#36bn

[jacnaylor]

the tories, the people (i should say scumfucks) in power in the uk, released their manifesto today with which they hope to win the next election. in this they invoked the eldritch horror that is the howling ghost of Margaret thatcher, basically said fuck the north, fuck trans people and fuck migrants. they're quite literally trying to set this country back by 40 years. i mean i know they've always been complete monsters, but some of them, sometimes, used to pretend not to be. now they've gone fully mask off. i feel like i've banged my head and woken up in 1980.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

‘You are killing us’: Mariana survivors face ill health, lost culture and a long wait for justice

When a dam burst eight years ago in a Brazilian mining town, the toxic mud swept downriver, crushing all before it. Affected communities are still fighting in the courts – and mourning a way of life that has disappeared for ever

Marino D’Ângelo Júnior regularly takes antidepressants and medication to help him sleep. A former resident of Paracatu, a district of the city of Mariana in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the 54-year-old says he has lost his sense of self since 60m cubic metres of mining waste flattened his town, forcing him to live in a rented property near the centre of an environmental disaster that shocked the world eight years ago.

D’Ângelo is one of the survivors of the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam near Mariana. Almost a decade on, the people affected by Brazil’s worst environmental tragedy still await justice as they live under the shadow of the toxic mud that swept away life as they knew it.

“The collapse of a dam isn’t what you see on TV – the river of mud destroying things,” says D’Ângelo. “A dam failure entails an infinity of invisible ruptures. The rupture of connections, family links, communities, histories, dreams.”

D’Ângelo used to own a herd of 60 dairy cows before the incident but he began to sell them off as he found himself unable to work properly, which led to him being “forced into poverty”. A member of the Commission for People Affected by the Fundão Dam, D’Ângelo holds the mining companies responsible for the disaster and the subsequent neglect of the affected populations who still struggle with losing their livelihoods and way of life.

The dam – which was managed by Samarco, a joint venture between the Brazilian mining company Vale and the Anglo-Australian company BHP – collapsed on 5 November 2015, and caused mining waste to flow nearly 700km (430 miles) down the Rio Doce into the Atlantic Ocean, devastating everything in its path.

The torrent of toxic sludge buried villages, killed 19 people and left thousands more homeless. Nearly a decade later, hundreds of thousands of people continue to suffer the effects daily, in the contaminated soil unfit for agriculture, the diseased fish they catch in the polluted river, and the breakdown of their communities and cultural traditions.

No one has yet been held accountable for the socio-environmental disaster. BHP, Vale, Samarco and eight other defendants stand accused of environmental crimes in a Brazilian court case that has been dragging on for seven years. They are due to face a judge for questioning this month.

Separately, about 700,000 people are suing BHP in a UK court, seeking £36bn in reparations in English legal history’s most significant group claim. BHP denies liability.

Continue reading.

[beardedmrbean]

The right-wing populist Law and Justice party is on course to win most seats in Poland's general election, exit polls suggest, but is unlikely to secure a third term in office.

Pollsters Ipsos suggest the party, known as PiS, has 36.1% of the vote and the centrist opposition is on 31%.

If the exit polls are correct, then Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition has a better chance of forming a coalition.

He is aiming to end eight years of PiS rule under leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

With 80.27% of votes counted, the National Electoral Commission says Law and Justice has 36.27% of the vote.

Civic Coalition is on 29.41% while the Third Way has 14.45%.

The final result is expected on Tuesday evening, the commission head said earlier.

Speaking about the exit polls, PiS leader Kaczynski dmitted he did not know if the party's "success will be able to be turned into another term in power".

Initial results gave PiS the lead, but they reflected small towns and the countryside which are party strongholds. Two more Ipsos exit polls published on Monday suggested PiS would be unable to form a coalition.

"Poland won, democracy has won," Mr Tusk, 66, told a large crowd of jubilant supporters in what felt like a victory rally in Warsaw. "This is the end of the bad times, this is the end of the PiS government."

There were roars as the Ipsos poll flashed up on the screen and Mr Tusk appeared to loud cheers and chants of his name.

Supporters appeared stunned, and election officials said later that turnout was probably 72.9%, the highest since the fall of communism in 1989.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe - which monitors elections to check they are free and fair - said candidates in the election had been able to campaign freely - but biased coverage by the state media and misuse of public funds had given a "clear advantage" to the governing PiS.

"We noted the erosion of checks and balances to gain further control over state institutions by the governing party, including the courts and the public media," they said in a statement.

Polls closed at 21:00 local time on Sunday, but there were still queues of voters reported well into the night in Warsaw and Krakow, and into the early hours in Wroclaw.

A larger proportion of 18-29 year-olds had turned out to vote than over-60s, Ipsos said.

