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With the entrance of former Vice President Joe Biden into the 2020 Democratic presidential contest on Thursday, the field is largely set, with all the big names included.
The sprawling Democratic field features candidates ranging from 37 to 77 years old; liberals and moderates; senators, governors and mayors; and an unprecedented number of women and minorities. Democrats view the upcoming election as a must-win, and they’re looking to nominate someone who is their best hope to beat President Donald Trump.
Here are the 20 candidates:
JOE BIDEN
Age: 76
Best known for: Being former President Barack Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017 and U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009.
Biggest strength: He’s well-known nationally and popular in some places Democrats have lost recently, such as working-class swing states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, his birthplace.
Biggest weakness: Biden would be the oldest person ever elected president, with a nearly five-decade record for opponents to comb through, at a time many in his party are clamoring for a new generation to take the reins. The notoriously chatty former senator also tends to commit verbal gaffes and faced recent accusations by some women of uninvited, though nonsexual, touching.
CORY BOOKER
Age: 49
Best known for: Serving as mayor of Newark and, currently, U.S. senator from New Jersey. He made headlines last year during his self-proclaimed “‘I am Spartacus’ moment” as he flouted Senate rules against disclosing confidential documents during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation fight.
Biggest strength: His optimistic, unity-first attitude could resonate at a time of deep political divisions.
Biggest weakness: Trying to convince voters that he’s tough enough to take on Trump.
PETE BUTTIGIEG
Age: 37
Best known for: Serving as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and being a former Naval intelligence officer.
Biggest strength: He’s won over voters and many skeptics with his intelligence and an articulate yet plain-spoken speaking style. He’s also shown an ability to inspire voters of different ages with a message of hope and “a new generation of leadership” and has been able to raise millions more than many of his Democratic rivals.
Biggest weakness: His youth and lack of political experience — his only public office has been leading the community of about 100,000 people — will give some voters pause. He also will need to ramp up his campaign operations and do more to appeal to minority voters in order to maintain his early momentum.
JULIAN CASTRO
Age: 44
Best Known for: Serving as Health and Human Services secretary during President Barack Obama’s second term and as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, for five years.
Biggest strength: His youthfulness and status as the only Latino in the race could help him win the votes of Democrats looking for a new face of their party.
Biggest weakness: His fundraising lags well behind other contenders.
JOHN DELANEY
Age: 56
Best known for: Being a former congressman from Maryland.
Biggest strength: He has rolled out a rural-focus policy that includes proposals to strengthen family farmers and rural infrastructure, a plan that could play well in the battleground Rust Belt states won by Trump.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition.
TULSI GABBARD
Age: 38
Best known for: Serving as a U.S. representative for Hawaii; the first American Samoan and first Hindu to be elected to Congress.
Biggest strength: Her military service in Iraq and Kuwait with the Hawaii National Guard.
Biggest weakness: She has been criticized for traveling to Syria in 2017 to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been accused of war crimes and even genocide. She was also forced to apologize for her past work advocating against gay rights.
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Age: 52
Best known for: The senator from New York is one of her chamber’s most vocal members on issues of sexual harassment, military sexual assault, equal pay for women and family leave.
Biggest strength: Not being afraid to defy her own party in the #MeToo era, calling early for Democratic Sen. Al Franken’s resignation over sexual misconduct allegations and saying Bill Clinton should have voluntary left the presidency over an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
Biggest weakness: Sluggish campaign fundraising in the wake of some unpleasant #MeToo headlines of her own, with Gillibrand acknowledging there were “post-investigation human errors” made when her Senate office investigated allegations of sexual misconduct against various staffers.
KAMALA HARRIS
Age: 54
Best known for: The former California attorney general is now the junior U.S. senator from California, known for her rigorous questioning of Trump’s nominees.
Biggest strength: As the one black woman in the race, she’s able to tap into networks like historically black colleges and universities and her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority that haven’t been fully realized before.
Biggest weakness: Her prosecutorial record has come under scrutiny amid a push for criminal justice reform.
JOHN HICKENLOOPER
Age: 67
Best known for: Being a quirky brewpub owner who became a politician late in life, rising to governor of Colorado.
Biggest strength: An unorthodox political persona and successful electoral track record in a swing state. He’s one of the few governors in a race heavy with senators and D.C. stalwarts.
Biggest weakness: He’s previously joked that he was too centrist to win the Democratic nomination. As governor he disappointed some environmentalists by not regulating the energy industry more. He’s another white male baby boomer in a party filled with younger and more diverse candidates that better reflect its base.
JAY INSLEE
Age: 68
Best known for: Being governor of Washington state and a former congressman.
Biggest strength: His campaign emphasis is on combating climate change, which he frames as an economic opportunity in addition to a moral imperative.
Biggest weakness: He risks being labeled a one-issue candidate.
AMY KLOBUCHAR
Age: 58
Best known for: The three-term Minnesota senator raised her national profile during a Senate committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when she asked him whether he had ever had so much to drink that he didn’t remember what happened. He replied, “Have you?”
Biggest strength: She’s known as a pragmatic lawmaker willing to work with Republicans to get things done, a quality that’s helped her win across Minnesota, including in rural areas that supported Trump in 2016. She says her Midwestern sensibilities would help Democrats reclaim critical battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Michigan.
Biggest weakness: Her pragmatism may work against her in a primary, as Democratic voters increasingly embrace more liberal policies and positions. There have also been news reports that she has mistreated staff.
WAYNE MESSAM
Age: 44
Best known for: Serving as the mayor of Miramar, Florida, and playing on the Florida State University Seminoles’ 1993 national championship football team.
Biggest strength: He touts his mayoral experience balancing government regulations needed to protect the environment while allowing room for companies to prosper.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition and funding.
SETH MOULTON
Age: 40
Best known for: The Massachusetts congressman and Iraq War veteran gained national attention for helping lead an effort within the party to reject Nancy Pelosi as House speaker after Democrats regained control of the chamber.
Biggest strength: Military and congressional experience.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, late start on the fundraising necessary to qualify for the summer debate stage.
BETO O’ROURKE
Age: 46
Best known for: The former congressman narrowly lost the 2018 Senate race to Republican Ted Cruz in Texas, the country’s largest conservative state.
Biggest strength: A do-it-yourself campaign style that packs lots of travel and multiple events into long days and encourages off-the-cuff discussions with voters that still allow O’Rourke to talk up his days as a onetime punk rock guitarist and his love for his home on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biggest weakness: He’s longer on enthusiasm and vague, bipartisan optimism than actual policy ideas, and the style-over-substance approach could see O’Rourke’s strong early fundraising slip once the curiosity begins to fade.
TIM RYAN
Age: 45
Best known for: The Ohio congressman made an unsuccessful bid to replace Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader in 2016.
Biggest strength: Ryan has touted himself as a candidate who can bridge Democrats’ progressive and working-class wings to win the White House.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, late start on grassroots fundraising.
BERNIE SANDERS
Age: 77
Best known for: A 2016 presidential primary campaign against Hillary Clinton that laid the groundwork for the leftward lurch that has dominated Democratic politics in the Trump era.
Biggest strength: The Vermont senator, who identifies himself as a democratic socialist, generated progressive energy that fueled his insurgent 2016 campaign and the best fundraising numbers of any Democrat so far.
Biggest weakness: Expanding his appeal beyond his largely white base of supporters.
ERIC SWALWELL
Age: 38
Best known for: The California congressman is a frequent guest on cable news criticizing President Donald Trump.
Biggest strength: Media savvy and youthfulness could appeal to young voters.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, late start on grassroots fundraising.
ELIZABETH WARREN
Age: 69
Best known for: The senator from Massachusetts and former Harvard University law professor whose calls for greater consumer protections led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under then-President Barack Obama.
Biggest strength: Warren has presented a plethora of progressive policy ideas, including eliminating existing student loan debt for millions of Americans, breaking up farming monopolies and mammoth technology firms, implementing a “wealth tax” on households with high net worth and providing universal child care.
Biggest weakness: She is viewed as one of the most liberal candidates in the Democratic field, which could hurt her chances among moderates. Her policy-heavy approach also risks alienating voters at a time when other candidates are appealing to hearts as much as to minds.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
Age: 66
Best known for: Best-selling author and spiritual leader.
Biggest strength: Outsider who could draw interest from voters who are fans of her books.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, little political experience.
ANDREW YANG
Age: 44
Best known for: Entrepreneur who has generated buzz with his signature proposal for universal basic income to give every American $1,000 a month, no strings attached.
Biggest strength: Robust policy agenda, tech savvy.
Biggest weakness: Low name recognition, no political experience.
Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: A man uses phone under a Volkswagen logo at the Shanghai Auto Show, in Shanghai, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 25, 2019
By Yilei Sun and Norihiko Shirouzu
BEIJING (Reuters) – German automaker Volkswagen AG’s joint venture with China’s Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co (JAC) plans to invest 5.06 billion yuan ($750.8 million) in a new electric car factory in eastern Hefei city, according to local authorities.
A document posted online by the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Area on Monday showed that Volkswagen and JAC had obtained approval from environmental authorities to build a plant capable of producing 100,000 all-electric battery cars a year.
Volkswagen Group China on Thursday confirmed the numbers that had been included in previous official documents and said JAC-Volkswagen would launch its first model soon.
A spokesperson for the joint venture confirmed plans for the plant, saying the approval represented an “orderly advancement of the project”, and the venture’s first electric model, the E20X, will be launched this year.
GO GREEN
The German company, China’s largest foreign automaker with sales of 4.21 million cars on the mainland and Hong Kong in 2018, has pledged to ramp up production of zero-emission vehicles as part of its growth strategy in the country.
Volkswagen has said it plans to produce more than 22 million electric cars in the next 10 years, with over half of them built in China. It plans to launch 14 new energy vehicle models in China this year.
VW’s joint venture with JAC, approved in 2017, said last year it would launch a research and development center. It also planned to introduce the SEAT brand to China by 2020-2021.
Reuters reported this month that Volkswagen is in talks with South Korean battery maker SK Innovation to accelerate electric vehicle development.
China’s car market, the world’s largest, contracted for the first time last year since the 1990s. However, the new energy vehicle segment is still growing rapidly and NEV sales jumped 61.7 percent to 1.3 million units in 2018.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has said new energy vehicle sales could hit 1.6 million units this year.
Volkswagen has started building a $2.5 billion new energy vehicle plant in Shanghai with SAIC Motor Corp Ltd, which will make VW’s luxury Audi AG brand cars.
SAIC Volkswagen said the new plant would have an annual capacity to make 300,000 cars and begin production from 2020.
(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Darren Schuettler)
Source: OANN
Following months of anticipatory leaks and the ‘gropegate’ scandal that nearly derailed the former VP’s ambitions, Joe Biden, who has consistently polled at the top of the ever-expanding Democratic field, has finally announced his plans to seek the 2020 nomination.
In a video published via his twitter feed Thursday morning, the former vice president and Senator from Delaware declared his intention to run, declaring “the core values of this nation… our standing in the world… our very democracy…everything that has made America — America – is at stake.”
In the video, Biden framed his video with the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., – a “defining moment for our nation in the last few years” – where a counter-protester was killed after a member of a white supremacist group plowed into a crowd with his car. He contrasted the march with the writing of the ‘Declaration of Independence,’ which was penned by Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville more than 240 years earlier.
In the video, Biden. condemned Trump for assigning a “moral equivalency” between the neo-Nazi marchers and the people protesting them when he said there were ‘fine people on both sides’.
“In that moment, I knew the threat to our nation was bigger than anything we’ve seen in our lifetime. I believe our nation will look back on this president…as an abberant moment in our history. Our very democracy…is at stake.”
“America is an idea, an idea that is stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator on Earth…it instills in every person in this country the belief that in this country there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you work at it. We can’t forget what happened in Charlottesville, even more important we have to remember who we are.”
Before signing off, Biden warned that America can’t afford eight years of Donald Trump, saying it would ‘forever alter the character of the nation.’
“If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are. And I cannot stand by and watch that happen. The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that’s made America America is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”
Watch the video below:
The core values of this nation… our standing in the world… our very democracy…everything that has made America — America –is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. #Joe2020 https://t.co/jzaQbyTEz3
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2019
Biden will follow his announcement with a fundraiser on Thursday, then a rally Monday in Pittsburgh, Bloomberg reported, citing an announcement from his campaign. Over the next ten days, he plans to make stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the earliest primary and caucus states.
Though Biden’s eight-year stint as Obama’s VP gives him unrivaled name and brand recognition in a field of 20 candidates, Obama has said he won’t make an endorsement until a nominee has been chosen. Online betting odds still favor Biden, 76, as the front-runner for the nomination, though “Democratic Socialist” Bernie Sanders is a close second, followed by the ascendant South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Of course, Biden’s well-documented history of inappropriate touching isn’t his only major liability going into the Democratic primary (the Iowa caucuses are just 10 months away). The appearance of a quid-pro-quo involving Biden, his son, taxpayer money and a ‘sweetheart’ deal in Ukraine could very well become the scandal that finally proves his undoing.
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: A number of grounded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are shown parked at Victorville Airport in Victorville, California, U.S., March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
April 25, 2019
(Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co reported a 16 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday, saying a U.S. government shutdown, maintenance disruptions and the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX jets knocked $150 million off its bottom line.
Dallas, Texas-based Southwest, the world’s largest MAX operator with 34 jets in its fleet and dozens more on order, said it lost more than $200 million in revenue during the quarter, above its previous estimate of $150 million.
The No.4 U.S. airline has canceled thousands of flights since the 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in March following two fatal crashes, in addition to cancellations due to bad weather and unscheduled maintenance disruptions as it worked out a new labor contract with its mechanics union.
The low-cost carrier has removed the fuel-efficient, longer-range MAX from its flying schedule through Aug. 5 as it waits for Boeing Co to submit a software fix and new training guidelines to global regulators for review.
“Flight cancellations are expected to drive unit cost pressure for the duration of the MAX groundings,” Southwest Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned 70 cents per share in the first quarter, beating estimates of 61 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Total operating revenue at the airline, which launched a service to Hawaii from California last month, rose 4 percent to $5.15 billion.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Rachit Vats in Bangalore; Editing by Bill Rigby and Shounak Dasgupta)
Source: OANN
Lawmakers in Ohio are taking a stand against the sexualization of children by introducing new legislation that would ban drag shows and other sexually-suggestive or explicit performances from using minors.
Introduced by Republican state Rep. Tim Schaffer, House Bill 180 amends Ohio’s child endangerment statute to include involving minors in any material or performance that “suggests a minor is participating or engaging in sexual activity, masturbation, or bestiality.” Adults violating the law could face fines starting at $1,000 and six months in prison.
“Given our heightened focus on human trafficking and the role money plays in trafficking children, I knew I had to take action to make sure this activity does not occur again. We can do better to protect innocent children and we must do better,” Schaffer declared in a statement.
Cleveland.com reported that HB180 is motivated in part by a drag event last December at JD Hendersons, a Lancaster-area bar where 9-year-old drag performer Jacob Measley, a.k.a. “Miss Mae Hem” danced in a suggestive costume while accepting dollar bills from an audience (ostensibly for a charitable event).
On January 30, Lancaster Republican Mayor David Scheffler issued a statementdownplaying the incident by stressing that the “minor was fully clothed and was not touched by anyone in the audience,” that his parents were in attendance, that police found “no violations of city ordinances or state laws” and received “no new complaints of this activity” at the bar, and that the bar owners supposedly “did not approve” the activity and promptly banned the drag troupe upon learning about it.
In fact, Scheffler reserved most of his ire for the anonymous person who first publicized the incident by posting on Facebook a video to the “City of Lancaster” page. “I can only surmise that the ‘City of Lancaster’ Facebook poster hid behind the anonymity of the page because he/she knew that the scenario posted was a fabrication,” he complained. “There was no call to my office, LPD or JD Hendersons (I checked) to inquire as to the facts.”
In response, Republican state Senate candidate Melissa Ackison blasted Scheffler for “refus(ing) to condemn the performance,” and called for his resignation.
Jerri Measley told WTOL that she and her husband support their son’s participation in drag as an expression of his love of art, gymnastics, and dance. “What I am unwilling to do is compromise and not support the things my son wants to do,” she said. An August profile of Jacob in the Toledo Blade says the boy became interested in drag performances after watching RuPaul’s Drag Race with his mother. “Ninety-five percent of our friends are in the LGBTQ community and are drag queens,” his mother added.
Jerri says she’s outraged that her son’s performance is being cited as an example of child endangerment and insists he isn’t being sexualized. “I have altered everything so it is all past the knee,” she claimed. In fact, the Lancaster bar video shows the child in a much higher skirt exposing his thighs, and RuPaul’s Drag Race contains “frequent graphic sexual references,” according to the Internet Movie Database.
Further, the world of drag is infamous for its heavy sexual content, as are the stories of other child drag stars such as Nemis Quinn Mélançon Golden (a.k.a. “Lactatia”) and Desmond Napoles (a.k.a. “Desmond is Amazing”). Another trend, Drag Queen Storytimes directed at children in public libraries, have been described by performers themselves as intended to give children “unabashedly queer role models” and facilitate “the grooming of the next generation.”
HB180 has been referred to Ohio’s House Commerce and Labor Committee for further consideration.
Source: InfoWars
The Satanic Temple is the perfect religion for progressives.
You can believe anything you want, as long as you hate what Donald Trump, Christians and conservatives believe. Unlike the Church of Satan, the Satanic Temple doesn’t even believe in a supernatural entity called Satan. Instead, they celebrate Satan as “the ultimate rebel”, and they relish in using the symbol of Satan to greatly upset Christians. The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013, and from the very beginning it was clear that they were primarily a political movement. In fact, they openly tell prospective members that the only real requirement for joining is to believe “in the political and secular actions” of the group…
“If there’s a local chapter where you are, to join you do have to be accepted, but there’s no initiation or anything. You don’t even have to be a Satanist, you can just be a strong ally who believes in the political and secular actionswithout being super stoked about all the aesthetic aspects.”
Previously, Satanism in America had always been a shadowy underground movement, but the Satanic Temple has changed all that.
Instead of avoiding the public eye, they believe that their rebellion against conservatives and Christians “requires a level of political participation”…
‘Traditionally, Satanists practice very privately, closed doors, black candles, black metal music, but with the Satanic philosophy being where Satanism represents rebellion against arbitrary authority, we believe it requires a level of political participation. I think that we need to go into the public sphere and announce ourselves without shame.’
The organization grew rapidly after it was founded, but if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election that probably would have put a damper on their political activism.
But once Donald Trump won the election, interest in the group absolutely exploded…
“The Satanic Temple attracted ‘thousands’ of new members in just the first 36 hours after the election of Donald Trump,” the group reported. “The 4-year-old temple, which had a pre-Trump membership of around 50,000, has never before seen a spike in registration nearly this big.”
“We’re definitely a resistance movement,” spokesperson and co-founder Lucien Greaves said after a speech outside the University of Colorado Boulder. “We stand in stark opposition to this idea that we must unify under a single religious banner.”
Thanks to a favorable new documentary about the group, it is getting a lot of attention right now.
And even many leftists that have absolutely no intention of joining the Satanic Temple are saying very positive things about the organization. For example, the following comes from a Huffington Post article entitled “Satan Is Having A Moment”…
Satanists, it turns out, are everything you think they’re not: patriotic, charitable, ethical, equality-minded, dedicated to picking up litter with pitchforks on an Arizona highway.
That much is clear in the fantastic new documentary “Hail Satan?” — which chronicles the rise of the Satanic Temple, a movement that has little to do with its titular demon. Founded in 2013, the organization is equal parts modern-day religion, political activist coalition and meta cultural revolution. By reclaiming the pop iconography that has long frightened evangelical America ― devil worship, ritualistic sacrifice, horns, pentagrams, the so-called Black Mass ― the Satanic Temple aims to catch people’s attention and then surprise them with messages of free speech, compassion, liberty and justice for all.
Positive articles like that make members of the Satanic Temple sound like civic-minded do-gooders that just want to make a positive impact on society, but the truth is that they absolutely loathe everything that conservatives and Christians stand for.
They really hate President Trump, and they really, really hate Vice-President Pence. Just consider what one of the co-founders of the Satanic Temple recently said about Pence…
“[President Trump] is too stupid to predict; the guy has no concept of his own limitations. The thing that makes me most comfortable with Trump is the fact that he has no vision. Mike Pence really scares me,” Lucien Greaves told The Daily Beast in an interview published on Wednesday. “Pence has a clear, theocratic vision for the United States.”
And despite the fact that they claim that they “don’t worship Satan”, the group does celebrate the black mass, it does conduct Pentagram rituals, and it does seek to put statues of Baphomet up in prominent public locations.
As the group continues to grow, their national influence undoubtedly will as well.
Perhaps it is appropriate that the Satanic Temple has gained such prominence. In our society today, we are literally locked in a battle of good vs. evil for the future of our nation, and it seems quite fitting that Satan has become a key symbol for the other side.
To me, the Satanic Temple is more than just a little bit hypocritical. They claim to not believe in any supernatural entities, and yet they were just granted tax-exempt status “as a church” by the Internal Revenue Service…
The Satanic Temple has been officially recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, three months after taking Sundance by storm as the subject of the documentary “Hail Satan?” According to an announcement from “Hail Satan?” distributor Magnolia Pictures, the temple is now eligible for the tax-exempt status given to other religious institutions.
Either they are a “faith” or they are not.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that there is a lot more to the Satanic Temple than meets the eye.
Just like their hero, the leaders of the Satanic Temple appear to be experts in deception, and they are leading thousands upon thousands of people down a very dark path.
Source: InfoWars
Activists attend a rally to demand lawmakers vote for a law that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and introduces mandatory language requirements for public sector workers, in front of the parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine April 25, 2019. Banners reads (L-R) “Vote for the language law”, “Protect language, vote for the language law”, “Language is a weapon”, “Language is our security”. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
April 25, 2019
By Pavel Polityuk
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s parliament approved a law on Thursday that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and makes it mandatory for public sector workers, despite opposition from the country’s large Russian-speaking minority who feel it is discriminatory.
The move, which obliges all citizens to know the Ukrainian language and makes it a mandatory requirement for civil servants, soldiers, doctors, and teachers, was championed by outgoing President Petro Poroshenko who needs to sign it into law before it takes effect, something he is expected to do.
Language became a much more sensitive issue in Ukraine, where many people speak both Ukrainian and Russian fluently, after Russia annexed Crimea and backed a pro-Russian separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Poroshenko, who is due to step down soon after actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy trounced him at the ballot box on Sunday, put promotion of the Ukrainian language at the heart of his unsuccessful re-election campaign.
But Zelenskiy, who himself speaks Russian more frequently than Ukrainian, has said he wants to unite rather than divide the country and has said he has questions about the new law.
The new legislation requires TV and film distribution firms to ensure 90 percent of their content is in Ukrainian and for the proportion of Ukrainian-language printed media and books to be at least 50 percent.
Computer software must also have a Ukrainian-language interface although the law also allows the use of English or any other official language of the European Union.
Lawmakers cheered and rose to a standing ovation after the law was passed and sang the national anthem. Hundreds of people waving Ukrainian flags had gathered outside parliament to support the law.
“This is a historic moment, which Ukrainians have been waiting for centuries, because for centuries Ukrainians have tried to achieve the right to their own language,” one of the authors of the bill, Mykola Knyazhytsky, said before the vote.
The make-up of the parliament has not changed since Zelenskiy’s election win and remains dominated by a coalition supportive of Poroshenko.
Poroshenko had originally thought the language law would be approved before the election and would help boost his support, particularly in western regions where the Ukrainian language is predominantly used.
Its approval is potentially awkward for incoming president Zelenskiy, a comedian with no political experience.
Zelenskiy’s stance on the new law is unclear. He said during the campaign he’d do everything to protect and develop the Ukrainian language, but also that he had questions about the new legislation.
In 2012, clashes between riot police and protesters erupted in Kiev after Ukraine’s parliament approved a law that made Russian an official language.
Ukraine also has Romanian, Polish and Hungarian minorities that speak these languages. Last year, its relations with neighboring Hungary soured after parliament passed a law that banned teaching in minority languages beyond primary school level.
A survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology showed that the Ukrainian language is used by 32.4 percent of Ukrainian families, while Russian is used by 15.8 percent. About a quarter of Ukrainians use both languages.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Matthias Williams and Raissa Kasolowsky)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A trader is reflected in a computer screen displaying the Spotify brand before the company begins selling as a direct listing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
April 25, 2019
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Music streaming service Spotify Technology SA said it will remove all songs belonging to one of India’s oldest record labels from its app after they failed to agree on licensing terms, months after the Swedish company’s launch in the country.
According to a court document, Saregama India Ltd filed a petition with the Delhi High Court seeking an injunction against Spotify to stop it from using its songs.
The move comes two months after Spotify launched in India, a price sensitive market already crowded by well-funded local players like JioSaavn and Apple Music.
According to the court document dated April 23, Spotify’s senior counsel said the streaming service would remove all Saregama songs from its app within 10 days.
Spotify said last month it had more than 1 million unique users in India across its free and premium categories within a week of its launch. The company offers a free version supported by ads and a premium ad-free variant that charges users 119 rupees ($1.68) per month.
Spotify declined to comment, while Saregama did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an electronic board showing the benchmark Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes, on a pedestrian overpass at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, China June 22, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 25, 2019
By Samuel Shen and Julie Zhu
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – As Chinese investment banker Liu Guangfu prepares to file an application for his client to list on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style technology board, he is heading into uncharted waters: how to price the new shares and sell them to the right investors.
Until now, guidance set by Chinese regulators on the pricing of initial public offerings (IPO) has led to artificially depressed valuations, making it easy for bankers to find investors.
“Selling IPO shares was easy before,” said Liu, whose client, a maker of high-end equipment, is seeking an IPO on Shanghai’s new Science & Technology Innovation board, which is due to launch as early as June.
“Now, you need to find interested investors and talk about the future of the company, and the industry. It’s time-consuming and costly.”
Liu and other Chinese bankers are entering a new world as Shanghai launches its new board, complete with the country’s first registration-based IPO system that is seen by some as the boldest reform yet in China’s capital markets.
The pilot project, likely to be expanded if it proves successful, is making China’s bankers nervous though, as they are more used to the paternalistic guidance of regulators than the debates – often contentious – between executives, bankers and investors that form the basis for deals priced in leading IPO centres such as Hong Kong and New York.
“It’s a huge challenge to us,” said Chang Houshun, managing director at Sinolink Securities in Shanghai, who described previous IPO underwriting efforts as “mechanical”.
The reforms will do away with government control of IPO quality and timing, and allow still loss-making new company start-ups to list.
It will also end the unofficial, but always observed, pricing cap of 23 times a company’s trailing profits – a ceiling that tended to ensure new floats a hefty 44 percent jump on debut, the maximum allowed.
Without government guidance, Chinese bankers, like their western peers, have to set IPO prices that reflect a company’s growth potential and risks, as well as the market mood and issuers’ expectations.
The seismic rule change will likely accelerate market consolidation and weed out weak players, Chang said: “You will see China’s Goldman, Citi and JP Morgan emerge. Apart from several dominant players, not many will be left.”
BASIC SKILLS
That fear and a desire to win new business has triggered a scramble among Chinese brokerages to hone their skills.
Many are replenishing their capital since the new market – unlike Hong Kong or New York – requires underwriters to share the risk and subscribe for between 2 percent and 5 percent of each IPO they sponsor on the new board.
Underwriters must then hold the stake for at least two years.
At least one brokerage, Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co Ltd, has reorganised its investment bankers into industry teams to try to develop specialist knowledge in sectors including technology and healthcare – skills not needed before. The company is also raising funds via a $1.16 billion listing in Hong Kong.
“We’re moving toward the structure of a global investment bank,” said Tu Zhengfeng, managing director of Shenwan Hongyuan’s underwriting unit.
“It’s increasingly important to identify a company’s intrinsic value, and you need expertise to do that.”
The brokerage is also building its distribution capacity, which was redundant when IPO shares were almost always hotly sought after by investors as pricing favoured a strong market debut.
Roadshows – a staple of western deals, where executives meet would-be investors – have long been considered formalities in Chinese IPOs.
“Now, you need to tell investors a company’s story well – investment highlights, why it’s worth buying, and how prices are set,” said Tu.
Zhao Jun, investment banker at China Securities Co Ltd, said bankers also need a stronger network of contacts to source IPO candidates, especially in the tech sector.
“Now, we need to consult with industry experts, work closely with our analysts, and even communicate with some investors who can help us understand the technology,” Zhao said.
ANXIETY
Peng Yigang, a senior executive at Shanghai Stock Exchange’s listing department, said there was a general feeling of anxiety among applicants and bankers.
“Many people come to us, asking for an answer (regarding their IPO applications). I said, sorry, we cannot give you an answer. Under the registration system, regulators no longer give you any answers. The market will decide,” he told a recent seminar.
Nearly 100 companies have submitted applications to list on the tech board.
To be sure, many bankers are sceptical that regulators will give up providing guidance completely, at least during the early stage, when demand will likely far exceed supply, potentially lifting valuations to extreme levels and raising the risk of a frothy market.
Previous attempts to help start-ups to list, such has Shenzhen-based Chinext, have largely foundered because early speculation sent prices soaring, only to later collapse spectacularly, souring investor sentiment to a point from which it never recovered.
Indeed, Hu Ruyin, former chief economist of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said the broader opening up of financial markets in China posed a significant threat to the industry because it has had little experience pricing risks.
“Before you swim in the sea, you must learn how to swim in the pool. Otherwise, you would be drowned.”
(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Julie Zhu; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Neil Fullick)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A group of Afghan migrants walk along a main road after crossing the Turkey-Iran border near Dogubayazit, Agri province, eastern Turkey, April 11, 2018. Afghans who previously found jobs in Iran are also returning to Afghanistan in large numbers due to Iran’s sharp economic downturn. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
April 25, 2019
By Babak Dehghanpisheh and Hamid Shalizi
GENEVA/KABUL (Reuters) – Abdul Saboor escaped poverty and instability in Afghanistan three years ago with his wife and three children and found work in neighboring Iran. Now he has returned home, despite the fact that life there has not improved.
His job at a grocery store in the central Iranian city of Isfahan brought in about 280 dollars a month, enough to support his family. But the Iranian rial took a dive last year and his employer cut his wages to less than 100 dollars a month.
“The economic situation in Iran is really bad,” said the 28-year-old. “Wages have gone down since last year and a lot of families had to return to Afghanistan.”
Afghans began moving to Iran in large numbers after the Soviet invasion in 1979 and they continued to migrate for work through decades of conflict, sending money to relatives back home that helped bolster Afghanistan’s struggling economy.
In 2017, there were approximately 2.5 million to 3 million Afghans in Iran, according to Iranian government estimates cited by the United Nations.
That number could be cut in half by the end of this year. More than 770,000 Afghans left Iran last year as the currency faltered and an extra 570,000 are expected to go this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in January.
Iran’s economy has been squeezed since President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran last year after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
U.S. officials have said the sanctions are intended to pressure Iran to negotiate over what they say are its aggressive missile program and regional policy; critics say they hurt ordinary people and entrench hardline rulers.
The rial lost approximately 70 percent of its value last year before recovering slightly, disrupting Iran’s foreign trade and helping boost annual inflation fourfold to nearly 40 percent in November. Currency fluctuations and the unstable economy have led to sporadic street protests since late 2017.
An IOM report in January noted that a big jump in the number of Afghans returning from Iran last year was “largely driven by recent political and economic issues in Iran including massive currency devaluation”.
Afghans typically took harsh, labor-intensive jobs in Iran and their departure will mean higher production costs, said Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran-based economist and political analyst.
UNDER PRESSURE
Over the past year, many Afghans in Iran have sought advice about returning from the office of Grand Ayatollah Mohaghegh Kabuli – a senior Afghan religious leader based in the holy city of Qom, according to an administrator in the office who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.
“With the crash of the value of the rial, staying in Iran has become very difficult for Afghan migrants,” he said. “They are under pressure.”
Naim, 18, followed the path of two of his older brothers and came to Iran from Afghanistan when he was only ten years old but quickly managed to find work in construction in Tehran.
The work was backbreaking and his family faced hardship: one brother lost four fingers in a construction accident in Tehran.
But he persevered, because he could make more money than at home, and eventually got a job as a doorman at a multi-story apartment complex in Tehran.
Last year, as the economic situation in Iran began to deteriorate, one of his older brothers decided he could no longer support his wife and six children and moved back to Herat in western Afghanistan.
“My brother’s wife and children were hungry and this currency has no value so they went back,” Naim said.
His brother started working in agriculture and has been able to open a small shop in Herat with his earnings. He is now pushing Naim to come home from Iran, a trip that he and approximately 150 friends and extended family are planning to take in two months.
“We work and we work and for what?” Naim said. “We have to go back.”
He could face an uncertain future once he returns.
“The economic opportunities in Afghanistan are no longer there. It’s not like there’s a lack of opportunities in Iran and new opportunities in Afghanistan,” said Sarah Craggs, IOM’s senior program coordinator for Afghanistan, who is based in Kabul. “There are no opportunities in either country really.”
Afghans have long sought better lives in other countries and a lack of jobs in Iran could also boost numbers trying to head further west to Europe.
The latest drop in remittances from Iran is already having an impact on the economies of the Afghan provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghor, an IOM report said in January.
Abdul Saboor now earns about 130 dollars a month working at a restaurant in Herat.
“Life was much better in Iran but since the financial crisis, it was difficult to survive so we had to come back despite all the hardship here,” he said. “I was the lucky one and found a job while thousands of others are jobless.”
(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh in Geneva and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; additional reporting by Storay Karimi in Herat; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Source: OANN
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