CAIRO – Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan say security forces have attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters in the capital.
Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, told The Associated Press that clashes erupted early Monday between security forces and protesters, who have been camped out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday.
Footage circulated online showed security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. Other footage appeared to show uniformed soldiers protecting the protesters.
The demonstrations began in December over an economic crisis but quickly escalated into calls for an end to President Omar al-Bashir's 30-year rule. Security forces have responded with a violent crackdown and dozens of people have been killed.
Julia Ruth Stevens, the last surviving daughter of Babe Ruth, died Saturday after a brief illness, her family announced. She was 102.
She died at an assisted living facility in Henderson, Nev., but until just a few years ago had spent an active life sharing the legacy of her father.
Ruth adopted Stevens shortly after he married her mother, Claire Hodgson, in 1929. Stevens was 12 years old at the time.
She was a fan of her father's first team - the Boston Red Sox - but also celebrated the New York Yankees. She served as an ambassador for the Ruth family, appearing at special events.
Stevens threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the final game played at Yankee Stadium - "the House that Ruth built" - in 2008. And on July 9, 2016, she threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park on her 100th birthday.
She also traveled to various Babe Ruth League World Series tournaments to meet young players and share stories of her father.
"Julia was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother who lived a wonderful, full life during the 102 years that she was with us. As the daughter of Babe Ruth, she had many amazing experiences, which she was pleased to share with eager reporters and fans alike," the family wrote on Facebook.
"Until the very end, she was very proud to call him ‘Daddy' and she particularly loved recalling events from 1934 when she went on a ‘round the world' tour with her parents. The tour began with a series of 15 exhibition baseball games played in Japan."
Until relocating to Nevada, she was a longtime resident of New Hampshire and will be buried there, her son, Tom Stevens, told The Boston Globe. The burial will take place in Conway, N.H., when the ground thaws, fittingly closer to the start of baseball season.
She is survived by her son, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A member of a rescue team stands at the secured wreckage of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town Bishoftu, near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
March 16, 2019
By Aaron Maasho and Maggie Fick
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopian Airlines said on Saturday that DNA testing of the remains of the 157 passengers on board flight 302 may take up to six months as it offered bereaved families charred earth from the plane crash site to bury.
A team of investigators in Paris have begun examining the black box recorders recovered from the site where the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed into a field on Sunday after taking off from Addis Ababa. Passengers from more than 30 nations were aboard.
As families wait for the results from the investigation into the cause of the crash, Ethiopian Airlines is planning to hold a service on Sunday in Addis Ababa, at the Kidist Selassie, or Holy Trinity Cathedral, where many of the country’s past rulers are buried beneath its pink stone spires.
“We were told by the company that we will be given a kilo (of earth) each for burial at Selassie Church for a funeral they will organize,” said one family member who asked not to be named.
Papers given to the families at the Skylight Hotel on Saturday said death certificates would be issued within two weeks, and an initial payment made to cover immediate expenses.
The return of remains – most of which are charred and fragmented – would take up to six months, the papers said, but in the meantime earth from the crash site would be given.
Abdulmajid Sheriff, a Kenyan whose Yemeni brother-in-law died, said they had already held a service.
“We are Muslims we didn’t care about that (earth). We did yesterday our prayers at the mosque and that is all for us.”
Experts say it is too soon to know what caused the crash, but aviation authorities worldwide have grounded Boeing’s 737 MAXs, as concerns over the plane caused the company’s share price to tumble by around 10 percent.
Flight data has already indicated some similarities with a crash by the same model of plane during a Lion Air flight in October. All 189 people onboard were killed. Both planes crashed within minutes of take off after pilots reported problems.
The grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX jets after the crash in Ethiopia has had no immediate financial impact on airlines using the planes, but it will get painful for the industry the longer they do not fly, companies and analysts said on Friday
Boeing plans to release upgraded software for its 737 MAX in a week to 10 days, sources familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. planemaker has been working on a software upgrade for an anti-stall system and pilot displays on its fastest-selling jetliner in the wake of the deadly Lion Air crash.
Apr 18, 2019; Anaheim, CA, USA; Seattle Mariners first baseman Ryon Healy (27) rounds the bases after his second home run of the night in the sixth inning of the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
April 19, 2019
Ryon Healy homered twice and drove in five runs, and the Seattle Mariners ended a six-game losing streak with an 11-10 win against the Los Angeles Angels in the opener of the four-game series on Thursday in Anaheim, Calif.
After the Mariners squandered a 10-2 lead with the Angels scoring seven runs in the seventh and tying the game in the eighth, Jay Bruce moved Seattle ahead 11-10 with a pinch-hit single in the ninth off Cody Allen (0-1).
Omar Narvaez had three hits, including a three-run homer, and a career-high four RBIs, and Daniel Vogelbach reached base all five times with two hits and three walks for the Mariners. Kole Calhoun and David Fletcher homered during the rally for the Angels.
Seattle starter Felix Hernandez went six innings and allowed four runs and nine hits. The six-time AL All Star struck out three and walked one. Roenis Elias pitched the ninth for his third save.
Dodgers 3, Brewers 1
Julio Urias gave up just one hit over six innings, while Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy hit home runs as visiting Los Angeles extended its winning streak to five games by beating Milwaukee.
In what was likely his final start before moving to the bullpen with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill about to come off the injured list, Urias (1-1) did not give up a hit until Orlando Arcia singled to center field with two outs in the fifth inning. The left-hander had a career-high nine strikeouts.
The Brewers’ Christian Yelich hit a home run to lead off the ninth inning against Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, his 10th of the season and fifth of the week. It was also his 12th RBI of the week. The Dodgers extended their National League lead in home runs to 40. The Brewers are second with 36.
Nationals 4, Giants 2
Behind Patrick Corbin’s strong start and a home run by Wilmer Difo, Washington beat San Francisco to win its first home series of the season.
Corbin (1-0) got a nice ovation as he left the mound with two outs in the eighth after an RBI double by Erik Kratz trimmed the margin to 4-1. Corbin allowed one run on two hits, striking out nine and walking one.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy was ejected in the fifth inning by plate umpire Ryan Additon after Brandon Belt was called out on strikes. Belt was later ejected by Additon after being called out on strikes in the seventh. Seven of the 11 Giants who struck out did so taking the third strike.
Orioles 6, Rays 5 (11 innings)
Joey Rickard delivered a tiebreaking, two-out double in the top of the 11th inning, giving visiting Baltimore a victory over first-place Tampa Bay.
The double capped a 4-for-5 night for Rickard, who drove in two runs. Trey Mancini went 3-for-5 with a run, and Pedro Severino hit his first homer of the season and the fifth of his career.
The Rays’ Avisail Garcia had tied the score in the bottom of the ninth when he hit a solo homer off Mychal Givens. Tommy Pham also homered for Tampa Bay.
Royals 6, Yankees 1
Homer Bailey won consecutive starts for the first time in nearly two years as Kansas City won at New York.
Bailey (2-1) held the Yankees to one run on three hits in six innings, walking one and striking out six. He won consecutive starts for the first time since July 4-9, 2017, when he earned victories at Colorado and Arizona while pitching for the Cincinnati Reds. He had gone 6-22 since then before Thursday.
Jorge Soler and Ryan O’Hearn hit solo homers off Yankees starter Domingo German (3-1) as the Royals won for the fifth time in seven games since losing 10 in a row. The Yankees were unable to reach .500 after sweeping a two-game series against the Boston Red Sox, dropping to 8-10.
Tigers 9, White Sox 7
Nicholas Castellanos and Grayson Greiner each had three hits, scored a run and drove in two more and host Detroit snapped a five-game losing streak by defeating Chicago.
Castellanos brought in the go-ahead run in the eighth. Miguel Cabrera supplied two hits and drove in two runs on his 36th birthday. Drew VerHagen (1-0) struck out a batter to end the eighth inning and picked up the victory. Shane Greene notched his ninth save.
Eloy Jimenez, Welington Castillo and Ryan Cordell homered for White Sox.
Diamondbacks 4, Braves 1
Christian Walker continued his late-inning magic, belting a two-run homer in the seventh inning as visiting Arizona completed a three-game sweep of Atlanta.
Walker has six homers, all of them coming in the seventh inning or later. He also hit a ninth-inning blast in the first game of the series. He is batting .619 (13-for-21) with two doubles and 11 RBIs in the seventh inning or later.
Atlanta scored its only run when Freddie Freeman hit a homer, his second, in the eighth inning off reliever Matt Andriese. Freeman was hit by a pitch in the sixth and has reached base in 18 consecutive games. Ronald Acuna Jr. extended his hitting streak to nine games for the Braves.
Blue Jays 7, Twins 4
Eric Sogard had a three-run double to highlight a five-run fourth inning, and Justin Smoak, Randal Grichuk and Teoscar Hernandez each homered to lead Toronto over Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The win was the third in four games for the Blue Jays, who got their first series victory of the season. Joe Biagini (1-1) picked up the win in relief of starter Clay Buchholz, who gave up three runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out four.
Eddie Rosario hit two home runs and Willians Astudillo and Jonathan Schoop each had two hits for Minnesota. Michael Pineda (2-1) took the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout in 3 2/3 innings.
Rockies 6, Phillies 2
Ryan McMahon, in his first game back from the injured list, hit two home runs and drove in five as Colorado beat Philadelphia in Denver.
Kyle Freeland (2-3) gave up just two hits over six scoreless innings to get his first win since Opening Day, and Tony Wolters had three hits for Colorado. The Rockies have won four straight following an eight-game slide, and they earned their first home victory in six tries this season.
J.T. Realmuto homered, and Cesar Hernandez singled three times for the Phillies. Zach Eflin (2-2) allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks while striking out two over six innings.
Reds 4, Padres 1
A game-opening homer by Joey Votto and home runs by Tucker Barnhart and Jesse Winker led visiting Cincinnati over San Diego in the opener of a four-game series.
The Reds snapped a four-game losing streak while handing the Padres a fourth straight loss. The Votto and Barnhart homers were among the three hits allowed by Padres rookie starter Chris Paddack (0-1), whose only walk came in front of Barnhart’s first homer of the season in the fifth inning.
Cincinnati’s final run came on a ninth-inning homer by Winker off reliever Phil Maton. Reds right-hander Tanner Roark (1-0) allowed one run on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. Manny Machado’s RBI double accounted for the Padres’ only run.
Footage of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) calling food lines a “good thing” has resurfaced after he announced his run for president in 2020.
The footage allegedly takes place in the 1980s and shows Sanders answering a question about bread lines in Nicaragua due to the food shortages triggered by a local socialist party called Sandinistas.
“You know, it’s funny. Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is when people are lining up for food,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”
“In other countries, people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.”
The resurfaced footage of Sanders praising an iconic symptom of a failed state comes on the heels of President Trump pinning Venezuela’s collapse to its socialist policies.
“…But the American people will reject an agenda of sky-high rates, government-run health care and coddling dictators like those in Venezuela,” reads a Trump statement. “Only President Trump will keep America free, prosperous and safe.”
Interestingly, Sanders likend his 2020 campaign to a revolution in an email he sent to his supporters that also also called Trump the most dangerous president in modern American history.
“Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution,” said Sanders. “Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.”
Alex Jones presents video footage of the moment during President Trump’s state of the union address where he called out Bernie Sanders, and other left-wing democrats, for pushing failed socialist ideologies on the American people and passing it off as helpful to the economy or humanitarian.
Visitors walk on the "Hellboy 2" movie set at the Korda Studios in Etyek, Hungary April 5, 2019. Picture taken April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
April 10, 2019
By Michael Kahn
PRAGUE (Reuters) – It’s the kind of maneuvering that might make the Game of Thrones’ shrewdest operator Tyrion Lannister feel right at home.
As streaming giants Amazon, Netflix and Hulu prepare to splash out on their next fantasy blockbusters and dystopian dramas, Central European countries are slugging it out to get a grab a slice of their bumper production budgets.
Experienced crews, lower labor costs and generous production incentives have long attracted international filmmakers to the Czech Republic and Hungary but other countries in the region are now getting into the game.
The Czechs and Hungarians are both considering raising their incentives after Romania approved a production rebate of up to 45 percent in 2018 and Poland introduced a 30 percent cash rebate in February to keep pace with its neighbors.
A new European Union directive due to come in this year is also expected to spur investment as it will require video-on-demand platforms selling to European audiences to ensure at least 30 percent of their catalogs are European works.
“This is a new era,” said Agnes Havas, chief executive of the Hungarian Film Fund told Reuters, noting that the Netflix series “The Crown” and Amazon Prime Video’s “Hanna” were shot in Hungary.
“What we see is we started at 30 percent (incentives) and now we are looking at the other countries in Europe and we will evaluate the situation and see whether we should potentially think about raising it again in the future.”
BITG media analyst Rich Greenfield estimates Amazon will spend $5 billion to $6 billion in 2019 on content with Netflix laying out about $15 billion – and a significant portion of the Netflix budget will flow overseas.
“We are aware there is a shift in global production and you can’t ignore the big streaming companies,” Anna Dziedzic of the Film Commission Poland told Reuters. In 2018 Netflix filmed “1983” in the country, the company’s first original Polish Netflix series.
“They are one of the biggest players now. You have to adjust to the changing environment and you have to have them in mind,” Dziedzic told Reuters.
Amazon and Netflix declined to comment on their plans in the region.
GAME OF THRONES EFFECT
A landscape dotted with castles and rolling countryside makes central Europe a versatile setting for increasingly popular historical and fantasy shows looking to cash in on the success of series such as “Game of Thrones”.
“The types of shows being shot have dramatically changed,” said David Minkowski, head of production at Stillking Films, which co-produced Amazon’s neo-noir fantasy “Carnival Row” and Hulu’s historical series “Das Boot”, in the Czech Republic.
“Call it the Game of Thrones effect. A lot of it is fantasy or historical that naturally gravitates to this part of the world,” he told Reuters, adding that the company was now working on fantasy drama “The Witcher” for Netflix. “The typical production centers are bursting at the seams.”
Dziedzic at the Film Commission Poland said she has also received requests from international companies wanting to use post-Soviet locations and brutalist Communist architecture for science fiction series.
This has helped push international investment in regional production to record highs, leaving studios booked a year in advance and crews forced to turn away work, industry professionals say.
“There is now an ever increased premium on local crew relationships and good access to infrastructure and studios which need to be planned up to 12 months in advance of production,” added Stillking’s Managing Director Matthew Stillking.
“It’s a boom time … likely to last several years as the sector becomes more competitive with a perfect storm of increased consumer viewing demand and more platforms needing content to compete for customers.”
‘IT WILL ROCKET’
Foreign investment in the Czech film industry leapt nearly 1.2 billion crowns to a record 4.8 billion ($210 million) on 1,072 shooting days for 38 foreign series and films in 2018, according to the Czech Film Commission.
Investment is expected to remain at that level or higher this year, though Czech plans to increase cash rebates on offer for film makers from 20 percent now could be a game changer.
“It will rocket once the incentives are raised,” Pavlina Zipkova, head of the Czech Film Commission, told Reuters. “The government has not increased it yet but we strongly believe it will happen later this year.”
In Hungary, spending on a total of 333 productions last year amounted to 110 billion forints (385 million), with 84 percent of the investment coming from international productions including Hollywood blockbusters “Terminator: Dark Fate” and “Gemini Man.”
This was up from 108 billion in 2017, when “Red Sparrow” and “Colette” were made in Hungary but Havas at Hungary’s Film Fund expects the new EU rules to accelerate the streaming-fueled production boom.
The rise of streaming services has also shifted the types of productions in the region. Hungary attracts more blockbuster films these days while episodic series tend to gravitate towards the Czech Republic, said Tomas Krejci, founder of Milk and Honey Pictures and Prague Studios.
This helped Prague Studio’s turnover jump more than 50 percent in 2018 – and Krejci predicts demand will remain strong as top notch crews shooting historical shows are more than a third cheaper than in rival countries such as Spain.
“The demand for historical shows is getting stronger,” Krejci said whose company has produced “Haunted” for Netflix and Amazon’s “Patriot” and the second season of “Lore.”
“Here it’s not just the phenomenal historic architecture but also the vast amount of props, costumes and local talent that make it cheaper and easier to make these kinds of shows.”
($1 = 22.8160 Czech crowns)
($1 = 285.6800 forints)
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; editing by David Clarke)
A streak of light in the skies over downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night that sparked the attention of onlookers wasn't the opening to the next Hollywood disaster flick, but instead a stunt to celebrate the final supermoon of the year.
The spectacle was reported around 7:30 p.m., with many taking to Twitter to share videos and photos of the sight.
"What is this flying item on fire above downtown Los Angeles?" Dennis Hegstad wrote
Others shared what they saw over the downtown area.
"Saw a meteor burn through the sky of LA today," another Twitter user wrote.
The spectacle even drew the attention of the Los Angeles Police Department, who reassured the public that the streak of the light was not Mars attacking.
"PSA: A meteor did not crash into Downtown Los Angeles, and no, it's not an alien invasion...just a film shoot," police said. "This is Tinseltown after all."
The whole stunt was pulled off by the Red Bull Air Force to celebrate the final supermoon of 2019.
