News of the World

[kyonides]

Last week a strange event took place that affected both the US and Iran.  Yeah, they won't consider themselves to be best pals at all.

Top UN court rejects Iranian bid to free assets frozen by US

The United Nations’ top court on Thursday rejected Tehran’s legal bid to free up some $2 billion in Iranian central bank assets frozen by U.S. authorities to be paid in compensation to victims of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other attacks linked to Iran.

In a 10-5 majority ruling, the International Court of Justice said it did not have jurisdiction to rule on the Iranian claim linked to the central Markazi Bank.

The world court’s vice-president, Kirill Gevorgian, said the majority “upholds the objection to jurisdiction raised by the United States of America relating to the claims of the Islamic Republic of Iran” related to the bank.

In a complex, 67-page judgment, the world court also found that some other U.S. moves to seize assets of Iran and Iranians in the United States breached a 1955 treaty between the countries and said they should negotiate compensation. If they fail to reach a number, they will have to return to the Hague-based court for a ruling.

But the largest part of the case focused on Bank Markazi, and its frozen assets of $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulated interest, that are held in a Citibank account in New York. The court said that it did not have jurisdiction based on the 1955 Treaty of Amity because the protections it offers do not extend to central banks.

Both countries largely voiced satisfaction at Thursday’s decision.

In Washington, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that while the U.S. was disappointed with some aspects of the ruling it was pleased on the whole.
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An Iranian foreign ministry statement lauded the decision as “an indication of the strength and reliability of (Iran’s) demand,” the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

It said Tehran would use “all diplomatic, legal and judiciary means” to pursue its demands.
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The court’s judgments are final and legally binding.

So Iran partially won because they ICJ realized that the US was obliged to enforce the Treaty of Amity by the time it froze the money. The problem for the Central Asian government is that the central bank assets were not protected by that international treaty for it is not a commercial bank.

The issue here is that the US has disregarded the ICJ's rulings in the past because the court has no legal means to enforce them.  Ouch...

Iran says it warned off US Navy aircraft close to Gulf of Oman

The Iranian navy said it identified and warned off a U.S. reconnaissance plane near the Gulf of Oman on Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

"After the warning, the plane was prevented from entering the country's skies without authorization," said the report, identifying the plane as a U.S. Navy EP-3E.

While the opening line of the Tasnim report said the aircraft had crossed into Iranian airspace, the same report also said the aircraft had not entered Iranian skies and had left after the warning.
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Iran has had similar confrontations with U.S. forces in the past. In 2019, Iran shot down a U.S. drone which it said was flying over southern Iran.
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Iran has previously acknowledged sending drones to Russia but said they were sent before the invasion. Moscow has denied its forces used Iranian drones in Ukraine.

 

OPEC+ announces surprise oil output cuts

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers on Sunday announced further oil output cuts of around 1.16 million barrels per day, in a surprise move that analysts said would cause an immediate rise in prices and the United States called inadvisable.

The pledges bring the total volume of cuts by OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with Russia and other allies, to 3.66 million bpd according to Reuters calculations, equal to 3.7% of global demand.

Sunday's development comes a day before a virtual meeting of an OPEC+ ministerial panel, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, and which had been expected to stick to 2 million bpd of cuts already in place until the end of 2023.

Oil prices last month fell towards $70 a barrel, the lowest in 15 months, on concern that a global banking crisis would hit demand. Still, further action by OPEC+ to support the market was not expected after sources downplayed this prospect and crude recovered towards $80.

The latest reductions could lift oil prices by $10 per barrel, the head of investment firm Pickering Energy Partners said on Sunday, while oil broker PVM said it expected an immediate jump once trading starts after the weekend.

 I suspect Russia via its ally China, Iran and Saudi Arabia had planned to wreak havoc on the rest of the world economies, by increasing the price of oil without warning, during the talks that lead to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the Muslim countries.

McDonald's temporarily shuts US offices, prepares layoff notices

McDonald's Corp is temporarily closing its U.S. offices this week as it prepares to inform corporate employees about layoffs undertaken by the fast food giant as part of a broader company restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported.

McDonald's said in an internal email last week to U.S. employees and some international staff that they should work from home from Monday through Wednesday, so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually, the report said.
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The burger corporation did not disclose how many employees it is planning to lay off during the company's restructuring.

In January, CEO Chris Kempczinski warned employees that "difficult discussions and decisions" are on the horizon.

Kempczinski made the revelation in a message to global employees announcing the company's updated business strategy, Accelerating the Arches 2.0, which includes a reshuffling and possibly cutting positions as a way for the company to become more efficient and innovative and to trim costs.

Executives at US Navy shipbuilding contractor hit with accounting fraud charges

Three Alabama men allegedly orchestrated a multimillion-dollar accounting fraud scheme at a defense contractor that builds ships for the Navy, federal prosecutors said.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that the men were indicted for allegedly conspiring to mislead shareholders and the investing public about Mobile, Alabama-based, shipbuilder Austal USA’s financial condition from around 2013 through at least July 2016.

According to the DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), former Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle, current director of financial analysis Joseph Runkel and former director of the firm’s Littoral Combat Ships program, William Adams, sought to artificially reduce cost estimates for Navy shipbuilding projects by tens of millions of dollars.

The trio allegedly knew Austal USA’s costs were rising and higher than planned but directed others to lower the cost estimates to meet the defense contractor’s revenue budget and financial projections.

Investigators said they suppressed an accounting metric known as "estimate at completion" in relation to several Navy littoral combat ships (LCS), which resulted in a false overstatement of the company’s reported earnings in public financial statements.

The DOJ claimed that they did this in part to maintain and increase the share price of the company’s stock, and when the higher costs were eventually disclosed, the stock price fell significantly and Austal USA’s parent company, Austal Limited, wrote down more than $100 million.

Japan buys Russian oil above $60-a-barrel cap, breaking with US allies

Japan has begun purchasing Russian crude oil above the $60-a-barrel cap, breaking with Western allies thanks to an exception authorized by the United States.

As many European nations weaned themselves off Russian oil in response to the invasion of Ukraine, Japan stepped up its purchase of Russian natural gas.

Japan has almost none of its own fossil fuels, heavily relying on imports for much of its energy needs. Some analysts believe this dependency heavily influenced Japan’s hesitancy to fully back Ukraine against Russia. To date, Japan is the only Group of Seven members not to have supplied Ukraine with lethal weapons.

Despite the concession, Russian natural-gas imports to Japan are relatively small, accounting for around one-tenth of Japan’s supply and a fraction of Russia’s output, the Wall Journal reports. Most of what Russia exports to Japan comes from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East.
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The nations granted an exception to the $60-a-barrel cap through September for oil purchased by Japan. And in the first two months of this year, Japan bought around 748,000 barrels of Russian oil for approximately $70 a barrel.

Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' assistant director sentenced
in fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins

"Rust" assistant director Dave Halls was sentenced Friday after pleading no contest to negligent/unsafe handling of a firearm that led to the on-set October 2021 fatal shooting of the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

Halls entered a plea of no contest to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer accepted the plea. The prosecution requested a suspended sentence, which is a conviction.

Halls' attorney Lisa Torraco argued his sentence should be deferred. Torraco explained that Halls did not have control over how individual people handled safety on the set.
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Sommer was not convinced and gave him a suspended sentence. The assistant director will not serve jail time and instead was given six months of unsupervised probation.

Halls' probation includes testifying truthfully at any trials or hearings, a $500 fine, participation in a firearms safety course with proof of completion within 60 days of his plea, no alcohol, 24 hours of community service and no contact with any potential witnesses or co-defendants.

 Explain this to me, guys. Why would anyone waste lots of  money on a trial if the defendant will be found guilty of a misdemeanor charge but won't ever spent a day in prison nor ever pay any relevant sum to the court or the victims?