U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.
The letter, the second Trump received from Kim last month amid stalled denuclearization talks between the two countries, pre-dated North Korea's latest launch of short-range projectiles a week ago.
In the second letter, which was passed to Trump in the third week of August, Kim spoke of his willingness to meet Trump for another summit, one source reportedly told the Joongang Ilbo newspaper.
Oil prices surge: An attack on a critical Saudi Arabia oil plant pushes crude prices sharply higher, though the long-term impact depends on how long production is disrupted and how the U.S. and countries in the Mideast react. https://t.co/tqFR0ed9pk
1. Police fire water cannon at pro-democracy protesters hurling rocks, petrol bombs outside government HQ 2. A pro-democracy march 3. Pro-Beijing supporters fight HK anti-government protesters in a shopping mall 4. Police barricade a train station entrance pic.twitter.com/gLVPCnFhqK
Ric Ocasek, the lead singer of rock band The Cars, whose hits included "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Drive", died on Sunday in New York City, police said https://t.co/RSbNVCrf5Upic.twitter.com/StOJZHAATO
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets the press at the Great Hall of the People after the conclusion of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress on Friday morning.[Photo/China.org.cn by Zheng Liang]
* The world's No.2 economy faced "certain downward pressure" due to slowing global growth as well as the rise of protectionism and unilateralism, Li said in an interview with Russian media.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said it is "very difficult" for China's economy to grow at a rate of 6% or more because of the high base from which it was starting and the complicated international backdrop.
The world's No.2 economy faced "certain downward pressure" due to slowing global growth as well as the rise of protectionism and unilateralism, Li said in an interview with Russian media which was published on the Chinese government's website, gov.cn.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.3% in the first half of the year, and Li said the economy was "generally stable" in the first eight months of the year.
WNU Editor: If oil spikes as predicted after Saturday's drone attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, China's economy is going to severely impacted and any hope of a 6% GDP growth will be extinguished.
Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!
US president says he has 'reason to believe we know the culprit' of the drone attacks on Aramco plant.
Donald Trump has said the US was "locked and loaded" and to ready respond to drone attacks on a petroleum processing facility in Saudi Arabia, saying the US knew who was behind them.
The US president tweeted on Sunday night that he had "reason to believe that we know the culprit" behind the series of attacks on the Abqaiq facility, which is the world's largest petroleum processing plant. The attacks disrupted more than half of the kingdom's oil output and will affect global supplies.
Trump tweeted: "[We] are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] as to who they believe was the cause of this attack and under what terms we would proceed!"
With traders in a state of near-frenzy, with a subset of fintwit scrambling (and failing) to calculate what the limit move in oil would be (hint: there is none for Brent), moments ago brent reopened for trading in the aftermath of Saturday's attack on the "world's most important oil processing plant", and exploded some 20% higher, to a high of $71.95 from the Friday $60.22 close, its biggest jump since futures started trading in 1988.
Within a very few years, every vulnerable public building, sports stadium or city center will have to install some kind of drone defense
The attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities by Houthi rebels using a fleet of 10 drones loaded with explosives has caused serious damage and will result in a global production cut of around five percent. The Houthi strike was the second aimed at Saudis oil facilities after a previous effort last month resulted in minimal damage.
The Houthi drones were likely supplied by Iran, which has a large drone fleet and has been arming the rebel group in Yemen for years. Saudi Arabia is likely to launch retaliatory strikes against both the Houthis and Iran.
Drones have become a new frontier in warfare allowing activist groups and nations access to a potent weapon that can be used for surveillance or as a remotely piloted bomb. Just last week, activists from a group called Heathrow Pause threatened to fly drones into the exclusion zone around the London airport to disrupt flights and protest climate change. Police arrested 16 of the activists and no flights were disrupted.
WNU editor: Yesterday's successful drone attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities confirms what many have been warning for the past few years. Weaponizing drones have made them into dangerous weapons when used against soft targets.
An anti-government protester throws back a tear gas canister at the police during a demonstration near Central Government Complex in Hong Kong, China, September 15, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Instapundit: LOTS OF ONGOING HONG KONG COVERAGE FROM MICHAEL YON. Plus, he offers this observation from a friend, about the pork-tariff item noted here yesterday:
"There is a tiny, tiny notice in the news today that China has backed off on its tariffs on US soy and pork.
Ya don't say…
First of all, soy and pork are protein, which is a chronic problem in all national food chains, but more so in China. Between their traditional plant based diet and the cultural prestige of eating pork (the middle class literally measures its affluence by how many nights a week they eat pork and the lower classes and villages use pork as a celebratory meal), China's protein consumption is very narrowly restricted to soy and pork (fish is common, but not nearly as available as soy and pork).
WNU Editor: Michael Yon has been providing some valuable on the ground observations and reporting from Hong Kong. He is a must read for those who are concerned with what is happening there.
Anti-Taliban fighters observing U.S. bombing of the cave sanctuaries of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan on December 16, 2001. Reuters NewMedia Inc./Corbis
Legendary military commander retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis is on a whirlwind publicity tour promoting his book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, which he co-authored with Bing West. Washington Examiner senior writer Jamie McIntyre covered Mattis both when he was in uniform and during his stint as President Trump's first defense secretary. The two spoke by phone last week, after McIntyre promised in an email that he wouldn't ask the same dumb questions as everyone else, but instead would ask entirely new dumb questions. That apparently appealed to Mattis, who immediately called. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and space.
In the latest display of deepening cracks in the West's formerly unified economic campaign against Russia, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters Monday that "the time is right" for reconciliation in EU-Moscow relations.
The latest French overture comes as US lawmakers returned to work this week and at least two sanctions bills against Russia are making their way through Congress.
But policymakers and pundits question whether further unilateral sanctions are an effective response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's adventurism, amid concerns that they could also damage relationships with American trading partners and allies.
The US and its allies first issued a package of economic sanctions in 2014, intended to punish Russia for annexing Crimea and supporting separatist militias in eastern Ukraine.
WNU Editor: Russia is definitely well positioned to weather the next economic/financial/political storm ....
.... Since 2014, Russia has increased foreign currency reserves to an eye-popping $500 billion (the fourth highest in the world), paid off its foreign debt, "floated" (or in other words devalued) the Russian ruble to boost the competitiveness of Russian exports, "de-dollarized" holdings to insulate Russia from the US financial system, and balanced the state's expenditures and revenues.
WASHINGTON – Two young Americans, Victor and Cynthia Liu, are "trapped" in China, increasingly desperate and despondent because Chinese authorities have blocked them from leaving for more than a year.
"They are trapped. They are alone. They are desperate to come home," David Pressman, the siblings' New York-based attorney, told USA TODAY. "They are literally breaking down."
The Lius are subject to a so-called "exit ban," and they're not they only ones.
Another American citizen, Huang Wan, says Chinese officials are using a "fake" legal case to prevent her from returning to the United States. An Australian resident, Yuan Xiaoliang, has been barred from leaving China for more than eight months, and her husband, an Australian citizen, has been arrested on suspicion of spying, according to Australia's foreign minister.
WNU Editor: Americans are not the only ones who are being barred from leaving China, some are experiencing a far worse situation .... China Formally Arrests Two Canadians For Spying (May 16, 2019).
Protesters in Hong Kong once again defied a police ban Sunday to march through the territory's downtown districts in their push for greater political freedom, but what began as a peaceful demonstration quickly turned violent.
Shortly after the march began, protesters set up barricades on Harcourt Road, near the city's legislature and main government offices, and hurled bricks and petrol bombs. Police responded with water cannon, rubber bullets, and tear gas, while the legislature was evacuated.
Local news broadcasts showed protesters burning the Chinese flag and tearing down and burning a large banner that had been erected to commemorate China's upcoming national day on Oct. 1.
Cameron Ortis faces charges under both Security of Information Act and Criminal Code
Canada's intelligence community is reeling after a senior official working with an RCMP intelligence team was charged under the Security of Information Act — an event that is expected to have a ripple effect for years.
Cameron Ortis — a civilian director general at the RCMP — faces three charges and multiple counts of the rarely used law that deals with communicating or confirming special operational information.
The Security of Information Act is designed to safeguard and protect Canada's secrets.
WNU Editor: Being RCMP Director for intelligence, he had access to everything. This is a major hit to the intelligence community, and definitely one that is going to impact intelligence collection for years. The questions that still remain unanswered is .... who did he leaked this to? What was leaked? And was he discovered?
Saudi Arabia's energy minister said Saturday that drone attacks on two Aramco oil facilities have cut the kingdom's oil production in half.
Amateur video of the early morning attack in Abqaiq, in eastern Saudi Arabia, showed several blazes raging. By afternoon, video showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Saudi officials said no workers were killed or injured in the attacks.
A military spokesman for Yemen's Houthi militia, Col. Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility Saturday for the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities and vowed to increase them if Saudi-coalition forces continued their strikes on targets inside Yemen. It was not clear, however, if the drones originated in Yemen.
WNU Editor: I doubt that this was a lucky military strike. This was a well thought of and planned attack, deliberately targeting the critical components responsible for oil production at these two Aramco oil facilities, especially the Abqaiq oil processing facility. I doubt very much that the Houthis have that type of intelligence, which is why everyone is blaming Iran. As to how long will this production cut last? The latest videos show extensive fires ongoing throughout the complex. It will probably take months to fix and resume production. And here is an easy prediction. Even though other oil producers will rush in to fill demand, expect a massive increase in oil and gas prices in the coming weeks .... Saudi attacks: Oil price to spike as production halves (DW).
More News On The Impact Of Oil Production And Oil Prices After This Weekends Attack On Saudi Arabia's Oil Facilities
Iran says that US bases and aircraft carriers, which are stationed up to 2,000km around Iran, are within range of its missiles.
Iran has dismissed US accusations it was behind drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil plants, and warned it is ready for a "full-fledged" war.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Washington had adopted a "maximum pressure" strategy against Iran, but because of "it's failure [the US] is leaning toward maximum lies".
WNU Editor: Iran can deny responsibility for this attack on Saudi Arabia, but they made it very clear at the beginning of this year that if they could not export oil, no one else would. And after oil tanker attacks and oil tanker seizures, it looks like they are making good on their threats by escalating this conflict.
More News On Iran Declaring That It Is Ready For War
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IRAN's alleged attack on two Saudi oil plants was part of its masterplan to defy Western sanctions and escalate its ongoing feud with Donald Trump, expert analysis suggests.
CANADA will head to the polls next month after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dissolved parliament last week. Here is everything you need to know about the Canada election date and dissolution of Parliament.
BEIJING has "expelled" a US navy destroyer that veered into waters near the Paracel Islands last week, as tensions in the disputed South China Sea region rise.
MICHELLE OBAMA recently revealed the hefty price tag of her upcoming speaking events. Now, the former FLOTUS is caught up in yet another Twitter storm as she unveiled the eye-watering price of her New Jersey tour.
DONALD TRUMP may have secured a "wonderful safer world" with his firing of advisor John Bolton as the top aide was on the verge of sanctioning an invasion of Iran, according to former US Senator Mike Gravel.
By day, Lucy is a flight attendant. Dressed in a neat uniform, she politely offers passengers meals and drinks while they cruise at 35,000 feet. Recently though, she’s been switching shifts to make sure that she’s in town to join the protests that have rocked Hong Kong for the last 15 weeks. For those, she trades in her meticulous Cathay Pacific attire for a black t-shirt, accessorized with a yellow hardhat and a facemask: the uniform of Hong Kong’s young protesters.
Lucy, 30, who asked to be identified by only her first name, says her friends describe her as “deep yellow,” local slang which means she is a staunch supporter of the democracy movement. She camped out on the streets during the 2014 Umbrella Movement, and she’s taken to the streets again this year.
Demonstrations have roiled Hong Kong every weekend since June. They began as a few peaceful marches against a now suspended extradition bill that critics say would have allowed Beijing to use politically-motivated charges to ship dissenters off to face trial in the Communist Party controlled court system. But they have since escalated into intense pro-democracy protests that often end in violent clashes with police.
In the last few months, Lucy says she has been teargassed several times and hit on the head by a projectile fired by police. “It’s hard to go from a flight attendant to a gas-masked protester,” she tells TIME.
Her employer has been sucked into the fight between the city’s youthful protesters and Beijing. In August, China’s aviation authority banned any Cathay Pacific staff who had taken part in “illegal protests” from flying mainland routes, and threatened not to allow any flights without an approved crew list into Chinese airspace.
For Cathay Pacific, which counts 26 of its 111 destinations on the mainland, and earns half of its income from tickets purchased in Hong Kong and China, losing access to Chinese airspace would be a blow from which it might never recover.
“Any company that gets most of its revenue from the mainland is in a pickle,” Alexander Zwagerman, Senior Lecturer at Arnhem Business School, tells TIME. “Beijing clearly demands that [companies] disavow any semblance of an allegiance to the Hong Kong people and even punishes workers with links to the protesters.”
In the wake of what Zwagerman calls “Beijing’s most heavy-handed use of its economic clout to date,” Cathay Pacific quickly capitulated. Several employees were fired for protest-related reasons, and a few senior staff members, including the CEO and the chairman, have since stepped down.
Cathay has now warned employees that it will take a zero-tolerance approach to “any support for or participation in illegal protests, violent activities or overly radical behavior.” But employees like Lucy say they have no plans to stop. “The company has no right to control our minds or our speech when we’re not working,” she tells TIME.
Lucy has nevertheless taken steps to make sure she’s not found out, like setting her Instagram profile to private. When she worked a flight to Beijing last month, she left her phone at home for fear of having it searched by mainland officials.
Foreign and Hong Kong companies wanting access to China’s vast consumer market have long had to comply with Beijing, but the protests have seen a dramatic intensification of China’s expectations.
“We’ve rarely seen Hong Kong firms so publicly brought to heel as we have over the past few months,” Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair of China Studies at the Washington D.C.-based think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells TIME.
Several other large companies have been dragged into the fray. After staff of the so-called Big 4 accounting firms crowdfunded a pro-protest advertisement in a local newspaper, the Chinese state-run GlobalTimes urged management at the firms to fire “pro-riot staff” who “have the wrong stance on the current Hong Kong situation.”
One of the companies, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) quickly issued a statement saying it firmly opposed “any action and statement” that challenged “national sovereignty.”
In September, fast fashion giant Zara was forced to issue a statement declaring support for China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong, after Chinese netizens went into a frenzy on the microblogging site Weibo because the retailer shut down its Hong Kong stores on the day of a strike in the city.
Other local businesses that have shown allegiance toward either side have drawn the ire of customers.
An extensive Google Doc circulating around the Reddit-like forum LIHKG, for example, details restaurants that should be avoided by pro-democracy diners. Justifications for blacklisting establishments on the crowd-sourced list are as tenuous as someone overhearing a waiter saying protesters are paid by foreign governments.
Isaac Lawrence—AFP/Getty Images Riot police stand in front of a restaurant while patrolling after an anti-government rally in Hong Kong on August 18, 2019.
Big brands, like the sports drink Pocari Sweat, have pulled advertisements from a local television station viewed as pro-Beijing to avoid losing customers.
Some protesters have called for boycotts the city’s subway system, the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), because it closes stations near protest locations but has been found to be transporting riot police.
One MTR employee in his early 30’s tells TIME that although he is an unwavering supporter of the protesters, his job with the majority-government-owned operator puts him in a tight spot. He fears that he’ll be fired if he takes part in protests. So instead he spends weekends at his computer screen, glued to live stream videos of the events unfolding on the streets below him, cheering the protesters on.
The politicization of Hong Kong’s companies has hurt the business hub’s reputation. “Hong Kong’s position as a global hub for finance and business has suffered an irrevocable wound,” Blanchette says.
In what is perhaps the clearest signal yet that trust in the city’s safeguards has been undermined, Fitch Ratings announced the downgrade of Hong Kong’s credit rating and outlook on Sept. 6, citing China’s growing influence in the territory’s affairs. The “perimeters and pliability of the ‘one country, two systems’ framework” has been tested in recent months, with mainland officials “taking a more public stance on Hong Kong affairs than at any time since the 1997 handover,” Fitch said in its press release.
Despite orders from Beijing for companies to tell their employees to fall into line, some of their workers say they will keep fighting.
Antonia (a pseudonym), 31, a PwC employee, says she’s furious about the tactics police have used against young protesters. She tells TIME that she won’t stop attending rallies until the government agrees to an independent inquiry into the police—even if she has to pretend to be going on vacation in order to do so, like she did for several days in June.
And Lucy the flight attendant says she’ll keep switching shifts to make sure she can be on the front lines with her fellow Hongkongers.
“I still think I’m doing the right thing and I should keep doing it,” she says.
But for Hong Kong companies that depend on access to the Chinese market for their bottom line, things aren’t quite so simple. In the Hong Kong business world, Zwagerman says: “Beijing has made it clear who’s boss.”
(NEW DELHI) — A Parliament member who is a senior pro-India politician in Indian-controlled Kashmir was arrested Monday under a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without charge or trial.
Farooq Abdullah, 81, who also was the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested at his residence in Srinagar, the summer capital of the disputed Himalayan region.
“We have arrested him, and a committee will decide how long the arrest will be,” said Muneer Khan, a top police official.
Abdullah is the first pro-India politician who has been arrested under the Public Safety Act, under which rights activists say more than 20,000 Kashmiris have been detained in the last two decades.
Amnesty International has called the PSA a “lawless law,” and rights groups say India has used the law to stifle dissent and circumvent the criminal justice system, undermining accountability, transparency, and respect for human rights.
Abdullah’s residence was declared a subsidiary jail and he was put under house arrest on Aug. 5 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government in New Delhi stripped Jammu and Kashmir of semi-autonomy and statehood, creating two federal territories.
Thousands of additional Indian troops were sent to the Kashmir Valley, already one of the world’s most militarized regions. Telephone communications, cellphone coverage, broadband internet and cable TV services were cut for the valley’s 7 million people, although some communications have been gradually restored.
On Aug. 6, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah denied to the lower house of Parliament that Abdullah had been detained or arrested.
“If he (Abdullah) does not want to come out of his house, he cannot be brought out at gunpoint,” Shah said, when other parliamentarians expressed concern over Abdullah’s absence during the debate on Kashmir’s status.
Many anti-India protesters as well as pro-India Kashmiri leaders have been held in jails and other makeshift facilities to contain protests against India’s decisions, according to police officials.
Kashmir’s special status was instituted shortly after India achieved independence from Britain in 1947. Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety, but each controls only part of it.
India has often tried to suppress uprisings in the region, including a bloody armed rebellion in 1989. About 70,000 people have been killed since that uprising and a subsequent Indian military crackdown.
A human rights group has called on the Chinese government to release an undetermined number of Uighur children being arbitrarily held in so-called “child welfare” institutions and boarding schools in Xinjiang.
In a statement Monday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said “Chinese authorities have housed countless children whose parents are detained or in exile in state-run child welfare institutions and boarding schools without parental consent or access.”
An estimated one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are held in Chinese political reeducation camps in Xinjiang. HRW says an additional unknown number are held in prisons and other detention centers.
The rights group’s China director, Sophie Richardson, said “The Chinese government’s forced separation of children is perhaps the cruelest element of its oppression in Xinjiang. Children should be either immediately returned to the custody of relatives in China or allowed to join their parents outside the country.”
According to HRW, Xinjiang government documents do not indicate whose consent is needed for children to be held in institutions, which government agencies make decisions about removals, or “whether there are procedures for determining consent or challenges to such determinations.”
It added that it was “deeply concerned about practices in these facilities that appear to deny children their basic rights and cultural heritage,” pointing out that the children were taught in Chinese instead of their own language, and made to “sing and dance to propagandistic songs.”
Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs has been strongly condemned. In July, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called China’s treatment of the Muslim minority group the “stain of the century.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as the U.S. released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. had reason to believe it knew who was behind the attack — his secretary of state had blamed Iran the previous day — and assured his Twitter followers that “we are … locked and loaded” depending on verification and were waiting to hear from the Saudis as to who they believe was behind the attack and “under what terms we would proceed!”
The tweets followed a National Security Council meeting at the White House that included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
A U.S. official said all options, including a military response, were on the table, but said no decisions had been made Sunday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.
Hours earlier, senior U.S. officials said satellite imagery and other intelligence showed the strike was inconsistent with one launched from Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had claimed responsibility.
Iran, meanwhile, called the U.S. claims “maximum lies,” while a commander in its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reiterated its forces could strike U.S. military bases across the Mideast with their arsenal of ballistic missiles.
The U.S. government produced satellite photos showing what officials said were at least 19 points of impact at two Saudi energy facilities, including damage at the heart of the kingdom’s crucial oil processing plant at Abqaiq. Officials said the photos show impacts consistent with the attack coming from the direction of Iran or Iraq, rather than from Yemen to the south.
Iraq denied Sunday that its territory was used for an attack on the Kingdom and U.S. officials said a strike from there would be a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
The U.S. officials said additional devices, which apparently didn’t reach their targets, were recovered northwest of the facilities and are being jointly analyzed by Saudi and American intelligence. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, did not address whether the drone could have been fired from Yemen, then taken a round-about path, but did not explicitly rule it out.
The attacks and recriminations are increasing already heightened fears of an escalation in the region, after a prominent U.S. senator suggested striking Iranian oil refineries in response to the assault, and Iran warned of the potential of more violence.
“Because of the tension and sensitive situation, our region is like a powder keg,” said Iranian Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. “When these contacts come too close, when forces come into contact with one another, it is possible a conflict happens because of a misunderstanding.”
Actions on any side could break into the open a twilight war that’s been raging just below the surface of the wider Persian Gulf in recent months. Already, there have been mysterious attacks on oil tankers that America blames on Tehran, at least one suspected Israeli strike on Shiite forces in Iraq, and Iran shooting down a U.S. military surveillance drone.
The attack Saturday on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq plant and its Khurais oil field led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels of the kingdom’s crude oil production per day, equivalent to more than 5% of the world’s daily supply. It remained unclear how King Salman and his assertive son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will respond to an attack targeting the heart of the Saudi oil industry.
Crude oil futures shot up 9.5% to $60 as trading opened Sunday evening in New York, a dramatic increase. A spike in oil prices could have negative effects for the global economy.
Saudi Arabia has promised to fill in the cut in production with its reserves, but has not said how long it will take to repair the damage. The Wall Street Journal cited Saudi officials as saying a third of output would be restored on Monday, but a return to full production may take weeks.
Trump said he had approved the release of U.S. strategic petroleum reserves “if needed” to stabilize energy markets. The president said the final amount of the release, if any, would be “sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied.”
AP This Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019, satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. shows thick black smoke rising from Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq, Saudi Arabia.
Images from the European Commission’s Sentinel-2 satellite examined by the AP showed black char marks at the heart of the Abqaiq plant on Sunday, marks not seen over the prior month. Identical marks are visible on the U.S. imagery. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in August identified the area with the char marks as the plant’s stabilization area. The center said the area includes “storage tanks and processing and compressor trains — which greatly increases the likelihood of a strike successfully disrupting or destroying its operations.”
The state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco, which the kingdom hopes to offer a sliver of in a public stock offering, did not respond to a request for comment.
Pompeo directly blamed Iran for the Saudi attack on Twitter late Saturday, and officials worked to provide evidence for his claim the following day.
“Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo wrote. “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
The U.S., Western nations, their Gulf Arab allies and U.N. experts say Iran supplies the Houthis with weapons and drones — a charge that Tehran denies.
U.S. officials previously alleged at least one recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia came from Iraq, where Iran backs Shiite militias. Those militias in recent weeks have been targeted themselves by mysterious airstrikes, with at least one believed to have been carried out by Israel.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Sunday dismissed Pompeo’s remarks as “blind and futile comments.”
“The Americans adopted the ‘maximum pressure’ policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning toward ‘maximum lies,'” Mousavi said in a statement.
Separately, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s office issued a statement on Sunday denying the drone attack came from there. Oil-rich Kuwait also said it would increase security around the country’s “vital sites” over the attacks.
Houthi leader Muhammad al-Bukhaiti reiterated his group’s claim of responsibility, telling The Associated Press on Sunday it exploited “vulnerabilities” in Saudi air defenses to strike the targets. He did not elaborate.
Iran, meanwhile, kept up its own threats.
Hajizadeh, the brigadier general who leads the country’s aerospace program, said in an interview published across Iranian media Sunday that Revolutionary Guard forces were ready for a counterattack if America responded, naming the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Al-Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates as immediate targets, as well as U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
“Wherever they are, it only takes one spark and we hit their vessels, their air bases, their troops,” he said in a video published online with English subtitles.
It wasn’t just Iran making threats. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican close to Trump, suggested retaliatory strikes targeting Iran. “Iran will not stop their misbehavior until the consequences become more real, like attacking their refineries, which will break the regime’s back,” Graham wrote on Twitter.
With the U.N. General Assembly taking place in a little over a week, there had been speculation of a potential meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the summit’s sidelines, possibly in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions the American leader imposed on Tehran after unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear accord over a year ago.
But Trump seemed to reject that idea Sunday night, tweeting: “The Fake News is saying that I am willing to meet with Iran, ‘No Conditions.’ That is an incorrect statement (as usual!).” In fact, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters last week that “the president has said that he is prepared to meet with no conditions.”
If Iran had a hand in Saturday’s attack, it could be to bolster their position ahead of any talks, analysts say.
“The main point for Iran, in my opinion, is not necessarily to derail a meeting between Trump and Rouhani but to increase its leverage ahead of it,” said Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at the Bahrain-based risk management firm Le Beck International. “By carrying out such a major attack, Iran wants to send the message that the only way to decrease tensions is to comply with its demands regarding sanctions relief.”
However, he warned there could be a danger of Iran “overplaying” its hand.
“There will be no political benefit for Trump in a meeting with Rouhani if this meeting sends the message that the U.S. simply surrendered to Iranian demands,” he said.
___
Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has compared himself to the Incredible Hulk in a newspaper interview emphasizing his determination to take Britain out of the European Union next month.
The prime minister faces considerable legal and political hurdles but told the Mail on Sunday he will meet the Oct. 31 deadline no matter what.
“The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets,” Johnson told the widely read tabloid, invoking the comic-book and film character known for formidable but destructive strength.
Johnson remains defiant even though Parliament has passed a law requiring him to seek an extension to the Oct. 31 deadline if no deal is reached by mid-October. He has also lost his working majority in Parliament and been told by Scotland’s highest court that his decision to suspend Parliament was illegal.
Johnson portrays himself as undaunted and more convinced than ever that Britain will break with the EU at the end of October.
He will have a lunchtime meeting in Luxembourg Monday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to try to modify the Irish backstop that has been a main sticking point, but EU leaders do not thus far seem impressed by Johnson’s invocation of the Hulk.
The European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, said the comments showed a lack of maturity.
“Even to Trumpian standards the Hulk comparison is infantile,” he tweeted. “Is the EU supposed to be scared by this? The British public impressed?”
Even to Trumpian standards the Hulk comparison is infantile. Is the EU supposed to be scared by this? The British public impressed? Is this Boris Johnson whistling in the dark? https://t.co/g6FwEQCTMG
Juncker, who has downplayed hopes of a breakthrough at Monday’s meeting, also expressed alarm that many people in Britain seem to feel a British departure without a deal with the EU would be a positive thing.
“It would be terrible chaos,” he said in an interview with Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio. “And we would need years to put things back in order. Anyone who loves his country, and I assume that there are still patriots in Britain, would not want to wish his country such a fate.”
The Oct. 31 deadline looms large because Johnson has not said he will seek another extension if no deal is reached, despite legislation passed by Parliament shortly before it was suspended.
Britain’s Supreme Court this week will rule on whether Johnson overstepped the law when he shut the legislature for a crucial five-week period.
Johnson also continues to take flak from former Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the 2016 referendum on Brexit.
Cameron said in an interview published Sunday that Johnson didn’t really believe in Brexit when he broke ranks and led the campaign to take Britain out of the European Union. Cameron had been expecting Johnson’s help during the hard-fought campaign.
Cameron says of Johnson: “The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn’t believe in because it would help his political career.”
Cameron is giving interviews to gain publicity for his upcoming memoirs.
___
Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day that hit the world’s biggest oil processing facility and an oil field in Saudi Arabia, just hours after America’s top diplomat alleged that Tehran was behind the “unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”
The attacks Saturday claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels resulted in “the temporary suspension of production operations” at the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field, Riyadh said.
That led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels in crude supplies, authorities said while pledging the kingdom’s stockpiles would make up the difference. The amount Saudi Arabia is cutting back is equivalent to over 5% of the world’s daily production.
While markets remained closed Sunday, the attack could shock world energy prices. They also increased overall tensions in the region amid an escalating crisis between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.
Late Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly blamed Iran for the attack on Twitter, without offering evidence to support his claim.
“Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo wrote. “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.
The U.S., Western nations, their Gulf Arab allies and U.N. experts say Iran supplies the Houthis with weapons and drones — a charge that Tehran denies.
U.S. officials previously alleged at least one recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia came from Iraq, where Iran backs Shiite militias. Those militias in recent weeks have been targeted themselves by mysterious airstrikes, with at least one believed to have been carried out by Israel.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Sunday dismissed Pompeo’s remarks as “blind and futile comments.”
“The Americans adopted the ‘maximum pressure’ policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning towards ‘maximum lies’,” Mousavi said in a statement.
Separately, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s office issued a statement on Sunday denying the drone attack came from there.
Iraq “abides by its constitutions that prevents the use of its lands to launch aggressions against neighboring countries,” the statement said.
First word of Saturday’s assault came in online videos of giant fires at the Abqaiq facility, some 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Machine-gun fire could be heard in several clips alongside the day’s first Muslim call to prayers, suggesting security forces tried to bring down the drones just before dawn. In daylight, Saudi state television aired a segment with its local correspondent near a police checkpoint, a thick plume of smoke visible behind him.
President Donald Trump called Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer his support for the kingdom’s defense, the White House said. The crown prince assured Trump that Saudi Arabia is “willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression,” according to a news release from the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
Saudi Aramco describes its Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq as “the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world.”
The facility processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, then transports it onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or to refineries for local production. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day. By comparison, Saudi Arabia produced 9.65 million barrels of crude oil a day in July.
The Khurais oil field is believed to produce over 1 million barrels of crude oil a day. It has estimated reserves of over 20 billion barrels of oil, according to Aramco.
There was no immediate impact on global oil prices as markets were closed for the weekend. Benchmark Brent crude had been trading at just above $60 a barrel.
___
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Last Saturday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman virtually doubled as commerce minister to unveil a mini-foreign trade policy to boost sagging exports. Overhauling of the tax refund scheme for exporters and revising priority sector lending norms for export credit are pragmatic. But export growth is contingent on the pace of global recovery, amid trade tensions, and increased export competitiveness.Nirmala Sitharaman also announced a Rs 10,000 crore special window to provide funding to affordable and middle-income housing projects that are stalled. But such projects should not have defaulted or moved to the bankruptcy courts for resolution. Infusing long-term funds into viable projects whose funding has been disrupted would have signalled bolder action to spur the housing sector.Equal Weekly InstalmentsGoI hopes the series of post-Budget policy moves will help the economy rebound. Course corrections have come in dribs and drabs, with Sitharaman saying that measures are being announced in tranches based on cross-sectoral feedback.Surely, wider consultations enable policymakers to think-through the implications of Budget proposals: be it slapping a surcharge on foreign portfolio investors, levying an angel tax on startups, or raising some of GoI's borrowings abroad. Budget 2019 was constrained by time and, hence, limited pre-consultations. Key tax proposals were later withdrawn. The economy now needs a huge spending boost to fight the slowdown. And that can't wait till Budget 2020.But preparation for the next Budget must start in earnest with wider discussions. GoI should seriously consider introducing a pre-Budget statement disclosing the broad contours of its fiscal policies, anticipated receipts and expenditure, and how much it needs to borrow from the market.A suggestion to this effect was made in 2018 by the International Budget Partnership that conducts an independent global survey on Budget transparency once in two years. Publishing a pre-Budget document is in step with what over 50 countries follow. It will improve transparency and help evaluate measures better. States can take a page from this book too.Last week, for instance, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao slashed the state budget, blaming the current economic slowdown. But lowering capital spending needed to create assets, and revenue spending used to build human capital through education and healthcare would be counterproductive. So, states must spend productively to grow during a slowdown.The Budget assumes a particular rate of economic growth. If that rate is not achieved, tax collections will naturally be depressed and state budgets, predicated on devolutions pegged to the assumed rate of economic growth and resultant tax collections, will go awry too. In such a case, should the Centre compress expenditure to meet the preset fiscal deficit target as a proportion of GDP or meet the expenditure target in rupees through extra borrowing, so that the economy gets a boost? There has to be clarity on the fiscal stance.In the US, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the implication, direct and indirect, of any proposal, & quantifies the net gain or cost. Rigour and transparency stand out in this exercise. As most state and central budgets are leaps of faith, India, too, needs an agency to keep them grounded.In the pre-reform days, the veil of secrecy over the Budget was meant to curb speculation. That changed dramatically over the years, thanks to indirect tax reforms to lower and converge duty rates.Dipping Into the Cess PoolThe possibility of arbitrage when taxation proposals are made public has disappeared now with the goods and services tax (GST) that has subsumed most indirect levies of the Centre and states.The exceptions are import duties and cesses. GoI can change import duties in the Budget (although it's empowered to do so outside the Budget as well). We need orderly reform in import duties, as experience shows that import substitution behind high tariff walls hardly helped India's manufacturing grow. The best way is for GoI to move towards giving all lines of value addition the same effective rate of protection — a uniform low import duty on raw materials, intermediates and final products. Invariably, new cesses are introduced in the Budget, as Article 270 of the Constitution allows the Centre to levy and retain any cess. However, the proceeds don't devolve to states, and eat into their revenue. This goes against the spirit of cooperative federalism. The GST Council, too, should put out its deliberations on rate changes in public domain.How about income and corporation taxes where rate changes are done through the Finance Bill? The Centre is free to separately amend the Income-Tax Act as well with Parliament's sanction. The Task Force on Direct Taxes has already given its recommendations on the overhaul of India's tax system. It should be made available for public comment and clear decisions must be taken on its recommendations.Rates should be part of the incometax law. If GoI wants to make more changes in tax policy in the future, it should come out with a discussion paper that must be widely debated, given that investors want stability and certainty in the tax system.A break from the convention (read: veil of secrecy) in Budget-making is worth pursuing by a government that has a decisive mandate. It will also make active macro-economic management easier for Sitharaman.
NEW DELHI: The road transport ministry has firmed up draft guidelines for ride-sharing by private car owners, which will mandate KYC for users and limit the maximum number of rides taken per day to four, a senior government official said.The draft will go for public comments soon, the official told ET. "These are basic guidelines for carpooling which the state governments can implement at their own discretion."The Centre wants to ensure that carpooling is done on a no-profit no-loss basis. "We want to ensure that this does not become a commercial activity," the official said. So, a vehicle owner must operate on a model where only the cost of the ride is split.Also, pooling by private vehicle owners will be allowed only through mobile apps. Aggregators will need to ensure that KYC — or, the process of verifying the identity of a client — for both the vehicle owner and the riders is complete. The vehicle owner will have to declare trip details before the start of a trip.The new guidelines will also ensure that the states get some revenue from carpooling. 71140792 "So far, state governments were not getting any revenue from carpooling," the official said. "We will propose that aggregators should bring out a model where states also get some revenue. Otherwise there may be a sudden clampdown and these apps are shut. If they are getting some revenue, then state authorities will look after them."Existing carpooling apps such as Quick Ride and BlaBlaCar will need to tweak their applications to meet the new requirements.Cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola will need to develop a separate platform to allow pooling by private vehicle owners, the official said. "It's not possible with their existing setup."ET had in early July reported that the central government was supporting shared-mobility, whether based on the Uber model, or carpooling by private vehicle owners, as it looks to reduce congestion on roads.One of the agenda items for the National Mission for Transformative Mobility is vehicle pooling and the guidelines will be largely in tandem with the same.In June this year, the Karnataka transport department asked Ola and Uber to discontinue the "ridesharing" feature on their mobile applications on the grounds that it was hurting the income of cab drivers.As part of wider guidelines to incentivise electric vehicles, the Centre in a letter issued on July 17 had also asked state governments to promote shared mobility to reduce congestion on roads, and tackle pollution at the same time.
NEW DELHI: A desi version of 'Cash for Clunkers' scheme might be in the offing to reverse the slowdown that has heavily dented the Indian automobile industry.Accordingly, several central government ministries are said to be in a huddle to finalise key aspects of the policy such as incentives for buying new vehicles in lieu of scrapping old ones along with deciding the parameters of eligible category of automobiles.Even state government's are being approached to take their inputs regarding land use incentives for setting-up of vehicle scrap yards.The development comes as the automobile industry has repeatedly sought an 'End of Life' policy from the central government as a measure to arrest the falling sales.The policy, if implemented, is expected to encourage customers to go in for new purchases which will be backed-up by government incentives in lieu of their old vehicles.Significantly, the move is considered to be the most vital element of any further package to prop-up the sector's growth.In July, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued draft amendment of the Central Motor Vehicle rules for public consultation which, among other things, proposed to provide benefits ranging up to Rs 40,000 on new purchases after scrappage of the old vehicle of a similar category.The proposal also included waving-off registration fees for new vehicle, if the customer is able to produce a scrappage certificate for a vehicle of the same category. The intended benefit has been proposed across categories of vehicles from two-wheelers to heavy transport trucks.As per the draft notification, the incentive will range from Rs 1,000-40,000, if the scrappage certificate is produced, the plan that time was also to include imported cars.Besides, industry insiders opined that an India specific scrappage policy might include both commercial & passenger vehicles as well as two-wheelers.Apart from few country specific features, the policy is expected to be similar to the US government's program -- Cash for Clunkers -- that provided financial incentives for purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles in exchange for old vehicles.Presently, the automobile industry has been hit hard due to a slowdown, caused by several factors, like high GST rates, farm distress, stagnant wages and liquidity constraints.Consequently, the industry's sales and production levels have dramatically plunged, leading to job losses.In August, all major OEMs consisting of passenger, commercial, two- and three-wheeler manufacturers have reported a massive decline in domestic sales.As per Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' August sales figures, the overall sectoral offtake in the domestic market has plunged 23.55 per cent to 1,821,490 units, from 2,382,436 units sold during the corresponding month of the previous year.Moreover, the industry has estimated that around 15,000 contractual manufacturing jobs have been lost and another million are at the risk, if the slowdown is not reversed.
DETROIT: The United Auto Workers union called a nationwide strike against General Motors Sunday, with some 46,000 members set to walk off the job beginning at midnight amid an impasse in contract talks. The decision, which the Wall Street Journal described as the first major stoppage at GM in more than a decade, came a day after the manufacturer's four-year contract with workers expired without an agreement on a replacement. Local union leaders met in Detroit "and opted to strike at midnight on Sunday," the UAW said on its Twitter account. "This is our last resort," Terry Dittes, the union's lead negotiator with GM, told a news conference after the meeting. "We are standing up for the fundamental rights of working people in this country." UAW officials said the two sides remained far apart in the contract negotiations, with disagreements on wages, health care benefits, the status of temporary workers and job security. "Our members have spoken; we have taken action; and this is a decision we did not make lightly," Ted Krumm, chair of the UAW's national bargaining committee, said in a statement. "We are standing up for what is right," Krumm said. Hours before the strike was set to begin, US President Donald Trump tweeted: "Here we go again with General Motors and the United Auto Workers. Get together and make a deal!" GM's last major strike, according to the Journal, was in 2007 when 73,000 workers at more than 89 facilities walked off the job for two days. In a statement, GM said it was "disappointing" that the UAW's leadership had decided to call the strike, saying it had presented a "strong offer" in contract negotiations. "We have negotiated in good faith and with a sense of urgency. Our goal remains to build a strong future for our employees and our business," it said. UAW's leadership had previously won overwhelming approval from its rank-and-file for a strike if it became necessary.Workers at Ford and Fiat Chrysler agreed to extend their contracts, but GM management was informed Saturday that the union would not extend its contract. Earlier on Sunday, contract maintenance workers walked off the job at GM plants in Michigan and Ohio in a parallel dispute with contractor Aramark. GM has enjoyed several years of strong sales, posting $11.8 billion in operating profits last year, prompting union officials to argue it is time to share the wealth with workers who have borne the brunt of downturns. But the outlook for GM is less clear, with concerns growing that a recession may be in the offing amid protracted trade tensions. GM announced last November it was effectively shuttering five plants in North America, including facilities in Michigan and Ohio that were "unallocated" for production. Protecting jobs and saving those plants have been key issues in the negotiations. In its response to the strike, GM's management revealed that its offer included a promise of $7 billion in investments that would save or protect 5,400 union jobs and address the issue of the two "unallocated" plants. It also promised that a new all-electric truck would be built in a US plant. Adding to the friction is a federal corruption probe of the union leadership, which resulted in an FBI search last month of the home of UAW President Gary Jones. A member of the UAW's executive board, Vance Pearson, was arrested on Thursday on charges of conspiracy to use union dues for lavish personal expenses. Pearson, a UAW director in St. Louis, Missouri, was accused of using union conferences as a cover to justify long-term stays at luxury resorts in California.
KOLKATA: Integration of technology platforms will remain the key challenge for the merger of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India, senior executives at these banks said, even as the government has selected the merger partners on the basis of their IT compatibilities instead of geographic reach.Harmonising human resource issues will be another key aspect of these mergers, as was seen in the past."Asymmetrical entities are coming together, so there is bound to be some challenges," Ashok Kumar Pradhan, chief executive of UBI, said in Kolkata on Saturday at an interactive meeting involving the three banks and customers.PNB, OBC and UBI use Infosys' Financle software for their core banking solutions, while Allahabad Bank and Indian Bank are on TCS' BaNCS software, prompting the government to stitch these alliances for a smoother transition.Similarly, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank are on the same iFlex platform. Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank are again on the Finance platform.UBI and OBC use Finance-7 while PNB uses Financle-10. So, UBI and OBC need to upgrade their software solutions to have a seamless integration.On the HR issues, Pradhan said that the best available benefits from the three banks will be passed on to employees. "There will not be any retrenchment or voluntary retirement scheme," he said.These banks have formed 23 committees covering every aspect of the merger, such as IT, HR, and product offerings, to ensure success of the exercise.Chief executives of all the 10 public sector banks, which are selected as merger candidates, had a meeting at the Bank of Baroda headquarters in Mumbai on September 4 to get a lowdown on the merger experience."Bank of Baroda has given us a template on the merger and the likely challenges in this exercise. It was a great learning," UBI's Pradhan said.PNB board has already approved the merger while the UBI and OBC will consider it at their respective board meetings – both scheduled for September 18.The merger is expected to take shape from April 1, 2020. The merged entity will become the convenor of state level bankers' committee in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Tripura and West Bengal, and union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh.
Coal India has abandoned its move to cut supplies to inefficient power plants following resistance from customers. It had planned to cut the yearly quota by 80 million tonnes.A government panel had suggested introduction of an upper limit of coal supply for each megawatt of installed capacity, which reduces supply to old, inefficient plants on the basis of a formula it suggested. "We were first asked to revise the annual contracted quantities for each plant based on the recommendations by the panel," a Coal India executive said. "However, following calculation for revised quantities, a number of plants were to receive less coal, which was not taken lightly by the power companies and we were later asked by the power ministry to abandon the initiative."On the basis of recommended efficiency parameter, the quota of NTPC would fall to 131 million tonnes a year from 163 million tonnes. Damodar Valley Corporation was to receive 5 million tonnes less than its yearly quota of 26 million tonnes, while Mahagenco was to receive 13 million tonnes less than its yearly quota.Coal India was to supply 560 million tonnes to these power companies going by their consumption norms. According to the new calculation, they were to receive 477 million tonnes, almost 83 million tonnes less.A senior power company executive said the move would have reduced supply in the sector that is growing at 6% per annum. It would have reduced capacity utilisation, which is already down to around 60%, and increased losses apart from disrupting electricity supply.
New Delhi: With an aim to unearth financial irregularities and other fraudulent transactions at listed companies, capital market regulator Sebi is planning to set up a new whistle-blower mechanism for auditors and other 'gate-keepers' to report such cases.The proposed move assumes significance in the wake of several auditors in the recent past decided to exit from their audit mandate after certain listed companies failed to take remedial actions despite financial wrongdoings having been flagged in their auditors' observations.Officials said most of these auditor exits have taken place at a much later stage, but a 'confidentiality mechanism' can help in cases of financial frauds being reported at an early stage by auditors, independent directors and others considered to be 'gate-keepers' or 'conscience keepers'.Regulators and enforcement agencies have often stressed that auditors, independent directors, investment bankers, valuers and other such entities have a greater responsibility to ensure compliance to regulations and safeguard the interest by minority shareholders.While Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced a new mechanism to reward informants with up to Rs 1 crore cash for any credible inside information for providing information on insider trading at listed companies, this is not applicable to corporate entities and professionals such as auditors and lawyers.While there were suggestions from some quarters that auditors, lawyers and consultants on behalf of their firms should also be allowed to avail the 'informant mechanism', Sebi was of the view that corporate entities were as such under a duty to report.Besides, lawyers are bound of confidentiality and it would considered unethical for them to complain against their clients."However, as far as gate-keepers such as auditors are considered, a separate confidentiality mechanism is being proposed," a top official said.The proposal is in early stages as of now and a final decision would be taken only after a detailed consultation process with all the concerned stakeholders, the official added.The proposed mechanism may cover all kinds of financial irregularities and fraudulent activities, unlike the 'informant mechanism' which is limited to the cases of insider trading.During the earlier consultation process for the 'informant mechanism', it was also proposed that disgruntled employees and those facing complaints from the concerned entities should not be allowed to become an informant.However, Sebi rejected the suggestion while observing that such people could be actually best possible sources for providing an evidence which was otherwise difficult to obtain.However, Sebi has put in place sufficient safeguard to weed out unwanted tip-offs and frivolous information.Officials said it is imperative for Sebi to employ all legitimate means to detect any wrongdoing and initiate action at the earliest to instill confidence among investors and ensure integrity of the market.But, Sebi faces several challenges in establishing links and procuring proof while probing cases like insider trading and other fraudulent activities, due to which investigation into such cases takes much longer time than in other cases of market manipulation.
NEW DELHI: Global market environment is improving and investors on Dalal Street are hopeful that things would perk up on the domestic front as well. With an uptick in IIP data and inflation being under control, some say these are the signs that the economy is on a path to recovery. Usually, market recovery precedes economic recovery. And that's the topic that has kept twittereti engaged past few weeks.Sandip Sabharwal, an independent market expert, says India is in a sweet spot right now and all it needs is a nudge from the government.India is in a sweet spot 1. Inflation is well under control, interest rates coming down 2. Global liquidity is ampl… https://t.co/Em7ElajIuS— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1568436573000 Sabharwal in another tweet said one strategic disinvestment by the government would improve the sentiment of D-Street significantly.The Government needs to do just one big strategic disinvestment. The entire market will rerate big time. @nsitharaman @PMOIndia— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1568365381000 With the US markets near their all-time high levels, Sabharwal believes Indian market too will reach there over the course of a few months.US Markets back to all time highs (almost) We are still around 10% off We will get there slowly but surely over the next few months— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1568297739000 Anand Mahindra, the CEO and MD of Mahindra & Mahindra, said monsoon deficit has been wiped out and oil prices are low, which should give the economy a boost.I try to make it a habit every morning to look for silver linings & +ve news.This shows how dramatically the monsoo… https://t.co/y4KcrgzcPx— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) 1568084751000 Safir Anand, a value investor, said this is a good time to move away from largecaps and look to invest in smallcaps and midcaps, as they are available at good valuations.Good rally in mid and small caps. Over 400 cos surged over 5 pct today itself. Many mid and small caps seem to be i… https://t.co/KRpC90xFBz— Safir (@safiranand) 1568227924000 Arun Mukherjee, known for spotting value in smallcap stocks, says this is the right time to load up on stocks in which you have high conviction.Scenario changes very fast in markets. It's not that some favourable events would occur and market will move. It's… https://t.co/wziis1fQXP— Arun Mukherjee (@Arunstockguru) 1568040056000 Off beat:In a series of tweets about the auto sector slowdown, Shyam Sekhar, co-founder iThought, made a case against GST rate cut that the auto industry is demanding and rather called for some action from within the industry.If a mobile phone maker faces challenges of customer resistance for his products, is it the job of government to st… https://t.co/hwzjmfNTSG— Shyam Sekhar (@shyamsek) 1568259953000 Global problem, as I see it, is the auto industry wants to find greater fools who will overpay for their cars. It… https://t.co/MgEdnCziCY— Shyam Sekhar (@shyamsek) 1568258671000 Basant Maheshwari, a PMS fund manager, called for a cut in income-taxes, saying bureaucrats do not realise that lower taxes lead to higher collections and better compliance.The biggest drawback in our bureaucracy is their reluctance to visualise that lower tax rates lead to better compl… https://t.co/Cw1z59LPXR— Basant Maheshwari (@BMTheEquityDesk) 1568089644000 Lastly, the WeWork IPO created a lot of buzz globally, but not all positive. After having to repeatedly cut IPO valuations, things don't look as bright for this startup looking to list. So, here's a piece of advice from Samir Arora.Is it called The We company or The Weak company?— Samir Arora (@Iamsamirarora) 1568120913000
NEW DELHI: The commerce ministry is reviewing the phased manufacturing programme (PMP) after the industry flagged that it would not help India become an export hub for handsets.The handset industry, which had in 2015, backed the implementation of PMP with its graded import duties on devices and components, now seeks to shelve it till 2023 as the plan had been a partial success and more incentives were needed for exports."It is clear that even though PMP has helped in the development of the ecosystem, it has reached its limits, beyond which its effectiveness is questionable," the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association said in a recent communication to Niti Aayog chairman Amitabh Kant, who also heads the committee on mobile phone manufacturing."We have apprised the minister for commerce and he has set up a vigorous review process for the same," it said."For the time being, the mobile phone PMP be put in abeyance beyond 2018 levels till at least 2023. Conduct a thorough review of the levels of indigenisation, number of companies and investments before any decision is made on continuing PMP, but not before 2023," it suggested. The association pointed out that PMP has led to filing of a case against India in the World Trade Organization.Japan has recently filed a complaint in the WTO against India for slapping duties in "excess of bound rates".India levies 20% duty on fully made mobile phone imports to push companies to make in India. Components are charged at a lower rate.More than 268 units have been set up in India since 2015, when PMP was implemented, churning out over 225 million mobile handsets every year and creating around 0.67 million jobs. Some of the biggest names in global contract manufacturing such as iPhone makers Foxconn and Wistron have set up shop in India.While the levies helped create a local ecosystem for batteries, chargers and printed circuit board assembly, duties on components did not yield the same effect. 71140936 "The glaring misses are mechanics, camera modules, connectors and speakers. It is also futile to have a basic custom duty-led regime when zero-duty imports on the same products are permissible through all of Asean, primarily Vietnam, Korea and Japan," said the letter from the industry, flagging another issue of imports through free-trade agreements with these countries."Moreover, PMP certainly dents India's competitiveness which is the main ingredient and a precondition to building an export portfolio," it said, underlining the government's larger target of becoming an export hub for several industries, including electronics.
BJP slams Didi over 'emergency' remark BJP has prepared a plan to win more than 200 seats in West Bengal in the assembly elections slated to be held in 2021
Gurugram police launch campaign to thank motorists following traffic rules Called the 'Smiley Campaign', cops here have been presenting motorists who comply with traffic rules with a 'Smiling Emoji' which is their way of saying thanks to them
Watch your words! The best possible way to refrain from getting into these kinds of situations is to think twice before speaking whenever in an argument
Ram temple construction will start in November: Subramanian Swamy He also expressed confidence that the decision of the Supreme Court, in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque title suit which is currently being heard, will be in favour of the Ram temple
Civic chief should feel angry, not guilty Today technology does permit us to get reasonably accurate quantities of material used merely from CCTV feed and it must be used considering the national importance that road infrastructure has for the nation
Congress open to Nitish Kumar's entry into alliance, RJD says no way The JDU has also made it clear that no request has been made by the RJD to enter the alliance
Two Naxals killed in Gadchiroli encounter The security forces launched the operation after receiving specific inputs about the presence of Naxal Bhaskar, who is the mastermind of May 1 landmine blast in Kurkhera
Will implement NRC in Haryana as well, says chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar The state government is working on a fast pace on family identity card and its data would also be used in the National Register of Citizens (NRC)," says CM Khattar
