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World News Random, Random

#1

Post by ti-amie »

CNN International
@cnni
A small, unassuming boat washed up on a remote island in the Pacific last week carrying no passengers -- but loaded with around 1,430 pounds of cocaine.

Image

Ghost boat carrying 1,400 pounds of cocaine washes up on remote Pacific island
CNN Expansion Hong Kong July 2020 795169, Jessie Yeung
By Jessie Yeung, CNN

Updated 0418 GMT (1218 HKT) December 17, 2020

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/16/asia ... ium=social
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Re: World News Random, Random

#2

Post by ponchi101 »

Somewhere, in an obscure little room behind a dark little room, a member of a drug cartel is being taught what all those things you can buy at an ACE HARDWARE store are really for.
(somebody screwed up badly. If it is the Pacific, somebody in Mexico or Colombia needs to learn how to lash a boat properly to the dock)
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#3

Post by ti-amie »

Thank goodness they've got a year to figure out another way to do this!

Swiss to ban deducting bribes from taxes starting in 2022
By John Miller

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss companies will no longer be able to deduct bribes paid to private individuals from their taxes, Switzerland’s government said on Wednesday, according to an update of tax laws due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

Beyond bribes, costs from financing criminal activities or money paid in return for a crime to be committed will also no longer be tax deductible once the legislation takes effect after next year, the government said.

The Alpine country, famed for its historic practices of banking secrecy and as a haven for money from abroad, will leave some wiggle room for certain offenses to remain tax deductible, however, with foreign fines to be tax-deductible in exceptional cases from 2022 when the fines violate Swiss public policy, the government said.

“As in the past, domestic punitive financial sanctions, i.e. fines, monetary penalties and punitive administrative sanctions, are not tax-deductible,” the government said. “In contrast, foreign punitive financial sanctions are to be tax-deductible in exceptional cases if they violate Swiss public policy or if a company credibly demonstrates that it has taken all reasonable steps to comply with the law.”

Once the changes take effect, Switzerland said, it will be complying with a recommendation of the OECD’s Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering.

The wealthy republic has only tentatively lowered the legal boom on bribery over the last two decades, including a move to criminalize bribes to foreign public officials starting in the early 2000s.

In 2001, Switzerland banned the deduction of bribes paid by companies to public officials from their taxes.

The push to ban bribery of private individuals, in the works for several years and now punishable only in instances where it distorts competition, has taken longer amid opposition from some political parties to changes.

Reporting by John Miller; editing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-swiss ... KKBN27R1YX
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Re: World News Random, Random

#4

Post by ponchi101 »

Ex-(expletive)-cuse me? :shock:
This is actually the law? (deducing bribes from your taxes).
I mean, the rest of the world should gang together and invade them. Who knows how much damage this has caused through time.
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#5

Post by ti-amie »

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#6

Post by ti-amie »

Exclusive: 'It's a catastrophe': Scottish fishermen halt exports due to Brexit red tape

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - Many Scottish fishermen have halted exports to European Union markets after post-Brexit bureaucracy shattered the system that used to put fresh langoustines and scallops in French shops just over a day after they were harvested.

Fishing exporters told Reuters their businesses could become unviable after the introduction of health certificates, customs declarations and other paperwork added days to their delivery times and hundreds of pounds to the cost of each load.

Business owners said they had tried to send small deliveries to France and Spain to test the new systems this week but it was taking five hours to secure a health certificate in Scotland, a document which is required to apply for other customs paperwork.

In the first working week after Brexit, one-day deliveries were taking three or more days - if they got through at all.

Owners could not say for sure where their valuable cargo was. A trade group told boats to stop fishing exported stocks.

“Our customers are pulling out,” Santiago Buesa of SB Fish told Reuters. “We are fresh product and the customers expect to have it fresh, so they’re not buying. It’s a catastrophe.”

On Thursday evening, the Scottish fishing industry’s biggest logistics provider DFDS Scotland told customers it had taken the “extraordinary step” of halting until Monday export groupage, when multiple product lines are carried, to try to fix IT issues, paperwork errors and the backlog.

Scotland harvests vast quantities of langoustines, scallops, oysters, lobsters and mussels from sea fisheries along its bracing Atlantic coast which are rushed by truck to grace the tables of European diners in Paris, Brussels and Madrid.

But Britain’s departure from the EU’s orbit introduced reams of paperwork and costs that must be completed to move goods across the new customs border, the biggest change to its trade since the launch of the Single Market in 1993.

Those trading in food and livestock face the toughest requirements, hitting the express delivery of freshly caught fish that used to move overnight from Scotland, via England, into France, before going on to other European markets in days.

David Noble, whose Aegirfish buys from Scottish fleets to export to Europe, said he would have to pay between 500 to 600 pounds ($815) per day for paperwork, wiping out most profit.

His concern is that this marks more than just teething problems, and says he cannot pass on the higher costs of doing business. “I’m questioning whether to carry on,” he said.

“If our fish is too expensive our customers will buy elsewhere.”
CENTURIES OLD MARKET

In the single market, European food could be processed and packed in Britain then returned to the EU for sale. But Britain’s pursuit of a more distant relationship means its trade deal does not cover all interactions between the two sides.

Gaps have already appeared on French and Irish shop shelves.

Brexit has strained the ties that bind the United Kingdom together: while England and Wales voted to leave the EU in 2016, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has used Brexit as part of her argument that Scotland should seek independence.

She said on Friday that exporters were paying a high price, “a particular worry for Scotland’s world class seafood sector”.

Fishermen across Britain have accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of betrayal after he previously vowed to take back control of British waters. With little new control and little access to customer markets, many are in despair.

