DAILY DOSE: May 24, 2021
Posted on 05/24/2021
1. The Omiai dating app, a Japanese matchmaking app, was hacked. Net Marketing Co. oversees the Omiai app. This could expose the personal information of more than 1.7 million account holders. While free for women, Omiai generates revenue by charging men.
2. U.S. President Joe Biden, who ended the permit for the North American Keystone XL pipeline, is waiving the sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline, which is 95% complete. The pipeline links Russia to Germany, bypassing the Ukraine, on sending energy over to Germany. The Biden administration will waive sanctions on the corporate entity – Nord Stream 2 AG – and CEO Matthias Warnig overseeing the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany. Matthias Warnig is a former East German intelligence officer. The U.S. State Department will waive the applications of those sanctions, citing U.S. national interests.
3. Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait disclosed that 11 billion EGP has been made available to finance the purchase of local wheat from farmers.
4. The Biden administration imposed a number of economic sanctions against Ethiopia. Visas to government and military officials from Ethiopia and its neighbor Eritrea will be restricted. This is over violence in Tigray that has killed thousands of people. Ethiopia is the biggest recipient in Africa of U.S. foreign aid, receiving about US$ 1 billion in 2020. In recent times, the U.S. and Ethiopia were allies in the combatting of Islamist extremism in the Horn of Africa.
The U.S. “has deepening concerns about the ongoing crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in the statement. “Despite significant diplomatic engagement, the parties to the conflict in Tigray have taken no meaningful steps to end hostilities or pursue a peaceful resolution of the political crisis.”
5. A Saudi-led coalition thwarted an imminent attack in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis using an boat of explosives.
6. Belize is on a path for its second default in less than a year after missing an interest payment. Belize failed to make a US$ 6.5 million interest payment on its US$ 526.5 million so-called superbond due in 2034. It marks the country’s fifth restructuring or default event in the past 14 years. “We do not expect the missed interest payment to be made during the stated 30-day grace period, since the Belizean government recently announced a consent solicitation seeking to extend the grace period applicable to the May 20 coupon to Sept. 19,” S&P Global Ratings said in a statement.