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Dollar holds gains, sterling up on Brexit deadline extension

An employee counts U.S. dollar bills at a money exchange office in central Cairo
An employee counts U.S. dollar bills at a money exchange office in central Cairo, Egypt, March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany.

March 22, 2019

By Daniel Leussink

TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar largely held onto the previous session’s gains in early Asian trade on Friday, while sterling edged up on news that Britain could leave the European Union without a Brexit deal at a slightly later date.

Against a basket of key rival currencies, the dollar was about 0.1 percent lower at 96.394.

The index had recovered three-quarters of a percent overnight after falling to a more than six-week low on Wednesday on news the Federal Reserve had abandoned plans to raise rates this year.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday welcomed the European Union’s decision to delay Brexit, saying that lawmakers in the British parliament now had clear choices about what to do next.

Britain could leave the European Union without a Brexit deal on April 12 if lawmakers next week reject May’s agreement with Brussels, EU leaders said on Thursday.

They also gave the British leader an extra two months, until May 22, to leave if she wins next week’s vote in parliament.

Sterling rose one-sixth of a percent to $1.3126. It had retraced sharp losses overnight, when it touched as low as $1.3004.

“Whenever we get news of the can being kicked down the road, the market reacts positively,” said Bart Wakabayashi, Tokyo branch manager at State Street Bank.

“Investors are probably shying away from exposure to the UK right now in terms of positioning – probably going back to benchmark exposures and wait-and-see mode,” he said.

The Bank of England kept interest rates steady on Thursday and said most businesses felt as ready as they could be for a no-deal Brexit.

Figures on Friday showed Japan’s core consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in February from a year earlier, slowing from the previous month’s pace.

The data underlines the fragile nature of Japan’s economic recovery, as escalating U.S.-China trade frictions and slowing Chinese growth weigh on exports and business sentiment.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was a shade lower at 110.71 yen, staying well away from the 111-level last breached before the Fed’s rate announcement.

Three in four Japanese companies expect U.S.-China trade frictions to last until at least late 2019, a sharp contrast to market hopes that presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping might soon strike a deal, a Reuters poll found.

The euro was a tad lower at $1.1370, extending losses into a second session after dipping one-third of a percent overnight.

Data showing the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week had helped lift the dollar overnight.

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Mosque massacre survivor hailed as hero for confronting the shooter, saving lives

A mosque shooting survivor in New Zealand has been hailed as a hero for preventing more deaths after confronting the shooter by yelling “Come here!” and leading him on a chase that ended with the shooter speeding away in his car.

Abdul Aziz, 48, heroically went after the 28-year-old Australian killer, who Fox News is not naming, while Aziz's four sons and dozens of others remained inside Linwood mosque in Christchurch fearing for their lives.

He grabbed the only thing he saw – a credit card machine – and ran outside screaming “Come here!” to the attacker in a bid to get his attention and buy more time for his fellow worshippers.

NEW ZEALAND MOSQUE SHOOTING SUSPECT CHARGED WITH MURDER COUNT, MORE ANTICIPATED

The hero said after seeing the attacker run back to his car to get another guy, he threw the credit card machine at the gunman.

The killer came back and opened fire but wasn’t able to get a clean shot as Aziz ran through cars parked in the driveway.

Aziz then took an abandoned firearm that had no ammunition and threw it on the killer’s car after he ran to the vehicle for the second time.

“He gets into his car and I just got the gun and threw it on his window like an arrow and blasted his window,” he said. “That's why he got scared.”

The gunman, who was charged with one count of murder Saturday, allegedly killed 49 people after attacking two mosques in the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand's modern history. Additional charges are expected.

He is thought to have killed 41 people at the Al Noor mosque before driving about 3 miles to another mosque where he killed seven more people. One person died later in a hospital.

NEW ZEALAND MASSACRE SUSPECT MADE STOPS IN NORTH KOREA, PAKISTAN DURING GLOBAL TRAVELS, REPORTS SAY

But Aziz remained humble and said he thinks it's what anyone would have done while in such danger, while Latef Alabi, the Linwood mosque's acting imam, said more people would have died if not for Aziz’s actions.

