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Source: InfoWars

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Iran oil ministry denies mismanagement allegations from Ahmadinejad

Oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz
Oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

March 10, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Iran’s oil ministry said on Sunday that it had been receiving revenues from selling oil despite difficulties caused by U.S. sanctions, denying allegations made by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over government mismanagement in the energy sector.

Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Shargh daily newspaper on Sunday that the government of President Hassan Rouhani had not received $30 billion of revenues from oil sold in the last five years.

The ministry responded in a statement published by news agency SHANA that the allegations were totally untrue.

“The revenues of oil sales are received on time, and have been transferred into the legal bank accounts of the country,” the ministry’s statement said.

Iran is facing new U.S. sanctions after the United States withdrew from an international nuclear deal, saying the accord was too generous and failed to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile testing or curb the country’s involvement in regional conflicts.

Iran faced similar sanctions for its nuclear activities when Ahmadinejad was in power (2005 to 2013), but the high price of oil – on average above $100 a barrel in the last years of his presidency – allowed his government to survive the economic turmoil.

The ministry’s statement also said it had tried to prevent problems with oil revenues being stolen as happened when the earlier sanctions were in effect.

“Despite difficulties caused by the sanctions and economic war against Iran, the ministry of oil has used all means possible to prevent the repetition of sad experiences in the past when oil revenues were stolen,” the ministry said.

Under the current U.S. sanctions, eight countries – including China, India, South Korea and Japan – have been given temporary exemptions, but they have to deposit Iran’s revenues in an escrow account.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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Woodward and Bernstein: Concerns Remain After Mueller Report

Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Friday said they have concerns after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, with Woodward saying the document points to a crisis in President Donald Trump's administration and Bernstein seeing it as evidence of a coverup.

"The government can't pause and take months to thrash it out, Woodward told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I believe from reporting that there is a governing crisis in the Trump administration."

With North Korea, the Chinese trade and tariff debate, and the immigration questions, the "Trump administration really just doesn't work [as] all the people who have more experience are gone," Woodward added. "I worry about a crisis."

And if that happens, Trump doesn't "have a strategy on any of these issues, and he does not now have a team that can work together, said Woodward.

The campaign " knew and happily welcomed" Russia's aid, he added, which means the continuing threat of Russian interference is "very real."

Meanwhile, Bernstein told CNN's "New Day" that he believes the report shows that there is "no question that this has been a vast presidential coverup" and Congress must be able to see all the facts in the document "without  the kind of muddled water" that Attorney General William Barr provided with his descriptions.

"The cover-up is in the 10 or 11 areas that the special prosecutor laid out as possible or likely obstructions of justice," he added. "When you add it all up you get a picture in which the two parts of the report fuse together and it is a picture of an administration and a presidency and a campaign that crosses boundaries such as we have never seen with the possible exception of Watergate."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Report: Yemeni civilian deaths double in 2 areas, 350 killed

An international charity says fighting in two Yemeni provinces has killed at least 350 civilians in the past three months.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said Monday that civilian deaths have doubled in Hajjah and Taiz provinces, even as casualties in the flashpoint city of Hodeida were down since a shaky ceasefire came into effect there in December.

Mohamed Abdi, NRC director in Yemen, says "fighting is intensifying in other parts of the country with a devastating impact on civilians," citing 164 people killed in Hajjah and 184 in Taiz.

The NRC's analysis found that while civilian casualties from airstrikes were down by half since December, attacks from roadside bombs, mines and snipers were on the rise.

Yemen's civil war, which erupted in 2014, pits Houthi rebels against the Saudi-backed government.

Source: Fox News World

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Merkel calls Netanyahu, stresses need for two-state solution

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his re-election and stressed the need to work toward a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Merkel's office said stressed in a phone conversation Monday the continued relevance of a two-state solution, which she said should be the goal of international efforts.

Merkel also expressed her willingness to work closely and trustingly with the incoming Israeli government.

During the final stretch of his election campaign, Netanyahu pledged for the first time to annex parts of the occupied West Bank in a desperate bid to rally his right-wing base. Netanyahu has reneged on election eve promises before, but should he follow through on this one, it would mark a dramatic development and potentially wipe out the already diminishing hope for Palestinian statehood.

