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Police: Child porn suspect kills self during traffic stop

Police say a suspect in a Florida child pornography case fatally shot himself Wednesday evening after officers took his children during a traffic stop near Orlando.

Officers stopped the vehicle after recognizing 48-year-old Luis Valentin as a suspect in the child porn case. Kissimmee police spokeswoman Bailey Myers told news outlets that officers didn't realize at first that Valentin had his two children — ages 7 and 11 — inside.

Myers said Valentin shot himself and died at the scene shortly after the children were taken from the vehicle. His ex-wife, Ana Valentin, also was at the scene. She told WFTV that he "always said that before he would be in jail he would kill himself."

Myers said a responding officer suffered minor injuries when his patrol car flipped over.

Source: Fox News National

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Voynov suspended for 2019-20 season

FILE PHOTO: Redondo Beach Police Department booking photo of of Los Angeles Kings player Slava Voynov, arrested on charges of domestic violence
FILE PHOTO: Los Angeles Kings defender Slava Voynov is shown in this Redondo Beach Police Department booking photo released to Reuters October 20, 2014. REUTERS/Redondo Beach Police Department/Handout via Reuters

April 9, 2019

Defenseman Slava Voynov has been suspended for the 2019-20 season due to “unacceptable off-ice conduct,” the NHL announced Tuesday.

Voynov, 29, recently applied for reinstatement to the NHL. He was indefinitely suspended in October 2014 after being arrested following an altercation with his wife.

Police responded to Voynov’s house in Redondo Beach, Calif., and said he punched, kicked and choked his wife. Voynov, who was a member of the Los Angeles Kings at the time, entered a no-contest plea in July 2015.

Last July, a conviction in that case was dismissed by a Los Angeles judge.

Tuesday’s decision came after the league investigated the situation, including an in-person meeting with Voynov last month in New York.

“Today’s ruling, while tailored to the specific facts of this case and the individuals involved, is necessary and consistent with the NHL’s strongly-held policy that it cannot and will not tolerate this and similar types of conduct, particularly as directed at a spouse, domestic partner or family member,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.

The NHL Players Association will review the decision. It could appeal to an independent arbitrator.

The Kings terminated Voynov’s six-year, $25 million contract after his arrest and placed him on their voluntary retired list.

Voynov has since played for a Russian team and was a member of that country’s 2018 gold medal-winning Olympic team.

Voynov had 18 goals and 63 assists in 190 NHL games with the Kings from 2011-14.

The NHL says that with “good behavior,” Voynov will be eligible to sign with an NHL team on July 1, 2020.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Shell exits Gazprom-led LNG project in Russia

File photo of passenger plane flies over a Shell logo at a petrol station in west London
FILE PHOTO: A passenger plane flies over a Shell logo at a petrol station in west London, in this January 29, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Files

April 10, 2019

By Vladimir Soldatkin and Shadia Nasralla

ST PETERSBURG/LONDON, Russia (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has decided to exit a Baltic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project led by Russian state gas major Gazprom on the Russian Baltic coast.

The development comes as Western firms struggle to expand in Russia because of pressure from sanctions imposed by the United States, while for Gazprom it could mean limited access to Shell’s technology as well as the need to fund the project without the help of the Anglo-Dutch major.

Shell, which has a long history of energy cooperation with Russia, said earlier it was studying the possible implications of a recent decision by Gazprom to move toward the full integration of its Baltic LNG and gas processing plants.

“Following Gazprom’s announcement on March 29 regarding the final development concept of Baltic LNG, we have decided to stop our involvement in this project,” Cederic Cremers, Shell Russia’s chairman, said in a statement.

“We have a number of other ongoing projects with Gazprom, including as part of the Strategic Alliance established between the two companies in 2015, which are not impacted by this decision,” Cremers added.

Gazprom declined to comment.

Shell remains a shareholder in the Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 plant, which produces LNG on the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin. Shell has been struggling to increase output of the frozen gas at the project for a number of reasons.

Its decision to leave the Baltic LNG project leaves open a question about the availability of technology needed for this project as Shell will not be providing it.

