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Dutch police: Multiple injuries in shooting on tram

Police in the central Dutch city of Utrecht say on Twitter that "multiple" people have been injured as a result of a shooting in a tram in a residential neighborhood.

Utrecht police say that trauma helicopters were sent to the scene Monday and they are appealing to the public to stay away to allow first responders to do their work.

Further details were not immediately available.

Source: Fox News World

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Swiss exempt Britons from visa requirements after no-deal Brexit: government

Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade Fox wears a pin showing the national flags of Britain and Switzerland in Bern
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox wears a pin showing the national flags of Britain and Switzerland as he addresses a news conference after signing a bilateral agreement to continue trading on preferential terms after Brexit in Bern, Switzerland February 11, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

March 22, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The Swiss government said on Friday Britons will be exempt from visa requirements to enter Switzerland in case Britain leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement.

“In return the UK has confirmed that Swiss nationals will also be exempt from the requirement to obtain a visa once the UK leaves the EU, both for short and longer stays in the UK,” the Federal Council added in a statement.

Statement: https://bit.ly/2OmxF5J

(Reporting by Thomas Seythal)

Source: OANN

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Why the Mueller report, for all its meticulous detail, fell flat

If you've watched cable news or read newspapers for the last two years, you know most of what's in the Mueller report.

That was perhaps the biggest surprise in poring over it. Even the president's lawyers were surprised by that.

On issue after issue, the special counsel's report describes what we already know — about President Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump and Paul Manafort, Trump and Michael Flynn — and ultimately says no collusion with Russia and only inconclusive evidence of possible obstruction of justice.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REDACTED MUELLER REPORT

To be sure, there's a text message here or a voice mail there that paints a fuller picture. But for the most part, the report consists of lengthy legal arguments as to why the president could have obstructed justice, might arguably have obstructed justice — only to say that Mueller's office makes no recommendation.

That means, in my view, there's no one anecdote or admission that political and media critics can seize upon to change the overarching narrative, that Mueller is bringing no further charges.

In fact, the best single scene is when Jeff Sessions told Trump that a special counsel had been appointed, the president replied: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f---ed." Then he demanded to know how Sessions could let this happen.

But of course, he railed against Sessions and his recusal so many times, until the AG was forced out, that we sort of knew that (minus the F-bomb).

MUELLER MADE 14 CRIMINAL REFERRALS, INCLUDING MICHAEL COHEN AND GREG CRAIG

All this is great fodder for the press, and for legal scholars, and for historians. But there's very little that will change people's minds as to whether Donald Trump engaged in misconduct.

Some examples:

— When Trump called Paul Manafort, during jury deliberations, a "very good person" and said "it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort," the comments could "engender sympathy for Manafort among jurors" if they learned of the remarks. But there are "alternative explanations," such as that he "genuinely felt sorry for Manafort" or was trying to influence public opinion, not the jury.

— "There is evidence" that the president knew Michael Cohen had testified falsely before Congress about continuing efforts during the campaign to win approval for a Trump Tower in Moscow. But the available evidence "does not establish that the president directed or aided Cohen's false testimony."

It's like a legal seminar, as the report rehashes the mostly known facts, floats the most damaging interpretations, offers the counter-argument and concludes there is insufficient evidence.

BEN SHAPIRO: TRUMP ENGAGED IN 'DEEPLY EMBARRASSING AND IMMORAL BEHAVIOR,' BUT NOTHING CRIMINAL

Less flattering for Trump:

— His firing of Jim Comey, request to his White House counsel to have Bob Mueller fired, and direction to Corey Lewandowski to ask Sessions to limit the scope of Mueller's probe all could be viewed as trying to undercut the investigation. But these efforts were largely unsuccessful because the people around Trump "declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

— When a reporter said the vast majority of FBI agents supported the just-fired Comey, Sarah Sanders said: "we've heard from countless members of the FBI who say very different things." She told Mueller's office this was a "slip of the tongue" that occurred "'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything."

DONALD TRUMP JR. CELEBRATES MUELLER REPORT RELEASE AND FINDINGS: 'TOLD YA!!!'

