Dec 12 (Reuters) – Microsoft (MSFT.O) is to take a 4% equity stake in London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L) as part of a 10-year commercial deal to migrate the exchange operator’s data platform into the cloud, the British company said on Monday.
It is the latest sign of deepening ties between financial services providers and a handful of big global cloud companies such as Microsoft, Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and IBM (IBM.N), which have prompted regulators to scrutinise the ties more closely.
Microsoft has longstanding links with LSEG, but the exchange group’s Chief Executive David Schwimmer said that about a year ago they began talks on closer ties.
“It’s a long term partnership. In terms of the products we will be building together, I would expect our customers to start to see the benefits of that 18 to 24 months out and we will continue building from there,” Schwimmer told Reuters.
Regulators have expressed concern about the over-reliance of financial firms on too few cloud providers, given the disruption this could cause across the sector if a provider went down.
The European Union has just approved a law introducing safeguards on cloud providers in financial services, with Britain set to follow suit.
“You should assume we do not like to surprise our regulators,” Schwimmer said, when asked if LSEG has ensured that regulators were on board.
LSEG said the link with Microsoft was a partnership to reap the benefits of “consumption-based pricing”, and not a traditional cloud deal.
“We will continue to maintain our multi-cloud strategy and working with other cloud providers,” Schwimmer said.
The deal was not about savings by outsourcing activities to the cloud, but about meaningful incremental revenue growth as new products come on stream over time.
“This feels like a key milestone in LSEG’s journey towards being information solutions-centric, even if ‘meaningful’ revenue growth specifics are lacking,” analysts at Jefferies said.
As part of the deal, LSEG has made a contractual commitment for minimum cloud-related spend with Microsoft of $2.8 billion over the term of the partnership.
Microsoft said the basis of the partnership will be the digital transformation of LSEG’s technology infrastructure and Refinitiv platforms on to the Microsoft Cloud.
“The initial focus will be on delivering interoperability between LSEG Workspace and Microsoft Teams, Excel and PowerPoint with other Microsoft applications and a new version of LSEG’s Workspace,” the U.S. company said.
LSEG shares were up 4% in early trade.
LSEG bought Refinitiv for $27 billion from a Blackstone and Thomson Reuters’ consortium, which turned the exchange into the second largest financial data company after Bloomberg LP.
LSEG has made “good progress” on its programme for the delivery of its cloud-based data platform since the completion of its Refinitiv acquisition in January 2021, it said in a statement.
Microsoft will buy LSEG shares from the Blackstone (BX.N)/Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), Consortium, the exchange operator said.
Thomson Reuters, which owns Reuters News, has a minority shareholding in LSEG following the Refinitiv deal.
Microsoft’s purchase is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2023.
Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Jane Merriman and Louise Heavens
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
BEIJING, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Michael Bloomberg apologised last week at a business forum hosted by the news agency he founded for remarks by British former Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticising China as autocratic.
The controversy highlights China’s influence in Asia and sensitivities about overt criticism of Beijing.
Bloomberg, a former New York mayor who ran for president in 2020, apologised on Thursday at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, a business gathering whose speakers included Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan and whose delegates included Chinese businessmen.
“Some may have been insulted or offended last night by parts of the speaker’s remarks referencing certain countries and their duly elected leaders,” Bloomberg said in remarks posted on Twitter.
Referring to Johnson, Bloomberg said: “Those were his thoughts and his thoughts alone, not cleared in advance by anyone or shared with me personally… To those of you who were upset and concerned by what the speaker said, you have my apologies.”
A spokesman for Bloomberg LP, which includes Bloomberg News and where Michael Bloomberg is the CEO, declined to comment to Reuters.
Johnson, who stepped down as Britain’s leader in September, had sharply criticised China’s and Russia’s political system and leaders in his Wednesday speech.
“Let’s look at Russia and China, the two former communist tyrannies in which power has once again been concentrated in the hands of a single ruler, two monocultural states that have been traditionally hostile to immigration and that are becoming increasingly nationalist in their attitudes,” Johnson said, according to his spokesman.
Johnson said Beijing and Moscow were “willing to show a candid disregard for the rule of international law and had over the past year “demonstrated the immense limitations of their political systems by the disastrous mistakes they have made”.
China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Johnson’s spokesman said the former leader had been invited to speak by Bloomberg himself and that his criticism was aimed at the Chinese government, not the nation or its people.
“Mr Johnson is robust in his criticism of authoritarianism and autocracy – including in Russia and China – and will continue to be so,” the spokesman said. “He will continue to make the case for freedom and democracy on the world stage.”
Bloomberg did not specify whether his apology was aimed at Chinese or Russian people. But he sported a small Ukrainian flag badge on his suit, criticised President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal invasion” of Russia’s neighbour and announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would address the forum remotely.
There were no Russian government speakers listed on the forum’s programme.
Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing; Additional reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Three medical journals recently launched independent investigations of possible data manipulation in heart studies led by Temple University researchers, Reuters has learned, adding new scrutiny to a misconduct inquiry by the university and the U.S. government.
The Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology and the Journal of Biological Chemistry are investigating five papers authored by Temple scientists, the journals told Reuters.
A third journal owned by the Journal of American College of Cardiology (JACC), last month retracted a paper by Temple researchers on its website after determining that there was evidence of data manipulation. The retracted paper had originally concluded that the widely-used blood thinner, Xarelto, could have a healing effect on hearts.
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“We are committed to preserving the integrity of the scholarly record,” Elsevier, which owns the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology and publishes the two other journals on behalf of medical societies, said in a statement to Reuters.
Philadelphia-based Temple began its own inquiry in September 2020 at the request of the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which oversees misconduct investigations into federally funded research, according to a lawsuit filed by one of the researchers.
The Temple investigation involves 15 papers published between 2008 and 2020 and supported by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, according to the court records. Nine of the studies were supervised by Abdel Karim Sabri, a professor at Temple’s Cardiovascular Research Center.
His colleague Steven Houser, senior associate dean of research at Temple and former president of the American Heart Association, is listed as an author on five studies supervised by Sabri. Houser was also involved in four additional papers under scrutiny.
Houser sued in federal court last year to stop the university’s inquiry, saying Temple sought to discredit him and steal his discoveries.
Houser “has not engaged in scientific or other misconduct, has not falsified data, and has not participated in any bad acts with any other scientist or academic,” Houser’s lawyer, Christopher Ezold, said in a statement to Reuters. Houser helped review and edit the text portions of the Sabri-supervised studies and did not provide or analyze the data, Ezold said.
A Temple spokesperson said the university is “aware of the allegations and is reviewing them.” He would not comment further or discuss interactions with medical journals. ORI also declined comment. Sabri and Houser did not respond to questions.
Several research experts said that Houser, as one of multiple co-authors, cannot be assumed to be involved in potential misconduct. The ultimate responsibility for a study usually lies with the supervising scientist and any researcher who contributed the specific data under scrutiny.
EXPRESSION OF CONCERN
The probes highlight concerns over potential fabrication in medical research and the federal funds supporting it. A Reuters investigation published in June found that the NIH spent hundreds of millions of dollars on heart stem cell research despite fraud allegations against several leading scientists in the field.
The Temple inquiry also reveals a lack of consensus within the scientific community over how such concerns should be communicated, to prevent potentially bad science from informing future work and funding, according to half a dozen research experts interviewed by Reuters.
Temple did not notify the medical journals that it was conducting an inquiry at the request of the U.S. government agency, the journals told Reuters. They said that they began their inquiries independently.
Xarelto’s manufacturer, the Janssen Pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), also told Reuters the supervising researchers at Temple did not notify the company about the investigation or the retraction by the JACC journal, though two of its employees were listed as co-authors on the paper. Janssen said their contribution to the paper was not questioned in the retraction.
In some misconduct inquiries, universities have notified scientific journals that an investigation is underway. That has allowed journals to issue an “expression of concern” about specific studies, telling readers that there may be reason to question the results. If there is a finding of data manipulation, the journals would be expected to retract the paper.
None of the journals that published the papers under scrutiny by Temple have issued expressions of concern. They would not comment to Reuters as to why they decided not to.
“It’s murky because of a lack of resources for these investigations, there’s no standardization worldwide,” said Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.
Other journals are not scrutinizing the Temple researchers’ work. Five papers flagged by ORI were published in the AHA journals Circulation, Circulation: Heart Failure, and Circulation Research, where Houser is a senior advisory editor.
The AHA said it had not been notified by the U.S. agency or by Temple about their inquiry, and that it does not view itself as responsible for investigating further. The AHA said it had issued a correction of data on one paper at the authors’ request. The paper was the sole study under scrutiny that listed Houser as supervising researcher.
“The American Heart Association is not a regulatory body or agency,” the AHA said in a statement to Reuters.
FEDERAL FUNDING
Researchers and their institutions can be forced to return federal funding that supported work tainted by data manipulation.
Houser has received nearly $40 million in NIH funding and Sabri has received nearly $10 million since 2000, according to a Reuters analysis of NIH grants. Houser’s lawyer said that none of his NIH funding supported the papers supervised by Sabri.
The JACC journal said in its retraction of the Xarelto research that it launched its investigation after receiving a complaint from a reader. In response, the researchers issued a correction of some image data in the paper, which was supervised by Sabri and which listed Houser as an author.
However, the journal said that the correction raised further concerns, prompting it to hire an unidentified outside expert to review them.
According to the retraction notice, the expert evaluation found evidence of manipulation in seven images using a technique known as Western blot, which determines concentrations of a specific protein in cells or tissues under different experimental conditions. As a result, the journal said its ethics board voted to retract the paper.
NIH, ORI and Temple declined to comment on whether Temple would be required to return any federal funding of the work retracted by the JACC publication.
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Reporting by Marisa Taylor and Brad Heath; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Edward Tobin
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Brad Heath
Thomson Reuters
Washington-based reporter covering criminal justice, law and more and a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and member of the Virginia bar.
May 18 (Reuters) – S&P Dow Jones Indices has removed electric carmaker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) from its widely-followed S&P 500 ESG Index (.SPXESUP), citing issues including racial discrimination claims and crashes linked to its autopilot vehicles, a move that prompted critical tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday.
Other contributing factors to the changes, effective May 2, included Tesla’s lack of published details related to its low carbon strategy or business conduct codes, said Margaret Dorn, the organization’s head of ESG indices for North America, in an interview.
Even though Tesla is contributing to reducing emissions with its electric cars, Dorn said, its issues and lack of disclosures relative to industry peers should raise concerns for investors looking to judge the company across environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
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“You can’t just take a company’s mission statement at face value, you have to look at their practices across all those key dimensions,” she said.
Tesla representatives did not immediately respond to questions. But after the index changes, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that “ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”
The back-and-forth underscores a growing controversy about how to judge corporate ESG performance. Investors concerned about issues like diversity and climate change have poured money into funds using ESG criteria to pick stocks, prompting questions about how effectively the funds promote change or whether they have become too involved in setting policy. read more
S&P Dow Jones Indices is majority-owned by S&P Global Inc. (SPGI.N).
The removal Tesla was among a group of changes made to the S&P 500 ESG Index dating from April 22, according to an announcement. Among the additions to the index at the same time was Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), the social media platform Musk has under agreement to purchase.
Dorn and others did not immediately describe the reasons Twitter was added.
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Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Aurora Ellis
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BRIZE NORTON, England, March 16 (Reuters) – British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashoori arrived in Britain from Iran on Thursday, ending an ordeal during which they became a bargaining chip in Iran’s talks with the West over its nuclear programme.
They arrived at the British military airbase of Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, shortly after 1 a.m. local time, after flying back via a brief stopover in Oman. They walked off the plane together and smiled and waved as they entered an airport building.
“It has been a really difficult 48 hours,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said shortly after Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori arrived at the base. “The expectation was that they would be released but we weren’t sure right until the last minute so it’s been very emotional but also a really happy moment for the families.”
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated the pair’s release on Twitter earlier in the day.
“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK,” Johnson said in a tweet.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard said the long ordeal appeared to finally be over. “It’s just a relief, the idea that we can go back to being a normal family, that we don’t have to keep fighting, that this long journey is almost over,” he told Reuters outside his London home before his wife landed.
A statement from Ashoori’s family thanked everyone who had worked towards his release. “1,672 days ago our family’s foundations were rocked when our father and husband was unjustly detained and taken away from us.
“Now, we can look forward to rebuilding those same foundations with our cornerstone back in place.”
Antonio Zappulla, CEO of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said her release was “a ray of light and hope” at a time when the world was in turmoil. The foundation is a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.
In February, as months of talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal inched closer to an agreement, Iran, which holds a dozen Western dual nationals, said it was ready for a prisoner swap in return for the unblocking of frozen assets and release of Iranians held in Western jails.
The nuclear talks were close to an agreement 11 days ago until last-minute Russian demands for sweeping guarantees that would have hollowed out sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine threw the negotiations off track.
Russia now appears to have narrowed its demands to cover only work linked to the nuclear deal, leaving a small number of issues to be resolved between Washington and Tehran, diplomats say.
British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashoori, who were freed from Iran, gesture after landing at RAF Brize Norton military airbase, in Brize Norton, Britain, March 17, 2022. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS
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Separately, Britain said detained Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship, had been released on furlough on Wednesday.
TANK DEBT
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori were freed after Britain repaid a historic debt.
Iran’s clerical rulers say Britain owed Iran 400 million pounds ($520 mln) that Iran’s former monarch, the Shah, paid up front for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other vehicles, almost none of which were delivered after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 toppled the U.S.-backed leader.
Truss said Britain had been looking at ways to pay the debt.
“We have the deepest admiration for the resolve, courage and determination Nazanin, Anoosheh and Morad, and their families, have shown. They have faced hardship that no family should ever experience and this is a moment of great relief,” she said in a statement.
“In parallel, we have also settled the IMS debt, as we said we would,” she added, referring to the debt for military equipment. She said the debt had been settled in full in compliance with international sanctions on Iran and the funds would be ring-fenced for buying “humanitarian goods.”
Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian on Wednesday said Britain had paid its debt a few days ago, denying any links between the payment and the release of the prisoners.
ILL-FATED VISIT
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s protracted difficulties began with her arrest by Revolutionary Guards at Tehran airport on April 3, 2016, while trying to return to Britain with her then 22-month-old daughter Gabriella from an Iranian new year’s visit with her parents.
She was later convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. Her family and the foundation denied the charge.
Ashoori was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019 for spying for Israel’s Mossad and two years for “acquiring illegitimate wealth”, according to Iran’s judiciary.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had travelled to Iran in a personal capacity and had not been doing work in Iran.
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Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Eric Beech and UK bureau; Writing by Michael Georgy and Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Jon Boyle and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
March 3 (Reuters) – Ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s downgraded Russia by six notches to “junk” status, saying Western sanctions threw into doubt its ability to service debt and would weaken the economy.
Russia’s financial markets have been thrown into turmoil by sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two. read more
The invasion has triggered a flurry of credit rating moves and dire warnings about the impact on Russia’s economy. S&P lowered Russia’s rating to junk status last week.
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It also prompted index providers FTSE Russell and MSCI to announce on Wednesday that they will remove Russian equities from all their indexes, after a top MSCI executive earlier this week called Russia’s stock market “uninvestable”. read more
FTSE Russell said the decision will be effective from March 7, while MSCI said its decision will be implemented in one step across all MSCI indexes as of the close on March 9. MSCI said it is also reclassifying MSCI Russia Indexes from emerging markets to standalone markets status.
Russia (.MIRU00000PUS) has a weighting of 3.24% in MSCI’s emerging market benchmark (.MSCIEF) and a weighting of around 30 basis points in the index provider’s global benchmark (.MIWD00000PUS).
The Institute of International Finance predicts a double-digit contraction in economic growth this year. read more
Fitch downgraded Russia to “B” from “BBB” and placed the country’s ratings on “rating watch negative”. Moody’s, which last week had flagged the possibility of a downgrade, also cut the country’s rating by six notches, to B3 from Baa3.
Fitch said the only other precedent to such a large six-notch downgrade on a single sovereign entity was South Korea in 1997.
“The severity of international sanctions in response to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has heightened macro-financial stability risks, represents a huge shock to Russia’s credit fundamentals and could undermine its willingness to service government debt,” Fitch said in a report.
Fitch said that U.S. and EU sanctions prohibiting any transactions with the Central Bank of Russia would have a “much larger impact on Russia’s credit fundamentals than any previous sanctions,” rendering much of Russia’s international reserves unusable for FX intervention.
“The sanctions could also weigh on Russia’s willingness to repay debt,” Fitch warned. “President Putin’s response to put nuclear forces on high alert appears to diminish the prospect of him changing course on Ukraine to the degree required to reverse rapidly tightening sanctions.”
Fitch said it expects further ratcheting up of sanctions on Russian banks.
Moody’s said on Thursday the scope and severity of the sanctions “have gone beyond Moody’s initial expectations and will have material credit implications.”
The sanctions imposed by Western countries will also markedly weaken Russia’s GDP growth potential relative to the ratings agency’s previous assessment of 1.6%, Fitch said.
“In this case, the sanctions-driven frozen/falling assets tail-wagged the ratings dog,” analysts at Mizuho wrote. They added that “ratings and benchmark risks revealed may compound further capital exodus as benchmark funds are forced to liquidate rather than hold.”
Sanctions imposed on Russia have significantly increased the chance of the country’s defaulting on its dollar and other international market government debt, analysts at JPMorgan and elsewhere said on Wednesday. read more
Russia has responded to the sanctions with a range of measures to shore up its economic defenses and retaliate against Western restrictions. It hiked its main lending rate to 20%, banned Russian brokers from selling securities held by foreigners, ordered exporting companies to buttress the rouble, and said it would stop foreign investors selling assets. read more
The government also plans to tap its National Wealth Fund (NWF), a rainy day cushion, to help counter sanctions. read more
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Reporting by Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru and Megan Davies in New York; Additional reporting by Andrew Galbraith in Shanghai and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates
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OTTAWA, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday activated rarely used emergency powers in an effort to end protests that have shut some U.S. border crossings and paralyzed parts of the capital.
Under the Emergencies Act, the government introduced measures intended to cut off protesters’ funding and took steps to reinforce provincial and local law enforcement with federal police.
“The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety,” Trudeau told a news conference. “We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue.”
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But the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the government had not met the standard for invoking the Emergencies Act, which is intended to deal with threats to “sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” the group said.
The “Freedom Convoy” protests, started by Canadian truckers opposing a COVID-19 vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, have drawn people opposed to Trudeau’s policies on everything from pandemic restrictions to a carbon tax. Copycat trucker protests have also sprung up in Israel, France, Australia and New Zealand.
Protesters blockaded the Ambassador Bridge, a vital trade route between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, for six days before police cleared the protest on Sunday while others have shut down smaller border crossings in Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia. Protests in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, entered a third week.
Protesters camped in front of the Canadian Parliament, some of whom want the prime minister to meet with them, said the latest steps were excessive. “It’s an extreme measure that isn’t necessary,” said protester Candice Chapel.
CUTTING OFF FUNDS
The financial measures bring crowdfunding platforms under terror-finance oversight, authorize Canadian banks to freeze accounts suspected of funding the blockades and suspend insurance on vehicles in the protests, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
A person waves a Canadian flag in front of banners in support of truckers, as truckers and supporters continue to protest the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 14, 2022. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg
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“We are making these changes because we know that these (crowdfunding) platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy,” Freeland said.
Canadian authorities have said about half of the funding for the protests has come from U.S. supporters. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) last week froze two personal bank accounts that received C$1.4 million ($1.1 million) for the protests. read more
A U.S.-based website, GiveSendGo, became a prime conduit for money to the protesters after mainstream crowdfunding platform GoFundMe blocked donations to the group. An Ontario court last week ordered GiveSendGo to freeze all funds supporting the blockade, but it said it would not comply.
Amid criticism that the police approach to demonstrations has been too permissive, Trudeau will use federal officers to back up provincial and local forces. “Despite their best efforts, it is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement’s ability to effectively enforce the law,” he said.
In the western Canadian province of Alberta, police said they broke up a group that was armed and prepared to use violence to back a blockade at a border crossing with the United States. read more
The Canadian Parliament must approve the use of the emergency measures within seven days, and the left-leaning New Democrat party said it would support Trudeau’s Liberal minority government to pass the measures.
Ontario, which declared a state of emergency on Friday, backed the move. But premiers in Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan opposed the plan. Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault said using emergency powers risked putting “oil on the fire.” read more
Trudeau said the measures would be geographically targeted and time limited.
Ontario said it will speed up its plan to remove proof-of-vaccination requirements and lift pandemic-related capacity limits for many businesses while Alberta ended its mask requirements for school children on Monday. read more
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Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Nia Williams in Calgary and Lars Hagberg in Ottawa; Writing by Amran Abocar; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Paul Simao and Cynthia Osterman
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WINDSOR, Ontario/WASHINGTON/OTTAWA, Feb 13 (Reuters) – North America’s busiest trade link reopened for traffic late Sunday evening, ending a six-day blockade, Canada Border Services Agency said, after Canadian police cleared the protesters fighting to end COVID-19 restrictions.
Canadian police made several arrests on Sunday and cleared protesters and vehicles that occupied the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, after a court order on Friday.
The blockade had choked the supply chain for Detroit’s carmakers, forcing Ford Motor Co (F.N), the second-largest U.S. automaker, General Motors Co (GM.N) and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) to cut production.
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The bridge carries about $360 million a day in two-way cargoes – 25% of the value of all U.S.-Canada goods trade.
A Windsor Police official told reporters that 20 to 30 arrests had been made. Police also seized vehicles within the demonstration area, according to an earlier statement.
Police stepped up their presence on Sunday with more than 50 vehicles, including cruisers, buses and an armoured car, as the number of protesters dropped to around 45 from roughly 100 on Saturday. Windsor Police tweeted “there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity”.
In Ottawa, counter protests started blocking vehicles trying to join the protests on Sunday, with residents losing patience over the three-week-old demonstrations.
In the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the Pacific highway border crossing in Surrey was temporarily closed on Sunday afternoon, for a second day, by a group of about 200 protesters, according to a Reuters photographer on the scene. A small group of protesters gathered on U.S. side of the border, blocking incoming vehicles.
Police officers hold a line, on the road leading to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, after clearing demonstrators, during a protest against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada February 13, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
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The “Freedom Convoy” protests, started in the national capital Ottawa by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, entered its 17th day on Sunday. But it has now morphed into a rallying point against broader COVID-19 curbs, carbon tax and other issues, with people joining in cars, pick-up trucks and farm vehicles.
“We’re fed up, we’re tired. We want Ottawa to be boring again,” said an Ottawa resident at a counter protest in front of the city’s police headquarters.
The Canadian government had discussed whether to invoke special emergency powers to deal with the protests in the capital, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told CBC News on Sunday. Blair said the lack of police enforcement in Ottawa was “inexplicable.”
The rarely used Emergencies Act would allow the federal government to override the provinces and authorize special temporary measures to ensure security during national emergencies anywhere in the country. It has only been used once in peacetime – by Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – in 1970.
Strangling bilateral trade, protests have spread to three border points, including in Alberta and Manitoba. Canadian police have said the protests have been partly funded by U.S. supporters, and Ontario froze funds donated via one U.S. platform GiveSendGo on Thursday.
The estimated loss so far from the blockades to the auto industry alone could be as high as $850 million, based on IHS Markit’s data, which puts the 2021 daily flow in vehicles and parts at $141.1 million a day.
“Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end,” Windsor City Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a tweet.
In Europe, a convoy of 150 cars protesting COVID-19 restrictions left Paris on Sunday morning and headed towards Brussels, protesters told Reuters.
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Reporting by Shivani Tanna In Bengaluru, Kayla Tarnowski in Windsor, Ontario, and Chris Helgrin in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Julio Cesar Chavez and Carlos Osorio in Windsor; Jen Gauthier in Surrey
Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Amran Abocar, Lisa Shumaker, Daniel Wallis and Gerry Doyle
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WINDSOR, Ontario/WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – A Canadian judge on Friday ordered an end to the four-day-long blockade of a key Canada-U.S. trade corridor by protesters opposing pandemic restrictions, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised President Joe Biden quick action to end a crisis that has disrupted North America’s auto industry.
The order could lead to police in Windsor, Ontario, clearing truckers who have crowded dozens of vehicles near the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest land border crossing and a choke point for Detroit’s carmakers.
Superior Court Justice Geoffrey Morawetz said his order would come into effect at 7 p.m. Eastern Time (0000 GMT) on Friday to give people some time to clear the area. Trudeau earlier told reporters that no action was off the table.
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An hour after the deadline, about 200 protesters, including children, milled around the entrance to the bridge, waving Canadian flags, while others set off fireworks.
Police, who started to gather in a parking lot a few blocks away from the protesters, began handing out pamphlets that outlined penalties under Ontario’s emergency order, which takes effect at midnight.
Companies have diverted cargo to stem losses amid production cuts by companies including Ford (F.N).
The judge on Friday approved the request by auto industry associations and Windsor city authorities hoping to end the protests.
Occupying access roads leading to the bridge on Friday, protesters voiced defiance and there was little sign of them backing down.
“Canada is supposed to be a free country,” said Liz Vallee, a protester from Chatham, Ontario. “When that freedom is threatened, we must stand up.”
Vallee said she and others would stay until all pandemic mandates are lifted.
The “Freedom Convoy” protests, started by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, are also occupying areas outside government buildings in the capital city of Ottawa and have blocked two smaller U.S. crossings.
The protests have inspired similar convoys and plans in France, New Zealand, Australia and the United States, whose Department of Homeland Security is working to ensure that a “Freedom Convoy” event due in early March in Washington, D.C., “does not disrupt lawful trade.” read more
U.S. PRESSURE
Adding to earlier calls for action by U.S. officials and business leaders, Biden expressed concerns over auto plant closures and production slowdowns during a phone call with Trudeau, the White House said in a statement.
People erect a tent as truck drivers and supporters continue to block access to the Ambassador Bridge, which links Detroit and Windsor, in protest against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada February 10, 2022. REUTERS/ Carlos Osorio
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“The two leaders agreed that the actions of the individuals who are obstructing travel and commerce between our two countries are having significant direct impacts on citizens’ lives and livelihoods,” the statement said.
“The Prime Minister promised quick action in enforcing the law, and the President thanked him for the steps he and other Canadian authorities are taking to restore the open passage of bridges to the United States,” it added.
Trudeau told reporters that he agreed with Biden that the blockades cannot continue. “Everything is on the table because this unlawful activity has to end and it will end,” Trudeau said.
U.S.-Canada cross-border trade in vehicles and core parts totaled $51.5 billion in 2021, IHS Markit estimates.
Biden’s administration had urged Canada to use federal powers to ease the Ambassador Bridge blockade, a step Trudeau’s government has not taken. Trudeau said on Friday his government was not seriously contemplating calling in the military over the protests. read more
The leader of Ontario, where police have avoided using force to disperse protesters, sought to build pressure on Friday by threatening C$100,000 fines and up to a year in prison for non-compliance.
Announcing the penalties as part of emergency measures, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said they were needed to “make crystal clear it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and services along critical infrastructure.”
Windsor police issued a statement warning of arrests, but it was not clear if or when authorities would begin issuing fines or seeking jail sentences.
ECONOMIC LOSSES
With car production cuts mounting, Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, said on Friday it had temporarily halted work at its assembly plant in Ohio. General Motors and Toyota also announced new production cuts.
The stock of Canadian autoparts maker Magna International (MG.TO) fell 6.4% on Friday after it said it had seen an initial hit from the bridge’s closure. read more
Beyond auto sector losses, the three U.S.-Canada crossings obstructed account for 33% of Canada’s trade with the United States, valued at $616 million per day, Export Development Canada said.
The bridge’s shutdown could worsen the tight supply of new vehicles in the United States and contribute to the already fast-rising price of new vehicles, IHS Markit said in a Friday report. Even if the blockade ends, a return to normal will take several weeks as shortages cascade through the supply chain, IHS Markit said.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, home to nearly a fifth of U.S. car production, told CNN: “The Canadian government has to do whatever it takes to safely and swiftly resolve this.”
($1 = 1.2737 Canadian dollars)
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Reporting by Kayla Tarnowski and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Steven Scherer and Julie Gordon in Ottawa, Anna Mehler-Paperny in Toronto, Doina Chiacu and David Shepardson in Washington and Ismail Shakil, Kanishka Singh, and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Writing by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Karishma Singh, Mark Porter, Grant McCool and William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Business information provider S&P Global Inc (SPGI.N) and IHS Markit Ltd (INFO.N) have won U.S. antitrust approval for their planned merger, on condition it sell some businesses and scrap a non-compete agreement with GasBuddy, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The $44 billion deal was initially announced in November 2020.
To win approval for the deal, the companies agreed to sell three of IHS Markit’s price reporting agency (PRA) businesses. The department said the businesses are: Oil Price Information Services (OPIS); Coals, Metals, and Mining (CMM); and PetrochemWire (PCW).
The businesses will be bought by News Corp (NWSA.O) under a $1.15 billion deal reached in August. read more
In a court filing, the Justice Department said that S&P Global and IHS are a small number of companies that provide PRA services and “compete vigorously in each of the relevant markets, resulting in lower prices and increased quality and innovation for PRA customers.”
One of them, OPIS, collects and sells information related to U.S. retail gasoline prices. GasBuddy has been one of OPIS’ main sources of data since 2009. Since 2016, OPIS has had exclusive rights to GasBuddy’s data for 20 years.
Because of the agreement, GasBuddy, which uses crowdsourced information to help people find deals on retail gasoline, has been stopped from creating a service to compete with OPIS, the department said.
“The divestitures will preserve competition for PRA (price reporting agency) services, which are vital to the proper functioning of commodity markets and promote transparency in the financial markets,” Richard Powers, acting head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said in a statement.
GasBuddy parent company PDI praised the Justice Department settlement and said “once the waiver clears, we look forward to providing petroleum marketers and wholesalers with a compelling pricing solution, through the 1 million retail fuel price submissions provided by GasBuddies on a daily basis.”
The deal won EU antitrust approval in October, with some of the same conditions. read more
Reporting by Diane Bartz; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Diane Craft, Chris Reese, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.