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Macquarie backs drone map, electric-vehicle businesses

A man operates a drone over olive trees in Nabatieh
FILE PHOTO: A man operates a drone over olive trees in Nabatieh area, Lebanon October 25, 2018. REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi

February 19, 2019

By Joshua Franklin

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Macquarie Group, the world’s largest manager of infrastructure assets, has seeded money in a map system for drones and an electric-vehicle sharing business, it said on Monday.

The investments highlight how money managers are looking beyond traditional infrastructure projects, such as toll roads and airports, to burgeoning technologies.

“The overarching theme is that technology is revolutionizing the infrastructure world,” Stephan Feilhauer, senior vice president at Macquarie Capital, said in an interview.

Macquarie said in a statement it had backed AirMap, a provider of airspace information for drone operators, and Envoy Technologies, which offers on-demand electric vehicles in urban areas. It also put money into soil analytics company Teralytic.

The investments are part of Macquarie Capital Venture Studio (MCVS), which was set up with R/GA Ventures about a year ago to back and support emerging tech companies relating to infrastructure.

The companies will receive about $1 million of cash and support services with the possibility of a further $10-$20 million of follow-on investment, Feilhauer said.

Earlier investments out of MCVS include Zero Mass Water, which aims to produce water from sunlight and air, and cyber security start-up Mission Secure, Inc.

“Infrastructure technology, or ‘InfraTech’ is a crucial theme for Macquarie and we absolutely look to continue making further investments in that space,” said Feilhauer.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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Shares in Australia’s Crown tumble after Wynn walks from takeover talks

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne, Australia, June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed

April 10, 2019

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Shares in Australian casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd tumbled on Wednesday after U.S. casino giant Wynn Resorts Ltd abruptly ended takeover talks overnight.

Wynn, the world’s second-largest casino operator, had proposed a buyout valuing Crown at A$10 billion ($7.1 billion), Crown disclosed on Tuesday, but it walked away from the deal after details of the offer became public.

Crown shares fell 10 percent to A$12.50 at the open of trade while the broader market opened 0.1 percent lower.

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Paulina Duran; Editing by Michael Perry)

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Ocasio-Cortez says Biden presidential run would be going back, instead of moving forward

Democratic rising star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not revealed who she will endorse as her party’s 2020 presidential candidate but said Sunday that hopes it’s not former Vice President Joe Biden.

The freshman congresswoman from New York told Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery” that she will support whoever wins the nomination, but said a bid by Biden would be going backward, instead of forward.

“That does not particularly animate right now,” she said, adding that she has “a lot of issues” with a potential Biden run.

“I can understand why people would be excited by that, this idea that we can go back to the good old days with Obama, with Obama’s vice president. There’s an emotional element to that, but I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward.”

FULL COVERAGE OF THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

There is a packed field with at least 18 Democrats have entered the presidential race – including Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., who announced his run on Sunday. Biden, who is projected to be a front runner in the race, has not yet said he’s running.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was an organizer for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, said she was still supportive of the Vermont senator’s run, but that other candidates have also caught her attention.

“I haven’t endorsed anybody, but I’m very supportive of Bernie,” she told “Skullduggery.” “I also think what Elizabeth Warren has been bringing to the table is … truly remarkable, truly remarkable and transformational.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The 29-year-old, who is currently too young to be eligible for the presidential office, remained demure when asked if she would one day make a run.

“I think about it every once in a while, but … this is pretty hard already,” she said.

Source: Fox News Politics

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The Latest: Ethiopian Airlines: Probe of recorders begins

The Latest on Ethiopian Airlines crash (all times local):

11:05 a.m.

Ethiopian Airlines says the investigation in France has begun into the flight data and voice recorders of the plane that crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 on board.

The airline says in a Twitter post that an Ethiopian delegation led by the chief investigator of its accident investigation bureau has arrived at the facilities of the French air accident investigation authority.

The French agency has said it was unclear whether the data could be retrieved. It shared a photo of the data recorder, which appeared intact though the edge appeared somewhat mangled.

___

10:30 a.m.

The pilot of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed requested permission "in a panicky voice" to return to the airport shortly after takeoff, The New York Times reports.

Friday's report cites "a person who reviewed air traffic communications" from Sunday's flight saying controllers noticed the plane was moving up and down by hundreds of feet, with its speed appearing unusually fast.

An airline spokesman has said the pilot was given permission to return. But the plane crashed minutes later outside Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board.

French authorities now have the plane's flight data and voice recorders for analysis.

In Ethiopia, officials have started taking DNA samples from victims' family members to assist in identifying remains.

Countries including the United States have grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8.

Source: Fox News World

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Trump says he looks forward to big trade deal with UK

U.S. President Trump departs for Alabama from the White House in Washington
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs to visit storm-hit areas of Alabama from the White House in Washington, U.S., March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

March 14, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he anticipated a “large scale” trade agreement with the United Kingdom, as the British government grapples with its Brexit deal with Europe and a possible delay.

“My Administration looks forward to negotiating a large scale Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. The potential is unlimited!” Trump tweeted.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey)

Source: OANN

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Factbox: German exposure to U.S. tariffs on European car imports

FILE PHOTO - A U.S. flag flutters in the wind above a Volkswagen dealership in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO - A U.S. flag flutters in the wind above a Volkswagen dealership in Carlsbad, California, U.S. May 2, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

February 22, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump this week warned EU policymakers that the United States would impose tariffs on European car imports if a trade deal could not be reached.

Washington has said a 25 percent tariff on cars sourced from the European Union could be imposed on national security grounds, a step that European policymakers have called unwarranted.

German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, which have large plants in the United States, could be among the hardest hit.

EXPORTS TO THE UNITED STATES

The United States bought 27.2 billion euros’ ($31 billion) worth of German vehicles and components last year, making it the largest export market for the German auto industry, according to statistics released by Berlin’s Federal Statistics office this week.

Together the Germans, including VW, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz BMW and Audi, sold 1.34 million cars and vans in the United States last year, according to German auto industry association VDA.

German companies built 750,000 luxury cars at U.S. plants, of which 44 percent were sold locally and the rest exported overseas, including 95,000 cars to China.

Around 690,000 German vehicles sold in the United States last year were imported from factories within the European Union, of which 470,000 came from German plants, VDA said.

DAIMLER

For Daimler-owned Mercedes-Benz, the United States is the second most important sales market globally, behind China. Around 316,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles were sold in the United States in 2018, or around 14 percent of the brand’s global sales. Parent company Daimler declined to comment on how many cars were exported from Europe to the United States.

Daimler’s U.S. factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama has a production capacity of 300,000 vehicles and employs 3,700 people. It makes the GLE, GLE Coupe and GLS models.

BMW

The Munich-based carmaker which owns the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said it sold 355,000 cars in the United States last year and exported 102,354 cars from its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to Europe. The BMW brand on its own sold 311,014 cars.

Around 70 percent of the total production in Spartanburg, which builds BMW X3, X4, X5 and X6 vehicles, is exported outside of the United States, including 48,537 cars to China, 29,205 to Germany and 16,864 to the United Kingdom.

VOLKSWAGEN

Volkswagen Group, which also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche brands, delivered 638,300 cars in the United States in 2018.

The multi-brand group imported 301,200 VW and Audi cars from Mexico to the U.S. and a further 236,000 cars from Europe.

VW brand sold 354,064 cars in the U.S. last year of which 101,100 were built locally at a VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

VW’s premium brand Audi sold 223,000 cars in the United States last year, of which 153,000 were imported from Europe and around 70,000 Audi Q5 sports utility vehicles from Mexico.

VW’s other sportscar brand Porsche sold 57,000 cars in the United States. Neither Audi nor Porsche has a factory in the U.S.

Analysts at Evercore ISI estimate that VW Group faces a 2.549 billion euro impact if the United States goes ahead and imposes a 25 percent tariff on imports from the EU. Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz and Smart, faces a 2 billion euro tariff hit while BMW, which owns Mini and Rolls-Royce, will take a 1.7 billion euro blow, Evercore said.

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Jan Schwartz, Edward Taylor; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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China tech firms, seeking passion and energy, promote younger staff

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a poster showing the QR codes for job-seeking information during an internet expo at the fifth WIC in Wuzhen
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a poster showing the QR codes for job-seeking information during an internet expo at the fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

March 25, 2019

By Sijia Jiang and Pei Li

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese tech giants are in the hunt for young, energetic staff to take the place, in some cases, of veteran managers.

The companies deny that the moves, which are worrying some older employees, reflect any discrimination based on age. Explicit age discrimination is illegal in many countries, though not in China.

Chinese tech companies are known to prefer young workers, in part because of demands such as the so-called “996” schedule that asks employees to work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.

On Thursday, Tencent Holdings confirmed plans to reshuffle 10 percent of its managers.

“Let some older members of management retire from their positions,” Tencent Holdings President Martin Lau said. “Their jobs will be taken up by younger people, new colleagues who may be more passionate.”

Asked to elaborate on the reshuffle, Tencent cited its annual report as stating its employment practice complies with laws and regulations and “does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, race, disability, age, religious belief, sexual orientation or family status”.

Analysts said the move to promote younger managers is driven in part by the rise of a new generation of Chinese internet companies such as Pinduoduo and Bytedance, which are mostly run by entrepreneurs and engineers born in the 1980s or 1990s.

“The environment and external pressures are pushing these companies to reform, if the leadership is too old, it’s easy for them to fall behind,” said Li Chengdong, a Beijing-based tech analyst who used to work at Tencent and e-commerce giant JD.com Inc.

“In the U.S. and Europe you rarely see companies going through structural reform every other year, but it’s quite common in China… core leadership can be replaced within a very short amount of time.”

RETIREMENT PLAN

At Baidu, CEO Robin Li said in an internal letter – which the company made public – that it plans to accelerate efforts to become more youthful this year by promoting more workers born after 1980, and also announced an executive retirement plan.

The first executive to leave under that plan is its president for new business, Zhang Yaqin, who will retire in October, Li said. Local media reported Zhang’s age as 53.  

“For senior managers which have worked hard for the company and accompanied its growth, if they want to choose a new life because of personal or family reasons, we will take care of them under the executive retirement plan,” Li wrote.

A Baidu spokesman said that age is not a factor in whether managers chose to retire or not and that it was up to them if they wanted to join the plan.

Lei Jun, chief of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, said at a news conference on March 20 that the company was appointing new, younger general department managers as part of an organisational restructuring.

A Xiaomi spokesman said the company was not cutting the senior management team but that it needed to promote “younger talents” to support its rapid expansion.

Chinese tech workers in their 30s and 40s told Reuters they had come to accept the industry’s preference for youth but worried that it was becoming more extreme, especially in up-and-coming fields such as artificial intelligence.

“I’m not worrying so much about losing my job, but certainly there is worry that I will not get promoted,” said a 38-year-old engineer at JD.com. Like other employees interviewed for this story, he declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

A JD.com spokeswoman said it did not discriminate and that any high-performing employee is eligible for promotion.

LONGER TIME TO PROGRESS

A 29-year-old female programmer for one of China’s top short video platforms said ageism was of greater concern to women.

“It can take a longer time for women to progress to the better jobs, so the age restriction more heavily affects women,” she said. “There is definitely the feeling that if you are older, you won’t understand the product.”

Older workers have few legal options.

“The only recourse Chinese workers have is if they’re not properly compensated once they’re laid off,” said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based labour rights group.

While age discrimination is illegal in the United States, it is often hard to prove. Bias in favour of younger workers often shows itself openly in the Silicon Valley start-up scene, where investors often prefer to back entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s.

In China, some in the tech industry said older employees could still get ahead if they were top performers. At telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, known for an aggressive internal culture where everyone’s contract is up for renewal every few years, one employee defended the approach as common in the industry. Huawei declined to comment.

“Companies are moving away from the traditional iron rice bowl type of mentality,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing and Josh Horwitz in SHANGHAI; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Richard Borsuk)

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

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