B2K Advisory

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said on Tuesday it has fined Citigroup $25 million for violating the Fair Housing Act after it denied some borrowers preferential rates on the basis of their race, color or other factors.

Beto O'Rourke confirmed his support for unrestricted access to abortion regardless of gestational age during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, one day after refusing to answer directly when asked about the morality of third-trimester abortion.“I just want to make sure that I had clarity: Yesterday when you were asked about abortion, you said it's a woman's right to choose, correct? Does that include up into the third trimester?” asked one woman who trailed O'Rourke as he was walking the Penn State University campus.“I think those decisions are best left to a woman and her doctor. I know better than to assume anything about a woman's decision, an incredibly difficult decision when it comes to her reproductive rights,” O'Rourke responded. “Roe v. Wade, though it's being tested unlike any other time, it's still the law of the land, it must be upheld. When we're talking about universal health care, we're talking about women's health care.”Speaking to supporters in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday, O'Rourke was asked specifically about his views on third-trimester abortion, but pivoted to the issue of abortion generally, which he argued should be unrestricted.“Are you for or against third-trimester abortion?” asked an attendee at O’Rourke’s campaign stop in Cleveland.“The question is about abortion and reproductive rights and my answer to you is that should be a decision that the woman makes. I trust her,” O’Rourke said to raucous applause.O'Rourke, like his fellow Democratic presidential contenders, has refused to draw distinctions about the morality of abortion based on gestational age, maintaining instead a blanket opposition to any abortion restriction whatsoever. Shortly before leaving Congress to launch an ultimately futile challenge to Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), O'Rourke co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have eliminated nearly all state restrictions on abortion, including so-called right-to-know laws and mandatory waiting periods.

The White House on Tuesday predicted brisk US growth of about three percent would continue for more than a decade if Congress enacts President Donald Trump's economic agenda. The rosy forecast runs counter to expectations that the world's largest economy will slow considerably this year, a view shared by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and International Monetary Fund. The projection by the White House's Council of Economic Advisors presumes lawmakers will enact more tax cuts while overhauling the nation's infrastructure, among other policies.

European Union leaders are planning to offer the U.K. a conditional Brexit extension at this week’s summit in Brussels, giving Prime Minister Theresa May one more chance to get her deal approved in Parliament before March 29, officials familiar with the plan said. The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier suggested that a long Brexit extension would lead to the U.K. deciding to remain more closely aligned to the EU, a so-called soft Brexit, or to a potential new referendum.

MAPUTO/HARARE (Reuters) - Cyclone winds and floods that swept across southeastern Africa affected more than 2.6 million people and could rank as one of the worst weather-related disasters recorded in the southern hemisphere, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. Rescue crews are still struggling to reach victims five days after Cyclone Idai raced in at speeds of up to 170 kph (105 mph) from the Indian Ocean into Mozambique, then its inland neighbors Zimbabwe and Malawi. Aid groups said many survivors were trapped in remote areas, surrounded by wrecked roads, flattened buildings and submerged villages, while the Red Cross said at least 400,000 people had been made homeless in central Mozambique alone.