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Out-of-sync and out-performing China markets lure foreign inflows

Man stands in front of an electronic board displaying stock information at a brokerage firm in Hangzhou
A man stands in front of an electronic board displaying stock information at a brokerage firm in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China April 1, 2019. Picture taken April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

April 8, 2019

By Andrew Galbraith and Daniel Leussink

SHANGHAI/TOKYO (Reuters) – Not for the first time, China’s markets are marching to their own beat.

Just as investors come to terms with a bleak outlook for global growth and earnings, with weak German industrial and trade data just the latest portents of gloom, China’s economy may be bottoming out, helped by Beijing’s early moves to prop up a stuttering economy.

At the same time, Chinese regulators’ drive to open up financial markets to foreign involvement is making the country more accessible, and a potentially rich target for foreign investors looking to diversify.

“The more you see stabilization of the Chinese growth story – and I think you’ll see that coming through in the middle of the year – the more comfortable you’ll be with looking at the debt and equity side of things in China,” said Kerry Craig, Global Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Melbourne.

To be fair, global markets are having a good year. Index provider MSCI’s broadest gauge of global shares is up more than 13 percent since January, erasing last year’s losses even against the backdrop of the U.S.-China trade war and Brexit.

But dovish shifts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have in recent weeks sparked market jitters, pushing down bond yields and jolting equity indexes.

China’s markets have been comparatively unfazed. The blue-chip CSI300 index has risen more than a third so far this year, making it the world’s best-performing major index.

Yields on benchmark 10-year Chinese government bonds have also jumped in recent days alongside rallying shares as investors’ appetite for the safest investments has ebbed.

Faced with a slowing economy due in part to a multi-year campaign to reduce risky leverage and to headwinds from the trade war, Beijing began easing policy selectively last year, channeling more money into the real economy to boost growth.

Tax cuts, infrastructure spending and pledges to boost lending and lower borrowing costs have helped revive stagnant credit growth, brightening the outlook for corporate earnings.

“With easing policies starting to have an impact on credit creation, credit growth should continue to pick up this year,” Chen Long, China economist at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing, said in a note.

“It’s clear that China’s economy slowed further in the first quarter of 2019, but there’s an increasingly strong consensus that growth will bottom out and improve later in the year.”

Chinese shares have also been bolstered by rising foreign interest.

Net flows into China’s stock market through the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Connect program topped 125 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in the first quarter of 2019, nearly triple the same period a year earlier, data from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd showed.

In February, the Institute for International Finance said foreign investors put more than $10 billion into Chinese onshore equities ahead of an announced rise in the weighting of A-shares in MSCI’s benchmark indexes.

Graphic: Different drummers, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2WUNt2W

BOND BOOST

Global index changes have extended beyond equities.

On April 1, index provider Bloomberg Barclays began a 20-month process of including some Chinese government and policy bank bonds in its Global Aggregate index, a move expected to draw billions of foreign dollars into China’s $13 trillion bond market.

While initial flows tracking the index will be gradual, “at some point in time there will be an inflection point,” said Dhiraj Bajaj, fixed income portfolio manager at Lombard Odier in Singapore.

For active investors, Chinese bonds provide advantages to a diversified portfolio, including lower average durations and significant yield premiums.

Frances Cheung, head of macro strategy for Asia at Westpac, said the yuan’s relative stability could burnish the appeal of yuan-denominated assets to some investors.

“The RMB is less sensitive to risk sentiment than some of its regional peers including the IDR, KRW and MYR. The correlation between USD/CNY and Chinese government bonds is also low. These features render CNY bonds a good avenue for portfolio diversification, especially when initial exposure is low for many investors,” she said.

Data from Bond Connect, which gives foreign investors access to China’s interbank market, shows trading volumes through the scheme jumped 70 percent, and the number of registered Bond Connect investors rose 41 percent, in the first quarter of 2019.

Bond Connect says index inclusion has shifted the focus of trading toward government and policy bank bonds, which accounted for 66 percent of turnover in March, up from 37 percent in December.

But following a year-long rally that pushed yields on 10-year Chinese government bonds down nearly a full percentage point from highs in late January 2018, some investors may be seeing less room for profit, said Bajaj.

A lack of familiarity with Chinese bonds may also deter some foreign investors, while technical issues such as limited hedging tools and patchy trading of newly issued government bonds remain nagging concerns.

“I imagine a lot of investors in similar positions like myself have just kind of a lack of experience of the market that probably limits its global safe-haven flow,” said Ross Hutchison, a global bond fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments in Edinburgh. “But that doesn’t mean that won’t change.”

Craig at J.P. Morgan said foreign investors should approach Chinese bonds with care. “We do know that the Chinese government has a large amount of debt. We have to think about the quality of what’s backing up those bonds,” he said.

But if investors are comfortable with China’s ability to contain debt, those concerns should ease, Craig added.

“We talk about the U.S. market being a safe haven, but U.S. debt is going to go up if they continue to spend at this rate,” he said.

Graphic: Benchmark moves, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2WPCXtv

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Andrew Galbraith; Additional reporting by Vidya Ranganathan in SINGAPORE; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Source: OANN

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1 hurt, 1 arrested in South Carolina emergency room shooting

A South Carolina hospital says a person was shot inside its emergency room, and the shooter was apprehended by law enforcement.

Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg said the wounded person was immediately taken into surgery after the shooting around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday.

The hospital's statement said law enforcement was on the scene and the shooter was apprehended. It revealed no details about the wounded person's condition.

Orangeburg County deputies didn't immediately return phone calls seeking more information.

The hospital said its emergency room remains closed as deputies investigate, but the rest of the hospital is open and operating normally.

Source: Fox News National

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Rocket Internet set to found more companies in 2019

FILE PHOTO: Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet, attends the Annual General Meeting of Rocket Internet SE in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet, attends the Annual General Meeting of Rocket Internet SE in Berlin, Germany, June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo

April 4, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – German ecommerce investor Rocket Internet will set up more companies in 2019 than last year, it said on Thursday, as investors raise questions about the company’s direction now most of its big holdings are listed or on track to go public.

“We expect to build more companies than in 2018,” Chief Executive Oliver Samwer told journalists, without giving a figure or a comparable number for 2018.

Rocket highlighted three start-ups with particular potential: Expertlead, a platform that helps companies find tech freelancers; B2B Food Group, a catering company for businesses; and Instafreight, a freight booking platform.

However, Samwer added he did not anticipate that any of its current smaller holdings would graduate to become more established companies this year.

He said Rocket had cash reserves of about 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), similar to a year ago, showing it had not made major investments. But Samwer said the tech market moved fast and it needed the cash to be able to seize opportunities.

Rocket said its stakes in unlisted ecommerce firms Global Fashion Group and Jumia, plus about another 200 smaller private start-ups, were worth about 1.2 billion euros. Samwer said Rocket had invested about 400 million euros in those companies, adding that about two-thirds of the estimated total value of its holdings in private companies were related to smaller firms.

Rocket has stakes in food groups HelloFresh and Delivery Hero, as well as online home furnishings sites Westwing and Home24, which all have been listed in recent years.

Jumia, its African ecommerce platform, filed last month for a New York initial public offering, which could value the firm at $1.6 billion or more. Global Fashion Group is also expected to pursue a listing soon.

($1 = 0.8894 euros)

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Nadine Schimroszik; Editing by Tassilo Hummel and Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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Supremes To Scrutinize Trump’s Census Citizenship Question

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over the Trump administration’s bid to append a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire.

Democratic states and city governments are challenging the citizenship question, fearing that diminished noncitizen participation will deprive them of federal funding and seats in Congress. The Justice Department, on the other hand, says citizenship questions have regularly appeared on past census forms and enhance the enforcement of federal law.

“Citizenship and other demographic questions have long been a part of the decennial census despite their potential effect on response rates,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the justices in court filings.

“The commerce secretary expressly acknowledged the very concerns respondents raise here, but made the policy judgment that ‘the value of more complete and accurate’ citizenship data ‘outweighs such concerns,’” he added.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, approved inclusion of the citizenship question. The Trump administration says Ross’s decision is not reviewable in court, calling the citizenship question a classic policy choice left to the discretion of the commerce secretary.

Elsewhere in legal briefs, the government points to a 1996 case in which the Supreme Court characterized the Commerce Department’s authority over the census “virtually unlimited.”

“The Constitution ‘vests Congress with virtually unlimited discretion in conducting’ the decennial census, and Congress in turn ‘has delegated its constitutional authority over the census’ to the commerce secretary,” Francisco wrote. (RELATED: Chief Justice Rejects Request For Same-Day Audio In Census Citizenship Case)

The plaintiffs sued the administration in April 2018, warning that the citizenship question will substantially decrease minority participation in the census. Since federal aid and seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned on the basis of population, left-leaning jurisdictions fear the loss of political representation and federal monies.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman barred the government from including the citizenship question in a sweeping decision that ran nearly 300 pages. Furman said that Ross violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a federal statute that governs agency decision-making.

“[Ross] failed to consider several important aspects of the problem; alternately ignored, cherry-picked, or badly misconstrued the evidence in the record before him; acted irrationally both in light of that evidence and his own stated decisional criteria; and failed to justify significant departures from past policies and practices — a veritable smorgasbord of classic, clear-cut APA violations,” his decision reads.

Elsewhere in the decision, Furman said Ross’s explanations for adding the citizenship question were pretextual, meaning his official explanations appear to differ from his actual motivations.

Two other district judges went further, saying that the citizenship question violates the Constitution, which requires an “actual enumeration” of persons.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading a coalition of city and state governments challenging the citizenship question before the high court. New York says Ross’s actions are unlawful for a number of independent reasons. Perhaps most importantly, the states accuse Ross of disregarding the warnings of career Census Bureau experts, who said that the citizenship question would depress minority responses and generate an inaccurate tally. Such action, the plaintiffs say, is unlawfully “arbitrary and capricious.”

“The secretary unreasonably ignored the uncontroverted empirical evidence that the citizenship question would make the enumeration less accurate,” New York’s brief to the justices reads. “All the evidence in the record demonstrates that a citizenship question would cause millions of noncitizens and Hispanics to not respond to the census, undermining the accuracy of the constitutionally required headcount.”

The states elsewhere say the Commerce Department could collect the citizenship data it seeks through existing federal records from the Social Security Administration the Citizenship and Immigration Services, belying the need for a census question on this subject. (RELATED: ‘Scandalous And Immoral’ Or First Amendment Speech? Justices Mull ‘Fuct’ Trademark)

The American Civil Liberties Union and congressional Democrats will also argue against the citizenship question before the justices on Tuesday.

Looking to the future, Loyola Law School Professor Justin Levitt suggested in a forthcoming paper that granular citizenship data could serve as a basis for redistricting and apportionment in the future, instead of total population. Whether federal law allows this, he added, is an open question.

“It may be that adding a citizenship question to the decennial census becomes a vehicle for a block-by-block dataset of citizen population, ostensibly suitable for a novel redistricting population base,” Levitt wrote.

A decision in the case, Department of Commerce v. New York, is expected by late June.



Alex Jones opens the phone lines to currently practicing and former members of the Muslim faith and challenges listeners to change his mind about Islam.

Source: InfoWars

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Muguruza retains Monterrey title as injured Azarenka retires

WTA International - Monterrey Open - Final
Tennis - WTA International - Monterrey Open Final - Club Sonoma, Monterrey, Mexico - April 7, 2019 Spain's Garbine Muguruza celebrates winning the Monterrey Open with the trophy REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

April 7, 2019

(Reuters) – Spain’s Garbine Muguruza successfully defended her Monterrey Open title when an injured Victoria Azarenka retired while trailing in the second set of the final on Sunday.

Second seed Muguruza was leading the match between the two former world number ones 6-1 3-1 when Azarenka was unable to continue because of a leg injury.

Muguruza broke the pained Belarusian three times in the first set and again in the fourth game of the second.

The fifth-seeded Azarenka received treatment on her leg during a medical time-out between sets, but it became apparent as the second set began that her movement had become significantly hampered.

Azarenka was grimacing and stretching after nearly every point and, after Muguruza broke for a 3-1 lead, the two-time Australian Open champion decided to call it quits.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Nick Mulvenney)

Source: OANN

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How Mueller’s decision on obstruction helped save Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures alongside First Lady Melania Trump before departing the White House
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures alongside First Lady Melania Trump before departing the White House on Marine One, after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

April 19, 2019

By Jan Wolfe and Noeleen Walder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Attorney General decided that President Donald Trump did not obstruct a probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia, but some legal experts said prosecutors laid out a wealth of evidence to the contrary and that they intended to leave that determination to Congress.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report revealed new details about Trump’s attempts to impede his investigation on Thursday. They included how the president tried to fire Mueller and limit his investigation, kept details of a June 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and a Russian under wraps, and possibly dangled a pardon to a former adviser.

Democrats said on Thursday the report contained disturbing evidence of wrongdoing by Trump that could fuel congressional investigations.

Some legal experts echoed that view. They said the evidence should have given prosecutors a strong basis for bringing an obstruction case against Trump, but Mueller demurred because a longstanding Department of Justice policy against indicting a sitting president.

Jens Ohlin, a law professor at Cornell University, said the evidence laid out by the Mueller report was “really exhaustive in terms of the number of incidents and how severe they are.”

In his report, Mueller focused on a series of actions, including Trump’s conduct toward law enforcement officials and witnesses. At one point, Mueller says the Congress has powers to check a president. At least half a dozen legal experts said the special counsel intended Congress to take up the matter.

“There is a wink, and a nod, and another wink to Congress that I have a lot of evidence and now the ball is in your court,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

House Democrats took that view as well. In a joint statement, the House chairs said “the Special Counsel undoubtedly anticipated” the Congress must assess the evidence.

But Republican Congressman Doug Collins disputed that Mueller intended for Congress to decide on the view.

“The report doesn’t say Congress should investigate obstruction now. It says Congress can make laws about obstruction,” Collins tweeted.

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.

Trump’s legal team called the report “a total victory” for the president.

“If they thought they had an obstruction case they would have made it. They did not,” said Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, in an interview.

It is unclear whether the Democrats will push on Congressional censure. And even if the House votes to impeach, it is highly unlikely the Republican controlled Senate would convict Trump.

Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, defended the president in a press conference Thursday by saying there was insufficient evidence to bring an obstruction case against Trump.

In an earlier letter to lawmakers, Barr said the case was also undermined by Mueller’s finding that the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russians to interfere in the election.

WATERGATE-ERA OPINION

Under U.S. law, it is a crime to attempt “to influence, obstruct or impede the due administration of justice.”

To prove obstruction, prosecutors must show an individual acted with a “corrupt” or improper motive – a specific intent to impede an investigation.

Obstruction of justice is often coupled with some underlying wrongful act that is being covered up, legal experts said.

With a sitting president, the issue takes on additional complications. A Justice department policy dating back to the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s advises against indicting a sitting president.

The U.S. Constitution is silent on the question.

In his report, Mueller said he “accepted” the department’s legal opinion and was unable to come to a conclusion about whether there was enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction.

QUESTION OF MOTIVE

The president’s actions and intent “presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred,” Mueller wrote.

But Mueller added that his report “also does not exonerate” Trump of the crime.

In reaching his decision not to charge Trump, Barr said the president had been “frustrated and angered” by a belief that the probe was undermining his presidency.

Despite this, Trump did not deprive Mueller of documents and witnesses needed to complete the investigation, Barr said.

“Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weights heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Richard Cowan and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Edward Tobin)

Source: OANN

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Teen sets record as youngest around-the-world solo pilot

It's now official: A Louisiana teenager is the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world.

Look up "Mason Andrews" at www.guinnessworldrecords.com, and there he is: "Youngest person to circumnavigate by aircraft, solo."

The Monroe resident was 18 years and 163 days old when he landed his Piper PA-32 Lance in Monroe on Oct. 6. The previous record-holder, Lachlan Smart of Queensland, Australia, was 71 days older.

Andrews' trip took 180 flight hours over 76 days, including nearly three weeks stuck in the Philippines by typhoons.

The News-Star reports that Andrews' family learned during the weekend that his record had been certified.

Andrews tells KNOE-TV he's aiming at another record. He won't say what it is, but says it could be the biggest aviation achievement in a decade.

Source: Fox News National

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

April 26, 2019

By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan

(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.

Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.

Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.

WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?

The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.

Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.

HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?

The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.

Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.

The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.

The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.

No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.

Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.

Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.

CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?

No.

Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.

“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.

“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”

PROOF OF WRONGDOING?

In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.

Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”

PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?

Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.

In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.

The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.

WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?

A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes
FILE PHOTO: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s lawyers on Friday are set to ask a Florida judge to toss out hidden-camera videos that prosecutors say show the 77-year-old billionaire receiving sexual favors for money inside a Florida massage parlor.

The owner of the reigning Super Bowl champions plans wants the video to not be used as evidence against him as he contests two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Florida, along with some two dozen other men.

His legal team is fresh off a win on Tuesday, when they successfully persuaded Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser to block prosecutors from releasing the hidden-camera footage to media outlets, which had requested copies under the state’s robust open records law.

Kraft, who has owned the franchise since 1994, pleaded not guilty, but has issued a public apology for his actions.

His attorneys have argued in court papers that the surreptitious videotaping of customers, including Kraft, inside a massage parlor was governmental overreach and the result of an illegally obtained search warrant.

The warrant, Kraft’s lawyers claim, was secured under false pretenses because police officers cited human trafficking as a potential crime in their application. Prosecutors have since acknowledged that the investigation yielded no evidence of trafficking.

Palm Beach County prosecutors in a court filing on Wednesday said Kraft’s motion should be rejected because he could not have had any expectation of privacy while visiting a commercial establishment to engage in criminal activity.

That prompted an indignant response from Kraft’s attorneys, who said the prosecution’s position on privacy was “unhinged.”

“It should go without saying that Mr. Kraft and everyone else in the United States have a reasonable expectation that the government will not secretly spy on them while they undress behind closed doors,” they wrote.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, editing by G Crosse)

Source: OANN

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