PiS was heading for 196 seats in the 460-seat Sejm or parliament, according to the later poll, and would fall short of the 231 needed for a majority.

It is unlikely to have much help from the far-right Confederation Party, whose leader admitted it had fared far worse than expected, with a predicted 15 seats.

Mr Kaczynski has painted his rival as a puppet of Berlin and Brussels and vowed to maintain his party's strong anti-migration policies.

Civic Coalition leader Donald Tusk has described the vote as Poland's most important since the fall of communism and vital for its future in the European Union.

He has vowed to improve relations with the EU and unlock €36bn (£30bn) of EU Covid pandemic recovery funds frozen in a row over PiS judicial reforms that led to staffing top courts with judges sympathetic to the ruling party.

Mr Tusk's party is now most likely to be able to form a broad coalition, with centre-right Third Way and left-wing Lewica.

There were few smiles among PiS party faithful in the minutes before the close of polls.

"We have to hope," Mr Kaczynski declared. "Regardless of whether we are in power or whether we are in opposition, we will implement this project in various ways and we will not allow Poland to be betrayed."

PiS supporters put on a brave face, chanting "Jaroslaw" and waving Polish flags, as the later exit poll suggested they had lost 39 seats since the 2019 election.

A party spokesman told the BBC he was still hopeful of forming a government as the poll was just a prediction.

Queues formed outside polling stations across Poland and beyond on Sunday.

A marbled foyer in Warsaw's Stalinist Palace of Culture was crammed with voters, who snaked out into the square outside.

"The campaign was very strong and emotional, that's why there are so many people," a PiS voter called Agnes told the BBC.

One result of the ferocious election campaign was increased turnout. "It seems that we beat the turnout record," Poland's Electoral Commission head Sylwester Marciniak told a news conference.

Many voters in central Warsaw came with children and even pets, while election officials and security guards helped elderly voters climb the steps.

Voters talked of being nervous about the result of the election and all of them saw it as decisive for the future direction of Poland.

Whoever wins, Poland's strong support for Ukraine is unlikely to change, almost 20 months into Russia's full-scale invasion. However, PiS leaders showed signs of wavering in recent weeks, in an apparent bid to bring back voters attracted to the Ukraine-sceptic Confederation party.

"We have a war on our border. We have to be sure the government will take us in the right direction and be more resistant to Russia," said another voter called Ela.

Poles voted in more than 30,000 polling stations, and there were long queues outside Poland too, with 600,000 expats registered to vote.

"They're the most important elections I've voted in during my lifetime," said Magdalena Bozek as she queued up to vote in London. "It's been quite a difficult eight years for us, for pro-Europeans."

Civic Coalition has also vowed to liberalise abortion laws, after a near-total ban imposed in 2021.

The centre-right Third Way appeared to be one of the big winners of the night, with a predicted 14% of the vote. It has promised to simplify taxes and offer an alternative to the two big parties.

Piotr Buras, from the European Council on Foreign Relations, said an opposition victory would open the way to a "massive reorientation" of domestic and European policy. Their immediate goal would be to remove PiS figures from state institutions and public TV, he added.

Poland is divided into 41 districts and has a proportional representation system for its parliament, based on party lists. Expat votes count towards the Warsaw district.

President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the socially conservative ruling party, would normally ask the biggest party to form a government, and his aide indicated that was the traditional next step.

But if PiS fails to win a vote of confidence, then parliament would appoint a new prime minister who would then choose a government and also have to win a confidence vote in the Sejm.

That would leave PiS as Poland's caretaker government potentially into December.

Five parties are set to cross the 5% threshold and enter the 460-seat Sejm or parliament.

Poles also voted for the upper house, the Senate, and took part in four referendums that all appeared designed to bring PiS voters out to vote.

One asked whether the retirement age should increase, and another on whether Poland should accept more migrants from the rest of the EU.

[news4trafford]

HS2 route to Manchester has been scrapped by PM Rishi Sunak

Today after weeks of speculation the HS2 project from Birmingham to Manchester (Phase a and b) has been scrapped by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. With the £36bn saved Sunak has said he will be using this to make a network of the north and speeding up several journeys and more additions to improve rail services in the North. In his statement he mentioned that HS2 will still come to Manchester on…

[coldhideoutthing]

Rishi Sunak scraps HS2 leg to Manchester and confirms plan to gradually raise smoking age – UK politics live

This from the party of freedom that hates the nanny state. I smell a fish.

