By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – As Chile readies to mark 50 years since the 1973 coup against then President Salvador Allende, the country is increasingly asking a question about the thousands who disappeared in the years of military dictatorship that followed: “Where are they?”.

The South American country is ramping up a hunt, with a National Search Plan launched on Wednesday by progressive President Gabriel Boric to consolidate the reams of case files and investigations, hoping to unearth new leads.

During the bloody 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, some 40,175 people were executed, detained and disappeared, or tortured as political prisoners, according to the Ministry of Justice, based on fact finding by various commissions.

There are 1,469 people who were victims of forced disappearance, of which 1,092 were detained and disappeared, while 377 were executed and their remains never returned.

“We had the illusion that they were alive, but over the years we realized they weren’t,” Juana Andreani, a detainee herself during the dictatorship, and a friend of a person who disappeared, told Reuters.

“At least they should tell us what happened to them, what was done to them? That is the worst part of these 50 years.”

Chile on Sept. 11 will mark half a century since the coup, part of a wave of military rule in the region in the 1970s that also included Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, where families have also pushed to unearth information about the disappeared.

The searches have normally, at best, led to families being given bone fragments identified as their kin who disappeared. Many around the region remain to be found and identified.

In an unusual case earlier this week, a 42-year-old lawyer who was stolen at birth during the Pinochet era and raised in the United States, met his biological mother for the first time after finding her thanks to DNA tracing.

Victims of human rights violations and their relatives say the Armed Forces must have more information that they have not yet provided about the fate of the missing or dead, including pushing for files in the United States to be declassified.

Daily briefings made to then-U.S. President Richard Nixon on Sept. 8 and Sept. 11, 1973, were declassified earlier this week, which show how he was briefed on Chile’s unfolding coup.

In Chile there have been dozens of trials and convictions for human rights violations, though Pinochet himself, who died in December 2006 at the age of 91, was never convicted of his responsibility for the crimes.

Many people still want more answers and accountability.

“Obviously the higher ranks of the Armed Forces are responsible. What did they do with the corpses?” said Carlos González, who was detained and tortured by the military during the dictatorship.

“It can’t be that we don’t know what happened with around 1,000 Chileans. This just can’t be.”

(Reporting by Reporting by Natalia Ramos and Reuters TV; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Sandra Maler)

(Reuters) – UBS expects Hurricane Idalia to result in insured losses of $9.36 billion based on preliminary estimates, the brokerage said in a note on Wednesday, as destructive winds and rain lashed coastal Florida.

Idalia made landfall in the state as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm on Wednesday, after millions of residents evacuated or hunkered down in homes and shelters.

UBS estimates a 50% chance of losses of over $4.05 billion and a 10% likelihood of losses of $25.6 billion, based on Aug. 28 data. The wide range accounts for potential changes in the storm’s intensity and path.

At about $10 billion, Idalia would cost insurers less than 10 of the costliest hurricanes to hit the United States.

UBS said it expects reinsurers to absorb a meaningful amount of the loss at the upper end of the current range.

Global insurers are facing a challenging 2023 as reinsurers hiked rates on key types of coverage by as much as 50% from July 1, blaming sharp losses from the Ukraine war and increasing wildfires and hurricanes hitting states such as California and Florida.

Reinsurers insure insurance companies, and have been raising rates in recent years because of steepening losses which industry players partly attribute to the impact of climate change. Higher reinsurance rates can affect the premiums that insurers charge their customers.

U.S. reinsurance rates for policies which previously faced claims for natural catastrophes rose 30%-50% during July renewals, while rates for similar policies in Florida rose 30%-40%, reinsurance broker Gallagher Re said in July.

Some insurance firms including Farmers Insurance, Bankers Insurance and Lexington Insurance, an unit of AIG, have reportedly pulled out of Florida because of the risk of heavy losses.

As a result, the state has ended up with a market populated by a large number of very small, very thinly capitalized insurers, insurance experts have said.

The insurers did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

By Prerana Bhat

BENGALURU (Reuters) – A short U.S. housing market correction is now over, according to property analysts polled by Reuters who have wiped out forecasts for a price fall this calendar year but also look for stagnation in 2024 despite expectations for interest rate cuts.

After the Federal Reserve rapidly raised the federal funds rate from near-zero to a range of 5.25-5.50% since March 2022, mortgage rates are at their highest and applications at their lowest in over two decades.

But demand for housing has held up, much like in the broader economy, which is now expected to skirt recession, meaning rates are likely to stay higher for longer.

After falling nearly 7% from a cycle high in June 2022 – well short of predictions made late last year for a 12% peak-to-trough fall – average house prices started rising again in February and are now only around 1% below their peak.

As a result, average house prices as measured by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas are now forecast to end this year unchanged, according to 30 analysts polled by Reuters Aug. 15-30.

“While we expect house prices to lose some of their recent momentum, the worst of the correction appears to have passed and we don’t expect further sustained declines,” said Andrew Burrell, chief property economist at Capital Economics.

The latest 2023 median forecast compares with a near-3% fall predicted in a May poll, a 4.5% fall in March, and a 5.6% drop forecast in December last year, marking the third consecutive upgrade even as interest rates rose more than expected during that time.

Average house prices were forecast to stagnate in 2024 despite predictions for a rate cut by the middle of the year.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was expected to average 6.7% this year, the highest since 2001, and slip to 6.3% in 2024. Those were upgrades from 6.2% and 5.5% in the May poll.

Sharp rate rises over the past year have led many existing home owners who locked in cheap mortgages from a long period of near-zero rates to stay put. That has restricted available supply and with it, housing turnover.

Mortgage rates on offer from lenders may never again rival some of the rock-bottom post-financial crisis and pandemic-era deals, which in the U.S. have multi-decade maturities.

“Home sales volume is being held down by a lack of inventory for sale, which is due to would-be sellers not wanting to give up their low mortgage rate…It is real, and it is going to remain a real factor through 2024,” said Brad Hunter of consultancy Hunter Housing Economics.

Existing home sales, which comprise about 90% of total sales, are currently running at an annualized 4.07 million units, a six month-low.

They were forecast to average 4.17 million units in the second half of this year, lower than 4.27 million in the previous poll.

Despite a near 45% pandemic-era rise in house prices and the market starting to climb again, respondents were equally split on what would happen to purchasing affordability for first-time homebuyers over the coming year. Fourteen of 28 said it would worsen and the rest said improve.

Rents, currently one of the main drivers keeping inflation above the Fed’s 2% target, were expected to fall over the rest of this year, according to 15 of 27 respondents to an additional question. The rest said rents would keep rising, including two who said significantly.

“We have already reached a trough for rent growth, and rents are now rising again on a month-over-month basis,” Hunter added.

(For other stories from the Reuters quarterly housing market polls:)

(Reporting by Prerana Bhat and Indradip Ghosh; Polling by Pranoy Krishna; Editing by Ross Finley and Sharon Singleton)

(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson and Indian drugmaker Lupin will supply their versions of the tuberculosis drug bedaquiline at a significantly cheaper price in low- and middle-income countries, a global anti-tuberculosis group said on Wednesday.

The United Nations-backed Stop TB Partnership said J&J’s new price of $130 and Lupin’s price of $194 for a six-month course of the treatment represented a 55% and 33% price reduction, respectively.

Bedaquiline is one of the three new drugs developed against tuberculosis (TB) in more than half a century, and it is a key part of recommended treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB infections.

“This historic price reduction will broaden access to this life-saving drug and keep us on the path to end TB by 2030,” said Atul Gawande, assistant administrator of the United States Agency for International Development’s Global Health Bureau.

The drug will be available at the lower prices through the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility, which is the largest procurer of TB treatments.

J&J, which sells bedaquiline under the brand name Sirturo, reached an agreement with the Stop TB Partnership in July to allow the coalition to supply generic versions of the drug through the Global Drug Facility.

That agreement came after advocacy groups and author John Green criticized the healthcare conglomerate for its decision to enforce patents on the drug in many countries. J&J has said it is false to suggest its patents prevent access to the drug.

On Wednesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders said it welcomed the big price drop, adding that it “finally brings the price closer to the estimated generic price of $0.50 per day”. 

But J&J could further increase access to the drug by withdrawing its secondary patents on bedaquiline in all high-burden countries, said Christophe Perrin, TB advocacy pharmacist with MSF’s Access Campaign.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – An experimental blood test that detected Parkinson’s disease in a preliminary study could become the first specific tool for diagnosing the devastating neurodegenerative condition, researchers said on Wednesday.

The test, which looks for cell damage associated with the disease, is years away from being commercially available. If its reliability is confirmed in future trials, the test would allow doctors to diagnose the condition earlier and start therapies sooner, before nervous system damage worsens, the researchers said.

“Currently, Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed largely based on symptoms, when patients already have significant neurological damage,” said study leader Laurie Sanders of Duke School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

The new blood test measures DNA damage in mitochondria, the structures inside cells that generate energy for cellular functions. Mitochondrial DNA damage is known to be associated with Parkinson’s disease.

The test showed greater damage in blood cells from patients with Parkinson’s compared to people without the disease, researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine.

It also found elevated DNA damage in people with a genetic mutation called LRRK2 that increases the risk for Parkinson’s disease, even in the absence of symptoms, they said.

Presently, drugs for Parkinson’s disease only help control symptoms. Sanders said she hopes that along with diagnosing Parkinson’s, the new test will help identify drugs that can reverse or halt mitochondrial DNA damage and the disease process, as well as patients who could benefit from those drugs.

Several companies including Abcam and Biogen with partner Denali Therapeutics are testing such experimental treatments.

“A new blood-based diagnostic test would be a major advancement for Parkinson’s disease, which afflicts 10 million people worldwide and is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s,” the researchers said.

Going forward, the researchers plan to test the diagnostic in samples from high-risk individuals who have not yet developed symptoms.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

(Reuters) – More than 280,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida on Wednesday as hurricane Idalia slammed the state, according to data from PowerOutage.us.

Hurricane Idalia slammed into the Big Bend region of Florida, where millions of residents had evacuated or hunkered down in anticipation of a dangerous surge of tidal water, but the storm’s power ebbed as it headed toward Georgia.

Evacuations were ordered in 28 of Florida’s 67 counties as of late Tuesday. Most of the state and parts of Georgia and South Carolina are under storm warnings or advisories.

The utility experiencing the most outages was Duke Energy with over 40,000 customers without power, followed by Florida Power & Light Company at more than 38,000.

More than 90,000 in Georgia also were without power.

Tampa Electric on Wednesday said power has been restored to most of its some 35,000 customers who were impacted.

Ahead of the storm, Tampa Electric secured about 3,000 workers from other utilities, including line crews, tree trimmers and damage assessors.

“The weather impact was not as severe as anticipated, and our crews were able to work through the night to restore customers during the storm,” said Archie Collins, CEO of Tampa Electric

Here are the major outages by utility in Florida:

Power Companies Outages

Duke Energy 41,747

Florida Power & Light Company 38,519

Clay Electric Coop 35,748

City of Tallahassee 31,126

Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative 28,281

Central Florida Electric Cooperative 25,059

Talquin Electric Cooperative 22,225

Jacksonville Electric Authority 19,476

Tri-County Electric Coop 19,234

Withlacoochee River Electric Coop 9,675

Total Out 281,317

(Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Bill Berkrot)

By Julia Harte and Rachel Nostrant

(Reuters) -Millions of residents braced themselves as Hurricane Idalia slammed into Florida on Wednesday morning and headed into Georgia as a Category 1 hurricane.

The storm had hit the Big Bend region of Florida just before 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 mph (201 kph), but weakened to Category 1 with wind speeds of 90 mph as it moved inland, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said.

Mandatory evacuations were in place in 16 of Florida’s 67 counties as of late Wednesday morning. Most of Georgia and South Carolina were under storm warnings or advisories.

Here are the most important things to know about Idalia’s projected impact.

WHAT IS IDALIA’S PATH?

As of 11 a.m. EDT, Idalia was packing maximum sustained winds of 90 mph as it whirled into southern Georgia near Valdosta, the NHC said in its latest advisory.

Idalia’s center crossed Florida’s coastline over the Big Bend region, where the state’s northern panhandle meets the Gulf side of the Florida peninsula, and was headed northeast toward Savannah, Georgia, and up through Charleston, South Carolina, before it was expected to spin out over the Atlantic Ocean.

The NHC forecast Idalia would become a tropical storm while moving near the coasts of northeastern South Carolina and North Carolina on Wednesday night and Thursday.

DEADLY RAINS, SURGING SEAS

Two motorists died in separate rain-related crashes on Wednesday morning, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The deadliest threat Idalia poses is a surging wall of seawater that could flood low-lying areas along Florida’s coast, according to authorities.

Surge warnings were posted for hundreds of miles of shoreline, from Sarasota to the western end of Apalachicola Bay. In some areas, the surge could rise as high as 16 feet (5 m), according to the NHC.

“Storm surges” occur when high winds and atmospheric pressure from an oncoming hurricane force ocean water onto land. The resulting floodwaters may take a couple of days to subside.

A “king tide” – the highest type of high tide, caused by the extra gravitational pull that occurs when the sun and moon align with Earth – on Wednesday will likely exacerbate the surges from Idalia.

EVACUATION ZONES

Camden County in Georgia, where the chairman signed a state of emergency, issued an evacuation order, specifically for the residents of Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland Island. No other evacuation orders have been listed in Georgia as of 11 a.m. EST.

