Tag Archives: WorldNews

WTO will allow Europe to issue tariffs on $4 billion of US goods

The two sides have been locked in a 16-year-old dispute at the WTO over aid to their aircraft industries in a pair of cases that together represent the world’s largest corporate dispute.

Washington last year began imposing tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU goods over state support for Boeing’s rival Airbus.

fbimg.php?img=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.ne

The World Trade Organization has authorised the European Union to impose tariffs on US goods worth $4 billion to retaliate against subsidies for American planemaker Boeing, people familiar with the matter said.

The two sides have been locked in a 16-year-old dispute at the WTO over aid to their aircraft industries in a pair of cases that together represent the world’s largest corporate dispute.

Washington last year began imposing tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU goods over state support for Boeing’s rival Airbus.

Sources on both sides believe that EU tariffs on products such as Boeing jets, were unlikely to be imposed before the November 3 presidential election in the US.

Airbus and Boeing declined to comment, saying the WTO report is currently confidential.

European sources said the latest award does not include some $4.2 billion of tariffs against the US left over from an earlier case, giving the EU $8.2 billion in total firepower.

Starbucks outlets in Brussels bypass basic COVID precautions after two employees test positive

Serious accusations about the COVID-19 policies of Starbucks, the massive global franchise of coffeehouses, in Brussels has come under the spotlight after an employee reached out to New Europe and revealed the company’s reaction to two positive cases of its staff at two different branches in Europe’s capital.

According to the employee, who wished to remain anonymous, after the two staff members tested positive last week, the company failed to take all of the necessary measures to protect both the employees and the customers at the separate outlets, one of which is in the Rogier, near Brussels’ Northern Quarter business district, and the other at a branch in Midi, south of the city center.

The two shops did not close for 48 hours, as is required. Furthermore, the management demanded from that staff members from other shops in the Brussels area replace the employees that tested positive, as well as their colleagues, who were working with them during the previous days.

An empty European outlet of Starbucks during the height of the pandemic lockdown last spring. EPA-EFE//OLE BERG-RUSTEN

The replacement workers were brought to the two outlets without any precautionary disinfection measures havin first taken place. The temporary replacement staff reportedly complained that they were worried about touching equipment that their COVID positive colleagues had used and which had not been properly disinfected.

The management of the Starbucks branches replied that their decision was justified due to the fact that the probablity of an infection rate was low, saying their employees exposure is no more dangerous than going to the supermarket. Management simply advised the employees to wash their hands and use sanitizing gel as a general precaution.

The employees did not have the option to refuse to move and work at other branches. Due to their current status as employees, including part-timers, the worker are obliged under Starbucks COVID rules to help the company in any position required. Refusing to do is considered by the company as an unjustified absence. If an employee accumalted too mant of these absences, thet could be fired.

A major issue in this situation has been the overall lack of public information from Starbucks to its customers, who may have been exposed to the coronavirus as a result of the infected employees having worked multiple shifts for several days before they given the results of their tests.

Starbucks franchises in Belgium belong to Autogrill, an Italy-based multinational catering company. Starbucks has dozens of branches across Brussels and the rest of Belgium. Decisions like the cases of the two infected employees raises serious concerns about the policies that the company is employing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

EPA-EFE//ANDREJ CUKIC

Biden Disinformation Is Ripping Across Facebook the Same Day It Brushed Him Off

Facebook – do your job!!!

20200925_zaa_nc09_016.jpg?w=1200&h=630&c

In advance of the first presidential debate, disinformation about Joe Biden is going massively viral on social media, just one day after the former vice president sent Facebook a letter laying out his campaign’s concerns about political disinformation being spread on its platform.

“Report: Joe Biden Has Been Given Tonight’s Debate Questions In Advance” reads a headline on arch-paranoiac Alex Jones’ site, Infowars, a notorious peddler of right-wing disinformation. The “report” Infowars cited was from former Fox host Todd Starnes, who was just citing Jerome Corsi, a right-wing conspiracy theorist with a history of spreading outright lies. Corsi offered no proof that Biden had been given the questions, but Starnes’ story on the baseless allegation reached over 1 million followers on Facebook and another million on Twitter, according to CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool owned by Facebook.

Lots of disinfo ahead of tonight’s debate. One case: InfoWars says Biden got questions in advance, citing former Fox host Todd Starnes. Starnes himself just heard it on local radio. And the radio station got it from conspiracy theory king and ex InfoWars employee Jerome Corsi. pic.twitter.com/O9g8OgZde6

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 29, 2020

Infowars published its story around noon. By later that afternoon, more Biden disinformation was hurtling out of control on Facebook. A New York Post story with a single anonymous source from the Trump campaign claimed Biden had agreed to be inspected for an earpiece before the debate, which the Biden campaign denied. Regardless the story spread across Facebook, amplified by right-wing sites and posters.

NBC’s Ben Collins noticed that the claim predated the New York Post story; it had been floating around online for weeks before the online poster at the center of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a user claiming to be Q, posted the theory on 8kun, the successor website to the 8chan forum.

The Biden earpiece conspiracy theory (which originated in a tweet from a single anonymous source to a NYPost reporter, and was instantly denied by the campaign) is everywhere on Facebook. Absolutely everywhere. pic.twitter.com/AIdXoy4ZIi

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) September 29, 2020

Breitbart‘s story on the claim reached 5 million accounts on Facebook and 3 million on Twitter.

The massive spread of disinformation about Biden came just hours after Facebook essentially blew off Biden’s concerns about disinformation being spread about him.

On Monday, the Biden campaign sent a letter to Facebook calling it “the nation’s foremost propagator of disinformation about the voting process,” and saying that “Rather than seeing progress, we have seen regression,” according to a copy of the letter published by Axios.

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone responded vaguely, saying that the company has received criticism from both Republicans and Democrats and added that “we have rules in place to protect the integrity of the election and free expression, and we will continue to apply them impartially.”

Here’s what Facebook is saying back, “While many Republicans think we should take one course, many Democrats think we should do the exact opposite.”

Statement from @andymstone pic.twitter.com/i8StwVv29p

— Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) September 29, 2020

UK records its highest daily number of COVID-19 cases since pandemic began

Boris Johnson apologises and corrects himself after giving out incorrect information on social distancing as the UK records over 7,000 cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour recording period.

12715692-4x3-140x105.jpg

Boris Johnson apologises and corrects himself after giving out incorrect information on social distancing as the UK records over 7,000 cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour recording period.

Boris Johnson helped sow the discord that’s making it hard for him to govern | Rafael Behr

4292.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=8

A tide of disinformation flows through the cracks in British democracy and the prime minister is hopelessly unqualified to fight back

To find the fault lines in society, follow the bots. Fake social media accounts crawl all over the issues that divide us, spreading lies and confusion. For every human being with a genuine grievance on Twitter and Facebook, there is an army of automated outrage amplifiers. For or against, left or right, it doesn’t matter when the goal is maximum polarisation. The bots identify the material that triggers the most passionate reactions and spread it to the widest audience.

Before scientists had pinned down vital facts about Covid-19, the internet was crawling with lurid conspiracy theories. One US study looked at 200m tweets discussing the coronavirus, and found that about 45% of comments came from mechanised accounts. Of the top 50 tweeters found to have the most network influence in the study, 41 were fake. Other social media platforms are similarly infested.

Continue reading…