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Digital lenders lure unbanked Argentines out of shadow economy

Employees work at the Wilobank offices, in Buenos Aires
Employees work at the Wilobank offices, in Buenos Aires, Argentina March 20, 2019. Picture taken March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

April 8, 2019

By Eliana Raszewski

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – María Rosales, 39, is one of millions of less affluent Argentines locked out of the traditional financial sector. The former cruise ship worker lost her job in 2015 and has relied on her family for financial support to stay afloat since.

Now her small pot of savings is in demand from a new group of lenders: digital banks on the hunt to mop up funds from the country’s huge shadow economy.

The nascent shift could shake up how people save their money in a market noticeable for a heavy reliance on cash, a paucity of bank savings and little trust in traditional banks or the volatile local peso, which lost half its value against the dollar last year.

Argentine bank deposits as a portion of gross domestic product are just 18.8 percent, according to a recent OECD report, which said the country had a “scarcity of domestic savings.”

That compares to nearly 60 percent in neighboring Brazil. In Mexico, which has also been promoting alternatives to traditional banking, it is almost 30 percent.

“I do not know if there is a sector in Argentina as behind as the financial one,” Stefano Angeli, chief executive of Rebanking, a digital bank which will start operations in May, told Reuters.

“We believe digital banking will be the way to develop this business in the long term.”

As well as start-ups, international lenders are looking at getting into Argentina’s digital banking market. Banco Santander has said its digital bank will launch in the country soon, while Brazil’s Itau Unibanco said last year it was looking at opening online-only accounts in Argentina.

When Rosales became unemployed her former bank started to charge her to keep her old account open and she did not have the paperwork such as payslips and utility bills needed to open a new one.

Instead, she turned to local digital lender Wilobank, which touts easy access and gives her some interest on her savings – important with inflation running at 50 percent annually.

“You become a client in minutes without going anywhere,” Wilobank says on its website.

Rival Brubank says, “You will need a few minutes. Have your national identity document at hand and that’s it.”

Lucas Llach, a former vice president at Argentina’s central bank who focused on financial inclusion, said the shift was logical, with so many people unable to access brick-and-mortar banks.

“There is a population that does not feel welcome (in traditional banks),” he told Reuters, adding the advent of digital lenders could help the government by bringing more funds out of the unregulated shadow sector.

“Technology lowers the costs of banking, and with these new technologies – where everything is digital – it becomes profitable to have lower-income clients.”

‘IT’S A TEST’

Firms like online auction company MercadoLibre Inc, recently invested in by PayPal, and George Soros-backed Uala are also pushing technology such as digital wallets and payment apps.

“There is a market because there are many people who are not banked, who do not want the costs of traditional banks,” Wilobank President Guillermo Francos told Reuters.

Wilobank said it has attracted 25,000 clients in its first six months of operation, and expects to hit 100,000 by the end of the year and 300,000 by late 2020.

The government has sought to help the sector, cutting red tape and making it faster to set up new banks.

A central bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this could help force established lenders to become more competitive, something the bank has been pushing for to bolster savings accounts and shore up the local peso.

Digital banking heads told Reuters they were looking to reinvest deposits into the same kinds of instruments traditional banks use, including high-interest government debt that has been a boon for lenders.

Luring hard-hit Argentines back to the financial sector will not be easy, however. Many lost their savings during a major financial crisis in 2002, since when a sharp devaluation of the peso and a period of currency controls battered trust in banks.

Nicolás Cánepa, a 39-year-old scientific researcher, is wary but curious. He opened a digital account earlier this year and got a credit and debit card within a week.

“I kept the accounts I have in traditional banks because I get some benefits,” he said in a telephone interview, adding however he got a better interest rate on the new digital account.

“I did not put all my salary in. For now it’s a test.”

(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O’Brien)

Source: OANN

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Watchdog Urges '20 Candidates to Release Tax Returns

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is urging all 2020 presidential candidates to release their tax returns for the past 10 years.

"Four years after Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president, we have still not seen his tax returns, despite reporting that suggests that those returns may show evidence of criminality and despite the fact that releasing them would be one of the best ways to illuminate potential conflicts of interest," the watchdog group said in a statement on its website.

CREW called on all presidential candidates to release their returns from at least the past 10 years "so that all Americans can compare what each candidate has released and read the returns themselves."

The group is tracking which 2020 candidates have released their returns.

CREW's call for tax returns was detailed in a report by The Hill. It noted so far only two Democrats have released at least 10 years of returns – Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

Meanwhile, The Hill reported House Democrats plan to try to get Trump's tax returns by requesting them from the Treasury Department.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Christchurch shootings continue to ripple in NZ sports

Members of the Bangladesh cricket team arrive to depart for Bangladesh from Christchurch International Airport in New Zealand
Members of the Bangladesh cricket team arrive to depart for Bangladesh from Christchurch International Airport in New Zealand March 16, 2019, in this still image from video obtained from social media. Bangladesh Cricket Board/via REUTERS

March 16, 2019

By Greg Stutchbury

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s worst peacetime mass killing rippled through the country’s top-class sports on Saturday with two high profile events canceled and the first class cricket title being decided without a ball being bowled in the final round of matches.

A lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 20 during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch in the country’s worst mass shooting which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned as “a terrorist attack”.

The shootings resulted in the cancellation of the third cricket test between New Zealand and Bangladesh, whose team were on a bus approaching one of the mosques, and the Super Rugby clash between the Otago Highlanders and Canterbury Crusaders in Dunedin.

The test was due to start at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday, but the Bangladesh team left New Zealand less than 24 hours after the shooting and about an hour after the initial scheduled start time.

The Canterbury cricket team, one of six first-class sides in New Zealand’s domestic Plunket Shield competition, also chose to abandon their final round match in Wellington, which gave the title to Central Districts.

Canterbury were the only side with a mathematical chance of catching Central Districts in the final round of games, but their decision not to travel to Wellington gave the title to last year’s winners.

Canterbury Cricket chief executive Jeremy Curwin said his organization had consulted with the players, who were given the opportunity to make their decision whether to play the final game as individuals or collectively.

“The team showed a united front in terms of the decision, Curwin said in a statement.

“It is clear that this tragedy will affect people in different ways, and Canterbury Cricket is here to support our players however we can.

“We fully respect their decision, and I am incredibly proud of how they conducted themselves throughout this process.”

New Zealand internationals Martin Guptill and Lockie Ferguson, who play first class cricket for Auckland, also withdrew from their team’s match with Otago in Dunedin.

“Both Martin and Lockie felt personally uncomfortable making the trip to Dunedin given the events in Christchurch, and also, the feelings and concerns of their partners and families,” Auckland’s high performance manager Simon Insley said.

“We understand that at times like this, families come first.”

While the Highlanders and Crusaders match was called off, the Waikato Chiefs and Wellington Hurricanes had played their match in Hamilton on Friday, but All Blacks’ scrumhalf TJ Perenara admitted the players’ minds had also been elsewhere.

“Today was bigger than rugby,” the Hurricanes’ Perenara told reporters after the 23-23 draw on Friday.

“Regardless of how that result went, that wouldn’t have been the most important part of my day.

“I don’t think anyone … in this country, would say that rugby was the most important thing.”

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

Source: OANN

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CNN: Dem ‘sadness and disappointment and disorientation’ over no collusion

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign found no evidence of collusion with Russia, and it’s causing a lot of “sadness and disorientation and disappointment” among Democrats, according to CNN.

Van Jones, a regular political pundit and social justice crusader, appeared on CNN Tonight to discuss the results of the nearly two-year investigation with host Don Lemon, and they both had a good laugh at fellow progressives who were hoping to use Mueller’s report to take down the president.

“I’ve been trying to tell folks for a long time that there’s no Santa Claus, there’s no Harry Potter with a magic wand, and I can’t tell you how many people over the years have come up to me – serious people with their hearts broken – saying, ‘But when Bob Mueller comes, man, he’s going to get Trump and Trump’s out of there.’ ‘Van, how many days do you think Trump has left?’ And I’d say, ‘Eight years if we don’t start working on real issues and not just talking about Robert Mueller all the time,’” Jones told Lemon.

Progressives banking on the report as the smoking gun that Trump did something illegal are still reeling from the “principle conclusions” of Mueller’s report, delivered to Congress by Attorney General William Bar on Sunday, that revealed no evidence of collusion between Trump or anyone involved in his campaign and Russians accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

“And so now … there is an honest level of sadness and disappointment and disorientation among progressives and Democrats and I think it goes deeper than just, you know, what’s in the report,” Jones said.


The Mueller Report makes it clear President Trump did not “collude” with Russia to influence the 2016 election, but Democrats now claim more investigations are needed. Alex explains this tactic is moving the goal post, but is typical of the left.

“I think some of us actually feel the way we were raised was maybe wrong. That our parents told us work hard, be honest, be good people, if you’re a bad person you won’t have a good life,” he continued. “And I think some people look as some of the stuff President Trump does and they say, well that guy, isn’t that guy getting in trouble? If I did that at my job, I’d get in trouble. And I think people are just really struggling to come to terms.

“It is good the president was not up to no good with the Russians, but it’s still confusing to people. Why does he kiss up to Putin so much? Why does he want to meet with him by themselves? People are confused; well if it’s not that, what is it?”

Jones alleged Americans are also “heatbroken” the president will continue to “do stuff we can’t do and there’s no consequences.”

Jones and Lemon, a relentless critic of Trump, then contemplated why the president “tells so many lies.”

The Mueller report offers rapid anti-Trump Democrats and confused progressives an opportunity mourn the passing of the Russia collusion conspiracy, Jones said, and it’s time for Democrats to move on.

“Some of my Republican friends thinks Democrats are just purely partisan, just hate this president and want to do bad stuff to him. There are some people who feel that way, but there’s a bigger group of people that are just confused. Why does the president do these things when it comes to Russia? Why is he so mean? And why come there is no consequence?” he said.

