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Europe Expands the Reach of Its Sanctions - Foreign Policy The United States’ history of using economic sanctions as a means of coercion has not only outraged its adversaries but also upset its friends. Washington’s allies have long been concerned about its liberal use of so-called secondary sanctions, which are extraterritorial restrictions that penalize foreign companies that do business with U.S. adversaries, even if the companies are based in friendly countries. In the 1980s, the West German government was outraged when the Reagan administration sanctioned European firms involved in constructing a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Soviet Union to West Germany. More recently, U.S. secondary sanctions have targeted European companies for doing business with Iran, Chinese banks suspected of money laundering for North Korea, and the entities involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2, another pipeline to bring Russian gas to Germany.
Until recently, Washington was the primary user of secondary sanctions. However, the sanctions landscape is shifting, and European allies that previously rejected the use of extraterritorial sanctions have suddenly discovered their merits. In response to Moscow’s persistent evasion of sanctions imposed since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the European Union and Britain have quietly strengthened their regulations, introducing measures with extraterritorial effects. While these measures lack the teeth of true secondary sanctions, a gradual European shift toward Washington’s more expansive approach to sanctions is becoming evident. With primary sanctions so obviously falling short, the EU and Britain are increasingly willing to adopt measures that reach beyond their borders.
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WorkHer Face Was Unrecognizable After an Explosion. A Placenta Restored It.And yet, of the roughly 3.5 million placentas delivered in the United States each year, most still wind up in biohazard disposal bags or hospital incinerators. That flummoxes Ms. Townsend, who returned to her job as a surgical assistant with a new perspective. “I’m constantly in these hospitals that don’t donate or utilize the placental tissue,” she said. “I hear the obstetrician say, ‘I don’t need to send that to pathology or anything; just trash it.’ I cringe every time.” Work
WorkWorkThe Sue Gray saga casts doubt on Sir Keir Starmers managerial chops - The Economist THE CASE for Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister ran something like this. He may not be a great orator and he might not have a grand vision for how to remake Britain, but he does know how to run a public-sector bureaucracy. Before the election in July he traded on his record as a one-time director of public prosecutions who focused on getting the boring stuff rightdigitising old documents, say, or listening to the junior staff who knew where efficiencies could be made. After the showboating and internal warfare of successive Conservative governments, in a country with creaking public services, a super-administrator in Downing Street would be worth having.
WorkWorkTrumps Dangerous Immigration Obsession - The New Yorker Donald Trumps most outrageous pronouncements on immigration are rarely shocking for long; theyre usually eclipsed within days, if not hours, by even more grotesque claims. Last year, in what should have been an enduring political scandal, Trump blamed immigrants for poisoning the blood of our country. He has repeated his solutionmass deportationso often that its become a campaign slogan. In a national Scripps News/Ipsos poll last month, fifty-four per cent of those asked agreed, either strongly or somewhat, with Trumps call, including a quarter of Democrats. Maybe people cant imagine what an action like that would entail; or, worse, maybe they can.
WorkWorkTotaling up the damage in Gaza after a year of war - WSJ After a year of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the enclave’s future looks as bleak as its immediate past. Swaths of its cities and towns are in ruins, most schools and hospitals are destroyed or badly damaged, olive groves and farm fields are uprooted or bulldozed in many areas, and the bulk of its people are displaced on their own land, if they have survived at all.
WorkA Nobel Prize for terror? - WSJ The Nobel Peace Prize has gone to some undeserving recipients over the years, but this year’s list of nominees is beyond the pale. Among those nominated for the prize by Norwegian politicians are the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, the International Court of Justice and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Work
WorkWhy Pfizer will find it hard to appease its activist investor - WSJ It will be hard for the company to increase sales of new products, such as a vaccine for RSV, fast enough to lift shares. A closely watched weight-loss drug won’t finish testing until next year at the earliest. And Pfizer’s debt load is too high for the company to make a game-changing acquisition. WorkA weakened Iran still has a major deterrent: the nuclear option - WSJ Israel has shown Iran’s two most important deterrents against an attack—its ballistic missiles and allied militia Hezbollah—are less powerful than previously thought. Now attention is turning to whether Iran will accelerate its nuclear program to deter its biggest regional foe.
