https://english.almayadeen.net/news/art-culture/new-york-returns-19-mn-of-stolen-art-to-italy

New York returns $19 mn of stolen art to Italy

Prosecutors in New York returned dozens of artifacts stolen from Italy and valued at roughly $19 million on Tuesday, including some discovered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"These 58 pieces represent thousands of years of rich history, yet traffickers throughout Italy utilized looters to steal these items and to line their own pockets," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, noting that it was the third such repatriation in nine months.

"For far too long, they have sat in museums, homes, and galleries that had no rightful claim to their ownership," he said at a ceremony attended by Italian diplomats and law enforcement officials.

The stolen pieces were sold to Michael Steinhardt, one of the world's finest collectors of ancient art, according to the DA's office, who was also hit with a "first-of-its-kind lifetime ban on acquiring antiquities."

Among the recovered valuables, which were sold to "unwitting collectors and museums," officials said, were a marble head of the Greek goddess Athena from 200 B.C.E. and a drinking cup from 470 B.C.E.

The pieces were stolen at the behest of four men who "all led highly lucrative criminal enterprises – often in competition with one another – where they would use local looters to raid archaeological sites throughout Italy, many of which were insufficiently guarded," the DA's office said.

One of them, Pasquale Camera, was "a regional crime boss who organized thefts from museums and churches as early as the 1960s. He then began purchasing stolen artifacts from local looters and sold them to antiquities dealers," it added.

It said that this year alone, the DA's office has "returned nearly 300 antiquities valued at over $66 million to 12 countries."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/economics/eu-unions:-low-income-europeans-cannot-afford-energy-bills

EU unions: Low-income Europeans cannot afford energy bills

A study conducted for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has found that increasing electricity and gas bills are becoming unaffordable for low-paid Europeans, costing them more than a month's wages for low-paid workers in the majority of EU member states, with more energy prices hikes to be witnessed likely in coming months unless government action is taken.

According to the study, an estimated 9.5 million employed people had difficulties paying their energy bills before the energy crisis began. The cost of gas and electricity had risen by 38% across Europe in comparison with last year, and it continues to soar.

The number of days a person earning the minimum wage has to work to pay their energy bill has risen dramatically in some countries, such as Estonia (+26), Netherlands (+20), Czechia (+17), and Latvia (+16).

That means Estonian workers earning the minimum wage have to work an additional 26 days to pay for their annual energy bill.

"When your bill costs over a month's wages, there's no clever money-saving trick that will make a difference," ETUC Deputy General Secretary Esther Lynch said in a statement, adding, "These prices are now simply unaffordable for millions of people."

ETUC urged European leaders "to take decisive action to end Europe's unsustainable energy price rises" ahead of their meeting next week. It called on EU leaders to install price caps on energy bills for consumers and make targeted payments to low-wage workers struggling with energy bills.

The group also called for other anti-crisis measures to protect incomes and jobs, as well as increases to minimum wages, and urged EU countries to support collective bargaining so other workers may obtain wage hikes. It also called on European nations to tax windfall profits made by energy companies.

In response to the war in Ukraine, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign aimed, in particular, at Russian energy resources.

Groceries and food are other sectors experiencing the aftermath of soaring inflation which saw prices skyrocketing across the EU.

The temporary halt of gas flows in the Nord Stream pipeline has been frequent since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in February.

In the UK, it was reported that 60% of factories are at extreme risk of shutting down as energy costs across the country continue to skyrocket, with electricity bills surging by more than 100% over the past year.

In Germany, inflation rose to almost 8% in August after declining slightly in the months of June and July. It is predicted that millions of German lower-income households will find it hard to pay their energy bills due to gas prices.

In France, supplies of Russian gas have been halted since last week due to non-payment for July in full.

Since the G7 agreed on imposing a price cap on Russian oil on September 2, the flow of gas has completely stopped, although Gazprom has reported that this was a temporary maintenance issue.

Russia has indeed stated that it will stop exporting Russian oil to European states that are applying the decision.

As a result, experts have said that the gas situation is likely to worsen in the EU.

>>17509957

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/economics/france-to-send-nuclear-fuel-to-japan

France to send nuclear fuel to Japan

A shipment of reprocessed nuclear fuel docked in the early hours of Wednesday at the port city of Cherbourg in France, AFP reported, saying that the ship was bound for Japan to be used in a nuclear power plant.

Japan does not possess facilities that allow it to process its own nuclear waste, sending most of it overseas - France in particular.

The nuclear shipment, composed of highly radioactive Mox, a concoction of reprocessed plutonium and uranium, was transported overnight from a nuclear power plant in the Hague in secure containers mounted on two trucks, the Paris-based nuclear group Orano said.

The convoy arrived around 3:45 am local time at the port surrounded by law enforcement vehicles, the French agency added, citing a photographer at the location.

The load was transported a few hours later to a nuclear-ready ship designed by the UK's PNTL company, which has extensive experience with transporting this type of materials, Orano explained.

The ship will take around two months to dock at its destination in Japan, marking the eighth shipment of the sort from France since 1999.

The last time France sent out a ship bound for Japan and loaded with Mox was in September 2021, prompting environmental group Greenpeace to protest the transaction.

"Transporting such dangerous materials from a nuclear proliferation point of view is completely irresponsible," said Yannick Rousselet of Greenpeace France about Wednesday's shipment.

The concoction in question, Mox, is composed of 92% uranium oxide and 8% plutonium oxide, Orano said. "The plutonium is not the same as that used by the military," the company claimed.

Nuclear power is becoming more popular as countries look for alternatives with the cost of importing energy growing globally and climate crises causing devastation.

The Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011—the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986—led to a drop in nuclear power investment as governments ran terrified and safety concerns grew. However, the tide is now shifting back in favor of nuclear power after Moscow's operation in Ukraine, the ensuing squeeze on energy supplies, and Europe's push to wean itself off of Russian oil and gas.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida two weeks ago called for an initiative to restart the nation's nuclear power sector.

Kishida, at an energy policy meeting, said the war in Ukraine "has vastly transformed the world's energy landscape" and so "Japan needs to bear in mind potential crisis scenarios."

10 of Japan's 33 nuclear reactors are back in service 11 years after the nuclear disaster, albeit not all of them are, and the nation is still highly reliant on imported fossil fuels.

The restart of seven more reactors has received preliminary approval from the national nuclear safety watchdog, although local populations frequently oppose such actions.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/technology/huawei-beats-apple-to-new-tech-feature-satellite-texting

Huawei beats Apple to new tech feature; satellite texting

One day prior to Apple’s September event, Huawei announced the Mate 50 series, beating Apple's iPhone 14 to a feature it is anticipated to offer: the ability to send texts via satellite communication.

The Mate 50 and its Pro series will have the ability to send short texts and utilize navigation thanks to China’s global BeiDou satellite network, permitting communication in areas without cellular signals.

The frontrunner Mate 50 series includes 4G-only versions of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset with 8GB of RAM, a 6.7-inch and a 90Hz OLED panel as opposed to the 50 Pro having a slightly bigger 6.74-inch OLED display and a 120Hz refresh rate.

Both however include a 50-megapixel main rear camera with a variable aperture lens with stops from f/1.4 to f/4 - most smartphone cameras use fixed apertures but the lens itself is so small that it’s unlikely to notice any significant difference in depth-of-field in most situations.

While each has a telephoto lens, and they share a 13-megapixel f/2.2 ultrawide, the Pro gets an upgraded 64-megapixel camera capable of 200x digital zoom. On the other hand, the Mate 50 offers 100x digital zoom with a lower-resolution 12-megapixel sensor.

American cellular provider T-Mobile announced a collaboration with SpaceX that intends to bring the satellite texting feature to T-Mobile subscribers by way of Starlink satellites, as the rumors of Apple’s satellite messaging feature have been swirling since last year.

At first, however, the technology will potentially be limited. T-Mobile stated that its system will allow for text and even picture messaging, but voice calls and data won’t be available until later.

According to Huawei’s description of the system, it looks like the Mate 50 phones will only be able to send texts by satellite, but receiving them won't be an option yet. Satellite-based texting aims to provide an emergency connection in places without a signal for urgent cases. In any case, consumers and smartphone users will have to wait for the feature to be available in the US longer than usual since Huawei’s devices will not be sold there due to sanctions.

US President Joe Biden signed a legislation, dubbed the Secure Equipment Act, in October last year that bans companies that are regarded as "security threats" from obtaining equipment licenses from US regulators. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under the new law, is required to no longer review nor accept any authorization application for equipment that "poses a threat to national security" - namely by Huawei and ZTE.

Following that initiative, Huawei's market share in phones plummeted even in China, but with this new tech feature that will not be available in the US, Huawei might gain leverage over US smartphone markets - especially since the company just signed a deal with the Solomon Islands last month that secured a $66 million loan from China to fund and provide 161 telecommunications towers across the Pacific nation.