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NBA roundup: Jazz top Suns despite Booker’s 59

NBA: Phoenix Suns at Utah Jazz
Mar 25, 2019; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) shoots the ball ahead of Phoenix Suns forward Dragan Bender (35) during the first quarter at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

March 26, 2019

Rudy Gobert scored a season-high 27 points and collected 10 rebounds to lead the Utah Jazz to a 125-92 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night.

Devin Booker scored a season-high 59 points for the Suns.

Gobert broke the NBA single-season dunk record with 274 while picking up his 59th double-double of the season. The old dunk mark of 269 was set by Dwight Howard set in 2007-08. Dunks have been an official stat only since 2000.

Derrick Favors and Ricky Rubio added 18 points apiece for the Jazz, who won for the seventh time in eight games. Booker hit 19 of 34 field-goal attempts and 16 of 17 from the free-throw line, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Phoenix from losing for the seventh time in the past nine games.

Trail Blazers 148, Nets 144 (2OT)

Jusuf Nurkic scored 32 points and had a game-high 16 rebounds to lead Portland to a double-overtime victory against visiting Brooklyn.

But Nurkic suffered a serious left leg injury with 2:22 left in the second overtime when fouled while going for an offensive rebound. He was taken off on a stretcher and then to a local hospital.

Damian Lillard added 31 points and a game-leading 12 assists for the Blazers, who clinched an NBA playoff spot for the sixth year in a row. In reserve, Seth Curry scored 20 points and Rodney Hood 18 as Portland completed a homestand 4-0.

Magic 119, 76ers 98

Nikola Vucevic had 28 points and 11 rebounds, and Orlando took a major step in its push toward the playoffs with a home win over Philadelphia.

The Magic went undefeated during their five-game homestand and are now just a half-game behind the Miami Heat for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The two teams play a pivotal game Tuesday night in Miami.

Evan Fournier chipped in 24 points and seven assists for Orlando. Joel Embiid had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the 76ers. Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons did not play due to a stomach virus.

Grizzlies 115, Thunder 103

Bruno Caboclo scored a career-high 24 points to lift Memphis past visiting Oklahoma City.

Caboclo hadn’t scored more than 16 points in any of his 60 previous NBA games over five seasons. He also tied his career high with 11 rebounds. Jonas Valancuinas added 18 points and 14 rebounds for Memphis, and Delon Wright had 18 points and 13 assists. Tyler Dorsey contributed 21 points.

Paul George led the Thunder with 30 points but was just 10 of 29 from the floor. Dennis Schroder scored 26 points for Oklahoma City, and Russell Westbrook added 16 points and seven assists.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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NBA roundup: Sixers, Raptors advance

NBA: Playoffs-Brooklyn Nets at Philadelphia 76ers
Apr 23, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) celebrates with forward Tobias Harris (33) and forward Jonathon Simmons (17) against the Brooklyn Nets during the third quarter in game five of the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

April 24, 2019

Joel Embiid collected 23 points and 13 rebounds as the Philadelphia 76ers cruised to a wire-to-wire, 122-100 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday and closed out their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in five games.

The 76ers advanced to the conference semifinals for the second straight season. They next will face the second-seeded Toronto Raptors in the first postseason meeting between the teams since the 2001 East semifinals, a series the 76ers won in seven en route to their most recent NBA Finals appearance.

Philadelphia posted its third double-digit win of the series, but unlike the wins in Games 2 and 3, when the 76ers pulled away after halftime, the dominating tone was established early.

Embiid scored 10 points as the 76ers scored the game’s first 14 points. The Nets went 0-for-8 on the first 14 possessions before scoring, and the 76ers held a 25-3 lead late in the first and a 32-15 edge after the opening quarter.

Raptors 115, Magic 96

Kyle Lowry scored Toronto’s first nine points as part of a game-opening, 12-1 flurry to propel the Raptors to a blowout win over visiting Orlando and a 4-1 win in an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

With a chance to wrap up the best-of-seven set at home, the Raptors wasted no time taking charge. Lowry hit four field goals — including a 3-pointer — in his early burst, and Kawhi Leonard added a three-point play as Toronto went up by 11 before the game was three minutes old.

Leonard finished with 27 points and Pascal Siakam scored 24 for the Raptors, who had never previously won four straight games in the same playoff series. D.J. Augustin scored a team-high 15 points for the Magic.

Nuggets 108, Spurs 90

Jamal Murray had 23 points and seven assists, and host Denver beat San Antonio in Game 5 of a Western Conference playoff series.

The Nuggets lead the series 3-2 heading into Game 6 at San Antonio on Thursday night. Game 7, if necessary, would be played Saturday in Denver.

Nikola Jokic amassed 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, Will Barton scored 17 points off the bench, and Gary Harris had 15 points for Denver. LaMarcus Aldridge had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and DeMar DeRozan also scored 17 for the Spurs, who lost a second game in a row.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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British PM Theresa May faces another likely defeat in vote on revised Brexit deal, as clock ticks down

British Prime Minister Theresa May was facing yet another battle for her own political survival on Tuesday as Parliament looked set to again reject her Brexit deal with the European Union -- just weeks before Britain is set to leave the bloc.

“There is only one certainty if we don’t pass this vote tonight and that is that uncertainty will continue for our citizens and for our businesses,” a hoarse May warned MPs in the House of Commons.

THERESA MAY'S BREXIT DEAL FACES NEW VOTE IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT: WHAT TO KNOW

Parliament will vote Tuesday evening on the Withdrawal Agreement that May hashed out with E.U. leaders last year -- a deal intended to ensure a smooth withdrawal from the European Union when Britain is scheduled to leave at the end of March.

But in January, the agreement was overwhelmingly defeated in the largest defeat in House of Commons history, opposed by those in favor of remaining in the E.U. and those seeking to leave it.

Much of the opposition on the right comes from concern over the “backstop” -- a safety net by which the U.K. temporarily remains in a customs union until a trade deal in secured, so as to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“Brexiteers” have pointed to the lack of a unilateral exit mechanism in the backstop as evidence that it could lead to Britain never leaving the bloc, or being forced to accept unfavorable trading terms. After the agreement was shot down in January, May pledged to go to Strasbourg and return with alterations more favorable to Parliament.

May returned late Monday from a last-gasp meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and announced that she had in fact secured "legally binding" changes to the agreement to prevent a permanent backstop. But May was dealt a blow on Tuesday when Attorney General Geoffrey Cox told the House of Commons that while the new clauses “enhance” the agreement, it does not change the fundamental risk.

MACRON SAYS EU MAY BLOCK UK'S BREXIT PLAN: 'THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE BRITISH TO MAKE CHOICES'

The legal risk...remains unchanged,” he told the House. “The question for the House is whether, in light of these improvements, as a political judgement, the House should now enter into those arrangements.”

May urged MPs to vote for the deal, urging pro-Remain MPs to respect the 2016 referendum result, while telling pro-Brexit MPs that no Brexit at all was a real risk if they were to vote down her deal.

“Members across the aisles should ask themselves if they want to make the perfect the enemy of the good,” she said.

Labour Party MPs slammed May for her handling of Brexit and for her deal, accusing her of promoting a “blindfold Brexit.”

“For many honorable members the biggest concern is that her agreement provides no legal certainty about any of the fundamental questions about our future relationship with the E.U.” MP Liz Kendall told May. “As a result we will be back here time and time again and, far from providing certainty for the future, her blindfold Brexit is the most uncertain future for our country of all.”

Two groups, the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs, both indicated they would oppose the deal even with the new changes.

ANTI-BREXIT MPS BREAK AWAY FROM BOTH MAIN PARTIES, FORM PRO-EU INDEPENDENT GROUP

“The only reason for voting for the deal, which remains a bad deal...is the fear that if the deal is voted down then we might not leave the European Union,” ERG Chair Jacob Rees Mogg told Sky News. “That would be the one thing that would change people’s minds but I don’t think that is the case.”

Should May’s deal be shot down again Tuesday evening, as appears likely, it would leave Britain scheduled to leave the bloc with no deal on March 29, reverting Britain to World Trade Organization (WTO) terms with the E.U. Business groups, members of May's government and pro-Remain MPs have warned that such a “no deal” Brexit will cause havoc, but pro-Brexit MPs have brushed off that fear as overblown.

If the deal is voted down, Parliament will vote Wednesday on a “no deal” Brexit -- a motion likely to be voted down. Should that happen, on Thursday a motion to delay Brexit past March 29 date of departure will be voted on.

If May’s deal is voted down and Brexit is delayed, May would almost certainly face further calls for either her resignation, or to call for a new general election to break the parliamentary stalemate. May has so far fended off a vote of no confidence from her own party in December, and a vote of no confidence in the government in January.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Should the Commons vote to delay Brexit, it is unclear if the E.U. will even accept the call to delay Britain’s departure -- and could even demand a re-do of the referendum as part of the terms to accept such a delay.

French President Emmanuel Macron said this month that “under no circumstances would we accept an extension without a clear perspective” from the British.

"We don't need time, we need decisions," he said.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Casey leads Johnson by one in Valspar Championship

PGA: Valspar Championship - Third Round
Mar 23, 2019; Palm Harbor, FL, USA; Paul Casey plays his shot from the 18th tee during the third round of the Valspar Championship golf tournament at Innisbrook Resort - Copperhead Course. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

March 23, 2019

(Reuters) – Defending champion Paul Casey held on for a one-stroke third-round lead over world number one Dustin Johnson at the Valspar Championship in Florida on Saturday.

England’s Casey shot 68 to top of the leaderboard at nine-under 204, but what had been a three-stroke lead dwindled to one after a bogey at the last.

Johnson applied the pressure with a 67 and fellow American Jason Kokrak (66) was close behind on 206, thanks in part to a hole in one at the par-three 15th.

England’s Luke Donald and American Scott Stallings were also in contention after both shot rounds of 70 to finish on 207.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Ed Osmond)

Source: OANN

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City of London downbeat over EU market access after Brexit

FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind the financial district of London, Britain.
FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind the financial district of London, Britain, February 13, 2019. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo

April 10, 2019

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s massive financial services sector won’t get special access to the European Union after Brexit, City of London financial district chief Catherine McGuinness said on Wednesday.

Britain has called for an “enhanced” version of the bloc’s equivalence system of market access for banks, insurers and brokers, that could distinguish it from other non members of the bloc.

“At the moment it looks as if we are going to have to start with third country equivalence and build on it,” McGuinness told Reuters.

The existing system is seen as unpredictable, patchy and prone to politicization and the EU is tightening access conditions in key activities for London like clearing euro contracts. The EU is Britain’s biggest financial services export market, worth 25.9 billion pounds in 2017.

McGuinness said uncertainty over trading relations after Brexit was now the “new normal”.

Nearly 300 financial firms in London have shifted about a trillion pounds in assets to new hubs in the EU to mitigate the uncertainty and avoid disruption to customer ties.

The big financial firms are ready for Brexit and assets won’t return even if Brexit was canceled, she said.

The Bank of England expects 4,000 jobs in banking and insurance will have moved from London to the EU by Brexit Day.

She was “comforted” there has been no huge outflow of jobs so far, but expected more jobs to be lost.

London will remain a major financial center that builds on strengths like innovation and technology, McGuinness said, but in the short term it faced an EU keen to bolster its own financial sector to rely less on London.

Trading in European government bonds and repurchase agreements has already left London for Amsterdam, and the bloc’s regulators are sending signals they want share trading to follow, McGuinness said.

“There are clearly pressures from the EU to try to onshore activities. If they try to onshore too much, fragmentation is in nobody’s interest,” she said.

END OF BEGINNING

There was “deep frustration and resignation” in the financial sector over how a “paralysed” parliament was handling Britain’s departure from the EU, McGuinness said.

Continued extensions to Brexit must not end up “kicking the can” down the road.

“Once we get through this phase, this is only the end of the beginning. Whether we crash out or get transition, we have got to work out the next phase of future relations,” she said.

Brexit was extended from March 29 to this Friday, and Prime Minister Theresa May is asking EU leaders on Wednesday for a further delay to the end of June, though a much longer postponement may be granted.

“To keep extending without getting anywhere would be very damaging,” McGuinness said.

“There needs to be some resolution and it’s not obvious what the resolution should be as we see chaos in parliament.”

Financial and other services make up 80 percent of the UK economy but barely feature in Brexit compromises that focus on a customs deal with Brussels, she said.

“People should look carefully at the implications of whatever compromise they manage to reach. We would be very concerned if they tied our hands in terms of our ability to manage the services sector.”

(Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Source: OANN

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Exclusive: Gold worth billions smuggled out of Africa

An artisanal gold miner holds a gold nugget at an unlicensed mine in Gaoua, Burkina Faso
An artisanal gold miner holds a gold nugget at an unlicensed mine in Gaoua, Burkina Faso, February 13, 2018. Picture taken February 13, 2018. REUTERS/Luc Gnago

April 24, 2019

By Ryan McNeill and Zandi Shabalaba David Lewis

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Billions of dollars’ worth of gold is being smuggled out of Africa every year through the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East – a gateway to markets in Europe, the United States and beyond – a Reuters analysis has found.

Customs data shows that the UAE imported $15.1 billion worth of gold from Africa in 2016, more than any other country and up from $1.3 billion in 2006. The total weight was 446 tonnes, in varying degrees of purity – up from 67 tonnes in 2006.

Much of the gold was not recorded in the exports of African states. Five trade economists interviewed by Reuters said this indicates large amounts of gold are leaving Africa with no taxes being paid to the states that produce them.

Previous reports and studies have highlighted the black-market trade in gold mined by people, including children, who have no ties to big business, and dig or pan for it with little official oversight. No-one can put an exact figure on the total value that is leaving Africa. But the Reuters analysis gives an estimate of the scale.

Reuters assessed the volume of the illicit trade by comparing total imports into the UAE with the exports declared by African states. Industrial mining firms in Africa told Reuters they did not send their gold to the UAE – indicating that its gold imports from Africa come from other, informal sources.

Informal methods of gold production, known in the industry as “artisanal” or small-scale mining, are growing globally. They have provided a livelihood to millions of Africans and help some make more money than they could dream of from traditional trades. But the methods leak chemicals into rocks, soil and rivers. And African governments such as Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia complain that gold is now being illegally produced and smuggled out of their countries on a vast scale, sometimes by criminal operations, and often at a high human and environmental cost.

Artisanal mining began as small-time ventures. But the “romantic” era of individual mining has given way to “large-scale and dangerous” operations run by foreign-controlled criminal syndicates, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo told a mining conference in February. Ghana is Africa’s second-largest gold producer.

Not everyone in the chain is breaking the law. Miners, some of them working legally, typically sell the gold to middlemen. The middlemen either fly the gold out directly or trade it across Africa’s porous borders, obscuring its origins before couriers carry it out of the continent, often in hand luggage.

For example, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a major gold producer but one whose official exports amount to a fraction of its estimated production: Most is smuggled into neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. “It is of course worrisome for us but we have very little leverage to stop it,” said Thierry Boliki, director of the CEEC, the Congolese government body that is meant to register, value and tax high-value minerals like gold.

The customs data provided by governments to Comtrade, a United Nations database, shows the UAE has been a prime destination for gold from many African states for some years. In 2015, China – the world’s biggest gold consumer – imported more gold from Africa than the UAE. But during 2016, the latest year for which data is available, the UAE imported almost double the value taken by China. With African gold imports worth $8.5 billion that year, China came a distant second. Switzerland, the world’s gold refining hub, came third with $7.5 billion worth.

Most of the gold is traded in Dubai, home to the UAE’s gold industry.

The UAE reported gold imports from 46 African countries for 2016. Of those countries, 25 did not provide Comtrade with data on their gold exports to the UAE. But the UAE said it had imported a total of $7.4 billion worth of gold from them.

In addition, the UAE imported much more gold from most of the other 21 countries than those countries said they had exported. In all, it said it imported gold worth $3.9 billion – about 67 tonnes – more than those countries said they sent out.

“There is a lot of gold leaving Africa without being captured in our records,” said Frank Mugyenyi, a senior adviser on industrial development at the African Union who set up the organization’s minerals unit. “UAE is cashing in on the unregulated environment in Africa.”

The Dubai Customs Authority referred Reuters’ queries to the UAE foreign ministry, which did not respond. The UAE government media office referred Reuters to the UAE federal customs authority, which also did not respond.

Not all the discrepancies in the data analyzed by Reuters necessarily point to African-mined gold being smuggled out through the UAE. Small differences could result from shipping costs and taxes being declared differently, a time-lag between a cargo leaving and arriving, or simply mistakes. And gold analysts say some of the trade, especially from Egypt and Libya, could include gold that has been recycled.

But in 11 cases, the per-kilo value that the UAE declared importing is significantly higher than that recorded by the exporting country. This, said Leonce Ndikumana, an economist who has studied capital flows in Africa, is a “classic case of export under-invoicing” to reduce taxes.

Matthew Salomon, an American economist who has researched the use of trade statistics to identify illicit financial flows, said the issue deserves scrutiny. “Persistent discrepancies in the trade of particular goods and between particular countries … can identify significant risks of illicit activity,” he said.

POLLUTION, CONFLICT AND BANDITS

Over the past decade, high demand for gold has made it attractive for informal miners to use digging equipment and toxic chemicals to boost the yield. Contaminated water is returned to rivers, slowly poisoning the people who need the water to live.

Small-scale miners have long used mercury – easy to buy at around $10 for a thumb-sized vial – to extract flecks of gold from ore, before sluicing it away. Mercury’s toxic effects include damage to kidneys, heart, liver, spleen and lungs, and neurological disorders, such as tremors and muscle weakness. Cyanide and nitric acid are also being used in the process, according to researchers and miners in Ghana.

Industrial mining companies have also been responsible for pollution, ranging from cyanide spills to respiratory problems linked to dust produced by mining operations. But almost a dozen states including DRC, Uganda, Chad, Niger, Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Mali and Sudan have complained in the past year about the harms of unauthorized mining.

Burkina Faso has banned small-scale mining in some areas where al Qaeda-linked Islamists are active, and earlier this month Nigeria’s government suspended mining in the restive northwestern state of Zamfara, saying intelligence reports established what it called “a strong and glaring nexus” between the activities of armed bandits and illicit miners.

Strong prices have fueled the boom. Today, gold trades at over $40,000 per kilo, which is below a peak from 2012 but still four times the level of two decades ago.

Western investors want gold so they can diversify their portfolios; India and China want it for jewelry. But most Western companies – and the banks that finance them – avoid handling non-industrial African gold directly. They are unwilling to risk using metal that may have been mined to fund conflict or that may have involved human rights abuses in, for instance, DRC or Sudan. Various Uganda-based traders have been sanctioned for handling gold smuggled out of DRC.

DESTINATION DUBAI

In other states, including the UAE, these concerns have been less of a problem. Over the last decade, gold from Africa has become increasingly important for Dubai. From 2006 to 2016, the share of African gold in UAE’s reported gold imports increased from 18 percent to nearly 50 percent, Comtrade data showed.

The UAE’s main commodity marketplace, the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC), calls itself on its website “your gateway to global trade.” Trading in gold accounts for nearly one-fifth of UAE’s GDP.

However, no big industrial companies reached by Reuters – including AngloGold Ashanti, Sibanye-Stillwater and Gold Fields – say they send gold there. Reuters contacted 23 mining companies with African operations, the smallest of which produced around 2.5 tonnes in 2018: 21 of them said they did not send metal to Dubai for refining, the other two did not respond.

While the big South African miners have local refining capacity, the main reason others gave is that no UAE refineries are accredited by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), the standard-setter for the industry in Western markets.

The LBMA is “not comfortable dealing with the region” because of concerns about weaknesses in customs, cash transactions and hand-carried gold, its chief technical officer Neil Harby told Reuters. Investigators and people in the gold industry say the ease with which smugglers can carry gold in their hand-luggage on planes leaving Africa helps gold flow out unrecorded. And limited regulation in UAE means informally mined gold can be legally imported, tax-free.

Gold can be imported to Dubai with little documentation, African traders told Reuters.

A DMCC spokesman said it has a robust regulatory framework that includes strict responsible sourcing rules. These are aligned with the international benchmark for responsible sourcing laid out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Sanjeev Dutta, head of commodities at DMCC, said in January that the center is building strategic relationships with most gold-producing countries on the African continent, “and we are very confident of how that production is done and how responsible” it is. Over the past 12 months, he said, DMCC has firmed up a standard for refineries, called Dubai Good Delivery, which he said is very strict on responsible sourcing and sustainability. “We track right from responsible sourcing to sustainable development, things like human rights etc.,” he said. “We demand export certificates.”

A “very limited” number of refineries accept gold that has been imported as hand luggage, Dutta said, but gave no figures.

GOLD TO GO

Some African miners are swapping their pickaxes and shovels for diggers and crushers – increasing production volumes exponentially. Regulation remains scant, and accidents are frequent. In one week this February, three accidents at illegal mining operations in Zimbabwe, Guinea and Liberia claimed the lives of more than 100 people.

Often, miners must surrender a cut of their output, as commission, to the people who control a pit, let out the equipment, or buy and sell the gold. NGOs such as Global Witness and Human Rights Watch have documented child labor, corruption and links to conflict at some of these mines. At one mine in Zimbabwe visited by Reuters, people said they had to hand over some of their find before they would even be allowed out of the pit.

Reuters presented its analysis to 14 African governments. Of them, five said it reflected an existing concern about gold being smuggled out of their countries that they are trying to address. One said they did not think gold smuggling was a problem for them. The rest declined to comment or did not respond.

Governments across Africa are trying to work out how to manage a sector that, whatever its risks, provides a livelihood for many of their citizens, and which could be harnessed as a source of revenues.

Some, including Ivory Coast, are taking gradual steps to regulate their informal mining operations. Ghana and Zambia have sent security forces into mining areas to halt operations so miners can be registered and regulations put in place. Ghana, concerned that a rush of mainly Chinese-led ventures is harming the environment, has arrested hundreds of Chinese miners and expelled thousands in the past six years.

At the end of last month, Ghana temporarily banned the import of excavator equipment to try to stem a surge in illegal mining using heavy machinery.

In Sudan, one of the continent’s biggest producers, the government has unveiled a $3 billion plan for private banks to work with the central bank to buy gold from small-scale miners, offering prices that would make it less attractive to sell on the black market.

A Tanzanian parliamentary report estimated that 90 percent of annual production of informally mined gold is smuggled out of the country: The government wants the central bank to buy this up. In March, President John Magufuli launched a plan to establish hubs where the trade would be formalized by offering access to financing and regulated markets.

In Burkina Faso, Oumarou Idani, minister of mines, believes his country is leaking gold to UAE on a massive scale. Of the 9.5 tonnes of gold the government estimates informal miners dig up each year, just 200 to 400 kg are declared to the authorities, he said.

Much of the gold is smuggled from landlocked Burkina Faso to its Atlantic coast neighbor Togo, according to the minister. In Togo, virtually no taxes are imposed on gold.

Togo’s director of mining development and controls, Nestor Kossi Adjehoun, said informal mining is “an area that we have not properly figured out.” For now, he said, Togo saw no reason to suspect gold was being smuggled through the country.

“I understand that Dubai is the destination for this gold,” his Burkina Faso neighbor, Minister Idani, told Reuters in an interview last year. “But since (the trade) is fraudulent, I have no details.”

(Additional reporting by John Ndiso in Nairobi, Tim Cocks in Ouagadougou, Ed McAllister in Dakar, Chris Mfula in Lusaka, Giulia Paravicini in Kinshasa, MacDonald Dzirutwe in Battlefields, Zimbabwe, John Zodzi in Lome, Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala in Dodoma, Maha El Dahan in Dubai, and Peter Hobson in London; Edited by Sara Ledwith, Alexandra Zavis and Richard Woods)

Source: OANN

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Struggling industry saps German business morale as trade woes bite

Aerial view of containers at a loading terminal in the port of Hamburg
FILE PHOTO: Aerial view of containers at a loading terminal in the port of Hamburg, Germany August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

April 24, 2019

By Paul Carrel and Jörn Poltz

BERLIN/MUNICH (Reuters) – German business morale deteriorated in April, bucking expectations for a small improvement, as trade tensions hurt the industrial engine of Europe’s largest economy, leaving domestic demand to support slowing growth.

The Munich-based Ifo economic institute said on Wednesday its business climate index fell to 99.2 in April from an upwardly revised 99.7 in March, the first rise after six straight declines. The consensus forecast for a rise to 99.9.

“March’s gentle optimism regarding the coming months has evaporated,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said in a statement. “The German economy continues to lose steam.”

Ifo sub-indices on current conditions and expectations fell in April.

Last week, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said that Berlin expected gross domestic product to grow by 0.5 percent this year after an expansion of 1.4 percent in 2018.

The government had already cut its 2019 forecast in January to 1.0 percent growth from 1.8 percent previously. Long the euro zone’s economic powerhouse, Germany is in its 10th year of expansion, but only narrowly avoided recession last year.

German exporters are struggling with weaker demand from abroad, trade tensions triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump and business uncertainty caused by Britain’s planned departure from the European Union.

“Pessimism is increasing,” Ifo economist Klaus Wohlrabe told Reuters. “The industrial sector is dragging down the German economy.”

Late last month, German lighting company Osram cut its forecast for the fiscal year 2019, citing market weakness in the automotive industry, general lighting and mobile devices as well as a broader economic slowdown.

A delay to Brexit, which leaders from the remaining 27 EU countries granted Britain earlier this month, did not buoy German business morale.

“The uncertainty has receded slightly, but is still very high,” Wohlrabe added.

In a fresh development in the trade difficulties unnerving German businesses, Trump said on Tuesday European tariffs facing motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson Inc were “unfair” and vowed to reciprocate.

The difficult trade environment means that Germany’s vibrant domestic demand, helped by record-high employment, inflation-busting pay increases and low borrowing costs, is expected to be the sole driver of growth this year and next.

Germany’s HDE retail association on Wednesday confirmed its forecast that sales would rise 2 percent this year, marking a 10th straight year of growth.

“The domestic economy remains a pillar of support,” said Ifo’s Wohlrabe.

However, the HDE added that although it did not yet have a forecast for 2020 sales, it expected the industrial slowdown to affect retailers.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Martin, editing by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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