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Trump's Fantasy Budget: No One Will Not Cut Spending

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WASHINGTON -- The good news about President Trump's proposed 2020 budget is that it vividly illustrates the basic causes of large, chronic deficits -- a mismatch between the government's commitments and the taxes needed to pay for them. The bad news is that the budget does virtually nothing to close the gap.

"We must protect future generations from Washington's habitual deficit spending," said the president in his budget message. Actually, Trump would make matters worse.

Under his budget, the federal government would spend $4.7 trillion in fiscal 2020, a 15 percent increase from the $4.1 trillion of spending in 2018. With tax receipts at $3.6 trillion, the projected deficit is $1.1 trillion. Although the economy is at or near "full employment," the annual deficit remains around $1 trillion until 2023 and then begins to decline, though it's still in deficit by 2029 when the projections stop.

Even these figures are optimistic, because -- as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan advocacy and research organization, says -- "the budget is riddled with gimmicks and unrealistic assumptions."

The most obvious of these is projected economic growth. The Trump administration argues that, under its policies, economic growth (the increase of Gross Domestic Product) will average about 3 percent over the next decade. By contrast, private forecasters predict growth at about 2 percent annually. Higher growth would mean billions of added tax revenues. Prudent policy would base its forecasts on the lower figure and hope that it's too cautious.

The administration also erred in concentrating its steep spending cuts on "non-defense discretionary" programs -- a catch-all that includes environmental protection, the Justice Department, low-income housing assistance, child care, national parks and many other agencies. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning advocacy group, reports that Trump's proposals would reduce spending by 12 percent for the Department of Health and Human Services, 18 percent for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and 31 percent for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Congress, which sets spending, seems likely to resist such deep cuts. For example, Trump would cut college student-loan programs by tightening repayment requirements. Over a decade, the estimated savings would be $207 billion. This would almost certainly be unpopular. Similarly, Trump's budget also includes a proposal to reduce federal payments to hospitals to cover their costs of unreimbursed care. Hospitals seem bound to fight that.

A final misunderstanding involves defense spending. Under the Trump budget, it receives a 5 percent increase in 2020, and this has been widely interpreted as a huge gain. That's questionable. Although total military spending would rise, its long-term growth would be less than the economy's rate of growth. In 2018, defense spending was 3.1 percent of GDP; by 2029, this share declines to 2.3 percent. The difference of almost 1 percentage point of GDP is (at today's prices) about $200 billion.

What this country desperately needs is an honest debate over the role of government, discarding programs that do not qualify and paying for the rest with new taxes. The relevant cliche is the unpopular reality: Neither Republicans nor Democrats want to make tough choices. The main purpose of Trump's budget seems to be re-electing Trump in 2020.

The budget, in short, is a fantasy. The actual deficits may be larger than the official figures.

But anyone who thinks Democrats are more responsible hasn't been paying attention. It's imperative to deal with the costs of retirees and health care, which are the largest part of the budget. For decades, Democrats have refused. Little has happened. And now Democrats back proposals (Medicare for all, guaranteed jobs, free college) that would raise spending even more.

Trump's budget shows where the inattention has landed us. The proposal is so skewed that, just possibly, it will force our leaders to face the world as it is, not as we would like it. That's a long shot, but it's the only one we've got.

(c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers Group

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Long recovery ahead in former Syria rebel enclave eastern Ghouta

A man sells goods along a street in Ein Terma, a district of eastern Ghouta
A man sells goods along a street in Ein Terma, a district of eastern Ghouta, Syria February 26, 2019. Picture taken February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

March 13, 2019

EASTERN GHOUTA, Syria (Reuters) – Hunkered near one of Syria’s hottest front lines for seven years, the eastern Ghouta district of Ein Terma sustained more damage than most areas in the conflict.

Its markets are now full and children throng the streets where shells were falling a year ago. But for the people who have returned to live there, the recovery is gradual.

As the eighth anniversary of the civil war arrives this week, Ein Terma’s battered streets attest to the long road ahead for Syria’s war-smashed towns and cities.

Many inhabitants have lost neighbors, friends or relatives as the population scattered through years of conflict. Despite government work, rubble still clogs many streets and the water and electricity supply is only partial.

Jobs are scarce, and for people who stayed in the area when it was controlled by the rebels, family paperwork for births and deaths in that period must be done anew.

Samiha Fares and her five children left their home in 2012, early in the war, as rebels gained control over the district.

She had been working for the Ein Terma municipal government and the rebels threatened her children and installed rockets on the roof of her house, she said.

The family quickly moved to Jormana, a district located just across the front line from their old home in Ein Terma. When government forces recaptured the area at the end of March last year, Fares returned with her children.

Their house was empty and scorched by fire. “My children calmed me. At least our house was still there and we could live in it,” she said. She found an old carpet and mattresses and blankets to sleep on. But the financial situation was difficult.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces retook eastern Ghouta during a fierce offensive under massive bombardment.

As the rebels surrendered, people who did not want to come back under government control left to opposition-held Idlib in Syria’s far northwest.

According to the United Nations commission of inquiry on Syria, up to 50,000 people were “evacuated” in this way to the northwest.

The Syrian war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, has driven around half of Syria’s pre-war population from their homes, 5.7 million of them living as refugees in neighboring countries.

HARDSHIP

Fares’ own income went on necessities for the family. During the fighting, she pulled her oldest son out of university so he could contribute, working to help pay the rent.

She was divorced so they had no other adult income and she renovated their war-damaged house with money paid as compensation to her daughter from a car accident.

But the once tight-knit neighborhood has changed. “I don’t know any of the neighbors. They’re all strangers. They all came from somewhere else, from other villages,” said Fares. Their relationship is limited to superficial greetings, she said.

However, the upstairs neighbor came back to see the house and may now renovate it and return there. “Everybody is waiting for the summer to come back,” Fares said hopefully.

Hisham al-Zaqawi is also finding things difficult. He was a jeweler and confectioner before the war, and he stayed in Ein Terma throughout the fighting when it was under rebel control.

He says he distrusted the opposition, but when the army retook eastern Ghouta, his two brothers chose not to come back under government control and joined the exodus to Idlib.

During the years of siege, food became so expensive that he had to sell his business and even his own wife’s jewelry. There are more job opportunities now, he said, but he struggles for work.

His two older children were born before or early in the crisis, but his three-year old daughter Sham must be registered with the government. The procedure is straightforward, but the fee is expensive, he said.

“Currently I don’t have a good job. I’m sitting without one. If there was a job in renovating or anything like that I wouldn’t say no. I’d work.”

(Reporting by Kinda Makieh in eastern Ghouta; Writing by Angus McDowall and Imad Creidi)

Source: OANN

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Alex Jones Decodes The Worship Of Game Of Thrones And The Cargo Shorts Conspiracy

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Source: InfoWars

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Ethiopian Airlines grounds all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes

Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as "an extra safety precaution" following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed, a spokesman said Monday, as Ethiopia marked a day of mourning and the search for remains began for a second day.

Although it wasn't yet known what caused the crash of the new plane in clear weather outside Addis Ababa on Sunday, the airline decided to ground its remaining four 737 Max 8s until further notice, spokesman Asrat Begashaw said. Ethiopian Airlines was using five of the planes and was awaiting delivery of 25 more.

Some others around the world were deciding to do the same. China's civilian aviation authority ordered all Chinese airlines to temporarily ground their Max 8s, and Caribbean carrier Cayman Airways said it was temporarily grounding the two it operates.

After sunrise, Red Cross workers slowly picked through the widely scattered debris near the blackened crash crater, looking for the remains of 157 lives. A shredded book. Business cards in multiple languages. Heavy machinery dug for larger pieces of the plane.

Asrat said forensic experts from Israel had arrived in Ethiopia to help with the investigation. Ethiopian authorities lead the investigation into the crash, assisted by the U.S., Kenya and others.

"These kinds of things take time," Kenya's transport minister, James Macharia, told reporters Monday morning.

People from 35 countries died in the Sunday morning crash six minutes after the plane took off from Ethiopia's capital en route to Nairobi. Ethiopian Airlines said the senior pilot issued a distress call and was told to return but all contact was lost shortly afterward. The plane plowed into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu.

Kenya lost 32 people, more than any country. Relatives of 25 of the victims had been contacted, Macharia said, and taking care of their welfare was of utmost importance.

"Some of them, as you know, they are very distressed," he said. "They are in shock like we are. They are grieving."

Canada, Ethiopia, the U.S., China, Italy, France, Britain, Egypt, Germany, India and Slovakia all lost four or more citizens.

Shocked leaders of the United Nations, the U.N. refugee agency and the World Food Program announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The U.N. migration agency estimated that 19 U.N.-affiliated employees were killed.

Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and many people were on their way to a large U.N. environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The U.N. flag at the event flew at half-staff.

The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet of the same Boeing model in Indonesian seas last year, killing 189 people. The crash was likely to renew questions about the 737 Max 8, the newest version of Boeing's popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the world's most common passenger jet.

Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known about Sunday's disaster.

The Ethiopian plane was new, delivered to the airline in November. The jet's last maintenance was on Feb. 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours.

The crash shattered more than two years of relative calm in African skies, where travel had long been chaotic. It also was a serious blow to state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continent's largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Source: Fox News World

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U.S. President Trump to visit UK in June: Sky News

U.S. President Trump attends the 2019 White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump attends the 2019 White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 22, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

April 22, 2019

Source: OANN

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Cory Booker says if elected president, he will bring fight against NRA like it 'has never seen'

The Democratic presidential hopeful who once likened himself to "Spartacus" is now vowing to battle the National Rifle Association.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., in a town hall event that aired on CNN Wednesday, made the declaration in response to a North Carolina’s woman’s question about what he would do to ensure the safety and freedoms of Americans who “have to live each day in fear of gun violence in schools, places of worship, concerts, and even from law enforcement.”

“I am tired of going to funerals where parents are burying their children and so I am gonna bring a fight – we are gonna bring a fight like the NRA has never seen if they’re going to defend corporate gun manufacturers more than represent us people,” Booker told the cheering crowd.

“We are going to bring that fight on every level necessary. I’m a guy that has taken on tough fights before and won them, and this is one that we are gonna win, together.”

CORY BOOKER DENIES HE'S A SOCIALIST, SAYS HE WOULDN'T PARDON TRUMP IF HE WERE PRESIDENT

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker speaks during a town hall meeting in Rock Hill, S.C., on Saturday.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker speaks during a town hall meeting in Rock Hill, S.C., on Saturday.

Booker added that he thinks he is the “only person in this race that has had shootings on their block.”

“This is very personal to so many of us,” he said. “Me, because I’m a black man, and black males are six percent of the nation’s population. But they make up the majority of homicide victims in this country.”

Booker also accused the NRA of not representing its members and instead being more interested in loopholes that allow people of differing criminal backgrounds to purchase firearms.

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“I’m telling you right now, we and Americans on most of the core issues, on so many of them, we actually agree. Gun owners and non-gun owners agree that we need to have universal background checks and close so many of these loopholes,” he said. “And the NRA does not represent their membership. Because their membership actually agrees with closing those loopholes.”

Fox News has put in a request to the NRA for comment.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Exclusive: Standard Chartered expected to pay just over $1 billion to resolve U.S., U.K. probes

FILE PHOTO - People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto
FILE PHOTO - People pass by the logo of Standard Chartered plc at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

April 8, 2019

(Reuters) – London-based Standard Chartered is expected to pay slightly more than $1 billion to resolve a nearly five-year-old investigation of potential U.S. sanctions violations tied to its banking for Iran-controlled entities in Dubai, as well as a related U.K. probe, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Authorities are aiming for the bank to settle on Tuesday morning, two sources said.

Standard Chartered has been operating under deferred prosecution agreements with U.S. authorities since 2012, when it paid $667 million for illegally moving millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of customers in Iran, Sudan, Libya and Burma.   

The agreement has been extended numerous times, the last one extended for 10 days and set to expire on Wednesday.

The expected total payout also covers a roughly $134 million penalty from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority related to historical financial crime controls.

A spokeswoman for Standard Chartered declined to comment.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, the Federal Reserve, the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York Department of Financial Services also declined to comment. The FCA also declined to comment.

The latest U.S. investigation stems in part from evidence found during a probe of French bank BNP Paribas, which paid a record $8.9 billion in penalties and pleaded guilty in 2014 to sanctions-related charges, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

Investigators found BNP had done business with a Dubai-registered corporation that acted as a front for an Iranian entity, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in 2014. Investigators said the company also once had an account with Standard Chartered, the person said.

Standard Chartered said in February it had set aside $900 million related to the potential resolution of violations of U.S. sanctions and foreign exchange trading. That sum also included the FCA penalty.

A resolution of the FCA probe is expected the same time as the U.S. settlements.

Other banks to settle with U.S. authorities over sanctions-related misconduct over the past decade included Societe Generale, Credit Suisse, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source: OANN

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Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond looks on during an interview with Reuters at the British Ambassador's residence in Beijing
Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond looks on during an interview with Reuters at the British Ambassador’s residence in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Pool

April 26, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday that he had a “very constructive meeting” with his counterpart in the opposition Labour Party before leaving for Beijing and that he was optimistic about finding common ground.

Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing, said talks with Labour aimed at finding a way forward on Brexit had not stalled.

“I’m optimistic that we will find common ground,” he said. “Both sides have got clear positions and both sides will have to compromise in order to reach an agreement.”

Hammond added that he absolutely did not favor a no deal exit from the European Union.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta
Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta, Cyprus, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Stefanos Kouratzis

April 26, 2019

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of “criminal indifference” because the dead women were foreigners.

The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus’s justice minister and police chief.

Police were combing three different locations west of the capital Nicosia for victims of the suspected killer, a 35-year-old army officer who has been in detention for a week.

The bodies of three women, including two thought to be from the Philippines, have been recovered. Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, found on Thursday, and had said the person was “either Indian or Nepali”.

Police said they were searching for a further four people, including two children, based on the suspect’s testimony.

“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.

“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”

Police have said they will investigate any perceived shortcomings in their handling of the case.

One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, said his motives were questioned by police.

The bodies of the two Filipino women reported missing in May and August 2018 were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft.

Police are now searching for the six-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her eight-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Phillipines who vanished in Dec. 2017.

The suspect has not been publicly named, in line with Cypriot legal practice.

A public vigil for the missing was planned later on Friday.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 26, 2019

LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.

The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)

Source: OANN

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo

April 26, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.

The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.

Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.

But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.

Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.

High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.

It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.

Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.

“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.

The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.

Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.

Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.

Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.

Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.

This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 26, 2019

By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh

(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.

The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.

Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.

“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.

Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.

“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.

U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.

Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.

Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.

Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.

Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.

Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.

Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.

Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.

Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: OANN

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