Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Maga First News with Peter Boykin

8:00 am 9:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Indian rupee bulls dig in as investors grapple with elections across Asia: Reuters poll

A customer hands a 50-Indian rupee note to an attendant at a fuel station in Ahmedabad
A customer hands a 50-Indian rupee note to an attendant at a fuel station in Ahmedabad, India, October 5, 2018. REUTERS/Amit Dave

April 11, 2019

By Nikhil Nainan

(Reuters) – A tale of two elections saw investors raise their bullish bets on the Indian rupee over the past two weeks while long positions on the Thai baht unraveled to their lowest this year, a Reuters poll showed.

Foreign investors have plowed billions of dollars into India ahead of an election process spread over seven phases and ending only toward the end of next month with nearly 900 million people eligible to vote. The process begins on Thursday.

Investors, who only turned bullish on the rupee at the start of March for the first time in nearly a year, have since raised their long positions to their highest since January of last year, the poll of 14 respondents showed.

The prospect that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party will manage to just about win a parliamentary majority has sparked net inflows of over $8 billion into equities so far this year as of April 9. More than half of the inflows occurred in March alone.

On the other hand, Thailand, which is still reeling from the fallout of uncertainty surrounding its election at the end of March, has seen investors unwind some of their long positions on the baht gradually built up during the first two months of the year.

The baht, however, still remains the best performing currency so far this year among its regional peers, gaining about 2.5 percent thus far.

Final results of the Thai election will be announced on May 9.

“Two-directional risk remains high and both currencies could still move either way depending on how the election news develops over the next few weeks,” said Julian Wee, a South Asia investment strategist at Credit Suisse.

(Graphic: Foreign flows into India and Thailand – https://tmsnrt.rs/2X2bO6Y)

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, also heads into elections next week with investors turning bullish on the rupiah once again after a month’s hiatus.

Elsewhere, investors trimmed long positions on China’s yuan to their lowest since turning bullish in January.

There has been progress toward a trade deal between China and the United States but U.S. officials say there are still important issues for the countries to address. However, the fallout from the months-long trade war has resulted in weak economic data, posing concerns for the health of the global economy.

In response, China has undertaken massive stimulus measures to reinvigorate its economy, which analysts at HSBC say will boost growth as it filters through in the coming quarters.

The Asian currency positioning poll is focused on what analysts and fund managers believe are the current market positions in nine Asian emerging market currencies: the Chinese yuan, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, Indonesian rupiah, Taiwan dollar, Indian rupee, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht.

The poll uses estimates of net long or short positions on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long U.S. dollars.

The figures include positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).

(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan, additional reporting by Gaurav Dogra; polling by Niyati Shetty and Mensholong Lepcha in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: OANN

0 0

Brazil’s Petrobras sets new rules for Liquigas deal, hoping to lure more bidders

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Brazil's state-run Petrobras oil company is pictured outside its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Brazil's state-run Petrobras oil company is pictured outside its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 17, 2015. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes/File Photo

April 9, 2019

By Carolina Mandl

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA released new rules for companies that intend to bid for its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidiary Liquigas Distribuidora, according to a filing on Tuesday.

Hoping to increase the number of companies bidding, Petrobras, as the state-run oil company is known, reduced the amount of revenue a rival can have compared to Liquigas sales, when in a consortium.

Two weeks ago, Petrobras said that rivals with more than 10 percent of market share in the Brazilian LPG distribution market cannot have a stake in the consortium that is higher than 40 percent of Liquigas’ revenue.

But according to new rules included in the documents filed on Tuesday, rivals may not have a stake in the consortium higher than 30 percent of Liquigas revenue, in an attempt to lure more participants to any potential consortium.

Restrictions for rivals are aimed at keeping antitrust authorities from blocking a deal, which happened in Petrobras’ first attempt to sell Liquigas in 2017.

Banco Santander Brasil SA has been hired to manage the sale. Potential buyers may contact Santander by April 19 to formalize its interest.

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: OANN

0 0

Dem-controlled House Passes Repeal of President Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a vote on a measure to block President Trump’s national emergency declaration Tuesday.

The 245-182 vote largely broke down along party lines, with only 15 Republicans siding with Dems.

The measure would effectively halt the president’s declaration, which would have been used to justify spending on wall construction along the southern US border.

The bill next heads to the Senate, where it’ll be voted on within the next 18 days.

Democrats need at least four Republican Senate votes to secure a simple majority of 51.

At least two Republican senators, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), have indicated they plan to back the bill.

The resolution would next head to the president’s desk where he’s expected to issue a veto.

As the legal battle over the president’s emergency declaration plays out, the Los Angeles Times notes bulldozers are sitting idle at the border waiting to start wall construction.


Source: InfoWars

0 0

Florida men imprisoned for murder for 42 years ordered free

An uncle and nephew who had been imprisoned for 42 years for a Florida murder were vindicated Thursday when prosecutors asked a judge to vacate their convictions, saying they no longer believed in the men's guilt.

Clifford Williams, 76, and Hubert Myers, 61, wiped away tears after the judge said she was vacating their convictions. They are the first men cleared since the state attorney's office in Jacksonville started an initiative last year reviewing claims of wrongful conviction, the first effort of its kind in Florida.

"Today, after review and reinvestigation of the case, evidence, and trial, the State of Florida no longer has confidence in the integrity of the convictions or guilt of the accused," the state attorney's office wrote in a report outlining the reasons for vacating the convictions.

The men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1976 fatal shooting of Jeanette Williams and the attempted murder of her girlfriend, Nina Marshall. The women, who knew the defendants socially, were asleep in bed at the time of the shooting.

Williams died instantly but Marshall was able to flag down a car that drove her to a hospital. She identified Williams and Myers as the shooters.

The men claimed they had been at a birthday party a block from the shooting and other party-goers backed up their alibis.

Their first trial ended in mistrial; the men were convicted at a second trial during which prosecutors contended a drug debt was the motive. Defense attorneys presented no witnesses and entered no evidence but instead attacked Marshall's credibility as a witness.

No physical evidence linked the shootings to the men and the case relied solely on the testimony of Marshall, who said the men had fired their shots from the foot of her bed.

"In fact, the physical and scientific evidence actually contradicts her testimony about what happened," the state attorney's office report said.

Broken glass along with bullet holes in a curtain and an aluminum screen showed the shots came from outside a bedroom window, the report said. Forensics evidence also showed only one gun was fired.

Marshall died in 2001 and investigators re-examining the case were unable to question her.

The report said another man who died in 1994 had claimed responsibility for the slaying and Myers answered questions truthfully during a polygraph test taken as part of the review of innocence.

"The culmination of all the evidence, most of which the jury never heard or saw, leaves no abiding confidence in the convictions or the guilt of the defendants," the report said.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Canadian regulator says Equifax fell short of privacy compliance

FILE PHOTO: Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. offices are pictured in Atlanta
FILE PHOTO: Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell

April 9, 2019

(Reuters) – Equifax Inc and its Canadian unit fell far short of their privacy obligations, a Canadian federal agency said on Tuesday following an investigation into the 2017 data breach at the credit reporting company.

The agency, which is charged with protecting privacy rights of individuals, noted that poor security safeguards worsened the impact of the global cyber attack https://www.reuters.com/article/us-equifax-cyber/equifax-reveals-hack-that-likely-exposed-data-of-143-million-customers-idUSKCN1BI2VK that affected more than 143 million people worldwide, including 19,000 Canadians.

“Given the vast amounts of highly sensitive personal information Equifax holds…it was completely unacceptable to find such significant shortcomings in the company’s privacy and security practices,” said Daniel Therrien, the privacy commissioner of Canada.

The agency said Equifax Canada has entered into a compliance agreement to address these concerns and will submit third-party audit reports on its own security and that of its parent to the OPC every two years for the next six years.

This will allow ongoing monitoring of compliance with Canada’s federal private sector privacy law, including assessing the steps taken by Equifax since the breach, OPC said in a statement.