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] Social media platform X's most senior employee in India has resigned ahead of the country's elections, as the company fights the government in court over content removal, according to the Reuters news agency.In his role as head of policy for India and South Asia for the site, formerly known as Twitter, Samiran Gupta "enabled transition leadership... post acquisition by Elon Musk-led X-Corp", according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined the company in February 2022, eight months before tech billionaire Musk completed his $44bn (about £36bn) acquisition, and finished in September this year, his profile states.He was in charge of "key content-related policy issues" and "defending Twitter's position with new policy developments and support in-country sales organization". Image: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is fighting X in court Two sources confirmed his departure, Reuters reported. Mr Gupta declined to comment to the news agency, while X has not yet responded to a request for comment. Before his move to X, Mr Gupta worked at ICANN (International Institute of Communications) for seven years, and was described as "a veteran in business strategy and public affairs management".X has an ongoing legal wrangle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government over what New Delhi alleges is non-compliance with content removal orders. In June, Karnataka's High Court fined the platform 5 million rupees (about £49,160) and said it had not complied with many blocking orders without any plausible explanation.X counts India as a key market, with around 27 million users, and Mr Modi and other government officials are regular users. There are roughly 15 X employees in functions such as compliance and engineering in India, one of the sources told Reuters, but Gupta was the only executive engaging with the government and political parties.Interaction between X and government and party officials would intensify typically during the run-up to polls, and a national election is due to take place in India next year. Image: A rift between Canada and India is growing - pictured Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mr Modi. Pic: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP Meanwhile, relations between India and Canada are at an all-time low after a Sikh leader was shot dead in British Columbia this summer.India has suspended visas for Canadian citizens and expelled a Canadian diplomat after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Mr Modi's Indian government was behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on 18 June.He had been a prominent supporter of the Khalistani separatist movement, which wants to establish an independent homeland for Sikhs in India, where they are a minority.Mr Nijjar was organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of this death [ad_2]

[totallyhussein-blog]

Is enough being done to combat poverty in Britain?

Patrick Butler of The Guardian has warned that, The collapse of the UK’s social contract is leaving millions of low-income families “surviving not living” and forced to endure unacceptable levels of poverty, according to an independent cross-party report.

The Poverty Strategy Commission, which seeks to forge a new national political consensus on reducing poverty, and which includes former ministers from the three main parties, says poverty levels are too high and hardship is becoming more extreme. It warns a “more of the same” approach to poverty in the future will fail.

It estimates the broad annual cost of significantly reducing poverty in the UK at £36bn – equivalent to £6,000 a year for 6 million families in poverty – a figure reached through a combination of benefits and wage increases, and investment to lower housing and energy costs, and improved health services.

The interim report of the commission, published on Tuesday, seeks to put poverty reduction back on the party political agenda before the next general election. It is concerned at the lack of urgency from the two main parties over the scale and nature of poverty, and society’s failure to offer adequate protection to its poorest.

As Holly Bancroft the social affairs correspondent for the Independent reported back in August, Hungry children have resorted to stealing food as more than 120,000 young people are now living in extreme poverty in the UK.

Buttle UK, which works with children and young people in crisis, surveyed over 1000 frontline workers, who collectively look after more than 200,000 children in poverty. Some 60 per cent of the children they worked with were living in destitution – up from 45 per cent the previous year and 36 per cent in 2021.

Responses to the survey laid bare the “degrading and unsustainable” levels of poverty that children in Britain are facing. They include:

Children rushing to open and eat a tin of cold beans they were handed because they were so hungry

A child refusing to go to school because she didn’t have any shoes that fit, was living in an unheated dark house, and was forced to steal an apple out of hunger “like a story from the 1800’s”

Unwashed children being bullied at school because of their ripped clothes. One boy was unable to attend a job interview because he could not afford the bus fare and had no suitable clothes

A three-year-old with extreme dental problems because his parent was using milk and juice to help him feel full because it was cheaper than food

A two-year-old seen playing with a button and some fluff on the floor because he had no toys

The charity described the term destitution as one describing the absolute lowest standard of living any adult, child or young person can experience, adding that the “lived reality is degrading and unsustainable”.

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2023/08/ubs-to-pay-1-4bn-to-settle-fraud-claims-from-2008-crisis

UBS to pay $1.4bn to settle fraud claims from 2008 crisis

Getty Images

Swiss bank UBS has agreed to pay $1.4bn (£1.1bn) to resolve fraud claims in the US stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.

It brings to a close the last case brought by US prosecutors investigating banks’ conduct in the run-up to the crash, which sparked a global downturn.

Prosecutors said the bank had lied about the quality of mortgages that were packaged and sold to investors in a series of deals in 2006-2007.

UBS did not admit or deny the claims.

In a statement, it said it had already set aside money for the “legacy” matter and the deal would resolve all civil claims in the US.

The bank had previously sought to have the case dismissed, saying prosecutors had not presented evidence of any intentional fraud.

