Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

No end to global chip shortage before H1 2023, STMicro CEO says

By Mathieu Rosemain

PARIS (Reuters) -The global chip shortage that is hindering production forecasts of giant companies like Apple Inc and Volkswagen AG is here to stay until the first half of 2023, the chief executive of STMicroelectronics said on Thursday.

“Things will improve in 2022 gradually, but we will return to a normal situation … not before the first half of 2023,” said Jean-Marc Chery in an interview.

By “normal situation,” Chery said he meant regular chip inventory levels and average delays of about three months to replenish components.

The chip shortage, which stems from a boom in demand from a wide range of industries, is stimulating prices, said Chery, who has led the Franco-Italian chipmaker since 2018.

The average price of STMicro’s chips has increased by 5% in 2021 from a year ago, he said, adding that the group expects further price increases in the second-half of 2021 as well as in 2022.

“It’s not like in the past, when everyone was waiting for Microsoft to release a new operating system that would drive demand for many more computers,” Chery said.

“What we have is global shift … with massive orders for components.”

The Geneva-based group will be able to meet only 70% of total customer demand this year, Chery said. That proportion will rise to 85-90% next year as the company invests in production capacity, he added.

Earlier on Thursday, STMicro raised its full-year sales and investment outlook as surging demand from car and phone makers boosted second-quarter profit.

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris; Editing by Peter Graff and Matthew Lewis)

Biden asks Congress to extend COVID-19 eviction ban set to expire this week

By David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday to extend a moratorium on evictions to protect renters and their families that is set to expire this week amid a deadly rise in coronavirus infections, the White House said.

Biden also asked the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs to extend their respective eviction bans through the end of September, the White House said, to protect Americans living in federally insured, single-family properties.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last month it would not extend the eviction moratorium past July 31. The CDC did not immediately comment on Thursday.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to leave in place the CDC’s ban on residential evictions imposed last year to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prevent homelessness during the pandemic.

“In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was one of five justices who voted to leave the moratorium in place.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said “given the recent spread of the Delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium.”

But she added “unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu;Editing by Alistair Bell)

Tempers flare in U.S. Congress as COVID-19 mask mandates return

By Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Tempers flared in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday after its chief physician urged lawmakers to resume wearing masks to slow the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, with the top Democrat labeling Republican opposition as “moronic.”

A high-ranking aide to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped short of confirming a report based on garbled audio that Pelosi called her Republican counterpart “such a moron” because of his opposition to the new directive.

“The Speaker believes that saying a mask requirement is ‘not a decision based on science’ is moronic,” Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a tweet.

Hammill was referring to a tweet by McCarthy in which he said, “Make no mistake – The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.”

The high-level spat came as COVID-19 cases in recent days have been rising, along with deaths, across the United States.

Since early in the pandemic, mask-wearing and vaccinations have been U.S. political flashpoints, with Republicans resisting and Democrats urging compliance with medical advice.

Many Republicans have complained that such government edicts infringe on individual liberties.

Late on Tuesday, Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician for Congress, required the use of masks indoors where people are congregating. It followed a similar move by the White House after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new mask recommendations to stem the spread of the new variant.

“Mask and vaccine mandates: Bullying, Controlling, Unconstitutional, Threats to Liberty!” Republican Representative Jody Hice of Georgia tweeted on Wednesday morning.

Some 57.6% of Americans have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with the lowest rates across the heavily Republican U.S. Southeast. Four of the five U.S. states with the lowest vaccination rates have Republican governors: Mississippi, Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska, according to a Reuters COVID tracker. The governor of the fifth state, Louisiana, is a Democrat.

The top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, is rolling out a campaign ad in his home state of Kentucky to counter what he called “bad advice” prompting some Americans to opt not to get vaccinated.

“For the Congress, representing a collection of individuals traveling weekly from various risk areas (both high and low rates of disease transmission), all individuals should wear a well-fitted, medical-grade filtration mask … when they are in an interior space,” Dr. Monahan said in a memo late Tuesday.

