Category: World

After reports of blast in Paris, police say it was sonic boom from military jet

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Paris was rattled on September 30 in what was believed to be a blast. However, the police later clarified that the loud sound heard across the city, was the sonic boom of a fighter jet.

The military plane broke the sound barrier, which reverberated through the French capital and nearby suburbs, the Paris police prefecture said on Twitter.

The shockwave rattled windows and was heard in almost every part of the city, leading to a surge in phone calls to police, Reuters reported.

It was not immediately clear why a fighter plane was flying over Paris. A Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed it was a sonic boom but did not immediately offer further comment.

The police urged people not to call emergency services.

Paris has been tense since a knife attack outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Friday.

With inputs from Reuters.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Google Meets extends free 24-hour long video call meeting till March 2021

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google is extending its policy of letting Gmail users host free Google Meet video call meetings until March 2021, Google announced in a blogpost on Tuesday. However, the 24-hour cap will continue.

In April, when the companies across the world were shifting to the work from home culture, Google had made video calls free through Google Meet with no limit on users until September 2020.

Google Meet was engineered to conduct secure business meetings. Samir Pradhan, the Product Manager of Google Meet, said: “As we look ahead to a holiday season with less travel and important milestones like family reunions, PTA meetings and weddings hosted over the video, we want to continue helping those who rely on Meet to stay in touch over the coming months. As a sign of our commitment, today we’re continuing unlimited Meet calls (up to 24 hours) in the free version through March 31, 2021, for Gmail accounts.”

Google Meets currently allow up to 100 people per meeting and it has added some more feature to this free offering in the past couple of months. Features like noise cancellation, background blur, 49-person grid view, collaborative digital whiteboard, and Chromecast support are some of the latest features in Google Meet.

The players in the video conferencing sectors have all seen a surge in the usage of their products during this COVID-19 induced pandemic. This trend doesn’t seem to slow down even as the economies around the world are slowly opening up. Google Meet alone exceeded 100 million installs from the Play Store.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US Presidential Debate 2020: Trump said India does not give a ‘straight count’ on Covid-19 death

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Donald Trump has said that India does not give a “straight count” on the Covid-19 deaths. During the presidential debate on Tuesday night between him and Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden, they both sparred on the extent of the deaths caused by the pandemic.

Biden said that the 200,000 people who died of the coronavirus were 20 percent of the global death toll of 1 million while the US population is only 4 percent of the world.

Trump shot back, “When you talk about numbers you know how many people died in China? You know how many people died in Russia? You don’t know how many people died in India. They don’t give you a straight count.”

Trump said that the pandemic was China’s fault, but Biden tried to deflect China’s role wanting to pin the blame for its ravages on Trump.

The first debate held in Cleveland was about domestic issues and there were no international questions on the agenda set out by Chris Wallace of Fox News, who was the moderator for the debate. The mention of India and the two other countries brought a passing reference to foreign countries.

Earlier in his news conferences, he has mentioned India’s record of conducting Covid-19 tests as the second-best in the world and only behind the US.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US Presidential Debate 2020: For moderator Chris Wallace it was runaway train

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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For much of the opening presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace looked like a man trying to stop a runaway train with his bare hands.

The contest between President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden was chaotic from start to finish. With interruptions and interjections, Trump tried to throw his Democratic opponent off stride. Pleas, increasingly frustrated and loud, were the only tools Wallace had at his disposal to try to maintain control.

Please let him speak, Mr. President, Wallace tried more than once. The Fox News host pointed out he was the moderator, that he was the one to ask questions, that he hated to raise his voice but would. He reminded the president that his campaign had agreed to the ground rules.

For much of the time, it was futile.

Chris Wallace’s debate performance tonight is a great reminder that kindergarten teachers are underpaid, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah tweeted in the midst of the 90-minute encounter.

There was near-unanimous disgust from commentators after the debate was over. Some, like CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, wondered openly if the two remaining scheduled debates between the two men would actually happen. CBS ran an instant poll of viewers and found 69% considered it annoying and just 17% found it informative.

Twitter was ablaze with complaints that Wallace had lost control, while some defenders wondered whether there was really anything he could do.

Chris Wallace did not act as a moderator, Donald Trump did not act as a debater, said MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace no relation. Donald Trump was the abuser and Chris Wallace was among the abused.

Wallace tried to ask pointed questions to both men. He effectively asked Trump three times whether he accepted climate change, while also asking Biden whether his proposals to help the environment would hurt the economy. He asked Trump why his administration sought to end racial sensitivity training in government and questioned Biden about whether he should be using his influence to stop violence in a city like Portland, Oregon.

Despite the preparation, Wallace sometimes seemed to give up. At one point he told Trump he was going to ask a question about race, but if you want to answer something else, you can.

He would occasionally cut short answers or discussions that had a chance of being productive because he simply wanted to end the bickering and move on.

Wallace said before the debate that he would not take on a role of fact-checker and held to that. But that left both candidates accusing the other of lying several times and the viewer without any recourse to tell who was telling the truth.

It’s been an interesting hour and a half, he said at the end.

NBC News veteran Andrea Mitchell called the debate a disgrace. NBC’s Chuck Todd called it a train wreck. CNN’s Jake Tapper called it a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.

Trump’s strategy tonight was to interrupt, to try to steamroll not only his opponent but also the moderator who was unable to keep control of the two candidates, said CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell. I think the question we’re all asking tonight is, Can we really have two more of these?”

Fox News Channels Brit Hume described Trump as a bucking bronco. He said it was the type of performance that would appeal to the president’s fans, but he didn’t know whether it would expand his support.

If strength was what you were looking for, maybe you’d see him as the winner, Hume said.

Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, is the only one of the three moderators with experience in a general election presidential debate, and he had drawn wide praise for handling the third contest between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. The other two scheduled moderators Kristen Welker of NBC News and C-SPAN host Steve Scully have never done it before.

Even before the night was through, there was talk about whether moderators should have the authority to cut off the microphone of one candidate while the other is talking, a potential landmine that will have supporters questioning if it can be done fairly.

It takes a lion tamer in a debate with Donald Trump, and you needed 10 lion tamers tonight, said ABCs Martha Raddatz. I think Chris Wallace tried. I think at some point you just have to stop it. It was not a presidential debate. It was mud wrestling.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US Presidential Elections 2020: Quotes from the first Trump-Biden debate

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Here are some of the quotes making news at the first US 2020 presidential debate on Tuesday between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election:

SUPREME COURT

Trump, asked about whether Judge Amy Coney Barrett should be nominated to the Supreme Court before the election: ”We won the election. Elections have consequences. ”We have the Senate and we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all.

”… I think that she (Barrett) will be outstanding. She will be as good as anybody who has ever served on that court. We won the election and therefore we had the right to choose her.”

Biden: ”We should wait, we should wait and see what the outcome of this election is.”

Pivoting to the Affordable Care Act, Biden said, ”I’m not opposed to the justice. She seems like a very fine person. But she’s written … that she thinks the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The president’s made it clear he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. He’s been running on that.”

Trump interjected, ”As far as a say is concerned, the American people have already had their say. … I’m not elected for 3-1/2 years.”

Responded Biden: ”He’s elected until the next election. … The election’s already started.”

HEALTHCARE

Biden, told by Trump that he has adopted former Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders’ ”socialized medicine” proposals: ”Everybody here knows he’s a liar. … You picked the wrong guy on the wrong night at the wrong time.”

”… Folks, do you have any idea what this clown’s doing? I tell you what, he is not for anybody needing healthcare.”

After Trump explained his health proposal, Biden said, ”He has no plan for healthcare. … The fact is this man has no idea what he’s talking about.”

At another point, while being interrupted by Trump, Biden said, ”Will you shut up, man. This is so unpresidential. … Keep yapping, man.”

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Biden to Trump: ”You should get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap and … the golf course and go in the Oval Office and (put) together Democrats and Republicans, and fund what needs to be done now to save lives.”

Trump to Biden: ”You didn’t think we should’ve closed our country (to China) because you thought it was terrible.”

”… We’ve done a great job. But I tell you, Joe, you could never have done the job we’ve done. You don’t have it in your blood.”

Trump on Biden’s proposed approach to developing coronavirus vaccines: ”People like this would rather make it political than save lives.”

Biden: ”Guess what, a lot of people died, and a lot more going to die unless he gets a lot smarter a lot quicker.”

Responded Trump: ”There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.

Biden on Trump’s mask policy: ”He’s a fool on this.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US Presidential Debate 2020: Trump won’t say when he’ll make taxes public

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Donald Trump won’t say when he will finally make his personal taxes public as he has long promised. During the first presidential debate Tuesday, Trump was asked specifically about a report in The New York Times that revealed he paid only USD 750 in personal income taxes each of those years.

All presidents except Trump have publicly released their taxes since the presidency of Richard Nixon. Trump has said since 2016 that he would eventually release them. But when asked by moderator Chris Wallace when he said only: You’ll get to see it.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden quickly used that as a point of attack, saying Trump does take advantage of the tax code and pays less tax than a schoolteacher. Trump shrugged off the attack, saying that all business leaders do the same unless they are stupid.

Also Read: Fact Check: Claims from Trump and Biden’s first US Presidential debate 2020

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US Presidential Debate: Trump says he’s right to choose SC nominee; Biden says should happen after election

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he has the right to choose a Supreme Court nominee while his Democratic challenger Joe Biden asserted that the winner of the November 3 election should do it as they came face-to-face in the first presidential debate amidst heated exchanges over a number of issues including the COVID-19.

Trump, responding to a question at the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio on nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court to fill up the vacancy following the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg, said: We won the election and we have a right to do it.

Biden disagreed, saying the American people have a right to have a say in the Supreme Court nominee and that occurs when they vote for a United States senators and when they vote for the President of the United States. They are not going to get that chance now because we are in the middle of an election already, the election has already started, the former vice president said, opposing the nomination of Judge Barrett.

Tens of thousands of people have already voted and so the thing that should happen is we should wait, we should wait and see what the outcome of this election is because that’s the only way the American people get to express their view is by who they elect as president and who they elect as vice president, Biden said. Moderating the debate, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked the first question.

My first question do both of you tonight why are you right in the argument you make and your opponent wrong, and where do you think a Justice Barrett would take the court? he asked. While Biden insisted that he has been elected till the next election, Trump asserted that he has been elected for four years.

I will tell you very simply we won the election; elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all, top academic, good in every way. In fact, some of her biggest endorsers are very liberal people from Notre Dame and other places. So I think she’s going to be fantastic, Trump said. Asserting that he has plenty of time even if he did after the election itself, Trump said Barrett will be outstanding.

She’s going to be as good as anybody that has served on that court. We really feel that. We have a professor at Notre Dame highly respected by all said that she’s a single greatest unit he’s ever had. She’s been a professor for a long time at a great school. We won the election, and therefore we have the right to choose her and very few people knowingly would say otherwise, he said. Democrats, he asserted, wouldn’t even think about not doing it if they had the opportunity.

The only difference is they would try and do it faster. There’s no way they would give it up. They had Merrick Garland, but the problem is they didn’t have the election, so they were stopped, and probably that would happen in reverse also –definitely would happen in reverse. So we won the election, and we have a right to do it, Trump said. Biden said that he is not opposed to Judge Barrett.

She seems like a very fine person, but she’s written before she went on the bench, which is her right, that she thinks that the Affordable Care Act is not constitutional. The other thing that’s not on the court, and if it struck down, what happens? Women’s rights are fundamentally changed. Once again, a woman could pay more money because she has a pre-existing condition, a pregnancy. They are able to charge a woman more for the same exact procedure a man did –gets. And that ended when we in fact passed the Affordable Care Act, Biden added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Fact Check: Claims from Trump and Biden’s first US Presidential debate 2020

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden sparred Tuesday in their first of three debates, hoping to sway undecided voters planning to cast ballots by mail and in person in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election.

A look at how their statements from Cleveland stack up with the facts:

Trump, addressing Biden on US deaths from COVID-19: If you were here, it wouldn’t be 200,000 people, it would be 2 million people. You didn’t want me to ban China, which was heavily infected…. If we would have listened to you, the country would have been left wide open.

THE FACTS: This accusation is off the mark. Biden never came out against Trump’s decision to restrict travel from China. Biden was slow in staking a position on the matter but when he did, he supported the restrictions. Biden never counseled leaving the country wide open in the face of the pandemic.

Trump repeatedly, and falsely, claims to have banned travel from China. He restricted it.

The US restrictions that took effect Feb. 2 continued to allow travel to the US from Chinas Hong Kong and Macao territories over the past five months. The Associated Press reported that more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals based in those territories entered the US in the first three months after the travel restrictions were imposed.

Additionally, more than 27,000 Americans returned from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect. US officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure.
Dozens of countries took similar steps to control travel from hot spots before or around the same time the US did.

BIDEN, on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett: She thinks that the Affordable Care Act is not constitutional.

THE FACTS: That’s not right.

Biden is talking about Trump’s pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett has been critical of the Obama-era law and the court decisions that have upheld it, but she has never said it’s not constitutional. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on Nov. 10, and the Trump administration is asking the high court to rule the law unconstitutional.

Trump: Drug prices will be coming down 80 or 90 percent.

THE FACTS: That’s a promise, not a reality. And as a promise, its an obvious stretch.

Trump has been unable to get legislation to lower drug prices through Congress. Major regulatory actions from his administration are still in the works, and are likely to be challenged in court.

There’s no plan on the horizon that would lower drug prices as dramatically as Trump claims.

Trump: You said you went to Delaware State, but you forgot the name of your college. You didn’t go to Delaware State. … There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.

THE FACTS: Trump is quoting Biden out of context. The former vice president, a graduate of the University of Delaware, did not say he attended Delaware State University but was making a broader point about his long-standing ties to the Black community.

Trump is referring to remarks Biden often says on the campaign, typically when speaking to Black audiences, that he goes way back with HBCUs, or historically, Black universities and colleges. Biden has spoken many times over the years at Delaware State, a public HBCU in his home state, and the school says that’s where he first announced his bid for the Senate his political start.
I got started out of an HBCU, Delaware State now, I don’t want to hear anything negative about Delaware State, Biden told a town hall in Florence, South Carolina, in October 2019. They’re my folks.

Biden often touts his deep political ties to the Black community, occasionally saying he grew up politically or got started politically in the Black church. In front of some audiences, he’s omitted the word politically, but still with a clear context about his larger point. The statements are all part of standard section of his stump noting that Delaware has the eighth-largest Black population by percentage.

A spokesman for the Delaware State University, Carlos Holmes, has said it took Biden’s comments to refer to his political start, saying that Biden announced his bid for the US Senate on the DSU campus in 1972.

Biden’s broader point is push back on the idea that he’s a Johnny-Come-Lately with the Black community or that his political connections there are owed only to being Barack Obama’s vice president.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

World Bank seeks board approval for $12 billion coronavirus vaccine financing plan

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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World Bank President David Malpass said on Tuesday he is seeking board approval for a USD 12 billion (£9.33 billion) coronavirus vaccine financing plan to help poor and developing countries secure a sufficient share of vaccine doses when they become available in the coming months.

Malpass told Reuters in an exclusive interview that the initiative, part of USD 160 billion in coronavirus aid financing pledged by the multilateral lender, is aimed at helping countries procure and distribute vaccines early to healthcare and other essential workers and expand global production. He said the board was expected to consider the plan in early October.

Global competition for early coronavirus vaccine doses is already fierce, months ahead of any approvals, as wealthy countries move to secure supplies.
The US government has pledged over USD 3 billion to secure hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines under development by Britain’s AstraZeneca Plc and by US drug giant Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech SE.

Malpass said the World Bank plan aimed to put poor and middle-income countries, where the virus is spreading most rapidly, on the same footing as richer countries by ensuring they have financing to secure supplies and a system for distribution, which will encourage drugmakers to meet their demand.

Without early doses that can bring outbreaks under control, many of these countries risk economic collapse that will push hundreds of millions of people back into poverty. ”Our goal is to alter the course of the pandemic for the low- and middle-income developing countries,” Malpass said. ”This is a market signal to the manufacturers that there will be financing available for the developing countries and there will be demand. We will begin asking the manufacturers to begin creating allocations for these countries.”

Malpass said the World Bank also was asking wealthy countries that have ”over-reserved” more doses than they will ultimately need to release those doses to poorer countries. He added that he is working to persuade countries that equitable distribution of vaccines ”is important to the world and will give a better outcome for the world.”

Separately, Brent McIntosh, US Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, told a Foreign Policy magazine forum on Tuesday that wealthy countries were working on broad vaccine availability. ”There have been intense conversations among various developed countries on ensuring that there are vaccines available in the developing world and those conversations are ongoing at the highest levels,” said McIntosh, who oversees US involvement in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Also Read: Moderna COVID-19 vaccine appears safe, shows signs of working in older adults

The World Bank program will disburse grant or loan funding to countries, and will be able to select any vaccine that meets safety criteria, including approval from multiple ”highly respected, stringent regulatory agencies,” such as those in the United States, Canada, Japan and several European countries, Malpass said.

The World Bank’s private-sector arm, the International Financing Corp, in July launched a USD 4 billion financing platform to boost investment in developing country production of vaccines and other critical health products.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

WTO backs EU tariffs on $4 billion US goods over Boeing subsidies: Sources

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The World Trade Organization has authorized the European Union to impose tariffs on US goods worth USD 4 billion (£3.11 billion) to retaliate against subsidies for American planemaker Boeing Co, people familiar with the matter said. The delayed award provides a fresh source of potential trade friction weeks before November’s US presidential election, after Washington last year began imposing tariffs on USD 7.5 billion worth of EU goods over state support for Boeing rival Airbus.

The two sides have been locked in a 16-year-old dispute at the Geneva-based WTO over aid to their aircraft industries in a pair of cases that together represent the world’s largest-ever corporate trade dispute. They were informed of the decision by WTO arbitrators on Friday, and the award is expected to be published within weeks.

The US Trade Representative and the EU’s Washington office did not immediately answer requests for comment. Boeing declined to comment on the confidential WTO report but accused Airbus of ignoring its recent decision to forgo tax breaks in Washington state to try to resolve the dispute.

Airbus, which recently announced its own concessions on funding in France and Spain, was not immediately available. Sources on both sides said EU tariffs on products such as Boeing jets, which must still be adopted formally by the WTO, were unlikely to be imposed before the Nov. 3 presidential election as Brussels seeks to avoid inflaming a bitter campaign.

Both sides are expected to claim victory, however, with US sources pointing to the higher core tariffs in favor of Boeing. European sources said the latest award does not include some USD 4.2 billion of tariffs against the United States leftover from an earlier case, giving the EU USD 8.2 billion in total firepower.

The United States says the previous award, granting the EU tariffs to retaliate against special tax treatment for US exporters, which the EU never implemented, is no longer valid because a law creating the disputed system was repealed in 2006.

The WTO has refused to be drawn into the controversy over unused tariffs, saying it has nothing to add to previous rulings on the former system of US Foreign Sales Corporations.

Analysts say the eagerly awaited ruling on EU counter-tariffs could finally ease years of deadlock, during which both sides signaled interest in settling the aircraft dispute while accusing the other of refusing to talk seriously. The World Trade Organization has authorized the European Union to impose tariffs on US goods worth USD4 billion (£3.11 billion) to retaliate against subsidies for American planemaker Boeing Co, people familiar with the matter said.

The delayed award provides a fresh source of potential trade friction weeks before November’s US presidential election, after Washington last year began imposing tariffs on USD 7.5 billion worth of EU goods over state support for Boeing rival Airbus.

The two sides have been locked in a 16-year-old dispute at the Geneva-based WTO over aid to their aircraft industries in a pair of cases that together represent the world’s largest-ever corporate trade dispute. They were informed of the decision by WTO arbitrators on Friday, and the award is expected to be published within weeks.

The US Trade Representative and the EU’s Washington office did not immediately answer requests for comment. Boeing declined to comment on the confidential WTO report but accused Airbus of ignoring its recent decision to forgo tax breaks in Washington state to try to resolve the dispute.
Airbus, which recently announced its own concessions on funding in France and Spain, was not immediately available.

Sources on both sides said EU tariffs on products such as Boeing jets, which must still be adopted formally by the WTO, were unlikely to be imposed before the Nov. 3 presidential election as Brussels seeks to avoid inflaming a bitter campaign. Both sides are expected to claim victory, however, with US sources pointing to the higher core tariffs in favor of Boeing.

European sources said the latest award does not include some USD 4.2 billion of tariffs against the United States leftover from an earlier case, giving the EU USD 8.2 billion in total firepower. The United States says the previous award, granting the EU tariffs to retaliate against special tax treatment for US exporters, which the EU never implemented, is no longer valid because a law creating the disputed system was repealed in 2006.

The WTO has refused to be drawn into the controversy over unused tariffs, saying it has nothing to add to previous rulings on the former system of US Foreign Sales Corporations. Analysts say the eagerly awaited ruling on EU counter-tariffs could finally ease years of deadlock, during which both sides signaled interest in settling the aircraft dispute while accusing the other of refusing to talk seriously.

”Everybody’s been waiting for this. It sets the stage for a negotiation,” said William Reinsch, a former senior US Commerce Department official and trade expert at the Council on Strategic and International Studies. Everybody’s been waiting for this. It sets the stage for a negotiation,” said William Reinsch, a former senior US Commerce Department official and trade expert at the Council on Strategic and International Studies.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow