Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Beto O’Rourke’s past support for charter schools scrutinized in 2020 White House bid

FILE PHOTO: U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former Representative Beto O'Rourke speaks at the 2019 National Action Network National Convention in New York
FILE PHOTO: U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former Representative Beto O'Rourke speaks at the 2019 National Action Network National Convention in New York, U.S., April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Tim Reid

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) – Democrat Beto O’Rourke has called for investment in a “world-class public school system” and says teachers make up the single biggest professional group contributing to his 2020 presidential campaign.

But several teacher groups say the former Texas congressman’s support for charter schools in recent years is complicating his efforts to secure their backing in his White House bid.

Charter schools, most of which are publicly funded but often privately run, are a complicated issue for Democrats. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama supported them, viewing them as giving school choice to lower-income families.

Charter schools have grown across the country in response to demand from parents for different options from traditional public schools. Many charter school employees are not unionized.

But some teachers unions say they divert state and federal funds from public schools. They have raised O’Rourke’s past positive comments about charter schools, as well as his wife’s ties to them through her work, as points of concern as they scrutinize the Democratic field.

“We’re going to have to get a lot of questions answered by Beto,” said Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teachers Association in O’Rourke’s hometown. “At this point, I would be wary and I think a lot of my colleagues are going to hit him hard on these points.”

Teachers and their unions are being eagerly courted by the large slate of Democrats seeking the party’s 2020 presidential nomination to run against President Donald Trump, the expected Republican nominee. Educators are a key voting bloc in state nominating contests and have flexed their political muscle in the past two years with a wave of strikes and protests over better pay and resources.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential contender from California, has proposed giving teachers an average $13,500 annual pay raise as a central part of her pitch to primary voters.

The politics of charter schools has shifted since some prominent Democrats lent their support. Public schools have seen their budgets cut since the 2008 financial crash, hardening opposition to charters among many teachers. The Trump administration’s strong support for charter schools has also increased Democratic antipathy.

Another 2020 Democratic candidate, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, also is drawing scrutiny for his support for school choice and charter schools when he was mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

‘STRONG, CONSISTENT ADVOCATE’

Aides to O’Rourke say he is unequivocal in his support for public schools and has never taken any action to advance charter schools over them. He and his wife send their children to the same El Paso public school O’Rourke attended.

“Beto has been a strong and consistent advocate for public school classrooms in Texas and across the country,” Chris Evans, a spokesman for O’Rourke, said in an email. “He has made it clear that our focus should be on, and our taxpayer funds should go toward, public school classrooms where the overwhelming majority of American students attend. He believes we should be paying teachers a living wage.”

O’Rourke thinks charter schools “should have comprehensive oversight and accountability to the taxpayer,” Evans added

But O’Rourke’s past statements about charter schools give some public education advocates pause.

In 2016, when O’Rourke voted against a federal voucher program in Washington, D.C., he said money should be invested in “proven educational models such as charter schools.”

In 2015, O’Rourke said he voted for the Every Student Succeeds Act – which passed Congress with bipartisan support – in part because it gave parents choices by “investing in new charter school models.”

During a 2012 Democratic primary debate when he first ran for Congress, O’Rourke called charter schools “a good idea” because they encourage competition and innovation. 

O’Rourke’s wife, Amy, works for an organization in El Paso that backs the expansion of charter schools in the area. In 2007, she opened a dual-language elementary charter school in a low-income neighborhood of El Paso.

Evans said Amy O’Rourke’s work had been focused on expanding opportunities for students in underserved communities.

‘HUGELY PROBLEMATIC’

Anthony Cody, co-founder of the Network for Public Education Action, a national advocacy group for public schools that opposes charter schools, said his organization found O’Rourke’s past comments and his wife’s work in the charter school world “hugely problematic.”

Noel Candelaria, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, which opposes the expansion of charter schools in Texas, said it would be important for O’Rourke to make clear to his organization “where he stands on charter schools” now before he wins an endorsement.

The association endorsed O’Rourke during his unsuccessful Senate bid last year against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union, defended O’Rourke’s “nuanced” view of charter schools.

“For us, it’s not ‘charters good or bad,’ and if you listen to Beto’s actual comments about public schools and charter schools, he gets to the same position: They can’t siphon money from public schools, they can’t take fewer kids with special needs.”

Weingarten said she recently talked with O’Rourke. “I think when he toured the (Mexican) border and spoke to teachers, it was very transformational for him,” she said. “People’s positions evolve over time.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

0 0

UN judges to deliver Radovan Karadzic appeals decisions

United Nations judges are set to hand down their decisions in the appeal by former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic against his convictions and 40-year sentence for masterminding atrocities in his country's devastating 1992-95 war.

Karadzic appealed his 2016 convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as his sentence. Prosecutors appealed his acquittal on a second count of genocide during Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Relatives of victims of the war gathered outside the courtroom Wednesday ahead of the hearing that will announce the decisions.

Karadzic is one of the most senior figures tried by the Hague war crimes court. His case is considered as key in delivering justice for the victims of the conflict, which left over 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

BBVA honorary chair Gonzalez quits for now to limit spy probe impact

FILE PHOTO: BBVA Chairman Francisco Gonzalez addresses the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in Bilbao
FILE PHOTO: BBVA Chairman Francisco Gonzalez addresses the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders at the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, Spain March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo

March 14, 2019

MADRID (Reuters) – Former BBVA head Francisco Gonzalez said on Thursday he would temporarily step down as honorary chairman to avoid any harm to the Spanish bank’s reputation during an inquiry into alleged spying.

Gonzalez announced his decision in a letter to the board a day ahead of BBVA’s annual shareholders meeting. He also resigned temporarily as honorary head of the bank’s foundation.

“In order to avoid the use of my person to harm the entity, I have decided to temporarily leave my positions in the foundation and the bank while investigations are ongoing”, Gonzalez said in the letter, which was seen by Reuters.

The inquiry is related to contracts with a jailed ex-police chief, Jose Manuel Villarejo, whom news reports said the bank hired to spy on top executives of a potential buyer in 2004 when Gonzalez was BBVA’s executive chairman.

The bank has officially acknowledged that it hired Grupo Cenyt, a security firm owned by Villarejo who was arrested in 2017 as part of a separate investigation and remains in jail.

Carlos Torres, who replaced Gonzalez as executive chairman in January, has said that Cenyt provided various services to BBVA, but that the bank had found no evidence of spying.

In his letter, Gonzalez said he was very proud of what he had achieved at BBVA, adding that he had ordered the internal investigation into its relationship with Villarejo in June 2018.

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; editing by Ingrid Melander and Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

0 0

3 Philippine priests say they, Catholic bishops under threat

Three Philippine Catholic priests say they and some church leaders who are critical of the president's bloody crackdown on illegal drugs have received death threats from unknown people.

Father Robert Reyes and two other priests told reporters Monday that they are hesitant to seek protection from the police because they are behind the anti-drug campaign that has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects dead, but are considering seeking court protection.

Reyes says the threats eased after Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle notified President Rodrigo Duterte last month about them, which were mostly made in cellphone messages to some bishops and priests.

Duterte has often lashed out at Catholic bishops over sex abuses by clergy, calling the church the most hypocritical institution and questioning God's existence.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Soybean exports help to shrink U.S. trade deficit in January

A trailer is filled with soybeans at a farm in Buda, Illinois
FILE PHOTO: A trailer is filled with soybeans at a farm in Buda, Illinois, U.S., July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Acker

March 27, 2019

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. trade deficit narrowed by the most in 10 months in January likely as China boosted purchases of soybeans, leading to a rebound in exports after three straight monthly declines.

The better-than-expected improvement in the trade deficit reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday offered some good news for the economy after a raft of weak data, including retail sales, manufacturing and homebuilding, left economists anticipating a sharp slowdown in growth in the first quarter.

Still, the trade deficit remains large despite President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies to significantly shrink it. The White House’s protectionist trade tariffs have left the United States mired in a bruising trade war with China and provoked retaliatory tariffs from other trading partners.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit declined 14.6 percent, the largest drop since March 2018, to $51.1 billion also as increased domestic oil production and lower crude prices curbed the import bill.

Data for December was revised slightly down to show the trade gap widening to $59.9 billion instead of the previously reported $59.8 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade gap narrowing to $57.0 billion in January.

Washington last year imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods imported from China, with Beijing hitting back with duties on $110 billion worth of American products, including soybeans and other commodities.

Trump has delayed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as negotiations to resolve the eight-month trade war continue, with Beijing pledging to resume bulk purchases of soybeans after cancellations at the height of the trade fight.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are in China this week for another round of talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

The politically sensitive trade deficit with China fell 6.4 percent to $34.5 billion in January.

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the trade data.

LOW GDP ESTIMATES

When adjusted for inflation, the goods trade deficit decreased $7.8 billion to $83.8 billion in January. The drop in the so-called real goods trade deficit could see economists bump up their very low first-quarter gross domestic product growth estimates.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve is forecasting GDP rising at a 1.3 percent annualized rate in the January-March quarter. The government reported last month that the economy grew at a 2.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter.

But that estimate is likely to be lowered when the government publishes a revision on Thursday as some economic data for December was weaker than had been previously assumed.

The trade deficit in January was pushed down by a 0.9 percent increase in exports to $207.3 billion. Soybean exports rose by $0.9 billion in January. Exports of motor vehicles and parts increased by $1.2 billion.

Export growth, however, continues to be constrained by slowing global demand and the dollar’s strength last year, which is making U.S.-made goods less competitive on foreign markets.

In January, exports of capital goods decreased by $0.8 billion, led by a $1.3 billion decline in civilian aircraft shipments. Despite the rise in soybean shipments, exports to China were the smallest since September 2010.

Imports fell 2.6 percent to $258.5 billion in January, the lowest level since last June. Imports previously had surged, likely as businesses stocked up in anticipation of further duties on Chinese imports.

Capital goods imports dropped by $3.0 billion in January, led by a $0.9 billion decline in imports of computer accessories. There were also decreases in imports of semiconductors and civilian aircraft.

The weakness in capital goods imports likely suggests a slowdown in business spending on equipment. A drop in imports normally suggests cooling domestic demand. There were, however, increases in imports of consumer goods, as well as motor vehicles and parts in January.

Crude oil imports dropped by $1.4 billion, reflecting both lower volumes and prices. Imported oil prices averaged $42.59 per barrel in January, the cheapest since December 2016.

Graphic: U.S. trade balance DataStream Chart – http://tmsnrt.rs/2eiMEKv

Graphic: Trade interactive – http://tmsnrt.rs/2fuSPiB

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

0 0

Funeral plans set for NY mom killed in family mow-down

A funeral will be held Thursday for a pregnant mother of six who police say was killed when a driver hit her family outside a convenience store after words were exchanged about his smoking.

Melissa Castillo DeLoatch, 32, of Stony Point shielded her youngest child, a girl in a stroller, last Wednesday afternoon in Haverstraw, police said. Her husband and the children, ages 11 months to 10 years, were treated at area hospitals.

Her husband, Sean DeLoatch, had argued with Jason Mendez after telling him not to smoke in front of the children as the family entered the store, police said.

Mendez then "intentionally drove his vehicle across the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store ... into a family of eight persons standing on the sidewalk out front," according to the felony complaint. "After striking this family with his vehicle, Mendez reversed backwards approximately 20 feet (six meters), put his car into drive, and drove forward over the members of the family a second time."

The defendant then tried to flee. When two police officers stopped him, he got out and menaced them with a razor blade, the complaint said. They repeatedly ordered him to drop it then used a stun gun on him.

An email requesting comment was sent to Mendez's attorney on Monday. A grand jury is scheduled to hear the evidence on Tuesday at the Rockland County Courthouse in New City, said Stephen Moore, executive assistant district attorney.

A visitation will be held prior to DeLoatch's funeral at St. Ann's Church in Nyack.

"She would give you the shirt off her back; she would give you her last piece of bread," her mother, Joan Christopher, told the Journal News . "When it came to her children, she protected them and did everything for them."

"I'm just completely lost without her," said DeLoatch's brother, Ryan Christopher. "I don't understand it. She was the most caring person in the world."

___

Information from: The Journal News, http://www.lohud.com

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Netflix says it will not join Apple TV service

The Netflix logo is seen on their office in Hollywood, Los Angeles
The Netflix logo is seen on their office in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

March 19, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Netflix Inc will not make its programming available through a coming TV service expected to be unveiled by Apple Inc, Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings said on Monday.

