Тимчасова виконувачка обов’язків міністерки енергетики України Ольга Буславець в інтерв’ю Радіо Свобода повідомила, чи будуть підвищуватися тарифи на електроенергію для населення.

«Я хочу заспокоїти наше населення, яке має затверджений тариф на електроенергію. Він незмінний вже з 2017 року. І, як вже неодноразово наголошував прем’єр-міністр, ніхто не готує рішення щодо підвищення цього тарифу», – запевнила вона в «Суботньому інтерв’ю».

На припущення, що причиною цього є близькі місцеві вибори, які відбудуться в час значного падіння рейтингів владної партії «Слуга народу», Буславець відповіла так: «Я думаю, що навіть не тому, що вибори. Без підвищення соціального захисту людей, без підвищення, можливо, прожиткового мінімуму та пенсій, мабуть, недоречно сьогодні говорити про підвищення тарифу для населення».

При цьому вона наголосила, що її слова стосуються саме тарифів для населення: «Що стосується всіх інших споживачів, на нашому ринку є різні сегменти. Ринок двосторонніх договорів – там своє формування ціни. У нас є ринок «на добу наперед». Це так звана біржа, на якій формуються індикативні ціни. Є інші сегменти, які формують загальний мікс вартості електроенергії для непобутових споживачів. Я за ринкові правила, щоб ціна на ринку формувалася таким чином, щоб вона відповідала сьогоднішньому попиту і пропозиції».

Міністр фінансів України Сергій Марченко теж днями заявляв, що Міжнародний валютний фонд підтримує ініціативи уряду в питанні тарифів на газ та електроенергію і що в межах програми stand-by питання тарифів не порушують.

