Europe
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FILE PHOTO: Workers emerge from Bank underground station with the Bank of England (L) and Royal Exchange building (R) in the City of London financial district, London, Britain, January 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
April 18, 2019
By Sinead Cruise, Josephine Mason and Huw Jones
LONDON (Reuters) – The weeks before Easter are usually some of the busiest of the year for bankers, lawyers and consultants in the City of London, as clients rush to get deals done before a run of public holidays.
But this year comparatively little has been happening.
City workers had been hoping the torpor of the first quarter would be lifted if Britain left the European Union on March 29, or indeed, April 12.
But with Brexit on ice until as late as October 31 and the terms of the exit still to be agreed, fears are building that this could be one of the leanest years for the City since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
The London Stock Exchange has had only one corporate listing in excess of 75 million pounds ($97.61 million) so far this year. Trading turnover on the London Stock Exchange in February and March was down a third from a year ago, and the lowest since August 2016.
Average daily turnover on London’s blue chip FTSE 100 stock index fell harder in those two months than all the main bourses in Europe except the DAX 30, according to a Reuters analysis of Refinitiv data.
European investment banking fees – the biggest chunk of which are earned in London – were down 25 percent in the first quarter, according to Refinitiv. And there were just 11 new UK-based hedge funds launched in the first quarter, compared to 35 in the same quarter in 2018, data from Prequin shows.
“There is going to be a long hiatus. Investors will need to see something far more positive in politics to be persuaded to move again,” Alastair Winter, economic adviser to Global Alliance Partners told Reuters.
“I can’t see how Labour and Conservatives can agree a deal. They are playing games to avoid blame. And until they figure it out, the City will be left to just twist in the wind.”
Recruitment firm Morgan McKinley’s latest London Employment Monitor, which tracks financial services hiring trends from January to March, showed vacancies and job seekers dropping 9 percent and 15 percent respectively year-on-year. The number of job vacancies and job seekers in the first quarter were half the level they were in 2017.
Hakan Enver, Morgan McKinley Managing Director, said the figures showed confidence among City employers was flatlining.
“Even with all the uncertainty of the last few years, there was always an assumption that come March 29, we would have some answers. Yet here we are, still waiting,” Enver said.
Neil Robson, regulatory and compliance partner at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, said in the six weeks leading up to the end of March the “chargeable” work he had done was what he would usually do in a week-and-a-half.
“People are not setting up new funds, are not hiring, firing, they’re not doing new deals because they’re just waiting for what’s happening with Brexit,” he told Reuters.
Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, there is no sense of panic, just a pause pending greater clarity around Brexit, as well as other global issues like the U.S.-China trade dispute.
“We haven’t seen any panic-selling. There is resilience, and people have decided they need to just watch this play out,” one senior private banker said.
Robson said he had seen a small pick-up in activity since the Brexit extension was agreed, but it was still not at full capacity.
(Graphic: LSE turnover – https://tmsnrt.rs/2IrwrGg)
GETTING CREATIVE
The slowdown has forced firms to be more creative about how to make money.
Several large investment banks, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, have ramped up fundraising for private companies to fill an income void left by shallow capital markets activity. JPMorgan recently helped British banking start-up Starling raise 75 million pounds to fund expansion.
Banks are also spending more time taking companies off the stock market.
“I’m probably spending more of my time talking about take-private opportunities than I was a year ago. You will see more of that from now on. There are going to be more take privates if valuations continue to be depressed,” Indy Bhattacharyya, director at broker Peel Hunt, said.
The slowdown is not isolated to London – U.S. banks this week reported slides in their trading businesses globally.
But with Brexit uncertainty confounding the issue, UK-based finance houses in particular are finding it tough going.
“The bigger players will survive this, with some cuts here and there. Where there will be carnage is among the small-cap brokers, the boutique operators,” said Winter.
Canada’s Canaccord Genuity Group last month blamed Brexit and regulatory pressure for unacceptable returns in its UK capital markets business and the launch of a restructuring program expected to lead to significant job cuts.
As part of that plan, the company has put 48 jobs in London, more than a quarter of its City workforce, at risk of redundancy, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. It also plans to ax its mining and investment trust businesses, two sources familiar with the situation said.
Canaccord said in a statement that it was going through a consultation process and could not confirm details about the affected employees.
