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Thirty years on, U.S.-China politics and tech collide

FILE PHOTO: Pictures of the Year: U.S. Politics
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo

February 22, 2019

By Andy Bruce

LONDON (Reuters) – “U.S. EASES CURBS ON EXPORTS TO CHINA” read a Reuters headline on March 1, 1989, when Washington lifted long-standing restrictions on technology shipments to China.

On that day 30 years ago, U.S. commerce officials talked warmly of improving ties with China and of the need to help its economy — then about half the size of Italy’s — to grow, despite the objections of military strategists at the Pentagon.

Next Friday not only marks the 30th anniversary of the decision, but it is also the deadline set by President Donald Trump for a deal to end the seven-month trade war between the United States and China, now its biggest economic rival.

A different kind of technology transfer is at the center of the trade tussle that is likely to play a big part in defining the path of the world economy in years to come.

The United States has accused Beijing of forcing U.S. companies doing business in China to share their technology with local partners and hand over intellectual property secrets, charges that China denies.

More broadly, the row over trade has produced tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods, disrupting manufacturing supply chains and weighing on the global economy.

Without a deal on March 1, U.S. tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods are scheduled to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent, although Trump has said he may be flexible on the deadline if he sees progress being made.

But the current stand-off is widely seen as just part of a broader struggle for hegemony between the world’s two biggest economic powers.

“The tensions between the United States and China are obviously not just about trade,” said Paul Gruenwald, global chief economist at ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.

He said China had offered to buy more U.S. soybeans, liquid natural gas and airplanes, but the bigger issues are about intellectual and technology transfers as well as state subsidies.

“I suspect the negotiations are going to be tricky. I can’t see big changes by China,” Gruenwald said.

TECH-TAC-TOE

Negotiators are drawing up six memorandums of understanding on structural issues: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and non-tariff barriers to trade, two sources familiar with the progress of the talks told Reuters in Washington.

Failure to reach a deal would have big consequences, and not only for the world’s top two economies.

In a full-blown trade war with 25 percent tariffs on all goods flowing in both directions, China could lose up to 171 billion euros ($194 billion) in exports to the United States — around a fifth of the current annual total — according to a new report from EconPol Europe, a research network founded by Germany’s Ifo Institute.

The United States, meanwhile, would lose around 51 billion euros of exports going to China.

The winner — at least in the terms of crude mercantilism favored by some — could be Europe.

“Trump may claim victory as the U.S. manufacturing sector grows while the Chinese one shrinks, and the bilateral trade balance of the U.S. with China improves,” EconPol Europe researchers Gabriel Felbermayr and Marina Steininger said.

“However, with the EU it deteriorates and Europe’s trade (surplus) with the U.S. becomes even larger,” they added, since the United States would turn to Europe to substitute at least some of its Chinese imports.

And that could stoke further antagonism from the United States directed at the European Union, Felbermayr and Steininger said.

Trump on Wednesday said the United States would impose tariffs on European car imports if it cannot reach a trade deal with the EU.

THE BIG TRADE IS TRADE

While Trump is also due to travel to Vietnam for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S./China trade talks are more likely to be the key driver for markets, Investec economist Philip Shaw said.

“Thus far the direction of travel appears to be positive. But offsetting some of the positive tone are concerns that the U.S. administration may launch a car-based trade war with the EU,” Shaw said.

For the shorter-term prospects of the global economy, investors are waiting to hear U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell answer questions from lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Powell and his fellow Fed rate-setters have adopted a new “patient” approach to further interest rate hikes, putting their three-year-old policy tightening on hold.

In Britain, the Brexit process faces a potentially important moment with another vote expected on Wednesday in parliament about Prime Minister Theresa May’s strategy, after she lost the last one by a big margin.

With little more than a month to go until Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, signs of a major breakthrough in talks between Brussels and London remain elusive.

“We think there is a fairly high chance now that the Brexit deadline will be pushed back,” wrote economists at ING.

“The question nobody really has the answer to is how long might an extension last?”

($1 = 0.8817 euros)

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Additional reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Source: OANN

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Vale minority shareholders push for board, voting changes: report

FILE PHOTO: Logo of the Brazilian mining company Vale SA is seen in Brumadinho
FILE PHOTO: A logo of the Brazilian mining company Vale SA is seen in Brumadinho, Brazil January 29, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File photo

April 8, 2019

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A group of minority shareholders in Brazilian iron ore maker Vale SA have proposed an alternative board member to challenge the independent members within the group of 13 candidates presented by the company’s board, newspaper Valor Economico reported.

Broker Vic DTVM and fund Geracao Futuro Lpar proposed Patricia Bentes as an independent member and proposed the election be held using a cumulative voting system. Bentes has been a board member of different Brazilian listed power companies and is currently on the board of Cemig as well as a business professor at a Rio de Janeiro university.

