Source: Facebook, Instagram to charge EU users for ad-free service

WASHINGTON, United States - Meta is proposing to offer European users a subscription-based version of Instagram and Facebook if they would rather not be tracked for ads, a source said on Tuesday.

The idea, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as the social media giant seeks to comply with a growing list of EU regulations designed to curb the power of US big tech.

The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg makes its billions of dollars in profit by offering advertisers highly individualized data on users, but new European regulations and EU court decisions have made that harder.

The proposal has been put to EU regulators and is another example of big tech companies having to adapt long-held practices to meet oncoming EU rules.

The source close to the matter said subscribers in Europe could pay 10 euros ($10.50) a month for a desktop version of Instagram or Facebook, or 13 euros a month for Instagram on their phones.

Social media platforms have increasingly floated the idea of charging users for access to their sites, whether to comply with data privacy regulations or better guarantee the identity of users.

But the practice would be a major shift for the social media industry that grew exponentially over the past decade on an advertising model that made the site free for users in return for being tracked and ads seen highly personalized.

The proposal could help meet several regulations including the Digital Markets Act that imposes a list of do's and don'ts on big tech companies in Europe, including a ban on tracking users when they surf other sites if their consent hasn't been clearly granted.

It also follows the recommendation of the EU's highest court, which in a July decision said that Meta platform users who declined to be tracked should be offered an ad free alternative "for an appropriate fee."

That ruling echoed many previous rulings against Meta and other big tech firms in which the court ruled that the US company must ask for permission to collect large amounts of personal data, striking down various workarounds that Meta had offered.

Meta declined to comment directly on the Wall Street Journal report, but said in a statement that it still "believes in the value of free services which are supported by personalized ads."

"However, we continue to explore options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements."

Meta reported second-quarter revenues of $32 billion, of which $31.5 billion came from advertising. Some $7.2bn of that came from Europe.

Agence France-Presse

Belgium pulls more Haagen-Dazs ice-creams from sale

BRUSSELS - Belgium on Tuesday extended an order to recall certain Haagen-Dazs ice-creams from sale after the discovery of traces of a chemical linked to cancer, such as lymphoma and leukemia. 

The move was triggered by an EU food safety alert and Spain and France have also issued recalls of several Haagen-Dazs products.

After already recalling 10 products last Friday, the Belgian national food health agency added seven more Haagen-Dazs products to the list on Tuesday. 

The latest move concerns tubs and minicups made by Haagen-Dazs, a brand owned by US manufacturer General Mills, with use-by dates of between March and April 2023, with flavours including Vanilla, Belgian Chocolate, Macadamia Nut Brittle and Pralines & Cream.

Customers who had bought Haagen-Dazs products affected by the recalls were told not to eat them, destroy them and to contact General Mills for a refund.

The alert was relayed on the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed system at the request of France, which last month detected 2-Chloroethanol in checks on some Haagen-Dazs products, triggering the initial recall.

2-Chloroethanol is a compound found in ethylene oxide (ETO), a carcinogenic chemical used as a pesticide and cleaning chemical, and has properties that damage DNA. 

General Mills said last week that "trace levels of ETO can be sourced to one ingredient (vanilla extract) provided by one of our suppliers".

Outside the EU, Brazil's ANVISA health monitoring agency last month issued its own alert over vanilla Haagen-Dazs products imported from France.

Despite its name, Haagen-Dazs does not have Nordic origins. It was founded by a Polish-Jewish couple in New York who gave it a brand they thought sounded Danish.

Agence France-Presse

Singapore to hang mentally disabled man next week, says family

SINGAPORE—A mentally disabled Malaysian man will be hanged in Singapore next week after losing a last-ditch appeal, his sister said Wednesday, despite an international outcry about his case. 

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam was arrested in 2009 for trafficking a small amount of heroin into the city-state, which has some of the world's toughest drugs laws, and handed a death sentence the following year.

But the plan to hang him sparked widespread criticism due to concerns about his intellectual disabilities, with the European Union and British billionaire Richard Branson among those condemning it.

After a years-long legal battle, the 34-year-old lost his final appeal last month, when judges rejected arguments that executing a man with mental disabilities contravenes international law.

His family has now been informed he will be executed on Wednesday next week, his sister Sarmila Dharmalingam told AFP. 

Family members, including his mother and three siblings, will travel to the city-state to see him beforehand, she said.

M. Ravi, a Singapore-based human rights lawyer assisting in the case, said the news of Nagaenthran's looming execution was "heartbreaking".

"The Singapore state will never be able to recover from the disgrace it's going to face internationally in hanging an intellectually disabled person," he said in a social media post.

Last month, the city-state conducted its first execution since 2019 when it hanged a drug trafficker, and fears are growing that several more people will be put to death in the coming months. 

As well as Nagaenthran, three other men convicted of drugs offenses have had their final appeals rejected. 

Nagaenthran was arrested at the age of 21 after a bundle of heroin weighing about 43 grams (one and a half ounces) -- equivalent to about three tablespoons -- was found strapped to his thigh as he sought to enter Singapore.

Supporters say he has an IQ of 69 -- a level recognized as a disability -- and was coerced into committing the crime.

Singapore maintains the death penalty for several offenses, including drug trafficking and murder, and insists it has helped to keep the city-state one of Asia's safest places.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook owner Meta will block access to Russia's RT, Sputnik in EU

Meta Platforms Inc, parent company of Facebook, will restrict access to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union, the company's head of global affairs said on Monday.

Nick Clegg said in a Twitter post that the social media company received requests from a number of governments and the EU to take steps in relation to Russian state-controlled media on its platforms. Clegg said Meta would continue to work closely with governments on the issue.

The European Union said on Sunday it would ban Russian state-owned television network RT and news agency Sputnik. Canadian telecoms operators have also stopped offering the RT channel.

Russian state-run media's activity on social media platforms has emerged as a contentious issue for big tech companies during the country's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation."

