Archive Month: December 2020

The hacking group behind the SolarWinds compromise was able to break into Microsoft Corp. and access some of its source code, Microsoft said Thursday. In a blog post, Microsoft said its investigation into the SolarWinds breach had turned up irregularities with a “small number of internal accounts” and that one of the accounts “had been used to view source code in a number of source code repositories.” It added that the account had no ability to modify the code. The disclosure adds to the growing picture of the compromises associated with the SolarWinds hack, which used the Texas-based company’s flagship network monitoring software as a springboard to break into sensitive U.S. government networks and other tech companies. Microsoft had disclosed that, like other firms, it found malicious versions of SolarWinds’ software inside its network, but the source code disclosure is new. FILE – A woman walks in front of the Microsoft stand during the Cybersecurity Conference in Lille, northern France, Jan. 29, 2020.A company’s source code, the underlying set of instructions that run a piece of software or an operating system, is typically among its most closely guarded secrets. It is not clear how many or specifically which source code repositories the hackers were able to access or how long the hackers were lurking in Microsoft’s systems. A Microsoft spokesman declined to elaborate on the blog post. Modifying source code, which Microsoft said the hijacked account could not do, could have potentially disastrous consequences, but experts said that even just being able to review the code could offer hackers insight that might help them subvert Microsoft products or services. “The source code is the architectural blueprint of how the software is built,” said Andrew Fife of Israel-based Cycode, a source code protection company. “If you have the blueprint, it’s far easier to engineer attacks.” Both he and Ronen Slavin, Cycode’s chief technology officer, said a key unanswered question was which source code repositories were accessed. Microsoft has a huge range of products, from its flagship Windows operating system to lesser-known software such as social networking app Yammer and the design app Sway. Slavin said he was also worried by the possibility that the SolarWinds hackers were poring over Microsoft’s source code as prelude for something more ambitious. “To me the biggest question is, ‘Was this recon for the next big operation?’ ” he said. In its blog post, Microsoft said it had found no evidence of access “to production services or customer data.” “The investigation, which is ongoing, has also found no indications that our systems were used to attack others,” it said.  
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This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.Australia was among the first nations to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the International Date Line. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks that center on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Locations on the harbor were fenced off, popular parks closed and famous night spots eerily deserted. A heavy police presence populated the otherwise quiet site, which resembled a ghost town. A 9 p.m. fireworks display was scrapped but a seven-minute pyrotechnics show at midnight brought momentary cheer as fireworks spectacularly lit up the iconic Harbor Bridge and its surroundings.World Says ‘Good Bye’ to 2020Pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget. People were only allowed in downtown Sydney if they had a restaurant reservation or were one of five guests of an inner-city resident. People weren’t allowed in the city center without a permit.Some harborside restaurants are charging up to 1,690 Australian dollars ($1,294) for a seat, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday. Sydney is Australia’s most populous city and has its most active community transmission of COVID-19 in recent weeks. Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populous city, cancelled its fireworks this year.  For the first time in many, many years we made the big decision, difficult decision to cancel the fireworks,'' Melbourne Mayor Sally Capp said. We did that because we know that it attracts up to 450,000 people into the city for one moment at midnight to enjoy a spectacular display and music. We are not doing that this year,” she added. New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbors have no COVID-19, and New Year celebrations there are the same as ever. In Chinese societies, the Lunar New Year celebration that falls in February in 2021 generally takes precedence over solar New Year, on Jan. 1. While celebrations of the Western holiday have been growing more common in recent decades, this year will be more muted.  Beijing is holding a countdown ceremony with just a few invited guests, while other planned events have been canceled. And nighttime temperatures plunging to -15 Celsius (-5 Fahrenheit) will likely discourage people from spending the night out with friends.Taiwan is hosting its usual New Year’s celebration, a fireworks display by its capital city’s iconic tower, Taipei 101, as well as a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building on New Year’s morning. The flag raising will be limited to government officials and invited guests after a traveler who recently arrived in Taiwan was found to be infected with the new variant of the coronavirus.The island has been a success story in fighting the pandemic, registering only seven deaths and 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.Hong Kong, with its British colonial history and large expatriate population, has usually seen raucous celebrations along the waterfront and in bar districts. For the second year running, however, New Year’s Eve fireworks have been canceled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns.Hong Kong social distancing regulations restrict gatherings to only two people. Restaurants have to close by 6 p.m. and live performances and dancing are not allowed. But crowds still throng shopping centers.Much of Japan was welcoming 2021 quietly at home, alarmed after Tokyo reported a record number of daily coronavirus cases at about 1,300. It was the first time that daily cases in the capital have topped 1,000.Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike asked people to skip countdown ceremonies and expressed concern about crowds of shoppers.“The coronavirus knows no yearend or New Year’s holidays,” she said.Many people skipped what’s customarily a chance to return to ancestral homes for the holidays, hoping to lessen health risks for extended families.Rural restaurants saw business drop, while home deliveries of traditional New Year’s “good luck” food called “osechi” boomed.Emperor Naruhito is delivering a video message for the new year, instead of waving from a balcony as cheering crowds throng outside the palace.Train services that usually carry people on shrine visits overnight, as well as some countdown ceremonies, were canceled.Meiji Shrine in downtown Tokyo, which normally attracts millions of people during New Year holidays and is usually open all night on New Year’s Eve, closed at 4 p.m. this year.In South Korea, Seoul’s city government canceled its annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since the event was first held in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War.The ceremony, in which citizens ring a large bell in a traditional pavilion when the clock strikes midnight, normally draws an estimated 100,000 people and is broadcast live.Authorities in eastern coastal areas closed beaches and other spots where hundreds of thousands of people typically gather on New Year’s Day to watch the sunrise. The southeastern city of Pohang instead planned to broadcast live the sunrise at several beaches on its YouTube channel.South Korea’s central government banned private social gatherings of more than five people and shut down ski resorts and major tourist spots nationwide from Christmas Eve until Jan. 3 to help bring a recent viral resurgence under control.Millions of Indians planned to usher in the new year with subdued celebrations at home because of night curfews, a ban on beach parties and restrictions on movement in major cities and towns after the new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus reached the country.In New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, hotels and bars were ordered to shut at 11 p.m. The three cities have been the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic.Drones were keeping watch on people’s movements in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital. Large gatherings were banned, but there were no restrictions on visiting friends, relatives and public places in groups of not more than four people, police said. Face masks and social distancing were mandatory, they said.Many revelers flocked to Goa, a former Portuguese colony and popular backpacking destination with numerous beach resorts. Authorities decided against imposing a curfew with coronavirus infections largely controlled there.In Sri Lanka, public gatherings have been banned due to a resurgence of COVID-19, and health and law enforcement authorities urged people to limit celebrations to close family members. Health officials have warned of legal action against hotels and restaurants that hold parties.Officials have also closed schools and restricted public transport in response to the renewed outbreak.
 
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During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from1992 to 1995, tens of thousands of refugees came to the United States. In this story narrated by Anna Rice, Dino Jahic reports they brought some unique culinary traditions to the U.S. 
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Dawn Wells, who parlayed her girl-next-door charm and wholesome beauty into enduring TV fame as the sweet-natured desert island castaway Mary Ann on the classic 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, died Wednesday at age 82, her publicist said. 
 
Wells, who won the title of Miss Nevada in 1959 and competed in the Miss America contest, died from complications of COVID-19, publicist Harlan Boll said in a statement. 
 
Born in the gambling city of Reno, Wells played Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers, one of seven castaways stranded after their boat, the S.S. Minnow, became battered in a storm during what was supposed to be a three-hour tour from Hawaii. Wells beat out actors including Raquel Welch for her role. 
 Gilligan’s Island ran for three seasons (1964-1967) with a cast that also included Bob Denver as the zany Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Jim Backus as millionaire Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as his posh wife, Russell Johnson as the Professor and Tina Louise as movie star Ginger.The death of Wells leaves Louise, 86, the sole survivor of these cast members. FILE – In this 1965 file photo, Dawn Wells, center, poses with fellow cast members of “Gilligan’s Island,” Bob Denver and Alan Hale Jr., in Los Angeles.The 98 episodes invariably involved their efforts in vain to get off the island, even as a parade of guest stars dropped in and had no trouble getting out. The show drew the wrath of critics, but its innocent fun caught on with viewers at a time of tumult in America after the assassination of a president and during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War. Wells, playing a cheerful brunette Midwestern farm girl, appeared in the series wearing short shorts, midriff tops and pigtails. Louise, playing a buxom red-haired sensation akin to Marilyn Monroe, wore slinky, form-fitting dresses. The two inspired what became an enduring pop culture question for men: “Ginger or Mary Ann?” 
 
