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Rowing: Surgery puts Tokyo 2020 into fresh focus for champion Satch

London 2012 Olympic Games
FILE PHOTO: Olympics - London 2012 Olympic Games - Eton Dorney - 28/7/12 Rowing - Men's Pair Heats - Great Britain's George Nash and William Satch in action Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Paul Childs

March 21, 2019

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) – Heart surgery and then a shoulder operation came as “a bit of a kick in the teeth” for 2016 Olympic champion rower Will Satch last year but time off the water has provided fresh focus for the hard slog toward next year’s Tokyo Games.

The 29-year-old from Britain’s rowing heartland of Henley-on-Thames stroked Britain’s men’s eight to gold at the Rio de Janeiro Games and says he is now fully motivated and ready for more.

“Having time away has just made me appreciate what it is and why I do it,” he told Reuters.

Satch underwent heart surgery a year ago to treat the hereditary condition of atrial fibrillation, while a ruptured shoulder has kept him mostly on an exercise bike since December.

The heart problem, previously managed with tablets, had become increasingly an issue ahead of Rio and had to be addressed.

“If I’m honest, I just wanted to get Rio done and then I was going to get out,” said Satch at the launch of the SAS Ranking Points Index, which aims to help identify future elite talent as well as making club rowing closer and fairer.

“A lot of my friends retired and it would have been very easy to follow suit.

“But I’m potentially a little bit masochistic…I enjoy the pain and the training and I like building camaraderie. I do miss the old guys but now we’ve got this new group and I’m really excited to try and do it again in a different way.”

GROBLER SMILE

Satch tells a story about veteran Olympic rowing coach Juergen Grobler, a famous task-master, that shines a light on the team spirit within what has become a medal machine for Britain.

In Rio, while team mates savored their moment in the media spotlight, the dehydrated athlete spent an hour and a half trying to provide a urine sample in the confines of an air-conditioned room.

Grobler, a former East German who has mentored champions at every Olympics since Munich in 1972 and can claim to be the most successful coach in world sport, waited outside. At the end, the two men walked away together.

“I was like ‘We are going to have this conversation now, we’re on. This is going to be an emotional moment,’” recalled Satch with a smile.

“And we’re walking back and I probably got 15-20 seconds out of him, and the walk was 10 minutes long. And in my head I was thinking ‘I’ve just trained four years to get a smile out of this man’.

“I got it, but it was very short-lived. And potentially that’s why I’m back.

“I want it again. A few seconds.”

Now 72, Grobler has hinted he will retire after the Tokyo Games and is likely to add to the list of 33 gold medalists under his watch so far.

With Britain, he has personally coached gold medal-winning crews at every Games since 1992 — the first two with five-times gold medalist Steve Redgrave and four-times champion Matthew Pinsent.

“He’s as passionate as ever. And that’s the biggest thing. You’ve got to have passion. Without passion, what’s the point?,” said Satch.

“He doesn’t even need to say that much. It’s just having that inspiration around you is very special.”

Satch’s own future looks likely to lie more with the four than the eight when it comes to Tokyo selection.

Winner of a bronze medal with George Nash in the pairs at his home 2012 London Olympics, Satch joined Moe Sbihi, Matthew Tarrant and Matt Rossiter in the coxless four that took bronze at the 2017 world championships in Florida.

“I just want to be in the top boat, whatever that is,” he said. “I’m very excited about the eight although I’ve been there and done it. The pair is a very special boat to me, my debut was the Olympics with my best friend in that boat.

“And then the four is something I haven’t really done. I haven’t had a fair crack at it because I had that heart issue leading into the 2017 worlds.

“I feel like I could potentially do any boat if I am at my best.”

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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Saudi Aramco world’s biggest oil producer in 2018: Fitch Ratings

FILE PHOTO: An Aramco oil tank is seen at the Production facility at Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oilfield in the Empty Quarter
FILE PHOTO: An Aramco oil tank is seen at the Production facility at Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oilfield in the Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo

April 1, 2019

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco was by far the world’s biggest oil producer ahead of regional peers like Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and listed oil majors Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP, ratings agency Fitch said on Monday.

“Saudi Aramco is the largest oil producer globally by volume… In 2018 its liquids production and its total hydrocarbon production averaged 11.6 million and 13.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, respectively, well ahead of the upstream output of global and regional integrated producers such as ADNOC, Shell, Total and BP,” Fitch said.

Fitch said state-owned Aramco “is less integrated into natural gas and downstream than some of its international peers, such as Shell and Total, which makes it more exposed to oil prices although this is mitigated by low cost of production, its downstream expansion strategy and, the acquisition of SABIC.”

Saudi Aramco last week said it would buy a 70 percent stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) from the kingdom’s wealth fund for $69.1 billion in one of the biggest deals in the global chemical industry.

The rating agency said it put Saudi Aramco’s “standalone credit profile (at) ‘AA+'”, adding that this “rating is capped by that of Saudi Arabia in view of strong linkage between the state and the sovereign.”

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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U.S. fund Elliott battles the odds in latest showdown with Hyundai

FILE PHOTO: Paul Singer, founder and president of Elliott Management Corporation, speaks at WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach
FILE PHOTO: Paul Singer, founder and president of Elliott Management Corporation, speaks at WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S., October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake

March 20, 2019

By Hyunjoo Jin

SEOUL (Reuters) – The showdown between U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management and Hyundai Motor Group is set to come to a head on Friday when shareholders gather to vote on the fund’s demands for a hefty special dividend and a board shake-up.

Elliott’s challenge to South Korea’s second-biggest family-run conglomerate is the latest example of shareholder activism in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, long dominated by powerful cliques that took minority investors for granted.

The activist fund founded by billionaire Paul Singer tasted success last year when it and other investors opposed Hyundai’s ownership restructuring plan on the basis that it would favor family members rather than minority shareholders.

While it looks likely to fail on most counts on Friday, even if it manages to gain a single seat at Hyundai it would be a major victory for shareholder empowerment in the country.

Elliott is trying to rally shareholder support for dividend payouts from Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis for 2018 worth a combined 7 trillion won ($6.2 billion), saying the group should dispose of its excess capital.

That is more than six times higher than the $1 billion payouts proposed by the Hyundai affiliates, which say Elliott’s proposals would hamper future investments and acquisitions.

Elliott has also proposed five board nominees combined at Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis to address “governance shortcomings”.

The campaign received a potentially fatal blow last week when South Korea’s National Pension Service, the second-biggest shareholder in the two firms, said Elliott’s demands were “excessive” and would cause “conflicts of interest”.

“I cannot help but think that Elliott is trying to make quick bucks and leave rather than enhancing long-term shareholder value,” said Kim Woo-chang, one of the members of the NPS panel which made the decision to vote against the proposals.

“Elliott’s strategy has failed. It was shortsighted,” Kim told Reuters.

The NPS holds stakes of 8.7 percent and 9.45 percent in Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis, respectively. About 30 percent of the two firms are owned by Hyundai affiliates and family members. Resolutions require approval from a majority of the votes of shareholders present at the meetings.

As of November, Elliott held more than 2.5 percent of common stock in Hyundai Mobis, 3 percent in Hyundai Motor and 2.1 percent in affiliate Kia Motors.    

BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

Questions about Hyundai Motor Group grew in 2014 when it paid $10 billion to buy land for a new headquarters in Seoul, three times the appraised value.

Some investors remain deeply troubled by that decision and want to see change at the conglomerate, even if they are not ready to support Elliott’s proposals.

“It is not that Elliott’s demand is nonsense. Hyundai has accumulated cash, and it has a poor track record of using cash,” said Park Yoo-kyung, a Hong Kong-based director of Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management, which holds shares in Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis.

    “But we decided to give (the newly created board) the benefit of the doubt,” Park told Reuters.

Leading proxy advisor ISS has recommended investors vote for Elliott’s proposal to expand the board to 11 directors from nine at Hyundai Mobis to make room for director nominees from both the activist fund and management.

Seven out of nine funds which disclosed their proxy votes ahead of the meetings said they would back Elliott’s proposals for board changes at Hyundai Mobis, according to the website of Korea Corporate Governance Service.

The proponents include funds run by California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund.

For Hyundai Motor, five out of six funds said they would vote against Elliott’s three director nominees, who will compete with Hyundai’s nominees to win board seats.

Once this battle is over Hyundai still faces the bigger challenge of revamping the group’s ownership structure, a process which is attracting close scrutiny from Elliott, NPS and other investors.

Elliott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 1,131.8200 won)

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Source: OANN

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Aid group: Cameroon’s restive regions need more help

The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council says the humanitarian situation has become dire in parts of Cameroon amid a two-year conflict between separatists and government forces.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the organization, said Thursday that tens of thousands in Cameroon's English-speaking areas are living in the bush — too afraid to return home or to seek refuge in major towns.

Separatists who complain that Cameroon's English-speaking regions are marginalized by the government have been waging an insurgency since 2017.

President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, has branded the separatists as terrorists.

Egeland said many of the people he spoke with this week had fled after their villages were attacked at night. Often people didn't know whether the violence was caused by military or rebels.

Source: Fox News World

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Portugal to deploy record number of crew to battle wildfires

After an exceptionally dry winter and weeks of unseasonably high temperatures, Portugal is assembling a record number of firefighters and water-dropping aircraft as it braces for a potentially difficult wildfire season.

The Interior Ministry says Wednesday that almost 11,500 firefighters and allied staff, including soldiers and police, will be deployed in the peak wildfire months of July through September. That is almost 800 more than last year. They will be supported by up to 60 planes and helicopters and almost 2,500 vehicles.

Portugal witnesses thousands of wildfires each year, largely due to poor forest management.

In 2017, 106 people died in Portuguese wildfires in what was by far the deadliest summer fire season on record.

No one died last year in wildfires after the government took exceptional measures.

Source: Fox News World

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Reality check: Dip in growth has Czechs pinching pennies after splurge

European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis arrives for a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Eva Plevier/Pool

April 15, 2019

By Jason Hovet and Robert Muller

PRAGUE (Reuters) – A year after embarking on a record spending splurge, the Czech Republic, one of the European Union’s star fiscal performers, is falling back into deficit and has started tightening its belt to prevent an economic slowdown from wrecking its budget.

The government is seeking savings worth 25 billion crowns ($1.10 billion), or half a percentage point of economic output, to keep its 2020 budget from breaching targets and, for the first time, forecasts a run of fiscal surpluses to end.

To critics, including economists from the state’s own budget council, the cost-cutting foreshadows uncomfortable budget choices ahead to offset slowing growth.

With a humming economy and record-low unemployment, Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s government had expected growth would pay for pension hikes higher than automatic adjusters, double-digit pay raises for a growing state workforce, and even free train tickets for seniors and students.

Instead, the Finance Ministry cut its 2019 gross domestic product growth forecast to 2.4 percent, from 3.1 percent, although that may still be optimistic as main trade partner Germany slices its own outlook.

The Czechs also cut predictions for an overall public sector surplus to 0.3 percent of GDP this year, from 1.0 percent.

The ministry sees a swing to a 0.2 percent deficit and deeper from 2020, according to a report for the European Commission seen by Reuters that erases previous predictions of surpluses.

(GRAPHIC: Czech fiscal balance to GDP – https://tmsnrt.rs/2IjoDX1)

That, critics say, is proof that Babis has wasted a strong economic stretch, failing to invest in roads and other critical infrastructure.

“We wasted the good times for (making) structural improvements and preparing for worse times… (and instead) we increased consumption expenditures and did not invest,” said David Marek, chief economist for Deloitte in Prague.

“We are eating our future.”

In surplus since 2016, Czech debt has fallen to the fourth lowest level in the EU, hitting 32.7 percent of GDP last year. Annual growth has ranged between 2.5 percent and 5.3 percent since 2015.

Babis, a chemicals and agriculture tycoon before entering politics, fought spending rises as finance minister in 2014-2017 when his ANO party was a junior government member and built his image with pledges to whip state finances into shape.

But after a landslide 2017 election win, he let rip.

BUDGET DEBATE

The 2019 budget earmarked a 141 billion crown spending rise over the 2018 budget, equal to 2.7 percent of 2018 GDP.

(GRAPHIC: Czech budget expenditures – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ilj9eA)

Critics complain that while spending surges, investments are lagging, below 4 percent of GDP annually since 2016. In nominal terms, 2018 investment spending was lower than in 2009, when the global financial crisis struck.

The central state budget – the main component of overall public finances that also include regional governments and some healthcare – posted a first-quarter deficit for the first time since 2012. Expenditure rose 13 percent against a 5 percent income gain.

Finance Minister Alena Schillerova wants savings to maintain a planned 40 billion crown deficit for 2020.

The Finance Ministry declined to say how the savings plan would look. It has until the end of May to submit a draft budget to the government.

So far, the ministry, besides calling for workforce cuts and administrative savings, hopes to raise around 9 billion crowns by increasing tax on cigarettes, alcohol and gambling.

The Social Democrats, the junior ruling party, wants a bank sector tax, which Babis opposes.

The Czechs are not alone in central Europe as others raise social spending, leading to an outlook of widening deficits in Poland while Slovakia may abandon its target of reaching a surplus next year.

But the state Czech Fiscal Council, which warned against exorbitant pension hikes, is still worried. Council member Richard Hindls said the government lacked a strategy and was avoiding reforms to ease future burdens.

“It is important to have priorities,” he told Reuters. “One thing bothers me… that this favorable period was not used to start with systemic (budget) change.”

(Graphics by Jason Hovet; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

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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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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