“I think we have to give people a chance to be sad about that, and to grieve about that, but then Democrats got to get back to work on real issues because this whole thing is just taking up too much time.”

GOP strategist Alice Stewart, a former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz, didn’t disagree with Jones’ assessment.

“I think Van hit the nail on the head, Democrats are so hell-bent on being anti-Trump they’re becoming anti-American,” she said.

Source: InfoWars

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Jury finds family of 8 died by murder-suicide in cliff crash

A special coroner's jury in California ruled the deaths of two women and their six adopted children was a murder-suicide after hearing testimony that one of the women had searched death by drowning online and the other deliberately stepped on the gas, sending their SUV plunging off a cliff.

Jurors deliberated for about an hour Thursday before returning the unanimous verdicts that Jennifer and Sarah Hart killed themselves on March 26, 2018, in Mendocino County. The jury decided the six children, 12 to 19, died at the hands of another and not by accident.

Authorities had indicated they believed the crash was deliberate but wanted a jury to make official findings.

A coroner's inquest is generally used in cases involving in-custody deaths or officer-involved shootings where public interest is high and the need for transparency critical, said Mendocino County sheriff's Capt. Gregory L. Van Patten.

The deaths drew national attention, partly because the women were alleged to have abused their children. The body of Devonte Hart, 15, who was black and had gained attention when he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest in Portland, Oregon, has not been recovered.

Jurors were instructed to choose from four manners of death for each of the eight people: natural causes, suicide, accident or an intentional act by another. They sat through nearly two full days of testimony.

"It is my belief that both Jennifer and Sarah succumbed to a lot of pressure," sheriff's Lt. Shannon Barney said Thursday. "Just a lot of stuff going on in their lives, to the point where they made this conscious decision to end their lives this way and take their children's lives."

The crash happened days after authorities in Washington state opened an investigation into allegations of neglect. The bodies of both women were found in the vehicle, which landed below a cliff located more than 160 miles (250 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

The Hart family had fled their Woodland, Washington, home March 23 after a visit from social workers that day.

Jennifer Hart searched suicide, drowning, Benadryl dosages and overdose methods on the internet throughout the drive to California, said California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates. She also queried whether death by drowning would be painful. Authorities recovered the deleted searches from her phone.

"They both decided that this was going to be the end," Slates said. "That if they can't have their kids that nobody was going to have those kids."

The bodies of siblings Markis, Jeremiah and Abigail were found the same day near the car. Weeks later, the body of Ciera Hart was pulled from the Pacific Ocean. Hannah Hart was eventually identified through a DNA match.

Slates said that Jennifer Hart, who rarely drank, had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit and may have been "drinking to build up her courage." Sarah Hart had 42 doses of generic Benadryl in her system and the children also had high amounts of the sleep-inducing drug in their bodies, he said.

A neighbor of the Harts had filed a complaint with the state, saying the children were apparently being deprived of food as punishment. No one answered when social workers went to the family's home.

A witness who was camping by their vehicle says he heard their car rev up and peal out around 3 a.m. March 26.

Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a spanking given to one of her children. Oregon child welfare officials also investigated the couple in 2013, but closed the case without taking any action.

Source: Fox News National

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AI System That Writes News Can Be Misused, Creators Warn

The creators of a new artificial intelligence system that can create news stories and other pieces of written content are not making it publicly available because they said it could be misused.

Called OpenAI, the system uses AI to write text based simply on a suggested headline for the piece. Reuters reported the company is backed by several Silicon Valley heavyweights, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The technology could be used to churn out news stories, papers for school, and other pieces of text. But there is concern among the people behind it that it could be exploited and used for the wrong reasons, so they wrote a paper about it.

The technology, they wrote, was found to have the ability to "write news articles about scientists discovering talking unicorns."

"We're not at a stage yet where we're saying, this is a danger," OpenAI's research director Dario Amodei said. "We're trying to make people aware of these issues and start a conversation."

Researchers across nearly every industry are working on various forms of artificial intelligence, even including the Pentagon as it dreams of having soldiers control equipment with just their minds.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.

Source: NewsMax America

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Alexandre Arnault to replace his father Bernard Arnault on Carrefour board

Alexandre Arnault, CEO of Rimowa, attends the 3rd edition of the Vogue Fashion Festival in Paris
FILE PHOTO: Alexandre Arnault, CEO of Rimowa, attends the 3rd edition of the Vogue Fashion Festival in Paris, France, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

April 24, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – French billionaire Bernard Arnault’s son Alexandre will replace his father on the board of Carrefour, Europe’s largest food retailer said on Wednesday.

Luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, whose Groupe Arnault owns a 5.46 percent stake in Carrefour, resigned from the board on April 15, the statement said.

Alexandre will serve the remainder of his father’s term until the end of the general shareholders’ assembly in 2020.

Carrefour did not say why Bernard Arnault had decided to resign from the board.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Editing by Dominique Vidalon)

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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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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