Posted on November 21, 2022 at 6:28 p.m. by

The Maritime Executive

Efforts continue to build partnerships with European ports to develop hydrogen supply for future fuels. In Germany, Hamburg has announced plans for the country’s first large-scale green energy import facility linked to existing facilities in the port, while in France, the port of Nantes – Saint Nazaire is part of a project to support large-scale green hydrogen production facilities to fuel the energy transition of the Loire Valley.

The project in Hamburg will see Air Products work with Mabanaft, through its subsidiary Oiltanking Deutschland, which currently operates the large tank farm in Hamburg, to develop Germany’s first large-scale green energy import terminal. . The planned terminal is to be located on the existing Mabanaft tank terminal, which would provide strategic access to green ammonia from large-scale green hydrogen production facilities operated by Air Products and its partners worldwide .

According to the proposal, they plan to import ammonia which would be converted into green hydrogen at Air Products’ facilities in Hamburg. It would then be available for distribution to buyers locally and in northern Germany. The aim is to launch the operation by 2026 and it joins others in Germany, such as the new Wilhelmshaven terminal being developed for LNG which is also exploring ammonia imports.

German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck said: “Now more than ever, we need to drive the hydrogen economy forward. To do this, we are setting up our own hydrogen production in Germany, but of course we also need hydrogen from imports. An accelerated energy transition with more speed in the expansion of renewable energies and the rise of green hydrogen are the right answers to Russian aggression and the right answers to strengthen energy security, resilience and competitiveness.

Similarly in France, they are also exploring efforts to develop an offshore hydrogen production supply chain. Nantes? The port of Saint-Nazaire, which is the fourth seaport in France, will work with Lhyfe, a French company developing renewable and green hydrogen sources to develop the hydrogen supply chain. Lhyfe operates a renewable hydrogen production facility using water electrolysis and in September launched its Sealhyfe project in Saint Nazaire which is the world’s first offshore renewable hydrogen production platform. The prototype, which will be connected to a floating wind turbine, will have a capacity of 1 MW. Lhyfe plans to set up similar onshore facilities across Europe.

Together with the port, the companies will work together to identify port areas and facilities capable of hosting R&D prototypes, as well as industrial requirements for the construction of equipment and support infrastructure needed for hydrogen production. large-scale offshore.
Companies will also explore how best to bring renewable gas to shore and integrate it into the onshore grid.

Other European ports, notably in the Netherlands and Belgium, are also looking to build hydrogen supply facilities. They are each exploring import opportunities both to supply domestic users and to develop bunkering operations to provide alternative fuels to the marine industry.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino has blasted critics of Qatar’s World Cup, accusing European countries of hypocrisy and saying they were unable to teach moral lessons.

In a combative 90-minute press conference on the eve of the World Cup in Doha, Infantino said much of the criticism leveled at the tournament hosts was ‘deeply unfair’ with the western world guilty of doubles standards.

“For what we Europeans have done for the past 3,000 years in the world, we should apologize for the next 3,000 years before we start giving moral lessons,” he said.

Europe has been at the forefront of criticism ahead of the tournament, with some national football associations joining calls for a compensation fund for the families of workers killed or injured during construction work before the tournament.

A number of teams are also planning to wear rainbow captain’s armbands during games to send a pro-inclusion message to the world. Homosexuality remains illegal in Qatar, but Fifa has assured fans that “everyone is welcome”.

Infantino, 52, railed against those who have focused on Qatar’s human rights record, treatment of foreign labor and its laws governing homosexuality – rather than the progress made in the small Gulf state. He went on to criticize Western immigration policies, saying thousands of people had died trying to reach Europe in search of a better life.

“Why is no one asking for compensation for the families of these deceased migrants? Maybe their life is not worth the same,” he said. “Qatar actually gives them those opportunities. . . in Europe, we close our borders.

“Give them a future. Give them some hope. But this one-sided, giving moral lesson is just hypocrisy,” he said.

Infantino began the session with an hour-long monologue in which he compared his own life experience to that of migrant workers in Qatar and gay people around the world.

“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. I feel like a migrant worker,” he said.

“I feel like them because I know what it means to be discriminated against [against], be harassed. When I was a kid in school, I was bullied at school because I had red hair.

The Fifa president, who took the top job after Sepp Blatter left office early in 2016, also pointed the finger at multinationals, saying they had been free to do business with Qatar for years. years without being asked to push for social change.

“These European and Western companies, which earn millions and millions every year – billions – from Qatar and other countries in the region, how many of them have addressed the rights of migrant workers? None of them . . . because changing the legislation means less profit,” he said. “Who really cares about the workers? FIFA does. Soccer yes.

Foreign governments are also guilty of turning a blind eye to moral issues, he said. “A country that had only sand and pearls in the sea, well in fact they found something worth much more – that’s gas. If there was no gas, no one wouldn’t care. Now they all come and they all want something.

Infantino, who is expected to be re-elected unopposed for another term at the helm of Fifa next year, has chastised sections of the media for their relentless negative coverage of Qatar’s preparations. Fans, he said, would prefer to read about the sport.

“The magic of football – as soon as the ball rolls, people focus on it, because that’s what people want,” he said.

Asked if it was right for Iran to still participate in the World Cup as protesters faced a brutal crackdown from authorities, Infantino said he did not belong. Fifa to make radical moral judgments on entire countries.

“It’s not two regimes playing against each other,” he said. “There are 80 million people in Iran. Do you think they are all bad? Do you think they are all monsters? I do not think so.”

Mustafa Qadri, chief executive of human rights group Equidem Research, said: “History will not judge this moment kindly. Infantino’s speech was an insult to the thousands of hard-working women and men who made the World Cup possible.”

The outcome of the United States midterm elections will not affect the United States’ attitude to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Foreign Secretary said today.

Speaking to RTÉ in Washington, Simon Coveney said there was bipartisan support for the EU and UK to reach a negotiated solution.

Following a meeting with the Friends of Ireland group in Congress, Mr Coveney said: “I think the message is very clear.

“Whether it’s a Republican-controlled Congress or a Democrat-controlled Congress, the position in Ireland is not going to change.

“They want to fix the problems with the Northern Protocol.

“They want the UK government to act responsibly to protect a peace process and respect the agreements that have been made in the past.

“But they also expect the Irish government, the EU and the UK government to be able to work together in partnership to try to address many of these issues in the weeks ahead through pragmatism, flexibility and willingness to compromise.”

Mr Coveney also said the Irish government was not surprised to be targeted by Russian sanctions.

“It’s something that doesn’t surprise us, Ireland has taken a very clear position on this conflict,” he said.

“We think Russia is breaking international law, breaking the UN Charter.”

He said he thought it would not have been credible for Ireland to avoid taking a stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“If you don’t take a stand on something like that, I don’t think you’re a credible part of the international community,” Mr Coveney said.

“And Ireland is not neutral on the war in Ukraine, and I think we have been at the forefront in terms of calling for sanctions.”

25th anniversary of Good Friday

Meanwhile, during the G20 summit in Indonesia, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held talks with US President Joe Biden, who discussed the situation in Northern Ireland.

Mr Sunak said he hoped the post-Brexit issues could be resolved by the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next year.

Asked if the US President had raised any concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, the Prime Minister’s press secretary replied: “Not specifically, no”.

Asked if he did about the situation in Northern Ireland in general, she said: “Yes.”

“They both expressed their commitment to protecting the Good Friday Agreement,” she said.

She added that the Prime Minister “expressed his desire to achieve a negotiated settlement and to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement is protected”.

Mr Sunak referred to the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement next year and “making sure we get a negotiated settlement that protects the Good Friday Agreement by then”, he said. she declared.

Reading of the White House meeting said the two leaders “affirmed their joint commitment to protect the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement”.

The UK’s stance on the protocol is one of the factors that has stalled progress on a trade deal with Washington.

In Dublin, the Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne TD, welcomed the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Europe, Leo Docherty MP, to Iveagh House today.

Minister Byrne underlined the government’s desire to see functioning institutions in place for the people of Northern Ireland and to see substantial progress soon in the EU-UK protocol talks.

He said: “It is important that time and space have been given to enable progress in the EU-UK talks on the Northern Ireland protocol.

“This time must be used constructively so that lasting solutions can be agreed for people and businesses in Northern Ireland.

“Both Ireland and the EU want the strongest possible relationship with the UK.”

Pressures on health services

Sinn Féin deputy chair Michelle O’Neill has said she will not give up on her efforts to restore the Stormont executive amid a health service crisis in Northern Ireland.

Ms O’Neill also called for a speedy resolution of the issues surrounding the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol in the UK-EU negotiations.

Ms O’Neill said if the protocol issues can be resolved it could lead to the Stormont executive returning.