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WorkWorkHuman Longevity May Have Reached its Upper Limit - Scientific American For most of the 20th century, each successive decade added about three extra years to peoples average lifespan in developed countries. For a person born at the turn of the 21st century, these incremental gains meant that they could, on average, live 30 years longer than someone born in 1900, allowing them to make it to their 80th birthday. WorkWhat It Takes to Form a Union and Where to Begin - Harvard Business Review If youre interested in forming a union, but unsure of what to expect, youre not alone. Under the current American system for union recognition, unionizing is an arduous process and comes with some real challenges. It takes extensive organization among coworkers and differs for those in the private vs. the public sector. For those who work in the private sector, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) oversees the process of certification. It often but not always involves an NLRB-supervised election, where workers vote over whether they want to be represented by a particular union. Having some foundational knowledge around why unions form, what they do, and how theyre structured can help inform how you navigate this process. WorkWait, why is Dr Pepper so popular now?The US presidential campaign is in its final weeks and were dedicated to helping you understand the stakes. In this election cycle, its more important than ever to provide context beyond the headlines. But in-depth reporting is costly, so to continue this vital work, we have an ambitious goal to add 5,000 new members. WorkWhat Lies Ahead for the Middle EastIt was one year ago that Hamas militants breached the security barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, initiating a rampage killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 in the bloodiest day in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. More dark milestones followed. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its bombardment of the Strip, the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record. More women and children were killed in Gaza over the past year than any other conflict over the last two decades, according to a new analysis by Oxfam. Famine, of which there have only been two in the 21st century, is a persistent risk. In its first months, the conflict restored to the worlds consciousness the Palestinians aspiration to a nation of their own, the nub of their conflict with Israel. In the U.S., public sympathy toward Palestinians already was growing with revulsion over Israels 57-year military occupation of Palestinian territories. Now it climbed with the Gaza death toll, particularly among young Americans; global support for Israel soured. WorkWorkInvestors should avoid a new generation of rip-off ETFs - The Economist John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group and pioneer of index funds, may have saved investors more money than anyone else in history. By some estimates, his crusade to drive down fees has, over the past five decades, left them with more than $1trn that would otherwise have gone to fund managers. Index funds, through which speculators can invest in the stockmarket as a whole, cut out the middlemen. In doing so, they have transformed the world of investing. WorkHow Jack Smith Outsmarted the Supreme CourtSpecial Counsel Jack Smith’s recent filing to the D.C. District Court in the Trump v. United States presidential-immunity case both fleshes out and sharpens the evidence of Donald Trump’s sprawling criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. To understand the filing’s larger significance as well as its limitations, we must first review a bit of recent history. WorkThe Media Is Finally Waking Up to the Story of Trumps Mental Fitness If things go the way I hope they go in November, it may well turn out that Sunday’s terrific New York Times piece by Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman on Donald Trump’s age and fitness for office could stand as the single most important piece of journalism in this election. If you’ve been reading me and Greg Sargent and Parker Molloy and our Breaking News desk, then you know that The New Republic has been pretty obsessive about the topic of Trump’s mental fitness—and more importantly about the media’s general refusal to discuss it. WorkProtest That the University of Maryland Sought to Prevent Goes OnStudents for Justice in Palestine, aided by two other organizations, Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, sued the university, arguing that it had violated the student group’s First Amendment rights. They portrayed the school as having censored the event after pro-Israel individuals and groups complained and having justified the decision by citing vague safety concerns. WorkFor Gen Z, US election is all about the economyNorth America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here. WorkWorkA Florida Poll That Should Change the Way You Look at the ElectionAs a result, this poll is not the usual outlier. It’s certainly an outlier compared with other polls, but it probably isn’t a fluke simply attributable to random chance. If we polled Florida again tomorrow, it’s certainly possible that Mr. Trump wouldn’t lead by 13 points (the accumulated national poll subsamples, for instance, have a larger sample and show him up by nine). But it’s hard to imagine his lead would finish at a mere four points, like yesterday’s polling average. WorkAfter a Betrayal, a Fractured Cartel Turns Its Hometown Into a War ZoneMr. Zambada described the treachery in a letter released by his lawyer, in which the drug lord said that on the day he was arrested, he’d been lured to a supposedly friendly meeting and then “ambushed” and “kidnapped” by one of the sons of his fellow cartel co-founder, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo. WorkWorkWorkWorkUber is adding an EV-only option in many citiesUber claims that EV adoption among its drivers is at least five times higher than typical motorists in the US, Canada and Europe. The monthly average number of Uber drivers in North America and Europe who use EVs now sits at more than 180,000. WorkWater companies in England and Wales told to pay 158m penalty to customersMike Keil, the chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, said: "Poor performance on pollution incidents and a failure to protect thousands of households from the misery of sewer flooding will do little to reverse the unprecedented decline in people's satisfaction and trust in water companies, which is reflected in our research." WorkWorkWorkFrenchbiotech Generare speeds up hunt for new drugs by cloning natural molecules | TechCrunchNatasha is a senior reporter for TechCrunch, joining September 2012, based in Europe. She joined TC after a stint reviewing smartphones for CNET UK and, prior to that, more than five years covering business technology for silicon.com (now folded into TechRepublic), where she focused on mobile and wireless, telecoms & networking, and IT skills issues. She has also freelanced for organisations including The Guardian and the BBC. Natasha holds a First Class degree in English from Cambridge University, and an MA in journalism from Goldsmiths College, University of London. WorkWorkPepsiCo lowers revenue forecast on weakening demand in the USPepsiCo said its performance in North America was “subdued,” hurt by a big recall of its Quaker Oats granola bars and cereals as well as weak demand for its Frito-Lay snacks and drinks. Frito-Lay North America's sales volumes slipped 1.5%, while North American beverage volumes fell 3%. WorkWhy Ladybugs Symbolize Good Luck and Other Facts - Discover Magazine Of the thousands of insect species crawling and flying around the world, ladybugs probably rank among some of the cutest. These tiny, rotund creatures scuttle about on plant leaves, easily distinguishable thanks to their sports car red and small black spots. Sometimes, they might even land on you if youre lucky. WorkWorkWorkOpinion | Is New York Ready to Forgive Andrew Cuomo?I’m not a partisan of Mr. Cuomo’s, but I believe there’s a compelling reason he should run. Whether he deserves to win is another question altogether. (Full disclosure: I declined an offer by Mr. Cuomo to join his administration about a decade ago.) WorkTrump Sees Antisemitism in Only One Direction: On the LeftMr. Trump did not blame the Biden administration for the Mideast conflict. But as he blamed “the leadership of this country” for a rise in antisemitism — ignoring the rise in reported antisemitic acts during his presidency — someone in the crowd called out “what leadership?” Work7 Takeaways From Harris's Interview on '60 Minutes'When Mr. Whitaker asked her if the administration had lost all sway over Mr. Netanyahu, Ms. Harris said, “The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles.” WorkWorkTrump Says He's Visited Gaza, but No Record of Such a Trip ExistsIn the interview, Mr. Hewitt asked Mr. Trump, a real-estate developer, if Gaza, wide swaths of which have been destroyed over the last year as part of air and ground strikes in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, could “be Monaco if it was rebuilt the right way? Could someone make Gaza into something that all the Palestinian people would be proud of, would want to live in, would benefit them?” WorkRussia, China and Iran Intend to Stoke False Election Claims, Officials WarnThe officials said that a wider variety of countries were also trying to sway congressional races, including Russia, Cuba and China. The officials said China had already interfered in “tens” of races but did not favor either party. Instead, China’s efforts focused on undermining candidates who have been particularly vocal in their support of Taiwan. WorkNobel Prize goes to scientists' work on machine learningBut he said he also had concerns about the future. He said he would do the same work again, "but I worry that the overall consequences of this might be systems that are more intelligent than us that might eventually take control". WorkUS judge orders Google to open app store to competitors"That isn't something antitrust law would normally require," said Mark Lemley, professor at Stanford Law School. "But the judge correctly noted that once you have violated the antitrust laws, courts can order you to do affirmative things to undo the harm you caused, even though you didn't have the obligation to do those things in the first place." WorkHS2 will likely reach Euston, says Transport SecretaryHowever, in February, the Commons' Public Accounts Committee released a report stating it was "highly sceptical" that the government would be able to attract private investment on "the scale and speed required" to make the extension to Euston as success. |
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