Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Cheney challenges Pence face-to-face over Trump foreign policy

Former Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly challenged Vice President Pence over President Trump’s foreign policy on Saturday, with Cheney even comparing Trump's approach to that of former President Barack Obama.

The Washington Post reports that the two clashed at a closed-door retreat hosted by the American Enterprise Institute in Georgia, on subjects including the withdrawal of troops from Syria and the tougher stance taken by the Trump administration toward NATO.

IN MUNICH, PENCE DOUBLES DOWN ON CRITICISM OF EUROPE OVER IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL, URGES REMOVAL OF MADURO

Cheney suggested that the 2018 decision to withdraw from Syria was made during “the middle of a phone call” and that “we’re getting into a situation when our friends and allies around the world that we depend upon are going to lack confidence in us.”

“I worry that the bottom line of that kind of an approach is we have an administration that looks a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan,” he said.

According to the Post, Pence shrugged off Cheney’s concerns and praised Trump as a “candid and transformational leader.” A Pence spokesman confirmed to the Post that the discussion took place but didn’t comment.

PENCE, AT CPAC, SLAMS DEMS OVER GREEN NEW DEAL: 'THAT SYSTEM IS SOCIALISM'

Cheney reportedly said Trump’s stance toward NATO, where he has urged countries to stump up more for their defense budgets, “feeds this notion on the part of our allies overseas, especially in NATO, that we’re not long for that continued relationship, that we’re looking eagerly to find ways where somebody else will pick up the tab.”

“Well, who wrote these softball questions?” Pence joked at one point, in reference to the grilling he was getting.

The clash is an example of the ongoing tension in the Republican Party between the more hawkish Bush-era wing that pushed for U.S. intervention in Iraq in 2003, and Trump’s homefront-focused policies that look to withdraw from conflicts abroad so as to deal with domestic national security issues.

Cheney also expressed concern about Trump’s decision to cancel military exercises with South Korea, and reports he wanted the Germans, Japanese and South Koreans to pay U.S. deployment costs, according to The Post.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Pence reportedly pushed back a number of times, praising Trump and accusing critics of conflating “the demand that our allies live up to their word and their commitments and an erosion in our commitment to the post-World War II order.”

“But we think it’s possible to demand that your allies do more to provide for the common defense of all of our nations and, at the same time, reaffirm our strong commitment -- whether it be to the trans­atlantic alliance or to our allies across the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Mrs Watanabe joins activist investors to shake up Japan Inc

FILE PHOTO: An employees of a foreign exchange trading company work next to monitors displaying Japanese yen's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and broadcasting second North Korea-U.S. summit in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: An employees of a foreign exchange trading company works next to monitors displaying Japanese yen's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and broadcasting a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their second North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, in Tokyo, Japan February 28, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

April 2, 2019

By Tomo Uetake

TOKYO (Reuters) – Foreign activist investors who have long complained about Japanese companies’ cash-hoarding and stingy payouts to shareholders may have found an unusual ally — Japanese retail investors.

Market activism has historically been low-key in Japan but a drive by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to get investors to be more assertive in their demands for shareholder value has slowly changed this.

That push may pick up momentum in May when representatives from some activist funds, both foreign and domestic, meet hundreds of Japanese retail investors in Tokyo at an event organized by an online broker, a month before the peak of Corporate Japan’s annual general meeting (AGM) season.

Such a meeting would have been unheard of in the past, market players say, in a country where offshore activists were seen as “foreign vultures” seeking to pillage precious corporate savings.

“There have always been skeptical views that ‘hostile’ activism can’t be as successful in Japan as it is in the United States,” said Hiroki Tsujimura, chief investment officer (CIO) at Nikko Asset Management. “However, given the rapidly changing environment, we have started to see successful activists’ campaigns recently.”

The country’s retail investors hold about one sixth of domestic shares and are colloquially known as Mrs Watanabe, a reference to the archetypical Japanese housewife and her household investments.

Japan Inc has managed to weather pressure from shareholder activism thanks to still large institutional cross-share holdings. A joint front between foreign activists and domestic retail investors, however, could increase pressure on management.

Already, there are signs of change: the number of companies that had proposals from shareholders at AGMs increased to more than 50 by 2017 from below 30 in 2011, according to Daiwa Institute of Research (DIR).

