2024-05-29 20:09

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - Two senior congressional Republicans asked the U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday to disclose documents detailing a decision by President Joe Biden's administration to award billions of dollars to a California high-speed rail project that they doubted would ever be completed. Sam Graves, who chairs the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Ted Cruz, the Senate Commerce Committee's top Republican, requested documents by June 12 about the department's December decision to award the project another $3.07 billion. California voters approved $10 billion in 2008 for the ambitious project, which aims to move passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in under three hours. The lawmakers said the project has experienced numerous delays and rising costs, and that the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the state agency in charge of it, has not identified key funding needed for it. The full project was initially estimated to cost around $40 billion but has now jumped to $89 billion to $128 billion. A spokesperson for the state agency said it takes the issues raised by the two lawmakers seriously and is ready to respond to the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, which is part of the department. Graves and Cruz cited a 2023 review by an independent body that concluded that the project faced an "unfunded gap of $92.6 billion to $103.1 billion between estimated costs and known state and federal funding" for completion of the full system. "Despite evidence that continues to show that the California High-Speed Rail project has critical issues indicating there is no reasonable path forward for successful completion of the project ... the Biden administration continues to allocate substantial federal taxpayer dollars on this highly questionable endeavor," the lawmakers wrote. The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in December the California project "is facing a lot of the challenges that come with being the very first at anything," and added that rail project awards face an "extraordinary level of scrutiny." The state agency estimated that costs for an initial 171-mile (275-km) segment connecting Merced to Bakersfield have risen from $25.7 billion to $33 billion, and it will be operational by 2033. It is a major project in California, the Democratic-governed and most populous U.S. state. It eventually is envisioned as connecting Sacramento to San Diego. The project, which has spent $18 billion since 2006, has received funding from two Democratic presidential administrations amid opposition by Republicans. President Barack Obama's administration awarded California $3.5 billion in 2010 and the state has dedicated $4.2 billion to the project. The Biden administration in 2021 restored $929 million for the project after President Donald Trump's administration pulled funding. California wants $8 billion in total from the Biden administration for the project and last year won another $202 million in federal funds for grade separation projects. On Tuesday, the state said it was seeking another $450 million New Tab, opens new tab in federal funding. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-open-probe-into-california-high-speed-rail-program-2024-05-29/

2024-05-29 20:01

JOHANNESBURG, May 29 (Reuters) - The long queues of voters recalled South Africa's 1994 ballot that ended white minority rule and ushered in democracy, but for many, gratitude to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) for their historic liberation is wearing thin. As South Africans cast their ballots on Wednesday in the country's most unpredictable election in three decades of democracy, even some of those proud of Nelson Mandela's legacy party for the struggle against apartheid were losing patience with economic and social problems it has since failed to fix. "When we voted in 1994 it was about Mandela. This is not the Mandela era anymore, things have changed for the worse," said Melanie Ross, 53, a teacher, speaking of the country's first democratic president, who spent 27 years in jail for fighting apartheid. "I had so much trust in (President) Cyril Ramaphosa but ... maybe a change is good," she said at a polling station in the working class Cape Town suburb of Kewtown, home mainly to members of the mixed race community known in South Africa as coloured. Just how many once loyal supporters of the ANC share this sentiment could play a significant role in determining its fortunes. Pollsters expect it to lose its parliamentary majority, forcing it into a coalition with one or more smaller parties. Lwando Bangani, 29 and unemployed in the city of East London in the main ANC heartland, was a lifelong ANC voter but was now defecting to the Democratic Alliance (DA), "because I want to see the ANC coming below 50%." In Northcliff, a leafy Johannesburg suburb flanked by rocky hills, 60-year-old consultant Nathan Samuel also said he'd been voting ANC his entire life, as a South African of Asian descent who opposed apartheid. "I come from that era ... The 'Free Mandela' campaign was a big part of my life," he said. But now: "I want to vote change. For me, change means moving the ruling party to the opposition benches." Other voters said they expect the ANC would still win a majority, but expected it would be chastened by losing some support. "Obviously the ANC won’t be thrown out but it can be reduced," said Sibusiso Mkhwanazi, 33, in the tree-lined suburb of Craighall Park. "BAD APPLES" Despite widespread discontent at persistent poverty and inequality, high unemployment and erratic power supply, analysts say there are so many uncertainties that making predictions about the size of the ruling party's vote loss is foolhardy. The electoral commission said on Wednesday that early indications suggested turnout would be higher than the 66% who voted in the 2019 election - a scenario Ipsos says would work against the ANC. Ebrahim Fakir of South Africa's Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute, who predicts a slim ANC majority, doubts that. "We don't know if these voters are now turning out in order to reward or punish (the ANC)," he said. "They might be turning out to punish ... or they could be giving them one last chance," and he thinks it is more likely to be the latter. That would be the view of Marie Murdoch, a 76-year-old Johannesburg retiree from the brewery business, who said Ramaphosa deserved "time to finish the job" after moving to rid the ANC of corrupt figures: "He has had a lot of trouble getting rid of the bad apples." If the ANC slips below 50%, which party will be kingmaker will depend both on how many extra seats it needs and which of the opposition parties it dislikes least. Among the potential coalition partners are the pro-business Democratic Alliance, the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters and the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party. (This story has been refiled to correct the years Mandela spent in prison to 27, not 32, in paragraph 3) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-poll-some-anc-voters-lose-patience-with-their-liberators-2024-05-29/

2024-05-29 20:00

May 30 (Reuters) - Bird flu, officially called highly pathogenic avian influenza, has increasingly spread to mammals, raising concern it may lead to human-to-human transmission, with foxes the most affected species and the United States reporting the widest number of mammals infected. Officials confirmed on May 30 that a third U.S. dairy worker tested positive after exposure to infected cows. Cases of the disease in mammals have mostly been detected in Europe and the Americas. Here is a list of the type of mammals in which the virus - which has also infected hundreds of wild and captive bird species - has been detected between 2016 and 2024, according to data gathered by the European Food Safety Authority and U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the H5N1 strain of bird flu in alpacas on May 16. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/bird-flu-spreads-mammals-raising-concerns-human-transmission-2024-04-03/

2024-05-29 19:52

May 30 (Reuters) - More than 196,000 homes and businesses in Texas and Arkansas were still without power on Thursday after storms battered the region earlier in the week, according to meteorologists and data from PowerOutage.us. That is down from more than 275,000 outages on Wednesday and a peak of over 939,000 outages in several states from Texas to Kentucky on Tuesday. Tornado-spawning thunderstorms that swept the Southern Plains and the Ozark Mountains killed at least 21 across four U.S. states over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Texas power company Oncor, a unit of California-based Sempra Energy (SRE.N) New Tab, opens new tab, had the most outages with over 148,000 customers without power in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to PowerOutage.us. Oncor said it had already restored power to over 480,000 customers and estimated "restoration will be substantially complete by Friday evening, weather permitting." "Harder-hit areas are expected to be restored Saturday," Oncor said in a statement. Major outages by state: Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/over-750000-customers-without-power-texas-other-states-after-storms-2024-05-28/

2024-05-29 19:13

May 29 (Reuters) - U.S. economic activity continued to expand from early April through mid-May but firms grew more downbeat about the future amid weakening consumer demand while inflation continued to increase at a modest pace, a U.S. Federal Reserve survey showed on Wednesday, as central bankers mull how long they will need to keep interest rates at current levels. The U.S. central bank's latest temperature check on the health of the economy also showed that the jobs market continues to gradually cool back down toward more normalized levels. The survey, released roughly every six weeks, comes as policymakers remain uncertain on when to start a rate-cutting cycle after holding interest rates in the range of 5.25% to 5.50% for the past 10 months. They are keenly watching trends in activity, jobs and pricing pressures in order to make their decision. "National economic activity continued to expand...however, conditions varied across industries and districts," the Fed said in its survey, known as the "Beige Book," which polled business contacts across the central bank's 12 districts through May 20. "Overall outlooks grew somewhat more pessimistic amid reports of rising uncertainty and greater downside risk." Waning consumer demand was an ongoing concern for many firms, the Dallas Fed noted, while the continued conflict in the Middle East and further geopolitical tensions across the world were also cited as downside risks. Most Fed districts reported slight or modest growth in economic activity, while two noted no change, the survey said. In particular, retail spending was described as flat to up slightly, echoing recent data that indicated consumers are pulling back on spending. The Fed's benchmark interest rate is set to remain unchanged at the next policy meeting on June 11-12 and Fed officials, while all but ruling out another rate hike, have indicated they need consistent encouraging inflation data over a number of months before lowering borrowing costs after being stung by bigger-than expected price increases the first three months of the year. While that worrying trend seems to have reversed in April inflation currently remains, by the Fed's preferred measure, almost a percentage point higher than its 2% target rate. The latest reading of the Fed's key inflation gauge is scheduled for release on Friday. MORE SENSITIVE CONSUMERS Contacts in most Fed districts noted consumers were pushing back against additional price increases. One large clothing retailer told the Boston Fed it planned to implement "modest price reductions on selected items in early fall in a bid to boost sales." However, there are also some signs inflation pressures may be reaccelerating again. "Many districts observed a continued increase in input costs," the report said. A separate survey earlier this month showed manufacturers in May reported a surge in prices for a range of inputs, suggesting that goods inflation could pick up in the months ahead. "Consumers are becoming more price-conscious, likely putting pressure on profit margins. We should expect more discounts and incentives as some consumers struggle with persistently high prices," said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial following the release of the report. For Fed officials there was welcome news on the labor market, with employment described as rising at a slight pace overall, better labor availability across a majority of Fed districts and less employee turnover. For example, a winery in central Minnesota said that it received "a lot more applications for part-time [and] seasonal workers this year, which is very encouraging," the Minneapolis Fed reported. Wage growth continued to grow mostly at a moderate pace but several Fed districts reported firms telling them it was now at pre-pandemic historical averages or was normalizing toward those rates. U.S. job gains were the fewest in six months in April and the increase in annual wages fell below 4.0% for the first time in nearly three years, although the labor market remains fairly tight. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-firms-grow-more-pessimistic-economic-outlook-fed-survey-shows-2024-05-29/

2024-05-29 19:10

NEW YORK, May 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday said regulators should weigh new guidance or rules aimed at curbing financial risks from nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, a type of digital asset it deemed highly prone to fraud. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT NFTs, blockchain-based images, videos, music or text, surged in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic. The assets are highly susceptible to scammers and can be used to launder illicit funds, the Treasury Department said in a report published on Wednesday. Still, other sectors - including other digital assets - pose greater risks for illicit finance, so regulating NFTs should not supersede other priorities, it said. THE CONTEXT U.S. regulators have been looking to better police markets for digital assets. KEY QUOTE "The NFT market is particularly vulnerable to fraud and scams," the Treasury Department said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-treasury-says-regulators-should-consider-nft-guidance-given-fraud-risks-2024-05-29/