April, 2022

• 21 April

  FAA sticks to tough stance on unruly flyers

    Bloomberg Violent and unruly airline passengers will continue to face steep fines and potential criminal charges even as rules mandating face coverings fade away. The US Federal Aviation Administration said its zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers will be made permanent as it attempts to deter bad behaviour. The move came two days after most major US airlines eliminated policies ...

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• 21 April

  Putin calls off storm of Mariupol with Ukraine troops surrounded

  

  Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia had seized Ukraine’s Mariupol even as his defense minister said more than 2,000 opposing troops remain holed up in an industrial complex in the strategic southern port city. “Taking control of such an important centre in the South as Mariupol is a success,” Putin said in a televised meeting with Defense Minister Sergei ...

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• 21 April

  Sweden plans to speed up Nato analysis to keep pace with Finland

  

    Bloomberg Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde said political parties deliberating a potential application for Nato membership may speed up the process, initially planned to conclude by the end of next month. The talks should be finalised by May 13, Linde said in an interview with Swedish public radio’s Ekot. “The situation in Ukraine continues to worsen, Finland has submitted ...

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• 21 April

  Macron, Le Pen clash in presidential debate

  

  Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron and Le Pen struggled to land a knockout blow during their one-and-only debate, an encounter that left the French president in the box seat four days before the final round of the presidential election. Some 15.6 million viewers watched the long and rather technical head-to-head during which both candidates confirmed their positions on key issues, from tech ...

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• 21 April

  Botswana charges former leader with illegal weapons possession

    Bloomberg Former Botswanan President Ian Khama has been formally charged with 14 counts relating to the illegal possession of firearms in what is the first attempt at the criminal prosecution of a previous head of state. Khama, who is charged with three others, was not at the court in the capital, Gaborone, after having moved to South Africa in ...

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• 21 April

  China calls YouTube ‘tool’ for blocking next Hong Kong leader

  

    Bloomberg China said certain US companies were “political tools” after YouTube shut the campaign channel of John Lee, a former policeman in line to become Hong Kong’s next leader. The move showed the US was making “a vicious attempt to intervene in Hong Kong affairs and sabotage the chief executive election,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a ...

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• 21 April

  Olaf Scholz’s Ukraine strategy no longer enough for Germany’s allies

  

  Bloomberg German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is getting left behind by the international effort to help Ukraine stand up to Russia and has no obvious way back into the fold. The 63-year-old Social Democrat has resisted directly supplying tanks and other heavy weapons to Ukraine and opposed an embargo of Russian oil and gas. His policies have him in a tight ...

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• 21 April

  UK’s Johnson abandons bid, to delay probe

    Bloomberg Boris Johnson abandoned a bid to delay a vote on whether Parliament should investigate his past comments on “partygate,” as opposition lawmakers accused him of lying over rule-breaking during the pandemic. The UK prime minister, who is in India pushing for a trade deal, is missing the debate which started on Thursday in the House of Commons. Opening ...

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• 21 April

  Traders bet ECB will lift policy rate above zero by year-end

  

    Bloomberg Traders are betting the European Central Bank (ECB) will raise rates above zero this year for the first time since 2012, after a string of hawkish comments from policy makers spurred speculation the bank is priming the market for faster-than-expected monetary tightening. Money markets are pricing 75 basis points of interest-rate hikes by the ECB’s December decision, according ...

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• 21 April

  Fired BNP Paribas boss accused of ‘emotional terrorism’ seeks $4mn

  

    Bloomberg A senior BNP Paribas SA banker who denies terrorizing subordinates on the trading floor is claiming $4 million compensation for the unfair dismissal. Omar Alami, the then head of BNP’s equity derivatives sales for Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, was fired in 2019 after an internal report revealed that a rant at a trader he allegedly called “useless” and ...

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