Those proposals include calls for higher dividend payouts, selling non-core assets, and changing the structures of executive boards.

While such proposals are usually voted down, support for them has increased in recent years, putting pressure on company management, and in some cases, prompting companies to adopt some of the suggestions.

In a recent example, investors in housing products maker Lixil Group last month called for the ouster of top management, citing concerns about corporate governance.

Foreign funds hope the May 19 meeting, hosted by securities broker Monex Group, will help promote the needs of retail investors, who collectively own 1,830 trillion yen ($16.5 trillion) of assets, including 96 trillion yen in listed Japanese stocks.

“The best scenario is that retail shareholders increasingly vote for good shareholder proposals that add value to companies, and increase corporate values across the board,” said Seth Fischer, founder and CIO of Hong Kong-based Oasis Management, who plans to take part in the meeting.

Fischer sees the meeting as a good opportunity to discuss ideas with retail investors.

Zuhair Khan, head of Japan research at Jefferies, thinks activism can help boost the value of Japanese shares, which currently trade at just 1.1-1.2 times their book value.

He expects even modest success in corporate reforms could boost shares to 2-times their book value.

“The upside to the Japanese stock market of improved governance is huge,” Khan said.

Monex Group, the organizer of the meeting, said the response from international activist funds has so far been promising.

Oki Matsumoto, founder and chairman of Monex, said increased co-operation could be a win-win for both retail investors and institutional activists.

“I hope the meeting will have some positive impact on voting at AGMs this year,” Matsumoto said.

(Reporting by Tomo Uetake; Editing by Hideyuki Sano and Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

0 0

Biogen announces $5 billion buyback days after shelving Alzheimer’s trials

FILE PHOTO: A sign marks a Biogen facility in Cambridge
FILE PHOTO: A sign marks a Biogen facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

March 25, 2019

(Reuters) – Biogen Inc said on Monday it would buy back shares worth $5 billion, days after its stock slumped on the drugmaker’s announcement to end two Alzheimer’s disease trials.

Biogen had lost more than $18 billion of its value last week after the company and partner Eisai Co Ltd ended two late-stage trials of their experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment, aducanumab.

Biogen shares, which lost 32.4 percent of their value since the company’s announcement on Thursday to scrap the trials, were up 1.5 percent before the opening bell on Monday.

The share buyback is in addition to the approximately $1.7 billion remaining under the stock repurchase program authorized by its board in August 2018, the company said in a regulatory filing https://bit.ly/2Tt6APq.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: OANN

0 0

Differences between Cardinal Pell's prosecution and defense

The lawyers representing Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse, and those prosecuting the case painted very different pictures of the events that led to his conviction.

Pell was found guilty in December of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the sacristy of a cathedral and weeks later of indecently assaulting one of the choirboys in a cathedral corridor. Reporting on the case in Melbourne, Australia on had been forbidden by the Victoria state County Court until Tuesday.

The prosecution said Pell had opportunity to commit the crimes. The defense said it was impossible for the crimes to have gone unnoticed in the busy cathedral moments after masses.

The following are key points of difference between the prosecution and defense cases:

(asterisk)Sacristy Episode

The defense said the allegation in which Pell caught two choirboys in a change room known as a priests' sacristy at the rear of the cathedral and sexually abused them would have taken at least six minutes and could not have happened undetected.

The defense said that the sacristy was a "hive of activity" after mass, where an altar server testified that 30 seconds did not pass without a priest, altar server or church official being inside the room returning chalices and the missal from the altar and helping the archbishop disrobe or disrobing themselves.

The defense also said Pell would have been standing on the front steps of the cathedral chatting to worshippers during the first two Sunday Solemn Masses he said as archbishop at the cathedral in the moments after services when the complainant testified he was molested. Records show that the sacristy episode could only have happened on Dec. 15 or 22, 1996.

The defense said church protocols dating back to the 15th century require that a bishop is never unattended while robed and Pell had been dressed in full archbishop's regalia except for the crosier (shepherd's crook) and the miter (pointed hat) when the offending occurred.

Cathedral Master of Ceremonies Monsignor Charles Portelli testified that he recalled accompanying Pell and helping the archbishop robe and disrobe during Pell's first two Sunday masses at the cathedral.

The prosecution said Portelli smoked 20 cigarettes a day at the time and suggested he might have left Pell at the sacristy door while going outside to smoke. But Portelli denied leaving Pell for a cigarette and the prosecution told the jury they should disregard the smoking-break theory as speculation.

The prosecution argued that there was an opportunity for the offending to take place, with altar servers allowing worshippers a few minutes of "the privacy of prayer" after mass before moving in to clear the altar space of sacred items and returning them to the sacristy.

The prosecution also said Pell did not always spend time conversing with parishioners on the cathedral steps after mass.

(asterisk)Archbishop's Garments

The defense argued that Pell could not have parted his garments to expose his penis as the complainant had alleged to police, with defense lawyer Robert Richter calling such a scenario "nonsense" and "laughable." The defense accused the complainant of altering his evidence in later testimony after discovering that the garments did not open along the middle.

The jury was given the cumbersome garments to examine in the jury room during their deliberations.

The prosecution argued that the full length robe known as an alb was "not like a straight jacket," and there was "little difference" between the complainant's police statements and his court testimony.

(asterisk)Corridor Episode

The defense said Pell could not have shoved a choirboy against a corridor wall and painfully squeezed his genitals following a mass on Feb. 23, 1997 without being noticed, even if they were partially obscured by a pillar.

"Whether or not he's hiding behind a pillar doesn't matter because this gentleman, George Pell, ... all six foot four (193 centimeters) of him, wouldn't be hiding behind any pillar anyway. He would be seen by whoever was in the corridor to be violently pushing someone against the wall and reaching for their nether parts. And so we say that is just nonsense," Richter said.

The prosecution said the indecent assault was brief, Pell would have had reason to be heading to his sacristy via that corridor and might not have lingered out the front of the cathedral chatting with the congregation that day because he had to say another mass that afternoon at a church in the Melbourne suburb of Maidstone.

(asterisk)The complainant's credibility

The defense said no other witness corroborated the 34-year-old complainant's allegations and the other alleged victim had told his parents before he died of an accidental drug overdose in 2014 that he had never been molested while he was a chorister. The defense says the complainant's evidence was full of "improbabilities and impossibilities."

"His account is ultimately based on some kind of fantasy, or a fiction, or an invention. I would like to think that it's not an outright altogether invention, that it was based in some way on some fantasy that has morphed over the years into him believing that he'd been assaulted," Richter said.

The prosecution described the complainant's testimony as "powerful and persuasive." The evidence of other witnesses supported several aspects of his evidence, prosecutors said.

(asterisk)The choir's procession from the cathedral.

The defense argued that none of the choristers recalled seeing two choirboys break from a procession from the cathedral front door to the choir change room after mass in December 1996 because it never happened.

The complainant testified that he and his fellow victim had peeled away from a procession and returned to the cathedral through a side door before Pell caught them in the sacristy and abused them.

The prosecution said whether the boys had been able to break away from the procession was a key issue for the jury in determining Pell's guilt, along with whether Pell had stayed on the cathedral front steps chatting with the congregation after mass and whether he returned to the sacristy alone.

The defense said the pair, as sopranos, would have been toward the front of the procession with older boys and adult choristers behind them. The older choristers would have enforced a high degree of discipline.

The prosecution argued the procession did not operate with "military precision" and with 61 choristers in the procession plus altar servers and priests, it was probable that the pair could have slipped away without being noticed.

(asterisk)Altar Wine

The complainant testified that the wine Pell caught him swigging was red, while there was evidence that the cathedral used white altar wine at the time.

The defense points to Sacristan Max Potter's evidence that the wine was always locked in a sacristy safe after Sunday Solemn Mass.

The prosecution says as a 13 year-old boy, the complainant could be expected to be inexperienced in varieties of wine.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Cycling: 2020 Tour de France to get off to hilly start

Nice mayor Estrosi, and Tour de France director Prudhomme attend a news conference for the official presentation of the 2020 Grand Depart of the Tour de France cycling race in Paris
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme,Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour de France Sporting Director, and Yann Le Moenner, CEO of Amaury Sport Organisation, attend a news conference for the official presentation of the 2020 Grand Depart of the Tour de France cycling race at the Opera de Nice in Nice, France, March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

March 18, 2019

NICE, France (Reuters) – The 2020 Tour de France will get off to a hilly start with two stages around Nice, organizers said on Monday.

