Month: March 2024

COLOGNE, Germany — Germany faced strikes on several fronts on Thursday, as train drivers and airport workers walked off the job, causing chaos for millions of travelers and adding to the country’s economic woes at a time of looming recession.

The strikes are the latest in a wave of industrial actions to hit Germany, where high inflation and staff bottlenecks have soured wage negotiations in key parts of the transport sector, including national rail, air travel and public transport.

Industry has warned about the costs of such strikes, after Europe’s largest economy contracted by 0.3% in 2023 and the government warned of a weaker-than-expected recovery.

A one-day nationwide rail strike costs around 100 million euros ($107 million) in economic output, Michael Groemling, head of economic affairs at IW Koeln, told Reuters during GDL’s last strike in late January.

Train drivers began a fifth round of strikes in a long-running dispute at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT), after a walkout in the cargo division started on Wednesday evening.

Also on strike were airline ground staff at Lufthansa LHAG.DE and security staff at some airports. These included Germany’s busiest Frankfurt hub, whose operator Fraport said 650 of Thursday’s 1,750 planned flights had been canceled.

The train drivers’ walkout, set to last until Friday afternoon, marks the beginning of a series of strikes planned by GDL as it pushes for reduced working hours at full pay.

“The motivation is high to follow through with the conditions that we have set as GDL members,” said train driver Philipp Grams at the picket line in Cologne.

Just one in five long-distance trains was running, rail operator Deutsche Bahn said, but passengers showed some understanding.

“I don’t like it much, but if it makes a difference, if people want to change something, why not?” said Katerina Stepanenko, standing on the platform at Cologne’s main station.

Deutsche Bahn has accused the union of refusing to compromise.

“The other side doesn’t budge a millimeter from its maximum position,” spokesperson Achim Stauss said.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck, however, said he had lost sympathy for the strikers.

“It must be possible to find a solution and not push your own interests so radically at the expense of other people; I no longer think that’s right,” he told broadcaster RTL/ntv.

The ADV airport association, meanwhile, warned that strikes in the aviation sector, which on Thursday took place in Hamburg, Duesseldorf and Frankfurt, were damaging Germany’s reputation as a center for business and tourism.

Lufthansa ground staff began a two-day strike on Thursday, and further woes were brewing for Germany’s flag carrier after cabin crews voted on Wednesday for industrial action, with the UFO union assessing the next steps.

Reporting its annual results, Lufthansa warned that strikes were a factor that would lead to a higher-than-expected operating loss in the first three months of 2024.
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washington — On Facebook, Vadim Wolfson makes his political position clear. His profile picture shows him in a baseball cap emblazoned with the words “Puck Futin,” while his banner image features a Russian anti-war flag.

In words and memes, Wolfson criticizes Russian President Vladimir Putin, top Russian officials and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But Wolfson — who formerly went by the last name Belyaev and founded the Otkritie financial group, once Russia’s largest private bank — is now accused of crimes that would appear to contradict these political views.

U.S. federal prosecutors say that in 2018 and 2019, the Austin, Texas, resident helped Andrei Kostin, an oligarch and head of Russia’s state VTB Bank, to own and manage an elite mansion in Colorado. That would have violated U.S. sanctions against the banker.

Wolfson was detained in Austin on February 22 but was soon released on his own recognizance. He is charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which forms the foundation of the sanctions regime, and with conspiracy to violate it. Each charge could carry up to 20 years in prison.

Kostin is charged with sanctions violations, conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each count is also punishable by up to 20 years behind bars. He remains at large, likely in Russia.

The charges, announced in a U.S. Justice Department press release last week, shed light on the alleged holdings of Kostin, whose bank is sometimes called “Putin’s piggy bank,” and his alleged efforts to evade sanctions.

Kostin has called these accusations “baseless.”

“I have never violated any legislation, including American legislation, I have never circumvented any sanctions, and I urge all my partners not to look for or invent any ways to circumvent them, but to build a different world, independent of the pressure of the political elite and the U.S. military lobby,” he said in a comment published by Russia’s state Tass news agency.

In a message, Wolfson declined to comment on the lawsuit or answer questions from VOA. Regarding his political views, he said the following: “Since you read my FB, draw your own conclusions.”

Home in the Rocky Mountains

According to the indictment, Kostin purchased a luxury home in Aspen, Colorado, for $13.5 million in 2010. The formal owner of the house was the Colorado company 40 North Star LLC, and Kostin controlled it through a series of offshore companies, prosecutors say.

Two years later, he purchased three artworks for the house for $1 million. According to the indictment, they are the paintings “Combing the Ridges” by William Robinson Leigh and “Long in the Saddle” and “Arapaho Attack” by Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Koerner. Both artists are famous for depicting the people and landscapes of the American West.

Prosecutors say that from 2010 to 2017, Kostin and his family spent around two weeks at the Aspen home every year, usually during the winter holidays.

Wolfson and his family also spent time there.

Using the parcel map for Pitkin County, where Aspen is located, Voice of America was able to identify the mansion.

It is located to the southeast of downtown Aspen. According to real estate website Zillow, the 1,027-square-meter (11,054-square-foot) home includes seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and features a swimming pool, sauna, whirlpool spa, home cinema and billiard room.

Today, the house rents for $600,000 per month, according to Zillow. It is currently owned by a company that appears to have no connection to Kostin or Wolfson.

Voice of America also found an image of the painting “Combing the Ridges” by Leigh.

The situation became complicated in 2014, after Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. The United States and European countries began imposing sanctions on Russia and prominent Russian politicians and businesspeople.

Soon, the Aspen mansion’s ownership structure changed.

According to prosecutors, in 2014, Altamonte Holding Limited, a company recently registered in the British Virgin Islands, purchased 40 North Star LLC for $10 million.

A database of offshore leaks maintained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists indicates that the beneficial owner of a BVI company with a nearly identical name — Altamonte Holdings Limited — is Vadim Belyaev (aka Wolfson).

A company ultimately owned by Kostin, Capital Business Finance, provided financing for the purchase, the indictment states.

In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on Kostin. The following year, Wolfson bought 40 North Star for $12 million through two financial transactions with a subsidiary of Capital Business Finance controlled by Kostin. The deal violated the sanctions, prosecutors state in the indictment.

In 2018-20, it was Wolfson who primarily used the Aspen home. According to the parcel register, in 2020 the home was sold to another company for $12.5 million. The current owner appears not to be connected to Kostin or Wolfson.

WATCH: Video of a 3-D illustration of Andrei Kostin’s former mansion in Aspen, Colorado. (Google Earth)

Out at sea

The indictment does not end with real estate and art. Prosecutors also contend Kostin controlled two yachts through offshore companies: Sea Rhapsody and Sea & Us.

According to the document, Kostin mainly used the former yacht with his wife and family, while he primarily spent time on the latter with his mistress.

That latter yacht appeared in a 2019 investigation by the late Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny, which dealt with the relationship between Kostin and Nailya Asker-zade, a presenter on the state TV channel Rossiya.

Prosecutors say Kostin bought the 66-meter (217-foot) Sea Rhapsody for $65 million between 2008 and 2012. It was built according to his order. It features six luxury cabins, an infinity pool, a whirlpool spa and a cinema.

Sea & Us is 62 meters (203 feet) long and was custom built for the banker in 2016-18. He paid at least $70 million for it.

According to prosecutors, in 2018-22, Kostin and unnamed accomplices carried out a scheme to provide financing, goods and services to operate, maintain and improve the yachts.

The indictment states they engaged in money laundering by transporting monetary instruments and funds in and out of the United States but does not provide further details of these activities.

According to maritime analytics site marinetraffic.com, Sea Rhapsody is now moored in Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles.

Sea & Us was renamed Serenity and Unity. According to the tracker, it is currently off the coast of Turkey.

Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of property and funds that they say Kostin, Wolfson and others obtained by committing the crimes listed in the indictment.
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Washington — Moscow has a range of military technologies that it could offer Pyongyang in exchange for munitions to sustain its war in Ukraine, with advanced missile technologies high on the list, analysts say.

North Korea has been providing munitions to Russia since its leader, Kim Jong Un, visited Russia last September and met with President Vladimir Putin.

Since September, Pyongyang has shipped about 6,700 containers of munitions to Russia, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonshik said at a press briefing on February 26. He said the containers could carry more than 3 million 152 mm artillery shells or 500,000 122 mm rounds.

Those munitions are making a difference on the battlefield. The Security Service of Ukraine said last month that North Korean ballistic missiles have been killing and injuring civilians since December.

Shin said that North Korea has cranked up its hundreds of munitions factories to operate “at full capacity,” and that in return, Moscow is providing Pyongyang with raw materials and parts to manufacture weapons, in addition to food.

He also said Moscow is expected to transfer more military technology, which could embolden North Korea to escalate threats in the region.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency said in November that Russia was the most likely source of technology that Pyongyang needed to launch its Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit the same month.

But the question remains as to what kind of weapons technology is Russia willing to send to North Korea that would increase the threat it poses to South Korea and the United States?

Analysts say Russia could provide technologies that would refine Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

Michael O’Hanlon, director of research and foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told VOA on Friday via email that Moscow most likely would provide missile technology to North Korea, “but nuclear weapons design information can’t be ruled out.”

What would concern South Korea the most would be short-range ballistic missile technology, including guidance systems, according to Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency who is now a political science professor at Angelo University in Texas.

“The North Koreans may be looking for technology that will help those missiles evade ballistic missile defenses as they’re attacking the South,” Bechtol said Monday during a phone interview with VOA. “The Russians do have that technology, and this is something that we must pay attention to.”

Moscow’s transfer of guidance and reentry capabilities of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, would be the “most dangerous to the American homeland, according to David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.

“Advanced technology and capabilities to support an ICBM program” probably is “what North Korea wants the most,” Maxwell told VOA during a telephone interview on Monday.

Analysts say Russia could also provide technologies that could enhance the development of satellite cameras, submarines, advanced fighter jets, air defense capabilities and tanks.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told VOA in a telephone interview this week that Russia has technology that would allow North Korea to pack greater explosive power into a small warhead, but “may be reluctant to give North Korea sophisticated miniaturization technology.”

Bennett said North Korea may have a nuclear warhead with 10 kilotons yield, but it probably does not have advanced miniaturization technology that could pack 350 kilotons of explosive power into a warhead like that of a U.S. Minuteman III ICBM.

Analysts say regardless of what weapons technology Russia transfers, it would be difficult to detect.

Bennett pointed out that Russian scientists seemed to have flown from Moscow to Pyongyang on a Russia military plane in September, two months before North Korea launched a spy satellite.

It could be difficult to discern if Russians spotted in Pyongyang are military experts now that North Korea has opened up its border to Russian tourists, said Bechtol.

Russian tourists visited North Korea in February for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

A North Korean IT delegation returned home on Friday after attending the Eurasia IT forum in Moscow, and a delegation on the North Korea-Russia joint committee on fisheries returned home on February 29 from Russia, according to KCNA, the state news agency of North Korea.

Additionally, Kim received a Russian-made vehicle from Putin on February 18, according to KCNA. Russian state media Tass on February 19 did not confirm the make or model, saying only that Kim examined an Aurus luxury car during his visit.
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PRAGUE — The Czech Parliament’s upper house, the Senate followed the lower house on Wednesday to approve changes in the gun law that tighten requirements for owning a weapon following the worst mass killing in the nation’s history. 

The legislation now must be signed by President Petr Pavel before becoming law, which is expected. 

On December 22, a lone shooter killed 14 people and wounded dozens before killing himself at a Charles University building in downtown Prague. The assailant was a 24-year-old student who had a proclivity for firearms and a license to own eight guns, including two long guns. 

