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Huge alligator captured by 80-year-old Florida man: ‘That thing tugged me all over’

An 80-year-old Florida man took matters into his own hands when a huge alligator walked into his backyard Tuesday afternoon.

Ed Chapman, from Miami-Dade County, tried to catch the 6-and-a-half-foot gator himself before he had to call in backup from police and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, local outlet 7News reported.

“That thing tugged me all over,” he told the outlet. “Carried me, twisting and fighting me all the way across the property.”

MASSIVE ALLIGATOR IN FLORIDA SHOCKS MOTORISTS AS IT CROSSES BUSY HIGHWAY

Chapman used his noose pole and got it around the gator’s neck, but the gator fought back.

“He swatted me with his tail and knocked my legs out from under me,” he said, telling the outlet he fell on his side but kept trying to stop the alligator, which fought against Chapman to a pond nearby.

“Then he got his front legs down in the reeds there, and then we went all the way down and he had his face in the water,” he said.

"In the meantime, I called 911,” he added. “I said, 'I just need some help. I got it contained, but I need some help. I can't get it out by myself.’"

HUGE RATTLESNAKE SLITHERS ABOARD ARIZONA FISHERMAN’S BOAT, GIVES MAN  ‘BIG SURPRISE’

According to 7News, officials responded within 30 minutes of his call and no one was hurt.

A part of the alligators tail had been cut off in the wild, officials told the outlet. If the gator had its whole tail, it would have been 8 feet long.

However, Chapman, who breeds wolves and keeps about 60 poisonous snakes for venom research, wasn’t particularly fazed, 7News reported.

“I’ve just been around this stuff a long time,” he said.

Source: Fox News National

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Dude Let’s Defeat the Left #RightNow

Good morning I am your host for the day, /u/peterboykin It is a wonderful day to MAGA, I have a question. First Do you support a full Repeal to Obamacare? Creating Jobs? Lowering Taxes? Reducing Federal Spending and Debt? Reforming Health Care? Caring for Veterans? Defeating Against Threats to Our National Security? Stopping Illegal Immigration? Defending […]

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Canada cracks down on asylum seekers crossing U.S.-Canadian border

FILE PHOTO: A group of asylum seekers pass a Canadian army vehicle as they walk down the street while escorted from their tent encampment to be processed at Canada Border Services in Lacolle
FILE PHOTO: A group of asylum seekers pass a Canadian army vehicle as they walk down the street while escorted from their tent encampment to be processed at Canada Border Services in Lacolle, Quebec, Canada August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo

March 19, 2019

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada said on Tuesday it planned to spend an additional C$1.2 billion ($902 million) over five years to stem the flow of irregular migrants from the United States, which has become a political threat to the Liberal government ahead of an October election.

Some 57,000 asylum seekers from Nigeria, El Salvador, Honduras and other nations crossed the U.S. border into Canada last year, in some cases citing a fear of persecution by the government of U.S. Donald Trump.

They are allowed to stay until their cases have been heard. Given Canada’s clogged judicial system, that could take years.

Canada began prioritizing the deportation of asylum seekers who walked across the border last year, in a bid to tackle the politically sensitive issue.

In the annual budget, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Ottawa would implement a comprehensive border enforcement strategy “to detect and intercept individuals who cross Canadian borders irregularly and who try to exploit Canada’s immigration system.”

Most arrive in the populous provinces of Ontario and Quebec, which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars taking care of the newcomers. Critics complain that Ottawa is not doing enough to deter the migrants and Liberals concede the issue is hitting the party’s popularity.

According to the budget, the government will start spending the C$1.2 billion in the 2019-20 fiscal year to strengthen the border and speed up the asylum process. Ottawa will also try to “better manage, discourage and prevent irregular migration,” the budget text said.

Canadian officials have over the past two years visited Nigeria, as well as various ethnic communities in the United States, to try to persuade would-be migrants to stay put.

The officials have said that although the people driving the migrant surge claim that everyone who crosses the border is allowed to stay, most are sent back once their cases have been handled.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; editing by Denny Thomas and Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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Texas robber duct-tapes store clerk, sets bound customer on fire: police

Authorities in Texas on Thursday said they arrested the suspect wanted for a violent robbery earlier that included duct-taping a convenience store clerk and customer and then pouring lighter fluid on the customer and setting the bound person on fire.

The suspect, identified by police as 40-year-old Robert Thompson, was arrested on a warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault, KTRE reported.

The victim was transported to a hospital in Dallas for treatment, the report said. Her condition was not known. The incident, which took place at JJ's Fast Stop in Palestine, Texas, was captured on surveillance footage.

“The suspect … decided to pour lighter fluid on the cashier and the customer. Right before he left, he lit a match and lit them on fire," a police official said.

Source: Fox News National

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Without vaccine, hundreds of children die in Madagascar measles outbreak

Malagasy fisherman Dada holds a photo of three siblings who died of measles one week apart in Fort Dauphin
Malagasy fisherman Dada holds a photo of three cousins who died of measles one week apart in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar February 28, 2019.

March 11, 2019

By Lova Rabary

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – Two months ago, giggles floated through the home of fisherman Dada as his four-year-old son played ball outside with his two younger cousins on one of Madagascar’s famed sun soaked beaches.

A few weeks later, all three children were dead, victims of the worst measles outbreak on the Indian Ocean island in decades.

Measles cases are on the rise globally, including in wealthy nations such as the United States and Germany, where some parents shun life-saving vaccines due to false theories suggesting links between childhood immunizations and autism.

In Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries, parents are desperate to vaccinate their children, many trudging for miles to get to clinics for shots. But there are not enough vaccines, the health ministry says, and many people are too poor to afford them.

Fisherman Dada – like many Malagasy, he only uses one name – had taken his son Limberaza to be vaccinated once already in their home in the southern district of Fort Dauphin.

But a second-dose booster shot cost $15 at a clinic – and the whole family survives on less than $2 a day – so he took the boy to a back-street doctor instead.

“I could not afford to take him to the hospital,” Dada said quietly as his young wife silently held Limberaza’s two-year-old brother.

In January, Limberaza began to cough. A rash followed. After a week, he died, his body afire with fever.

By then Dada’s niece, three-year-old Martina, was also sick. Her weeping mother Martine stroked her face as her fever spiked.

She died eight days later.

That evening, his other sister Pela’s three-year-old son Mario died as she clutched his hands.

“They were so full of life,” Dada said, his voice breaking.

The three cousins are among the almost 1,000 people, mostly children, who have died from measles in Madagascar since October.

Their deaths show the grim reality for those left unprotected from one of the world’s most contagious diseases. The virus, which can cause blindness, pneumonia, brain swelling and death, is able to survive for up to two hours in the air after a cough or sneeze, where it can easily infect people nearby.

Even though there is a highly effective vaccine, globally, around 110,000 people died from measles in 2017, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most, like Limberaza and his cousins, were children under the age of five.

SHOTS FOR LIFE

During 2000 to 2017, the WHO estimates that widespread use of measles vaccinations prevented 21.1 million deaths – making the shots one of what the United Nations’ health agency calls the “best buys in public health.”

Yet misinformation is knocking confidence in the safety of vaccinations and has jeopardized progress against measles – allowing the disease to gain a hold again in places where it was considered almost beaten.

Europe last year saw its highest level of measles cases in a decade, and in January, the WHO named “vaccine hesitancy” – the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate – as one of the top ten global health threats for 2019.

In Madagascar, poverty is a bigger risk. While wealthy tourists flock to its rainforests to spot wide-eyed lemurs and business people bargain for its luminous sapphires and fragrant vanilla, nearly half of Madagascar’s children are malnourished, the highest rate in Africa.

The former French colony has been battered by decades of coups and instability. Foreign aid plummeted after a 2009 coup sparked bitter political street fighting. Corrupt leaders ignored the crumbling healthcare system despite frequent outbreaks of plague, hemorrhagic fevers and deadly viruses.

Measles is endemic on the island but the last vaccination drive was in 2004. Nearly two-thirds of children have not been vaccinated, according to the WHO and coverage needs to be around 95 percent to prevent the virus spreading in communities.

The country is $3 million short of the $7 million needed for enough measles vaccines to cover its population, the WHO said last month.

There are other hurdles. The vaccines must be kept cold, but less than 15 percent of people in Madagascar have electricity. Roads are mostly mud in the tropical country; journeys are arduous and expensive.

At least 922 people – mostly children – have died of measles in Madagascar since October, the WHO says, despite an emergency program that has vaccinated 2.2 million of the 26 million population so far.

Some of those, like Limberaza, had previously been vaccinated but had only received one shot, and still needed a second booster jab. Madagascar hopes to roll out a free routine two-dose vaccination program this year. Currently, the first shot is free but the booster is not.

    

OBSTACLE COURSE

Despite the difficulties, some parents walk miles seeking shots, said Jean Benoît Mahnes, deputy representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Madagascar. But they often arrive to find the clinic closed, or a doctor with no vaccine, or a vaccine that has expired.

“Vaccinating a child can be a real obstacle course here,” he said.

Lydia Rahariseheno, 33, said she had to walk an hour and a half to a clinic along a road plagued by robbers to get her three children vaccinated. She has only managed to get one shot so far because the doctor is often not there.

The health system’s failures mean poverty-stricken parents often take sick children to traditional healers who prescribe a herb, tingotingo, which is boiled and given to them to drink.

The children are only brought to a hospital when their condition deteriorates, said Manitra Rakotoarivony, director of health promotion at the Ministry of Public Health.

Limberaza’s father hoped a second, cheaper shot would protect him – but it didn’t. His cousins Mario and Martine weren’t vaccinated at all.

Now the family is desperate to protect their remaining children.

“We did not expect the failure to vaccinate him would kill him,” wept Pela, Mario’s mother. “My other child, for sure, I am going to take him to get vaccinated.”

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Carmel Crimmins)

Source: OANN

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Defense Secretary OK's $1 Billion for Border Fencing Help

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning and building 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, along the U.S. border with Mexico.

The Pentagon says it will divert up to $1 billion to support the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. The funding would also go toward installing lighting and constructing roads in those areas.

Shanahan says the Corps' focus will be on blocking "drug-smuggling corridors."

The El Paso sector has suddenly become the second-busiest corridor for illegal border crossings after Texas' Rio Grande Valley, many of them asylum-seeking families from Central America. The Yuma sector has also witnessed a jump in illegal crossings, particularly Guatemalan families in remote areas.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Key quotes from U.S. Special Counsel Mueller’s report

FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Mueller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Robert Mueller, as FBI director, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Federal Bureau of Investigation oversight on Capitol Hill in Washington June 13, 2013. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

April 18, 2019

By Sarah N. Lynch

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his nearly two-year investigation into whether President Donald Trump and his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia or attempted to obstruct probes.

The following are some key quotes from Mueller’s 448-page report:

“When (former Attorney General Jeff) Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.'”

“While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

“The evidence supports the inference that the President intended (former campaign Chairman Paul) Manafort to believe that he could receive a pardon, which would make cooperation with the government as a means of obtaining a lesser sentence unnecessary.”

“You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod …,” Trump told former White House Counsel Donald McGahn during a June 17, 2017, phone call in which he asked McGahn to remove Mueller due to conflicts of interest.

“Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel,” Trump said during a second phone call that same day. “Mueller has to go. … Call me back when you do it.”

“I don’t have a lawyer,” Trump told aides on March 3, 2017, the day after learning that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“You’re telling me that Bobby (Kennedy) and Jack (Kennedy didn’t talk about investigations? Or Obama didn’t tell Eric (Attorney General Eric) Holder who to investigate?” Trump asked McGahn in connection with frustration over Sessions’ recusal.

“Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over,” Trump said to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during a Valentine’s Day lunch in 2017. “No way,” Christie replied with a laugh. “This Russia thing is far from over… ‘(W)e’ll be here on Valentine’s Day 2018 talking about this.”

“…It would also be a bad idea for the President because it looked as if my ambassadorial appointment was in some way a quid pro quo.” – former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland, who refused a request to draft an email declaring that Trump had not directed Michael Flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador.

She documented the request in a memo, after she was asked to resign and offered a position instead as ambassador to Singapore.

“Can you look into this? Don’t want to get duped but don’t want to blow off Putin!” – former Trump campaign secretary Hope Hicks, in an email to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, after receiving an email from a Russian Embassy official with the subject line “Message from Putin.”

“If he doesn’t write a letter, then maybe I’ll have to get rid of him,” – Trump, telling Staff Secretary Rob Porter that he would fire White House Counsel McGahn if McGahn refused to craft a memo stating that Trump never directed him to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Trump also called McGahn a “lying bastard,” according to Porter’s account.

“Keep in touch with your friend.” – Trump, in directing Porter to keep in touch with former Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand to see if she might be interested in becoming attorney general and overseeing Mueller’s probe.

Porter later told prosecutors he never delivered the message because he was uncomfortable.

“I never said to fire Mueller. I never said ‘fire.’ This story doesn’t look good. You need to correct this. You’re the White House counsel.” – Trump, complaining to McGahn about a New York Times story revealing that Trump asked McGahn to fire Mueller. McGahn declined to do so, saying the story was accurate.

“What about these notes? Why do you take notes? Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes.” – Trump, asking McGahn why he takes notes during meetings.

McGahn told Trump he does so because he is a “real lawyer” and note-taking is good and creates a record.

“I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn,” the president said. “He did not take notes.”

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Susan Cornwell and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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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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