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Moscow wins ‘tourism Oscar,’ overtaking Paris, London, NYC & others as world’s top city destination

November 30, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The World Travel Awards (WTA) red carpet ceremony took place in Muscat (Oman), awarding leaders in the tourism, airline, hotel and hospitality sectors.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin expressed gratitude to all those who voted for Moscow in the nomination.

“Moscow is in fact #thebestcityonearth! We have won one of the main awards in the field of tourism… Thank you for your recognition! This is a high assessment of our work and of all Muscovites,” Sobyanin wrote on his Instagram account.

According to Sobyanin, almost 20 million tourists have already visited Moscow this year.

Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot also made the WTA’s 2019 winners list by being named both ‘World’s Leading Airline Brand’ and ‘World’s Leading Airline – Business Class.’

The most prestigious travel award in the world, the WTA was established in 1993 to reward excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.

In 2015, St. Petersburg became the first Russian city to win the title of Europe’s leading destination in the award’s 25-year history. Since then, the city has won the title several times, and has twice been named the ‘leading cultural city destination.’

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474652-moscow-worlds-top-leading-city/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

Erdogan announces Turkey-Russia gas pipeline TurkStream will be launched on January 8

November 30, 2019 by Leave a Comment

TurkStream will be operative from January 8, 2020, Erdogan said on Saturday, according to local press. Moscow had earlier confirmed that President Vladimir Putin is likely to attend the opening ceremony in the Turkish city.

The pipeline runs from Gazprom’s Russkaya compressor station, located near the southern city of Anapa, all the way to the Turkish town of Kiyikoy, where it connects to other pipelines. Comprising two offshore parallel pipelines, it is expected to carry 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas per annum.

The ambitious project was completed by Russian and Turkish companies, and its construction involved two specialized vessels to lay the pipes in water depths of up to 2,200m. Separately, Serbia and Hungary are building another pipeline that will pump the gas from TurkStream and take it further into Europe.

Also on rt.com Full stream ahead! Russia Turkey officially complete construction of joint gas pipeline

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474739-erdogan-turkstream-launch-date/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

India looks to Russian coal to lessen dependence on US, Canada & Australia

November 30, 2019 by Leave a Comment

In 10 years, the South Asian country is expected to need twice more coal than it consumes today, the head of Far East Russia Investment and Export Agency Leonid Petukhov said, after a meeting with Indian businessmen in New Delhi. During the visit the official also met with Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan to discuss the possible shipments.

Also on rt.com Russia may help India with construction of its 1st manned spacecraft

“India is interested in joint projects with Russia to develop coking coal and is going to increase exports of this fuel from Russia,” he said, adding that the agency is assisting both Russian and Indian companies in this.

Pradhan said that the supplies of coal from the remote Russian region can surge, as it is more attractive in terms of price, as well as connectivity to the ports and sea transport, the Times of India reported, citing the minister.

FILE PHOTO: India Gate in New Delhi © Reuters / Adnan Abidi India turns its back on the world’s biggest trade pact

Coal India Limited and Indian Steel Association have already visited and inspected coal mines in Russia’s Far East, while several Russian producers, such as Kolmar, EVRAZ and Mechel, have sent test shipments to India. Those samples are reportedly being tested at the Indian plants.

India imports more than 50 million tons of coking coal, which is a key element for steel production, and is seeking to diversify the sources of the material. However, the share of Russian coal supplies to India is quite low, and stands around 1 percent, according to Petukhov.

Indian steel and energy companies reportedly want to import up to 9 million tons of the raw material from Russia annually. However, Indian partners ask Russia to develop inland as well as port logistics and rail connectivity in the Far East to facilitate the growth of supplies. They also want Russian firms to consider concessions and preferential terms for Indian companies.

Earlier this year, the first deputy minister of Development of Russian Far East said that Moscow aims to boost the coal supplies six fold – to 28 million tons – by 2025.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474558-india-russian-coal-exports/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

Climate Change Adds Wrinkle to Art Collectors’ Concerns

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

“We wanted users to be able to collaborate with their insurance companies, their estate planners or an auction house if they’re trying to sell the work,” he said. “We wanted the barrier to entry to be low; a lot of the people we were working with were less tech savvy.”

(The service charges a monthly fee based on the size, not the value, of the collection. It goes up to $19 a month for individuals and $96 a month for institutional collectors.)

Geoffrey Koslov, a collector and co-owner of a Houston photography gallery, Foto Relevance, uses the Artwork Archive system for the works of artists he represents. He did it to manage his business as well as for insurance coverage.

