In a tweeter outrage Monday President Trump rubbished Theresa May’s efforts on Brexit deal: “I have been very critical about the way the UK and prime minister Theresa May handled Brexit. What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way,” he wrote.
“I do not know the ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the US. We will no longer deal with him.”
He added: “The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new prime minister. While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent state visit last month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with.”
Trump is so ignorant of the fact that by berating the British Prime Minister he attacks Her Majesty The Queen’s government. Theresa May is PM by appointment of Her Majesty. Donald Trump attacked Queen Elizabeth – Crimson Tazvinzwa
Madness!
In Trump’s ‘orange’ head, Prime Minister May dissed him by not heeding his otherwise foolish, nonsensical advice – ‘sue the EU’.
SUE the EU for what? Who to? Who with?
Brexit 101 for Trump on British and EU politics
Britain independently is leaving the EU – is not being frogmarched out
Uk can only SUE the EU through the European Court of Justice which Britain no longer wants to be part of anymore. So what is the point?
The logo of Barclays is seen on the top of one of its branch in Madrid, Spain in this March 22, 2016 file photo. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/Files
Barclays, Citigroup and JP Morgan among banks fined $1.2 billion for forex rigging//Crimson Tazvinzwa
BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – EU antitrust regulators on Thursday fined Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan , MUFG and Royal Bank of Scotland a total of 1.07 billion euros ($1.2 billion) for rigging the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies
Barclays, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, MUFG and Royal Bank of Scotland have been fined a total of 1.07 billion euros ($1.2 billion) by EU antitrust regulators for rigging the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies.
Swiss bank UBS was exempted from a 285 million euro fine since it alerted the existence of two cartels to the European Commission.
A similar case with the U.S. regulators is ongoing where Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS have entered related guilty pleas, and been collectively fined more than $2.8 billion.
“Companies and people depend on banks to exchange money to carry out transactions in foreign countries. Foreign exchange spot trading activities are one of the largest markets in the world, worth billions of euros every day,” EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a press release Thursday.
“Today we have fined Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and MUFG Bank and these cartel decisions send a clear message that the Commission will not tolerate collusive behavior in any sector of the financial markets. The behavior of these banks undermined the integrity of the sector at the expense of the European economy and consumers,” Vestager added.
The EU investigation that has been ongoing for the past six years revealed that some individual traders from various banks in charge of forex trading — a form of trading executed on an intra-day basis — exchanged sensitive information and trading plans through various online professional chat rooms.
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’ss flagship welfare reform kicked off in a busy but orderly fashion on Wednesday as thousands of poor and unemployed people applied in post offices and tax assistance centres for the “citizens’ income” scheme.
Italy’s new “citizen’s income” has little of the revolutionary spirit of Milton Friedman.
The populist 5-Star Movement, which governs with the right-wing League and has long promoted the measure, hopes it will lift its flagging fortunes ahead of European Parliament elections in May.
Italy’s Five Star Movement has risen to global prominence more for the colorful oddness of its founder, the comedian Beppe Grillo, than for the seriousness of its populist policies.
Despite a steady flow of applicants, warnings of chaos and long queues proved misplaced, as many people appeared to heed advice not to sign up on the scheme’s first day.
“This is so helpful, it will give me some breathing space to get to the end of each month,” said 36-year-old Svetlana Guerra as she left a small tax assistance center (CAF) in a densely populated quarter of south-eastern Rome.
Guerra, a Ukrainian-born widow who has lived in Italy for 19 years and survives thanks to odd jobs paid under the counter, said she expected the citizens’ income to give her about 280 euros ($315) per month to help her pay her rent.
Guerra is one of millions struggling to make ends meet in a country in its third recession in 10 years and where the economy has barely grown since the start of the century.
Eleonora Tonnicodi, who runs the center with just one assistant, said they had helped some 20 people apply for the new scheme in the first two hours of the morning.
Applicants can apply until the end of March and, if successful, the first month’s money will be paid in May.
Giuseppe Calafiore, a 66-year-old unemployed car mechanic, said he had no income and he and his wife were surviving on her disability pension of 780 euros per month.
“I’ve come to find out if I’m eligible …because it would at least help until I can get a (state) pension next year,” he said.Slideshow (2 Images)
RISING POVERTY
Italians in absolute poverty, defined as not having enough money to buy a basket of basic goods and services, rose to 5.1 million in 2017, according to statistics office ISTAT. That is a more than threefold increase in a decade.
Italy has traditionally had a generous pension system and offered limited-term state benefits for those laid off from work, but until last year it was virtually unique among rich countries in having no means-tested welfare scheme.
The previous center-left government aimed to fill that gap, but the “inclusion income” program it launched ahead of elections a year ago set aside just 2 billion euros and was widely deemed inadequate.
The citizens’ income, a rallying call for 5-Star since its foundation in 2009, will cost 7 billion euros this year and is expected to go initially to 2.7 million people, according to ISTAT.
Critics say Italy’s strained public finances cannot afford it.
The 5-Star Movement was easily the biggest party at the March 2018 national election but has seen its support slide since then and been overtaken in opinion polls by the League.
“The state is finally taking care of the invisible ones… who have been on the fringes of this country and the political debate,” said 5-Star leader and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio.
Reporting By Gavin Jones; editing by John Stonestreet
CRIMSON TAZVINZWA, AIWA! NO!|The European Parliament has voted to recognise Venezuela’s acting president Juan Guaido, and urged the European Union to follow suit.
The motion urged Brussels to accept Guaido as “the only legitimate interim president of the country until new free, transparent and credible presidential elections can be called in order to restore democracy.”
It does not change EU policy, but adds to calls for the EU executive and its member states to join the United States, Canada and Brazil in backing Guaido.
Four major European member states have told Maduro to call those elections by the weekend or they will recognise the opposition-backed parliamentary speaker.
The motion urges Brussels accept Guaido as “legitimate interim president of the country until new free, transparent and credible presidential elections can be called in order to restore democracy.”
The text was proposed jointly by the major political groups in the parliament, and backed by a 439 deputies against 104 “no” votes and 88 abstentions.
The vote also came as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini demanded that Venezuelan authorities loyal to Maduro release detained foreign journalists.
