FILE PHOTO: British and EU flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
April 1, 2019
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The British parliament will on Monday hold a second round of indicative votes on various Brexit alternatives, and the customs union could emerge as a preferred solution for lawmakers who have rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal.
A customs union would allow an easier flow of goods, but would not itself guarantee frictionless trade and would limit, but not prevent, Britain’s capacity to strike its own free trade deals.
HOW INDEPENDENT?
The European Union is itself a customs union and is also part of three other customs unions with Andorra, San Marino and Turkey.
In the case of Turkey, the arrangement does not include agricultural or coal and steel products. Other goods can circulate without paying customs duties and the whole zone applies the same import duties for products from third countries – such as the 10 percent rate for imported cars.
Unlike a free trade deal, a customs union removes the need for complex rules to determine whether a good is really from a given partner – such as a machine with multiple imported components. Such “rules of origin” can prove costly and time-consuming for exporters.
Being a member of a customs union limits, but does not prevent the separate participants from striking their own free trade agreements with other countries.
Turkey, the junior partner in the customs union with the EU, does face a challenge. The EU’s recent free trade deal with Japan opens Turkey up to inbound Japanese cars without providing reciprocal access for Turkish products to Japan’s market.
The junior customs union partner, which Britain would likely be, can find itself playing catch-up with a reduced bargaining position, given their own market is already open.
Turkey did for example begin a free trade deal covering goods with South Korea in 2013, two years after an EU-South Korea accord came into effect. It remains in exploratory talks with Canada, whose deal with the EU began in 2017.
However, Turkey is free is in those areas not covered by the customs union. So, following their agreement on goods, Turkey and South Korea also struck in 2015 a bilateral deal covering services and investment.
Depending on the nature of an EU-Britain customs union, Britain would still be able to negotiate with others trade access covering its large financial services market, investment, public procurement, data flows and possibly agricultural quotas.
FRICTIONLESS TRADE
Delays that can even extend beyond 24 hours at the EU-Turkish land border show that a customs union in itself is no guarantee of frictionless trade.
Turkish trucks laden with goods bound for the European Union still need to show documents including export declarations and invoices and transport permits for each EU country through which the truck plans to travel.
So far the EU has limited deals on road transport access to countries that accept free movement of people, such as Norway and Switzerland.
The controls come despite Turkey having aligned its legislation with certain EU internal market rules, such as covering product standards, intellectual property rights and competition controls.
Goods also can be subject to inspections at the border to confirm they comply with EU regulations.
HARD IRISH BORDER
A customs union would ease the flow of goods across the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, but would appear unlikely on its own to prevent a hard border.
It would need to go beyond the EU-Turkey union to cover agricultural produce, notably dairy and beef. Britain would then find itself bound to retain EU measures to prevent diseases, pests and contaminants in plants and animals.
The EU and New Zealand already have such an agreement on sanitary measures without yet having a free trade deal, which for example allows New Zealand to export to the EU more than 200,000 tonnes of lamb.
A customs union, together with requirements to meet EU single market rules on products, which would be subject to European Court of Justice control.
Such an enhanced customs union would not so much replace as resemble the “backstop” agreed between London and Brussels, but rejected by British lawmaker, in which Britain would enter a “single customs territory” with the EU and Northern Ireland would be subject to additional EU single market rules.
(This version of the story was refiled to remove extraneous words in second paragraph)
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
April 9, 2019
By Karen Brettell
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Parts of the U.S. Treasury yield curve have begun moving in opposing directions, but closer scrutiny shows each section is signaling the same warning that the era of expanding economic growth and interest rate hikes is nearing an end.
Analysts say Europe’s yield curve is also signaling economic weakness even as it holds at much steeper levels than the United States, reinforcing the notion that risks of a slowdown on both sides of the Atlantic are growing.
The Federal Reserve’s sudden pivot toward a dovish stance on future rate increases in March stunned the market and prompted a rapid repricing of Treasuries that in less than a week led to an inversion of the 3-month and 10-year Treasury curve.
The inversion, where 3-month bills return at a higher rate than the longer-dated notes, is an anomaly that in the past has preceded economic downturns by around one to two years.
While that section of the curve has since moved back into positive territory, other shorter-dated parts of the curve remain inverted. Longer-dated parts of the yield curve have since steepened, which is also consistent with the end of the economic cycle that precedes interest rate cuts and a recession.
“It’s all part of the same story that there is some anticipation of easier monetary policy in the future,” said Subadra Rajappa, head of U.S. rates strategy at Societe Generale in New York.
The U.S. yield curve gives clues about where bond investors see the economy heading, and has historically been more accurate than not in predicting a recession. Movements between the different maturities typically follow the same pattern before a downturn.
As the Fed hikes rates in a growing economy, the yield curve will flatten, with investors pricing in higher rates in shorter-dated notes, which are the most sensitive to rate increases. Longer-dated note yields rise at a slower pace, reflecting more tepid long-term growth and inflation expectations.
When the yield curve inverts, however, financial conditions are viewed as having gotten too tight. The signal is seen as stronger if the inversion lasts over several weeks or months.
At this point, investors will begin anticipating rate cuts in the short-to-intermediate term, which results in a steeper curve between those maturities and longer-dated debt. Rate cuts in the past have followed inversions, with recessions then starting soon after the rate cuts commence.
For a graphic on Yield Curve Inversions, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2VDvv4o
Analysts note that the yield curve machinations so far do not mean a recession is a certainty in the near term, and many economists expect we may see some stabilization in the economy before the next downturn.
In that case, the yield curve may begin flattening anew as investors push back expectations on when a downturn will occur.
Steepening in the long-end of the U.S. yield curve contrasts with German government bond yields, where longer-dated debt outperformance is continuing to flatten the yield curve.
But analysts say it would be a mistake to assume that this trend reflects confidence in the euro zone economy, where interest rates remain at zero and benchmark 10-year yields are trading in negative territory.
“The ECB (European Central Bank) has not been able to get off any hikes and only just finished QE, so the euro area looks significantly more exposed to a downturn than the U.S., just in terms of policy space to potentially respond,” said Jon Hill, an interest rate strategist at BMO Capital Markets in New York.
For a graphic on Yield Curves, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2D7pSUW
Many investors are also focused on the 2-year, 10-year portion of the U.S. curve, which may be the most widely watched recession indicator in the Treasury market. This section has not inverted yet during this cycle, although it remains at historically very flat levels.
The onset of a recession without the inversion of this part of the curve would not be unprecedented. In the 1950s, a time that, like now, was marked by low inflation and low bond yields, there were two recessions that were not preceded by an inversion of this part of the curve, said Rajappa.
“This time around we don’t really think that twos, 10s needs to invert for us to go into a recession,” she said.
(Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Dan Burns)
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White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway destroyed the fake news media at a press conference following Thursday’s release of the Mueller report.
“This is the success of the Democrats in the first 100 days,” Conway began the presser, holding up a blank piece of paper.
Elsewhere in the interview, Conway referred to the FBI Special Counsel’s probe as a “political proctology exam” from which the president emerged with a “clean bill of health,” and told the media it was “time to move on” from the investigation.
“That should make people very good about democracy,” Conway said, referring to the report. “And it should make people feel really great that a campaign I managed to its successful end did not collude with any Russians.”
“We’re accepting apologies today, too,” Conway offered, “for anybody who feels the grace in offering them.”
Speaking to the narrative pushed by the media that the Trump campaign had relied on Russia in order to beat Democrat challenger Hillary Clinton, Conway noted:
“When I needed to find negative information about Hillary Clinton and how to beat her, I looked no further than Hillary Clinton.”
She later elaborated on Twitter: “We had Wisconsin. We didn’t need WikiLeaks. Don’t lose sight of what an awful day this is for awful candidate with awful excuses for running awful campaign.”
We had Wisconsin
We didn’t need WikiLeaks
Don’t lose sight of what an awful day this is for awful candidate with awful excuses for running awful campaign. https://t.co/RyWLaf3HBG
Job seekers line up at a job fair of an oil services giant Halliburton at the MCM Grande Fundome hotel in Odessa, Texas, U.S., July 19, 2018. Picture taken on July 19, 2018. REUTERS/Liz Hampton
February 21, 2019
WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, but the four-week moving average rose to a more than one-year high, suggesting the labor market was slowing down.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended Feb. 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
But the Labor Department said claims for California, Virginia, Hawaii and Puerto Rico were estimated last week because of Monday’s Presidents’ Day Holiday. That could have exaggerated the drop in claims.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 229,000 in the latest week. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 4,000 to 235,750 last week, the highest level since January 2018.
The claims data covered the survey week for the nonfarm payrolls portion of February’s employment report. The four-week average of claims rose by 15,250 between the January and February survey periods, suggesting a moderation in the pace of job growth this month. Payrolls jumped by 304,000 jobs in January, the most in 11 months, after increasing by 222,000 in December.
The claims report showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid dropped 55,000 to 1.73 million for the week ended Feb. 9. The four-week moving average of these so-called continuing claims rose 2,750 to 1.75 million.
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A man wearing a yellow vest holds a placard reading "I am jew", during a gathering at the Republique square to protest against anti-Semitism, in Paris, France, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. In Paris and dozens of other French cities, ordinary citizens and officials across the political spectrum geared up Tuesday to march and rally against anti-Semitism, following a series of anti-Semitic acts that shocked the nation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Thousands of French people hit the streets of Paris and other cities on Tuesday with the slogan “That’s enough” in the wake of multiple anti-Semitic acts in the country.
The rally was led by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Republic Plaza and joined by former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Political parties across the political spectrum joined the march, though Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party held a separate event from the mainstream parties.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, went to Shoah Memorial, a Holocaust museum in Paris, to observe a moment of silence with other parliament leaders.
“Every time a French person, because he or she is Jewish, is insulted, threatened — or worse, injured or killed — the whole Republic” is attacked, Macron said at a news conference in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron puts a stone on a vandalized grave in a show of respect during a visit at the Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, eastern France, Tuesday Feb. 19, 2019. French residents and public officials from across the political spectrum geared up Tuesday for nationwide rallies against anti-Semitism following a series of anti-Semitic acts, including the swastikas painted on about 80 gravestones at the Jewish cemetery overnight. (Frederick Florin, Pool via AP)
The demonstration came after a string of incidents against the French Jewry in recent months. On Tuesday, the same day as the march, about 80 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery were desecrated with Swastikas overnight.
Macron visited the cemetery and said he felt shame seeing the gravestones desecrated. “This looks like absurd stupidity,” the French president said, promising to take action.
But in recent weeks, there has been multiple anti-Semitic incidents, prompting a reaction from lawmakers and the people.
Last weekend, police had to step in to protect the philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, after the so-called “Yellow Vests” taunted the academic using anti-Jewish slurs.
Two teens were arrested on Friday after they allegedly fired shots at a synagogue with an air rifle in Paris and injured one Jewish man. Prosecutors reportedly said the motive was anti-Semitism.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner touches a vandalized tombstone at the Jewish cemetery of Quatzenheim, eastern France, Tuesday Feb. 19, 2019. French residents and public officials from across the political spectrum geared up Tuesday for nationwide rallies against anti-Semitism following a series of anti-Semitic acts, including the swastikas painted on about 80 gravestones at the Jewish cemetery overnight. (Frederick Florin, Pool via AP)
A swastika was also found on street portraits of Simone Veil — a survivor of Nazi death camps and a European Parliament president who died in 2017.
The word “Juden” was painted on the window of a bagel restaurant in the capital, while two trees planted at a memorial honoring a young Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 were also vandalized, one cut down.
France is the home of the world’s largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.
French government revealed that there was a big rise in incidents of anti-Semitism last year – 541 registered incidents, up 74 percent from the 311 registered in 2017.
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)
April 26, 2019
By April Joyner
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.
Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.
Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.
“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”
The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.
Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.
A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.
“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”
Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.
CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.
To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.
A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.
Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.
“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Firefighters and investigators search the man-made lake near the village of Mitsero outside of the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, April 26, 2019. Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls had dumped their bodies. (AP)
Cyprus police on Friday widened their search for more victims of a suspected serial killer after the 35-year-old national guard captain told investigators he killed four more people that he previously admitted to on the small Mediterranean nation.
Authorities said they are focusing on a military firing range, a man-made lake and an abandoned mine about 20 miles west of the capital Nicosia.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades expressed “deep sorrow and concern” at the slayings and said he shared the public’s revulsion at “murders that appear to have selectively targeted foreign women who are in our country to work.”
“Such instincts are contrary to our culture’s traditions and values,” he said in a statement from China, where he was on an official visit. He urged calm so police can complete their investigation.
The scale of the alleged crimes by a Cypriot National Guard captain has horrified the small nation of over a million people, where multiple killings are rare. Five British law enforcement officials — including a coroner, a psychiatrist and investigators who specialize in multiple homicides — have been dispatched to help with the investigation.
On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect, who can’t yet be named because he hasn’t been formally charged, told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. Police said the suspect will appear in court Saturday for another custody hearing.
Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week’s discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims. (AP)
The victims — all foreigners— include Marry Rose Tiburcio, 38, from the Philippines, whose bound body was found April 14 in a flooded mineshaft. She and her six-year-old daughter had been missing since May of last year.
The girl remains missing and authorities believe she was also slain by the suspect. Divers have entered the reservoir to search for her but have not found her body yet.
Authorities tracked down the officer last week by scouring Tiburcio’s online messages.
Six days later, police discovered another body April 20 in the same mineshaft, identified by Cypriot media as 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines.
A third alleged victim, also of Filipino descent, is 31-year-old Maricar Valtez Arquiola, who had been missing since December 2017. The suspect initially denied killing Arquiola but reversed himself after a court hearing Thursday, a police official said.
The suspect on Thursday also pointed investigators to a military firing range, where they discovered another unidentified body, which according to the suspect belongs to a woman of either Nepalese or Indian descent.
Cypriot police are also looking for a Romanian mother and daughter. Cypriot media identified them as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and eight-year-old Elena Natalia Bunea, who are believed to have been missing since September 2016.
The man-made lake remains off-limits to a manned search because of high levels of toxic heavy metals from the copper pyrite mine, Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas said, adding that authorities will use other means to scour the lake.
Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Cyprus police have faced criticism from immigrant activists who said they didn’t act fast enough to investigate the whereabouts of some of the victims, many of them domestic workers. The island nation has 80 unsolved missing persons cases, going back to 1990.
Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou said a three-member panel has been assigned to probe whether police followed all the correct protocol in recent missing persons cases.
According to the state-run Cyprus News Agency, an investigator had told the court at an earlier hearing that the suspect admitted to killing one woman he met online after having sex with her.
Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro is seen delivering a speech at a forum on human rights in Caracas, Venezuela June 12, 2018 in this still image taken from a video. REUTERS TV/ via REUTERS
April 26, 2019
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition-run National Assembly said on Friday that opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro was detained, which it described in a Twitter post as a violation of diplomatic immunity.
Caro had previously spend a year and a half in jail, before being freed in June 2018. The arrest comes as Juan Guaido, the National Assembly’s leader, mounts a challenge to President Nicolas Maduro, arguing his 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Guaido in January invoked the country’s constitution to assume an interim presidency.
(Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury’s store in Redhill, Britain, March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) – With Sainsbury’s dream of creating Britain’s biggest supermarket group in tatters, its chastened CEO Mike Coupe needs to reassure investors he has the plan to arrest a sales decline when he presents annual results next week.
Britain’s competition regulator blocked Sainsbury’s 7.3 billion pound ($9.4 billion) takeover of Walmart’s Asda on Thursday, saying the deal would increase prices. Sainsbury’s shares fell 5 percent and are down 22 percent over the last three months.
For Sainsbury’s fourth quarter to March 9 analysts are on average forecasting a 1.6 percent fall in like-for-like sales, which would follow 1.1 percent decline over the Christmas period.
Monthly industry data from researcher Kantar has also shown Sainsbury’s as the weakest performer of the big four grocers this year and this month it lost its status as Britain’s No. 2 supermarket group by market share to Asda.
While Sainsbury’s has struggled, market leader Tesco has gained momentum, this month reporting a 34 percent jump in full year profit.
Prohibition of the deal was a major blow to Coupe, its architect and Sainsbury’s boss since 2014.
Martin Scicluna became Sainsbury’s chairman last month and when bedded-in may decide that if the group needs a major shake-up it is best carried out by a new leader.
Much will depend on the attitude of 22 percent shareholder the Qatar Investment Authority, which has so far declined to comment, as well as Coupe’s own appetite to continue after 15 years at the group.
THE RIGHT STRATEGY?
Coupe said on Thursday he was confident Sainsbury’s was pursuing the right strategy.
That was a clear indication that Wednesday’s results statement will not include radical changes to the group’s plans, such as a big margin reset — sacrificing profit to drive sales.
However, sources connected to Sainsbury’s said Coupe would likely acknowledge that more needs to be done on prices, so the supermarket business can better compete with its big four rivals – Tesco, Asda and No. 4 Morrisons – as well as German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Coupe’s strategy is based on differentiating Sainsbury’s food offer, growing its general merchandise, clothing business and bank, while investing in convenience and online channels.
Some analysts believe major change is needed.
HSBC analyst David McCarthy reckons Sainsbury’s needs a margin reset, should allocate more space for core lines and needs to drive better store standards. He said Sainsbury’s might consider closing down space in some of its larger stores and reducing its non-food offer.
For the full 2018-19 year analysts are on average forecasting a pretax profit of 626 million pounds, up from 589 million pounds in 2017-18 – a second straight year of profit growth. A full year dividend of 10.5 pence per share is forecast versus 10.2 pence last time.
Bank and lawyer fees related to the proposed combination with Asda were 17 million pounds in the first half and have reportedly jumped to around 50 million pounds.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey rejected demands from a secular group to remove posts on social media where he sent Easter greetings and cited a Bible verse, offering to provide copies of the Constitution to his critics.
Ducey, who’s a practicing Catholic, has been bombarded with calls from Secular Communities for Arizona to remove the post, which included a cross, a Bible verse, and the phrase, “He is risen.”
The group argued the posts crossed a line into government sponsorship of religious messages and was unconstitutional.
The governor fired back at the group, saying in a tweet that he will never remove the posts or other religious ones.
“We won’t be removing this post. Ever. Nor will we be removing our posts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Palm Sunday, Passover or any other religious holiday,” he tweeted. “We support the First Amendment, and are happy to provide copies of the Constitution to anyone who hasn’t read it.”
Dianne Post, an attorney for the secular group, told the Arizona Republic “elected officials should not use their government position and government property to promote their religious views.”
She added the courts have repeatedly “struck down symbolism that unites government with religion,” adding that Ducey’s office must “represent and protect the rights of all residents of Arizona, including those who do not believe in a monotheistic God or any gods at all.”
Many congratulated Ducey for not backing down amid the pressure, though some Facebook users sided with the secular group and criticized the governor on his original post.
“Why do you use a government platform to bring up your personal religion?” asked one person. “Are there no citizens in your jurisdiction that believe differently from you?”
Another stipulated that the post was somewhat discriminatory. “Great sensitivity, Doug. That’s the last time this Jew votes for you,” one person wrote.
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