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German 2020 budget plan calls for 1.7 percent boost in spending: sources

50 and 20 Euro banknotes are displayed in this picture illustration
FILE PHOTO: 50 and 20 Euro banknotes are displayed in this picture illustration taken November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration

March 18, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government’s budget plan for 2020 calls for a 1.7 percent hike in spending to 362.6 billion euros and relies on ministries cutting costs to avoid incurring new debt given forecasts for slower economic growth, Finance Ministry sources said on Monday.

The plan assumes that Europe’s largest economy will grow by 1.0 percent in 2019, down from an initially projected 1.8 percent, the sources said.

The Economy Ministry last week said the economy had a subdued start to 2019 and probably grew moderately in the first quarter, its outlook dampened by trade conflicts and sluggish demand for industrial products among other factors.

To balance the budget, government ministries will have to identify combined spending cuts of 625 million euros each year, with program delays and other measures to contribute additional savings, the sources said.

In a move that could anger U.S. President Donald Trump, the budget foresees a further increase in military spending in 2020 but does not provide a plan for how to reach the NATO target of spending 2 percent of economic output on defense.

The ministry sources said military spending would rise by 2.1 billion euros over a previous plan for 2020, boosting the share of defense spending to 1.37 percent of gross domestic product from 1.25 percent in 2018 and 1.3 percent this year.

The military budget is slated to rise to 45.1 billion euros in 2020 from planned spending of 43.2 billion this year, a separate government source said.

However, the share of military spending would drop back to 1.25 percent in 2023, with any further spending increases to be negotiated year by year, the sources said. “We’re taking it one step at a time,” said one of the sources.

That leaves Germany well below the 2 percent target set by NATO members for 2024, and below the 1.5 percent share that Germany has pledged to meet by that date.

(Reporting by Holger Hansen and Andreas Rinke; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Thomas Seythal and Hugh Lawson)

Source: OANN

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Italian police seize assets from four banks in diamonds probe: source

The Intesa Sanpaolo logo is seen in Milan
FILE PHOTO: The Intesa Sanpaolo logo is seen in Milan, Italy, January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

February 19, 2019

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s tax police carried out a seizure order for more than 700 million euros ($794 million) on Tuesday as part of a probe targeting the country’s top four banks over alleged fraudulent diamond sales, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

Milan prosecutors have been investigating two diamond brokers and banks Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Monte dei Paschi and Banco BPM with its Aletti unit over sales of diamonds to customers as an investment.

All four banks declined to comment.

Diamond brokers have been using Italian banks to sell high-quality investment diamonds in a business that totaled at least 300 million euros in sales in 2015, according to broker data.

A TV report in 2016 first shed light on alleged mis-selling of diamonds to the public.

Consumer associations also said they had received complaints. In several cases, people have told Reuters that diamonds they had bought as an investment were valued at a much lower price than they paid for them.

Diamond sales have taken off amid negative interest rates which have curtailed bank revenues and made several other investments unattractive for clients.

Banks make a one-off commission of at least 10 percent on diamond sales, in return for putting the diamond brokers in touch with their clients, between whom the contract is signed.

The business usually accounts for no more than 2 percent of a lender’s total fees.

(Reporting by Sara Rossi; Additional reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Valentina Za; Editing by Edmund Blair)

Source: OANN

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Saudi Arabia, UAE to send $3 billion in aid to Sudan

FILE PHOTO - Sudanese demonstrators chant slogans along the streets in Khartoum
FILE PHOTO - Demonstrators chant slogans along the streets after Sudan's Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said that President Omar al-Bashir had been detained "in a safe place" and that a military council would run the country for a two-year transitional period in Khartoum, Sudan April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

April 21, 2019

By Khalid Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said on Sunday they had agreed to send Sudan $3 billion worth of aid, throwing a lifeline to the country’s new military leaders after protests led to the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir.

The two Gulf Arab countries will deposit $500 million with the Sudanese central bank and send the rest in the form of food, medicine and petroleum products, their state news agencies said in parallel statements.

Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) is under pressure from protesters who have kept up a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry since Bashir was ousted on April 11. They demonstrated in large numbers over the past three days, pressing for a rapid handover to civilian rule.

TMC head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told state TV that the council had received many blueprints on how to manage the transitional period and that the formation of a joint military-civilian council – one of the demands put forward by Sudanese activists – was being considered.

