategy, with a wide-ranging programme of privatisations and other government-supported initiatives to spur growth. The latest data showed that 93.3% of unemployed Saudis would accept jobs in the private sector. Historically, the public sector has been the principal employer of citizens in Saudi Arabia.

☆ Russian ambassador to Washington says U.S.-Russia relations in 'ice age'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Summary This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. MOSCOW, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Russia's ambassador to the United States on Friday compared the state of U.S.-Russia relations to an "ice age", and said that the risk of a clash between the two countries was "high", Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported. TASS cited Anatoly Antonov as saying that it was hard to say when talks on strategic dialogue between the two sides could resume, but that talks on prisoner swaps had been "effective" and would continue. U.S.-Russia ties have fallen to their lowest point in decades amid the fallout from Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, and the consequent imposition of Western sanctions. Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Market themes for the week ahead
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Please be advised there will be no Take Five market themes for the week ahead on either Friday, Dec. 23 or Friday, Dec. 30. The next weekly edition will be published on Friday, Jan. 6. Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Police arrested the suspect, a German citizen identified as Carsten L., on Wednesday in Berlin, the federal prosecutors office said. "The accused is suspected of state treason," federal prosecutors said in a statement. "In 2022, he shared information that he came by in the course of his work with a Russian intelligence agency. As such, the BND would not be giving out any further details on the case until federal prosecutors had concluded their investigation, Kahl added. The last time a German intelligence employee was arrested for treason was in 2014 - although then it was for betraying secrets to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

☆ British nurses walk out again, threaten further strikes in pay dispute
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The industrial action by up to 100,000 nurses is unprecedented in the British nursing union's 106-year history, but it says it has no choice as workers struggle to make ends meet with inflation running at more than 10%. The government has offered nurses around 4% and declined to discuss pay further, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying the nurses' demand for a pay rise of 5% plus inflation would equate to a 19% hike and is unaffordable. I will negotiate with him at any point to stop nursing staff and patients going into the new year facing such uncertainty," the head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union Pat Cullen said. The RCN said it was giving the government 48 hours from the end of Tuesday's walk out to respond, before it announces further strike dates. What we can't do is go back into reopening the pay award," junior health minister Will Quince told Sky News.

BRUSSELS Dec 15 (Reuters) - Francesco Giorgi, the partner of ousted European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili, has confessed his role in a Qatar graft scandal, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Giorgi's confession to taking bribes from Qatar to influence European Parliament decisions on Qatar had made "a significant contribution" to the probe underway by Belgian investigating magistrates, one of the sources said. Greek MEP Kaili, who was ousted from her role as vice president of the European Parliament on Monday, has denied any wrongdoing through her lawyer. Tarabella, who had previously confirmed that his home was searched on Saturday as part of the Belgian investigation, has denied any wrongdoing. The European Parliament on Thursday suspended all work on legislation linked to Qatar, and parliament's president, Roberta Metsola, told EU leaders she would lead reforms to prevent a repeat of a criminal corruption scandal.

☆ Kremlin: No decision yet on repair of Nord Stream gas pipelines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Gazprom PAO FollowDec 15 (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that no decision had been made yet on whether to go ahead with a repair of the undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines that were damaged by explosions in September. He was commenting on Canada's plans to revoke a sanctions waiver that allowed turbines for Nord Stream 1, Russia's biggest gas pipeline to Europe, to be repaired in Montreal and returned to Germany. "Only repairs can affect Nord Stream now. Or launching the only surviving line of Nord Stream 2," Peskov told reporters. Peskov added there was no decision on whether to start gas exports via the intact part of the Nord Stream 2 line.

"We've been too naïve ... for far too long," a justice ministry spokesperson said, referring to what he called clandestine operations by foreign powers in Belgium. The other three suspects arrested and charged last week were meanwhile questioned, as planned, on Wednesday by a three-judge panel. Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, the secretary-general of a rule of law campaign group, will leave jail but wear an electronic ankle tag. The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to strip Kaili, a 44-year old Greek Socialist MEP, of her vice presidency role. Although no state was publicly named by prosecutors, a source with knowledge of the case said it was Qatar.

☆ Nigerian government rejects Reuters report on abortion programme
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ABUJA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The Nigerian government rejects a Reuters report published last week about a secret programme of abortions run by the military in the country's northeast, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Monday. The Reuters investigation found that since 2013, a secret military programme has involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants. "We also hereby reject the accusation of running an abortion programme levelled at our military," he said. Mohammed's comments were the first by a Nigerian government official since the report was published last week. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called on Nigerian authorities to investigate the allegations, U.N spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Bank of England Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden backed more interest rate hikes on Thursday, but said he would consider cutting rates if the economy and inflation pressures panned out differently to his expectation. But Ramsden also said he would "continue to vote to respond forcefully" if inflation pressures proved to be more persistent than expected. The BoE has raised interest rates eight times since December 2021. Ramsden said the government's budget statement published earlier this month - comprising tax rises and spending restraint - was likely to push down on economic growth and inflation. "However, the vast majority of these measures do not come into effect until April 2025 so will have very little effect over the MPC's three-year forecast horizon, relative to what was assumed in the November MPC," Ramsden said.

☆ U.N. rights council votes to probe Iran's ongoing crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERSGENEVA/DUBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. Rights Council voted on Thursday to appoint an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, passing the motion to cheers of activists amid an intensifying crackdown in Kurdish areas over recent days. Tehran's representative at the Geneva meeting Khadijeh Karimi earlier accused Western states of using the council to target Iran, a move she called "appalling and disgraceful". CRACKDOWNThe crackdown has been particularly intense in Kurdish areas, located in western Iran, with the U.N. rights monitor this week noting reports of 40 deaths there over the past week. Iranian authorities have arrested a number of soccer players for expressing their support for protests. Asked on Thursday about the unrest at home Iran national team striker Mehdi Taremi said they were in Qatar to play soccer.

☆ Italy police arrest woman mafia boss, 48 others in raid outside Milan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Police arrested 49 suspected mobsters in a raid on the outskirts of Milan on Tuesday, including five women, one of whom is accused of leading a local unit of the fearsome 'Ndrangheta mafia. It's rare for women to have leadership roles in the male-dominated world of the mafia. The woman, accused of ruling a 'Ndrangheta unit in Rho, a town on the outskirts of Milan, was "even more ruthless than the men", Milan prosecutor Alessandra Cerretti said in a news conference, according to local media. In a separate operation, police arrested another 37 people linked to the Camorra mafia in a raid outside the city of Naples, following a three-year investigation into extortion and drug trafficking. Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Alvise Armellini and Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ France's Macron announces 100 mln euro aid package for Moldova
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PARIS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at a donor conference for Moldova in Paris, announced an additional international aid package worth more than 100 million euros ($103 million)for the eastern European nation. He said much of that aid would have to be focused on helping Moldova deal with an energy crisis that is the consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. ($1 = 0.9756 euros)Reporting by GV De Clercq; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. imposes new sanctions over Iran sanctions evasion, targets Chinese firms
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Washington has increasingly targeted Chinese companies over the export of Iran's petrochemicals as the prospects of reviving the nuclear pact have dimmed. "The United States will continue to implement sanctions against those actors facilitating these sales." Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Those that engage in certain transactions with the companies also risk being hit with sanctions. Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Dutch court confirms that MH 17 was shot down by Russian-made missile
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] Lawyers attend the judges' inspection of the reconstruction of the MH17 wreckage, as part of the murder trial ahead of the beginning of a critical stage, in Reijen, Netherlands, May 26, 2021. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool/File PhotoAMSTERDAM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made missile fired from a field in eastern Ukraine, the Dutch court handling the trial of four suspects in the downing of the plane said on Thursday. "The court is of the opinion that MH17 was brought down by the firing of a BUK missile from a farm field near Pervomaisk, killing al 283 passengers and 15 crew members," presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said. Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, Toby Sterling and Bart Meijer; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

As at other recent international forums, the United States and its allies were seeking a statement from the two-day G20 summit against Moscow's military actions. But Russia, whose forces pounded cities and energy facilities across Ukraine even as the G20 met, said "politicization" of the summit was unfair. [1/12] Leaders gather during the G20 leaders summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. China and Russia are close, but Beijing has been careful not to provide any direct material support for the Ukraine war that could trigger Western sanctions against it. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed concern for the health of other world leaders - including Biden - after a positive COVID-19 test forced him to return home early.

☆ UK recruiters plan record pay rises but real wages lag inflation, survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Suban Abdulla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - British employers are planning the biggest pay hikes in a decade to fill roles but real-term wages will still grow more slowly than inflation, a survey showed on Monday. "Pay awards are expected to rise by the highest amount we've seen in our survey for 10 years but it's being outpaced by rising prices," CIPD labour market economist Jon Boys said. "Rather than feeling the benefit of higher pay, most will face a real-terms pay cut." Britain's jobs boom has yet to peak, with 69% of employers planning to hire in the next quarter, the CIPD said. "Organisations are looking at how they can support their people while also battling rising operational costs and a tight labour market," Boys said.

☆ Czech proposed power revenue cap to bring much higher revenue than expected, minister says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Industry Ministry has proposed caps ranging from 70 euros per megawatt/hour of electricity made at nuclear power plants to 230 euros for power made at some lignite plants. "As proposed, it will bring much higher revenue than 15 billion," Stanjura told reporters. Overall, he said the ministry's forecast of raising 100 billion crowns from the windfall tax and the revenue caps next year was conservative and final takings may be higher, he said. The company expected to be most affected by the revenue caps and the windfall tax is the majority state-owned electricity producer CEZ (CEZP.PR). The Czech revenue cap proposal goes beyond the EU agreement by suggesting validity from Dec. 1 this year until the end of 2023, while the EU agreement only runs until June 30, 2023.

LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro. In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, reported to Shoigu that it was no longer possible to keep Kherson city supplied. The news followed weeks of Ukrainian advances towards the city and a race by Russia to relocate more than 100,000 of its residents by ferrying them to the opposite side of the river. The announcement had been anticipated by Russia's influential war bloggers, who described it as a bitter blow. Compounding the sense of Russian disarray in Kherson, Moscow's number two official there, Kirill Stremousov, was killed in a car crash on Wednesday.

☆ Spain's Iberdrola to invest $47 bln in energy transition in 2023-25
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Some 17 billion euros of the 47 billion total investment will go on renewables. In its last strategy update, Iberdrola said it planned to invest 75 billion euros in renewable energy, grids and retail operations from 2020-2025. Iberdrola currently has 40 GW of renewables capacity, new chief executive Armando Martinez told the compay's capital markets day in London. Net profit should increase to 5.2-5.4 billion euros by 2025 from an expected 4-4.2 billion euros in 2022, Iberdrola said. It also aims for earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 16.5 billion-17 billion euros by 2025, up from 13 billion euros in 2022 and above analyst consensus of 12.6 billion euros.

☆ Iran calls for deeper energy, trade ties with Russia -Nournews
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani called on Wednesday for deeper ties in energy, transportation, agriculture, trade and banking with Russia, according to NourNews, affiliated with the country's top security body. Shamkhani spoke after a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Tehran. The two also discussed the situation in Ukraine and measures to combat "Western interference" in their internal affairs, Russian state media reported. Patrushev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran. Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Jon Boyle and Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Search resuls for: "Jon Boy"

25 mentions found