Authorities said he had no criminal record and therefore did not attract the attention of the authorities. 

The lower house gave the green light to the new law on January 26. 

Under the new law, gun owners would have to undergo a medical check every five years, not every 10 years, as they do now. 

Businesses would be required to report suspicious purchases of guns and ammunition to the police, while doctors would gain access to databases to find out if their patients are gun owners. 

Parliamentary debate on the legislation had already begun before that shooting. Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said it was hard to speculate whether the new rules would have prevented it if they had been in effect before it took place. 

In the 81-seat Senate, lawmakers approved the legislation in a 66-1 vote. 

Once approved by the president, the law would make it possible for the authorities to seize a weapon from a private owner on a preventive basis. 

In the country of 10.9 million people, 314,000 had a gun license at the end of 2022 and owned almost a million weapons of various types
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The fall of Avdiivka last month, a stronghold Ukrainians have been defending for almost 10 years, is bringing the war closer to thousands of civilians in that part of the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine. Many are fleeing west, but some are choosing to stay behind and face the battles rather than become refugees. Yan Boechat has their story from Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. (Camera: Yan Boechat)
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LONDON — Europeans scrolling their phones and computers this week will get new choices for default browsers and search engines, where to download iPhone apps and how their personal online data is used.

They’re part of changes required under the Digital Markets Act, a set of European Union regulations that six tech companies classed as “gatekeepers” — Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance — will have to start following by midnight Wednesday.

The DMA is the latest in a series of regulations that Europe has passed as a global leader in reining in the dominance of large tech companies. Tech giants have responded by changing some of their long-held ways of doing business — such as Apple allowing people to install smartphone apps outside of its App Store.

The new rules have broad but vague goals of making digital markets “fairer” and “more contestable.” They are kicking in as efforts around the world to crack down on the tech industry are picking up pace.

Here’s a look at how the Digital Markets Act will work:

What companies have to follow the rules?

Some 22 services, from operating systems to messenger apps and social media platforms, will be in the DMA’s crosshairs.

They include Google services like Maps, YouTube, the Chrome browser and Android operating system, plus Amazon’s Marketplace and Apple’s Safari Browser and iOS.

Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are included as well as Microsoft’s Windows and LinkedIn.

The companies face the threat of hefty fines worth up to 20% of their annual global revenue for repeated violations — which could amount to billions of dollars — or even a breakup of their businesses for “systematic infringements.”

What effect will the rules have globally?

The Digital Markets Act is a fresh milestone for the 27-nation European Union in its longstanding role as a worldwide trendsetter in clamping down on the tech industry.

The bloc has previously hit Google with whopping fines in antitrust cases, rolled out tough rules to clean up social media and is bringing in world-first artificial intelligence regulations.

Now, places like Japan, Britain, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, Brazil and India are drawing up their own versions of DMA-like rules aimed at preventing tech companies from dominating digital markets.

“We’re seeing copycats around the world already,” said Bill Echikson, senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank. The DMA “will become the defacto standard” for digital regulation in the democratic world, he said.

Officials will be looking to Brussels for guidance, said Zach Meyers, assistant director at the Center for European Reform, a think tank in London.

“If it works, many Western countries will probably try to follow the DMA to avoid fragmentation and the risk of taking a different approach that fails,” he said.

How will downloading apps change?

In one of the biggest changes, Apple has said it will let European iPhone users download apps outside its App Store, which comes installed on its mobile devices.

The company has long resisted such a move, with a big chunk of its revenue coming from the 30% fee it charges for payments — such as for Disney+ subscriptions — made through iOS apps. Apple has warned that “sideloading” apps will come with added security risks.

Now, Apple is cutting those fees it collects from app developers in Europe that opt to stay within the company’s payment-processing system. But it’s adding a 50-euro cent fee for each iOS app installed through third-party app stores, which critics say will deter the many existing free apps — whose developers currently don’t pay any fee — from jumping ship.

“Why would they possibly opt into a world where they have to pay a 50-cent per-user fee?” said Avery Gardiner, Spotify’s global director of competition policy. “So those alternative app stores will never get traction, because they’ll be missing this huge chunk of apps that would need to be there in order for customers to find the store attractive.”

“That is utterly at odds with the very purpose of the DMA,” Gardiner added.

Brussels will be closely scrutinizing whether tech companies are complying.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said this week that after 10 years on the job, “I have seen quite a number of antitrust cases and quite a lot of creativity built into how to work around the rules that we have.”

How will people get more options online?

Consumers won’t be forced into default choices for key services.

Android users can pick which search engine to use by default, while iPhone users will get to choose which browser will be their go-to. Europeans will see choice screens on their devices. Microsoft, meanwhile, will stop forcing people to use its Edge browser.

The idea is to stop people from being nudged into using Apple’s Safari browser or Google’s Search app. But smaller players still worry that they might end up worse off than before.

Users might just stick with what they recognize because they don’t know anything about the other options, said Christian Kroll, CEO of Berlin-based search engine Ecosia.

Ecosia has been pushing for Apple and Google to include more information about rival services in the choice screens.

“If people don’t know what the alternatives are, it’s rather unlikely that many of them will select an alternative,” Kroll said. “I’m a big fan of the DMA. I am not sure yet if it will have the results that we’re hoping for.”

How will internet searches change?

Some Google search results will show up differently, because the DMA bans companies from giving preference to their own services.

So, for example, searches for hotels will now display an extra “carousel” of booking sites like Expedia. Meanwhile, the Google Flights button on the search result display will be removed and the site will be listed among the blue links on search result pages.

Users also will have options to stop being profiled for targeted advertising based on their online activity.

Google users are getting the choice to stop data from being shared across the company’s services to help better target them with ads.

Meta is allowing users to separate their Facebook and Instagram accounts so their personal information can’t be combined for ad targeting.

The DMA also requires messaging systems to be able to work with each other. Meta, which owns the only two chat apps that fall under the rules, is expected to come up with a proposal on how Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp users can exchange text messages, videos and images.
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Brussels — The European Union moved a step closer Tuesday to banning products made from forced labor after negotiators reached an agreement on a law that supporters hope will help block imports from China involving the Uyghur Muslim minority.

The bloc’s draft text does not specifically mention China, but focuses on all products made from forced labor, including those made within the European Union.

Human rights groups say at least one million people, mostly members of Muslim minorities, have been incarcerated in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region and face widespread abuses, including forced sterilization of women and coerced labor.

Nearly 28 million people, including 3.3 million children, are in forced labor around the world, according to the International Labor Organization.

Under the new law, the European Commission must open investigations when there is suspicion of forced labor in a company’s supply chains outside the EU.

Meanwhile, the EU’s 27 member states will be expected to launch probes when the forced labor is suspected inside the bloc.

If the use of forced labor is proven, the relevant goods can be seized at the borders and withdrawn from the European market and online marketplaces.

Companies can be fined for any violations. Although the law does not set a minimum or maximum limit, officials said fines should be an amount that acts as a deterrent.

If a company removes forced labor from their supply chains, the banned products can return to the European market.

“The prevalence of forced labor products on our market is becoming ever more apparent, most notably with products made with Uyghur forced labor. This is unacceptable,” said EU lawmaker Maria Manuel Leitao Marques, who spearheaded the text through parliament.

“We can no longer turn a blind eye to what is happening in our supply chains,” she said.

The US Congress in 2021 banned all imports from Xinjiang, unless companies in the region can prove that their production does not include forced labor.

The EU law, first proposed in 2022, will become official after formal adoption by the EU’s 27 member states and parliament.

“We now urge member states to respect the deal… and finalize the new law as soon as possible,” socialist EU lawmaker Raphael Glucksmann said.

“The EU is on track to ban products made with forced labor from our market,” the EU’s most senior trade official, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on social media.

“This will now require careful and effective implementation,” he said.
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