Meta, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc's Google and YouTube have taken measures in recent days to restrict Russian state media from making money from ads on their platforms. Twitter Inc banned RT and Sputnik from advertising on its site in 2017.

Twitter said on Monday it would label and restrict the visibility of tweets containing content from Russian state-affiliated media outlets, in an expansion of its policy to label the state media accounts. Read full story

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York, Editing by Will Dunham and Matthew Lewis)

-reuters-

European Union regulator: AstraZeneca vaccine 'safe, effective'

Europe's medical regulator said Thursday the AstraZeneca vaccine is "safe and effective" and not associated with a higher blood clot risk, after more than a dozen countries paused rollouts over health fears. 

The closely watched announcement comes after the WHO and Britain's health watchdog both said the vaccine was safe, adding that it was far riskier to not get the shot as several countries face a worrying rise in coronavirus cases. 

"The committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine," European Medicines Agency (EMA) chief Emer Cooke said Thursday after a probe by the body's safety committee. 

"The committee also concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots," she added.

However, the agency "cannot rule out definitively" a link to a rare clotting disorder. 

The UK health regulator on Thursday also said there were no links between blood clots and the AstraZeneca jab, or the Pfizer vaccine. 

"There is no evidence that blood clots in veins is occurring more than would be expected in the absence of vaccination, for either vaccine," said June Raine, chief executive of the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). 

And the World Health Organization (WHO) said again Thursday it was better to take the AstraZeneca vaccine than not, after saying it was looking into available data on the shot.

- 'Situation critical' -

The furore around the jab has marred the global vaccine drive aimed at ending a pandemic that has killed more than 2.6 million people, and comes as several countries report jumps in new cases.

France recorded its highest daily caseload in nearly four months Wednesday, with the authorities set to announce on Thursday new measures.

"Let's be clear, we're in a third wave mostly down to the rise of this famous British variant," French President Emmanuel Macron said, referring to the more-contagious variant first detected in the UK. 

"The situation is critical. It's going to be very hard until mid-April."

Bulgaria and Ukraine readied for tougher restrictions to stem rising cases, while the WHO issued a grim update on rising infections in Central Europe and the Balkans.

- 'Italy's Wuhan' -

So far, more than 399 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered globally, mostly in wealthier nations that have secured contracts with drug makers. 

AstraZeneca's shot, among the cheapest available and easier to store and transport than some of its rivals, has been billed as the vaccine of choice for poorer nations.

It is currently a vital part of Covax, which was set up to procure Covid-19 vaccines and ensure their equitable distribution around the world.

Countries ranging from France to Venezuela and Indonesia paused the rollout of the jab after several reports emerged of blood clots among people who had received the vaccine. 

The head of WHO Africa said Thursday she hoped the controversy surrounding the British-Swedish jab would not deter people from getting the vaccine on the continent, where more than 16 million vaccine doses, mostly AstraZeneca, have been distributed under the Covax scheme. 

"A lot of countries have doubts" about AstraZeneca, Matshidiso Moeti told reporters. 

"But we hope that will not create doubts around anti-Covid vaccines in general." 

And in Britain, which has not halted the jab, officials insisted that an expected vaccine shortfall at the end of the month would not scupper plans to lift virus restrictions as the government has promised. 

Italy, the first European country to become engulfed by the pandemic, held a national day of mourning Thursday, with a ceremony in Bergamo, the northern city that became known as "Italy's Wuhan".

Italy chose March 18 for the memorial to coincide with the day in 2020 when the army had to step in to carry away scores of coffins from Bergamo's overwhelmed crematorium.

Images of coffin-laden camouflaged trucks crossing the city at night quickly became one of the symbols of the pandemic and still haunt the country today.

- 'Aggressive interventions' -

Meanwhile, vaccination efforts were under way in Chile, where 49 scientists and members of the armed forces working at a research station in the icy wastes of Antarctica got the jab, the first inoculations on the southernmost continent.

Antarctica was one of the last places on Earth to be affected by the virus, but on December 21, an outbreak was reported at a Chilean army base, with 36 people infected.

For some, vaccines have brought a sigh of relief -- especially for those working on the frontlines. 

Being vaccinated has allowed Colombian doctor Norberto Medina to return to his job at an intensive care unit in the capital Bogota feeling "more relaxed". 

Medina, 41, has lived all facets of the pandemic, seeing patients die on his ward, nursing others back to health -- and eventually staring death in the face when he contracted the virus himself.

"The pandemic has changed me forever," he told AFP after he returned to work, 54 days after he was diagnosed.

"It has made me more humane."

Agence France-Presse

EU drugs regulator plans to fast track variant-modified COVID vaccines

MILAN, Italy - Europe's medicines regulator is planning to speed up assessments of any COVID-19 vaccines that are modified to protect against variants of the virus, the head of the agency's COVID-19 task-force told Reuters on Friday.

Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaluation team at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said there should be no need for lengthy large-scale trials like those needed to evaluate the first COVID-19 vaccines, since tweaks for new variants can be tested on smaller groups.

"We are working on updated guidelines, assuming that we cannot ask for large Phase III trials. This will allow us to go faster," said Cavaleri.

"We will ask for much smaller trials, with a few hundred participants, rather than 30,000 to 40,000," he told Reuters. He said the EMA would focus primarily on immune response data.

Drugmakers including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have been testing their COVID-19 vaccines against several fast-spreading, more infectious variants of the novel coronavirus.

Variants which emerged in Brazil (known as P.1.), Britain (known as 20I/501Y.V1 or B.1.1.7) and South Africa (known as 20I/501Y.V2 or B.1.351) have already spread around the world, piling more pressure on governments struggling to tame the pandemic which has killed almost 2.5 million people.

These are the three major variants that are worrying scientists, with their spread raising the risk that newly-developed COVID-19 vaccines will need to be updated or tweaked to be effective against some variants, and that people may require one or more booster shots.

STREAMLINING

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also said it is considering a rapid review process for the quick turnaround of new COVID-19 booster shots if variants emerge against which the vaccines do not provide protection.

Vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as AstraZeneca and Moderna, whose COVID shots have been authorised for emergency use in Europe, have said they are preparing for the possibility that variants will emerge that could require tweaks to their vaccines.

Normally, an EMA approval requires extensive studies with large numbers, starting with safety and ending with efficacy.

"We will also try to streamline regulatory procedures doing something similar to what happens with flu vaccines. In short, without the drugmakers having to submit all the preliminary data again", Cavaleri said.

He added that the EMA is also aware that in the near future it may no longer be possible to do clinical trials with placebo for categories such as the elderly, due to rollout of current COVID-19 vaccines.

"In that case we could think about a head-to-head comparison with an already approved vaccine", he said.

Cavaleri also told Reuters Johnson & Johnson will file its vaccine formal application in the next few days.

"Probably as early as next week", he said, noting that the EMA has been conducting a rolling review of the vaccine for some time. "Mid-March is reasonable for the EMA decision," he said.

The EMA, he added, has been in contact to date with about 50 pharmaceutical companies working on COVID vaccines.

Regarding the Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, he said the agency is in constant contact with the company producing it.

"There is a constructive cooperation. If there are no problems with the answers we receive on the subject of the production phase, the rolling review could start within a matter of weeks," he said

The EMA is also in contact with the Chinese companies developing vaccines, particularly Sinovac Biotech, but the process for the Chinese vaccine is a few steps behind the Russian one, he said. 

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Kate Kelland and Kirsten Donovan)

-reuters-

Europe charges Amazon with using dominance and data to squeeze rivals

BRUSSELS - The European Union charged Amazon with damaging retail competition, alleging on Tuesday that the US company uses its size, power and data to gain an unfair advantage over smaller merchants that sell on its online platform.

The move by competition chief Margrethe Vestager, the latest European salvo against US tech giants, comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified Amazon's role in the global economy, with online sales soaring in lockdowns.

The European Commission has been investigating Amazon's position as both a marketplace for merchants and a rival seller, while the firm also faces scrutiny in the United States over its alleged mistreatment of sellers, as well as its dual role.

The EU regulator looked into how Amazon collects data on competitors that sell on its platform, offering everything from electronics and toys to food and kitchenware. It says that Amazon uses that sensitive information, which shows what is proving popular or not, to better target its own products.

"The use of these data allows Amazon to focus on the sale of the best-selling products and it marginalizes third-party sellers and caps their ability to grow," European Competition Commissioner Vestager told a news conference.

Vestager, who has a reputation of being one of the world's toughest antitrust enforcers, said that regulators had to ensure that dual-role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, did not distort competition. Amazon disagreed with the EU assertions. "Amazon represents less than 1% of the global retail market, and there are larger retailers in every country in which we operate," the company said.

A US Congressional antitrust report earlier this year into the alleged abuse of market power by Amazon also raised the concerns highlighted by the EU and is likely to influence the case US regulators bring against the company.

US Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat and the top antitrust lawmaker in the House, applauded the EU and urged the US Federal Trade Commision to take similar action.

"As we found as part of a 16-month bipartisan investigation, Amazon has monopoly power over sellers on its platform," Cicilline said.

The EU charges are the latest example of how watchdogs around the world, led by Europe, are grappling with the challenges of regulating Big Tech, companies that have achieved dominance in their fields and vast troves of user data.

On Vestager's watch, the EU has imposed large fines on Alphabet's Google and other companies. See FACTBOX:

A final EU decision could come next year. Amazon faces being fined up to 10% of its global turnover if found guilty of breaching antitrust rules. However it can avoid a hefty penalty and a finding of wrongdoing by offering concessions to settle.

NEW INVESTIGATION

The EU competition enforcer has been investigating Amazon since July last year after rival traders voiced their grievances. The regulator said the charges related to Amazon's activities in France and Germany, its two biggest markets in Europe and where it is the dominant player.

The case focuses on its use of merchant data on its platform. Vestager said her officials had trawled 80 million transactions and reviewed 100 million products on Amazon's platform to put the case together.

The European Commission also opened a new investigation into Amazon on Tuesday, over the possible preferential treatment of its own retail offers and those of marketplace sellers that use Amazon's logistics and delivery services.

That probe will look into the possible preferential treatment of Amazon's own retail offers and those of marketplace sellers that use Amazon's logistics and delivery services.

Regulators will investigate the criteria the company uses to select winners of its "buy box", which allows customers to add items from a specific retailer directly into their shopping carts.

"Its rules should not artificially favor Amazon's own retail offers or advantage the offers of retailers using Amazon's logistics and delivery services," Vestager said, citing the importance of e-commerce, an area which has gained importance with the COVID-19 pandemic.

-reuters-

EU members won't agree to pooled debt

ROME - The European Union's economics commissioner said Monday that member states would never all agree to mutualized debt, but that a compromise with Germany was key to Europe surviving the coronavirus crisis.

One way to finance the massive effort needed to shore up Europe's economy during the crisis "is to issue bonds, but not generically to mutualize the debt, which will never be accepted," EU Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told Italy's Radio Capital.

Ongoing disagreements among member states on what policy to take risked splitting and dooming the European project, added Gentiloni, a former prime minister of Italy. 

Gentiloni's comments came after Italy and other southern countries lobbied unsuccessfully last week for so-called "coronabonds," which would allow for pooled debt shouldered collectively by eurozone members.

On Thursday, Germany and other northern EU states rejected a proposal backed by nine countries, including Italy, Spain and France, for such mutualized debt issued in the name of the eurozone as a whole -- a long-established red line in Berlin. 

Gentiloni said he had expected that reaction by Germany, calling it a "long-standing vision that we know by heart".

Germany has repeatedly dismissed the idea of mutualized European debt as an attempt by over-spending southerners in need of economic reforms to take advantage of the cheap borrowing rates enjoyed by states with balanced budgets, without being subject to fiscal austerity measures.

