A sudden and surprising spike in European exports of washing machines, refrigerators and even electric breast pumps to Russia’s neighbors is raising concerns among officials the trade boom may be helping Vladimir Putin’s war machine in Ukraine.
Armenia imported more washing machines from the European Union during the first eight months of the year than the past two years combined, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the EU’s Eurostat database. Kazakhstan imported $21.4 million worth of European refrigerators through August, more than triple the amount for the same period last year.
Kazakh government data meantime show a jump in refrigerators, washing machines and electric breast pumps being shipped into Russia.
Some trade via Eurasian states …
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed a new regulation that would block companies from forcing employees to sign noncompete clauses that threaten legal action if they join a competitor or start their own competing business.
Roughly 30 million people—about one in five American workers—are bound to noncompete clauses across a variety of jobs, including hairstylists, doctors, and even sandwich makers. These workers are often forced to remain in their current jobs, which may pay less than other companies, or risk being shut out of their industry altogether.
The FTC rule, proposed on Jan. 5, could have massive ramifications for the U.S. economy, raising wages and increasing competition among businesses, economists say.
“Noncompetes are basicall…
Frank Gehry wants to build a park in Los Angeles. Not just a normal park on empty land; that’s for lightweights. Gehry wants to take chunks of the legendarily unlovely Los Angeles River, a 51-mile engineered waterway mostly lined with concrete, and suspend parks over them. It sounds like a pipe dream, or in this case more of a channel dream; it’s expensive, unprecedented, structurally complex, and anathema to many of the locals. But Gehry, 94, has made a career of overcoming such obstacles and, in the process, transforming cities.
Skepticism was also the initial response of officials in charge of selecting the architect for the Guggenheim Museum in the northern Spanish town of Bilbao, upon seeing the extremely rough models Gehry presented in 1991, in one version of wh…
The largest bank failure in American history happened in 2008, at the height of the Great Recession and the big bank bailouts that helped birth a major right-wing movement. The second- and third- largest ones happened last week.
Federal regulators moved quickly on Friday to take over Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after it became insolvent. Over the weekend, they did the same for New York-based Signature Bank, which had seen customers withdraw billions after SVB’s collapse. On Sunday, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) assured the customers of both banks that they would be able to access all their funds on Monday, hoping to prevent bank runs elsewhere and ensure companies with millions parked in the banks can make pa…
Twitter is launching a new subscription service for $7.99 a month that allows users to verify their accounts, the company announced in Apple’s app store on Saturday. The feature will be a part of Twitter’s already existing Twitter Blue subscription, which is currently $4.99 and offers paid users additional services.
While it’s not clear when the new subscription model will go live, the company said users will be able to receive a blue check mark, “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”
Twitter’s old verification program launched in 2009, amid pressure to authenticate accounts of public figures and agencies to protect the public.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has…
The U.S. and European Union announced an agreement to try and boost the supply of liquefied natural gas to European countries by the end of 2022 with at least 15 billion cubic meters.
The aim is to work with international partners to help the continent wean itself off Russian fuel imports. Under the agreement, E.U. member states will work to ensure demand for 50 billion cubic meters of U.S. liquefied natural gas until at least 2030. LNG imports from Russia stood at around 14 billion to 18 billion cubic meters annually in the past years.
President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will announce the pact—which includes the formation of a joint task force—ahead of an appearance together in Brussels following Biden’s meetings Thur…
Meta Platforms Inc. faces a swathe of complaints in Europe for allegedly failing to get proper consent before collecting vast amounts of data about Facebook and Instagram users so it can target the ads they see.
Eight consumer organizations will lodge the complaints with national data watchdogs on Thursday, accusing Meta of creating a “smokescreen” by offering users the choice of using ad-free versions of their social media services as long as they pay.
The groups claim this violates the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which allows fines as high as 4% of annual revenue for the most serious infractions.
Meta’s “unfair ‘pay-or-consent’ choice is the company’s latest effort to legalize its business model,” Ursula Pachl…
Whether it’s at the gas pump or in the checkout line at the grocery store, the one constant these days is higher prices for American consumers. This can be felt most acutely in California, where gas prices, for example, are averaging $6.22 while the U.S. average is $4.78.
Read more: Why It Could Be a Long Time Before Gas Prices Come Down
To help ease some of that pain for the Golden State, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers reached a budget deal last week, which includes $9.5 billion in direct payments to taxpayers of up to $1,050 per household (a household filing jointly making under $150,000 with at least one dependent would receive the maximum payout, for example). Higher earners would receive a smaller payout and there is an income cap of $250,000 …
Amazon.com Inc. is laying off more than 18,000 employees — the biggest reduction in its history — in the latest sign that a tech-industry slump is deepening.
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy announced the cuts, which represent about 1% of Amazon’s employees, in a memo to staff Wednesday, saying it followed the company’s annual planning process.
The eliminations began last year and were previously expected to affect about 10,000 people. The move is concentrated in the firm’s corporate ranks, mostly Amazon’s retail division and human resources functions, like recruiting.
Read more: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hurting Workers Far Beyond Silicon Valley
“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economi…