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The Mobius II first generation SUV by Kenyan car maker Mobius Motors is seen in the company's show room in Nairobi
The Mobius II first generation SUV by Kenyan car maker Mobius Motors is seen in the company’s show room in Nairobi, Kenya March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

April 12, 2019

By Joe Bavier, Emma Rumney and Duncan Miriri

JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) – At the edge of Nairobi’s Ngong Forest, thousands of used cars glitter in the hot sun on a dusty field, waiting for buyers.

Imported from Japan or the Middle East, they offer an affordable route to vehicle ownership in Kenya and have dominated the market for decades.

That is an obstacle big carmakers must overcome if they are to crack Africa, a market promising rapid growth as trade tensions threaten sales elsewhere. African consumers also still need conventional engines just as demand in more traditional markets is curbed by restrictions on carbon emissions.

Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Nissan and others have joined forces to lobby governments for steps that would reduce the imports that have made sub-Saharan Africa notoriously difficult terrain and allow local production to flourish.

“The question on Africa isn’t, ‘Is it a market of the future?’” Mike Whitfield, Nissan’s top executive for Africa, told Reuters. “It’s a case of when.”

Four years after forming the Association of African Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) their efforts are starting to bear fruit. Carmakers that set up local assembly plants could get tax holidays of up to 10 years and duty exemptions in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, according to government plans seen by Reuters.

Thomas Schaefer, who heads Volkswagen’s Africa business, said there is a potential market in sub-Saharan Africa for 3 to 4 million new cars, up from just 420,000 in 2017.

But that will require addressing the well-entrenched interests of second-hand car dealers, smugglers and lowering the price of new cars.

“It will largely depend on how successful the African governments are in limiting the amounts of second-hand imports and how price-competitive new vehicles can be with their tariffs,” said Craig Parker, Africa research director at Frost & Sullivan, a U.S.-based market research firm.

MULTIPLYING EFFECTS

Africa’s population and household incomes are rising rapidly. But its 1 billion inhabitants account for only 1 percent of the world’s new passenger car sales, industry data shows. South Africans bought over 85 percent of those vehicles.

The AAAM identified Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana as potential manufacturing hubs and helped draft legislation setting up standards and incentives.

Details of governments’ plans provided to Reuters demonstrate that African nations are keen to secure a spot as a beachhead for the industry.

Nigeria and Ghana are preparing to offer automakers tax holidays of up to 10 years and duty-free imports of parts and components used in local assembly. Nigeria also plans to double the levy on new, fully-built imported vehicles to 70 percent to boost demand for locally produced cars, though the policy’s approval has been delayed.

In Kenya, automakers will pay no import or excise duties and get a 50-percent corporate tax break.

For African nations facing massive demographic pressures, such concessions make sense if they create jobs, said Jelani Aliyu, of Nigeria’s National Automotive Design and Development Council.

“The multiplying effects are exponential,” said Aliyu, who foresees supporting industries developing around the plants.

Legislative and fiscal frameworks are being finalised, but companies are already investing millions of dollars in new plants.

VW and Nissan have set up operations in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana or have pledged to do so. Honda and Peugeot have launched assembly plants in Nigeria, and Peugeot has done the same in Kenya.

Carmakers sorely need the business. Their South African divisions, which typically direct operations elsewhere on the continent, face stagnating domestic sales and scant growth prospects in their main export market, Europe. A chaotic Brexit or U.S. tariff hikes could further dampen sales.

Toyota South Africa’s chief executive Andrew Kirby said the strategy is: “Focus on Africa because Africa is going to grow significantly.”

A pivot to Africa could also help insulate automakers from the immediate effects of the electric vehicle revolution. The continent is ill-placed to join it at the moment due to the higher prices of EVs and unreliable power grids.

Just 66 electric cars were sold last year in South Africa – the continent’s most developed economy.

“Africa will most likely remain as the last bastion of internal combustion engines,” Parker said.

DISTORTED MARKET

Nevertheless, industry officials say the biggest hurdle to developing the market for new cars is dumping from countries such as Japan, where strict vehicle inspections force cars out of circulation after just a few years.

They say this distorts the market by allowing dealers to buy the cars at scrap prices and export them to Africa.

They blame the cheap imports for killing off assembly sectors in a number of African countries including Nigeria, which built around 150,000 cars per year until the 1980s.

Political will is needed to change that, and without it there is little point in considering a country for local production, according to VW’s Schaefer.

“The markets … are literally not functioning right now due to importation of used vehicles,” he said.

In Kenya, the government plans to wind down imports of cars more than three years old by 2021. Exceptions will be made for passenger vehicles with 1.5 liter or smaller engines.

The policy could see mid-range imported models double in price, according to the 300-member Kenya Auto Bazaar Association (KABA). The lobby group has taken out ads in local newspapers denouncing the policy and is demanding a meeting with Kenya’s president.

Mark Oburu, KABA’s vice-chairman, said the move would hit an industry that delivers 85 percent of Kenyan car purchases.

“The middle class will not be able to own a vehicle of their choice,” he said.

In the Nairobi bazaar, Grace was shopping for her eldest son’s first car. She said she could not afford to buy a new one.

“If they don’t rescind that decision, we will be on boda bodas (motor-bikes).”

Both Ghana and Nigeria have also pledged to tackle the issue. Nigeria hiked taxes on imported used cars in 2014, but smuggling has undermined that effort to boost demand for local production, according to manufacturers and government officials.

Used cars are also among the leading imports in many African countries, and governments will have to wean themselves off the associated tax revenues.

There are other stumbling blocks: access to financing is limited, and countries that don’t host assembly plants must also be persuaded to limit used imports and reduce tariffs on African-made vehicles. That will be hard to do if the only outcome they see is higher sticker prices.

“The purpose is not to take the most lucrative slice of the industry,” said Ghana’s minister of trade and industry, Alan Kyerematen, suggesting that neighbors could produce components for his country’s assembly plants.

Auto executives acknowledge the challenges but point to a famous precedent. When VW and GM entered China in the 1980s and 90s, vehicle ownership rates were lower than in many African markets. Today, those two companies alone sell over 3.5 million vehicles annually in China.

“Everybody was laughing, saying China doesn’t need cars, they only need bicycles,” Schaefer said.

(Joe Bavier and Emma Rumney reported in Johannesburg and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Additional reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana in Kigali and Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Anna Willard)

Source: OANN

A Honda Li Nian EV concept car is displayed during a media preview of the Auto China 2018 motor show in Beijing
A Honda Li Nian EV concept car is displayed during a media preview of the Auto China 2018 motor show in Beijing, China April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 12, 2019

WUHAN, China (Reuters) – Honda’s sales in China are likely to catch up with its sales in the United States within two to three years and the firm would like them to eventually overtake U.S. sales, the company’s chief executive said on Friday.

Takahiro Hachigo made the comments to a small group of reporters after the official opening of a new plant in Wuhan.

Hachigo said that the catch-up could happen “soon”, later clarifying to Reuters that he was referring to a two-to-three-year time period.

“We would like China sales to overtake the U.S.,” he said, adding that the company did not expect U.S. sales to increase significantly.

Honda’s manufacturing capacity in China could be expanded if necessary, he added.

Honda last year sold roughly 1.7 million vehicles in the United States and 1.4 million in China.

(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu in Wuhan; writing by Yilei Sun in Shanghai; editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind a pump-jack outside Saint-Fiacre
FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind an oil pump outside Saint-Fiacre, near Paris, France March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

April 12, 2019

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices were firm on Friday, supported by ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and by U.S. sanctions on petroleum exporters Iran and Venezuela.

International Brent crude oil futures were at $71.01 per barrel at 0042 GMT, up 18 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.78 per barrel, up 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their previous settlement.

“We see Brent and WTI prices averaging $75 per barrel and $67 per barrel respectively through the rest of this year, but risk is asymmetrically skewed to the upside,” RBC Capital Markets said in a note.

“Geopolitically infused rallies could shoot prices toward or even past the $80 per barrel mark for intermittent periods this summer,” the Canadian bank said.

Oil markets have been pushed up by more than a third this year by supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), U.S. sanctions on oil exporters Iran and Venezuela, and escalating fighting in Libya.

Production in Venezuela has been plunging as the U.S. sanctions add to a deep economic and political crisis, while the U.S. government is expected to tighten oil sanctions against Iran in May.

“Electrical outages added a further hurdle to Venezuelan production, which fell by 290,000 barrels per day in March to 732,000 barrels per day. Iranian production was stable at 2.7 million barrels per day, (but) could take a further hit if the U.S. cuts import waivers in May,” said Jefferies bank on Friday.

OPEC and its allies will meet in June to decide whether to continue withholding supply, and while OPEC’s de-facto leader, Saudi Arabia, is seen to be keen to continue cutting, sources with the group said it may raise output from July if disruptions elsewhere continue.

On the demand side, most of the world’s growth in fuel consumption is coming from Asia.

“China and India comprise nearly 55 percent of global demand growth. Throw in the rest of emerging Asia and the figure balloons to 80 percent,” said RBC Capital Markets.

“While macro fears of an economic hard landing may be overblown, the concentration risk of global oil demand remains under appreciated,” it added.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford)

Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: A building of the Geely Auto Research Institute is seen in Ningbo
FILE PHOTO: A building of the Geely Auto Research Institute is seen in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

April 11, 2019

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Geely, China’s highest profile car maker with investments in Volvo and Daimler, launched a premium all-electric car brand “Geometry” on Thursday as it pushes ahead with its plans to boost production of new energy vehicles.

The move comes as automakers race to develop vehicles powered by means other than petrol to meet an expected rise in demand as the world’s top car market enforces official production quotas designed to reduce smog.

Geometry will take overseas orders but will mainly focus on the Chinese market and will launch more than 10 pure electric models in multiple segments by 2025, Geely said in a statement on Thursday.

The company added it had already received more than 26,000 orders globally for its first model, the Geometry A. The longer-range version of the model has an ability to travel up to 500 kilometers (310.69 miles) on a single charge, Geely said.

Geely launched Geometry at an event in Singapore and said the city-state would eventually become a target market.

“The launch of Geometry and its first product advances Geely’s strategic goal of becoming one of world top 10 automotive groups,” An Conghui, president of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said in the statement.

Geely set up a new joint venture with Germany’s Daimler just last month to build the next generation of Smart electric cars in China. Smart is Daimler’s small-car brand.

Geely is also developing new energy commercial vehicles like pickup trucks at another unit, Yuan Cheng Auto.

China has been a keen supporter of new energy vehicles (NEV) including pure battery electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid technologies, and started implementing NEV sales quota requirements for automakers.

According to a Reuters report, global automakers are planning a $300 billion surge in spending on electric vehicle technology over the next five to 10 years, with nearly half of the money targeted at China.

Geely posted sales growth of 20 percent in 2018. However, it is forecasting largely steady sales this year as the country’s giant auto market struggles with slowing economic growth and more cautious consumers. Last year, the overall market contracted for the first time since the 1990s.

The Chinese carmaker bought Volvo Cars in 2010 from Ford Motor Co in what was China’s biggest acquisition of a foreign car maker at the time.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

Shanti Ramchand, a candidate for the next parliamentary election from Nasdem (National Democratic) party, takes a selfie with her supporters during her campaign trail at a hutment area south of Jakarta
Shanti Ramchand, a candidate for the next parliamentary election from Nasdem (National Democratic) party, takes a selfie with her supporters during her campaign trail at a hutment area south of Jakarta, Indonesia, March 14, 2019. Picture taken March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

April 11, 2019

By Tom Allard and Jessica Damiana

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Shanti Ramchand learned quickly what was expected when she began campaigning in Jakarta for Indonesia’s national parliament – distribute envelopes of cash at a small campaign event, and gift a motorcycle or an airconditioning unit to the community leader.

Ramchand, an aspiring politician from the National Democrat Party, part of President Joko Widodo’s coalition, is trying a novel approach to getting elected. She is not only eschewing the cash and gifts that are traditionally given out on the campaign trail, but making it the centerpiece of her pitch to voters.

Indonesia – the world’s third-largest democracy – has some of the worst money politics in Southeast Asia, according to researchers. Handouts of cash and gifts, anti-graft advocates and politicians say, lead to rampant corruption in its national legislature as successful candidates recoup their election expenses, and more, once elected.

Envelopes, usually stuffed with cash ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 rupiah ($1.42 to $7.08), are commonly doled out to voters. These are small amounts, but the overall cost can be huge over a six month campaign.

Earlier this month, Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) seized six storage chests in a concealed basement owned by Bowo Sidik Pangarso, a parliamentarian seeking re-election from the Golkar Party, another party in Widodo’s ruling coalition. The chests contained 400,000 envelopes each believed to contain 20,000 rupiah – a total of 8 billion rupiah or over $566,000.

Bowo, who has been detained but not formally charged, told reporters last week after leaving an interview with the anti-corruption body that the envelopes were for the national parliament election, not the presidential election, both due on April 17.

While illegal, politicians and analysts say it is relatively rare to see prosecutions for election-time bribery.

Two politicians from the National Mandate Party, part of the opposition coalition headed by former general Prabowo Subianto, were sentenced to three months in prison in December for distributing coupons for the Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca to voters. They will not be disqualified from running for office again.

In 2017, the then speaker of the national parliament Setya Novanto was arrested for orchestrating a scheme to plunder $173 million from a government contract for a national electronic identity card.

The KPK alleged most of the money was to be funneled to up to 60 lawmakers. Novanto was sentenced to 15 years in prison, underscoring why Indonesia’s national parliament rates as among the most corrupt institutions in the country in surveys.

“KLEPTOCRACY”

In a south Jakarta neighborhood, Ramchand is working the courtyard crowd, engaging in some questions and answers as she tries to convince constituents to vote for her.

“We don’t choose the envelope, right?,” she says, receiving scattered approval from the crowd of about 40 congregating in a shady courtyard to ward off the mid-afternoon sun.

“That’s right. Check the background of the candidate. Ask them about their programs. Your voice can’t be bought.”

In an interview, Ramchand said at three out of ten planned appearances, community leaders would demand gratuities to allow her to talk to the voters in her South Jakarta electorate.

“Sometimes people bluntly ask for money. Others ask for air conditioning units or a motorbike,” she told Reuters.

Ramchand, a policy consultant to corporations and governments who has lived overseas for most of the past decade, showed Reuters WhatsApp messages sent to her by village chiefs and officials from religious organizations demanding money to let her speak at gatherings.

Reuters could not independently verify the messages.

Ramchand said she has also declined to pay the usual political “dowry” required by political parties to endorse candidates.

The going rate for a serious run for one of 560 seats in the national legislature is about 10 billion rupiah, or $708,000, according to the former deputy chief of the KPK, Busyro Muqoddas.

“We live in a kleptocracy, not a democracy,” said Busyro.

A spokesman for the campaign team of Widodo, Ace Hasan Syadzily, said his own party, Golkar, does not demand a political dowry but conceded “vote buying does happen”. The president was against money politics, he added.

A spokesman for the opposition coalition led by Prabowo, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, declined to comment on whether candidates had to pay parties to be endorsed.

“The cost of running for political office is expensive and can potentially be the cause of corruption,” he said. “We are pushing for political parties to be funded by the state and, if they are corrupt, they should be disbanded.”

DAWN ATTACK

Ramchand said she was met with broad scepticism that her campaign strategy could work.

She admits that she has had to cancel many events.

A poll of voters in three Jakarta constituencies by the Charta Politika agency in January found support for cash and other gratuities at 58.2 percent, 47 percent and 42.6 per cent.

Edward Aspinall, a professor at Australian National University who has researched money politics across Southeast Asia, said the practice of cash handouts is deeply entrenched in Indonesia.

“It’s more common in Indonesia than elsewhere in Southeast Asia,” he told Reuters.

He blamed the deterioration on the introduction of the “open list” electoral system in 2009 where voters choose candidates, rather than a party, and it is the candidates who bear most of the costs of the campaigns.

“The incentive is for individual candidates to maximize their personal vote,” he said. “Very often they do this with money. How else can you differentiate yourself from rivals from the same party when you have the same policies?”

Cash-for-votes reaches its peak during the “dawn attack”, the morning of the election when candidates blitz voters.

“It’s high drama at the last minute,” said Aspinall. “Candidates see this is really inefficient and ineffective but the feel if they don’t do it, they won’t stand a chance.”

Ramchand, for her part, says: “I’ll be sleeping in.”

(Additional reporting by Tabita Diela; Editing by Ed Davies and)

Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind a pump-jack outside Saint-Fiacre
FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind an oil pump outside Saint-Fiacre, near Paris, France March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Thursday after U.S. crude stockpiles surged to their highest levels in almost 17 months amid record production.

International benchmark Brent futures were at $71.57 per barrel at 0056 GMT, down 16 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $64.36 per barrel, down 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their previous settlement.

U.S. crude inventories rose 7 million barrels to 456.6 million barrels in the last week, their highest since November 2017, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

U.S. crude oil production remained at a record 12.2 million barrels per day (bpd), making the United States the world’s biggest oil producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Graphic: U.S. oil production, storage & drilling levels, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2HWNIqK

Despite this growth in U.S. supply, global oil markets remain tight amid supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), U.S. sanctions on oil exporters Iran and Venezuela, and escalating fighting in Libya.

As a result, Brent and WTI have risen by around 30 and 40 percent respectively since the start of the year.

Venezuela’s oil output sank to a new long-term low last month due to U.S. sanctions and blackouts, with production plunging to 960,000 bpd in March, a drop of almost 500,000 bpd from February.

“Pressure to global supplies continues to mount because of sanctions-linked problems in Iran and Venezuela and rising geopolitical risk in Libya,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading at SPI Asset Management.

Beyond the short-term outlook for oil markets, a lot of attention is on the future of demand amid the rise of alternative fuels for transport.

“We believe global demand has another 10 million barrels bpd of growth, with over half from China,” Bernstein Energy said in a note on Thursday.

Current oil demand stands around 100 million bpd.

Bernstein said it expected oil demand to peak around 2030, but added that “we expect a long plateau rather than a sharp decline” in consumption after that.

“While no industry lasts forever, the age of oil is far from over,” Bernstein said.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford)

Source: OANN

Imagine a dystopian science-fiction future where hospital ventilation systems are pumping out a deadly superbug, right into the open atmosphere, where winds carry it to local communities and farms, infecting crops and foods with chemical-resistant fungal strains that have a reported 41% – 88% fatality rate in humans.

And imagine the CDC knew about it, but refused to tell you which hospitals were infected. Local hospitals hid the fact that their own hospital rooms and intensive care units were being overrun with this fatal fungi, and that all the world’s epidemiological experts had no idea where the pathogen had come from or how to stop it.

But they all kept it a secret, because they didn’t want to “alarm” the public. And they sure didn’t want hospitals to be seen as hubs of superbug infections.

Well, imagine no more. This is real. It’s happening right now. And this pandemic has been silently spreading over the last four years, with virtually zero media reports, very little information from the CDC, and a coordinated cover-up by the hospitals of the western world to keep patients in the dark while they’re being infected and killed by a deadly pathogen.

This is the true story of Candida auris, a superbug fungal strain that has emerged from the widespread use of chemical fungicides in agriculture. In this extended Natural News report — initially based on a New York Times report but significantly expanded — you will learn why this silent pandemic has already invaded America’s hospitals and why it cannot be stopped using any known medical defense. It may already be too late for the planet. By abusing agricultural chemicals, humanity has given rise to a superbug that could, under the right conditions, kill a billion people and collapse the entire western medical system.

And you may already be “colonized” by this fungus, serving as a carrier who will infect others in your own family and community.

How did this happen? Understanding Candida auris

According to a bombshell New York Times investigation — yes, even the New York Times occasionally commits acts of real journalism — this pandemic has already found its way into some of the largest hospitals in New York, Chicago and London. The superbug fungus has spread to nursing homes and is carried from patient to patient by health care workers. It grows on IV lines and ventilators, and it infects hospital gowns and clothing. Aggressive sterilization efforts using aerosolized hydrogen peroxide do nothing to kill this fungus, and the cover-up continues, even as rates of infections and fatalities are exploding across the western world.

The fungus is called Candida auris, or C. auris for short. It’s called Auris because it was originally discovered to be living in a woman’s ear in Japan. But now, it has spread to every continent, and its rise has only been made worse by a coordinated cover-up by the CDC, hospitals and the corrupt medical industry that places its own profits over the safety of the public. If there were a vaccine for Candida auris, these infections would be front page news across the globe, and journalists would be screaming at everyone to get injected with the vaccine. But since the medical establishment has no treatment whatsoever for this deadly pathogen, they’ve conspired to cover it up.

This Natural News report aims to explain how this happening and how the science lies of the chemical agricultural giants have now put the entire human race at risk from this exploding superbug pathogen.

To understand how we got here, we have to go back a few years and take a closer look at fungi that grow naturally in crop soils.

The mass chemical contamination of farm soils in the name of “crop yields”

Soil is a complex living ecosystem, and soils naturally harbor an astonishing array of microbiology, including bacteria, fungi and viruses. In healthy soils, the most dangerous organisms are crowded out by good organisms. This survival competition keeps the really nasty bugs in check, preventing them from expanding their colonies and gaining ground.

But modern farming relies heavily on chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. These chemicals, which are routinely sprayed on food crops, demonstrate selective chemical toxicity that kills some organisms but leaves others untouched. Even worse, some strains develop resistance to agricultural chemicals through a process of adaptation and microbiological natural selection. This leads to the rise of so-called superbugs. (See Superbugs.news for more reports.)

“Superbugs” is a generic term that can apply to insects that develop chemical resistance, or it can describe microbes and even fungi that develop resistance to chemicals that would otherwise kill them. Any organism that survives the onslaught of toxic chemicals and develops a physiological survival mechanism to nullify or eliminate those chemicals will suddenly find itself able to grow and spread at a ferocious rate. That’s because its competition has been wiped out by the agricultural poisons such as fungicides. So as farmers sprayed fungicides on virtually every vegetable and fruit crop in existence, this practice led to the inevitable rise of a superstrain of Candida auris, which now finds itself able to replicate and spread in ways that never could have been possible when all the other fungi were competing for the same resources.

Killing off the “good” fungi, in other words, allowed the really dangerous fungal strains to succeed like never before. And the more chemicals are sprayed on food crops, the more dangerous the pathogens become. This is all caused by human intervention via chemical agriculture — an artificial way to produce food for the masses.

Millions of tons of fungicides are sprayed on food crops every year in the United States alone

By 2023, it is estimated that annual expenditures on fungicides will reach $21 billion worldwide. In 2016, an average of 4.26 pounds of fungicide chemicals were applied per acre in the United States, and one of the largest classes of fungicide chemicals is called “azole fungicides.”

Azole fungicides now account for one third of global sales of fungicides, and various derivatives of azoles are heavily applied to crops every day, all over the world, including triazoles and benzimidazoles. These chemicals end up not merely in our food, but in agricultural runoff, eventually contaminating water supplies, rivers and even oceans. Over time, as these azole chemicals were repeatedly applied to food crops year after year, Candida auris developed robust immunity to these chemicals, enabling the fungus to survive on food crops due to the fact that it now had no competition, since most other fungi strains were killed by the chemicals.

So crops harvested from food fields carried this fungus to food markets and grocery stores. There, consumers purchased the products and prepared them at home, touching those fruits and vegetables with their bare hands and transferring the fungal colonies to their homes, their clothing and other family members. Almost instantly, Candida aurisspread from foods to home environments, persisting in damp kitchens, dark drawers and closets, effectively colonizing humans who then carried it to other humans.

From here, it was only a matter of time before C. auris found its way to hospitals, nursing homes, surgical centers and retirement centers. Today, C. auris is no doubt colonizing children in day care centers; co-workers in office environments; friends at social gatherings and family members at holiday events.

Everything in hospital rooms is infected: The bed rails, window shades, curtains, doors, bed and even the ceiling

When a man died at Mount Sinai hospital in Brooklyn after being infected with C. auris, his hospital room was tested for the pathogen, reports the New York Times:

“Everything was positive — the walls, the bed, the doors, the curtains, the phones, the sink, the whiteboard, the poles, the pump,” said Dr. Scott Lorin, the hospital’s president. “The mattress, the bed rails, the canister holes, the window shades, the ceiling, everything in the room was positive.”

The fungus preys on those with weakened immune systems, including infants and the elderly. Its symptoms include extreme fatigue, and in certain immune-weakened populations, it has so far been observed to kill 41% of those it infects. (See below for more statistics showing an even higher fatality rate.)

People with strong immune systems are apparently able to fight off the effects of the fungus, but even if they show no symptoms, they may be carriers of the strain, infecting others who may suffer from weakened immune function. This includes infants and seniors, but can also impact those who have caught a cold or a flu, or even people who have endured an extremely strenuous workout at the gym, placing themselves in an immunosuppressed condition for 2-3 days. “[T]hey are most lethal to people with immature or compromised immune systems, including newborns and the elderly, smokers, diabetics and people with autoimmune disorders who take steroids that suppress the body’s defenses,” the NYT explains.

It is self-evidence that C. auris will also attack those who are taking antibiotics, as their own personal gut flora are wiped out by the antibiotic drugs in exactly the same way that friendly fungi are wiped out across crop fields by azole fungicide chemicals. Thus, the people who undergo surgical procedures at hospitals and are routinely given antibiotics as part of the treatment are also being kept in the very same hospital rooms where Candida auris is increasingly festering.

This combination is a public health catastrophe waiting to happen. Hospitals have now become colonization centers where humans are exposed to deadly fungi. Hospitals, in a very real sense, are spreading the pandemic. Again, from the NYT:

[T]he germs are easily spread — carried on hands and equipment inside hospitals; ferried on meat and manure-fertilized vegetables from farms; transported across borders by travelers and on exports and imports; and transferred by patients from nursing home to hospital and back.

Five warnings from the CDC’s fungal expert, Dr. Tom Chiller

The CDC’s own chief of its fungal research division, Dr. Tom Chiller, warns about Candida auris, “behaving in unexpected and concerning ways, causing severe disease in countries across the globe, including the United States.” In a Medscape article published in 2017, Dr. Chiller lays out some facts about Candida auris that even the New York Times decided not to report. Via Dr. Chiller’s warning: (my comments are added in parenthesis)

Warning #1) C auris can spread between patients in healthcare facilities and cause outbreaks. In this way, it appears to behave much like some multidrug-resistant bacteria (eg, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or Acinetobacter).

Warning #2) C auris can colonize a patient’s skin for months or longer. (Yes, months. That means carriers can remain carriers for a very long time.)

Warning #3) This hardy yeast can live on surfaces for a month or more, and preliminary testing suggests that quaternary ammonium compounds commonly used for healthcare disinfection may not be sufficiently effective against C auris. (In other words, the usual chemicals that hospitals use to clean rooms simply don’t work against Candida auris.)

Warning #4) C auris is quickly becoming more common. In some international healthcare facilities, it has gone from an unknown pathogen to a cause of 40% of invasive Candida infections within a few years. We need to act now to prevent this from happening in the United States. (Too late. It’s also endemic in U.S. hospitals in Illinois, New Jersey and New York, although the CDC refuses to tell us which hospitals have been colonized by the fungus.)

Warning #5) C auris is often multidrug resistant. Some strains have been resistant to all three major antifungal classes, including echinocandins, the first-line treatment for Candida infections.

But it’s far worse than all that, in reality. Candida auris is airborne, and it floats through the air inside hospitals, infecting patients, hospital staff and colonizing hospital rooms and surgical areas. Even worse, the deadly pathogen is now escaping hospitals and infecting surrounding communities. Hospitals have, in effect, become hubs for spreading this deadly superbug across the country and around the world.

“Aerial samples of hospitals” test positive for the deadly pathogen… hospitals are factories that churn out this deadly disease

In 2013, a published science paper examined the spread of azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus arising from the agricultural use of azole fungicides. The paper was published in PLOS Pathogens with the title, “Emergence of Azole-Resistant Aspergillus fumigatus Strains due to Agricultural Azole Use Creates an Increasing Threat to Human Health.”

The paper supports the astonishing conclusion that people are acquiring fungicide-resistant strains through “environmental sources” rather than experiencing fungal mutations in their own bodies while being treated with anti-fungal drugs. As the study explains:

Several recent findings support the hypothesis that ARAF (azole-resistant A. fumigatus) strains in patients with invasive aspergillosis were more likely to be acquired from environmental sources rather than from de novo mutation and selection within patients during azole therapy.

The supporting evidence for this extremely disturbing realization is also cited by the science paper as follows:

#1) “ARAF strains have been found in patients who had never been treated with azole antifungal drugs.”

#2) “ARAF strains have been found in many environmental niches including flowerbeds, compost, leaves, plant seeds, soil samples of tea gardens, paddy fields, hospital surroundings, and aerial samples of hospitals.” This means that hospitals are effectively pumping out the fungal strains to surrounding areas.

#3) “These strains showed cross-resistance to voriconazole, posaconazole, itraconazole, and to six triazole fungicides used extensively in agriculture.” In other words, the fungus is almost certain to have emerged from repeated exposure to agricultural fungicides, since those are the chemicals for which it has developed innate resistance.

As the paper explains, it is the agricultural use of azole fungicides that supplies the most likely explanation for fungicide-resistant superbug fungi:

For example, azole fungicides are broadly used to control mildews and rusts of grains, fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals; powdery mildew in cereals, berry fruits, vines, and tomatoes; and several other plant pathogenic fungi. Over one-third of total fungicide sales are azoles (mostly triazoles) and over 99% of the DMIs (demethylase inhibitors) are used in agriculture. In addition, there are over 25 types of azole DMIs for agricultural uses, far more than the three licensed medical triazoles for the treatment of aspergillosis. Furthermore, the azoles could persist and remain active in many ecological niches such as agricultural soil and aquatic environments for several months.

The widespread application of fungicide for agricultural use, in other words, is the credible, rational explanation for the widespread development of azole-resistant fungi strains that colonize and kill people, including people who have never been known to carry the non-resistant strains in the first place.

Azole-resistant Aspergillosis killed human patients with a mortality rate of 88%

One of the most horrifying findings of scientists who study azole-resistant fungi is the startlingly high mortality rate. Azole-resistant Aspergillosis was found to kill 88% of patients who were infected. As the PLOS Pathogens study cited earlier describes:

In fact 50% of the patients with invasive aspergillosis due to ARAF are known to be azole naïve and the outcome of patients with azole-resistant invasive aspergillosis has been dismal, with a mortality rate of 88%. (Van der Linden JWM, Snelders E, Kampinga GA, Rijnders BJA, Mattsson E, et al. (2011) Clinical implications of azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus, the Netherlands, 2007–2009. Emerg Infect Dis 17: 1846–1852.)

Even more alarmingly, it looks like patients currently being diagnosed as having chronic pulmonary infections may actually be victims of azole-resistant fungal infections. As the study explains, the genetic analysis (via PCR) of tissues from patients suffering chronic lung infections found that over half showed mutations characteristic of azole-resistant fungal strains:

[T]he same mechanism has also been reported in patients with chronic and allergic pulmonary infections [20]. For example, Denning et al. detected TR34/L98H and M220 mutations in 55.1% respiratory samples of CPA and ABPA patients by direct PCR…

This same genotype was, “found in 90% of ARAF isolates obtained from azole-naïve patients,” the study reports, meaning it’s a near-certain sign that these patients have been colonized by azole-resistant fungal strains.

Chemical agriculture has unleashed a deadly global pathogen with no known medical treatment… and the entire medical establishment is burying the truth while exposing millions of hospital patients every day

The upshot of all this is that chemical agriculture has given rise to a deadly global pathogen that has spread across the globe and has no known medical treatment. The NYT article quotes Dr. Lynn Sosa, the deputy state epidemiologist for Connecticut, saying, “It’s pretty much unbeatable and difficult to identity.” That story adds that nearly 50% of patients who contract Candida auris are dead within 90 days, according to what appears to be reluctant statements from the CDC. There, the head of the fungal research branch, Dr. Tom Chiller, described the fungal superbug as “a creature from the black lagoon,” the NYT reported. “It bubbled up and now it is everywhere.”

Except that it didn’t have to be that way. There has been a cover-up for years. The very medical establishment that is entrusted with keeping people safe from deadly pathogens has, itself, become both the distribution hub for spreading the disease while simultaneously colluding with the CDC to hide the truth about all this from the public. It is the hospitals that are now “fungal factories” which are spreading the disease, literally releasing superbug pathogens into the open air, contaminating entire communities with fungal spores that are stronger than any treatment chemical known to western medicine.

There simply is no treatment, no cure, and very little honesty about the reality of the situation. To his credit, the CDC’s Dr. Chiller did post a warning about all this in 2017, but the CDC itself has refused to name the hospitals where these outbreaks are taking place.

The NYT describes the bizarre combination of panic and collusion that’s now taking place in hospitals across the world:

In late 2015, Dr. Johanna Rhodes, an infectious disease expert at Imperial College London, got a panicked call from the Royal Brompton Hospital, a British medical center outside London. C. auris had taken root there months earlier, and the hospital couldn’t clear it.

“‘We have no idea where it’s coming from. We’ve never heard of it. It’s just spread like wildfire,’” Dr. Rhodes said she was told. She agreed to help the hospital identify the fungus’s genetic profile and clean it from rooms.

Under her direction, hospital workers used a special device to spray aerosolized hydrogen peroxide around a room used for a patient with C. auris, the theory being that the vapor would scour each nook and cranny. They left the device going for a week. Then they put a “settle plate” in the middle of the room with a gel at the bottom that would serve as a place for any surviving microbes to grow, Dr. Rhodes said.

Only one organism grew back. C. auris.

It was spreading, but word of it was not. The hospital, a specialty lung and heart center that draws wealthy patients from the Middle East and around Europe, alerted the British government and told infected patients, but made no public announcement.

“There was no need to put out a news release during the outbreak,” said Oliver Wilkinson, a spokesman for the hospital.

This hushed panic is playing out in hospitals around the world. Individual institutions and national, state and local governments have been reluctant to publicize outbreaks of resistant infections, arguing there is no point in scaring patients — or prospective ones.

Now it’s in America… and it’s silently spreading while doctors, hospitals and the CDC are still hiding important facts from the public

According to the CDC, a total of 617 cases of Candida auris have been reported so far in the United States. This is detailed on the CDC’s Candida auris page, which warns that C. auris has “caused outbreaks in healthcare settings,” meaning hospitals and nursing homes are now spreading the superbug pathogen in America.

The CDC’s “tracking” page for Candida auris warns that hospitals around the world are spreading the disease, specifically naming the following countries as locations where healthcare-related pathogen transmission has been reported:

India, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela

Outside hospitals, multiple cases of Candida auris are currently being tracked by the CDC and have been recorded in the following countries:

Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States (primarily from the New York City area, New Jersey, and the Chicago area) and Venezuela

The CDC even warns that hospitals are spreading the disease, saying, “in some of these countries, extensive transmission of C. auris has been documented in more than one hospital.”

Illinois, New York and New Jersey are the hubs for Candida auris infections in U.S. hospitals and healthcare facilities

Candida auris is rapidly spreading across the United States, and the CDC publishes a chart with state-by-state statistics on where the infections are being found, even while refusing to tell the public which hospitals are infected:

https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/candida-auris/tracking-c-auris.html

Currently, the CDC’s tracking page shows 144 infections recorded in Illinois, 104 in New Jersey and 309 in New York. Twelve cases have been reported in Florida, 7 in Massachusetts with a smattering of isolated reports from California, Texas, Virginia and Connecticut.

Importantly, the CDC is so far refusing to name the hospitals or nursing homes where these cases are being found. This means the CDC, as usual, is hiding the truth about a deadly outbreak from the public. This behavior by the CDC will obviously lead to even more people being infected by visiting the hospitals where Candida auriscolonization is already complete. But the CDC seems more interested in protecting the profits of hospitals than in protecting the public from a deadly superbug pathogen, so it looks likely that the secrecy will continue.

Alarmingly, even the CDC says the numbers it has so far published coming out of Illinois, New Jersey and New York are only just the beginning. “Beyond the clinical case counts reported above, an additional 1056 patients have been found to be colonized with C. auris by targeted screening in seven states with clinical cases,” the CDC says. Yet to no one’s surprise, the CDC refuses to name which seven states.

Death by secrecy

Being “colonized” with Candida auris means you’re carrying it, spreading it to other people even though you may not show any symptoms yourself. As the CDC explains, “Colonization means that these patients are found to be carrying C. auris on their bodies, even though they are not sick with the infection.”

If there are 1,056 people across seven states who have already been found to be colonized with Candida auris, it means we are way beyond the Ebola scenario that scared the nation a few years ago when the geniuses at the CDC brought an Ebola patient to a Texas hospital, where that patient promptly spread Ebola to at least one nurse, causing a nationwide panic over a viral outbreak that thankfully failed to explode across the U.S. heartland. But Candida auris has already exploded across America, and the early numbers are only a hint of the scope of the real problem, given that “colonization screening” hasn’t even begun to encompass all of America’s cities or states.

With the CDC hiding the names of the hospitals where this deadly pathogen is spreading — and with the continued heavy application of azole-class fungicides on agricultural products across the country — it seems we’re already at a stage-six pandemic that has only just begun to be fully realized. It’s as if we’re all sailing on the Titanic, and the ship is already 80% under water by the time we realize something’s wrong. This pathogen is already endemic in America.

It’s likely that nearly every hospital, nursing home, public school and day care center in America is already colonized with Candida auris (or will be soon). No person can visit any hospital or healthcare facility without the reasonable expectation of being exposed to this superbug fungal strain, meaning that every visit to the hospital is now a potential death sentence, especially given the 41% – 88% fatality rates that have so far been associated with azole-resistant fungal strains.

Why Western medicine will ignore the obvious solution: Ultraviolet light

What’s even more horrifying about all this is that no one in the western medical system seems capable of thinking outside the realm of chemical treatments, so they all miss the obvious solution: Ultraviolet light. UV light — which everyone can get for free from the sun — kills nearly all fungi and viral strains. But hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities are unnatural places, characterized by artificial light and dark, damp hallways and rooms. Hospitals are breeding grounds for fungal colonies, and combined with the disturbingly high failure rates of hand washing among health care staff, it is inevitable that azole-resistant fungal strains will colonize every hospital in America over the next several years.

With window shades drawn to keep out the light, hospitals will try to fight the fungus with yet more chemicals, ultimately breeding even more dangerous, drug-resistant strains that could one day bring the world’s western health care system to a grinding halt.

Until that day comes, hospitals across America and around the world are pumping out billions of fungal spores into the open air, contaminating soils, streets and buildings in the surrounding communities. Even being near a hospital makes you a likely victim of fungal colonization. And just like the vaccine holocaust that maims and kills children all across America, the pharma-controlled media will no doubt bury this pandemic and decry those who warn about it as “conspiracy theorists.”

The fact that the New York Times even reported on this is practically a six-sigma event, but it’s an outlier, not the new rule. When health care dollars are at stake, journalism quickly folds to the profit interests of powerful corporations. Soon, the very mention of Candida auris will be decried as “anti-science,” and the World Health Organization will warn that “scare stories” about the superbug fungus are preventing people from visiting doctors and hospitals, thereby interfering with global health care. (This is exactly what the W.H.O. has done to vaccine skeptics who dare talk about the health risks of toxic vaccine ingredients such as squalene or aluminum-based adjuvants.)

Not long after the censorship crackdown on the “Candida conspiracy quacks,” the CDC will scrub its own website of any mention of the pathogen, just like the CDC deleted all its web pages that once admitted 98 million Americans were exposed to cancer viruses found contaminating polio vaccines. Western medicine isn’t good at solving health problems, but it’s very good at covering them up.

Remember: Rockland County, NY recently declared a state of emergency over a handful of measles cases. Yet a deadly fungal pathogen that now threatens to colonize and overrun every hospital and nursing home in the country gets almost zero mention anywhere. It’s clear that government officials and media propagandists have no real interest in protecting public health, but they have a huge interest in promoting the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

Conclusion: Chemical agriculture has already killed humanity… it’s too late to stop this

Five years ago, I warned that chemical agriculture was going to lead to humanity’s destruction. I was attacked and vilified by several science publications, of course, and labeled an “anti-science” nut case. In the years since, I launched what has now become a multi-million dollar ISO-accredited laboratory facility (CWClabs.com); I co-authored a peer-reviewed science paper published in the LC/GC chromatography journal; I launched a book — “Food Forensics” — that achieved a No. 1 science book ranking on Amazon.com; and I was awarded two scientific patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

Patent #1) Cesium Eliminator, an invention for removing radioactive cesium-137 isotopes from the human digestive tract. (See Google patents link here.)

Patent #2) Heavy Metals Defense, an invention that removes toxic heavy metals from foods or liquids that are consumed by people or animals. (See Google patents link here.)

Also during those years, juries in California have now twice confirmed that glyphosate herbicide causes cancer, meaning that the U.S. food supply is heavily saturated with a deadly chemical that kills people. Using triple quad mass spec analysis, my laboratory has developed and validated a method for the quantitation of glyphosate in food and water, and we’re using that method to investigate retail food items sold at grocery stores across America. (Our science paper describing this method will soon be submitted for publication in science journals.)

In nearly every fresh food sample we test, we find fungicide chemicals. We also find traces of glyphosate in a fair number of samples (cereals, grains, beer, wine, beans, legumes, etc.), and we find shockingly high levels of lead and cadmium in many superfoods, dietary supplements and nutritional products.

With the Candida auris pandemic now confirmed by the New York Times, the last five years have confirmed that my original warning was correct. Agricultural chemicals are killing humanity; and we’ve only just begun to understand the vectors of emerging pathogens that have now turned virtually the entire global health care system into a suicide mission from the point of view of patients.

Agricultural chemicals don’t even have to kill us directly to be an apocalyptic threat to humanity, you see: They merely have to give rise to deadly pathogens that invade, colonize and infect every hospital, nursing home, subway station, public transport bus, mall, movie theater, church and synagogue across America. It is those pathogens that carry out the killing, not the original agricultural chemicals that gave rise to their existence.

In essence, chemical agriculture has spawned what Dr. Tom Chiller of the CDC calls, “a creature from the black lagoon.” In Dr. Chiller’s own chilling words, he summarizes what I’ve been trying to warn humanity about for fifteen years: “It bubbled up and now it is everywhere.”

And Big Pharma has no answers, no treatment and no cure. The real answer is, quite literally, sunlight. Yet the drug giants can’t patent the sun or charge royalties on it, so sunlight will never be mentioned by the establishment as the most obvious and powerful weapon for eradicating this insidious pathogen.

Meanwhile, hospitals across America will continue serving toxic food and administering toxic drugs to their patients, reveling in the repeat business that comes from the ongoing sickness and suffering that now characterizes western civilization’s chemical approach to everything.

“Better living through chemistry” has now collapsed into tragedy. The future we now face is, “The chemically-induced suicide of the human race.”

That’s the true story of how agricultural fungicides transformed every hospital visit into a suicide mission. If the food doesn’t kill you first, the visit to the doctor surely will.

Source: InfoWars

NCAA Basketball: Wake Forest at Duke
FILE PHOTO: Mar 5, 2019; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward R.J. Barrett (5) lays the ball up during the second half against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils won 71-70. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

April 10, 2019

As expected, Duke freshman star R.J. Barrett officially declared for the 2019 NBA Draft on Wednesday.

“I want to thank God, my family, my coaches and everyone that has helped me reach this decision,” the 6-foot-7 forward posted on Twitter.

Barrett is projected as a top-three pick in the June 20 draft, along with Blue Devils teammate and fellow first-team All-American Zion Williamson.

Barrett averaged 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists and started all 38 games for Duke (32-6), which reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

–Kentucky freshman Keldon Johnson is entering the draft and hiring an agent, but he is leaving the door open to decide to return to school by the May 29 deadline.

“My hope is to be a lottery pick,” he said in a statement. “If I am, I plan on pursuing my dreams and staying in the draft, but I want to go through the process first and get the correct information.”

Johnson, a 6-6 guard, was third on the Wildcats in scoring (13.5 points per game) and rebounding (5.9 per game), earning SEC Freshman of the Year of the honors.

–Arizona State guard Luguentz Dort, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, told ESPN he is “all-in” for the NBA draft.

Dort, a burly 6-4 guard, averaged 16.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Sun Devils. He earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors and was on the league’s all-defensive team.

He is ranked No. 27 among ESPN’s list of top draft prospects.

–Ohio State sophomore forward Kaleb Wesson will go through the draft process, coach Chris Holtmann said.

“That process began about a week ago and we’ll see where it leads,” Holtmann said on Cleveland.com. “We’ve begun to gather some information from advisory committee for guys going through this process and that’s been helpful.”

Wesson averaged team highs with 14.6 points and 6.9 rebounds on the 2018-19 season.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind the financial district of London, Britain.
FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind the financial district of London, Britain, February 13, 2019. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo

April 10, 2019

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s massive financial services sector won’t get special access to the European Union after Brexit, City of London financial district chief Catherine McGuinness said on Wednesday.

Britain has called for an “enhanced” version of the bloc’s equivalence system of market access for banks, insurers and brokers, that could distinguish it from other non members of the bloc.

“At the moment it looks as if we are going to have to start with third country equivalence and build on it,” McGuinness told Reuters.

The existing system is seen as unpredictable, patchy and prone to politicization and the EU is tightening access conditions in key activities for London like clearing euro contracts. The EU is Britain’s biggest financial services export market, worth 25.9 billion pounds in 2017.

McGuinness said uncertainty over trading relations after Brexit was now the “new normal”.

Nearly 300 financial firms in London have shifted about a trillion pounds in assets to new hubs in the EU to mitigate the uncertainty and avoid disruption to customer ties.

The big financial firms are ready for Brexit and assets won’t return even if Brexit was canceled, she said.

The Bank of England expects 4,000 jobs in banking and insurance will have moved from London to the EU by Brexit Day.

She was “comforted” there has been no huge outflow of jobs so far, but expected more jobs to be lost.

London will remain a major financial center that builds on strengths like innovation and technology, McGuinness said, but in the short term it faced an EU keen to bolster its own financial sector to rely less on London.

Trading in European government bonds and repurchase agreements has already left London for Amsterdam, and the bloc’s regulators are sending signals they want share trading to follow, McGuinness said.

“There are clearly pressures from the EU to try to onshore activities. If they try to onshore too much, fragmentation is in nobody’s interest,” she said.

END OF BEGINNING

There was “deep frustration and resignation” in the financial sector over how a “paralysed” parliament was handling Britain’s departure from the EU, McGuinness said.

Continued extensions to Brexit must not end up “kicking the can” down the road.

“Once we get through this phase, this is only the end of the beginning. Whether we crash out or get transition, we have got to work out the next phase of future relations,” she said.

Brexit was extended from March 29 to this Friday, and Prime Minister Theresa May is asking EU leaders on Wednesday for a further delay to the end of June, though a much longer postponement may be granted.

“To keep extending without getting anywhere would be very damaging,” McGuinness said.

“There needs to be some resolution and it’s not obvious what the resolution should be as we see chaos in parliament.”

Financial and other services make up 80 percent of the UK economy but barely feature in Brexit compromises that focus on a customs deal with Brussels, she said.

“People should look carefully at the implications of whatever compromise they manage to reach. We would be very concerned if they tied our hands in terms of our ability to manage the services sector.”

(Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Source: OANN

FILE PHOTO: A river boat cruises down the River Thames as the sun sets behind the Canary Wharf financial district of London
FILE PHOTO: A river boat cruises down the River Thames as the sun sets behind the Canary Wharf financial district of London, Britain, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 10, 2019

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The European Union’s markets watchdog should reconsider its ban on trading thousands of shares outside the bloc if there is a no-deal Brexit, a senior French government official said on Wednesday.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) stunned exchanges last month when it said that if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal, 6,200 mostly EU-listed shares, but also 14 UK stocks, could only be traded on platforms inside the bloc.

“The good thing is that ESMA has taken a decision, sometimes you see that in other places it is difficult to have a decision,” said Sebastien Raspiller, head of the financial sector department at France’s finance ministry.

“The bad news is that the decision was not good, so I hope that ESMA would be able to reconsider its position,” Raspiller told the annual meeting of derivatives industry body ISDA in Hong Kong.

(Reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong, writing by Huw Jones in London, Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: OANN


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