Also on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Europe needed to deliver a "decisive blow" in face of the crisis. 

"No one is asking Europe to assume sovereign debt, only to be capable of delivering a decisive blow to be able to get out of this socioeconomic tsunami," Conte told Spain's El Pais newspaper. 

"Italy isn't asking that its accumulated public debt be shared," he said. "This debt will remain the responsibility of every country."

"Now is the moment to introduce a common European debt instrument that allows us to win this war as fast as possible to revive the economy," he told the paper. 

Conte said the dismantling of restrictive measures in Italy, such as the closing of most businesses and the quarantine of citizens, would be assessed only when the "curve" began to fall, cautioning that such loosening of restrictions would be gradual.

DYING OUT 

Gentiloni told Radio Capital that without cohesion in its response to the coronavirus crisis, "the European project is in danger of dying out." 

"It is clear that if the economic differences between European countries, rather than shrinking in the face of a crisis like this, instead increase... it will be very difficult to keep the European project together," he warned. 

Without Germany, he added, "we cannot find a compromise".

European member states should "start with the common objectives" in order to break the standstill, he said.

"We need a new unemployment guarantee instrument, a business support plan and we need the "Green Deal" development model to not be forgotten," he said.

In addition to his skepticism over the viability of coronabonds, Gentiloni said he was "not very optimistic" about continued discussions over the possible use of the European Stability Mechanism, which normally attaches strict fiscal conditions to its emergency borrowing. 

Some say that mechanism, set up in 2012 during the European sovereign debt crisis, would in the current coronavirus crisis unfairly punish already highly indebted countries such as Italy, imposing new and unattainable conditions for fixing its public finances.

Comparisons with past crises were unhelpful in confronting the challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic, Gentiloni suggested, a view also voiced by Italy's minister for European affairs.

"It's a new crisis, it's not comparable to the crisis of 2008, there is no guidebook, there are no clues that leaders recognise from the past," European Affairs Minister Vincenzo Amendola told journalists on Monday. 

"When we think about the sacrifices of the people, it's a huge, extraordinary novelty with dramatic consequences, and leaders must respond to the challenge."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airline stocks nosedive as US travel ban hits EU travel sector

PARIS - Europe's travel sector reacted with dismay Thursday to a US-imposed trans-Atlantic travel ban that sent the share price of major airlines into free fall.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that airlines needed "emergency measures" after President Donald Trump imposed the ban to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Air France stock lost almost 18 percent at the Paris opening bell, before recovering to trade five percent lower in mid-afternoon exchanges.

Lufthansa shares, quoted in Frankfurt, were off by almost nine percent.

The US is not banning passengers from Britain, but shares in British Airways' parent company IAG still slumped more than 10 percent, while EasyJet lost over nine percent.

'KICKNG A MAN'

"Trump is simply kicking a man when he's down," according to an EU diplomat in Brussels who called the ban "erratic."

Trump said the US would not allow travelers from the EU's Schengen border-free zone into the country for 30 days, calling the move an "aggressive" effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The decision does not affect visitors from Britain and Ireland, or US citizens returning from Europe.

Key US companies were hit even harder than their European counterparts, with the sector suffering its worst downturn since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Boeing, already reeling from problems with the 737 MAX jet, lost 14 percent by the time trading was suspended Thursday, which added to its 18 percent drop a day earlier.

Shares in United Airlines shed nearly 15 percent on Wall Street before trading was suspended after the S&P 500 index lost seven percent.

Global markets have lost a combined $11.3 trillion in value since a peak on February 19, and $4.5 trillion this week alone.

American Airlines and Delta plunged by double-digit percentages.

'HAMMER BLOW'

"The travel ban is another hammer blow for the airlines" that "were getting crucified by the reduction in tourism and business travel in the last month," said economist Charlie Robertson at Renaissance Capital in London.

Peter Elbers, chief executive of the Dutch carrier KLM, told public television NOS: "It is undeniable that the consequences are extremely heavy."

Fears that other countries might follow the US example "are paralyzing the market," said Timo Emden of Emden Research.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told a news conference: "Trump's announcement is bad news for all airlines."

Le Maire "regretted" a decision "which will have a very strong impact on tourism and a very strong impact on companies in general."

INEFFECTIVE?

European leaders argue that travel restrictions are ineffective because the virus has now spread almost worldwide, and lament that Trump had not consulted them first.

After speaking with Air France chief executive Benjamin Smith, Le Maire said they would look for ways to "ensure Air France comes through this difficult moment... in the best possible conditions."

Airlines are especially vulnerable to a sharp drop in tourism and business travel.

Italy, the worst hit country in Europe so far, has quarantined its entire population of 60 million, the US has advised citizens against all foreign travel, and tourist magnets like Paris are bracing for hard times.

Service sector businesses have been pummelled and industrial supply lines are also under pressure, further dampening economic activity.

The ban "will create enormous cash-flow pressures for airlines," IATA head Alexandre de Juniac said. "Airlines will need emergency measures to get through this crisis."

On March 5, IATA estimated that the crisis could wipe out some $113 billion in airline industry, but the organization stressed that that estimate did not include the severe measures the US and other governments, including Israel, Kuwait and Spain, have since put in place.

Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's biggest hubs, reported Thursday a 20-percent drop in passengers in the first week in March and prepared to work at reduced capacity.

"If all flights to and from the United States were canceled, this percentage would rise to 30 percent," the airport statement said.

Agence France-Presse

Boeing supports state tax change to avoid EU sanctions

WASHINGTON - US aerospace manufacturer Boeing said Wednesday it was in favor of a tax reform in Washington state that would eliminate a tax break but defuse a long-standing dispute with the European Union.

President Donald Trump's administration imposed punitive tariffs on a record $7.5 billion in EU products in a dispute over government subsidies to Airbus, with authorization of the World Trade Organization.

