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Kenneth Starr concerned Mueller report may not be ‘written in a fair and balanced way’

Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr said Wednesday he was concerned Special Counsel Robert Mueller's upcoming redacted report may not be "written in a fair and balanced way."

“The concern that I think is a fair concern is, is the report going to be written in a fair and balanced way? It is a concern,” Starr said on “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday. “Now why the concern? Because of Bob Mueller, who I hold in very high regard, his choice of staff. So many questions have been raised about that staff and their leanings and so forth. And they've had the opportunity without any kind of cross examination, any kind of check, any kind of balance to write whatever they want to write. And that I think legitimately raises concern of fairness and balance.”

KENNETH STARR 'VERY PROUD' OF WILLIAM BARR'S HANDLING OF MUELLER REPORT 

Last month, Mueller submitted his almost 400-page report to the Justice Department for review by the attorney general and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In a letter to Congress, Attorney General Bill Barr relayed some of the primary findings of the report, stating the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. Democrats blasted Barr for what they called his "unacceptable" handling of the initial summary of that document.

Barr said he identified four areas of the report that he believed should be redacted, including grand jury material and information the intelligence community believes would reveal intelligence sources and methods.

MUELLER PROBE HAS COST TAXPAYERS MORE THAN $25 MILLION, SPENDING REPORT REVEALS

“The frustration will be, we don't have it all. Why don't we have it all? I think Bill Barr, the Attorney General, has very ably and responsibly answered that. There are restrictions on law. Grand jury testimony being the primary example,” Starr said Wednesday. “And then the acrimony will be this cherry picking. I think it is inevitable. ‘A-ha, do you see this sentence, see that and what that means is,’ and then a lot of interpretation and extrapolation.”

He added, “It would be good if we could call a national time-out and actually review what we have and then come to a more sober judgment. But politics is politics.”

Starr recommended Barr explain why he did what he did in the report once it is released.

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“I'm speaking as a citizen who has served in the justice department. This would build, I think, public confidence in what he has done, if he stands and explains it rather than waiting for a Congressional hearing, which will be a week or who knows how long and then all of the spinning goes on in the meantime. Let's hear from the attorney general of the United States. That's my hope,” said Starr.

Starr conducted an investigation into former President Bill Clinton and released his report in 1998.

Source: Fox News Politics

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EU steadfast in support for Ukraine, EU’s Tusk tells new Ukraine leader

Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

April 23, 2019

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is steadfast in its support for Ukraine, European Council president Donald Tusk said in a tweet on Tuesday after a telephone conversation with Ukraine’s president-elect, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Tusk, who chairs summits of EU leaders, said he had had a first good phone call with Ukraine’s new leader.

“I assured him of the EU’s steadfast support to Ukraine. Looking forward to our cooperation and EU-Ukraine Summit in July,” Tusk’s tweet read.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)

Source: OANN

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5.3-magnitude earthquake strikes central Greece

The Athens Geodynamic Institute says an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 has struck central Greece.

The quake struck at 12:46 p.m. (1046 GMT) about 132 kilometers (82 miles) northwest of Athens, near the seaside town of Itea, at a depth of 13.7 kilometers (8.5 miles). No damage has been reported so far. The tremor was also felt in the Athens area.

Greece lies in an especially earthquake-prone region and quakes of such magnitude are not rare.

Source: Fox News World

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Newmont shareholders OK $10 billion Goldcorp takeover, creating biggest gold producer

FILE PHOTO: Visitors pass the Newmont Mining Corporation booth during the PDAC convention in Toronto
FILE PHOTO: Visitors pass the Newmont Mining Corporation booth during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual convention in Toronto, Ontario, Canada March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Nichola Saminather

TORONTO (Reuters) – Newmont Mining shareholders on Thursday approved the company’s $10 billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc which is set to create the world’s biggest gold producer with assets across the Americas, Africa and Australia.

About 98 percent of votes at a special meeting were in support of Newmont’s proposal to issue new stock to fund its takeover of Goldcorp, the Denver-based company said in a statement. Goldcorp’s investors voted to approve the acquisition last week.

The deal, the biggest takeover in the gold sector’s history according to Refinitiv data, faced some initial opposition from Newmont investors who said it overly favored Goldcorp shareholders. But they rallied behind the proposal on the promise of a special dividend.

The 88-cent-per-share special dividend will be paid on May 1 to those who hold Newmont shares as of April 17, according to the statement.

Newmont shares were 0.7 percent lower at $36.01 in morning trading in New York, in line with the benchmark S&P/TSX Global Gold Index. Goldcorp shares slipped 0.26 percent to C$15.41 in Toronto.

“We thank Newmont’s shareholders for their overwhelming support for this compelling value creation opportunity as we build the world’s leading gold company,” Newmont Chief Executive Gary Goldberg said in the statement.

The new company, to be called Newmont Goldcorp, will overtake current market leader Barrick Gold Corp in annual production, churning out 6 million to 7 million ounces of gold annually over the next 10 years, compared with Barrick’s forecast of 5.1 million to 5.6 million ounces for 2019.

Newmont Goldcorp expects to shed between $1 billion and $1.5 billion of assets to focus on its most promising operations. This, combined with mines Barrick plans to sell in the wake of its acquisition of Randgold Resources, is expected by analysts to fuel a flurry of deals in a sector that has been focused on cutting costs rather than pursuing growth for several years.

Newmont’s acquisition of Goldcorp had faced several hurdles, beginning with Barrick’s hostile takeover bid for Newmont in February, which required it to abandon its deal with Goldcorp.

That was resolved through the creation of a joint venture of Newmont and Barrick’s operations in Nevada, which was estimated to create $4.7 billion in synergies.

(Reporting By Nichola Saminather; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: OANN

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How U.S. bike companies are steering around Trump’s China tariffs

Employees work on the production line of Kent bicycles at Shanghai General Sports Co., Ltd, in Kunshan
Employees work on the production line of Kent bicycles at Shanghai General Sports Co., Ltd, in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China, February 22, 2019. Picture taken February 22, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

February 26, 2019

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

(Reuters) – U.S.-based bicycle manufacturer Kent International has found a way around President Donald Trump’s tariffs – by shifting production out of China.

Like almost all U.S. bike makers, Kent has long relied on low-cost Chinese labor and parts, but Trump’s tariffs have so far inflated his costs by about $20 million annually.

“We have no choice but to – as rapidly as possible – look to move production away from China,” said Arnold Kamler, chief executive and majority owner of the Parsippany, N.J.-based bike company.

But Kent and other bike makers don’t have to move their manufacturing operations to the United States to avoid tariffs – nor do they have to stop using Chinese parts.

The company now plans to make bike frames in Cambodia while continuing to buy about half the components it will attach to those frames from producers in China. The resulting bicycles can enter the United States tariff-free because of U.S. rules that generally allow products to be designated as made-in-Cambodia as long as 35 percent of their costs for parts and labor are derived from that country.

Gaming the so-called rules of origin is a legal tariff-avoidance strategy being adopted by other major U.S. bike builders and explored across the industry, along with other manufacturing sectors, according to bike executives and supply chain consultants.

The shift in the $6 billion bike industry underscores how such rules allow manufacturers, despite tariffs, to continue sourcing large portions of their parts from China, undermining the Trump administration goal of boosting U.S. manufacturing employment. It further shows how quickly light manufacturers with less capital-intensive operations can move to Southeast Asia, which has seen a blitz of new investment since Trump launched his first tariffs last spring.

The bike industry plays a small role in what experts call the biggest shake-up in cross-border supply chains since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Companies in an array of industries – furniture, electronics, apparel, tires, vacuum cleaners, to name a few – are moving operations to Vietnam, Thailand and other Asian countries, often while continuing to use some suppliers in China. [L4N1XV1EX]

“This is a mid- to long-term issue that is not going to blow over in a year,” said Brett Weaver, a supply-chain consultant at KPMG. “More and more companies are beginning to take that perspective.”

The Trump administration’s office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) did not respond to requests for comment.

RISING CHINA LABOR COSTS

For many companies, tariffs proved the deciding factor in moves already under consideration because of rising labor costs in China. Three decades ago, when Kamler first offshored Kent’s production, labor in China cost him 20 percent less than in the United States. That gap has narrowed to 5 percent, he said.

Kent currently sources nearly 90 percent of the 3 million bicycles it sells to Target, Walmart and other U.S. retailers from China. But sales took a hit after it raised prices in response to tariffs last September.

Kent’s new factory in Cambodia is estimated to cost $20 million – an amount equivalent to one year of Kent’s increased costs from Trump’s 10 percent tariffs, which were added to existing duties. Trump’s tariffs were set to rise to 25 percent on March 2, but on Sunday he delayed the increase, citing progress in trade talks with China.

Another major brand, Specialized Bicycle Components, has moved production from China to Cambodia, Vietnam and Taiwan, expanding its existing Southeast Asia operations, said Bob Margevicius, a vice president of the Morgan Hill, California-based bike maker. Smaller producer Pure Bicycles, based in Los Angeles, is preparing a move to Vietnam, said Michael Fishman, president of the Los Angeles-based firm.

Industry officials and supply chain consultants say all American bike-makers are considering similar moves to shield their low-margin businesses from tariffs.

“Their supply chains are disrupted,” said Morgan Lommele, a director at PeopleForBikes, an industry association. “They are looking at other countries.”

‘A WAKE-UP CALL’

All manufacturers face challenges in moving their operations to Southeast Asia, including constraints on port capacity and labor. And no country can easily supplant China’s scale and production volumes for bicycles after three decades of the industry migrating there from the United States.

In the 1970s, U.S.-based firms made more than 15 million bicycles annually, compared to fewer than 500,000 now, according to the data presented by the industry to the USTR last year. And 94 percent of U.S. bike imports currently come from China, U.S. Census data shows.

(GRAPHIC: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ElEW2d)

China also provides more than 300 million components such as tires, tubes, seats and handlebars – accounting for about 60 percent total component imports.

Specialized finished moving all its production out of China by December but, like Kent, will continue to buy components from there.

Trump’s tariffs provided a “wake-up call for the industry,” said Margevicius, who also serves on the board of an industry trade group, the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association.

CHINA FIGHTS BACK

Chinese authorities are keen to protect manufacturing jobs, too. To cushion the impact of tariffs, China has increased export tax rebates and quickened tax refunds to exporters, Margevicius said. It is also offering companies cheap loans.

A more than 5 percent decline in the value of the Chinese Yuan last year, along with forecasts of further depreciation this year, are also helping blunt the impact of higher U.S. duties.

Kent is, nonetheless, moving ahead with plans to start manufacturing in Cambodia in September, and Kalmer said it will shift the bulk of its production there over the long term. Lower labor costs were a major deciding factor in addition to tariffs, said Kalmer, who remains skeptical that Beijing will sustain its tax incentives to lower-end manufacturers as its economy shifts towards services, consumption and high-tech production.

South East Asian countries are also wooing firms exploring options outside China.

Cambodia has allowed Kent to bring in short-term workers from China. Thailand is promoting itself as a regional manufacturing hub, offering incentives such as an exemption of up to eight years on corporate income tax for certain industries and exemptions on import duties for some raw materials.

Vietnam has finalized 16 free trade agreements including with the European Union and is a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, offering companies almost duty-free access to big bike markets from Germany to Australia.

LOGISTICAL HURDLES

Specialized’s Margevicius advises companies considering a move to look carefully at whether locations outside China have the required infrastructure to meet their needs.

Each of the two biggest ports in Vietnam, for instance, has only a sixth of the capacity of the port of Shanghai, and Cambodia lacks a deep-water port to accommodate larger vessels.

The rush of manufacturers moving operations to Southeast Asia will also bring new competition to hire and train workers from a labor force far smaller than that of China.

Kamler is not deterred. Kent’s Chinese partner has already bought a plot for the Cambodian factory, five miles from downtown Phnom Penh. Construction is scheduled to start next month and finish by June.

The company will initially hire and train up to 300 workers to start the production. It will also bring in 100 robots from its Chinese facilities for welding work.

“We have a big business in the United States,” Kamler said. “My priority 1,2,3 and 4 is to rescue my USA business.”

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; editing by Joseph White and Brian Thevenot)

Source: OANN

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No call for simulators in new Boeing 737 MAX training proposals

FILE PHOTO: 737 Max aircrafts are pictured at the Boeing factory in Renton
FILE PHOTO: 737 Max aircrafts are pictured at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

March 29, 2019

By Eric M. Johnson, Alwyn Scott and Allison Lampert

SEATTLE/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Boeing Co said it will submit by the end of this week a training package that 737 MAX pilots are required to take before a worldwide ban can be lifted, proposing as it did before two deadly crashes that those pilots do not need time on flight simulators to safely operate the aircraft.

In making that assessment, the world’s largest planemaker is doubling down on a strategy it promoted to American Airlines Group Inc and other customers years ago. Boeing told airlines their pilots could switch from the older 737NG to the new MAX without costly flight simulator training and without compromising on safety, three former Boeing employees said.

At the time billions of dollars in plane orders hung on Boeing’s ability to deliver a new plane that matched European rival Airbus SE in performance but kept changes and training for pilots converting from a previous model to a minimum. Airbus had already booked hundreds of orders for its A320neo jet, which came to market nine months ahead of Boeing.

At Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, managers told engineers working on the MAX, including its anti-stall system known as MCAS, their designs could not trigger Level C or D training designations from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the three former Boeing employees and a senior industry executive with knowledge of MAX development told Reuters. Otherwise, pilots would have to spend time in simulators before flying the new planes. Instead pilots will need to complete a roughly 30-minute training program on a computer.

“Boeing said all along that we believe that we can design this new MAX with all the fuel efficiencies and design improvements over the NG and it will only require Level B training,” said a former Boeing test pilot with direct knowledge of the matter, referring to an earlier iteration of the 737 jetliner.

Level B training does not involve simulators.

On Wednesday, Boeing outlined a series of changes to the MCAS system. It continues to believe existing emergency protocols allow pilots to correct a runaway stabilizer, which can be caused by a MCAS failure among other things. Boeing says its new changes give pilots more authority. (Graphic: Understanding controls on the Boeing 737 MAX, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2OjLSAt)

SYSTEM UNDER SCRUTINY

The amount and quality of training that Boeing and airlines provided to 737 MAX pilots is one of the issues as investigators around the world try to determine the causes of two 737 MAX crashes within five months that claimed 346 lives. All 737 MAX airliners are grounded until regulators around the world approve the new software and training protocols.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Boeing’s development process and what Boeing disclosed about MCAS.

A Boeing spokeswoman said the company followed industry standards and conducted thorough safety analyses in designing the MAX flight controls and other systems.

“The design and certification of the MCAS flight control law adhered to these processes and assumptions,” she said.

The decisions to avoid simulator training had their roots in the company’s decision under intense pressure from the aircraft market over a weekend in 2011 to change strategy and outfit an upgraded 737 with more efficient engines similar to those on the new Airbus, rather than build an all-new design.

The new 737 MAX engines had to be mounted further forward on the wing, raising the risk that the plane’s nose would tilt up, threatening a stall in some situations.

MCAS was designed to automatically and powerfully push the nose down if data from an “angle of attack” sensor mounted near the front of the plane showed risk of a stall.

Former Boeing engineers who worked on MCAS said there was no pressure to compromise safety. After analyzing solutions for MCAS, Boeing’s engineers chose a simpler design for solving the jet’s pitch-up tendency, according to the three former Boeing employees and an industry executive with knowledge of the decision.

“It wasn’t necessarily the simplest way to get around the regulations,” said Mike Renzelmann, a former Boeing engineer who worked on flight controls on the 737 MAX. “It was the safest way to get around the regulations.”

MCAS was just one of many so-called control laws on the 737 MAX, a few lines of code embedded into the flight control system.

“It’s always a balance between complexity and availability of the function. The more complex you make something, the more likely it is to be unavailable when you need it,” a Boeing official said.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE Boeing rated MCAS a “hazardous” risk, an FAA term that means multiple deaths could result if the system failed, the Boeing official said. That is a step below “catastrophic,” which could cause loss of the plane and death of all on board.

Boeing’s rationale was that trained pilots would know how to respond if MCAS failed, the official said. Long-established procedures for runaway stabilizer trim would prompt pilots to shut down MCAS, whether they knew it existed or not.

Under FAA rules, hazardous risks are allowed to happen more frequently than catastrophic ones.

One industry source familiar with plane certification said he was “astonished” that Boeing was able to gain FAA approval for the MCAS system with one angle of attack sensor and pilots as backup.

“In reality, no single device is that robust and reliable which is why there needs to be mitigations,” he said.

On Wednesday, Boeing said the MCAS system would now rely on two sensors.

During nine to 12 months of MAX flight testing, test pilots injected errors into the flight system that tested stall conditions and runaway stabilizer, among other scenarios, the people said. But no one was aware of a specific test of an MCAS failure mode triggered by erroneous sensor data.

“The problem with these two accidents is that there were failure modes that people didn’t analyze properly or consider they could happen that way,” according to an FAA official with direct knowledge of the 737 MAX certification.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Allison Lampert and Alwyn Scott in New York; Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, David Shepardson in Washington and Jamie Freed in Singapore; Editing by Joe White and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

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Inside the Fed’s balance sheet in four charts

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell holds news conference following two-day policy meeting in Washington
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds a news conference following the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, U.S., March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

March 21, 2019

By Dan Burns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve will remain the top holder of U.S. Treasuries for the foreseeable future after the central bank said it would stop shrinking its $4 trillion balance sheet by the end of September.

So just what is inside this vast holding of assets?

Before the financial crisis struck in late 2007, the Fed’s balance sheet was less than a quarter of its current size and consisted almost entirely of Treasury securities.

Then, to help foster an economic recovery, the Fed went on a buying binge that ran from the end of 2008 to late 2014 in three phases, a program known as quantitative easing (QE). It bought a mix of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and over those six years its balance sheet mushroomed nearly five-fold.

Today, Treasuries account for just 55 percent of the assets on the Fed’s balance sheet. The other big chunk is MBS at about 40 percent. The remainder is a hodge-podge of other assets, including gold.

The Fed would like to get back to a balance sheet consisting mostly of Treasuries.

(GRAPHIC: The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet – https://tmsnrt.rs/2ULcay0)

But not all Treasuries are the same. These securities range in maturity from 1-month bills to 30-year bonds, and the Fed has held a different mix of these over time.

Ahead of the crisis, its preference was for short-term securities such as T-bills, which mature in a year or less, and shorter-dated notes, typically maturing in no more than five years.

The needs of the QE program changed that, and the program’s priorities also shifted over time. The result was that the composition of the Treasuries portfolio is markedly different today than it was a decade ago.

(GRAPHIC: How the Fed’s Treasury portfolio has changed – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HzaYdX)

Before the crisis, for instance, notes maturing between five and 10 years accounted for just 7 percent of the Fed’s Treasury holdings, and the longest-term securities, maturing in 10 years or more, were around 10 percent of that portfolio.

The five-to-10 year sector shot up to as much as 52 percent of the portfolio by early 2013 when the Fed was making a concerted effort to lengthen its maturity profile to pressure long-term bond yields lower and boost the housing market. The longest-dated bonds grew to account for 25 percent, and its holding of T-bills dropped to effectively zero.

Today, the Fed’s stash of five-to-10 year paper is again its smallest bucket, just over 11 percent. Interestingly it has kept its holdings of long-dated bonds steady, and as the balance sheet has shrunk the share has risen to nearly 30 percent.

(GRAPHIC: The Fed’s Treasury holdings by maturity – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Hv6Iwd)

In his press conference detailing the Fed’s plans for its balance sheet over the long term, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he would like to see the overall balance sheet continue to shrink a bit more relative to the U.S. economy.

At its peak, the balance sheet was the equivalent of roughly 25 percent of annual U.S. economic output compared with around 6 percent before the crisis.

As a percentage of nominal gross domestic output, the balance sheet today is just 20 percent of the nearly $21 trillion U.S. economy.

Powell and his colleagues at the Fed would like to see it get down to about 17 percent, at which time they would likely begin growing the portfolio again at a pace to maintain that balance sheet-to-GDP ratio over the long term.

(GRAPHIC: The Fed’s balance sheet was a quarter of GDP – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HvdrGt)

(Writing by Dan Burns; Editing by Chris Reese)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Slack Technologies Inc, operator of the popular workplace instant-messaging app, reported a loss of $140.7 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing ahead of its planned public market debut.

The company said its daily active users exceeded 10 million in the three months ended Jan. 31, 2019.

Slack expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SK”, it said.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to go public via a direct listing, making it the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass the traditional route of listing shares through an initial public offering.

A direct listing is a cheaper way of becoming a public company as the process requires fewer investment banks and therefore lower fees.

In a direct listing, however, a company does not sell any new shares to raise money. Instead, it gives existing shareholders the opportunity to cash out.

Slack is the latest in a string of high-profile technology companies looking to go public this year. Lyft Inc, Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications have completed IPOs so far in 2019.

The company is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing, Reuters had previously reported. Some early investors and employees have been selling the stock at around $28, valuing the company close to $17 billion, Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge, a brokerage company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Slack set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Its competitors include Microsoft Teams, a free chat add-on for Microsoft’s Office365 users.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s decision to make it easier for residents of rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport is meant to test Ukraine’s new leader and the West should not recognize the documents, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the order on facilitating passports on Wednesday, three days after comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Linas Linkevicius, whose own country also has strained relations with Moscow, told Reuters in an interview that the West should consider imposing new sanctions on Russia.

“This is a blatant violation of international law. And basically also a kind of test to the new (Ukrainian) leadership, which is also a usual game,” Linkevicius said.

“The least we can do (is) we shouldn’t recognize these passports. How to do that technically, it’s another issue to discuss. Also (we need) to look at additional sanctions,” said Linkevicius, whose small Baltic nation is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for armed separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Some 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict despite a notional ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015.

Linkevicius, who in Kiev on Friday became the first minister of an EU country since Ukraine’s election to meet President-elect Zelenskiy, said they had discussed the passport issue.

Zelenskiy also raised the possibility of resetting the Minsk ceasefire agreement without giving any concessions to Russia, Linkevicius said.

“DANGEROUS CANCER” OF GRAFT

The minister urged Zelenskiy to deliver on his electoral promise of tackling corruption, which he described as the “most dangerous cancer” facing Ukraine, which hopes one day to join the EU.

Last month, Lithuania’s own relations with Russia came under renewed strain after a Vilnius court found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov, in absentia, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in a 1991 crackdown against Lithuania’s pro-independence movement.

Russia branded the verdict “extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative” and opened a probe into the judges involved.

Linkevicius accused Russia of seeking to politicize the judicial process by trying to take revenge on the judges, adding: “This is lamentable.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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A Cook County judge recently called out embattled State Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report — but dropping similar charges against embattled “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.

Foxx has faced intense criticism over her office’s decision to drop a 16-count indictment against Smollett, just weeks after bringing the charges against the high-profile TV star. Foxx’s deal with Smollett, which did not require him to admit guilt, drew ire from the public, the city’s top cop and the former mayor who called it a “whitewash of justice.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHICAGO PROSECUTOR KIM FOXX CHIDED BY NATIONAL ATTORNEYS GROUPS AFTER JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED 

Cook County Judge Marc Martin, who was presiding over an unrelated case, chastised Foxx and her office for creating a situation where anyone charged with filing a false report would expect the same leniency her office afforded Smollett.

Candace Clark, 21, is facing one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors accused her of giving a friend access to her bank account and then telling authorities the money had been stolen. She denies the charges and claims she’s the victim of Foxx’s double standard — something the judge weighed in on.

“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good. And this smells, big time,” Martin said to prosecutors during a recent hearing, Fox 32 reported. “I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”

The judge continued, “There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown. It’s not right. And (if) I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. (If the) press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February but continued to oversee the investigation through text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats.

The text messages revealed Foxx called Smollett a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” They also show she cautioned Magats about throwing the book at Smollett.

“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.

“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with four women, three of whom were underage.

KIM FOXX’S CHIEF ETHICS OFFICER RESIGNS FOLLOWING SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY

President Trump said last month he asked for a federal review of Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. He also called the actor “an absolute embarrassment to our country.”

The Smollett case garnered national attention and threatened to tear Chicago apart. It pit the police department and mayor against prosecutors and underscored the idea that wealthy people are somehow above the law.

Smollett told police he was attacked on Jan. 29 around 2 a.m. as he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. He said two masked men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, beat him and tied a rope around his neck. He claimed they shouted, “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

CLICK HERE FOF THE FOX NEWS APP

After an intense investigation, police said Smollett staged the entire incident to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett has strongly denied the accusations.

Source: Fox News National

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