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dipulb3 · 3 years

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Corporate America's earnings recession is over

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/corporate-americas-earnings-recession-is-over/

Corporate America's earnings recession is over

What’s happening: By the end of last week, 96% of companies in the benchmark index had posted results, according to FactSet. Per analyst John Butters’ latest estimate, S&P 500 earnings grew 3.9% last quarter. That would mark the first year-on-year increase since the end of 2019.

In a note to clients Wednesday, Nick Raich, CEO of The Earnings Scout, put it bluntly: “The earnings recession is over!”

At the beginning of December — amid chatter about a potential double-dip recession — Wall Street expected fourth quarter earnings to drop by 11%, Raich noted.

But a booming housing market and healthy levels of business investment helped improve the picture.

See here: Lowe’s (LOW) recently reported sales growth of 28% last quarter, beating estimates, as more Americans took on home improvement projects. Home Depot (HD) saw sales jump 25% compared to the previous year. (Both companies’ fourth quarters run from November through January.)

Some firms that have done well during the height of the pandemic could see demand fall off later this year should life return to normal. But on the whole, companies are optimistic about the future.

“Outlooks for 2021 were positive enough to drive a sizable increase in estimates,” said LPL Financial strategist Jeffrey Buchbinder. That “may be a sign of better earnings ahead.”

According to FactSet, analysts are projecting double-digit earnings growth for all four quarters of 2021.

Big picture: Faith in the corporate earnings recovery is one of the main reasons the Wall Street thinks stocks can keep performing strongly, even as a rise in government bond yields puts pressure on riskier assets.

“We’re now [two] full quarters into a period of strong upside earnings surprises,” Nicholas Colas, cofounder of DataTrek Research, told clients this week. “The bet now is that momentum will continue.”

There are a few factors that could work in companies’ favor. Another hefty stimulus package is expected in the United States later this month, while a weaker dollar will help multinational firms, boosting the value of international sales and profits.

But Buchbinder points to two possible problems.

“First, earnings tend to fall short of the consensus estimate in most years, though this year may be different given the unique circumstances,” he said. “Second, Covid-19 still carries risks. We’d like to see further progress toward ending the pandemic first, but we see upside if all goes according to plan.”

OPEC and allies have a big decision on their hands

A plunge in crude prices last spring forced oil producers to announce unprecedented cuts to output. Now, oil prices are booming again — putting OPEC and allies like Russia in a tough spot as they weigh their next steps.

Investor insight: US oil prices are back above $60 per barrel after crashing below $0 for the first time last April. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were last trading at $64.06 per barrel.

The rebound is spurred by hopes that the pandemic will soon be brought under control, causing a spike in fuel demand as people resume commutes and start flying again. Meanwhile, production remains limited, capping supply.

OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, are scheduled to meet Thursday to debate whether it’s time to start pumping more barrels. With prices rising, there’s incentive for them to do so.

But acting too quickly could cause prices to flag again, especially if the virus outlook worsens. Plenty of concerns remain about the speed of vaccination campaigns and the ability to control new Covid-19 variants.

Some analysts think that given this delicate dynamic, producers will hold off on increasing output for the time being.

“Optimism is growing that the group of oil producers could roll over output cuts at today’s meeting rather than easing back on production cuts as was initially expected,” Oanda market analyst Sophie Griffiths said in a research note Thursday.

But Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy, believes “all options are on the table” as OPEC+ tries to reach an agreement.

How to buy social media’s hottest stocks

Want to invest in the stocks generating buzz on Reddit, Twitter and TikTok?

You could spend hours trawling these platforms. But one Wall Street investment firm wants to make it even easier.

The latest: VanEck, a money manager that runs exchange-traded funds tied to big themes such as casinos and sports betting, is rolling out the VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF on Thursday, my Appradab Business colleague Paul R. La Monica reports.

The ETF is based on an index created by a Canadian investment company called Buzz Indexes, which uses artificial intelligence technology to screen for 75 large-cap US stocks with positive investor sentiment.

There’s a catch: The company adds and removes stocks in the index at the end of each quarter, but any investments must have a market value of at least $5 billion.

That means GameStop (GME) isn’t included — at least not yet. At the end of December, GameStop was worth just $1.3 billion. But it could be eligible now that the retailer’s valuation is north of $8.6 billion.

Bigger than GameStop: VanEck says it’s not just hopping on a fad. The fund will base most of its investment decisions not on Reddit’s infamous WallStreetBets community, but more mainstream chatter about blue-chip stocks from users on Twitter and the investing site StockTwits.

“The timing of the fund’s launch was coincidental with the rise of the individual investor,” said Edward Lopez, head of ETF product for VanEck. “But it has highlighted a trend that has been growing for a number of years.”

Up next

BJ’s Wholesale (BJ), Burlington Stores (BURL), Kroger (KR) and Michaels (MIK) report earnings before US markets open. Broadcom (AVGO), Costco (COST), Gap (GPS), Slack (WORK) and SmileDirectClub (SDC) follow after the close.

Also today:

First-time requests for US unemployment benefits from last week arrive at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expect 750,000 claims, a slight rise from the previous week.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the Wall Street Journal Jobs Summit at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Coming tomorrow: The US jobs report for February is expected to show 182,000 jobs gains last month, an improvement from January.

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mastcomm · 4 years

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U.S. Charges Huawei With Racketeering, Adding Pressure on China

In a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday in the Eastern District of New York, the Department of Justice accused Huawei and its affiliates of a “pattern of racketeering activity” and said the companies had worked to steal trade secrets from six American firms. The stolen information included source code, as well as the manuals for wireless technology.

The indictment did not identify the six companies, but a source familiar with the investigation — as well as court filings made in several civil lawsuits — indicated they were Cisco Systems, Motorola Solutions, Fujitsu, Quintel Technology, T-Mobile and CNEX Labs.

“The new charges in this case relate to the alleged decades-long efforts by Huawei, and several of its subsidiaries, both in the U.S. and in the People’s Republic of China, to misappropriate intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies, in an effort to grow and operate Huawei’s business,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

The charges add more weight to Washington’s pressure campaign against Huawei, which is already barred from buying many American products and is viewed by the Trump administration as a threat to national security. The escalation is also part of the administration’s attempt to crack down on what it says is a pattern of Chinese espionage and theft aimed at giving Beijing a technological edge.

On Monday, four members of China’s military were charged with hacking into Equifax, one of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies, and stealing trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million Americans in 2017.

Also on Thursday, the Department of Commerce extended the temporary license that allows American companies to continue doing some business with Huawei. It will now expire in April.

The new indictment goes beyond the Justice Department’s earlier allegations of trade-secret theft and sanctions violations.

It applies a federal racketeering law that has historically been used to bring down mob leaders and gang kingpins and allows the government to file charges that would otherwise fall outside the statute of limitations. The criminal conspiracy that Huawei is accused of carrying out has been going on since at least 1999, according to the Justice Department.

Huawei officials argued that the latest charges were not new allegations and appeared to be part of a larger campaign against the company. It is confident that it will be exonerated in the criminal justice system, said Andy Purdy, the chief security officer for Huawei in the United States.

He said the U.S. government was trying to hurt Huawei by pressuring allies not to use its equipment and was attempting to block American companies from selling parts to the Chinese firm. Both campaigns will ultimately hurt America, Mr. Purdy said, by eliminating jobs in the United States and reducing competition in the telecommunications industry.

He said the U.S. government was engaged in a “campaign to carpet bomb Huawei out of existence,” adding: “It seems like the United States is not thinking about the significance of this.”

The indictment portrays Huawei as orchestrating a steady, if not sophisticated, campaign to steal trade secrets. For instance, the indictment alleged that in 2004, a Huawei employee sneaked back to a Chicago trade show to steal a competitor’s technology.

The employee “was discovered in the middle of the night after the show had closed for the day in the booth of a technology company” and was found “removing the cover from a networking device and taking photographs of the circuitry inside.” The individual wore a badge listing his employer as “Weihua” — an anagram of Huawei — according to the indictment.

In another episode, prosecutors say, Huawei planned “countermeasures” against a company making data storage technology. It invited leaders of the firm to make a presentation about its plans, then asked for a copy of the slides used in the presentation and “immediately” shared it with engineers at its subsidiary working on a competing product, according to the indictment.

Huawei has had legal disputes with several of the companies it is accused of stealing from. Cisco, a computer networking equipment maker in San Jose, Calif., sued Huawei in 2003, claiming the Chinese company infringed on numerous patents and illegally copied its software source code and documentation. The suit was dropped about a year later in exchange for a promise of product changes from Huawei.

Quintel sued Huawei in 2015, claiming it had stolen its antenna technology. The litigation was settled in 2018. Motorola settled intellectual-property lawsuits with the Chinese company in 2011. T-Mobile was named in the earlier charges against Huawei, when prosecutors alleged that the manufacturer had tried to steal details about a robot, named Tappy, used by the wireless carrier.

Prosecutors also accused Huawei of helping the Iranian government install surveillance equipment to monitor and detain antigovernment protesters in Tehran in 2009.

Last year, the Justice Department charged Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with outlining a decade-long attempt by the company to steal trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran. Ms. Meng was also named in the Justice Department’s indictment on Thursday.

Ms. Meng is in Canada, out of jail on bail of 10 million Canadian dollars, or $7.5 million, awaiting extradition to the United States. She is under 24-hour surveillance and must wear a GPS tracker on her ankle.

Gary Botting, a leading extradition expert in Canada, said the new charges were unlikely to have much effect on Ms. Meng’s case in Canada since they were, in his view, “too little, too late.”

The judge in that case has been deliberating on whether extradition would meet a fundamental requirement under Canadian law: that the crime Ms. Meng is accused of in the United States constitutes a crime in Canada.

While racketeering is not a crime under Canadian law, Mr. Botting said Canada’s extradition treaty with the United States allowed aspects of racketeering to be legal grounds for an extradition. And Canadian prosecutors representing the United States could decide to add new charges.

The White House has looked to ratchet up the pressure on Huawei for years, with members of Congress from both parties backing its efforts. The new charges may give more fodder to the company’s critics on Capitol Hill, who have been pushing to make sure Huawei has no role in the next generation of wireless networks, known as 5G.

“The indictment paints a damning portrait of an illegitimate organization that lacks any regard for the law,” said the top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia.

Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has focused on combating an array of threats that China poses to the United States and its allies in the West, including theft of trade secrets and espionage, as the country seeks to expand its sphere of economic and military power.

Huawei, whose equipment powers telecom networks, sits squarely at the center of both of those concerns.

Intelligence community analysts say Huawei can use its network equipment to monitor traffic across a network and potentially engage in unlawful surveillance. Mr. Purdy of Huawei pushed back against those claims, saying control of those mobile networks is firmly with the carriers that build and operate them.

Huawei is also the leading supplier on every continent except for North America of equipment for 5G networks, which will underpin telecommunications and advanced technologies like self-driving cars.

As countries around the world migrate their communications systems to 5G, and as more technology innovation is built on top of it, Huawei is in a position to gain a huge economic edge over U.S. tech giants, which have long been at the forefront of innovation and have lately powered the U.S. economy.

Attorney General William P. Barr said in a speech last week that the Chinese government was using “every lever of power to expand its 5G market share” because it would gain ground in every technology that then touched 5G.

“Our economic future is at stake,” Mr. Barr said in the speech, during a conference in Washington on threats that China poses to the United States. “The risk of losing the 5G struggle with China should vastly outweigh other considerations.”

For years, American intelligence officials have tried to convince companies and governments around the world that Huawei’s equipment could give Beijing access to sensitive communications networks. But that global campaign has faltered, as countries like Britain and Saudi Arabia opt to use Huawei’s gear in their 5G networks.

In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain believed that any risk could be managed and that the company’s products could be used in a portion of Britain’s 5G network. Germany is said to be close to a decision on whether to allow the company to work on its network, as well.

As its global campaign to bar Huawei has faltered, American officials have argued that the United States should take aggressive action to help the world develop an alternative to Huawei’s products. Mr. Barr, in his speech, argued that the United States should consider providing direct or indirect financial support to Nokia and Ericsson, two European companies that are the primary competitors to Huawei’s networking gear.

David McCabe and Katie Benner reported from Washington, and Nicole Hong from New York. Dan Bilefsky contributed reporting from Montreal, and Julian E. Barnes from Washington.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/tech/u-s-charges-huawei-with-racketeering-adding-pressure-on-china/

#Tech

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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U.S. Charges Huawei With Racketeering

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has charged Huawei and two of its subsidiaries with federal racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from American companies, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s legal fight with the Chinese telecommunications company.In a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday, the Department of Justice accused Huawei and its affiliates of a “pattern of racketeering activity” and said the companies had worked to steal trade secrets from six unidentified American firms. The stolen information included source code, as well as the manuals for wireless technology.“The new charges in this case relate to the alleged decades-long efforts by Huawei, and several of its subsidiaries, both in the U.S. and in the People’s Republic of China, to misappropriate intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies, in an effort to grow and operate Huawei’s business,” the Justice Department said in a news release.The new charges add more weight to Washington’s pressure campaign against Huawei, which is already barred from buying many American products and is viewed by the Trump administration as a threat to national security. The escalation is also part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to crack down on what it says is a pattern of Chinese espionage and theft aimed at giving Beijing a technological edge.On Monday, four members of China’s military were charged with hacking into Equifax, one of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies, and stealing trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million Americans in 2017.The new indictment goes beyond the Justice Department’s earlier allegations of trade-secret theft and sanctions violations.It applies a federal racketeering law that has historically been used to bring down mob leaders and gang kingpins and allows the government to bring charges that would otherwise fall outside the statute of limitations. The criminal conspiracy that Huawei is accused of carrying out has been going on since at least 1999, according to the Justice Department.The indictment portrays Huawei as orchestrating a steady, if not sophisticated, campaign to steal trade secrets. For instance, the indictment alleged that in 2004, a Huawei employee sneaked back to a Chicago trade show to steal a competitor’s technology. The employee “was discovered in the middle of the night after the show had closed for the day in the booth of a technology company” and was found “removing the cover from a networking device and taking photographs of the circuitry inside.” The individual wore a badge listing his employer as “Weihua” — an anagram of Huawei — according to the indictment.A spokesman for Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Last year, the Justice Department charged Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with outlining a decade-long attempt by the company to steal trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran. Ms. Meng is in Canada, out of jail on bail of 10 million Canadian dollars, or $7.5 million, awaiting extradition to the United States. She is under 24-hour surveillance and must wear a GPS tracker on her ankle.The White House has looked to ratchet up the pressure on Huawei for years, with members of Congress from both parties backing its efforts. The new charges may give more fodder to the company’s critics on Capitol Hill, who have been pushing to make sure Huawei has no role in the next generation of wireless networks, known as 5G.“The indictment paints a damning portrait of an illegitimate organization that lacks any regard for the law,” said the top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia.Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has focused on combating an array of threats that China poses to the United States and its allies in the West, including theft of trade secrets and espionage, as the country seeks to expand its sphere of economic and military power.Huawei, whose equipment powers telecom networks, sits squarely at the center of both of those concerns.Intelligence community analysts say Huawei can use its network equipment to monitor traffic across a network and potentially engage in unlawful surveillance.Huawei is also the leading supplier on every continent except for North America of equipment for 5G networks — an advanced telecommunications network that will underpin telecommunications and advanced technologies like self-driving cars.As countries around the world migrate their communications systems to 5G, and as more technology innovation is built on top of it, Huawei is in a position to gain a huge economic edge over U.S. tech giants, which have long been at the forefront of innovation and have lately powered the U.S. economy.Mr. Barr said last week that the Chinese government was using “every lever of power to expand its 5G market share” because it would gain ground in every technology that then touched 5G.“Our economic future is at stake,” Mr. Barr said in a speech during a conference in Washington on threats that China poses to the United States. “The risk of losing the 5G struggle with China should vastly outweigh other considerations.”For years, American intelligence officials have tried to convince companies and governments around the world that Huawei’s equipment could give Beijing access to sensitive communications networks.But that global campaign has faltered, as countries like Britain and Saudi Arabia opt to use Huawei’s gear in their next-generation wireless networks, known as 5G.In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain believed that any risk could be managed and that the company’s products could be used in a portion of Britain’s 5G network. Germany is said to be close to a decision on whether to allow the company to work on its network, as well.As its global campaign to bar Huawei has faltered, American officials have argued that the United States should take aggressive action to help the world develop an alternative to Huawei’s products. Mr. Barr, in his speech, argued that the United States should consider providing direct or indirect financial support to Nokia and Ericsson, two European companies that are the primary competitors to Huawei’s networking gear. Read the full article

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olwog · 5 years

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Today we learn that walking alone isn’t lonely, little people are affected hugely by big decisions and even at 80, you’re never too old to walk 500 miles.

The morning sees blue skies and a sunny day but not too warm, perfect for walking. I walk to the cafe where Carlos is doing a wonderful job welcoming all for breakfast or just a drink. All of the pastries that have been carefully baked since four o’clock this morning are on display as people entering the lovely dining area have to walk past them. They’re still putting the chairs out on the pavement which overlooks the bay. It’s still a bit chilly for sitting out so only the smokers are there most with a coffee although it’s entirely proper in Spain to start the day with brandy or a large glass of white, after all, it’s gone five!

A coffee and a couple of stashed bananas later I’m looking for the shell and the yellow arrow that designates the Camino and with a little bit of GPS help, I find it. The first one is embedded into the pavement with an unambiguous arrow pointing the route.

I thought I’d managed to avoid a return to the castle and cathedral by walking that part of the route last night but this takes me there once more and I accept it but it does get the heart rate up as it’s a fairly vicious climb about 200 feet but better early and it does brace me for the numerous ups and downs that follow.

Out of San Vicente and another ‘up’ but then I have a view of the Picos Mountains still with snow on the peaks and looking back I have the whole of the bay area and mud flats festooned with birds. It’s early morning with a blue sky above and verdant green all around. This part of Spain does get a prevailing wind off the Bay of Biscay so the weather can be exciting at times and does include a fair amount of rain but the result is stunning when it’s sunny, as it is today.

At the top there is a seat carefully surrounded by a low hedge, it’s looking back towards the bay and I take off the rucksack and sit for a while, it’s wonderful. After a few minutes and a drink from the bottle I’d acquired from the fruit shop I reassemble my bags and set off again refreshed but this time it’s down. Gentle down is kind and enjoyable, this is gentle down and I take my time to walk into the valley, over the bridge that enables a safe crossing of the motorway into La Acebosa. This is a beautiful little village with all kinds of things for the family and I stop at the sports ground to readjust and decide on the route as it split between the woods and the original route which is a little longer, I decide on the original and take the extra 3 km on the chin. They’re both well signed so if you come this way either is going to be good.

Waiting to be canonised!

The next kilometre is quite seriously up and I have to step aside to allow a very smelly Discovery to crawl up the hill in a cloud of diesel smoke. The up-side is that it’s the only vehicle I see and at the top, there’s a wonderful steady down that enables me to take in the priceless view of the Picos Mountain Range complete with snow.

The only person that I pass smiles and says, “Buenos, que tal”.

It seems the way of the Northern Spanish, they only utter the first word of what is normally a two word greeting, at this time of the day it would be ‘Buenos Dias’ and I answer “Bien, gracias” (Good, thanks) and only then realise that it’s the first time that I’ve uttered any Spanish without having to either think it through or write it down – I’m really chuffed and begin to think I’ve cracked it. As the days progress I’ll realise that this was a one off and I’ll be back to normal but I bathe in glory for the moment.

The track takes me along relatively flat contours at about two or three hundred feet and the land below me is rolling meadows and woods with the odd stream. The flowers at this time of year are exquisite.

I pass through farms and small hamlets some with antique farm machinery discarded at the side of the road and looking like one-off’s designed by the farmer and knocked together by the local blacksmith. They’re ingenious and often simple and I sit on one for my banana break to the delight of some children playing in a tiny playground.

“Hey, perigrino”, they call, initially I don’t pick up the words then one of them, very hesitatingly, said, “Are – you – having – a – nice – day?”, she pronounces the words slowly with a gap between each one and the others laugh.

“A very good day, thank you, gracias”, I reply then add, “Bien dia, Gracias”.

Their mums are sitting on a bench seat smiling. One of them said something in Spanish to the little girl that had spoken to me and she says, “I – am…”, then broke off and looks at her mum who says something that I can’t hear.

The little girl picks up again, she’d clearly been given a bit of coaching from her mum, “ Soy Anna, I – am – going – to – Leeds, mi papá esté alli.”, she’s excited and adopts her native tongue; I recognise the first two words as “I’m Anna” and the last bit as, “…my dad is there”.

So, in full, “I’m Anna, I am going to Leeds, my dad is there”

I tell her that’s wonderful and mum quickly translates and Anna goes back to her friends.

I ask Mum if she is going to live in Leeds or just visiting and tell her I live in Yorkshire. She tells me that everything is up-in-the-air because of Brexit, she is a Biology teacher and he is a specialist nurse, for the first time on any of these walks I am seriously pissed-off that we’re putting up artificial barriers to valuable and skilful people but try not to show it and wish them all well.

“Have a nice day with your friends Anna”. She’s gone back to playing some kind of skipping game and she stops and gives me a lovely vigorous girly wave and combines it with a smile that would stop traffic. I wish Anna’s mum lots of luck and walk back on the track slightly misty-eyed at the thought of all of the innocent families caught up in this senseless debacle.

I walk another hour under-a-cloud but this slowly resolves itself as the challenges of the trail push me a little bit. There had been a couple of serious ‘ups’ followed by walking on loose shale then back to summer meadows and I begin to think of my wonderful childhood in pastures like these.

I’d lingered in Hortigal and Grave, both tiny hamlets of half-a-dozen houses and just a farm but always a smile and a “Buen Camino” as I pass. Sergio is a little bit bigger and I look for a coffee shop where I’m rewarded by La Gloria. There’s a rack of four rucksacks sitting on a bench outside and I marvel at the thought of leaving all of my worldly goods sitting outside a cafe but this is the Camino and whilst it would be ludicrous to say there is no theft it remains that there is significant trust so I put mine on the end and go in.

*Just for clarity – there is a huge difference between trust and recklessness, my passport, insurance and money is in a bumbag on my belt

La Gloria – a nice watering hole in Serdio

A small reminder that many folks do this as a pilgrimage

It’s good to get the boots off and spend some time with a tortilla, baguette and orange drink. It’s a powerful combination of energy without bloating and the tortilla especially is composed of little more than egg and potato with some seasoning and when coupled with a banana it can and does keep me going all day.

There’s the usual banter between the peregrinos, ‘Where have you been?’, ‘Where’d you start?’, ‘How far are you going today?’ It’s usually conducted in broken English which tends to be the intermediate language of the Camino. Some have finished their day and stopping here, others like me, have another hour or two to go and then we get a couple who’re real athletes, they’ve been doing 35 to 45km per day and this is no exception. They have my admiration but it’s not the way I do it, I like to stop from time-to-time, make a photo and write this stuff at the end-of-the-day so I need a bit of headroom for that. When I see them leave; however, they’re travelling light i.e. someone has been hired to take their stuff to the next hostel or albergue and then I see them set off and understand why – they’re running – wow!

I leave Serdio and within a couple of hundred metres bump into Ignatius and he tells me that his friends and family pronounce it the Basque way ‘Inyaki’. He’s spent a year in Australia learning English and he’s certainly been successful. We walk about five kilometres together then bump into a wonderful bunch of multi-national retired folks in a loop road off a byway. There’s a Vietnamese/Canadian; a Japanese/American; a guy from the UK (I’ll come to him), and others but I don’t have enough time on this leg to talk to them all.

We stop for a while and share a few jokes. There’s a tiny guy from Japan called Akida with good English and he proudly tells me he’s eighty years old and he’s doing this particular Camino, (The Norte) ‘because it is 800km and it is the hard one’, well I hope I’m still walking at eighty, that really will do me! The natural dynamics of a walking group apply to this one and within five minutes I’m walking with someone else when I tell him I’m from Northallerton he looks surprised and asks me if I know Bailey Place. I tell him it’s been fifty years since I saw him and he responds with the fact that he’d been his boss in Leeds.

I’ve travelled all over the world to conduct seminars and lectures and never been tempted to ‘play away from home!’. I was once in a nightclub after some work in Klang, a port town in Malaysia to which tourists would never dream of going. I leaned across the bar to ask for a beer and got a tap on my shoulder, “Get me a beer too”, said a familiar voice. It was a friend from Hartlepool. These events just prove I wouldn’t have got away with it anyway!!

My new found friends are stopping at various points along the way and my hostel is here in Pésues so I take my leave. I’ve only known them five minutes but there’s still a slight regret when we part and I make my way up the steep hill to the Hostel Baviera and it turns out it’s not bad.

I’m up on the hill looking across the valley, I’m with some lovely people and the restaurant is sporting some tasty meals for tonight so, yet again, I’m smiling.

Enjoy the snaps…G..x

Feel free to share and comment, I love comments.

Camino – San Vicente de la Barquera to Pésues Today we learn that walking alone isn’t lonely, little people are affected hugely by big decisions and even at 80, you’re never too old to walk 500 miles.

#Camino #Camino del Norte #Pésues

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marilynngmesalo · 5 years

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Canada may want to consider its own space force: Military expert

Canada may want to consider its own space force: Military expert Canada may want to consider its own space force: Military expert https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

MONTREAL — President Donald Trump’s push to create a U.S. space force is being welcomed by military experts in Canada, and the executive director of one defence think tank says Canada should consider following suit.

“At some point we might like to think about a space force,” Matthew Overton, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, said in an interview. “Thinking about space as a separate entity in itself that deserves attention and expertise, I think is a good idea.”

But it is not something that needs to be done immediately, he added, suggesting Canada should first develop a centre of excellence on space knowledge.

Last month, Trump took a first step toward a space force when he signed an order to create a U.S. Space Command, which pulls together space-related units from across military services into a co-ordinated, independent organization.

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The move comes amid growing concerns that China and Russia are working on ways to disrupt, disable or even destroy U.S. satellites.

The U.S. air force has operated a space command since 1982, and its mission is “to provide resilient, defendable and affordable space capabilities for the air force.” It also operates the mysterious X-37B space plane, known simply as its orbital test vehicle. The unmanned plane has already completed four clandestine missions, carrying classified payloads on long-duration flights.

Overton, who served in the Canadian Forces for 39 years, noted that Canada’s Air Force already has a space component. It is led by Brigadier General Kevin Whale, Director General Space. Its mission, a spokesman said by email, is “to maintain space domain awareness, and to develop, deliver and assure space-based capabilities.”

Overton said Trump’s space force makes a lot of sense, but he expects there will be tension as the new entity gets down to work with other branches of the military. He gave the example of the GPS network, which is crucial for land, air and sea forces, but could become a space force responsibility.

“What is the relationship with other forces? How do you work out that dynamic?””

Wayne Ellis, who served in the Canadian military for 20 years, agrees that a U.S. space force is a good idea.

“I think there’s enough activity and potential activity to concentrate resources in that domain, which probably merits a separation from the air force,” Ellis, a past president of the Canadian Space Society, said in an interview.

“Perhaps now is a good opportunity to look at a totally separate branch — at least for the U.S.”

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China lands spacecraft on 'dark' side of moon in world first

He noted that Canadian military personnel have worked side by side with the U.S. military for decades. “A lot of these positions are actually space positions at various bases so, at some point, our posted personnel are going to be interacting with the U.S. space force as it gets set up,” he added.

James Bezan, the Conservative defence critic, said he wants to see more details about the space capabilities Americans envision.

“For Canada, my sense is that we need to watch this and see how it evolves,” he said. Before Canada considers creating its own space force, Bezan added, it should focus on making Norad — the bilateral North American Aerospace Defence Command — more effective.

“I would think that any co-operation that we do with the States as it relates to North American defence, as it relates to aerospace, should be part of the Norad discussions,” he said.

Randall Garrison, the NDP defence critic, criticized Trump’s plan to launch a sixth branch of the U.S. military.

“New Democrats are fundamentally opposed to the militarization of space and believe that space should only be used by all of humanity for peaceful purposes,” he wrote in an email.

“New Democrats urge the government of Canada to uphold the principles of peaceful space exploration and to engage with our allies on a renewed call for the drafting of an international treaty aimed at the prevention of an arms race in space.”

Overton pointed out that space has long been exploited for military purposes, and there’s no way it can be avoided.

“Communications satellites, GPS and intelligence communications, you name it — all that is there,” he said.

The office of the Minister of National Defence noted in a statement that “space-based capabilities have become essential to Canada’s operations at home and abroad.

“That is why Canada’s defence policy … commits to investing in a range of space capabilities such as satellite communications, to help achieve global coverage, including the Arctic.”

The statement goes on to say that “Canada will continue to promote the peaceful use of space and provide leadership in shaping international norms for responsible behaviour in space.”

— With files from The Associated Press.

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Home News US Home Sport UK Showbiz US Showbiz Australia Home Femail Health Sci & Tech Video Money Travel Discount Codes Login | Join now Desktop site Femail Share this articleFacebook Twitter e-mail SMS WhatsApp How can I cure rhinitis? By Dr Rosemary Leonard 00:00 BST 09 Oct 1993, updated 09:09 BST 24 Apr 2002 Facebook Twitter e-mail SMS WhatsApp 0 comments In allergic rhinitis, the lining of the nose becomes inflamed in response to breathing in certain substances, known as allergens. Often, as in your case, the throat is affected too. The most common allergens to cause rhinitis are pollens, which lead to the classic symptoms of hayfever in spring and early summer. Some unlucky people, though, like you, get rhinitis all the year round - a condition known as perennial rhinitis. The most common allergens that provoke perennial rhinitis are house dust mites, animal fur, feathers and mould spores (which, incidentally, are the also the most common causes of asthma). Skin prick testing can help to identify the worst culprits, so ask your doctor if this could be arranged for you. Meanwhile, replace pillows and duvets that contain feathers with ones filled with polyester, cover your mattress with a special anti-allergic cover, and don't let furry animals in your bedroom, or any rooms where there are soft furnishings. The best treatments for allergic rhinitis are steroid nasal sprays, such as Beconase or Flixonase, which help prevent the allergic response responsible for the inflammation. They must be used regularly, every day, for best effect, and you may have to continue with treatment for years. Anti-histamine tablets can help too - it's worth trying different brands to find which ones suits you best, then get a large supply on prescription from your GP. The most specific treatment for allergic rhinitis is immunotherapy. This involves repeated injections of a tiny amount of allergen, with the aim of desensitising your immune system. 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