Shell had developed a technology specifically for the Sakhalin Energy LNG plant, and in February said it had created a 50/50 venture with Gazprom that would use Shell’s LNG know-how to develop Russia’s own technology for supercooling gas.

KEY TECHNOLOGY

The venture was expected to effectively insulate Russia from any new U.S. sanctions on LNG, a sector in which key technology belongs to a handful of players – mainly global majors such as Shell, Exxon and Total.

Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, has been under Western sanctions since 2014 due to its role in the Ukraine crisis.

While the production of seaborne LNG is not directly affected by the sanctions, the sales and marketing of it, as well as foreign participation, have become more complicated due to the restrictions.

Shell previously suspended some shale oil and gas projects due to the introduction of sanctions on Moscow.

On March 29, Gazprom said in a statement that together with its partner RusGazDobycha it had made a decision on the final configuration of the project for a large-scale complex that would process ethane-containing gas and produce LNG in the Leningrad region. That statement did not mention Shell.

Shell said on Wednesday that its representations and those of Gazprom had not discussed the Baltic LNG project at their meetings in the Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday. These were their regular annual meetings to discuss progress on projects which are part of the strategic alliance, Shell added.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Tom Balmforth and Polina Devitt; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and David Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Pence in Colombia Announces New Sanctions on Maduro

The Trump administration announced new sanctions Monday on allies of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro as it struggles to find new ways to boost his opponent after an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the economically devastated nation faltered amid strong resistance from security forces loyal to the socialist leader.

Vice President Mike Pence arrived in the Colombian capital for an emergency summit of regional leaders to discuss the deepening crisis and immediately met with Juan Guaido, the opposition leader the U.S. and 50 other nations recognize as Venezuela's rightful president.

In a speech, Pence urged regional partners to freeze oil assets controlled by Maduro, transfer the proceeds to Guaido and restrict visas for Maduro's inner circle. He said the U.S. was imposing more sanctions on four pro-government governors, including a close Maduro ally who negotiated the release of an American jailed for more than two years.

"It's time to do more," Pence said. "The day is coming soon when Venezuela's long nightmare will end, when Venezuela will once more be free, when her people will see a new birth of freedom, in a nation reborn to libertad."

Pence's appearance before the Lima Group comes at an important crossroads for the coalition of mostly conservative Latin American nations and Canada that has joined forces to pressure Maduro. A month after Guaido declared himself interim president at an outdoor rally, hopes that support for Maduro inside the military would quickly crumble have faded.

Over the weekend, security forces on the borders with Colombia and Brazil fired tear gas and buckshot on activists waving Venezuelan flags while escorting trucks with emergency medical and food kits. Four people were killed and at least 300 wounded, although only a few were hospitalized.

While Colombian authorities said more than 160 soldiers deserted their posts and sought refuge across the border over the weekend, the highest-ranking among them was a National Guard major. No battalion or division commanders have come forward to challenge Maduro despite almost-daily calls by Guaido and the U.S. to do so.

That's left many asking what Guaido and the U.S. can do to break the stalemate.

The Lima Group, in an 18-point declaration signed by 10 nations and Guaido, reiterated their call on the Venezuelan military to recognize the opposition leader as their commander in chief, urged the International Criminal Court to declare Maduro's aid blockade a crime against humanity and pressed the United Nations to play a bigger role in resolving the crisis.

For now, the U.S. is showing no signs it is considering a military intervention to remove Maduro.

During his visit, Pence repeated President Donald Trump's threat that "all options are on the table" but gingerly avoided talking about the potential for military action.

Instead, he stuck to traditional policy tools that so far have only hardened Maduro's resolve. Foremost among them was the addition of four governors to a growing list of more than 50 Venezuelan officials under sanctions and blocked from doing business or having accounts in the U.S.

The most prominent target was Rafael Lacava, the governor of central Carabobo state who played a key role negotiating the release last year of Joshua Holt, a Utah man jailed without a trial for two years on what were seen as trumped-up weapons charges.

Pence also said the U.S. would continue to search for places to pre-position aid for eventual delivery to Venezuela, and announced $56 million in new assistance to countries in the region helping to absorb an exodus of more than 3 million Venezuelans who have fled hyperinflation and shortages in recent years.

