FILE PHOTO: New iPhone X phones are purchased at an Apple Store in Beijing, China November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo
April 2, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Apple Inc and other consumer brands lowered prices for their products in China on Monday as a cut in the country’s value-added tax (VAT) rate came into effect.
Price tags for products listed on the Apple’s China website were lowered on Monday morning, including a discount of up to 500 yuan ($74.44) for some of its latest iPhone models.
Suggested retail prices for brands including LVMH’s Louis Vuitton and Kering’s Gucci were also cut by around 3 percent, according to local media reports.
It follows announcements last month from car brands BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz, which said prices for several car models would drop following the tax changes.
Apple declined to comment on the price cuts, while LVMH and Kering did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Beijing said in March that it would cut taxes and fees for all companies by nearly 2 trillion yuan in 2019, with the manufacturing, transportation and construction sectors set to benefit as it looks to stimulate a slowing economy.
The world’s second-largest economy is growing at its weakest pace in almost three decades amid lower domestic demand and an ongoing trade war with the United States.
Several Chinese electronics retailers lowered prices for iPhones in January, discounting latest models by up to $118, after weaker-than-expected sales at end-2018.
(Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
The Trump administration has sent a memo to TV producers which contains a list of Russian collusion liars, advising networks to challenge individuals like Rep. Peter Schiff on their “false claims” in future.
The memo, sent by Trump’s Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh, was sent a day after the Mueller investigation’s conclusion which completely vindicated President Trump.
It lists Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rep. Eric Swalwell, DNC Chairman Tom Perez and former CIA director John Brennan.
The memo accuses the above of “lying to the American people by vigorously and repeatedly claiming there was evidence of collusion.”
“They made many of these false claims, without evidence, on your airwaves,” the memo adds, before giving an example for each of the individuals named.
The memo then asks TV producers to think twice before booking the same guests again.
“Moving forward, we ask that you employ basic journalistic standards when booking such guests to appear anywhere in your universe of productions,” states the memo, adding, “At a minimum, if these guests do reappear, you should replay the prior statements and challenge them to provide the evidence which prompted them to make the wild claims in the first place.”
While Trump has zero power to tell the media who they can and can’t have on as guests, leftists will undoubtedly weave this into their wider conspiracy theory that the president is trying to intimidate and shut down the media.
An armed right-wing militia group, which calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots, posted videos to social media, including one where they held about 200 asylum-seeking migrants at gunpoint near Sunland Park, N.M., until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that Border Patrol 'does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands.'
A New Mexico man belonging to a militia group accused of detaining migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border at gunpoint was arrested Saturday on charges of firearms possession by a felon, authorities said.
Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, was arrested in the border community of Sunland Park with the help of local authorities, the FBI said in a statement. Hopkins was a member of the group holding migrants in the area, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a separate statement.
Hopkins "is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families. Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes," Balderas said.
Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, was arrested Saturday on a criminal complaint accusing him of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, authorities said. (Dona Ana County Detention Center)
The militia group, which calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots, earlier this week posted several videos to social media showing armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico. One video showed the group holding about 200 asylum-seeking migrants at gunpoint until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived, The New York Times reported.
The group’s objective is to monitor the border until President Trump fulfills his campaign promise of a border wall or until Congress enacts stronger legislation to make it more difficult for migrants to request asylum, spokesman Jim Benvie told the Times in a phone interview on Thursday.
Benvie said in a video that the group's members were assisting a "stressed and overstrained Border Patrol" and said the group is legally armed for self-defense and never points guns at migrants. The posted videos do not show them with firearms drawn.
Customs and Border Protection said on Twitter Friday that it “does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands. Interference by civilians in law enforcement matters could have public safety and legal consequences for all parties involved."
Armed civilian groups have been a fixture on the border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants come. But, unlike previous times, many of the migrants crossing now are children. Last month, families and unaccompanied children made up 86 percent of arrests in the El Paso sector.
Little information has been released on Hopkins’ background. The FBI said he is from Flora Vista, a rural community in northern New Mexico and approximately 353 miles north of Sunland Park, which is a suburb of El Paso, Texas. The Times and other media outlets have named Hopkins as the group’s leader.
FBI spokesman Frank Fisher told The Associated Press that no additional information would be released until after Hopkins’ appearance in federal court on Monday.
Hopkins’ was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NORWICH, Conn. – A Roman Catholic diocese in Connecticut has agreed to pay a former altar boy $900,000 to settle claims that he was sexually abused by a priest.
The lawsuit against the Diocese of Norwich was filed in 2016 by a man who said he was abused "hundreds of times" starting when he was 11 years old in 1990 and continuing for six years by late priest Paul Hebert at Most Holy Trinity Church in Pomfret.
The Hartford Courant reports that the sides were supposed to pick a jury in January but the trial was postponed while further mediation took place.
The diocese in statement said it hopes the settlement "brings closure to the parties involved."
An attorney for the former altar boy says his client "is relieved that this ordeal is over."
TIRANA, Albania – Albanian opposition parties have continued their weekly protests calling for the government's resignation and an early election.
The center-right Democratic Party-led opposition accuses the leftist Socialist Party government of Prime Minister Edi Rama of being corrupt and linked to organized crime, which the government denies.
A few thousand protesters, apparently fewer than a week ago, gathered Wednesday in front of the parliament building shouting "Rama go!" while their leaders and others made short speeches. There were fewer attempts to break the police cordon and the rally ended more quickly.
The parliament held its weekly session, protected by hundreds of policemen.
In previous protests since mid-February, opposition supporters have repeatedly tried to enter the parliament or government buildings and police have responded with tear gas and water cannons.
Surveillance video captured a wild melee between teens at an Arizona skating rink over the weekend that prompted officers to deploy their pepper spray and one cop to use his Taser on a 16-year-old boy.
The Great Skate in Glendale was hosting an all-night event Saturday when several fights broke out inside and outside the venue about 9 p.m., FOX10 reported. Glendale police, who on Wednesday released video of the melee, said the fights began when staff members started turning away 200 people waiting to get inside the rink.
The event had reached capacity, with more than 500 people inside the building.
Surveillance video showed several teens on roller skates lunging at each other. Police said they used pepper spray to disperse groups and officers acted accordingly to halt the "mob-like environment."
At one point, a 16-year-old boy ran toward an officer whose back was turned. Police said the teen was inside the event without a wristband and being disruptive. As the 16-year-old was being escorted out of the venue, he grabbed a sign, ripped it and knocked a display to the ground. An officer deployed his pepper spray and Taser on the teen, who was later taken to the hospital and could face charges of aggravated assault on a police officer.
Niquel Braker, an 11-year-old who was at the event, said she was hit with pepper spray.
"It feels bad," Braker told FOX10. "You can't see. Everything's blurry. The pepper is cutting into your eye."
Said Braker’s mother, Shawna Slarb: "I've never been pepper sprayed in my entire life, but my little daughter has."
Officers were eventually able to contain the fights and shut down the event. Police said they have been in contact with the skating rink managers to address the incident.
Some parents have voiced their concerns about how Glendale police and the skating rink handled Saturday’s situation.
"We are understanding that they have a big problem with aggression, we want to address that and we want the Glendale Police chief to address that as well," one parent, Katt McKinney, said.
FILE PHOTO: People walk past an LG Electronics logo during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 25, 2016. REUTERS/Albert Gea
April 25, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s LG Electronics on Thursday said it would shift domestic manufacturing of smartphones to Vietnam, to enhance production efficiency during a slump in the global phone market.
On Wednesday, Yonhap News Agency, citing an unidentified source, reported that LG planned to suspend domestic production of its money-losing handsets this year.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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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