The rule applies to all House of Representatives office buildings, in the hall of the House and in committee meetings, he said.

Even before the recommendation, many congressional Democrats had resumed wearing masks in the Capitol this week.

At her weekly news conference, Pelosi attempted to cool passions somewhat by refusing to comment directly on whether McCarthy’s position was “moronic.” Instead, in response to a reporter’s question, Pelosi said, “To say that wearing a mask is not based on science, I think is not wise.”

Throughout the pandemic, the 100-member Senate and the 435-member House have taken different precautions to contain COVID-19 infections in the sprawling Capitol.

Monahan’s latest directive did not require renewed mask-wearing on the Senate side of the Capitol – a decision that did not escape McCarthy.

“If she (Pelosi) knows so much about science explain to me where the science changes in the Rotunda,” McCarthy said of the massive room that separates the House and Senate.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell, David Morgan and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Richard Chang)

Big Oil back to boom after pandemic bust, aiding climate push

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) – Europe’s top energy companies signaled confidence in a lasting recovery from the pandemic impact by drawing on higher oil prices to boost shareholder returns and reassure investors as they roll out risky climate strategies.

After swiftly cutting spending and jobs in response to the unprecedented collapse in energy demand last year, executives from Royal Dutch Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor were eager to highlight the rapid reversal in fortunes.

“We wanted to be really clear and signal to the market the confidence that we have in our prospects and our cash flows,” Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday, after Shell launched a $2 billion buyback program and boosted its dividend for a second consecutive quarter, a year after cutting it for the first time since the 1940s.

Energy companies have come under heavy pressure from climate campaigners, governments and shareholders to speed up the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner sources.

While some investors welcome the change as they perceive carbon-intensive, fossil fuel energy as unsustainable, others are worried about the implications for profit margins of new business models.

Benchmark Brent crude oil prices more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier to around $69 a barrel, driven by recovering demand and tightening global supplies.

As profits surged, France’s TotalEnergies also announced on Thursday plans to buy back shares. CEO Patrick Pouyanne said however that a large increase in dividends would not be reasonable yet and would be linked to higher cash flow.

The group said it expected to generate more than $25 billion in cash flow this year, based on current high oil price forecasts, and would invest in more new projects and return surplus amounts to shareholders if oil prices remained high.

Equinor also said on Wednesday it would begin a long-planned share buyback that will reach $300 million by the end of the third quarter after profits surged.

BP reports its second quarter results on Aug. 3. It launched a $500 million buyback in the previous quarter after halving its dividend last year.

WEANING THEMSELVES OFF OIL

BP, as well as Shell, TotalEnergies and Equinor, plans to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Oil prices are expected to remain elevated in the coming years as supplies stay tight because of lower investments.

High fossil fuel prices are double-edged. They can tempt operators to maximize conventional output, but they also produce income needed to invest in lower carbon sources.

Shell’s free cash flow – money left after deducting spending and shareholder payouts – soared in the second quarter to $9.7 billion, its highest in a year, while debt also declined.

“The quarter proves without doubt that Shell’s earnings power is intact and that they’re willing to pay investors handsomely to come on their transformation journey,” Bernstein analyst Oswald Clint said.

TotalEnergies’s results are a “confirmation that the group is geared to the macro environment and can deliver both on the energy transition and cash returns to shareholders,” Barclays analysts said in a note.

Despite the surge in revenue, Shell and TotalEnergies indicated they would stick to previous spending plans.

Shell said it will not spend more than its planned $22 billion this year and any increases in the futures will go mostly towards low-carbon businesses.

TotalEnergies said investments would reach between $12 and $13 billion in 2021, with half of that earmarked for growth projects, including a major chunk in renewable energy and electricity.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Barbara Lewis and David Evans)

Three dead as wildfires blaze on southern Turkish coast

By Mert Ozkan

MANAVGAT, Turkey (Reuters) -Three people died in a forest fire in southern Turkey on Thursday where authorities were battling multiple blazes for a second day amid suspicions of arson, the country’s AFAD disaster agency and the agriculture minister said.

Dozens of villages as well as some hotels were evacuated, and television footage showed burnt buildings and people fleeing across fields as firefighters on the ground and in helicopters tried to contain a blaze in Manavgat, 75 km (45 miles) east of the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

Officials have said that more than 60 wildfires have erupted across 17 provinces on Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts this week, with the presidency vowing to hold to account those responsible for the “attacks.”

Of those wildfires, 36 have been contained, but firefighting efforts for the remaining 17 continue, with more than 140 people requiring treatment or suffering property damage, according to AFAD.

Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said an 82-year-old man had been found dead during the evacuation of Kepezbeleni, 16 kilometers northeast of Manavgat, and two people were found dead in Degirmenli, 20 kilometers east of Manavgat.

He said 18 villages and districts had been evacuated in Antalya, along with 16 others in neighboring provinces of Adana and Mersin, as fires spread around Manavgat on Wednesday, fanned by strong winds in hot weather. Authorities also evacuated a Manavgat hospital.

Buildings including a hotel in the Aegean resort of Marmaris were evacuated due to the blaze, state broadcaster TRT Haber said. Footage showed two separate fires near residential areas in the Aegean summer hotspots of Bodrum, where another hotel was evacuated, and Didim.

Pakdemirli said 35 aircrafts, 457 vehicles, and 4,000 personnel were involved in firefighting efforts, as separate wildfires raged in the provinces of Osmaniye, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Adana, Mersin and Kutahya.

“Our struggle to contain (the fires) continues, and surely we will contain them. But this may take some time,” he said.

The timing of the various wildfires has raised concerns of arson, with the presidency’s communications director Fahrettin Altun saying investigations were launched to determine the cause of the fires.

“Those responsible will be held to account for the attacks they mounted on our nature and forests as soon as possible,” Altun said on Twitter.

Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast is known for its scorching summer heat, which often causes wildfires. Officials have said the latest fires are the biggest to date.

Turkey has battled a series of disasters caused by extreme weather conditions this summer, including flash floods last week that killed six people in the Black Sea region.

(Additional reporting by Yesim Dikmen and Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans, Catherine Evans, Timothy Heritage and Raissa Kasolowsky)

IMF sees “critical role” as world transitions to digital money

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund must ramp up its resources as it seeks to “monitor, advise on, and help manage this far-reaching and complex transition” to digital money, according to an IMF paper published on Thursday.

Digital money can make payments more accessible, faster and cheaper, the paper said. But to make that happen, policymakers must step up to key challenges: digital cash must be trustworthy, must protect domestic economic and financial stability, and the stability of the international monetary system should remain.

“The Fund has a critical role to play to help its members harness the benefits and manage the risks of digital money,” the paper said.

Importantly, digital money “must be regulated, designed, and provided so countries maintain control over monetary policy, financial conditions, capital account openness, and foreign exchange regimes”.

The paper makes the distinction between central bank digital currencies, stable coins and e-Money, on which it focuses, and cryptoassets including bitcoin. “While different types of digital money are considered, this paper does not take a stand on which form may predominate.”

The paper, dated March, discussed by the IMF board in April and published on Thursday, offers a vision for the evolution of the Fund and how it seeks to partner with other organizations like central banks, regulators and the World Bank.

“The Fund too must step up,” the paper said.

“The Fund must rapidly strengthen, widen, and deepen its well-established work on digital money, while coordinating and collaborating closely with other institutions within the confines of its mandate. The Fund must also rapidly ramp up its resources devoted to these topics.”

In a separate blog post earlier this week, the director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department and the director of its legal department said any attempt to use cryptoassets as national currencies would be risky.

Advantages “including the potential for cheaper and more inclusive financial services, should not be overlooked”, they said.

