William "Bill" McLeod accidentally resigned after he posted online his intention to run for the state's Supreme Court. (Facebook)
A judge in Texas recently resigned by accident after he publicized his intention to run for the state'sSupreme Court.
Democrat William "Bill" McLeod has served as a judge in Harris County Civil Court at Law Number Four since January. Thinking of the future, McLeod posted online his plans to run for the state's highest court.
He told KHOU that soon after, someone showed him the Texas Constitution, specifically Article 16, Section 65, which applies to district and county clerks, county judges, and judges of county courts at law, among other positions.
The law states that if any of those holding the aforementioned offices announce their candidacy for another office or become an actual candidate, "such announcement or such candidacy shall constitute an automatic resignation of the office then held."
McLeod declined an interview with the news station but did plead on Facebook on Sunday for supporters to help him.
"There has been a discussion and a issue with a potential violation ... with the Texas Constitution, and I am in dire need of people's support."
The judge said that County Attorney Vince Ryan "is trying to throw me off my bench because of this potential violation," and added he has "no intention" to run for the Supreme Court.
Ryan will present the issue to a meeting of the county commissioners on Tuesday, according to the report. McLeod has asked for his supporters to call the commissioners and show their support.
One of his supporters, Kandice Webber, said the incident "would not be the first time that a judge has made a mistake."
"Our judges are human," she told KHOU. "I would beg the court to leave him where he is. This is where Houstonians want him. This is where Harris County wants him, and we made that very loud and clear at the ballot.”
FILE PHOTO: Careem employees walk past the company headquarters in Dubai, UAE December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Satish Kumar/File Photo
March 29, 2019
By Stephen Kalin
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian investment firm Kingdom Holding will put the proceeds from the sale of its stake in ride-hailing startup Careem toward $600 million in investments in the kingdom and Europe, its chief executive told Reuters on Friday.
Kingdom, which is 95 percent owned by billionaire Price Alwaleed bin Talal, sold its stake in Careem this week for 1.25 billion riyals ($333 million). It will receive 565 million riyals in cash, plus convertible bonds in Uber Technologies worth 685 million riyals.
“We have five companies on the table that are being discussed, deliberated. Hopefully we will be able to come to a conclusion on where to invest within the next eight weeks,” Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman said in a phone interview.
Some of the companies are in Saudi Arabia and some are in Europe, he said. “We’re talking about $600 million or so.”
“We will not deploy all the cash in one go, but this is the first tranche,” he added. “It’s a combination of debt and equity.”
Kingdom’s investments will be directed 70 percent into income-generating dividend-distributing investments and 30 percent into technology and potential growth companies, he said.
Kingdom was among the first investors in Careem, the Middle East rival of Uber, which acquired it this week in a $3.1 billion deal ahead of a hotly anticipated initial public offering.
Lyft, another Uber rival, was valued at $24.3 billion in the sector’s first IPO on Thursday and shares opened up more than 20 percent on Friday. Kingdom has a 2.98 percent stake in the firm.
“If we assume exit, which we cannot of course because there’s a lock-up period, we’ve made an IRR (internal rate of return) of 53 percent on Lyft,” Maiman said.
“We’ve made almost 100 percent in Careem, so we’ve done very well. It’s been really a good week for Kingdom.”
Maiman said Kingdom would consider raising its investments in Lyft or Uber “if we see an opportunity there”.
He added: “I think it would be a while before Lyft looks outside North America… but the Middle East would probably be one of the best international markets versus, for example, South America or the like.”
(Reporting By Stephen Kalin; Editing by Jan Harvey)
Suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz said he heard “demons” to police officers moments after getting caught following the 2018 Parkland school shooting, according to body camera footage released Friday.
The two-minute video shows Cruz handcuffed on the ground as an officer questions him with helicopters heard hovering in the sky.
“What’s going on today, bro?” an officer asked Cruz.
“Demons man,” Cruz responded.
Cruz added he heard “voices.”
Broward State Attorney’s Office released the video Friday, according to the Miami Herald.
Cruz said in an interrogation hours after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14, 2018, that he had heard voices when his dad died around 15 years earlier. He said they got worse when his mom died of pneumonia in November 2017, The Associated Press reported.
The demons statement could potentially be used as an insanity defense, but Cruz’s attorneys have not said whether they will use it. Cruz could face the death penalty if convicted. A trial is set for early 2020, according to the AP.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting left 17 dead.
Paul from New Zealand was about 1/2 mile away from the Christchurch attack and called in to give his account of what happened right after the shooting.
FILE PHOTO: Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, shows the NVIDIA Volta GPU computing platform at his keynote address at CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 7, 2018. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
March 26, 2019
By Steven Scheer and Tova Cohen
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – U.S. chip supplier Nvidia Corp has no plans for further acquisitions for the time being after its nearly $7 billion purchase of Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
“I like to have money and so I am going to save money for a while,” Jensen Huang told a Calcalist business conference in Tel Aviv. “This is a great acquisition. I am not looking for another.”
Nvidia earlier this month agreed to buy Mellanox for $6.8 billion, beating rival Intel Corp in a deal to help the firm boost its data center and artificial intelligence (AI) business.
“Everybody wanted it,” Huang said. When asked if he paid too much, he said: “Beyond imagination.”
“But the company has created amazing technology and has a great future,” he said.
Nvidia, once known as a provider of gaming chips, now also provides chips to speed up AI tasks such as teaching servers to recognize images. Mellanox makes chips that connect those servers together inside the data center.
“Our strategy is we would like to double down on data centers. The future of computing is heavily focused on data centers,” Huang said.
Nvidia gets about a quarter of its revenue from data centers, with the $2.9 billion in sales in 2018 from the segment growing 52 percent year over year.
Huang noted that following the deal with Mellanox, which is expected to close by the end of the year, there would be no cost cuts and the Mellanox brand would be maintained.
“We are going to keep every single product line.
We are going to keep every single employee,” he said, noting he planned to grow Mellanox’s business in Israel. “There is no overlap whatsoever and there are no cost synergies.”
Huang said investors were initially wary about the acquisition. But since the deal’s announcement on March 11, Nvidia’s shares have risen 15 percent to $173.80.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a car after arriving by train in Dong Dang in Vietnamese border town last month, ahead of his second summit with President Trump. (AP Photo/Minh Hoang)
Despite the robust United Nations sanctions that have long been slapped upon North Korea – banning sales of luxury goods and vehicles to the nuclear weapons-procuring and human rights-abusing government – leader Kim Jong appears to have no problem curating an extravagant car collection, and flagrantly flashing the violations for the world to see.
“Chairman Kim’s expanding inventory of European and U.S.-manufactured or customized luxury and up-armored limousines represents the most obvious series of flagrant sanctions violations to date,” Hugh Griffiths, who for the past five years has a coordinated a U.N. panel of experts to monitor North Korea’s sanction-circumventing maneuvers, told Fox News. “This is because these vehicles are quite literally paraded at foreign summits, diplomatic meetings and other high-profile events in Singapore, Pyongyang and elsewhere."
A report released last week by a U.N. panel noted that investigations are underway concerning North Korea's acquisition of luxury goods, such as Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus vehicles. The panel found that the world’s largest container shipping line continued to “unwittingly transport prohibited items.”
Griffiths said the violations are hardly being kept secret.
"This is no clandestine activity taking place on the high seas, or at night, as is often the case with the illegal ship-to-ship transfers of coal or petroleum,” he said. “These vehicles are being paraded in front of the world's media.”
As was highlighted in the U.N. panel’s reports, the North Korean regime is illicitly exporting prized possessions in clandestine fashion, using anonymous shipping containers diverted from their stated destinations.
“There is a very real risk that if North Korea is able to divert such large items – even though the Security Council sanctions resolutions say that all cargo entering North Korea should be inspected – then North Korea will have few problems importing smaller but critical dual-use items for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Griffiths noted.
FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wave during a car parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 18, 2018. Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo - RC1E579359C0 (Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool via REUTERS)
Last October, Kim raised eyebrows when he rolled up in a new black Rolls-Royce to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. It was unclear how he'd managed to assemble such a swanky set of British-originated wheels.
The Rolls Phantom, worth almost $500,000, appears to have been produced between 2012 and 2017, according to the new U.N. report, at a British plant in Goodwood. How it got to North Korea remains an open question.
Previously, Kim had been seen cruising to high-profile meetings in a Mercedes Maybach S600 Pullman Guard limousine, estimated to be worth more than $1.5 million with its armaments and assortment of modifications. Moreover, a number of Lexus LX570 all-wheel-drive vehicles were being sported by the North Korean delegation at an inter-Korean summit a month earlier in Pyongyang.
But there might be much, much more to Dear Leader’s illicit fleet.
“It is not publicly known exactly how many vehicles Kim Jong Un possesses, but it is estimated that there are 100 to 300 vehicles inside special garages in North Korea,” said Dong Yong Kim, an expert investigator in international and security affairs and retired South Korean Air Force Officer and weapons director at the Korean Air and Space Operations Center. “Some were collected by his father and grandfather, all three have a different taste in cars.”
For one, grandfather Kim ll Sung was known to love U.S.-made Lincoln and Cadillac, with at least one such antique Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham spotted in use by a North Korean diplomat recently. In 2010, the year before the death of Kim's father Kim Jong il, Dong Yong said that a “special container” was documented to have crossed from China into North Korea carrying more than $3 million worth of Audis and a Mercedes.
“When Kim Jong ll was alive, he was known to be a Mercedes maniac,” Dong Jong continued, while the young reigning dictator has inherited that appreciation with his own “Western-obsessed” flavor. “Kim lived his childhood obsessed with many Western cultures. He loved basketball, is known for drinking only Perrier sparkling water and eating only Emmental Swiss cheese.”
Derived from what Kim has brandished through various summits and meetings in recent times, and based on Dong Jong’s extensive analysis, Kim at minimum owns a 2010~2011 Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman Guard, Maybach 62 S, a Rolls-Royce Ghost, a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a Lexus LX570, a Mercedes G wagon and a Mercedes Maybach S600 Guard.
Yet his car collection is believed to be far from the factory floor. Known to be “security phobic,” the strongman is said to always have 12 highly elite bodyguards around him and all transportation vehicles are “bullet-proof, fire-proof, gad-proof and explosive proof.”
“These vehicles are capable of blocking most handguns and rifles with Full etal Jacket,” Dong Jong asserted. “And in terms of performance, two significant modifications are applied. One is an Electronic Computer Unit (ECU) chip to squeeze in more horsepower, the second is extra brake tuning.”
And then there another important annexation to the car collection.
Kim is also said to have a bevy of tailored toilet vehicles that trail him wherever he goes – never using a public restroom – which serves a double purpose of not enabling any sneaky outsiders to obtain health information from any waste matter left behind. This also helps cultivate his public perception as something of a mythical almighty.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from inside a car surrounded by bodyguards as he leaves the Dong Dang railway station in Dong Dang, Lang Son Province, last month. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP) (Photo credit should read NHAC NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images) (NHAC NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images)
But whether Kim himself can actually drive remains a subject of vigorous debate. As Dong Jong pointed out, textbooks issued to young schoolchildren in North Korea are focused on the “heroic ability” of their national chief, and even claim that Kim was able to drive a car at the age of 3; by 9, the story goes, he was racing boats against foreigners.
But the rumor among the defector community in Seoul is that Kim on occasion drives one of his VIP Benz cars late in the night in Pyongyang, and at one time complained that fellow drivers “were dumb,” a declaration that led to more tickets being handed out by police.
Dec. 28, 2011: In this image made from KRT television, a hearse is driven during a funeral procession of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the snow in Pyongyang.">
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/apps-products" target="_blank">Dec. 28, 2011: In this image made from KRT television, a hearse is driven during a funeral procession of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the snow in Pyongyang.</a> (AP)
Dong Yong also pointed to the murky nature of purchases made by North Korea’s foreign diplomats. “There are many more unknown and unreported cases,” he said. “If you look at North Korea embassies overseas, those embassies all own at least one Mercedes-Benz.”
For one, the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia is alleged to have procured at least five high-end vehicles: Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Jaguar XJ, Audi A6, Lexus LS, and BMW X5; the North Korean ambassador to Malaysia reputedly owns two luxury vehicles: Jaguar XJ and Lexus LS with the number plate 28-01-DC, Dong Jong reported.
“The number 28 means North Korea – country designation – while 01 means the rank of embassy meaning ambassador, and the last two alphabets DC stand for 'Diplomatic Corps' in Malaysia,” he surmised. “It is rare to see one ambassador owns two luxury vehicles country like North Korea.
He added, for emphasis, "North Korea’s GDP per capita is about $1,800 (USD) which is lower than Syria.”
Given the hefty economic sanctions imposed on the Hermit Kingdom, Pyongyang’s auto industry is confined to just one mysterious manufacturer, Pyeonghwa Motors, which is only able to produce from a small pool of Asian makers. It is unknown how many cars are made there annually. The tally is widely assumed to be only a few thousand, if that, with Pyeonghwa Motors plagued by rumors it went out business some years ago. Now, the company may serve more as a nationalistic symbol.
Few in the impoverished nation are able to afford even a domestic car. While the price tag for a North Korean car hovers around $10,000, the yearly income for most is less than $1,300.
“North Korea always advertises its vehicles as the world’s best, but Kim Jong Un and his cabinet would never ride in them,” Dong Jong observed. “Because most people can’t afford to buy a car there, most people travel by bicycle or just walk.”
The onus is now on U.N. Security Council member states to determine what should happen to these high-end vehicles, and it is up to governments to put pressure on global banks, traders and insurers to go after the culprits, but Griffiths underscored that the panel’s work is far from over.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on a recent train ride, a change of pace for a man used to commuting in luxury vehicles. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
“We will continue to investigate how the latest Maybach Mercedes and the Rolls-Royce got to North Korea, as well as the companies and individuals responsible for these transfers,” he said. “Past panel reports show that the same networks exporting prohibited military equipment from North Korea to Africa were also involved in the import of some of the Mercedes-Benz to North Korea."
According to Dong Jong, what has been exposed so far about the regime chief’s car collection is merely the “tip of the iceberg,” and he anticipates that there is at least one major global company – yet to be named – responsible for injecting illegal opulence into the closed country.
“Providing luxurious cars to Kim Jong Un is a crime, and those who support such delivery are also committing a crime,” he added.
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)
FILE PHOTO: A woman checks a curtain at a store in Mexico City, Mexico February 28, 2019. Picture taken February 28, 2019. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
March 22, 2019
By Sharay Angulo
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s annual inflation continued to slow in the first half of March, the statistics institute said on Friday, raising expectations the nation’s central bank will loosen monetary policy later in the year.
Mexican consumer prices rose 3.95 percent in the year through February, slightly below the 3.99 percent increase registered in the second half of February.
Inflation was in line with estimates from a Reuters survey, in which the median forecast of 13 specialists predicted an increase of 3.96 percent.
Fitch Ratings this week said it believed Mexico’s cycle of raising rates was over for now. The central bank will announce its next decision on interest rates on Thursday. The bank held the benchmark lending rate at 8.25 in February after a series of hikes.
Central Bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said at a banking convention on Friday that it would be important for the entity to consider not only cyclical factors in its decisions on rates, but also other risks including shocks and structural factors.
Diaz de Leon has called for maintaining the central bank’s independence as key to the economic health in Mexico, where President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December.
He also has advocated for keeping the central bank’s focus on inflation. In an interview on Thursday, he noted that Lopez Obrador’s decision in late October to cancel a partly-built new Mexico City airport had fanned market volatility in Mexico, as well as concern over the financial health of state oil firm Pemex. [nL1N219025]
Responding to the inflation data, Capital Economics said it expected the headline rate would decline during the second half of the year, paving the way for monetary loosening.
“We expect 75bp of interest rate cuts this year, which is more than markets are currently pricing in,” Capital Economics said in a note.
Core inflation, which strips out some volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.51 percent in the year through the first half of the month.
Consumer prices rose 0.26 percent in the first half of March compared with the previous month.
The data showed that prices for gasoline, lemons and tomatoes rose. Declines in prices for foodstuffs such as potatoes and eggs helped lower prices overall.
Last month, Mexico’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate steady at 8.25 percent, its highest level in more than a decade.
This week, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it does not anticipate rate hikes in 2019, easing pressure on the Mexican central bank to raise the benchmark interest rate in its decision on monetary policy next Thursday.
(Reporting by Sharay Angulo in Mexico City and Dave Graham and Stefanie Eschenbacher in Acapulco; Writing by Julia Love; Editing by Alistair Bell)
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.
No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.
Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.
By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.
Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.
The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.
The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.
The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.
Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.
It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.
While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.
TRENDING
According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.
Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.
Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.
Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.
“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said
For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.
“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.
For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.
The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.
The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.
That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.
(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)
(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
April 26, 2019
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.
“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot
April 26, 2019
By Julien Pretot
MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.
It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.
“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.
Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.
They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.
At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.
In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.
At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.
“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.
As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.
The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.
“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.
SAME TREATMENT
One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.
“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.
This is not the case with the boys, she added.
“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.
Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.
“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.
OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.
“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.
“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”
‘ONE CLUB’
The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.
While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.
There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.
“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.
“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.
Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.
“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.
“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”
Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.
“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.
“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo
April 26, 2019
GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.
“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.
The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.
The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.
Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.
Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT
The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.
Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.
Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.
(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)
2/FED: UP OR DOWN?
Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.
Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.
Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.
Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.
Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.
(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)
3/HEISEI TO REIWA
Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.
The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.
The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.
The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.
(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)
4/EARNING TURNING
Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.
Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.
That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.
The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.
Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.
GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.
Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.
Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.
Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.
The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.
(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)
Click below to consent to the use of the cookie technology provided by vi (video intelligence AG) to personalize content and advertising. For more info please access vi's website.