EU nations which refuse to open their doors to third world migration should have to “pay a price”, the Swedish Prime Minister has said.
In an interview with local media at the weekend, Stefan Löfven said he wants to see sanctions on countries unwilling to take part in a migrant quota system, claiming it was ‘not sustainable” that Hungary refuses to house, feed, and clothe a Brussels-dictated share of illegal immigrants who reach Europe.
“It cannot be that responsibility is shared by one or two or three countries. We have to help each other,” he told the establishment newspaper Dagens Nyheter, stating that the EU must impose a common migration policy on the bloc’s member states.
“Hungary is one of the countries that receives the most funding from the EU, and it is saying no, we will not take responsibility with relation to migration,” the social democrat said, adding that Brussels should cut funding to nations which reject mass immigration.
Budapest hit back at Löfven’s claim that the nation was neglecting responsibility on the topic of migrants, with foreign minister Peter Szijjártó pointing out that border fences rolled out by the Hungarian government in 2015 are “defending western and northern Europe” from illegal immigration.
FILE PHOTO: International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde meets with Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
April 3, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The growing market power of a small fraction of companies in wealthy countries could crimp investment and hurt workers, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday, as the growing role of tech giants like Google fuels debate about regulation of the industry.
The IMF did not name names in its latest World Economic Outlook, but said interest in the problem has mounted amid the rise of the tech industry.
“Further increases in the market power of these already-powerful firms could weaken investment, deter innovation, reduce labor income shares, and make it more difficult for monetary policy to stabilize output,” the IMF said.
The report comes just weeks after the U.S. Democratic senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren vowed to break up Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google. She has proposed legislation that would require tech companies that offer online marketplaces to refrain from competing on their own platform and promised to nominate regulators who would unwind acquisitions like Facebook’s deal for WhatsApp and Instagram.
The IMF said the evidence for a “moderate” rise in corporate market power in advanced economies lies in increasing mark-ups charged by a small fraction of companies. While the impact has been modest so far, “it could grow increasingly negative” if dominance of the high-mark-up firms rises further.
“With mounting risks of adverse growth and income distribution effects from rising corporate market power, policymakers should keep future market competition strong,” the IMF said.
The fund stopped short of recommending a breakup of large companies, but advocated for slashing domestic barriers to entry, changing competition policy, and easing obstacles to technological catch-up by lagging firms.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Leslie Adler)
DJIBOUTI – French President Emmanuel Macron is offering support for Djibouti to boost its economy and pursue further peace in the Horn of Africa region.
Macron met with Djibouti's President Omar Guelleh, who encouraged French companies to invest in local infrastructure.
Macron heads later Tuesday to Ethiopia as part of an African trip aimed at shoring up military and economic ties.
Macron praised Djibouti as "a historic partner and strategic ally." He called for further economic cooperation and intensifying the fight against piracy. French CEOs joined him on the trip to Djibouti, home to a key French naval base.
Djibouti is seen as relatively stable within a volatile region, and its strategic location on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes has attracted interest from other world powers.
Democratic strategist Jon Summers charged Thursday that Republicans were working to keep alive stories about Joe Biden allegedly inappropriately touching women because he's the potential 2020 candidate "Donald Trump fears the most."
“I think Republicans are grabbing onto this, they want this story out there as much as they can, because (he's) the one (they fear), he’s the one that Donald Trump fears the most,” Summers, former communications director for Harry Reid, said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday, pointing out he is not supporting any particular candidate but is “just stating the obvious.”
He added, “That when the president comes out and says (he'd) love to run against Joe Biden, the reality is that’s exactly the guy he doesn’t want to run against, so they keep this story alive.”
Biden addressed the growing backlash on Twitter Wednesday, releasing a video and writing in a tweet, “Social norms are changing. I understand that, and I’ve heard what these women are saying. Politics to me has always been about making connections, but I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. That’s my responsibility and I will meet it.”
The release of the video on Wednesday came amid allegations from numerous women that Biden had made them feel uncomfortable with what was described as inappropriate touching. Moments after Biden tweeted the video, a Washington Post story relayed the accounts of three more women claiming improper contact, on the heels of four similar allegations.
He added, “He actually understands your issues and really wants to connect. And I think what he’s realized is that we’re in a place now where the way he has handled that in the past, he can’t do that anymore and he has admitted that and that he’s going to change his ways. I think when you contrast that with our current president, who has been caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women and who has still yet to apologize even for the comments much less the actions, I think there is a very clear contrast there and I think that’s refreshing to most people.”
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act provides a scientifically sound, medically accurate, and respectful approach to ensure that the innocent human being who survives an attempted abortion will be treated with the same human dignity and respect that similarly aged human beings receive in the course of good neonatal medical care.
Apr 14, 2019; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) follows the puck in play against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the second period in game three of the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
April 15, 2019
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves to lead Columbus to a 3-1 win over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night, lifting the Blue Jackets to a commanding 3-0 lead in their opening-round playoff series.
Cam Atkinson had a goal and an assist, and Matt Duchene and Oliver Bjorkstrand tallied for the Blue Jackets, who have won 10 of their last 11 games, including seven of eight to close the regular season and earn the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Bobrovsky stopped 16 shots in the third period, as Tampa Bay tried to rally from a 2-0 deficit but couldn’t do so in front of a raucous crowd at Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets can close out the series against club in Game 4 in Columbus on Tuesday.
Ondrej Palat scored a goal, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Lightning, who tied an NHL single-season record with 62 regular-season wins and dropped their third straight game for the first time this season.
Islanders 4, Penguins 1
Jordan Eberle scored his third goal in as many games as New York took a commanding lead in its first-round playoff series with host Pittsburgh.
Brock Nelson, Leo Komarov and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders, who took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 4 set for Tuesday in Pittsburgh. New York spotted Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead before netting four unanswered goals.
The Penguins, who won the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017, continued to be thwarted by the Islanders’ stifling pressure and the play of goaltender Robin Lehner, who made 25 saves Sunday.
Jets 6, Blues 3
Second-period goals four minutes apart by Kevin Hayes, Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor, who scored two goals in the game, sent Winnipeg off and running to a road victory over St. Louis.
The Jets, who lost the first two games of the series on their home ice, pulled to within 2-1 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoffs series. Game 4 will be Tuesday in St. Louis.
Brandon Tanev and Dustin Byfuglien also scored for the Jets, who got 26 saves from Connor Hellebuyck. David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko and Alex Steen scored for the Blues, who got 23 saves from Jordan Binnington.
The debates over how the UK should treat so-called “cubs of the caliphate” and their mothers, who fled to Syria to marry ISIS fighters but want to return back to Europe as the jihadists were curbed, has flared up over the case of one of such women – Londoner Shamima Begum who had her citizenship revoked.
Two more ISIS wives from the UK, sisters Reema (30) and Zara (28) Iqbal have had their passports revoked since marrying jihadists linked to murdering western hostages, The Sunday Times reports, citing legal sources. According to the outlet the young women are in separate camps Syria, where they fled after ISIS were curbed and squeezed from the occupied territories.
The Iqbals, whose parents are reportedly originally from Pakistan, left London for Syria in 2013 after they married suspected jihadists, who were linked the murder of western hostages, who were butchered on camera. The women have five boys, aged not older than 8, between them. The younger sister gave birth to two children in Syria, where she traveled already heavily pregnant with her second boy, while her older sister gave birth to children both in the UK and Syria.
As the BBC reports, the Home Office refused to comment on individual cases, adding that decisions to strip citizenships were “evidence-based and not taken lightly.”
The news comes hot on the heels of the latest development in the case of 19-year-old Shamima Begum from London, whose story put Home Secretary Sajid Javid on the hot seat following media reports about the death of her baby son. Upon hearing the news, UK Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott slammed Sajid Javid for behaving “shamefully”, saying that he was responsible for the boy’s death.
The minister has not provided any comment since the boy’s death, he said prior to this news that he felt “nothing but sympathy” for “perfectly innocent” children born in the war zone.
Begum, currently staying at a refugee camp in Syria, has voiced a desire to come back to the United Kingdom, but the Home Office has been unwilling to authorise her return. The Home Office was ready to accept the boy while she was deprived of her citizenship, but the young woman did not want to be separated from her son until his death from pneumonia just three weeks after he was born.
Shamima Begum, who joined the ISIS terror group in Syria back in 2015, when she was aged 15. Her newborn son died of pneumonia, less than three weeks after his birth. Begum has previously lost two children. Her husband, a Dutch ISIS fighter called Yago Riedijk, is currently in a prison in Syria.
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.
News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.
The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.
“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.
“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.
British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.
Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.
“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”
Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.
There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.
(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
April 26, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.
Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.
Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.
Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.
Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.
Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.
A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.
The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.
The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.
Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.
The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.
Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
April 26, 2019
By James Oliphant
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.
In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.
The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.
But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.
“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”
Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.
Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.
Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.
“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”
Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”
Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”
PAST VS. FUTURE
Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.
Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.
Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.
“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.
Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.
Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.
“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.
Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.
But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.
Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.
“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”
‘ONE OF US’
Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.
The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.
Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.
“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”
Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.
“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
April 26, 2019
MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.
In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.
He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”
Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.
Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.
The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.
Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.
The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.
“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.
The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
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