“Governments, however, need to step up to provide these services, and leverage new digital forms of money while preserving stability, efficiency, equality, and environmental sustainability. Attempting to make cryptoassets a national currency is an inadvisable shortcut.”

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Thousands stuck in Colombia’s Caribbean amid migration surge

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Some 9,000 migrants are stranded in a Caribbean municipality in Colombia amid a surge of people passing through on their way to north America following the re-opening of international borders post-lockdown, the Colombian migration agency said.

The irregular migrants – who are mostly Haitians but also include Venezuelans and Cubans, as well as a number from African countries – are stuck in Necocli, in Colombia’s Antioquia province, migration agency director Juan Francisco Espinosa said in a virtual press conference.

“This is a recurring and historical phenomenon. Colombia is not the cause or the destination of this migration,” Espinosa said.

The migrants hope to pass from Necocli and on through the dangerous Darien Gap towards Panama and then onwards to north America, principally the United States or Canada, he added.

Though the region typically sees 30,000 migrants pass through in a normal year, Espinosa said just 4,000 people transited the region last year due to the impact of measures implemented by countries to control the spread of coronavirus.

However, with borders opening up, the level of migration in the region so far in 2021 has been much greater compared to the same period last year, Espinosa added.

“This year is presenting numbers that are absolutely alarming, where right now more than 25,000 irregular migrants have passed through this part of the country,” he said.

Some 74% of the more-than 25,000 migrants recorded passing through the region in 2021 are Haitian, a migration agency spokesman told Reuters.

Colombia reopened its land and river borders with Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Panama in May, following a 14-month closure it used to try and curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The country opened its border with Venezuela in early June.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Pandemic drove online prices higher -report

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The rush to online shopping during the pandemic drove prices higher for goods ordered over the internet, eroding a long-standing cost advantage and possible evidence that overall inflation may become more persistent than thought, according to a new report from tech giant Adobe.

The study, analyzing a trillion retail site visits across 18 product categories matched to the closely watched U.S. Consumer Price Index that measures general inflation, found that online prices jumped 2.3% in June on an annual basis.

They had fallen an average 3.9% annually from 2014 to 2019 and began turning higher last year.

For consumers, online shopping “has been a bit of a haven. They can get different pricing,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst for Adobe Digital Insights. “Through the pandemic what we have seen is that is not so much the case.”

The online price of appliances, for example, jumped 2.3% in June, after declining an average of 2.6% annually from 2015 to 2019 Adobe found. Online apparel jumped 16.2% after a steady 1% annual decline in price before the pandemic.

Some prices continued falling. The cost of computers declined nearly 10% over the year, matching its average pace of decline before the pandemic. But in another key online category, electronics, the steady 9% annual drop in prices slowed dramatically, with the cost of goods falling just 2.5%

Overall, Pandya said he felt the experience of the last year, as online shopping surged in popularity and became more common for things like groceries and household staples, has made online retailers both more subject to demand and supply chain pressures in the economy, and given them less incentive to discount.

“As retailers find demand and they are against (supply chain) shortages, they are pricing at higher levels. And in some instances consumers will reckon with that and say they are getting convenience and will continue to absorb the cost,” he said.

That could be bad news for the U.S. Federal Reserve. Online retailing is regarded by some at the Fed as an important reason why inflation overall has remained low in recent years – with consumers just a glance at their phone away from finding the best price for a widening array of products.

If the pricing of online goods starts to behave more like that of goods in stores, it might make bouts of inflation more persistent – and not, as the Fed expects, only transitory.

Adobe developed its Digital Economy Index in 2014 but until now has updated it infrequently. It plans to release results monthly going forward.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Pacific tsunami warnings lifted after big quake in Alaska

By Shubham Kalia and Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) -Tsunami warnings were lifted for Alaska and the rest of Pacific after a huge earthquake of 8.2 magnitude struck the seismically active U.S. state in the late hours on Wednesday.

In Alaska, small tsunami waves measuring under a foot above tide level were observed in Sand Point, Old Harbor, King Cove, Kodiak, Unalaska and Alitak Bay, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center (NTWC).

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to property. Several Alaskan coastal communities were evacuated following the quake. Among them was Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage, where sirens blared and residents were told to move to higher ground.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at 10:15 p.m. local time (0615 GMT Thursday), was at a depth of 35 km. It struck about 91 km east-southeast of Perryville, about 800 km (500 miles) from Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city.

The U.S. states of California, Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia were not expected to see any significant tsunami threats, Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the NTWC, told Reuters.

“There might be some minor damage in some places (in Alaska), but a significant tsunami and significant damage from something like that is not expected,” Snider said.

While shallow earthquakes near populated areas can be dangerous, in this case the shallow quake posed less of a threat because they do not usually generate large tsunamis.

“That’s really fortunate in this case, because 8.2 is really strong enough to make a sizable wave, especially in that location of the world,” Snider added.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) cancelled warnings issued for Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, while the public broadcaster NHK said there was no risk to Japan. Authorities in New Zealand also said they did not expect any flooding in coastal areas.

According to the USGS, the quake was followed by over 25 aftershocks in the region, with two around magnitude 6.0.

The quake was the seventh largest in U.S. history, tied with another Alaskan quake from 1938, according to USGS data. It is also the largest quake in North America since an Alaskan quake of 8.7 magnitude in 1965, according to USGS data.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Yereth Rosen in Anchorage, Alaska and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Additional reporting by Maria Ponnezhath, Aishwarya Nair, Radhika Anilkumar and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru, Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo ; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Toby Chopra)

China says Taliban expected to play ‘important’ Afghan peace role

KABUL (Reuters) -China told a visiting Taliban delegation on Wednesday it expected the insurgent group to play an important role in ending Afghanistan’s war and rebuilding the country, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Nine Taliban representatives met Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin on a two-day visit during which the peace process and security issues were discussed, a Taliban spokesperson said.

Wang said the Taliban is expected to “play an important role in the process of peaceful reconciliation and reconstruction in Afghanistan,” according to an account of the meeting from the foreign ministry.

He also said that he hoped the Taliban would crack down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as it was a “direct threat to China’s national security,” referring to a group China says is active in the Xinjiang region in China’s far west.

The visit was likely to further cement the insurgent group’s recognition on the international stage at a sensitive time even as violence increases in Afghanistan. The militants have a political office in Qatar where peace talks are taking place and this month sent representatives to Iran where they had meetings with an Afghan government delegation.

“Politics, economy and issues related to the security of both countries and the current situation of Afghanistan and the peace process were discussed in the meetings,” Taliban spokesperson Mohammed Naeem tweeted about the China visit.

Naeem added that the group, led by Taliban negotiator and deputy leader Mullah Baradar Akhund, was also meeting China’s special envoy for Afghanistan and that the trip took place after an invitation from Chinese authorities.

Asked about the Taliban visit, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in New Delhi that it was a “positive thing” if Beijing was promoting a peaceful resolution to the war and “some kind of (Afghan) government … that’s truly representative and inclusive.”

“No one has an interest in a military takeover by the Taliban, the restoration of an Islamic emirate,” he said in an interview with CNN-News18 television.

Security in Afghanistan, with which China shares a border, has been deteriorating fast as the United States withdraws its troops by September. The Taliban has launched a flurry of offensives, taking districts and border crossings around the country while peace talks in Qatar’s capital have not made substantive progress.

“(The) delegation assured China that they will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against China,” Naeem said. “China also reiterated its commitment of continuation of their assistance with Afghans and said they will not interfere in Afghanistan’s issues but will help to solve the problems and restoration of peace in the country.”

(Reporting by Kabul bureau; Additional reporting by Beijing bureau; Editing by Kevin Liffey, William Maclean and Grant McCool)