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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s most trusted policy adviser apparently has been removed from one of his posts, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday, a possible personnel reshuffle in the wake of the breakdown of the North Korea-U.S. summit in February.
The head of the South Korean parliament’s intelligence committee, Lee Hye-hoon, cited South Korea’s main spy agency as saying that Kim Yong Chol lost his Workers’ Party post in charge of relations with South Korea earlier this month. He was replaced by the little-known Jang Kum Chol as the director of the party’s United Front Department, Lee said.
Lee said she obtained the information at a private briefing from the National Intelligence Service.
Kim Yong Chol has been North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator and counterpart of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo since Kim Jong Un entered nuclear talks with the U.S. early last year. He traveled to Washington and met President Donald Trump twice before Kim’s two summits with Trump.
His rise had baffled many North Korea watchers because he handled South Korea ties, not international or U.S. relations. Previously, he was a military intelligence chief believed to be behind a slew of provocations, including two deadly attacks in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans and an alleged 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures. Both Seoul and Washington imposed sanctions on him in recent years.
The NIS and the Unification Ministry, a Seoul agency responsible for North Korea ties, said they could not immediately confirm the information on Kim Yong Chol.
The NIS has a spotty record in confirming developments in North Korea. But if confirmed, Kim Yong Chol’s replacement would add to speculation that he is being sidelined from nuclear diplomacy to take the responsibility for the failure of the February summit in Hanoi.
Kim Jong Un, who is desperate to revive his country’s moribund economy, returned home empty-handed from Hanoi after Trump rejected his calls for easing U.S.-led sanctions in return for dismantling a key nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step.
Kim Yong Chol wasn’t among a list of officials accompanying Kim Jong Un on his current visit to Russia, which began earlier Wednesday. Many experts in South Korea said North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui would take the lead in the nuclear diplomacy.
“(Pyongyang’s) significantly diminished reliance on Kim Yong Chol is a very positive sign for the denuclearization negotiations between North Korea and the United States,” said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute. He called Kim Yong Chol “most responsible” for the second summit’s failure due to his hard-line stance.
While the NIS believes the personnel change possibly indicates that the department takes a back seat in the nuclear negotiations with Washington going forward, the spy agency also said it wasn’t immediately clear whether Kim Yong Chol would be removed from the talks entirely or immediately, Lee said.
Kim still maintains several other prominent titles, including vice chairman of the Workers Party’s Central Committee and a member of the powerful State Affairs Commission.
Source: NewsMax America
FILE PHOTO: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
April 24, 2019
By Stephen Kalin and Saeed Azhar
RIYADH (Reuters) – Global finance chiefs who boycotted a Saudi investment summit last year following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi returned to Riyadh this week as the Gulf kingdom gets business back on track.
Dozens of Western politicians and business executives pulled out of Saudi Arabia’s showcase summit in October amid global uproar over Khashoggi’s killing at the hands of Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate three weeks earlier.
A Saudi court has charged 11 suspects in a secretive trial and Western allies imposed sanctions on individuals. But Riyadh still faces criticism with some Western governments saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder. Saudi authorities have denied any connection to the country’s de facto ruler.
Big investors in Saudi Arabia appear to be focused on potential deals in the largest Arab economy and the world’s top oil exporter as it opens up under a transformation drive led by Prince Mohammed.
HSBC CEO John Flint and Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, who had stayed away from last year’s event, joined panels at the two-day financial forum that began on Wednesday, as did co-president of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Daniel Pinto.
“This is an economy that we have a lot of confidence in, I think the future is bright,” Flint told the gathering. “We are excited about the role that we can continue to play here.”
Fink told another panel: “The changes here in the kingdom in the last two years are pretty amazing.”
The CEO of the London Stock Exchange, who had pulled out of last year’s event, is also scheduled to speak at the financial conference. Also slated to attend is the chairman of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, whose CEO decided to abstain from the October summit.
Riyadh has been trying for months to refocus attention on its reforms, sending a senior delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos and unveiling an industrial plan to attract hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in January.
The summit is taking place days after Saudi security forces thwarted an attack on a state security building in central Riyadh province, which authorities blamed on Islamic State.
On Tuesday Saudi Arabia announced it had executed 37 people in connection with terrorism crimes, the majority of whom were Shi’ite Muslims. Amnesty International criticized the executions as a “gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent” in the kingdom.
Asked how Saudi Arabia was addressing national security issues, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan told the audience the Gulf region is “one of the safest worldwide”.
“These incidents will happen,” he said of the Riyadh province attack. “We are working with the world to make sure that we combat the financing of terrorism… and we work very closely with the West and the regional forces to make sure that we intercept and fight terrorism.”
MARKET CONFIDENCE
Earlier this month, state oil giant Saudi Aramco received more than $100 billion in orders for its first international bond issue, a record breaking vote of market confidence.
Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told the forum that Aramco would be active in debt markets and that the $12 billion it raised in its debut bond issue was “only the beginning”.
The Saudi stock market has also seen an upsurge in foreign fund flows since the start of 2019 as the market enters global emerging market benchmarks. The index is up nearly 18 percent year-to-date, one of the best performing markets in the region.
The domestic financial sector is seeing a relative uptick in activity this year, fueled by an economic recovery from higher oil prices and government-led spending on big projects.
Jadaan told the forum that the ministry is launching a 12.5 billion riyal($3.33 billion)initiative to support private sector growth in the kingdom.
While some foreign investors are pushing ahead, other firms continue to keep Saudi Arabia at arm’s length, fearing a potential backlash at home over Khashoggi’s murder, the Yemen war and Riyadh’s detention of women’s rights activists.
Virgin Group last year suspended talks with the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) over a planned $1 billion investment. Hollywood talent agency Endeavor and PIF “parted ways” after talks on the fund investing $400 million, a source familiar with the matter has said.
(Editing by William Maclean)
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On Tuesday, presidential son-in-law and White House aide Jared Kushner had left-leaning social media abuzz by downplaying the real-world fallout of Russia’s efforts in the 2016 elections. He characterized Kremlin-directed meddling as a “terrible thing” but also explained that “the investigations and all of the speculation that’s happened for the last two years has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads.”
When I ratified Kushner’s assessment on CNN’s broadcast with my colleague, host Chris Cuomo, I was met with guffaws and disbelief. But here is the reality: Russia’s intrusion was very unwelcome and decidedly illegal, but the wildly disproportionate reaction by anti-Trump operatives in both government and media has far eclipsed the damage wrought by a minor 2016 foreign intelligence scheme.
This totally unbalanced reaction represents the political equivalent to the Steve Bartman incident in Major League Baseball. In 2003, the Chicago Cubs led the National League Championship Series three games to two and had a 3-0 lead in game six at home, with one out in the eighth inning. A pop fly sailed foul but well within the left fielder’s reach. Lifelong Cubs fan Steve Bartman grabbed at the ball, as would many fans, interfering with Moises Alou’s attempted catch. Both players and fans massively overreacted, forcing Bartman to exit Wrigley Field with a security detail, but the kerfuffle would have been utterly forgotten had previously dependable Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez ended the inning moments later with a potential double play ground ball hit right to him. Instead, his rare error commenced an epic Cubs implosion that sent Chicago to defeat that night and in the ensuing NLCS game seven, vaulting the Marlins to the World Series.
As in politics, the point here is that the scapegoat, the Bartman, is not really to blame. Russians spending a whopping $100,000 on Facebook ads, per the Mueller Report, represents a miniscule rounding error compared to $81 million spent by the campaigns on Facebook within a presidential election where total direct and indirect spending reached into the billions of dollars.
In fact, the “resistance” narrative of a stolen election insults the key voters who turned the 2016 tide Donald Trump’s way in the unlikely GOP sweep of key states Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Those voters, many of whom had either not voted before or had voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, did not rally to Trump because they were somehow duped by an inconsequential international interference operation. In reality, these voters were motivated by two things: They embraced the fighting, spirited agenda of a renegade Trump candidacy and they simultaneously rejected the arrogant, presuppositional pseudo-coronation of Hillary Clinton.
But rather than engage in even a scintilla of self-introspection regarding their wholesale misread of the American electorate, the mainstream media instead constructed a Potemkin Village narrative through the grand excuse that Russian interference caused this unacceptable electoral injustice. Instead of considering Hillary’s Alex Gonzalez-like error of completely ignoring Wisconsin, they deemed it much better to cast aspersions on Russia’s role, the convenient new Bartman-esque bogeyman.
As a citizen, I lament the damage such scapegoating inflicts upon our polity, but admittedly the partisan in me fully embraces the cognitive dissonance at play here. For example, during the Easter Monday Democratic townhalls on my news channel, CNN, viewers watched an almost comical cavalcade of grievance apologetics, culminating in a call for voting rights for the incarcerated concurrent with the evisceration of constitutionally enumerated gun rights for the law-abiders. Clearly, instead of learning any lessons from 2016, the Democrats and their willing media allies would rather blame an allegedly all-powerful external intervention. Instead of considering the myriad ways they themselves failed America, it’s much easier to just blame Russia, the new political Bartman.
FILE PHOTO: Former Vice President Joe Biden who is mulling a 2020 presidential candidacy, speaks to the media after speaking at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ (IBEW) construction and maintenance conference in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
April 24, 2019
By Chris Kahn
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former Vice President Joe Biden leads all other candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and draws his strongest levels of support from minorities and older adults, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public poll released on Wednesday.
The April 17-23 poll focused on the vote preferences of 2,237 Democrats and independents – the two groups that may select the Democratic nominee in most of the statewide contests ahead of the 2020 general election.
According to the poll, 24 percent would vote for Biden over 19 other declared and potential candidates.
Another 15 percent said they would support U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran a competitive campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
No other candidate received more than 7 percent of public support, and 21 percent said they “don’t know” which candidate they would back in a primary.
The poll measures how potential voters feel right now. Many may change their minds as they become better acquainted with the candidates. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 2 percentage points for the combined group of Democrats and independents.
The statewide nominating contests will kick off in early February next year, led by Iowa.
Biden, 76, who has sought the Democratic presidential nomination twice before and is expected to announce a third run later this week, remains widely popular since he left the White House in 2016 after two terms as vice president.
Sixty-three percent of all Americans say they have a “favorable” impression of Biden, including 88 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 39 percent of Republicans.
In comparison, 58 percent of Americans said they have a favorable view of Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, whose upstart campaign has out-raised some of his more established rivals this year.
All three appear to have stronger bi-partisan appeal than President Donald Trump. According to the poll, 44 percent of all adults said they have a generally favorable view of Trump.
Biden receives his strongest levels of support from older adults and minorities.
Thirty-two percent of adults who are 55 years old and older said they would vote for Biden over other candidates. And 30 percent of non-white adults, including about 4 in 10 African-Americans, said they would back Biden for the nomination.
The poll shows that at this early stage of the presidential campaign, Americans say they will vote for candidates who have been in the national spotlight for a long time.
Their preferences may change once they get to know other candidates for the nomination.
More than 80 percent of Democrats said they were at least “somewhat familiar” with Biden and Sanders.
Sixty-seven percent of Democrats were familiar with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and about half said they were familiar with former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas or U.S. Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
The rest of the field appears to be largely unknown by a majority of Democrats.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 4,018 adults in all, including 1,449 Democrats, 1,437 Republicans and 788 independents.
To see the poll question and answers, click here: https://tmsnrt.rs/2W7qykY
(Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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Actors Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige pose on the stage after placing their handprints in cement at a ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, U.S. April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
April 24, 2019
By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The final chapter in a decade-long superhero saga and the remake of a big-screen classic could topple box-office records during a summer movie season expected to be dominated by Walt Disney Co.
“Avengers: Endgame” from Disney’s Marvel Studios kicks off Hollywood’s parade of potential blockbusters on Wednesday, and it is expected to start with a bang. Industry experts say “Endgame” will likely deliver the biggest opening weekend ever in the United States and Canada.
Then in July, a new version of Disney hit “The Lion King” has a shot at dethroning “Avatar” as the highest-grossing film in Hollywood history, according to box office analysts.
Those movies and others are giving theater owners hope for a turnaround after a sluggish start to 2019. Ticket sales so far are running 16 percent below last year’s bonanza, data from measurement company Comscore showed.
Studios used to reserve their big-budget films for summer, making it Hollywood’s most lucrative season, but now spread them throughout the year.
“I counted over 30 huge movies coming out this year,” said Adam Aron, chief executive of AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater operator. Aron said he now considers summer film season to be “March 1 to December 31.”
Possible heavy hitters include “Detective Pikachu” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” from AT&T Inc’s Warner Bros, “The Secret Life of Pets 2” from Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, and Sony Corp’s “Spider-Man: Far from Home.”
STRONGEST FILM SLATE
But Disney’s lineup is seen as the most formidable. The company’s other 2019 releases include “Toy Story 4,” a remake of “Aladdin,” “Frozen 2” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”
“Disney has probably the strongest film slate in the history of the industry this year,” Cowen & Co analyst Doug Creutz said.
The new “Lion King” tells the well-known story of the plucky cub Simba through computer-generated imagery designed to look like live action. A trailer released at Thanksgiving generated 224.6 million views within 24 hours, a Disney record.
Even so, it will not be easy for the king of the jungle to reach the top of the box office mountain. “Avatar” grossed $2.8 billion after its 2009 release and is one of only four movies ever to cross $2 billion.
“Lion King” boosters noted the original film hauled in $968.5 million way back in 1994, with lower ticket prices. This time, it will play in a booming Chinese movie market that has grown to the world’s second-largest, positioning it to take in far more than the original’s $5 million in the country.
Plus, the story of Simba’s challenges and triumphs has wide appeal.
“That is a movie that will travel very, very well,” said Vue International cinemas CEO Tim Richards. “It has common themes that hit a chord with all of our audiences internationally. It’s for all ages.”
‘ENDGAME’ IS CULMINATION
“Endgame,” the culmination of 22 Marvel films since 2007, also has generated huge buzz. Website Fandango said “Endgame” sold five times as many tickets as last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” over its first seven days of advance sales. Theaters were adding show times to meet demand.
“Infinity War” in 2018 holds the current opening weekend record, generating $257.7 million domestically over its first three days. The movie ended with an epic cliffhanger that will lure fans back to theaters in droves for “Endgame,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
He predicts between $250 million and $275 million for “Endgame,” which will wrap up the story started by Iron Man, Thor and four other Avengers.
“I don’t see how anticipation could be any higher,” Dergarabedian said. “Audiences have developed an ongoing relationship with these characters and these stories. It’s a must-see movie.”
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts during a news conference at his campaign headquarters following a presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo
April 24, 2019
By Marc Jones and Tom Arnold
LONDON (Reuters) – Ukraine has entered uncharted political waters by choosing Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian with no previous political experience and few detailed policies, as its new president.
Zelenskiy is the latest anti-establishment figure to unseat an incumbent leader, both in Europe and further afield, but he has a lot to get to grips with. Below are five big questions investors and the international community have.
1/STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT?
Zelenskiy is expected to take office next month and his ability to work with Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, will be crucial to meeting the expectations of his voters.
The president appoints the head of the state security service, the head of the military, the general prosecutor, the central bank governor and the foreign and defense ministers. But parliament must confirm each appointment — and there’s the rub.
While Zelenskiy beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko decisively in Sunday’s presidential vote, parliamentary elections are not due until October and opinion polls suggest he is unlikely to win an outright majority.
That means he would need to ally with at least one other party if he is to get many of his policies and appointments through. The other alternative is to try to bring the elections forward in order to capitalize on the momentum from his presidential victory.
2/TEAM BUILDING EXERCISE
With no political experience himself, investors want Zelenskiy to build a team with enough know-how to avoid any policy missteps.
He does not actually have a full slate of policies yet but he brought in two former ministers as advisers for his campaign: former finance minister Oleksandr Danylyuk and former economy minister Aivaras Abromavicius.
Danylyuk is rumored to be in line to become either foreign minister or the head of the presidential administration, which would give him a powerful gatekeeper role.
“Zelenskiy might be inexperienced in foreign affairs but I think he will have plenty of choice of experienced individuals to serve as foreign minister, and will receive plenty of support, advice from Western governments,” wrote Timothy Ash of BlueBay Asset Management.
3/IMF
International Monetary Fund aid has kept Ukraine’s economy above water so its ongoing support is seen as crucial, especially with around $3 billion (about 2 percent of GDP) of external debt obligations, including interest, coming due in the remainder of 2019. Another $5.5 billion (about 4 percent of GDP) must be repaid in 2020.
But Ukraine’s patchy reform efforts led to repeated delays in its previous IMF program that ended up disbursing only $8.7 billion of a planned $17.5 billion.
That was replaced by a new $3.9 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in December. While Kiev hopes for another tranche of that money as early as next month, investors will want to see a fuller program put back in place soon.
It could be an interesting negotiation. Zelenskiy already wants to talk the IMF about reversing some gas price rises the Fund saw as crucial to mending Kiev’s finances.
Ukraine’s economic backdrop has improved in recent years though, with much smaller twin deficits (2-3 percent of GDP), lower public sector debt (just over 60 percent) and a stable currency. It also has over $20 billion in FX reserves, which is over four months of import cover, according to S&P Global.
4/PRIVATBANK PROBLEMS
One concern is Zelenskiy’s ties to oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, the former owner of Ukraine’s biggest lender PrivatBank, which was nationalized in 2016.
With the international community already concerned about corruption and influence, some have raised questions about what their relationship might mean for the future of PrivatBank and other interests of Kolomoisky in Ukraine.
A court ruling last week could threaten to overturn the nationalization of PrivatBank.
The central bank has said it will appeal — in fact there could be many appeals as well as other legal manoeuvres — but any sign that Zelenskiy might be in Kolomoisky’s camp on this could do serious damage, not least to relations with the IMF.
5/RUSSIA RELATIONS
As world leaders clamored to offer their congratulations to Zelenskiy, one notable name was absent: Russian President Vladimir Putin. How the Russian-speaking Zelenskiy handles Ukraine’s relationship with Moscow will go a long way to determining the success of his term in office.
He has already suggested taking a fresh perspective to try to secure peace with Moscow, while pushing ahead with European Union-friendly moves. That could prove a difficult path to tread.
For its part, Russia has signaled it intends to respect the vote of the Ukraine people, although Putin is not planning talks with Zelenskiy.
Also rumbling in the background is a legal dispute between the two surrounding Ukraine’s $3 billion Eurobond, which Moscow wants repaid in full but which Kiev argues should have been written down along with most of its other debt in 2015.
Any repairing of ties could also bring rewards for Ukraine. Improved relations could help it regain control over the separatist-controlled east, as well as cheap gas and major investment, a Kremlin ally in Ukraine said last week.
(Additional reporting by Matthias Williams in Kiev, Graphics by Karin Strohecker, Editing by Catherine Evans)
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A cargo train loaded with coal dust, moves past the port area near City Station in Karachi, Pakistan September 24, 2018. Picture taken September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
April 24, 2019
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – People living in countries along China’s new “Silk Road” favor investment in renewable energy over the construction of coal-fired power plants, according to a poll released on Wednesday ahead of a major summit in Beijing.
Environmental group E3G, which commissioned the poll, said the results showed there was little support for investment in coal, despite China’s role as a major funder of new plants.
“China should now work with governments, business and investors at the upcoming forum to make sure these demands are met,” said Nick Mabey, chief executive of E3G.
The survey was released ahead of China’s second international forum on its 2013 Belt and Road initiative, which is designed to build infrastructure and encourage trade and economic cooperation along the old Silk Road route connecting China to Europe and elsewhere.
According to a draft communique seen by Reuters, world leaders attending the summit will call for sustainable financing that promotes green growth.
But concerns have been raised that China is using the program to export substandard polluting technologies, even as it boosts the share of renewable power at home in a bid to cut smog and climate-warming greenhouse gases.
The YouGov poll of more than 6,000 people covered Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam, which are among the top 10 locations for the construction of new coal-fired power plants, with many backed by Chinese developers.
Over 85 percent of those surveyed said they favored investment by foreign governments, banks and companies in renewable projects, while less than a third said they favored investments in coal.
More than 90 percent said solar power should be a priority. Coal-fired power was less popular than nuclear in four of the six countries.
In a separate announcement on Wednesday, a coalition of Chinese environmental groups urged Beijing to draw up green guiding principles for investment in Belt and Road countries.
“The host country’s climate objectives and the long-term impact of investment activities on the local environment must be taken into consideration,” said Yang Fuqiang, a senior climate advisor with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
(Reporting by David Stanway; editing by Richard Pullin)
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FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 – Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China – April 13, 2019 Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas REUTERS/Aly Song
April 24, 2019
By Abhishek Takle
BAKU (Reuters) – Valtteri Bottas has a score to settle as he heads into Sunday’s Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix determined to make up for a lost win and regain the championship lead from Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.
The Finn was leading around the streets of Baku last year when a puncture three laps from the end handed victory to Hamilton instead.
The Briton went on to win 10 more races on his way to a fifth title while Bottas ended the season demoralized and with zero wins.
The 29-year-old has come back from the winter stronger and looking more of a match for his team mate, even if Hamilton has returned to the top of the standings after chalking up his second win of the season in China on April 14.
“For sure I would prefer to still be leading but that’s the situation now and if I keep performing well I can turn it around,” said Bottas, who trails Hamilton by six points with 18 races remaining.
“So that’s going to be the goal for Baku,” added the Finn, who was on pole in China but dropped behind Hamilton at the start.
Mercedes head into Sunday’s race, the fourth since Azerbaijan joined the calendar in 2016, as favorites after three one-two finishes — the strongest start to a campaign since Williams in 1992.
They have also won two of the three races in Azerbaijan, even if it has not been a particularly happy hunting ground for Hamilton. Last year’s victory was his first podium appearance there.
MEAGER HAUL
Nothing can be taken for granted at a circuit that has served up some thrillers in the past, mixing ultra-long straights and tight corners with no margin for error.
Like Bottas, Ferrari will also be hoping to make a statement.
Already 57 points behind Mercedes in the overall standings, the pre-season favorites have a meager haul of two third-place finishes from the first three races and cannot afford to lose any more ground.
New recruit Charles Leclerc, smarting from being ordered to move over for four times champion Sebastian Vettel in China and denied a maiden Formula One win by engine trouble in Bahrain, will be especially fired up.
The circuit holds a special emotional significance for the Monegasque, who won a 2017 Formula Two race from pole position in Baku only days after the death of his father.
“Baku is a demanding track, but I can’t wait,” said the 21-year-old, who also scored his first Formula One points there last year with sixth place for Sauber. “I simply love it and I’ve always performed very well there.”
The unpredictability of the race means there’s always a chance for an unexpected podium finisher.
Since the 2016 race, Baku is the only grand prix on the calendar that has seen a driver outside of the top-three teams finish on the podium.
Mexican Sergio Perez, with two third places for Force India — now Racing Point — is the only driver to have stood on the podium more than once in Baku.
“It’s a big show,” said Max Verstappen who will pounce on any opportunity to snatch a win for Honda-powered Red Bull. “And hopefully this year’s race will make for a good story.”
(Editing by Alan Baldwin/Amlan Chakraborty)
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FILE PHOTO: A Scandinavian SAS airline passenger plane flies near the air traffic control tower after taking off from Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris, August 21, 2013. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
April 24, 2019
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Scandinavian airline SAS is offering travelers concerned about a possible strike by pilots the chance to reschedule flights for the April 26-29 period to another date free of charge.
The Swedish, Danish and Norwegian pilot unions’ joint SAS branch said this month they would go on strike on April 26 if there was no agreement on wages and terms by then, after an earlier talks round of talks broke down.
SAS said on its website the offer concerned flights operated by SAS but not those operated by its partners as they would not affected by the potential strike.
SAS employs around 1,500 pilots across its home markets of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
National mediators in the three countries have since last week tried to broker a deal between delegations of the two parties but without success so far.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Edmund Blair)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The Netflix logo is seen on their office in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
April 24, 2019
(Reuters) – In a win for Netflix, Amazon and other internet streaming services, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted not to change its rules for winning an Oscar, Hollywood’s top prize.
The decision follows a battle over how long a movie must play on the big screens in theaters before being launched on the internet, DVD or other mediums that put it on the small screen.
The Academy’s Board of Governors said on Tuesday that the existing rules, which say a movie has to run in a theater for only seven days in Los Angeles to qualify, had won.
“We support the theatrical experience as integral to the art of motion pictures, and this weighed heavily in our discussions,” Academy President John Bailey said in a release.
Some theater owners say short runs at a theater means more people will stay home to watch movies.
And movie producers including Steven Spielberg have said movies that are shown primarily on the small screen should only compete for television awards, such as the Emmys.
In February, Netflix won three Oscars for “Roma,” which streamed three weeks after a limited theatrical debut.
Netflix tweeted that it “loved cinema” but also supported access for people who cannot afford, or do not live close to, theaters.
Shorter windows would keep some customers at home, Greg Marcus, chief executive of The Marcus Corporation, owner of the fourth-largest U.S. theater chain, earlier told Reuters.
“If you damage the business and take away 10 percent of our customers, we won’t be able to reinvest in the theatrical experience,” Marcus said. “That would ultimately hurt content providers.”
Others said consumers are happy with the current system.
Ticket sales in 2018 reached a record $41 billion globally and $12 billion in the United States and Canada, even as Netflix released about 90 movies for streaming.
“We’re not talking about something that’s broken,” Vue International cinemas CEO Tim Richards said in an earlier interview with Reuters.
The Academy’s Bailey said the rule could be revisited next year.
“We plan to further study the profound changes occurring in our industry and continue discussions with our members about these issues,” he said.
(Reporting by Rich McKay and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Source: OANN
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