"In the days ahead, the United States will announce even stronger sanctions on the regime's corrupt financial networks. We will find every last dollar they have stolen and return that money to the Venezuelan people," he said.

Guaido, in his visit to the Colombian capital, was afforded all the trappings of a head of state. He posed for selfies with well-wishers upon arriving for the summit and stood before a pile of aid boxes stamped with the U.S. flag as he and Pence greeted a group of Venezuelan migrants, including an elderly man who wept as he shook hands with the U.S. vice president and pleaded for help.

But Guaido's speech to the diplomats was short on specifics despite speculation he would request a military intervention as close ally Julio Borges, the opposition ambassador to the Lima Group, suggested on Sunday.

"Being permissive with the usurpation of power would be a threat to democracy in all of America," Guaido said.

Meanwhile, the Lima Group, which has been staunchly behind Guaido, rejected the use of force.

"Let's hope that the pressure of the international community, dialogue and prudence will prevail," said Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, who likened the crisis in Venezuela to the one his country faced in the run-up to the 1989 U.S. invasion to remove dictator Manuel Noriega. "Although the circumstances are similar, we must have the capacity to find a solution different than the one used back then."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in interviews on "Fox News Sunday" and CNN's "State of the Union," did not rule out U.S. military force but said "there are more sanctions to be had."

Any additional sanctions will increase the suffering of the Venezuelan people and may lead to more political violence, said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who advocates a negotiated end to the political crisis.

"The 'humanitarian aid' this weekend was a public relations stunt, since the aid was just a tiny fraction of the food and medicine that they are depriving Venezuelans of with the sanctions," Weisbrot said. "As the Trump administration admitted, it was an attempt to get the Venezuelan military to disobey Maduro. It was a farce, and it failed."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Washington wolf census finds more packs, breeding pairs

The number of gray wolves in Washington state kept growing last year and for the first time the state documented a pack living west of the Cascade Range, wildlife officials said Thursday.

The state has a minimum of 126 wolves in 27 packs with 15 successful breeding pairs, defined as male and female adults that have raised at least two pups that survived through the end of the year, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife found in its annual wolf census.

A year ago, there were 122 wolves in 22 packs with 14 breeding pairs.

The pack west of the Cascade Range, in Skagit County, consists of a single male wolf, captured in 2016 and released with a radio collar, that has been traveling with a female wolf through the winter. Biologists named the pack Diobsud Creek.

"We're pleased to see our state's wolf population continue to grow and begin to expand to the west side of the Cascades," agency Director Kelly Susewind said. "We will continue to work with the public to chart the future management of this important native species."

Wolves were nearly wiped out in Washington by the 1930s but started returning to the state from surrounding areas early in this century. The animals have preyed on livestock, causing conflicts with ranchers.

The census numbers are compiled from state, tribal, and federal wildlife specialists based on aerial surveys, remote cameras, wolf tracks and signals from radio-collared wolves. The count leads to estimates of the minimum numbers of wolves, because it is not possible to count every animal.

Most of the packs live in Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties in the northeast corner of the state. But the census showed increasing numbers in Washington's southeast corner and its north-central region.

The upturn in new packs and breeding pairs sets the stage for more growth this year, said Donny Martorello, policy lead for the agency.

"Packs and breeding pairs are the building blocks of population growth," Martorello said.

Since 1980, gray wolves have been listed as endangered throughout Washington. They are classified as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act In the western two-thirds of the state.

The agency recorded 12 wolf deaths last year. Six were legally killed by tribal hunters; four were killed by the wildlife agency in response to repeated wolf-caused livestock deaths; and two deaths apparently caused by humans remained under investigation at year's end.

The census reinforces the profile of wolves as a highly resilient, adaptable species with members that are well-suited to Washington's landscape, said Ben Maletzke, the agency's statewide wolf specialist.

Their numbers have increased by an average of 28% a year since 2008, he said.

"Wolves routinely face threats to their survival — from humans, other animals, and nature itself," he said. "But despite each year's ups and downs, the population in Washington has grown steadily and probably will keep increasing by expanding their range."