And Trump on Friday raised the tariff on aircraft to 15 percent from 10 percent as part of those sanctions.

The European Union has threatened to follow through with penalties against the United States for support granted to Boeing, but the American firm said the state tax reform would resolve the issue.

"We fully support and have advocated for this action," Boeing said in a statement. 

"When enacted, this legislation will resolve the sole finding against the United States in the long-running trade disputes between Europe and the United States over government support for the production of large commercial airplanes."

The change, which removes a 40 percent tax reduction for aerospace, will demonstrate US commitment "to fair and rules-based trade, and to compliance with the WTO’s rulings," the company said.

Boeing, which has its main manufacturing facilities in the northwestern US state of Washington, saved about $230 million in 2018 from this and other tax breaks.

Meanwhile, Airbus benefited from "billions of dollars of illegal 'launch aid' subsidies ... which the WTO has repeatedly found to violate global trade rules," Boeing said and the issue remains unresolved.

"Now is the time for Airbus and the European Union to finally come into compliance by ending illegal launch aid subsidies once and for all and addressing the harm they have caused the United States aerospace industry and its workers."

The EU also has called for "a negotiated solution to the aircraft disputes on the basis of the concrete EU proposals for existing subsidies and future disciplines in this sector."

The epic legal battle between Airbus and Boeing at the WTO began in 2004 when Washington accused Britain, France, Germany and Spain of providing illegal subsidies and grants to support the production of a range of Airbus products.

A year later, the EU alleged that Boeing had received $19.1 billion worth of prohibited subsidies from 1989 to 2006 from various branches of the US government.

The two cases were then tangled up in a legal quagmire, with each side being given partial vindication after a long series of appeals and counter appeals.

Agence France-Presse

Cheers, fears, tears as Brexit finally dawns

Union Jack-waving Brexit backers danced in the London rain on Friday as the hours wound down to Britain's split from the European Union after years of epic drama, but for others there were only fears and tears.

After 47 years in the European fold, the country leaves the EU at 11:00pm (2300 GMT) on Friday, with a handful of the most enthusiastic supporters gathering opposite the Houses of Parliament 12 hours before the final countdown.

"It's a great relief that we're finally leaving the EU," said Wayne Green, 48. "The EU is a con, it's been a con since we started and I'm so glad that we're leaving."

Things got more feisty as the evening wore on and the historic moment neared, with a small group burning the gold-and-blue European Union flag and chanting: "Bye bye, EU, bye bye!"

Others were there to commiserate, wearing EU berets and holding signs reading "we'll be back", and "you have destroyed my future career and dreams".

"People are really, really depressed about this and some people may do silly things -- we've already had one attempted suicide," said accountant Peter Benson, 57.

"Grief, sadness," added women's rights activist Katrina Graham, 31.

"It's deeply, deeply appalling that this is actually happening.

'Utter disaster' 

While the two groups largely kept apart, there was a minor flashpoint when one man placed his paintings, depicting a naked Prime Minister Boris Johnson riding a donkey, at the foot of Parliament Square's Winston Churchill statue.

"He's very rude, very rude. A lot of people don't know history and they don't respect tradition, they don't respect the culture," said Nados Adhanom, 36, who works in a bakery.

The exchange reflected similar arguments that have raged across the country for more than three years, after Britain voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, and emotions are still raw.

"I think it's an utter disaster, it's awful," said Daniel Price, a sales director from Brighton, on England's south coast.

Across the banks of the River Thames in the city hall building, London Mayor Sadiq Khan met hundreds of Europeans who worried about their future status in Britain.

"For more than a thousand years, we've been open to people, trade and ideas, and as long as I'm mayor, that's not going to change," Khan told AFP

But Bulgarian national Toni Petkova was less certain.

The pro bono legal assistant said officials data showed 96,000 Bulgarians needing to apply for settler status by the end of June, or get kicked out.

"So far, almost 140,000 have applied, which means 140 percent," she said, worrying that authorities had no idea how many Europeans needed help getting registered in time.

"A lot of them do not use the internet, they don't follow the news, they don't even speak English, some of them. They live in their own bubbles and they don't even know that they have to apply."

'Too polite' 

But the mood was more buoyant in the industrial towns of northern England that voted heavily to leave.

"In London it is going to be decked today with Union Jacks, I am very pleased," said 82-year-old Ada Sowerby in the northeastern coastal town of Hartlepool, where voters opted to leave by a margin of almost 70 percent.

"I'm pleased, it's about time, this has taken far longer than it should have," added fellow resident Eric Horsley.

While Brexiteers got ready to mark the historic moment, Remainers were already looking ahead to rejoining the EU.

"I'm certain the UK will be returning to the EU in the future, in maybe 10 years," said Benson, the London accountant.

"France and Hong Kong have shown the way how to protest; we are being too polite."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Brexit day: United Kingdom casts off from the European Union

LONDON -- The United Kingdom leaves the European Union on Friday for an uncertain Brexit future, its most significant geopolitical move since the loss of empire and a blow to 70 years of efforts to forge European unity from the ruins of two world wars.

The country will slip away an hour before midnight from the club it joined in 1973, moving into the no man's land of a transition period that preserves membership in all but name until the end of this year.

At a stroke, the EU will be deprived of 15 percent of its economy, its biggest military spender and the world's international financial capital of London. The divorce will shape the fate of the United Kingdom -- and determine its wealth -- for generations to come.

"This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act," Prime Minister Boris Johnson will say in a television address, though he has given few clues about his post-Brexit plans beyond inspirational words.

"This is the dawn of a new era," Johnson, one of the main leaders of the "Leave" campaign in the 2016, will say.


Beyond the symbolism of turning its back on 47 years of membership, little will actually change until the end of 2020, by which time Johnson has promised to strike a broad free trade agreement with the EU, the world's biggest trading bloc.

For proponents, Brexit is a dream "independence day" for a United Kingdom escaping what they cast as a doomed German-dominated project that is failing its 500 million population.

DIS-UNITED KINGDOM

The June 2016 Brexit referendum showed a nation divided about more than Europe and triggered soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and modern Britishness.

Such was the severity of the meltdown over Brexit that allies and investors were left astonished by a country that was for decades touted as a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability.

At home, Brexit has tested the bonds that bind together the United Kingdom: England and Wales voted to leave the bloc but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay.

So on "Brexit Day", some will celebrate and some will weep -- but many Britons will do neither.

Johnson will chair a cabinet meeting in Sunderland, the first city to declare support for leaving the EU in the June 2016 referendum. Brexiteers will celebrate on Parliament Square while some opponents of Brexit are also due to gather.

A Union Jack in the building of the European Council in Brussels will be lowered at 1800 GMT on Friday (2 a.m. Saturday in Manila), and put away with the flags of non-EU countries.

The European Parliament plans to place one of its British flags in the House of European History, a nearby museum of the continent's history since the French Revolution of 1789.

After the repeated failure of "Remainers" to unite, organize or win elections, the main hope of europhiles is that the economic impact of leaving will convince a new generation to plot a way back into the fold.

With sorrow, some support for Brexit and even hope of a return, Europeans from across the EU's 27 remaining members bade farewell.

"I am very sorry that the United Kingdom is exiting. I think it is a very, very bad thing for Europe, for the United Kingdom, for everything," said Sara Invitto, from Milan. "Goodbye!"

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Over and out: Britain readies to leave the EU

LONDON - Britain calls time on almost half a century of European Union membership this week, striking out alone in a historic move that has bitterly divided the country.

At 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) on January 31, the UK will become the first country to leave the 28-nation EU, the world's largest single market area that it joined in 1973.

Nothing will immediately change, owing to a transition period negotiated between London and Brussels to allow both sides to agree a new future partnership.

Britons will be able to work in and trade freely with EU nations until December 31, and vice versa, although they will no longer be represented in the bloc's institutions.

But legally, Britain will be out.

The exit process has been tortuous, with the years since the 2016 EU referendum marked by bitter arguments that paralysed the government and forced two prime ministers to quit.

Four years ago, 52 percent of Britons backed Brexit but 48 percent wanted to stay, and the country is still split between "Leavers" and "Remainers".

The political chaos came to an abrupt halt last month when Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a decisive victory in a general election with a promise to "Get Brexit Done".

The British parliament this week finally ratified the exit terms agreed with Brussels, and Johnson called on the country to move on.

"Next Friday marks an important moment in the history of our United Kingdom," he said.

"No matter how you voted in 2016, it is the time to look ahead with confidence to the global, trail-blazing country we will become over the next decade and heal past divisions."

The next stage of Brexit will also be a challenge, however.

Johnson wants to negotiate Britain's new relationship with the EU, covering everything from trade to security cooperation, by the end of the year.

But Brussels says this is an impossible ask, arguing that London must either limit its ambitions or request more time.

MUTED CELEBRATIONS

Johnson has been an enthusiastic supporter of Brexit since leading the 2016 campaign, but he is wary of inflaming divisions with the celebrations.

Official events on Friday will be limited to a special prime ministerial address and a light display in Downing Street.

Ten million commemorative 50 pence coins will also be issued in the coming months, bearing the words "Peace, Prosperity and friendship with all nations".

Previous batches had to be destroyed after Brexit was delayed three times due to political wrangling in London.

Some eurosceptics had pressed for parliament's famous Big Ben bell, which is being renovated, to be brought back into action to ring out on Brexit night.

But it was dropped after concerns about the cost. Johnson initially asked for public donations, only for officials to admit this was not possible.

A countdown clock will instead be projected onto the black bricks of Downing Street, while Nigel Farage, another key figure in the 2016 campaign, will hold a rally in nearby Parliament Square.

DIVIDED NATION

Britain has always had an uneasy relationship with Brussels and refused to join either the EU's single currency or the Schengen free travel area.

A minority of politicians have campaigned for decades to free Britain from what they see as an overly bureaucratic and unaccountable institution.

Concerns grew as large numbers of EU citizens moved to Britain to work, while for many, Brexit was also a protest against a political establishment they felt was ignoring them.

Yet for others across the continent, Brexit day will be a traumatic moment, ending any lingering hopes that the break-up could somehow be stopped.

"We still love you," tweeted Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council, this week after the divorce treaty was formally signed.

Many of the estimated 3.6 million EU citizens living in Britain, and one million Britons elsewhere in the bloc, fear an uncertain future.

Brexit has also severely strained ties between the four nations that make up the United Kingdom.

The devolved assemblies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all rejected the terms of the divorce, although for different reasons.

In Scotland, where pro-European sentiment remains strong, the nationalist government is pressing for a second referendum on independence.

Many in Northern Ireland meanwhile are concerned about special trading arrangements intended to keep open its land border with EU member Ireland.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Brexit's new chapter: the 'impossible' trade deal

BRUSSELS — With just 2 weeks to go before Brexit, European diplomats are preparing for the next phase: intense negotiations to hammer out a future with Britain after its EU divorce.

Brussels is braced for new rounds of Brexit battles, aware that a bullish Prime Minister Boris Johnson is feeling reinvigorated after an electoral victory in December.

Here are the main battle lines revealed to AFP in interviews with 18 European officials and diplomats closely involved in the talks:

NO EXTENSION

Throughout his campaign, Johnson said he would seal a trade deal by December 31, the deadline set by the EU-UK divorce agreement, though London can request an extension of 1 or 2 more years.

This marked the EU's first reality check -- only reluctantly accepted. They no longer expect Johnson to ask for a delay.

That leaves only eight months, from March to October, to reach an agreement and allow time for ratification. "It's an impossible task," warned one European diplomat.

"At the end of the year, we could get the skeleton of a trade agreement plus something on internal and foreign security, but there is no guarantee," the diplomat added.

Talks can begin as soon as EU ministers agree their joint mandate on February 25.

JOHNSON IS NOT MAY

Johnson's campaign promised "to get Brexit done" and to do away with his predecessor's goal to keep close ties with Europe and disruption to the cross-Channel economy to a minimum.

Theresa May's government had proposed a "dynamic alignment", where London would match EU rules on the environment, state aid and other standards to allow UK companies easy access to Europe.

Johnson will instead pursue a far more minimal trade deal that will seek zero tariffs and quotas on goods.

"The prime minister has been clear that he wants a Canada-style free trade agreement with no alignment," a UK official told AFP.

This refers to the EU's trade deal with Canada that Europeans consider ambitious as a trade deal, but too narrow for an important neighbor like Britain.

THREAT TO UNITY

A mere trade deal would be an economic blow to Britain, but also to the UK's closest trading partners -- such as Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

No alignment on EU standards means custom checks, paperwork and all sorts of new limits to trade.

"Our first choice is that nothing changes," lamented a diplomat.

"But that is not going to happen, so we must now be realistic."

Johnson's low-bar strategy could be the biggest challenge to European unity since the Brexit referendum in 2016, diplomats said.

Member states will be pulling in different directions with some like France, Belgium and Denmark concerned about fishing while land-locked eastern Europeans and Germany will want a deal on cars.

'ZERO-DUMPING'

Referred to as keeping a level playing field, member states with the most trade with Britain will be dead-set on ensuring that British companies gain no unfair advantage after Brexit.

When British goods and services come knocking on Europe's door, they will insist that UK goods are subject to checks like those from any other non-EU country.

"Zero tariffs, zero quotas, zero dumping," the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on recent visit to Sweden.

Diplomats warn there were not many ways to enforce the level playing field in a simple trade deal, except through threatening tariffs that can take months or even years to impose.

As a sign of London's good faith, Europeans will be keeping a close eye on British compliance with the withdrawal agreement, in particular the customs arrangements on the Irish border.

"If they play around with that, the impact on trade talks will be immediate," one diplomat warned.

BIG DEAL?

One question nagging Europeans, notably France, is the future structure of the EU's relationship with Britain.

Will it be something formal, with clearly set joint institutions, or a looser arrangement structured by separate deals on trade, security and other topics as necessary?

Many European capitals abhor the latter, spooked by the EU's confused ties with Switzerland, which are governed by over 100 deals.

"We would favor a more organised structure," an EU diplomat told AFP.

'NEGOTIATION TABLES'

Months of intense discussions, to alternate between London and Brussels, will be coordinated by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart, probably David Frost.

The tight deadline allows "about 40 days of pure negotiation" in 8 to 10-week sessions, an official warned.

This is a far cry from the years devoted to trade deals with Canada, Japan or South Korea.

Another diplomat said negotiators would open about ten "negotiating tables" with some done in parallel.

"We will give each subject 2 or 3 weeks and see what is possible. If the divisions are too great, we move on. Some issues will be well advanced, others will go nowhere," he said.

Agence France-Presse

EU charts path for 'challenging' post-Brexit UK deal

BRUSSELS - The EU will keep engaging with the UK through the WTO and the UN as both sides work out a deal on their future ties once Britain leaves the bloc, according to the top Brexit negotiator in Brussels.

Agreeing and ratifying a post-Brexit relationship by the end of 2020 "will be immensely challenging, but we will give it our all, even if we won't be able to achieve everything," the official, Michel Barnier, wrote in a weekend online commentary for the Project Syndicate magazine website. 

The two sides will have just 11 months to settle that agreement following Britain's formal departure from the EU on January 31. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists he will not seek an extension beyond 2020 to fine-tune a deal. 

He has also made it clear his country will drop EU labor, environmental, financial, health and safety standards, spurring Brussels' concerns about British trade "dumping" and making prospects of a quick and comprehensive deal appear remote.

Barnier, who was unfailingly courteous when he negotiated the terms of Britain's withdrawal in a way to protect the EU's single market and citizens, said he had three goals -- framed as "New Year's resolutions" -- for the upcoming talks on the future relationship.

To work together on global issues, "the EU will continue to engage positively with the UK, both bilaterally and in global fora such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the G20," he said.

In terms of security issues, while it is "simply not possible" for Britain to have the same access to data as EU members, "tackling terrorism, cyberattacks, and other attempts to undermine our democracies will require a joint effort".

Barnier said there should be "unconditional commitment from both sides" to building a security alliance.

And for economic ties, "any free-trade agreement must provide for a level playing field on standards, state aid, and tax matters," Barnier emphasized.

That last point is seen as being a big stumbling block in the talks. 

Johnson told the British parliament last Friday that an "ambitious" trade agreement would be struck "with no alignment on EU rules, but instead with control of our own laws, and close and friendly relations".

EU officials and lawmakers have voiced concern that Johnson might be seeking to build Britain as a deregulated "Singapore-on-Thames" that would try to sell goods into the EU made cheaper by cutting rules meant to protect workers, consumers and the environment.

There is also wariness over whether Johnson wants to keep Britain positioned for easy trade with the EU, or reshape its laws to deal more with the United States.

Barnier suggested in his piece only a bare-bones trade deal was possible in the 11-month time frame "which, most likely, will have to be expanded in the years to come" to cover many areas left unaddressed.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

EU antitrust regulators probes Google's data collection

BRUSSELS - EU antitrust regulators are investigating Google's collection of data, the European Commission told Reuters on Saturday, suggesting the world's most popular internet search engine remains in its sights despite record fines in recent years.

Competition enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic are now looking into how dominant tech companies use and monetize data.

The EU executive said it was seeking information on how and why Alphabet unit Google is collecting data, confirming a Reuters story on Friday.

"The Commission has sent out questionnaires as part of a preliminary investigation into Google's practices relating to Google's collection and use of data. The preliminary investigation is ongoing," the EU regulator told Reuters in an email.