The Florida emergency management agency listed 28 counties with evacuation orders, 16 as mandatory for certain residents, especially those living in coastal and flood-prone areas or in mobile homes, recreational vehicles or structurally unsound housing.

POWER OUTAGES

Some over 275,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida as of midday, Poweroutage.us reported. More than 64,000 in Georgia were also without power.

Some 30,000 to 40,000 electricity workers had been placed on standby to help restore power quickly after the hurricane passes.

FEMA

Deanne Criswell, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator, said on Wednesday morning that more than 1,000 personnel from FEMA’s rapid assessment teams were ready to hit the ground to assess storm damage once Idalia passes.

(Reporting by Julia Harte and Rachel Nostrant; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Cynthia Osterman and Marguerita Choy)

(Reuters) -United States Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said U.S. companies have raised concerns that China has become “uninvestible”, pointing to fines, raids and other actions that have made it too risky to do business in the world’s second-largest economy.

Major global firms ranging from banks to chipmakers are taking a largely cautious stance on their China business amid a frail recovery of the country’s economy from a pandemic slowdown.

Following are comments from some of the top firms on their China business during the latest reporting season:

Estee Lauder The luxury firm forecast a weak annual profit, owing to a

slower-than-expected rebound in Asia travel retail business.

Haleon The Sensodyne maker said sales from Fenbid pain reliever gel

doubled in China in the first half.

Tapestry Coach handbags maker said it expects to benefit from a

recovery in demand from the “highly profitable region” of

China this fiscal year.

Starbucks The coffeehouse chain saw a sharp recovery in China, with

third-quarter comparable sales surging 46%.

Marriott The U.S. hotel operator said rebounding demand in China

International boosted its earnings.

Merck & Co The drugmaker said use of Gardasil in China was the biggest

growth driver for the human papillomavirus vaccine.

Procter & Gamble The Tide detergent maker reported a 1% drop in its

fourth-quarter volumes, mainly due to weaker demand in the

Greater China region.

Intel “The China market, I think, has been well reported, hasn’t

come back as strongly as people would have expected overall,”

chipmaker Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said.

AbbVie Inc The Botox maker said it has seen rates for aesthetics

treatments in China fully recover to pre-COVID levels and

continues to anticipate strong growth through the rest of the

year in the country.

Mastercard Inbound cross-border travel to China stood at nearly 50% of

2019 levels, while outbound travel was nearly 70%, the company

said.

Coca-Cola The company saw strong demand for some juice business in China

but also flagged destocking activity in the second quarter.

Thermo Fisher The company witnessed significantly slower economic activity

Scientific in China during the second quarter. “We think it’s appropriate

to assume that this condition remains in place for the

remainder of the year,” said CFO Stephen Williamson.

Visa “Looking at Mainland China specifically, cross-border travel

continued to improve but remains well below 2019 levels,” CFO

Vasant Prabhu said.

3M Co The industrial conglomerate flagged continued weak appetite

for consumer electronics demand in China.

Dow Inc The chemical maker said the anticipated rebound following the

end of pandemic curbs has yet to fully materialize.

NXP Semiconductors The chipmaker said China’s export curbs on certain gallium and

germanium products did not impact the company.

Citigroup The lender called it the “biggest disappointment” as growth

decelerated after an initial post-reopening pop.

Royal Bank of Canada’s largest bank forecast slowing growth, partly due to a

Canada slowdown in China and elevated climate and geopolitical risks.

BHP Group The world’s biggest miner saw strong steel demand from some

sectors in China, but said it was too early to assess the

impact of Beijing’s policy measures on the housing market.

Toyota The automaker said foreign exchange rate fluctuations and its

response to price cuts in China hurt its results there.

Panasonic The battery supplier said it saw no sign of a full-fledged

recovery in the factory automation sector in China, and that

it would take more time for areas such as servers, data

centres and ICT to recover overall.

Volkswagen The German carmaker cut its full-year sales target after sales

dipped in China, its top market.

Anglo American The global miner said it has been surprised by how slow the

reopening of China has been but believed a recovery was

underway.

L’Oreal The Chinese market is “really picking up,” although “not at

the speed everybody had hoped for,” L’Oreal CEO Nicolas

Hieronimus told Reuters.

Rio Tinto The world’s biggest iron ore producer struck a cautiously

optimistic tone on China as the government has pledged more

policies to boost growth.

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said China sales outlook for the automaker

was now falling far below production capacity.

LG Energy Solution The company warned it faces weaker EV demand in China than

previously expected.

LVMH The French luxury giant logged a strong rebound in China

during the second quarter.