Maletzke said five of the 27 packs in Washington last year were involved in at least one livestock death.

Wolves killed at least 11 cattle and one sheep, and injured another 19 cattle and two sheep. The agency processed five livestock damage claims totaling $7,536 to compensate producers for direct wolf-caused livestock losses.

Source: Fox News National

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Indian police detain 10 teens for playing ‘violent’ PUBG

Cosplayer with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds character helmet seen at Gamescom in Cologne
A cosplayer wears a self-made helmet of a character from the computer game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, a survival-shooter game of South Korean game developer Bluehole Studio Inc., while testing Ubisoft Montreal's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

March 14, 2019

(Reuters) – Police in the western Indian state of Gujarat detained 10 teenagers for breaking a newly announced ban on playing videogame “PUBG,” the forerunner of global smash “Fortnite,” officials said on Thursday.

The ban was announced last week by local authorities to combat what they called the spread of “violent traits” in kids playing PUBG and “Momo challenge,” a so-called suicide game.

The detained teenagers were taken into custody but later released with a warning, said Manoj Agrawal, police commissioner of Rajkot city in Gujarat.

“Due to these games, the education of children and youth are being affected and it affects the behaviour, manners, speech and development of the youth and children,” an order by local police dated March 6, said.

Police in Gujarat have not banned Fortnite, a popular rival to PUBG developed by U.S.-based Epic Games.

PUBG, or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, made by South Korean firm Bluehole Inc, is a survival-themed battle game that drops dozens of online players on an island to try and eliminate each other.

Asked in a public debate in January about the negative effects of videogames on kids, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “Was he playing PUBG? Like everything else, technology too comes with its positives and negatives”.

“As parents, we must guide our children to get the most from technology. We should encourage their curiosity to learn new things”.

Fortnite and PUBG, each backed by Chinese internet giant Tencent, are credited with helping take videogames to new audiences.

Bluehole and Epic Games did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka, Arjun Panchadar, Kanika Sikka and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)

Source: OANN

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Greg Craig, Obama White House counsel, pleads not guilty to false statements charges

Greg Craig, former White House counsel for former President Barack Obama, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday to charges of making false and misleading statements to federal prosecutors related to his work on behalf of Russian-backed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

A status hearing for his case has been set for April 15 before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the District of Columbia.

Craig, in an indictment a day earlier, was accused of making false and misleading statements to investigators including those on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team. Craig is the first prominent Democrat to be indicted in a case that stemmed from Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

GREG CRAIG, EX-OBAMA WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL, INDICTED FOR ALLEGED FALSE STATEMENTS

Mueller referred the Craig case to prosecutors in New York last year, after uncovering alleged misconduct while investigating former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s unregistered lobbying work on behalf of Ukraine.

Craig was indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly falsifying and concealing “material facts” and making false statements to both Mueller and investigators in the Justice Department’s National Security Division’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit.

The FARA Unit is responsible for enforcing foreign lobbying laws that require the disclosure of certain overseas activity, including public relations work for foreign entities. At issue were Craig’s 2012 lobbying and media contacts on behalf of Yanukovych, while Craig was a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Specifically, Craig and the law firm were commissioned by Yanukovych and Ukraine's government to write a report to assess whether the government's prosecution of dissident Yulia Tymoshenko -- a criminal case that was criticized widely as an abuse of power -- was a "fair trial."

In a videotaped statement uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, Craig asserted that the report was "independent," and denied helping Ukraine spin the information it contained. He also strongly denied the charges against him, saying he was "always honest" about his activities.

Craig, speaking directly to the camera, also slammed the prosecution as "unprecedented and unjustified."

OBAMA WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL FACES POSSIBLE PROSECUTION IN MUELLER-INITIATED PROBE

It was not clear why Mueller -- who prosecuted other Trump officials, including Manafort, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos for making false statements -- did not handle the Craig case himself, and opted instead to farm it out to prosecutors in New York.

Alex van der Zwaan, another former Skadden lawyer, pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators about the report.