«Питання прозорого тарифоутворення завжди були предметом інтересу МВФ. Але зараз ми бачимо з боку МВФ підтримку ініціатив уряду у цьому питанні», – сказав Марченко.
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Mississippi just ditched its Confederate-themed state flag. Later this year, the state’s voters will decide whether to dump a statewide election process that dates to the Jim Crow era.Facing pressure from a lawsuit and the possibility of action from a federal judge, legislators are putting a  state constitutional amendment on the ballot in November.  The amendment would simplify elections for governor and other statewide officials by erasing an Electoral College-type provision from Mississippi’s 1890 constitution — one that was written to dilute Black voting power and maintain white control of state politics.Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Remove Rebel Emblem From State FlagIt’s the last state flag that included a Confederate symbol that many people condemn as racistMississippi is the only state with such a system for state elections.If voters adopt the amendment, a statewide candidate receiving a majority of the popular vote would win. If nobody receives that in a race with at least three candidates, the top two would go to a runoff.Legislators’ final action to put the amendment on the ballot happened Monday, a day after they took historic votes to retire a 126-year-old state flag  that was the last in the U.S. with the Confederate battle emblem. Amid widespread protests over racial injustice, Mississippi faced growing pressure to drop a symbol that’s widely condemned as racist.A commission will design a new Mississippi flag without the rebel symbol and with the phrase, “In God We Trust.” Voters will be asked to accept or reject the new flag Nov. 3, the same day the amendment and the presidential race are on the ballot.Mississippi Center for Justice is one of the groups representing plaintiffs in a 2019 lawsuit against the state. The center’s president, Vangela M. Wade, said documents show the complex electoral process was created to uphold white supremacy.”As you go back through these documents, there’s language that clearly shows intent to circumvent the rights of African Americans,” Wade said Thursday.About 38% of Mississippi’s residents are Black. The lawsuit — backed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder — argues that Mississippi’s election system violates the principle of one-person, one-vote.The Mississippi Constitution currently requires a statewide candidate to win a majority of the popular vote and a majority of electoral vote. One electoral vote is awarded to the candidate receiving the most support in each of the 122 state House districts.Mississippi Takes Step Toward Dropping Rebel Image from FlagState lawmakers vote to file a bill to change the flag If no candidate wins both the popular vote and the electoral vote, the race is decided by the state House. But representatives are not obligated to vote as their districts did, so arm-twisting could decide the outcome.The process was written when white politicians across the South were enacting laws to erase Black political power gained during Reconstruction. The electoral vote was promoted as a way for the white ruling class have the final say in who holds office.Plaintiffs argued that Mississippi’s history of racially polarized voting means that candidates preferred by Black voters must receive a higher share of the statewide vote to win a majority of House districts.U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III wrote last November that he has “grave concern” about the constitutionality the electoral vote provision. Jordan wrote that the plaintiffs’ argument about violation of one person, one vote is “arguably … their strongest claim.”Jordan put the lawsuit on hold in December, saying he would give legislators a chance to remedy the system by putting a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. The amendment will need approval from a simple majority of voters.  The last time a governor’s race was thrown to the Mississippi House was 20 years ago. Nobody received the required majorities in a four-person race for governor in 1999. The top two candidates were white, and each won 61 electoral votes. In January 2000, House members chose Democrat Ronnie Musgrove, who led the popular vote, over Republican Mike Parker. At the time, the House was controlled by Democrats. It is now controlled by Republicans.Some Democrats thought the electoral provision might come into play in a tight 2019 governor’s election, but Republican Tate Reeves easily defeated Democrat Jim Hood and two lesser-known candidates.  
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Cameroon says it has deployed more troops in the capital Yaoundé after yet another bomb exploded, leaving at least 20 people severely wounded. No one has claimed responsibility, but it is suspected that separatists fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state in Cameroon and people who escaped from prison a month ago are responsible.Naseri Paul Bea, governor of the Central Region, where Yaoundé is located, says he convened a security meeting Friday night because there has been mounting insecurity in the capital city. He says he is calling on the clergy and traditional rulers to help bring peace back to the city.”I instructed them to control those who sell arms, to include the traditional rulers to be able to know the new people who come into their quarters so that if there is any person who looks strange, they can be able to inform the forces of law and order{military},” said Bea.The government said on Thursday night, yet another bomb exploded in the Damas neighborhood, severely wounding five people. 