Brexit Files Insight

City cheers looming end of euro-clearing oversight

London was supposed to be angry at potentially losing its nearly €1 trillion-a-day euro-clearing business. But maybe not.

U.K. regulators and senior City officials are rejoicing at the possibility of losing regulatory oversight of London’s lucrative euro-clearing business to the EU.

Sound strange? It’s a result of Brexit, which has led the U.K. to plead for the “least-worst” option in financial services negotiations so London can retain some sort of financial power following its exit from the EU.

At a conference in London on Thursday it became clear that bank chiefs and regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority’s Andrew Bailey, would rather relinquish oversight of clearing houses to EU supervisors post-Brexit than see clearing of euro-denominated derivatives move into the eurozone.

Ultimately, what City watchdogs are calling for is more supervisory powers for European regulators, despite no longer being part of the bloc — hardly what the Brexit camp’s “take back control” mantra had in mind.

It all stems from a proposal from the European Commission, which empowers Brussels to strip London of its nearly €1 trillion-a-day euro-clearing business if overseas clearing houses pose economic risks to the EU. That “location policy” would not automatically be triggered post Brexit, however, leaving the U.K. some wiggle room. But if a risky London-based clearing house wants to continue to offer services to clients in the bloc, it would be subject to additional obligations set by EU authorities and central banks.

Speaking Thursday, the FCA’s Bailey welcomed the Commission’s proposal, which he said “is not a clear location policy saying you have to move …. We know enough about how to do regulatory cooperation. We can make that work.”

Even Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group — which owns a majority stake in London-based clearing house giant LCH — described the shared regulatory approach as “wise.”

For hard-line Brexiteers, the situation is not exactly ideal, but even they must concede the alternative of euro-clearing hopping over to the Continent is far worse. According to a report published this week, a Brussels-led euro-clearing land grab would cost banks in the region of €30 to €40 billion — plus it would seriously undermine London’s status as the de facto European financial hub.

It might be the least worst option in economic terms, but in political terms, it’s EU: 1, U.K.: 0.

This insight is from POLITICO’s Brexit Files newsletter, a daily afternoon digest of the best coverage and analysis of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Read today’s edition or subscribe here.

Click:gold loan near me

Thursday on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” radio talker and comedian D.L. Hughley claimed there is a double-standard surrounding the Jussie Smollett scandal of an allegedly faked hate crime.

Hugley said, “I thought the story didn’t ring true initially, but you want to give people the benefit of the doubt. But it got more cumbersome and more cluttered, and we are where we are today.”

He added, “It will make it that much harder for somebody that’s a victim of a homophobic or racial attack. In the minds of some, it will lack credibility.”

Referencing President Donald Trump, Hughley said, “It’s interesting when you use hatred and bigotry and lying for your own selfish end, and you are a young gay black kid, you get indicted. If you do it when you’re an old white guy, you become president.”

He continued, “I think there are enough monsters out there for real that we don’t have to make any up. White supremacy is at a historical high. It’s interesting that the president would focus more on the kid that orchestrated a fake attack but not the man, a white supremacist, who was orchestrating an actual attack, Christopher Paul Hassan. I think it’s amazing that we’re more enamored by something imaginary as opposed to saying something about something that was real.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Parliament to Juncker: Don’t bother us, we’re on vacation

Antonio Tajani makes it clear that he and the other MEPs won’t be back until early September.

The European Parliament would like to make it clear that it’s going on holiday, so don’t even bother trying to get in touch.

That was the message in a letter from Antonio Tajani, the president of the assembly, to “Dear Jean-Claude” Juncker, the president of the European Commission, in which Tajani pointed out that the Parliament was taking its summer break and no work should be sent over before early September.

“I would be grateful if you could suspend, from the date of reception of this letter, the transmission of any notification or request to the budgetary authority [that’s the Parliament],” Tajani wrote.

The letter, seen by POLITICO, is dated July 13.

The Parliament could be needed if the Commission wants to transfer money between budgets, for example to react to a migration crisis. According to the Commission, there have been 17 budgetary transfer requests so far this year.

Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey

Tough luck if that happens before the first week of September. “I would like to inform you, as it is customary that the European Parliament will hold neither a plenary session nor committee meetings during the period between 12 July and 30 August,” Tajani wrote.

He added that it would be unfair to bother the Parliament based on “the principle of loyal cooperation among the European Institutions” and asked Juncker to “take the necessary measures” to ensure the Parliament’s summer break remains quiet. The letter ends formally, with “yours sincerely.”

A similar letter, Tajani said, “has also been sent to the Presidents of the EU institutions and bodies.”

Tajani and Juncker have been at loggerheads of late after the latter called the Parliament “ridiculous” when only around 30 MEPs turned up to hear a speech by Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Juncker later said sorry for using such language, writing a one-page note to Tajani apologizing for “losing his temper.” Tajani responded by reminding Juncker that it is “the Parliament who has to control the Commission.”

The Commission president has made clear that his institution will be open for business during the summer. He’s put up a rota of commissioners on duty over the summer. The first, week-long shift goes to British commissioner Julian King, according to Commission sources. Juncker himself plans to be around “for a while” during the holiday, one official said. The last scheduled meeting of the college of commissioners is on July 26.

Friday on ABC’s “The View,” co-host Joy Behar declared the “Trump Party” was in a “white panic” over fears white people will disappear.

Behar said, “The Trump Party seems to be in what they call like a white panic — that the demographics are changing rapidly that white people are going to disappear or something. They’re in this panic state I think. Do you think that the Republican Party will disappear and become extinct like the Whig Party eventually? There are concerns. Are you in agreement with that?”

Guest George Will said, “Back in the day when we used to worry about nuclear weapons, the experts said that cockroaches could survive nuclear war because they’re such simpler mechanisms. Our political parties are like cockroaches. They are simple, and they will adapt. They don’t disappear.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey

Midday brief, in brief

Today at Commission, Trump, Erdoğan and Macron visits

Brexit and the Greek bailout are on the menu for next week.

There’s a packed agenda in EU circles next week, with some high-profile figures heading to Brussels.

Next Thursday is a public holiday in Belgium (and elsewhere) but there’s no day off for the EU’s leadership. On the margins of a NATO summit, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk will hold separate meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said he believed the talks with Trump would focus on the “strategic partnership” between the U.S. and the EU as well as on how to tackle global challenges such as terrorism and climate change. He said he did not believe a proposed laptop ban on transatlantic flights would come up as “the work will be done in Washington D.C. at the technical level.”

Also next Thursday, Juncker will meet with new French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Commission also took note of the Greek parliament’s vote in favor of austerity measures to pave the way for the next tranche of bailout funding.

Schinas declined to comment on a meeting of EU affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday at which they are expected to sign off on the negotiating directives for the Brexit talks. He also did not answer when asked if the Commission knew about a meeting between officials from Luxembourg and the U.K.’s Brexit team.

Schinas said it was quite normal for EU countries to talk with each other but “regarding Brexit, EU countries agreed [on April 29] on a detailed, cohesive, unique, rather clear and precise framework” for the talks.

The full agenda for next week is here.

A-list Hollywood actor Don Cheadle appeared on NBC’s Saturday Night Live sporting a black t-shirt with white letters that read, “Protect Trans Kids” and donning a hat with a logo for Sleeping Giants — the far-left political activist organization that has launched harassment, blacklist, and boycott campaigns against Breitbart News and the Fox News Channel.

It’s no secret that Don Cheadle has long-been one of Breitbart News’ favorite characters to cover. Before he was advocating for the protection of “Trans Kids” on prime-time TV, Cheadle was wishing for Donald Trump to “die in a grease fire.” He later deleted that tweet.

A couple months before the 2016 presidential election, Cheadle appeared alongside his fellow Avengers co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson for a celebrity-studded PSA directed by Joss Whedon meant to encourage voters not to support Trump. In the video, Cheadle called the future president a “racist, abusive coward who could permanently damage the fabric of our society.”

That glorious pro-Hillary political ad spurred this gem of a headline: “Joss Whedon Assembles ‘Avengers’ Stars for Anti-Trump Ad.”

Another Cheadle-inspired headline for the ages is, “Hollywood Implodes over Justice Kennedy Retirement: ‘This Is How You Lose a Country’”

That quote came from Mr. Cheadle, who concluded that the retirement of Anthony Kennedy from the United States Supreme Court would result in America being lost.

“all of our rights are in the balance. urge your leadership to resist when trump attempts to appoint the next swamp thing out of the pez dispenser or kiss it bye bye,” Cheadle said in yet another tweet that has been deleted.

So it was much to our shock when one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, known for his starring roles in hit films from the Oscar-winning drama Crash to Disney’s Avengers franchise, appeared on camera clad in what CNN writer-producer Amanda Jackson declared “a powerful statement.”

It didn’t take long for the Sleeping Giants’ official Twitter account to take a break from its daily Anti-Breitbart smear campaign to celebrate Cheadle wearing a hat with its logo.

“TFW you wake up to 10,000 texts that absolute legend @DonCheadle made an incredible statement on @nbcsnl last night. And also wore a Sleeping Giants hat!!!” the Sleeping Giants Twitter said. “Thank you, Mr. Cheadle, for all of your support.”

The group later posted another gleeful message, saying, “Okay, we tried all day to be cool about the legendary @DonCheadle wearing our cap last night on @nbcsnl, but yeah, fuck that.”

Sleeping Giants, founded by Matt Rivitz, targets companies that purchase advertising space on Breitbart.com. It makes disparaging claims about the site’s news content, describing it as anti-Semitic and or white supremacist. The companies see the Sleeping Giants’ false statements about Breitbart News and move to cease advertising on the site. The left-wing group has duplicated the deceptive tactic to drive away advertisers from Fox News Channel shows hosted by Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson.

The truth is, Breibart News was Founded in Israel by Andrew Breitbart and Larry Solov, best friends who happen to both be Jewish.

Today, Breitbart’s Israel/Middle East bureau chief is radio host Aaron Klein, an Orthodox Jew.

It’s a news site that, according to New York Times magazine, that “pretty good record of promoting women and minorities, at least by the industry’s abysmal standards — including the lead defense correspondent, the national security editor, and the copy chief, all of whom are women of color,” writes Wil S. Hylton in near-nine thousand word expose about Breitbart News.

Hylton, writing in the Times, also notes Breitbart’s “borderline fanatical advocacy for Israel.” It was also Hylton who interview Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler, who led a team of professors and data scientists at Harvard and M.I.T. who researched the “rise and influence” of Breitbart News and came to a “surprising result:”

Moreover, Breitbart News is the 11th largest Facebook publisher, is the 60th most trafficked website in the United States, according to Amazon-owned Alexa, and is read by millions of Americans every day — including senior White House officials.

It saddens us to know that Don Cheadle has officially joined the ranks of Breitbart’s blacklisters all because he can’t take the heat.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

Click Here: Rugby league Jerseys

Jerry Media, the social media company behind the disastrous Fyre Festival, reportedly tried to broker a deal between the anti-Trump organization “Need To Impeach” and a world-record breaking egg account on Instagram.

A photograph of an egg, called “world record egg,” managed to become the most liked post on Instagram in January, receiving nearly 52 million likes for the anonymously run page, and beating previous world record holder Kylie Jenner.

To capitalize financially on behalf of the egg account, social media company Jerry Media, which ran the social media for the disastrous Fyre Festival in 2017 that led to the imprisonment of fraudulent organizer Billy McFarland, reportedly tried to broker a deal between the egg account and “Need to Impeach.”

Need to Impeach is an organization fighting for the impeachment of President Trump, and Jerry Media wanted the organization to pay $10 million for the Instagram egg to crack and reveal the words, “Impeach Trump.”

According to the Atlantic, “the account has posted a series of photos of the same egg with a progressively larger crack, suggesting something inside.”

“In a slide deck, Jerry Media proposed that the egg crack to reveal the words Impeach Trump as Trump popped out and did the chicken dance. The agency even created a short animated video demonstrating the stunt,” the Atlantic reported, adding that Need to Impeach “ultimately passed on the opportunity.”

