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Exclusive: U.S. waters down demand China ax subsidies in push for trade deal – sources

U.S and China trade talks in Beijing
Chinese staffers adjust U.S. and Chinese flags before the opening session of trade negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade representatives at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

April 15, 2019

By Alexandra Alper, Chris Prentice and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. negotiators have tempered demands that China curb industrial subsidies as a condition for a trade deal after strong resistance from Beijing, according to two sources briefed on discussions, marking a retreat on a core U.S. objective for the trade talks.

The world’s two biggest economies are nine months into a trade war that has cost billions of dollars, roiled financial markets and upended supply chains.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has slapped tariffs on $250 billion worth of imports of Chinese goods to press demands for an end to policies – including industrial subsidies – that Washington says hurt U.S. companies competing with Chinese firms. China responded with its own tit-for-tat tariffs on U.S. goods.

The issue of industrial subsidies is thorny because they are intertwined with the Chinese government’s industrial policy. Beijing grants subsidies and tax breaks to state-owned firms and to sectors seen as strategic for long-term development. Chinese President Xi Jinping has strengthened the state’s role in parts of the economy.

In the push to secure a deal in the next month or so, U.S. negotiators have become resigned to securing less than they would like on curbing those subsidies and are focused instead on other areas where they consider demands are more achievable, the sources said.

Those include ending forced technology transfers, improving intellectual property protection and widening access to China’s markets, the sources said. China has already given ground on those issues.

“It’s not that there won’t be some language on it, but it is not going to be very detailed or specific,” one source familiar with the talks said in reference to the subsidies issue.

A representative for the White House referred Reuters to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, which did not respond to a request for comment.

“If U.S. negotiators define success as changing the way China’s economy operates, that will never happen,” said the other source with knowledge of the trade talks.

“A deal that makes Xi look weak is not a worthwhile deal for Xi. Whatever deal we get, it’s going to be better than what we’ve had, and it’s not going to be sufficient for some people. But that’s politics,” that source said.

China pledged earlier this year to end market-distorting subsidies for its domestic industries but offered no details on how it would achieve that goal, three people familiar with the trade talks told Reuters in February.

MIXED MESSAGES

One of the key sticking points in the negotiations is the removal of the $250 billion in U.S. tariffs. It is broadly expected in the trade community that U.S. negotiators want to keep some tariffs on Chinese goods, which Washington sees as retaliation for the years of damage done to its economy by Beijing’s unfair trade practices.

The role of the state firms may benefit the United States in another part of the trade deal. The Trump administration wants China to make big-ticket purchases of over a trillion dollars of U.S. goods in the next six years to reduce its trade surplus. The companies likely to make the purchases are the state-run firms, both sources said.

“The purchasing, for example, reinforces the role of the state sector because the purchasing is all being done through state enterprises,” one of the sources said.

Another point of contention between the two countries, telecommunications, may drive China to increase the state’s role rather than reduce it, the source said.

Pressure from the United States on allies to reduce cooperation with Chinese telecommunications champions such as Huawei Technologies could push the government into raising state support to develop technology at home.

DECADES OF FRICTION

Subsidies and tax breaks have been a source of friction between the two countries for years.

Washington says Beijing has failed to comply with its World Trade Organization obligations on subsidies that affect both imports and exports.

China has taken steps to address some U.S. concerns in cases brought before the WTO. It has also begun to publicly downplay its push to dominate the future of high-tech industries under its “Made in China 2025” policy, although few expect it to jettison those ambitions.

But the USTR complains of a catalog of other subsidies and supports, including preferential access to capital and land.

The United States says China has failed to disclose subsidies as required by the WTO. Washington has detailed more than 500 different subsidies it says China applies in notifications to the WTO.

The scope of China’s local government subsidy programs is largely unknown, and even the Chinese negotiators have said in recent discussions they do not know the details of all those programs.

“China continues to shield massive sub-central government subsidies from the scrutiny of WTO members,” the USTR said in a February 2019 report to Congress on China’s WTO compliance.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Chris Prentice in Washington and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Chris Sanders and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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EssilorLuxottica shareholder body propose independent director to ease deadlock

FILE PHOTO: Sunglasses from Ray Ban are on display at an optician shop in Hanau
FILE PHOTO: Sunglasses from Ray Ban, a Luxottica owned brand, are on display at an optician shop in Hanau, Germany, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

April 18, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – Valoptec International which represents employees and former employees of Ray Ban maker EssilorLuxottica has proposed the appointment of an additional independent director to the group’s board in a bid to resolve governance issues.

Valoptec said in a statement it had submitted a draft resolution for a May 16 EssilorLuxottica shareholders meeting, to appoint British national Peter James Montagnon as independent director.

The group that resulted from a merger of French lenses producer Essilor and Italian frame manufacturer Luxottica last October, creating the world’s largest eyewear maker in a 54 billion euro ($61 billion) deal, has been embroiled in a bitter dispute as each accuse the other of trying to dominate.

Valoptec said that with the appointment of Montagnon, EssilorLuxottica’s board would have a greater proportion of independent directors who would be able to promote exemplary and effective governance, and constructive perspective in implementing the merger agreement.

“EssilorLuxottica combines two great businesses which are being held back by a corporate governance logjam. The first task is to resolve this impasse in everybody’s interest,” Montagnon said in the statement.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Source: OANN

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Athletics: IAAF ethics board closes investigation into Coe

Cross Country: IAAF World Championships-Senior Men
Mar 30, 2019; Aarhus, Denmark; IAAF president Sebastian Coe attends the IAAF World Cross Country Championships at the Moesgaard Museum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

April 11, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The world athletics governing body (IAAF) has closed an ethics investigation into its president Sebastian Coe over allegations that he provided misleading answers to a British parliamentary committee in 2015.

The IAAF’s ethics board said, following a six-month investigation, that it had found there was no basis on which “any disciplinary case could be established that Lord Coe intentionally misled the Parliamentary Committee.”

“The investigation has therefore not identified evidence of a potential breach of the code of ethics by Lord Coe,” it said.

Coe has denied throughout that he misled the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee when he appeared before it in December 2015, four months after being elected IAAF president.

Coe, previously an IAAF vice-president, was questioned about what he knew about doping in Russian athletics before he took office. In its final report ‘Combating doping in sport’ in 2018, the committee criticized Coe’s answers as misleading.

“It stretches credibility to believe that he was not aware, at least in general terms, of the main allegations,” the report added.

The IAAF’s ethics board then opened an investigation in September into whether Coe’s conduct had violated its own regulations.

Coe, a double Olympic 1,500 meters gold medalist, insisted that he did not know the specific detail of an email sent to him by former London Marathon race director David Bedford in 2014.

Bedford said the attachments contained details of how Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova had sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IAAF to cover up positive doping tests.

Shobukhova was banned for three years and two months, later reduced by seven months for assisting with investigations.

Although Coe confirmed receiving the email, he said he forwarded it to the IAAF ethics board without reading the attachments.

The board said in its decision on Thursday that Coe “behaved appropriately” by referring the matter.

“Coe’s evidence is that his personal assistant forwarded the email with its attachments to the Chairperson of the Ethics Board and that he (Coe) did not read the attachments,” it said.

“The investigation did not find any evidence inconsistent with that position.”

(Writing by Brian Homewood; Editing by Christian Radnedge)

Source: OANN

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Body of Englishwoman dead in Guatemala shows signs of trauma

A doctor performing an autopsy on an English tourist found dead in Guatemala says in preliminary findings that the woman's body shows signs of trauma.

Miguel Angel Samayoa says that there were apparently "blows to the body" of 23-year-old Catherine Shaw. But he says there are no apparent bullet or stab wounds.

Samayoa says he expects to conclude the autopsy later Tuesday.

Shaw hailed from Witney, England. She disappeared Thursday in the town of San Juan La Laguna, on the shores of the popular tourist destination Lake Atitlan.

Police announced Monday that her body had been found in the brush at a mountain overlook in a state of decomposition.

Source: Fox News World

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Mueller report provides intimate scenes from the Trump White House

Special Counsel Robert Mueller arrives at his office building in Washington
Special Counsel Robert Mueller arrives at his office building in Washington, U.S., April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

April 18, 2019

(Note: Story includes language throughout that will offend some readers.)

By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report builds upon dozens of interviews, notes and communications to piece together what was happening inside President Donald Trump’s White House.

Here are some of those scenes:

‘I’M FUCKED’

Attorney General Jeff Sessions broke the news to Trump on May 17, 2017, that Rod Rosenstein had appointed Robert Mueller to be the special counsel.

Sessions was with Trump in the Oval Office conducting interviews for a new FBI director but stepped outside when Rosenstein called to give him the news.

Trump slumped in his chair after Sessions returned and informed him of the appointment, according to notes taken at the time by Jody Hunt, who was Session’s chief of staff, and provided to Mueller’s team.

“Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked,” Trump said.

Trump then turned his anger toward Sessions.

“You were supposed to protect me,” Sessions recalled Trump telling him.

Trump then again bemoaned the potential fallout of a special counsel.

“Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me,” Trump then said, according to both Hunt and Sessions.

A TENSE MEETING

Chief of Staff John Kelly detailed a “tense” Oval Office meeting he convened the morning of Feb. 6, 2018, to try to smooth things over between Trump and White House Counsel Don McGahn.

Months earlier, McGahn had been on the brink of resigning when he said Trump told him to get rid of Special Counsel Mueller. Now, Trump was angry because the New York Times and Washington Post had written articles about McGahn’s refusal to fire Mueller.

“I never said to fire Mueller,” Trump began the meeting, according to McGahn’s retelling to Mueller. “I never said ‘fire.’ This story doesn’t look good. You need to correct this. You’re the White House counsel.”

McGahn refused, saying that the article in the Times was accurate.

“Did I say the word ‘fire’?” Trump then said, according to accounts by both McGahn and Kelly.

McGahn said he responded, “What you said is, ‘Call Rod (Rosenstein), tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel.'”

“I never said that,” McGahn recalled Trump saying.

‘THE RUSSIA THING IS OVER’

On Valentine’s Day 2017, Trump had lunch with then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Trump told Christie, who had become an ally of the president early in the campaign, that the firing of Michael Flynn, the former national security aide, was going to solve his problems.

“Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over,” Trump told Christie, the governor recalled.

Christie laughed and told the president he expected they would still be discussing Russia a year later.

“That was the problem. I fired Flynn. It’s over,” Trump countered.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney, then told the president that he should not talk about the investigation, even if frustrated, and that he was going to be stuck with the Flynn story for a long time.

“Like gum on the bottom of your shoe,” Christie said.

SESSIONS RESIGNATION LETTER

As Trump flew from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv in May 2017, he reached into his pocket and produced a resignation letter that had been written two days earlier by Sessions.

Trump showed the letter to senior advisers, including Hope Hicks, who recalled the scene to Mueller’s team.

The letter had already become a point of concern among Trump’s aides. Sessions had delivered the letter to Trump the day before, but ultimately Trump and the attorney general had determined he would remain in the job.

White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus were concerned that Trump was holding on to the letter and that he would use it as leverage against the Justice Department. The two top aides decided to try to get it back.

The president had the Justice Department “by the throat,” Priebus said.

But when Preibus approached Trump on the Middle East trip and asked him to turn it over, the president insisted it wasn’t with him. Instead, Trump claimed, it was somewhere in the White House residence.

It would take another 10 days – three days after Trump returned from his trip – for the president finally turned it over.

(This story has been refiled to fix typographical error in 16th paragraph to make it “saying” instead of “say”.)

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Japan’s Heisei imperial era: three generations look back, and ahead

Kenji Saito cooks at his ramen noodle shop in Tokyo
Kenji Saito cooks at his ramen noodle shop in Tokyo, Japan April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon

April 24, 2019

By Linda Sieg and Kwiyeon Ha

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Heisei era, which began when Emperor Akihito inherited the throne on Jan. 7, 1989, and ends when he abdicates on April 30, saw economic stagnation, disasters and technological change.

Generations of Japanese lived through those decades. Their differing views and experiences will shape the legacy of the Heisei years.

WARTIME EXPERIENCES

For decades, Haruyo Nihei kept her wartime memories locked away: mothers and infants burnt alive by incendiary bombs; herself struggling under corpses of fleeing victims; her sister’s body covered with maggot-infested burns.

But in 2002, almost six decades after World War Two ended and 13 years after Akihito took the throne, she decided to speak out. The trigger: a visit to a new museum about the March 10, 1945, U.S. firebombing that killed an estimated 100,000 people in Tokyo.

Nihei, now 82, still hopes that by recounting her experience as an eight-year-old in the final days of the conflict, she can convey the horrors of war to young Japanese who know only peace.

“Children today … don’t know anything about war and that’s wonderful. But if they don’t know about how Japan fought a war some 70 years ago, we may follow a mistaken path again,” Nihei told Reuters before speaking to students at the museum.

Preventing Japan from forgetting the tragedy of war has been a consistent priority of Akihito, in the name of whose father, Hirohito, Japanese troops fought World War Two.

Nihei said she admired Akihito’s efforts, including trips to overseas battle sites such as Saipan in 2005 to pray for war dead from Japan and other countries.

“When I saw the image of the emperor and empress (bowing at a seaside cliff) on Saipan, I felt they were truly sorry for the sins the Emperor Showa had committed,” she said, referring to Hirohito by his posthumous name. “I was moved.”

But she worries the wartime past has little resonance for today’s Japanese youth.

“I want them to study about the past properly and link that to the future,” she said.

BURST BUBBLE

For Kenji Saito, Heisei was a time of shocking change and liberating opportunity.

Saito, a former computer systems engineer, was on a business trip in November 1997 when he got a phone call.

“Don’t you work for Yamaichi?” a relative asked.

Media had reported Yamaichi Securities, Japan’s oldest and fourth-largest brokerage, was headed for collapse under the weight of losses hidden for years after the “bubble economy” of soaring asset prices burst.

The image of Yamaichi’s then-president Shohei Nozawa apologizing and crying as he begged for jobs for the firm’s nearly 8,000 employees became a symbol of the financial turmoil that ushered in Japan’s “lost decade” of stagnation.

The Heisei era also saw the unraveling of a lifetime employment system that was once a pillar of the country’s post-war rise.

“No one ever thought Yamaichi would collapse,” said Saito, who had joined the firm as a 22-year-old college graduate.

After the brokerage failed, he worked for a computer systems company run by his former boss. By 2005, he’d had enough of the corporate rat race and left to start a ramen shop that has since expanded to 10 restaurants.

The economic stagnation of much of the era has left a gloomy taste for many, but Saito said he felt liberated.

“I think for myself and can act on my own,” he said. “For me, the Heisei years were good.”

Still, he worries too many Japanese lack entrepreneurial spirit. “People want stability. To put it negatively, they lack the spirit to challenge.”

FUTURE ANGST

A massive natural disaster, technological change, and anxiety about the future are what university student Yuri Harada thinks of when she ponders the Heisei era.

Harada was 11 when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.

“Even in Tokyo, the shaking was strong and students panicked,” said Harada, 19 and a student at Waseda University. She walked three hours to get home because trains had stopped and later saw the devastation on TV. “It was really shocking.”

In elementary school, Harada longed for a smartphone, just beginning to spread in Japan. At first, her parents said it was too costly, but by the time she was in junior high, the devices were ubiquitous.

“I feel as if the advance of technology corresponded with my growing up,” she said.

Japan is in the midst of a historic labor shortage, but Harada recalled the “employment ice age” her elders suffered through after the economic bubble burst. She is concerned a potential downturn could wreck the job market again.

“Frankly … I worry whether this sellers’ market will persist,” she said.

Longer-term, she worries whether Japan’s social stability will crumble.

Japan this month introduced a visa program to let in more blue-collar workers, a big step in the immigration-shy country.

“If we don’t do this properly, we could follow the same path” as Western countries gripped by anger over immigration, said Harada, who has studied abroad and majors in international relations.

Such fears cloud her hopes for the new “Reiwa” imperial era, which begins on May 1.

“I’d like to be optimistic, but I can’t,” she said.

(Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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Singapore unveils budget bonanza for elderly with election anticipated

FILE PHOTO: Singapore's Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat speaks at a UBS client conference in Singapore
FILE PHOTO: Singapore's Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat speaks at a UBS client conference in Singapore, January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Feline Lim/File Photo

February 18, 2019

By John Geddie and Fathin Ungku

(Reuters) – Singapore unveiled an expansionary budget for the next financial year on Monday, setting aside S$6.1 billion for the welfare of its elderly in a generous package before an election expected as soon as this year.

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat also announced a S$1.1 billion bonus package for all Singaporeans to mark 200 years since the former British colony’s founding, that includes vouchers, a cash bonus for lower income workers and income tax rebates for the middle class.

The government finance for the 2019 fiscal year that begins April 1 is expected to turn to a deficit of S$3.5 billion, after a predicted surplus of S$2.1 billion for the 2018 fiscal year.

The budget proposal comes after data showed Singapore’s economy grew at its slowest pace in more than two years in the fourth quarter, and its trade ministry warned that manufacturing is likely to face significant moderation this year.

Analysts have said stronger fiscal impulse will also be needed to tackle heightened external pressure on the economy, including from the U.S.-Sino trade war and Britain’s imminent departure from the European Union.

Singapore must hold its next general election by early 2021, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, eyeing retirement, has suggested it could be this year.

“The Merdeka Generation Package is a gesture of our nation’s gratitude for their contributions and a way to show care for them in their silver years,” said Heng, who been tapped to be the next leader of the People’s Action Party which has ruled the city-state for over half a century without interruption.

The so-called Merdeka, or “independence” generation refers to those born in the 1950s, near the end of British colonial rule. With the second-fastest aging population in the world after South Korea, and as pressure grows on more of the elderly to stay in the workforce beyond retirement age, the low-tax finance hub is facing rising social angst over the welfare of its aged.

Heng said about 30 percent of Singapore’s total budgeted expenditure for the 2019 fiscal year will support defense, security and diplomacy efforts and the quota for foreign workers in the services sector will be reduced in coming years.

Among other budget highlights was a hike in excise duty for diesel to 20 Singapore cents per liter from 10 cents with immediate effect. For all the highlights, click.

(Reporting by John Geddie and Fathin Ungku; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said trade talks with China are going very well, as the world’s two largest economies seek to end talks with a trade agreement to defuse tensions.

Trump said on Thursday he would soon host China’s President Xi Jinping at the White House.

Earlier this week, the White House said that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would travel to Beijing for more talks on a trade dispute marked by tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on North Korea this week following the Russian leader’s summit with Pyongyang’s Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump also said China was helping with efforts aimed at the denuclearization of North Korea.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Makini Brice; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Katya Golubkova and Andrei Makhovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OIL PRICES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

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

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

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

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

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

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

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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