15 others with wounds were later discovered in their houses. Bea says he has information that some prisoners were organizing the attacks from their detention centers.”Some of the organizers are in the prisons and they have people outside who are doing it {planting the bombs} for them,” said Bea. “I instructed the penitentiary administration to put their ears to the ground to be able to get those information and sensitize the population to know that the security of the country is their own security.”Bea said the bombs were locally made. It was the third locally made bomb to explode in a popular neighborhood in Yaoundé within two weeks. At least 37 people were wounded in the three explosions. No one has claimed responsibility.Rights activist Edwin Ayuk of the Cameroon Human Right Center says it is imperative for the government to open negotiations with English speaking separatist leaders who are detained at the Yaoundé-Kondengui prison if they want peace to return. Speaking via a messaging application from the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda, he said the government should also investigate the activities of former ministers arrested and detained at the Kondengui prison by Cameroon president Paul Biya for corrupt activities.”We have been calling on the government to call these individuals, sit with them on the table and let them discuss their differences so that the atrocities that have been going on can come to an end,” said Ayuk.Innocent Ngono, a peace and development lecturer at the university of Yaoundé says Cameroon should handle the insecurity in its capital city with care since it already has many security challenges.He says if Cameroon has been able to resist the security challenges it has been facing since 2013, it is because the population has supported the military through information sharing. He says he is afraid Cameroonians may now be reluctant to assist the military because the government is not showing serious signs of wanting to solve the crisis the country is facing.    Since 2013 Cameroon’s eastern border has suffered a spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic with regular intrusions of rebels. Boko Haram terrorism on Cameroons northern border with Nigeria has entered its 10th year with at least 3,000 people killed. A separatist crisis in the English-speaking western regions of the French majority state has left at least 3,000 people dead and 500,000 displaced. The Cameroon military has been deployed to handle border disputes with Equatorial Guinea.Many civilians say if the attacks on the capital city Yaoundé are not stopped, the military may be overstretched.  
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The United States has more coronavirus infections than anywhere else, with nearly 2.8 million of the globe’s more than 11 million cases.A recent surge in infections is large enough to cause several governors to roll back the easing of lockdowns that had begun in their states, just as many Americans are poised to attend July Fourth celebrations.As the U.S. struggles to contain the virus, President Donald Trump addressed a largely unmasked crowd Friday at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota as he kicked off the country’s observance of Independence Day.  There were also no social distancing measures in place.Public health officials have expressed concern that the South Dakota event will be the source of super-spreading the virus around the country.Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of one of the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., has tested positive for the coronavirus.In Britain, a study of the National Health Service indicated that cleaners, porters and office staff have been super-spreaders of the virus within hospitals.  “If you think about it, these were the people moving around the hospital,” Sir John Bell, the head of the government’s antibody program, told The Telegraph newspaper.Brazil said Friday it has approved clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine by China’s Sinovac.Brazil follows the U.S. with an infection count of 1.5 million.On Friday, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro approved a law requiring people to wear face masks on streets and on public transportation. However, he vetoed clauses that would have required wearing a face mask in enclosed spaces, including churches, schools and shops. The president, who has been widely criticized by health experts for downplaying the severity of the virus, says such a move could violate property rights.In another development, the World Health Organization updated an account of how it learned of the coronavirus outbreak. It said it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by Chinese government officials. The agency had earlier said that the first report of the virus had come from China without further specifying from whom the information came.The United States has strongly criticized the World Health Organization for its early handling of the pandemic and its dealings with China and said it would withdraw from the group.  
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North Korea said Saturday it has no plans to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States in near future if Washington does not abandon what the communist country terms “hostile” polices toward Pyongyang.North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui made the statement following former national security adviser John Bolton’s comments to reporters in New York earlier this week that President Donald Trump might hold another summit with the country’s leader Kim Jong Un as an “October surprise” shortly before the presidential election in November.“Is it possible to hold dialogue or have any dealings with the U.S. which persists in the hostile policy toward the DPRK in disregard of the agreements already made at the past summit?” Choe said.President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who has worked intensively to revive the negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, expressed optimism in a video conference with European leaders, also this week, that Trump and Kim would meet again before the election.Trump and Kim have met three times since 2018 for discussing on denuclearization of North Korea, but negotiations stalled after their second summit in Vietnam in February 2019, in which the U.S. rejected North Korean demands for substantial sanctions relief as a condition to partially give up its nuclear ambitions. 