"In order to mark the occasion, some of the most experienced skydivers, BASE jumpers and freeflyers on the planet in the Red Bull Air Force took to the skies above the famous American city for the aerial stunt," the group said.
The team leaped from a helicopter 4,000 feet above Los Angeles and swooped into the downtown area at more than 120 mph wearing wingsuits.
"To add a touch of Hollywood glitz, the suits were fitted with LED lights and sparking pyrotechnics that lit up the night sky as the sun set and the supermoon rose," the company announced.
Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, a 33-year-old Honduran national, has used multiple aliases, including the fake name of Jose Agurcia-Avila he gave police in Memphis, Tennessee, following his arrest in the boy’s death earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. (Shelby County Sheriff’s Office)
A man accused of fatally beating a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son had been previously deported from the United States five times, most recently in late 2016, immigration officials said.
Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, a 33-year-old Honduran national, has used multiple aliases, including the fake name of Jose Agurcia-Avila he gave police in Memphis, Tennessee, following his arrest in the boy’s death earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told WMC-TV.
ICE officials have since filed an immigration detainer against Zuniga-Aviles, who was initially deported back to Honduras in February 2010. He was also returned to the Central American country in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.
“ICE will seek to take him into custody to reinstate his removal order following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” the statement reads. “Mr. Zuniga-Aviles has been removed from the US five prior times: his most recent removal by ICE to Honduras took place in December 2016.”
Zuniga-Aviles later returned to the U.S. following his removal, a felony under federal law, immigration officials said. It’s unclear exactly when he returned, but he was living with his girlfriend and the woman’s 4-month-old son in Memphis at the time of his arrest, WREG reports.
The infant, Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, was pronounced dead at a hospital from blunt force trauma to the head after his mother, Mercy Lizondro-Chacon, called police on April 12 to report that the boy was having trouble breathing, according to an affidavit of complaint obtained by the Commercial Appeal.
Campaigning in Iowa hours after the former vice president officially announced his candidacy, Warren contrasted on Thursday her longtime record of taking on Wall Street with that of Biden.
“At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country were trying to put the squeeze on millions of hard-working families who were in bankruptcy because of medical problems, job losses, divorce and death in the family, there was nobody to stand up for them,” said the populist senator who’s producing progressive policy proposal after another as she runs for the White House.
“I got in that fight because they just didn’t have anyone,” she said. “And Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies.”
The comments reignited a nearly two decades old fight between the two over the country’s bankruptcy laws.
Fox News reached out to the Biden campaign for reaction to Warren’s words but had yet to receive a response at the time this article was published.
It’s not just Warren. The head of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – which has backed the senator from Massachusetts – also took aim at Biden, who enters the race as the front runner in most national polls and early primary and caucus voting state surveys, slightly atop of Sanders and well ahead of the rest of the large field of 20 contenders.
“With billionaires deciding not to run, progressive candidates have been in need of a foil. If Joe Biden positions himself as the political insider from yesteryear who says big ideas like universal child care, student debt relief, and a wealth tax on ultra-millionaires are not possible, he would be an easy foil, Adam Green, the co-founder of PCCC, told Fox News.
The former vice president spent Thursday evening raising campaign cash at the suburban Philadelphia home of David Cohen, a senior executive of the Comcast Corp. and a former Democratic operative.
In a fundraising email to supporters around the same time, Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir wrote that “it’s a big day in the Democratic primary and we’re hoping to end it strong. Not with a fundraiser in the home of a corporate lobbyist, but with an overwhelming number of individual donations in response to today’s news.”
Earlier in the day, a rising progressive group called Justice Democrats that has championed Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called Biden “out of touch” and stressed that “we can’t let a so-called ‘centrist’ like Joe Biden divide the Democratic Party and turn it into the party of ‘No, we can’t.’”
Biden, of course, is considered to be more moderate than many of the current contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, especially Warren and Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.
These kind of jabs from the candidates, their campaigns and outside groups could be foreshadow a building clash between the progressive and establishment sings of the party.
Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”
Former President Barack Obama, Biden’s boss for eight years, remains extremely popular with Democrats.
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
April 26, 2019
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.
“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.
The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.
And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.
Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.
German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.
For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.
Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.
At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.
“MARKET PLAY”
Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.
“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.
Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.
“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.
“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.
Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.
If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.
“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.
(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano
April 26, 2019
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.
“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”
Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.
Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.
A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.
(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)
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