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☆ Putin gave Biden a $12,000 writing set in 2021. It was among the unusual presents world leaders offered the US president that year.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

These are 7 of the most unusual, unique, or noteworthy presents gifted to President Joe Biden that year. These are 7 of the most unusual presents gifted to President Joe Biden in 2021. Putin gave Biden a $12,000 desk setLess than a year before Vladimir Putin launched his unprompted war in Ukraine, the Russian president gifted Biden a Kholuy Lacquer miniature workshop desk writing set and pen valued at $12,000, according to the State Department. Queen Elizabeth gave the president a photo of herselfThe late Queen Elizabeth gave the gift of herself during the 2021 G7 summit in England. President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 1, 2021, in Washington.

☆ China cranking up political espionage, German official tells newspaper
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] German and Chinese national flags fly in Tiananmen Square ahead of the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing, China, May 23, 2018. We must be prepared for these to increase in the coming years," Verfassungsschutz agency chief Thomas Haldenwang told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. He warned that economic dependence on China could be exploited for political influence. "The political leadership is already using its economic power, which also results from intensive relations with the German and European economies, to implement political goals." The German government has been reassessing its economic relations with authoritarian countries after the Ukraine war laid bare the vulnerabilities of Berlin's years-long energy dependence on Russia.

☆ Jump or be pushed: German conservatives turn on ex-Nazi hunter over race comments
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Once he was Germany's top Nazi hunter. Now the conservative opposition want to kick former domestic security chief Hans-Georg Maassen out of their party for allegedly repeating anti-Semitic and racist tropes. But the long-time member and one-time parliamentary candidate of former Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) lost that job after being accused of ignoring video evidence of far-right gangs chasing immigrants in riots. Maassen, who has always strongly denied charges of racism, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under German party democracy laws introduced to prevent the re-emergence of dictatorial parties like Hitler's Nazis, expulsion can only follow a series of quasi-judicial hearings to establish whether a member is in conflict with the party's values.

On energy, the ministry has “completely overhauled the previous government’s Russia-friendly policy” to reduce Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas, it said. “That tells you something.”Germany consistently underestimated the Russian threat and gave counterintelligence work a low priority, but that is changing now in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, experts and Western officials said. Last April, Berlin expelled 40 Russian Embassy employees for allegedly working for Russian intelligence services. Germany’s intelligence services failed to anticipate that Russia would invade Ukraine, a failure that has yet to be the subject of any publicly released “lessons learned” review. Such a review would show Germany is serious about altering its approach, the Western official said.

☆ For Ukraine, Western tanks could be a game changer in the conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

For Ukraine, the offer of modern, Western battle tanks was a long-time coming; it has requested Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, and asked Berlin to authorize their re-export from other allies, for months. On Wednesday, Germany offered Ukraine 14 of its Leopard 2A6 tanks and said it would allow allies to export their own German-made tanks to Ukraine. watch nowPoland, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway and Finland are among the other countries that have signaled they will, or are willing, to send tanks to Kyiv. Ukraine is certainly focusing right now on the exact number of tanks it can expect from its Western allies. The speed of training of our military, the speed of supplying tanks to Ukraine and the volume of tank support."

☆ I manage a Davos hotel where Bill Gates and other leaders stay for the World Economic Forum. We barely sleep and live off Red Bull, but we love it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Natalie Rahhal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Hans-Rudolf Ruetti manages the Grandhotel Belvédère, where the most important WEF participants stay. For more than 50 years, what's now known as the World Economic Forum (WEF) has taken place in Davos, and every year, the Grandhotel Belvédère has hosted WEF guests. There are several events being put on by important guests, and this is always a challenging task when it comes to safety and security. We also built an additional three kitchens from where we can deliver food exclusively for hotel guests and events hosted here by the forum participants. There really isn't anything we at the hotel don't like about the WEF.

☆ Just one G-7 leader will join the Davos elite this year as regular people battle cost-of-living crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Congress Center, the venue for the World Economic Forum (WEF), center, in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. It is not the first time the summit has been sparsely attended by leaders from the powerful political union. That included former U.S. leader Donald Trump, who attended twice during his one term in office, unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, who never attended. His own predecessor, Angela Merkel, was a regular Davos presence during her 16-year term, most recently challenging the increasing "own interests first" mentality of some nations in 2019. "I expect it is partly reputational risks, given the current situation, of enjoying the high life in Davos," he said.

The debate comes less than two months after Twitter restored Trump’s account, but Meta’s intention to reevaluate the decision predates Twitter’s reversal. “I can’t think of what that rigorous standard would be that would make this policy be applied fairly, not just to former President Trump, but to any politician.”Is Trump bound to Truth Social? A phone screen displays the Truth Social app in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2022. Trump now has his own rival social media platform, Truth Social, which he launched in February. Despite his desire for a bigger megaphone and aides encouraging him to rejoin Twitter, Trump has said he is committed to Truth Social.