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Coronavirus cases have surpassed 11 million worldwide, as the outbreak continues to surge in several countries including the United States, where case numbers tallied their largest single day total, topping 57,000.Friday’s totals in the United States, reported by The Washington Post, marked the seventh record-breaking day of coronavirus cases in nine days. Cases are now rising in 40 out of the 50 U.S. states.The U.S. state of Florida reported 9,488 new cases Friday, a day after setting a new daily record with more than 10,000 cases.Florida said it has reached about 80 percent capacity of its hospital intensive care units while the state of Arizona reported it is at 91 percent capacity, an all-time high.Patrons observing social distancing rules sit outdoors at the Guerrilla Tacos restaurant in Los Angeles, July 3, 2020.President Donald Trump visited Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday for an early Independence Day celebration that thousands of people attended.Although the U.S. leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases, local officials did not require social distancing or mask-wearing at the event. However, free masks were available for those who wanted them.South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, said on Fox News earlier this week: “We’ve told folks that have concerns that they can stay home.”Brazil is another country where coronavirus cases are rising, surpassing 1.5 million. The nation has the world’s second-largest outbreak after the United States.On Friday, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro approved a law requiring people to wear face masks on streets and on public transportation. However, he vetoed clauses that would have required wearing a face mask in enclosed spaces, including churches, schools and shops. The president, who has been widely criticized by health experts for downplaying the severity of the virus, says such a move could violate property rights.In another development, the World Health Organization updated an account of how it learned of the coronavirus outbreak. It said it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by Chinese government officials. The agency had earlier said that the first report of the virus had come from China without further specifying from whom the information came.A woman wearing a face mask amid the spread of the new coronavirus walks past a mural of an Indigenous man in Bogota, Colombia, July 3, 2020.The United States has strongly criticized the World Health Organization for its early handling of the pandemic and its dealings with China and said it would withdraw from the group.In India, officials reported nearly 21,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus Friday. Johns Hopkins University said Friday that the South Asian nation has more than 625,000 COVID-19 cases.In Pakistan, the country’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced Friday he’s tested positive for the coronavirus. Qureshi, who says he is quarantining at home with a “slight fever” is the senior most government official in Pakistan to contract the virus.Australian officials say 10,000 people in Victoria have refused to take the coronavirus test this past week because they believe the outbreak is not real and is instead a “conspiracy theory.”The New York Times reports that Australia, which has been successful in keeping COVID cases to a minimum, is now locking down an area of 300,000 people in a largely immigrant community in the state of Victoria.In England, pubs are planning to reopen Saturday for the first time in more than three months.Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told voters not to be afraid to come out and cast ballots in the second round of the presidential election July 12.Despite hundreds of new cases reported daily, Poland has been relatively successful in fending off COVID-19, with 1,500 deaths.And in Mexico, a medical supply company has started using unmanned drones to deliver masks, gloves and other equipment to hospitals.Doctors, nurses and other medical workers have staged nationwide protests against what they say is a shortage of protective equipment. 
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Iran will retaliate against any country that carries out cyberattacks on its nuclear sites, the head of civilian defense said, after a fire at its Natanz plant that some Iranian officials said may have been caused by cyber sabotage.The Natanz uranium-enrichment site, much of which is underground, is one of several Iranian facilities monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog.Iran’s top security body said Friday the cause of the incident at the nuclear site had been determined, but “due to security considerations” it would be announced at a convenient time.Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization initially reported an incident had occurred early Thursday at Natanz, located in the desert in the central province of Isfahan.It later published a photo of a one-story brick building with its roof and walls partly burned. A door hanging off its hinges suggested there had been an explosion inside the building.”Responding to cyberattacks is part of the country’s defense might. If it is proven that our country has been targeted by a cyberattack, we will respond,” civil defense chief Gholamreza Jalali told state TV late Thursday.An article issued Thursday by state news agency IRNA addressed what it called the possibility of sabotage by enemies such as Israel and the United States, although it stopped short of accusing either directly.”So far Iran has tried to prevent intensifying crises and the formation of unpredictable conditions and situations,” IRNA said. “But the crossing of red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran by hostile countries, especially the Zionist regime and the U.S., means that strategy … should be revised.”Three Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said they believed the fire was the result of a cyberattack but did not cite any evidence.One of the officials said the attack had targeted a centrifuge assembly building, referring to the delicate cylindrical machines that enrich uranium, and said Iran’s enemies had carried out similar acts in the past.In 2010, the Stuxnet computer virus, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered after it was used to attack the Natanz facility.Lukasz Olejnik, a Brussels-based independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant, said that the Stuxnet incident did not necessarily say much about what transpired Thursday.“Events taking place more than 10 years ago, and once, in themselves cannot form any evidence about things happening today,” said Olejnik, who formerly worked as scientific adviser on cyberwarfare at the International Committee of the Red Cross, in an email.He added that talk of a cyberattack was “way too premature” and that invoking the specter of digital sabotage “might be a convenient explanation for natural events, or incompetence.”Two of the Iranian officials said Israel could have been behind the Natanz incident but offered no evidence.Asked on Thursday evening about recent incidents reported at strategic Iranian sites, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters: “Clearly we can’t get into that.”The IAEA said Friday the location of the fire did not contain nuclear materials, and that none of its inspectors was present at the time.”The Agency has been in contact with relevant Iranian authorities to confirm there will be no impact on its safeguards verification activities, which are expected to continue as before,” an IAEA statement said, adding that Iran had told it the cause of the fire was not yet known.Natanz is the centerpiece of Iran’s enrichment program, which Tehran says is only for peaceful purposes. Western intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe it had a coordinated, clandestine nuclear arms program that it halted in 2003.Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear weapons.Iran curbed its nuclear work in exchange for the removal of most global sanctions under an accord reached with six world powers in 2015 but has reduced compliance with the deal’s restrictions since the United States withdrew in 2018. 
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A trial of those charged in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi opened Friday in Turkey, but none of the 20 Saudi nationals accused in the killing were in attendance.The fiancee of Khashoggi, Hatice Cengiz, told the court in Istanbul that the accused used “great betrayal and deception” to lure the journalist to his death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.Cengiz told reporters outside the courthouse that “we will continue seeking justice not just in Turkey but everywhere we can.”Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident, went to the consulate in 2018 to pick up documents that would allow him to marry Cengiz, who is Turkish. He was killed inside the consulate while Cengiz waited outside, sparking global outrage.The journalist, who wrote columns for The Washington Post, was a prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The 20 defendants, including two former aides of the crown prince, have all returned to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has rejected Turkey’s request for their extradition.Some of the men have been tried in Saudi Arabia behind closed doors.Turkish prosecutors allege the men were sent to Turkey from Riyadh to confront Khashoggi.Rogue operatives blamedSaudi Arabia has given varying accounts of Khashoggi’s disappearance, eventually saying the killing was the work of rogue operatives.The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has concluded with “medium to high confidence” that Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the killing. The crown prince denies he was involved.The remains of Khashoggi have not been found. Turkish and Saudi prosecutors allege the Saudi agents dismembered his body after the killing.A handyman at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Zeki Demir, told the Turkish court Friday that he had been asked to light a tandoor oven less than one hour after Khashoggi entered the building. He described the Saudi agents as having an “air of panic.”The trial was adjourned Friday until November 24.
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Three Colorado police officers were fired and a fourth resigned after photos surfaced of a reenactment of a chokehold that officers used to subdue a Black man who later died, authorities said.Vanessa Wilson, interim chief of police in the Denver suburb of Aurora, called the officers’ actions surrounding the death of Elijah McClain, who was unarmed, “reprehensible.”“I am disgusted to my core,” Wilson said Friday at a news conference announcing the firings.The officers terminated were Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich. The fourth officer, Jaron Jones, resigned Tuesday.One photo depicts Dittrich and Jones re-creating a carotid neck hold, while a grinning Marrero stands nearby. The pictures, which authorities released Friday, were taken near the site where the fatal struggle took place.FILE – Elijah McClain is seen in an undated photograph in Aurora, Colorado.Rosenblatt, who was among the officers who subdued McClain, was fired for responding “HaHa” after receiving the photo, Wilson said.The McClain family attorney, Mari Newman, said police not only killed an innocent man but felt empowered to make a “mockery” of the incident by re-enacting it.McClain, 23, was walking along a street in Aurora in August 2019 when he was approached by three officers on reports of a man acting suspiciously, although he had not committed any crimes.During the confrontation, McClain said he could not breathe, according to audio recordings released by police.The officers subdued McClain with the carotid chokehold, and paramedics later injected him with the sedative ketamine. He then went into cardiac arrest and was taken off life support days later.A local prosecutor declined to file charges against the officers or paramedics, citing an autopsy that listed the cause of death as undetermined.Colorado Governor Jared Polis has appointed a special prosecutor to review the case, and this week the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice said they were investigating whether McClain’s civil rights were violated.
