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Bernie boosts Omar as Dems’ Israel rift deepens


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On the roster: Bernie boosts Omar as Dems’ Israel rift deepens - Biden staffing up with key Latino outreach hire - Poll shows Trump in trouble with Michigan voters - Audible: Nicklebackbenchers - Study accuracy: 100/100

BERNIE BOOSTS OMAR AS DEMS’ ISRAEL RIFT DEEPENS 
Politico: “When the latest controversy erupted over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments about Israel, only one 2020 presidential candidate rushed to her defense: Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator, the only Jewish candidate in the Democratic primary, embraced the African-American, Muslim congresswoman… No other presidential contender came out as quickly — or as forcefully — as Sanders, who laid down a clear line in the crowded Democratic field between those running as true progressives on foreign policy and those who support an existing U.S. policy that tends to favor Israel over Palestine. Sanders’ reaction to Omar’s comments — in which she said Israel’s allies ‘push for allegiance to a foreign country’ — served other purposes as well: it helped solidify his hold on the party’s left wing and dovetailed with his intensified outreach to older African-American voters, a critical constituency that failed to warm to him in 2016.”

Dem frosh turn tables - Fox News: “The passage Thursday of a broad anti-bigotry resolution that exposed chasms in the Democratic caucus regarding Israel marked a coup of sorts for a tight-knit band of House freshmen who – in a matter of hours – were able to shift the spotlight away from embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar’s allegedly anti-Semitic remarks and refocus on issues like Islamophobia and pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. … After its passage, Omar and her allies were able to cheer the resolution as a win against Islamophobia. ‘Today is historic on many fronts.’ … Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Rep. André Carson, D-Ind., said in a joint statement. … On the sidelines, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign began fundraising, claiming AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) was ‘coming after’ her, Omar and Tlaib for questioning American foreign policy.”

Omar slams Obama’s message of ‘hope and change’ - Fox News: “Rookie Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, fresh off igniting an intra-party uproar with comments widely viewed as anti-Semitic, took a swipe at former President Barack Obama, saying in an explosive interview the 44th president's message of ‘hope and change’ was a ‘mirage’ and blasting his administration's drone and border detention policies. Omar, D-Minn., took aim at the president's famed slogan, while further criticizing the Democratic Party for ‘perpetuating the status quo,’ in the interview with Politico. ‘Recalling the ‘caging of kids’ at the U.S.-Mexico border and the ‘droning of countries around the world’ on Obama’s watch,’ Omar charged that Obama ‘operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor,’ the piece reads.”

Tim Alberta: ‘The Democrats’ dilemma’ - Politico: “[Omar faces] resistance not just from party elders but from many of their fellow freshmen, centrists who campaigned as fixers not firebrands, moderates who are watching warily as the Democrats’ brand is being hijacked by the far left. One of these members is Omar’s neighbor in Minnesota: Dean Phillips, a wealthy businessman who represents the 3rd District. To better understand these dueling visions for the Democratic Party, I sat down with both Omar and Phillips, spent several days in their communities and talked with some of their constituents. What I learned is that, despite the cautionary tale offered by years of vicious Republican infighting, Democrats are dangerously close to entering into their own fratricidal conflict. On matters of both style and substance, the fractures within this freshman class are indicative of the broader divisions in a party long overdue for an ideological reckoning.”

THE RULEBOOK: EVERYTHING’S BUILT ON TRUST  
“In republics, persons elevated from the mass of the community, by the suffrages of their fellow-citizens, to stations of great pre-eminence and power, may find compensations for betraying their trust, which, to any but minds animated and guided by superior virtue, may appear to exceed the proportion of interest they have in the common stock, and to overbalance the obligations of duty.” – Alexander HamiltonFederalist No. 22

TIME OUT: SPORTS BOOKS
This week’s “Book Briefing,” a weekly guide to books from the Atlantic: “In the world of professional baseball, which is in the midst of spring training, the pressure is on for the player atop the mound. The former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Rick Ankiel brings you with him as he relives the one wild pitch that forever changed his life in The Phenomenon. But what is the perfect pitch? Terry McDermott’s Off Speed looks to the Seattle Mariners pitcher Félix Hernández’s perfect game, on August 15, 2012, for clues. According to Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s The Circuit, the 2017 tennis season was one of unmet expectations. … Unlike team sports, marathon running requires the mental and physical work of just one individual. In the memoir The Long Run, Catriona Menzies-Pike writes about how she turned to running after experiencing a tremendous loss, and pairs her reflections with historical and cultural analysis of women’s running as a sport.”

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

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 39.8 percent
Average disapproval: 55.8 percent
Net Score: -16 points
Change from one week ago: down 4.6 points 
[Average includes: Quinnipiac University: 41% approve - 55% disapprove; CNN: 37% approve - 57% disapprove; IBD: 42% approve - 54% disapprove; Gallup: 37% approve - 59% disapprove; USA Today/Suffolk: 42% approve - 54% disapprove.]

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**we now return you to our regularly scheduled political palaver**

BIDEN STAFFING UP WITH KEY LATINO OUTREACH HIRE 
Politico: “In the latest sign that Joe Biden will run for president, his team has brought on Cristóbal Alex, the head of the influential Latino Victory Fund, according to a source familiar with the move. It's not clear what role Alex would fill in a Biden presidential campaign. He served as Hillary Clinton’s National Deputy Director of Voter Outreach and Mobilization in 2016. Alex declined to comment but publicly disclosed on Tuesday that he was departing from Latino Victory Fund. He tweeted that he believes ‘Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our nation. I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat him, and my next steps will reflect that.’ The tweet sparked praise of Alex from many corners of the progressive world, including from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and newly elected Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas).”

Warren targets Amazon, big tech - NYT: “Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who is bidding to be the policy pacesetter in the Democratic presidential primary, announced another expansive idea on Friday: a regulatory plan aimed at breaking up some of America’s largest tech companies, including Amazon, Google and Facebook. The proposal — which comes on the same day Ms. Warren will hold a rally in Long Island City, the Queens neighborhood that was to be home to a major new Amazon campus — calls for the appointment of regulators who would ‘unwind tech mergers that illegally undermine competition,’ as well as legislation that would prohibit platforms from both offering a marketplace for commerce and participating in that marketplace. Ms. Warren’s plan would also force the rollback of some acquisitions by technological giants, the campaign said, including Facebook’s deals for WhatsApp and Instagram, Amazon’s addition of Whole Foods, and Google’s purchase of Waze.”

Booker snags top S.C. hire - WVIC:Brady Quirk-Garvan, who has served as the Chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party for five years, announced that he is stepping down in order to endorse Senator Cory Booker for President. With his announcement, Quirk-Garvan become the first South Carolina Democratic Party official to make an endorsement in the 2020 presidential nominating contest. … Quirk-Garvan has worked on dozens of political races in South Carolina. In 2008, he worked for President Obama's campaign in Ohio. Since 2014, he has served as the Chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party.”

Harris’ crowd-pleasing tax rebate plan comes with a hefty price tag - San Francisco Chronicle: “Even at this early stage in the presidential race, California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris has hit upon a crowd-pleasing proposal: Give a $500 monthly tax credit to families earning less than $100,000. But while it has become Harris’ surest applause line at campaign appearances, some economists caution that it will never pencil out – that it will pile onto a national deficit that is already projected to top $1 trillion a year in the early 2020s and cost the economy more than 800,000 jobs.”

Gillibrand still lacks New York endorsements for 2020 - NYT: “No one from New York’s 21-member congressional delegation is yet backing [Kirsten Gillibrand’s] bid for president. And neither is New York’s governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, or its other senator, Chuck Schumer, who as minority leader is staying neutral because numerous senators are in the race. … Home-state political insiders almost certainly will not prove decisive in a presidential primary race that begins in Iowa and New Hampshire. But Ms. Gillibrand’s missing support back home is revealing of both her New York relationships and how she has constructed her national profile, often by staying far from the state’s notoriously fractious and rough-and-tumble fray. In interviews with two-thirds of New York’s Democratic congressional delegation, lawmakers this week offered a variety of rationales and dodges for why none of them has lined up behind their colleague.”

Buttigieg pitches court packing, ditching Electoral College - Fox News: “Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg on Friday highlighted his push to add justices to the Supreme Court and scrap the Electoral College in presidential elections, as he campaigned in the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House. The South Bend, Indiana mayor … said the 2020 election should not be about President Trump, telling reporters that ‘of course we’ll confront him, we’ll call him out. We’ll beat him. But at the end of the day, it’s not about him, it’s about us.’ As he headlined ‘Politics and Eggs’ at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics – a must stop for White House hopefuls – the 37-year old contender and Afghanistan war veteran joked that he’s a ‘young person with a funny name coming out of nowhere….I think it’s safe to say I’m not extremely famous.’” 

Moulton wants to run against Trump on National Security - Atlantic: “The most that the Democratic presidential candidates tend to say about national security involves condemnation of Russia for hacking the 2016 election or broad comments about restoring America’s standing in the world. Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts sees an opening. Some of the Democratic presidential candidates are running to the left. Some are running down the middle. Moulton told [journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere] he will run through VFW halls and college campuses, leaning in on a national-security focus which, even in a field this huge, he is all alone in focusing on—a stance that not only differentiates him, but could eventually draw the others out on foreign affairs. Moulton is clearly a long shot… But his calculus—and that of other more moderate, less well-known candidates—is that the party is veering too far left for its own good in an election against Trump.”

Bullock hires veteran adviser to his PAC - Politico: “Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has hired veteran Democratic operative Jenn Ridder to work for his PAC, in the latest sign that the Western Democrat is nearing a presidential run. Ridder will join Bullock's Big Sky Values PAC as a senior adviser, but she would be an obvious choice to manage Bullock's campaign should he decide to run for president. … Ridder's hiring is the latest in a series of behind-the-scenes moves laying the groundwork for Bullock's potential run.” 

Nevada Dems plan to bulk up caucuses - AP: “Nevada Democrats are proposing changes to their presidential caucus that could dramatically alter the way candidates compete in the state, opening the process to an early-vote and virtual participation. The proposal would expand a single day of caucuses around the state to add four days of early caucuses and two days of early virtual caucusing. The plan, which still needs approval from the Democratic National Committee, would allow more people to participate while likely driving candidates to appear earlier and more often leading up to the main event on Feb. 22, 2020. It would also likely force candidates to invest more resources to more deeply organize and target voters.”

Iowa Poll alert - Des Moines Register: “Results of a new Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll on Democratic presidential candidates headed toward the 2020 Iowa caucuses will be released online at 7 p.m. CST Saturday. The poll asks likely Democratic caucusgoers who their top choice for president would be among 21 potential candidates for their party’s nomination. Results also will be aired by CNN, posted at CNN.com Saturday night and appear in the Des Moines Sunday Register. The poll will also test likely Democratic caucusgoers’ opinions on a range of issues, from ‘Medicare-for-all’ to their interest in socialism to what they would like candidates to talk about during their campaigns.”

POLL SHOWS TRUMP IN TROUBLE WITH MICHIGAN VOTERS
Detroit Free Press: “A new poll has more bad news for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election hopes in Michigan, showing that more than half of those surveyed either plan to vote for someone else or are considering doing so next year. The poll, conducted by EPIC-MRA of Lansing, largely tracks with other recent polls done in Michigan and in some other states such as Wisconsin and Florida that show Trump could be in trouble some 20 months before the next election. … Nearly half, 49 percent, of respondents in Michigan say they will definitely vote to replace Trump and another 16 percent say they will consider voting for someone else. Only 31 percent said they will definitely vote to re-elect Trump. Self-described independent voters are driving down Trump's numbers. Among independents, 44 percent say they will definitely vote for someone else and 27 percent say they will consider backing another candidate, while only 18 percent say they would definitely vote to re-elect.”

White house hustles to limit fallout from Trump emergency - WaPo: “The White House is privately ramping up pressure on undecided Republicans to limit defections ahead of the Senate vote on President Trump’s emergency declaration – even as the administration has yet to tell Congress which military projects would be tapped to pay for Trump’s border wall. The vote expected next week is on a resolution to nullify Trump’s Feb. 15 declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, which allows him to access $3.6 billion… Trump wants to use that money for border barriers, after Congress refused to give him all the wall funding he sought. In recent days, the White House has increased its efforts to count votes and persuade fence-sitting GOP senators… Undecided senators have received calls from the White House, and the message, according to one of the senators, is clear: Trump is taking names and noticing who opposes him — particularly if you are running for reelection next year.”

Pentagon prepares to get money if need be - AP: “The Pentagon is planning to tap $1 billion in leftover funds from military pay and pension accounts to help President Donald Trump pay for his long-sought border wall, a top Senate Democrat said Thursday. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told The Associated Press, ‘It’s coming out of military pay and pensions. $1 billion. That’s the plan.’ Durbin said the funds are available because Army recruitment is down and a voluntary early military retirement program is being underutilized. The development comes as Pentagon officials are seeking to minimize the amount of wall money that would come from military construction projects that are so cherished by lawmakers. … Durbin, the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel for the Pentagon, was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met with Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday morning.”

Good luck with that: Trump advisers urge him to stick to script - Politico: “As he watches the 2020 Democratic candidates fire up campaign crowds, President Donald Trump is itching to upstage them with rallies of his own. … For now, Trump’s Republican allies and campaign officials believe an early reelection strategy built around his role as chief executive in dignified settings like the Oval Office and the Rose Garden will carry more weight with voters than his signature freewheeling arena speeches. It’s unclear whether Trump, the most politically combative president in recent history, can truly stay above the campaign fray… But Trump’s advisers are still hoping he will capitalize on his incumbency by largely sticking to official events and private, no-cameras fundraisers for the next several months, according to three sources familiar with his campaign, one of whom said the president is making a ‘conscious effort’ to rise above the Democratic scrum.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Bill Shine, Trump’s fifth communications director, calls it quits - Fox News

Dems push through election law changes in symbolic vote Politico

Gloomy February jobs report worries economists - CNBC

Manafort legal woes to continue with DC sentencing next week, possibly new charges in NY - Fox News

AUDIBLE: NICKLEBACKBENCHERS
“I will just wrap by saying, I appreciate that very brave admission of your fandom for Nickelback.” – Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said to Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., during a House floor debate on Democrats’ H.R.-1 bill.

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY
This weekend Mr. Sunday will sit down with White House Economic Adviser, Larry Kudlow and Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif. Watch “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.

#mediabuzz - Host Howard Kurtz has the latest take on the week’s media coverage. Watch #mediabuzz Sundays at 11 a.m. ET.

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“Reading your coverage and seeing what is going on, two quotes come to mind. ‘I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat’ - Will Rogers [and] ‘All the Democrats need to do to defeat Trump in 2020 is just not be crazy.  And they can’t do that.’ - Ben Shapiro. Love your stuff.” – George Fuller, St. Louis

[Ed. note: I think you’re on to something, Mr. Fuller. But Democrats have another quote from Rogers in mind about the theme for the election: “That’s one thing about Republican presidents. They never went in much for plans. They only had one plan. It says ‘Boys, my head is turned. Just get it while you can.’” Which one of them applies better to 2020 will determine which side comes out ahead.]  

“Is there an email account for listeners of the [“I’ll Tell You What”] podcast to submit comments and questions? I do not have (and believe its best if I don’t open) a twitter account which appears to be the preferred method of communication. I listened to the ITYW podcast on my drive home yesterday and fear I may have been jinxed. Hell hath fury as a wife whose dog has been snarled at in the morning by her husband.” – Dan Burch, Turlock, Calif.

[Ed. note: We will take all of your action right here, Mr. Burch. HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM is hereby designated as the official unofficial inbox for ITYW. Thanks for listening and I hope you made it out in one piece!

“None of the tracking polls you use do a daily tracking poll to my knowledge so to leave up the same thing for a week appears redundant each day and gives the impression that it is hardly ever changing. My idea would be to post only NEW poll results.” – Will Schafer, Panama, Iowa

[Ed. note: While we certainly take your point and appreciate your loyal readership, Mr. Schafer, we can’t assume that every reader sees every note. Consider the Scoreboard like the baseball standings. Some days they change, some days they don’t sometimes there’s a rain out. But it’s still worth having every day just as a point of reference.] 

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

STUDY ACCURACY: 100/100
CBC: “A man threatened to sue a technology magazine for using his image in a story about why all hipsters look the same, only to find out the picture was of a completely different guy. The story in the MIT Technology Review detailed a study about the so-called hipster effect — ‘the counterintuitive phenomenon in which people who oppose mainstream culture all end up looking the same.’ The inclusion of version of a Getty Images photo of a bearded, flannel-wearing man, altered with a blue and orange hue, prompted one reader to write to the magazine: [the] ‘unnecessary use of my picture without permission demands a response, and I am, of course, pursuing legal action.’ But it wasn't actually him. The site's … creative director ... wrote to Getty Images and [explained the complaint]. … [Getty Images] said, ‘Actually the model in this photo does not have the same name as the person who wrote to you.’” 

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“Only a wife can turn a ruthlessly ambitious pol, who undid the Clintons four years ago and today relentlessly demonizes Romney, into a care bear. [Michelle Obama] pulled it off.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Washington Post on Sept. 6, 2012.

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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Deadly crackdown stokes fear among protesters in Venezuela

Jhonny Godoy had taken to Twitter to proclaim his opposition to President Nicolas Maduro, posting a video that showed him running through the streets waving the national flag as protests erupted across Venezuela's capital.

Two days later, his family said, rifle-wielding special police agents wearing black masks stormed into their home in the Caracas slum of La Vega, pulled him outside and shot him to death.

The slaying of the 29-year-old was part of a crackdown that has spread fear among young protesters in poor neighborhoods of Venezuela, where a history of steadfast loyalty to Maduro has begun to crack amid hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine. At least 43 people have been killed in the round of protests that began last month, when Juan Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled congress, declared himself interim president of the crisis-wracked country.

Human rights groups say some of those deaths appear to be targeted slayings by the National Police Action Force, or FAES, an elite commando unit created in 2017 for anti-gang operations. Rights groups say it is now acting against disaffected youths living in the slums.

"Maduro seeks to sow fear," said Rafael Uzcategui, coordinator of the respected rights group Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights, known as PROVEA. More than 700 opponents of Maduro have been arrested during the latest push by Venezuela's opposition to oust the socialist leader, according to PROVEA and a crime monitoring group, Observatory of Social Conflict.

Maduro is facing more pressure than ever to cede power in the oil-rich nation. The Trump administration recently sanctioned Venezuela's state-owned oil company, squeezing the country's damaged economy even harder, and Guaido has been recognized as the country's rightful leader by the U.S. and dozens of other nations that argue Maduro's re-election to a second six-year term last year was fraudulent. A new round of sanctions Friday targeted four high-ranking intelligence officials, including the heads of the FAES commando unit and the feared SEBIN intelligence police.

The country has seen the largest protests since 2017, when 120 people died in clashes with national guardsmen and pro-government civilians who fired on the masked demonstrators in middle-class neighborhoods. Now, critics say, Maduro is hitting back by sending security forces into the slums to try to suppress dissent.

PROVEA and Observatory say they recorded 35 deaths during a single week in January — most at night in poor neighborhoods — in addition to eight cases of apparent targeted killings by members of the elite commando unit.

Godoy's cousin, Marvelis Sinai, said that when agents burst into the family's home on Jan. 25, Godoy's mother Ana Buitrago saw her son beaten and dragged out as she begged for his life. Minutes later, she heard two gunshots.

Godoy was shot in the abdomen and foot, and a disposable diaper was shoved in his mouth, apparently to suffocate him, Sinai said.

She said the family believes his killing was linked to the video he posted on Twitter two days earlier.

"I'm going to continue demonstrating because I learned it from my cousin," said Sinai, who works for an opposition politician who hands out free food in the slums. "He died so we can have a free Venezuela."

The case gained special prominence when a tearful Guaido met with Godoy's mother at her home and assured her that her son's death wouldn't be in vain. Later, during a news conference, Guaido blamed the elite police commando unit for the killing.

Authorities have not commented on the case. But it's not the first time the special agents have been linked to deadly operations. PROVEA released a report last month accusing the unit of involvement in more than 200 killings in 2018.

Human Rights Watch also detailed widespread abuses by members of Venezuela's security forces in reports published in 2014 and 2017. It quoted Foro Penal, a Venezuelan group that provides legal aid to detainees, as saying that more than 13,000 people have been arrested since 2014 in connection with anti-government protests.

The Prague-based CASLA Institute, headed by Venezuelan lawyer Tamara Suju, recently gave the U.N. International Criminal Court reports of 536 victims of torture in Venezuela since 2014, including 106 since the beginning of last year. Six nations also made the unprecedented move of asking the court to investigate Venezuela for possible crimes against humanity.

Socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello and Venezuela's defense minister, Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, have denied the accusations of targeted killings. They insist the military follows the constitution and respects human rights.

The attorney general's office has not given a figure for those killed in the recent protests, though Attorney General Tarek William Saab told a local TV channel that eight members of the national guard and the army had been detained for the killings of four people in the rural states of Bolivar and Yaracuy.

Among those who died when the latest protests broke out Jan. 23 was 19-year-old Nick Samuel Oropeza. His family says he was last seen alive fleeing alongside other protesters through the dusty streets of the capital's Las Adjuntas slum as national guardsmen opened fire on people who had blocked streets with mounds of trash. Minutes later, he was found on the ground, his shirt drenched in blood.

A bullet destroyed his kidney and punctured a lung, said his mother, Ingrid Borjas, a 38-year-old lawyer.

"This needs to be investigated," Borjas said, her voice breaking with emotion. "Justice needs to be served for my son and for others."

___

Fabiola Sanchez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fisanchezn

Source: Fox News World

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Zoom starts trading at $65 per share, 80 percent above IPO price

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications takes part in a bell ringing ceremony at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York
Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications takes part in a bell ringing ceremony at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York, New York, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

April 18, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications opened at $65 per share on Thursday, 80.6 percent above its initial public offering price, in its debut on the Nasdaq.

Zoom priced its IPO on Wednesday at $36 per share, above its target range of $33-$35 per share.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source: OANN

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For Some Dems, Breaking Up With Dossier Is Hard to Do

For Some Dems, Breaking Up With Dossier Is Hard to Do

AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File

The Steele dossier, that collection of incendiary allegations against Donald Trump compiled for the Hillary Clinton campaign by the former British spy Christopher Steele, was already widely discredited before the release of the Mueller report. Now, the report has hammered a few additional nails in…

Read Full Article »

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US-backed Syrian fighters search tunnels in last IS pocket

U.S.-backed Syrian forces are conducting search operations in tunnels a day after seizing an encampment where Islamic State militants had been making their last stand in Syria.

Ciyager Amed, an official with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, says they are searching for any IS militants still hiding in tunnels in a riverside pocket in the village of Baghouz.

Associated Press journalists saw SDF soldiers loading women and children into trailer trucks on the hilltop over Baghouz, in a sign evacuations were ongoing Wednesday. Black smoke could be seen rising from a part of the village.

U.S.-backed Syrian forces on Tuesday seized control of the encampment held by IS after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, signaling the group's collapse after months of stiff resistance.

Source: Fox News World

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Deutsche Bank CEO and chair to stay in top roles after possible merger: Spiegel

FILE PHOTO: Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank AG, addresses the media during the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank AG, addresses the media during the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, February 1, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach -/File Photo

April 12, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank’s current Chief Executive Christian Sewing and Chairman Paul Achleitner would continue to lead the bank if it merges with Commerzbank, a German magazine reported on Friday.

Der Spiegel, citing no sources, reported that Commerzbank’s CEO Martin Zielke would serve as deputy CEO of the combined group in charge of private and corporate banking.

Both banks declined to comment.

If the banks merge, Garth Ritchie of Deutsche Bank would continue to lead the investment bank, Spiegel reported.

Frank Strauss, who heads Deutsche’s retail bank would have to leave his position, the report said.

Achleitner would hold his post as chair of Deutsche Bank at least for a transition phase, Spiegel said.

(Reporting by Tom Sims and Andreas Framke; editing by Thomas Seythal and David Evans)

Source: OANN

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In wake of Hanoi summit, South Korea’s Moon left with less room to maneuver

FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wave during a car parade in Pyongyang
FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wave during a car parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 18, 2018. Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

March 20, 2019

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – The breakdown at last month’s U.S.-North Korea summit has left South Korean President Moon Jae-in with little room to maneuver and exacerbated divisions within his government over how to break the impasse, three sources familiar with the issue said.

The weeks since the Hanoi summit have revealed how difficult it may now be for Moon to play his desired role as a mediator, as Pyongyang and Washington have hardened their stances, threatening to make his focus on engagement seem implausible.

Some U.S. officials were frustrated when Moon, during a call with President Donald Trump just a week before the summit, offered to “ease the burden” by reopening inter-Korean economic projects as a concession to the North, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

At the time, negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program were “hardly making progress,” one source said.

That offer also landed with a thud among some of Moon’s own administration, who said it made him appear desperate for North Korean sanctions relief.

“You don’t want to look desperate, especially when their talks are going nowhere and time is ticking,” said the source, who like the others spoke on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Moon is eager to restart the joint projects, key to an initiative that he sees as a boost for a moribund economy and the worst job market in a decade.

WEEKS OF CONTROVERSY

Moon’s approval ratings have fallen to their lowest levels since taking office in May 2017, pollster Realmeter said on Monday, citing recent missile activity in North Korea and the stalemate in nuclear talks.

Since the summit, work at North Korea’s Sohae rocket test facility has been detected, while a senior Pyongyang official said last week that Kim may suspend talks with the United States and rethink its freeze on weapons tests.

Senior North Korean negotiators have not showed up for weekly talks with the South at their liaison office since the summit broke down, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. But there were “no problems” communicating with the North, a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a recent U.S. State Department human rights paper criticized Seoul for pressuring North Korean defectors not to denounce Pyongyang. A separate U.N. report noted Seoul’s failure to declare its transfer of petroleum products used in the North, and published a photo of Moon and Kim riding in an “illicitly obtained” limousine in Pyongyang.

This week, the debate over whether Moon is too committed to engagement with North Korea boiled over in a controversy about a Bloomberg news report that called him a “top spokesman” for Kim Jong Un last year.

Moon’s office faced criticism from foreign media associations after ruling party officials used the racially charged term “black-haired foreigner” to personally single out the author of the Bloomberg story – who is South Korean – for being “almost treasonous.”

After days of pressure, the party apologized on Tuesday for using “black-haired foreigner,” while Moon’s office said it would take action if the reporter were “under real threat.”

CHANGING ROLES

Moon has vowed to act as a mediator between Trump and Kim, but that plan is in doubt in the wake of the summit’s collapse.

There was criticism in Washington that Seoul might have over-sold Kim’s denuclearisation commitment and gone too far in pushing for sanctions relief, according to another source who recently met with U.S. officials and academics.

On the other side, North Korea’s vice foreign minister told a news conference in Pyongyang last week that South Korea is only “a player, not an arbiter” because it is a U.S. ally, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. officials have said no sanctions will be lifted in exchange for partial steps toward denuclearisation, rejecting the incremental approach Pyongyang has sought.

But a senior aide to Moon on Sunday called for a small, step-by-step deal as a “realistic alternative” that would at least move toward dismantling the North’s nuclear facilities in return for sanctions relief.

“We need to reconsider the all-or-nothing strategy,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. State Department representative said that the United States remains prepared for a “constructive negotiation” but that North Korea was not yet ready.

The three sources say U.S. officials still think Moon’s administration can play a role in resuming talks the North, but they want it to focus more on pushing North Korea to denuclearise rather than advocating for sanctions relief.

“They do think South Korea could be a catalyst that helps the negotiations go in the right direction, but in a way that brings Kim’s commitments that deserve U.S. rewards,” said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Josh Smith and Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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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.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE NEW YORK POST

“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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