«Користувачі з річною підпискою Google One також отримали листи про її скасування»
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The Biden administration appears set to discuss the international economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, potentially, Ukraine’s reconstruction as part of the November G-20 summit agenda. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
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Commercial truck traffic from the Mexican state of Chihuahua to Texas will return to normal immediately after both sides reached an agreement on border security, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Thursday.

The state of Chihuahua provided a plan to secure the border that will allow Texas authorities to cease enhanced inspections that have led to backups of trucks from Chihuahua over the past week, Abbott said during a joint press conference with Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan, the governor of that state.

“Texas and Chihuahua now have agreed to both secure the border as well to get commercial vehicles moving through the ports,” Abbott said.

Abbott, a Republican running for reelection in November, ordered the state’s Department of Public Safety last week to conduct “enhanced safety inspections” of vehicles as they cross from Mexico into Texas in order to uncover smuggling of people and contraband.

The inspections were part of a broader effort to deter illegal immigration that included the busing of migrants to Washington and aimed to counter what Abbott called the “open borders” policies of Democratic President Joe Biden.

Mexican truck drivers blockaded bridges at the U.S. border earlier in the week to protest the delays, which some drivers said caused waits that spanned more than half a day.

Abbott on Wednesday said that his state would cease enhanced inspections from the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon after a separate border security agreement with that state’s governor.

The stepped-up inspections will continue at other parts of the border with Mexico until agreements with those states have been reached, Abbott said.

 
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Businessman Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter, saying the social media giant “needs to be transformed as a private company.”

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

The founder of Tesla and SpaceX is already Twitter’s largest shareholder, owning more than 9% of the company. A regulatory filing showed he offered $54.20 per share to buy the rest.

That price would value the company at about $43 billion and represents a 38% premium above the stock’s closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk bought his 9%.

“My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk said.

Twitter acknowledged the offer and will analyze if Musk’s proposal is in the best interest of shareholders.

After Musk’s large share ownership was revealed, Twitter offered him a seat on the company’s board, but that had a stipulation limiting the amount of stock Musk could own.

After appearing to accept the board seat, Musk then declined.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Генеральний секретар ООН застерігає, що агресія може призвести до голоду та злиднів «у масштабах, небачених десятиліттями»
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The yen hit its lowest level against the dollar in two decades on Wednesday, extending recent falls as the gap widens between Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy and U.S. tightening.

Despite being traditionally considered a safe-haven currency, uncertainty fueled by the war in Ukraine has not caused the yen to strengthen.

Instead, moves by the US Federal Reserve towards a more aggressive policy and the shock of rising oil prices in Japan — a major importer of fossil fuels — have pushed the currency lower, analysts say.

One dollar bought 126 yen on Wednesday afternoon, the lowest rate since 2002.

“The Japanese yen has been one of the weakest currencies anywhere in the world this year,” Dutch banking group ING said in a recent commentary.

“Driving the rally has been the perfect storm of a hawkish Federal Reserve, a dovish Bank of Japan [BoJ], and Japan’s negative terms of trade shock as a major fossil fuel importer.”

Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said “the stability of exchange rates is important and we see rapid currency moves as undesirable.”

“We will monitor trends in the foreign currency market and the impact on the Japanese economy with a sense of urgency,” he added.

The yen had already lost 10% of its value against the dollar in 2021 after four years of steady strengthening.

The U.S. central bank has embarked on an aggressive tightening path, pushing up American treasury yields which have strengthened the dollar against the yen.

But its moves stand in contrast to the Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy, which will be maintained for now, bank governor Haruhiko Kuroda said earlier Wednesday.

“Given the economy and price situation, the Bank of Japan will seek to realize its two-percent inflation target… by resiliently continuing its current powerful monetary easing,” he said.

Swiss Bank UBS said a weaker yen would likely hit Japanese households’ purchasing power, and domestic-oriented small businesses who will face higher import costs.

“The government is offering fiscal supports and most likely will expand the supports. We think the [yen] purchase intervention is possible if the pace of depreciation is regarded as too fast,” it said in a note.

Tohru Sasaki, head of Japan Market Research at JPMorgan Chase Bank, told AFP that the Bank of Japan “has to do something to slow the pace of the yen’s depreciation.”

“The Japanese government can sell foreign reserve [USD] to intervene, but it is politically difficult,” he said, adding that it would be “strange” if the finance ministry did so while the Bank of Japan keeps its current easing policies.
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A former researcher at a high-profile cryptocurrency group was sentenced to five years and three months in prison on Tuesday for conspiring to help North Korea evade U.S. sanctions using cryptocurrency, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said. 

Virgil Griffith was arrested in 2019 and pleaded guilty last September to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by traveling to North Korea to present on blockchain technology. 

Griffith formerly worked for the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit that works to support the technology behind the cryptocurrency ether. 

The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel, was the minimum amount of prison time prosecutors had sought. Griffith had asked for a sentence of two years. Castel also fined Griffith $100,000, less than the $1 million prosecutors suggested. 

Griffith’s attorney, Brian Klein, said in a statement that while the sentence was disappointing, the judge “acknowledged Virgil’s commitment to moving forward with his life productively, and that he is a talented person who has a lot to contribute.” 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on Tuesday that “justice has been served.” 

Griffith, who has a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology, traveled to North Korea via China in April 2019 to deliver a presentation at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference, despite being denied permission by the U.S. Department of State to go, according to prosecutors. 

Prosecutors said Griffith understood the information could be used to evade sanctions the U.S. had imposed on North Korea over its development of nuclear weapons technology. 

“The most important feature of blockchains is that they are open. And the DPRK can’t be kept out no matter what the USA or the U.N. says,” Griffith said during the presentation, according to prosecutors, using the initials of North Korea’s official name. 

The Ethereum Foundation said at the time of Griffith’s arrest that it had not approved or supported his travel to North Korea. 
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Backups at U.S. West Coast ports and supply chain problems in rail and trucking have hurt American exports and limited the choices of international consumers. For one farm commodity, California almonds, the slowdowns have affected American farmers and consumers around the world. Mike O’Sullivan reports from California’s Central Valley.
Camera: Roy Kim, Timothy Hong, Mike O’Sullivan Produced by: Mike O’Sullivan
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