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Exclusive: Sri Lanka warned of threat hours before suicide attacks – sources

A woman reacts during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
A woman reacts during a mass burial of victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

April 23, 2019

By Shihar Aneez, Ranga Sirilal, Joe Brock and Sanjeev Miglani

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lankan intelligence officials were tipped off about an imminent attack by Islamist militants hours before a series of suicide bombings killed more than 300 people on Easter Sunday, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Three churches and four hotels were hit by suicide bombers on Sunday morning, killing 321 people and wounding 500, sending shockwaves through an island state that has been relatively peaceful since a civil war ended a decade ago.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Tuesday, without providing evidence of its involvement.

Indian intelligence officers contacted their Sri Lankan counterparts two hours before the first attack to warn of a specific threat on churches, one Sri Lankan defense source and an Indian government source said.

Another Sri Lankan defense source said a warning came “hours before” the first strike.

One of the Sri Lankan sources said a warning was also sent by the Indians on Saturday night. The Indian government source said similar messages had been given to Sri Lankan intelligence agents on April 4 and April 20.

Sri Lanka’s presidency and the Indian foreign ministry both did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez, Ranga Sirilal, Joe Brock and Sanjeev Miglani; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Official: Threatened Afghan journalist wounded by bomb blast

An Afghan official says a journalist who has long been threatened has been wounded in a bomb blast in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the Helmand governor, says TV and radio journalist Nesar Ahmad Ahmadi was wounded by a sticky bomb that exploded as he was heading to the office in his vehicle. It happened in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, on Tuesday.

Zwak said Ahmadi had a leg wound and was transferred to Kabul for further treatment.

He is the director for Sabahoon radio and also a reporter for Sabahoon television broadcaster in Helmand.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban insurgents are active in southern Afghanistan especially in Helmand.

The Taliban have been carrying out near-daily attacks across Afghanistan.

Source: Fox News World

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Trainee’s Device Can Save Lives

A student at a high school in Wisconsin has invented a device to keep intruders out of classrooms. Somerset senior Justin Rivard was inspired in his shop class to try to save lives at his school. He calls it the “JustinKase,” made of steel plates and connecting rods, Justin’s device slips beneath a classroom door […]

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Georgia man charged with murder after fatally shooting 19-year-old who knocked on the wrong apartment door

A Georgia man was arrested Friday after police say he fatally shot a 19-year-old man who accidentally knocked on the wrong apartment door.

The shooting victim, Omarian Banks, was dropped off at the Retreat apartment complex in Atlanta around 12:30 a.m. on Friday.

According to police, Banks and his girlfriend recently moved into the building and Banks, still unfamiliar with the area, knocked on what he thought was his apartment door.

PENNSYLVANIA JUDGE SENTENCES WOMAN TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR MURDER OF ADOPTIVE DAUGHTER: ‘EVIL ATTRACTS EVIL’

Banks had reportedly made an error, approaching the door of 32-year-old Darryl Bynes instead. According to the police account, the pair had a short conversation before Bynes went inside, grabbed his gun and shot Banks as he tried to get away, WSB-TV reported.

Police said that Bynes first claimed self-defense but evidence suggests the victim was shot from Bynes’ balcony as he tried to get away, WSB-TV reported.

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Bynes was arrested and booked at the Fulton County Jail, where he is facing murder charges, inmate records indicated.

He had been arrested three previous times, according to jail records.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Nadler blasts Trump for tweeting video of 9/11 attacks and Omar comments, says he has ‘no moral authority’

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., slammed President Trump on Sunday for tweeting a video over the weekend that combined images of the 9/11 terror attacks with remarks by freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Nadler said Trump has “no moral authority” to talk about the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil and called out Trump for reportedly taking a $150,000 government grant offered to small business owners in lower Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks.

“He wasn’t president then, but Donald Trump actually took a $150,000 grant from the Bush administration,” Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He stole $150,000 from some small businessperson who could’ve used it to help rehabilitate himself.”

AOC FACES BACKLASH FOR USING ‘FIRST THEY CAME…’ HOLOCAUST POEM IN DEFENSE OF OMAR

The building Nadler is referring to is 40 Wall Street, also called The Trump Building. Some critics of the president have brought up a clip of Trump being interviewed on a local New Jersey news station on the morning of the attack, where the then-real estate mogul pointed out that with the collapse of the twin towers, 40 Wall Street is now the tallest building in lower Manhattan.

The controversy surrounding Trump and Omar began when the president tweeted the video of the burning World Trade Center towers and Omar speaking last month at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, where she said the organization was founded because "some people did something" and Muslims "were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."

"For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I'm tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it," she said in the March 23 speech, according to video posted online. "CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."

CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership skyrocketed after the attacks.

Omar repeatedly has pushed fellow Democrats into uncomfortable territory over Israel with comments related to her assessment of the Jewish state's influence in Washington. She apologized for suggesting that lawmakers support Israel for pay and said she isn't criticizing Jews. But she refused to take back a tweet in which she suggested American supporters of Israel "pledge allegiance" to a foreign country.

WHITE HOUSE RIPS OMAR FOR CALLING STEPHEN MILLER A ‘WHITE NATIONALIST,’ HIGHLIGHTS HER ‘HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITIC COMMENTS’

Her comments sparked an ugly episode among House Democrats after they responded with a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and the measure became a broader declaration against all forms of bigotry.

Omar has not backed down from her comments. She tweeted a quote from President George W. Bush, who said days after the attacks: "The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"

"Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack?" Omar tweeted. "What if he was a Muslim."

Several top Democrats – and a number of 2020 presidential hopefuls – have rushed to publicly defend Omar.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded Trump for using the "painful images of 9/11 for a political attack" against the first-term Minnesota Democrat.

And presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, campaigning in New Hampshire, accused Trump of "trying to incite violence and to divide us, and every political leader should speak out against that."

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Warren, a Massachusetts senator, said Republican leaders in Congress "cannot take a pass on this, cannot look the other way and pretend it isn't happening. It is happening. And those who don't speak out in the Republican leadership are complicit in what he is doing. It's wrong."

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar noted that a New York man recently was charged with threatening Omar's life.

"The video the president chose to send out today will only incite more hate," Klobuchar said. "You can disagree with her words — as I have done before — but this video is wrong. Enough."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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We Don’t Need Any More Big, Visionary Government

One of the more interesting reactions to the Green New Deal (GND) came courtesy of Ross Douthat.

Writing for the New York Times, Douthat offered “one cheer for the Green New Deal,” two cheers shy of a full endorsement. Given that the GND has been roundly and justifiably mocked for its impossibly extreme goals, why would the conservative Douthat offer even so much as a tentative shrug in its favor?

It is the GND’s unabashed radicalism, writes Douthat, that warrants his mild praise. Not that Douthat supports the GND; clearly, he does not. But he does faintly admire its progenitors for their ambition. “[T]here are virtues in trying to offer not just a technical blueprint but a comprehensive vision of the good society,” writes Douthat, “and virtues as well in insisting that dramatic change is still possible in America, that grand projects and scientific breakthroughs are still within our reach.”

Such sentiment is fairly common. Many people pine for the days when our country was at the center of a fast-moving world and seen by many to be bravely combating intergenerational poverty and racial injustice, standing against the spread of communism, and leading the charge in technological advancement, culminating in the climactic moment when our flag was planted on the surface of the moon.

Those swayed by this historical wistfulness, however, forget that America’s greatest accomplishments have come not from the halls of Congress or the Oval Office, but from free individuals. As economist Milton Friedman pointed out, “Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the auto industry that way.” NASA may have put a man on the moon, but we have private enterprise to thank for light bulbs, radios, televisions, smartphones, and a bevy of other technological wonders and products that enrich our daily lives in ways previously unimaginable.

It should also be noted that some of the federal government’s biggest and most promising projects became embarrassing boondoggles. The heavily subsidized transcontinental railroad, for example, was heralded by the Rocky Mountain News in 1866 as the “remedy for every evil, social, political, financial, and industrial.” In reality, the railroad’s construction, economically unjustifiable from the outset, was perpetually mired in a crony capitalistic mess. Both companies contracted to build it would later go bankrupt, and financial misconduct would lead to a variety of scandals. Nonetheless, images of the golden spike being driven into the final rail at Promontory Point still causes many American hearts to swell with pride. It’s natural for them to feel nostalgic for a time when the country was united behind such a “heroic” venture.

But more than anything, it is the mythologies surrounding Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society that inspire modern progressives. The trailblazing reformers of the ‘30s and ‘60s were paternalists par excellence who were not afraid to use the awesome power of the federal government to reshape society in their image. The miserable failure of these prodigious programs could explain why the country has yet to get behind another massive government initiative.

Unfortunately, politicians have continued to offer us fantastic projects over the past few decades. Every presidential campaign season we are inundated with leftist ideas about ending income inequality, constructing high-speed rail systems, establishing universal health care, and instituting “free” college. Just over a decade ago, America bore witness to the election of one Barack Obama, a candidate who could hardly be accused of stinginess when it came to proposing dramatic change. Indeed, “change” was his defining message. In one particularly revealing speech, Obama announced that his candidacy marked “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” For Democrats at least, the hunger for earthshaking transformation was palpable.

Regardless, Douthat is correct when he says that we have not seen any real comprehensive change in recent years. Despite the overzealous rhetoric, eight years under President Obama brought few substantial policy adjustments. The biggest splashes were made by the Supreme Court, not via legislative or executive action, the Affordable Care Act notwithstanding. Even then, the ACA was far from the revolutionary reform it has been touted as, and is certainly not as far-reaching as the “Medicare-for-All” plan or the Green New Deal.

More recent political battles confirm Douthat’s thesis. Two years into President Trump’s first term and his only major legislative achievement is a modest tax reform law. His signature campaign promise, building a wall along the southern border, has yet to be achieved. And with a Democratic-controlled House, it’s unlikely that Republicans will be able to pass any more significant legislation. As Douthat observes, political stalemate has prevented us from initiating any new game-changing programs.

And yet, is the country any worse for the fact that Washington has done so little? A Washington free to “think big” is likely to make things far worse. Many may very well lament, as Douthat does, America’s metaphysical boredom and cultural balkanization, but these problems probably will not be remedied by some big government scheme.

Perhaps we have finally reached a point in our history where we no longer feel the need to look to Washington to direct the future of civilization. If that is the case, there is a tremendous opportunity — and a tremendous challenge — for free individuals to create for ourselves a vision for the good society, just as we have done in the past. Whether America will take up that challenge remains to be seen.



The ‘non-existent’ border crisis is set to expect up to 1 million illegal immigrants this year.

Source: InfoWars

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Trump, riding high on news from Mueller probe, steps on his own applause lines

President Trump isn’t the first American politician to step on his own applause lines.

The President should have been reveling in what were the best moments of his presidency Tuesday afternoon. No indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mr. Trump’s declaration of a national emergency for a border wall remained in tact. As the President lunched at the Capitol with Republican senators, the House of Representatives stumbled to override his veto of a measure to terminate the national emergency.

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS RATTLED BY TRUMP'S PIVOT TO OBAMACARE FIGHT AFTER MUELLER SUMMARY

Later on Tuesday, senators would cast ballots on a procedural vote to start debate on the Green New Deal, drafted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., engineered the roll call to shine a spotlight on Ocasio-Cortez’s climate change blueprint. McConnell wanted to bait Senate Democrats -- vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination -- into taking a stand on Ocasio-Cortez’s controversial gambit.

And then the President offered this nugget to reporters as he ducked into the Senate GOP lunch:

“The Republican party will soon be known as the part of health care,” boasted Mr. Trump.

You’ll excuse the dry cleaning bills of Republican senators who rushed their neckties to the drycleaners after nearly choking on their Senate bean soup in the luncheon.

This came just hours after the Justice Department announced it would attempt to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) in court.

“The human costs of this decision will be profound,” suggested Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a moderate Democrat who represents a state President Trump won by 42 points, carrying all 55 counties. “Twenty million Americans will be left without the health insurance they rely on. The 133 million Americans and 800,000 West Virginians with a pre-existing condition will be at risk of losing their access to health insurance.”

ObamaCare has never been popular. Republicans bristle about the health care law. But Republicans have been particularly maladroit when it comes to ditching the ACA. Republicans chanted “repeal and replace” for nearly a decade. They’ve gotten nowhere. Multiple efforts to pass another health care measure swerved violently into the political ditch.

“The President has offered no plan. None,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “He talks about it. He doesn’t do anything about it – which is true of so much of the legislation he has talked about.”

“They simply cannot help themselves,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., about the GOP’s latest charge to unwind ObamaCare. “Republicans have shown their true colors.”

The very existence and staying power of ObamaCare perturbs Republicans. There’s a reason why the President tore again into the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a few weeks ago on Twitter. Mr. Trump never forgave McCain for the vote he took nearly two years ago to scuttle the GOP’s repeal and replace effort. McCain’s decision stung President Trump, handing him one of the biggest defeats of his term.

“Remember, in (President) Trump’s mind, ending ObamaCare is about exacting revenge on McCain,” said one source who asked they not be identified.

On Wednesday, the President bragged that “if the Supreme Court rules that ObamaCare is out, we will have a plan that is better than ObamaCare.”

But how does this happen? Congressional Republicans could never coalesce around their own plan to take the place of the ACA. All Republicans could agree upon was repeal. The GOP House finally muscled through a replacement health care package after a lengthy fight. But it died in the Senate. Does the President implement a new plan by executive order? Declare a national emergency, bypassing Congress yet again?

“It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous,” chafed Manchin. “Why this administration would go down that path and throw it out completely when they couldn’t do it legislatively is unconscionable.”

“I am vehemently opposed to the administration seeking to invalidate the entire ACA,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who faces a competitive 2020 re-election in a battleground state. “The answer is for the administration to work with Congress and present a plan to replace and fix the law, not through the courts and seek to invalidate it all together.”

Perhaps President Trump is simply seizing the customary Republican posture when it comes to health care. Mr. Trump has long pushed to repeal ObamaCare. And now he doesn’t have (yet) a bill to replace it.

TRUMP PUSH TO INVALIDATE OBAMACARE SPARKED CLASH WITHIN ADMINISTRATION

That’s how things have gone for Republicans on health care for a while. It also explains the private reluctance of many GOPers to drift down the perilous health care path again.

Congressional Republicans have taken dozens of votes over the past decade to repeal ObamaCare. But they’ve never closed the deal with a package to succeed the health care law.

Republicans hoped things might be different under President Trump.

The GOP initially struggled with “replace” in the House in the spring of 2017. This was the first time Republicans had played with live ammo. In other words, there were consequences to repealing ObamaCare. House GOPers had to have something ready to fill the gap. Furthermore, Republicans had a bill which could actually become law. The Republican brass yanked the first measure to repeal and replace ObamaCare off the floor after it melted down. But Republicans rallied. The House approved a successor plan a few months later. The measure then died in the Senate, thanks in part, to the vote by John McCain.

Democrats are marveling at this political gift presented them by the President. Democrats wanted to alter the narrative after the Mueller investigation failed to deliver the goods on Mr. Trump and others in his administration. Democrats ran on health care and pre-existing conditions in battleground districts they won in the midterms. Republicans may publicly embrace a new call to eliminate ObamaCare. But many are seething privately.

“This is the party of health care? This Republican Party? Come on. You can’t undo all the health care for tens of millions. The protections for pre-existing conditions for hundreds of millions. The drug costs for tens of millions of seniors. The protections for millions of young college graduates and say you’re for healthcare. You just can’t,” fumed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“I’ll make this promise,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at his weekly press conference on Thursday. “The Republicans will make sure pre-existing conditions are protected.”

But shortly after speaking with Mr. Trump by telephone Wednesday, the California Republican pivoted to a tried and true GOP talking point which has worked for years – and then tossed in a new one.

“ObamaCare is a failure,” said McCarthy. “The real fear I have is the Democrats’ plan of ‘Medicare for All.’”

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., took a similar approach.

“ObamaCare is unconstitutional,” said Cheney. “We are seeing Democrats push this lie that Republicans don’t want to cover people with pre-existing conditions.”

Cheney described a possible end of ObamaCare as “a situation of desperation on behalf of the Democrats.”

Cheney said the timing of the announcement didn’t bother her, asserting that GOPers remain steadfast in their opposition to ObamaCare. But it rattled other Republicans.

“We felt vindicated,” said one senior House Republican about the conclusion of the Mueller probe. “We could have ridden this for a few weeks.”

Fox is told that many Republicans worry that voters could blame them if health care coverage is stripped from millions, to say nothing of the impact on the economy.

“It will destroy the infrastructure of health care in this country,” said Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., who served for eight years as President Clinton’s Health and Human Services Secretary. “It would be a disaster for 100,000 people in my district.”

Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, represents a sprawling, rural district in Ohio, beset with staggering health care issues and opioid abuse.

“I’m not going to say the President made a mistake because he said all along he was going to repeal ObamaCare,” said Johnson. But the Ohio Republican noted that a GOP House, Senate and President failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare in 2017, after years of promising to do so.

“We missed a golden opportunity,” said Johnson.

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Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., chairs the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest bloc of conservatives in the House. Johnson said the President surprised Republicans with his ObamaCare swivel. That’s why the RSC is trying to prepare legislation to fill the void if ObamaCare is ruled to be unconstitutional.

“Congress isn’t going to let 40 million people go without health care,” said the Louisiana Republican.

So, the President was riding high after news the conclusion of the Mueller investigation. And then Mr. Trump stepped on his own applause lines.

“In the south, they put it another way,” said one senior Democratic lawmaker who asked to not be identified. “He stepped on his own ‘appendage.’”

Source: Fox News Politics

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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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