2022年2月7日星期一

Monday Briefing: France's Macron flies to Moscow in bid to ease Ukraine tensions

Monday, February 7, 2022

by Linda Noakes

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Here's what you need to know.

Australia welcomes the world back after two years of closed borders, why Trump’s Truth Social app needs Apple and Google to survive, and how the wild NFT market is fired up by billions in irregular sales

Today's biggest stories

U.S. soldiers disembark as they arrive at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, Poland, February 7, 2022

WORLD

French President Emmanuel Macron flies to Moscow today in a risky diplomatic move, seeking commitments from Russian President Vladimir Putin to dial down tensions with Ukraine, where Western leaders fear the Kremlin plans an invasion. U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will underscore their unity in opposing any Russian aggression against Ukraine when they meet at the White House today.

Australia said it will reopen its borders to vaccinated travelers this month, ending two years of misery for the tourism sector, reviving migration and injecting billions of dollars into the economy. Meanwhile, Indonesia has temporarily banned foreign tourists entering the country through Jakarta's airport in a bid to slow a spike in coronavirus infections.

As the protest against the Canadian government's health measures and vaccine mandates entered an eleventh day, police have threatened to clamp down after facing criticism for lack of action that has crippled the national capital.

As frontrunner in the Philippines' presidential race, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appears poised to complete a remarkable rebranding of the family name 36 years after a 'people power' uprising ended his father's autocratic rule. Read our factbox on the late dictator's son aiming to restore family pride.

Every day for the last three months, an average of six or seven families in Myanmar have posted notices in the country's state-owned newspapers cutting ties with sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren who have publicly opposed the ruling military junta. The notices started to appear in such numbers in November after the army announced it would take over properties of its opponents and arrest people giving shelter to protesters.

FILE PHOTO: Travis McMichael, left, speaks with his attorney during his sentencing, along with his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan, in the Glynn County Courthouse, Brunswick, Georgia, January 7, 2022

U.S.

Jury selection is due to begin in the U.S. federal hate-crimes trial of the three white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was chased and shot while running through a mostly white Georgia neighborhood. The jury will be asked to decide whether racial animus drove the defendants to fatally pursue Arbery in February 2020.

With just weeks to go before an expected launch, Donald Trump’s new media venture is trying to strike a delicate balance with its app: giving Trump's base the freedom to express themselves, without running afoul of Apple and Google’s app store policies.

The White House released a highly anticipated report from its labor task force that includes nearly 70 recommendations on how the government can help workers join labor unions and bargain collectively. These include the government offering greater access to the federal workforce for unions seeking to build membership.

A lawsuit filed last week accusing the National Football League of racist hiring practices brought to light allegations that owners secretly offered incentives to coaches to lose, which could lead to class action lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars and even criminal liability, experts said.

A flurry of proposed carbon pipelines in the U.S. Midwest has triggered a battle over whether companies behind the projects should be allowed to seize land from unwilling property owners to secure a route. Here's a factbox on carbon capture as a key tool in the climate fight.

BUSINESS

Toshiba said it now aims to break up into two companies instead of three and also unveiled a big boost to planned shareholder returns in an effort to appease angry investors. The rejig goes long on pragmatism and short on vision, says Breakingviews columnist Jennifer Hughes.

Credit Suisse will face charges in a Swiss court today of allowing an alleged Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang to launder millions of euros, some of it stuffed into suitcases.

Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said he "strongly" condemns racial slurs and other comments made by popular U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan but will not be removing him from the platform. New York State's top pension official, who oversees funds that hold Spotify shares, has asked the platform for details about the effectiveness of its new content rules.

Asian investors can now buy and sell U.S. stocks during Korean business hours in real time through a partnership between Samsung Securities and U.S.-based off-exchange trading venue operator Blue Ocean Technologies. Liquidity in U.S. stocks has fallen to levels last seen during the COVID-19 selloff two years ago, adding to volatility in an already-nervous market.

On January 12, an image of a computer-generated pixelated person was sold for about $50.6 million worth of cryptocurrency on a new online marketplace that caters for non-fungible tokens. Five minutes later, the same 'Meebit' NFT was sold back from the buyer to the original seller for around $49.6 million. Confused? Welcome to a weird and wild world.

WINTER OLYMPICS

See our full coverage of the Beijing Games

First woman to land quadruple jumps at Games, Valieva fulfils her dream of glory

Quote of the day

"We said what we had to say, the communication is up to her, it is her life, it is her story"

Thomas Bach

International Olympic Committee president

Chinese tennis player Peng denies making accusation of sexual assault

Video of the day

German man breaks a hula hooping world record

Thirty-year-old IT professional Kai Sandmeyer has cracked an unusual record: hula hooping while in the abdominal plank position, for 6 minutes 34 seconds.

And finally…

Could volcano tourism boost ravaged La Palma?

The devastating eruption on the island may have a silver lining for one of Spain's poorest areas.

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