That would mean board members would be elected independently and not in a single vote approving all names proposed by the board. Cumulative voting can only be required by shareholders holding at least 5 percent of the company’s capital. The matter will be put to a vote at an April 30 shareholders meeting.

The pressure from minority shareholders reflects skepticism toward Vale’s board and management after a mining dam burst in the town of Brumadinho, killing some 300 people, in the second such disaster in the region in recent years.

The board elected this year will oversee the last year of an agreement overseeing controlling shareholder group Litel, which holds the stakes of pension funds, holding company Bradespar SA and Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd, set to expire in November 2020.

Vale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Working for the weekend: China extends holiday to spur consumers

A man is seen walking under mannequins at a shopping mall in Beijing
A man is seen walking under mannequins at a shopping mall in Beijing April 10, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

March 22, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is extending a public holiday to get people to travel and spend more as the government pins its hopes on a vast consumer base to help cushion an economic slowdown.

People can have two more days off for the Labour Day holidays that start on May 1, which falls on a Wednesday this year, creating a 4-day break through May 4 to encourage more travel, the state council said on Friday.

To compensate for the extra time off, people will have to work on April 28 and May 5, both Sundays.

Retail sales growth slid to the lowest in over a decade last year as consumers bought fewer cars, electronics and home appliances.

The Labour Day holidays are one of the peak seasons for people to travel and spend in China.

It was reduced to a one-day holiday in 2018, but the government extends the break to three or four days when it falls close to a weekend.

(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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RNC chair: 'Alarming' that no 2020 Democrat candidates came to AIPAC

The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, said Thursday the absence of Democratic presidential candidates at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC’s) annual policy conference earlier this week shows the party is “anti-Israel.”

“One of the things that is so crazy is Nancy Pelosi is now the moderate in the Democrat party. The San Francisco liberal is now the most reasonable member in her caucus,” McDaniel said on Fox & Friends.

At AIPAC, Speaker of the House Pelosi, D-Calif, said Israel has bipartisan support, looking to distance the Democratic Party from any suggestion it was anti-Semitic after freshman lawmaker Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., publicly criticized Israel and its leadership.

PELOSI, IN VEILED SWIPE AT OMAR, SAYS ANTI-SEMITISM IS 'UN-AMERICAN'

“Support for Israel remains ironclad and bipartisan,” Pelosi said when addressing the pro-Israel lobbying group’s annual policy conference in Washington. “Assistance to Israel is vital because if you care about America’s security, you must care about Israel’s security.”

Pelosi stressed that no one should be allowed to make Israel “a wedge issue,” adding “to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-American.”

Pelosi’s remarks undercut Omar, a Somali-American and one of two Muslim women in Congress, who has encountered a wave of backlash over repeated anti-Semitic comments.

TOP 2020 DEMOCRATS SNUB AIPAC CONFERENCE WITH LITTLE OR NO EXPLANATION, MARKING FAR-LEFT SHIFT ON ISRAEL

Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and others did not attend AIPAC’s annual policy conference, a move that coincided with a moneyed progressive advocacy group’s call to boycott the event.

MoveOn.org, a group that spent around $3.5 million in the 2018 midterm elections, called on the 2020 Democratic candidates to skip the conference, even though in the past all presidential candidates viewed the AIPAC gathering as a crucial campaign stop.

“It is very alarming to see that the 2020 Democrats, none of those presidential candidates showed up to AIPAC,” McDaniel said Thursday. “AIPAC is bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan, it doesn’t prefer one party or the other. They won’t even show up. The Democrat party is now anti-Israel.”

“It is very alarming to see that the 2020 Democrats, none of those presidential candidates showed up to AIPAC. AIPAC is bipartisan, it’s nonpartisan, it doesn’t prefer one party or the other. They won’t even show up. The Democrat party is now anti-Israel.”

— Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee

“The president has shown that he is a president that stands with Israel every step of the way,” McDaniel continued. She brought up several examples including the signing of the order this week recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

“Here’s the concern. If you allow this anti-Israel, anti-Semitism to seep into your party, (if) you don’t pounce it out the second that it comes in, this is dangerous for our country,” said McDaniel. “The Democrat Party is now saying 'this can coexist peacefully in our party.'”

Josh Orton, an aide to Sanders, told media outlets that the leading candidate among the Democrats did not attend because “he’s concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Other candidates provided no explanation for their decisions not to attend the conference. Gillibrand and Harris, however, did meet with constituents representing AIPAC on Capitol Hill. Harris even posted on Twitter a picture of herself standing with AIPAC leaders.

The tweet said she met with California AIPAC leaders to “to discuss the need for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, the right of Israel to defend itself, and my commitment to combat anti-Semitism in our country and around the world.”

The tweet resulted in some negative comments on the social media platform.

McDaniel also spoke out about President Trump pivoting to health care on Fox & Friends Thursday.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BACKS TOTAL OVERTURN OF OBAMACARE, WILL SUPPORT STATES CHALLENGING THE LAW

The Trump administration on Monday told a federal appeals court that the whole Affordable Care Act must be abolished, reviving the battle to repeal and replace it with something else and setting a path for a clash between President Trump and 2020 Democratic candidates embracing a “Medicare for All” system.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Capitol Hill Wednesday, “The president wants to go back to repeal and replace again. Make our day. The Republicans here in the Senate tried over and over and over again to deal with repeal and replace, they couldn’t because they have no replacement.”

“I think the president’s watching Democrats say to the American people ‘Medicare for all, Medicare for all’ what it really is, is a government takeover of your health care,” McDaniel said on Fox & Friends in response. “The president is saying there are things we do need to do to lower health care costs. We know ObamaCare is broken, the Democrat solution is a government takeover. The president is saying ‘let’s reduce the price of prescription drugs, let’s make sure we restore the doctor-patient relationship.’ These are the things that the American people want, that’s going to lower the cost of health care and he’s focused on that.”

Justice Department attorneys filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans asking it to effectively strike down the ACA in its entirety, agreeing with the landmark ruling made by a federal judge in Texas last year.

The latest effort to completely invalidate the law may prove Congressional Democrats right, after they warned during the midterm election last year that Republicans are trying to repeal the law, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions, while Republicans denied such plans.

McDaniel called the president a “bold leader” and said he recognizes that the American people are currently concerned about health care. “Deductibles are still high, insurance prices are still high,” she said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

“The president absolutely will make sure that we have pre-existing condition coverage,” McDaniel continued. “Democrats know it’s broken, too, that’s why they are saying ‘Medicare for all.’ That is not the solution.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Canada's no-sex, no-money scandal could topple Trudeau

There's no money, no sex and nothing illegal happened. This is what passes for a scandal in Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been engulfed in allegations involving possible collusion with Russia and secret payments to buy the silence of a porn star. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a controversy that seems trivial by comparison, but it could topple him in elections later this year.

Two high-profile women ministers in Trudeau's Cabinet, including Canada's first indigenous justice minister, resigned in protest, and his top aide and best friend quit too.

The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake.

"People south of the border would be astonished to think that this is the type of scandal that they have in Canada," said Eddie Goldenberg, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Many countries would be jealous of a scandal that went no further than a prime minster asking another minister to do something she is legally entitled to do, Goldenberg said.

"I just don't really see it as a scandal," he said. "There is a political correctness here. Nobody wants to go after an indigenous woman minister. It's become politically incorrect to question the former minister."

Trudeau has said he asked Wilson-Raybould to revisit her decision not to instruct prosecutors and said she agreed to consider that. He denied applying any inappropriate pressure, saying he and his officials were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of jobs.

SNC-Lavalin has pleaded not guilty to fraud and corruption charges related to allegations it paid about $35 million (CA$47 million) in bribes to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011.

"It's a pseudo-scandal. It's crap. What the hell? You are doing business in Libya and you are not bribing?" said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. "It does suggest to me that the director of public prosecutions ... is also nuts. And so is Wilson-Raybould. These people are delusional."

Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle by Trudeau. She has testified that she believes she lost the justice job because she did not give in to "sustained" pressure to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin.

That solution would have avoided a potential criminal conviction that would bar the company from receiving any federal government business for a decade. The company is a major employer in Quebec, Trudeau's home province. It has about 9,000 employees in Canada and more than 50,000 worldwide.

The company publicly led the lobbying charge for a law that allows for deferred prosecution agreements as a way to resolve the criminal charges it faces. The new attorney general has not ruled out approving a settlement.

Wilson-Raybould has said herself that the pressure from Trudeau and others was not illegal and that she was not explicitly instructed to do a remediation agreement.

Gerald Butts, Trudeau's former principal secretary and best friend who resigned, said nothing inappropriate was alleged until after Wilson-Raybould left the Cabinet, suggesting she felt sour grapes about losing her dream job.

Opposition Conservative Andrew Scheer leader has demanded that Trudeau resign, saying he tried to interfere in a criminal prosecution. Canadian media have covered the story as intensely as American networks have covered Trump, noted Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto.

"Trudeau would not be able to get away with what Trump does because the political cultures and the state of political polarization of the two countries are still quite different," Wiseman said.

The differences among Canadian media outlets, for example, are "relatively narrow compared to the chasms between Fox and MSNBC or CNN. The American media are reporting on two different worlds. The Canadian media are reporting on the same Wilson-Raybould-Trudeau story," Wiseman added.