— Trump told Mueller in written answers that he had no advance knowledge of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer. In 2017, Hope Hicks and another aide — after discussions with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — said the emails involved would inevitably leak and should be released. Hicks was shocked by the emails and thought they looked "really bad." Jared, Ivanka and Hope urged the president to release the emails — Hicks said they could do it as part of an interview with "softball questions" — but he disagreed that they would leak.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

When The New York Times got onto the story, the president dictated that they should just say the meeting was about Russian adoptions. Don Jr. objected, asking that the word "primarily" be added because there was briefly a discussion about Hillary Clinton: "If I don't have it in there it appears as though I'm lying later when they inevitably leak something." The Times soon obtained the emails, leading to a wave of bad press.

But all this is pretty down in the weeds. And that's in part because so much of what the president said and did in battling Mueller played out in public.

What is muting the report's impact, in my view, is that expectations were so sky-high. The media, having invested so much capital in this probe for two years, only to be let down by the lack of criminal charges, were betting that the actual report would be explosive. And yet it was more popgun than big-time bomb.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Prince Charles becomes first British royal to visit Cuba

Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on Caribbean tour
Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrive in Havana, Cuba, March 24, 2019. REUTERS/Phil Noble

March 25, 2019

By Sarah Marsh

HAVANA (Reuters) – Prince Charles and his wife Camilla landed in Havana on Sunday for the first official trip by the British royal family to Communist-run Cuba even as Britain’s top ally the United States seeks to isolate the island nation.

Shortly after arriving on a Royal Air Force plane, the heir to the British throne laid a wreath of flowers at the memorial to independence hero Jose Marti on Havana’s Revolution Square dominated by massive portraits of guerrilla fighters including Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

During his three-day historic visit, which is part of a broader Caribbean tour, the 70-year old Prince of Wales is set to dine with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, tour Havana’s restored colonial district, visit community and green energy projects and review a parade of antique British cars.

The royal visit, in line with a broader normalization in relations between the West and Cuba, comes three years after one by former U.S. President Barack Obama then billed as the start of a new chapter for ties between the old Cold War foes

Since Donald Trump became U.S. president, however, the United States has reverted to its decades-old strategy of seeking to pressure Cuba to change, including tightening its crippling trade embargo on the island.

The Trump administration has ramped up that pressure over the crisis in Cuba’s socialist ally Venezuela.

“It’s always good for Cuba to strengthen its relations with important international actors but all the more so when the United States has a president responding to the interests of extreme right-wing people who want to hurt Cuba,” said one Havana resident, Arian Rubio, 26, a historian.

William LeoGrande, a professor of government at American University, said such visits by high level delegations of major powers “lend legitimacy to the Cuban government and represent an implicit warning to the United States that hostile actions against Cuba may incur a diplomatic cost with important allies.”

The UK government had asked the royal couple to add Cuba to their Caribbean tour of former and current British territories in hopes of boosting commercial and cultural ties and political influence.

British trade with Cuba was less than $100 million last year while only a handful of well-known British companies have investments there through subsidiaries, for example Imperial Brands Plc, British-American Tobacco Plc and Unilever.

Opportunities to do business, however, are expected to grow as the Caribbean’s largest island continues opening up its beleaguered, state-dominated economy. Those include opportunities in its expanding tourism sector, that already attracts some 200,000 British tourists annually.

Moreover Britain has sought to drum up more trade with alternative partners since a referendum to exit the European Union three years ago.

Plans for high-level officials to accompany the Prince of Wales were scuttled by the political drama playing out in London over how best to leave the EU before a March 29 deadline.

Underscoring the thaw in British-Cuban relations, when Diaz-Canel receives Charles at the presidential Palace of the Revolution on Monday evening, it will be their second meeting in a year.

The 58-year old Cuban president paid the prince a visit last November in London on his first tour of several countries since replacing Raul Castro last April.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: OANN

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China to prosecute former Interpol chief for graft

FILE PHOTO: INTERPOL President Meng Hongwei poses during a visit to the headquarters of International Police Organisation in Lyon
FILE PHOTO: INTERPOL President Meng Hongwei poses during a visit to the headquarters of International Police Organisation in Lyon, France, May 8, 2018. Jeff Pachoud/Pool via Reuters/File Photo

March 27, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will prosecute former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei for graft after an investigation found he was suspected of taking bribes and breaking discipline rules, the ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog said on Wednesday.

Meng has also been expelled from the party, it added.

Last year, Interpol, the France-based global police coordination organization, said Meng had resigned as its president after French authorities said he had been reported missing by his wife after traveling to his home country.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: OANN

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Frank Cali, reputed Gambino crime boss, shook hands with killer before he was shot, report says

Francesco “Frank Boy” Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, shook hands with his killer just before he was shot to death Wednesday night outside his New York City home, a report said Friday.

Authorities have been examining surveillance video that captured the 53-year-old Cali as he exited his home in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:15 p.m. after a man backed his vehicle into Cali’s parked Cadillac SUV. The accident appeared to have been a setup to draw Cali outside, police have said.

MAFIA KILLING IS FIRST NEW YORK MOB BOSS HIT EVER RECORDED ON VIDEO: REPORT

Cali and the man, believed to be between 25-30 years old, were seen talking for about a minute and shaking hands, a law enforcement source told Newsday on Friday. Cali was then seen picking up a fallen license plate when the gunman fired about 12 shots at close range, striking Cali six times, police said.

Police have not determined a motive for Cali’s killing. It was too early to judge whether the murder was mob-related, as investigators were also looking into Cali’s private and business affairs, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said at a news conference Thursday.

Detectives were working to examine video from the area’s surveillance cameras to trace the gunman’s vehicle, which appeared to be a pickup truck, another law enforcement source told Newsday. But the cameras in that part of Staten Island weren’t connected to any network, making the job more difficult, the source said.

MOB POWER-STRUGGLE COULD BE BREWING, WILL BE 'ALL-OUT WAR': REPORTS

Meanwhile, the reputed Gambino boss’ murder continued to trigger speculation that the killing was part of an interfamily rivalry or even the “beginning of a mob war,” the Staten Island Advance reported.

“This is not common [anymore],” Christian Cipollini, organized crime historian and author, told the Advance. “It could be an internal strike or the beginning of a mob war.

“Going by history, this is not gonna be the last one,” he said, referring to possible retaliation for the killing of Cali.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The last high-ranking Mafia figure killed in New York City was Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino family at the time. He was believed to have been assassinated at John Gotti’s direction while getting out of a black limousine outside Manhattan’s Sparks Steakhouse in 1985. Gotti then took control of the family.

Source: Fox News National

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Bernie Sanders speechwriter's 2013 op-eds: 'Let's hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American'

Back when police were vigorously pursuing suspects following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, a senior communications adviser and speechwriter with 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote, "Let's hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American" -- and then confidently doubled down hours later, in a separate piece entitled, "I still hope the bomber is a white American."

David Sirota, an investigative journalist and social media attack dog who has slammed Sanders' opponents in recent weeks, was formally brought into Sanders' campaign on Tuesday, along with a slew of other political veterans.

In his 2013 op-eds, published by Slate, Sirota attempted to argue that "double standards" in politics and law enforcement meant that a non-white perpetrator would lead to an unjust response.

The April 15, 2013, bombings, which killed three and injured dozens others, were perpetrated by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The Kyrgyz-American brothers invoked extremist Islamic beliefs and said American military actions had motivated them. Dzhokhar has been sentenced to death; Tamerlan was killed.

The "specific identity of the Boston Marathon bomber (or bombers) is not some minor detail -- it will almost certainly dictate what kind of governmental, political and societal response we see in the coming weeks," Sirota, who was Sanders' press secretary when he served in the House of Representatives, wrote.

The site of the second of two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.

The site of the second of two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. (AP, File)

He added: "That means regardless of your particular party affiliation, if you care about everything from stopping war to reducing the defense budget to protecting civil liberties to passing immigration reform, you should hope the bomber was a white domestic terrorist. Why? Because only in that case will privilege work to prevent the Boston attack from potentially undermining progress on those other issues."

After accusing the American government of mobilizing "a full-on war effort exclusively against the prospect of Islamic terrorism," despite the existence of other terror threats, Sirota continued with a discussion of white privilege.

"I still hope the bomber is a white American."

