FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are illuminated with a giant euro sign at the start of the "Luminale, light and building" event in Frankfurt, Germany, March 12, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
April 4, 2019
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank will ask Deutsche Bank to raise fresh funds before it gives the go-ahead for a merger with a state-backed rival, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The official said that Deutsche would be required to have the buffer, which has yet to be calculated, to cope should it experience setbacks while integrating Commerzbank if a deal is agreed.
The ECB, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined to comment.
(Reporting by Reporting by John O’Donnell, Hans Seidenstuecker, Tom Sims)
FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 file photo, men walk to be screened after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State group militants, near Baghouz, eastern Syria, Friday, Feb. 22, 2019. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File )
The ISIS territorial “caliphate” may have crumbled, but the terror group's heart beats on for at least as long as its illusory leader evades capture or death -- and Iraqi intelligence officials insist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, 47, is alive and in hiding.
“The latest information is that he is still in the Syrian desert, and could not enter into the Iraqi side because of concerns about evading the security measures on the borders,” Sabah al Namaan, Baghdad’s spokesperson for the counterterrorism agency, told Fox News, stressing that finding the shadowy figure remains of critical importance due to the “symbolic significance” Baghdadi holds in governing the brutal terrorist outfit.
Namaan said efforts are still underway to track down Baghdadi.
“Killing him or arresting him will reveal many secrets about how they have recruited tens of thousands of young men, and it will create a gap in the organization,” he continued. “Hopefully we will reach him very soon, especially now that ISIS has been defeated in its final place in Baghouz, Syria and they have lost all their land in Iraq. Now, we have a real opportunity to catch or kill him.”
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct . 7, 2014 file photo, Iraqi security forces hold a flag of the Islamic State group they captured during an operation outside Amirli, some 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. The mass beheadings of Egyptian Christians by militants in Libya linked to the Islamic State group have thrown a spotlight on the threat the extremists pose beyond their heartland in Syria and Iraq, where they have established a self-declared proto-state. Militants in several countries have pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (AP Photo, File) (The Associated Press)
Hamid al-Hayes, the head of the al-Anbar Salvation Council – which operates as a collective for tribal militia groups – also echoed in a statement last week that Baghdadi was in Syria, close to the Iraqi border and that he “has shaved his beard and changed a large part of his features [so as] not to be identified and arrested.”
Hisham al Hashimi, a member of the National Reconciliation Commission and a researcher in extremism and terrorism affairs in Iraq, who advises Baghdad and several foreign governments on terrorist activity, said the latest security analysis has pinpointed Baghdadi in “three possible locations.” Two of those are in the arid Syrian wasteland – Tadmur or Homs desert – and the third is just over the border, on the Iraq side.
“All these locations are very wide and very large with around 200 square miles,” Hashimi noted. “He is a specialist at knowing how to survive, using different disguises and only with two people – his brother and his driver – with him.”
He also pointed out that the assumption was that Baghdadi was never in Baghouz, the final Syrian battle zone which fell last month, during the fight but is believed to have “motivated” his fighters prior to the last showdown.
Baghdadi – whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri – remains the world’s most wanted man, with the United States continuing to offer up to $25 million for information leading to his location. While most of his closest aides and confidantes have been slaughtered in the years of intense fighting, the leader is broadly believed to be alive, and still very much in the sights of U.S., SDF and Iraq elite forces.
Earlier this year, Iraqi intelligence officials speaking to Fox News maintained he was lurking in Syrian border towns, often donning non-traditional or “regular” clothes, using a civilian car and making sure all those around him had no mobile phones or electronic devices in order to bypass detection.
Baghdadi -- whose death is constantly rumored but never proven -- is also believed to have survived a coup effort from within his own ranks in January, when several senior fighters attempted to oust him by leading him from his hideout into a firefight with foreign fighters. But he was reportedly whisked away by his security.