Daniel Beland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Trudeau has framed himself differently than Trump. Trump said sympathetic things about Russia during the campaign and was elected despite that and other controversies, giving him "the sense that he can do anything and his base will still follow him."

Trudeau, meanwhile, promised transparency while describing himself as a feminist who was also determined to right the wrongs against Canada's indigenous people. Women make up half of his cabinet.

"He depicted himself as a feminist, as someone who believes in indigenous reconciliation, and then you have two of his top female Cabinet ministers resign, and they are depicting him in a very different light," Beland said.

Trudeau said he tried to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his female Liberal party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, "I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?"

"When you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised," she also tweeted.

Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for re-election, has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, a respected Cabinet minister who said she lost confidence in how the government has handled the affair.

"It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our Attorney General should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases," Philpott wrote in the resignation letter to Trudeau.

Other Liberal lawmakers have expressed confidence in Trudeau. The federal election is in October.

Antonia Maioni, McGill University's dean of arts, said citizens of every democracy will look at the Trump scandals and say everything else is small potatoes.

But, she added, "I'm not sure Trump is a good reference point here. Leaders fall in parliamentary systems for many other reasons beyond personal scandal."

Source: Fox News World

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Sheriff: Man had 2 children with him during fatal shooting

Authorities say a North Carolina man had two young children and his girlfriend with him in a car when he fatally shot a man as he went to buy drugs.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office tells news outlets 26-year-old James Hooker of Fuquay-Varina is charged with murder and child abuse after Monday's fatal shooting. Arrest warrants indicate Hooker had a 2-week-old infant, a 1-year-old child and his girlfriend with him at the time. Investigators say 36-year-old Michael Antwan Farrington of Cary died at a hospital of a gunshot wound.

Hooker was jailed on a $100,000 bond on the child abuse charges and faced a scheduled court appearance Tuesday. Authorities didn't say whose children they were or identify them further.

It's not known if Hooker has an attorney.

Source: Fox News National

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Germany investigates hundreds of neo-Nazi emails sent to politicians, lawyers and a pop singer

German authorities are probing hundreds of threatening emails sent by supposed neo-Nazis targeting politicians, lawyers, a pop singer and others.

The anonymous emails containing bomb and other threats were signed as “National-Socialist Offensive,” “Wehrmacht” or “NSU 2.0” and prompted the police to carry out searches for bombs in two cities.

GERMANY'S NEW FAR-RIGHT PARTY USES SECRET NAZI, ANTI-SEMITIC SYMBOL AS ITS LOGO

Martina Renner, a left-wing Member of Parliament, and pop singer Helene Fischer were targeted in the email campaign, according to the BBC.

Renner’s email threatened with with letter bombs and “executions in the street.” The email, which also mentioned biological weapons, was signed “National-Socialist Offensive,” in reference to the ideology of Adolf Hitler, according to the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The main railway station in the northern German city of Lübeck on Monday and the public finance offices on Tuesday were evacuated due to the threatening emails. No bombs were reportedly found.

GERMAN FAR-RIGHT PARTY THREATENS TO START STREET PATROLS AFTER ETHNIC VIOLENCE

Fischer may have been targeted due to her outspokenness against the far-right, which she condemned last year after marches in Germany.

Other emails were directed to journalists, lawyers, the Central Council of Jews, public institutions and other prominent figures, Deutsche Welle reported.

The investigators said no bombs were found and the threats remained to be only virtual so far.

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The emails mentioning to “NSU 2.0” refer to The National Socialist Underground, a far-right extremist group that was responsible for the murder of eight random Turkish nationals in Germany between 2000 and 2007, according to the broadcaster.

Those responsible for the emails would face prosecution under laws banning incitement, blackmail and other disturbance of peace.

Source: Fox News World

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

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A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
FILE PHOTO: Pallbearers carry the coffin of journalist Lyra McKee at her funeral at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

April 26, 2019

BELFAST (Reuters) – Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity.

McKee’s killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people.

The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the peace accord, has said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead in the Creggan area of the city on Thursday when opening fire on police during a riot McKee was watching.

The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Police released footage on Friday of immediately before and after the shooting showing three men who were involved in the rioting and identified one as the gunman who they believe is in his late teens. 

“I believe that the information that can help us to bring those responsible for her murder to justice lies within the community. I need the public to tell me who he is,” Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters.

Murphy said those involved in the disorder on the night were teenagers or in their early 20s, and that about 100 people were on the ground watching the trouble as it unfolded.

He added that police believed the gun used in the attack was of a similar caliber to those used before in paramilitary type attacks in Creggan. 

“I recognize that people living in Creagan may find it’s difficult to come forward to speak to police. Today, I want to provide a personal reassurance that we are able to deal with those issues sensitively,” Murphy said, echoing similar appeals in recent days.

(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by Padraic Halpin and Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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