Author: natixis-ezine

Europe’s shared notes and coins turn 20 at New Year’s

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank is celebrating the 20th anniversary of euro notes and coins as member countries wrestle with the pandemic’s impact on the economy and the European Union forges a new level of financial cooperation to help boost the recovery.

The event is being marked at midnight New Year’s Eve with a light display in blue and yellow, the colors of the EU, projected on its skyscraper headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.

The introduction of notes and coins in 12 countries on Jan. 1, 2002, was a massive logistical undertaking that followed up on the introduction of the euro for accounting purposes and electronic payments three years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1999. Today, the euro is used in 19 of 27 EU countries.
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Omicron’s New Year’s cocktail: Sorrow, fear, hope for 2022

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

People celebrate during New Year’s celebrations at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, Spain, early Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

By JOHN LEICESTER and NICK PERRY Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Sorrow for the dead and dying, fear of more infections to come and hopes for an end to the coronavirus pandemic were — again — the bittersweet cocktail with which the world said good riddance to 2021 and ushered in 2022.

New Year’s Eve, which used to be celebrated globally with a free-spirited wildness, felt instead like a case of deja vu, with the fast-spreading omicron variant again filling hospitals.

“We just need enjoyment,” said Karen Page, 53, who was among the fed-up revelers venturing out in London. “We have just been in so long.”

The mostly muted New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world ushered in the fourth calendar year framed by the global pandemic. More than 285 million people have been infected by the coronavirus worldwide since late 2019 and more than 5 million have died.
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Vivaldi opera gets premiere in Ferrara nearly 300 years late

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

Copyright Marco Caselli Nirmal/Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara via AP

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

ROME (AP) — The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara made their peace Thursday with Antonio Vivaldi nearly 300 years after the city’s archbishop effectively canceled the staging of one of his operas, sending the famed Baroque composer into debt for his final years in exile.

Ferrara Archbishop Giancarlo Perego attended the ceremony opening Vivaldi’s “Il Farnace” at the city’s public theater, a decision hailed by the theater’s artistic director as a “marvelous gesture” that helps heal the past and highlight one of Vivaldi’s lesser-known works.

“We want to restore to Vivaldi what was taken from him here in Ferrara,” Marcello Corvino told The Associated Press ahead of the premiere of “Il Farnace,” which tells the story of the tragic dynasty of King Pharnaces II.
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China pursues tech ‘self-reliance,’ fueling global unease

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Advanced

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer

BEIJING (AP) — To help make China a self-reliant “technology superpower,” the ruling Communist Party is pushing the world’s biggest e-commerce company to take on the tricky, expensive business of designing its own processor chips — a business unlike anything Alibaba Group has done before.

Its 3-year-old chip unit, T-Head, unveiled its third processor in October, the Yitian 710 for Alibaba’s cloud computing business. Alibaba says for now, it has no plans to sell the chip to outsiders.

Other rookie chip developers including Tencent, a games and social media giant, and smartphone brand Xiaomi are pledging billions of dollars in line with official plans to create computing, clean energy and other technology that can build China’s wealth and global influence.

Processor chips play an increasingly critical role in products from smartphones and cars to medical devices and home appliances. Shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic are disrupting global manufacturing and adding to worries about supplies.
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Catalans protest against mandate for more Spanish in schools

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday to protest against a court decision that mandates that 25% of all school subjects be taught in Spanish, reducing the still predominant use of the local Catalan language in classrooms.

Demonstrators say this would threaten their cherished educational system, which has helped bring Catalan back to common use after it had been suppressed during the 20th-century dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.

“It is not proper of a democracy that a court invalidates an educational system that is supported by society and its parliament,” said Òscar Escuder, president of Platform for the Language, a grassroots group that promotes the use of Catalan who joined the march. “According to our polls, 82% of Catalans support” the current system.
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