Wells said that question was the most common topic mentioned to her by fans. “Mostly they’ll pick a favorite, Ginger or Mary Ann. For some reason, they feel they have to make a choice,” Wells told Forbes magazine in 2016. 
 
Wells had effusive praise for Denver and her other cast mates but was not especially close to Louise, who distanced herself from the Ginger character and declined to appear in various Gilligan’s Island reboots with her former co-stars. 
 
“We had nothing against each other,” Wells told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. “We didn’t have much in common.” 
 Gilligan’s Island was canceled by network executives despite respectable ratings, then became ubiquitous in syndicated reruns. 
 
“A misconception is that we must be wealthy, rolling in the dough, because we got residuals. We didn’t really get a dime,” Wells told Forbes. 
 
Wells said she was paid $750 a week, adding, “Sherwood Schwartz, our producer, reportedly made $90 million on the reruns alone.” 
 
Like some of her co-stars, she suffered from typecasting in Hollywood in the years after the series ended, appearing in TV guest spots and stage work before taking roles in B-movies. 
  FILE – This Oct. 2, 1978, photo shows the cast of “Gilligan’s Island,” from left, Russell Johnson, Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Alan Hale Jr., Bob Denver, Judith Baldwin replacing original cast member Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells.In light of the show’s steady popularity in the 1970s, three made-for-TV movies were made with progressively far-fetched plots involving Soviet satellites and visiting basketball players: Rescue from Gilligan’s Island (1978), The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island (1979) and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981). 
 
Wells also lent her voice to the animated Gilligan’s Planet (1982) in which the castaways become stranded on a faraway planet. 
 
Wells also capitalized on her fame by writing, Mary Ann’s Gilligan’s Island Cookbook, and later, for the 50th anniversary of the series in 2014, the book, What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life. 
 
Wells was born Oct. 18, 1938, in Reno, studied theater at the University of Washington, and headed to Hollywood after her beauty pageant success. 
 
She embraced her pop culture status but said there was more to her than just being Mary Ann. 
 
“I’m deeper, smarter, more ambitious, funnier. I think if you meet me for 15 minutes, there is nothing you won’t know: what you see is what you get,” she told Forbes. 
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Угода про вільну торгівлю з Великою Британією, ратифікована раніше Верховною Радою, надасть 98% української продукції доступ на британський ринок, заявляє 30 грудня Міністерство розвитку економіки, торгівлі та сільського господарства України.

Як нагадують у відомстві, угода набуде чинності з 1 січня 2021 року.

«Зокрема, документ надасть вільний доступ на британський ринок для 98% української продукції, а з 2023 року для України буде лібералізовано ще 2%», – повідомляє Мінекономіки.

Пресслужба цитує міністра Ігоря Петрашка, який вказує, що угоду з Великою Британією Україні довелося узгоджувати і з Європейським Союзом. З 1 січня Сполучене королівство виходить з єдиного ринку Євросоюзу.

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«Нам вдалося досягти хороших результатів, оскільки наші показники торгівлі з Євросоюзом не були змінені», – сказав Петрашко.

За оцінкою уряду, Угода покращить баланс і структуру двосторонньої торгівлі між Україною і Великою Британією.

Як зазначають у Мінекономіки, зараз відомство готується до укладення нових угод із Тунісом, Єгиптом, Йорданією, В’єтнамом, Індонезією та Китаєм.

16 грудня Верховна Рада підтримала ратифікацію «Угоди про політичне співробітництво, вільну торгівлю і стратегічне партнерство між Україною та Сполученим Королівством Великої Британії і Північної Ірландії».

Угоду про співробітництво, вільну торгівлю та стратегічн партнерство з Великою Британією підписав президент Володимир Зеленський під час офіційного візиту до Лондона в жовтні 2020 року.
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Health experts in South Sudan are criticizing organizers of a weekend concert in Juba where tens of thousands of people gathered in clear violation of the health ministry’s COVID-19 protocols.Tanzanian music star Diamond Platnumz attracted all kinds of fans to the outdoor event at the Doctor John Garang Mausoleum, including President Salva Kiir.The vast majority of concert goers ignored health ministry and World Health Organization directives to social distance or wear masks, although President Kiir wore a face covering.Dr. Angelo Guop Kouch, director of South Sudan’s Public Health Emergency Operation Center, which manages COVID-19 cases in the country, said the gathering was not advisable, saying “health authorities should be involved when there are such activities in the country because of the crowd.”A World Health Organization epidemiologist in South Sudan, Dr. Joseph Wamala, said new strains of COVID-19 have emerged that can spread more easily in South Sudan.“The identification of this new strain is really a reason for countries to reinforce measures to limit spread through the recommended measures; using the mask, observing respiratory etiquette,” Dr. Wamala told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.To date, COVID-19 has had a relatively light impact on South Sudan, with just 3,511 confirmed cases and only 63 deaths.But that situation could quickly change, says Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Thuou Loi Cingoth. “People are dying of COVID-19 and right now we have people who are in critical condition in our facility affected by COVID-19. Now, whether we are going to go to the stage of asking the law enforcement agencies to ensure that measures against COVID-19 are adhered to by the public, I still don’t know. But it is our appeal that the public listen,” Dr. Loi told South Sudan in Focus.Saturday’s concert was an “absolute violation of our declared and official position as the Ministry of health,” Dr. Loi added.One of the concert organizers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the concert was organized by the K2 company belonging to the brother of South Sudanese businesswoman Achai Wiir, and that it was difficult to maintain protective measures because turnout was far more than organizers had anticipated.
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Міністерство розвитку економіки очікує скорочення економіки України на 3% у IV кварталі 2020 року, повідомив очільник відомства Ігор Петрашко.

«Ми вже почали бачити економічну стабілізацію… Падіння в третьому кварталі збереглося на рівні 3% ВВП й очікується 3% ВВП у четвертому кварталі», – сказав Петрашко.

Міжнародний валютний фонд прогнозує, що валовий внутрішній продукт України у 2020 році скоротиться на 7,2%. Світовий банк очікує, що українська економіка скоротиться на 5,5%.

Українська влада при цьому очікує, що цьогоріч ВВП впаде на 4,8%.
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Міністерство фінансів розмістило еквівалент 23,6 мільярда гривень через облігації внутрішньої державної позики. Про це йдеть в повідомленні відомства 29 грудня.

«За результатами проведення розміщень облігацій внутрішньої державної позики 29 грудня 2020 року, до державного бюджету залучено 23 643 599 317,37 гривень (за курсом НБУ)», – повідомляє міністерства.

Мінфін здійснив вісім дорозміщень, дата погашення – з березня 2021 до лютого 2025 року. На ОВДП подали 117 заявок, задовольнили 107 із них. Середньозважена дохідність варіюється від 2,9% до 12,25%.

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22 грудня Міністерство фінансів залучило через ОВДП до державного бюджету в еквіваленті 22 мільярди 209 мільйонів гривень.