A document seen by Reuters shows the EU's focus is on data related to local search services, online advertising, online ad targeting services, login services, web browsers and others.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has handed down fines totaling more than 8 billion euros to Google in the last two years and ordered it to change its business practices.

Google has said it uses data to better its services and that users can manage, delete and transfer their data at any time. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ultra-rich threaten to bail on Britain if Corbyn wins

LONDON — Is Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn worse than Brexit? 

That is the belief of many British-based billionaires who are reportedly thinking of packing their bags should the veteran socialist win power next month.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose right-wing Conservative government is seeking re-election on December 12, has this week slammed left-winger Corbyn's "visceral" hatred of capitalism and compared him to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

The leader of Britain's main opposition party has vowed to redistribute wealth to address inequality and renationalize assets, but his policies are widely regarded as unfriendly towards business and the rich.

"Clients, on the whole, appear more concerned about Jeremy Corbyn than about Brexit," said John Hill, a chartered financial planner at London-based asset management firm Saunderson House.

The Guardian newspaper, citing lawyers and accountants working for some of Britain's richest families, reported meanwhile that many people were plotting to leave "within minutes" if Corbyn wins.

RISING INEQUALITY 

After more than a decade of state-imposed economic austerity policies and flagging growth levels amid Brexit uncertainty, rising inequality is set to remain at the heart of the pre-Christmas general election.

As anticipation builds in Britain ahead of the critical vote, Labour lawmaker and loyal Corbyn supporter Lloyd Russell-Moyle stated bluntly that "I don't think that anyone in this country should be a billionaire."

Corbyn has pledged that an incoming Labour government under his leadership would pursue the "vested interests" of the elite. 

"This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform our country, take on the vested interests holding people back and ensure that no community is left behind," Corbyn said last week as he launched his election campaign.

Johnson is an Oxford University and elite Eton boys school graduate from a wealthy background.

In contrast, socialist Corbyn styles himself as anti-business and pro-worker -- and came close to scoring a major election upset in 2017 when he blew up the ruling Conservatives' working majority.

Flagship Labour policies include additional taxation on high incomes, inheritance and private education, while the party is also contemplating a ban on private jets to help combat climate change.

Johnson has argued that Corbyn's policies would destroy the economy.

CORBYN TO TRIGGER EXODUS? 

"The tragedy of the modern Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is that they detest the profit motive so viscerally -- and would raise taxes so wantonly -- that they would destroy the very basis of this country's prosperity," the British premier wrote in an editorial Wednesday.

Many financial experts also fret that such an approach will simply persuade the ultra-rich to either obtain non-resident status in Britain -- or shift their investments into friendlier tax regimes like Monaco, Switzerland and elsewhere.

"I believe we can realistically expect a Corbyn government would trigger an exodus of the country's most successful and wealthiest individuals who contribute significantly both directly and indirectly to the British economy," warned Nigel Green, head of financial consultancy deVere Group.

He added that such exceptionally rich people are "internationally mobile" and would simply move -- with a large knock-on effect on the public finances.

"Should these largely job and wealth-creating individuals emigrate -- and according to our anecdotal evidence a high number very well could -- government finances will suffer considerably because they contribute a disproportionately large amount to the state's coffers," Green added.

Britain has some 151 billionaires, while the richest 1,000 people have a wealth totaling a record £771 billion, according to The Sunday Times newspaper's 2019 rich list.

Corbyn last week ramped up the rhetoric against what he calls "tax dodgers, bad bosses, big polluters and billionaire-owned media".

The Labour leader singled out Ineos energy boss Jim Ratcliffe, landowner the Duke of Westminster and hedgefund manager Crispin Odey as members of what he called the "privileged elite".

One notable critic who hit back was retail tycoon Mike Ashley, who described Corbyn as "not only a liar but clueless".

Yet not all the business community is up in arms.

"I think a lot of us (in business) are very concerned about the regional inequalities within Britain," noted John Mills, founder of home products empire JML.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

IMF cuts euro zone growth forecasts, as Germany slows and Italy stalls

BRUSSELS - Euro zone economic growth is set to slow more than expected as the bloc's manufacturing crisis could spill over to the larger services sector under protracted global trade tensions, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

The IMF said the 19-country euro zone would grow by 1.2 percent this year, revising down its earlier estimates from April of 1.3 percent growth for the bloc. That is a significant slowdown compared to last year's 1.9 percent expansion.

The bloc's economy would grow by 1.4 percent in 2020 and 2021, the IMF said, cutting its previous estimate of 1.5 percent growth in both years.

The slowdown is mostly due to anaemic growth in Germany, the euro zone's largest economy, and stagnation in Italy, the third-biggest, the fund said, revising down its earlier forecasts for both countries.

Germany is now expected to grow by only 0.5 percent this year, slower than the 0.8 percent the IMF had predicted in April. That would be one-third of 2018 growth.

The IMF also cut its growth forecast for France, the bloc's second-largest economy, despite better-than-expected output estimates for the third quarter released last week. The country is now expected to grow by 1.2 percent this year, instead of the 1.3 percent previously forecast.

To counter the slowdown, the fund reiterated its call for a "synchronized fiscal response" by euro zone governments, in a clear message to Berlin to invest more.

It said the slowdown, so far mostly caused by the impact of global trade tensions on the bloc's export-driven industry, could spill over to services, the largest economic sector in the euro zone.

Britain's process to leave the European Union was also a cause of concern, with a no-deal Brexit causing vast negative effects on both Britain and the EU.

In the event of an orderly Brexit, which could occur by the end of January, the IMF confirmed its earlier estimates that Britain's economy would grow by 1.2% this year and 1.4 percent next. Growth was 1.4 percent in 2018.

Inflation in the bloc is expected by the IMF to be 1.2 percent this year, 1.4 percent next and 1.5 percent in 2021, short of the European Central Bank's target of a rate close but below 2 percent.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; Editing by Catherine Evans)

source: news.abs-cbn.com