Click Here: Crystal Palace Shop

VaynerMedia head Nik Sharma claimed to the Atlantic that, “Being the first brand to crack out of the egg is worth at least $10 million,” and even suggested companies “to spend on the egg instead of the Super Bowl.”

Jerry Media has faced scrutiny for producing a popular Netflix documentary about the failed Fyre Festival, which downplays the company’s substantial involvement in the scandal.

“Wait, so the Fuck Jerry media company made the Netflix doc about Fyre Fest? That explains why that doc skims right over their involvement in that shit show,” declared one Twitter user, while another posted, “the Netflix [documentary] gives a total pass to Jerry Media.”

The company, which has faced allegations it made its money stealing jokes and content from others and uploading them without credit or payment, is reportedly on the verge of a subpoena over its involvement in the fraudulent Fyre Festival.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) press secretary recently admitted to being friends with Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland, who was sentenced to six years in federal prison in October.

Schumer’s press secretary, Angelo Roefaro, was filmed hanging out with McFarland before the festival organizer’s imprisonment, and while McFarland was found to be running another fraudulent scheme.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.

Solskjaer’s men have rarely seen goals at both ends in recent matches, and Al Hain-Cole expects that to continue when the Hornets visit Old Trafford

Watford will be hoping to pull off a historic win when they travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in Sunday’s Premier League clash.

The Hornets have never won an away league match at this ground, drawing two and losing 10 of their 12 previous visits – including each of the last eight in a row.

Manchester United vs Watford Latest Odds

Without a win in five fixtures, they are 5/1 (6.00) outsiders with bet365 to leave this stadium with all three points for the first time in their history.

More teams

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have claimed just a single point from the last two league matches in front of their own fans, but are 4/7 (1.57) favourites to return to winning ways here.

Three of the guests’ last five away matches have resulted in draws, and you can get odds of 3/1 (4.00) on them claiming a creditable point in this one.

Manchester United vs Watford Team News

Scott McTominay, Axel Tuanzebe, and Mason Greenwood could all be back in contention following illness and injury, although Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba remain sidelined.

Kiko Femenia and Ismaila Sarr will face late fitness tests after returning to training, while Daryl Janmaat is still ruled out.

Manchester United vs Watford Preview

Not only have they not secured any wins at Old Trafford, the guests have only scored twice in their last seven visits.

They are unlikely to have too much joy in front of goal this time out either, considering the Red Devils have conceded just a single goal in their last five matches.

However, Nigel Pearson’s team could prove a tough nut to crack themselves, having let in a modest nine goals in 10 league games since he took over.

Click Here: habitat tord boontje

Manchester United vs Watford Tips and Predictions

All in all, odds of 10/11 (1.91) look like solid value on no more than one side getting on target for United’s ninth game in 10, as well as their fifth home match in six against Watford.

All odds correct at time of publish. Please gamble responsibly.

Both teams to score: No at 10/11 (1.91) for a 2pt stake with bet365

Facebook fined €110 million for WhatsApp merger misstep

Social network merged its user accounts with those of WhatsApp, despite telling Commission officials it wouldn’t.

The European Commission today slapped Facebook with a fine of €110 million after concluding the social network misled competition officials who were reviewing its $22 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.

“Today’s decision sends a clear signal to companies that they must comply with all aspects of EU merger rules, including the obligation to provide correct information,” said Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition. “And it imposes a proportionate and deterrent fine on Facebook.”

She opened the probe after Facebook started collecting user accounts, despite having told officials during the merger review that it would not be able to automatically match a user’s Whatsapp account with his or her Facebook account.

Facebook responded that any errors discovered by the Commission were unintended.

“We’ve acted in good faith since our very first interactions with the Commission and we’ve sought to provide accurate information at every turn,” a spokesman said. “The errors we made in our 2014 filings were not intentional.”

Facebook faced a maximum fine of 1 percent of annual revenues — around €250 million. Previous procedural cases have resulted in fines of no higher than €20 million.

At the start of the probe, officials ruled out undoing the merger, saying the issue of merging accounts was not a decisive factor behind its approval.

Click Here: cheap INTERNATIONAL jersey