The opening stage will be a 170-km ride around the Azurean city but is expected to be decided in a bunch sprint finish.

It will serve as a warm-up for the 190-km trek featuring three climbs with the overall contenders expected to already be at their best.

The peloton will tackle the Col de Colmiane before the Col de Turini and the Col d’Eze.

The Col de Turini featured in this year’s edition of Paris-Nice while the Col d’Eze is a regular on the ‘Race to the Sun’.

The 2020 Tour will be held from June 27-July 19.

(Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)

Source: OANN

0 0

Prosecutors paint Avenatti as con man, he says claim ‘bogus’

Federal prosecutors painted a picture of attorney Michael Avenatti on Thursday as a scheming operator who stole millions of dollars from clients, cheated on his taxes, lied to investigators and tried to hide money from debtors in bankruptcy proceedings.

A 36-count indictment returned late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, offered the most damning and detailed account to date of Avenatti's apparent fall from grace a year after he seized the spotlight while crusading for porn actress Stormy Daniels in her legal battles against President Donald Trump.

Avenatti embezzled settlement funds and proceeds from other matters he handled from five clients and doled out small portions of what they were due to "lull" them into thinking they were getting what they were owed, prosecutors said.

"Money generated from one set of crimes was used to further other crimes," U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna told reporters. "Typically in the form of payments designed to string along victims so as to prevent Mr. Avenatti's financial house of cards from collapsing."

Avenatti denied the charges on Twitter, saying he had made powerful enemies and would plead not guilty and fight the case.

"I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me," he tweeted.

The new charges do not include a New York extortion case alleging Avenatti demanded millions to stay quiet about claims he planned to reveal about Nike paying high school players.

Avenatti, 48, was arrested March 25 in New York on the Nike charge and federal prosecutors at the time announced he also faced single counts of wire and bank fraud in Southern California, where he lives and practices law.

The 61-page Southern California indictment details charges that carry a potential prison sentence of 335 years, prosecutors said. Even if convicted of all counts, such a term is highly unlikely.

Avenatti faces 10 counts of wire fraud for stealing from a paraplegic man and four other clients he allegedly deceived by taking their money and using it to fund a lifestyle that included living in multimillion-dollar homes, flying in a private jet and sponsoring an auto racing team, authorities said.

He was also charged with 19 tax counts, including lying to an Internal Revenue Service officer, not paying personal income taxes since 2010, failing to pay taxes for his businesses, including two law firms, and pocketing payroll taxes from the Tully's Coffee chain that he owned, the indictment said.

Between September 2015 and January 2018, Global Baristas US, the company that operated Tully's, failed to pay the IRS $3.2 million in payroll taxes, including nearly $2.4 million withheld from employees, the indictment said.

When the IRS later put tax levies on coffee company bank accounts to collect more than $5 million, Avenatti had Tully's employees deposit cash receipts in a little-known account for his auto racing team, authorities said.

Avenatti was also charged with submitting phony tax returns to get more than $4 million in loans from The Peoples Bank in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 2014. The tax returns he presented to the bank were never filed to the IRS, prosecutors said.

The charges are the latest blow to a career that took off when Avenatti represented Daniels in her lawsuit to break a confidentiality agreement with Trump to stay mum about an affair they allegedly had.

Avenatti became one of Trump's leading adversaries, attacking him on cable news programs and Twitter. At one point, Avenatti even considered challenging Trump in 2020.

Back home, his business practices had come under scrutiny from the IRS and a former law partner who was owed $14 million by Avenatti and the Eagan Avenatti firm, which filed for bankruptcy.

Avenatti made false statements in bankruptcy proceedings by submitting forms that under reported income such as a $1.3 million payment his firm received, the indictment said.

The most glaring example of deception and fraud was described in the indictment as scheming Avenatti allegedly did to deprive clients of money they were due from court settlements, legal negotiations or sales of stock and actions he took to cover his tracks.

Avenatti on Thursday called the allegation "bogus nonsense" on Twitter.

Prosecutors said in one case, Avenatti funneled a $2.75 million settlement into his bank accounts and spent $2.5 million on a private jet that he co-owned. The aircraft was seized Wednesday, authorities said.

Although Avenatti was due a portion of the more than $12 million he received for the five clients, the charges said he turned over only a fraction.

"It is Lawyer 101: do not steal your client's money," Hanna said.

Avenatti allegedly drained a $4 million settlement he negotiated in 2015 on behalf of Geoffrey Johnson, who was paralyzed after trying to kill himself in the Los Angeles County jail, the indictment said. Johnson was referred to as "Client 1" in the indictment, but was named at a recent court hearing involving the money Avenatti was ordered to pay his former partner.

Until last month, Avenatti had only provided $124,000 to Johnson, the indictment said.

Two years after the settlement was reached, Avenatti allegedly helped Johnson find a real estate agent to buy a house. But when Johnson was in escrow to purchase the property, Avenatti falsely said he had not received the settlement funds, the indictment said.

In November, when the Social Security Administration requested information to determine if Johnson should continue to receive disability benefits, Avenatti said he would respond, but didn't because he knew it could lead to the discovery of his embezzlement, the indictment said. The failure to respond led to Johnson's disability benefits being cut off in February.

After Avenatti was questioned about the alleged embezzlement during a judgment-debtor examination in federal court on March 22, the indictment said he fabricated a defense for himself.

Avenatti had Johnson sign a document afterward saying he was satisfied with his representation, which the lawyer told him was necessary to get the settlement that had in fact been paid four years earlier, the indictment said.

Avenatti's tweet Thursday included a "client testimonial" bearing a signature purportedly from Johnson that said Avenatti is "an exceptional, honest and ethical attorney and I feel fortunate to have had him represent me."

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Dem women shrug off Biden controversy in poll

Recent allegations of former Vice President Joe Biden’s inappropriate touching of women dominated political headlines for most of last week, but a new poll indicates voters in one of the country's largest states don't consider it a serious issue.

A Quinnipiac University public opinion survey of California voters also suggests that Biden – who’s likely to launch a White House bid in the coming weeks – is the leader of the pack in the Golden State among the large field of contenders vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Two-thirds of voters questioned in the live operator survey – including 67 percent of women, 71 percent of Democrats, and even 55 percent of Republicans - said the controversy was not a serious issue.

"'Let Biden be Biden,' say California voters, clearly unconcerned about former Vice President Joe Biden's tactile embrace of supporters," Quinnipiac Polling assistant director Tim Malloy said. "But there is one noticeable generational split. The youngest of voters are far more inclined to say, 'hands off.'"

Biden’s well publicized and decades long affectionate brand of physical politics was thrust into the spotlight nearly two weeks ago, thanks to allegations from 2014 Nevada Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Lucy Flores. She said in an essay published in New York Magazine that Biden made her feel "uneasy, gross, and confused" at a campaign rally when she said he kissed her on the back of the head. Her claims quickly went viral and became a top cable news story for a  week.

In the ensuing days, six other women came forward to recount similar physical encounters with Biden that they said made them feel uneasy.

Those accounts were countered by dozens of testimonials from women – ranging from former Biden staffers to lawmakers – who said they had always viewed the former vice president as supportive.

Speaking with reporters last Friday, the former vice president stressed, “I’m sorry I didn’t understand more. I’m not sorry for any of my intentions. I’m not sorry for anything I’ve ever done. I’ve never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman.”

And Biden explained that "it is incumbent on me and everybody else to make sure that if you embrace someone, if you touch someone, it’s with their consent, regardless of your intentions."

"It’s my responsibility to do that," he added.

JULIAN CASTRO RIPS BIDEN'S MISCONDUCT JOKES

According to the poll, 26 percent of likely Democratic presidential primary voters in California say they would support Biden as their party’s nominee, with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in second place at 18 percent. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the state’s former attorney general, was a percentage point behind Sanders, at 17 percent.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg stood at seven percent, with Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former San Antonio mayor and former Health and Human Services secretary Julian Castro each at two percent. Everyone else in the large field of 2020 contenders registered at one percent or less.

Thirty-five percent of Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents said Biden had the best chance of beating Republican President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election, and 31 percent said Biden would be the best leader.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

California is playing a more influential role in the 2020 nominating process, thanks to a move by the state to push it’s primary up to early March. California will be the largest of the 12 states scheduled to vote on March 3, 2020, directly after the early voting primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted April 3 - 8, with 1,005 California voters question. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, with 5.9 percentage plus or minus margin of error for questions of likely Democratic primary voters.

Source: Fox News Politics

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist