Author: Steven Sahiounie

Facebook has been accused of illegally sharing user data with the research firmFacebook’s parent company Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in which the social media giant was accused of giving third parties access to user data without their consent. The scandal involved the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.According to a court filing on Thursday, the settlement would resolve long-running legal action prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the consulting firm to access the data of as many as 87 million users.Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposed settlement the…

reduction may come in response to the G7 price cap on the country’s crude exports, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak saysRussia will not sell oil to countries that impose a price cap on its crude exports, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak warned on Friday.According to Novak, Moscow may respond by reducing oil production by 500,000-700,000 barrels a day in early 2023. Russia is the world’s third biggest oil producer and the cuts would equate to roughly 5-6% of the country’s daily output.The G7 and EU’s $60-per-barrel ceiling on Russian seaborne crude came into force on December 5. The measure, along…

Ukraine vows to tighten fiscal policy to get IMF loan. Kiev will have to boost tax revenue and tackle corruption to receive $20 billion in loansUkraine has pledged to revise its fiscal policies in a bid to access $20 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a memorandum signed by both sides, Bloomberg reported on Friday.Kiev has been pushing for a deal with the IMF since autumn. Earlier this month, the US-based institution approved a four-month Program Monitoring with Board involvement (PMB) for Ukraine. Though the deal does not provide cash to Ukraine, it will “catalyze”…

Analysts explain the decrease citing mild weather and ample suppliesEuropean gas futures dipped below $900 per thousand cubic meters on Friday for the first time since June 13, data from the London Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) shows.The cost of gas futures for January delivery at the TTF hub in the Netherlands was down 11%, trading at $897 per thousand cubic meters, or €81.7 ($85.8) per megawatt-hour in household terms, as of 13:50 GMT.The decline is attributed to several factors. On the one hand, this week has seen unusually warm temperatures in most European countries, which has led to a decrease in…

The chief executive has unloaded nearly $40 billion of the company’s shares since late last yearTesla CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday he will not sell any more of the company’s stock for about two years, noting that a decision on a buyback could be influenced by the severity of any economic downturn.Speaking in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, Musk warned that the economy will be in a “serious recession” in 2023, and demand for big-ticket items will be lower.His comments followed a Tesla stock sell-off this week, amid investor worries over falling demand for the company’s cars and Musk…

The surging cost of essentials like bread leave the most vulnerable the worst off, a study has foundThe rate of food inflation in the UK has reached its maximum since 1977, with consumers in poorer areas reporting they are buying less food, a survey by the Office for National Statistics published on Thursday shows.Lower-income households appear to be the hardest hit by spiraling inflation, with 61% of consumers living in the most deprived areas buying less when food shopping compared to last year, as opposed to 44% in the least deprived areas.Although overall inflation in the UK – including housing…

The country’s economy could have been 5.5% bigger now if the UK hadn’t left the EU, a London-based think tank says. The UK economy would have been much better off if the country had stayed in the European Union, a study by the Centre for European Reform (CER) shows. According to the findings, by June 2022, the country’s GDP was 5.5% smaller than it could have been if Brexit had not happened, which is an estimated loss of £33 billion ($40 billion).For the study, the CER calculated how a “doppelganger” UK, one that did not quit the bloc, would have…

Overall imports of oil, gas, and coal hit $8 billion in November, customs data showsChina purchased record volumes of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) last month, while imports of oil and coal have also surged, according to a Chinese customs report issued on Tuesday.Despite a 5.4% drop in China’s total LNG purchases, Russian exports of the super-chilled fuel doubled in November compared to last year, and reached 852,000 tons worth $815.6 million. In annual terms, LNG sales from January to November surged by 39% from a year earlier to 5.82 million tons. Sales of the fuel to the Asian country…

Sam Bankman-Fried has been allowed to await trial at his parents’ home after posting a record-high bondSam Bankman-Fried, the man accused of defrauding cryptocurrency investors out of nearly $2 billion, will be awaiting trial at his parents’ house in California, rather than in a New York jail cell, after a Manhattan judge agreed to release the FTX founder on a $250 million bond.The shaggy-haired Bankman-Fried, who ranked as the second-largest donor to Democratic Party political campaigns in 2022, walked out of the US District Courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, flanked by US marshals, lawyers and his parents. The bond,…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Yesterday’s deadly attack in Paris laid open the wound of rampant racism in France. An attacker shot dead three people at a Kurdish cultural center and wounded another three persons. The attacker was arrested and had a history of immigrant attacks. France has a problem with racism and immigrant hatred, but officially that subject is ignored and not to be discussed. Kylian Mbappe has said he was racially abused in social media following his team’s loss in the final game of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Mbappe is a French footballer who played…