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Fed’s Waller: Q3 GDP a “blowout” number that warrants watching
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An eagle tops the U.S. Federal Reserve building’s facade in Washington, July 31, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Third quarter U.S. economic growth at an annualized 4.9% rate was a “blowout” performance that warrants watching as the U.S. Federal Reserve considers its next policy moves, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said on Tuesday.
“This was an outstanding quarter…this big blowout number,” Waller told an economic data seminar at the St. Louis Federal Reserve. While his remarks did not include a policy recommendation, he noted that in looking at the components of U.S. output, “everything was booming. So this is something we are keeping a very close eye on when we think about policy going forward.”
By John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) -Thousands of people demonstrated across France on Saturday against Emmanuel Macron’s decision to pick centre-right politician Michel Barnier as prime minister, with leftist parties accusing the president of ignoring election results.
Macron named 73-year-old Barnier, a conservative and the former Brexit negotiator for the European Union, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-month search following his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered a hung parliament.
“Democracy is not only the art of knowing how to accept victory, but the humility to accept defeat,” Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of the far-left France Unbowed party (LFI), told protesters at the start of the march in eastern Paris.
“I call on you to undertake a long battle.”
The organisers said about 300,000 people demonstrated peacefully across France, including 160,000 in Paris, although police in the capital said 26,000 people had protested in the city.
The Interior Ministry did not immediately give a figure for the entire country, but its numbers are usually much lower than those given by organisers.
Barnier meanwhile made his first official visit, meeting staff at a Paris hospital. The worsening condition of the public health sector has been one of the areas that people have demanded action after months of procrastination.
“Without carrying out miracles, we can make improvements,” Barnier, who lacks a clear majority, told reporters.
He said on Friday he wants to include conservatives, members of Macron’s camp, and some from the left in his future government.
But he faces the daunting task of trying to drive reforms and pass the 2025 budget with the threat of a no-confidence vote hanging over him at the start of October, when he is due to outline his policy objectives to parliament.
DENIAL OF DEMOCRACY
France is under pressure from the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, and from bond markets to reduce its deficit.
The left, led by LFI, has accused Macron of a denial of democracy and stealing the election, after Macron refused to pick the candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance that came top in the July vote.
Barnier’s centre-right Les Republicains party is only the fifth bloc in parliament with less than 50 lawmakers, and the left believes he will push wholesale spending cuts and a tougher stance on immigration.
Across 130 locations in France, people carried banners attacking Macron for betraying them and called on him to be impeached.
“He (Barnier) has no social conscience and will constitute a government which will be in the same line as the previous ones. So that is enough now,” civil servant Jeanne Schmitt, 45, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Paris march.
Pollster Elabe published a survey on Friday showing that 74% of French people considered Macron had disregarded the results of the elections, with 55% believing he had “stolen” them.
Barnier continued consultations on Saturday as he looks to form a government, a tricky job given he faces a potential no-confidence vote.
NFP and the far-right National Rally (RN) together have a majority and could oust the prime minister through a no-confidence vote should they decide to collaborate.
The RN gave its tacit approval for Barnier, citing a number of conditions for it to not back a no-confidence vote, making it the de facto kingmaker for the new government.
“He is a prime minister under surveillance,” RN party leader Jordan Bardella told BFM TV on Saturday. “Nothing can be done without us.”
CAIRO (Reuters) -Three Lebanese paramedics were killed and two others wounded, one critically, in an Israeli attack while they were extinguishing fires in the southern town of Faroun, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Saturday.
“Israeli forces targeted a team from the Lebanese Civil Defence as they responded to fires sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes,” a ministry statement said, specifying that the strike hit a fire truck.
It condemned the attack as a “blatant strike” on an official Lebanese state apparatus, marking the second such attack on an emergency team in less than 12 hours.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Hezbollah issued a statement late on Saturday, saying they launched a “squadron of missiles” in response to the attack, targeting the headquarters of Israel’s 91st Division, which is responsible for its northern border, “hitting offices and soldiers with precision.”
The intensity of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has ratcheted up steadily, displacing tens of thousands of people on either side of the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.
The conflict erupted after Hamas launched an attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages into the Gaza Strip. Since then, Hezbollah has been drawn into cross-border clashes in southern Lebanon.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A political adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has rejected recent allegations that employees at the premier’s office have been spying on and wire-tapping senior officials and politicians.
Since late August, Iraqi local media outlets and lawmakers have alleged that employees at Sudani’s office had been arrested on charges of spying on senior officials.
“This is an inflated lie,” said Fadi al-Shammari in an interview with an Iraqi broadcaster published late on Friday, the most explicit denial by a senior member of the prime minister’s team.
He said the allegations were aimed at undermining Sudani ahead of parliamentary polls expected to be held next year.
“Everything that has happened in the last two weeks consists of media exaggeration contrary to reality and the truth.”
The reports have caused a stir in Iraq, which has seen a period of relative stability since Sudani was brought to power in late 2022 as part of an agreement between ruling factions ending a year-long political stalemate.
While there had been one arrest at the prime minister’s office in August, it had nothing to do with spying or wire-tapping, Shammari said. The employee in question was detained after contacting lawmakers and other politicians while posing as a different person, he said.
“(He) talked to lawmakers using different numbers and fake names and asked them for a number of different files,” he added, without providing details.
“There was no spying, no wiretapping.”
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