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Summary Wagner to train near PolandPrigozhin greets mercenaries in BelarusUp to 10,000 Wagner fighters to be in Belarus - commanderSays 22,000 Wagner fighters perished in UkraineMOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) - Mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group will help train Belarusian special forces during exercises at a military range near the border with NATO-member Poland, the Belarusian defence ministry said on Thursday. "The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company)," the Belarusian defence ministry said. Poland said earlier this month it would send 500 police to shore up security at its border with Belarus to cope with rising numbers of migrants crossing as well as any potential threats after Wagner mercenaries relocated to Belarus. MERCENARY PLANSA deal was struck on June 24 under which the mercenaries would move to Belarus in return for charges against them being dropped. The post contradicted remarks by a Russian lawmaker who said that as many as 33,000 Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the defence ministry.

Persons: Wagner, Poland Prigozhin, Russia's Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, Marx, Felix Light, Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Osborn, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Russia's, NATO, Wagner PMC, Private Military Company, West, Kremlin, Wagner's Telegram, Reuters, Islamic, Central African, Thomson Locations: Poland, Belarus, Ukraine MOSCOW, Belarusian, Ukraine, Africa, Brest, Russian, Ukrainian, Russia, Crimea, Syria, Central African Republic, Mali, Bakhmut, Tbilisi, Moscow

☆ Sterling takes a beating, dollar gains ground
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. dollar bills, British GDP and Euro currency bank notes are pictured on September 27, 2022 in Bath, England. Sterling was struggling to recover from a sharp fall on Thursday following U.K. inflation data that undershot market expectations, while the dollar regained its footing after a steep decline last week that analysts said was overblown. "The market I think is a bit more reasonable now with its expectations for rate hikes by the BoE. "We thought (the fall) was too strong, so it looks like the dollar has regained some of those losses," said Capurso. The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 139.56 per dollar, while the Australian dollar was last 0.16% higher at $0.6782, ahead of the country's employment data later on Thursday.

Persons: Sterling, BoE, Joseph Capurso, Yannis Stournaras, Mel Siew Organizations: Bank of England, Traders, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Central Bank, U.S, Muzinich Locations: Bath, England, Asia, China

☆ Hurdles world record holder Amusan charged with 'whereabouts' violation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 19 (Reuters) - Tobi Amusan, the 100m hurdles world record holder, said on Wednesday she has been charged with missing three doping tests but has denied taking performance enhancing substances and expects to be cleared to compete at the world championships. Under World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules, the applicable sanction for three 'whereabouts' failures is two years' ineligibility, subject to a reduction to a minimum of one year depending on an athlete's degree of fault. She became the first Nigerian world champion and world record holder in an athletics event with her 2022 victory in Eugene, Ore., where she set the world record of 12.12 seconds. Amusan was part of Nigeria's 4x100 relay squad that won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games but were then stripped of their medal after anchor runner Grace Nwokocha failed a doping test. The World Athletics Championships run from Aug. 19-27 in Budapest.

Persons: Amusan, Grace Nwokocha, Lori Ewing, Peter Rutherford Organizations: Athletics, Silesia Diamond League, Diamond League, Thomson Locations: Nigerian, Eugene ,, Budapest

Summary Prigozhin welcomes mercenaries to BelarusPrigozhin says the front is 'a disgrace'Mercenaries should prepare for AfricaIt's only just begun, top Wagner commander says'Welcome to hell!' The footage, reposted by his press service on Telegram, is the first video evidence of Prigozhin's whereabouts since the night of the mutiny. In the video, the authenticity of which Reuters could not immediately verify, a man whose voice and Russian sounded like Prigozhin's, is heard welcoming his men. It is also unclear what Wagner, which Prigozhin said had 25,000 men, would do next. The video posted on Wednesday showed Prigozhin receiving a Wagner black flag, decorated with the motto "Blood, honour, Motherland, Courage", from their camp in southern Russia.

Persons: Belarus Prigozhin, Wagner, Utkin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's, Vladimir Putin's, Prigozhin, honourably, Putin, Dmitry Utkin, Sergei Shoigu, Staff Valery Gerasimov, Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Osborn, Jon Boyle Organizations: West, Kremlin, Reuters, Islamic, Central African, Putin, Staff, Thomson Locations: Belarus, Africa, MOSCOW, Ukraine, Russian, Belarusian, Russia, Rostov, Dagestan, Minsk, Syria, Libya, Mali, Crimea, Central African Republic, Ukrainian, Bakhmut

According to a decree signed by Putin on Sunday, the Russian state had taken control of Danone's Russian subsidiary along with beer company Carlsberg's (CARLb.CO) stake in a brewer. Yakub Zakriev, 32, a deputy prime minister of Chechnya and the republic's agriculture minister, took the post of general director of Danone Russia on Tuesday, Interfax's SPARK database of company disclosure documents in Russia showed. "Choosing him as general director of Danone Russia shows that representatives of the team of Chechen President and Hero of Russia Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov are talented and successful managers," Dudayev said on his Telegram messaging app. Kadyrov, a close ally of Putin, has referred on social media to Zakriev as his "dear nephew". Danone sought alliances with big local players during the boom years, eventually gaining at least a fifth of Russia's dairy market.

Persons: Kadyrov, Danone Russia Kovalchuk, Carlsberg, Ramzan Kadyrov, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Yakub Zakriev, Akhmed Dudayev, of Russia Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, Dudayev, Zakriev, Zulai, Akhmad Kadyrov, Kadyrov's, Danone, Yuri, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Bolloev, Guy Faulconbridge, Lidia Kelly, Shubhendu, Stephen Coates, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Danone Russia, Danone, Kremlin, Sunday, Chechen, Moscow State University, Cuban Missile, Soviet, Financial Times, Shubhendu Deshmukh, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Chechnya, Grozny, Paris, Red, Soviet Union, United States, China, Baltika, St Petersburg, Moscow, Melbourne, Bengaluru

☆ The new low-cost US airline that promised to connect the East Coast with Japan and Korea is having a rough start
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Northern Pacific Airways launched its first revenue flight between California and Las Vegas on Friday. Startup airline Northern Pacific Airways is struggling to take off — both figuratively and literally. However, regulators required Northern Pacific to start flying before it could apply for ETOPS — igniting a mad dash for its operating certificate and a new first route. On July 9, Northern Pacific got the official green light to launch flights, with CEO Rob McKinney sharing the news on Twitter. Despite the turbulent first two years of business and a shaky inaugural, Northern Pacific is still planning to eventually fly to Asia.

Persons: Brady MacDonald, hasn't, Ted Stevens, Rob McKinney Organizations: Northern Pacific Airways, Startup, Sunday, Northern Pacific, Boeing, International, Northern, Twitter Locations: California, Las Vegas, Asia, Ontario , California, Orlando, New York City, Ted, Alaska, Europe, Reykjavik, Northern Pacific, Ukraine, Russia, Tokyo, Seoul, Russian, Southern California, Mexico, Australia, Philippines

☆ Netflix’s cash gun starts to whir
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Netflix (NFLX.O) is putting out some programming worthy of more eyeballs. But its forecast on free cash flow – once a horror flick– shows that the business is only getting stronger. The revenue outlook for the third quarter of $8.5 billion is below analysts’ estimates of $8.7 billion, according to Refinitiv. Netflix raised its outlook for free cash flow this year to at least $5 billion from approximately $3.5 billion. At a time when high interest rates make greenbacks more expensive, and competitors Walt Disney (DIS.N) and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) are squirming, Netflix’s cash story is one to watch.

Persons: Reed Hastings, Walt Disney, Jennifer Saba, Gucci, Xavier Niel’s, Lauren Silva Laughlin, Sharon Lam Organizations: YORK, Reuters, Netflix, Hollywood, Warner Bros Discovery, Twitter, Xavier Niel’s GAM, Commonwealth Games, Thomson

☆ Next Gucci CEO may have toughest job in luxury
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Gucci is getting a new look. Gucci took a harder hit during the pandemic than some mega-brand rivals, then struggled to bounce back. That’s way below the 10% and 15% rise brokers are pencilling in for Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior (DIOR.PA) respectively. All of that makes Gucci CEO job one of the most interesting in the luxury sector – but also possibly the toughest. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Persons: Gucci, Marco Bizzarri, Jean, François, Kering’s, Bizzarri, Roberto Eggs, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Karen Kwok, Xavier Niel’s, Liam Proud, Streisand Neto Organizations: Reuters, Tuesday, Gucci, JPMorgan, Revenue, Alpha, Louis, Hermès, Barclays, Bain & Company, Twitter, Xavier Niel’s GAM, Commonwealth Games, Thomson Locations: Milan, Italian, Kering’s Paris, China, People’s Republic

☆ Dollar teeters near one-year low; euro scales 17-month peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Rae Wee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

FILE PHOTO: U.S. dollars are counted out by a banker counting currency at a bank in Westminster, Colorado November 3, 2009. “I think the dollar can stay under selling pressure,” said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Money markets have largely priced in a 25-basis-point rate hike from the Fed at its policy meeting later this month, though see rates coming down as early as December. Conversely, investors expect the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to have further to go in their rate-hike cycle. Elsewhere, the Japanese yen rose marginally to 138.66 per dollar and remains more than 4% clear of a seven-month low it hit last month.

Persons: Rick Wilking, ”, Carol Kong, Ryota Abe, China’s, Khoon Goh Organizations: greenback, REUTERS, U.S, Federal Reserve, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, “, Fed, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, SMBC, Reserve Bank of Australia’s, New Zealand, ANZ Locations: SINGAPORE, Westminster , Colorado, Asia

☆ Commonwealth Games hit a financial wall
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MELBOURNE, July 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Anyone who signs up for a marathon soon hears about the metaphorical wall that exhausted runners often hit around three-quarters of the way through the race. Australia’s state of Victoria has just crashed into the financial equivalent, much earlier, in its preparations for hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Rio de Janeiro lost $2 billion hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, for instance. Andrews’ government, though, also wanted the Games to be hosted in several different cities – and added more sports, per the Commonwealth Games organising body. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Persons: Daniel Andrews, Andrews, Antony Currie, Robyn Mak, Thomas Shum Organizations: MELBOURNE, Reuters, Victoria, Games, Commonwealth Games, Twitter, Cathay, Thomson Locations: Australia’s, Victoria, Rio de Janeiro

☆ Meme investors could spoil AMC’s next act
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AMC is already fighting another lawsuit over its attempt to convert preferred stock into common shares, a novel scheme to avoid getting investors’ approval for share sales. It fits with other forays since AMC became a retail-favorite meme stock – like buying into a gold miner – that seem to disregard conventional governance niceties. Attracting a rush of retail traders means there are plenty of investors to call foul. If their push against the preferred stock gambit succeeds, AMC could struggle to raise new funds, which bodes poorly for repaying its $5 billion in debt. It turns out that, for a meme stock’s final act, the audience starts throwing tomatoes.

Persons: Adam Aron, Kevin Barnes, Barnes ’, Anita Ramaswamy, Xavier Niel’s, Jonathan Guilford, Sharon Lam Organizations: YORK, Reuters, AMC, Twitter, Xavier Niel’s GAM, Commonwealth Games, Thomson

☆ Novartis buyback offers partial cure for M&A risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Novartis’s (NOVN.S) bumper buyback will offer a little relief to investors. Many had been waiting to see what the $225 billion Swiss pharma giant would do with an extra $20 billion burning a hole in its pocket after Roche(ROG.S) bought back its stake in 2021. It needs new drugs to replenish its pipeline and boost an ailing share price, which has still not recovered since the pandemic. But on Tuesday, CEO Vasant Narasimhan said he will launch a $15 billion buyback programme. The Swiss drugmaker’s $15.4 billion of net debt is less than 1 times its forecast 2023 EBITDA, according to Refinitiv.

Persons: Roche, Vasant Narasimhan, can’t, Aimee Donnellan, Xavier Niel’s, Neil Unmack, Streisand Neto Organizations: Reuters, Swiss pharma, Alcon, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Twitter, Xavier Niel’s GAM, Commonwealth Games, Thomson Locations: Swiss

☆ Xavier Niel’s GAM raid looks less quixotic
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NewGAMe, whose backers include telecoms mogul Xavier Niel and Swiss wealth manager Bruellan, launched a tender offer for just under 18% of GAM’s shares. Liontrust’s offer looked like the least bad option for GAM, which is losing money as its assets have more than halved since 2018 to 68 billion Swiss francs. And at least one other investor, with 6.5%, has said it won’t accept Liontrust’s offer. That means Liontrust will probably struggle to get to the two-thirds vote it would need to take over GAM. But GAM also has over 2 billion Swiss francs of tax losses to carry forward, lowering any future tax burden.

Persons: Xavier Niel, Bruellan, NewGAMe, Neil Unmack, Aimee Donnellan, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, GAM, Liontrust Asset Management, Twitter, Commonwealth Games, Cathay, Thomson Locations: Swiss

☆ Dollar teeters near one-year low while euro scales 17-month peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I think the dollar can stay under selling pressure," said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Money markets have largely priced in a 25-basis-point rate hike from the Fed at its policy meeting later this month, though see rates coming down as early as December. Conversely, investors expect the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to have further to go in their rate-hike cycle. Elsewhere, the Japanese yen rose marginally to 138.66 per dollar and remains more than 4% clear of a seven-month low it hit last month. The Bank of Japan, or BOJ, holds its monetary policy meeting next week, with investors on the lookout for whether the central bank will start phasing out its ultra-dovish policy stance.

Persons: Carol Kong, Ryota Abe, China's, Khoon Goh Organizations: greenback, U.S, Federal Reserve, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Fed, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, SMBC, Reserve Bank of Australia's, New Zealand, ANZ Locations: Asia

Versus the yen the dollar fell 0.28% to 138.36 yen per dollar, after touching its lowest against the Japanese currency in two months on Friday. ,"The FX market is front running possible normalisation of Fed policy in 2024," said Chris Weston, head of research at broker Pepperstone in Melbourne. "The question then is whether the dollar sell-off has gone too far and we are at risk of mean reversion early this week." The Swedish and Norwegian crowns continued to climb after making gains of more than 5% on the dollar last week. The Swedish crown rose 0.2% to 10.2360 against the dollar, the Norwegian crown rose instead 0.4% to 10.0160.

Persons: Francesco Pesole, Chris Weston, Carol Kong, Sharp, Joice Alves, Tom Westbrook, Angus MacSwan, Andrew Heavens Organizations: ING, Federal Reserve, Fed, European Central Bank, Pepperstone, U.S, New Zealand, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, dovish Bank of, Thomson Locations: SYDNEY, U.S, Germany, Europe, Melbourne, dovish Bank of Japan, Norwegian, London, Sydney

On a year-on-year basis, GDP expanded 6.3% in the second quarter, accelerating from 4.5% in the first three months of the year, but the rate was well below the forecast for growth of 7.3%. "The data suggests that China's post-COVID boom is clearly over," said Carol Kong, economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. The latest data raises the risk of China missing its modest 5% growth target for 2023, some economists say. Authorities are likely to roll out more stimulus steps including fiscal spending to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects, more support for consumers and private firms, and some property policy easing, policy insiders and economists said. So I think this does raise greater urgency for more policy support soon."

Persons: Carol Kong, Alvin Tan, Harry Murphy Cruise, Kevin Yao, Ellen Zhang, Joe Cash, Shri Navaratnam Organizations: National Bureau, Statistics, Reuters, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Analysts, Authorities, Asia FX, RBC Capital Markets, stoke, Moody’s, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, Shanghai, Sydney, China, Asia, Singapore

☆ Instant View: China's Q2 GDP growth slows to 0.8% q/q, raises stimulus expectations
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

"Consumers are not spending, mainly driven by the bleak outlook for the property market. Disappointing retail numbers and property market sales show it doesn't seem that the boost from rate cuts is sufficient. ..the property market is beginning another slowdown - the government will have to come up with more stimulus for property." "Nonetheless, we think more stimulus is required to stabilise and restore confidence in the property market." ZHIWEI ZHANG, CHIEF ECONOMIST, PINPOINT ASSET MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG"Nominal GDP growth turns out to be lower than real GDP growth in Q2, the first time since comparable data are available in Q4 2016.

Persons: CHRISTOPHER WONG, LOUIS KUIJS, CAROL KONG, XING ZHAOPENG, KEN CHEUNG, ALVIN TAN, VISHNU VARATHAN, MARCO SUN, CHEN, TONY SYCAMORE, ZHIWEI ZHANG, JING LIU Organizations: Gross, National Bureau, Statistics, Shanghai, NBS, BANK OF, ANZ, MIZUHO BANK, OF, OF ASIA FX, RBC, MUFG BANK, IG, SYDNEY, Friday's, BANK OF SINGAPORE, HSBC, stoke, Authorities, Reuters, U.S, Thomson Locations: U.S, SINGAPORE, ASIA, HONG KONG, SYDNEY, CHINA, SHANGHAI, OF ASIA, China

☆ Dollar licks wounds as policy peak looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The euro , which jumped 2.4% last week to a 16-month high, held just below that peak at $1.1223. The yen , also up 2.4% last week, held at 138.56 per dollar. The Australian and New Zealand dollars pulled back slightly, with the Aussie last at $0.6821 - off last week's peak of $0.6895 - and the kiwi down 0.2% at $0.6355 after hitting a five-month high of $0.6412 on Friday. The Swedish and Norwegian crowns made gains of more than 5% on the dollar last week, and have paused for breath. "By then other major central banks including the ECB will also likely have reached their peak policy rates ... interest rate dynamics may therefore swing back in favour of the dollar."

Persons: Carol Kong, Chris Weston, Sharp, Jane Foley, Tom Westbrook, Sam Holmes, Stephen Coates Organizations: SYDNEY, New Zealand, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Pepperstone, U.S, dovish Bank of Japan, ECB, Thomson Locations: Europe, Melbourne, Asia

"The data suggests that China's post-COVID boom is clearly over," said Carol Kong, economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. Authorities are likely to roll out more stimulus steps including fiscal spending to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects, more support for consumers and private firms, and some property policy easing, policy insiders and economists said. Most analysts say policymakers are likely to dole out modest supportive measures, instead of embracing any aggressive stimulus due to limited room and worries of growing debt risks, analysts said. For June alone, China's retail sales grew 3.1%, slowing sharply from a 12.7% jump in May, the data showed. Industrial output growth unexpectedly quickened to 4.4% last month from 3.5% seen in May, but demand remains lukewarm amid a bumpy post-COVID economic recovery.

Persons: Carol Kong, Alvin Tan, Kevin Yao, Ellen Zhang, Joe Cash, Shri Navaratnam Organizations: National Bureau, Statistics, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Authorities, Asia FX, RBC Capital Markets, stoke, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, Shanghai, Sydney, China, Asia, Singapore

☆ Australia's Victoria pulls out of 2026 Commonwealth Games over cost concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MELBOURNE, July 18 (Reuters) - Australia's state of Victoria will not host the 2026 Commonwealth Games due to projected cost overruns, placing the future of the quadrennial multi-sport event in doubt. "Frankly A$6-A$7 billion for a 12-day sporting event, we're not doing that," Andrews said at a media conference. Andrews said Victoria had already informed the global Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) but the cost of breaking the 2026 contract had yet to be decided. The CGF did not provide immediate comment but local body Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) said the pull-out was "beyond disappointing". The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), which had spoken of the 2026 Games as a "runway" for hosting the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, said it was "an enormous disappointment" for the athletes.

Persons: Victoria Premier Dan Andrews, we're, Andrews, Victoria, Craig Phillips, John Coates, Chris Minns, CGF, Ian Ransom, Christian Schmollinger, Stephen Coates, Peter Rutherford Organizations: MELBOURNE, Victoria Premier, Commonwealth Games Federation, Commonwealth Games Australia, First Nations Australians, Birmingham, Australia, Games, Australian Olympic, New Zealand Olympic, Olympic, Sydney, South, Thomson Locations: Victoria, Australia, Britain, South Africa, Coast, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Gippsland, New South Wales, NSW, South Australia, Western Australia, Hamilton

Blood seeps from the door into a puddle on the road as an occupants of another car implores the girl to keep still. The video was verified by Reuters as having been filmed on the Crimean Bridge. The damaged car’s colour, alloy wheels and open fuel cap matched video from the scene shot in daylight, which showed the same car on the damaged bridge. "Two civilians were killed – a man and a woman driving a car on the bridge. "At about 3 o'clock in the morning, the family heard the first bang, after which the lights went out on the bridge," the relative said.

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Angelina, Alexei, Nataliya, Vyacheslav Gladkov, –, Guy Faulconbridge, Lidia Kelly, Kevin Liffey, William Maclean Organizations: Reuters, Russia's, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Moscow, Ukrainian, Belgorod, Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Crimea, Europe, Melbourne

☆ Commonwealth Games 2026 host Victoria, Australia pulls out over cost
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Hilary Whiteman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Brisbane, Australia CNN —The Australian state of Victoria has canceled plans to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games after the predicted cost of the international sporting event blew out three times original estimates, state authorities said Tuesday. That is all cost and no benefit.”The Commonwealth Games is a multi-sport event involving thousands of athletes representing 72 Commonwealth countries and territories, held every four years. In a statement Tuesday, the Commonwealth Games Federation said the decision was “hugely disappointing for the Commonwealth Sport Movement,” and suggested that Victorian authorities hadn’t previously raised cost concerns. John Sibley/Reuters/FILEThe Federation said decisions the state had made concerning sports and venues had “added considerable expense, often against the advice of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA).”The Federation said it was “taking advice on the options available” and remained committed to finding a solution so the Games could go ahead. Instead of hosting the Games, Victoria will build at least 1,300 affordable homes and the permanent sporting facilities it had promised in an effort to boost regional tourism and events, Andrews said.

Persons: Premier Daniel Andrews, “ I’ve, ”, Victoria, hadn’t, Vanessa Amorosi, John Sibley, “, Andrews Organizations: Australia CNN, Premier, Commonwealth, Games, Commonwealth Games Federation, Commonwealth Sport Movement, Government, Commonwealth Games Australia, Geelong Locations: Brisbane, Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, Birmingham, England, Bendigo, Ballarat, Gippsland, Shepparton

☆ We Can Stop the Rise in Maternal Mortality - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Veronica Gillispie-Bell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health, or AIM, is a quality improvement initiative designed to put in place and support best practices to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal outcomes are not determined by health care alone. What we call social determinants of health — where we live, work and play — also affect health outcomes. When we think about maternal mortality, we should also look to economic stability, education access, health care access, neighborhood and the built environment and community. There is a biased belief that Black women are overly loud and demanding and that we can take more pain than our white counterparts.

Persons: GYN, — Organizations: Alliance, Innovation, Maternal, AIM, The, Medicare, Services, Black, Commonwealth Locations: United States, Wyoming

☆ Opinion | America Must Rebuild Itself. The Question Is How.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

In practice, though, the term “organized labor” belies the reality of fractured, disorganized labor organizations at the state and local levels. I’ve talked in previous columns about the cost and speed gains to be made by using modular housing produced in off-site factories that use union labor. That said, I think labor is a more natural ally in this project than some other liberal interest groups. You can see that in Pennsylvania, where a section of I-95 collapsed and was rebuilt in a matter of weeks, not months or years, with union labor. Plenty of countries with stronger unions than America complete transit projects more rapidly and more affordably than we do.

Persons: I’ve, Josh Shapiro, “, ” Shapiro, Biden, Shapiro Organizations: Commonwealth, Democratic Locations: California, Pennsylvania, America, Plenty, United States

☆ Australia No.3 bank clinches union deal for staff to work from home
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SYDNEY, July 14 (Reuters) - National Australia Bank (NAB) (NAB.AX), the No.3 lender, reached a deal that lets employees work from home, a union said on Friday, one of the world's first to give private-sector staff legal protection for remote work. This week the Australian federal body that sets public sector wages also agreed to a union request for uncapped work from home days. Some of Australia's biggest companies, including NAB and larger rival Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) (CBA.AX), have set minimum office attendance requirements. A CBA spokesperson said the bank respected its existing union agreement "and those matters that require consultation". 2 bank Westpac (WBC.AX) and the FSU are currently negotiating a new enterprise deal which includes the question of whether to allow work from home, the union said.

Persons: CBA's, Byron Kaye, Jamie Freed, Lincoln Organizations: SYDNEY, National Australia Bank, NAB, Finance Sector Union, FSU, Australia's, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, CBA, Fair, Commission, Westpac, Thomson

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