Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Wednesday criticized Republicans and said averting default is the responsibility of every single member of Congress and that preventing such a situation is not a concession.House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said on Tuesday a concession he will make is raising the borrowing limit. His statement indicates that Republicans are not willing to give much more than raising the debt ceiling in exchange for their demands.”Don’t take our word for it. Just listen to members of The House Freedom Caucus… (they) are now openly referring to the full faith and credit of the United States as a hostage,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.Jean-Pierre said the result of default would be “millions of jobs lost, devastated retirement accounts, and a recession.”The White House’s strategy is to keep negotiating to reach a deal, while appearing reasonable and keeping out of the limelight, a source familiar with the White House’s negotiations said.”We are speaking to moderates and most importantly are focused on getting a deal,” the source said. “The idea is to appeal to moderates while isolating MAGA Republicans.”Negotiators for President Joe Biden and McCarthy reconvened at the White House earlier to try to strike a deal to raise the United States’ $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and avoid a catastrophic default.Time is running short, as the Treasury Department has warned the federal government could be unable to pay all its bills by as soon as June 1 – just eight days away – and it will take several days to pass legislation through the narrowly divided Congress.Jean-Pierre said the White House still believes there is an opportunity to get to a bipartisan budget agreement. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – More than nine out of 10 Japanese firms feel a sense of crisis about the country’s accelerating birthrate decline, with few hopeful that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government can arrest the fall, according to a Reuters monthly poll. Kishida unveiled a plan in March to reverse the birthrate trend, a problem that has worsened under successive Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administrations, threatening to further shrink the country’s workforce and sap consumer demand. Those measures, which include expanding child allowance provisions, increasing paid parental leave and providing subsidies for fertility treatments came after the government revealed that annual births last year had dipped below 800,000 for the first time, eight years earlier than expected. Of nearly 500 major companies surveyed by Reuters, 94% said they felt a sense of crisis when asked about the fall in annual births in 2022. Only 14% of firms said they were hopeful that Kishida’s measures would work, with 34% saying they would not. The remaining companies that responded, did not express a view.”The LDP response is about securing votes, it is not seriously tackling the problem,” a representative from a transport machinery company said, on condition the company wasn’t identified.Like other major industrial economies, Japan is raising the retirement age and encouraging more women to work as its population ages. Unlike some countries, however, it has not sought out large numbers of foreign workers to fill its job vacancies.”We need to develop overseas markets and also have to make use of foreign workers,” a representative from a food maker said.At 49, Japan’s median age is second only to the city state of Monaco and it is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child.Kishida’s administration has said it will release the details next month of how it will fund a birthrate initiative that is expected to double government spending on childcare.In the Reuters poll, 54% of companies said they wanted the government to increase taxes to pay for the increased spending, of which just under a half said they wanted a hike in the sales tax paid by consumers. Only 18% of firms urged an increase in government borrowing. The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research between May 10 and May 19, canvassed 493 big non-financial Japanese firms, including 246 manufacturers and 247 non-manufacturers.They were polled on condition of anonymity, allowing respondents to speak more freely.Click here for a more detailed breakdown of the poll results. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York state judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) Inc billionaire co-founder Leon Black of defaming a woman by falsely claiming she tried to extort him after accusing him of rape.Justice David Cohen said the accuser, Guzel Ganieva, could not pursue her claims after receiving $9.5 million from Black under a nondisclosure agreement that followed their six-year relationship, which ended in 2014.Black, 71, has denied raping or behaving inappropriately with Ganieva, who is about three decades younger. Black left Apollo in 2021. Cohen said Ganieva’s acceptance of Black’s payments and decision not to contest the nondisclosure agreement barred her from claiming she signed it under duress.The Manhattan judge also found no proof that Ganieva, a single mother and former Russian model, did not understand the agreement.”The NDA clearly and unambiguously covers all claims arising out of the parties’ relationship, past or future,” Cohen wrote.Ganieva fired her law firm in March and chose to represent herself, court records show. She did not immediately respond to a message left at a phone number listed for her Manhattan home.”From the very beginning, I’ve made clear that Ms. Ganieva’s allegations against me were false,” Black said in a statement. “I am gratified that the truth has come out and justice has been finally done.”The lawsuit stemmed from a March 2021 interview in which Black said he had “foolishly had a consensual affair” with Ganieva, and that she extorted him based on threats to go public.He was responding to posts on Twitter where Ganieva accused him of having sexually harassed and abused her for years.Black is worth $8.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine.He still faces a lawsuit by another woman, Cheri Pierson, who has accused him of raping her two decades ago in the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan.Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Black, in an interview following Cohen’s decision said Pierson’s lawsuit, like Ganieva’s, had no merit and “will likely be dismissed.”The case is Ganieva v. Black, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 155262/2021. More

Good morning. Microsoft has warned that a state-sponsored Chinese hacking group has compromised “critical” infrastructure in the US in order to disrupt communications between the country and Asia in the event of a crisis.In a rare announcement about a systems breach, the US technology group said the hackers, codenamed “Volt Typhoon”, have operated since mid-2021. They have been able to infiltrate organisations across industries ranging from communications and transportation to education and government by exploiting a popular cyber security platform called FortiGuard, Microsoft said. The hacking group’s actions had focused on gathering intelligence and espionage, rather than causing immediate disruption, according to Microsoft. But John Hultquist, chief analyst at Mandiant Intelligence — a cyber defence service owned by Google — said the Volt Typhoon hack was “aggressive and potentially dangerous”. Read the full story here.And here’s what else I’m watching today:Turkey interest rate decision: Economists expect Turkish policymakers to hold the policy rate steady today, according to a recent poll. (Reuters) Eurasian Economic Forum: A meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council takes place today. Russian president Vladimir Putin is expected to attend.Annual general meetings: Two notable annual meetings will be held today. At McDonald’s, two of Europe’s largest asset managers will press the food chain to reduce antibiotic usage. And Illumina’s chair and CEO will be up for a vote. Five more top stories1. US chipmaker Nvidia issued a revenue forecast far ahead of Wall Street expectations, prompting a surge in its stock price in after-market trading. Soaring demand for the chips needed to train the latest wave of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT has allowed Nvidia to confirm its position as the biggest beneficiary of the AI race.Interview: Ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report, the company’s chief executive warned that the US tech industry is at risk of “enormous damage” from the US-China battle over chips. Read the full interview.2. Canberra has referred the PwC tax leaks scandal to Australia’s federal police, asking the force to consider opening a criminal investigation. Emails released this month showed how PwC drummed up business from multinational clients using confidential government information.3. Republican negotiators will return to the White House to “try to finish out the negotiations” on the debt ceiling, Kevin McCarthy has said, although he warned the two sides were “still far apart” on a number of issues. The Speaker of the House’s remarks come with just over one week to go until a crucial June 1 deadline. 4. Samsung faces the threat of strike action amid a union campaign for higher wages. The South Korean company’s union will ballot members on a strike unless chair Lee Jae-yong comes to the table for negotiations. For Samsung, previously known for its aggressive stance towards organised labour, this is new territory — and it comes a particularly sensitive time.5. UK inflation dropped to 8.7 per cent in April, a smaller decline than the Bank of England had forecast — bolstering expectations of further interest rate increases and leading to a bond market sell-off. Read more on today’s inflation announcement.US inflation: The need to further lift US interest rates to control inflation is “less certain” as economic risks have increased, according to the latest Federal Reserve minutes.The Big Read

The price of gold has been hovering near its all-time high © FT montage; Dreamstime

Periods of inflation have often boosted the price of gold and this time it is not just being bought by elites — central banks worried about geopolitical risk purchased a record-high 1,079 tonnes of bullion last year. How long will the new gold boom last?We’re also reading . . . Demographic crisis: Sixty years ago Rudong was so populous that it was chosen to pilot China’s one-child policy. Now, it is the country’s oldest county — and reveals a fast growing predicament.Alarming discovery: There are growing worries that India’s pharmaceutical industry hubs are contributing to antibiotic resistance.Business in China: The increasingly hostile environment for consultancies in the country has made western businesses uneasy, writes Joe Leahy.Chart of the dayA double-digit drop in German exports to China has rattled Europe’s biggest economy, triggering debate over why its vast manufacturing sector has fallen behind rivals. It also reveals a unique set of challenges for Europe’s industrial powerhouse.Take a break from the newsThe Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov has won this year’s International Booker Prize for his novel Time Shelter, a hard-hitting comedy set in present-day Europe that explores political populism and the way nostalgia can be exploited to create a confected past.

The £50,000 prize will be shared equally between Gospodinov, right, and the book’s translator Angela Rodel. © David Parry/Shutterstock

Additional contributions by Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo More