The election in the USA Reactions to the debate Business leaders on the debate: "Tends to bounce back"
After the high-profile presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two influential business leaders have written about the event.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin and partner at Greylock, advises against calling on Joe Biden to resign. "When he does poorly, he tends to bounce back -- and then win," he writes, according to the NYT Dealbook newsletter.
Bridgewater's founder Ray Dalio instead wants to replace Biden, but regardless, the choice is between two extremes. "While you may rightly react to my using controversially sharp words like 'fascists', 'socialists' and 'communists' to describe the alternatives, I think these are relatively minor exaggerations," he writes.
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Economy Buffett gives away 99 percent to charity - but stops money for Gates
Financier Warren Buffett confirms in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he plans to donate his fortune to a foundation that his three children will manage. He thereby ends his donations to the Gates Foundation, which has received a total of about $43 billion over two decades.
- The Gates Foundation will not receive any money after my death, Warren Buffett told the WSJ.
Warren Buffett's ownership of Berkshire now consists of 207,963 Class A shares and 2,586 Class B shares. "Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire [...] My will stipulates that more than 99 percent of my estate is intended for philanthropic purposes," Buffett wrote in a statement.
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Economy Study: Duck colleagues who gossip - on certain issues
A gossiping colleague can experience both positive and negative consequences, according to new research in the journal Experimental Social Psychology.
The researchers studied how third parties, i.e. co-workers who were not involved in the gossip, viewed the matter in five different experiments. Gossipers were perceived as more social but also less trustworthy, which affected how people interacted with them. Colleagues were more likely to ask gossipers for advice on social activities, but less likely to seek their advice on moral or competence-related issues.
"Workplace gossip is an integral part of organizations and critical to their functioning," the researchers write in the conclusion, emphasizing the importance of understanding the perceived and behavioral consequences of organizational members who engage in gossip compared to those who refrain from it.
Austria Russian spies take over the city again: "Like an octopus"
Nora Fernstedt
Published 00.50
Vladimir Putin visiting the Austrian capital in 2014. Photo: Ronald Zak/Ap
Vienna – again the spy capital of Europe?
The murder plot of a journalist, suspected audio terror and the murder of a Russian defecting helicopter pilot point to that.
"Russian intelligence is like an octopus, and its head is currently in Central Europe," an intelligence source told the Wall Street Journal.
Quick version
Classical music, schnitzel, historic cafes – and Russian spies.
Inside the walls of WI's grand buildings, secret operations are being planned for the Russian security service.
European countries have expelled more than 600 Russian diplomats, labeled as spies, after the invasion of Ukraine.
Many of them have ended up in Austria. Over the past two years, the number of Russian employees in the country has increased sharply. Today there are around 250 people who work as diplomats and administrators.
Of them, around half are spies of various kinds, according to the Austrian intelligence service.
The Wall Street Journal has spoken to scores of European and American intelligence and government sources who paint the same picture – that Vienna has become Russia's new spy hub. Rooftop equipment
It is about the financing of murder and sabotage as well as industrial espionage and influence operations.
According to the WSJ, the spies operate from over 40 properties in Vienna owned by Moscow and people connected to the Russian state.
Surveillance equipment has reportedly been seen sticking up from rooftops, and some of it is said to be intercepting telecommunications.
The Russian Embassy in Vienna, one of 40 properties owned by Moscow. Photo: Ronald Zak/AP
Historic scandal unraveled
Several employees of the Austrian intelligence service have also been accused of spying for Russia.
It was about a former employee within the intelligence service, who is suspected of having systematically provided the Russian security service with secret information.
Among other things, he allegedly used his contacts to obtain journalist Christo Grozev's address and pass it on to Russian agents.
Grozev, a reporter for the journalism network Bellingcat, won international acclaim for his documentary that revealed how the Kremlin planned to assassinate opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Electronic equipment and computers were stolen from the journalist's home in Vienna and there were plans to assassinate him.
After the burglary, Grozev was forced to leave the country.
