Russian gov cracks down on Navalny supporters
Two of Alexei Navalny’s aides were taken into custody ahead of planned protests on Saturday. The Russian opposition politician was arrested last weekend when he returned to Moscow after 5 months in Germany. Authorities also warned activists not to participate in the rallies and told social networks to filter out posts about the demonstrations. Russia’s prison service said Navalny violated the terms of a suspended sentence. Sources: AFP, AP, Euronews, Financial Times and Reuters.
Protest in Luxembourg
A group of Russians in Luxembourg will demonstrate against Alexei Navalny’s detention in front of the Russian embassy, in Beggen, on Saturday 23 January, 12noon-1:30pm. Source: Event on Facebook.
Russian opposition group publish ‘Putin’s palace’ video
On his first day in a Moscow prison, Alexei Navalny’s team released a 2 hour documentary alleging that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, spent $1.37bn building a private estate 39 times larger than Monaco on the Black Sea coast. The Kremlin denied the president owned the property and said the allegations were a decade old. The video has been viewed more than 25m times. Sources: BBC, CNN, DW and Meduza.
First EU country authorises Russian vaccine
Hungary’s medicines regulator approved Russia’s Sputnik V covid-19 vaccine, as did the UAE’s. The EU’s drugs agency is still reviewing the Russian jab. Sources: BBC, CNBC, DW and Financial Times.
France warns against cloth masks
The French government said wearing fabric and homemade masks is ineffective against covid-19 transmission. At the moment, the warning is an advisory, not a requirement. Sources: The Local France, Reuters, RTE and Washington Post.
Latest Luxembourg covid-19 update
There were no coronavirus-related deaths reported in Luxembourg on Wednesday, the second such day in a week. There were 72 covid-19 patients in hospital (down from 84 on Tuesday), including 14 in intensive care (down from 17). The reproduction rate was 0.97, below the target threshold of 1.00. More than 6,000 vaccine doses have been administered. Sources: Delano and health ministry.
House of Biohealth opens
Luxembourg’s government inaugurated the country’s first incubator focused on healthtech. The House of Biohealth, in Esch-Belval, aims to host 8 to 10 startups and spinoffs at a time. Sources: Delano and Paperjam.
Red light cameras coming to Luxembourg
MPs are reviewing a bill that would authorise the use of red light cameras. The first device is expected to be operational at the place de l’Etoile as early as February. Sources: Delano and Paperjam.
Amazon wants to aid US vaccination effort
The tech giant Amazon sent a letter to the new US president, Joe Biden, offering its facilities as vaccination sites and other logistical support. Amazon also said its “essential workers... should receive the covid-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time.” Sources: Geekwire, NBC News, Reuters and Seeking Alpha.
Amazon sues EU over Italian investigation
Amazon lodged a case against the European Commission at the EU General Court, in Kirchberg, claiming that an Italian antitrust inquiry should be merged into a similar commission investigation of how Amazon promotes e-commerce sellers. Sources: Bloomberg and Reuters.
BMW plans green turnaround
The carmaker BMW aims to return to its (high for the auto sector) pre-pandemic operating margin, is not looking for a tie-up with a rival, and hopes to double sales of electric vehicles this year. Source: Reuters.
Nissan exec optimistic about UK
The Japanese carmaker Nissan said “the Brexit deal is positive” and committed to remaining in the UK. Its Sunderland plant is Britain’s largest. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian and ITV News.
Eurostar likely to get gov support
The French transport minister said he was working with the British government on a bailout of Eurostar. Traffic on the cross-channel rail link is down by 95% due to the pandemic. Sources: CityAM, Euronews, The Guardian and Politico.
Trump could get Facebook account back
Facebook has asked its independent review board if Donald Trump should be unbanned now that he is no longer in office. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, NPR and Vox.
Google issues Australia warning
Google said it would shut down its search engine in Australia if forced to comply with a government plan to pay local news publishers. Sources: ABC News, Bloomberg, CNBC and The Guardian.
Intel forced to release earnings early
The chipmaker Intel issued its quarterly earnings announcement several minutes before market close, after part of its investor presentation was leaked by a hacker. Revenue was down, but beat expectations. Intel shares rose in afterhours trading. Sources: CNBC, Financial Times, Marketwatch and Reuters.
Dimon keeps pay package
JP Morgan, the world’s largest bank, paid its boss, Jamie Dimon, $31.5m in 2020, the same amount he earned in 2019. Sources: Financial Times, Fox Business, The Guardian and Reuters.
Pay it like Beckham
David and Victoria Beckham paid themselves nearly £21m from their sports and media company in 2019, including £14.5m in dividends, despite widening losses at its fashion brand. Sources: BBC, Evening Standard, Financial Times and The Guardian.
Musk carbon capture prize
Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla founder, said he would donate a $100m prize for the “best carbon capture technology”. Sources: Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review, Reuters and Techcrunch.
Here are 5 science & technology stories you may have missed
Archaeology: Researchers reckon that a life-sized picture of a wild pig, sketched at least 45,500 years ago, is the world’s oldest cave painting, per AFP. Astronomy: The Arecibo Observatory telescope in Puerto Rico (featured in the films “Contact” and “GoldenEye”, but used to conduct Nobel prizewinning research), which was set to be decommissioned following hurricane damage, completely collapsed late last year (no one was injured), per Science magazine and The Register. Astronomy: This researcher is checking signals from 20 planets to see if aliens are trying to contact us, per Popular Science. Environment: Covid-19 helped push down global CO2 emissions by 6.4% in 2020 (compared to 2019), “smaller than many climate researchers expected given the scale of the pandemic, and is not expected to last once the virus is brought under control,” per Nature. Geography: Here’s how four people discovered the Earth is not flat, including one chap who joined the navy to see the ‘edge’ of the ocean, per IFL Science.
Local World War II history
Mental Floss has “10 things you might not know about the Battle of the Bulge”, which was waged in the Ardennes from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945 (published in August 2018).
Missed connections
He flew to Paris to surprise his girlfriend (in January 2017). She flew to Edinburgh to surprise her boyfriend. You can probably guess what happened next, but CNN has the (slightly cute and slightly sad) story.
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald