James Alexander Michie | Blogger: March 2019

Friday, 29 March 2019

American International gets first Atlantic Hockey title, NCAA berth

American Internationals' forward Martin Mellberg (10) during an American International at Army West Point NCAA hockey game on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019 in West Point, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

American International gets its first Atlantic Hockey title and the NCAA berth. And it is that Hugo Reinhardt scored a goal in the power play 1:16 in overtime and as a result, American International won its first Atlantic Hockey championship with a 3–2 victory Saturday night at Niagara in Buffalo, New York.

It is necessary to mention that this victory also ensures the first place in the NCAA tournament for the Yellow Jackets (22–16–1).

For their part, Janis Jaks and Martin Mellberg also scored for the AIC, the latter with 1 second remaining in the second period to send the Yellow Jackets to the dressing room with a 2–1 advantage.

Relevant events

Appeared in the Financial Post, July 17. 2018

Canada can eliminate the supply management of the offer by following the leadership of Australia. And as the trade tensions between Canada and the United States continue due to the renegotiations of NAFTA, and President Trump places Canada in the protection of several sectors of its agricultural sector in the front and center, Canadian policymakers they should learn the lessons from their Commonwealth cousins in Australia about the phasing out of supply management.

In this way, Canada’s supply management policy means that Canadians pay much higher prices for basic foods such as milk, cheese, eggs, and poultry. These higher prices apply in two ways. First, the amount of domestic production is limited by government regulation. And second, imports face heavy sanctions, which makes them significantly more expensive than domestic production substitutes.

High prices

No longer a cellar-dweller in powerful Hockey East, the UMass hockey team captured the league’s regular season title and is a legitimate contender for the NCAA championship. American International College is also in the 16-team field for the first time in the Springfield school’s history.

Both UMass and AIC enter the status of the NCAA hockey elite. In their own way, the paths of the hockey teams of the University of Massachusetts and the American International College are among the most compelling stories of all NCAA Division I sports.

It is necessary to say that for UMass and AIC, inclusion is a culminating moment for the programs that overcame the sad stories to join the elite.

There is no doubt that for hockey fans in the region they should feel really proud and excited, as each school enters the highest university level of the sport and prepares to skate with the best of the nation.

Teams that join the elite

In 2016, 4 billion pounds of plastic was used in US bottled water production. Flickr/Vlad B.

Bottled water is one of the biggest scams of the century. Being that bottled water and clean tap water are practically identical in terms of purity and taste. In fact, in a study conducted in 2011, it was found that only a third of the blind taste testers could correctly identify the tap in front of bottled water.

Even so, almost 780 million people around the world do not have access to a source of clean water (water that flows through a domestic connection, a well, a well or a protected spring). On the other hand, in the United States, 99.2% of the country has access to clean tap water, but many Americans chose to drink bottled water because of concerns about bad taste and pollution.

An expensive scam

Warren Buffett Hates It. AOC Is for It. A Beginner’s Guide to Modern Monetary Theory

There is no doubt that there are currently several debates related to modern monetary theory. In fact, there is a lot of debate that his critics like a hot mess.

For his part, Scott Sumner, who is an economist at Bentley University, recently stated in his blog “MMT has built such a strange, illogical and complicated way of thinking in macro that it is almost insensitive to attacks”. While proponents of MMT say it is the critics who are immune to reason: “part of a degenerative paradigm that has lost credibility”, says William Mitchell, Australian.

Even so, it is necessary to point out that this state of confusion is not good because the Modern Monetary Theory, which was once limited to blogs and a handful of universities, including the University of Missouri in Kansas City, suddenly matters.

Sudden importance

A police officer is seen as people attend the burial ceremony of a victim of the New Zealand mosque attacks in Christchurch on Thursday. (Jorge Silva/Reuters)

New Zealand promised and delivered a weapons ban. It should be noted that the United States can not do the same. Many expect this to be repeated by the leaders, however, it is really complicated for the United States.

Changes in gun policy have been notable. Which undoubtedly were dramatic and, remarkably, for a nation aligned with the West with a strong lobby for guns, the reforms came quickly. However, this was the government of New Zealand, not the Congress of the United States.

After less than a week after a massive shooting that took place in two mosques in Christchurch that killed at least 50 faithful, Jacinda Ardern, who is the island’s prime minister, declared Thursday “New Zealand will ban all military-style semiautomatic weapons” while presenting immediate plans to stop the sale of certain firearms.

Actions that produce both amazement and admiration

On March 21, 2019, the Atlantic Hockey Association announced its winners of the regular season at the annual start of the weekend of the Tournament Championship in Buffalo, New York.

It should be noted that at the reception they announced six important individual prizes that were determined by the 11 coaches of The Atlantic Hockey. In this way, the best player of the year was recognized, as well as the best defenseman, rookie of the year, best defensive advance, individual sportsmanship and coach of the year.

Likewise, the performance of other hockey personalities was recognized as well as the scoring champion, the goal champion and the winners of team sportsmanship, together with the members of the Teams of the entire Conference and all the novices, who they announced themselves last week.

The winners of the night

Niagara IceDogs | via SportsLogos.net

The OHL has fined the Niagara IceDogs $ 150,000. As a result, the organization will lose a first-round pick in the 2021 draft after reaching an agreement with the league regarding a violation of the players’ recruitment rules.

That being so, as the main junior hockey is on the wrong side of the story, we have learned that OHL and the Niagara IceDogs have reached an agreement regarding the violation of the league’s recruitment rules by the team. The IceDogs agreed to pay a $ 150,000 fine and will lose their first round pick in 2021.

It is necessary to establish that in comparison, the IceDogs really recovered lightly. In fact, seven years ago, the OHL fined the Spitfires of Windsor $ 400,000 and took three first-round and two second-round picks for violating the recruitment rules.

Interesting fight

Treasuries Buying Wave Triggers First Curve Inversion Since 2007

The Treasury yield curve was reversed for the first time since Friday’s latest crisis. Of course, this brought with it a consequence, which unleashed the first reliable sign of the market of an impending cycle of recession and rate cuts.

It should be noted that the gap between three and ten-year yields faded when a wave of purchases brought the latter to a 14-month low of 2,416 percent. The investment is considered a reliable harbinger of recession in the USA, approximately in the next 18 months.

Likewise, the demand for government bonds gained momentum on Wednesday, when policymakers at the US central bank reduced their growth forecasts and their interest rate prospects.

So it is important to highlight the fact that most officials now do not expect increases this year, below an average of two at their December meeting. That being the case, the operators took that moderate change as their indication of seeking positions for a cycle of flexibilization of the Fed.

Network flexibility cycle

Andrew Coyne: It's when you read details of media bailout that the chill sets in

It is considered that when you get to read the details of the rescue of the media, there is a certain chill. So if you were not careful, you may have missed it, a short article of 160 words, put into the budget, labeled as Canadian journalism support.

It basically deals with a summary of the measures already announced in the November Fall Economic Statement: a labor cost subsidy for journalism organizations, a tax credit/subsidy for digital news subscribers, and a charitable tax status for organizations of news that are registered as non-profit organizations. Only if I returned even more, to an annex marked in Fiscal Measures: Supplementary Information, I would find the details. However, if you were to discover it, it would be how a bad idea in principle would probably be infinitely worse in practice.

Objections to the government

Canadian health care's 'one issue per visit' problem

Canadian health care's 'one issue per visit' problem has been around for a long time and is widely regarded as a symptom of the fee-for-service system — where physicians bill the government per appointment rather than draw a salary. ( TippaPatt/Shutterstock)

The problem of “one issue per visit” of Canadian health care is not a novelty. This problem has existed for a long time and is considered a symptom of the fee-for-service system, where doctors bill the government by appointment instead of receiving a salary.

Even so, some doctors question whether restricting access is ethical; others see why it is necessary to establish limits.

In this way, the problem of “one issue per visit” has been around for a long time and is considered a symptom of the fee-for-service system, where doctors bill the government by appointment instead of receiving a salary. It’s the way that more than 70 percent of Canadian doctors are paid. A family doctor is usually paid between $ 30 and $ 40 per patient for a regular visit.

A problem that should be treated

Donald Trump with Jair Bolsonaro on March 19. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The United States has been watching the decline of China’s trade as Trump moves forward. While for its part, China says that negotiations are ongoing as expected and Trump himself says that the talks with China “are going very well.”

For some US negotiators, it has been raised as a concern that China is rejecting US demands in the trade negotiations, according to people familiar with the negotiations, even when President Donald Trump seemed optimistic about reaching an agreement that could increase his chances of re-election.

The Chinese authorities have changed their position because after accepting the changes in their intellectual property policies, they have not received guarantees from the Trump government that the tariffs imposed on their exports would be eliminated, at least this is what two people expressed in a condition of anonymity

Worry increases

Crescat Capital says buy gold, sell stocks in 'trade of century'

According to Crescat Capital, gold must be bought and shares sold in the “commerce of the century”. One of the hedge funds with better results last year says that the “trade of the century” is to buy gold and sell shares since the risk assets are due to another collapse.

In this way, Crescat Capital LLC suggests that it is only a matter of time until the bearish bet yields great results. While the Denver-based firm has only about $ 50 million under its management, it has a history of exceeding the S & P 500 index, with its Global Macro Fund, which gained 41% last year alone. Likewise, the investment company says it is ready to capitalize on an end of the economic cycle since the indicators warn that a recession is imminent in the coming quarters.

Hedge fund strategy

Unrepayable lifetime debt now seems to be a business model. Students enter the professional world owing hundreds of thousands, and otherwise sane people carry heavy credit card balances, with the usurious vig that comes with them. (Graeme Roy/The Canadian Press)

It has been said that the debt is a vast and sucking mud field from which everyone struggles to get out. Therefore, logic dictates that there will be a price to pay for all this. The account will expire.

It is important to mention that a government economist sent an email a punishment recently. In the same, although I use the most educated language possible, characterized the columnists, who worry about the endless accumulation of public debt as uncultured. While in the same way they consider that they need an introduction to the basic economy.

He accurately advised, “As a currency issuer, the Government of Canada can never run out of money and can finance each of the social requirements it faces, including free education.” There is no limit to the ability of a sovereign government to pay debts denominated in their own currency”.

In this way, he also added an introduction to the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which postulates that the government, not individuals or corporations, owns the national currency, and can print unlimited amounts of it without damaging consequences, as long as the rate is enough. Back to keep spending under control and curb inflation.

Relevant information

TILRAY Q4 2018 Earning – Eye Watering Stock Price Hard To Justify

Surely the fourth quarter of 2018 is something that the administration of Tilray wants to forget. And it is difficult to justify the price of the shares. Being that the income of C $ 20.9 million did not reach even the lower limit of the income estimates and the net loss of $ 0.33/sh was also below expectations.

It should be noted that not everything is bad and is that on the one hand, the administration has shown that they can sign interesting partnerships with some of the largest consumer goods companies in the world. However, financial results have not yet proven that this is an administration team that knows how to grow and sell cannabis efficiently.

A relevant fact is that Tilray is quoted at a price well above the income generated by the greenhouses, which indicates that the market expects the management team to find other large sources of income in the future.

Major problems

The man who invented the web says it's now dysfunctional with 'perverse' incentives


	Philippe Desmazes \| AFP \| Getty Images.	British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist, known for being the father of the World Wide Web. Established the first communication between a client and a server using the HTTP protocol in November 1989. In October 1994 he founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) based at MIT, to supervise and standardize the development of technologies on those that are based on the Web and that allow the functioning of the Internet.

The World Wide Web (WWW) or global computer network is a system of distribution of hypertext or hypermedia documents interconnected and accessible through the Internet. With a web browser, a user views websites composed of web pages that can contain texts, images, videos or other multimedia content, and navigates through those pages using hyperlinks.

Now, Berners-Lee, who considers himself the father of the World Wide Web, says is now dysfunctional with perverse incentives. The same one that exposed his vision of an information management system, which would become the World Wide Web, in March 1989. The project would radically transform society, since half of the world’s population was online in only three decades But in a letter published on Monday 30th marking of the anniversary website, Berners-Lee said he understands the concern that the Internet is no longer a “force for good.”

It must change for good

According to the Fraser Institute’s analysis, Canadian workers across the income spectrum — and across the country — pay significantly higher personal income taxes than our U.S. counterparts. Peter J. Thompson/National Post files

The Canadian economy will be affected and will have to pay the price of how uncompetitive the income tax rates have been transformed.

Likewise, Canada’s highest marginal tax rates are punitively high, have placed Canada in a non-competitive position and discourage people from engaging in productive economic activities, which ultimately hinders economic growth and prosperity. In such a way, the economy would have to pay the price. At least, these are the Fraser Institute’s observations, based on a study of Candá’s higher tax rates and how they compare to other jurisdictions. The findings were published in a new report published just in time for the next federal budget, prior to the elections, which will be delivered on March 19.

It should be noted that the report, entitled “The increase of personal tax rates in Canada and the fall in fiscal competitiveness”, calls on the federal and provincial governments to consider “reversing the trend towards higher marginal tax rates for people with income high “and likewise begin to reduce personal tax rates. The marginal tax rate is the tax rate you pay on the next dollar you earn.

Relevant aspects of the report

There is no doubt that there are many patterns of abuse in the daily coverage of Maxime Bernier’s media. In fact, there are constant comparisons with Donald Trump. This, due to the fact that he does not really commit himself to his policies, citing those who accuse him of “persuading”, while citing his supporters as well as one that jumps out is the routine questioning of his ideological good faith.

It should be noted that being ideologically inconsistent is a serious charge for many at the base of Bernier. While it is not a concern for liberals and progressives, it is nonetheless for many conservatives, even if it means becoming “losers,” as one conservative commentator from the United States said years ago.

Reference has been made to Bernier’s party, the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), as affected by a “fundamental contradiction” in the sense that it is “led by a libertarian free market and supported by anti-globalists.” While it has been qualified Bernier’s immigration position “a distraction from his ideological playbook” to repeated criticism.

The call of Bernier

The OECD's massive and escalating enforcement efforts against western corporations have done little, perhaps even nothing, to reduce bribery and corruption where it matters: the real world.Photo illustration by Gigi Suhanic/National Post

Ottawa confused a defective OECD code what as a result I unleash the SNC crisis. Thus, this is established as the real scandal of corruption in Canada.

If the world were perfect, there would be no room for corruption. The global economy would be a clean area, free of politicians corrupt, bribes from corporations, sordid and sophisticated thieves sellers of influences that move through the economy of the under the world, getting cash from taxpayers, citizens and the shareholders. However, that is not reality, since as it is well known, the world is full of corruption.

The opening words of the convention against bribery of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ratified by Canada in 1999, describe bribery as “a phenomenon widespread in international commercial transactions, including trade and investment, which poses serious problems political and moral. worries, undermines good governance and development economic, and distorts competitive conditions” There is no doubt that this is an aqueous description of purpose that could cover most policies government agencies. But the OECD Convention on the fight against the bribery of foreign public officials in the international business transactions was presented in 1997 as the cornerstone of a new global effort to rid the world of corporate bribery and corruption.

Doubtful results and insignificant achievements

5 college hockey teams who could make their first Frozen Four in 2019

University hockey has seen 71 years of the Four Frozen, with repeated champions and appearances and debutants in the postseason of 38 different teams.

Now, during this 2019, 5 college hockey teams could make your first Frozen Four. And it is that, due to the last proviso, some predictions have emerged as to which equipment is in a good way to make 16-team tournament support, now same. Therefore, based on the above, it will be about those schools of that group that would participate in the championships of this year in search of his first Frozen Four.

Schools that could achieve their first Frozen Four

Rex Murphy: Sorry Liberals - the 'jobs' excuse for the SNC-Lavalin debacle won't fly

The excuse of ‘jobs’ for the SNC-Lavalin debacle will not fly. And it is that the person in charge of planning the liberal response to the SNC-Lavalin scandal must be in a confusion.

And it is that the anchor and the life jacket are apparently confused. That as it is well known, the life jacket fulfills the function of keeping you afloat, while the anchor due to its weight sinks you.

On Wednesday there was a meeting of the Committee of Justice of the Liberals. This was intended only to close the committee for a week, to allow Jody Wilson-Raybould to return to complete his testimony. Thus giving all possible indications that they were not really very interested. Listening to her at all.

The effectiveness of opposition parliamentarians?

Enforcement of the cellphone ban would be up to individual boards and schools in Ontario. (Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

Ontario will ban cell phones in the classroom during the next school year. This is a new policy that would prohibit the use of cell phones during the instructional time as of 2019–20. This would be from September.

In fact, through a statement on Tuesday, the Minister of Education, Lisa Thompson said that a formal announcement will be made soon.

Thompson said, “Ontario students should be able to focus on their learning, not their cell phones”, she also added, “By prohibiting the use of cell phones that distract learning, we are helping students focus on acquiring basic skills. they need, like reading, writing and math”.

In itself, this is not big news since some schools already have similar policies. However, the province will issue a directive for all public schools for the 2019–20 school year, government sources told The Canadian Press. The way to enforce the prohibition would depend on individual boards and schools.

The benefits that would bring

Best Life Lessons For Men - What Your Father Forgot To Teach You

BY: BRIAN CORNWELL

There is no doubt that the elderly possess wisdom because of the lessons they have learned throughout their lives. For young people who know the rules, breaking them is not of great concern since it is painful. However, every action attracts a reaction, which would lead to a consequence. That being the case, I could discover it in the most difficult way so it could be painful.

That said, it is necessary to indicate a universal truth. For any man to want to achieve success in his life, he must understand the same, otherwise, he would not achieve such success. And is that “To grow, first man must have the will to learn from their own mistakes.”

However, ego and fear are perhaps the two biggest obstacles to doing so. These lead to a large number of men to lives of suffering, lack of happiness and despair. For some who do not have a male model, understanding this concept is almost impossible, because nobody is there to teach them in the first place.

It is necessary to establish a really influential factor in the success that a man can have in his life. And it is that what separates successful men from unsuccessful men in this world is how well they make the transition from children to young men and beyond.

Importance of an age transition

5 things we may never know about the SNC-Lavalin scandal

The prosecution of SNC-Lavalin is largest corporate corruption case in Canadian history, complete with $50 million in foreign bribes, ties to a bloody dictator and a foiled smuggling plot. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

The prosecution of SNC-Lavalin is proceeding full-steam ahead, with a preliminary hearing already underway in Montreal. A criminal trial is possible within a year.

That is unless the Trudeau government hands the Quebec company a get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of a much-talked-about deferred prosecution agreement.

If a DPA is granted, there won’t be a trial and Canadians may never hear how far up the corporate ladder the alleged corruption went inside the global engineering firm.

And with the current parliamentary hearings so narrowly focused on the “he said, she said” of the Prime Minister’s Office and the former attorney general, Canadians are at risk of never learning the full extent to which SNC-Lavalin may have influenced the government.

1. How widespread was the bribery?

The criminal case looming over SNC-Lavalin is specifically about Libya.

The Perfect Bull Market Portfolio Might Have Blown Up Your Firm

Would you do it all over, knowing what you know now? For a professional money manager looking back on the bull market at its 10th anniversary, it’s a hard question to answer.

Here’s a thought. Imagine you knew exactly which stocks to pick a decade ago, the ones that would do best during the rally — like, literally. You knew Jazz Pharmaceuticals would soar 23,000 percent, that Abiomed and Netflix would rise more than 60 fold and Exact Sciences would go from 78 cents to $85. You were granted that knowledge, and you went out and bought those stocks. What would life have been like on the way to world-beating gains?

Worse than you think. From time to time, big losses are inescapable even in a portfolio chosen with 20–20 hindsight, with underperformance often dragging on long enough to put a money manager’s job in jeopardy.

Source: Tao Wang, Alpha Architect

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his newly sworn-in cabinet ministers arrive on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Nov. 4, 2015. The pictures of Trudeau gender-balanced cabinet offered hope and promise to Liberals and voters alike, who now may be wondering what happened to that self-proclaimed, “sunny-ways” government, Susan Delacourt writes. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

International Women’s Day came and went in Canada on Friday without much fanfare by Justin Trudeau, who normally uses the occasion to burnish his feminist brand.

That brand, like everything else around Trudeau this past month, has been tarnished by the ongoing SNC-Lavalin saga, which has cost the prime minister two strong women ministers and raised questions about whether he really walks the talk of new-style, female-friendly politics.

It’s not just the fact of losing Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott that has hurt Trudeau, but the manner in which they exited cabinet — the proclamations of their loss of confidence in the prime minister.

An economic reality check on SNC-Lavalin: Are 9,000 jobs really at stake?

SNC-Lavalin, which is headquartered in Montreal, employs a little fewer than 9,000 people across Canada. Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government has said it was worried about the potential of losing those jobs should the Quebec engineering giant face criminal prosecution. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

While its global workforce has grown to 50,000 employees, the company’s footprint in Canada has been shrinking

Differing versions of what transpired behind the scenes as SNC-Lavalin lobbied the federal government for an out-of-court settlement have left the picture as clear as mud.

But one thing has been consistent: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insists he is concerned about the impact on the Canadian workforce should the Quebec-based engineering giant be barred from competing for federal projects.

SNC-Lavalin is at the centre of a growing political firestorm over allegations that officials with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tried to push former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould toward helping the firm avoid criminal prosecution.

SNC-Lavalin is currently facing fraud and corruption charges in connection with nearly $48 million in payments made to Libyan government officials between 2001 and 2011, and a court conviction could see the company face a potential 10-year ban on bidding on federal contracts.

Speaking before the Commons justice committee last month, Wilson-Raybould testified she felt “consistent and sustained” pressure from the PMO to offer the company something known as a deferred prosecution agreement. A DPA would still require the company to admit fault and pay a fine, but it crucially wouldn’t ban SNC from federal projects.

She refused, and months later was shuffled to another portfolio.

In his own testimony to the committee this week, the prime minister’s former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, repeated the concern about “the 9,000-plus people who could lose their jobs, as well as the many thousands more who work on the company supply chain,” if the company couldn’t secure a DPA.

Addressing the issue Thursday morning, Trudeau again made clear that his concern for thousands of lost jobs framed his interest in whether SNC should be offered a deal. “They — directly or indirectly — put food on the table for countless families, as one of Canada’s major employers,” he said.

But the reality of the risk that the company’s entire Canadian workforce could be lost isn’t quite that simple.

Andrew Coyne: Why fight criminal charges in court when you can lobby?

A big question has arisen, is that why fight criminal charges in court when you can press? It’s really necessary? Or simply another alternative is established that could be better without mentioning that it is a simpler alternative.

Thus, it is noted that finally, the liberal government has that external legal opinion that it was looking for. A federal court judge ruled that the decision of the director of the public prosecutor’s office to bring SNC-Lavalin to trial for fraud and corruption, instead of negotiating a “remediation agreement” as the company preferred, was an adequate exercise of its discretion. By extension, she has backed the former attorney general’s refusal to annul that decision. For the opposite side to the discretion of the prosecutor is the independence of the prosecution, consecrated by centuries of customary law and, as the judge wrote, “essential and fundamental to the criminal justice system.”

It is considered that no attorney general has invalidated the decision of a DPP in a specific process due to a reason, which is the same reason that the DPP office was created in the first place: to isolate such decisions, insofar as possible, of political interference.

Only in the most exceptional circumstances was it expected that the attorney general would annul it; otherwise, what is the point of the DPP? And under no circumstances should the authority of the attorney general be compromised, not by direct orders, by covert threats or by a pressure of any kind, even under the pretext of an endless suggestion that he seek an external opinion.

Absolute reason?

Lumina Gold: The Gran Bestia Zone Could Change Everything

Summary

Lumina Gold’s Cangrejos project currently holds 8.5 million ounces of gold, making it one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world.
However, it has an IRR of just 15% and this is based on inferred resources.
I think that the Gran Bestia zone has the potential to become a satellite deposit that can be used as an initial starter pit.
This could significantly boost the economics of Cangrejos which is very welcome for Lumina Gold as the company is looking to sell the project.

Introduction

An information board for an employees' shuttle bus is on display near the Huawei office building at its research and development centre in Dongguan, China on Dec. 18, 2018. Huawei Canada president Eric Li said the company's 'top priority' has been the security and integrity of the networks that it supports. (Andy Wong/Associated Press)

Chinese tech giant Huawei is launching a U.S. court challenge to a law that labels the company a security risk and would limit its access to the American market for telecom equipment.

Huawei Technologies Ltd.’s announcement comes as the biggest global maker of network equipment for phone and internet companies fights U.S. efforts to persuade allies to exclude the company from next-generation telecom systems.

Huawei said it filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Plano, Texas, to throw out a portion of this year’s U.S. military appropriations act that bars the government and its contractors from using Huawei equipment.

Huawei, China’s first global tech brand, is at the centre of U.S.-Chinese tensions over technology competition and cyber-spying. The company has spent years trying to put to rest accusations it facilitates Chinese spying or is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

“We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort,” the company’s rotating chairman, Guo Ping, said at a news conference. Guo said the ban would limit competition, slowing the rollout of fifth-generation communications and raising consumer prices.

Major player

The OECD outlook goes against hopes that sources of weakness at the end of 2018, including lower confidence, would prove temporary. Getty Images

The outlook is now clouded from the report that has been labeled as bleak by the OECD. That reduces the global perspective and in fact, warns that the worst could be approximated. The report states that the world economy is suffering more than expected from the commercial tensions and political uncertainty that are clouding the outlook, particularly in Europe.

It is necessary to say that these would be the first forecasts of the organization in almost four months, in part it is catching up with the developments since then. In that period, little has gone well for the world’s largest economies: weakness in the euro area and China are proving to be more persistent, trade growth has declined considerably and uncertainty about Brexit has continued.

Degradation of almost all economic groups

Trudeau could have stood with an Indigenous woman and against corruption - but today he showed us the ugly truth

Imagine if Donald Trump held a press conference admitting to directly colluding with Russia in the 2016 US election, but then said it wasn’t actually a problem because he simply ‘experienced’ the concept of ‘collusion’ differently than other people.

Justin Trudeau’s “unique selling proposition” in the 2015 Canadian election was that he would usher in a new era of “openness and transparency”, “Real Change”, and “Sunny Ways”. He was going to “do politics differently”.

And for a while, that image remained in the minds of many Canadians.

Trudeau called himself a feminist. He said the most important relationship for him was the relationship between the federal government and Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. Repeatedly, he cast himself as a clean break from the politics of the past.

But now, Trudeau’s carefully focus-grouped and PR-tested “new politics” image lies in tatters. Because it seems that his “most important relationship” is actually with the SNC-Lavalin Corporation.

When Jody Wilson-Raybould was appointed as Canada’s first female Indigenous Attorney General, many Canadians felt it would be a historic turning point. It seemed in line with Trudeau’s image and the rhetoric he was spouting.

ECB Injects More Stimulus as Draghi Reveals Slashed Forecasts

The European Central Bank delivered a fresh round of monetary stimulus in a bid to shore up the weakening economy as it cut its growth forecast by the most since the advent of its quantitative-easing program four years ago.

ECB President Mario Draghi said the euro-zone economy will now expand only 1.1 percent this year, a drop of 0.6 percentage point from forecasts just three months ago. A package of assistance from new loans for banks to a longer pledge on record-low rates is intended to expand existing stimulus, he said.

Weakest Since 2013

The ECB cut its forecast to 2019 growth to 1.1 percent

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