Negotiations over a future Prime Minister, the Pavel Durov affair, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, business life, the stock market… All the news for Thursday, August 29, 2024.
The main news of this Friday
7:45 a.m. – Pacific islands reject Beijing-backed calls to oust Taiwan
Pacific leaders meeting in Tonga say the Pacific Islands Forum will maintain its decades-old policy. In their final communiqué, the leaders “reaffirmed” a 1992 agreement allowing talks with Taipei.
Pacific Islands Forum members have rejected demands from some of China’s allies to stop considering Taiwan a development partner. The Solomon Islands, China’s main partner in the South Pacific, has pushed for Taiwan to be stripped of its Pacific Islands Forum partner status, angering some of Taipei’s allies.
7:31 a.m. – France: salaried employment stalls in the second quarter
Private sector salaried employment is almost stable with a slight decrease of 0.1% – or 28,500 jobs lost in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter -, according to INSEE, which revised upwards the number of jobs lost (7,900) published at the beginning of August. Private sector salaried employment grew by 0.3% over one year (60,700 additional jobs), and by 5.8% compared to its level at the end of 2019 (i.e. + 1.1 million jobs), added the institute.
It is now 5.1% higher than its pre-health crisis level at the end of 2019, representing 1.3 million additional jobs, a third of which are in work-study contracts.
7:18 a.m. – Google announces construction of a data center in Uruguay
The data center, which represents an investment of $850 million, will be built in Parque de las Ciencias, about 30 km from downtown Montevideo. It will focus on Google’s digital services such as Search, YouTube, Maps and Workspace, the group said in a statement. It will be the technology giant’s second in South America, after the one in Quilicura, Chile, which opened in 2015.
The daily amount of water needed by a Google data center has raised questions in Uruguay from environmentalists and academics, especially after the drinking water supply crisis caused by a historic drought in 2023. Google assured yesterday that this new data center would use “air cooling technology” that is “environmentally friendly.”
7:15 a.m. – In France, wage increases still higher than inflation
The average level of these increases is 3.5% for workers, employees, technicians and supervisors (OETAM), compared to 4.6% last year, according to a study by the Deloitte firm. Executive salaries are increasing almost as much, by 3.4%. In July, inflation was 2.3% over one year, according to INSEE.
Deloitte, which analyzed more than a million individual data from more than 300 companies, notes this year “a strong recourse to individualization” of salary increases. 100% individual increases now concern a majority of executives (51%, compared to 39% in 2023), and are becoming more common among other employees (34% compared to 25% in 2023).
7:18 – Backpage.com owners sentenced for money laundering
An Arizona judge has sentenced three owners of Backpage.com, which authorities shut down in 2018, to five to 10 years in prison for laundering money from the “leading online prostitution advertising forum,” the Justice Department said. “The defendants and their co-conspirators obtained more than $500 million by operating an online forum that facilitated the sexual exploitation of countless victims,” said Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.
7:15 a.m. – Venezuela: opposition candidate threatened with prison
Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who claims victory in the July 28 presidential election against Nicolas Maduro, is threatened with arrest if he does not appear this morning for a summons from the courts that he has already ignored twice. Living in semi-clandestine conditions, the former ambassador, aged 75, has not appeared in public since July 30. On Sunday, he stressed on X that he feared a justice system “without guarantees of independence”, a few weeks after admitting his “absolute vulnerability” to the authorities.
7:12 a.m. – Japan: Typhoon Shanshan kills six
The weakened typhoon, one of the most powerful in decades to hit the archipelago, was still blowing at more than 126 km/h. Even before it reached land, a landslide triggered by heavy rains killed three members of the same family Tuesday evening in Aichi Prefecture, on the Pacific coast in the center of the country.
The Japanese government spokesman confirmed four deaths, saying that in one case “the connection to the typhoon was still being investigated” and said two others were presumed dead or missing. He also mentioned eight people seriously injured and 70 others more lightly since yesterday when the typhoon hit the southern island of Kyushu, with gusts of up to 252 km/h.
7:07 a.m. – US presidential election: Kamala Harris attacks Trump and defends her ideas in her first interview
The Democratic candidate gave her first campaign interview to CNN yesterday, in a duo with her running mate Tim Walz. Her first gesture will be devoted to families and the cost of living. She did not want to dwell on her condition as a black woman.
Donald Trump had criticized his rival for not daring to confront journalists. To better highlight Kamala Harris’s shyness with the media, the populist leader had even organized a press conference in Florida on August 8, and promised to repeat the exercise “until he was thirsty”.
7:00 a.m. – UN calls for “immediate” cessation of Israeli operations in occupied West Bank
Expressing his “deep concern”, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, called on the social network X for the “immediate end” of this operation, condemning “strongly the loss of human life, particularly of minors”. The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, Ocha, warned of the continuation of “military operations near hospitals” and the “serious damage” inflicted on infrastructure, cutting off electricity and telecommunications in places.
