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Slovakia threatens to cut Ukraine electricity | The Express Tribune
Slovakia’s Prime Minister and leader of Smer party Robert Fico. PHOTO: REUTERS
BENGALURU:
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened on Saturday to cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine unless Kyiv acts within two days to resume the pumping of Russian oil to Slovakia over Ukraine’s territory, cut off for nearly a month.
Slovakia, along with Hungary, is one of just two EU countries that still rely on significant amounts of Russian oil shipped via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline over Ukraine. Both also have leaders that have maintained close relations with Moscow, bucking a largely pro-Ukrainian European consensus.
Russian oil through the main Druzhba pipe has been cut off since January 27, when Kyiv says a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary have become increasingly vocal this week in demanding it resume.
Slovakia, meanwhile, is also a major source of European electricity for Ukraine, needed as Russian attacks have damaged its grid. Energy sector experts say Slovakia provided 18% of record-setting Ukrainian electricity imports last month.
“If oil supplies to Slovakia are not resumed on Monday, I will ask SEPS, the state-owned joint-stock company, to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine,” Fico said in a post on X.
Ukraine has proposed alternative transit routes to ship oil to Europe while emergency pipeline repair works are under way. In a letter seen by Reuters, the Ukrainian mission to the EU proposed shipments through Ukraine’s oil transportation system or a maritime route, potentially including the Odesa-Brody pipeline linking Ukraine’s main Black Sea port to the EU.
MUMBAI: Some friction, long viewed as a flaw in digital payments, is now being seen as a feature. An RBI discussion paper proposes to introduce a short delay, or “lag”, for high-value transfers above Rs 10,000. This gives customers time to rethink a transaction and cancel it if they suspect fraud. Customers may also be allowed to whitelist trusted payees so that genuine payments are not delayed.Another proposal is to provide stronger protection to vulnerable users such as senior citizens by requiring an additional confirmation from a “trusted person” for large transactions above Rs 50,000. The paper also suggests a “kill switch” to instantly block all digital transactions in case of suspected fraud.Banks are expected to identify suspicious transactions in real time and seek reconfirmation from customers before processing them. They will need to build systems to implement delays, allow cancellations, and generate risk alerts. Banks are also expected to tighten due diligence by linking the level of activity in an account to the customer’s profile. For instance, accounts with low verified income may face limits on how much money they can receive unless additional checks are completed. A key finding is that most frauds now are the result of human vulnerability. The growth of digital payments has amplified this risk.
The project was part of a package of tech investment promising the UK could become an AI superpower.
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People gather at the Magic Kingdom theme park before the “Festival of Fantasy” parade at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2022.
Octavio Jones | Reuters
Disney is planning to begin its next phase of cost cutting, which will include as many as 1,000 layoffs, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The cost-cutting initiative comes shortly after Josh D’Amaro took the helm as CEO in mid-March.
The layoffs are expected to mostly affect Disney’s marketing department, according to the person, who requested to speak anonymously because the moves had not yet been made public. That department was recently consolidated under Asad Ayaz, who was named chief marketing and brand officer in January.
Ayaz, who reports directly to D’Amaro and Dana Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, oversees marketing for all of Disney’s divisions — entertainment, experiences and sports — in the newly created role. It’s the first time that Disney brought all of its units under one marketing chief.
Disney’s stock was slightly down in afternoon trading on Thursday. The layoffs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The changes to the marketing department structure occurred in January, when Bob Iger was still CEO of the company. Disney announced shortly after that that D’Amaro would take take over the top job — a long-awaited decision for the company.
D’Amaro, who previously was chairman of Disney Experiences, succeeded Iger after a period of uncertainty for the media and theme park giant — which had included a succession race and recent reorganization and turnaround of the business.
Iger reclaimed the Disney CEO role in late 2022, about two years after his initial departure. He was immediately tasked with a turnaround of the business as its stock price had fallen and earnings began to miss expectations.
By February 2023, Disney had announced sweeping plans that reorganized the structure of the company, cut $5.5 billion in costs and eliminated 7,000 jobs from its workforce.
On D’Amaro’s first official day as CEO in March, he noted the work Iger had done to get the company past one of its most difficult periods.
“When Bob returned to the company a few years ago, his goal was to fortify our business and lay the groundwork for long-term growth, by reigniting creativity and improving performance at our studios, building a robust and profitable streaming business, transforming ESPN for a digital future, and turbocharging our parks and experiences,” D’Amaro said on stage at the company’s investor day.
“We’ve accomplished all of those things, and we’re operating from a place of strength, with ample opportunity for growth.”
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