“The issue has been put forward for discussion and a vision has yet to be reached,” he said.

“The role of the military council complements the uprising and the blessed revolution,” said Burhan, adding that the TMC was committed to handing power over to the people.

KOBAR PRISON

Burhan also confirmed for the first time that Bashir and a number of former officials, including presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie, acting party head Ahmed Haroun and former first vice president Ali Osman Taha, are being held at a high-security prison in Khartoum North.

“All of them are at Kobar prison,” he said, adding that “a large number of symbols of the former regime suspected of corruption will stand trial”.

Burhan said authorities had found 7 million euros ($7.8 million) in Bashir’s home, along with $350,000, slightly more than previously reported.

A judicial source said on Saturday that Sudanese military intelligence officers had found suitcases of cash in foreign currency as well as Sudanese pounds when they searched Bashir’s house.

The aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is the first major publicly announced assistance to Sudan from Gulf states in several years.

“This is to strengthen its financial position, ease the pressure on the Sudanese pound and increase stability in the exchange rate,” the Saudi Press Agency said.

Sudan’s state news agency said the central bank strengthened the Sudanese pound to 45 pounds to the dollar from 47.5, in a measure that coincided with the sharp rise in the price of the pound against the dollar on the parallel market.

The two Gulf states have ties with Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, through their participation in the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Sudan has been suffering from a deepening economic crisis that has caused cash shortages and long queues at bakeries and petrol stations.

Analysts have blamed the crisis on economic mismanagement, corruption, and the impact of U.S. sanctions, as well as the loss of oil revenue when South Sudan seceded in 2011.

In October 2017, the United States lifted some trade and economic sanctions on Sudan, but Sudan remained on the list of countries that the United States considers to be sponsors of terrorism.

Burhan said a committee could travel to the United States for discussions about lifting Sudan from the list by next week. Washington has said Sudan will not be removed from the list as long as the military is in power.

The designation makes Sudan ineligible for desperately needed debt relief and financing from international lenders.

The United States agreed in November to talks with Bashir’s government on how to get Sudan removed from the list, but no resolution was reached before his overthrow on April 11 following weeks of increasing public unrest.

Over the last few years, Sudan’s cash-short government expanded money supply to cover the cost of expensive subsidies on fuel, wheat and pharmaceuticals, causing annual inflation of 73 percent and the Sudanese pound to plunge against the dollar.

(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan, Nafisa Eltahir, Omar Fahmy and Sami Aboudi, Writing by Aidan Lewis, Editing by Susan Fenton and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Biden enters White House race without Obama’s endorsement

Former Vice President Joe Biden made his 2020 candidacy official on Thursday, but even his entry into the crowded Democratic primary field isn’t enough to move former President Barack Obama off the sidelines.

Biden announced his run for president in an online video Thursday, after weeks of speculation and anticipation. After his announcement, Biden was asked why his former boss of eight years isn't publicly backing him.

"I asked President Obama not to endorse,” Biden told Fox News on Thursday outside an Amtrak station in Delaware, adding that “whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits.”

JOE BIDEN OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL BID

Obama's team released a statement praising Biden on Thursday but didn’t offer an explicit endorsement.

“President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made,” Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill said in a statement Thursday morning. “He relied on the Vice President’s knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency. The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today.”

Meanwhile, sources close to the Obamas have told Fox News that the former president has made clear that he doesn’t plan on endorsing early in the primary process—if at all.

“President Obama is excited by the extraordinary and diverse talent exhibited in the growing lineup of Democratic primary candidates,” a source close to Obama told Fox News Thursday. “He believes that a robust primary in 2007 and 2008 not only made him a better general election candidate but a better president, too. And because of that, it’s unlikely that he will throw his support behind a specific candidate this early in the primary process – preferring instead to let the candidates make their cases directly to the voters.”

BIDEN 2020 ANNOUNCEMENT MET WITH QUICK ENDORSEMENTS, PUSHBACK FROM DEMOCRATS

Republicans have used the non-endorsement to attack Biden, with RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeting that Obama has "chosen *not* to endorse his right-hand man."

But former communications director for the Democratic National Committee and former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign Mo Elleithee said he doesn't view the decision as a snub, saying it is appropriate for Obama to remain on the sidelines.

“I think it’s pretty clear that President Obama wants to play a neutral role in the primary process, and there are a number of candidates in this field that he has a relationship with,” Elleithee, a Fox News contributor and executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, told Fox News. “I think he wants to focus more on helping set the table for a successful election for the party, rather than necessarily helping to pick the candidate.”

Elleithee said that Obama has praised a number of candidates in the race, but said “he hasn’t put out a statement like he did for Biden today for anyone else.”

“I think Biden holds a special place in Obama’s political heart, and he wanted everyone to know that, without going so far as to put his thumb on the scale one way or the other,” he said.

Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov agreed.

“It’s definitely not a snub at Biden or any reflection of how he feels about his former vice president who he is obviously very close with,” Tarlov told Fox News. “President Obama and Michelle have both made it clear that they want the Democratic process to play out, as it should.”

Despite a lack of an Obama endorsement, Biden was met with support quickly after his official announcement. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Penn. and Chris Coons, D-Del., were among the first to officially get behind his campaign.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy, Kristin Brown and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Germany gets Netherlands on board for global tax revamp

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz addresses a news conference to present the budget plans for 2019 and the upcoming years in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: Finance Minister Olaf Scholz addresses a news conference to present the budget plans for 2019 and the upcoming years in Berlin, Germany March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

March 27, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and the Netherlands agreed on Wednesday to back global efforts to revamp international tax rules for the digital era, as part of efforts by the Dutch government to clean up its reputation as a major enabler of corporate tax avoidance.

The emergence of internet giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon has pushed international tax rules to the limit as they often book profits in low-tax countries rather than where their customers are located.

Global reform of the rules had been debated for years with little progress until January when nearly 130 countries and territories agreed to tackle some of the most vexing issues, such as when a country has the right to tax international transactions.

In a joint statement issued after talks in Berlin, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Dutch Deputy Finance Minister Menno Snel said that steps had been taken to combat tax avoidance by agreeing and implementing the OECD- and EU- standards against base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

But both stressed that more needed to be done to tackle the problem of entities that are subject to no or low taxation.

“We recognize that further measures are important to ensure a sufficient level of taxation globally. In this regard, the Netherlands will introduce a conditional withholding tax on payments to low tax jurisdictions,” the joint statement said.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is working on proposals that aim to tackle how to determine when a country should get the right to tax companies and also on a minimum level of corporate taxation.

“We are committed to further work out this minimum tax standard, while taking into account undesired risks of double taxation and over-excessive administrative burdens,” Scholz and Snel said.

Features of the Dutch tax system criticized by experts are advance rulings granted to corporations, a large network of tax treaties, and low taxation of payments that pass though the Netherlands.

The agreement with Snel marks progress for Scholz who has advocated a broad, international approach to tackle the problem instead of national governments pursuing solo efforts.

In the absence of reform in the last few years, a growing number of countries, including Britain and France, have pushed ahead with their own plans for national taxes targeting mostly U.S.-based digital companies.

European Union governments earlier this month scrapped a plan to introduce an EU-wide digital tax as some states opposed it. The EU could reopen its debate if the OECD’s planned reforms should be delayed.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam)

Source: OANN

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Turkey’s Erdogan stands by Russian air defense purchase

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reaffirmed his country's purchase of a Russian-made missile defense system.

In spite of repeated warnings from the United States, Erdogan said Friday that deliveries of the S-400 system will begin in July.

On Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Turkey was risking its NATO membership and its participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

The Turkish president said they had offered to also buy the U.S.-made Patriot system but that the U.S. offer was not as favorable as Russia's.

The U.S. and other NATO allies have said the S-400s cannot be operable alongside other allied systems and that their use in Turkey could jeapordize F-35s security.

Erdogan also said deliveries of F-35s were continuing and Turkish pilots were being trained.

Source: Fox News World

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NASA Mulls Making Water on Moon Using “Chemical Factory”

When a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind careens onto the Moon’s surface at 450 kilometers per second (or nearly 1 million miles per hour), they enrich the Moon’s surface in ingredients that could make water, NASA scientists have found.

Using a computer program, scientists simulated the chemistry that unfolds when the solar wind pelts the Moon’s surface. As the Sun streams protons to the Moon, they found, those particles interact with electrons in the lunar surface, making hydrogen (H) atoms. These atoms then migrate through the surface and latch onto the abundant oxygen (O) atoms bound in the silica (SiO2) and other oxygen-bearing molecules that make up the lunar soil, or regolith. Together, hydrogen and oxygen make the molecule hydroxyl (OH), a component of water, or H2O.