☆ Kremlin says Minsk deals failure led to Russia's Ukraine offensive
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir Putin this week bemoaned the failure to implement the Minsk agreements - ceasefire and constitutional reform deals between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine brokered in 2014 and 2015 by Russia, France and Germany, at the outset of the conflict with Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of violating the deal. Asked by a journalist whether Russia understood that it was being "deceived" over the Minsk accords, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Over time, of course, it became obvious. "And, again, President Putin and our other representatives constantly kept saying this," the TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying. "This is all precisely the precursor to the special military operation."

☆ Russian attacks grind on in eastern Ukraine as Bakhmut is 'destroyed'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

An aerial view of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. Zelenskyy said the situation "remains very difficult" in several frontline cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. "The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins." He said Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk. Taking Bakhmut would rupture Ukraine's supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.

☆ Putin says loss of trust in West will make future Ukraine talks harder
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Kevin Liffey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Summary Putin: 'Trust almost at zero'Putin accuses West of betrayal over 2014/15 Minsk agreementsU.S.-Russia intelligence contacts continue, howeverLONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia's near-total loss of trust in the West would make an eventual settlement over Ukraine much harder to reach, although contacts between Russian and U.S. intelligence services were at least continuing. "We thought we would still be able to agree within the framework of the Minsk peace agreements. There is a question of trust," Putin said. "It turns out that no one was going to fulfil all these Minsk agreements," Putin said, "and the point was only to pump up Ukraine with weapons and prepare it for hostilities." Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a news conference following the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, December 9, 2022.

☆ Putin: Russia may have to make Ukraine deal one day, but partners cheated in the past
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 9 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would likely have to reach agreements regarding Ukraine in the future, but felt betrayed by the breakdown of the Minsk agreements. Putin said Germany and France - which brokered ceasefire agreements in the Belarusian capital Minsk between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 - had betrayed Russia and were now pumping Ukraine with weapons. In an interview published in Germany's Zeit magazine on Wednesday, former German chancellor Angela Merkel said that the Minsk agreements had been an attempt to "give Ukraine time" to build up its defences. Speaking on Friday at a news conference in Kyrgyzstan, Putin said he was "disappointed" by Merkel's comments. Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin LiffeyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

This week she was arrested in a raid as part of a group suspected of plotting to violently overthrow the German government. Prosecutors have said the 58-year-old, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was to become justice minister in a new state headed by aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss after the coup. The AfD said in a statement on Wednesday that it condemned the efforts of the suspected plotters. The inscription 'To the German people' is written above the entrance to the Reichstag building, the seat of Germany's lower house of parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany December 9, 2022. Nationwide it is polling at 14%, making it the most successful far-right party in Germany since World War Two.

☆ Wirecard bosses' fraud trial begins after scandal that rocked Germany
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jörn Poltz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The trial is taking place in Munich's largest and newest courtroom, a bomb-proof underground hall built in the Stadelheim prison complex. Braun, an Austrian born in Vienna, has denied embezzling money from Wirecard and accused others of running a shadow operation without his knowledge. [1/8] Wirecard's former CEO Markus Braun looks on at a courtroom as his trial begins, after the German payments company collapsed in the wake of a fraud scandal in 2020, in Munich, Germany, December 8, 2022. The fraud let Wirecard managers siphon money out of the company with no proper checks and balances. "All three defendants worked together to make Wirecard appear as an extremely successful FinTech company," said Anne Leiding, a spokesperson for the prosecutors.

☆ Wirecard ex-boss on trial for fraud in scandal that rocked Germany
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jörn Poltz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The trial is taking place in Munich's largest and newest courtroom, a bomb-proof underground hall built in the Stadelheim prison complex. Braun has denied embezzling money from Wirecard and accused others of running a shadow operation without his knowledge. [1/7] Wirecard's former CEO Markus Braun looks on at a courtroom as his trial begins, after the German payments company collapsed in the wake of a fraud scandal in 2020, in Munich, Germany, December 8, 2022. The fraud let Wirecard managers siphon money out of the company with no proper checks and balances. Scholz also criticised Wirecard's auditor, EY, for failing to detect the fraud.

☆ Former Wirecard boss goes on trial in fraud scandal that rocked Germany
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jörn Poltz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Wirecard's former boss Markus Braun listens, ahead of testifying before a German parliamentary committee in Berlin, Germany, November 19, 2020. Braun has denied embezzling money from Wirecard and accused others of running a shadow operation without his knowledge. However, within days, Wirecard became the first-ever DAX member to file for insolvency, owing creditors nearly $4 billion. Following Wirecard's demise, the head of German financial regulator BaFin resigned and the head of Germany's accounting watchdog also stepped down. Scholz also criticised Wirecard's auditor, EY, for failing to catch the fraud.

His centre-left Social Democrats, the Greens and liberal Free Democrats, have had to wrangle to reach compromises, sometimes delaying decisions. Some European allies say the focus on domestic challenges and internal politicking have distracted Berlin from regional cooperation and especially the key German-French motor that traditionally drives the European Union. Relief measures worth hundreds of billions of euros have helped Scholz's coalition stave off serious social unrest due to soaring energy prices in the wake of the Ukraine war, but recent polls suggest it has lost its majority. MIXED MESSAGESTo be sure, Germany's allies have welcomed the Zeitenwende after years of warning the country of complacency on security. The government may for example not reach the NATO spending goal until 2025, a spokesman said this week.