Mourners pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Saturday, March 16, 2019. New Zealand's stricken residents reached out to Muslims in their neighborhoods and around the country on Saturday, in a fierce determination to show kindness to a community in pain as a 28-year-old white supremacist stood silently before a judge, accused in mass shootings at two mosques that left dozens of people dead.

Mourners pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Saturday, March 16, 2019. New Zealand's stricken residents reached out to Muslims in their neighborhoods and around the country on Saturday, in a fierce determination to show kindness to a community in pain as a 28-year-old white supremacist stood silently before a judge, accused in mass shootings at two mosques that left dozens of people dead. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

The imam said he stopped prayers on Friday after hearing a voice outside and then seeing a man in black military-style gear and a helmet holding a large gun. At first, he thought it was a police officer but then he noticed two dead bodies near him.

“I realized this is something else. This is a killer,” he said, adding that he then yelled at the congregation to get down.

“Then this brother came over. He went after him, and he managed to overpower him, and that's how we were saved,” Alabi said, referring to Aziz. “Otherwise, if he managed to come into the mosque, then we would all probably be gone.”

Aziz, who’s originally from Afghanistan, said he left his home country as a refugee at an early age and lived in Australia for 25 years before moving to New Zealand just a couple years ago.

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“I've been to a lot of countries and this is one of the beautiful ones,” he said, adding that he thought the country as peaceful as well.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Fed done raising interest rates; significant chance of cut in 2020: Reuters poll

FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington
FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 29, 2019

By Shrutee Sarkar

BENGALURU (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates until at least the end of next year, according to economists in a Reuters poll who gave a 40 percent chance of at least one rate cut by end-2020.

The Fed left its federal funds rate on hold last week as expected, but its “dot plot” projections shifted and now suggest no hikes in 2019 compared with two in December. A Reuters poll taken just two weeks ago predicted one hike this year.

The change in the Fed’s tone lines up with other major central banks which have recently turned dovish, influenced by increasing concerns of a global economic slowdown and political uncertainties like Brexit and the U.S.-China trade war.

While the Fed’s projections show one rate hike next year, the latest Reuters poll of over 100 economists taken after the March 19-20 central bank meeting showed the fed funds rate will stay at the current range of 2.25-2.50 percent until at least end-2020.

A smaller sample of economists with an end-2021 view predicted no change by then either.

“The most dramatic development of the year to date has not been on either trade policy or politics. Rather, it is the Fed’s full-throated embrace of a monetary stance more dovish than many market participants had been expecting,” noted Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of macro research at Barclays.

“We do expect U.S. inflation to exceed 2 percent, but not by much and not early enough to force a tightening within our 2019-20 forecast horizon. We therefore now forecast the Fed to leave the policy rate on hold through 2020.”

Only three economists in the poll predict at least one rate cut this year. But the yield spread between U.S. three-month Treasury bills and 10-year notes has already inverted, suggesting a recession is likely in one to two years.

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation is close to the 2 percent target and is not expected to show any significant pick up anytime soon. The U.S. economy, which slowed more than initially thought in the fourth quarter, is expected to slow further over the next three years.

Over one-third of contributors with an end-2020 view have now penciled in at least one rate cut by the end of next year compared to around one-quarter of them in the previous poll.

When asked on the probability of a rate cut by end-year, the median of those responding to an additional question was 20 percent. But that jumped to 40 percent for end-2020.

About one-third predicted a greater than 50 percent chance of lower rates by the end of next year, with the highest forecast at 100 percent.

“While not our core view, the odds of a rate cut…(are)significant given the Fed’s reaction function has shifted towards guarding against downside risks,” said Eugene Leow, rates strategist at DBS.

Still, nearly a quarter of respondents expect the Fed to raise rates at some point this year on hopes of an economic revival, contradicting the central bank’s latest view.

