World
Europe’s energy crisis haunts the euro as it tumbles to 20-year low
Asian shares have been down for a sixth straight session on Tuesday after a renewed spike in European power costs stoked fears of recession and pushed bond yields greater, whereas tipping the euro to 20-year lows.
Benchmark gasoline costs within the European Union surged 13% in a single day to a document peak, having doubled in only a month to be 14 occasions greater than the typical of the previous decade.
Analysts at US financial institution Citi warned on Monday that inflation within the UK might high 18% if power costs weren’t restrained, greater than 9 occasions the Financial institution of England’s goal. Shopper worth inflation final reached such a degree in 1976.
European and British manufacturing surveys due in a while Tuesday have been anticipated to spotlight the injury being executed to exercise, with Germany seen deeper in contractionary territory.
One analyst mentioned the “dire power state of affairs” prompt the inflation peak had no but been reached, with a excessive threat that it will stay excessive for a while with out central financial institution intervention.
“No shock then to see the US greenback at close to multi-decade highs towards a falling euro and (British) pound,” mentioned Tapas Strickland, a director of economics at NAB.
The one foreign money was struggling at $0.9937, having once more plunged beneath parity with the greenback on Monday — the bottom in practically 20 years — caught between a significant power disaster in Europe and a US Federal Reserve nonetheless on the offensive to curb inflation.
The introduced closure for upkeep of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline — which provides most of Russia’s gasoline to Europe — between 31 August and a couple of September, has additional heightened fears of shortages and despatched pure gasoline costs in Europe hovering.
“This will increase the chance of a big financial slowdown by the top of the yr” within the eurozone, mentioned Shaun Osborne of Scotiabank.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, working to cut back his nation’s dependence on Russia for power, is in Canada this week to signal a deal to provide clear hydrogen to Germany sooner or later. However within the meantime he mentioned pure gasoline shall be wanted.
The British pound was little higher than the euro on Monday towards the greenback. It was flirting with its March 2020 degree within the early days of the pandemic, at $1.1760 to the pound. Earlier than 2020, the pound had not fallen beneath $1.18 since 1985.
Hungary, which is closely depending on Russian provides, has seen the forint fall to its lowest degree ever towards the greenback, at 411 forints to the greenback.
“The sword of Damocles hanging over Europe is right here to remain,” warned Equipment Juckes, an analyst at Société Générale.
And the week threatens to be much more painful for the euro, as “poor PMI indicators on Tuesday may very well be sufficient to anchor the euro beneath a greenback,” he mentioned.
Some analysts see the euro slipping additional as winter approaches. However for Shaun Obsorne, “the greenback has already gone very excessive and we’re not satisfied that it’s going to go a lot additional within the medium time period”.
World
US citizen imprisoned in Russia given new 15-year sentence in wake of espionage conviction
A Russian-born U.S. citizen who was already behind bars in Russia on a bribery conviction has been handed a second sentence for espionage.
Eugene Spector was sentenced to a new 15-year term for his espionage conviction, according to Russian news agencies. Spector was born and raised in Leningrad, Russia, but later moved to the U.S. and became a citizen.
A Moscow court brought espionage charges against Spector in August of last year, although details surrounding the case were not made publicly available.
RUSSIA ARRESTS US CITIZEN ON ESPIONAGE CHARGES: REPORT
The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen in Russia being sentenced and that it was monitoring the situation.
Spector, a former executive at a medical equipment company in Russia, was sentenced in September 2022 to three and a half years in prison for enabling bribes to an aide of former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
WALL STREET JOURNAL’S EVAN GERSHKOVICH REVEALS SHADOWY KREMLIN FIGURE BEHIND IMPRISONMENT IN RUSSIA
The aide, Anastasia Alekseyeva, was sentenced to 12 years in April for accepting bribes of two expensive overseas vacation trips.
Dvorkovich was a deputy prime minister under former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 to 2018. Dvorkovich is currently head of the international chess federation FIDE.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan: Emergencies ministry
BREAKINGBREAKING,
Passenger plane crashed near the city of Aktau.
An passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country’s Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.
Fourteen people had survived the crash and had been hospitalised, according to the local health officials.
“At the moment, 14 survivors have been taken to the regional hospital, including five in intensive care,” the health ministry’s regional department said in a statement. The Emergencies Ministry said fire services had put out the blaze
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
More to follow.
World
Justin Baldoni Sued by Former Publicist Amid Blake Lively Scandal
Justin Baldoni‘s former publicist sued him, his company and his current publicity team on Tuesday, amid a spiraling scandal over an alleged smear campaign against Baldoni’s “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively.
Steph Jones, who owns Jonesworks, accused Baldoni of breaching their contract, which required him to pay her $25,000 per month. Baldoni dropped the firm in August, a few months into a year-long deal, after his Jonesworks publicist, Jennifer Abel, left the company to start her own publicity firm.
Jones also sued Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan, accusing them of implementing the smear campaign against Lively behind her back and without her knowledge. She alleges that they are now trying to blame her for the ensuing meltdown.
“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” the lawsuit states.
Lively filed a complaint on Saturday with the California Civil Rights Department, accusing Baldoni and his publicists of orchestrating negative coverage about her in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment on set.
In the complaint, Lively accused Baldoni of a catalog of sexually inappropriate comments and behavior that allegedly took place on set in 2023. According to the complaint, she raised these issues through her attorneys before filming, which had been suspended during the Hollywood strikes, resumed earlier this year.
The rift between Baldoni and Lively became apparent during the publicity tour for the film last summer. Baldoni feared that Lively or her team would public accuse him of sexual misconduct, and sought ways to combat that. The complaint quoted extensively from text messages among Baldoni’s publicity team, in which they plotted to “bury” Lively.
In an unusual move, Lively’s attorneys obtained the messages by sending a pre-litigation subpoena to Jones.
Abel, Nathan, and Baldoni are represented by attorney Bryan Freedman. On Monday, Freedman threatened to sue Jones for releasing the contents of Abel’s phone to Lively’s legal team. Freedman, Abel and Nathan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jones’ suit.
In her lawsuit, Jones relates that she “forensically preserved” Abel’s company phone after Abel was fired.
“Abel and Nathan’s covert take down and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white on Abel’s company-issued phone following her termination, which Jonesworks forensically preserved and examined in detail after receiving a subpoena for the phone’s contents,” Jones’ suit states. “Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan’s duplicity from these records, including that Abel was actively encouraging other Jonesworks clients and employees to leave Jonesworks while Abel was still employed there.”
Jones’ suit alleges that Abel conspired for months to leave her company and to “steal” her clients and trash her reputation in the industry. She accuses Nathan of encouraging Abel to leave, because Nathan would then have greater access to those clients.
“This scheme ultimately inflicted serious damage on Jones and Jonesworks,” states the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in New York.
Among other things, the suit alleges that Abel and Nathan planted negative stories about Jones in the press, including an article in Business Insider that was published last summer.
The suit alleges breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty and defamation.
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