Chattanooga businesses join Culture Index survey
The first localized, data-based community-wide assessment of diversity, equity and inclusion is moving forward in Chattanooga and backers hope it will serve as a model for the nation.
The deadline for businesses to respond to Chattanooga's Community Culture Index is Monday and the program designer, Wade Hinton, said he hopes to have more than 100 employers participate in the survey to help not only participating businesses but the community as a whole as it seeks for ways to be more inviting and inclusive for workers, visitors and investors.
The new survey tool developed by Hinton & Co., includes questions about an organization's workforce, talent management strategies, external partnerships, governance, and strategies for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
"The response we have seen so far has been really encouraging.," Hinton & Company Founder Wade Hinton said in an interview. "The number of organizations that have responded indicate to us that there is a clear appetite among local leaders to understand the state of DEI at their organizations and to see how some of the most impactful employers in our region are making progress in this. I think there is a collective sense that while everyone wants to make Chattanooga a more inclusive city for all but we need to know where we are as business community. leaders."
The initiative is funded, in part, by the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, the Benwood Foundation, and the Footprint Foundation. For more information, visit hintonandco.com/culture-index.
Germany extends life of nuclear power plants
German lawmakers have approved a plan to keep the country's three remaining nuclear power plants until mid-April, extending their life beyond the originally planned shut-off at the end of this year.
The lower house of parliament voted 375-216 to approve the extension, with 70 abstentions. Friday's vote came after Chancellor Olaf Scholz last month ordered ministers to prepare the plan, putting his foot down on an issue that had divided his three-party government.
The decision comes as Germany tries to prevent a possible energy crunch this winter due to cuts in fuel supplies from Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck and his environmentalist Greens had argued that only two nuclear plants in southern Germany -- Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 -- should be able to keep operating beyond the scheduled shutdown on Dec. 31 to ease possible power shortages over the winter.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats had suggested all three remaining plants -- including the Emsland reactor in the northwest -- should stay online, even beyond April if necessary. Some Free Democrats had even called for three other nuclear plants that were shut down last year to be powered up again in the face of high energy prices and possible blackouts.
The plan approved Friday allows all three reactors that are still online to keep running until mid-April, but not beyond that.
Europe faces recession by next winter, EU predicts
The European Union's executive commission slashed its forecast for economic growth next year, saying the 19 countries that use the euro currency will slide into recession over the winter as peak inflation hangs on for longer than expected and high fuel and heating costs erode consumer purchasing power.
The European Commission's autumn forecast released Friday predicts falling economic output in the last three months of this year and the first months of 2023. It says high energy prices, a rising cost of living, higher interest rates and overall uncertainty "are expected to tip the EU, the euro area and most member states into recession in the last quarter of the year."
The growth forecast for all of 2023 was lowered to 0.3% from 1.4% expected in the previous forecast from July.
"Growth is expected to return to Europe in spring, as inflation gradually relaxes its grip on the economy," the report said. "However, with powerful headwinds still holding back demand, economic activity is set to be subdued."
The worst performer next year is likely to be Germany, Europe's largest economy and one of the most dependent on Russian natural gas before the war in Ukraine. Gas and electricity prices have soared as Russia has dialed back supplies to Europe to a mere trickle of what they were before the invasion of Ukraine.
Germany was expected to see output shrink by 0.6% over the next year.
Australia wants China to lift its trade barriers
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he would ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to lift billions of dollars in trade barriers in the event that the two leaders hold their first bilateral meeting.
Both leaders will attend a Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia and then an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in Thailand next week.
Beijing had banned minister-to-minister contacts and imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers on products including wine, coal, beef, seafood and barley in recent years that cost Australian exporters 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.
Albanese said a meeting with Xi was "not locked in at this point in time."
"We obviously will be attending the same conferences, or at least two of them (G-20 and APEC) over the next nine days. And I would welcome a meeting if it occurs over that time," Albanese said.
Xi had bilateral meetings scheduled with U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Argentine President Alberto Fernández as well as the two summit hosts, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Friday in Beijing.