Maksim Kuzminov defected from Russia to Ukraine. He was gunned down with five shots, a murder allegedly paid for by Russian state employees in Vienna. Photo: Vladyslav Musiienko/AP
The suspicion: Paid for murder
The Vienna-based Russian agents are also suspected of financing the assassination of Russian helicopter pilot Maksim Kuzminov, who defected to Ukraine's side in the war.
Kuzminov was shot five times and run over by a car in Spain, where he lived. The perpetrators were paid in cash by Russian government employees in Vienna, according to intelligence sources.
20 got "Havana syndrome"
Another example was in 2021 when 20 US embassy employees, including CIA agents, fell ill with the mysterious Havana syndrome, according to US and Austrian sources.
The syndrome is described as a series of unexplained, medical symptoms such as tinnitus, dizziness, nausea and ringing sounds. It has primarily been experienced overseas by US government officials and military personnel. US intelligence has openly expressed suspicions that Russian intelligence is responsible.
In the case in Vienna, it was speculated that Russia used some type of "acoustic weapon", sound terror, which caused the symptoms.
As late as 2023, however, the United States could present no evidence that any foreign enemy had used such a weapon.
Vienna – a new-age spy hub in Europe. Photo: Getty Images
"Extremely dangerous"
That spies are placed precisely in Vienna is nothing new. During the Cold War, the city was a notorious international spy hub.
It is perhaps not so strange either: Espionage is legal in the country, as long as it is not directed at Austria.
Several critical voices have been raised against the law.
Stephanie Krisper, who represents the liberal opposition party Neos in parliament, has said that Austria's government must end its "extremely dangerous inaction" on Russian spying. She believes that the country is destroying the work to curb Russian influence in Europe.
Recently, Austria's Minister of Justice spoke positively about changing the law that allows espionage.
Putin appeared at Karin Kneissl's wedding in 2018 and danced the waltz with the bride. Austria's former foreign minister received harsh criticism. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin/AP
FACTS
In April 2022, less than two months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer became the first EU leader to visit Putin in Moscow, drawing criticism from Western allies.
Austria's former foreign minister Karin Kneissl was often accused during her time in office in 2017-2019 of doing Russia's business. The criticism intensified when Putin himself appeared at her wedding in 2018 and danced the waltz with the bride.
Last year, Kneissl moved to St. Petersburg, after previously taking a board position in the Russian oil giant Rosneft. She also brought her ponies, which she had previously stabled in Syria.
Even Heinz-Christian Strache, former party leader of the right-wing populist FPÖ, has received sharp criticism for Russia connections. In 2019, German media published a video in which Strache, or "the Red Bull brother from Austria" as he called himself, partied in Ibiza with a woman he thought was a relative of a Russian oligarch.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of offering lucrative public contracts in exchange for support for the FPÖ in the election campaign.
The election in Great Britain Analysis: The scandals hurt Farage, but the party continues to win Tory voters
Do the last week's scandals surrounding Nigel Farage and his right-wing populist Reform UK put an end to the party's surge in public opinion? Well, both Jon Craig in Sky News and Paula Surrige in The Guardian answer in their analyses.
"The ugly racist row may have come too late to put the brakes on Farage's monster that threatens to crush the Tories," writes Craig.
Several Reform UK poll workers have been exposed with statements such as illegal migrants should be shot, that feminism is cancer and calling Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a racist slur quoted with asterisks in UK media.
But many have already voted by mail and others don't care, according to Craig. After all, Reform UK has slowed somewhat in public opinion after an increase from 11 to 16 percent, and seems no longer able to overtake the conservative Tory Party into second place after Labour, writes Surrige. Now the Tories have to fight tooth and nail for every vote.
"But those who vote for Reform UK are as frustrated with the Conservative Party as those who vote for other parties, and it is unclear what strategy could win them back."
The Israel-Hamas War|The Victims Freed hostage: Don't forget those who remain with Hamas
Thousands of people have demonstrated in a dozen cities around Israel on Saturday against the government and for a ceasefire, according to Israeli media. In Tel Aviv, a video was played in which former hostage Noa Argamani speaks for the first time since her release:
- Don't forget those who remain in captivity with Hamas. We have to do everything we can to get them home, she says, thanking the army and everyone else who helped get her free.
Argamani's family is among a group of relatives of the hostages who do not support calls for a ceasefire agreement, unlike the Missing Families Forum, which circulated the video of her and organized the demonstration in Tel Aviv. There, Ayala Metzger tells Haaretz:
- What stands between us and our loved ones is Netanyahu's insistence on not ending the war as part of a settlement.
Climate threat The threat to the Amazon Concerns ahead of dry season after record fires in wetlands
Before the dry season has even begun, the fire record has been broken in the Pantanal wetland area in Brazil, reports Reuters. More than 2,500 fires have raged in the area in June alone, more than six times as many as the same month in 2020 which was then seen as extreme, according to the country's space research institute.
- We are facing one of the worst situations ever in the Pantanal, says Environment Minister Marina Silva.
According to her, the fires are due to climate change, the El Niño and La Niña weather phenomena - and people lighting fires to cut down trees. 85 percent of the fires have started on private property.
According to the head of the state environmental protection institute Ibama, the resources required to match the climate crisis are lacking.
- We master firefighting techniques and have personnel, but we have never had a fleet of firefighting aircraft, says Rodrigo Agostinho to Folha de São Paulo.
****************** The development of AI Lund University lied about the reference list with AI
Lund University has applied for money from the EU and in its application used a reference list filled with research that does not exist. It appears to have been created by Chat GPT, writes SvD.
The application concerned a joint research project together with a number of other European universities. When the matter was discovered by the EU Commission, Lund University reported itself to the Board for Examination of Research Misconduct and withdrew from the project.
- This is of course serious, it goes against normal research practice, says Stefan Höst, head of the Department of Electrical and Information Technology at Lund University, to SvD.
For example, if
you work on a fur farm in Finland, you can soon choose to get vaccinated
against bird flu. Archive image. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
This week, Finland will start vaccinating people in risk groups against bird flu, Finnish media reports.
It will be the country's first in the world, according to Reuters.
It
was earlier in June that the EU's authority for preparedness and
response to health crises signed an agreement with British CSL Seqirus
to purchase 665,000 doses of vaccine against the variant of bird flu,
H5N1, which in recent times has begun to spread between more and more
different mammals, as well as both wild and domesticated birds.
And according to the EU, Finland will be the first to start distributing the vaccine.
The
vaccine is free for adults who, in their work, run a greater risk of
contracting the virus - for example, working on fur farms or handling
birds.
One reason why people in Finland are eager to get started
with vaccination is the country's many fur farms - where there is a risk
of the animals coming into contact with wild animals, according to the
Finnish equivalent of the Public Health Agency.
Vaccines for
10,000 people have been purchased with the aim of preventing illness and
also limiting the risks of the virus mutating and spreading between
people.
So far, however, no cases of bird flu have been detected
among humans in Finland, and the virus is very rarely detected in humans
at all.
Sweden has chosen not to be part of the EU's joint procurement.
Riots and violence erupted as 600 delegates, 1,000 police and 50,000 counter-protesters gathered before the far-right AFD's party congress in Essen, Germany on Saturday. This is reported by international media.
Protesters tried to prevent the delegates from entering the congress hall. In several news media videos, they are seen clashing with the police, who used pepper spray and batons against them. Eleven police officers are injured, two of them seriously, according to Bild, which also writes that most protested peacefully.
- I have nothing against AFD holding its party conference here. I demonstrate against their politics, says 43-year-old Paul to Bild.
AFD is classified as far-right by the security services in three of the country's states. The party advanced in the EU elections and became the second largest party in Germany.
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Re-elected AFD leader demands new elections - wants to govern
The far-right AFD wants to take over power first in eastern Germany, then in the west, and then nationally. That is what party leader Alice Weidel says after being re-elected at today's party congress in Essen, according to Deutsche Welle.
- Dear government, get started and pave the way for new elections, she said, adding that the "firewall" that other parties set up against AFD is "unnecessary".
AFD became the second largest party in the EU elections and leads the opinion polls ahead of three important state elections in eastern Germany in September, according to AP.
If the AFD wins power, the party must dismantle a law that has just come into force that allows dual citizenship for immigrants and stop a law on simplified legal gender reassignment, Weidel promised in his speech, according to Tagesschau.
