“Qatar Corruption Scandal…”

The European Parliament removed Greek MEP Eva Kaili as a vice president of the assembly on Tuesday after she was accused of accepting bribes from Qatar in one of the biggest corruption scandals to hit Brussels.

European Parliament strips Eva Kaili of VP role over Qatar graft scandal

Kaili has denied any wrongdoing, but European lawmakers have acted rapidly to isolate her, worrying that the Belgian investigation will badly dent the assembly’s efforts to present itself as a sound moral compass in a troubled world.

“There will be no sweeping under the carpet. Our internal investigation will look at what has happened and how our systems can be made more watertight,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said as 625 MEPs voted to deprive Kaili of her VP role, with only one voting against and two abstaining.

Kaili, who is in Belgian police detention, was one of 14 vice presidents in the parliament.

Belgian prosecutors charged her and three Italians at the weekend with taking part in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption.

A source close to the investigation has said they were believed to have pocketed money from Qatar, current host of the soccer World Cup. The energy-rich Gulf state has denied any wrongdoing.

Kaili’s lawyer in Greece, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, said on Tuesday that she was innocent. “She has nothing to do with financing from Qatar, nothing, explicitly and unequivocally,” he told Open TV in a first public comment.

Several MEPs nonetheless called for the 44-year-old Socialist politician to quit the assembly altogether.

“Given the extent of the corruption scandal, it is the least we could expect of her,” said MEP Manon Aubry, who co-chairs the Left group.

Francesco Giorgi, the partner of ousted European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili, has confessed his role in a Qatar graft scandal, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Giorgi’s confession to taking bribes from Qatar to influence European Parliament decisions on Qatar had made “a significant contribution” to the probe underway by Belgian investigating magistrates, one of the sources said.

EU greenlights only half of global tax deal

The European Union has at last found unanimity on the global minimum tax, half of an almost 140-nation pact to clamp down on global tax avoidance. Hungary finally dropped its veto this week, only for Poland to provide last-minute drama before finally allowing the EU to proceed. Whack-a-mole objections have become EU routine on tax matters, which require the unanimity of the 27 member states.

The other half of the global deal, struck under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development auspices in 2021, concerned big digital services companies. The aim was to make tech giants like Google, Microsoft MSFT.O and Apple AAPL.O pay a fairer amount of taxes on their profits, regardless of where they are booked. Here the EU is nowhere close to an agreement and seems headed for a bigger fight.

Microsoft to buy 4% stake in London Stock Exchange

Microsoft MSFT.O is to take a 4% equity stake in London Stock Exchange Group LSEG.L as part of a 10-year commercial deal to migrate the exchange operator’s data platform into the cloud, the British company said on Monday.

It is the latest sign of deepening ties between financial services providers and a handful of big global cloud companies.

“It’s a long-term partnership. In terms of the products, we will be building together, I would expect our customers to start to see the benefits of that 18 to 24 months out and we will continue building from there,” Schwimmer told Reuters.

“We will continue to maintain our multi-cloud strategy and working with other cloud providers,” Schwimmer said.

As part of the deal, LSEG has made a contractual commitment for minimum cloud-related spend with Microsoft of $2.8 billion over the term of the partnership.

Microsoft’s purchase is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2023.

Britain takes fight to restore investor faith into 2023

Major investors are rethinking their support for Britain’s economy following months of political turmoil and persistent Brexit uncertainties, as experts predict its recovery from a global recession will be slow and painful.

While governments worldwide are grappling with high inflation and low growth, UK policymakers are still rebuilding fiscal and political credibility following the brief, chaotic premiership of Liz Truss.

Top financial industry figures say that even with Truss gone, a tight labour market, low business investment and weak exports mean the economy will lag peers next year. Worries about growth are leading some investors to limit their holdings of the pound and British debt.

“For the time being, we think the risks are too high compared to the rewards,” said Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer at Amundi, Europe’s largest fund manager, which manages 1.9 trillion euros ($1.98 trillion) in asse

Russia rains missiles on Ukraine’s infrastructure, says Kyiv kills civilians

Russia fired dozens of missiles at infrastructure in Ukraine on Friday, forcing emergency power shutdowns across the country amid freezing temperatures and killing and wounding people in their homes in the south, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian-installed officials in occupied eastern Ukraine also reported civilian casualties from Ukrainian shelling in two places.

The latest Russian assault followed warnings from Ukrainian officials that Moscow plans a new all-out offensive early next year, a year after it launched an invasion that has destroyed much of Ukraine but brought little of it under Russian control.

As many as 60 Russian missiles had been spotted heading for Ukraine,

Russia has rained missiles on Ukrainian energy infrastructure almost weekly since early October after a series of battlefield defeats.

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