“This process, while difficult, is in connection with our previously stated strategy of better focusing our operations in the areas where we can be most relevant to our clients, while limiting our exposure in areas that are more sensitive to an unpredictable market backdrop,” the firm said.
With the threat of potential cuts, bankers say they are holding off booking extended holidays and doubling down on meeting clients and pitching ideas instead. But until there’s more Brexit clarity, few expect that to lead to much new business.
“There’s every chance this year that you’ll see more bankers doing the school run,” Peel Hunt’s Bhattacharyya said.
($1 = 0.7684 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Helen Reid, Maiya Keidan and Virginia Furness. Editing by Jane Merriman and Rachel Armstrong)
Source: OANN
As many as 1,500 Islamist terrorists with combat experience are now in Europe, according to the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
The fighters were sent by their chieftains to commit terror attacks, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov stated during a conference on international terrorism Thursday.
“Some 1,500 out of 5,000 terrorists have arrived in the European Union from the Middle East, according to experts’ estimates,” said Bortnikov. “A significant number of them are gunmen, who have been sent by chieftains to Europe to continue terrorist attacks.”
Despite ISIS’ and Al-Qaeda’s recent losses in Syria and Iraq, they still pose a serious threat due to autonomous networks scattered around the world, he added.
“They managed to operate their forces based on a network principle,” said Bortnikov. “Interconnected and autonomous cells spread from the Middle East to Europe, Central and South East Asia, and major militant groups [that] go deep into the African continent, in particular to Libya.”
Similarly, in March, a Swedish politician cited a defense report warning how Salafist hardliners are utilizing modern tech to spread their messages across Europe.
“We see that some Salafist groups use social media, lectures with ministers, and collaborations with organizations abroad to spread their messages,” said the report’s author.
The attention span of the population has been shrinking for decades as the globalists seek even more control over the population. Dr. Nick Begich joins Alex in studio to expose the attack on our minds by Big Tech.
(PHOTO: NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty)
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: General Motors Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra announces a major investment focused on the development of GM future technologies at the GM Orion Assembly Plant in Lake Orion, Michigan, U.S. March 22, 2019./File Photo
April 18, 2019
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co’s top executive, Mary Barra, received a compensation package worth just under $22 million in 2018, slightly less than the previous year, according to the No. 1 U.S. automaker’s proxy statement released on Thursday.
GM also said two members of the board of directors – former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, retired Admiral Michael Mullen and the former CEO of ConocoPhillips , James Mulva – will not stand for re-election. The Detroit company did not name replacements, meaning the number of board members will drop to 11.
GM and the rest of the auto industry are facing an expected decline in U.S. demand this year, slowing sales in the world’s largest auto market in China and potential costly tariffs that could be imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump as it negotiates new trade deals with China, Europe and Japan.
GM is also investing heavily in developing electric and self-driving technologies.
Barra’s total compensation package was valued at $21.87 million, slightly below the $21.96 million she received in 2017. Barra, GM’s chairman and chief executive, was paid $22.58 million in 2016. GM said Barra’s pay was 281 times that of the median company employee.
Barra’s pay package included a salary of $2.1 million, unchanged from 2017; stock awards worth almost $11.1 million; options worth more than $3.4 million and a performance award worth almost $4.5 million, according to the proxy.
Barra is GM’s highest paid executive. Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara received slightly more than $5.5 million in total compensation, and Chuck Stevens, who she replaced last September, received just under $7 million, according to the proxy.
Former President Dan Ammann, who now heads GM’s Cruise automation unit, received just under $9 million, while Mark Reuss, who replaced Ammann as president, received almost $7.4 million, according to the proxy.
GM’s annual investor meeting is scheduled to be held online on June 4.
One shareholder proposal requests the board adopt as policy the naming of an independent board chairman, a proposal that at the 2017 annual meeting received 41 percent voting support. GM opposes the proposal.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO – Jose Munoz, chief performance officer at Nissan Motor Limited, responds to a question on the new Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance venture capital fund during roundtable with journalists at the 2018 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
April 18, 2019
(Reuters) – South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co on Thursday named former Nissan executive Jose Munoz as its global chief operating officer.
