Euro zone industrial production fell in March for a second straight month as output declined in France and Italy but recovered in the bloc’s largest economy, Germany, data from the European Union’s statistics agency showed on Tuesday. Source: Reuters
European Union
The right-wing interior minister’s decree – which will be proposed to the council of ministers in the next few days and then voted upon by parliament – would allow NGOs to be fined “from €3,500 to €5,500 for each transported foreigner”. Source: The Guardian
- Since the first cargo in April 2016 U.S. LNG exports to the EU have been increasing substantially and have seen a steep rise after President Trump and President Juncker’s meeting in July 2018 increasing by 272%;
- March 2019 recorded the highest volume ever of EU-U.S. trade in LNG with more than 1.4 billion cubic metres.
- Italy’s government has written to the European Union asking it to prepare a plan of action to address the risk of a new wave of migrants escaping from the armed conflict in Libya;
- Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero spoke on Wednesday at a joint news conference in Rome after meeting with the United Nations envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame.
The European commission has declared the migration crisis over, as it sharpened its attack on “fake news” and “misinformation” about the issue. Source: Sputnik News
The EU has announced an additional €30 million in humanitarian assistance. Another €20 million in development funding will contribute to the reconstruction of the country’s cultural heritage. Source: European Commission
“Unfortunately, anti-European forces will enjoy a competitive advantage in the balloting. There are several reasons for this, including the outdated party system that prevails in most European countries, the practical impossibility of treaty change, and the lack of legal tools for disciplining member states that violate the principles on which the European Union was founded,” he said. Source: CNBC
Israeli security officials met recently with the U.S. counterparts to discuss the recent escalation between Washington and Tehran and shared sensitive intelligence on Iran, a report on the news site Independent Arabia claimed on Sunday. According to the report, the Israeli delegation told the American officials that in the case of a full-fledged confrontation between Iran and the United States, Jerusalem would not play an active role and would only join the fighting if it was attacked by Iran or its proxies. Source: Israelhayom
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that he believes Iran is behind recent attacks on pipelines and ships around the Middle East, and warned that Tehran should expect “an overwhelming military response” if it harms “American personnel and interests” in the region. Source: Politico
Several key suppliers are reportedly cutting off Huawei after the Trump administration added the Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone giant to a trade blacklist last week. According to Bloomberg, semiconductor companies Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom will no longer supply Huawei until further notice. This follows another report earlier today that Google has suspended some trade with Huawei, leaving it with access only to the open-source version of Android. Source: Techcrunch
Speaking to Reuters, a Google spokesperson confirmed that “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.” So while existing Huawei phones around the world won’t be immediately impacted by the decision, the future of updates for those phones as well as any new phones Huawei would produce remains in question. Source: The Verge
According to the report, Google will drop support for all future Huawei smartphones outside China, including services such as Google Play Store and Google’s email application, Gmail. Additionally, Huawei will no longer receive Android updates effective immediately. If true, this move from the Mountain View-based tech goliath will have a major impact on Huawei. Source: Neowin
Italy’s far-right interior minister has condemned the seizure of the ship, saying migrants on board should not have set foot in Italy. However, the condition of the refugees had swayed the authorities’ opinion. Source Deutsche Welle
The police were again attacked by forty individuals this Thursday evening in Saint-Priest (Rhone). Five people were arrested and placed in police custody. As a safety measure, firefighters waited for the police to arrive to intervene. Once on the scene, policemen and firefighters were stalled by forty attackers. To defend themselves, the police used about fifty teargas grenades and a dozen shots of launcher of defense balls Source Actu17.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an advisory to U.S. commercial airliners flying over the waters of the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to exercise caution as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to simmer. The advisory, issued by the FAA on Thursday and circulated late on Friday, said the warning came amidst “heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region which present an increasing inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations due to the potential for miscalculation or mis-identification”. Source: Reuters
The police had just tried to check the driver of a Renault Clio and his passenger, who managed to escape. During the pursuit, one of the municipal police vehicles accidentally collided with another car, a few minutes after the accident, the agents were targeted by projectiles launched by a dozen young people. National police reinforcements intervened to restore calm. These incidents did not cause injuries and an investigation was opened. Source: Le Dauphine
Three BAC police were briefly hospitalized after the attack on Friday. Two of them have been prescribed seven days of temporary interruption of work and the third has not yet been examined. The police station had already been targeted on Thursday.
On the night of Thursday to Friday, at midnight, the Boissy-Saint-Léger police station was the target of several projectiles such as glass bottles from individuals who were trying to get the police out. Source Europe1
Hundreds of Algerians poured onto the streets for the 13th consecutive Friday demanding the departure of Algeria’s leaders, more than a month after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika quit. Source: Aljeezera
HSBC Holdings PLC plans to add more than a 1,000 jobs this year at its technology development centers in China, as the Asia-focused lender seeks to bolster its presence in the world’s second largest economy. Source: Reuters
British Steel, the country’s second largest steel producer, is on the brink of collapse unless the government agrees to provide an emergency 30 million pound loan by later on Tuesday, two sources close to the situation said. Source: Reuters
Ford will cut 7,000 jobs from its global salaried workforce, or about 10 percent of its 70,000 employees, the company announced on Monday. About 20 percent will be senior-level managers, which is part of an effort to flatten the company’s organizational structure. Source: The Verge
Exxon Mobil has evacuated all of its foreign staff from Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield and is flying them out to Dubai, a senior Iraqi official and three other sources told Reuters on Saturday. Source: Reuters
The latest round of tax cuts and handouts announced by the Greek government mean that Europe’s most indebted state will probably miss an agreed target for a budget surplus excluding interest payments, the head of the euro-area’s crisis fund said. The shortfall will deteriorate further next year, Klaus Regling warned after a meeting of the bloc’s finance ministers in Brussels. Source: Bloomberg
A tanker carrying Iranian fuel oil in violation of U.S. sanctions has unloaded the cargo into storage tanks near the Chinese city of Zhoushan, according to ship tracking data on Refinitiv Eikon. Source: Reuters
Cypriot Defense Minister Savvas Angelides and French counterpart Florence Parly reportedly signed a statement of intent on Wednesday to allow the French Navy to use a naval station at Mari to permanently service its warships, according to news website politis.com.cy. Source: Ekathimerini
Cash-strapped Japan Display warned it cannot guarantee a return to profit this year as demand for smartphone screens stays weak, and turned in yet another quarterly loss, casting doubt over its proposed bailout deal with a Chinese-Taiwanese group. Source: Reuters
China reported surprisingly weaker growth in retail sales and industrial output for April on Wednesday, adding pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus as the trade war with the United States escalates. Source: Reuters
Saudi Arabia’s 200 billion-riyal ($53 billion) lifeline to its non-oil economy may be in place for longer than planned as the kingdom supports industries struggling to cope with reforms that pushed up costs and dampened demand. Source: The Star
Ministers are drawing up secret contingency plans for the collapse of British Steel amid a fresh funding crisis that could trigger thousands of job losses at its plant in Scunthorpe and intensify fears about the entire industry’s future. Source: Skynews
