US Business Archives - Page 436 of 902

Switzerland signs contract for 36 US fighter jets

19 Sep 2022 19 Sep 2022

Switzerland signed a controversial contract on Monday to buy 36 US F-35 stealth fighter jets at a cost of more than six billion francs ($6.2 billion).

“National Armaments Director Martin Sonderegger and the Swiss F-35A Program Manager Darko Savic signed the procurement contract on 19 September 2022 at armasuisse in Bern,” said armasuisse, the country’s arms procurement agency.

“With this, the procurement of 36 F-35A is contractually agreed,” it added.

The selection of the F-35 by the Swiss government in June 2021 sparked some controversy, particularly in light of the cost-overruns of the fighter programme in the United States.

But a Swiss parliamentary investigation did not call into question the selection of the fighter.

The Swiss government and parliament also short-circuited holding a referendum on the plane’s purchase despite enough signatures being collected to put the issue to voters, saying there was not enough time to do so before manufacturer Lockheed Martin’s offer expires.

But Swiss voters had already narrowly approved in September 2020 spending six billion Swiss francs to replace the country’s fleet of ageing F/A-18 Hornets and F-5 Tigers.

The F-35s will be delivered between 2027 and 2030.

Switzerland joins a growing number of European countries which have opted for the stealth multi-role combat aircraft, including Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland.

Kremlin dismisses mass burial discoveries as 'lies'

19 Sep 2022 19 Sep 2022

The Kremlin on Monday denied its forces were responsible for large-scale killings in east Ukraine and accused Kyiv of fabricating its discoveries of mass graves in recaptured territory.

In the latest incident spurring fears of an atomic emergency, Ukraine said that Russian rockets landed precariously close to a nuclear power station in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine recaptured Izyum and other towns in the east this month, crippling Kremlin supply routes and bringing fresh claims of Russian atrocities with the discovery of hundreds of graves — some containing multiple bodies.

“These are lies,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. Moscow, he said, “will stand up for the truth in this story.”

Fighting in the northeast has raged and AFP journalists heard artillery exchanges in frontline Kupiansk on Monday, as traumatised civilians headed out of the town now mainly in the hands of Ukrainian forces.

The streets were strewn with broken glass, spent cartridge casings and the discarded remains of ration packs issued by both forces.

Most of the fire is outgoing, with Ukrainian tanks and artillery targeting Russian positions on the west side of the town, over a mess of broken bridges. A column of smoke rose in the distance.

At the entrance to the town, cowering from the sounds of Ukrainian tank shells passing overhead towards Russian lines, civilians gathered to hitch rides or join buses to head out into safer Ukrainian territory.

“There’s been no light, no electricity, for a week. No water,” said a 49-year-old former policeman who gave his name only as Ruslan.

– ‘Lost a lot of blood’ –

Russian-backed authorities in east Ukraine said a “punitive” strike by Kyiv’s forces had killed more than a dozen people and wounded more in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.

The rebel head of the region claimed the strike was “deliberate” and said it would “not go unpunished.”

A court in the neighbouring rebel-region of Lugansk sentenced an employee of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to 13 years for leaking military secrets.

Ukrainian civilians in the recaptured northeast region of Kharkiv have recounted months of brutality under Russian occupation.

In Kupiansk, Mykhailo Chindey, told AFP he had been tortured on suspicion of supplying targeting coordinates to Ukrainian forces.

“One person was holding my hand and another one was beating my arm with a metal stick. They were beating me up two hours almost every day,” he told AFP.

“I lost consciousness at some point. I lost a lot of blood. They hit my heels, back, legs and kidneys,” he said.

Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, said Russia struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant overnight, with a “powerful explosion” just 300 metres (985 feet) from its reactors.

The strike damaged more than 100 windows at the station, but the reactors were not damaged, Energoatom said, publishing photos of glass shattered around blown-out frames.

It also released images of what it said was a two-metre-deep crater from where the missile landed. No staff were wounded, it said.

– ‘Russia endangers the whole world’ –

Attacks around nuclear facilities in Ukraine have spurred calls from Ukraine and its Western allies to de-militarise surrounding areas.

Europe’s largest atomic facility — the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-held territory in Ukraine — has become a hot spot for concerns after tit-for-tat claims of attacks.

The UN’s atomic agency deployed a monitoring team to the site in early September after new fighting.

Early in the February invasion, fighting erupted around Chernobyl in the north, where an explosion in 1986 left swathes of the surrounding territory contaminated.

“Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it’s too late,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said early Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron this month urged Vladimir Putin to withdraw Russian heavy weapons from Zaporizhzhia. The Russian leader cautioned against potential “catastrophic” consequences of fighting there.

The Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, where the Pivdennoukrainsk plant is located, is close to the front line of of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south.

Kyiv’s forces have clawed back territory near Mykolaiv, nearing the strategically important hub of Kherson.

Russian forces have continued to shell Ukrainian-held towns near the front lines.

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Markets struggle ahead of another Fed rate hike

19 Sep 2022 20 Sep 2022

Stock markets dropped again Monday, extending last week’s rout as investors brace for another big rate hike by the US Federal Reserve that they fear could drag down the global economy.

Wall Street opened lower, with the Dow dropping 0.6 percent.

The Paris CAC 40 and Frankfurt DAX were down in afternoon trading while Asian indices mostly closed lower. London was closed for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

“Traders are worried that they are going to hear more hawkish stance from central banks this week” which would “cut economic activity further,” AvaTrade analyst Naeem Aslam told AFP.

The Fed will announce its latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday as it seeks to tame decades-high inflation.

With recent data showing US inflation rooted at four-decade highs, investors are increasingly pessimistic about the outlook for the global economy.

Central banks raise interest rates to cool inflation, but higher borrowing costs also slow down economic activity.

Disappointing US inflation figures last week unnerved traders and ramped up bets for a third successive 0.75-percentage-point rise, while some have predicted a whole percentage point move.

Policymakers, including Fed chairman Jerome Powell, have repeatedly said their ultimate aim is to bring inflation under control, even if that means sending the economy into recession.

“We’re expecting a sharp interest rate increase and therefore a clear signal against galloping inflation,” said Tim Emden, an independent market analyst.

Patrick O’Hare at Briefing.com said that a good question is why stock markets are still falling when they already took a wallop last week on the prospect of higher interest rates triggering an economic slump.

“The reason being is that the market doesn’t have a comforting sense where the end rate will be, how long the end rate will remain the end rate, and how low earnings estimates will go,” he said.

The Bank of England and its peer in Japan are also holding key meetings this week, with the pound and the yen feeling the pressure from a strong dollar.

– Yen under pressure –

Asian equity investors continued the selling on Monday.

Hong Kong closed down one percent, even after reports that the city’s government was considering ending mandatory hotel quarantine for incoming travellers.

Shanghai was also down despite news that megacity Chengdu was ending a two-week Covid-19 lockdown that saw 21 million people affected.

Tokyo was closed for a holiday.

The prospect of more big Fed rate hikes is also keeping the dollar at multi-decade highs against its major peers, with the yen feeling most of the pressure as the Bank of Japan refuses to tighten policy.

The Japanese unit last week hit a fresh 24-year low of 144.99 to the dollar, though it has bounced slightly after comments from BoJ officials that signalled they were ready to intervene to provide support.

Oil prices tumbled around three percent despite the news out of Chengdu as demand fears are fuelled by the growing fear of recession around the world.

“The market’s growth concerns, meanwhile, are being fed by the inverted yield curve and are manifesting themselves in the commodities market,” O’Hare said.

An inverted yield curve is the unusual situation where short-term interest rates are higher than long-term interest rates, and is often a signal of an impending recession.

– Key figures at around 1330 GMT –

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.6 percent at 30,722.56

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,499.78

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.3 percent at 12,707.24

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.0 percent at 6,015.85

London – FTSE 100: Closed for queen’s funeral

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent at 18,565.97 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,115.60 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for holiday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.1369 from $1.1423 on Friday

Euro/pound: UP at 87.79 pence from 87.00 pence

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $0.9983 from $1.0018

Dollar/yen: UP at 143.45 yen from 142.91 yen

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 3.5 percent at $81.81 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 2.7 percent at $88.67 per barrel

Scholz to visit Saudi as Germany seeks energy supplies

19 Sep 2022 20 Sep 2022

Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Saudi Arabia and meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of a Gulf trip, his spokesman said Monday, as Germany rushes to secure energy supplies.

Scholz, whose two-day trip next weekend will also take him to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, becomes the latest Western leader to meet with the crown prince.

Bin Salman was until recently regarded as a pariah in the West due to his suspected role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

But he is being courted again as Europe and its allies urgently seek fresh sources of fossil fuels after Russia cut gas supplies amid soaring tensions over its invasion of Ukraine.

Scholz, accompanied by a business delegation, will visit Saudi Arabia on Saturday, where he will meet with the crown prince and — if his health permits it — King Salman, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.

He did not go into detail about the reasons for Scholz’s Gulf visit but said he would be “very surprised” if the topic of energy was not discussed.

The spokesman also offered assurances that “the murder of Mr Khashoggi will certainly figure in discussions”.

It is the latest sign of bin Salman’s international rehabilitation — in July, French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with him in Paris, and US President Joe Biden visited the kingdom.

On Sunday, Scholz will head first to the UAE and meet with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Scholz would sign contracts there related to liquified natural gas — seen as a key alternative to Russian energy supplies.

In the afternoon, the chancellor will hold talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Habeck already visited Qatar and the UAE in March in an effort to find alternatives to Russian gas, which Germany has traditionally depended on heavily.

Russia’s decision to cut off supplies has triggered an energy crisis in Europe, with consumers and businesses facing soaring bills as winter approaches.

Taliban say US national freed in exchange for key ally

19 Sep 2022 19 Sep 2022

An American navy veteran detained in Afghanistan since 2020 was released by the Taliban on Monday in exchange for an ally who spent 17 years in a US jail for heroin smuggling, Afghanistan’s foreign minister said.

Mark Frerichs was working as a civil engineer on construction projects in Afghanistan when he was “taken hostage”, Washington previously said.

“After long negotiations, US citizen Mark Frerichs was handed over to an American delegation and that delegation handed over (Bashar Noorzai) to us today at Kabul airport,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said at a press conference.

“We are happy that at Kabul International Airport, in the capital of Afghanistan, we witnessed the wonderful ceremony of one of our compatriots returning home.”

Noorzai was welcomed with a hero’s fanfare by the government of the newly-styled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). Photos show he was greeted by masked Taliban soldiers bearing floral garlands.

“If the IEA had not shown its strong determination, I would not have been here today,” Noorzai told reporters at the press conference.

“My release in exchange for an American will be a source of peace between Afghanistan and Americans.”

Noorzai is the second Afghan inmate released by the United States in recent months. In June, Assadullah Haroon was released after 15 years of detention in the United States’ notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.

Haroon was accused of links to Al-Qaeda but languished without charge for years at the US detention centre in Cuba, after his arrest in 2006 whilst working as a honey trader.

He was not released under the terms of a deal with the Taliban.

Afghan security analyst Hekmatullah Hekmat said Noorzai’s release was a “major achievement” for Kabul’s new rulers.

“The Taliban can tell their foot soldiers and Afghans that they are able to bring back their people held by opposition groups,” he told AFP.

Muttaqi said the homecoming of Noorzai marks the beginning of a “new chapter” in relations between Afghanistan and the United States.

– ‘Non-negotiable’ –

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan a little over a year ago, as the United States and their NATO allies withdrew from the country after 20 years of military intervention.

Since then, the nation has been further plunged into economic and humanitarian hardship, with billions in Afghan assets abroad frozen by Washington and international aid vastly reduced.

No country has yet recognised the new government, with Washington repeatedly telling the Taliban that they will have to “earn” legitimacy.

The US State Department had previously described navy veteran Frerich’s release as one of the government’s “core, non-negotiable priorities”.

“The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement in January.

Noorzai, a militia commander and Taliban associate, was sentenced to life imprisonment for heroin smuggling and had served 17 years.

He once fought with US-backed mujahideen forces against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and was a close associate of the Taliban’s late founder Mullah Omar.

At the time of his trial, US prosecutors said he ran a “worldwide narcotics network” and supported the Taliban’s first regime between 1996 and 2001.

While he held no official position, Noorzai had “provided strong support including weapons” for the Taliban in the 1990s, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Monday.

Markets struggle ahead of another Fed rate hike

19 Sep 2022 19 Sep 2022

Stock markets dropped again Monday, extending last week’s rout as investors brace for another big rate hike by the US Federal Reserve that they fear could drag down the global economy.

The Paris CAC 40 and Frankfurt DAX were down in early afternoon trading while Asian indices mostly closed lower. London was closed for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.