It is latest US tech company to announce sweeping job losses as global outlook weakens
Google’s parent company is to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide as it becomes the latest US tech major to cut staff.
Alphabet’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said the redundancies followed a “rigorous review” of the business. The cuts come days after Microsoft said it would cut 10,00 jobs, citing a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.
Continue reading...Chiewelthap Mariar, 26-year-old Sudanese refugee, shot dead after police called to escort him from Seaboard Foods factory in Guymon
Workers at a pork processing plant in Oklahoma have condemned the calling of police by management that resulted in the killing of a worker who had just been fired.
Chiewelthap Mariar, a 26-year-old refugee from Sudan, was killed by police officers while working at the Seaboard Foods meatpacking plant in Guymon on 9 January.
Continue reading...Hard-right Republicans say no to ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase, raising dire possibility of US defaulting on financial obligations
The US economy could be headed for a crisis manufactured by a handful of House Republicans.
The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, informed congressional leaders on Thursday that the US has hit its debt ceiling, which limits the amount of money that the government can borrow to pay all of its bills. Yellen urged Congress to work as quickly as possible to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the US from defaulting on any of its financial obligations, which would have catastrophic consequences.
Continue reading...Analysts say Xi has consolidated power so successfully that he is in effect the Communist party. With no opposition, it doesn’t matter if he makes mistakes
Just a few months ago, the thought of questioning the strength of Xi Jinping’s leadership was inconceivable. He had just secured his third term, conducted a brutal purge of factional rivals and ensured he and his beliefs were inextricably and existentially tied with the Chinese Communist party. The zero-Covid policy – despite some societal grumblings – had been enshrined as the best and only way out of the pandemic.
But zero Covid was already growing unpopular in China in the latter half of 2022. It was playing havoc with people’s lives with increasing lockdowns and quarantines, and a string of tragedies had been linked to the policy’s enforcement. Then in early December, after protests in major Chinese cities and rising cases of Omicron, the government suddenly ended the policy. Travel restrictions, quarantines, mandatory tests and other restrictions were drastically scaled back or dropped altogether.
Continue reading...Polish prime minister says key issue is to get military aid to Ukraine urgently, as US unveils fresh $2.5bn aid package including fighting vehicles but not tanks
The Polish prime minister has said his country would be willing to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine without securing Germany’s approval if Berlin does not agree to their re-export at Friday’s meeting of western defence ministers at Ramstein airbase.
Mateusz Morawiecki said in a radio interview on Thursday that “consent was of secondary importance” when it came to German-made tanks, because the key issue was to get military aid to Ukraine urgently.
Continue reading...Observers expect Germany’s hesitant chancellor will soon say yes to allowing supply of Leopards to war effort
Less than a year ago it would have seemed barely imaginable that the German state would be supplying arms in a conflict. Yet now the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, finds himself under mounting international pressure to give an unconditional green light for German-made tanks to be sent to Ukraine – having tentatively signalled his readiness to do so, but only if the US agrees to do the same.
Even though Germany is often reluctant to spread the message itself, it is among Ukraine’s leading supporters in terms of defence aid and humanitarian and economic help. It has given refuge to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, a very underreported aspect of its support.
Continue reading...Kremlin appears to prepare for strikes on Russian capital by installing interception systems
Missile systems designed to intercept aircraft and incoming missiles appear to have been deployed on top of several defence and administrative buildings in downtown Moscow, signalling that the Kremlin is preparing for a potential, if unlikely, attack being directed on the Russian capital.
Photographs published on social media on Thursday showed a Pantsir missile system had been installed on the roof of an eight-story building used by the Russian defence ministry along the Moskva River.
Continue reading...Arrests at biggest march in Paris while train services halted and many primary schools close for the day
More than 1 million people have taken part in demonstrations across France as transport, schools and refineries were hit by strikes in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
The interior ministry said 1.12 million people protested nationwide on Thursday, with 80,000 taking part in the biggest rally in Paris. Trade unions said the figure was even higher.
Continue reading...Wrestlers including Olympic medallists stage sit-in demanding federation is disbanded
Two Olympic medal-winning wrestlers in India have accused the head of their sport’s governing body and its coaches of sexually harassing female players and have vowed to protest until the federation is disbanded and its leader investigated.
Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, who have Olympic bronzes, Vinesh Phogat, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and other athletes began a sit-in protest in the capital, Delhi, on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Urban Institute economist Len Burman has a reality check for those in Congress flirting with not raising the debt ceiling.
A default could undermine the America’s pre-eminence in global markets, where the dollar is used as many countries’ dominant reserve currency. But more immediately, it would actually force Washington to spend even more, because a default would drive up interest rates, forcing the government to shell out more money to owners of its trillions of dollars in debt:
Continue reading...Ben Wallace makes statement at meeting of defence ministers in Estonia
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that eleven people are still considered missing after Saturday’s attack on a high-rise building in Dnipro.
Yesterday it reported that, according to deputy mayor of Dnipro, Mykhailo Lysenko, “municipal workers are still finding remains of bodies while sorting through the debris”, and the remains are being handed over to forensic experts for DNA testing.
How can you escalate against a guy who is doing all out war against a civilian population?
Continue reading...Coffin is accompanied into church by estranged son, grandson and ex-husband who are embroiled in inheritance feud
Fans of the Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida shouted “goodbye, Queen of Rome” as they gathered for her funeral in the city while defending her against relatives embroiled in a bitter inheritance feud.
Lollobrigida, one of the most glamorous actors of Hollywood’s golden age, died on Monday at the age of 95.
Continue reading...Judge says Peyman Kia abused trust placed in him, and also sentences younger brother to 10 years
A court in Stockholm has sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life imprisonment and his younger brother to 10 years after finding both guilty of spying for Russia’s military intelligence service for more than a decade.
Peyman Kia, 42, served in the Swedish security and counter-intelligence service, Sapo, and in armed forces intelligence agencies, including the foreign intelligence agency (Must) and KSI, a top-secret unit dealing with Swedish spies abroad.
Continue reading...New York Republican under pressure over fabrications about his career, past and alleged criminal behaviour
George Santos on Thursday tweeted an angry denial that he competed as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants 15 years ago, claims made by acquaintances that have highlighted the contrast between the Republican congressman’s past actions and now staunchly conservative views.
The New Yorker, who says he is gay, dismissed the story as an “obsession” by the media, which he insisted, without irony, “continues to make outrageous claims about my life”.
Continue reading...Thousands of protesters descend on Lima to call for resignation of Dina Boluarte following weeks of turmoil that has left dozens dead
Peru’s capital city is bracing for further unrest as thousands of protesters from across the country pour into Lima to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, after nearly six weeks of turmoil that has claimed close to 50 lives.
Two more people were killed late on Wednesday and another seriously injured in Macusani, a city in the southern region of Puno. After the deaths, protesters torched a police station, forcing officers to flee in a helicopter. In Lima, police fired teargas after clashes broke out with protesters.
Continue reading...Art gallery owner Collier Gwin, 71, faces potential jail term after video showed woman being hosed with water
A California man seen in a viral video spraying a homeless woman with a garden hose has been arrested on a charge of battery, authorities in San Francisco said.
Collier Gwin, 71, an art gallery owner, was captured in the video, taken on 9 January, leaning on a railing with his legs crossed as he directed a jet of water at the woman in an effort to get her to move on.
Continue reading...Mild weather in Europe reduces gas demand but bills will remain higher than 2021 energy price cap
Annual energy bills are expected to fall to about £2,200 from July in a fillip for the government and households struggling with ballooning costs.
The energy consultancy Cornwall Insight has predicted that, excluding government subsidies, typical annual household energy bills will have fallen from £4,279 now to £3,208 from April, and then will ease to roughly £2,200 for the remainder of the year.
Continue reading...Ministers under pressure to pass ban but some fear it could lead to collapse of nuclear talks
The European parliament has called for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to be blacklisted in Europe, a move some western politicians fear could provoke Iran to walk out of talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
The parliament has only an advisory role, but EU foreign ministers are due to meet on Monday to discuss further sanctions, and the Iranian diaspora is making the proscription of the IRGC its key demand.
Continue reading...‘The difference you have made is immeasurable,’ says Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau
The US president, together with the prime ministers of Canada and Australia, have paid tribute to their New Zealand counterpart, who shocked the world by announcing she would be resigning as her country’s leader.
Joe Biden applauded Ardern’s “stewardship in advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific” and credited her leadership for making the US-New Zealand partnership “stronger than ever”.
Continue reading...Victims reportedly bled to death when glass-coated strings were entangled around their necks
Six people, including three children, have died after their throats were cut by glass-coated kite strings during an annual kite-flying festival in India.
Hundreds flocked to terraces and rooftops to unfurl their kites towards the sky at the Uttarayan festival in the western Indian state of Gujarat over the weekend.
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