But like many collectors, his personal collection is still listed in “binders and folders and a manual spreadsheet” — all things that could be destroyed in a flood, as was his own home in 2001 when a tropical storm flooded Houston. (He rebuilt his home higher, he said, and has weathered subsequent floods.)

There are many services that help owners and artists catalog their works, like Art Galleria, Artlogic and Veevart. Art advisers like the Winston Art Group, among the largest independent art appraisers in the United States, also have their own proprietary systems.

Most important to collectors, though, is keeping what they own confidential.

“If you’re going to have a location, a picture a description and a value of a piece of art, the most important part is confidentiality,” said Shanna Hennig, director of the Southwest region for Winston Art Group. Otherwise, the online system risks being a guidebook for art thieves.

Her group will catalog a collection while appraising it and consulting on buying and selling pieces. Ms. Hennig said that work revealed how lax some private collectors can be and the risk that poses.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/your-money/climate-change-art-collectors.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

Filed Under: Your Money

Yes, You Can Get Free Trading. But There’s Often a Catch.

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

And free trades might not even be worth that much to you. Few enlightened investors are chasing hot stocks anymore; they’re buying and holding a diversified mix of index funds to help them pay for big life events like college and retirement. (Index funds are basic mutual funds that track wide swaths of the stock market.)

The big brokerage firms know this, and many of them have followed the lead of smaller, upstart firms like Betterment, which are known as roboadvisers, to provide mass-manufactured digital portfolios that operate largely on autopilot, and cost very little.

Schwab introduced its own digital investment service in 2015, and tried to one-up its competitors by making its service “free.” But there was a catch.

Many roboadvisers typically charge an overall fee — say roughly 0.30 to 0.50 percent of a customer’s assets annually — along with the (usually very low) underlying cost of the investments. Schwab omitted that overall fee, charging just the cost of the underlying funds.

But investors must keep anywhere from 6 percent to 29 percent of their portfolio in cash, which currently pays 0.45 percent, according to a Schwab spokesman. Schwab earns more money the bigger the allocation is.

In 2017, Schwab added a premium service for those with at least $25,000 in assets, which includes help from a human certified financial planner: That now costs $30 a month, plus a one-time initial $300 fee, along with the costs of investments. And it also requires the high cash component.

Even with a commission-free trading structure, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, “there are other revenue levers behind the scenes that brokers can pull.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/your-money/free-stock-trading.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

Filed Under: Your Money

Meet the Man Loosening Bank Regulation, One Detail at a Time

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

When he returned to Davis Polk to work on some of the biggest bank mergers of the 1990s — including one that created JPMorgan Chase — he noticed that regulation sometimes drove banks toward consolidation or complex structures. He took away a central message: “There are ways that we could get the same objective, in ways that are much less costly. So why shouldn’t we?”

Mr. Quarles has shifted between the public and private sector. He took on senior roles at the International Monetary Fund and later at President George W. Bush’s Treasury in the 2000s before joining the Carlyle Group, a private equity fund, in 2007. He returned to Utah in 2014 to start the Cynosure Group, which invests wealth for families, including that of his own extended family.

He is married to Hope Eccles, the great-niece of Marriner Eccles, who led the Fed from 1934 to 1948. He personally is worth more than $32 million, based on his government financial disclosures.

Mr. Quarles came back to Washington in 2017 to join the Fed, but still lives in Salt Lake City, where his wife runs a luxury hotel, on weekends. He resides at the Willard Hotel in Washington during the week.

Mr. Quarles has moved steadily to address some of the banking industry’s biggest concerns. Alongside his fellow regulators, he fleshed out and enacted a series of changes called for in a 2018 deregulatory law, often incorporating industry input.

In October 2018, he gathered with Mr. Guynn, representatives of the SIFMA trade group and officials from banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs in the Fed’s boardroom, together with a small crowd of central bank employees.

The 11 bank representatives expressed concern about a proposed adjustment to the Volcker Rule that would have scrutinized assets based on how they were classified for accounting purposes. The provision drew resistance from other industry commentators, and was cut from the final version that regulators, including the Fed, approved this year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/business/economy/bank-regulations-fed.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

Filed Under: Economy News

Six European states joining alternative payment channel for Iran to skirt US sanctions

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The six states are “in the process of becoming shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) subject to completion of national procedures,” a short joint statement issued on Friday reads. However, it does not elaborate as to when the countries will implement the pledge.

Also on rt.com Iran names one more condition to get the EU’s sanctions-defying payment device working for real

INSTEX was established by France, Germany and the United Kingdom in January 2019 to save the landmark nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), after the US abandoned the deal. The trade channel is aimed at bypassing reinstated US sanctions against Iran and facilitating the legitimate business of EU companies with the country.

