european – Page 15

Royal Navy Giving Up Anti-Ship Missiles, Will Rely On Cannons For Naval Combat

cold fjord writes: It will soon be a bit more difficult for Britain’s Royal Navy to rule the waves as it gives up anti-ship missiles as a result of budget cuts. That will force the Royal Navy to go “old school” and rely upon naval gunfire for ship-to-ship combat. Cannon fire as the primary means of ship-to-ship combat has been largely obsolete since the 1950s following the invention of guided missiles in World War 2. Prior to that, cannon fire had been the primary means of naval combat for hundreds of years. Although the Royal Navy ranged up to 16″ guns on battleships, the largest gun currently in active service is a 4.5″ gun. That will leave the Royal Navy unable to engage targets beyond approximately 17 miles / 27 km, whereas Harpoon missiles provide an 80 mile / 130 m range. The loss of anti-ship missile capability will begin in 2018 and may last for 10 years for warships, and 2 years for helicopters. The Sun quotes a naval insider who said: “It’s like Nelson saying, ‘don’t worry, I don’t need canons, we’ve got muskets.'” The loss of missile capability heaps more misfortune upon a naval force that recently has seen its available frontline combat force drop to an unprecedented 24 warships. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continue Reading:
Royal Navy Giving Up Anti-Ship Missiles, Will Rely On Cannons For Naval Combat

Renewables Now Exceed All Other Forms of New Power Generation

Last year, renewable energy accounted for more than half of all new forms of power generation produced worldwide. It’s an unprecedented milestone for our civilization—one that points to a bright future for solar and wind power. Read more…

Excerpt from:
Renewables Now Exceed All Other Forms of New Power Generation

Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030

Germany isn’t content with relying on financial incentives to usher in an era of pollution-free cars. The country’s Bundesrat (federal council) has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. From then on, you’d have to buy a zero-emissions vehicle, whether it’s electric or running on a hydrogen fuel cell . This isn’t legally binding, but the Bundesrat is asking the European Commission to implement the ban across the European Union… and when German regulations tend to shape EU policy, there’s a chance that might happen. The council also wants the European Commission to review its taxation policies and their effect on the “stimulation of emission-free mobility.” Just what that means isn’t clear. It could involve stronger tax incentives for buying zero-emissions cars, but it could also involve eliminating tax breaks for diesel cars in EU states. Automakers are already worried that tougher emission standards could kill diesels — remove the low cost of ownership and it’d only hasten their demise. Not that the public would necessarily be worried. Forbes notes that registrations of diesels, still mainstays of the European car market, dropped sharply in numerous EU countries in August. There’s a real possibility that Volkswagen’s emission cheating scandal is having a delayed effect on diesel sales. Combine that with larger zero-emissions incentives and the proposed combustion engine ban, and it might not take much for Europeans to go with electric or hydrogen the next time they go car shopping. Via: Forbes , Gizmodo Source: Der Spiegel (translated)

Taken from:
Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030

EU Commission: Apple must repay its $14.5b Irish tax break

The European Commission has ruled that Apple was given up to €13 billion ($14.5 billion) in an illegal sweetheart tax deal with the Irish government. The amount of money involved here dwarfs the EU antitrust penalties handed out to Google, Microsoft and others, but this is effectively a backdated tax bill, rather than a fine. Officials opened the investigation into Apple’s tax affairs back in 2013 and soon found that the agreement that it had signed with Ireland was illegal . The Commission says that because the deal gave Apple a “significant advantage” over its competition, the iPhone maker must now be prepared to pay back “illegal state aid” over the ten-year period before it began investigating its tax practices. Officials say that amount totals around €13 billion (from between 2003 and 2014) and that interest must also be accounted for. That could mean an additional €1-2 billion could be bolted onto that figure. “Member States cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules. The Commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years, ” says Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. “In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005 per cent in 2014.” The story began way back in 1991 when Apple signed a deal with the Irish government that enabled it to use a very specific type of tax loophole. This loophole was called a ” double Irish ” and, very simply, allowed Apple to split profits, paying almost nothing in the process. It’s quite a successful system, and in 2014, Apple was able to stash two-thirds of its global income in this tax haven. It’s not just Europe that feels that Apple’s corporate tax affairs are too shady, with Senator Carl Levin criticizing the company back in 2013. He wrote a lengthy report ( .PDF ) saying that Apple had negotiated an effective tax rate of less than two percent in Ireland. In the US, by comparison, it would have been expected to at least pay 15 percent. But sweetheart deals are in violation with the principles of the free market, which the European Union has sought to uphold. Countries are barred from offering secret handouts to give local players an unfair advantage over the competition. This is classified as “state aid, ” and is illegal in the eyes of the commission. The US won’t agree with the ruling, given that it feels that any tax Apple owes should go to the treasury. Tim Cook himself has said that he feels that where you ” create value is the place where you are taxed .” The implication being that the only place Apple should be on the hook for tax is in the US, even though much of that value is created in Foxconn’s Chinese factories. But, then again, it’s not as if the US currently benefits from Apple’s largesse, either. The company has been very open about the fact that it has roughly $230 billion stashed in overseas bank accounts that it refuses to repatriate. Cook justifies this by saying that the cost of returning money to the US is too high — shaking out to a tax rate of almost 40 percent, or $92 billion. An investigation over at Forbes revealed that Apple recently hired a Washington lobby firm to push for a corporate tax holiday, even though such a program has been proven not to work. Apple and the Irish government are likely to appeal the ruling. Daniel Cooper contributed to this report. Source: Europa

Read the original post:
EU Commission: Apple must repay its $14.5b Irish tax break

European Commission To Issue Apple An Irish Tax Bill of $1.1 Billion, Says Report

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The European Commission will rule against Ireland’s tax dealings with Apple on Tuesday, two source familiar with the decision told Reuters, one of whom said Dublin would be told to recoup over 1 billion euros in back taxes. The European Commission accused Ireland in 2014 of dodging international tax rules by letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars from tax collectors in return for maintaining jobs. Apple and Ireland rejected the accusation; both have said they will appeal any adverse ruling. The source said the Commission will recommend a figure in back taxes that it expects to be collected, but it will be up to Irish authorities to calculate exactly what is owed. A bill in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) would be far more than the 30 million euros each the European Commission previously ordered Dutch authorities to recover from U.S. coffee chain Starbucks and Luxembourg from Fiat Chrysler for their tax deals. When it opened the Apple investigation in 2014, the Commission told the Irish government that tax rulings it agreed in 1991 and 2007 with the iPhone maker amounted to state aid and might have broken EU laws. The Commission said the rulings were “reverse engineered” to ensure that Apple had a minimal Irish bill and that minutes of meetings between Apple representatives and Irish tax officials showed the company’s tax treatment had been “motivated by employment considerations.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View original post here:
European Commission To Issue Apple An Irish Tax Bill of $1.1 Billion, Says Report

Fitness App Runkeeper Secretly Tracks Users At All Times, Sends Data to Advertisers

An anonymous reader writes: FitnessKeeper, the company behind running app Runkeeper, is in hot water in Europe. The company has received a formal complaint from the Norwegian Consumer Council for breaching European data protection laws. But why? Runkeeper tracks its users’ location at all times — not just when the app is active — and sends that data to advertisers. The NCC, a consumer rights watchdog, is conducting an investigation into 20 apps’ terms and conditions to see if the apps do what their permissions say they do and to monitor data flows. Tinder has already been reported to the Norwegian data protection authority for similar breaches of privacy laws. The NCC’s investigation into Runkeeper discovered that user location data is tracked around the clock and gets transmitted to a third party advertiser in the U.S. called Kiip.me.Finn Myrstad, the council’s digital policy director, said: We checked the apps technically, to see the data flows and to see if the apps actually do what they say they do. Everyone understands that Runkeeper tracks users while they exercise, but to continue after the training has ended is not okay. Not only is it a breach of privacy laws, we are also convinced that users do not want to be tracked in this way, or for information to be shared with third party advertisers. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Scientists Made LEDs 60 Percent Brighter By Copying Firefly Lanterns

A team of researchers has managed to boost the amount of light an LED emits by 60 percent simply by etching its outer surface to resemble the outside of a firefly’s lantern. Read more…

Hackers tried and failed to steal a billion dollars from bank

Hackers stole $80 million from a bank, but it could have been a lot worse if they had just Googled the name of a company, according to Reuters . Thieves got inside servers of the Bangladesh Bank, stealing the credentials used to make online transfers. They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York with up to 13 money transfer requests to organizations in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The Fed allowed four to go through totaling $81 million, but the next one was flagged by a routing bank in Germany because the hackers misspelled “foundation” as “fandation.” Once alerted, officials put a stop to the the remaining transfers, which amounted to nearly $850 million. The $81 million theft is still one of the largest ever, but if all the transfers had gone through, it would have been one of the biggest heists on record. Last year, Russian hackers reportedly got away with up to $1 billion from 100 banks using malware. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi officials are trying to lock down their systems and figure out how the attack happened, but say there’s little hope the hackers and money will be recovered. As with many large-scale attacks , experts told Reuters that the thieves likely targeted and spied on employees to gain access to servers. While the bank blames the US Federal Reserve Bank for not stopping the transfers, Fed officials say that it’s systems were not breached and that it has been cooperating in the investigation. Luckily, hackers are just as bad at spelling in large fraud attempts as they are in basic spear-phishing attacks. Source: Reuters

More:
Hackers tried and failed to steal a billion dollars from bank

Sonos announces layoffs, refocuses on streaming and voice tech

Sonos has announced that it will be “letting go of some employees, “; forming part of reshaping the company in a new direction. In an (admittedly vague) blog post , CEO John Macfarlane doesn’t say exactly how many jobs are going to be cut, but he says its’s a consequence of the still in-transition music industry. “Everyone in the ecosystem is adjusting to a world of streaming services, ” he added, citing the addition of The Beatles back-catalogue across the top music streaming services. Macfarlane says it’s an inevitable change — and that’s why the company is now focusing on these users over customers that are playing from non-streamed files and physical music collections. How? He’s not saying, but it’ll apparently involve “building incredibly rich experiences that were all but unimaginable when we started the company.” (The company recently added Apple Music to its list of compatible services .) The second target is voice. Explicitly mentioning Amazon’s Echo products , the CEO said that voice recognition will be a big change for the company best known for speakers. Macfarlane adds that the company is investing into the technology to make sure it works like it should, reaffirming that the company wants to ensure it’s a sustainable, profitable one — and that means catering to the music streaming revolution. Source: Sonos

Read the original post:
Sonos announces layoffs, refocuses on streaming and voice tech

Pound sinks as Britain weighs EU exit

Britain is to hold a referendum this summer on whether to leave the EU . Proponents of “Brexit” want to see less immigration and more self-determination ; advocates of staying in the union anticipate horrors both economic and human if the country becomes, once again, an “island” . Polls are running neck and neck . Britain is important enough that its departure could deal a mortal blow to the European Union ; the Scots and Irish, in particular, are uneasily tied to England’s destiny. Meanwhile, the pound is headed south , presumably in search for warmer climes.

Ken May

Tag: european