Munoz, who will take charge on May 1, has also been named president and chief executive officer of Hyundai Motor North America and Hyundai Motor America.
Previously, Munoz, 53, was Nissan Motor Co’s chief performance officer and head of its China operations.
He joined Nissan in 2004 in Europe and led its expansion in North America after the global financial crisis. Since then, Nissan has raised its market share in the United States and posted record sales.
Munoz resigned from Nissan in January, further rattling the Japanese automaker’s management team amid the investigation into ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s alleged financial misconduct.
Widely considered as a close ally of Ghosn and a potential successor to lead the automaking partnership between Nissan and France’s Renault SA, Munoz had been a “person of interest” in Nissan’s widening internal investigation.
Munoz will be based in California and will report to Hyundai’s top leadership in Seoul.
(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)
Source: OANN
Members of Libyan internationally recognised government forces react during the fighting with Eastern forces at Al-Swani area in Tripoli, Libya April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
April 18, 2019
By Hani Amara and Ahmed Elumami
AL-SUANI, Libya (Reuters) – Mortars crashed down on a suburb of Tripoli on Thursday, almost hitting a clinic and adding to people’s suffering after two weeks of an offensive by eastern troops on the Libyan capital, which is held by an internationally recognized government.
The shelling came a day after seven people were killed when Grad rockets hit a densely populated district of Tripoli, which the eastern Libyan forces of commander Khalifa Haftar have been trying to take, deepening the chaos that has plagued the oil-producing nation since 2011.
The Libyan National Army (LNA) of Benghazi-based Haftar has become bogged down in the southern suburbs of the capital.
In al-Suani, a southwestern suburb, Reuters reporters saw two mortars almost hitting a clinic. The fighting has killed 205 people, including 18 civilians, and wounded 913 since the start of the campaign, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
Locals blamed Haftar’s forces for the shelling, saying the rockets had been fired from the direction of his positions south of the capital.
“We say to the United Nations and the Security Council: listen. Listen to the bombing… Rockets are coming down on us. For this reason, please find a solution for us,” said Youssef Salem, a displaced man from al-Suani.
The LNA has denied shelling residential areas.
The Tripoli government issued arrest warrants for Haftar and other top eastern officials, blaming them for Wednesday’s shelling.
Eastern officials have already issued arrest warrants for Tripoli premier Fayez al-Serraj and other western officials as there is no sign of a political solution or even of a ceasefire.
Foreign powers are worried but unable to present a united front over the latest flare-up in the cycle of anarchy and warfare that has gripped Libya since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.
The internationally recognized interior ministry accused France of supporting Haftar and said it would halt security cooperation with Paris.
“Any dealings with the French side in bilateral security agreements” will halt, the Tripoli-based interior ministry said in a statement.
A French presidential source said in response to the accusation that France supported the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and that Emmanuel Macron’s legitimate interlocutor was Serraj, with whom he spoke on Monday and reaffirmed that.
The French government was not immediately available for comment.
France has helped train Serraj’s presidential guard and in October 2013 signed a deal between a consultancy of the French interior ministry and the Libyan interior ministry to train 1,000 police.
Most recently in February, France provided the Tripoli government with six patrol boats for its coastline.
Paris has given Haftar support in the past, however, viewing him as the best bet to end the chaos that has reigned since a NATO-backed rebellion to end Gaddafi’s murderous four-decade rule.
Italy, with considerable oil interests in the OPEC member, supports the Tripoli government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and was furious with French reluctance to back a recent European Union resolution urging Haftar to halt his advance.
The conflict threatens to disrupt oil flows, foment migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and allow jihadists to exploit the chaos.
Haftar enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who view him as an anchor to restore stability and combat Islamist militants.
His forces came under attack on Thursday by an armed group at the Tamanhint base near the main southern city of Sabha.
The LNA managed to expel the attack, which killed two of its soldiers, an eastern official said. But it exposed a vulnerability as Haftar has moved much of its forces north.
The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear.
The LNA force seized earlier this year the south and its two oilfields, although tribesmen with flexible loyalties remain strong in the sparsely populated desert region.
On the weekend, the LNA dispatched a unit to the eastern oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider to prepare for a possible attack there.
