BRUSSELS: European Union (EU) regulators on Wednesday authorised the London Stock Exchange’s US$27 billion (RM22-billion) takeover of US financial data provider Refinitiv with certain conditions.
The transaction is permitted on condition that the parties involved make “commitments that will ensure that the markets will remain open and competitive,” EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
The merger, announced in August 2019, aims to create a market information giant that would rival Bloomberg.
New York-headquartered Refinitiv is one of the main financial markets data providers, with 40,000 institutional clients in almost all countries on the planet.
It was formerly the financial and risk business of Canadian group Thomson Reuters, which went on to share ownership with the majority stakeholder, private equity firm Blackstone.
The deal will see the Thomson Reuter-Blackstone consortium take 37% in the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) but hold less than 30% of voting rights.
The LSEG forecasts it will triple revenues after the merger and become one of the world’s top players across a range of financial services, including trading in shares and bonds as well as clearing and data.
US authorities have already approved the merger. EU regulators launched their in-depth investigation of the deal in June last year.
To win EU regulatory approval, the LSEG agreed to divest itself of Borsa Italiana, the Italian stock exchange in Milan, and for 10 years to continue offering over-the-counter interest rate derivative clearing services on an “open access basis” and supply London Stock Exchange trading data to competitors, the statement said.
“The Commission therefore concluded that the transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns. This decision is conditional on full compliance with the commitments,” it said.
The LSEG said in its own statement it “confirms that the European Commission has conditionally approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, its proposed all share acquisition of Refinitiv”.
It added that the merger “remains subject to a small number of merger control and financial regulatory authority approvals” and expected the transaction to be completed before the end of March.
LSEG shares jumped on the news and were trading 1.7% higher in mid-afternoon on the London Stock Exchange.
Euronext, Europe‘s biggest stock exchange, acknowledged the EU’s decision. In October it entered into a binding agreement to take Borsa Italiana off Refinitiv’s hands for €4.3 billion (RM21.2 billion). It noted that its purchase of Borsa Italiana was still subject to regulatory approval but expected to complete it within the next five months. – AFP
… cancel his deal for a book.
“Simon & Schuster and unfortunately … over the loss of his book deal than he has over … scheduled to publish Hawley’s book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech … said the issue with his publisher is whether his voice will …
The vote came one week after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Ahead of the violence in which 6 people died, President Trump had spoken at length to a crowd, some of whom marched on Capitol Hill and forced their way into Congressional chambers and offices.
The single article of impeachment accuses Mr. Trump of inciting the insurrection which followed his speech.
It reads: “President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
Senate trial
The resolution’s passage makes Mr. Trump the first US president ever to be impeached twice.
It comes just 7 days before he leaves office on 20 January, when President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in.
Impeachment triggers a trial in the Senate. However, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement on Wednesday that “no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump has left office.”
A two-thirds majority of the Senate is needed to convict Mr. Trump.
Lead-up to vote
Ahead of Wednesday’s impeachment vote, a majority of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday urging Vice President Mike Pence to remove President Trump under the 25th Amendment.
Mr. Pence rejected the bid, leading Democrats to introduce the impeachment resolution.
In a break with standard procedure, House Republican leaders refused to urge members to vote against impeaching Mr. Trump. They said the matter was one of individual conscience.
The European Union will not require the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to ban the use of forced labour before ratifying the proposed €120 billion investment pact with the authoritarian regime, France’s junior minister for trade said on Tuesday.
The deal was brokered hastily before the start of the incoming Biden administration in the United States and has been characterised by the European Commission as “most ambitious agreement that China has ever concluded with a third country”.
The European Union has drawn considerable backlash over the deal, with many pointing to the failure to secure meaningful concessions from the communist regime on issues of human rights, as the deal merely states that China will “work towards” the implementation of International Labour Organization conventions which would prohibit slave labour.
In an interview with POLITICO on Tuesday, Franck Riester, France’s junior minister for trade, said that the EU will not seek to gain concessions on slave labour before signing the massive trade deal.
“We will sign, the European Union will sign [the investment agreement] with the provision noted in the text, which is to make sustained and continuous efforts for ratification” on labour standards.
“We have an agreement that says that it’s a commitment to ratify — not to ratify at the time of signature — but to ratify,” he said.
Mr Riester said that the deal with China differs from the deal signed between the bloc and Vietnam last year, which was only ratified by the EU Parliament after Vietnam introduced labour codes preventing the use of slave labour. He said that the European Union will only ask Beijing to commit to a “calendar” to implement worker’s rights.
“We’re going to ask for rendez-vous clauses, we’re going to follow this closely, we’re going to put regular pressure on China to ratify … Now we have a few months to work out the calendar, and how we monitor all this.”
Farage: European Union’s Greed Is Helping Communist China ‘Take Over the World’ https://t.co/VQphKAACee
In response to the failure to implement strict requirements on labour rights, French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann said: “As a Member of the European Parliament, I am sad to tell that the EU is the one taking the wrong path.”
Glucksmann went on to say that the “UK, followed by Canada, shows more dignity on this than all member states and EU combined. The way we act in face of a crime against humanity defines our role in History.”
In comments made to Breitbart London following the announcement of the EU-China trade deal, Hong Kong Watch founder and chairman Benedict Rogers said that the investment pact is a “real setback for the free world“.
“It’s a travesty, a betrayal of the EU’s values, and a threat to the security of European member states,” Rogers added.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage also condemned the deal, saying: “Brussels greed is helping the regime to take over the world.”
On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced the British government would be imposing fines on firms who use Xinjiang slave labour their supply chains.
Writing in The Telegraph on Wednesday, Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss said that the goal of implementing fines “is to make sure that no company that profits from forced labour in Xinjiang can do business in the UK, and that no UK business is involved in their supply chains.”
“We want a positive and constructive relationship with China. But we will not sacrifice our values in doing so,” Trus added.
Critics of the Chinese Communist Party within the Conservative Party have pushed the government to introduce harsher measures, however, with many hardliners, including former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith calling for the introductions of Magnistky sanctions on Chinese officials involved with the mass internment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
‘Setback for the Free World’: EU Trade Deal with Communist China Draws Harsh Criticism https://t.co/CktU0dsAnG
Outbreaks of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also known as sheep and goat plague, have fallen by two-thirds in recent years thanks to vaccination campaigns carried out in more than 50 countries, the agency reported.
“Eradicating the disease is possible and essential to ending poverty and hunger. Not only would it save a valuable source of food and income for many vulnerable people but could also prevent entire families from migrating – a risk they face when their livelihoods are destroyed”, said Maria Helena Semedo, the FAO Deputy Director-General.
“A world free of PPR will also mean more security and empowerment for rural women as they are often responsible for looking after livestock.”
PPR was first identified in Côte d’Ivoire in the 1940s but has spread at an alarming rate over the past 15 years, mainly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and is considered one of the most damaging of all animal diseases.
At its worst, up to 80 per cent of the world’s 2.5 billion small ruminants risks being infected if the disease is not controlled, according to FAO.
PPR has a fatality rate of 30-70 per cent, which means it can be deadly for animals, but there are also severe consequences for food security, community resilience and incomes.
FAO warned that some 300 million families worldwide who rely on sheep, goats and other small ruminants for food and income, could lose their livelihoods if the disease is not kept at bay. The economic loss has been estimated at over $2 billion annually.
Goal in sight
The road to eradicating PPR began in 2015, when the international community set the goal of ending the disease by 2030, in line with a strategy developed by FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
Back then, more than 3,500 outbreaks were recorded worldwide, compared to just over 1,900 in 2019, according to latest data.
FAO said the decrease can be attributed to vaccination campaigns led and funded by authorities in more than 50 countries, with support from the agency and its partners. In just 12 countries alone, more than 300 million goats and sheep were vaccinated between 2015 and 2018.
Currently, 58 countries and one region in Namibia have been recognized as being PPR-free, while some 21 nations have had no new cases for five consecutive years.
Obstacles to eradication
However, FAO said shortage of vaccines, livestock movement, logistical challenges and disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have thrown up obstacles to eradication.
Additionally, most PPR-endemic countries are located in tropical or subtropical regions, where resources for cold chain storage and transportation of the vaccines are limited.
FAO, OIE and partners have established a vaccine bank that has improved both quality assurance and supply, but a $340 million funding gap for the eradication programme threatens further progress.
“Whilst PPR outbreaks have decreased significantly in recent years, the infection scope of the PPR virus, both geographical and host range, is still wide, and more needs to be done to fight the disease”, said veterinarian Felix Njeumi, FAO’s PPR Programme Coordinator.
The “Buddhism in Southern Region of Việt Nam: Establishment and Development” Conference was organised on Sunday by the Vietnam Buddhist University in co-operation with HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. VNS Photo Gia Lộc
By — Shyamal Sinha
The Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam is the only Buddhist Sangha recognised by the Vietnamese government and is a member of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front. The BSV was founded after Vietnam’s Buddhist Convention was held at Quan Su Temple on November 7, 1981. The BSV was founded to unify Buddhist activities of Vietnamese Buddhist monks, nuns and lay followers. The Head of the 6th term Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam (2007-2012) is Most Venerable Thich Pho Tue.
Buddhism has a great influence on the thinking and behaviour of Vietnamese people. For them it is not only a religion, but also a way of life that emphasizes disconnection to the present. People believe that “to the same degree, they reap today what they have sown in the past”. In other words, they believe in rebirth and that their present life is a reflection of actions in a previous life.
Promoting patriotic traditions and positive human values, Việt Nam Buddhism has made many contributions to society in different fields, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, head of the Department of Buddhist Affairs – Government Committee for Religious Affairs, said at a conference held on January 10.
Buddhism had encouraged solidarity among the people and developed ethical and humane values, Nguyên said.
Dr Trần Đức Cường, chairman of Vietnam Association of Historical Sciences, said: “Buddhism entered Việt Nam more than 2,000 years ago. Buddhism has become an indispensable part of Vietnamese culture. The profound human values together with the cultural values of Buddhism have continued to affect the ideology and lifestyle of the people. It encourages people to build and protect the good traditions of the Vietnamese. It promotes people, guides goodness, and builds a peaceful society.”
“It maintains and promotes traditions, national solidarity and community harmony,” Cường said, adding that through social activities, along with many other religions, Vietnamese Buddhism has strengthened solidarity between religion and life among all classes of people, contributing to educating and promoting the community spirit and collective strength.
In modern society, when ethnic and religious conflicts take place in many countries in the world, the philosophy and practice of the model of a harmonious and solidarity community of Vietnam Buddhism is a positive example because it wants to direct people to a good life filled with love, peace and friendship, and cooperation for mutual development, he said.
The Most Venerable Thích Trí Quảng, first deputy supreme patriarch of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, rector of Vietnam Buddhist University, said: “Right from the establishment of the Southern land, Buddhism was present in the spiritual life of residents there, co-working closely in reclaiming, building, and creating hamlets, and contributing an important part in the development of a beautiful and rich land with the high potential and a diverse spiritual life.”
Buddhism in the Southern region contributed to the fight against invading enemies, protecting the independence and freedom of the Vietnamese nation, Quảng said. “Buddhism in the South not only became a factor constituting the cultural foundation and people, but also contributed to the creation of the cultural identity and value system of the land and people of the South.”
Currently, the Southern region is undergoing a renovation process in the context of globalisation with the explosive development of science – technology and economic institutions, according to Quảng.
These trends present the Southern region with many opportunities for breakthrough development, but also pose many serious challenges.
“It is the risk of breaking and losing cultural identity in international integration and pushing a large part of people to be hurt by their own loneliness. The duality of the globalisation process is inevitable and requires that we pay more attention to happiness, culture and people as the foundation of all perspectives, the socio-economic development strategy and plan of the Southern region,” he added.
Vietnam Buddhist University signs an agreement with the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities to co-operate in training, researching and publishing reference books in Buddhism. VNS Photo Gia Lộc
Ambassador from Sri Lanka to Việt Nam Prasanna Gamage said: “Việt Nam was, and still is, a profoundly Buddhist country. The Sangha are very involved in the community, and temples often run schools, orphanages, medical clinics, and homes for the disabled. Lay people play an important role in religious life.”
“The Buddha’s message of equality, for today’s divided world, is more important than ever. This world is replete with poverty, discontent and suffering. The loving kindness, non-violence and peaceful existence that the Buddha taught are fundamentally relevant. Let us take it upon ourselves to bring such practices back to life.”
The “Buddhism in Southern Region of Việt Nam: Establishment and Development” Conference was held by the Vietnam Buddhist University in co-operation with the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
At the conference, the two universities signed an agreement to co-operate in training, researching and publishing reference books in Buddhism.
Buddhism came to Vietnam by the maritime route from India and from China by land. Those who first carried this religion to Vietnam seem to have been refugees from persecution in China and religious pilgrims from India.
“Episode one I always view as the pregame show,” the head of ABC’s Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night Programming began on the Tuesday, January 12, episode of Nick Viall’s “Viall Files” podcast. “There’s a lot of root-ability, but there’s some ridiculousness [this season] as well.”