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters pose for a photo on a rooftop overlooking Baghouz, Syria, after the SDF declared the area free of Islamic State militants after months of fighting on Saturday, March 23, 2019. The elimination of the last Islamic State stronghold in Baghouz brings to a close a grueling final battle that stretched across several weeks and saw thousands of people flee the territory and surrender in desperation, and hundreds killed. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
A spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, the name given the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, have routinely said they “have seen no indications of him or his whereabouts at this time.”
But alive or dead, Baghdadi – who has only made one known public appearance, in 2014 – has managed to elude one of the biggest manhunts in history undertaken by a U.S.-led coalition. But whether or not finding him would do much to shatter the group’s ability to now inspire and launch scattered attacks across the globe, is fodder for debate.
"Finding and bringing the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to justice remains an important task for the international community and continues to be actively pursued by local and international forces in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project. “While the capture of al-Baghdadi would present a major blow against ISIS, it is unlikely to result in the dissolution of this terror group."
Major cities across the U.S. are bracing themselves to accommodate a possible surge of more than 150,000 asylum seekers in the coming months.
The expected surge from mostly El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, comes amid an uptick in apprehensions last month that put a strain on border patrol and nonprofit shelters near the U.S.-Mexico border.
To relieve these shelters, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been scouting major cities from Phoenix to Atlanta as potential locations to build these shelters, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he had informed HHS Regional Director Fred Schuster that Dallas is “ready, willing and able to help out these kids.”
Other cities that have been scouted for “potential future use as state-licensed permanent shelter locations for unaccompanied alien children” are Fort Worth, San Antonio, the paper reported, citing an HHS spokesman. According to an analysis of official data published by the CATO Institute this week, the number of arrests made by Border Patrol in 2019 is at a twelve-year high
Some 268,044 individuals have been apprehended on the Southwest border from the beginning of the year through the end of February. Experts cited by the Dallas Morning News said the rise in apprehensions could exceed 150,000 in the months ahead.
Acting director of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan, who replaced Kirstjen Nielsen over the weekend, will make an announcement on the apprehensions on Wednesday, according to the paper.
Fox News' Hollie McKay contributed to this report.
The Brazilian president once said that “homosexual fundamentalists” were brainwashing heterosexual children to “become gays and lesbians to satisfy them sexually in the future”.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been lambasted by local LGBT members for warning that Brazil shouldn’t turn into a “gay tourism paradise”.
“If you want to come here and have sex with a woman, go for your life. But we can’t let this place become known as a gay tourism paradise. Brazil can’t be a country of the gay world, of gay tourism. We have families”, Bolsonaro told a Brasilia news conference.
David Miranda, a left-wing Brazilian congressman and LGBT activist, commented on Bolsonaro’s remarks by describing him as “a national disgrace” rather than “a head of state” in an interview with The Guardian.
Miranda claimed that Bolsonaro’s comments endangered members of Brazil’s LGBT community by “putting a target on their backs” and promoted the sexual exploitation of Brazilian women.
Earlier, the Brazilian president said that he is “very proud” that he is homophobic, also claiming that “homosexual fundamentalists” were brainwashing heterosexual children to “become gays and lesbians to satisfy them sexually in the future”.
Despite Bolsonaro’s anti-gay rhetoric, David Trabuco, a 26-year-old gay evangelical Christian and make-up artist living near Brasilia, said last year that he does not see “that wickedness in Bolsonaro that others see”.
FILE PHOTO: Mar 20, 2019; Memphis, TN, USA; Memphis Grizzlies head coach J.B. Bickerstaff during the game against the Houston Rockets at FedExForum. Memphis won 126-125. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
April 12, 2019
Speaking to local media around midday Thursday, Memphis Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said he hadn’t talked with team owner Robert Pera yet, but he could make one declaration: Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff would return for a second season. Two hours later, that decision had changed, and several other moves were made.
The Grizzlies fired Bickerstaff and demoted Wallace to a scouting role.
Memphis also named Jason Wexler as team president with “oversight of both business and basketball operations,” the team said in a statement. The Grizzlies promoted Zach Kleiman to executive vice president of basketball operations, with former VP John Hollinger reassigned to a senior advisory position.
“In order to put our team on the path to sustainable success, it was necessary to change our approach to basketball operations,” Pera said in a statement. “I look forward to a reenergized front office and fresh approach to Memphis Grizzlies basketball under new leadership, while retaining the identity and values that have distinguished our team.”
–Sacramento Kings coach Dave Joerger was fired after three seasons, the team announced.
“After evaluating the season, I determined that we need to move in a different direction in order to take us to the next level,” general manager Vlade Divac said.
Joerger led the Kings to a 39-43 record this season, good for ninth place in the NBA’s Western Conference. It was their best record since 2005-06 — the last time they qualified for the playoffs. The Kings started this season at 30-26 and were in the playoff hunt until a 9-17 finish left them nine games behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the final postseason spot in the West.
–Larry Drew will not return for a second season as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers after he and the team mutually agreed to part ways.
“Larry and I had a productive discussion about this past season, the future of the franchise and the search process that we will shortly launch regarding the head coaching role,” general manager Koby Altman said in a statement. “Larry respectfully declined to participate in the search process and will not be returning to coach the Cavaliers.”
The Cavs finished 19-63 in 2018-19 as Drew took over after the firing of Tyronn Lue on Oct. 28 following the team’s 0-6 start. Drew was named interim head coach at first before agreeing to a new deal on Nov. 5.
–Cardiologists have cleared Chicago Bulls forward Lauri Markkanen to resume full basketball activities, the team announced.
Markkanen, 21, experienced extreme fatigue and an accelerated heart rate during a game in Toronto on March 26. A battery of tests conducted at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore determined that dehydration and nutrient deficiency caused his symptoms.
The 7-footer missed the rest of the regular season, finishing his second campaign with averages of 18.7 points and 9.0 rebounds in 52 games.
–The Phoenix Suns officially named James Jones as general manager, giving him control over all basketball operations for the team.
The Suns also added Jeff Bower as senior vice president of basketball operations and retained Trevor Bukstein as assistant general manager. Both will report to Jones, the team announced in a statement.
Jones, 38, who played 14 seasons in the league and won three NBA championships, had served as Phoenix’s VP of basketball operations the past two seasons. He shared GM duties this past season with Bukstein.
A Royal Thai navy ship drags a floating home, lived in by an American man and his Thai partner, in the Andaman Sea, off Phuket Island in Thailand, April 22, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
April 22, 2019
By Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s navy on Monday began towing to shore the floating cabin of a fugitive U.S. citizen and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the “seasteading” movement who face possible death sentences for setting up their offshore home.
The cabin set on top of a spar 14 nautical miles off the Thai island of Phuket had been touted as milestone in the movement to build floating communities in international waters as a way to explore alternative societies and governments.
Authorities have revoked the visa of bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski, 46, and charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty, punishable by the death penalty or life in prison.
The Royal Thai Navy dispatched three boats on Monday to dismantle the structure and bring it back to shore for use as evidence in the government’s case against the couple.
“The couple announced on social media declaring their autonomy beyond the jurisdiction of any courts or law of any countries, including Thailand,” Rear Admiral Vithanarat Kochaseni told reporters, adding they had invited others to join them.
“We see such action as deteriorating Thailand’s independence,” he said.
HTMS Mannai, a landing craft utility ship, was expected to return to Phuket with the six-meter (20 ft) wide, hexagon-shaped cabin by late Monday.
Elwartowski and Supranee lived in the cabin for two months and left before the Thai navy raided the structure on April 13.
Their whereabouts are unknown, though the government has said the pair is believed to be in Thailand.
Elwartowski has referred requests for comment to Ocean Builders, which funded and built the cabin, and the Seasteading Institute, which advocates building offshore floating cities and originally received backing from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
Ocean Builders said on its website the cabin was in international waters and beyond Thailand’s jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.
Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute, said the couple had achieved a milestone for the movement.
“They proved a single-family seastead can float stably in international waters for less than the cost of the average American home,” Quirk said in a statement.
Elwartowski also conducted valuable research on ecosystems over the two months the couple lived in the cabin, he said.
“You can demolish the seastead, but you can’t demolish the knowledge that was gained,” said Quirk, who is described by his group as a “seavangelist” and an “aquapreneur”.
(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat. Editing by Kay Johnson and Darren Schuettler)
Sen. Rick Scott Wednesday rejected claims from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he was siding with President Donald Trump on disaster relief for Puerto Rico, rather than with those who are still struggling after Hurricane Maria devastated the island territory.
"That's not true what he said," the Florida Republican and former governor told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "The first time, I talked (about) $600 million for food and nutrition money to Puerto Rico."
Scott added that when he looks at Schumer, D-NY, he sees a person who hates Trump.
"I did well with Puerto Ricans and he acts like he cares," Scott said of Schumer. "When Maria hit, did he go to Puerto Rico and say what do you need? No. I went there eight times. Did he open up relief centers in New York? No. I opened two in Florida to help them."
Further, Scott said that as governor, he also waived regulations so children could get into Florida's schools and their parents could get jobs.
"This is him saying he wants to care so it hurts Republicans because we actually do care about Puerto Rico," said Scott.
The senator also weighed in on Attorney General William Barr's ruling that some illegal immigrants facing deportation must be held without bond as their cases play out, saying it's important that the United States enforce its laws.
"I have been to the border," said Scott. "The border agents are frustrated. They need more people, more technology, some barriers."
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)
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)
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.
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 said. (Shelby County Sheriff’s Office)
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
Campaigning in Iowa hours after the former vice president officially announced his candidacy, Warren contrasted on Thursday her longtime record of taking on Wall Street with that of Biden.
“At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country were trying to put the squeeze on millions of hard-working families who were in bankruptcy because of medical problems, job losses, divorce and death in the family, there was nobody to stand up for them,” said the populist senator who’s producing progressive policy proposal after another as she runs for the White House.
“I got in that fight because they just didn’t have anyone,” she said. “And Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies.”
The comments reignited a nearly two decades old fight between the two over the country’s bankruptcy laws.
Fox News reached out to the Biden campaign for reaction to Warren’s words but had yet to receive a response at the time this article was published.
It’s not just Warren. The head of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – which has backed the senator from Massachusetts – also took aim at Biden, who enters the race as the front runner in most national polls and early primary and caucus voting state surveys, slightly atop of Sanders and well ahead of the rest of the large field of 20 contenders.
“With billionaires deciding not to run, progressive candidates have been in need of a foil. If Joe Biden positions himself as the political insider from yesteryear who says big ideas like universal child care, student debt relief, and a wealth tax on ultra-millionaires are not possible, he would be an easy foil, Adam Green, the co-founder of PCCC, told Fox News.
The former vice president spent Thursday evening raising campaign cash at the suburban Philadelphia home of David Cohen, a senior executive of the Comcast Corp. and a former Democratic operative.
In a fundraising email to supporters around the same time, Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir wrote that “it’s a big day in the Democratic primary and we’re hoping to end it strong. Not with a fundraiser in the home of a corporate lobbyist, but with an overwhelming number of individual donations in response to today’s news.”
Earlier in the day, a rising progressive group called Justice Democrats that has championed Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called Biden “out of touch” and stressed that “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.’”
Biden, of course, is considered to be more moderate than many of the current contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, especially Warren and Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.
These kind of jabs from the candidates, their campaigns and outside groups could be foreshadow a building clash between the progressive and establishment sings of the party.
Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”
Former President Barack Obama, Biden’s boss for eight years, remains extremely popular with Democrats.
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