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Norway hikes rates, in rare example of monetary tightening

A general view of the Norwegian central bank in Oslo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Norwegian central bank in Oslo, Norway March 6, 2018. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche

March 21, 2019

By Nerijus Adomaitis and Terje Solsvik

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s central bank raised its main interest rate on Thursday, as expected, and said its next hike may come earlier then previously planned, strengthening the crown currency against the euro.

The bank raised its key policy rate to 1.0 percent from 0.75 percent previously, in line with the forecast of 23 out of 26 economists in a Reuters poll.

Norges Bank’s approach stands in contrast to those of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and others in Europe, which are keeping rates on hold due to rising uncertainty about the prospects for the global economy.

“Our current assessment of the outlook and balance of risks suggests that the policy rate will most likely be increased further in the course of the next half-year”, said Governor Oeystein Olsen.

“The rate path shows a greater probability of a rate hike than of an unchanged rate in June,” he added.

The new rate path shows the bank sees rates averaging 1.1 percent in 2019, against 1.0 percent seen previously, and 1.6 percent in 2020, against 1.4 percent before.

Following the unanimous decision, Norway’s currency, the crown, surged over one percent against the euro to trade at 9.6010 at 0913 GMT and was pushing toward its biggest one-day gain in over a year.

“As expected Norges Bank hiked the key rate today. The rate path was lifted in the front and indicates the next hike already at the June meeting,” Nordea Markets analyst Joachim Bernhardsen said in a note.

Oil-rich Norway stands alone among other developed economies in tightening monetary policy, thanks to rising crude prices and higher-than-anticipated economic growth and inflation.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve brought its three-year drive to tighten monetary policy to an abrupt end, abandoning projections for any interest rate hikes this year amid signs of an economic slowdown, and saying it would halt the steady decline of its balance sheet in September.

On Thursday, the Swiss National Bank kept in place its ultra-loose monetary policy, as anticipated by economists, and later in the day the Bank of England is also expected to announce unchanged rates amid continued uncertainty over Brexit.

Norges Bank raised its growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 while predicting a sharper slowdown in the two following years, from 2.7 percent expansion this year to just 1.1 percent growth in 2022.

“How to balance global vs domestic factors? Front-load rate hikes in the path and take a wait-and-see approach regarding the long-end. Well done Norges Bank!” tweeted Erica Blomgren, fixed income strategist at SEB.

(Editing by Gwladys Fouche and Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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Responding to Macron, Merkel protege warns against centralized EU

CDU's traditional Ash Wednesday meeting in Demmin
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), speaks during the traditional Ash Wednesday party meeting in Demmin, Germany, March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

March 9, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) has responded to French President Emmanuel Macron’s ideas for a “European renaissance” by offering some overlap with his vision, while also warning against too much centralization.

Under the title “Doing Europe Right”, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer echoed Macron by calling for a reform of the European Union’s migration policy, but rejected his idea for a European minimum wage and cautioned against collective debts.

Kramp-Karrenbauer’s response to Macron fills a void left by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is under pressure from her party to engage with him more fully after leaving her spokesman to simply say Germany supports discussions about the EU’s future.

“Our Europe needs to become stronger,” Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as CDU leader in December, wrote in an opinion piece for the Welt an Sonntag weekly newspaper.

But she added: “European centralism, European statism, the collectivization of debts, a Europeanization of social systems and the minimum wage would be the wrong way.”

That appeared to counter Macron’s call for a European minimum wage, adapted to each country, and also highlighted the entrenched resistance in Berlin to any moves that could make Germany liable for other countries’ debts.

Macron’s proposals, unveiled in an open letter to citizens of Europe that was published this week in newspapers across the EU, aim to protect and defend Europe’s citizens while giving the 28-nation bloc new impetus in the face of global competition.

Since winning election as French president in 2017, Macron has championed EU reform, but wariness in Berlin of increased burdens on German taxpayers has left him short of big-bang measures.

Presenting her ideas, Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is Merkel’s protege and in pole position to succeed her as chancellor, called for an internal European banking market to ensure that Europe’s businesses can secure financing in the EU.

She also said a joint EU innovation budget should fund new technologies, tax loopholes should be closed in the bloc and a digital tax introduced based on an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) model.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, like Macron, called for a reform of migration policy, but stressed that tackling migration at its source, protecting Europe’s external borders and absorbing asylum seekers were roles that should be shared fairly.

She added: “In future, the EU should be represented with a common permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.”

(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Helen Popper)

Source: OANN

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Alan Dershowitz to Newsmax TV: Mueller Probe Over, Let Gov't Function Again

Dragging on the investigations about President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice probe that cleared him of conspiring with the Russians is a bad idea, Attorney Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV.

Dershowitz was on Monday's "Newsmax Now" to discuss the news that special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation concluded that Trump did not work with Russia to win the 2016 election.

"I don't approve of the effort to try to retaliate against bad investigations with more bad investigations. I think we should have mutual disarmament," Dershowitz said. "Put the investigations behind us. Let the government govern, let the legislature legislate, let the president act presidential. I think enough investigations. I'm not in favor of continued investigations on either side."

Democrats have vowed to continue digging into Trump's past despite Mueller clearing him of conspiracy. Mueller, a former FBI director, could not definitively rule whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey as FBI director nearly two years ago.

Some Republicans now want to probe the Russia probe to determine whether the FISA Court warrants obtained by the Department of Justice under former President Barack Obama were justified.

Dershowitz said he thinks there should be an investigation related to the FISA warrants.

"The one area where I think investigation may be warranted is whether or not Justice Department officials misled the FISA Court by submitting the dossier without fully alerting them to the sources of the dossier and the lack of credibility of the person who wrote it," he said.

"And the FISA Court might consider having contempt of court proceedings to determine whether or not they were deliberately misled because misleading a court, particularly a court like the FISA Court, is really very dangerous to democracy."

Later during the interview, Dershowitz declared Trump "completely vindicated and exonerated."

"The only question is obstruction of justice, we have to wait and see what the evidence is, he said. "I suspect I know what it is and it will be bogus. You can't indict a president or charge a president for firing somebody. That's within his constitutional authority."

Important: Newsmax TV is now carried in 65 million cable homes on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 1115, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615 or More Systems Here.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Heiress pleads guilty in NXIVM sex slave case

A wealthy heiress has pleaded guilty to charges implicating her in a sex-trafficking conspiracy case against an upstate New York self-help group.

Clare Bronfman entered the plea on Friday in federal court in Brooklyn.

The plea means the 40-year-old Bronfman will avoid going to trial early next month with Keith Raniere. He's known as the spiritual leader of the group called NXIVM (NEHK'-see-uhm).

Prosecutors say Bronfman was bankrolling Raniere's group at a time when he had a secret harem of sex slaves who were branded with his initials.

Sentencing is set for July 25.

Bronfman is a daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr.

Source: Fox News National

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Voynov suspended for 2019-20 season

FILE PHOTO: Redondo Beach Police Department booking photo of of Los Angeles Kings player Slava Voynov, arrested on charges of domestic violence
FILE PHOTO: Los Angeles Kings defender Slava Voynov is shown in this Redondo Beach Police Department booking photo released to Reuters October 20, 2014. REUTERS/Redondo Beach Police Department/Handout via Reuters

April 9, 2019

Defenseman Slava Voynov has been suspended for the 2019-20 season due to “unacceptable off-ice conduct,” the NHL announced Tuesday.

Voynov, 29, recently applied for reinstatement to the NHL. He was indefinitely suspended in October 2014 after being arrested following an altercation with his wife.

Police responded to Voynov’s house in Redondo Beach, Calif., and said he punched, kicked and choked his wife. Voynov, who was a member of the Los Angeles Kings at the time, entered a no-contest plea in July 2015.

Last July, a conviction in that case was dismissed by a Los Angeles judge.

Tuesday’s decision came after the league investigated the situation, including an in-person meeting with Voynov last month in New York.

“Today’s ruling, while tailored to the specific facts of this case and the individuals involved, is necessary and consistent with the NHL’s strongly-held policy that it cannot and will not tolerate this and similar types of conduct, particularly as directed at a spouse, domestic partner or family member,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.

The NHL Players Association will review the decision. It could appeal to an independent arbitrator.

The Kings terminated Voynov’s six-year, $25 million contract after his arrest and placed him on their voluntary retired list.

Voynov has since played for a Russian team and was a member of that country’s 2018 gold medal-winning Olympic team.

Voynov had 18 goals and 63 assists in 190 NHL games with the Kings from 2011-14.

The NHL says that with “good behavior,” Voynov will be eligible to sign with an NHL team on July 1, 2020.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Russian pranksters posing as Ukraine president-elect trick France’s Macron

FILE PHOTO: Russian pranksters Kuznetsov and Stolyarov attend the presentation of their new book in Moscow
FILE PHOTO: Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (L) and Alexei Stolyarov, also known as Vovan and Lexus, attend the presentation of their new book in Moscow, Russia September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo

April 24, 2019

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian pranksters posing as Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy tricked French President Emmanuel Macron into a hoax phone call after Sunday’s Ukrainian presidential vote.

In audio from a 15-minute phone call posted on YouTube on Wednesday, Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus get through to Macron by pretending to be Zelenskiy, a comedian with no political experience who won the Ukrainian presidential vote in a landslide on Sunday. The exact timing of the call was unclear.

An official at the French presidency told Reuters that it would not comment on the video, saying it would neither confirm nor deny its authenticity.

Vovan and Lexus are known in Russia for targeting celebrities and politicians with prank phone calls and have in the past tricked British singer Elton John and former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, among many others.

One of the pranksters, impersonating Zelenskiy, joked that his winning 73 percent of the vote in the Ukrainian election was reminiscent of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own strong election results.

In the recording, a voice that sounds like Macron can be heard joking that Ukraine was not like Russia in at least one respect. “You haven’t yet put all opponents in jail.”

Zelenskiy met with Macron earlier this month in Paris ahead of the run-off against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Jean-Baptiste Vey in Paris; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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Mulvaney says ‘something dramatic’ would have to happen for Trump to not shut down border

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that “something dramatic” would have to happen for President Trump to not follow through with his vow to shut down the United States’ southern border.

“When Jeh Johnson said it’s a crisis, I hope people now believe us,” Mulvaney said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” “Democrats didn’t believe us a month ago, two months ago, when we said what was happening at the border was a crisis: a humanitarian crisis, a security crisis.”

Mulvaney added: “100,000 people coming across the border this month… that is a crisis.”

Mulvaney’s comments come just days after Trump declared he is likely to shut down America's southern border next week unless Mexican authorities immediately halt all illegal immigration.

TRUMP THREATENS TO CLOSE BORDER 'NEXT WEEK' IF MEXICO DOESN'T 'IMMEDIATELY STOP' FLOOD OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Trump has been promising for more than two years to build a long, impenetrable wall along the border to stop illegal immigration, though Congress has been reluctant to provide the money he needs. In the meantime, he has repeatedly threatened to close the border, but this time, with a new surge of migrants heading north, he gave a definite timetable.

A substantial closure could have an especially heavy impact on cross-border communities from San Diego to South Texas, as well as supermarkets that sell Mexican produce, factories that rely on imported parts, and other businesses across the U.S.

The U.S. and Mexico trade about $1.7 billion in goods daily, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which said closing the border would be "an unmitigated economic debacle" that would threaten 5 million American jobs.

Trump tweeted Friday morning, "If Mexico doesn't immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week."

Trump's latest declaration came after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his country was doing its part to fight migrant smuggling. Criminal networks charge thousands of dollars a person to move migrants through Mexico, increasingly in large groups toward remote sections of the border.

"We want to have a good relationship with the government of the United States," Lopez Obrador said Friday. He added: "We are going to continue helping so that the migratory flow, those who pass through our country, do so according to the law, in an orderly way."

HOUSE DEMS FAIL TO OVERRIDE TRUMP VETO IN FIGHT OVER BORDER EMERGENCY DECLARATION

Trump also moved Saturday to cut direct aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, whose citizens are fleeing north and overwhelming U.S. resources at the border.

The State Department notified Congress that it would look to suspend 2017 and 2018 payments to the trio of nations, which have been home to some of the migrant caravans that have marched through Mexico to the U.S. border.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke out Saturday against cutting off aid to Central America, declaring that "foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens."

And a group of House Democrats visiting El Salvador denounced the administration's decision to cut aid to the region.

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"As we visit El Salvador evaluating the importance of U.S. assistance to Central America to address the root causes of family and child migration, we are extremely disappointed to learn that President Trump intends to cut off aid to the region," said the statement from five lawmakers, including Rep. Eliot L. Engel of New York, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The president's approach is entirely counterproductive."

The Trump administration has threatened before to scale back or cut off U.S. assistance to Central America. Congress has not approved most of those proposed cuts, however, and a report this year by the Congressional Research Service said any change in that funding would depend on what Congress does.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Trump departs for travel to Indianapolis from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Indianapolis, Indiana from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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