1 EU signs up with Ukraine (BBC) EU leaders have
signed an agreement on closer relations with Ukraine, in a show of support
following Russia's annexation of Crimea. Ukraine's interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk
and the EU signed the deal in Brussels. Pro-Moscow President Viktor
Yanukovych's abandonment of the deal had led to deadly protests, his removal
and Russia taking over Crimea. On Friday, Russia's upper house unanimously
approved the treaty on Crimea joining the Russian Federation.
The EU Association Agreement is designed to give
Ukraine's interim leadership economic and political support. EU President
Herman Van Rompuy said that the accord "recognises the aspirations of the
people of Ukraine to live in a country governed by values, by democracy and the
rule of law". The move comes hours after the EU broadened its sanctions
over Russia's annexation of Crimea. It added 12 individuals to an earlier list
of 21 who now face asset freezes and travel bans.
The US on Thursday added to its own list and also
targeted the Rossiya bank. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on
Friday the international sanctions were "absolutely unlawful". However,
President Vladimir Putin said after talks with officials in Moscow that Russia
would not take an immediate reciprocal action. Two credit rating agencies have
now downgraded Russia's outlook to negative from stable.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26680250
2 Airbnb could be worth $10bn (Joe Garofoli in San
Francisco Chronicle) There’s another money mint in town as San Francisco
startup Airbnb is reportedly in talks to raise funds that would value the
company at more than $10 billion, according to the WSJ. The Journal reports
that the private-equity firm TPG is in line to lead the funding round, which
could total between $400 million and $500 million.
For a reality check, at $10 billion, Airbnb would be
worth more than hotel chains like Wyndham ($9.4 billion) and Hyatt ($8.4
billion), but less than Hilton ($22 billion). It’s not often that start-ups get
valued at $10 billion plus, but we’re starting to see a few now with DropBox
being worth $10 billion and Facebook buying WhatsApp last month for $16
billion. Reality check: Facebook is worth $174 billion.
But Airbnb is not without its problems. Renters in
San Francisco are getting evicted for Airbnb-ing their apartments. And last
fall, New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed Airbnb for
information about its hosts, checking to see if they were violating a law
forbidding them from renting their units for less than 30 days if they’re not
around.
3 Tourism overwhelms historic places, but pays no
dues (Simon Jenkins in The Guardian) An Italian court on Monday overturned a
ban on 100,000-ton cruise liners sailing up Venice's Giudecca canal to get a
close-up view of St Mark's Square. The decision defies belief. Not in modern
times can money have so crushingly defeated art; never can commerce have so
blatantly sought to strangle the goose that lays its golden egg. Following a
rule last year that would have made the liners pass west of the Giudecca to
disgorge tourists at Venice docks, shipping operators lobbied so that their
customers could continue viewing the city from the comfort of their deck
chairs. They claimed the facility was worth a million visitors and 5,000 jobs.
We dare not ask on what basis the judge accepted these absurd figures, which
amount to the city's entire cruise industry.
The damage done by commerce to the world's historic
places is fast outpacing the damage done by war. Moscow's exquisite
steel-lattice Shukhov Tower, erected as a radio mast in 1922 and "Russia's
Eiffel Tower", is about to be torn down so the site can be redeveloped. In
China the old Silk Road quarter of Kashgar is at this moment being bulldozed in
what is a world tragedy. Lest Britain lectures others, both the Tower of London
and Parliament Square may be stripped of world heritage status because of the
"plutoflats" that Boris Johnson is allowing to tower over them.
I once thought that as civilisation progressed, so
did our concern for beautiful things and places. We saved more, studied more,
taught more, conserved and appreciated more. I was wrong. Museums are richer,
universities bigger and property values higher in historic places. But pressure
of population means that the visual richness enshrined in buildings, cities and
the countryside is more at risk than ever. Money talks.
The answer must be to mobilise the industry that
makes money from the past. According to the UN's world tourism organisation,
there are a billion international tourists today, a figure that will double in
a decade.
Tourism may be Britain's second biggest industry after finance, yet
it has no department, no minister, no parliamentary lobby. The historic
buildings, towns and landscapes of Britain are not Venice. But they are equally
vulnerable and irreplaceable. Increasingly they will be key to the
profitability of the tourist industry. They have yet to convert that profit
into power. British politics still regards beauty as for wimps.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/20/tourism-overwhelms-historic-places-venice-cruise-liners
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