Mandan, N.D. Police Deputy Chief Lori Flaten, left, and other law enforcement personnel stand outside the scene on the south side the RJR Maintenance and Management property in Mandan, N.D., Monday, April 1, 2019. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)
MANDAN, N.D. – The Latest on bodies found at a business in Mandan, North Dakota (all times local):
9:25 p.m.
Police in North Dakota say they've arrested a 44-year-old man in the slayings of four people earlier this week at a business in Mandan, near the capital city of Bismarck.
Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler says surveillance video identified a vehicle of interest and helped lead them to the suspect, who lived in the small town of Washburn about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Mandan.
Ziegler also revealed for the first time that the victims had been stabbed or shot.
Ziegler says a motive for the killings isn't yet known. He says the suspect lived in a trailer park owned by the business, RJR Maintenance and Management.
Ziegler says the man is being held on four counts of felony murder.
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6:55 p.m.
Police say they have detained a person of interest in the investigation into the killings of four people at a North Dakota business.
Mandan police said in a release Thursday evening that investigators are following up on a tip that led them to Washburn, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Mandan.
Police released no further information and say it's an ongoing investigation.
The bodies of an owner and three employees were found early Monday at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, just outside Bismarck. Police haven't said how they were killed or suggested a possible motive.
The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and McLean County Sheriff's Office are also investigating the case.
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10 a.m.
Police have declined to release details of a 911 call that alerted authorities to the killings of four people at a North Dakota business.
The bodies of an owner and three employees were found early Monday at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, just outside Bismarck. Police haven't said how they were killed or suggested a possible motive. They said they haven't identified any suspects.
The Associated Press requested audio and a transcript of the 911 call, but police denied the request Thursday, citing a provision of the state's open records law that allows authorities to withhold such information during an active investigation.
Police did confirm that a Wednesday search in a field about half a mile from the business was related to the investigation. They also created a 24-hour public tip phone line.
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6:40 a.m.
A combined memorial service will be held for a North Dakota business owner and three employees found slain earlier this week.
The service for Robert Fakler, William and Lois Cobb, and Adam Fuehrer will be held Tuesday morning at Bismarck Community Church.
Their bodies were discovered early Monday at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, a city just across the Missouri River from Bismarck. Police have classified the case as a "multiple homicide," but investigators haven't said how the four died or identified the suspect.
Fakler co-owned the business, while the Cobbs and Fuehrer were employees.
Eastgate Funeral and Cremation Service director Bob Eastgate tells the Bismarck Tribune the families decided to have a combined service because the four were good friends.
Anti-Brexit demonstrators waving EU and Union flags are reflected in a puddle in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
March 8, 2019
By David Randall
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Japanese automakers, a U.S. municipal bond insurer caught up in the Puerto Rican debt scandal, and UK’s largest online classified advertising site for used cars are among the top picks by equity fund managers who received a U.S. Lipper Fund Award in New York on Thursday night.
The wide swath of investment ideas partly reflects the unsteady global stock markets, which have swung from the edge of a bear market during the final 2018 quarter to a nearly 10 percent gain in the new year after the Federal Reserve indicated it would slow its pace of interest rate hikes.
Without a U.S.-China trade deal or the exact path of Brexit finalized, global stocks could remain volatile throughout the year, fund managers said. Global stocks slid on Friday after the Trump Administration said it had not set a date for further face-to-face trade talks with China and a disappointing U.S. payrolls report suggested U.S. economic growth is slowing.
The annual Lipper Fund Awards by Refinitiv, formerly the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, recognize the top funds and fund management firms in more than 20 countries based on risk-adjusted returns.
“We’re trying to be relatively focused and concentrated (by holding a small number of stocks), which should help us pick our spots and find opportunities despite what the broader market may do,” said Todd Beiley, a portfolio manager of the $4.6 billion Virtus KAR Small-Cap Growth fund.
Among his fund’s largest holdings is Auto Trader Group Plc, one of three that Beiley added in 2018. He was attracted to the company’s dominant position in a high-margin business, and its attractive valuation at a time when concerns about subdued UK consumer spending weighed on its stock. Shares of Auto Trader are up 4.5 percent so far this year.
“The macro concerns with Brexit on the horizon gave us a chance to buy a very good business with good long-term prospects,” he said.
Matthew Finn, co-portfolio manager of the $698 million Thrivent Small-Cap Stock fund, said he remains bullish on Assured Guaranty Ltd, a municipal bond insurer ensnared in legal cases regarding Puerto Rico’s plans to restructure about $120 billion of debt and pension obligations in federal court.
“We feel like they could more than satisfy their obligations in the event of an adverse outcome. It’s been a strong performer but it’s still extraordinarily inexpensive,” said Finn. Shares of the company are up nearly 15 percent for the year, or about 5 percentage points more than the benchmark S&P 500 index .
Assured Guaranty trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 9.5, and at about 70 percent of its book value.
SMOOTH BREXIT
Ongoing concerns about a global recession and the fate of Brexit are creating opportunities in European financial stocks, said Lily Beischer, a portfolio manager of the $9.4 billion Dodge & Cox Global Stock fund.
“The group is now trading at levels typically seen during periods of severe economic stress,” she said. “At these levels, the market is pricing in significant deterioration in earnings and capital levels reminiscent of prior crises, and yet fundamentals have greatly improved.”
The fund holds positions in BNP Paribas SA, UniCredit SpA and UBS Group AG.
“We believe these companies can also further improve profitability largely through self-help initiatives” such as strengthening their balance sheets and increasing their capital cushions, she said.
Shares of UBS Group are down nearly 30 percent over the last 12 months at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 9.8, and shares of BNP Paribas are down nearly 31 at a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.5.
Sam Chamovitz, portfolio manager of the $2.1 billion Fidelity International Small Cap fund, said the recent global market volatility has allowed him to build what he called “starter positions” in companies including Japanese automakers and housing-related companies that had sharp sell-offs due to concerns about slowing economic growth.
While the valuations of some of those stocks have risen in the market rally over the last few weeks, Chamovitz said he is ready to sell top performers to keep adding to his most recent acquisitions.
“I want to be in a position where I’m fully comfortable doubling down if things really go wrong,” he said.
(Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Richard Chang)
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland hit back at some of the most visible new Democrats in Congress when asked Monday by Fox News about the push to impeach President Trump: “We’ve got 62 new (Democratic) members. Not three.”
Hoyer apparently was referring to Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who regularly have fought the Trump administration's policies since entering Congress.
“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in an interview published Monday. “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”
Ocasio-Cortez replied in a Washington Examiner interview: “I happen to disagree with that take.” The congresswoman added, “But you know, she’s the speaker. … I think we’ll see.”
Hoyer also said about Pelosi’s words: “It seems to me that she said what we’ve been saying. Maybe a little stronger.”
He also said he thought anything the House might attempt would die in the Senate, which requires 67 yeas to convict and remove the president: “Nobody thinks there is going to be a conviction in the Senate.”
Tlaib said she would introduce articles of impeachment against Trump later this month. She and Omar last month signed a “pledge” to impeach Trump.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
A floating home, lived in by an American man and his Thai partner, is pictured in the Andaman Sea, off Phuket island in Thailand, April 13, 2019. Picture taken April 13, 2019. Royal Thai Navy/Handout via REUTERS
April 20, 2019
By Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai navy on Saturday boarded the floating cabin of a fugitive U.S. bitcoin trader and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the “seasteading” movement who possibly face the death sentence for setting up their offshore home.
Thai authorities have revoked the visa of American citizen Chad Elwartowski and have charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty by raising a small cabin on top of a weighted spar 14 nautical miles off the west-coast of Thai island of Phuket.
The cabin has been promoted as “the world’s first seastead” by the group Ocean Builders, part of a movement in tech and libertarian circles to build floating communities beyond the bounds of nations as a way to explore alternative societies and governments.
“I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world,” Elwartowski posted on his Facebook on April 13, days before the Thai navy raided his floating home.
Elwartowski, 46, and Supranee, whose Facebook page describes her as a “Bitcoin expert, Trader, Chef, seastead Pioneer”, apparently fled after a surveillance plane flew over the cabin the previous day.
The Royal Thai Navy task force had planned on Saturday to seize the structure and tow it back to shore for use as evidence, but by the afternoon it was still studying how to move it without destroying it, the navy said.
In a video posted last month detailing the raising of the floating home, Elwartowski said 20 more similar houses would be up for sale to form a community.
Elwartowski and Ocean Builders say the spar was in international waters and beyond Thailand’s jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.
A Thai navy task force was sent out on Saturday to tow in the structure which will be handed over to Phuket’s police to be kept as an exhibit for the legal action, the navy said in an official statement.
“EXCITED VOLUNTEERS”
The navy said they have evidence that the floating home was built in a private boatyard in Phuket and said the couple wanted to establish a “permanent settlement at sea beyond the sovereignty of nations by using a legal loophole”.
It said the action “reveals the intention of disobeying the laws of Thailand as a littoral state and could lead to a creation of a new state within Thailand’s territorial waters… undermining Thailand’s national security as well as economic and social interests of maritime nations.”
In an email reply to Reuters, Elwartowski referred all questions to the Seasteading Institute and pointed to online statements from the Ocean Builders website.
Elwartowski and Supranee are members of Ocean Builders, which has denied allegations that they were planning to set up an independent state or “micro nation”, according to its online statement.
The group said that the pair, both active bitcoin investors, did not build, invest in or design the floating home themselves but were “volunteers excited about the prospect of living free”, documenting their lives as “pioneer seasteaders” off the coast of Phuket.
The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok told Reuters that Elwartowski had engaged a lawyer and was being provided with appropriate assistance.
According to Ocean Builders, the concept of “seasteading” has been discussed for years but the cabin Elwartowski and Supranee lived on was the first attempt at living in what it described as international waters.
Other groups, such as the Seasteading Institute, which was originally backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have sought to build floating cities with the cooperation of host nations.
(Reporting by Juarawee Kittisilpa and Panu Wongcha-um. Editing by Kay Johnson and Nick Macfie)
Mar 22, 2019; Columbia, SC, USA; Gardner Webb Runnin Bulldogs guard Jose Perez (5) dunks the ball during the second half of the game against the Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
March 22, 2019
No. 1 seed Virginia used a dominant second half to cruise by 16th-seed Gardner-Webb 71-56 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region at Columbia, S.C.
Sophomore De’Andre Hunter scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half as the Cavaliers rallied and allowed just 20 points in the game’s final 20 minutes.
Virginia advances to the round of 32, and it will face No. 9 seed Oklahoma on Sunday.
The Cavaliers (30-3) flexed their muscles early and often in the second half and used a 25-5 run to put the game away after trailing by six at halftime. Virginia shot 53 percent in the second half and overcame its largest halftime deficit of the season to notch the win.
Mamadi Diakite scored 17 points while Ty Jerome added 13 to complement Hunter on the offensive end. Despite making 15 turnovers, Virginia outrebounded Gardner-Webb 35-21 and shot 51.9 percent for the game.
The Bulldogs (23-12) were held to 44 percent shooting after connecting on 54 percent of their attempts in the first half. Jose Perez led three Bulldogs in double figures with 19 points while David Efianayi and DJ Laster added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
After tying the score at 4-4 early, Virginia trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half as Gardner-Webb turned eight turnovers into nine points.
The Bulldogs used four early 3-pointers to cushion their lead, led by two apiece from Perez and Efianayi. Gardner-Webb led 36-30 at halftime.
Virginia was beat on the defensive end multiple times but shot 50 percent to cut the deficit to six as Kyle Guy scored all eight of his points in the first half.
Gardner-Webb shot just 32 percent in the second half and made 12 turnovers.
President Trump stepped up his attacks against special counsel Robert Mueller early Saturday morning, claiming Mueller’s recently released report “was written as nastily as possible” by “true Trump Haters.”
In a string of early morning tweets, Trump lashed out at Mueller calling him “highly conflicted” and once again declaring the special counsel’s investigation “the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history.”
“Despite the fact that the Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place & was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself, the end result is No Collusion, No Obstruction!” Trump tweeted.
Despite the fact that the Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place & was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself, the end result is No Collusion, No Obstruction!
Trump had lashed out at Mueller early Friday one day after declaring the report cleared him of collusion and obstruction, claiming some statements about him in the document “are total bullshit” and deriding the more than 400-page document as the “Crazy Mueller Report.”
Alex Jones and a caller discuss how President Trump must now go on the offense, after the democrats’ Mueller report led impeachment fail, to stop the deep state criminals before they organize another coup to remove him from office.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
April 26, 2019
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.
“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot
April 26, 2019
By Julien Pretot
MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.
It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.
“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.
Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.
They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.
At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.
In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.
At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.
“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.
As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.
The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.
“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.
SAME TREATMENT
One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.
“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.
This is not the case with the boys, she added.
“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.
Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.
“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.
OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.
“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.
“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”
‘ONE CLUB’
The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.
While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.
There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.
“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.
“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.
Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.
“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.
“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”
Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.
“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.
“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo
April 26, 2019
GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.
“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.
The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.
The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.
Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.
Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT
The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.
Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.
Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.
(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)
2/FED: UP OR DOWN?
Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.
Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.
Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.
Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.
Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.
(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)
3/HEISEI TO REIWA
Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.
The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.
The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.
The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.
(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)
4/EARNING TURNING
Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.
Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.
That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.
The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.
Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.
GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.
Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.
Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.
Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.
The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.
(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that doctors and nurses don’t treat African American women the same way they do white women.
Warren appeared on Wednesday together with a number of other 2020 Democratic candidates at the She The People Forum in Houston, discussing issues concerning women of color.
The Massachusetts senator announced on stage a plan to decrease the childbirth mortality rate among black women while identifying a systematic problem with how they are treated.
“And there is a specific problem, as you rightly identified, for women of color who are three, four times more likely to die in childbirth,” Warren said.
“And here’s the thing, even after we do the adjustments for income, for education, this is true across the board. This is true for well-educated African American women, for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I’m seeing put it down to just one thing, prejudice,” she added.
“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”
“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”
Warren went on to get into details of her plan, noting that hospitals will be given bonuses if they manage to reduce the childbirth mortality rate among black women in an effort to give financial incentives for those doctors and nurses to provide better care.
“And if they don’t, then they’re going to have money taken away from them,” Warren added.
“I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change, and we gotta have change now.”
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