Source: Fox News World

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Clinton press secretary says Barr lied about Mueller report, is not an ‘principled man’

President Bill Clinton’s former press secretary has gone on a blistering attack against Attorney General William Barr, accusing him of lying to the American people and of not being an “incredibly principled man.”

Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart went on the offensive during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day” on Monday morning.

After the show played old footage of Barr discussing the issue of executive privilege in relation to then-President Clinton, Lockhart unloaded.

“I don’t know Bill Barr… I don’t know that I believe all of the stories before his confirmation that he was some incredibly principled man,” he said.

BRIAN KILMEADE: TRUMP WAS 'RIGHT' TO APPEAR ANGRY AFTER MUELLER'S APPOINTMENT

“He was the guy for the job. If anyone believed that and they still believe it, they are just naive.”

Lockhart then took aim at how Barr has handled the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

“What he did was an incredible disservice to the country,” he said on CNN.

“The way he withheld the report and then on three separate occasions told the American public this is what the report says. So that everybody read it in that frame of mind. The fact is the report said just the opposite.

MAXINE WATERS CALLS BARR A 'LACKEY AND A SYCOPHANT' FOR TRUMP

“You can call it misleading, spin. I call it lying. When you have the president of the United States, the press secretary, the attorney general all effortlessly lying something’s got to change.”

Lockhart is not the only person to take aim at Barr in recent days, with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Democrat Maxine Waters also calling him into question.

“He does something once again that is going to scuff up his reputation. Absolutely his reputation is shot,” Scarborough said last week of Barr’s handling of the release of the Mueller report, also describing him as a “political hack” and no longer “a respected legal mind.”

“Here’s a guy that served in Washington for 30 years, had the respect of Republicans — he won’t get his reputation back. It’s shot. Sullied, the way he’s handled himself.”

JAMES COMEY TWEETS HE HAS 'SO MANY ANSWERS' AFTER RELEASE OF MUELLER REPORT

“What he did was an incredible disservice to the country,” former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said of AG Barr.

“What he did was an incredible disservice to the country,” former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said of AG Barr.

Meanwhile, Waters trashed the attorney general on the eve of Special Counsel Mueller’s report being released to the public, calling Barr “a lackey and a sycophant” for President Trump.

“I never expected Barr to do anything that would be respectful to the members of Congress or to include us in any real way,” she told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, joining colleagues fuming over the decision by Barr to hold a press conference before releasing a redacted version of the report.

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“He has proven himself. He auditioned for this job. He was chosen to protect the president of the United States and that’s exactly what he’s doing. I’m not surprised.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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K-9 named Trump sparks viral meme, possible new sheriff's policy

Florida police dog with the name Trump became a viral Facebook meme this week and now the agency where the dog works may impose a ban on naming K-9s after real people.

The meme features an image of a patrol car belonging to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office with a decal featuring K-9 Trump’s name and picture.

“Atta boy, Trump! Making a difference,” says accompanying text with the image posted Wednesday on the Facebook page of Cop Humor, a self-described pro-law enforcement conservative group, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.

NYPD OFFERS FINAL SALUTE TO K-9 OFFICER BEFORE CANCER DEATH

Trump joined the sheriff’s office in March 2018, a spokesman told the paper.

He began patrol duty three months later.

TERMINALLY ILL WISCONSIN GIRL WHO LOVES DOGS VISITED BY K-9 OFFICERS, NEARLY 40 POLICE DEPARTMENTS

The agency said in a statement that K-9 names are left to the discretion of their human partners, according to the paper.

Currently, there is no policy dictating how the dogs should be named, the statement said.

But that could change.

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"We are aware that this is being shared on social media," the statement said. “In the future, the Sheriff’s Office may consider directing deputies to avoid naming their K-9 partners after real people."

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
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)

Source: OANN

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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
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)

Source: OANN

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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
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)

Source: OANN

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
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.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

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.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(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)

Source: OANN

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