Tag: EU

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2…………>  EU To Putin: Get Your Troops Out Of Ukraine Now

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The leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine urged Russia to withdraw the additional troops it has amassed on its border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimea over recent weeks, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared concern over the military build-up after holding a video conference, leading to the chancellery in Berlin to issue a statement:

“‘We demand’ the withdrawal of these reinforcements to reach a de-escalation.”

Zelenskyy traveled to Paris to meet Macron where the two also spoke with Merkel via video link to address Russia’s recent troop deployments.

The talks came as Kyiv and the West have reacted alarmingly in recent weeks over the Kremlin’s military presence along the Russia-Ukraine border.

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https://www.dw.com/en/germany-france-ukraine-urge-russia-to-withdraw-troops/a-57227359

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3…………>  Venezuela Crypto-Currency Boom: Or Bust?

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For Gabriel Jimenez, the 31-year-old programmer who has been living in exile in the United States for two years now, from where he is striving to push a cryptocurrency revolution in his country with a digital coin called Reserve, returning to his home country of Venezuela is very dangerous with official currency plummeting for years, as both the government and crypto creators are trying to stem the rot with digital tokens. For ordinary people, the crypto boom also means regaining freedom, with customers no longer standing in lines at the cashiers of a store that accepts the Venezuelan hyperinflated cryptocurrency  caused by a massive economic crisis has boosted the use of it in daily life.

The crypto coin is intended to circumvent Venezuela’s notoriously high inflation and has been in circulation since March this year, as the socialist politicians ruling Venezuela “have no solutions for our country” and its depreciating legal tender, the bolivar, according to Mr. Jimenez, with politicians charged with designing country’s first cryptocurrency three years ago, himself then a youthful startup founder at the age of 27 — saw a chance for both beating hyperinflation and taking clandestine revenge on the country’s detested socialist government.

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https://www.dw.com/en/venezuelans-try-to-beat-hyperinflation-with-cryptocurrency-revolution/a-57219083

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4………….>  Iran’s Nuke Fuel: Up & Up

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The Islamic republic had declared it would sharply crank up its enrichment of uranium, two days after an attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that it blamed on arch-foe Israel, with the statement casting a shadow over talks in Vienna aimed at salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that then US President Donald Trump abandoned almost three years ago, as Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, confirmed the country was now producing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity:

“The enrichment of uranium to 60 percent is underway at the Martyr Ahmadi Roshan nuclear facility in Natanz” .

“We are now getting nine grams (almost a third of an ounce) per hour,” Salehi said later on state television.

While production was underway, scientists at Natanz were still working on how to install the two centrifuge lines Iran said would be dedicated to 60 percent enrichment operations, Salehi said.

He added that that could see Iran’s production of 60 percent enriched uranium fall to six grams an hour, but added that it would continue to make 20 percent enriched uranium on the same two lines.

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https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20210416-iran-says-it-has-begun-enriching-uranium-to-60-percent-its-highest-level-yet

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5…………>  Google Data Breaches: Down Under

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Google could face fines in the “many millions” after the Federal Court found the company misled some Australian mobile and tablet users about how it collects location data, after concluding that it misled a specific group of Android customers, the complaint centered on two specific Google settings that affected location data collection; ‘location history’ and ‘web & app activity’, as a consumer watchdog claimed Google misled consumers because if ‘location history’ was disabled but the latter setting was left on, the company continued to collect and use location data.

“I am satisfied that Google’s conduct assessed as a whole was misleading or deceptive of, or likely to mislead or deceive, ordinary members within the class identified by the ACCC, acting reasonably,” Justice Thomas Thawley said in his judgment.

“I conclude that Google’s conduct assessed as a whole conveyed a representation that having ‘web & app activity’ turned ‘on’ would not allow Google to obtain, retain and use personal data about the user’s location.”

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-16/google-misled-some-australian-mobile-users-over-location-history/100074292

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