But the fed funds futures market has completely priced out any rate hike over the next two years, despite a recovery in U.S. stocks after a deep sell-off late last year.

“For now, the Federal Reserve is still signaling a bias to tighten policy given the rate hike penciled into 2020,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.

“But with a presidential election later in the year (2020) and President Trump keen to gain political capital out of challenging the Fed on any rate hikes, we are skeptical that would happen.”

(Polling by Anisha Sheth and Tushar Goenka; Editing by Ross Finley and Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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UK man may be banned by judge from having sex with wife of 20 years

A British man may reportedly be barred from having sex with his wife of 20 years because social services bosses claim she no longer has the mental capacity to consent.

Officials told the Court of Protection in London – which specializes in cases involving people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions – the unidentified woman’s mental health has deteriorated to the point that she no longer has the ability to consent.

According to Sky News, the attorneys representing social services bosses are requesting the judge consider barring the woman’s husband from continuing to have sex with his wife to ensure she is not raped.

INMATES AT UK'S LARGEST PRISON ALLOWED TO LOCK AND UNLOCK THEIR OWN CELLS

The man reportedly told the judge at a preliminary hearing that he would give his pledge not to have sex with his wife.

However, the judge suggested the man might be put in a situation where he could face prison if he breached the pledge or an order by the court. He added that such an order would be difficult to police.

"I cannot think of any more obviously fundamental human right than the right of a man to have sex with his wife -- and the right of the state to monitor that -- I think he is entitled to have it properly argued,” Justice Sir Anthony Hayden said, according to Sky News.

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Hayden said he wants to listen to all the evidence and arguments from lawyers representing the women, the husband and social services before making a decision.

Source: Fox News World

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Who Decides What News Is Fake News?

"Full Measure" host Sharyl Attkisson reports on efforts to improve "media literacy," and asks whether groups whose goal is to expose media bias have their own biases.

President Trump: I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country.

Jeffrey Toobin: The press screwed up and they should apologize and you know the media isn’t as great as it thinks it is. This is a bad day for the news media. I mean, let’s not kid ourselves.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: BuzzFeed stands by its report.

Whatever the case, it underscores how it’s getting harder to separate fact from fiction in the news. Now, there are unprecedented efforts by third parties— to curate information for you.

Some even want to give lessons to first graders on how to sort through fake news— between math and reading.

Person on street: I think children or young adults need to be informed about how to decipher what is real news and not.

Person on street: I think everyone, not just high school students, everyone should get educated about what to believe and not believe with the media.

Person on street: We really have to understand who you're hearing it from, why they may be telling you what they're telling you and generate your own viewpoints from there.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Do you think there is a way for the government or third parties to get involved in curating our information for us so that we can really read factual information? Or is that just a no win proposition?

KATY GRIMES: I think the answer is absolutely no. It's a no-win proposition.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Katy Grimes is an investigative journalist in California — one of the states where lawmakers have been pushing for new laws to root out “fake news” and teach media literacy in public schools. The question is — who decides what’s real when it’s a matter in dispute.

KATY GRIMES: I think we, we've seen a lot of history in the past when you've got governments that try to control media. We've got governments around the world still trying to control media and it's limiting what the populations who live there get.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Is it sort of a new trend in your experience to see government stepping in and saying that it has a role to play in helping sort through or curate information for us?

KATY GRIMES: Yes. This seems to be a very new role and it's extremely disturbing. They're trying to pass a bill that would require schools to teach children some idea of what fake news is. And I think that's just a giant red flag.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: President Obama first drew national attention to the notion that somebody needed to start curating information. It was less than a month before the 2016 election. Liberal interests had already introduced the phrase “fake news” to criticize campaign-driven conspiracy theories.

President Obama: We are going to have to rebuild within this wild-wild-west-of-information flow some sort of curating function that people agree to.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: With the President’s announcement, an organized effort grew. According to the advocacy group "Media Literacy Now," which is pushing for new laws, 10 states considered media literacy legislation last year alone. Sponsors of 3 California bills, Senators Richard Pan, Hannah-Beth Jackson and Bill Dodd, wouldn’t sit down for interviews to discuss their proposals with us. Ultimately, only one of the bills was signed into law: one requiring the state to provide media literacy resources for public school teachers. We did get the chance to talk to California Senator John Moorlach, who told us the legislative efforts are politically-driven.

There are proposals to teach media literacy in public schools. What is your feeling about that?

JOHN MOORLACH: Well, two things. One is: the state legislature has not reacted well to the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States. So, there are a lot of barbs that keep being thrown that way. But two, our educational system isn't something to brag about necessarily. I'd be happy if we could teach our kids to read, you know, do math and, and understand, you know, basic science concepts, than to worry about fake news.

MICKEY HUFF: I like to give at least some benefit of the doubt that there are some people involved in these efforts that have integrity and are well-intentioned.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: California-based “Project Censored,” a media watchdog group, has been teaching college-focused media literacy since 1976. Director Mickey Huff is wary of some of the newer efforts.

MICKEY HUFF: I can't, however, help but be suspicious because the way in which that, that these things have been rolled out and “media literacy” is now a buzz phrase, right? The whole fighting of fake news has become a Trojan horse to propel other agendas. And in the name of telling us what is fake news, we're also seeing more censorship, whether, again, it's algorithmically through bots, through filter bubbles, whether it's outsourcing fact checkers, right? Like Snopes or Politifact.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: But do you suspect there are special interest behind some of these efforts that are actually trying to shape opinion and do the opposite of what they say they're trying to do?

MICKEY HUFF: Absolutely. And the name of fighting fake news is purposely suppressing certain views, certain narratives, certain sources. And so at Project Censored, we believe that that is a very problematic effort. It, unfortunately, does get to masquerade in sort of a “do good” capacity. In other words, who's going to be against media literacy if we're trying to fight fake news?

SHARYL ATTKISSON: It sounds good.

MICKEY HUFF: Sounds fantastic. Until you realize how certain groups are doing it.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: On the front lines are college students like Edward Jacobs. He took an independent pilot course in media literacy last year while he was in high school. What did he learn? To be skeptical of the curators.

EDWARD JACOBS: The very idea that there should be some middlemen curating what ideas we're exposed to is very dangerous. Even if it were someone who agreed with what our personal opinions were, that would in effect restrict us from being exposed to many different viewpoints and that’s really something that our country doesn't need, especially among the youth demographic today.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: It’s Phil Dunn who taught the high school course that Eddie took. As a student of media manipulation and author of “Media Collusion,” Dunn says the key is critical thinking, not pushing curated views.

PHIL DUNN: When you talk about media literacy that the people that want to teach that are oftentimes invested in certain kind of legacy media outfits, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the big three networks, CNN, Fox, all of them would love to tell you what to listen to and, and how to listen to it. And I think you can throw in Google and Facebook as well because it's on the right side and it's chosen and may be censored and maybe curated, you know, we put quotes around curated.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: To be clear, in your class, you don't teach the kids, “rely on this source, go to the New York Times, trust the Washington Post or Fox News?”

PHIL DUNN: Nope.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: What do you teach them instead?

PHIL DUNN: How to look, where to look. What to discover about who's telling you what's fake and what's not. I mean, there's a chapter on Snopes in there and Snopes has its own people that have their own bias.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Perhaps best put we may need media literacy instruction to determine which media literacy efforts are genuine. And which may be just attempts to shape and manipulate.

What would your advice be to people who hear what sound like well-meaning efforts to curate their information, to sort out fake news, to make kids understand media literacy by teaching them in elementary school or middle school or high school?

MICKEY HUFF: I would say, well, one of the basic things is who benefits from that education? Who's forming the curriculum, who's funding it? If it's coming through government, who's funding the particular sponsors of the bills? Who has a seat at the table? And I think the only thing that we really have at the end of the day is our own capacity to think critically and independently.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: One new media literacy effort is called MediaWise, which aims to educate teens with social media and a teacher curriculum developed by Stanford. They've started a teen fact-checking network and are working with YouTube to produce videos. MediaWise is funded by Google.