Fishing trade bodies said mistakes in filling out paperwork meant entire consignments were being checked. A French fishmongers’ union said numerous seafood trucks had been held up at the customs point in Boulogne for several hours, and even up to a day, due to faulty paperwork.

While that should improve with time, and IT issues should be resolved, Seafood Scotland warned they could see the “destruction of a centuries-old market” if it does not.

Fergus Ewing, Scottish secretary for the rural economy, said it was better for problems to be identified and resolved in Scotland than hundreds of miles away.

SB Fish’s Buesa, angered at suggestions that traders were not prepared, said all his paperwork was correct and demanded to know why business leaders were not making more of a fuss.

He owns the business with his father, has been exporting for 28 years and employs around 50 people. “I’m in the trenches here,” he said. “It’s gridlock.”

($1 = 0.7363 pounds)

Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Catherine Evans


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brit ... edirect=uk
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Re: World News Random, Random

#7

Post by JazzNU »

Didn't everyone know this would happen? I hope those complaining about this disaster voted Remain.
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#8

Post by ponchi101 »

Disinformation. We talked so much about it, but all these people could not see it. Now, welcome to being non-EU. Get used to dealing with European bureaucracy.
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#9

Post by skatingfan »

Fifth Estate documentary on the shooting.

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#10

Post by ti-amie »

Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days
Water at critically low levels across Turkey after lack of rainfall leads to most severe drought in a decade

Bethan McKernan Turkey correspondent
Wed 13 Jan 2021 07.31 EST

Major cities across Turkey face running out of water in the next few months, with warnings Istanbul has less than 45 days of water left.

Poor rainfall has led to the country’s most severe drought in a decade and put the megacity of 17 million people close to running out of water, according to Turkey’s chamber of chemical engineers. The Ankara mayor, Mansur Yavaş, said earlier this month the capital had another 110 days’ worth in dams and reservoirs.

İzmir and Bursa, Turkey’s next two biggest cities, are also struggling, with dams that are about 36% and 24% full respectively, and farmers in wheat-producing areas such as the Konya plain and Edirne province on the border with Greece and Bulgaria are warning of crop failure.

The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.

Turkey is a “water stressed” country, with just 1,346 cubic metres of water per capita per year, and has faced several droughts since the 1980s due to a combination of population growth, industrialisation, urban sprawl and climate change.

“Instead of focusing on measures to keep water demand under control, Turkey insists on expanding its water supply through building more dams … Turkey has built hundreds of dams in the last two decades,” said Dr Akgün İlhan, a water management expert at the Istanbul Policy Center.

“The warning signs have been there for decades but not much has been done in practice.”

Turkey has long prioritised economic growth over environmental concerns and remains the only G20 country apart from the US yet to ratify the 2015 Paris agreement.

“Everybody knows that water basins must be preserved, especially for these drought episodes which are becoming more severe and long term,” said Dr Ümit Şahin, who teaches global climate change and environmental politics at Istanbul’s Sabancı University.

“Yet in Istanbul, for instance, the most vital water basins, the last forests and agricultural land, [have been opened] to urban development projects … the new airport, the new Bosphorus bridge, its connection roads and highways, and the Istanbul canal project. These policies cannot solve Turkey’s drought problem.”


Ekrem İmamoğlu, elected in 2019 as Istanbul’s opposition party mayor despite fierce resistance from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party, told the Guardian that Istanbullus had been reassured that the huge Melen dam system would supply the city’s water needs without issue until 2070.

On entering office, however, his administration realised that construction problems would delay the project for several years.

The municipality has for now urged residents to think carefully about how to save water, including turning off the tap while brushing teeth or shaving, turning down valves feeding into sinks and installing lower usage taps.

“Water would not be a problem today if the dam was active. But we also have to think about wide climate change issues … If it does not rain in Melen, you cannot get water from there either,” İmamoğlu said.

In İzmir, local authorities are preparing against water shortages by digging 103 new boreholes, recycling wastewater and minimising loss and leakage by repairing ageing pipes, according to the city’s mayor, Tunç Soyer.

Ultimately, Turkey’s cities need lots of rain, immediately, to avoid having to ration water in the next few months – and even sustained rainfall for the rest of the winter might not be enough for farming communities to rescue this year’s crops.

Drought creates a vicious cycle, says İlhan: decreased agricultural production and increased food prices could lead to a rise in poverty and rural to urban migration, exacerbating existing pressures on water infrastructure.

“Turkey does have the economic and technological means to fix its damaged water cycle. The missing element is the political will to take these steps.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... er-45-days
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Re: World News Random, Random

#11

Post by ponchi101 »

ti-amie wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:34 pm Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days
...
The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.
...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... er-45-days
In what other country did I once see the government trying to solve a drought through prayer? uhm....
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#12

Post by ti-amie »

ponchi101 wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 7:08 pm
ti-amie wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:34 pm Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days
...
The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.
...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... er-45-days
In what other country did I once see the government trying to solve a drought through prayer? uhm....
I'm reading a book on sacred royalty and at one time it was the function of the king to make sure the rain fell. However I don't think modern Turkey has royalty so what can I say? You can't draw on an ancient custom when the structure that supported a custom no longer exists.
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#13

Post by dryrunguy »

I talked with a friend of mine in Barinas, Venezuela last night. He was telling me about what he seeing when he leaves his apartment. He sees people who appear to be dying in the streets--not from COVID. From what they are saying as they lie in the street, they are dying of hunger.
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#14

Post by ponchi101 »

Just to say I have not heard of that.
And just to say it does not surprise me. But I have stopped following the news from Venezuela. I just can't stand them.
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#15

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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