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Arizona repository houses dead animals for use by tribes

Arizona Native American tribes on the hunt for animal hides, antlers, teeth and other parts for cultural and religious use have a unique new resource: the state's wildlife agency.

A recently launched program allows Arizona's nearly two dozen tribes to make requests to the state Game and Fish Department for animals that have died from poaching or natural causes, or after being hit by a vehicle.

Agency game managers, researchers and other employees then keep an eye out for the carcasses as part of their regular work.

"It's all just opportunistic collection of what we find out in the field," said the department's tribal liaison, Jon Cooley, who grew up on the Fort Apache reservation in eastern Arizona.

So far, the program's biggest customers are the Navajo Nation, which has collected bear and mule deer carcasses, and the Hopi Tribe, which has requested turtle shells, and turkey and water fowl feathers. The agency also gathered turtle shells for New Mexico pueblos, often used as ankle or hand rattles in ceremonial dances.

The animal parts — as long as they are not badly decayed — are taken to several freezers across the state for pickup. Typically, they would be left for scavengers, thrown away or even burned.

The Game and Fish Department had been working informally with tribes for years to deliver animal parts, and Cooley said it's become more formal now with an established shopping list of sorts, and better communication with tribes and wildlife officials.

Native American tribes traditionally have made use of all parts of an animal. Bones and antlers were crafted into spoons, knife handles and weapons. Clothing and shoes were made from animal hides and pelts. Glue could be drawn from hooves. Tribal regalia is adorned with feathers, bone breast plates and necklaces made of animal teeth.

Parts of the animal were eaten as soon as they were killed, and some was dried and saved for later.

The repository doesn't distribute feathers from eagles or other federally protected migratory birds. The federal government has a repository in Denver for tribes to legally obtain eagle feathers. The Comanche Nation in Oklahoma and a wildlife rescue organization near Phoenix distribute feathers from hawks, falcons and other birds to members of federally recognized tribes.

In Arizona, the items highest in demand are tortoise shells. Also on the tribes' lists are mountain lions, bison, deer, antelope, and game birds like turkeys. The requests are specific, so Cooley said the department doesn't want the public donating animals or gathering them from the roadside.

"What we don't want to become is a depot for dead critters. That's not the intent," Cooley said.

One thing Game and Fish employees won't store is bears that have been tranquilized, because chemicals could be in the fatty tissues and some tribes prefer not to take animals that have been drugged, Cooley said.

While the Navajo and Hopi have been the biggest beneficiaries so far, the plan is to allow tribes in a broader area — including Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and parts of Texas and Oklahoma — to draw from the repository if Arizona tribes don't need what's there, Cooley said.

The Arizona program appears to be unique in the West. States like New Mexico and Montana allow people to salvage animals that have been killed on the road, sometimes for free, but it's not specific to tribal members. Alaska accommodates requests for wildlife from Native people on a case-by-case basis.

The Native American Fish and Wildlife Society floated the idea at one of its conferences of buying freezers for the Arizona Game and Fish Department to store animals and "everyone was on board, everyone was in support of it," said Darren Talayumptewa, who sits on the society's board of directors. The society purchased four freezers for Arizona.

"In the past, if the tribes had seen something dead, if it was roadkill, they would try to see how they could obtain it," he said. "Back in the day ... there was really no process for Native Americans obtaining various parts."

For Hopi, the carcasses allow the tribe to honor the animals, offering them up in prayer.

"No part of the animal is squandered or discarded," said Clayton Honyumptewa, director of the tribe's Department of Natural Resources. "The ultimate veneration of any animal is through its use in ceremonies and prayers conducted for the renewal and continuation of life."

Source: Fox News National

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New Zealand PM Ardern says she will meet President Xi in China

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern leaves after the Friday prayers at Hagley Park outside Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch
FILE PHOTO: New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern leaves after the Friday prayers at Hagley Park outside Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

March 25, 2019

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday she will travel to China at the end of the week for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Ardern said she would travel to Beijing on Sunday.

She first announced her plans to visit China last year but no final dates had yet been announced.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

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Libyans fear showdown as eastern commander eyes capital

FILE PHOTO: A poster of the Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar is seen on a building destroyed by the war in the city of Benghazi
FILE PHOTO: A poster of the Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar on a building in Benghazi, Libya February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo

March 9, 2019

By Ulf Laessing

TUNIS (Reuters) – Forces from eastern Libya who have swept through the south and taken control of remaining oilfields in recent weeks have now reinforced a base in the center of the country and signaled to the capital Tripoli that it may be next.

The United Nations, stunned by the southern advance, is scrambling to mediate between eastern commander Khalifa Haftar and Tripoli’s internationally-recognized government led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, Western diplomats say.

They fear it may be the last U.N. attempt to unify the rival administrations and end the chaos that followed the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 with free elections.

Haftar, a 75-year-old former general, is increasingly taking the situation into his own hands, backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which see him as a bulwark against Islamists and the man to restore order.

He has not said whether he wants to march on Tripoli, which would dramatically escalate tensions. But his Libyan National Army (LNA) has hinted heavily that it might do so — if Haftar is not recognized as the country’s overall military commander, his aim since he began assembling the force in 2014.

“Some military sources say the LNA will move towards Tripoli after the announcement that the south has been secured,” read an item on an LNA website.

“The same sources said there is coordination with some units inside Tripoli and its suburbs for the army to enter Tripoli.”

The LNA spokesman said a purported order from Haftar for troops to move, seen by Reuters and publicized by his supporters, was not genuine.

But the capital has been rife with rumors of invasion and residents have reported seeing young people driving around playing loud songs praising Haftar from their car radios.

While several LNA units returned this month to Benghazi, Haftar’s power base, some units went to Jufra, a city in the desert straddling east and west, LNA sources say.

From there they could go home, or — the implied threat according to diplomats — move northwest towards Tripoli, should talks over power sharing and elections fail.

Haftar taps into fatigue among Libyans yearning for electricity, petrol and banknotes scarce in a country which once enjoyed some of highest living standards in the region.

For many, especially in the east, the general is the only one who can end fighting by myriad groups with ever-changing names. For his enemies in western cities and Islamists who were oppressed under the old regime, he is a new Gaddafi.

OIL

Haftar took the southern El Sharara and El Feel oilfields last month, completing a campaign which has given him effective control of the country’s crude output of around one million barrels a day.

He does not, as yet, have the means to profit from them because oil exports are managed by the state oil firm NOC in Tripoli, which is working with Serraj.

But the situation on the ground is changing fast.

U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame visited the main southern city Sabha just one day before some 80 LNA vehicles drove in through the desert from the east, and Haftar’s growing clout was on show again this week.

The NOC agreed to reopen El Sharara, closed since rogue guards and tribesmen seized it in December, after the UAE called two meetings. The first was with Serraj and NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla to agree on a security plan and the second was between the Tripoli premier and Haftar.

But while some communities in western Libya have signaled support for the LNA, it is far from clear whether Haftar would be able to muster enough.

The LNA says it has 85,000 men but this includes soldiers paid by the central government who it hopes to inherit. Its elite force, Saiqa (Lightning) numbers some 3,500, while Haftar’s sons also have well-equipped troops, LNA sources say.

Diplomats say much of the LNA is an umbrella of less trained ex-Gaddafi soldiers, tribesmen and Salafists as well as Sudanese and Chadian fighters; the LNA denies this.

Thanks to covert UAE and Egyptian support documented by the U.N., Haftar has gradually built up superiority since 2014, allowing him to stop Tripoli flying in reinforcements during his southern campaign and pressure the NOC by closing airstrips on oilfields.

Serraj has no real troops — depending on armed groups who control many of the buildings his ministers work in and who, Tripoli residents say, regularly demand business contracts.

His only asset is his official title and access to state funds, though Western powers have increasingly embraced Haftar – with Italy, for example, addressing him as (Field) Marshal, his official title.

There has been some Western support for Haftar. French special forces in conjunction with Britain and the United States had been advising the LNA during the Benghazi campaign.

On Monday, Serraj unexpectedly praised cooperation with Haftar, saying they needed to work together, in a speech to western mayors just after rumors of approaching LNA troops first surfaced.

Haftar and Serraj could agree to a new transitional government, which would help the commander steadily entrench his power without invading Tripoli.

But it is unclear whether Haftar’s supporters would agree to putting him under civilian control as proposed by Western and U.N. mediators.

“There is no reconciliation with Serraj for power because talks are not with him but with people behind him who do not want Haftar,” said Hamad Bandaq, a lawmaker in the eastern parliament.

OFFENSIVE

The biggest obstacle for Haftar is Misrata, a western city home to forces which could at least partly match LNA ground troops, analysts say.

The city is known for a spirit of resisting old regime figures, developed during 2011 when Gaddafi forces besieged it for three months.

Weeks after Haftar started his Benghazi campaign in 2014 Misrata forces moved on Tripoli, expelling a government allied to a Haftar partner in one-month battle that split Libya. The main motive was fear of a Haftar coup.

There have been belligerent comments from Misrata residents in recent days but it is unclear whether they would fight.

“A mix of conflict fatigue, cautiousness and internal divide has so far forestalled a military mobilization,” said Emad Badi, a Libya researcher. “However that could change very quickly.”

Tarek Megerisi, a policy fellow at the European Council, said Serraj and Haftar could agree on a transitional government, with the commander steadily entrenching his power without actually invading Tripoli.

Haftar and the UAE have put out feelers to Tripoli forces, and diplomats hope Haftar will agree to negotiate as he needs access to NOC cash after stretching his resources to the limit with his sweep of the south.

The LNA used massive force in the three-year battle over Benghazi but applied a different tactic in the south.

It launched air strikes and battled over one town. But it relied on a small ground force, with less than 200 vehicles, which offered jobs, petrol and banknotes to towns mostly happy to see someone replacing the largely absent state.

At El Sharara, just a few dozen LNA cars arrived, negotiated with the guards and quickly struck a deal, celebrated by a commander flown to shoot a video with his new men.

(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: OANN

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Dianne Feinstein scolds kids who pushed her to back Green New Deal: 'I know what I'm doing'

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushed back against a group of kids who sought her support for the Green New Deal and the interaction was captured on video.

Sunrise Movement, an organization which describes itself as wanting to “stop climate change,” shared a clip of the exchange on their Twitter page Friday.

“This is how @SenFeinstein reacted to children asking her to support the #GreenNewDeal resolution -- with smugness + disrespect. This is a fight for our generation's survival. Her reaction is why young people desperately want new leadership in Congress,” the tweet with the video said.

The video begins with the group explaining that they wanted to present a letter to Feinstein and ask “her to vote yes on the Green New Deal.” It then cuts to a shot of the crowd standing before the California lawmaker, expressing their request.

In response to their request, Feinstein informs them that “we have our own Green New Deal.”

After the group shared information they said originated from scientists talking about climate change, Feinstein replied: “You know what’s interesting about this group? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing.

“You come in here, and you say it has to be my way or the highway. I don’t respond to that,” she continued. “I’ve gotten elected, I just ran. I was elected by almost a million vote plurality. And I know what I’m doing. So you know, maybe people should listen a little bit.”

They then devolve into a back-and-forth where someone in the group tells her that they are “the people who voted” for her and part of her job is to hear their concerns.

“How old are you?” Feinstein asked.

“I’m 16 I can’t vote,” the girl replied.

“Well you didn’t vote for me,” the lawmaker retorted.

In another portion of the video, Feinstein is heard telling the kids that she’s “trying to do the best” that she can, “which was to write a responsible resolution.”

“Any plan that doesn’t take bold, transformative action is not going to be what we need,” a female in the crowd said

Feinstein then replied: “Well you know better than I do. So, I think one day you should run for the Senate. And then you can do it your way.”

Feinstein addressed the exchange in a news release later Friday, confirming that she met with a group of children, young adults and parents from the Sunrise Movement who sought her backing for the resolution.

“Unfortunately, it was a brief meeting but I want the children to know they were heard loud and clear. I have been and remain committed to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation,” she said in the statement.

“We had a spirited discussion and I presented the group with my draft resolution that provides specific responses to the climate change crisis, which I plan to introduce soon,” she continued. “I always welcome the opportunity to hear from Californians who feel passionately about this issue and it remains a top priority of mine.”

The Green New Deal is an economic stimulus concept that’s designed to tackle income inequality and climate change. The proposal calls for a job-guarantee program offering a “living wage job to every person who wants one,” a plan to aid workers affected by climate change, universal health care and basic income programs, among other items.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Florida mayor who allegedly shot at cops re-arrested, acting mayor in custody, too

The former mayor of a Florida town -- who was arrested last month after allegedly opening fire on deputies who were trying to serve a search warrant at his home -- is facing new charges after being accused of conspiring with the town's acting mayor to interfere with the active criminal investigation against him.

Former Port Richey Mayor Dale Glen Massad, 68, was re-arrested Wednesday after police said he and Terrance Rowe, 64, conspired to intimidate a city police officer involved in Massad’s Feb. 21 arrest.

FLORIDA MAYOR SHOT AT DEPUTIES SERVING WARRANT FOR ILLEGAL MEDICAL PRACTICE: POLICE

Port Richey acting Mayor Terrence Rowe (left) and former Mayor Dale Glen Massad are facing conspiracy charges.

Port Richey acting Mayor Terrence Rowe (left) and former Mayor Dale Glen Massad are facing conspiracy charges. (Pasco County Sheriff's Office)

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it received information the two men had discussed ways to intimidate a Port Richey police officer during a recorded phone call in March at the Pasco County Jail.

"I don't know why, but he is in on everything," Massad said of the officer, in reference to his arrest, the Tampa Bay Times reported, citing the FDLE.

"I'm on it," Rowe replied.

When Massad said anything Rowe could do would be "good,” Rowe replied: "You know, this doesn't go down without somebody answering for it."

Massad is now facing charges of criminal attempt, solicitation or conspiracy and using a two-way communication device as part of a crime.

FLORIDA MAN WHO ALLEGEDLY TOOK COLLEGE EXAMS FOR WEALTHY STUDENTS WAS HARVARD GRAD, ‘REALLY SMART GUY’

Meanwhile, Rowe was arrested on charges of obstructing justice, conspiring to obstruct justice and using a two-way communication device as part of the crime.

"This is a big piece of the former case which is still active and on-going," FDLE special Agent Mark Brutnell told FOX 13. "What I can say about this is if you're not a witness or a subject of any criminal investigation please don't inject or insert yourself into one."

Massad’s legal team is scheduled to appear in court Thursday for the charges related to his February arrest. He is not expected to appear in court, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Massad was arrested last month after authorities said he fired at a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team that had gone to his house to serve a warrant related to allegations he was still practicing medicine despite having his medical license revoked more than 27 years ago.

No one was hurt in the barrage of bullets and Massad surrendered to police, officials said. He was held at the Pasco County Jail without bail.

“He’s lucky he’s not dead,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said after the arrest. “Every day those members put their lives on the line. They’re lucky to go home.”

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Port Richey is a town of 2,800 about 40 miles north of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. Massad was elected mayor in 2015 and served on the city council from 2000 to 2008.

Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Massad from office and Rowe – who at the time was the vice-mayor – was named the acting mayor.

Rowe paid a $15,000 bond Thursday morning.

Source: Fox News National

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2 get prison for immigrant smuggling that led to 2 deaths

Two Guatemalan men have been sentenced to federal prison for their parts in an immigrant-smuggling run that led to the deaths of two Ecuadoran men.

A Justice Department statement says 23-year-old Melvin L. Barahona-Godoy was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison Wednesday in Laredo, while 29-year-old Yoryi Alexis Perez drew a 6½-year prison term. Both had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally transport immigrants resulting in death. Both will be subject to deportation after completing their prison terms.

Federal officials at a Laredo residence on Oct. 21, 2017, found nine immigrants who were in the country illegally, one of whom was Barahona-Godoy. They say interviews established that Barahona-Godoy and Perez had guided the group across the Rio Grande the previous month. Two people drowned during the crossing.

Source: Fox News National

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Germany’s manufacturing recession worsens: PMI

Unfinished pliers still glow after being hot-formed by a hammer at the factory of Knipex in Wuppertal
Unfinished pliers still glow after being hot-formed by a hammer at the factory of Knipex, a 130 year-old family-owned pliers and tools maker company in Wuppertal, western Germany, October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

April 1, 2019

BERLIN, (Reuters) – A weakening global economy, risks linked to Britain’s possible departure from the European Union without a deal and trade disputes pushed activity in Germany’s manufacturing sector to contract at its fastest rate since July 2012, a survey showed on Monday.

Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing, which accounts for about a fifth of the economy, fell to an 80-month low reading of 44.1, down from 47.6 in February and lower than the flash reading of 44.7.

It was the third successive month that the index was below the 50.0 mark that separates growth from contraction.

“Both total new orders and export sales are now falling at rates not seen since the global financial crisis, with more and more firms reporting lower demand linked to Brexit, trade uncertainty, troubles in the automotive industry and generally softer global demand,” said IHS Markit’s Phil Smith.

New orders posted their steepest drop since April 2009.

Weakening exports have translated into a slowdown in Europe’s biggest economy, which posted its lowest growth rate in five years last year.

The economy has been relying on consumption for growth. A robust labor market, rising wages and low interest rates have been supporting the consumption-driven cycle.

“Manufacturing output fell markedly and at the fastest rate since 2012, with the consumer goods sector joining intermediate and capital goods producers in contraction,” said Smith.

He added: “The sustained solid growth in employment prior to March had been the sector’s one remaining bright spot, but the latest survey indicated a fall in jobs for the first time in three years amid reports from a number of firms that some temporary contracts weren’t being renewed.”

Detailed PMI data are only available under license from Markit and customers need to apply to Markit for a license.

(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.

“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Sims

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.

The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.

And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.

Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.

German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.

For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.

Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.

At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.

“MARKET PLAY”

Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.

“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.

Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.

“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.

“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.

Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.

If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.

“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.

(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli yells to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano

April 26, 2019

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.

“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”

Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.

Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.

A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City
FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Shares of Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers fell on Friday as Amazon.com Inc unveiled a one-day delivery plan for its Prime members in a move to further disrupt the fiercely competitive retail landscape.

The e-commerce giant’s announcement on Thursday could cause other brands, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies to have to invest more aggressively to compete with Amazon and its delivery, analysts said.

Retailers in recent years have poured billions into ecommerce and faster shipping options and are trying to close the gap with Amazon.

“This is about making it more expensive to catch up and affirms our world view that only the largest and smartest will survive,” Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher said.

The move is expected to heighten consumer expectations on e-commerce delivery just like Amazon did with its two-day shipping option for members of its loyalty club Prime, noted analysts.

“The faster you ship, the more people buy,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said.

The challenge for non-Amazon players was that very few of the existing logistics and parcel delivery players now have the ability to do nationwide one-day delivery, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.

“And even fewer can do it at the vast scale and reasonable cost that AMZN would need for Prime delivery,” Nowak said in a note.

Walmart Inc’s shares fell about 3 percent, while Target Corp dropped about 5 percent in morning trade.

Shares of Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc fell about 1 percent. Grocer Kroger Co was nearly 3 percent lower, while consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc dropped 2.1 percent.

(Reporting by Soundarya J and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: OANN

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A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)

April 26, 2019

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.

Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.

Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.

“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”

The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.

Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.

A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.

“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”

Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.

CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.

To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.

A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.

Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.

“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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