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Jim Jordan: American people want accountability for people who started Russia investigation

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, called on Saturday for Congress to look into the origins of the Russia investigation, which he said started on a "false premise."

Jordan, who serves as ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that Americans sensed Washington had a double standard that allowed elected officials to avoid punishment for wrongdoing.

"They do want people who launched this investigation, on a false premise, they do want them held accountable," he said on "Cavuto Live."

ANDREW MCCARTHY: MUELLER REPORT VINDICATES AG BILL BARR

He pointed to the infamous Steele dossier which informed the FBI's suspicions surrounding President Donald Trump and the Russian government.

"You can't have the FBI using one party's opposition research document to launch an investigation and spy on the other party's campaign," he said.

"We know that took place and we do need to get to the bottom of that because it's never supposed to happen in this country." Jordan was referring to former President Barack Obama's administration surveilling then-candidate Donald Trump's 2016 campaign out of its concern over potential ties to Russia.

KELLYANNE CONWAY REITERATES CALL FOR ADAM SCHIFF'S RESIGNATION AFTER MUELLER REPORT'S RELEASE

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report, released on Thursday, stopped short of formally accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russian government. Justice Department leadership also said there wasn't enough evidence to accuse Trump and his associates of either collusion or obstruction of justice.

But Democrats like Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who serves on the House's investigatory committees, thought the report contained enough troubling information to continue probing the president's conduct. Swalwell, while appearing on Fox News on Friday, said the Obama administration didn't owe the Trump campaign an apology because Mueller's report showed suspcioius behavior and "laid out a multiplicity of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Democratic leadership has signaled the Russia controversy was far from over as Trump declared victory and some speculated the issue could hurt Democrats' chances in the 2020 election. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has already subpoenaed the unredacted version of Mueller's report and some in his party, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pushed impeachment.

While Democrats go on offense, Republicans like Jordan could leverage that focus to attack Democrats for their involvement with the dossier. Jordan, however, indicated that his party wanted to focus on issues like immigration which a Fox News poll showed as the top concern among registered voters. The Mueller investigation didn't rank among the top five issues in that poll.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Frustration grows among migrants in Mexico as support fades

Madison Mendoza, her feet aching and her face burned by the sun, wept as she said she had nothing to feed her 2-year-old son who she'd brought with her on the long trek toward the United States.

Mendoza, 22, said an aunt in Honduras had convinced her to join the migrant caravan, which she did two weeks ago in the capital of Tegucigalpa. The aunt said she'd have no problems, that people along the route in Mexico would help as they did for a large caravan that moved through the area in October.

But this time, the help did not come. The outpouring of aid that once greeted Central American migrants as they trekked in caravans through southern Mexico has been drying up. Hungrier, advancing slowly or not at all, and hounded by unhelpful local officials, frustration is growing among the 5,000 to 8,000 migrants in the southern state of Chiapas.

"What causes me pain is that the baby asks me for food and there are days when I can't provide it," said Mendoza, who fled Honduras with almost no money because she feared for her life after receiving threats from the father of her son. "I thought that with the baby, people would help me on road."

Members of the caravan in October received food and shelter from town governments, churches and passers-by. Drivers of trucks stopped to give them a lift. Little of that is happening this time. And local officials who once gave them temporary permits to work in Mexico, now seem to snare them in red tape. Truckers and drivers have been told they will be fined if caught transporting migrants without proper documentation.

Mendoza bathed her son, José, under a stream of water in Escuintla, a Mexican town 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of the Guatemalan border. It was the first time she has been able to bath the child since they left Tegucigalpa.

"I don't even have a peso," she said, teary-eyed. Many migrants are collecting mangos and fruits from trees along the route and sharing food among themselves.

Some 1,300 migrants spent the night in Escuintla and were heading north to the town of Mapastepec, Chiapas. Mendoza and José arrived in Mapastepec on Saturday. They joined thousands of stranded migrants waiting to see if local authorities provide them with a temporary permit or visa to work in Mexico or whether they would continue their trip to the U.S. border.

Heyman Vázquez, a parish priest in Huixtla, a community along the caravan's route, said local support for the Central American migrants has dried up because of an anti-migrant discourse that blames them for crime and insecurity.

"It is due to the campaign of discrimination and xenophobia created through social networks and the media that blames migrants for the insecurity in Chiapas," he said.

Oscar Pérez, who sells cooked pork in Ulapa, a village along the way, said people have become tired of supporting the migrants because of reports that "they've become aggressive." He acknowledged, however, that he doesn't know of anyone who has been attacked by a migrant.

The frustration felt by the migrants is affecting Geovani Villanueva, who has spent 25 days along with several hundred other migrants at a sports complex in Mapastepec waiting for a permit that would let him legally and safely travel north with his wife, two small children and four other relatives.

"I think it's a strategy by the government to wear us out," said Villanueva, 51.

The latest caravan is heading north during Holy Week in Latin America, when many activists organize processions to dramatize the hardships and needs of migrants. Caravans became a popular way of making the trek because the migrants find safety in numbers and save money by not hiring smugglers.

Mexico is under pressure from the Trump administration to thwart them from reaching the U.S. border. In April, President Donald Trump threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border before changing course and threatening tariffs on automobiles produced in Mexico if that country does not stop the flow of Central American migrants.

U.S. border facilities have been overwhelmed by the number of migrant families. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced recent that 53,000 parents and children were apprehended at the border in March.

Nancy Valladares, who is from the city of Progreso in Honduras, is part of the caravan that reached Mapastepec. She is traveling with her husband and two daughters in baby carriages.

She said the family hoped to reach the U.S. and find help for her 2-year-old daughter Belen, who she says was born with microcephaly due to a Zika infection, and cannot walk or talk.

Valladares complained that they weren't able to find anyone to give them a ride, and when her family and scores of other migrants climbed on to a truck-trailer in Escuintla, federal police forced them to get down and walk.

Tired and angry, many migrants no longer want to talk to reporters.

Villanueva, who owned several small stores back in Honduras, said he left his homeland because gangs had threatened to kill him after he refused to pay extortion.

He said he left to save his life and one thing is clear to him: there is no turning back.

---

AP journalist María Verza contributed to this report from Mexico City.

Source: Fox News World

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Trump departs for travel to Indianapolis from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Indianapolis, Indiana from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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A man accused of fatally beating a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son had been previously deported from the United States five times, most recently in late 2016, immigration officials said.

Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, a 33-year-old Honduran national, has used multiple aliases, including the fake name of Jose Agurcia-Avila he gave police in Memphis, Tennessee, following his arrest in the boy’s death earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told WMC-TV.

ICE officials have since filed an immigration detainer against Zuniga-Aviles, who was initially deported back to Honduras in February 2010. He was also returned to the Central American country in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

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“ICE will seek to take him into custody to reinstate his removal order following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” the statement reads. “Mr. Zuniga-Aviles has been removed from the US five prior times: his most recent removal by ICE to Honduras took place in December 2016.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH CRIMINAL HISTORY ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA WOMAN’S MURDER

Zuniga-Aviles later returned to the U.S. following his removal, a felony under federal law, immigration officials said. It’s unclear exactly when he returned, but he was living with his girlfriend and the woman’s 4-month-old son in Memphis at the time of his arrest, WREG reports.

DAD OF MAN KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BLASTS CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TRIP TO CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

The infant, Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, was pronounced dead at a hospital from blunt force trauma to the head after his mother, Mercy Lizondro-Chacon, called police on April 12 to report that the boy was having trouble breathing, according to an affidavit of complaint obtained by the Commercial Appeal.

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This article originally appeared in the New York Post. For more from the Post, click here.

Source: Fox News National

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