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New Apple lab uses robots to rip apart devices for recycling materials

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Apple company is seen outside an Apple store in Bordeaux
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Apple company is seen outside an Apple store in Bordeaux, France, March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

April 18, 2019

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) – Apple Inc is notorious for keeping what happens in its laboratories a closely guarded secret. But the iPhone maker plans to share openly everything that happens in its newest lab in Austin, Texas.

Apple said Thursday that it will open a “Material Recovery” lab to investigate new techniques using robotics and machine learning to rip apart its devices and recover valuable materials such as copper, aluminum and cobalt. The 9,000-square-foot lab will be at the same Austin facility as “Daisy,” an Apple-built robot that can now tear apart iPhones at the rate of 1.2 million per year.

The lab is part of Apple’s broader goal to make all of its products from recycled or renewable materials. Apple has not set a date for when it will reach that goal, though some products such as the MacBook Air already feature aluminum made from melted down iPhones traded in to Apple.

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social Initiatives, told Reuters the research will inform how Apple designs its products.

“I absolutely think that the learnings we make there will be for all of Apple, and hopefully for all of our sector, and of course will influence designers and engineers as we go forward,” Jackson said in an interview.

Apple has faced criticism in the past that its thin-and-light product designs make it hard to disassemble products so they can be recycled.

Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, which provides free repair instructions for electronics, said Apple deserves some credit for making the iPhone reasonable to recycle. But he said many other popular products in its lineup – such as its AirPods headphones – cannot be economically recycled because they are stuck together with glue.

Jackson pushed back against that notion, saying that smaller products reduce material use and that Apple focuses on making longer lasting products. The company for the first time released figures showing that 7.8 million devices brought to Apple as trade-ins last year ended up with new users.

“Durability matters,” Jackson said. “We know our products are used a long time.”

Apple also said Thursday that materials recovered by the Daisy robot are making their way into new products. For example, batteries recovered by Daisy will be sent to recyclers so the cobalt from them can be used in new Apple batteries.

“Cobalt is mined in horrific conditions,” Wiens of iFixit said. “Reducing cobalt consumption is a good thing across the board.”

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

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Pershing Square up 31.9 percent, Ackman says stable capital base to help firm

FILE PHOTO: William 'Bill' Ackman, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City
FILE PHOTO: William 'Bill' Ackman, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 25, 2019

BOSTON (Reuters) – Hedge fund manager William Ackman said in his annual letter to shareholders that his Pershing Square Holdings fund has gained 31.9 percent since the start of 2019, the best start to the year in the firm’s 15-year history.

Ackman also said that his publicly traded fund, Pershing Square Holdings, now makes up $6 billion of the firm’s $8 billion in assets. Because the capital base is stable, where investors need to sell to another investor before exiting, Ackman expects it will help the firm in delivering higher rates of return over time.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Grant McCool)

Source: OANN

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President Trump Meets Bolsonaro, Burns Ghost of John McCain

President Trump hosted a meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the White House on Tuesday to discuss their countries’ mutual interests.

During the meeting, Trump discussed bringing Brazil into NATO, easing visa policies regarding travel between the two countries, the crisis in Venezuela — and his dislike for the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Trump first floated the idea of introducing Brazil into NATO now that their relationship “has never been better.”

“We’re looking at it very strongly. We’re very inclined to do that. The relationship we have now with Brazil has never been better,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We’re going to look at that very, very strongly, whether it’s NATO or something having to do with alliance.”

Additionally, the president indicated that he and Bolsonaro would discuss options pertaining to Venezuela’s socialist collapse.

“I know exactly what I want to see happen in Venezuela,” Trump said. “Well we don’t want to say exactly – I know exactly what I want to see happen in Venezuela. But we’re going to be talking about a lot of different things.”

“All options are on the table,” he added. “And it’s a shame what’s happening in Venezuela – the death and the destruction and the hunger. Hard to believe one of the wealthiest countries is now one of the poorest, most impoverished countries is we’ll be talking about that in great length.”

And to the mainstream media’s horror, Trump even expressed his dislike for the late Sen. John McCain over his vote to keep Obamacare in place.

“I was never a fan John McCain, and I never will be,” Trump responded before wrapping up the meeting.


Twitter: 

Mike Adams breaks down how the ‘democratic’ mob rule in Venezuela led to their citizens demanding socialist policies that ultimately plunged the South American country into collapse, and if we’re not careful, the United States of America could follow a similar path to a nightmare of realized socialism.

Source: InfoWars

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The Latest: Netanyahu prepared to take more action in Gaza

The Latest on the Israel-Palestinian conflict (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

Israel's prime minister says he is prepared to take further military action in the Gaza Strip, but only as a last resort.

Benjamin Netanyahu made his comments Thursday as Egyptian mediators were trying to broker an expanded cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers following a new round of fighting.

Netanyahu visited troops sent to the Gaza border this week after a two-day outbreak of fighting.

"If we need a broader operation, we will enter it strong and confident, and after we have exhausted all other options," he said.

Israel carried out retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas after a rocket fired from Gaza destroyed a house north of Tel Aviv and wounded seven Israelis. Palestinian militants responded with rocket barrages in some of the most intense fighting since a 2014 w

___

3:10 p.m.

Egyptian mediators are heading to Israel to discuss a potential cease-fire plan with Hamas to end hostilities in the Gaza Strip that began earlier this week.

Three Hamas officials familiar with the negotiations said Thursday that the Egyptians offered Hamas a series of measures to ease the Egyptian-Israeli blockade on Gaza. In exchange, Hamas would have to pledge to halt rocket fire and keep protests along the Israeli border under control.

The officials say the deal would only take effect after a planned mass demonstration along the Israeli border. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were ongoing. One of the officials described the atmosphere as positive.

Another official said the Egyptians were discussing the proposal with Israel on Thursday afternoon.

There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Source: Fox News World

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5-Year-Old Boy Shows ‘Real Signs of Recovery’ Following Mall of America Attack

A 5-year-old boy is showing “real signs of recovery” after being thrown off the third-floor balcony at the Mall of America near Minneapolis on April 12.

“We have good news to share with you on this Good Friday,” attorney Stephen Tillitt said, CBS News reported. “Our miracle child is showing real signs of recovery. New test results have been positive, though he remains in intensive care with a long road ahead.”

Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide after allegedly throwing the child.

A criminal complaint said Aranda was “looking for someone to kill” and wanted to go after an adult before choosing the child.

The 5-year-old suffered broken bones and a head trauma after falling nearly 40 feet, CBS Minnesota reported.

Bloomington, Minnesota, police said the child was treated for life threatening injuries April 12.

Aranda’s bond was set at $2 million, according to CBS. He was previously convicted for assault at the mall twice in 2015.

A judge asked Aranda whether he had any questions during a Tuesday court appearance.

“Not at all,” Aranda responded, CBS reported.


The state silences those that disagree with the “official narrative” because this allows them to control the population. Mike Adams hosts to discuss why being curious is so important to liberty in society.

Source: InfoWars

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Federal judge blocks Medicaid work rules in setback for Trump

A federal judge in Washington blocked specific Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky on Wednesday, though he stopped short of deciding whether any work requirements are incompatible with the program's mission to provide health care to underprivileged people.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services' approval of the Arkansas work requirement was "arbitrary and capricious because it did not address ... whether and how the project would implicate the 'core' objective of Medicaid: the provision of medical coverage to the needy." The Obama-appointed judge invoked similar language in his ruling on the Kentucky requirement.

Work requirements are already in effect in Arkansas, but Kentucky's program has been on hold because of lawsuits. Both states want "able-bodied" adults who get health insurance through ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion to work, study, volunteer or participate in "community engagement" activities.

Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said his state would appeal. Bevin has threatened to end Kentucky's Medicaid expansion covering more than 400,000 people if work requirements are ultimately struck down.

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS RATTLED BY TRUMP'S PIVOT TO OBAMACARE FIGHT

"We have one guy in Washington who thinks he owns Kentucky," said Bevin, apparently referring to the judge. "We're right, and we'll be right in the end. And one guy can gum up the works if he wants, for a while, but this, too, shall pass."

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, also a Republican, said he was disappointed by the decision and would publicly address it on Thursday.

The GOP leader of the Arkansas Senate said he doesn't believe the ruling jeopardizes the future of Medicaid expansion, which covers more than 200,000 residents. About 18,000 have lost coverage as a result of the work requirements.

"I don't think there's any reason for the state to panic," said Senate President Jim Hendren, who's also the governor's nephew. "This is another obstacle in our path to try to do the best we can in Arkansas with the chips the federal government and the judiciary gives us."

States are traditionally allowed broad leeway to set Medicaid benefits and eligibility. Overall, Medicaid is the government's largest health insurance program, covering about one in five Americans, ranging from many pregnant women and infants to severely disabled people and elderly nursing home residents.

Advocates for the poor say that Medicaid is a health care program and that work requirements have no place in it.

"It is nonsensical and illegal to add obstacles to Medicaid for large groups of individuals who are already working, or full-time health care providers for family members, or suffering chronic health matters," said Jane Perkins, legal director of the National Health Law Program, a nonprofit that sued the government.

"Work should not be a key to health care access."

The Trump administration isn't giving up, said the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"We will continue to defend our efforts to give states greater flexibility to help low-income Americans rise out of poverty," Seema Verma said in a statement. "We believe, as have numerous past administrations, that states are the laboratories of democracy and we will vigorously support their innovative, state-driven efforts to develop and test reforms that will advance the objectives of the Medicaid program."

President Trump supports work requirements for public programs across the government. Last year, he signed an executive order directing Cabinet agencies to add or strengthen work requirements for programs including subsidized housing, food stamps and cash welfare.

HHS had already acted. Early in the administration, top officials invited states to apply for waivers that would allow Medicaid work requirements. Verma says she believes work is important to improving the health and well-being of Medicaid recipients.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Eight states have had their requests approved, though not all have put their programs in place, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Requests from seven others are pending. In one of those states, Virginia, a work requirement was key to getting the legislature to approve Medicaid expansion.

Nationally, some 12 million people are covered by the Medicaid expansion, a key component of former President Barack Obama's health care law, adopted by 37 states. Officials in GOP-led states have argued that work requirements and other measures such as modest premiums are needed to ensure political acceptance for the expansion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Dems blast Barr following Mueller report release, call on special counsel to testify before Congress

Democrats have gone on the offensive following the release of the redacted report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 election – requesting Mueller to testify before Congress, slamming Justice Department officials for discussing the report with the White House before its public release and even calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign.

The redacted version of the Mueller report, which was released Thursday morning, was met by President Trump and Republicans as a vindication of his claims that there was no collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government. But Democrats have slammed Barr’s handling of the report as a “staggering partisan effort” and highlighted Mueller’s reluctance to make a judgement on whether or not the president obstructed justice.

SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT MUELLER'S RUSSIA PROBE REPORT RELEASED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

“AG Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump Admin to spin public’s view of the #MuellerReport – complete with acknowledgment that the Trump team received a sneak preview,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted Thursday. “It’s more urgent than ever that Special Counsel Mueller testify before Congress.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-NY, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., both on Thursday requested Mueller testify before their respective committees. Both Democratic lawmakers in the past have been some of the most vociferous critics of Trump – with Schiff previously claiming that he has evidence of collusion between the president and Russia and Nadler’s committee recently voting to subpoena the full, unredacted Mueller report.

“The House Intelligence Committee has formally invited Special Counsel Mueller to testify on the counterintelligence investigation,” Schiff tweeted. “After a two year investigation, the public deserves the facts, not Attorney General Barr’s political spin.”

Nadler, who plans to hold a press conference in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, said it is “clear that the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings.”

Arguably the strongest reaction from a Democrat has come from Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who called for Barr’s immediate resignation “given his misconduct regarding the full report.”

WATCH: AG BARR SPARS WITH A REPORTER DURING NEWS CONFERENCE AHEAD OF MUELLER REPORT RELEASE

“The attorney general can represent the United States, or he can be Donald Trump’s defense attorney. He can’t be both,” Swalwell told Fox News. “He is seeking to help Donald Trump. He should resign. We need an attorney general who has credibility with the American people.”

A number of Trump’s Democratic challengers in the 2020 presidential race have also weighed in on the redacted report.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., lambasted Barr in a series of tweets – accusing the attorney general of only looking out for Trump’s interest and “acting as if he's the personal attorney and publicist for the President of the United States.”

“The AG is supposed to serve as the country’s top law enforcement officer – someone who stands up for the rule of law & defends the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic,” Warren tweeted. “William Barr is standing up for only one person: the President of the United States.”

Another 2020 Democratic candidate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also went after Barr, while urging Mueller to appear before Congress to testify on his report.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Attorney General Barr has made it clear he is not impartial when it comes to this investigation,” Klobuchar tweeted. “Now that we have the report we should hear from Robert Mueller himself in public hearings. Our democracy demands it.”

And then there is Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., whose main gripe so far was that the version of the Mueller report on the Justice Department website was unsearchable.

“The Trump administration posted an unsearchable pdf of the Mueller report so it would be harder for you to read,” Booker tweeted, before linking to a searchable version that his staff put together.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City
FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

April 26, 2019

By Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co’s board has retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart to hunt for a new chief executive, ideally a woman who can tackle its regulatory and public perception issues, two people familiar with the matter said.

Wells Fargo’s ambition to become the only major U.S. bank with a female CEO underscores the need to restore its image with a wide range of constituents, including customers, shareholders, regulators and politicians, after it became mired in a scandal in 2016 for opening potentially millions of unauthorized accounts.

Former CEO Tim Sloan left abruptly last month, becoming the second CEO to leave the bank in the scandal’s fallout.

The board plans to approach Citigroup Inc’s Latin America chief Jane Fraser, one of the sources said. During Fraser’s 15-year tenure at Citigroup, she has gained experience running consumer and commercial businesses as well as its private bank.

Fraser could not be immediately reached for comment.

The board also discussed approaching JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Marianne Lake, but after the bank named her to run JPMorgan’s consumer lending business last week, that option became less viable, the source added. The board wants someone who can convince regulators, employees, investors and customers that the bank has fixed problems underpinning the sales scandal, the sources said.

The bank’s board feels that choosing a woman might please lawmakers in Washington who have been critical not only of Wells Fargo’s misbehavior, but of the broader banking industry for a lack of diversity and gender equality, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It also believes that such a move could bolster Wells Fargo’s image with the households of customers where women play a leading role in managing finances, one of the sources added.

The new CEO will also have to resolve litigation and regulatory matters. There are 14 outstanding consent orders with government entities, as well as probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

To be sure, Spencer Stuart will approach and consider several male candidates for the CEO job as well, one of the sources said. The top priority is to find an external candidate who can navigate the bank’s regulatory issues, the source added.

Finding an outsider who meets all those qualifications and wants the job will be difficult, the sources said. There are few people with the necessary experience, even fewer of those who are women, and it is not clear if any of the obvious candidates would be open to taking the role.

The sources asked not to be identified because Wells Fargo’s board deliberations are confidential.

Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and Spencer Stuart declined to comment.

Wells Fargo’s board has not made any public statements about its requirements for a new CEO, beyond Chair Betsy Duke saying the job should attract the “top talent in banking.”

The board wants to complete the search within the next three to six months, one of the sources said.

STALLED SHARES

After Sloan’s ouster, Wells Fargo’s board appointed Allen Parker, who had been general counsel, as interim CEO. The board has said it is looking for an external candidate as a permanent replacement. It is not clear whether Parker will stay at the bank.

Others whose names have been mentioned by analysts, recruiters and industry sources as perspective CEO candidates include Alphabet Inc finance chief Ruth Porat and Bank of America Corp’s chief technology officer Cathy Bessant.

Wells Fargo shares have stalled since Sloan’s departure on March 29th, while the KBW Bank index has rallied more than 7 percent.

Wells Fargo would be “the best stock on earth to buy” if it had the right CEO, said Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Indiana.

Donaldson held about 50,000 Wells Fargo shares, but sold the stake last year as problems mounted. The CEO change could convince him to re-invest, depending on who it is, he told Reuters.

“It would be very smart for them to get a woman,” he said.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra, Greg Roumeliotis and Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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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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