(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli, Ahmed Elumami, Ulf Laessing, John Irish and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Hugh Lawson)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Volkswagen in Berlin, Germany February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo
April 18, 2019
By Douglas Busvine
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Commission’s push to implement a Wi-Fi standard for connected cars has won the support of lawmakers in a victory for Germany’s Volkswagen, although competitor BMW and other backers of a rival technology still hope to overturn the decision.
Advocates of the alternative C-V2X standard – which stands for Cellular Vehicle to Everything – say their technology is already viable and will only improve as next-generation 5G mobile networks are rolled out.
The apparently dry debate over acronyms has divided the car and telecoms industries and will influence which continent ends up dominating automated driving technologies that promise to be safer than people behind the wheel.
There are around 25,000 annual road fatalities in the EU and another 135,000 serious injuries. The Commission wants to halve both by 2030 as part of a long-term ‘Vision Zero’ goal to virtually eliminate them by 2050.
China, the world’s biggest car market, is already pressing ahead with C-V2X, which is designed to work with 5G but is incompatible with Wi-Fi. Ford will deploy C-V2X there in 2021 and has committed to install it in all its new cars and trucks in the United States from 2022.
The European Council, the intergovernmental part of the EU’s decision-making process, is due to take a decision by mid-May.
Here’s an explainer of what’s at stake and how the process is likely to play out:
WHAT IS THE COMMISSION PROPOSING AND WHO BACKS IT?
The European Commission has proposed a legal act to regulate so-called ‘Cooperative-Intelligent Transport Systems’ (C-ITS). This backs the ITS-G5 Wi-Fi standard that has already been adopted by much of the auto industry and is already certified.
The most prominent supporter of ITS-G5 is Volkswagen, which says it will start fitting the Wi-Fi technology to vehicles this year.
VW argues that viable C-V2X technology is years away, while Commission researchers could not find any commercially available C-V2X gear to test, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Also backing ITS-G5 are Renault, Toyota, VW truck units MAN and Scania, chip maker NXP, road-toll company Kapsch and technical standards umbrella group VdTueV.
WHY DO OTHER AUTO MAKERS AND TELECOMS PREFER 5G?
Supporters of C-V2X have grown rapidly in number since eight companies – Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson ERICb.ST>, Huawei, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm – founded an alliance in 2016.
The group, the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), now counts more than 100 members who argue that C-V2X is better than Wi-Fi in terms of security, reliability, range and reaction time.
5G advocates object to a review process foreseen by the Commission that would allow other technologies to be admitted later to C-ITS, once certified. They say such interoperability is impossible because Wi-Fi and cellular radio technologies are incompatible.
“It’s like putting a DVD into a VHS player and trying to make it work,” Mats Granryd, head of the GSMA telecoms industry group, wrote in a letter to EU lawmakers this week.
WHICH IS THE BETTER TECHNOLOGY?
Participants in the debate agree that C-V2X running on 5G networks will be the better technology – even Volkswagen is a member of the 5GAA – but they differ on when it will be ready for prime time.
C-V2X could, for example, help a connected car spot a person on foot carrying a smartphone before the driver does, making it possible for automated systems to hit the brakes and alert the pedestrian to the danger – a potential lifesaver.
Wi-Fi is cheaper, because 5G operators would charge for data. On the other hand, regulated mobile networks would likely be safer, says independent technology analyst Richard Windsor: “Would you trust your vehicle to be driven by a home router?” he asked.
Other markets led by China are meanwhile pressing ahead with C-V2X, potentially burdening European auto makers with the expense of developing and installing different systems in cars for the home market and for export.
WHO’S LIKELY TO PREVAIL IN THE END?
European lawmakers passed the Commission’s legal act by a narrow majority on Wednesday and the matter now goes before the European Council.
Here, opponents of the Commission’s proposal would need the backing of a so-called qualified majority of the EU’s 28 member states – 16 countries representing 65 percent of its population – to block it.
That will be a tall order, but 5G backers are hoping that a skeptical opinion expressed by the Commission’s own legal advisory team will bolster their case, say sources. A Council working party meets again on May 3 and May 10 to review that advice.
The government of EU heavyweight Germany says it has taken note of those reservations and has yet to make up its mind. A decision in the Council is due by May 13, although the review period may be extended.
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Kirsten Donovan)
Source: OANN
An election campaign poster for the upcoming European Parliament elections depicting German Justice Minister Katarina Barley, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) top candidate, is pictured in Berlin, Germany April 10, 2019. The words on the posters read “solidarity.” REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
April 18, 2019
BRUSSELS/STRASBOURG (Reuters) – A poll for the European Parliament showed that last-minute British participation in next month’s elections to the European Union’s legislature means eurosceptic groups will gain ground but pro-EU parties will keep a majority.
WHO’S VOTING AND FOR WHAT?
Some 400 million people in the European Union’s 28 member states can vote from May 23 to 26 — including nearly 50 million Britons who were due to leave the bloc in March. Their votes for 73 lawmakers who may have to quit within weeks has upset some calculations following a delay to Brexit agreed last week.
By proportional representation, Europeans will elect 751 members to the European Parliament, which divides its time between Brussels and Strasbourg. Ranging from Malta with six seats to Germany with 96, for five years the MEPs will check and amend laws proposed by the European Commission, subject to approval by national governments in the EU Council.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
campaign issues range from spending — though the EU budget is equal to just 1 percent of member states’ gross domestic product — to climate change and labour rights. But some who want the EU broken up see it as a Brexit-style referendum on the EU’s very survival, pitting advocates of historic, ethnic-based nations against the idea of pooling sovereignty to defend Europe’s wealth and values in a world of rising authoritarian powers and global corporations.
Caught up in this centre-versus-states debate are refugees. Nationalists blame the EU for a surge in arrivals in 2015. Federalists say only cooperation can control migration.
Leaders of some eastern states such as Hungary and Poland slam Brussels over migrants and its complaints that they are undermining EU rules on democracy in Warsaw and Budapest; some westerners speak of cutting their EU subsidies in retaliation.
The election in Britain is considered a new referendum on Brexit by some, one that could help block withdrawal — or accelerate it.
ARE THERE EU POLITICAL PARTIES?
Yes. And no. Eight party groups sit in the chamber. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) has 29 percent and ensures an establishment majority by often cooperating with the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D — 25 percent) and ALDE liberals (9 percent). Two right-wing, anti-EU groups led by Britain’s UKIP and France’s National Rally share 10 percent.
But all the groups are unruly, and EU elections are mainly contested by national parties on issues familiar to voters.
IS BRITAIN A PROBLEM?
Some EU officials think it might be better to delay approving key post-election appointments until after British MEPs leave, to avoid accusations parliament’s decisions will lack legitimacy.
The British vote will favour eurosceptics, socialists and Greens but hurt the EPP, which has no members in Britain since the ruling Conservatives quit the group to form their own bloc.
By taking part, Britain has forced the EU to postpone the redistribution of 27 of its 73 seats to other countries. France, for example, will elect 79 MEPs, five more than it has now, but five of them will not be able to take up their seats until after Britain leaves and Parliament shrinks by 46 members to 705.
DOES THE WINNER GET TO RUN THE EU?
Not really. Well, maybe. Parliament’s leaders say they are the heart of European democracy. National leaders scoff at the 43 percent turnout in the 2014 EU elections. In practice, states wield most power and little happens that big countries dislike.
The EU executive Commission is led by Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg. A historic power struggle between Parliament and Council will get an airing in the election. Parliament has pledged to force the Council to nominate as Juncker’s successor a lead candidate from a winning party in the vote. Leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron say they won’t be bound by that. Parliament could reject the Council’s Commission nominee.
I’M CONFUSED. SO WHO REALLY RUNS THE EU?
It’s complicated. But the voting and lead candidate rumpus is part of horse-trading among governments to get compatriots or allies into top positions, not just in the Commission and Council but also in the European Central Bank.
Germany and France, the two biggest states, have the most clout, but even the smallest can play. Juncker is the third EU chief executive from little Luxembourg.
AND SO WILL THE ELECTIONS CHANGE MUCH?
A push by eurosceptics could mean a bigger, more cohesive minority to disrupt EU legislation. But EU optimists also say a campaign that grabs more people’s attention could reinvigorate post-Brexit efforts to pull the EU together.
Polls suggest the far right could increase its share but probably not enough to sound the death knell of the EU. It seems improbable that either camp, for or against closer integration in Europe, can land a knockout blow.
(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Peter Maushagen and Foo Yun Chee in Strasbourg; editing by Larry King)
Source: OANN
Macedonian Prime Minister and leader of the ruling SDSM, Zoran Zaev, and presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski greet their supporters during a party meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia, April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski
April 18, 2019
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) – Macedonians vote in a presidential election on Sunday shaping up as an unofficial referendum on the hotly disputed change of the country’s name to North Macedonia under a deal with Greece.
The country held an actual referendum on the issue last year but it was invalidated due to insufficient turnout. Skopje’s parliament later ratified the accord, which opened the door to Macedonian membership of the European Union and NATO.
But the name change, which Greece demanded to end what it called an implied territorial claim on its northern province also called Macedonia, continues to polarize Macedonians and has eclipsed all other issues in the presidential election campaign.
A 24-metre-(79-foot)-high bronze statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje’s main square casts the dispute in sharp relief.
Plans to attach a new plaque to the statue saying it belongs to Hellenic culture was agreed as part of the deal but has angered many conservative Macedonians who say Alexander’s ancient heritage was Macedonian, not Greek.
“Society is deeply divided among those in favor and those against the agreement,” said political analyst Petar Arsovski. That extends to the two main presidential candidates, neither of whom are polling anywhere near a majority.
A recent poll put Stevo Pendarovski, backed by the ruling centrist coalition of the Social Democrats and the minority Albanian DUI party, who promise to implement the name change settlement, at 28.8 percent of the electorate.
His main rival, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, a university professor supported by the nationalist opposition VMRO-DPMNE party which fiercely opposed the deal, trailed with 26.8 percent of the votes, the poll found.
Blerim Reka, the candidate of the second largest ethnic Albanian party Besa, is forecast to come third with around seven percent of the votes.
Barring a majority winner on Sunday, a second round run-off will be held on May 5 to decide the contest.
The presidency of the ex-Yugoslav republic is a mostly ceremonial post, but acts as the supreme commander of the armed forces and also signs off on parliamentary legislation.
The refusal of outgoing nationalist President Gjeorge Ivanov to sign some bills passed by parliament has delayed the implementation of some key laws, including one on wider use of the Albanian language – 18 years after an ethnic Albanian uprising that pushed Macedonia to the brink of civil war.
But the presidency had no authority to block constitutional amendments that were passed by a two-thirds majority of parliament to enable the name change to North Macedonia.
“There is no dilemma for me. We have to move forward – the EU and NATO are the only way. We need a president that will stick to that,” Elena Stojanova, 35, a shop vendor in Skopje, told Reuters.
NO TRUST IN POLITICIANS
The pro-Western government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said it hopes to hear from the EU in June when Skopje can start talks on membership, but that prospect is clouded by scepticism within the bloc about the wisdom of further enlargement.
VMRO-DPMNE supporters also favor EU and NATO membership but say the name change deal, a key precondition for such progress, has undermined the country’s South Slav identity.
“I don’t think anyone in this country is against the EU or, God forbid, sees no future in Europe. But the price we have to pay is too high,” said Petar Kostadinov, 65, a pensioner.
“To change our name, to give up our language and our identity? No – we are Macedonians and our country is called Macedonia. There must be another way.”
Analysts say turnout in Sunday’s vote could be low due to voter fatigue, dispute over voter lists and disappointment at the government’s failure to make good on promises to secure more foreign investment and reduce high unemployment.
“People are disappointed in politics,” said Suzana Dobrevska, a Skopje resident. “People have no trust in politicians, and that is why they don’t want to vote.”
(Reporting Kole Casule; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
April 18, 2019
By Amy Caren Daniel
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were muted on Thursday, as weak manufacturing data out of Europe underscored concerns of a global slowdown, while investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the release of a long-awaited Mueller report.
French and German surveys of purchasing managers for April showed that manufacturing activity in euro zone’s two biggest economies continued to contract.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election will be released on Thursday, providing the first public look at the findings of an inquiry that has cast a shadow over Donald Trump’s presidency.
Attorney General William Barr will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the report, ahead of the release.
At 6:59 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 27 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.25 points, or 0.06%.
On trade, Washington and Beijing set a tentative timeline for a fresh round of face-to-face meetings ahead of a possible signing ceremony in late May or early June, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Honeywell International Inc shares rose 1.9% after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raising its full-year financial forecast.
Of the 54 S&P 500 companies that have posted earnings so far, 79.6% have beaten consensus, according to Refinitiv data.
Analysts now expect first-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies to have dropped 1.8% year-on-year, an improvement from recent estimates, but would still be the first earnings decline since 2016.
Honeywell International Inc shares rose 1.9% after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raising its full-year financial forecast.
Kinder Morgan Inc rose 1.3 percent after Chief Executive Steven Kean said the company has begun internal discussions about building a third natural gas pipeline in the Permian Basin.
Investors are also awaiting the hotly-anticipated debut of online scrapbook company Pinterest Inc, the first high-profile initial public offering of a “tech unicorn” after Lyft Inc’s struggles.
Commerce Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is likely to show U.S. retail sales rebounded 0.9 percent in March after a 0.2 percent decline in February.
(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Source: OANN
“America is the greatest fighting force for peace, justice and freedom in the history of the world,” the president has said. “We are not going to apologize for America. We are going to stand up for America. No more apologies.”
No more apologies. No more groveling. No more self-flagellating ourselves on the world stage, as a certain, previous administration had done.
Trump is different. He goes over to Europe and he says, “Hey, we value our alliance. We love you guys, but it’s time for NATO members to stop free-riding on the American taxpayers.” Imagine that. An American president in Europe standing up for you, looking out for your hard-earned money.
Of course, the foreign policy elites back home shuddered, and they fumed and sputtered upon hearing all of this, preferring, of course, Obama’s approach. Seizing a better future is exactly what President Trump has begun to do for America, but not by marinating in guilt over past wrongs in public, but by growing the economy — real hope.
The Obama crew said he couldn’t do it. But with a crack team of dedicated pros, Trump renegotiated old trade deals to make them more pro-American worker, and he’s holding trade cheaters like China accountable. It’s about time. Now, can you ever imagine Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg speaking as triumphantly, as unapologetically, about American dominance in manufacturing, as Trump?
Trump is also unapologetic about the government’s duty to enforce our borders, and also to tailor immigration to America’s needs and values. But by contrast, the Democrats, they recoil from such terms as “American sovereignty,” and they push instead for abolishing of ICE and even abolishing the classification of illegals as “illegal.” They feel angry about America’s past and present. And America acting in America’s interest? Oh no, he can’t do that.
Now the president was particularly incensed last week when footage circulated of freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar referring to 9/11 as an occasion where “some people did something.” So he retweeted Omar’s video, and then he included clips of the planes going into the World Trade Center towers.
Well, the left, of course, wasn’t upset about Omar’s original comments. They were mad at Trump, claiming he’s the problem by endangering Omar’s life.
In a local interview in Minnesota on Monday, Trump was characteristically unapologetic. When asked if he had second thoughts about criticizing Omar, he replied, “No, not at all. Look, she’s been very disrespectful to this country. She’s been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel. She’s someone that doesn’t really understand, I think, life. Real life, what it’s all about. It’s unfortunate. She’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she’s extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country.”
Disrespectful to our country — well, I think a lot of Americans agree with him. Like Obama before her, Omar reflexively apologizes for even in tone, ridiculing America for being worried about Al Qaeda. Yes, because we actually recoil at evil. America and Britain, we don’t believe in evil, congresswoman. So, we bristle at it.
Yes, we have to be clear here that Omar’s not alone. The Democratic Party is becoming infected with this self-loathing quality. More of its members today feel guilty about America’s past, and they want to turn that guilt into the ultimate expiation for our sins — the sins of colonialism, racism, misogyny, et cetera, et cetera. And they feel justified in tearing down history, in attacking religious symbols with deep historical roots and even refusing to participate in patriotic displays.
2020 is shaping up to be a showdown between more traditional America and this new kind of twisted vision of America. And no matter who the Democratic nominee is, this is the ideological struggle before us. And it’s hard right now at least to imagine that the American people would not again embrace the true audacity that unapologetic nature of Trump — his unwillingness to bow down to the media and political correctness at the moment, and his determination to protect the honor and the people of this country. His habit of standing up to the political elite and refusing to back down.
Now, there are words for this approach. We used to call it American leadership. Maybe we still do.
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