Craig faces up to 10 years in prison in all -- up to five years and a possible $250,000 fine for allegedly willfully falsifying and concealing material facts from the FARA Unit and another five years and $10,000 fine for making false and misleading statements to the FARA Unit.

GREG CRAIG'S RISE AND FALL: FROM JOHN HINCKLEY'S LAWYER TO OBAMA WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL --TO INDICTED POWER PLAYER

Craig's attorneys on Wednesday night told The Associated Press in a statement that the "government's stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion."

On Thursday, the attorneys, William Taylor and William Murphy, told reporters: "This indictment accuses Mr. Craig of misleading the FARA Unit of the Department of Justice in order to avoid registration. It is itself unfair and misleading. It ignores uncontroverted evidence to the contrary. Mr. Craig had no interest in misleading the FARA Unit because he had not done anything that required his registration. That is what this trial will be all about."

Fox News' Jake Gibson, Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News Politics

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Uber's logo is displayed on a mobile phone in London, Britain
FILE PHOTO: Uber’s logo is displayed on a mobile phone in London, Britain, September 14, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc unveiled terms for its initial public offering on Friday, telling investors it would seek to sell as much as $10.35 billion in stock at a valuation of up to $91.5 billion.

In a regulatory filing, Uber set a target price range of $44-$50 per share for its IPO. The company will sell 180 million shares in the offering, with a further 27 million sold by insiders.

In the filing, Uber also reported a net loss attributable to the company for the first quarter of 2019 of around $1 billion and revenues of roughly $3 billion.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; editing by Patrick Graham)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Jet Airways aircraft are seen parked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: Jet Airways aircraft are seen parked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India, April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Aditi Shah and Abhirup Roy

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) – The grounding of India’s Jet Airways is turning into a quick windfall and long-term opportunity for international airlines keen to scoop up nearly a million outbound passengers from what was once the nation’s biggest airline.

Jet, which previously had a fleet of around 120 largely Boeing Co planes, was forced to indefinitely halt all flight operations on April 17 after its banks rejected the carrier’s plea for emergency funds.

The carrier’s descent into crisis has benefited international airlines in the form of rising fares and demand, data showed.

Fares from India to cities such as Dubai, London, New York, Singapore and Bali in the first quarter of 2019 rose between 4 percent and 32 percent from a year ago, according to Indian travel portal MakeMyTrip Ltd.

In the peak travel months of May and June, fares to London have spiked as much as 36 percent and tickets to San Francisco are up nearly 20 percent from a year ago, according to data from travel portal Yatra.com.

“For the next three months it’s actually bonanza time for international players,” said Ashish Nainan, a research analyst at CARE Ratings. “At least until the middle of June, the fares are not going to come down.”

Due to rising demand, even before Jet’s lessors grounded planes, carriers such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Singapore Airlines Ltd and United Airlines saw an up to a 27 percent increase in passenger numbers from India in the last quarter of 2018, data from India’s aviation regulator showed. That is the latest period for which the data is available.

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, clocking 15-20 percent domestic growth in recent years. It has long had only two full-service long-haul carriers, state-run Air India and Jet.

Jet is now hoping to be bailed out by a new investor, with final bids due on May 10.

INCREASING CAPACITY

Before its grounding, Jet had the biggest share of India’s outbound international air traffic, carrying 12 percent of the 7.8 million passengers headed overseas in the Oct-Dec quarter, down from 14 percent a year earlier, data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation showed.

For an interactive graphic on Jet’s market share, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2WvDQYi

For an interactive graphic on average daily flights by the airline, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2FeFDel

The total number of passengers traveling overseas with Jet fell 10 percent during the last quarter of 2018 even as the outbound travel market grew about 5 percent.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines posted a 27 percent increase in passengers from India, Cathay registered 17 percent growth and British Airways saw a 10 percent rise in the same period.

Cathay said the events at Jet combined with increasing demand for travel had led it to deploy larger aircraft with more seats on some Indian routes.

“In the long term we would certainly like to be able to offer more capacity into India, not just on our existing routes but by establishing new services to secondary cities,” Cathay said in a statement.

