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Short European equities ‘most crowded’ trade in BAML survey

The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

March 19, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Fund managers have named bearish bets in European equities as the “most crowded” trade for the first time, replacing emerging markets, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s March survey released on Tuesday.

Investors have shunned European stocks for some time, betting the market would be weaker compared with the United States and other regions as euro-zone economic growth slows and Britain’s chaotic exit from the European Union raises worries about disruption to its economy.

A slowdown in China, the world’s No. 2 economy, topped the list of biggest tail risks, ousting the trade war, which had been at the forefront of investor concerns for the previous nine months, the survey showed.

BAML’s March survey – conducted between March 8-14, with 239 panelists managing $664 billion in total – also showed investor risk appetite continued to fall, with global equity allocations remaining at September 2016 lows.

(Reporting by Josephine Mason, Editing by Helen Reid)

Source: OANN

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GRAPHIC IMAGE: Frank Cali’s killing recalls NYC’s last major mob hit decades ago

The murder of reputed Gambino crime family boss Frank Cali on Wednesday recalled New York City’s last major mob hit nearly 35 years ago: the assassination of Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steak house on a December afternoon in 1985.

Castellano, who at the time was the 70-year-old reputed leader of the same family, which was seen as the nation's largest and most powerful crime organization at the time, was gunned down outside of New York City's Spark's Steakhouse on 46th St.

FRANK CALI, REPUTED GAMBINO CRIME FAMILY BOSS, FATALLY SHOT OUTSIDE STATEN ISLAND HOME: REPORTS

After exiting a limousine outside the restaurant, Castellano and his underboss, Thomas Bilotti, were approached by three men in trench coats who shot them each about six times, the New York Times reported at the time.

Detectives stand over the body of reputed mob boss Paul Castellano, after his execution outside of Spark's Steakhouse on 46th St. in Dec. 1985. The Body of Castellano's chauffeur, Thomas Bilotti, lies partially covered in the street, far left. (Photo By: Tom Monaster/NY Daily News via Getty Images)

Detectives stand over the body of reputed mob boss Paul Castellano, after his execution outside of Spark's Steakhouse on 46th St. in Dec. 1985. The Body of Castellano's chauffeur, Thomas Bilotti, lies partially covered in the street, far left. (Photo By: Tom Monaster/NY Daily News via Getty Images)

His murder was orchestrated by John Gotti in a power move that would see him become head of the family, according to testimony by mafia underboss Salvatore Gravano. Gravano said he and Gotti watched the execution from a car nearby.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, who at the time was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, condemned the killings and vowed to find those responsible.

LEGENDARY NYC MAFIA BOSS CARMINE PERSICO DIES BEHIND BARS AT 85

"Everyone should be outraged at something like this," Giuliani told the paper at the time. "Law enforcement has an obligation to investigate it fully and to try and identify and prosecute those people who are responsible for it. A murder makes the whole world a little bit less safe for everybody - no matter who is murdered."

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Castellano, known as “The Howard Hughes of the Mob” and “Big Paulie,” succeeded Carlo Gambino after his death in 1975, becoming the acting boss of the Gambino crime family.

Source: Fox News National

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Angela Merkel’s Legacy Is Chaos

“Germany has plunged into unprecedented political chaos,” a headline dramatically proclaimed in the prestigious international Foreign Policy magazine in the wake of the German elections in fall 2017.

As different parties negotiated for months to find a majority to govern, the writer of the piece, Paul Hockenos from Berlin, felt that the bad results for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) showed that “Merkel’s train wreck raises the question of her ability to lead the party and the nation.”

It is a question that even after the CDU agreed to a renewed coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) – another “Grand Coalition” between the two grand old parties of the country, was asked again and again. An unstable government with historically low popularity numbers drifted from one crisis to another, almost collapsing seemingly every other month – like in June 2018, when the Bavarian sister party of the CDU, the CSU, threatened to end the coalition over the governments’ refugee policy. At times, Germany, of all countries, having always been immune in years past to political chaos, seemed close to getting the politics that states like Italy, Greece, or France, have had to bear with for a long time. Indeed, German society was as polarized as ever, as parties on both the far-right as well as the far-left (or, the “far-Green”) were gaining steam.

And so Merkel stepped down. After taking major beatings in state elections in Bavaria and Hesse earlier last fall, the 13-year-chancellor of Europe’s largest economy announced that she would leave her position of CDU party leader in December and would sooner than later retire as head of government as well. But as her successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, or most often called simply “AKK,” was crowned at the party congress, one thing became ever clearer: with AKK, who is also known as “Merkel 2.0,” little would change. Instead, Germany looks into an uncertain future, which possibly has even more chaos, political disruption, and societal discord in store.

How did we get here? After all, just a few years ago, everything seemed just fine for Merkel and her left-wing conservatism that AKK wants to adopt, too. In contrast to most other European countries, Germany escaped the economic crisis of 2008 and the subsequent euro crisis of 2012 relatively unscathed, instead scoring solid economic growth and decreasing unemployment numbers ever since. On the world stage, Germany became a voice again that others listened to, both economically – as the home of industry and as export champion, as well as socially, being open to outsiders, and politically, as a defender of the liberal democratic order. No one has forgotten when Merkel proclaimed in 2015 that “Wir schaffen das” (“We can do it”), as refugees from the Arab world were rushing in in (hundreds of) thousands. No one will either forget when in the wake of the U.S. Presidential elections in 2016, some dubbed the chancellor as the new leader of the free world.

Much was deceiving, though. Economically, for instance, it is tough to praise Merkel for Germany’s success, considering it was the important reforms of her predecessor, the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, which put the country back on the path of success. Schröder – not Merkel, received the “Ludwig Erhard Prize” in 2016 for the pro-market policies he implemented, like his tax cuts both on corporate as well as income taxes, reductions in unemployment benefits as well as a decrease in pension benefits. When Merkel succeeded him in 2005, Germany was finally competitive again in Europe when it comes to labor costs.

Merkel, meanwhile, did very little for the German economy – except making it tougher to do business as well as find a job. Instead of lowering taxes even further like she promised, the German government introduced a minimum wage (and has increased it several times since), even decreased the pension age despite the system being in trouble already and the redistribution from the young to old having been in earnest for way too long, and conducted a costly energy transition – deciding to slowly pull out of nuclear energy production for massive subsidies in renewable energies. Electricity prices for households doubled from 2000 to 2017, and in total, the “Energiewende” could cost the country up to 1.1 trillion euros until 2050. And, perhaps most significantly, Merkel was the conductor of the drama which saw Germany bail out Greece at the height of the euro crisis, regardless of how much the population rebelled.

One can say then that Angela Merkel has become Germany’s economically most left-wing chancellor in post-war history. And as the now 64-year-old pursued this path, she alienated the business community and a big chunk of her supposedly conservative party with every day. In the battle of who would replace her, Friedrich Merz eventually came in second after AKK, only closely losing by 52 to 48 percent. The success of Merz, a strong pro-market voice who has been active in the financial industry for over a decade and even co-founded a think tank promoting the market economy, showed the split that is going through the CDU on where the biggest party of the country should head.

While the economy is one of the main reasons why the CDU is split, there is little doubt that cultural issues are the decisive factor in the increasing polarization in German society. Here also Merkel’s decisions are mainly responsible. It is, after all, her refugee policy which has caused so much dismay among voters and the rise of the first solidly right-wing party since World War II. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which at this point is most often polling above 15 percent (sometimes closing in on twenty), has overtaken the Social Democrats and is battling with the Greens for the second spot behind the weakened CDU.

While the AfD was originally founded as a party rebuking Merkel’s economic policy and the euro as a currency in principle, it has shifted farther to the right continuously since the refugee crisis began in 2015. Germans, of course, are also enraged about the economic consequences of the refugee crisis, which will cost, as some estimates put it, $86 billion only from 2016 to 2020. Not only that, though, as the incentives for incoming refugees are particularly macabre, as they are forbidden to work until their refugee request is approved, which can take years in extreme cases. Instead, they have to spend day-in, day-out in refugee centers in boredom, meanwhile taking in large amounts of money from German taxpayers.

There is little doubt, however, that the main issue German voters see in the refugee crisis is a cultural one. With more than one million Arabs and North Africans entering the country in 2015 alone (and many more, though less quick, ever since), the cultural change has been as disruptive and rapid as ever before. Far-right voices from the AfD to the anti-immigrant Pegida, a group which has been protesting the refugee policy especially in the Eastern German city Dresden ever since the crisis commenced, often focus on the phenomenon of the so-called “Rapefugees,” i.e. higher crime rates and especially rapes by refugees. It is a phenomenon which seems to be more of a populist invention than reality outside of the shocking incident in Cologne, when mass sexual assaults by Arabs occurred on New Year’s Eve 2015.

In general, the anger of many Germans seems to stem more from the deep cultural change Germany has experienced in a matter of less than five years, with (much) more to come (refugees in general have more children than German citizens). Some call it “Islamization,” which is exaggerated, and headline producing cases like the small village of Sumte, which had one hundred inhabitants until 700 refugees where moved there, are extreme and rare. Nonetheless, there are new challenges Germans have to deal with. People who have lived in their community for decades are suddenly confronted with many newcomers whom they do not know, whose culture they have never been in contact with and which they often see as dangerous, all the while those very newcomers are not very well integrated yet.

But the debate goes deeper than that: it is a debate on the very core of both liberalism as well as the nation that is called Germany itself. It is a debate on how open or closed the country should be. What is more important? Having a cosmopolitan society or finding one’s identity? And finding one’s identity it truly is in the German case, as today’s Germans never had the same sense of national identity as almost any other nation on this planet. Rather, Germans, due to the country’s dark past, have had to deal with what went down as “German guilt,” and were never allowed to develop their own national identity and culture, in fear that the ghosts of the 1930s would come back to haunt them. In this sense, today’s debate goes to the heart of what it means to be German.

Merkel’s policy then has brought a discussion to the forefront which was brewing underneath the surface ever since the great wars of the last century. But by ignoring – or sometimes even ridiculing, and more often bedeviling, one side of the debate, the chancellor might have created exactly what she was so determined to prevent: the revival of the far-right. This might be Merkel’s biggest contribution in the end. The “leader of the free world,” who has been horrific on economics, who bailed out other countries on the back of her own, who led a monumentally expensive energy transition, and who failed to follow her predecessor in liberating the German economy, was close to fall many times over the years – and for those very reasons.

What would ultimately lead to her downfall, however, was that she – as almost everyone else in the political establishment – did not give a fair hearing to those that those that did not necessarily wanted everything to stay the same it had been, but those who simply did not want their entire surrounding to change from one day to another by the government’s hand. And to those who, regardless of whether rightfully or not, were alienated by the multiculturalism and political correctness that dominated German society – a society in which, for instance, flying a German flag outside your house could easily lead to you being deemed a fascist.

Her successor, Kramp-Karrenbauer, will in all likelihood find no solution to this. She, who is called “Mini-Merkel,” will provide more of the same. More of the same is the least anyone wants right now. And so Germany is looking into a future in which two visions – “open” versus “closed,” multiculturalists versus localists, “anywheres” vs “somewheres,” are pitted against each other, one side accusing the other of bigoted nationalism, and the other side accusing the one of cultural suicide. The only thing that is sure about this future is that it will be one of uncertainty, of chaos, and ever greater polarization.



Carpe Donktum was recently retweeted by President Trump, however that tweet was banned due to a musical copyright violation. Carpe Donktum joins Owen to discuss making meme magic about America in 2019.

Source: InfoWars

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Wife, son of suspected Indonesian militant blow themselves up: police

Police officer stand guards an area following an explosion after police arrested a suspected terrorist in Sibolga, North Sumatra province
Police officer stand guards an area following an explosion after police arrested a suspected terrorist in Sibolga, North Sumatra province, Indonesia, March 12, 2019 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Jason Gultom/ via REUTERS

March 13, 2019

By Agustinus Beo Da Costa

JAKARTA (Reuters) – The wife and son of a suspected militant Islamist blew themselves up in their home on the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Wednesday after hours of tense negotiations with counter-terrorism officers, authorities said.

The world’s largest Muslim-majority country has in recent years struggled to contain a resurgence in homegrown radicalism inspired in part by the Middle Eastern extremist group Islamic State.

Police and bomb squad officers had surrounded the house in Sibolga, North Sumatra, after arresting her husband a day earlier over his suspected links to a planned attack on a local police headquarters. The wife and child had remained in the house.

“Police, religious figures and relatives of the suspect were negotiating with the suspects and asked them to surrender but they still stayed inside,” said national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.

During a standoff lasting nearly 12 hours, the wife allegedly threw an explosive device at the security forces, wounding a police officer and a civilian.

“At 1.25 a.m. the wife of the terrorist and their son blew themselves up inside the house,” Prasetyo said, adding the force of the explosion sent debris flying at least a block away.

Police found about 30 kg of explosives at the site, according to media reports. They did not elaborate on the age of the son.

Authorities believe the husband is part of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), the largest Islamic State-linked group in the country, which was legally disbanded last year for “conducting terrorism” and affiliating itself with the foreign militant organization.

The incident is reminiscent of a series of gruesome attacks in the city of Surabaya last May, when whole families, including children as young as nine, strapped on explosive vests and blew themselves up at churches and police stations, killing more than 30 people.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which prompted the world’s largest Muslim-majority country to toughen up its anti-terror laws. Since then, counter-terrorism police looking to defuse homegrown radicalism have detained hundreds of suspected militants.

Under the revised law, anyone suspected of planning an attack can be held for up to 21 days for an initial inquiry and for up to 200 days for a formal investigation.

(Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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BOE tells some UK lenders to triple amount of liquid assets before Brexit: FT

An adjacent building throws a shadow accross the Bank of England in the City of London
An adjacent building throws a shadow accross the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

March 10, 2019

(Reuters) – The Bank of England has told some UK lenders to triple the amount of easy-to-sell assets they hold to help them weather any no-deal Brexit crisis, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The BOE has told some lenders to hold enough liquid assets to be able to cope with stress of 100 days, instead of the regular 30 days that BOE’s Prudential Regulation Authority rules demand, the FT reported.

A Bank of England spokeswoman said the central bank had no immediate comment.

(Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Putin, faced with ratings slump, offers Russians financial sweeteners

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Federal Assembly in Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Federal Assembly, including the State Duma parliamentarians, members of the Federation Council, regional governors and other high-ranking officials, in Moscow, Russia February 20, 2019. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS

February 20, 2019

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin offered a raft of financial sweeteners on Wednesday to hard-pressed Russians after opinion polls showed trust in him has fallen to a 13-year low and almost half the population believe the country is on the wrong track.

In his annual speech to the Russian political elite, Putin set out how he planned to raise people’s living standards and boost healthcare and education, promising he would find extra money to back the pledges.

Among his promises: More money for pensioners, mortgage and tax relief for families, and financial incentives for women to have more children.

Putin also laid out deadlines to close huge and sometimes apparently spontaneous landfill sites that have become a political sore for the Kremlin and angered many Russians who have seen them spring up near their homes, polluting the air.

“You can’t deceive people. They keenly feel hypocrisy, disrespect and any injustice. Bureaucratic red tape is of little interest to them,” Putin told lawmakers and regional leaders.

“For people what’s important is what has actually been done and how it improves their lives and their families’ lives. We need to change the situation for the better now.”

Putin also spoke of a new arms race with the United States, something that could potentially reduce funds available for social spending if it continues to escalate.

But for now, Putin said Russia was well able to afford to spend heavily on lifting people’s quality of life. He said the country’s foreign currency reserves covered the entirety of its external debt obligations for the first time and forecast the economy would be growing by over 3 percent by 2021.

“…We can now invest and focus colossal, at least for our country, colossal financial resources on (Russia’s) development. Nobody handed them to us, we did not borrow them – these funds were created by millions of our citizens. They (the funds) should be used to increase Russia’s wealth and the wellbeing of Russian families.”

Oil revenues mean Russia is not short of money. Its budget surplus this year is projected to be 1.932 trillion roubles ($29.3 billion) or 1.8 percent of gross domestic product. Russia’s foreign exchange reserves stand at $478 billion, the fifth largest in the world.

But if Putin had to scale back social spending plans to fund a wider arms race, that could further dent his ratings.

In power as either president or prime minister since 1999, Putin was re-elected last year by a landslide to another six-year presidential term. He is not under immediate political pressure and enjoys an approval rating of around 60 percent.

But his rating used to be nearly 90 percent and an opinion poll in January showed public trust in him had fallen to its lowest level in 13 years, while another survey showed this month that the number of Russians viewing the country as moving in the wrong direction was at its highest since 2006.

Pollsters attribute the souring mood to people fed up with six consecutive years of falling real incomes and unpopular government moves to raise the retirement age and hike value added tax.

(Additonal reporting by Moscow Bureau; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source: OANN

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Google fails to disclose microphone in Nest Secure

FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London
FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London, Britain January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

February 20, 2019

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday it had made an “error” in not disclosing that its Nest Secure home security system had a built-in microphone in its devices.

Earlier this month, Google said https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/nest-secure-google-assistant Nest Secure would be getting an update and users could now enable its virtual assistant technology Google Assistant on Nest Guard.

The device’s published specifications did not mention a microphone, however the updated product page https://nest.com/alarm-system/tech-specs/#nest-guard-heading now mentions one.

“The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part. The microphone has never been on and is only activated when users specifically enable the option,” Google said.

Nest, which Google acquired for $3.2 billion in 2014, sells video doorbells, security cameras and thermostats that automatically adjust settings based on user behavior.

Alphabet merged Nest, which had operated as an independent unit, into its Google hardware group last year.

(Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

Source: OANN

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Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk
Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk, Belarus April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

April 26, 2019

By Katya Golubkova and Andrei Makhovsky

MOSCOW/MINSK (Reuters) – Russia is confident it can soon resolve a problem of polluted Russian oil contaminating a major pipeline serving Europe and affecting supplies as far west as Germany, a senior official said on Friday at talks with importers about the issue.

Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin did not give a precise timeframe but Moscow has previously said it would pump clean oil to the border with Belarus from April 29, seeking to end a crisis hitting the world’s second-largest crude exporter.

Sorokin was speaking at talks with officials from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine in Minsk on the issue. Belarus said the issue had cost it $100 million, while analysts say alternative supply routes for refiners cannot fully fill the gap.

Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline. Halting those supplies has knock-on effects further along the network.

The problem arose last week when an unidentified Russian producer contaminated oil with high levels of organic chloride used to boost oil output but which must be separated before shipment as it can destroy refining equipment.

Russia’s Energy Ministry said pipeline monopoly Transneft and other Russian companies had a plan to mitigate the effects of the contaminated oil. It did not give details.

Russian officials have said contaminated oil has already been pumped into storage in Russia and Friday’s talks would focus on how to partially withdraw the tainted crude from the Druzhba pipeline running via other countries.

The suspension cuts off a major supply route for Polish refineries owned by Poland’s PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos, as well as plants in Germany owned by Total, Shell, Eni and Rosneft.

Some refiners have outlined plans for alternative supplies, but analysts say other routes cannot meet the shortfall.

OIL PRICES

Ukraine’s Ukrtransnafta suspended the transit of oil through the pipeline on Thursday, closing supplies via Druzhba’s southern route to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The pipeline issue, which has supported global oil prices, lifted Russian Urals crude differentials to an all-time high on Thursday.

With pipeline supplies to Europe shut, Russia faces a challenge of how to divert about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) that was meant to be shipped through the network to other destinations at the time when export capacity is at its limits.

State-run Russian Railways held talks with energy firms on using up to 5,000 rail tankers to transport crude, RIA news agency reported on Friday.

Concerns about the quality of Urals crude also caused delays in loadings at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, when buyers refused to lift cargoes, resulting in a brief shutdown of the port on Wednesday and Thursday. An Ust-Luga official and traders said on Friday loadings had resumed.

Russian loading plans indicate it aims to boost Urals exports in May before the expiry of a deal on output cuts agreed with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Reuters calculations and Energy Ministry data show.

The provisional loading plan for Russia’s Baltic Sea ports and Novorossiisk in May show exports rising to 10.7 million tonnes, the highest level in half a decade.

Minsk estimated its loss from lower oil product exports due to contaminated Russian oil at around $100 million, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing Belarusian state oil company Belneftekhim.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, in charge of government energy policy, said this week that those found responsible for contaminating the oil could be fined. He did not provide names.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko in WARSAW, Sandor Peto in BUDAPEST, Jason Hovet in PRAGUE, Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets in KIEV, Katya Golubkova, Olesya Astakhova, Gleb Gorodyankin, Olga Yagova and Maxim Rodionov in MOSCOW, Andrei Makhovsky in MINSK; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by Michael Perry and Edmund Blair)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

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.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations has blasted the United State and the European Union for imposing sanctions on his country, describing them as “economic terrorism.”

Bashar Ja’afari made his comments Friday in the Kazakh capital of Astana where Russia, Turkey and Iran held a new round of talks with the Syrian government and the opposition on steps to bring peace to the country.

His comments came as government-held parts of Syria are witnessing widespread fuel shortages that are largely the result of Western sanctions on Syria and its key ally Iran.

Ja’afari says: “This is economic terrorism that is escalating through unilateral economic measures.”

A final statement issued at the end of Astana’s 12th round rejected President Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.

Source: Fox News World

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