ABB The engineering firm witnessed fewer new orders from China in

the quarter and said some customers were shifting investments

to other parts of Asia due to geopolitical tensions.

HP Inc “We don’t see it (demand recovery in China)

happening anywhere near anytime soon. And at this point, we’re

not building that recovery in any of our plans,” CEO Enrique

Lores

said

.

(Compiled by Savyata Mishra, Arunima Kumar, Niket Nishant, Granth Vanaik, Aditya Soni, Bhanvi Satija and Jaspreet Singh; Edited by Shinjini Ganguli and Shounak Dasgupta)

By Julia Harte

(Reuters) -Millions of Florida residents secured boats and properties and fled to higher ground on Wednesday as Idalia intensified to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane and threatened a direct hit on the state’s Big Bend region.

Evacuations were ordered in 28 of Florida’s 67 counties as of late Tuesday. Most of the state and parts of Georgia and South Carolina are under storm warnings or advisories.

Here are the most important things to know about Idalia’s projected impact.

WHAT IS HURRICANE IDALIA’S PATH?

Idalia grew from a tropical storm into a Category 4 hurricane on its way to landfall in Florida early on Wednesday, after causing floods in western Cuba that forced residents of coastal towns to seek higher ground.

As of 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on Wednesday, Idalia was packing maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour (215 kph) as it churned toward shore 60 miles (95 km) west of Cedar Key, Florida.

Three major hurricanes have struck Florida in the past seven years: Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian last September.

Idalia’s center will likely cross Florida’s coastline somewhere in the Big Bend region, where the state’s northern panhandle meets the Gulf side of the Florida peninsula, the NHC projected.

WHAT ARE ‘STORM SURGES’ and ‘KING TIDES’?

The deadliest threat Idalia poses is a surging wall of seawater 10 to 15 feet (3.0 to 4.6 m) high that could flood low-lying areas along Florida’s coast, according to authorities.

“Storm surges” occur when high winds and atmospheric pressure from an oncoming hurricane force ocean water onto land. The resulting floodwaters may take a couple of days to subside.

A “king tide” – the highest type of high tide, caused by the extra gravitational pull that occurs when the sun and moon align with Earth – is also expected on Wednesday, which will likely exacerbate the surges from Idalia.

Hundreds of miles of Florida shoreline are under storm surge warnings as Idalia approaches, from Apalachicola Bay in the panhandle through Tampa, the state’s third-largest city, and down to Sarasota in the south.

EVACUATION ZONES

Authorities are scrambling to move thousands of Florida residents out of danger before nightfall.

The Florida emergency management agency listed 28 counties with evacuation orders.

Sixteen counties issued mandatory evacuation orders for certain residents, especially those living in coastal and flood-prone areas or in mobile homes, recreational vehicles or structurally unsound housing.

Local authorities opened dozens of shelters for evacuees. They urged residents to take the evacuation orders seriously. “Please do not become complacent – take action now if you have not done so already,” wrote the sheriff’s office of Citrus County, north of Tampa, in a Facebook post.

WHAT DISRUPTION COULD BE CAUSED?

Even Floridians not under evacuation orders should expect disruptions as a result of Idalia, from power outages to shuttered schools and businesses.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 46 Florida counties. About 5,500 National Guard members were mobilized, while 30,000 to 40,000 electricity workers were on standby to help restore power quickly after the hurricane passes.

School districts around the region canceled classes starting on Monday afternoon. Tampa International Airport closed commercial operations and did not expect to resume until Thursday.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Cynthia Osterman and Bernadette Baum)

By Sheila Dang

(Reuters) – X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, said Tuesday it would now allow political advertising in the U.S. from candidates and political parties and expand its safety and elections team ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Before billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company in October, Twitter had banned all political ads globally since 2019. In January, Twitter lifted the ban and began allowing “cause-based ads” in the U.S. that raise awareness of issues such as voter registration, and said it planned to expand the types of political ads it would allow on the platform.

The move to allow all political ads in the U.S. could help X grow its revenue at a time when many advertisers have fled or reduced spending on the platform for fear of appearing next to inappropriate content.

In a blog post on Tuesday, X said it would grow its teams to combat content manipulation and “emerging threats”.

The company said it would create a global advertising transparency center, which would let users see what political ads were being promoted on X, and added it would continue to prohibit political ads that spread false information or seek to undermine public confidence in an election.

The platform, like other social media companies, has long been criticized by researchers and lawmakers for not doing enough to prevent misleading or false content during major elections.

Since Musk’s acquisition, X in particular has faced questions about its readiness for the U.S. presidential election after laying off thousands of employees, including those who had worked on the trust and safety team.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Alex Richardson)