The 29-year-old former football player kicked off his journey during the January 4 premiere with a prayer at Nemacolin Resort in Pennsylvania.
“I didn’t expect [the prayer] to be such a hot-button [topic] of interest. And I actually understand some of it, [when people ask], ’What if this had been someone of a different domination?’” Mills told the season 21 Bachelor. “I have heard somebody say in the prayer, like, ‘Please either bow your head in the manner you’re accustomed to or whatever.’ But this is a guy, he just met 32 women. … The fact that he didn’t tell people, like, ‘Hey if this is not OK with you.’ … He didn’t mean —”
Nick, 40, then injected, “It’s just a prayer, it’s not going to burn you.”
“That’s on us for not clarifying that as much as we could,” Mills said, referring to Ivan’s sudden exit.
Ivan later confirmed that he identifies as “agnostic,” which was a deal breaker for Tayshia.
“Atheist is taking a hard stance that there is no God, and that’s not what I believe at all. It’s completely different things, but everybody confuses it. Agnostic is strictly saying, I don’t know, basically,” he explained on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s “Off the Vine” podcast in December. “I’m gonna tell our kids, I don’t know what there is, and then you can tell the kids whatever you want, and you can take them to church, that’s completely fine with me. For Tayshia, it’s something different, where she, I guess, actually wanted to date someone who is Christian. And that’s completely fine, and that’s how a lot of people are.”
While there was a discussion on social media about Matt’s opening night prayer, Nick noted that the Wake Forest alum “set the stage for whatever is important to him,” which is key for his future wife to know. “If that’s something that’s a big part of his life and he wants [it] to be a big part of his relationship, it makes sense,” he said. “It also would make sense if it does make someone uncomfortable if they’re not into it, but that’s a discussion then maybe we will have.”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from Mills:
Members on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committees will debate the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on Thursday at 10.00 CET.
The joint meeting of the lead committees will intensify the democratic parliamentary scrutiny process for the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement reached by EU and British negotiators on 24 December.
The two committees will in due course vote on the consent proposal prepared by the two standing rapporteurs Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg) and Kati Piri (S&D, The Netherlands), to allow for a plenary vote before the end of the provisional application of the agreement.
In addition to the plenary vote, Parliament will also vote on an accompanying resolution prepared by the political groups in the UK Coordination Group and the Conference of Presidents.
The meeting
When: Thursday, 14 January, at 10.00 CET.
Where: Room 6Q2 in Parliament’s Antall building in Brussels and remote participation.
MEPs on the International Trade Committee held a first meeting on the new EU-UK deal on Monday 11 January, during which they promised thorough scrutiny of the agreement. Read more here.
Alongside monitoring, virus and serum samples should be shared via globally agreed mechanisms so that critical research can be promptly initiated each time, according to the agency.
“Our collective goal is to get ahead of the game and have a global mechanism to quickly identify and study variants of concern and understand their implications for disease control efforts,” said Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, Head of WHO’s R&D Blueprint.
She was speaking at a virtual meeting of scientists from around the globe, convened by the UN health agency, attended by over 1,750 experts from 124 countries.
Participants noted the importance of research to detect and understand early on the potential impact of emerging variants on diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, and highlighted the importance of integrating new SARS-CoV-2 variants research into the global research and innovation agenda, according to WHO.
It is normal for viruses to mutate, but the more the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to change. High levels of transmission mean emergence of more variants should be expected, according to WHO.
Of the significant variants reported so far, some are associated with increases in transmissibility but not disease severity. Research is ongoing to address whether the changes impact public health tools and measures.
“So far an astounding 350,000 sequences have been publicly shared, but most come from just a handful of countries. Improving the geographic coverage of sequencing is critical for the world to have eyes and ears on changes to the virus,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead on COVID-19.
New variants of the coronavirus have been detected in the UK, South Africa and Japan, which appear to be more transmissible, although health officials have said that there is no evidence it is more deadly, or that it would not respond in the same way to the vaccines cleared for emergency use.
Information sharing critical
Genomic sequencing has been critical in identifying and responding to new variants, and increasing sequencing capacity across the world is a priority research area for WHO.
Better surveillance and laboratory capacity to monitor strains of concern needs to be accompanied by prompt sharing of virus and serum samples via globally agreed mechanisms so that critical research can be promptly initiated each time, the agency added.