“We think of water as this special, magical compound,” said William M. Farrell, a plasma physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who helped develop the simulation. “But here’s what’s amazing: every rock has the potential to make water, especially after being irradiated by the solar wind.”

Understanding how much water — or its chemical components — is available on the Moon is critical to NASA’s goal of sending humans to establish a permanent presence there, said Orenthal James Tucker, a physicist at Goddard who spearheaded the simulation research.

“We’re trying to learn about the dynamics of transport of valuable resources like hydrogen around the lunar surface and throughout its exosphere, or very thin atmosphere, so we can know where to go to harvest those resources,” said Tucker, who recently described the simulation results in the journal JGR Planets.

Alex Jones reveals the truth behind China’s exploration of the dark side of the moon, an adventure that, in all likelihood, has already been carried out by covert, American-run space programs.

Several spacecraft used infrared instruments that measure light emitted from the Moon to identify the chemistry of its surface. These include NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft, which had numerous close encounters with the Earth-Moon system en route to comet 103P/Hartley 2; NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which passed the Moon on its way to Saturn; and India’s Chandrayaan-1, which orbited the Moon a decade ago. All found evidence of water or its components (hydrogen or hydroxyl).

But how these atoms and compounds form on the Moon is still an open question. It’s possible that meteor impacts initiate the necessary chemical reactions, but many scientists believe that the solar wind is the primary driver.

Tucker’s simulation, which traces the lifecycle of hydrogen atoms on the Moon, supports the solar wind idea.

“From previous research, we know how much hydrogen is coming in from the solar wind, we also know how much is in the Moon’s very thin atmosphere, and we have measurements of hydroxyl in the surface,” Tucker said. “What we’ve done now is figure out how these three inventories of hydrogen are physically intertwined.”

(Photo by NASA)

Showing how hydrogen atoms behave on the Moon helped resolve why spacecraft have found fluctuations in the amount of hydrogen in different regions of the Moon. Less hydrogen accumulates in warmer regions, like the Moon’s equator, because hydrogen atoms deposited there get energized by the Sun and quickly outgas from the surface into the exosphere, the team concluded. Conversely, more hydrogen appears to accumulate in the colder surface near the poles because there’s less Sun radiation and the outgassing is slowed.

Overall, Tucker’s simulation shows that as solar wind continually blasts the Moon’s surface, it breaks the bonds among atoms of silicon, iron and oxygen that make up the majority of the Moon’s soil. This leaves oxygen atoms with unsatisfied bonds. As hydrogen atoms flow through the Moon’s surface, they get temporarily trapped with the unhinged oxygen (longer in cold regions than in warm). They float from O to O before finally diffusing into the Moon’s atmosphere, and, ultimately, into space. “The whole process is like a chemical factory,” Farrell said.

A key ramification of the result, Farrell said, is that every exposed body of silica in space — from the Moon down to a small dust grain — has the potential to create hydroxyl and thus become a chemical factory for water.

Alex Jones calls in from the road to join Owen Shroyer to confirm that Infowars is tomorrow’s news today!

Source: InfoWars

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Cyprus police on Friday widened their search for more victims of a suspected serial killer after the 35-year-old national guard captain told investigators he killed four more people that he previously admitted to on the small Mediterranean nation.

The count now has climbed to seven.

CYPRUS FEARS POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLER AFTER BODIES OF TWO WOMEN ARE DISCOVERED IN MINESHAFT

Authorities said they are focusing on a military firing range, a man-made lake and an abandoned mine about 20 miles west of the capital Nicosia.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades expressed “deep sorrow and concern” at the slayings and said he shared the public’s revulsion at “murders that appear to have selectively targeted foreign women who are in our country to work.”

“Such instincts are contrary to our culture’s traditions and values,” he said in a statement from China, where he was on an official visit. He urged calm so police can complete their investigation.

The scale of the alleged crimes by a Cypriot National Guard captain has horrified the small nation of over a million people, where multiple killings are rare. Five British law enforcement officials — including a coroner, a psychiatrist and investigators who specialize in multiple homicides — have been dispatched to help with the investigation.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect, who can’t yet be named because he hasn’t been formally charged, told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. Police said the suspect will appear in court Saturday for another custody hearing.

Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week's discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims. 

Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week’s discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims.  (AP)

The victims — all foreigners— include Marry Rose Tiburcio, 38, from the Philippines, whose bound body was found April 14 in a flooded mineshaft. She and her six-year-old daughter had been missing since May of last year.

The girl remains missing and authorities believe she was also slain by the suspect. Divers have entered the reservoir to search for her but have not found her body yet.

CYPRUS: GROUND NOT YET READY FOR PEACE TALKS RESUMPTION 

Authorities tracked down the officer last week by scouring Tiburcio’s online messages.

Six days later, police discovered another body April 20 in the same mineshaft, identified by Cypriot media as 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines.

A third alleged victim, also of Filipino descent, is 31-year-old Maricar Valtez Arquiola, who had been missing since December 2017. The suspect initially denied killing Arquiola but reversed himself after a court hearing Thursday, a police official said.

The suspect on Thursday also pointed investigators to a military firing range, where they discovered another unidentified body, which according to the suspect belongs to a woman of either Nepalese or Indian descent.

SERIAL KILLER WHO MAY HAVE COMMITTED 90 MURDERS IS LINKED TO YET ANOTHER KILLING 

Cypriot police are also looking for a Romanian mother and daughter. Cypriot media identified them as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and eight-year-old Elena Natalia Bunea, who are believed to have been missing since September 2016.

The man-made lake remains off-limits to a manned search because of high levels of toxic heavy metals from the copper pyrite mine, Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas said, adding that authorities will use other means to scour the lake.

Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019.

Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus police have faced criticism from immigrant activists who said they didn’t act fast enough to investigate the whereabouts of some of the victims, many of them domestic workers. The island nation has 80 unsolved missing persons cases, going back to 1990.

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Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou said a three-member panel has been assigned to probe whether police followed all the correct protocol in recent missing persons cases.

According to the state-run Cyprus News Agency, an investigator had told the court at an earlier hearing that the suspect admitted to killing one woman he met online after having sex with her.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury's store in Redhill
FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury’s store in Redhill, Britain, March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) – With Sainsbury’s dream of creating Britain’s biggest supermarket group in tatters, its chastened CEO Mike Coupe needs to reassure investors he has the plan to arrest a sales decline when he presents annual results next week.

Britain’s competition regulator blocked Sainsbury’s 7.3 billion pound ($9.4 billion) takeover of Walmart’s Asda on Thursday, saying the deal would increase prices. Sainsbury’s shares fell 5 percent and are down 22 percent over the last three months.

For Sainsbury’s fourth quarter to March 9 analysts are on average forecasting a 1.6 percent fall in like-for-like sales, which would follow 1.1 percent decline over the Christmas period.

Monthly industry data from researcher Kantar has also shown Sainsbury’s as the weakest performer of the big four grocers this year and this month it lost its status as Britain’s No. 2 supermarket group by market share to Asda.

While Sainsbury’s has struggled, market leader Tesco has gained momentum, this month reporting a 34 percent jump in full year profit.

Prohibition of the deal was a major blow to Coupe, its architect and Sainsbury’s boss since 2014.

Martin Scicluna became Sainsbury’s chairman last month and when bedded-in may decide that if the group needs a major shake-up it is best carried out by a new leader.

Much will depend on the attitude of 22 percent shareholder the Qatar Investment Authority, which has so far declined to comment, as well as Coupe’s own appetite to continue after 15 years at the group.

THE RIGHT STRATEGY?

Coupe said on Thursday he was confident Sainsbury’s was pursuing the right strategy.

That was a clear indication that Wednesday’s results statement will not include radical changes to the group’s plans, such as a big margin reset — sacrificing profit to drive sales.

However, sources connected to Sainsbury’s said Coupe would likely acknowledge that more needs to be done on prices, so the supermarket business can better compete with its big four rivals – Tesco, Asda and No. 4 Morrisons – as well as German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Coupe’s strategy is based on differentiating Sainsbury’s food offer, growing its general merchandise, clothing business and bank, while investing in convenience and online channels.

Some analysts believe major change is needed.

HSBC analyst David McCarthy reckons Sainsbury’s needs a margin reset, should allocate more space for core lines and needs to drive better store standards. He said Sainsbury’s might consider closing down space in some of its larger stores and reducing its non-food offer.

For the full 2018-19 year analysts are on average forecasting a pretax profit of 626 million pounds, up from 589 million pounds in 2017-18 – a second straight year of profit growth. A full year dividend of 10.5 pence per share is forecast versus 10.2 pence last time.

Bank and lawyer fees related to the proposed combination with Asda were 17 million pounds in the first half and have reportedly jumped to around 50 million pounds.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey rejected demands from a secular group to remove posts on social media where he sent Easter greetings and cited a Bible verse, offering to provide copies of the Constitution to his critics.

Ducey, who’s a practicing Catholic, has been bombarded with calls from Secular Communities for Arizona to remove the post, which included a cross, a Bible verse, and the phrase, “He is risen.”

ARIZONA’S GOP GOVERNOR WAGING WAR AGAINST OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING LAWS

The group argued the posts crossed a line into government sponsorship of religious messages and was unconstitutional.

The governor fired back at the group, saying in a tweet that he will never remove the posts or other religious ones.

“We won’t be removing this post. Ever. Nor will we be removing our posts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Palm Sunday, Passover or any other religious holiday,” he tweeted. “We support the First Amendment, and are happy to provide copies of the Constitution to anyone who hasn’t read it.”

Dianne Post, an attorney for the secular group, told the Arizona Republic “elected officials should not use their government position and government property to promote their religious views.”

LICENSE REQUIRED TO REPAIR DOORS? REGS SPARK HEATED DEBATE IN ARIZONA

She added the courts have repeatedly “struck down symbolism that unites government with religion,” adding that Ducey’s office must “represent and protect the rights of all residents of Arizona, including those who do not believe in a monotheistic God or any gods at all.”

Many congratulated Ducey for not backing down amid the pressure, though some Facebook users sided with the secular group and criticized the governor on his original post.

“Why do you use a government platform to bring up your personal religion?” asked one person. “Are there no citizens in your jurisdiction that believe differently from you?”

Another stipulated that the post was somewhat discriminatory. “Great sensitivity, Doug. That’s the last time this Jew votes for you,” one person wrote.

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Ducey wished in a statement Arizonans last week a “blessed and joyful Easter and Passover weekend.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin commonly known as the
FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the “Loonie”, is pictured in this illustration picture taken in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada posted a budget surplus in the first 11 months of the 2018/19 fiscal year compared to a deficit the year earlier as revenues increased mostly on higher tax incomes, the finance department said on Friday.

The surplus for April-February was C$3.1 billion, compared to a deficit of C$6 billion in the same 2017/18 period. Revenues climbed by 8.5 percent, mainly due to higher tax receipts, while program expenses rose by 4.8 percent.

The surplus for February was C$4.3 billion compared with C$2.8 billion in February 2018. Revenues jumped by 12.2 percent while program expenses posted a more modest 6.9 percent gain.

Last month, the Liberals unveiled their new budget, projecting a C$14.9 billion deficit in 2018/19, with the deficit rising to C$19.8 billion in fiscal 2019/20.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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President Trump said Friday he would beat Joe Biden “easily” in the 2020 presidential election, suggesting the former vice president could not have enough “energy” to hold the post—taking an apparent swipe at his age.

The president, departing the White House, was asked about Biden’s entrance into the Democratic primary field. Biden announced his presidential bid early Thursday morning, marking his third attempt at the White House.

JOE BIDEN OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL BID

“I think we’d beat him easily,” Trump told reporters Friday.

Trump, 72, said he feels “young” and is ready for 2020, and another term for his administration.

“I feel like a young man. I am a young, vibrant man,” Trump said. “I look at Joe, I don’t know about him.”

The president’s comments seemingly were a shot at the age of Biden, who is 76.

BIDEN ENTERS WHITE HOUSE RACE WITHOUT OBAMA’S ENDORSEMENT

“I would never say anyone’s too old,” Trump said. “I know they’re all making me look very young both in terms of age and in terms of energy.”

Biden became the 20th candidate to join the crowded Democratic primary field Thursday. But Biden is not the oldest in the pack. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is 77 and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is 69.

Should Trump be re-elected, he would be 74 on Jan. 20, 2021—Inauguration Day. Should the presidency go to one of the elder Democrats in the field—Biden would be 78; Sanders would be 79; and Warren would be 71.

Meanwhile, in a wide-ranging interview on “Hannity” Thursday night, Trump dismissed Biden’s candidacy, nicknaming him “Sleepy Joe,” and saying he’s “not the brightest bulb.” Trump also said that while the former vice president has name recognition, he won’t “be able to do the job.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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