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World News

Saudi Aramco posts close to 300% leap in Q2 revenue on international demand restoration

The Saudi Aramco logo is pictured at the oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia on October 12, 2019.

Maxim Shemetov | Reuters

Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a staggering 288% increase in net income to $ 25.5 billion for the second quarter, while maintaining its dividend of $ 18.8 billion amid large oil prices from higher prices and a rebound benefit from global demand.

Aramco’s net income of $ 25.5 billion for the quarter compared to $ 6.6 billion in the same quarter of 2020. Earnings exceeded expectations, with analysts posting an average net income of $ 24.7 billion for the quarter expect.

“Our second quarter results reflect a strong recovery in global energy demand and we are moving into the second half of 2021 with more resilience and flexibility as the global recovery picks up,” said Amin Nasser, President and CEO of Aramco, in an am Corporate statement published on Sunday.

Aramco said net income for the first half was $ 47.2 billion, compared to $ 23.2 billion in the first half of 2020, an increase of 103%. The company said the results were supported by easing Covid-19 restrictions around the world, vaccination campaigns, stimulus measures and accelerating activities in key markets.

“Although the challenges posed by Covid-19 variants are still uncertain, we have shown that we can adapt quickly and effectively to changing market conditions,” said Nasser.

Dividend plans

Aramco said free cash flow was $ 22.6 billion for the second quarter and $ 40.9 billion for the first half of 2021, compared to $ 6.1 billion and $ 21.1 billion, respectively. Dollars in the same time periods in 2020.

This is significant because free cash flow has now risen above the $ 18.75 billion quarterly dividend for the first time since the pandemic began. Aramco already pays the world’s largest dividend, but the improving outlook has led some analysts to call for higher payouts.

“A dividend hike is needed to stay competitive,” BofA analysts said in a research note ahead of the results. “Higher oil prices and OPEC + -driven production increases should support a significant increase in free cash flow over the next few years,” she added.

Aramco responded that its dividend would remain at “normal levels” for the quarter but would “advise” later on whether to stick to its current payout schedule.

“We’re looking at our sustainability program,” Nasser told CNBC on Sunday’s conference call. “Many of the elements of our capital program that we are currently considering have to do with crude oil-to-chemistry and hydrogen, and all of these programs offer great opportunities, particularly with the Shareek program,” he added.

Aramco, which is majority owned by the Saudi Arabian government, is an important source of income for the kingdom. “All of this will be reviewed with our board of directors and we will decide on an additional dividend payment at a later date,” said Nasser.

Price outlook

Oil prices soared around 40% to around $ 70 a barrel in 2021, prompting major oil rivals BP, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell to raise dividends and launch share buyback programs.

“We assume that the recovery will continue,” said Nasser. “We’re seeing more economies opening and we expect demand to be around 99 million barrels by the end of the year … and 100 million barrels next year as a forecast for aggregate demand,” he added.

Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, gesticulates during a panel meeting on the third day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, January 23, 2020.

Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Aramco also said it lowered its gearing ratio – essentially how much the company is debt-financed to equity – to 19.4% on June 30, down from 23% on December 31, 2020. The decrease was mainly due to higher cash and cash equivalents and stronger operating cash flows and proceeds related to Aramco’s most recent crude oil pipeline transaction.

“Our historic $ 12.4 billion pipeline deal was an endorsement of our long-term business strategy from international investors and represents a significant advance in our portfolio optimization program,” said Nasser.

Capital expenditures were $ 7.5 billion for the second quarter and $ 15.7 billion for the first half of 2021, up 20% and 15% respectively. Capital expenditures are expected to be around $ 35 billion in 2021, according to Aramco.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom would sell more Aramco shares earlier this year, but the company made no comment on the plans. Aramco also briefly stopped commenting on a previously announced oil-to-chemicals deal with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, which is expected to be formalized later this year.

“We are advancing a number of strategic programs that focus on sustainability and low carbon fuels, maximizing the value of our assets and driving our downstream integration and expansion,” added Nasser.

“For all of these and other reasons, I am very positive about the second half of 2021 and beyond.”

Categories
Politics

Justice Dept. Seizes Washington Publish’s Telephone Data

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department under President Donald J. Trump has secretly obtained the phone records for three Washington Post reporters from the early months of the Trump administration, the newspaper said on Friday.

Prosecutors searched for records of reporters’ work, home and cell phone numbers from April to July 2017 to find out who had spoken to them.

“We are deeply concerned about this use of governance to gain access to journalists’ communications,” said Cameron Barr, the Post’s acting editor-in-chief, in a statement. “The Justice Department should immediately clarify its reasons for interfering with the activities of reporters doing their job, an activity protected by the first amendment.”

The department’s decision to seek a court order for the records made in 2020 would have required the approval of Attorney General William P. Barr, a department official said.

The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, had also indicted a former Senate assistant over his contacts with three reporters in a case in which prosecutors secretly confiscated years’ worth of phone and email records from a New York Times reporter. This case signaled a continuation of the aggressive pursuit of leaks under the Obama administration.

Marc Raimondi, a Justice Department spokesman, said on Friday in a statement regarding the seized postal records: “Although the department is rare, it follows the procedures set out in its media policy guidelines when looking for legal procedures to and not to telephone charges Email records of content received from media members as part of a criminal investigation into unauthorized disclosure of classified information. “

He added, “The targets of these investigations are not those who receive the news media, but rather those with access to the national defense information they made available to the media and therefore did not protect them as required by law.”

According to its guidelines, the Justice Department should exhaust other investigative steps before seeking permission to receive telephone recordings or e-mails from journalists from telecommunications companies. In addition, the division must “strike the right balance between a number of important interests”, it says in its guidelines, such as “Maintaining the essential role of the free press in promoting government accountability and an open society”.

Leak cases, as known in the Justice Department, are notoriously difficult to track and require FBI agents to devote significant time to cases that rarely lead to charges.

It wasn’t clear what caused the Justice Department to seize the Post’s records, but in July 2017 the newspaper published an article about Sergey I. Kislyak, the then Russian Ambassador to the United States, and Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General at the time the publication of the article.

The Post reported that the two men discussed the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election when Mr. Sessions was a Republican Senator from Alabama and a prominent supporter of Mr. Trump. The article referred to U.S. surveillance sections, which are highly ranked and among the government’s best kept secrets.

In addition to the phone records of the Post reporters – Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous who now work at The New Yorker – prosecutors have also received a court order to obtain metadata for the reporters’ email accounts, the company said Newspaper with.

The New York Times also reported in June 2017 that surveillance wiretaps suggested Mr Kislyak was discussing a private meeting with Mr Sessions at a Trump campaign event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The Times has received no indication that their reporters’ records have been confiscated.

The media leaks enraged Mr Trump, who repeatedly railed against them, particularly those revealing details of the government’s efforts to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether any of his campaign aides had conspired with Russia.

In August 2017, as Attorney General, Mr. Sessions condemned the “dramatic increase in the number of unauthorized disclosures of classified national security information in recent months”.

Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department also aggressively prosecuted officials who provided sensitive information to reporters. In 2013, prosecutors obtained the phone recordings from reporters and editors from The Associated Press. In this case, law enforcement officers obtained the records for more than 20 phone lines from their offices and journalists, including their home and cell phone numbers.

In addition, the Justice Department confiscated the phone records of James Rosen, then a Fox News reporter, after one of his articles contained details of a secret United States report on North Korea. In an affidavit, Mr. Rosen was described as “at least as a helper, advocate and / or co-conspirator”.

The Justice Department’s decision to search the phone records was widely condemned in the news media.

In 2013, then Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued new guidelines that severely restricted the circumstances in which journalists’ records could be accessed, but did not prevent prosecutors from keeping phone records and emails for national security reasons to search.

In an email from July 2017, Sarah Isgur Flores, then a top Justice Department spokeswoman, tried to cast doubt that a meeting between Mr Kislyak and Mr Sessions had even taken place. She described the section as “exposed” and challenged its credibility when defending Mr. Sessions on the news media.

Ms. Isgur described the coverage as “serious leaks for our national security”. The email was received from reporter Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News under the Freedom of Information Act.

Last year the Trump administration released confidential transcripts from Mr. Kislyak speaking with Mr. Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn. The documents also revealed extremely delicate capabilities of the FBI, showing that the office was able to monitor the phone line at the Russian Embassy in Washington even before a call from Mr. Kislyak connected to Mr. Flynn’s voicemail.

In his extensive investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, the special adviser, “found no evidence that Kislyak spoke or had the opportunity to speak to Trump or Sessions after the speech,” his office’s 2019 report said.

Categories
Business

As Covid Outbreak Rages, India Orders Essential Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down

NEW DELHI – With a devastating second wave of Covid-19 across India and lifesaving oxygen starvation, the Indian government on Sunday ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to remove dozens of social media posts critical of how the pandemic was dealt with are .

The order addressed itself in around 100 places that contained criticism from opposition politicians and called for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government said the posts could cause panic, use images out of context and hinder their response to the pandemic.

For the time being, the companies have complied by making the posts invisible to those using the websites in India. In the past, companies have republished some content after determining that it wasn’t breaking the law.

The shutdown orders come as India’s public health crisis turns into a political spiral, setting the stage for an increasing battle between American social media platforms and Mr Modi’s government over who decides what can be said online.

On Sunday, the country reported more than 349,691 new infections and 2,767 deaths. This was the fourth day in a row that it set a world record in daily infection statistics, though experts warn that the real numbers are likely much higher. The country now accounts for almost half of all new cases worldwide. His health system seems to be fluctuating. Hospitals across the country have been working hard to get enough oxygen for patients.

In New Delhi, the capital, hospitals turned away patients this weekend after running out of oxygen and beds. Last week at least 22 patients were killed in a Nashik city hospital after a leak cut their oxygen supply.

Online photos of corpses on plywood hospital beds and the countless fires of overhauled crematoria have gone viral. Desperate patients and their families have sought help from the government online, appalling an international audience.

On Sunday evening, in one of many solicitations for help on social media, Ajay Koli took to Twitter to find an oxygen bottle for his mother in Delhi, who he said had tested positive 10 days ago. Mr Koli said he lost his father on Saturday. “I don’t want to lose my mother now.”

Mr Modi has been attacked for ignoring expert advice on the risks of easing restrictions after holding large political rallies without regard to social distancing. Some of the content now offline in India has highlighted this contradiction by using garish images to contrast Mr. Modi’s rallies with the flames of the pyre.

In a radio address on Sunday, Mr. Modi tried to contain the fallout. He said the “storm” of infections “rocked” the country.

Updated

April 25, 2021, 1:06 p.m. ET

“To win this fight, we must prioritize experts and scientific advice,” he said.

One of the out of view tweets was posted by Moloy Ghatak, a labor minister in the opposition-ruled state of West Bengal, where Mr Modi’s party hopes to make big wins in the current election. Mr. Ghatak accused Mr. Modi of “mismanagement” and held him directly responsible for the deaths. His tweet included pictures of Mr Modi and his election campaigns alongside those of the cremations and compared him to Nero, the Roman emperor for choosing to hold political meetings and export vaccines during a “health crisis”.

Another tweet from Revanth Reddy, a seated MP, used a hashtag blaming Mr. Modi for the “disaster”. “India records over 2 lakh cases daily,” it says using an Indian numbering unit which means 200,000 cases. “Shortages of vaccines, shortages of drugs, increasing numbers of deaths.”

The new steps towards the confluence of the online language deepen a conflict between American social media platforms and the government of Mr. Modi. The two sides have argued over the past few months over an urge by the Indian government to monitor what is being said online more closely. A policy that, according to critics, serves to silence critics of the government.

“This is a trend that is increasingly being enforced for online media rooms,” said Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group. He added that the orders were used to “cause censorship” under the guise of making social media companies “more accountable”.

The battle for control of the gruesome images and online anger over a raging public health disaster is only one front in a wider conflict that is unfolding around the world. Governments around the world have tried to contain the power of the biggest tech companies like Twitter and Facebook, whose policies far from their California headquarters have huge political implications. At best, it can be difficult to untangle government efforts to deter misinformation from other motivations, such as tilting the online debate in favor of a political party.

While corporations attempt to adhere to guidelines that they say are based on the principles of free speech, their responses to government power games have been inconsistent and have often been based on business pragmatism. In Myanmar, Facebook cut ties with military-linked accounts because of violence against demonstrators. In China, Facebook is doing brisk business with government-sponsored media groups that have been busy denying the widespread internment of ethnic minorities that the US has labeled genocide.

In India, businesses are faced with a tough choice: obey laws and risk repressing political debates, or ignore them and face harsh sentences, including jail sentences for local employees, in a potentially huge growth market.

Disputes over online language in India are becoming more common. The Indian government, controlled by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has become increasingly aggressive in suppressing dissent. She has arrested activists and journalists and pressured media organizations to stick to her line. It cut off mobile internet access in crisis areas. A number of apps from Chinese companies were blocked following a stalemate with China.

In February, Twitter relented to government threats to arrest its employees and suspended 500 accounts after the government accused them of making inflammatory remarks about Mr. Modi. However, Twitter declined to remove a number of journalists ‘and politicians’ accounts, pointing out that the order to ban them appeared to be inconsistent with Indian law.

In a statement on Sunday, the Indian government said the posts it targeted were “spreading false or misleading information” and “panic over the Covid-19 situation in India through the use of unrelated, ancient and out of context images or images “. It pointed to photos in several posts that were alleged to be of bodies unrelated to the recent outbreak.

In a statement sent via email, Twitter said that if content is “found to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction but doesn’t violate Twitter’s rules, we may only deny access to the content in India,” adding that in this case users would be notified. Facebook did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

The moves did little to quell a wider chorus of online anger.

“If most citizens do everything they can to organize hospital beds, oxygen and logistics support for loved ones, what exactly is the Indian government doing?” wrote Mahua Moitra, a politician and MP from West Bengal.

Aftab Alam, professor at the University of Delhi, was more direct.

“Because you know it’s easier to remove tweets than to ensure oxygen supply,” he wrote on Twitter.

Categories
Entertainment

See the Shameless Forged’s Goodbye Posts For Sequence Finale

It’s the end of an era. April 11th is Showtime Shameless ends after 11 seasons and a lot of drama within the Gallagher family. The cast have practically grown up together over the past 10 years, and their goodbye messages show how much the series meant to them. Actors Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan, Steve Howey, William H. Macy and others recognized all of the work that went on their show on Instagram with behind-the-scenes photos and wrap party pictures.

Monaghan summed it up best when he wrote, “It’s the end of the day. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Thank you for coming with us.” Take a look at the cast’s sentimental notes. We’re already counting down the days before we can get the entire series back on Netflix.

Categories
World News

Dow closes up 450 factors at its session excessive, posts a successful week

US stocks climbed Friday, ending the volatile week on a high as stocks that benefited from a successful economic reopening outperformed again.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 452.97 points, or 1.4%, to 33,072.52. The S&P 500 rose 1.7% to 3,974.50, led by energy and materials. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.8% and ended the session 1.2% higher. All three key benchmarks recovered to their session highs by the end.

Financial stocks rose after the Federal Reserve announced that banks could resume buybacks and raise dividends from late June. The central bank originally announced that it would lift restrictions on the pandemic in the first quarter, but even the belated move gives investors more clarity.

JPMorgan’s shares were up 1.5% while Bank of America was up 2%. Goldman Sachs was up 1%.

Classic re-opening games build on the dynamics of the previous session. American Airlines was up 1% while Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line were up more than 1%.

President Joe Biden announced a new goal Thursday of distributing 200 million Covid vaccine shots within his first 100 days in office. As of Friday, there have been 100 million coronavirus vaccinations since Biden was inaugurated.

Fears of rising inflation eased after the data showed tamed price pressures. The core consumer spending index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.1% month-on-month, in line with the expectations of economists polled by Dow Jones. Year after year, the measured value rose by 1.4% and was thus slightly below an estimate of 1.5%.

“PCE deflator data, which is softer than expected, supports the idea that government bond yields are likely to consolidate in the near term,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “The lower the inflation base, the easier it is for markets to convince themselves that the impending rise in price pressures will be temporary.”

The 10-year US Treasury yield fell from its peak after the inflation data, and most recently rose 3 basis points to 1.65%. The rate jumped 6 basis points earlier.

Meanwhile, consumer sentiment in the US continued to rise during the introduction of the vaccine. A University of Michigan poll released Friday found the consumer sentiment index finalized at 84.9 in March, up from 76.8 in February. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a value of 83.7.

The Dow and S&P 500 are on track for small wins in the week of consecutive wins. However, the Nasdaq is still lower on the week. The rally to record highs has slowed in recent weeks amid rising interest rates and valuation concerns.

“The market has been feeling rather choppy lately and this could become more of the norm as we enter the second year of recovery,” said Larry Adam, chief investment officer at Raymond James. “These periods, like most, are not moving in straight lines as there will be drawdowns along the way. This is not for concern, but investors should expect and take advantage of some weakness.”

Categories
World News

‘Roaring Kitty’ Keith Gill defends GameStop posts, says he’s as bullish as ever on the inventory

Reddit and YouTube’s trading star known as “Roaring Kitty” defended his social media posts that led to a mania in GameStop stocks last month.

The trader, whose real name is Keith Gill, will testify before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services on Thursday. Aside from defending his actions, Gill used his testimony to re-establish why he is still optimistic about GameStop.

“GameStop’s stock price may have improved a bit over the past month, but I’m more optimistic than ever about a possible turnaround. In short, I like the stock,” said Gill in the comments. “I believed – and continue to believe – that GameStop had the potential to reinvent itself as the ultimate destination for gamers in the thriving $ 200 billion gaming industry.”

Through YouTube videos and Reddit posts, Gill – who offers DeepF —— Value on Reddit and Roaring Kitty on YouTube – attracted an army of day traders who cheered each other and plunged into video-only stock and call -Options.

GameStop’s share price rose to $ 483 per share before falling more than 90% to currently around $ 46 per share.

“I felt the company was dramatically undervalued by the market. The prevailing analysis of the impending fate of GameStop was just wrong,” he said in the statement. “My investment skills had reached a level where I felt that public sharing could help others.”

In his testimonial, Gil said he started buying GameStop stock in 2019 when the share price fell on disappointing profits. Gill also liked that famous investor Michael Burry was optimistic about GameStop.

“Thinking the stock was undervalued, I bought call options on June 7, 2019. I increased my position for much of 2019 and 2020 as I became increasingly confident as I continued to analyze the company and its three perspectives. that the stock’s price has indeed been dramatically undervalued, “the testimony reads.

He said the market underestimated GameStop’s growth prospects and overestimated the likelihood that the video game company would go bankrupt. Gill believes GameStop can expand its digital capabilities and capitalize on its 60 million loyal members, the testimony reads.

The WallStreetBets star went on to say that social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and WallStreetBets on Reddit improve the playing field for individual investors as they work together to develop investment ideas.

“I was very clear that my channel was for educational purposes only and that my aggressive investment style was likely not appropriate for most of the people who visit the channel,” said Gill. “Whether other individual investors bought the stock was irrelevant to my thesis – my focus was on the fundamentals of the business.”

Gill’s last post on Reddit said he made $ 7.8 million from GameStop. A class action lawsuit was filed against Gill in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday alleging he was an inexperienced trader despite being a licensed professional.

While Gill worked as a marketing and financial education clerk at MassMutual, he said he never sold stocks for the company and was not a financial advisor. MassMutual was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. “We are looking into the matter and have no comment,” said Paula Tremblay, a spokeswoman for MassMutual.

“My investment in GameStop and my social media posts have been entirely my own,” said Gill. “I have not asked anyone to buy or sell the stock for my own benefit. I did not belong to any group that tried to create movement in the stock price. I never had a financial relationship with a hedge fund. I had no information about GameStop except which was public. I didn’t know any people within the company and I never spoke to an insider. “

Gill is due to testify in front of Congress on the GameStop trade controversy at 12 p.m. ET Thursday.

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Categories
Health

Fb says it plans to take away posts with false vaccine claims.

Facebook said Monday that it plans to remove posts with false claims about vaccines from its platform, including repealing claims that vaccines cause autism or that it is safer for people to contract the coronavirus than vaccinations receive.

The social network has increasingly changed its content policies over the past year as the coronavirus has risen sharply. In October, the social network banned people and companies from buying advertisements containing false or misleading information about vaccines. In December, Facebook announced it would remove posts with claims exposed by the World Health Organization or government agencies.

Monday’s move goes even further by targeting unpaid posts to the website and, in particular, to Facebook pages and groups. Rather than just aiming at misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, the update includes incorrect information about all vaccines. Facebook said it had consulted with the World Health Organization and other leading health institutes to come up with a list of false or misleading claims regarding Covid-19 and vaccines in general.

In the past, Facebook had announced that it would only “rank down” or push down on people’s news feeds, leading to misleading or false claims about vaccines, making it harder to find such groups or posts. Now posts, pages and groups that contain such untruths will be completely removed from the platform.

“Building trust in these vaccines is critical, so we’re launching the world’s largest campaign to help public health organizations share accurate information about Covid-19 vaccines and encourage people to get vaccinated as soon as possible they have vaccines available, “said Kang-Xing Jin, director of health at Facebook, in a company blog post.

The company said the changes were in response to a recent decision by the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body that reviews decisions made by the company’s policy team and determines whether they are fair. In a decision, the board said Facebook needed to create a new standard for health-related misinformation because its current rules were “inappropriately vague”.

Updated

Apr 8, 2021, 7:52 p.m. ET

Facebook also announced that it would provide US $ 120 million in advertising loans to ministries of health, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies to help spread reliable Covid-19 vaccines and preventative health information. As vaccination centers became more prevalent, Facebook would help point people to places to get the vaccine.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has been proactive against false information related to the coronavirus. He has Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, often hosted on Facebook for live video updates on America’s response to coronavirus. In his private philanthropy, Mr. Zuckerberg has also vowed to “eradicate all diseases” and pledge billions to fight viruses and other diseases.

However, Mr Zuckerberg was also a staunch advocate of free speech on Facebook and previously hesitated to contain most falsehoods, even if they were potentially dangerous. The exception was Facebook’s policy of not tolerating statements that could lead to “immediate, direct physical harm” to people on or outside the platform.

Facebook has been criticized for this stance, including for allowing President Donald J. Trump to stay on the platform until after the January 6 uprising in the U.S. Capitol.

Public health advocates and outside critics have questioned Facebook’s refusal to remove false or misleading claims about vaccines for years. This has resulted in an increase in false vaccine information, often by people or groups spreading other harmful misinformation on the website. Even when Facebook tried to update its guidelines, it often left loopholes that were exploited by misinformation spreaders.

Facebook announced on Monday that it was also changing its search tools to post relevant, authoritative results on coronavirus and vaccine information while making it harder to find accounts that are preventing people from getting vaccinated.