The DUP is currently boycotting devolved institutions in protest at the protocol and the party insists it will not agree to a return to Stormont until its economic barriers to trade between Britain and Northern Ireland are lifted. not deleted.

The focus has been on talks between the EU and the UK following the collapse of devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Ms O’Neill said: “What we now need to see are the protocol discussions continuing in earnest.

“What we need is a quick resolution, an agreed resolution that allows the executive to come back up.

“That’s what I work for, that’s why the nursing staff tell us they want us to work and I think the public deserves no less.

“I want to be in the executive. I want to appoint a ministerial team.

“I’m afraid we don’t have an executive in this climate where our health service is collapsing around us.”

Pressures on health services have been evident in Northern Ireland in recent days, with a number of hospitals urging the public to only come in an emergency.

Ms O’Neill and her party colleagues Conor Murphy and Colm Gildernew met with nurses in Belfast on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Speaking afterwards, she said: “It is clear that our whole health service is facing a very difficult situation, but in particular our nursing staff.

“It’s very clear speaking directly to the healthcare staff this morning about the fact that they feel devalued, the fact that they feel exhausted and demoralized.

“They are asking for support and help, just to do their job.

“What we need now is an executive. We need an executive who puts health first. We need an executive who works very quickly to fix what’s wrong.

“I’m not giving up. I think the one thing the nurses have also asked for is a little hope.

“Some hope there will be an executive, some hope we can work with other parties, some hope we can prioritize a budget for health.”

On Saturday evening, the Antrim area hospital temporarily closed to new admissions after declaring a major incident due to pressures caused by the number of patients presenting to the emergency room.

Since then, a number of other hospitals have described operating under extreme pressure, with large numbers of patients waiting in the emergency room and ambulances queuing outside.

A budget for 2022/23 had not been agreed by Stormont’s parties before the implosion of the ministerial executive in February.

Earlier, ministers had agreed in principle that any new spending plan should allocate increased funding to the region’s struggling health service.

washington d.c.
CNN
—

Tesla and CEO Elon Musk will go to court this week to defend the huge compensation package that helped make him the richest man in the world.

The week-long trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery will examine the 2018 compensation plan that the automaker’s board created for Musk. The automaker said at the time that it could be the penalty nearly $56 billion, making it the biggest compensation package for anyone on Earth from a publicly traded company, and the net worth today is $50.9 billion.

Even in the thin air of CEO compensation, Musk’s compensation plan stands out. Millions and millions of dollars are often lavished on top corporate executives, but Musk’s compensation plan was initially in the tens of billions, as long as he met his performance goals. It wasn’t cash — executive compensation rarely is — but company stock. The more Tesla went up, the more those shares would be valued, the more Musk would be awarded, and the more those shares were worth. And as Tesla’s stock rose steadily, it propelled it to a net worth of more than $300 billion at one point, while reaping potential shareholder gains.

But all the while, Musk was dividing his time between his many other businesses. SpaceX has begun regularly sending astronauts to the International Space Station. The Boring Company has built a loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center. And then, of course, he bought Twitter.

However, Musk isn’t the only one benefiting from Tesla’s rising stock and option values. So have shareholders. Tesla’s market value has soared more than 1,000% since they approved his salary package in March 2018.

The case could be significant for Tesla, given the serious questions raised about its executive compensation, according to corporate governance experts. Tesla’s board of directors defended the compensation package.

The lawsuit may also energize the debate over executive compensation, including the large stock grants they receive. S&P 500 CEO an average compensation of $18.3 million in 2021, 324 times the median salary in companies. This disparity has widened in recent years.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, ​​for example, received compensation valued at $212.7 million in 2021. Apple CEO Tim Cook received nearly $100 million last year. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft had been paid nearly $50 million in 2021.

The plaintiff, Richard J. Tornetta, claims on behalf of Tesla shareholders that Musk exploited his control over the company and its board of directors to obtain the huge compensation to “fund his personal ambition to colonize Mars.”

Musk entered March 2018, the month shareholders approved the compensation plan, at No. 41 on the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, largely due to his involvement in Tesla and SpaceX. At the time, Tesla was a promising but struggling automaker. It had lost nearly $2 billion the previous year and was struggling to overcome production delays as it manufactured its mainstream Model 3 sedan. Musk spoke to be in “production hell” as well as “delivery logistics hell” during the year, and joked to go bankrupt.

Many wondered if the company could survive as an independent automaker.

Tesla’s Board of Directors felt that with proper execution, the automaker could become one of the most valuable companies in the world and wanted to encourage Musk to lead it for the long term. The compensation plan included 12 stock packages that Musk would receive if milestones were met, including Tesla’s market capitalization as well as its adjusted revenue and earnings. (Each batch of shares would be earned if Tesla’s market capitalization increased an additional $50 billion above $100 billion. Other milestones included reaching $35 billion in annualized revenue and $3 billion dollars of adjusted earnings.)

The plan, originally slated to pay off over the course of a decade, proved hugely lucrative for Musk and in astonishing time. Tesla was the Best performing US stock of 2020 and became America most valuable automaker of all time. His small SUV, the Model Y, recently became the best-selling car in Europe.

Musk has reached numerous milestones that trigger payouts, and he is expected to win the final batch early next year.

The payment plan made Musk the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $184 billion, according to the The Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His true net worth may be difficult to estimate because a significant portion is invested in SpaceX, a private company that does not have to publicly reveal detailed financial information that could show a drop or rise in value. Tech stocks and the broader stock market in general have fallen sharply this year.

Richard Tornetta, who originally filed the lawsuit in June 2018, claims Tesla’s board breached its fiduciary duties for waste, and Musk breached his own fiduciary duties for unjust enrichment.

Tornetta argued in its original 2018 complaint that the compensation plan was not necessary to incentivize Musk because he already had a large stake in the automaker.

The lawsuit was certified as a class action by the court in January 2021. The case took years to work its way through the system due to the drawn-out nature of the litigation, including the crafting of a motion by Tesla to dismiss the complaint.

Tornetta’s complaint alleges that the board that created Musk’s compensation plan lacked sufficient independence from him. The board included Musk’s brother, Kimbal, as well as friends Anthony Gracias and Steve Jurvetson. (Jurvetson and Gracias have since left Tesla’s board.)

Carla Hayn, a professor who teaches corporate governance at the UCLA business school, told CNN Business that the matter is serious for Tesla because it will be a heavy burden for the automaker to prove that compensation and the process to create it were righteous.

“It’s a huge package,” Hayn said of the compensation plan. “Did they need to turn over such a part of the company to Musk to align his interests and keep him as CEO?”

She noted that advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis both recommended in 2018 that Tesla shareholders reject the compensation plan.

Institutional Shareholder Services warned that the plan “locks in unprecedented high compensation opportunities for the next decade,” and noted that Musk already owns 22% of Tesla, aligning his interests with it. But shareholders approved the plan, she noted.

Hayn noted that Musk’s close relationship with board members could be problematic for Tesla in this matter.

“Since this whole board is very much under the influence of Musk, it’s hard to know that anything they did would go through a proper process,” she said.

Tesla’s board of directors has claims that he created the plan “after more than six months of in-depth analysis with a leading independent compensation consultant as well as discussions with Elon.”

“We gave Elon the ability to share the benefits in a way proportional to the difficulty of achieving them,” they said. said at the time.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment and generally does not engage with trade media.

The trial is expected to last a week. Chancery court judges sometimes rule from the bench, but this is rare. It can take weeks to months before a decision is made.

Musk has become a regular at the Delaware Court of Chancery. Last month, its acquisition of Twitter nearly went to court. He testified in court last year in a dispute over Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity. A the judge ruled in favor of Musk in April.

Musk’s unique management style will be a talking point. He runs several companies outside of Tesla: aerospace company SpaceX; his tunneling company The Boring Co.; a brain interface startup, Neuralink; and Twitter. It is rare for executives to hold multiple CEO titles.

CNN’s Chris Isidore contributed to this report.

Simon Wolfson, the chief executive of clothing and homewares retailer Next, urged the government to make it easier for foreign workers to enter the UK and said it was “not the Brexit I wanted”.

The Tory peer and Brexit supporter said the government was preventing essential workers from entering the UK, even though businesses were in desperate need of labour.

“We have people lining up to come to this country to pick crops that are rotting in the fields, to work in warehouses that otherwise would not be usable, and we are not letting them in,” Lord Wolfson said in an interview with the BBC.

“As far as immigration is concerned, this is certainly not the Brexit that I wanted, or even that many who voted for Brexit wanted,” he added.

Wolfson said there was always value in incentivizing companies to hire local workers in the UK, and said this could be achieved by ensuring companies pay a 10% tax to the government on foreign labor wages.

“That would automatically mean companies would never have bought someone from outside into the business if they could find someone in the UK,” he said. “But if they really can’t, they’ll pay the premium.

Businesses across the UK are struggling to find staff, in part because of Brexit restrictions which meant EU citizens were no longer allowed to work in the UK. It has affected hospitals, pubs, restaurants and logistics companies, and last year the government was forced to offer temporary visas to truckers and poultry farmers to help solve the resulting supply chain crisis.

Wolfson said most people in the UK had a “very pragmatic view” of immigration, and he urged the government to take a “different approach to economically productive migration”.

“Yes, control it, where it’s harmful to society, but let people in who can contribute to it,” said the Next said the general manager.

“We have to remember, you know, we’re all stuck in this Brexit argument. We have to remember that what Britain looks like after Brexit isn’t just for those who voted for Brexit. Brexit is up to all of us,” Wolfson said.

It came as the retail boss tried to calm fears over the length of the UK economic downturn, the Bank of England said last week. could last until mid-2024.

“Next year will be tough, but there’s no need for a national nervous breakdown,” Wolfson said, saying the The UK’s low unemployment rate – which fell to 3.5% in the three months to August – would help shield the UK from a deeper economic crisis. “While people will be in a rush, it’s highly unlikely that they won’t be able to find work,” he said.

The country would likely start to rebound by 2024, Wolfson added. “The interesting thing about a recession on the supply side is that the seeds of the correction are automatically certain. So as demand drops and factories start to empty, prices start to fall. »

In the meantime, Wolfson said, the government should focus its “very limited resources on those who need the most help during the next recession.” He said the last thing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should do was provide financial support to households and businesses that did not need it.

That meant targeting aid at “people who are going to be cold and people who are going to be hungry, not businesses that want tax relief”, he said.

The government has been criticized for spending billions to cap the energy bills of every UK household and business, meaning the wealthiest families and businesses are getting help when they can’t. -be not needed.

In one look.

• GAO calls for dedicated privacy leadership within the executive branch.
• The Dropbox data breach stems from a phishing scam.
• The NLRB’s top lawyer focuses on reducing employee surveillance.
• TikTok policy update confirms Chinese employees’ access to user data.

GAO calls for dedicated privacy leadership within the executive branch.

A recent report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that executive branch departments and agencies need dedicated leadership to focus on privacy issues, CSO Online reports. Among the approximately sixty individual recommendations outlined in the document, GAO is asking Congress to consider legislation that would require these executive branch organizations to appoint a senior official who would be responsible for confidentiality. Many of the twenty-four entities reviewed already have privacy staff in place, but often they lack computer training, and privacy is often just one of many job duties. individual, which makes it difficult for them to give it the attention it deserves. In a podcast released after the report, GAO’s Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity, Jennifer Franks, said, “Now is the time to ensure that privacy receives sufficient attention at the highest levels of the management of all our branches; and that all of our agencies take privacy fully into account at every stage so that when new technologies are deployed and we collect personal information, we consider all appropriate safeguards.

The Dropbox data breach stems from a phishing scam.

File hosting service Dropbox has revealed that it suffered a data breach in which an intruder gained access to data contained in its internal GitHub code repositories after a company developer was scammed by Phishing. Impersonating a representative of CircleCI, a popular CI/CD platform used internally at Dropbox, the scammer lured the employee to a fraudulent CircleCI login page where the user entered their credentials GitHub, GitGuardian Blog Explain. Armed with this information, the bad actor infiltrated the developer’s GitHub account and, in turn, about one hundred and thirty repositories of internal code. Although Dropbox claims that these repositories contained internal tools and were not connected to their core applications, the company confirmed that certain sensitive data, including API keys and other credentials, as well as “a few thousand names and email addresses belonging to Dropbox employees” were exposed. . The full extent of the breach was not disclosed, but Dropbox said in a statement, “We believe the risk to customers is minimal. Because we take our commitment to security, privacy and transparency seriously, we have notified those affected and are sharing more here… We also reviewed our logs and found no evidence of successful abuse. Still, experts say the hacker’s knowledge that Dropbox was using CircleCI demonstrates a high level of sophistication and users should be on the lookout for suspicious activity in their accounts.

The NLRB’s top lawyer focuses on reducing employee surveillance.

On Monday, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo of the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a memo calling on the organization to crack down on electronic surveillance and automated management practices that violate workers’ rights. Spurred by concerns that employers could use such technology to interfere with labor organizing or other federally protected activities, Abruzzo wrote, “One issue that particularly concerns me is the potential for pervasive surveillance and other algorithmic management tools to interfere with the exercise of Article 7 rights by significantly impairing or nullifying the ability of employees to engage in protected activity and to keep that activity confidential from from their employer, if they wish. As Vice Remarks, the NLRB has previously said that workplaces are not allowed to target workers engaged in actions protected by national labor relations law with surveillance technology. However, problems persist even at top companies like Amazon, where warehouse workers say surveillance technology has suppressed their desire to unionize and drivers say in-vehicle tracking devices push them to work at dangerous rhythms. (Amazon says the technology is necessary to maximize employee safety.) Abruzzo is pushing for a framework that would require employers to disclose details about this technology to the NLRB, allowing the board to ensure employee rights do not are not abused.

TikTok policy update confirms Chinese employees’ access to user data.

Amid political and regulatory concerns over Chinese access to user information on TikTok, as well as an ongoing investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the popular video streaming app has confirmed that European user data can be viewed by employees outside the continent, including in China, the Guardian reports. In an update to its privacy policy to be posted in the UK, European Economic Area and Switzerland in December, TikTok says staff in China as well as Brazil, Canada, the United States United States and Singapore is authorized to access user data to ensure their experience of the platform is “consistent, enjoyable and safe”. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, added that its security controls consist of system access restrictions, encryption and network security, and noted that it does not collect precise location information. among European users, the HackerNews reports. CPD Told TechCrunch that its investigation into TikTok data transfers will take the next step in the coming months and that a draft decision should be sent to other EU DPAs for consideration in the first quarter of 2023. Whether TikTok’s privacy policy update is related to the probe is unclear, but experts say the move could be an effort by the company to pre-empt regulatory enforcement on its data transfers. data by demonstrating that it has already made an effort to increase its transparency with European users.

PA projector is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.

HARRISBURG — In the final days of summer, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra embarked on a whirlwind nine-city European tour — its first international trip since the pandemic began.

The orchestra traveled to Germany, Slovenia and Austria, where it closed the world-famous Salzburg Festival. It was the only American orchestra to perform there that year, and tickets for the event were extremely hard to come by.

But not for a duo of Pennsylvania lawmakers.

State Senate Pro Tempore Speaker Jake Corman (R., Center) and State Representative Rob Mercuri (R., Allegheny), along with their wives, were in the audience that day in Salzburg as the The orchestra played Beethoven to thunderous applause. They also spent several days in Essen, Germany, where the orchestra performed works by Mahler, Ligeti and Beethoven.

The symphony, which has received nearly $10 million in public funding over the past five years, offered them the coveted tickets. He also covered the costs of their airfare, hotel, meals, and other incidentals.

The legislators’ European excursion, which the orchestra estimated to cost $30,000, is the kind of professional perk that a ban on gifts would make impossible for elected officials and other members of government.

But the Pennsylvania legislature recently adjourned for what will likely be the last voting day of its two-year session. He left a closely guarded no-gift bill on the cutting room floor.

“It’s the lowest fruit on the rotten tree of money and politics,” said Michael Pollack, executive director of good governance group March on Harrisburg, of the ban on gifts, which his organization has been advocating for several years.

But, he added, passing one would require setting aside self-interest: “They don’t want to change the culture of corruption in Harrisburg.”

Corman, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. Mercuri did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Pennsylvania is an exception among states when it comes to limiting gifts to elected officials and public employees.

Under current law, they are permitted to accept gifts, transportation and hospitality of any value as long as it is not in exchange for official action. They are required to report gifts on forms filed annually with the state Ethics Commission, but these forms do not become publicly available until the following calendar year. And there’s no vetting system in place to ensure lawmakers report everything they receive, which Pollack and other advocates say provides false assurances that the giveaways aren’t being used. to induce officials to a specific action.

Individual legislators have tried for more than a decade to limit or prohibit this benefit. But neither chamber of the General Assembly has shown the political will to push the measure to the finish line.

Proponents of the gift ban saw this legislative session as a game-changer. A coalition of senior Republicans in the GOP-controlled legislature, including State House Speaker Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County and State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward of Westmoreland County, for the first time publicly supported the imposition of limits on gifts. And a gift ban bill received a key vote from the state House committee, positioning it for a historic floor vote.

But that vote never happened, as the leaders of the States House chose to let it languish. Both chambers are expected to return to the Capitol after Nov. 8, but spokespersons for the leaders said it was not on their radar to consider a ban on gifts.

In the state Senate, Corman, who is retiring at the end of the year, was widely seen as the heist, as he staunchly refused to say whether he even supported the concept, let alone he would allow her to argue.

The measure will now have to be reintroduced in the new two-year session of the legislature which begins in January. At that time, it will also have to start the lengthy legislative approval process all over again.

In 2021, lobbyists reported spending more than $1.6 million on gifts, hospitality, transportation and lodging for government officials or employees and their families, according to Annual Report filed with the state. However, due to weak lobbying disclosure laws in Pennsylvania, these lobbyists do not have to disclose who they spent money on or for what purpose.

Elected officials, however, must report gifts worth $250 or more — and hospitality worth $650 or more — on ethics forms filed annually. For example, Corman said last year he received $5,411 in travel and accommodation from a national group working to elect Republicans to state office, and an additional $1,408 for attend a workshop for legislative leaders hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

He also said he received a $6,667 “gift” from a western Pennsylvania law firm that provided pro bono representation when he sued over masking requirements for the schools imposed by the Wolf administration just before the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

Mercuri, a first-term House member, did not report any gifts or hospitality on his ethics form for 2021.

The trip to Europe will not be made public until May next year, when the state ethics commission publishes annual financial disclosure statements for the previous calendar year on its website. Spotlight PA learned this from an anonymous source who shared the information after reading that several lawmakers have been offered free trips attend a major western festival in Wyoming this summer.

Even then, officials report few details: just the value of the gift or hospitality, and who paid for it.

In emails, a spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra said the organization has extended invitations to all four legislative caucuses, so that one legislator from each will join the international tour.

Spokeswoman Julie Goetz estimated that it cost about $15,000 each for Corman and Mercuri to attend the tour, and that the two lawmakers were in Europe for four days, minus travel time.

She said the symphony has hosted elected officials on international tours before, including in 2004, when several officials traveled with the orchestra to see it perform at the Vatican. The symphony could not provide details of who went on this trip or who paid for it.

The symphony, wrote Goetz, thought it was important that “a small cross-section of our chosen ones see us in this role on our tours and have the opportunity to interact with foreign dignitaries and business leaders. “.

Like other arts organizations, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra employs lobbyists and competes for state funding. Much of this money comes from grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Goetz pointed out that state funding is limited and has not been used for touring costs.

Last year, according to the latest available data, the orchestra received just over $4.5 million from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, funds earmarked for marketing to tourists. State funding from previous years was also used for marketing purposes.

The orchestra also receives grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, although the amounts are more modest: just under $400,000 since 2017.

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The political stalemate in Northern Ireland, which led to London announcing it would call new elections there, shows that the region’s governance system is “not fit for purpose” and should be reformed, according to the Irish Prime Minister.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland have been rightly bound to share power since a historic 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of dispute over the region’s constitutional status .

But unionist and nationalist parties have often allied themselves in a system of binding coalitions where one side cannot govern without the other, and Martin has called for reform of the power-sharing arrangements enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement.

“There’s a reason why all this [power sharing] happened, in the early years,” Martin said in an interview with the Financial Times.

But now, almost 25 years later, he added: “There is room for parties to consider changing the system. The system polarizes and it is not suited to its purpose. . . The electoral system should not be a system that constantly reinforces polarization.

Martin said that any change at the system should be considered over the next four to five years. Dublin believes reform belongs to the Northern Irish parties and the Irish and British governments.

Martin was speaking ahead of last Friday’s deadline for the formation of a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland after the region’s assembly elections at Stormont in May.

The UK government has reacted to the failure to establish a fully functioning devolved administration by stressing its legal obligation to call new elections – which no party wants – although he has not set a date. December 15 is considered likely election day.

The Good Friday Agreement enshrines the principle that the largest parties representing nationalist and unionist communities should have prominent roles in a power-sharing executive.

But this means that each community has a right of veto over the existence of the executive.

For about 40% of the time since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland has been without a government because one side or the other has refused to participate.

The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest pro-British party, sparked the current crisis by insisting it would not enter government until Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade deals were scrapped .

From 2017 to 2020, Sinn Féin, the nationalist party supporting Irish reunification, blocked a power-sharing executive after a renewable energy scandal.

The elections last May were a milestone for Northern Ireland, as Sinn Féin has become the biggest party in the region for the first time – relegating the long-dominant DUP to second place.

The centrist Alliance party climbed to third place, showing a growing number of people who no longer identify with traditional unionist and nationalist lines.

However, the political system excludes the Alliance from government decisions requiring unionist and nationalist majority support.