In the lawsuit, which was brought in 2018, US prosecutors alleged that the Swiss bank had misled investors in connection with the sale of mortgage-backed securities more than a decade ago.

Ryan K Buchanan, United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said UBS’ conduct had “played a significant role in causing a financial crisis that harmed millions of Americans”.

RBS agrees £3.65bn US settlement

“The scope of this settlement should serve as a warning to other financial institutions – both large and small – of the significant penalties that can result when corporations misrepresent vital information to investors and undermine trust in our public markets,” he added.

UBS, which is one of the world’s top investment banks, is the eighteenth firm to reach a settlement in the US over its role in the 2008 crisis, prosecutors said.

The deals have led to more than $36bn in penalties altogether, involving the world’s biggest banks, ratings firms and others.

US banks including JP Morgan and Bank of America have agreed to pay far larger sums than UBS.

Global banks’ exposure to bad US mortgages in the early 2000s played a key role in sparking the financial crisis, which led to a sharp contraction in the global economy and the most severe downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s in America.

Unexpected losses stemming from the loans created strains in the financial system and led to the collapse of several major banks, including Lehman Brothers in the US in 2008.

Prosecutors have accused banks of fuelling the crisis with illegal mortgage lending, which spread to the wider financial system thanks to widespread trading of securities backed by mortgages.

Related Topics

Financial crisis of 2007-08

UBS

United States

More on this story

RBS agrees £3.65bn US settlement

12 July 2017

[naijamixedng]

Coronavirus Fears Cost The World’s 5 Richest People $36bn

[osoba99publiczna]

Elon Musk: Twitter users vote in favour of boss resigning

Twitter users have voted in favour of Elon Musk stepping down as the platform's chief executive after the billionaire ran a poll on his future. A total of 57.5% voted "yes" after Mr Musk asked his 122 million followers whether he should stand down. Mr Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn), said before the poll closed that he would abide by the result. The technology tycoon, who also runs Tesla and Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site. Mr Musk is yet to comment since the poll closed. Even if he were to resign as chief executive, he would remain as Twitter's owner. More than 17.5 million users voted in his poll on Monday, with 42.5% voting no to Mr Musk stepping down. In the past Mr Musk has obeyed Twitter polls. He's fond of quoting the phrase "vox populi, vox dei", a Latin phrase which roughly means "the voice of the people is the voice of God". https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097?s=20&t=JMNOoQPctOgxQGyyWQBYZw A former Twitter member of staff, who left the company recently, told the BBC that Mr Musk was "showing himself to be the incompetent fool we all knew he was". Speaking on condition of anonymity, they added: "His investors are surely looking at this now and questioning whether he was the right horse to back. "I imagine he's getting pressure from investors to step down and is using this poll to make it look like he's following the will of the people instead of the will of those paying his bills." Minutes before the poll closed, the founder of crypto exchange Binance replied to Mr Musk saying he should "stay the course" and not step down. Changpeng Zhao is thought to be one of Twitter's investors and said in May he had backed Mr Musk taking over by making a $500m investment. Read the full article

[mondonews]

Big advertisers including Amazon returning to Twitter, says report

Big advertisers including Amazon returning to Twitter, says report

Twitter’s ad revenue had been declining rapidly since Elon Musk’s chaotic £36bn takeover of the company, but the CEO appeared to confirm in a tweet, that some companies had returned. Amazon is planning to resume multimillion dollar advertising on Twitter, according to reports. According to a Bloomberg report, Twitter’s CEO Mr Musk has said Apple Inc has also resumed its full advertising. Neither…

[michaelmcnamaratd]

undefined

I asked why Ireland is one of just two European states which failed to apply for a €36bn EU funding initiative, aimed at ensuring continuity of energy supply.

[don-lichterman]

War has inflicted €36bn damage on Ukraine's environment: Minister

War has inflicted €36bn damage on Ukraine’s environment: Minister

Not only has the war in Ukraine cost lives, but Russia’s invasion has also significantly damaged the environment, according to the Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection.  In an interview with Euronews, Ruslan Strilets said Ukraine’s natural world had been devastated since the start of the war in February, inflicting an estimated cost of more than €36 billion. The minister noted that…

[edulearnweb]

Elon Musk pulls out of $44bn deal to buy Twitter

Elon Musk pulls out of $44bn deal to buy Twitter

#ElonMusk #BuyTwitter #Twitter #TwitterDeal Elon Musk pulls out of $44bn deal to buy Twitter Elon Musk is seeking to end his $44bn (£36bn) bid to buy Twitter, alleging multiple breaches of the agreement. The announcement is the latest twist in a long-running saga after the world’s richest person decided to buy Twitter in April. Mr Musk said he had backed out because Twitter failed to provide…