☆ Factbox: Far-right attacks, scandals in Germany
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Following are some of the far-right attacks and scandals that have shaken Germany in recent years:Jan. 2021 - Far-right sympathiser Stephan Ernst is handed a life sentence for shooting dead pro-immigration conservative politician Walter Luebcke who was found lying in a pool of blood outside his home in western Germany in 2019. Luebcke had been an outspoken supporter of former Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in 2015 to let in refugees. June 2020 - German defence minister disbands company of its elite KSK special forces after a scandal over its links to far-right radicals. The attacker, a 27-year-old German, fatally shoots a woman outside the synagogue and a man inside a nearby kebab shop. An official report later says police had "massively underestimated" the risk of far-right violence and that missteps had allowed the cell to go undetected.

☆ The rise and fall of Wirecard
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

July 2: The head of Germany's financial watchdog calls the accounting scandal at Wirecard "a massive criminal act". July 6: German prosecutors arrest the head of a Dubai-based subsidiary of Wirecard. 2021Jan. 29: Felix Hufeld, president of German financial watchdog BaFin, steps down. 2022Jan. 14: German prosecutors file first charges in Wirecard fraud, the Financial Times reports. Sept. 21: A Munich district court said it had admitted charges against former Wirecard executives, paving way for a trial.

[1/2] The headquarters of Wirecard AG in Aschheim near Munich, Germany, September 22, 2020. REUTERS/Michael DalderMUNICH/BERLIN, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Former Wirecard executives go on trial on Thursday, two years after the collapse of the payments company that produced Germany's biggest post-war fraud scandal and sent shockwaves through the country's political and financial establishment. Wirecard, which started out processing payments for pornography and online gambling, rose to be worth $28 billion and displaced Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) in Germany's DAX blue-chip index. But in June 2020, Wirecard was forced to admit that 1.9 billion euros were missing from its balance sheet. In the ructions that followed Wirecard's demise, the head of German financial regulator BaFin resigned and the head of Germany's accounting watchdog also stepped down.

☆ Fact Check-Digitally altered image of former German chancellor Angela Merkel in handcuffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A digitally altered image purporting to show former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in handcuffs has been circulating online. The photograph shows Merkel wearing a green suit jacket walking behind an individual wearing all black, with her fingertips together. The original photograph is viewable via Reuters and Getty Images where the supposed handcuffs cannot be seen (here), (here). Other photos taken during the visit viewable via the platform Alamy similarly do not show any such handcuffs (here). After 16 years in office, Merkel was succeeded by Social Democrat Olaf Scholz in December 2021 (here).

☆ Joe Biden honors French President Emmanuel Macron with a state dinner — again
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( David A. Andelman | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

PARIS — The White House is rolling out the red carpet for French President Emmanuel Macron — again. Though Macron was also honored with the first state dinner of Donald Trump’s presidency, the relationship between the two leaders devolved into tension that both Macron and Biden now are hoping to reverse. “We do not imagine that Congress, moreover, with a House of Representatives with a Republican majority, could fundamentally revise the IRA,” the Élysée official observed. Macron, and Europe more broadly, hope China can develop into more of a partner than a competitor, particularly with respect to trade. But above all, Macron is simply looking for some respect — or as the senior Élysée official put it, “Sovereignty.

☆ Angela Merkel says she was powerless to stop Putin invading Ukraine because he knew she was about to leave office
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Angela Merkel said that she was too politically weak to stand up to Putin at their last meeting. "For Putin, only power counts," she told German outlet Der Spiegel. "The feeling was very clear: 'In terms of power politics, you are through,'" she told the magazine. In Moscow, she said, "The feeling was very clear: 'In terms of power politics, you are through.'" US intelligence and independent experts increasingly suggested that Putin was looking for an excuse to invade.

☆ Germany's Merkel says didn't have political strength for pre-invasion Ukraine talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"But I no longer had the strength to push through because, after all, everyone knew: she's leaving in autumn," she said. Merkel, who retired from politics after 16 years in power following Germany's September 2021 election, officially handed over the reins to Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats in December that year. Referring to her farewell visit to Moscow in August 2021, Merkel, who speaks fluent Russian, told Spiegel: "The feeling was very clear: 'In terms of power politics, you're through.' It says the conflict will only end when Moscow withdraws its forces from all of Ukraine, including areas it has occupied since 2014. Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Miranda Murray and Philippa FletcherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Germany plans to tighten rules for firms highly dependent on China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Andreas Rinke | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BERLIN, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Germany's foreign ministry plans to tighten the rules for companies deeply exposed to China, making them disclose more information and possibly conduct stress tests for geopolitical risks, a confidential draft document seen by Reuters said. A spokesperson for the foreign ministry declined to comment. The draft, drawn up by the foreign ministry led by the Greens' Annalena Baerbock, still has to be agreed by other ministries. A final decision on the China strategy is expected early next year. To avoid cluster risks, investment guarantees should be limited to 3 billion euros per company per country, it added.

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