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Russia lashes out at West for refusing take back IS fighters

A top Russian diplomat has lashed out at Western countries for refusing to take back foreign-born militants who have been fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing on Friday accused Western nations of trying to "get rid" of their own citizens by refusing to repatriate their nationals who were fighting alongside the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

The issue of foreign-born IS fighters has become acute as the once sprawling territory controlled by the extremists has shrunk to a small enclave and both Syria and Iraq face a post-war future.

Zakharova also said that the detention facilities where foreign-born fighters are held should be handed over to the Syrian government.

Source: Fox News World

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Where’s the cat WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange kept at Ecuadorian embassy in London?

Don’t worry, the cat is feline fine.

Julian Assange was carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday after the South American nation revoked the WikiLeaks founder’s political asylum, ending his nearly seven-year stay there. Ecuador accused Assange of “repeatedly violating international conventions and protocol.”

As Assange was whisked away by British police, questions emerged about the 47-year-old’s feline, known as the “Embassy Cat,” who had been living with Assange since at least May 2016. Assange even created Twitter and Instagram profiles -- both called “Embassy Cat” -- where he had posted updates.

Julian Assange's cat sits behind a window at Ecuador's embassy in London, Britain in February 2018.

Julian Assange's cat sits behind a window at Ecuador's embassy in London, Britain in February 2018. (Reuters)

Turns out, Assange let his beloved pet go in November so he wouldn’t be trapped at the embassy anymore, Italian newspaper La Repubblica previously reported. The “isolation became unbearable” for the embassy cat and Assange allowing the feline to run free will give it “a healthier life.”

It's unclear where the cat is now.

WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE ARRESTED AFTER ECUADOR WITHDRAWS ASYLUM

Ecuador threatened in October to take the cat away if Assange didn’t follow a set of house rules that included cleaning the bathroom and other spaces he and his guests used in the embassy.

“Mr. Julian Assange will be responsible for the well-being, food, cleanliness and proper care of his pet. If due attention is not paid to the pet, the Head of Mission will request Mr. Assange to deliver the pet to another person or an animal shelter outside the Diplomatic Mission,” the memo to Assange stated.

The embassy cat’s social media bio still states, “I live in the Ecuadorian Embassy with Julian Assange : Interested in counter-purrveillance.”

PAMELA ANDERSON BLASTS BRITAIN, US AFTER JULIAN ASSANGE ARREST: 'HOW COULD YOU U.K.?'

Assange was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for aiding Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army analyst, in breaking a password stored on a U.S. Defense Department computer connected to a U.S. government computer network for classified documents and communications, the Justice Department said.

Julian Assange was arrested after Ecuador withdrew his asylum for “repeatedly violating international conventions and protocol.”

Julian Assange was arrested after Ecuador withdrew his asylum for “repeatedly violating international conventions and protocol.” (Getty Images)

“During the conspiracy, Manning and Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange,” the Justice Department said. “The discussions also reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information.  During an exchange, Manning told Assange that ‘after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.’ To which Assange replied, ‘curious eyes never run dry in my experience.’"

Assange faces a maximum of five years in prison if he’s convicted of the charge.

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Florida dog found with mouth taped shut adopted by sheriff’s office, “deputized”

A dog found wandering Southwest Florida with its snout taped shut last month has been given a second chance after the sheriff’s office that rescued the abused canine adopted—and “deputized”—the pup.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said they “deputized” the male Florida cur, now named Chance, whom they rescued after residents reported the canine was roaming through backyards in Lehigh Acres, located about 16 miles east of Fort Myers, with red electrical tape wound around its muzzle.

FLORIDA DOG FOUND BLEEDING, MOUTH TAPED SHUT, POLICE SEARCHING FOR OWNER

“Having been deputized last Thursday, eager to get his paws dirty, Deputy Chance sprang into action this weekend,” the sheriff’s office wrote Tuesday on Facebook.

The male Florida cur was dehydrated, appeared malnourished and was bleeding from wounds on its left arm and chest.

The male Florida cur was dehydrated, appeared malnourished and was bleeding from wounds on its left arm and chest. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)

The sheriff’s office said Chance was recovering nicely and was “bursting with energy” about one week after finding the dog dehydrated, malnourished and bleeding from wounds on its left arm and chest.

Once fully recovered, Chance will serve the department as a “Pets on Patrol Spokes-Dog” and will even get his own “office” near the desk of Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who adopted him, FOX13 Tampa reported.

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According to the sheriff’s office, when Deputy Chance was asked to describe his first day on duty, the pup simply stated, “ruff.”

Police are still looking for the individual who abused Chance.

Source: Fox News National

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Commodity prices, investment poised to extend upswing

The sun rises behind a corn tassel in a field in Minooka
FILE PHOTO: The sun rises behind a corn tassel in a field in Minooka, Illinois, September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young

March 29, 2019

By Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) – A rebound in commodities prices and investment is poised to extend in coming months as the sector gets its traditional boost during the final stages of the global economic cycle along with other drivers.

While some investors worry about a possible recession, commodities are due to benefit from an expected U.S.-China trade deal, tightening oil supply and potential short-covering in beaten-down U.S. grain futures.

The 19-commodity Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB Index, which has rebounded 10 percent from an 18-month low touched at the end of last year, should also get further support from easier monetary policy that has lifted all financial markets, analysts and traders said.

Graphic: Commodity Prices Clawing Higher From December Lows – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HN3TXg

Commodities along with other financial markets have been buoyed after the U.S. Federal Reserve this month confirmed its three-year drive to tighten monetary policy was at an end.

The dovish change from the Fed and growing stimulus in top commodities consumer China would extend the current positive economic cycle and support commodity prices, JPMorgan said in a note.

“Late cycles are typically marked by outperformance of commodities,” JPMorgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said.

The rise in commodities so far has been partly fueled by hopes for an agreement to end a trade war between Washington and Beijing, helping to spur $2.1 billion of flows so far this year into commodity index funds and exchange-traded funds, data compiled by Citi showed.

Commodity assets under management have climbed to $407 billion, breaching $400 billion for the first time since October, Citi said, based on data through March 5.

Although the energy complex has recovered strongly this year, positioning in crude oil is not overstretched, analysts said.

According to the latest exchange data, hedge funds have bought another 65 million barrels of petroleum futures and options, the biggest one-week increase since the end of August 2018 and a bullish signal.

That was because investors expect prices to be bolstered by supply-side disruptions while OPEC and its allies comply with their plans to cut 1.2 million barrels per day of supply this year.

The funds’ net long position in Brent crude has more than doubled from a low hit in early December, but is still less than half of the record high touched in April last year.

“There’s plenty of room on the upside,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen.

Graphic: Hedge Funds’ Crude Oil Positions Rebound – https://tmsnrt.rs/2UVGINJ

As part of a proposed trade deal, Beijing has offered to make big-ticket purchases from the United States to help reduce a record trade gap. U.S. President Donald Trump’s team has said those purchases would be worth more than a trillion dollars over about six years.

Agricultural exports to China could grow to $30 billion or more a year, Citi analyst Aakash Doshi said in a note. This compares to nearly $20 billion in 2017.

“The CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) complex … appears poised for a rebound in 2Q/3Q on the back of a U.S.-Sino trade deal that could meaningfully boost Chinese purchases of soybeans, corn, ethanol, cotton, pork and other agricultural products,” he said.

Flooding in the U.S. Midwest makes agricultural futures vulnerable to short-covering after bearish bets hit record levels in recent weeks and this could accelerate if Chinese purchases surge, analysts said.

Graphic: U.S. Agricultural Exports to China – https://tmsnrt.rs/2UXc32t

Industrial metals are moving into their strongest seasonal period when construction activity rises in top consumer China.

“Both the fundamentals and technicals are supportive, so if we can get some concrete news that a trade deal has been successful, these things could really fly,” said Robin Bhar, head of metals research at Societe Generale.

As seasonal demand is due to climb, most metals should have market deficits this year and in 2020, according to analyst consensus forecasts compiled by Reuters polls.

Graphic: Most Industrial Metals in Deficit – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HMdwpp

(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Source: OANN

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Identity Politics Is Race Baiting Poison

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Source: InfoWars

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NY Times: Report Worse for Trump Than AG’s Summary Say Some of Mueller’s Team

Some members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team reportedly said Attorney General William Barr left key details and information out of his summary regarding the Russia report that painted a more damaging picture of President Donald Trump than what has been made public, according to a new report.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that some of the people who worked with Mueller — a team that included 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, and other people in support roles — have told associates that Barr's initial summary clearing Trump of wrongdoing was not complete enough.

The Times cited government officials and other people who are familiar with the matter.

The concerns surround Barr's initial four-page letter, which he released on March 24, that said neither Trump nor his campaign conspired with Russia to win the 2016 campaign. Mueller did not come to a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, so Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein examined Mueller's original report — which is said to contain classified information and grand jury testimony — and concluded there is not enough evidence to say Trump obstructed.

The sources who spoke with the Times said Mueller's investigators think public opinion of the Russia investigation will be largely based on Barr's brief summary, which they said did not accurately reflect Mueller's conclusions.

Barr is working to declassify and redact the Mueller report, which currently stands at 400 pages, and promised to deliver a scrubbed copy to lawmakers by the middle of April. Democrats are calling for the Department of Justice to release the full report as is, along with the evidence collected during the two-year investigation.

Barr has the authority to determine how much of the report is made public.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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PG&E in talks with BlueMountain to possibly expand board: sources

FILE PHOTO: PG&E works on power lines to repair damage caused by the Camp Fire in Paradise
FILE PHOTO: PG&E works on power lines to repair damage caused by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, U.S. November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 10, 2019

By Jessica DiNapoli, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Mike Spector

NEW YORK (Reuters) – California utility owner PG&E Corp is exploring expanding its board as it navigates bankruptcy proceedings in an effort to potentially settle an ongoing battle with shareholder BlueMountain Capital Management LLC, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The discussions between PG&E and BlueMountain representatives underscore the restructuring challenges the company faces since filing for bankruptcy in January to address potentially crushing liabilities from catastrophic wildfires.

The talks come days after PG&E named a new chief executive and unveiled plans to appoint 10 directors to a newly formed board in response to pressure from other shareholders. California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the slate as dominated by hedge-fund financiers, out-of-state executives and others lacking experience operating utilities.

The discussions are in early stages and will not necessarily lead to a deal that would again revamp PG&E’s board, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential. A PG&E representative declined to comment.

BlueMountain, a New York-based hedge fund, in March selected 13 candidates for PG&E’s board after slamming the company for seeking bankruptcy protection. BlueMountain’s slate includes an expert in resolving victim claims, a former treasurer of the state of California, a prominent California-based hedge fund manager, and people with banking and energy industry expertise.

Sources familiar with the talks have said that the company has been impressed with the skill-set the BlueMountain nominees bring in three main areas: doing business in California, safety and risk management, and utility and clean energy operations.

BlueMountain owns roughly 8 million PG&E shares, far less than the amount held by a group that includes Knighthead Capital Management, Redwood Capital Management and Abrams Capital Management. This group pushed for PG&E to hire Bill Johnson, who has been chief executive of the Tennessee Valley Authority, as its new leader.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Mike Spector in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

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A man accused of fatally beating a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son had been previously deported from the United States five times, most recently in late 2016, immigration officials said.

Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, a 33-year-old Honduran national, has used multiple aliases, including the fake name of Jose Agurcia-Avila he gave police in Memphis, Tennessee, following his arrest in the boy’s death earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told WMC-TV.

ICE officials have since filed an immigration detainer against Zuniga-Aviles, who was initially deported back to Honduras in February 2010. He was also returned to the Central American country in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE NEW YORK POST

“ICE will seek to take him into custody to reinstate his removal order following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” the statement reads. “Mr. Zuniga-Aviles has been removed from the US five prior times: his most recent removal by ICE to Honduras took place in December 2016.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH CRIMINAL HISTORY ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA WOMAN’S MURDER

Zuniga-Aviles later returned to the U.S. following his removal, a felony under federal law, immigration officials said. It’s unclear exactly when he returned, but he was living with his girlfriend and the woman’s 4-month-old son in Memphis at the time of his arrest, WREG reports.

DAD OF MAN KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BLASTS CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TRIP TO CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

The infant, Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, was pronounced dead at a hospital from blunt force trauma to the head after his mother, Mercy Lizondro-Chacon, called police on April 12 to report that the boy was having trouble breathing, according to an affidavit of complaint obtained by the Commercial Appeal.

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This article originally appeared in the New York Post. For more from the Post, click here.

Source: Fox News National

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Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont are taking aim at latest entry into the 2020 nomination race – Joe Biden.

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.

JOE BIDEN OFFCIALLY LAUNCHES LONG AWAITED 2020 BID

“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.

WARREN NOT WORRIED ABOUT POLLS: ‘IT’S EARLY.. I’M RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN ITHAT I WANT TO RUN’

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.

BIDEN LAUNCH SETS UP 2020 NOMINATION FIGHT WITH FELLOW FRONT-RUNNER SANDERS

Sanders’ campaign also jabbed at Biden.

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.

BIDEN SAYS HE ASKED OBAMA NOT TO ENDORSE HIM

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Highlighting his early public push for same-sex marriage, he said, “I’m not sure when everybody else came out and said they’re for gay marriage.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.

“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Sims

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.

The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.

And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.

Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.

German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.

For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.

Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.

At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.

“MARKET PLAY”

Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.

“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.

Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.

“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.

“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.

Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.

If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.

“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.

(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli yells to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano

April 26, 2019

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.

“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”

Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.

Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.

A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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