Mese: Agosto 2023

(C) Reuters. Loretta J. Mester, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, looks on at Teton National Park where financial leaders from around the world gathered for the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium outside Jackson, Wyoming, U.S., August 26, 2022.

By Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING (Reuters) – Beating inflation will probably require one more U.S. interest-rate hike and then going on hold for “a while,” Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank Loretta Mester said on Saturday, adding that she may reassess her earlier view that rate cuts could start in late 2024.

While she does not want policy so tight that the economy collapses, she told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she wants to set it so that inflation reaches the Fed’s 2% goal by the end of 2025.

“We just don’t want it to keep drifting farther out,” she said. Not only do fast-rising prices impose a high cost on Americans, she said; allowing inflation to fester also leaves the economy more vulnerable to future shock.

“The longer we let inflation remain above 2%, we’re building in a higher and higher price level,” she said, and that hurts American households. “And I think that’s why timely matters to me.”

Most Fed policymakers, including Mester, thought in June that they will probably be able to stop hiking once they get the policy rate to the 5.5%-5.75% range, which is one quarter-point higher than it is today.

They also thought that by next year the Fed will likely begin cutting rates so that as inflation falls, they do not end up restricting the economy more than is needed.

Mester said on Saturday that in June she also had penciled in rate cuts in the second half of 2024, but that when she and other Fed policymakers submit fresh forecasts ahead of their September rate-setting meeting, that might change.

“I’m going to have to reassess that because, again, it’s going to be, how quickly do you think inflation is moving down?” she said.

Economic growth has been more robust than many have expected, and the labor market is still tight, and Mester does believe that the Fed’s rate hikes so far will moderate the strength of both.

Still, she is wary of assuming that inflation, having dropped to 3% from its peak last year of 7%, will get back down to 2% in a timely enough manner.

“I do not want to be in a position of prematurely loosening policy,” Mester said.

Fed projections submitted in June show a median forecast for 2.1% inflation by the end of 2025; Mester said hers was for 2% inflation. Forecasts submitted in September will show what they expect through 2026.

As she runs the numbers for her own September forecasts, she said, getting to 2% inflation by the end of 2025 is not a “hard stop” and she could conceivably push it out if looks like doing so would hurt the economy too much.

But that is not what she expects at this point.

“Given where we are and given where inflation is, I think we have a good shot about bringing inflation down to 2% without doing damage to the real side of the economy,” Mester said.

“I’m going to calibrate my policy to make sure that we’re back in that time frame (of 2% inflation by 2025).”

The Fed’s next and possibly last rate hike “doesn’t necessarily have to be September, but I think this year,” she said.

By Gram Slattery, Nathan Layne and Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s historic mug shot, posted by a Georgia courthouse on Thursday evening, is being turned into T-shirts, shot glasses, mugs, posters and even bobblehead dolls by friends and foes alike.

The shot of Trump with a red tie, glistening hair, and an icy scowl was taken as the Republican presidential front-runner was arrested on more than a dozen felony charges, part of a criminal case stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Supporters and campaign managers have embraced the image of his arrest, as they rally around Trump’s claims that the charges against him are politically motivated.

To critics, the photo is a symbol that his long list of legal woes has finally caught up to him.

Trump’s Save America fundraising committee is selling “NEVER SURRENDER!” mug shot t-shirts ($34.00), beverage holders ($15.00 for two) and coffee mugs ($25.00). His son Don Jr. is marketing “FREE TRUMP” mug shot t-shirts ($29.99) and posters ($19.99).

On the other side of the political divide, the Lincoln Project, a prominent anti-Trump group founded by Republicans, is selling shot glasses ($55.00 for six) with the mug shot and “FAFO,” an acronym for “Fuck Around and Find Out,” a rallying cry among Trump critics. Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY), the crafts website, has dozens of mocking products, including a Taylor Swift concert t-shirt parody ($26.00).

In Los Angeles, a t-shirt store unaffiliated with any campaign had already started selling tops emblazoned with the image on Friday afternoon.

“I think it’s very classic consumerism for this country,” said shopper CJ Butler from Atlanta, Georgia. “Hey, it’s Trump. He sells everything so why not have a T-shirt?”

The image could be a huge fundraiser for the Republican candidate, some political strategists predict.

“His superfans are going to see this and it will be a fist-pumping exercise for them to send in that $25 and get that shirt or that mug,” said David Kochel, a veteran Republican presidential campaign operative in Iowa. “It’s kind of sad at the end of the day that the campaign is going to celebrate his indictment over 13 criminal charges – but that’s where our politics is.”

Trump has for months sought to leverage the criminal probes against him to rally support from his base, starting with his first indictment in New York. His fundraising groups, including his past and current presidential campaigns, have reported investing more than $98 million in merchandise operations since 2015, buying items like bumper stickers, hoodies and coffee mugs to sell.

Speaking to Reuters after the Republican debate on Wednesday, co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said his team had been focused on turning the four indictments into a positive, “making sure that we were making lemonade at every opportunity, which I think we did.”

Veterans of other political operations say campaigns can make a 50% profit or more on their merchandise sales and LaCivita on Thursday warned off those trying to make money from the image without the campaign’s permission.

LEGAL RIGHTS?

What legal rights, if any, Trump’s campaign may have over the mug shot’s reproduction are unclear, however. The photo was distributed by the Fulton County court to media outlets, including Reuters.

Mug shots taken by US federal courts are generally in the public domain, although Georgia’s state policy may be different.

Many U.S. states have “right of publicity” laws that prevent the use of a person’s image in commerce without their permission. Federal trademark law also bars false advertising and endorsements, and Trump would also likely be able to sue under other state laws.

But political parody goods may receive some protection from intellectual-property claims under the U.S. Constitution, and attorneys say that whether Trump would actually sue is more of a strategic question than a legal one.

“In all likelihood, given how polarizing Trump has been, and everything that is already in the marketplace around his likeness, it would not likely be a legal priority,” trademark attorney Josh Gerben said.

Trump’s pose, glaring into the camera with his face tilted down, echoes his trademark pose in “The Apprentice,” the reality television show he starred in for several years.

The former president told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday night that he only did the mug shot because Georgia officials insisted. “It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong,” he said.

Rick Wilson, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project flogging mug shot wares online, dared Trump’s campaign to sue him in a Friday post on X.

“Trump’s people are certainly viewing it as a powerful image, and his opponents are also viewing it as a powerful image,” he said.

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(C) Reuters. Soccer Football – Spanish Soccer Federation Meeting – Ciudad Del Futbol Las Rozas, Las Rozas, Spain – August 25, 2023 President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales announces he will be staying as president during the meeting RFEF/Hando
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MADRID (Reuters) -FIFA on Saturday suspended Spanish federation chief Luis Rubiales from all soccer-related activities for three months as it investigates allegations of an unwanted kiss on the lips of player Jenni Hermoso after Spain’s women won the World Cup.

His suspension from national and international activities takes immediate effect, world soccer’s ruling body said in a statement about the action taken by its disciplinary committee chief Jorge Ivan Palacio.

FIFA had opened disciplinary proceedings against Rubiales on Thursday over his actions last Sunday in Sydney. Rubiales said he would defend himself to prove his “complete innocence”.

Rubiales, 46, has been defiant over the kiss – which has been condemned as unwanted by Hermoso, her team mates and the Spanish government – arguing it was consensual. Earlier on Saturday the federation he heads had said it would stick by him.

After the FIFA statement, a spokesperson for the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said: “We respect all the pronouncements of FIFA.”

In a statement through the federation, Rubiales said: “Luis Rubiales has stated that he will legally defend himself in the competent bodies, he fully trusts FIFA and reiterates that, in this way, he is given the opportunity to begin his defence so that the truth prevails and his complete innocence is proven.”

Gary Lineker, a former England and Barcelona player, summed up much of the public reaction to the FIFA move, posting in Spanish on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Por fin! (At last).”

Rubiales played mainly in Spain’s second division in a career spanning 12 years. When he was elected to lead the RFEF in 2018, he promised to modernise its structure, increase turnover and make the federation more transparent.

Feminist groups staged demonstrations in Madrid, Santander (BME:SAN) and Logrono on Saturday calling for his resignation.

Rubiales refused on Friday to resign, seeking to defend his behaviour and calling the kiss “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consensual”.

Hermoso said she did not consent to the kiss and felt “vulnerable and the victim of an aggression”.

In a statement hours before FIFA’s move on Saturday, the federation said it would show there had been lies told about what happened by Hermoso or people speaking for her.

The statement, issued on the RFEF website, said it would take appropriate legal action to defend Rubiales’ honour, but did not say what the action would consist of.

The Spanish government cannot fire Rubiales but has strongly denounced his actions and said on Friday it was seeking to get him suspended using a legal procedure before a sports tribunal.

In a joint statement sent via their FUTPRO union on Friday evening, all 23 of Spain’s cup-winning squad including Hermoso, as well as 32 other squad members, said they would not play internationals while Rubiales remained head of the federation.

In the same statement, Hermoso denied Rubiales’ contention that the kiss was consensual, writing: “I want to clarify that, as was seen in the images, at no time did I consent to the kiss he gave me and, of course, in no case did I seek to lift the president.”

‘LEGAL ACTIONS’

In its statement early on Saturday, the federation said: “The RFEF and the president, given the seriousness of the content of the press release from the FUTPRO Union, will initiate the corresponding legal actions.”

“The RFEF and the president will show each of the lies that are spread either by someone on behalf of the player or, if applicable, by the player herself,” it said.

The statement was accompanied by four photos of the event last Sunday that it said illustrated Rubiales’ contention that Hermoso lifted him by the hips.

Reuters could not immediately reach an official from FUTPRO for comment.

Two of the women’s team’s sponsors expressed support for the players on Friday.

Iberia, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG), said: “When offensive situations occur, inappropriate for a developed, modern and egalitarian society such as Spain’s, Iberia supports the appropriate and pertinent measures that must be taken to preserve the rights and dignity of athletes.”

Power company Iberdrola (OTC:IBDRY) was quoted by Spanish news agency EFE as saying: “We observe with great concern the situation which has developed in the past few days which has tarnished the great victory of the national team.”

Rubiales had been widely expected to resign at the federation’s emergency meeting on Friday. Instead he said repeatedly that he would not quit and complained that “false feminists” were “trying to kill me”.

Acting Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz called his speech “unacceptable”. She wrote on social media: “The government must act and take urgent measures: impunity for macho actions is over. Rubiales cannot continue in office.”

Gender issues have become a prominent topic in Spain in recent years. Tens of thousands of women have taken part in street marches protesting against sexual abuse and violence.

The Socialist-led coalition government has presided over legal reforms including around equal pay, abortion, sex work and transgender rights.

By Rachel Nostrant and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Thousands of Americans on Saturday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a pivotal event in the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement at which Martin Luther King Jr gave his galvanizing “I have a dream” speech.

The 1963 march brought more than 250,000 people to the nation’s capital to push for an end to discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Many credit the show of strength with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This year’s rally took place at the Lincoln Memorial, the backdrop to King’s impassioned call for equality, as many speakers warned that much work was yet to be done.

Margaret Huang, the president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, told the crowd that the march 60 years ago opened doors and spurred new tools to fight discrimination.

But new laws throughout the country that “claw away at the right to vote” and target the LGBTQ community threaten to erase some of those gains, Huang said. “These campaigns against our ballots, our bodies, our school books, they are all connected. When our right to vote falls, all other civil and human rights can fall too, but we’re here today to say ‘not on our watch.'”

Speakers decried gun violence against Black people as the crowd chanted “No Justice, No peace.”

Ashley Sharpton, an activist with National Action Network and daughter of the Reverend Al Sharpton, said in a speech that Americans need to “turn demonstration into legislation” and cannot allow the sacrifices of ancestors in the fight for equality to have been in vain.

Kimberle Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, said the anniversary occurs at a troubling moment.

“The very history that the march is commemorating is being not only challenged but distorted,” Crenshaw said, referring to bans in several states on books and classroom instruction based on so-called critical race theory, which views a legacy of racism as shaping American history.

She called that and other moves such as the removal of an African American Studies course from public schools in Florida and Arkansas a “concerted effort to silence conversation about that history.”

Opponents of CRT say it distorts history and is needlessly divisive and upsetting for students.

Speakers at the march include civil rights leaders such as King’s son Martin Luther King III, his granddaughter Yolanda Renee King and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

In terms of the goals envisioned in King’s “dream,” the country has come a long way since 1963, said Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which played a role in the campaign for the Civil Rights Act’s enactment.

But, he said, recent Supreme Court rulings setting back affirmative action and access to abortion were a cause for concern.

“We’ve seen an expansion of antisemitism, we’ve seen an intensification of racism,” said Greenblatt.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday will meet with march organizers at the White House to mark the 1963 meeting between organizers of the original march and the administration of President John F. Kennedy.

(C) Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the crew of the Alyosha T-80 tank, which destroyed a Ukrainian armoured convoy on the Zaporizhzhia direction in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia August 24, 2023. Sputnik/Mi

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin has ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state after a deadly plane crash believed to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the volatile chief of the mercenary group.

Putin signed the decree bringing in the change with immediate effect on Friday after the Kremlin said that Western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an “absolute lie”. The Kremlin declined to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.

Russia’s aviation authority has said that Prigozhin was on board a private jet which crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow with no survivors exactly two months after he led a failed mutiny against army chiefs.

President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to the families of those killed in the crash on Thursday and spoke of Prigozhin in the past tense.

He cited “preliminary information” as indicating that Prigozhin and his top Wagner associates had all been killed and, while praising Prigozhin, said he had also made some “serious mistakes.”

Putin’s introduction of a mandatory oath for employees of Wagner and other private military contractors was a clear move to bring such groups under tighter state control.

The decree, published on the Kremlin website, obliges anyone carrying out work on behalf of the military or supporting what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine to swear a formal oath of allegiance to Russia.

Described in the decree as a step to forge the spiritual and moral foundations of the defence of Russia, the wording of the oath includes a line in which those who take it promise to strictly follow the orders of commanders and senior leaders.

Western politicians and commentators have suggested, without presenting evidence, that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed to punish him for launching the June 23-34 mutiny against the army’s leadership which also represented the biggest challenge to Putin’s own rule since he came to power in 1999.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the accusation and many others like it were false.

“There is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the plane’s passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, in the West, all this speculation is presented from a well-known angle,” Peskov told reporters.

“All of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to base yourself on facts. There are not many facts yet. They need to be established in the course of investigative actions,” he said.

‘WAIT FOR TEST RESULTS’

Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have not yet said what they suspect caused the plane to suddenly fall from the sky.

Nor have they officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies recovered from the wreckage.

Asked if the Kremlin had received official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov said on Friday: “If you listened carefully to the Russian president’s statement, he said that all the necessary tests, including genetic tests, will now be carried out. The official results – as soon as they are ready to be published, will be published.”

Peskov, who said Putin had not met Prigozhin recently, also said it was unclear how long the tests and investigative work would take.

It was therefore impossible to start talking about whether Putin would attend Prigozhin’s funeral, Peskov said in answer to a question on the subject.

“There are no dates for the funeral yet, it is impossible to talk about it at all. The only thing I can say is that the president has a rather busy schedule at the moment.”

Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus who is now a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the funeral would be significant.

“If Putin wishes to emphasise that Prigozhin died as a traitor, he will ignore it,” said Gould-Davies.

“(While) Prigozhin’s supporters may use it as an opportunity to eulogise him and his critique of the Kremlin’s conduct of the war — and could strengthen the hostility of a core of Wagner loyalists towards the Kremlin,” he said.

British military intelligence said on Friday there was not yet definitive proof that Prigozhin had been onboard but that it was “highly likely” he was dead.

The Pentagon has said its own initial assessment is that Prigozhin was killed.

Russia’s Baza news outlet, which has good sources among law enforcement agencies, has reported that investigators are focusing on a theory that one or two bombs may have been planted on board the plane.

Asked about the future of the Wagner Group, which has a series of lucrative contracts across Africa and a contingent in Belarus training the army there but now appears leaderless, Kremlin spokesman Peskov was concise.

“I can’t tell you anything now, I don’t know,” he said.