Рекордне розміщення ОВДП, на суму понад 51 мільярд гривень, Міністерству фінансів України вдалося провести минулого тижня. Два тижні тому за такою ж процедурою до державного бюджету чиновники залучили майже 16 мільярдів гривень.
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French couturier Pierre Cardin, who made his name by selling designer clothes to the masses, and his fortune by being the first to exploit that name as a brand for selling everything from cars to perfume, died on Tuesday aged 98. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Cardin drew scorn and admiration from fellow fashion designers for his brash business sense, and influenced catwalks with his space-age, futuristic bubble dresses and geometrical cuts and patterns. Cardin, who was a mentor to designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, was active in fashion circles until the last, still taking young designers under his wing, attending parties and events and regularly visiting his Paris office by Jaguar. FILE – French fashion designer Pierre Cardin poses in front of his 1954-1956-1957 fashion creations in his museum called “Past-Present-Future” in Paris, Nov. 12, 2014.Cardin was the first designer to sell clothes collections in department stores in the late 1950s, and the first to enter the licensing business for perfumes, accessories and even food – which later drove profits for many other fashion houses. “It’s all the same to me whether I am doing sleeves for dresses or table legs,” a telling quote on his website once read. Hard as it may be to imagine decades later, Armani chocolates, Bulgari hotels and Gucci sunglasses are all based on Cardin’s realization that a fashion brand’s glamour had endless merchandising potential. Over the years his name has been stamped on razor blades, household goods, and tacky accessories – even cheap boxer shorts. He once said it would not bother him to have his initials, PC, etched into rolls of toilet paper, and he was also the inspiration for a phallus-like perfume flask. His detractors accused him of destroying the value of his brand and the notion of luxury in general. But he seemed largely unaffected by criticism. “I had a sense for marketing my name,” Cardin told Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in 2007. “Does money spoil one’s ideas? I don’t dream of money after all, but while I’m dreaming, I’m making money. It’s never been about the money.” He maintained that he built his business empire without ever asking a bank for a loan. Born near Venice on July 2, 1922, to French parents of Italian descent, Cardin was educated in the not-so-glamorous French city of Saint Etienne. He went to work for a tailor in nearby Vichy at age 17 and dreamt for a time of becoming an actor, doing some work on the stage as well as modeling and dancing professionally. ‘Beauty and the beast’ When he came to Paris in 1945, he made theatrical masks and costumes for Jean Cocteau’s film, “Beauty and the Beast,” and a year later joined the then-unknown Christian Dior. His first big commercial venture, when he teamed up with the Printemps department store in the late 1950s, led to him being briefly expelled from the rarified guild of French fashion designers, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. Couturiers in that club were forbidden at that time to show outside their Paris salons, let alone in department stores. He also blazed a trail outside France long before other fashion multinationals in search of new markets. He presented a collection in Communist China in 1979 when it was still largely closed to the outside world. And just two years after the Berlin Wall came down, in 1991, a Cardin fashion show on Moscow’s Red Square attracted a crowd of 200,000. Cardin also expanded into new businesses, buying fabled Paris restaurant Maxim’s in the 1980s and opening replica outlets around the world. He leveraged the investment further by launching Minim’s, a chain of fancy fast-food joints that reproduced the Belle Epoque decor of the original exclusive Paris eatery. His empire embraces perfumes, foods, industrial design, real estate, entertainment and even fresh flowers. True to his taste for futuristic designs, Cardin also owns the Palais des Bulles, or Bubble Palace, a residence-cum-events-venue woven into the cliffs on one of the most exclusive strips of the French riviera. Not too far away, there is also a chateau in the village of Lacoste that once belonged to the Marquis de Sade. In February this year he teamed up with a designer seven decades his junior. Pierre Courtial, 27, unveiled a collection at Cardin’s studio on Paris’s chic Rue Saint-Honore, with pieces that echoed some of the veteran designer’s geometrical esthetics. Cardin said he still rated originality above anything else. “I’ve always tried to be different, to be myself,” he told Reuters. “Whether people like it or not, that’s not what matters.” 
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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Americans increasingly seem to be tuning out warnings against travel during what is traditionally one of the busiest periods of the year.On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration said it screened close to 1.3 million air travelers at U.S. airports Sunday. It was the highest number in more than nine months. The TSA also reported that more than 10 million people have flown since December 18.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans against travel during the holiday season, fearing that to do so would help spread the coronavirus.”The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, said in a news briefing in early December. “Cases are rising. Hospitalizations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase.”According to National Public Radio, it was unclear if a travel surge over Thanksgiving caused a spike in cases. It reported that in some areas, there appeared to be a surge, while in others, there wasn’t.The American Automobile Association, known as AAA, predicted that an estimated 85 million Americans would travel over the Christmas season, most of them by car, but according to the Associated Press, actual numbers were not yet available.As of Monday, the United States had more than 19 million coronavirus cases and 333,326 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way people work, dress and relax. Fashion was one of the first to adapt to the new house-bound reality, making sweatpants the new American go-to attire. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Max Avloshenko, Natalia Latukhina, Alexander Barash 
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In the not-so-distant future, America’s evening skies could be filled with the buzzing sounds of delivery drones.On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the use of delivery drones over populated areas at night. Many see the move as the next step to widespread adoption of drone deliveries.“The new rules make way for the further integration of drones into our airspace by addressing safety and security concerns,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement. “They get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages.”Delivery companies like UPS and Amazon have been investing in the technology for years. Both companies have seen surging profits during the coronavirus pandemic as more Americans turn to home delivery for many items, including groceries.Alphabet’s Wing is also investing in drone technology.The FAA said the new regulations provide “an essential building block toward safely allowing more complex” drone operations. According to the new FAA rules, drones of more than a certain weight must have remote identification capabilities and be equipped with anti-collision lights. The FAA also said the drones cannot have any exposed rotating parts that could potentially injure a person.In some cases, the drones can be operated above moving vehicles “depending on the level of risk.” The new rules will become effective 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register next month.Despite the new regulations, Bloomberg reports it will still be years before delivery drones are widely used. 
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Голова Національного банку України Кирило Шевченко пропонує скасувати податок із депозитів, але цю пропозицію наразі відкинули урядовці. Про це керівник регулятора повідомив в інтерв’ю виданню «Економічна правда», оприлюдненому 28 грудня.

«Є досить стала дохідна база, і ми вважаємо, що цей податок можна скасувати. Він складається з 18% ПДФО (податку на доходи фізичних осіб – ред.) і 1,5% військового збору. Про військовий збір не йдеться: доки йде війна, його треба лишати. А от 18% ПДФО слід прибрати, зважаючи на те, що депозитні ставки і так низькі. Ми пропонували це Мінфіну та уряду в законі про бюджет. Це не було враховано. Наступного року будемо продовжувати роботу в цьому напрямку», – обіцяє голова НБУ.

Податок на доходи з депозитів є одним із найновіших у податковій системі України. Він був запроваджений у 2014 році. Тоді ситуація з надходженнями до державного бюджету «була просто жахливою», твердить Кирило Шевченко.

 
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Кабінет міністрів України з 1 січня скасовує до 31 березня 2021 року пільговий тариф на перші 100 кВт-год електроенергії у розмірі 0,9 грн/кВт-год і встановив єдиний тариф для побутових споживачів у розмірі 1,68 грн/кВт-год.

Відповідне рішення було ухвалено на засіданні уряду в понеділок із доопрацюванням в Секретаріаті Кабінету міністрів.

«Проєкт Міненерго зі спецобов’язків на ринку електроенергії передбачає продовження з 1 січня до 31 березня 2021 року спецобов’язків, встановлення на період до 31 березня фіксованої ціни для побутових споживачів у розмірі 1,68 грн/кВт-год із ПДВ та продаж «Енергоатомом» електроенергії у рамках ПСО за двосторонніми договорами «Гарантованому покупцеві» за ціною 150 грн/МВт-год», – заявив керівник Міненерго Юрій Вітренко.

За його словами, проєкт розроблений із метою забезпечення фінансової стабільності на ринку електроенергії наступного року та стійкої роботи енергетичних підприємств, задіяних у виконанні спецобов’язків, – «Енергоатому», «Укргідроенерго» та «Укренерго».

Вітренко наголосив, що наразі Міненерго спільно з НКРЕКП та учасниками ринку напрацьовує вдосконалений сценарій фінансового збалансування на ринку електроенергії.

Раніше українські побутові споживачі оплачували перші 100 кВт-год електроенергії за ціною 90 копійок за кіловат-годину, та 1 грн 68 коп за решту обсягу споживання за місяць.
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Національний банк України відмовився погоджувати громадянину Білорусі Мікалаю Варабью купівлю 100% української філії «БТА Банк». Про це регулятор повідомив 28 грудня за результатами розгляду Комітету з питань нагляду і регулювання діяльності банків, нагляду платіжних систем НБУ.

«Вищезазначене рішення прийняте в зв’язку з тим, що ділова репутація заявника не є бездоганною. Так, 17 грудня 2020 року рішенням Ради ЄС № 2020/2130 Мікалая Варабья віднесено до переліку осіб, до яких застосовано персональні обмеження (санкції). Відповідно до вимог нормативно-правових актів Національного банку застосування санкцій до особи є підставою втрати нею бездоганної ділової репутації протягом строку дії санкцій та трьох років після їх скасування», – повідомляє центробанк.

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Іншою причиною в НБУ назвали те, що заявник не подав достатніх документів та інформації, які б підтверджували відповідність його фінансового стану та джерел коштів вимогам українського законодавства.

За інформацією білоруської служби Радіо Свобода, Микола Воробей – білоруський бізнесмен, власник компаній «Інтерсервіс», «Нафтобітумний завод», реалізує проєкти в галузі оптової торгівлі нафтопродуктами, його пов’язують з Олександром Лукашенком.

Раніше Антимонопольний комітет України дозволив громадянину Білорусі отримати контроль над більшою часткою українського «БТА Банку».

Український «БТА Банк» заснований 1992 року. Він належить казахстанському банку «БТА», власником якого є казахстанський підприємець та інвестор Кенес Ракішев.
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