— Bernie Sanders 2020 communications adviser David Sirota

"If recent history is any guide, if the bomber ends up being a white anti-government extremist, white privilege will likely mean the attack is portrayed as just an isolated incident -- one that has no bearing on any larger policy debates," Sirota said. "Put another way, white privilege will work to not only insulate whites from collective blame, but also to insulate the political debate from any fallout from the attack."

WHAT OTHER ALL-STAR HIGH-LEVEL STAFFERS DID SANDERS ANNOUNCE? 

Amid a fierce backlash on social media, Sirota largely restated his arguments in a follow-up piece and asserted that a "measured" response to the bombings would not be possible unless the attackers were white.

Police patrolling through a neighborhood in Watertown, Mass., while searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013.

Police patrolling through a neighborhood in Watertown, Mass., while searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

"The reason ... to hope that the bomber ends up being a white American is because the double standard may prevent an overreaction to the heinous attacks in Boston," Sirota wrote. "Indeed, if the bomber ends up being a white American, there's a decent chance we will not see a redux of the post-9/11 period when we (among other things) initiated reckless wars, passed privacy-trampling bills like the Patriot Act, overspent on the Pentagon and targeted wide swaths of the population for surveillance/warrantless wiretapping.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"By the way, you don't have to be a person of color or a political liberal to hope the bomber ends up being a white American," Sirota continued. "You just have to be among the groups of Americans who don't like stuff like pre-emptive wars, the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, the drone war, an unsustainable Pentagon budget and a broken immigration system. By their own rhetoric, some of those groups must include many self-described conservatives -- after all, they purport to care about civil liberties and say they want to reduce government spending."

Neither Sirota nor Sanders' campaign responded to Fox News' request for comment.

Sirota has a history of no-holds-barred rhetoric, and was apparently using his skills on Sanders' behalf even before he was officially brought aboard the campaign on Tuesday.

An analysis by The Atlantic found that Sirota apparently scrubbed his social media profiles, including more than 20,000 tweets, on Tuesday after the magazine asked him questions about his aggressive posts blasting Sanders' Democrat opponents -- without disclosing that he had any affiliation with Sanders' campaign. Sirota was, at the time, working as an "investigative journalist" for his website Capital & Main.

Sirota, according to The Atlantic, blamed an "autodeleter" for the missing tweets, and said he was taking care of a sick child and could not respond to inquiries on Tuesday.

Despite that purported inconvenience, Sirota "did post a photo on Twitter of himself bowling on Monday evening, wearing a turkey hat," The Atlantic noted.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

April 26, 2019

By Julien Pretot

MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.

It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.

“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.

Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.

They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.

At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.

In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.

At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.

“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.

As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.

The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.

“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.

SAME TREATMENT

One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.

“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.

This is not the case with the boys, she added.

“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.

Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.

“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.

OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.

“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.

“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”

‘ONE CLUB’

The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.

While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.

There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.

“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.

“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.

Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.

“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.

“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”

Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.

“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.

“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

April 26, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.

“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.

The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.

The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.

Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT

The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.

Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.

Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.

(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)

2/FED: UP OR DOWN?

Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.

Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.

Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.

Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.

Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.     

(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)

3/HEISEI TO REIWA

Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.

The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.

The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.

The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)

4/EARNING TURNING

Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.

Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.

That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.

The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.

Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.

GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.

Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.

Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.

The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that doctors and nurses don’t treat African American women the same way they do white women.

Warren appeared on Wednesday together with a number of other 2020 Democratic candidates at the She The People Forum in Houston, discussing issues concerning women of color.

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The Massachusetts senator announced on stage a plan to decrease the childbirth mortality rate among black women while identifying a systematic problem with how they are treated.

“And there is a specific problem, as you rightly identified, for women of color who are three, four times more likely to die in childbirth,” Warren said.

“And here’s the thing, even after we do the adjustments for income, for education, this is true across the board. This is true for well-educated African American women, for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I’m seeing put it down to just one thing, prejudice,” she added.

“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”

“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”

— Elizabeth Warren

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Warren went on to get into details of her plan, noting that hospitals will be given bonuses if they manage to reduce the childbirth mortality rate among black women in an effort to give financial incentives for those doctors and nurses to provide better care.

“And if they don’t, then they’re going to have money taken away from them,” Warren added.

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“I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change, and we gotta have change now.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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