(Reporting By Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

Source: OANN

0 0

U.S. judge rules Qualcomm owes Apple nearly $1 billion rebate payment

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds her phone near an Apple company logo in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds her phone near an Apple company logo in Beijing, China December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

March 15, 2019

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge has issued a preliminary ruling that Qualcomm Inc owes Apple Inc nearly $1 billion in patent royalty rebate payments, though the decision is unlikely to result in Qualcomm writing a check to Apple because of other developments in the dispute.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Thursday ruled that Qualcomm, the world’s biggest supplier of mobile phone chips, was obligated to pay nearly $1 billion in rebate payments to Apple, which for years used Qualcomm’s modem chips to connect iPhones to wireless data networks.

The payments were part of a business cooperation agreement between the two companies amid the peculiar patent licensing practices of the consumer electronics industry.

In general, the contract factories that built Apple’s iPhones would pay Qualcomm billions of dollars per year for the use of Qualcomm’s patented technology in iPhones, a cost that Apple would reimburse the contract factories for. Separately, Qualcomm and Apple had a cooperation agreement under which Qualcomm would pay Apple a rebate on the iPhone patent payments if Apple agreed not to attack in court or with regulators.

In a lawsuit filed two years ago, Apple sued Qualcomm, alleging that the chip supplier had broken the cooperation agreement by not paying nearly $1 billion in patent royalty rebates.

Qualcomm in turn alleged that it stopped paying the rebate payments because Apple had broken the agreement by urging other smartphone makers to complain to regulators and making “false and misleading” statements to the Korean Fair Trade Commission, which was investigating Qualcomm over antitrust allegations. Apple responded that it was making lawful responses to regulators in an ongoing investigation.

Judge Curiel sided with Apple, ruling that Qualcomm owed the missed rebate payments.

“Qualcomm’s illegal business practices are harming Apple and the entire industry,” Apple said in a statement.

Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm, told Reuters in a statement, “Although the Court today did not view Apple’s conduct as a breach of Apple’s promises to Qualcomm in the 2013 Business Cooperation and Patent Agreement, the exposure of Apple’s role in these events is a welcome development.”

The decision will not become final until after the trial in the case, which begins next month. And it is unlikely that Qualcomm will make a new payment to Apple.

Apple’s contract factories, which under normal circumstances would pay Qualcomm for patent royalties owed on iPhones, have already withheld the nearly $1 billion in payments to Qualcomm. Qualcomm’s Rosenberg said those withheld iPhone payments have already been accounted for in Qualcomm’s existing financial statements.

“Apple has already offset the payment at issue under the agreement against royalties that were owed to Qualcomm,” Qualcomm’s Rosenberg told Reuters.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: OANN

0 0

Google Cloud hires another Oracle veteran for top role

FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London
FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London, Britain January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

March 11, 2019

By Paresh Dave

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google Cloud has hired Amit Zavery to lead one of its engineering teams, a company spokeswoman confirmed on Monday, making him the highest-ranking Oracle executive to reunite with former Oracle President Thomas Kurian since he became Google Cloud’s chief executive.

Zavery left last week as executive vice president for Oracle cloud platform. He started on Monday as a Google Cloud vice president of engineering and will lead the Apigee team, the spokeswoman said.

Oracle Corp declined to comment.

Zavery worked at Oracle for about 24 years, starting as a software engineer and most recently looking over a portfolio of application development tools for cloud computing customers. Some analysts estimate that the portfolio, combined with fees from hosting data on the cloud, will generate $2.1 billion in revenue for Oracle during its fiscal 2019.

Google gained some similar tools through its $625 million acquisition of Apigee in 2016. Apigee Chief Executive Chet Kapoor, who became a vice president at Google, is remaining with the company, the spokeswoman said.

Zavery will help Google add to its tools platform, which helps businesses develop applications for their workers or customers.

Kurian last month said Google Cloud would focus on trying to win business from the biggest companies in a handful of industries by offering them a wider variety of specialized services. Google is a distant No. 3 to Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp in selling cloud storage and services.

Kurian spent 22 years at Oracle before leaving last year and joining Google shortly after.

(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Maga First News with Peter Boykin

8:00 am 9:00 am



FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist