AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Senate has preliminarily approved a bill allowing social workers, attorneys and others with state-issued licenses to deny services because of religious beliefs — despite stiff opposition from top businesses.
The proposal by Republican state Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock protects professionals citing "sincerely held religious beliefs" should they face potential state sanctions for refusing services to some people.
It is among several proposals in Texas' Republican-controlled Legislature that corporate giants including Facebook and Google have urged state lawmakers to reject as discriminatory.
Many powerful firms teamed up in 2017 to oppose a "bathroom bill" mandating that transgender Texans use public restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates.
Tuesday's 19-12 approval means Perry's bill requires only a largely ceremonial final vote before heading to the Texas House.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., says he is all for border security, but he will vote for a resolution to block President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration on the southern border.
In an opinion piece posted Monday by The Washington Post, Tillis argued the declaration would set a precedent that could be used by future presidents to fund policy projects Congress rejects.
His decision — coming ahead of a vote by the Democrat-controlled House that is expected to pass the resolution — brings the Senate one vote closer to passage of the block.
Four GOP votes are needed in the Senate to pass the measure and sink Trump's declaration. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are both viewed as supporters of the block.
Trump has threatened to veto the resolution if it makes it to his desk.
Conservatives "should be thinking about whether they would accept the prospect of a President Bernie Sanders declaring a national emergency to implement parts of the radical Green New Deal; a President Elizabeth Warren declaring a national emergency to shut down banks and take over the nation's financial institutions; or a President Cory Booker declaring a national emergency to restrict Second Amendment rights," Tillis wrote.
"As a U.S. senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress. As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms," Tillis wrote.
A woman leaves flowers one day after a mass, school shooting outside the Raul Brasil state school in Suzano, Brazil, Thursday, March 14, 2019. Classmates, friends and families began saying goodbye on Thursday, with thousands attending a wake in the Sao Paulo suburb while authorities worked to understand what drove two former students to attack the Raul Brasil State School with a gun, crossbows and small axes. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
SAO PAULO – Brazilian authorities say they've arrested a teenager allegedly involved in planning a school shooting in which eight people and two attackers died.
Sao Paulo's Court of Justice said Tuesday that the teenager has been sent to a jail for juvenile criminals for at least 45 days.
The teenager had been questioned last week and was initially allowed to return home. He hasn't been identified.
Police say the teenager is a former student of the Raul Brasil public school in the city of Suzano, on the outskirts of Brazil's largest city.
Attackers Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and Luiz Henrique de Castro killed themselves after killing seven people at the school and a used-car dealer elsewhere on March 13.
FILE PHOTO: Solar panels face the sun from balconies of an apartment building in Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang August 27, 2014. REUTERS/Staff/File Photo
April 17, 2019
By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – Years after they first appeared in North Korea, increasingly cheap and available solar panels are giving a boost to consumer consumption and industry as Pyongyang tries to limit the impact of tough international sanctions.
Electricity shortages have been a perennial concern for North Korea, and leader Kim Jong Un has called for greater use of renewable energy as part of his drive for self-sufficiency as sanctions have ratcheted higher in response to the country’s nuclear and missile programs.
Now ever more households, factories and businesses are equipped with solar panels, leading to a greater variety of home electronics products available in increasingly common private markets known as jangmadang, defectors and recent visitors say.
Among the hottest selling items are water purifiers, hair straighteners and electric bicycles, mostly from China but some made in North Korea or even smuggled in from South Korea.
“A few years ago, such things as water purifiers, mixers and rice cookers were only seen at some restaurants and rich households, but they are becoming commonplace, especially in cities,” said Kang Mi-jin, an economic expert who regularly speaks with North Koreans for Daily NK, a website run by defectors.
“Some would look just like an ordinary middle-class South Korean home, with a wall-hanging LED TV, multiple laptops and electric mini cars for babies.”
CONSUMER CULTURE
North Koreans started using solar panels several years ago, mostly to charge mobile phones and light their homes as a backup to the unstable, mostly hydro and coal-fired national grid.
As well as markets brimming with electronics products, there are more teahouses, computer games rooms, karaoke bars and billiard halls open longer after switching to solar from diesel generators, according to recent visitors and defectors.
Such entertainment venues are becoming more widespread, not only in cities, but also the countryside, where grid power is even less reliable.
“At night, often it is only those places that have solar panels and batteries that have lights on,” a source with knowledge of the issue told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of North Korea affairs.
Use of the panels spread after they were used at a now-closed inter-Korean factory park in the North’s border city of Kaesong that opened in 2004.
“Now many apartment balconies have them out in the sun during the day collecting energy so they are readily visible, the source said.
Private use of solar panels has gone from being officially banned, to tolerated, to encouraged by the ruling Workers’ Party, which keeps a tight rein on the economy and the populace.
Early this month, the official Rodong Sinmun ran an article about a team of laborers at a cooperative farm who earned solar panels and LED TVs as a reward from the Party for surpassing a production goal.
State television has also aired a series of reports on the growing use of solar energy over the past year, including a 17-minute documentary from October introducing locally made devices, such as high-voltage inverters and even a portable charger for electric bicycles.
Kim Yun-soung, a research fellow at the Green Energy Strategy Institute in Seoul, said the North’s push for domestic production of solar equipment was spurred by sanctions banning imports of metal products.
“Electricity was the biggest problem but we achieved such a highly advanced, cutting-edge technology ourselves from scratch, which was once monopolized by developed nations,” the film’s narrator said, referring to the inverters.
State media has listed the central bank, schools, factories, and even ferries as entirely powered by solar panels.
“A solar panel gives you ‘free’ power once it is installed,” said Kim Young Hui, a defector and an economist at the South’s state-run Korea Development Bank.
“So the nature of the panels perfectly fits Kim Jong Un’s mantra of self-reliance – or in other words, creating something out of nothing.”
‘FREE POWER’
Most of the panels sold in markets were brought in from China, and prices have dropped by up to 40 percent over the last few years amid a global glut and rising North Korean production, defectors and experts said.
In 2015, sources told Reuters a small 20-watt panel was sold at about $44. These days a 30-watt panel – a more widely used model – costs only about $15, Kang said.
Pyongyang does not provide data on its use of solar power, but Kang said about 55 percent of North Korean households are equipped with the panels. The ratio is higher in Pyongyang and other cities, as well as border regions where Chinese goods are widely available, she said.
David von Hippel, an Oregon-based senior associate at the Nautilus Institute, a U.S. think tank, said North Korea has imported a total of 29 megawatts of solar panels from China through 2017, citing Beijing’s custom data.
Experts say solar energy still account for less than 0.1 percent of the country’s generation capacity, estimated by South Korea’s statistics agency at some 7,700 megawatts as of 2017.
Pyongyang aims to boost its renewable capacity to 5,000 megawatts by 2044, with a focus on wind power, according to state media.
Panels play a key role in soothing public discontent toward the Kim regime over chronic power shortages and sanctions, defectors and observers say.
“Kim Jong Un appears to be committed to economic reform,” von Hippel said. “So the increased access to energy in some ways relieves the government from having to supply its citizens with energy.”
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
KINSHASA, Congo – Witnesses say at least one person is dead after protests over local elections turned violent in Congo's capital.
Members of President Felix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress took to the streets of Kinshasa after the party failed to win any senate seats from Kinshasa in the regional assembly. Police fired tear gas to put down demonstrations Friday night.
The party was Congo's longtime opposition under former President Joseph Kabila. The party got a boost when its candidate Felix Tshisekedi won the December presidential election.
While voters elect regional deputies, senators are then chosen by the deputies. Militant members of the party are now accused of attacking homes and vehicles belonging to some of the regional deputies who chose the senators.
The number of anti-religious attacks against Jews and Christians in France continues to rise, while attacks against Muslims are at their lowest for 9 years.
According to a group that studies hate crime attacks against Christians, February was the worst month for attacks on Christian churches since they began collecting data.
Other public Christian symbols have also been targeted, including summit crosses on mountaintops and public statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, which have been decapitated or destroyed.
A deliberate attack on the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris which caused nearly a million euros in damage was reported by the mainstream media as a ‘brief fire’ in which no one was hurt.
The number of anti-Semitic attacks (541) rose 74 per cent from 2017-2018 while anti-Muslim attacks numbered just 100, the lowest since 2010.
Meanwhile in the same period, there were 1063 anti-Christian attacks, a slight increase on the previous year.
According to Ellen Fantini, anti-Christian attacks are being minimized despite representing the largest share of hate crimes.
According to reports, the number of Jews fleeing France for their safety has dramatically increased since 2000.
In one Paris suburb alone – Seine-Saint-Denis – 40 per cent of the population is Muslim while 400,000 illegal immigrants also live there.
A view of the Jakarta skyline looking north, Jakarta, Indonesia August 2, 2016. Picture taken August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside
February 19, 2019
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia has submitted a bid to host the 2032 Olympics, the state news agency said on Tuesday, after winning praise for hosting last year’s Asian Games, though it could face competition from India and a joint bid by North and South Korea.
Indonesia’s ambassador to Switzerland submitted a letter from President Joko Widodo to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week.
“The IOC has acknowledged Indonesia’s capabilities during the Asian Games and Asian Paragames of 2018,” the Antara news agency quoted Ambassador Muliaman D. Hadad as saying.
“We feel that is a strong foundation.”
A senior official in the coordinating ministry for human development and culture, Gunawan, who goes by one name, confirmed the bid.
If Southeast Asia’s most populous nation wins the opportunity to host the summer Olympics, it would become the fourth Asian country to do so, after Japan, China and South Korea. The IOC will pick the 2032 host by the year 2025.
Tokyo is to host the next Summer Olympics in 2020, with Paris holding the 2024 Games and Los Angeles confirmed to host the event four years later.
(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
April 26, 2019
MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.
In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.
He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”
Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.
Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.
The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.
Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.
The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.
“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.
The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
FILE PHOTO: Pallbearers carry the coffin of journalist Lyra McKee at her funeral at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
April 26, 2019
BELFAST (Reuters) – Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity.
McKee’s killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people.
The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the peace accord, has said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead in the Creggan area of the city on Thursday when opening fire on police during a riot McKee was watching.
The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
Police released footage on Friday of immediately before and after the shooting showing three men who were involved in the rioting and identified one as the gunman who they believe is in his late teens.
“I believe that the information that can help us to bring those responsible for her murder to justice lies within the community. I need the public to tell me who he is,” Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters.
Murphy said those involved in the disorder on the night were teenagers or in their early 20s, and that about 100 people were on the ground watching the trouble as it unfolded.
He added that police believed the gun used in the attack was of a similar caliber to those used before in paramilitary type attacks in Creggan.
“I recognize that people living in Creagan may find it’s difficult to come forward to speak to police. Today, I want to provide a personal reassurance that we are able to deal with those issues sensitively,” Murphy said, echoing similar appeals in recent days.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by Padraic Halpin and Toby Chopra)
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
April 26, 2019
By Sruthi Shankar and Amy Caren Daniel
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were flat on Friday, as investors paused ahead of GDP data, which is expected to show the world’s largest economy maintained a moderate pace of growth in the first quarter.
Gross domestic product probably increased at a 2% annualized rate in the quarter as a burst in exports, strong inventory stockpiling and government investment in public construction projects offset a slowdown in consumer and business spending, according to a Reuters survey of economists.
The Commerce Department report will be published at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The GDP data comes as investors look for fresh catalysts to push the markets higher. The S&P 500 index is about 0.5% below its record high hit in late September, after surging nearly 17% this year.
First-quarter earnings have been largely upbeat, with nearly 78% of the 178 companies that have reported so far surpassing earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Wall Street now expects S&P 500 earnings to be in line with the year-ago quarter, a sharp improvement from the 2.3% fall expected at the start of April.
Amazon.com Inc rose 0.9% in premarket trading after the e-commerce giant reported quarterly profit that doubled and beat estimates on soaring demand for its cloud and ad services.
Ford Motor Co shares surged 8.5% after the automaker posted better-than-expected first-quarter earnings largely due to strong pickup truck sales in its core U.S. market.
Mattel Inc jumped 8% after the toymaker beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly revenue, as a more diverse range of Barbie dolls powered sales in the United States.
At 6:52 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 35 points, or 0.13%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.5 points, or 0.05% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.14%.
Among decliners, Intel Corp slumped 7.7% after it cut its full-year revenue forecast and missed quarterly sales estimate for its key data center business.
Rival Advanced Micro Devices declined 0.8%.
Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp are expected to report results later in the day.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
General view of a destroyed building during World War II is pictured in Warsaw, Poland April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
April 26, 2019
By Joanna Plucinska
WARSAW (Reuters) – Germany could owe Poland more than $850 billion in reparations for damages it incurred during World War Two and the brutal Nazi occupation, a senior ruling party lawmaker said.
Some six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war and Warsaw was razed to the ground following a 1944 uprising in which about 200,000 civilians died.
Germany, one of Poland’s biggest trade partners and a fellow member of the European Union and NATO, says all financial claims linked to World War Two have been settled.
The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) has revived calls for compensation since it took power in 2015 and has made the promotion of Poland’s wartime victimhood a central plank of its appeal to nationalism.
PiS has yet to make an official demand for reparations but its combative stance towards Germany has strained relations.
“Poland lost not only millions of its citizens but it was also destroyed in an unusually brutal way,” Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who heads the Polish parliamentary committee on reparations, told Reuters in an interview.
“Many (victims) are still alive and feel deeply wronged.”
His comments come a month before European Parliament elections in which populist and nationalist parties are expected to do well. Poland will also hold national elections later this year, with PiS still well ahead of its rivals in opinion polls.
EU LARGESSE
Mularczyk said the reparations figure could amount to more than 10 times the estimated 100 billion euros ($111 billion) that Poland has received so far in European Union funds since it joined the bloc in 2004.
Germany is the biggest net donor to the EU budget and some Germans regard its contributions as generous compensation to recipient countries like Poland which suffered under Nazi rule.
In 1953 Poland’s then-communist rulers relinquished all claims to war reparations under pressure from the Soviet Union, which wanted to free East Germany, also a Soviet satellite, from any liabilities. PiS says that agreement is invalid because Poland was unable to negotiate fair compensation.
Mularczyk said his committee hoped to complete its report on the reparations issue by Sept. 1, the 80th anniversary of Hitler’s invasion.
Accusing Berlin of playing “diplomatic games” over the issue, he said: “The matter is being swept under the rug (by Germany) … until it’ll be wiped from the memory, from people’s awareness.”
His comments come after the Greek parliament voted this month to seek billions of euros in German reparations for the Nazi occupation of their country.
(Additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Editing by Justyna Pawlak and Gareth Jones)
FILE PHOTO – Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo
April 26, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from North Korea to cover its care of the college student, who died shortly after he was returned to the United States after 17 months in a North Korean prison.
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