Europe must be ready for war if it wants peace, says Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron said on March 14 Europe should prepare for war if it wants peace, calling President Vladimir Putin’s Russia an adversary that would not stop in Ukraine if it defeated Kyiv’s troops in the two-year old conflict.
Mr Macron caused controversy in February after he said he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future, with many leaders distancing themselves from that while others, especially in eastern Europe, expressed support.
“If Russia wins this war, Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero,” Mr Macron said, in a television interview.
He said it was important for Europe not to draw red lines, which would signal weakness to the Kremlin and encourage it to push on with its invasion of Ukraine.
Ex-Trump Treasury chief preparing TikTok buyout
Former US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on March 14 said he is putting together a team of investors to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners.
On March 13, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a Bill that would force TikTok to divest from its parent company or face a nationwide ban.
Mr Mnuchin, who served for four years as former president Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary, said he strongly supported the Bill, which must now go to the Senate for approval.
Biden says US Steel must remain domestically owned
US Steel Corp, which has agreed to be bought by Japan’s Nippon Steel for US$14.9 billion (S$20 billion), must remain a domestically owned and operated American firm, President Joe Biden said on March 14, opposing the proposed merger.
The United States needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers,” Mr Biden said.
“US Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated,” the president added, in a statement.
Hundreds rescued from Philippines scam centre
Hundreds of people forced to work in an online scam centre in the Philippines were rescued in a raid on March 14 that also saw eight suspects arrested, according to police.
Acting on a tip from a Vietnamese man who alleged to have escaped the sprawling compound in Bamban, north of Manila, police said they unmasked an operation where suspected victims of human trafficking were forced into conducting various online scams.
“The rescued workers told us (the company) engages in love scams, romance scam, cryptocurrency scams and other scam activities,” said Mr Gilberto Cruz, executive director of the crime task force that led the pre-dawn raid.
Mbappe’s presence at Olympics ‘very difficult’
France coach Didier Deschamps has cast doubt on Kylian Mbappe’s chances of representing his country at the 2024 Paris Olympics, saying that it would be “very difficult” to compete at the Games straight after Euro 2024.
“It is very difficult from a psychological and physical viewpoint to take part in two competitions like that one after the other, in the summer, without having any holiday,” Deschamps admitted, on March 14.
Deschamps said the Euro “remains the priority” and that the identities of those players featuring at the Olympics would need to be known before the continental championship, which starts on June 14.