“We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service,” Hastings told reporters at a briefing at the company’s offices in Hollywood.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Well, Joe Biden didn’t exactly clear the field.

I don’t think it matters much that Biden waited until yesterday to become the 20th Democrat vying for the nomination, even though it exposed him to weeks of attacks while he seemed to be dithering on the sidelines.

A much greater warning sign, in my view, is the largely negative tone surrounding his debut. He is, after all, a former vice president, highly praised by Barack Obama, who has consistently led in the early primary polls, and beating President Trump in head-to-head matchups. Yet much of the press is acting like he’s an old codger and it’s just a matter of time before he keels over politically.

This is all the more remarkable in light of the fact that the vast majority of journalists and pundits know and like Joe Biden and his gregarious personality.

The reason is that Biden, after a half-century in politics, lacks excitement, and the press is magnetically attracted to novel and unorthodox types like Beto and Mayor Pete. You don’t see Biden on the cover of Vanity Fair, and a grind-it-out win by a conventional warrior doesn’t set journalistic hearts racing.

JOE BIDEN ANNOUNCES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL BID: 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE FORMER VICE PRESIDENT

For many in the media, Biden isn’t liberal enough, at least not for the post-Obama era. He doesn’t promise free college and free health care and has a history of working with Republicans, such as John McCain (whose daughter Meghan loves him, and Biden will hit “The View” today.)

What’s more, Biden’s campaign style — speak at rallies, rack up union endorsements — seems hopelessly old-fashioned when we measure popularity by Instagram followers. News outlets are predicting he’ll have trouble getting in the online fundraising game, leaving him reliant on big donors, which used to be standard practice.

And then there’s the age thing. Biden would be the oldest president to be inaugurated, at 78, and he looked a step slow in encounters with reporters yesterday and a few weeks ago.

But what if the journalists are in something of a Twitter bubble, and the actual Democratic Party is much more moderate? We saw that with the spate of allegations by women of unwanted touching, which dominated news coverage until polls showed that most Dem voters weren’t concerned. In that wider world, the Scranton guy’s connection to white, working-class voters could help him against Trump in the industrial Midwest.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF OF THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

Biden denounced the president’s term as an “aberrant moment” in his launch video, saying four more years would damage the country’s character and “I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”

But first, he’d have to win the nomination in the face of an unenthusiastic press corps.

A New York Times news story said Biden would be “marshaling his experience and global stature in a bid to lead a party increasingly defined by a younger generation that might be skeptical of his age and ideological moderation.”

The Washington Post quoted Democratic strategists as saying that Biden faces an “uphill battle” and “isn’t necessarily the heir apparent to Obama, despite being his No. 2 in the White House for eight years. They argue voters will judge Biden by the span of his decades-long career and are worried the veteran pol hasn’t yet found a winning formula for his own candidacy.”

The liberal Slate said the ex-veep’s rivals view him as a “paper tiger”:

“Biden is something more like a 2016 Jeb Bush: a weak establishment favorite whose time might be past … Biden’s biggest challenge in the primary will be a compromised past spanning nearly 50 years.”

“Compromised” suggests a history of scandal, yet what Slate means is political baggage, such as his backing of a Clinton-era crime bill unpopular with black voters today. Yet I think the rank and file isn’t as concerned about a vote back in 1994, or even the Anita Hill hearings, as the chattering classes.

BIDEN’S SENATE RECORD, ADVOCACY OF 1994 CRIME BILL WILL BE USED AGAINST HIM, EX-SANDERS STAFFER SAYS

One of the few left-leaning pundits to suggest the press is underestimating Biden is data guru Nate Silver at 538:

“Media coverage could nonetheless be a problem for Biden. Within the mainstream media, the story of Biden winning the nomination will be seen as boring and anticlimactic. That tends not to lead to favorable coverage. Meanwhile, some left-aligned media outlets may prefer candidates who are some combination of more leftist, more wonkish, more reflective of the party’s diversity, and more adept on social media.

“If Biden is framed as being out of touch with today’s Democratic Party and that narrative is repeated across a variety of outlets, it could begin to resonate with voters who don’t buy it initially. If he’s seen as a gaffe-prone candidate, then minor missteps on the campaign trail could be blown up into big fumbles.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Look, it’s entirely possible that Biden could stumble, get lapped in fundraising and just be outclassed by younger and savvier rivals. He was hardly a great candidate in 1987 and in 2008.

But if the former vice president finds his footing and the field narrows, the press will be forced to change its tune, and we’ll see a spate of stories about how Joe Biden has “grown.”

Source: Fox News Politics

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
South Africa's 400m Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk looks on as he attends South African Championships in Germiston
South Africa’s 400m Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk looks on as he attends South African Championships in Germiston, South Africa, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

April 26, 2019

GERMISTON, South Africa (Reuters) – Olympic 400 meters champion Wayde van Niekerk has backed South African compatriot Caster Semenya in her battle with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which now appears to have taken a new twist.

Semenya, a double 800 meters Olympic gold medalist, is waiting for the outcome of her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to halt the introduction of new regulations by governing body IAAF that would require her to take medicine to limit her natural levels of testosterone.

The IAAF wants female athletes with differences of sexual development who run in events from 400 meters to a mile, to reduce their blood testosterone level to below five (5) nmol/L for a period of six months before they can compete, saying they have an unfair advantage.

“She’s fighting for something beyond just track and field, she’s fighting for woman in sports, in society and I respect her for that,” Van Niekerk told reporters.

“I will support her and with the hard work and talent that she’s been putting into the sport. With what she believes in and what she’s dreaming for, I’ve got a lot of respect for her.

“I really hope and pray that everything just goes from strength to strength for her.”

Semenya has sprung a surprise at the on-going South African Athletics Championships though, ditching the 800 meters and instead competing over 1,500 and 5,000-metres – the latter one would not require her to medically lower her testosterone level.

She stormed to victory in the 5,000-metres final in a modest time of 16:05.97, but looked to have lots left in the tank as she passed the finish line.

Semenya beat fellow Olympian and defending national 5,000m champion Dominique Scott in Thursday’s final but the latter admitted she is unsure whether the 800m specialist could be a serious Olympic contender over the longer distance.

“Honestly‚ I have no idea‚” Scott said. “Before today I probably would have said no. It’s hard to compare a 5,000 at altitude to a 5,000 at sea level.

“But I think she’s an amazing runner and I don’t think there’s any limit or ceiling on what she can do.”

Van Niekerk, the 400m world record holder, had to abort his comeback from a knee injury, that had sidelined him for 18 months, following a combination of cold weather and a wet track.

“We are trying to take the correct decisions now early in the year so as not to put myself in any harm,” he said.

“It was a bit chilly this entire week prepping and coming through here as well it was quite cold and it caused bit of tightness in my leg. We decided to not risk it.

“My recovery is going well and I would like to be back in competition this year, but will only do so if I can deliver a good performance.

“I am a competitor and respect my opponents, so I need to be at my best when I return.”

(Reporting by Nick Said, additional reporting by Siyabonga Sishi; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

The suspected leader of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka died in the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, authorities said.

Police said Mohamed Zahran, leader of the National Towheed Jamaat militant group, had been killed in one of the bombings. The group’s second in command was also arrested, police said.

Zahran amassed an online following for his hate-filled sermons. Some were delivered before a banner depicting the Twin Towers.

Sri Lankan authorities said Friday that Islamic cleric Mohammed Zahran died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel during the Easter Sunday atatcks that killed at least 250 people. 

Sri Lankan authorities said Friday that Islamic cleric Mohammed Zahran died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel during the Easter Sunday atatcks that killed at least 250 people.  (YouTube)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that the attackers responsible for the bombings were supported by the Islamic State group. Around 140 people in Sri Lanka had connections to ISIS, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said.

“We will completely control this and create a free and peaceful environment for people to live,” he said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Investigators determined the attackers received military training from someone called “Army Mohideen.” They also received weapons training overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka, according to authorities.

A copper factory operator arrested in connection with the bombings helped Mohideen make improvised explosive devices, police said. The bombings have led to increased security throughout the island nation as authorities warned of another attack.

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist