Gold climbs ahead of US Fed Reserve meet, pick for Janet Yellen replacement

Gold climbed briefly back above $1,280 an ounce on Wednesday as caution ahead of this week's confirmation of the new Federal Reserve chair and a policy statement from the bank prompted some to close out bets on falling prices.

Fed Governor Jerome Powell is widely tipped to take over from incumbent Janet Yellen at the head of the U.S. central bank next year. He is seen as a less hawkish and therefore more gold friendly choice than his main challenger John Taylor, a Stanford University economist.

A statement at the end of the Fed's latest policy meeting due later will also be closely watched for clues on the outlook for U.S. interest rates. While the bank is expected to leave rates unchanged, investors will be watching for any indications that it will press ahead with another increase next month.

Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,278.11 an ounce at 1035 GMT, having earlier peaked at $1,280.87. Its upward move accelerated after it broke through its 100-day moving average at $1,275 an ounce, a key chart level.

The metal has fallen for the last two weeks as the dollar has strengthened, taking it to a three-week low on Friday. While prices have recovered, they remain within a less than $15 an ounce range so far this week as traders await clarity on U.S. monetary policy.
READ MORE

Brexit to cost UK 10,000 finance jobs on day-1, 75,000 in all: BoE governor

Job losses totalling 75,000 in banking and insurance because of Brexit are "plausible", Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday.

Woods told British lawmakers that the 65,000 to 75,000 estimate was drawn up by consultants Oliver Wyman and not the Bank of England, but that it was within a "plausible range of scenarios".

Woods also told a House of Lords committee that it was reasonable to expect that the UK financial sector will have lost about 10,000 jobs on "day one" of Brexit when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.

"It's a moving feast," Woods said.

READ MORE

The dangerous trend threatening the future of the nation-state

When the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published his bestseller The Disuniting of America in 1991, he didn’t seriously entertain the worst-case scenario suggested by the title. At the time, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were imploding, while separatist movements in Quebec, East Timor, Spain’s Basque country, and elsewhere were already clamouring for their own states.

But when it came to the United States, Schlesinger’s worries were principally focused on the far smaller battlefield of the American classroom and what he saw as multiculturalism’s threat to the mythic “melting pot.” Although he took those teacup tempests seriously, the worst future Schlesinger could imagine was what he called the “tribalization of American life.” He didn’t contemplate the actual dismemberment of the country.

Today, controversies over hate speech and gender politics continue to roil American campuses. These, however, are probably the least important conflicts in the country right now, considering the almost daily evidence of disintegrative pressures of every sort: demonstrations by white supremacists, mass shootings and police killings, the current dismantling of the federal government. Not to speak of the way cities and states are defying Washington’s dictates on immigration, the environment, and health care. The nation’s motto of e pluribus unum — out of many, one —is in serious danger of being turned inside out.

A country that hasn’t had a civil war in more than 150 years, where secessionist movements from Texas to Vermont have generally caused merriment rather than concern, now faces divisions so serious and a civilian arsenal of weapons so huge, that the possibility of national disintegration has become part of mainstream conversation. Indeed, after the 2016 elections, predicting a second civil war in the United States — a real, bloody, no-holds-barred military conflict — has become all the rage among journalists, historians, and foreign policy pundits across the political spectrum.
READ MORE

Manhattan attack: A mangled school bus, bodies everywhere; 'it was surreal'

The screams seemed too vivid from the start, too visceral to belong to crowds celebrating a crisp and sunny Halloween in Lower Manhattan. The tragedy had unfolded in just minutes, and for hours and hours it remained too senseless to believe.

Sirens and police tape surrounded the white pickup truck that a 29-year-old assailant transformed into an instrument of terror when he began hitting cyclists and joggers along the West Side Highway bike path. A mangled school bus sat next to it.

Bodies lay strewn along the way. For those who encountered the scene on Tuesday, the aftermath was as confusing as it was gruesome.

Tom Kendrick, 36, a lawyer from the West Village, said he was jogging uptown just north of Chambers Street when he began noticing the mayhem on the bike path. He saw a battered body and bicycle in the bushes alongside the path. Farther along he found three bodies close together, also battered cyclists.

“I approached to see if I could help and they did not need help — they appeared to be dead,” Mr. Kendrick said. “They were bloody and unconscious, with some limbs hanging,” he added. “It was gruesome. It was grisly. It was surreal.”

“These people were gone,” he said. “I’m in shock. I’m looking at dead bodies.”

At least eight people lost their lives in what was the deadliest terrorist attack to strike New York City since Sept. 11, and about a dozen more were injured.
READ MORE

Mexico killings: 12 dead in string of shootings, fuel thieves suspected

Mexican authorities say 12 people have died in the central state of Puebla in a string of shootings being investigated as possible score-settling by rival gangs of fuel thieves.

The state prosecutor's office reports Tuesday that three men and a woman were slain at a hospital in the state capital. Another man was shot dead while driving in the suburb of Chachapa.

And two more were killed while riding in a pickup truck in the municipality of Amozoc de Mota, which contains Chachapa.

In a separate statement late Monday, c prosecutors said gunmen in an SUV shot dead five people who were drinking on a lot around midday in Tlaltenango.

Fuel pipeline theft is a growing problem in Mexico, with regular shootings between gangs and sometimes police or soldiers.
READ MORE

Facebook, Twitter, Google under scrutiny for 'Russian meddling'

Facebook, Twitter and Google lawyers defended themselves to US lawmakers probing whether Russia used social media to influence the 2016 Presidential election.

The three firms faced hard questions at a Senate panel on Tuesday on crime and terrorism about why they missed political ads bought with Russian money, BBC reported on Wednesday.

Lawmakers are eyeing new regulations for social media firms in the wake of Russia's alleged meddling in 2016. The firms said they would tighten advertising policies and guidelines.

Senator Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, asked Facebook -- which absorbed much of the heat from lawmakers -- why payment in Russian rubles did not tip off the firm to suspicious activity.

"In hindsight, we should have had a broader lens," said Colin Stretch, general counsel for Facebook. "There are signals we missed."

A day earlier, Facebook said as many as 126 million US users may have seen Russia-backed content over the last two years.

Lawyers for the three firms are facing two days of congressional hearings as lawmakers consider legislation that would extend regulations for television, radio and satellite to also cover social media platforms.

The firms said they are increasing efforts to identify bots and spam, as well as make political advertising more transparent.

Facebook, for example, said it expects to have 20,000 people working on "safety and security" by the end of 2018 -- double the current number.
READ MORE

New York attack: Donald Trump vows 'extreme vetting' of foreign travellers

In the aftermath of the first deadly attack in New York blamed on terror since the September 11, 2001 carnage in the city, President Donald Trump said today he had ordered more robust "extreme vetting" of travellers coming into the United States.

At least eight people were killed and 11 other injured in Lower Manhattan today after a gunman in a truck plowed through a busy bike path, an incident the US termed as an "act of terrorism".

The suspect, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov said to be from Uzbekistan, was shot in the stomach before being arrested.

"I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!" Trump tweeted.

His administration announced last week that it would resume accepting refugees after a 120-day ban, though arrivals from 11 "high-risk" countries, most of them home to Muslim majorities, will still be blocked.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of today's terrorist attack in New York City and their families," Trump had said in a statement after the attack.
Earlier, the US president took to Twitter to decry the attack, saying "we must not allow ISIS to return".READ MORE