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With ‘pop-ups’ and menswear, Vuitton aims to keep luxury crown

FILE PHOTO: Woman with a Louis Vuitton-branded shopping bag looks towards the entrance of a branch store by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: A woman with a Louis Vuitton-branded shopping bag looks towards the entrance of a branch store by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton in Vienna, Austria October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

April 11, 2019

By Sarah White and Pascale Denis

PARIS (Reuters) – From New York’s Fifth Avenue to Paris’ Place Vendome, Louis Vuitton sells its handbags at some of the world’s swankiest locations – but the brand is increasingly betting on “pop-ups” in off-beat spots as one way to keep shoppers hooked.

The label, which drives the bulk of sales and profits at French luxury group LVMH, plans to hold 100 temporary events to sell its wares this year, up from 80 last year, the conglomerate’s financial director said on Thursday.

“This is the privileged way and the main way to drive innovation,” Jean-Jacques Guiony told analysts after the conglomerate posted a pick-up in first-quarter sales, beating analyst forecasts.

“This trend in pop-up stores is extremely important, and we will continue to develop that because it enables us to be talking in a different way to our clients … important and it adds flexibility with our network.”

Vuitton’s retail shake-up comes as luxury brands experiment with ways to attract younger shoppers, who are increasingly propelling sales growth in a sector that has long been notoriously rigid in its approach, and slow to move into selling online for instance.

At the lower-end of the fashion scale, high street labels like H&M are grappling with shifting shopping habits, albeit often taking a different tack, such as sprucing up cluttered stores with a more luxurious feel.

At Vuitton, recent “pop-ups” include one in London’s exclusive Mayfair neighborhood to highlight its menswear line, with a Wizard of Oz themed space featuring a yellow brick road staircase, and which shoppers had to book tickets to attend.

With revenues of over 10 billion euros ($11.27 billion), Louis Vuitton is the world’s biggest luxury brand by sales, with privately-owned Chanel clipping at its heels, and Kering’s star brand Gucci on a mission to overtake it.

In its bid to stay ahead, Vuitton has also invested in new designers, betting on Virgil Abloh, a DJ and founder of high-end streetwear label Off-White, to help jazz up its mens’ clothing lines.

LVMH, which is notoriously tight-lipped about Vuitton’s performance, said on Thursday that the sales’ growth rate in men’s and womenswear was at a “very, very high level” in the first quarter.

“It’s a small part of Vuitton’s total business but it creates a lot of buzz and is important to drive store traffic and to help Vuitton sell more accessories,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Rogerio Fujimori said of the men’s collections.

Clothing only represents around 5 percent of the brand’s sales, the brokerage estimates, with three quarters of revenues coming from high-margin handbags and luggage. ($1 = 0.8875 euros)

(Reporting by Sarah White and Pascale Denis)

Source: OANN

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Pelosi: Trump Using 9/11 Images for ‘Political Attack’

President Donald Trump has weighed in on the most recent controversy involving Rep. Ilhan Omar, retweeting video edited to suggest that the Minnesota Democrat was dismissive of the significance of the Sept. 11 attacks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president "shouldn't use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack."

The video pulls a snippet of Omar's speech last month to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which she described the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center as "some people did something," as well as news footage of the hijacked planes hitting the towers. Trump on Friday tweeted, "WE WILL NEVER FORGET!"

Omar's remark has drawn criticism largely from political opponents and conservatives. They say Omar, one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, offered a flippant description of the assailants and the attacks on American soil that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Neither Trump's tweet nor the video includes her full quote or the context of her comments.

Omar told CAIR in Los Angeles that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the attacks, and she advocated for activism.

"For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I'm tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it," she said in the March 23 speech, according to video posted online. "CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."

CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership increased dramatically after the attacks.

Many Republicans and conservative outlets expressed outrage at Omar's remarks.

"First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as 'some people who did something,'" tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. The retired Navy SEAL lost his right eye in 2012 in an explosion in Afghanistan.

"Here's your something," the New York Post blared on its cover beneath a photograph of the flaming towers.

Pelosi said in a statement released Saturday while she was in Germany visiting American troops that "the memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence." She said "it is wrong for the president, as commander-in-chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe."

Omar doesn't seem to be backing down.

She tweeted a quote from former President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks, when he said: "'The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"

"Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack?" Omar tweeted. "What if he was a Muslim."

Several of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates condemned Trump's tweet.

"Someone has already been charged with a serious threat on Congresswoman Omar's life. The video the president chose to send out today will only incite more hate," said Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. "You can disagree with her words — as I have done before — but this video is wrong. Enough.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Omar "won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we."

And Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts accused Trump "of inciting violence against a sitting congresswoman — and an entire group of Americans based on their religion."

Omar has repeatedly pushed fellow Democrats into uncomfortable territory over Israel and the power of the Jewish state's influence in Washington. She apologized for suggesting that lawmakers support Israel for pay and said she isn't criticizing Jews. But she refused to take back a tweet in which she suggested that American supporters of Israel "pledge allegiance" to a foreign country.

Her comments sparked an ugly episode among House Democrats when they responded with a resolution condemning anti-Semitism became a broader declaration against all forms of bigotry.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think

Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think

Chicago Police Department via AP

This week Chicago police charged television star Jussie Smollett for disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. Smollett claimed to be the victim of a racist and homophobic attack on January 29, but in the days before the arrest it became clear that police believed Smollett had hired two men to attack him. 

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EU banking watchdog ends probe of Estonian, Danish regulators over Danske Bank

FILE PHOTO: Danske Bank sign is seen at the bank's Estonian branch in Tallinn
FILE PHOTO: Danske Bank sign is seen at the bank's Estonian branch in Tallinn, Estonia August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

April 17, 2019

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The EU banking watchdog has closed an investigation of financial regulators in Estonia and Denmark in relation to suspected money laundering activities by Danske Bank after it did not find any breach of EU law, the Estonian FSA said on Wednesday.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) in February said it had opened a formal investigation into a possible breach of EU law by Estonian and Danish regulators.

Denmark’s largest bank Danske Bank, has admitted that 200 billion euros ($226 billion) of suspicious transactions flowed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Bullard says hard for any individual Fed appointee to ‘be dominant’

FILE PHOTO: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard speaks at a public lecture in Singapore
FILE PHOTO: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard speaks at a public lecture in Singapore October 8, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su

March 29, 2019

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – The possible appointment of presidential adviser Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve would be unlikely to shift the U.S. central bank’s policy because he would be only one voice among many, the head of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, James Bullard, said on Thursday.

“It is a very large committee, 19 at full strength. So no one voice is going to be dominant in that environment,” Bullard said. “There is a huge staff with lots and lots of analysis about where monetary policy should be, so that is informing the judgment as well.” President Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Moore, who has been harshly critical of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, to an open seat on the central bank’s board of governors.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

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Suspicious fires at historically black Louisiana churches ‘notably the same’: lawmaker

Several days have passed since federal investigators first began looking into “suspicious” fires that destroyed three historically African-American churches in Louisiana, and while many questions remain, one lawmaker says the method behind the blazes is “notably the same.”

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., said in an interview this week that his observations of the crime scenes and information from investigators suggested that the fires were somehow connected, The New York Times reported.

“The method of each burn is notably the same,” he said, according to The Times.

FBI, STATE AUTHORITIES PROBE 3 ‘SUSPICIOUS’ BLAZES AT AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES IN LOUISIANA

This first blaze took place last month at the St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre. The second happened April 2 at the Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas, while the latest came two days later at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, also in Opelousas.

Firefighters and fire investigators respond to a fire at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church last Thursday in Opelousas, La. 

Firefighters and fire investigators respond to a fire at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church last Thursday in Opelousas, La.  (Leslie Westbrook/The Advocate via AP)

The churches, which boast mostly black congregations, were empty at the time of the fires, and no injuries were recorded.

Local media reported Wednesday evening, citing “multiple law enforcement sources,” that a person was in custody in relation to the fires but Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Louisiana Fire Marshal did not offer any information to Fox News earlier in the day to support that.

150-YEAR-OLD ‘MIRACLE’ BIBLE SURVIVES 2 WISCONSIN CHURCH FIRES; ‘[IT] HAS BEEN SAVED TWICE’

The fire marshal is expected to hold a press conference Thursday morning.

Fire Marshal H. Browning was cautious in describing the blazes, but did term them “suspicious.”

“There certainly is a commonality,” he said of the possible connection. “Whether that leads to a person or persons or groups, we just don’t know. And that’s not unusual for us not to know at this point.”

On Sunday, Higgins visited St. Mary and called on whoever was responsible to surrender.

“There could be many reason reasons why this happened -- none of them are righteous,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “If you participated in this, you have succumbed to evil.”

“I encourage you to look deep into your heart and step away from the darkness that has enveloped you and turn yourself in, because you will be caught.”

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The fires have left many in the community asking who would target such religious institutions.

Whitney Tyler drove an hour from Baton Rouge to visit his sister’s burial plot at Greater Union Baptist Church. He told Fox News he couldn’t understand who would set fire to “God’s house.”

The Rev. Harry J. Richard of Greater Union preached at a makeshift gathering Sunday in Opelousas, according to The Times, and said that while the perpetrators may have burned the churches, “they didn't burn down our spirit.”

Fox News Charles Watson, Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Business chief says delaying Brexit is an option for sanity

The head of one of Britain's biggest business organizations says Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to allow lawmakers to delay the country's exit from the European Union provides an "option on sanity."

May on Tuesday said Parliament will get the chance to delay Britain's scheduled March 29 departure if lawmakers fail to approve the divorce agreement with the bloc.

Confederation of British Industry head Carolyn Fairbairn told the BBC on Wednesday that neither business nor the government is ready to leave, and exiting without a deal would be "a wrecking ball on our economy."

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay refused to take the possibility of a no-deal Brexit off the table, however, telling the BBC: "It will be for Parliament to decide."

Source: Fox News World

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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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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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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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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