“There’s a good spread of parties now,” Martin said. “We should explore a modified system.”

The Alliance argued that if the DUP does not want to participate in the executive, this should not prevent the formation of a government.

Jon Tonge, professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, said London “should review the rules of the Good Friday Agreement and end the binding coalitions. . . put them in the bin where they belong,” instead of triggering another election.

London and Dublin are hoping a power-sharing executive can be in place by next April, the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and US President Joe Biden is expected to visit to mark the occasion.

But much seems to hinge on whether the UK and EU can reach a compromise on changes to Northern Ireland’s trade deals that satisfy the DUP.

He takes issue with how the Northern Ireland protocol in Britain’s Brexit deal with the EU demands different trading terms for the region compared to Britain.

The protocol establishes a customs border in the Irish Sea, requiring checks on goods traveling from Britain to Northern Ireland, which the DUP says undermines the region’s place in the UK. United.

Without an agreement between the UK and the EU to revise the protocol that the DUP deems acceptable, fresh elections to the Northern Ireland assembly are likely to largely fail to secure a power-sharing executive. power.

McDonald’s executives expect a recession in the United States, but it will be worse in Europe. / Photo by Jonathan Maze.

McDonald’s executives expect a recession in the United States and Europe, they told investors Thursday, although they recognize there is a wide range of potential economic scenarios for the year ahead.

They also suggested that rising inflation and interest rates hurt consumers enough to cause them to change their spending habits.

“As the macroeconomic landscape continues to evolve and uncertainties persist, we continue to consider a broader range of scenarios for the future,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts Thursday. “Our baseline scenario for the future is that we expect to experience a mild to moderate recession in the US and potentially a bit deeper and longer in Europe.”

The comments are the clearest yet from the chief executive of the world’s largest restaurant chain that an economic downturn is in sight, if it isn’t already here.

At the same time, executives believe they are in a strong position to weather any potential economic storm and have suggested they are already getting low-income customers who are abandoning other chains in search of better value.

“We’re gaining market share right now among lower-income consumers,” Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden told investors Thursday. “We are positioning ourselves as a leading brand in terms of value for money and affordability.”

McDonald’s wins low-income customers even though the company doesn’t offer aggressive value offers, leaving them instead for the company’s mobile app, where its loyalty program uses discounts to encourage visits to chain restaurants.

The company is also unlikely to come under heavy pressure for discounts from competitors. Costs are rising too much and much of the industry is reluctant to engage in a price war. “We expect the industry to remain rational from a pricing perspective,” Kempczinski said. “Some of it was born out of self-interest. Everyone knows the inflation of food and paper. Everyone knows about labor inflation.

“And some of our competitors, their franchisees are not in the same situation as our franchisees. So even if there is a desire to get more promotion in certain areas to manage traffic, I think you’re going to encounter a lot of resistance from franchisees.

The question of the situation of low-income consumers has been on the minds of many operators and analysts for months.

Comments from McDonald’s, following those from Chipotle Mexican Grill, suggest that consumers are still eating out, opting instead for lower-cost restaurants. Chipotle executives said earlier in the week the company was losing low-income diners. McDonald’s, on the other hand, earns them.

Company executives said rising inflation and interest rates were causing problems for a number of consumers. And the problem is most pronounced in Europe. “Inflationary pressures and related interest rate increases taken by central banks are combining to put significant pressure on the consumer and our industry,” Borden said.

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ZURICH, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The chief executive and managing director of Lastminute.com, facing a criminal investigation into the possible abuse of state aid for businesses hit by pandemic shutdowns, has seen his period in custody extended until Nov. 29, the online travel company said Monday.

Managing director Fabio Cannavale and managing director Andrea Bertoli were suspended from the company for three months on July 25, after an investigation was launched by prosecutors in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland.

The investigation is also trying to identify whether there have been any irregularities regarding the partial unemployment benefits of certain Swiss subsidiaries linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This investigation involves current and former employees of these subsidiaries as well as certain current and former members of various boards of directors,” Lastminute.com said in a statement.

As Cannavale and Bertoli will not be able to perform their duties after the initial suspension period expired on October 24, the company added, interim CEO Laura Amoretti will continue in her role.

Headhunters have been appointed to search for a permanent chief executive, while an extraordinary general meeting is also due to take place by the end of the year to discuss “all relevant issues relating to the current situation”, it said. added the company.

Reporting by John Revill; Editing by David Gregorio

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