It took the alternative payment mechanism around six months to become operational, and the Islamic Republic has repeatedly pointed to a lack of support from EU nations to keep the nuclear deal alive. It even compared INSTEX with a “beautiful car without fuel.”

Also on rt.com US to punish anyone using EU’s alternative payment system with Iran to skirt sanctions

Unsatisfied with the efforts of the EU signatories, Tehran, which initially was in full compliance with the agreement, has begun gradually scaling back its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA despite Brussels’ calls for continued adherence. In one of its latest moves in response to Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the deal, Iran has reportedly started enriching uranium to five percent at its Fordow nuclear facility.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474664-eu-payment-channel-iran/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

Ukraine facing $3bn budget revenue shortfall with Russian gas transit contract in limbo

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

With the current agreement set to expire after December 31, “for the moment, there are hardly any mechanisms that could prevent the loss of transit of Russian gas through Ukraine…” he said.

According to the politician, the creation of a “gas consensus” with the participation of Ukraine, Russia and EU operators was the only “beneficial option” for Kiev.

Also on rt.com Swedish court rejects appeal by Russia’s Gazprom in gas transit dispute with Ukraine’s Naftogaz

He pointed out that since the Ukrainian side didn’t do that, all other results of the talks will be negative for Kiev. “With the termination of gas transit to Europe, we will lose revenue to the state budget in the amount of about $3 billion,” he said.

The deal for Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and those transiting to Europe expires at the end of this year. The final signing of a new agreement has to happen before December 13, when European operators finish filing applications for Russian gas supplies. But talks between the sides have stalled.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to discuss problems regarding the negotiation of a new gas deal when they meet other European leaders in Paris on December 9.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474668-ukraine-budget-shortfall-gas-contract/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

Huawei reportedly to mount legal challenge to FCC ban from government subsidy program

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing its own sources, that Huawei is expected to file a suit challenging the FCC decision in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans next week. It is also expected to make an announcement about the legal case at its Shenzhen headquarters.

“We don’t comment on speculation,” a Huawei spokesman in Shenzhen told Reuters about the reported lawsuit.

Also on rt.com US tech companies to lose $40 billion as China’s Huawei takes its business to Europe

Last week, the US telecommunications regulator voted to propose requiring carriers to remove and replace equipment from Huawei from their existing networks. The Rural Wireless Association, a group of rural wireless businesses, then said the costs of making that change “are significant, across the board.”

The FCC initially designated Huawei and another Chinese telecom, ZTE, as national security threats. The regulator’s latest move could eliminate a key source of funding for telecoms equipment, which is Huawei’s biggest US business.

To contest the FCC order, Huawei has 30 days from November 22, the day the regulator voted.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474619-huawei-to-challenge-fcc-subsidy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business

Russia & China complete their first cross-border mega highway bridge (VIDEO)

November 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The bridge links the cities Heihe in northern China and Russia’s far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk located on the opposite banks of the Amur River, also known as Heilongjiang by the Chinese. The bridge is more than 1km long (0.6 miles) and is a part of key 19.9km (12.4 miles) two-lane highway project.

The ambitious $300-million construction project was started in December 2016 and the two parts of the massive cable-braced bridge were joined together at the end of May. The new milestone was reached on Friday, when local authorities announced the end of the construction works paving the way for the opening, scheduled for April 2020.

FILE PHOTO: The Lena River (250 kilometers from Yakutsk) © Sputnik / Falamov Russia’s massive bridge construction project aims to end isolation of remote Siberian region

“The bridge has a strategic importance for us. It is a very serious perspective for our region,” the governor of the Amur Region, Vasily Orlov, said during a special ceremony marking completion of the project.

The harsh weather conditions of the frigid region have been hampering cross-border trade for years, but the ambitious project is set to solve this problem. After the route becomes operational, cargo volume could see an 8-fold increase to 4 million tons, according to Alexander Kozlov, the Russian Minister for the Development of the Far East.

The new bridge should also boost tourism, increasing the tourist flow from China to 2 million. However, initially tourists won’t be able to use the road as it will only be available to cargo trucks. It will take another year and a half to build a crossing point allowing passenger transport, including tourist buses, to cross the bridge.

However, tourists could be offered a more convenient and an even cheaper way to get to the other side, according to Kozlov, as Russia is also building a cableway across the Amur River.

For more stories on economy finance visit RT’s business section

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/474623-russia-china-mega-bridge/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Filed Under: Global Business
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