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French President Emmanuel Macron named Jean Castex, a senior civil servant, as his new prime minister on Friday as he acted to recast his presidency and take back control of policy ahead of elections in 2022.Macron wants to start afresh after the coronavirus crisis reversed some of the hard-fought gains earned from moves to liberalize the economy, and is aware he needs to win back disillusioned voters.Outgoing premier Edouard Philippe gave Castex a “namaste” welcome greeting outside the prime minister’s Matignon office, having earlier tendered his government’s resignation ahead of an anticipated reshuffle.”The economic crisis is already here,” Castex said. “Priorities will therefore have to evolve, ways of working will have to be adapted. We will have to unite the nation to fight this crisis that is setting in.”Macron is reshaping his government as France grapples with the deepest economic slide since World War II, a sharp downturn that will shrink the economy by about 11% in 2020 and bring about big job losses.Castex, 55, hails from the center-right, a career technocrat with experience in local politics who most recently has been known as “Monsieur Deconfinement” for his role bringing the country out of lockdown measures.Also the mayor of Prades, a town in southwest France, he speaks with a local lilt and will help Macron connect with provincial France, Elysee insiders hope.Investors will be watching to see if Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who has overseen reforms to liberalize the economy and spent big to keep companies like Air France and Renault afloat during the crisis, keeps his job.FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the closing press conference at the G5 Sahel summit on June 30, 2020, in Nouakchott.”The return from summer holidays will be difficult, we must get ready,” Macron said on the eve of his government’s resignation.Taking controlPhilippe’s popularity had grown as he steered France through the coronavirus crisis with calm, leaving Macron with a tough decision over whether to jettison his prime minister and opt for a new team.As he did with Philippe, Macron plucked Castex from relative obscurity. The new prime minister, an alumni of France’s top administrative school for politicians and public servants, has held civil servant positions at all levels of government, including as a senior adviser to former President Nicolas Sarkozy.The appointment of a civil servant with a low profile showed “Macron’s willingness to exert full control over the policy agenda in the coming months,” said Antonio Barroso at risk advisory firm Teneo.An Elysee source confirmed Macron had imposed his choice of chief of staff on Castex but rejected suggestions this was an attempt to reduce Matignon’s influence over decision-making.LoyaltyMacron said in mid-June that he wanted to “reinvent” his presidency as France emerges from its coronavirus slump. Then came his party’s dire showing in nationwide municipal elections on June 28.The president’s first three years in office have been mired in social unrest and the elections showed surging support for the Green party and underlined Macron’s troubles connecting with ordinary folk. His ruling party failed to win a single big city, depriving the president of a local power base ahead of 2022.The most notable win was Philippe’s success in Le Havre. His exit from the government clears the way for him to be mayor of the northern port, from where he could emerge as a rival to Macron in two years.Macron aides said Macron and Philippe were leaving on warm terms. Philippe will be tasked with rebuilding Macron’s majority ahead of 2022, a sign Macron may want to ensure he keeps his former prime minister close to him.”I don’t think Philippe’s loyalty has ever been called into question,” the Elysee official said.
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The United States celebrates its Independence Day holiday this weekend as a campaign to remove symbols of the country’s pro-slavery legacy gains momentum. Efforts to remove monuments that celebrate the Confederacy, a government of 11 slave-holding southern states that seceded from the United States, triggering the Civil War in 1861, began to gain momentum in 2015 after a white supremacist fatally shot nine African Americans inside a church in Charleston, South Carolina. The campaign further escalated after George Floyd, an African American, died in police custody May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial, the world’s largest Confederate monument, is among the many memorials that have been the focus of the removal campaign.  FILE – A youngster plays on a rock in front of the carving on Stone Mountain, in Stone Mountain, Ga., June 23, 2015.The 518-meter-high carving that was substantially funded by the Ku Klux Klan features Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, all of whom were enslavers. Members of the Klan continue to periodically gather at the memorial. FILE – Paint and graffiti cover the Jefferson Davis Memorial in Richmond, Va., June 7, 2020, following a week of unrest in the U.S. against police brutality and racism in policing.Also Wednesday, Mississippi, the only state that continued to incorporate the Confederate emblem on its official flag, retired the banner in a quiet ceremony in the capital city of Jackson. The flag was sent to a nearby museum after Governor Tate Reeves signed legislation ordering its removal. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 26 to protect statues, monuments and memorials. The move came days after police halted protesters’ efforts to topple a statue of President Andrew Jackson in a park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Jackson was also a slave holder. Trump visits the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on Friday to celebrate Independence Day. The 18-meter-high granite carving in the Black Hills of South Dakota depicts slave-holding presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Some Native American groups have been protesting the Mount Rushmore memorial, noting the Black Hills were taken from the native Lakota people. Trump Heads to Mt. Rushmore Amid Controversy President’s visit comes as Americans are urged to stay home to avoid COVID infection and as country faces national reckoning on racismConfederate memorials have also been taken down recently in other states.  In Mobile, Alabama, a statue of Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes was removed in early June and placed in storage days later after city officials agreed to do so. A statue of former Vice President John C. Calhoun, a defender of slavery, was removed from a pedestal in Charleston, South Carolina on June 24 after the city council’s approval. Many African Americans and a growing number of people of other racial groups believe symbols of the Confederacy have racist connotations while many white people, particularly in southern states, maintain they are part of the area’s heritage. The fight for racial justice continues as America celebrates Independence Day on July 4, despite a part of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, written by President Jefferson, that says, “All men are created equal.” 
 
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Відставка очільника Національного банку України Яківа Смолія — тривожний сигнал для інвесторів, вважає Президент Американської торговельної палати Андрій Гундер. Про це він заявив у прямому ефірі Радіо Свобода.

За словами Гундера, деякі міжнародні бізнесові компанії «спостерігають, що буде далі» і поки що зупиняють свої інвестиції в Україну.

«Компанії довіряли Нацбанку, тому що це була незалежна установа, котра втримала інфляцію та золотовалютні резерви. Політика Нацбанку була зрозуміла і передбачувана. Бізнес хоче мати якусь передбачуваність і без цієї передбачуваності компанії заявили публічно, що деякі з них зупиняють подальші інвестиції, аж поки не буде зрозуміло, які будуть наступні кроки і що можна очікувати далі», – заявив Гундер в ефірі програми Свобода Live.

Читайте також: «Гірше вже нема куди» – Данилюк про те, як відставка Смолія вплине на інвестиції в Україну​

Раніше 3 липня Верховна Рада підтримала постанову про відставку голови Національного банку Якова Смолія. 1 липня він написав заяву про звільнення за власним бажанням через «систематичний політичний тиск». В Офісі президента запевнили, що Нацбанк залишатиметься незалежним органом.​

Яків Смолій був головою НБУ з березня 2018 року. Його відставка викликала стурбованість серед інвесторів та бізнес-спільноти.
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Відставка голови Нацбанку Якова Смолія не погіршить інвестиційний клімат України, бо станом на сьогодні він і без того несприятливий. Таку думку в ефірі Радіо Свобода висловив ексміністр фінансів (у 2016-2018 роках) та колишній секретар РНБО (з травня по вересень 2019-го) Олександр Данилюк.

«Не погіршаться (інвестиції в Україну – ред.). Знаєте чому? А гірше нема куди… Я спілкувався з нашими бюрократами. В нас настільки низька планка. Таке враження, що вони взагалі не дивляться, що відбувається за кордоном. Оскільки наші сусіди залучали мільярди, в рази більше, ніж Україна. А ми вважаємо, якщо ми залучили 2-3 мільярди доларів на рік…, то це вже є певна планка інвестицій. Ні!», – сказав Данилюк.

Про припинення інвестування в Україну вже повідомив директор інвестиційної компанії Dragon Capital Томаш Фіала.

«Ми відкладемо нові інвестиції, адже влада робить останні п’ять місяців абсолютно протилежне тому, що інвестори, як внутрішні, так і міжнародні, очікують від них і радять їм», – заявив він.

За його словами, відставка Смолія «через політичний тиск» стала для компанії «останньою краплею».

Читайте також: «Треба бути більш рішучим». Смолій розповів, чому не міг заявити про тиск, не йдучи у відставку​

Раніше 3 липня Верховна Рада підтримала постанову про відставку голови Національного банку Якова Смолія. 1 липня він написав заяву про звільнення за власним бажанням через «систематичний політичний тиск». В Офісі президента запевнили, що Нацбанк залишатиметься незалежним органом.

Яків Смолій був головою НБУ з березня 2018 року. Його відставка викликала стурбованість серед інвесторів та бізнес-спільноти.
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Курс гривні стабілізувався після різкого падіння, свідчать дані на сайті Національного банку України.

Довідкове значення курсу гривні до долара на 12:00 становить 27 гривень 20 копійок. Таким чином, долар зміцнився на дві копійки.

Ввечері 1 липня голова Національного банку Яків Смолій написав заяву про звільнення за власним бажанням через «систематичний політичний тиск». В Офісі президента запевнили, що Нацбанк залишатиметься незалежним органом.

Наступного дня долар подорожчав на 41 копійку, а євро – на 66.

 
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Верховна Рада підтримала постанову про відставку Якова Смолія з посади голови Національного банку.

За рішення проголосували 286 народних депутатів, проти – 43. 11 парламентарів утрималися, 29 не голосували. В основному проти відставки голови Нацбанку висловилися представники фракцій «Голос» та «Європейська солідарність».

У своїй промові перед голосуванням Смолій вказав на здобутки Нацбанку під час своєї роботи: оздоровлення банківської системи, низьку інфляцію та збільшення обсягів золотовалютних резервів, а також стабільність під час коронавірусної кризи.

Читайте також: Новина про відставку Смолія ледь не довела Україну до загрози суду з інвесторами – британський економіст​

«Я йду з високо піднятою головою, залишаю НБУ під вашу відповідальність. Дякую», – підсумував він.

Натомість критики Смолія з числа народних депутатів звинувачали його в надто пізньому зниженні облікової ставки, виведенні з ринку банків (які НБУ вважав неплатоспроможними) і надмірному, на їхню думку, зміцненні гривні. Деякі звинувачували Нацбанк у співпраці з Міжнародним валютним фондом та іншими донорами, яка нібито підважує незалежність України.

Представник «Голосу» Ярослав Железняк, який підтримав Смолія, спитав його, хто саме чинив на нього політичний тиск, який той пояснив свою відставку. Колишній вже голова НБУ не назвав прізвищ, проте натякнув, що президент України Володимир Зеленський та уряд щонайменше були свідками спроб такого тиску.

Читайте також: Радіо Свобода Daily: Смолій прокоментує відставку, коли її розглянуть у парламенті​

«Протягом останнього року біля НБУ – проплачені мітинги, на яких виступають сидячи тут народні депутати. Місяць блокування мого будинку, будинків моїх заступників. Це системний цілорічний тиск. А що стосується рішення, яке я прийняв, то протягом останнього року на нарадах за участі народних депутатів, представників Кабінету міністрів, прем’єр-міністра, президента неодноразово в бік НБУ звучали заклики «залити економіку грішми», скасувати Базельські принципи регулювання банківської системи, встановити курс, «щоб експортерам було краще», поставити інфляцію 11% і курс 30, бо такі параметри закладені в державний бюджет. Ці гасла змусили мене ухвалити це рішення, про яке я сьогодні вас проінформував», – відповів Смолій.

Читайте також: Україна скасувала випуск євробондів. «Зародження бридкої кризи» і ризик для кредиту МВФ. Світові реакції​

Ввечері 1 липня голова Національного банку Яків Смолій написав заяву про звільнення за власним бажанням через «систематичний політичний тиск». В Офісі президента запевнили, що Нацбанк залишатиметься незалежним органом.

Яків Смолій працює на посаді голови НБУ з березня 2018 року. Питання про його відставку має розглянути парламент.

 
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