Singapore Airlines, in an email to Reuters, said the Indian market is “very promising” but declined to give details of airfare levels or demand patterns in the wake of Jet’s exit, citing a quiet period before the release of its annual results.

DOMESTIC GAINS

Jet’s grounding has also had a big impact on the domestic market, with inter-city air fares to major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata soaring more than 20 percent in May and June, according to Yatra.com.

The spike in fares is expected to underpin strong earnings for IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd, which are set to report results for the quarter ended March 31 in the coming weeks.

“Domestic Indian carriers are the main benefactors, but I suspect if Jet fails to be revived by May 10 then Vistara and other airlines that ply international routes, particularly the lucrative Gulf market, are the main winners,” said Shukor Yusof, the head of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics. Vistara is a joint venture of India’s Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines.

Inadequate bilateral traffic rights between India and other countries, however, could be an impediment to foreign carriers’ hopes of winning business lost by Jet, some analysts said.

“Even before Jet’s operational shutdown, international capacity was significantly constrained,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO for South Asia of consultancy CAPA. “We have now more serious capacity challenge … this is unlikely to be stabilized in the near term.”

A new national government likely to be in place sometime after elections end in May is expected to address the international capacity constraints, and once bilateral agreements are eased airlines including Emirates, Turkish and Qatar would immediately benefit, said Kaul.

“We would love to add more flights but we are at the limit of the allocation granted to us for traffic rights,” Emirates Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori told reporters in Dubai on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai, Jamie Freed in Singapore and Tanvi Mehta in Mumbai; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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FILE PHOTO: The company logo for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is displayed on a screen on the floor at the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The company logo for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 26, 2019

By Pushkala Aripaka and Ankur Banerjee

(Reuters) – AstraZeneca Plc beat first-quarter sales and earnings expectations on Friday as the British drugmaker benefited from a push into cancer drugs and emerging markets including China.

Newer treatments such as lung cancer drug Tagrisso, now the company’s top selling medicine, have helped the drugmaker’s return to growth after years of crumbling sales due to patent losses on older drugs.

Sales in China have shown explosive growth, more than doubling since 2012, but AstraZeneca executives on Friday said that may not be sustained.

“The enormous growth you currently see in China, 28 percent, probably is not sustainable, but we feel very bullish that the growth will continue to be at a pace of between 15 percent and 20 percent,” Ruud Dobber, executive vice president, BioPharma, told Reuters.

Shares of the company were down 0.2 percent at 5,878 pence at 1031 GMT.

The turnaround in AstraZeneca’s fortunes has been powered by a push into cancer treatments led by Chief Executive Pascal Soriot, who saw off a 2014 takeover bid from Pfizer in part by promising annual sales of $45 billion by 2023.

In the first quarter, sales from its oncology unit rose 59 percent to $1.89 billion, accounting for 35 percent of total product sales.

The company has moved deeper into cancer therapy market through wide-ranging deals, including those for immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Last month, it agreed a multi-billion dollar oncology deal with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd.

Interactive graphic on AZN’s top 10 drugs by sales – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W5XIRX

“We’re reaching that point where after years of having to keep faith, we have actually got something tangible to believe in,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nicholas Hyett said.

AstraZeneca also backed its annual sales and earnings forecast and said it has extensively prepared for UK’s anticipated exit from the European Union, even in the event of a no-deal exit.

The company has already spent more than 40 million pounds ($52 million) on Brexit preparations, including stockpiling six weeks’ worth of drugs in the UK and four weeks in continental Europe to guard against shortages.

AstraZeneca said product sales rose 14 percent at constant currency to $5.47 billion in the quarter, led by its lung cancer drug Tagrisso and respiratory treatment Pulmicort.

Interactive graphic on AZN’s quarterly oncology sales – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W9tbCD

China sales increased by 28 percent to $1.24 billion in the quarter, accounting for nearly a quarter of overall product sales.

Core earnings came in at 89 cents per share in the quarter. Analysts on average were expecting core earnings of 85 cents per share and product sales of $5.29 billion, according to a company provided consensus of 19 analysts.

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr/Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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