Agency Reporter

 

The dollar extended gains against most currencies on Thursday as a stock market rout triggered by concerns about excessive valuations boosted safe-harbour demand for the U.S. currency.

The euro nursed losses after a European Central Bank member warned that interest rate cuts are possible to curb the common currency’s recent gains.

The Australian and New Zealand dollars, two currencies considered a barometer of risk appetite, also fell against their U.S. counterpart in a sign of waning market confidence.

Concerns about a short-squeeze among hedge funds, worries about corporate earnings, and delays in coronavirus vaccinations have slammed the brakes on a heady rally in global equities, which could continue to lift the dollar in the short term.

“Risk aversion supporting the dollar is a healthy correction after a one-way rise in risk assets,’’ said Masafumi Yamamoto, Chief Currency Strategist at Mizuho Securities.

“The base scenario of economic acceleration in the second half of the year remains intact.

“The Aussie will recover but the euro will struggle.’’

The dollar edged up to 104.27 yen following a 0.4 per cent gain on Wednesday.

Against the euro, the dollar stood at $1.2094, close to a one-week high.

The British pound fell for a second consecutive session to $1.3673.

READ ALSO: CBN to ban defaulting exporters over dollar remittances

The dollar index stood at 90.742, holding onto a 0.6 per cent gain on Wednesday.

Asian stocks were awash in a sea of red and futures pointed to a weak start to European trade on Thursday after U.S. stocks suffered their biggest one-day percentage drop in three months on Wednesday.

In addition to concerns about corporate earnings and the economic outlook, worries that hedge funds squeezed out of short positions in GameStop Corp and similar companies will take profits on other assets also fuelled risk aversion.

The U.S. Federal Reserve kept monetary policy unchanged as expected on Wednesday.

But it did signal some concern about the pace of economic recovery, which some traders said is another negative factor.

The U.S. gross domestic product data is due later on Thursday to gauge the strength of the world’s largest economy as it struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.

The onshore yuan briefly touched a one-week low of 6.4946 per dollar and other Asian currencies also fell against the dollar, highlighting strength in the greenback.

The Australian dollar fell to $0.7634 while the New Zealand dollar slid to $0.7135 as investors sold currencies with close ties to the global commodities trade to trim riskier positions.

(Reuters/NAN)

Our Reporter

Vanguard weekend entertainment pages were not juicy if Iyabo Aina byline is not written. She is intelligent, astute, humble, and soft-spoken writer.

The good news is that she is now a publisher. She publishes Newsrainng.com, an online news hub that you can read happeningstances in Politics, Sports, Society, Entertainment, Health, etc.

On the other hand, she has joined ONLINE REPORTERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA. She will have the privilege to travel abroad for courses and meet lots of Nigeria’s leading governors, celebrities and governors in Nigeria and all over the world.

Her profile read thus:

Aina Iyabo Bose was born in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, in the 80s, but originated from Kogi State.

She started her Nursery and Primary School in Imo State. She is a Journalist by profession with over 5years of practice. She first studied Mass Communication at the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), with OND in Journalism while in Imo State, after which she obtained HND in Mass Communication at Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Lagos State.

Iyabo was part of the editorial team during her school days, she reports Entertainment stories while in school, and she was also a freelance reporter with Vanguard Newspaper as a student in NIJ. She started journalism professionally with Vanguard Newspaper as a reporter on the weekend desk. She continues with a passion to report Entertainment for Nigeria Films online media. Due to her knowledge of entertainment contents, he was given a column in Vanguard Newspaper. As a columnist in vanguard Newspaper, she was responsible for her entertainment page on the weekend desk, she sources for great articles and photos for the page, she supervised the planning of the page including other entertainment pages, submit it to the entertainment editor before publication. While in Vanguard, she conducts interviews with Nigerian celebrities. She handled vox-pop sessions which involves engaging with unfamiliar faces in different communities to understand their thoughts on trending and controversial issues in society.

She emerged winner as Entertainment Write of the Year in the Nigeria Media Nite-Out Award (NMNA) held on 25th September 2016 On July 26, 2018. She joined Opera News Nigeria as Editor and Content manager. While working with Opera News, she was responsible for management and modification of digital contents, part of the team responsible for Natural Language Processing i.e. training AI how to understand human language regarding news stories. Handling opera news social media page both Ghana and Nigeria, sourcing for local news seeds (local news url), where AI can crawl stories from. Compiling all her experiences together, she finally settles to unveil her own news website, News Rain Nigeria, an online news website dedicated wholly to the creation and delivery of reliable and trending Nigerian and International news reports that is sure to keep our readers both informed and entertained.

Agency Reporter

China hopes that the new U.S. administration of Joe Biden will “learn a lesson’’ from the crisis that bilateral relations suffered while Donald Trump was in office, an official said.

China also urged the U.S. to seek to improve ties with Beijing, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said on Tuesday.

“We hope that the new U.S. administration will try to learn a lesson from the drawbacks of the Trump administration’s policy; will consider China and the Sino-U.S. relations objectively and rationally as well as adhere to the policy of a positive and constructive dialogue.

“And will, together with China, promote the return of the Sino-U.S. relations to sustainable and healthy development,’’ Zhao said at a news briefing.

Zhao pointed out that, over the recent years, the Trump administration made numerous mistakes in relations with China, as it considered Beijing to be a rival and took steps that undermined China’s interests.

READ ALSO: Death toll in China gold mine explosion rises to 10

He added that the two countries should strengthen their cooperation since they shared common interests and carried the responsibility for the maintenance of international peace.

“We have repeatedly said that China and the U.S. … share common interests and bear responsibility for the protection of the international peace, stability and promotion of the global development.’’

In March 2018, Trump launched a major trade war with China and accused it of currency manipulation and theft of U.S. intellectual property.

In 2019, Trump ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce to ban U.S. companies from doing business with China’s tech giant, Huawei.

This step was followed by further sanctions put on other Chinese media companies.

The Trump administration also publicly questioned the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party and stepped up relations with Taiwan, violating the consensus reached by Washington and Beijing regarding the island.

(Sputnik/NAN)

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

is setting an ambitious target to advance the long-term sustainability of commercial aviation, committing that its commercial aircraft are certified to fly on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuels by 2030.

Boeing has previously conducted successful test flights replacing petroleum jet fuel with 100 per cent sustainable fuels to address the urgent challenge of climate change.

According to the Air Transport Action Group, U.S. Department of Energy and several other scientific studies, sustainable aviation fuels reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent over the fuel’s life cycle with the potential to reach 100 per cent in the future.

“Today, sustainable aviation fuels are mixed directly with conventional jet fuel up to a 50/50 blend — the maximum allowed under current fuel specifications. In order to meet aviation’s commitment for reducing carbon emissions by 50 per cent from 2005 levels by 2050, airplanes need the capability to fly on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuels well before 2050.

“Our industry and customers are committed to addressing climate change, and sustainable aviation fuels are the safest and most measurable solution to reduce aviation carbon emissions in the coming decades,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Officer Stan Deal.

“We’re committed to working with regulators, engine companies and other key stakeholders to ensure our airplanes and eventually our industry can fly entirely on sustainable jet fuels.”

READ ALSO: Indonesia Sriwijaya Boeing 737 ‘black boxes’ located

Boeing’s commitment is to determine what changes are required for its current and future commercial airplanes to fly on 100 percent sustainable fuels, and to work with regulatory authorities and across the industry to raise the blending limit for expanded use.

“With a long history of innovation in sustainable aviation fuels, certifying our family of airplanes to fly on 100 per cent sustainable fuels significantly advances Boeing’s deep commitment to innovate and operate to make the world better,” Chief Sustainability Officer Chris Raymond said.

“Sustainable aviation fuels are proven, used every day, and have the most immediate and greatest potential to reduce carbon emissions in the near and long term when we work together as an industry.”

Our Reporter

In 1996, California became the first US state to legalize cannabis for medicinal use. It was a watershed moment in the history of the drug. Although historically, cannabis had been used across the world for its well-documented health benefits, in the US, it had long been criminalized and associated with deviants.

In 2016 the Golden State went one step further and also legalized the recreational use of cannabis. With more and more people using cannabis to ease depression, relieve anxiety, stabilize moods, and help with a host of health ailments, California based cannabis manufacturers, such as Truth Enterprises, cannot grow and distribute the magical weed quickly enough. Truth Enterprises co-founder Sean Smutny however discusses the future of the industry.

Sean opens up on the risk he took to venture into the cannabis business,

“I’m Cali born and bred and was about 11 when cannabis was first legalized. I’ve always been fascinated by the plant, and when my two good friends and I first heard that California was going to give out cultivation licenses, I took a huge risk, purchased a property, and hoped for the best. It paid off. I got my first license 15 years ago, and the company now owns multiple cannabis licenses in distribution, cultivation, and manufacturing”, said Sean.

On how his experience as a clothing line former clothing line owner has helped in benefiting Truth Enterprises he said; “Oh, massively. Because I work in an industry that was once illegal, people are still getting used to thinking of it in terms of a legitimate enterprise. There have always been many hurdles and obstacles to overcome, but the bottom line is that it’s a business like any other and the same rules apply. You have to remember alcohol was also once illegal in the States and now look at how much revenue it generates each year”

He also spoke on the future of cannabis industry in the United States.

“More and more US states have legalized cannabis, and the stigma surrounding the drug is slowly fading away. In fact, cannabis legalization is going global, and the CBD product market is getting stronger all the time. The rest of the world is becoming wise to what cannabis users have known for centuries – it’s a miracle plant that’s beneficial to your health, alleviates stress, and helps you relax. What’s not to like?”

Our Reporter

Rescuers searching for the remaining workers trapped in a Chinese gold mine after Sunday’s dramatic extraction of 11 survivors found nine bodies, a local official said on Monday, taking the death toll to 10, with one miner still missing.

A total of 22 miners working about 600 meters (2,000 feet) underground were trapped after an explosion at the Hushan mine in Qixia, a major gold-producing region in China’s coastal Shandong province, on Jan. 10.

Eleven were pulled out alive on Sunday after two weeks underground, including one in a very weak condition whom rescue teams had been unable to send supplies to.

Yantai Mayor Chen Fei said rescuers kept searching from Sunday to Monday afternoon and found the bodies of nine miners, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

That means a total of 10 miners are confirmed to have died, following the earlier death in the mine of one worker who had lapsed into a coma, and their remains have been lifted to the surface, Chen said, adding that one miner was still missing.

The search is difficult and water levels are high, but as long as the missing worker has not been found the work will not stop, the CCTV report added.

The 11 miners freed on Sunday were rescued much earlier than expected after it emerged that steel pipes in a blocked mine shaft had prevented debris from falling lower, according to state media.

READ ALSO: 11 trapped workers rescued from China gold mine

The air ventilation shaft, which was the most feasible way to bring up the workers, had been cleared to a depth of 368 meters (1,207 feet), Xiao Wenru, chief engineer for the mine rescue, told the Xinhua news agency on Monday.

“It is at this location we discovered that there were some steel pipes supporting the blockage … there is almost no blockage under the steel pipes,” said Xiao.

Xiao told Xinhua on Sunday there had been a breakthrough in rescue efforts after clearing some blockages and finding the “cavities underneath.”

The 11 miners were mostly in good condition. Officials had earlier said they may have to wait another 15 days before they could be rescued due to a blockage along their intended escape route.

China’s mines are among the world’s deadliest. The country recorded 573 mine-related deaths in 2020, according to the National Mine Safety Administration.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Agency Reporter

Israel extradited alleged child sex abuser Malka Leifer to Australia early on Monday, following a lengthy legal battle, her lawyer Nick Kaufman told dpa.

Leifer, a former educator, was accused of sexually abusing several of her female students at the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School in Melbourne.

“I can confirm that the process of international transfer has commenced,’’ Kaufman said.

Former Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn tweeted: “the legal process was long and there were people who tried to pollute it. As minister of justice, I promised not to delay the extradition order, and I acted as such. Malka Leifer’s victims will finally get justice.’’

Leifer’s flight left Israel just ahead of the almost complete closure of the international airport.

The closure is a bid to prevent the arrival of new coronavirus variants.

READ ALSO: Israel set to exit coronavirus crisis

“The Israeli authorities were expected to ensure the secrecy of the transfer operation and to ensure maximum respect for Ms Leifer’s dignity until she left Israeli jurisdiction,’’Kaufman said.

“This clearly did not happen, given the fact that photographs of her being led in handcuffs and leg cuffs were leaked to the press.’’

The 52-year-old Israeli citizen faces 74 charges of child sexual abuse for offences allegedly committed between 2004 and 2008, first when she was a teacher and then as the school’s headmistress.

Leifer fled to Israel in 2008 after allegations from former students emerged and she was subsequently suspended.

She has been fighting extradition from Israel since 2014.

Australia’s attorney-general Christian Porter called the decision to extradite her a “significant milestone which should provide alleged victims some hope.’’

(dpa/NAN)

The Nigerian Diaspora Movement (NDM) has advised home-based Nigerians to stop campaigning for candidates contesting elections in other countries.

Chairman of NDM, Prof. Apollos Nwauwa, gave the advice in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Nwauwa, also the secretary-general of the African Diaspora Congress (ADC), said the advice became expedient to protect Nigerians living in other countries.

“I believe that for the common good of Nigerians, open support of candidates through the erection of campaign billboards and social media postings should be avoided.

“Since people who do so hardly have in-depth understanding of the complexities of other societies, shunning campaigns for candidates of other origins will be for our Nigerian common good,’’ he said.

Referring particularly to the last election in the United States of America, Nwauwa said: “You never know who would win though President Donald Trump’s tenure was a nightmare for many Nigerians.

“From his immigration policy, foreign relations and domestic policies, Trump’s government was anti-Africans; after all he once stated that he preferred immigrants from Norway.

“While the Nigerian Diaspora community in the U.S. suffered under the oppressive policies of Trump, it was quite embarrassing that many Nigerians in Nigeria, especially those of a particular faith remained his ardent supporters.’’

Nwauwa added: “they used all sorts of media to campaign for Trump, even when they knew only very little about the manner of the man for whom they were routing.

“Erroneously, these Nigerians believed that Trump was their religion hero; the defender of their faith, both in policy and practise. He was none of that.

“Yet, many Nigerians held on to the impression that Trump was ordained to protect their faith and punish adherents of other faiths, overturn gay/lesbian rights, and abolish abortion.

“This was all a hoax. Nigerian Diasporas in the U.S. knew better and were better relieved that Trump was not rewarded with a second term in office.’’

Nwauwa stressed that routing for candidates contesting election outside Nigeria by Nigerians hindered smooth relationship between compatriots living in those countries and aggrieved parties there.

The NDM comprises about 20 million Nigerians in the diaspora working together to build a progressive nation.

The African Diaspora Congress is a coalition of the various groups of Africans in the Diaspora.

Eleven workers trapped for two weeks inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface yesterday, a landmark achievement for an industry long-blighted by disasters and high death tolls.

State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one-by-one in baskets yesterday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days in darkness.

Some brought their hands together in gratitude and many appeared almost too weak to stand. They were swiftly covered in coats amid freezing temperatures and loaded into ambulances.

Hundreds of rescue workers and officials stood at attention and applauded as the workers were brought up from the mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under Yantai in the eastern coastal province of Shandong.

One worker was reported to have died from a head wound following the explosion that deposited massive amounts of rubble in the shaft on Jan. 10 while the mine was still under construction.

The fate of 10 others who were underground at the time is unknown. Authorities have detained mine managers for delaying reporting the accident.

The cause of the accident is under investigation but the explosion was large enough to release 70 tonnes of debris that blocked the shaft, disabling elevators and trapping workers underground.

Rescuers drilled parallel shafts to send down food and nutrients and eventually bring up the survivors, 10 of whom had been in a lower chamber and one in a separate area slightly closer to the surface.

The official China Daily newspaper said on its website that seven of the workers were able to walk to ambulances on their own.

Such protracted and expensive rescue efforts are relatively new in China’s mining industry, which used to average 5,000 deaths per year. Increased supervision has improved safety, although demand for coal and precious metals continues to prompt corner-cutting. A new crackdown was ordered after two accidents in mountainous southwestern Chongqing last year killed 39 miners.