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BBVA offices in Mexico City skyscraper evacuated due to threats

A police officer stands guard outside the tower after people were evacuated from the Mexican headquarters of Spain's BBVA, in Mexico City
A police officer stands guard outside the tower after people were evacuated from the Mexican headquarters of Spain's BBVA due to what the bank said were two anonymous emails threatening violent acts against its corporate offices, in Mexico City, Mexico March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero

March 13, 2019

By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Nearly 11,000 people were evacuated on Wednesday from the Mexico City offices of Spanish bank BBVA, including one of the capital’s tallest skyscrapers, where police sent in a team of bomb experts following anonymous threats.

BBVA said in a statement it did not believe the threats were real, but evacuated its headquarters in the 235-meter (771-foot) Torre Bancomer, as well its Parques Bancomer offices in the upscale Polanco neighborhood as a precaution.

“Fortunately everyone is out of the buildings … they are all safe,” a BBVA spokesman said.

Myriam Urzua Venegas, the city’s emergency services chief, told local television station TeleDiario both emails and phone calls warned of “a possible explosive device” in the Torre Bancomer. It could also be a false alarm, she added.

A crowd of office workers from the towering office building, a landmark of the Mexico City skyline, milled around sidewalks just before 1 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) along a busy stretch of Paseo de la Reforma boulevard in the city’s capital.

Moises Gutierrez, a police officer at the scene, said a team of around half a dozen experts had not detected any explosive device inside the building almost two hours after entering.

Workers outside the Torre Bancomer, which opened in 2016, said they were told to go home for the day after they received instructions on a loudspeaker to evacuate the building.

“We weren’t told why,” said Cynthia Sanchez, 32, who came down the stairs via an emergency exit from the 14th floor.

The crowd of hundreds of workers outside the tower quickly dispersed leaving a few dozen police and an ambulance with flashing lights at the entrance to the 50-floor tower.

BBVA said its local branches continued to operate normally.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Writing by Anthony Esposito and David Alire Garcia; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Jonathan Oatis and Diane Craft)

Source: OANN

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Biden makes it all about Trump


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On the roster: Biden makes it all about Trump - I’ll Tell You What: Yawp or yawn - Buttigieg crowding out Beto - Senate majority may come down to Colorado - Watch parrot

BIDEN MAKES IT ALL ABOUT TRUMP 
Fox News: “Former Vice President Joe Biden, in an online video Thursday, officially declared his candidacy for president in 2020, capping off weeks of intrigue and media speculation. He enters a crowded field of Democratic contenders aiming to unseat President Trump -- nearly 32 years after he announced his first campaign for president. The campaign is Biden’s third for the White House, having also unsuccessfully run in 1988 and 2008. ‘The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America -- America -- is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,’ Biden tweeted early Thursday. With the announcement, which followed months of deliberations, Biden becomes a front-runner in an incredibly crowded field of Democratic presidential contenders all vying to face off next year against Trump. … Biden is expected to follow up the announcement with his first high-dollar fundraiser in the Philadelphia home of Comcast executive David Cohen Thursday evening and appear at a local union hall in Pittsburgh on Monday.”

No easy task - FiveThirtyEight: “…Biden’s path to the nomination is [not] easy. Not by a long shot. … Arguably, in fact, media elites have the same blind spots for Biden that they had for Trump. … [T]here’s a gap between where [BernieSanders is polling and where Biden is, and empirically, it’s a relevant one. Based on historical data, we estimate that candidates with high name recognition who are polling at 20 percent (Sanders) in early national polls can expect to win their nominations about 15 percent of the time, other factors held equal. But candidates who are polling at 28 percent (Biden) win their nominations something more like 35 percent of the time, or roughly twice as often. It’s also possible that Biden will get a bounce in his polls after his announcement, as Sanders did and as Kamala Harris did and as Beto O’Rourke sorta did.”

Biden tells donors he needs big bucks on day one - Politico: “On the eve of announcing his presidential bid, former Vice President Joe Biden raised the alarm about fundraising in a Wednesday conference call with top donors and supporters. ‘The money’s important. We’re going to be judged by what we can do in the first 24 hours, the first week,’ Biden told the group, according to one participant, whose recollections of the quotes were confirmed by two others on the call. ‘People think Iowa and New Hampshire are the first test,’ Biden said. ‘It’s not. The first 24 hours. That’s the first test. Those [early states] are way down the road. We’ve got to get through this first.’ Biden — noting that ‘I hate to do this’ in discussing the fundraising — said he would be flying around the country for fundraisers with the participants but urged them to do what they can as soon as possible.”

Ocasio-Cortez allies attack ‘out-of-touch’ Biden - Fox News: “A progressive political group that boosted New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's bid for Congress last year vowed to oppose former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, blasting him as part of the ‘old guard’ and accusing him of standing in opposition to the ‘center of energy’ in the Democratic Party. ‘While we're going to support the Democratic nominee, we can't let a so-called ‘centrist’ like Joe Biden divide the Democratic Party and turn it into the party of ‘No, we can’t,’’ the group Justice Democrats said Thursday. … The group added: ‘Joe Biden stands in near complete opposition to where the center of energy is in the Democratic Party today.’”

Cindy McCain denies Biden endorsement report - Fox News: “Cindy McCain, the widow of late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., responded to the reports that her family will endorse former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. McCain tweeted Wednesday: ‘Joe Biden is a wonderful man and dear friend of the McCain Family. However, I have no intention of getting involved in presidential politics.’ Her daughter, ‘The View’ host Meghan McCain retweeted the remarks. … McCain’s comment comes after a report in the Washington Examiner that said the McCain family would support Biden. The report cited sources close to the family.”

THE RULEBOOK: DIFFERENT COURSES FOR DIFFERENT HORSES
“It will not be alleged, that an election law could have been framed and inserted in the Constitution, which would have been always applicable to every probable change in the situation of the country; and it will therefore not be denied, that a discretionary power over elections ought to exist somewhere.” – Alexander HamiltonFederalist No. 59

TIME OUT: DRAFTING THE FUTURE 
Nat Geo: “Although his paintings are far better known, Leonardo [da Vinci’s] wealth of manuscripts and drawings lay bare the inner workings of his genius. His fertile mind … is evoked on every one of the 7,000 sheets preserved… As the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death is commemorated this year, the artist’s notebooks are experiencing a renaissance of their own. Museums are mounting exhibitions of his sketches, and scholars are publishing new analyses, delving ever deeper into the full spectrum of his creations. Most remarkably, pages from Leonardo’s notebooks are finding their way into the hands of experts in the very fields Leonardo studied, from medicine and mechanical engineering to music. Reaching back centuries, they’re reaping fresh insights, probing Leonardo’s work to inform their own. Even as science, medicine, and technology have pushed past the boundaries of what we can do and how we can do it, Leonardo’s notebooks reveal how much we still have to learn.”

Flag on the play? - Email us at
HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 42.8 percent
Average disapproval: 52 percent
Net Score: -9.2 points
Change from one week ago: no change 
[Average includes: Fox News: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; Monmouth University: 40% approve - 54% disapprove; Gallup: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; GU Politics/Battleground: 43% approve - 52% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 52% disapprove.]

I’LL TELL YOU WHAT: YAWP OR YAWN
This week, Dana Perino and Chris Stirewalt discuss the growing 2020 Democratic field, who cries more between the two of them and Dana talks sports. Plus, Dana answers thoughtful mailbag questions and see how Chris does with trivia. LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

BUTTIGIEG CROWDING OUT BETO 
NYT:  “In a Democratic race filled with voters who say they are hungering for a next-generation candidate, the contest between Mr. [Beto] O’Rourke, 46, and Mr. [Pete] Buttigieg, 37, is emerging as something of a parallel primary, with many voters attending events for both of them and, in some cases, agonizing over which one to support. … But it is unlikely that as the nominating contest moves past the early-voting states next year, there will be room for two white men under 50 who present themselves as mainstream progressives. Both men are fresh faces in a party that often covets newness, and each is difficult to pin down on policy, hailing from neither the establishment nor the insurgent wing and centering their appeal in biography as much as ideology. … The first votes are still more than nine months away, and Mr. O’Rourke has ample opportunity to regain momentum. But even some of the attendees at his events who were clad in Beto gear said they were unsure how to choose between him and Mr. Buttigieg.”

Mayor Pete’s secret weapon - Vanity Fair: “Buttiegieg’s sexual orientation is not a central theme of his campaign message, but it doesn’t need to be for prominent L.G.B.T. donors who have grown accustomed to supporting candidates who are friendly on their issues, but never one their own. … But before Buttigieg could even think about catching fire, he had to find a way to pay for a staff, travel, and digital advertising. He initially followed [HowardDean’s counsel, cracking open wallets in L.G.B.T. donor networks even if he was unable to lock down full-blown commitments from major bundlers. … It worked… Many L.G.B.T. donors who gave early to multiple candidates are now either firmly in Buttigieg’s corner or lining up to host big money events for his campaign. … In May, Buttigieg will attend a fundraising event in the Washington area hosted by lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, a top Hillary Clinton bundler who recently told CNBC that he’s fully in Buttigieg’s corner in the 2020 race.”

Beto hires big Iowa staff - Des Moines Register: “Beto O'Rourke has hired 16 people in Iowa as he works to catch up to the organizing pace set by many of the other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. O'Rourke entered the race later than many of his competitors, announcing in mid-March that he would run for president. By that time, many others had made key hires, opened field offices and dispatched volunteers and organizers across the state. ‘There’s no question that getting into the race a little bit later puts us a little bit behind in the organizing effort,’ said Norm Sterzenbach, who will lead O'Rourke's Iowa efforts as state director. ‘So we definitely are making a conscious effort to get a good, expansive team in place as quickly as possible.’”

Booker's tax returns show lucrative speaking gigs, royalties - Fox News: “Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker’s tax returns show most of his wealth stems from lucrative speaking engagements and royalties. Booker, the 2020 candidate who has yet to make a splash in the crowded Democratic field, released 10 years of tax returns on Wednesday after numerous other candidates released their records in recent weeks. The New Jersey senator reported income of $152,715 in 2018 for his salary, $22,781 in taxes which amounts to an effective tax rate of 15 percent, significantly lower than Sen. Kamala Harris’ 37 percent or Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 26 percent. Most of Booker’s wealth comes public speaking fees and royalties, including $2 million in speaking fees between 2009 and 2014, nearly $1 million in royalties from 2015 to 2017 after the release of his book, ‘United.’”

Dems focus on new voting bloc: Renters - NYT: “Renters hold little sway in Washington. They vote at lower rates than homeowners. … And their problems, if anyone considers them at all, are typically waved off as problems for local government. It’s striking, then, that several Democratic candidates for president are now approaching renters in a way they’ve seldom been treated before — as a voting bloc. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, senators from some of the most expensive housing markets in the country, have proposed substantial bills to alleviate the housing crisis. They’re not talking in gauzy terms about homeownership, the rare housing topic that usually gets a nod. They see unsustainable, raw-deal, skyrocketing rents, and they’re not hesitant to sermonize about it.”

SENATE MAJORITY MAY COME DOWN TO COLORADO 
FiveThirtyEight: “Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner is arguably the most endangered Republican senator running for re-election in 2020. He is one of two GOP senators defending seats in states that lean Democratic and only narrowly won his race in 2014. Gardner could also face stiff competition — more than 10 Democratic challengers have already stepped forward for the opportunity to take him on. … Ideologically-speaking, Gardner has occupied the middle lane of his party, which is good for a Republican running in a state that leans blue. But in the Senate, Gardner has voted in line with President Trump’s position more often than Colorado’s 2016 presidential result would suggest. This could be a problem for him in 2020, considering Gardner’s narrow victory in 2014 and that the Democratic nominee for president has won Colorado three times in a row. … Regardless of who faces off in the general election, the Colorado race will most likely be crucial to deciding which party wins a Senate majority.”

Heitkamp, Donnelly pair up to help 2020 candidates - Axios: “Former Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly, who both lost their 2018 re-election races in North Dakota and Indiana, respectively, are launching the One Country Project to help their party win back rural voters ahead of the 2020 cycle. Why it matters: Their team looked at rural votes by county and state from 2000 to 2018 and found that if Democrats don't break their performance with rural voters, they're projected to once again win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College in 2020. Their focus is primarily on Democratic Senate races and the presidential election, but they eventually want to work with races up and down the ballot in these rural areas. Heitkamp and Donnelly will work with campaigns before the election, giving them messaging, data, polling, and a strategy to break through with these voters who ‘didn’t feel that we shared their beliefs’ in past elections, Donnelly told Axios in an interview.”

THE JUDGE’S RULING: ON OBSTRUCTION, BARR IS WRONG
This week Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano explains obstruction of justice: “The essence of obstruction is deception or diversion -- to prevent the government from finding the truth. To Mueller, the issue was not if Trump committed crimes of obstruction. Rather, it was if Trump could be charged successfully with those crimes. Mueller knew that Barr would block an indictment of Trump because Barr has a personal view of obstruction at odds with the statute itself. Barr's view requires that the obstructer has done his obstructing in order to impede the investigation or prosecution of a crime that the obstructer himself has committed. … So, the dilemma for House Democrats now is whether to utilize Mueller's evidence of obstruction for impeachment. They know from history that impeachment only succeeds if there is a broad, national, bipartisan consensus behind it, no matter the weight of the evidence or presence of sophisticated legal theories.” More here.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Pergram: How Congress could be facing not one, but two shutdowns - Fox News

Barr to testify to Senate on Mueller report next week - National Review

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has homes and City Hall office raided by feds Fox News

AUDIBLE: CASHING IN  
“I’ve been raising money since 1977. And I’ve never had anybody complain about not getting an invitation to a fundraiser. That shows you the depth of enthusiasm, the depth of relationships that the vice president has built over the years.” – Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell talking to the Daily Beast about the clamor for invitations to Joe Biden’s first fundraiser.

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“You mentioned Ms. Harris might think about the difference between leadership and popularity next time she is onstage w/ hard questions coming her way. I would have to agree. I think it might be interesting if you and Brianna came up with the Ten Traits of Effective Presidential Leadership and then figure out how to pose a question to each candidate, early on, as to how he/she intends to demonstrate those Traits if elected. What say youse all (used to live in MI…diction from the Land of Yoopers)?” – Rick Schuknecht, Bradenton, Fla.

[Ed. note: I like it, Mr. Schuknecht! This is also something I will talk about with Dana Perino on “I’ll Tell You What.”]

“Chris, Which do you think would be more helpful for a potential voter to pick a President, review of the tax returns or have them produce a list of their potential cabinet positions?  It seems to me, that electing a president is a lot like getting married, you don't just marry the bride you also marry the whole family. You keep writing and I will keep reading.” – Michael Strader, Toccoa, Ga.

[Ed. note: I think your point about cabinet members is an excellent one, Mr. Strader. It would present a challenge in terms of actually assembling the cabinet since it’s different to be asked to accept an actual spot versus a hypothetical one from a candidate. But even just choosing, say, a secretary of state and an attorney general could go a long way. Those things, though, are very different than the question of tax returns. Presidential candidates release their tax returns to demonstrate that they are not corrupt – that the money they have earned was lawful and does not come from sources that could prove compromising in office. I guess if you made me choose between the two, I’d have to go for transparency and accountability over cabinet composition.]

Share your color commentary: Email us at
HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

WATCH PARROT 
WaPo: “A parrot was taken into custody Monday after nearly spoiling a raid while playing lookout for two crack-dealing suspects by repeatedly yelling, ‘Mamãe, polícia!’ according to Brazilian police in the state of Piauí. The phrase means, ‘Mama, police!’ Police encountered the unnamed parrot at the home of the two alleged crack cocaine dealers, perched inside a small brick one-story home with a windowless facade, Brazil’s R7 news channel reported. As police searched for the suspects, it seemed the lime-green bird knew exactly what to do. ‘He must have been trained for this,’ one officer involved in the operation said of the parrot’s attempt to interfere with law enforcement, the Guardian reported. ‘As soon as the police got close he started shouting.’ The bird’s efforts were not successful, however.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“I don't think either [Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton are] defensible. It is a question of how skillfully the other uses it.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) said on “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Oct. 7, 2016.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Was It OK for Trump to sign Bibles in Alabama visit? Religious leaders weigh in

President Donald Trump was just doing what he could to raise spirits when he signed Bibles at an Alabama church for survivors of a deadly tornado outbreak, many religious leaders say, though some are offended and others say he could have handled it differently.

Hershael York, dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary School of Theology in Louisville, Ky., said he didn't have a problem with Trump signing Bibles, like former presidents have, because he was asked and because it was important to the people who were asking.

ALABAMA TORNADO DAMAGE LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE 'TOOK A GIANT KNIFE AND JUST SCRAPED THE GROUND': SHERIFF

"Though we don't have a national faith, there is faith in our nation, and so it's not at all surprising that people would have politicians sign their Bibles," he said. "Those Bibles are meaningful to them and apparently these politicians are, too."

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 1939, file photo, the old family Bible Frank Murphy used in taking his oath of office in the president's study in the White House is autographed by President Franklin Roosevelt immediately after ceremony. Watching are Homer Cummings, center, retiring attorney general, and Murphy, right, the new attorney general. Presidents have a long history of signing Bibles, though earlier presidents typically signed them as gifts to send with a spiritual message. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 1939, file photo, the old family Bible Frank Murphy used in taking his oath of office in the president's study in the White House is autographed by President Franklin Roosevelt immediately after ceremony. Watching are Homer Cummings, center, retiring attorney general, and Murphy, right, the new attorney general. Presidents have a long history of signing Bibles, though earlier presidents typically signed them as gifts to send with a spiritual message. (AP Photo, File)

But the Rev. Donnie Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, said she was offended by the way Trump scrawled his signature Friday as he autographed Bibles and other things, including hats, and posed for photos. She viewed it, she said, as a "calculated political move" by the Republican president to court his evangelical voting base.

Presidents have a long history of signing Bibles, though earlier presidents typically signed them as gifts to send with a spiritual message. President Ronald Reagan signed a Bible that was sent secretly to Iranian officials in 1986. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the family Bible his attorney general used to take the oath of office in 1939.

It would have been different, Anderson said, if Trump had signed a Bible out of the limelight for someone with whom he had a close connection.

"For me, the Bible is a very important part of my faith, and I don't think it should be used as a political ploy," she said. "I saw it being used just as something out there to symbolize his support for the evangelical community, and it shouldn't be used in that way. People should have more respect for Scripture."

York said that he, personally, would not ask a politician to sign a Bible, but that he has been asked to sign Bibles after he preaches. It feels awkward, he said, but he doesn't refuse.

"If it's meaningful to them to have signatures in their Bible, I'm willing to do that," he said.

Trump visited Alabama on Friday to survey the devastation and pay respects to tornado victims. The tornado carved a path of destruction nearly a mile wide, killing 23 people, including four children and a couple in their 80s, with 10 victims belonging to a single extended family.

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At the Providence Baptist Church in Smiths Station, Ala., the Rev. Rusty Sowell said, the president's visit was uplifting and will help bring attention to a community that will need a long time to recover.

Before leaving the church, Trump posed for a photograph with a fifth-grade volunteer and signed the child's Bible, said Ada Ingram, a local volunteer. The president also signed her sister's Bible, Ingram said. In photos from the visit, Trump is shown signing the cover of a Bible.

Trump should have at least signed inside in a less ostentatious way, said the Rev. Dr. Kevin Cassiday-Maloney.

"It just felt like hubris," said Cassiday-Maloney, pastor at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Fargo, North Dakota. "It almost felt like a desecration of the holy book to put his signature on the front writ large, literally."

He doesn't think politicians should sign Bibles, he said, because it could be seen as a blurring of church and state and an endorsement of Christianity over other religions.

It would have been out of line if Trump had brought Bibles and given them out, but that wasn't the case, said James Coffin, executive director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida.

"Too much is being made out of something that doesn't deserve that kind of attention," he said.

Bill Leonard, the founding dean and professor of divinity emeritus at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C., woke up to Facebook posts Saturday morning by former students who were upset about Trump signing the Bibles because they don't view him as an appropriate example of spiritual guidance.

But, Leonard said, it's important to remember that signing Bibles is an old tradition, particularly in southern churches.

Leonard said he would have viewed it as more problematic if the signings were done at a political rally. He doesn't see how Trump could have refused at the church.

"It would've been worse if he had said no because it would've seemed unkind, and this was at least one way he could show his concern along with his visit," he said. "In this setting, where tragedy has occurred and where he comes for this brief visit, we need to have some grace about that for these folks."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Trump’s Golan move causes concern in Lebanon for land owners

Akram Kanaan looked toward an Israeli military position on a snow-capped mountain that overlooks the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, pointing toward the scenic area captured by Israel more than five decades ago. No matter how long it takes, he says, it will eventually return to Lebanon's sovereignty.

Like many others in this area where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet, Kanaan — a member of Chebaa's municipal council — is angry about President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. The American president has no right to give Israel lands that belong to Syria and Lebanon, he says.

"These are Arab territories that will be liberated sooner or later the way the south was liberated," said Kanaan standing near Chebaa's main school as its buses left the compound at the end of a school day.

Trump's move last month has caused concern among Lebanese officials that it would mean also recognizing the occupied Chebaa Farms and nearby Kfar Chouba hills, captured along with the Golan, as Israeli territory. Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the U.S. recognition undermines Lebanon's claim to the territory.

The origin of the dispute over ownership of the Chebaa farms dates back to the French colonial period, when France drew maps of the area without officially demarcating the border.

Following an 18-year occupation, Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000, but held on to the farms. Hezbollah claimed the withdrawal to be incomplete and demanded, along with the Lebanese government, that Israel withdraws. Israel rejected the demands, saying the land was Syrian when it was captured in 1967. Syria has held an ambiguous position and generally refuses to demarcate the border before Israel withdraws from the Golan.

The U.N., which doesn't recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan, has said Lebanon's claim is to be settled along with the Golan's fate.

The territory is controversial, even among Lebanese themselves.

Although most Lebanese agree that the Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills are part of their country, anti-Syrian politicians have suggested it serves as a pretext for Hezbollah to hang on to its weapons and have called for the demarcation of the Lebanon-Syria border, a demand repeated by Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday even as he said the territory is Lebanese.

Politicians allied with the Syrian government say there is no need for such demarcation.

The area this week looked more like a tourist attraction, albeit deserted, rather than a front line, with rivers and springs flowing, birds chirping and shepherds leading their herds in the mostly green area amid clear weather.

According to Kanaan, the total size of the Lebanese area still occupied by Israel since June 1967 is about 250 square kilometers (96 square miles) or about 2.5% of Lebanon's total territories.

Kanaan says the occupied area is owned by Lebanese citizens and that many of them have documents proving their ownership registered in the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, the provincial capital of south Lebanon.

Arab countries have unanimously rejected the U.S. recognition of Israeli control over the Golan, calling the Trump administration's policies unfairly biased toward Israel.

On the edge of Chebaa, shepherds were seen taking their herds of sheep and goats near a fence built by Israel. About every 100 meters (109 yards) white and blue barrels marked the so-called blue line, or the border that the U.N. drew after Israel's withdrawal in 2000.

The area has been calm since August 2006 after a U.N. Security Council resolution ended a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

Soldiers at Lebanese army checkpoints on roads leading to Chebaa and Kfar Chouba checked the identity cards of people visiting the area to make sure no strangers enter. White U.N. vehicles with light blue flags could be seen along the fence that marks the border.

Near al-Naqar lake, three U.N. peacekeepers stood outside their armored personnel carrier keeping an eye on any suspicious move. Next to them stood a giant poster with a picture of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser and one of his famous quotes that reads: "What was taken by force can only be regained by force."

Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the U.N. force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL, said the issue of Chebaa is one that is "discussed in New York at U.N. headquarters and not part of our mandate. Nevertheless, the position of member states is not necessarily the position of the United Nations," Tenenti said when asked about Trump's decision.

"Nothing has changed, and we are continuing with our work in the south of Lebanon, to monitor the cessation of hostilities and to work closely with the Lebanese army," he said.

In nearby Kfar Chouba, shops were open in its main square where a group of people gathered at the main bakery, while others bought freshly picked vegetables and fruits.

"With deep regret, this guy who is called Trump who is the president of the United States of America, the most important country in the world, is acting like a thug," said grocer Riad Khalifeh who was 23 when Israeli forces captured the hills overlooking his hometown of Kfar Chouba in 1967.

"Who gave you the right to give a land that belongs to me or to Palestine or to Syria to an enemy that is occupying it?" Khalifeh asked.

Source: Fox News World

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Texas police seek author of mystery letter in girl’s cold case murder 45 years ago

A Texas cold case squad on Friday released an old handwritten letter that could solve a 17-year-old girl’s brutal murder 45 years ago.

The short letter refers to the Carla Walker homicide in February 1974 in Fort Worth. Police said the girl was beaten, raped, strangled and tortured after being abducted from a bowling alley parking lot. Detectives found her body three days after the abduction.

“(Blank) kild (sic) Carla Walker in Benbrook,” says the undated note to a homicide detective with the Fort Worth Police Department.

CALIFORNIA COLD CASE RAPE, KILLINGS OF 2 WOMEN LINKED TO DEAD INMATE IN WASHINGTON

It also says, “P.S. It is hard to say but it is true.”

Before and after the postscript, the letter says “Sign 10100,” which investigators believe is police code for dead body, the Dallas Morning News reports.

“The author of this letter is encouraged to come forward and speak with detectives about his or her knowledge of the murder,” police said in a news release announcing the disclosure of the letter. “It is the hope of the Fort Worth Police Department that this person will provide valuable information that may bring peace and closure to Carla’s family after 45 long years.”

PENNSYLVANIA MAN, 76, CHARGED WITH KILLING WIFE WHO VANISHED IN 1981

It’s unclear when the letter was written but the letter’s recipient retired in 1976, according to reports.

Carla’s boyfriend was knocked unconscious when she was abducted, the paper reported.

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"She was such a sweet girl," Rodney McCoy told a local news station last year, according to the paper. "I remember we were in the front seat of the car. Her back was against the passenger door. She was falling out. I went to grab her, and he started beating me over the head with a pistol."

Source: Fox News National

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Capturing 24 hours in Gaza, one hour at a time

The Wider Image: Capturing 24 hours in Gaza, one hour at a time
Children play a game of "Arabs and Jews" outside a school in Gaza City, February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

March 28, 2019

GAZA CITY (Reuters) – In the build-up to the one-year anniversary of the Gaza border protests that opened up a deadly new front in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Reuters photographer Dylan Martinez visited Gaza for the first time.

As someone who had never set eyes on Gaza, his assignment was to use those unfamiliar eyes to record life beyond the daily drumbeat of violence in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

The mood has become more tense in recent weeks as the March 30 anniversary nears, with trails of Palestinian rockets and Israeli missiles again appearing in the skies above.

Martinez did not know what to expect after he crossed through Israel’s fortified checkpoint and past a long caged walkway and parallel road leading to a dilapidated Palestinian checkpoint at the other end.

“We have a great team of photographers and journalists in Gaza whose main task, really, is to photograph the protest, the clashes between Israel and Gaza,” said Martinez, 49, a 28-year Reuters veteran who has covered Europe, Asia and the Americas and is currently based in London.

“My remit, I think, was to do pretty much anything but that. Because everyone has seen that side of Gaza.”

Gaza is a 139-square-mile (360-square-kilometre) coastal strip situated between Tel Aviv and Sinai and is home to around two million Palestinians, two thirds of them refugees.

It has been governed by the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas since shortly after Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers in 2005.

With its armed brigades and thousands of police and security men on the streets, Hamas controls Gaza’s interior as tightly as Israeli soldiers, gunboats and warplanes control most of Gaza’s perimeter, with Egyptian walls and watchtowers along the eight-mile southern border.

Accompanied by a Reuters assistant photographer from Gaza City, Martinez traveled the strip, photographing it at every hour of the day and night over a 10-day period.

One of the most powerful scenes was a patch of waste land between a school and a mosque where children were playing.

“These kids were burning some cardboard, they had trenches, they were throwing sandballs so they weren’t hurting each other. And I said, ‘Oh, what are you guys doing?’ and they said, ‘Oh, we are playing Jews and Arabs.'” The image, he said, “will probably stay with me forever”.

SUNSETS AND RUBBISH

Parts of Gaza, to his surprise, resembled an underdeveloped version of California’s famed Venice Beach – with glorious Mediterranean sunsets, bathers and skateboarders, but often with crumbling buildings and rubbish heaps as part of the backdrop.

In vehicle scrapyards in the north, he saw stacks of discarded cars. With 53 percent of Gazans living in poverty, according to a United Nations report in December, valuable items such as cars are cannibalized for every accessory.

The same “use everything” dynamic could be seen at the harbor, where even the smallest fish discarded from a catch were gathered to be sold to poorer families.

On Friday, while youths were protesting at the Gaza-Israel border, Martinez went to the beach to see what was going on.

“I really understood that not 2 million people had gone to the border to clash with the Israelis. What else were they doing?” he said.

“I found a bunch of skaters there with, I don’t know, I think they had one or two boards between them, some pretty ropey roller blades…They were just busy filming themselves trying to do flips, trying to do tricks, things like that.”

After the sun goes down and the streets empty, pool halls and bakeries continue to operate through the darkness imposed by night, and by Gaza’s constant power cuts.

Martinez was warned many times by officials and bystanders on the street, in a more cautionary than menacing manner, not to photograph Hamas checkpoints and military installations.

Often, he did not realize what the buildings were because their exteriors gave no sign of what might have been within. Otherwise, Martinez encountered few problems.

“There’s a real sense of being enclosed. You can stand on the beach looking out toward the horizon and see this fantastic sun and crystal blue waters, a sense (that) you are part of the world and there is everything around you,” he said.

“You look to the right, you turn one way, and there is Israel and you can go down this road but in a car it was taking 20 minutes. You look the other way, there is Egypt. You go down the road there, there’s a blockade, you can’t go any further.

“You look inland, and there in the background as well is the horizon, is Israel. And you can’t go that way.

“So there is always a feeling you can only go so far one way. And the other way. I did feel it. There is a sort of feeling of enclosure.”

(Writing by Stephen Farrell; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Spring breaker, 19, earns kudos for helping clean up Miami Beach

A Georgia man in Florida for spring break went against the grain last week by picking up after hundreds of rowdy fellow college students – and the good deed quickly went viral.

Joshua Caraway, 19, a freshman at the University of West Georgia, told news outlets he had come to Miami Beach on vacation with his friends, but that was no excuse to leave the place worse than he had found it.

“We need to keep the beach clean,” Caraway said. “Even though I’m on vacation, I still can help out.”

GIRL'S SPECIAL DOLL HONORING HER DEPLOYED ARMY DAD FOUND, RETURNED AT AIRPORT AFTER VIRAL FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

When he asked his friends if they wanted to pitch in, Caraway said their response was: “Clean up the trash? No, I’m not with that.”

Miami Beach Police Maj. Paul Acosta told FOX affiliate  WSVN-TV of Miami that he approached Caraway on Saturday and thanked him for his efforts.

Acosta later shared the encounter on social media, tweeting: “So I told Joshua, you’ve been picking up trash for a long time instead of hanging out and listening to music. I asked why. He says, he loves animals and wants to take care of their home and ours.”

Caraway told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "I like keeping our home safe and clean."

Photos of Caraway soon went viral and others began showing up to help. Acosta’s post has garnered more than 5,000 likes.

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Miamians, obviously pleased with the Atlanta resident, said Caraway was welcome back anytime.

Source: Fox News National

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

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FILE PHOTO: Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
FILE PHOTO: Pallbearers carry the coffin of journalist Lyra McKee at her funeral at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

April 26, 2019

BELFAST (Reuters) – Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity.

McKee’s killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people.

The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the peace accord, has said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead in the Creggan area of the city on Thursday when opening fire on police during a riot McKee was watching.

The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Police released footage on Friday of immediately before and after the shooting showing three men who were involved in the rioting and identified one as the gunman who they believe is in his late teens. 

“I believe that the information that can help us to bring those responsible for her murder to justice lies within the community. I need the public to tell me who he is,” Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters.

Murphy said those involved in the disorder on the night were teenagers or in their early 20s, and that about 100 people were on the ground watching the trouble as it unfolded.

He added that police believed the gun used in the attack was of a similar caliber to those used before in paramilitary type attacks in Creggan. 

“I recognize that people living in Creagan may find it’s difficult to come forward to speak to police. Today, I want to provide a personal reassurance that we are able to deal with those issues sensitively,” Murphy said, echoing similar appeals in recent days.

(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by Padraic Halpin and Toby Chopra)

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