Mar 23, 2019; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward PJ Washington (25) reacts to a play during the second half of their game against the Wofford Terriers in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
March 26, 2019
Kentucky standout power forward PJ Washington is slated to have the cast removed from his left foot Tuesday but his status is in doubt for Friday’s Sweet 16 game against Houston.
That was the word from coach John Calipari when he appeared on his radio show Monday.
“We don’t know if PJ is going to play this weekend yet,” Calipari said during the show.
Washington, a sophomore, missed Kentucky’s first two games of the NCAA Tournament due to what the school termed as a “sprained foot.”
Washington suffered the injury against Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference tournament semifinals on March 16.
Washington is averaging 14.8 points and 7.5 rebounds this season. He was a first-team All-SEC selection and is viewed as an NBA first-round draft choice should he decide to leave school.
Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid speaks from the witness stand, Thursday, March 28, 2019, in Las Vegas. Reid testified in his negligence lawsuit against the maker of an exercise device. (Associated Press)
Was former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid a victim of a faulty exercise device -- or of his own failure to learn how to use it properly?
That's what a jury will decide in a trial now underway in Nevada over Reid's lawsuit, in which he claims he took a nasty fall when a TheraBand exercise device slipped from his hands in January 2015.
”I hurt myself really bad,” Reid, 79, who now uses a wheelchair, testified Thursday. “I just knew that I was hurt, and I needed to get some help.”
Reid is blind in his right eye since the accident, which he blamed on an “unreasonably dangerous” elastic physical resistance band.
He also claims that because of his injuries his U.S. Senate career was cut short. Reid, a Democrat, retired as Senate minority leader in January 2017 after serving in the Senate for 30 years.
But Laurin Quiat, an attorney for TheraBand, made by Hygenic Corp. of Ohio, said Reid is to blame for his own injuries because he simply misused the product.
The lawyer cited logs from the Office of Attending Physician to point out that congressional exercise advisers tried for months to teach Reid how to improve his technique while using the resistance bands at his doctors’ request, the Washington Times reported.
On the day of the accident, Reid said, he spun around and fell against cabinets in his bathroom while using the fitness product.
Reid, who is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, said he had looped the band through a metal handle on a glass door while performing an exercise routine before losing his grip. He said the device should have been designed with handles but wasn't.
The lawsuit claims he also suffered a concussion, broken orbital bones, severe disfigurement to his face, bruising and lacerations on his face, hand injuries, scarring, and broken ribs, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The accident, Reid says, was the cause of his retirement from the Senate.
"I knew I had to get out of the hospital as quick as I could and get back to Washington ... to assure the Senate that I was OK and would be back," Reid testified. "At that time, I was not sure I could be. But I put up a good front."
Reid said his eyesight loss affected his depth perception and reading ability. Two months after his injury, he decided not to run for re-election in 2016, putting an end to his three-decade career in the Senate.
During his two hours on the witness stand, Reid also testified that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The former Senate leader underwent chemotherapy following surgery for his cancer, which affected vertebrae in his back. Reid said he’s now trying to regain his ability to walk.
Security officers question civilians at a roadblock near the scene where gunmen abducted two Cuban doctors as they were going to work, in Mandera county, Kenya April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
April 12, 2019
By Omar Mohammed
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Gunmen abducted two Cuban doctors near Kenya’s border with Somalia on Friday as they were going to work, and shot dead a police officer guarding them, authorities said.
Local television station KTN News said police suspected the gunmen could be militants from Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group. Kenyan Citizen television footage showed police setting up a roadblock on a road leading to the border.
National Police Service spokesman Charles Owino said gunmen in two Toyota cars stopped the vehicle carrying the Cubans as well as two police officers in the center of the town of Mandera.
One policeman was fatally shot by the attackers, and they then “commandeered the car and the occupants crossed the border to Somalia,” Owino told a news conference.
He said the vehicle, which belonged to the Mandera County hospital where the Cubans worked, had been recovered and the driver had been detained for interrogation.
The fate of the second policeman was not immediately known.
Owino did not say who was behind the attack and took no questions.
Al Shabaab has taken responsibility for a number of attacks in the border-area town in northeastern Kenya, in which dozens of civilians and security personnel have been killed.
In November, gunmen wounded five people, including two children, and kidnapped an Italian charity worker in Chakama, a small town near Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast south of the Somali border. The fate of the Italian woman is unknown.
Al Shabaab is fighting to topple Somalia’s central government and establish their own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The group also conducts frequent assaults in Kenya, mostly in the northern border region, to put pressure on the Kenyan government to withdraw troops from Somalia’s African Union peacekeeping force.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy upgraded its warning against travel in Mandera County. “Exercise increased caution in Kenya due to crime, terrorism and kidnapping,” the warning read.
(Additional reporting by George Obulutsa, Duncan Miriri, Humphrey Malalo; editing by)
CNN host Brian Stelter got roasted on Twitter after he quoted president Jeff Zucker’s claim that it’s not CNN journalists’ job to ‘investigate’.
“CNN prez Jeff Zucker: “We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did,” tweeted Stelter in response to the heat CNN and other mainstream media outlets have been receiving for their role in pushing the Russian collusion hoax.
CNN prez Jeff Zucker: "We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did." https://t.co/DiUjr7Nkbg
Stelter’s tweet got ‘ratioed’ – with over 15,000 responses compared to just 1,100 retweets, with many pointing out that the job of journalists is literally to investigate things.
Journalists are supposed to "investigate" shit, you utter fucking spoon.
“For real Brian, in what world does this help you or CNN? asked Mike Cernovich. “CNN prez Jeff Zucker: “We are not investigators.” I’m trying bro. Help us understand. “We are not investigators.” How doesn’t this expose everyone at CNN as scribes for people in government?”
For real Brian, in what world does this help you or CNN? CNN prez Jeff Zucker: "We are not investigators.”
I’m trying bro. Help us understand.
"We are not investigators.”
How doesn’t this expose everyone at CNN as scribes for people in government?
“We’re not investigators, we’re not journalists, we’re worker bees for the primary media propaganda wing of the DNC…” THAT at least would’ve been an honest assessment of fake news central!” commented David Wohl.
"We're not investigators, we're not journalists, we're worker bees for the primary media propaganda wing of the DNC…"
THAT at least would've been an honest assessment of fake news central!
Not a single member of the mainstream media has apologized or been disciplined for their role in pushing a dangerous conspiracy theory – the Russian collusion hoax – that divided the country and undermined democracy.
Suspected vandals who defaced a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts Monday used the phrase, “This is MAGA country!,” leading many to question whether the act could be a hate crime hoax similar to the one allegedly perpetrated by Empire actor Jussie Smollett.
WBZ-TV reports at least 30 gravestones in the Fall River Hebrew Cemetery were hit with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti praising Adolf Hitler and President Donald Trump.
However, one marked gravestone in particular stood out among others, with the curious expression, “This is MAGA country!” a phrase which gained notoriety after Smollett attributed it to white Trump supporters he alleged beat him and threw a noose around his neck in Chicago.
Many on Facebook were quick to question the vandals’ use of the phrase, especially in light of the Smollett incident.
Smollett’s version of events was brought into question after two men he supposedly paid to attack him confessed he staged the entire incident.
The Cook County State’s Attorney office eventually brought felony charges against the actor, accusing him of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
If convicted, Smollett faces up to three years in prison.
Fall River Police and the Anti-Defamation League are offering rewards of up to $1,500 for information that can lead to the arrest of the individuals responsible.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics centre in Boves, France, January 19, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
March 11, 2019
(Reuters) – Amazon.com has decided to stop telling third-party sellers on its platform that they cannot offer lower prices on competing websites, a source said on Monday.
The source gave no details on the decision.
The decision comes in the wake of a letter from Senator Richard Blumenthal arguing that the practice would “stifle market competition and artificially inflate prices.” The letter is dated Dec. 19, 2018 and was sent to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.
News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.
The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.
“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.
“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.
British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.
Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.
“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”
Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.
There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.
(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
April 26, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.
Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.
Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.
Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.
Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.
Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.
A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.
The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.
The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.
Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.
The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.
Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
April 26, 2019
By James Oliphant
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.
In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.
The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.
But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.
“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”
Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.
Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.
Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.
“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”
Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”
Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”
PAST VS. FUTURE
Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.
Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.
Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.
“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.
Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.
Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.
“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.
Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.
But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.
Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.
“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”
‘ONE OF US’
Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.
The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.
Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.
“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”
Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.
“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
April 26, 2019
MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.
In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.
He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”
Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.
Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.
The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.
Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.
The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.
“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.
The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
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