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Geraldo Rivera: 2020 Democrats ignore the border crisis ‘at their own peril’

Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has warned that if Democratic 2020 presidential candidates don't take the crisis at the border seriously, they'll do so at their own risk.

Speaking with "Fox & Friends" hosts on Friday morning, Rivera discussed the influx of candidates entering the race, including former Vice President Joe Biden, and gave an update on the newest developments at the border.

"If [Democrats] don't take it seriously they ignore it at their peril," Rivera said.

He went on to discuss the fact that Mexico is experiencing the same problems dealing with volumes of people at the border as the United States is. Processing facilities, as many have argued, are understaffed and underresourced, resulting in conditions that have been controversial.

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"It is very, very difficult when hundreds and hundreds become thousands and thousands ultimately become tens of it is very difficult to have an orderly system," he said.

Rivera asserted his opinion that the United States could lessen the influx of migrants coming into the country by investing in the development of Central American countries, where many are fleeing from violence and economic instability.

"I believe, as I have said before on this program, that we have to stop the source of the migrant explosion, by a comprehensive system of political and economic reform in Central America where people have the incentive to stay home," Rivera said.

"I think we have help Mexico with its infrastructure. Mexico has a moral burden, as the president made very clear, not to let unchecked herds of desperate people flow through 2,000 miles of Mexican territory to get our southern border."

Rivera also brought up President Trump's controversial comments about Mexican immigrants during his campaign in 2016.

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The Fox News correspondent said that having been so excited about Trump's campaign, the comments made him feel "deflated" as a Hispanic American.

However, as the crisis at the border has accelerated over the last few years, Rivera argued that ultimately, the president's comments weren't incorrect.

"He is now in a position where he can justly say I was right, that the that the anarchy at the border doesn't serve anybody," Rivera said. "Maybe he said it in a language I felt was a little rough and insensitive, but there is no doubt."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Horse racing: Frost makes history with Grade One win at Cheltenham

Cheltenham Festival
Horse Racing - Cheltenham Festival - Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, Britain - March 14, 2019 Bryony Frost celebrates with a trophy after winning the 2.50 Ryanair Chase Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs

March 14, 2019

(Reuters) – Bryony Frost shed tears of joy when she became the first woman to ride a top-level Grade One Cheltenham Festival winner aboard Frodon in the Ryanair Chase on Thursday.

Frost, 23, was cheered by a crowd of nearly 70,000 after 9-2 shot Frodon’s front-running victory was secured by a length and a quarter for 10-times champion trainer Paul Nicholls.

“He’s had his day. He’s Pegasus. He’s the most incredible battler,” she said of Frodon, a Cheltenham specialist, who held off 33-1 outsider Asos and Road To Respect.

“He traveled, my God he jumped, and the moment he got overtaken two out most horses would have quit. He grabbed me by the hands and said don’t you dare give up. He’s unbelievable!”

Nicholls, who has trained great horses including Kauto Star and Denman, called it “one of the best days ever”.

A beaming Frost, who had a fall last year which sidelined her for three months, punched the air after the most high-profile victory by a female rider at the showpiece meeting.

In an interview with Reuters this month Frost said: “It’s The Festival and such a rare thing to win.

“If you look at the top of the mountain, it’s a long way up but if you take it step by step then you will keep going up.

“If you only make it half way, well you’ve still done well and if you get to the top, only then you can take in the view.”

Frost was a Festival-winning rider as an amateur in the 2017 Foxhunter Chase on Nicholls-trained Pacha Du Polder.

The Devon-born jockey had chalked up her first Grade One triumph in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton in December with Black Corton.

Lizzie Kelly became the first woman to ride a Grade One winner over fences on Tea For Two in the same race in 2015.

Kelly also enjoyed success on Thursday by riding Siruh Du Lac to victory in the Grade Three handicap chase.

Frost had ridden Frodon to three previous wins at Cheltenham on top of victory in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree this season.

(Reporting by Ken Ferris; Editing by Ed Osmond)

Source: OANN

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Simulated subway attack in Romania for NATO medical exercise

NATO is holding a massive medical exercise in Romania, with more than 2,500 medical personnel involved in responding to a simulated attack on the subway system of Bucharest, the Romanian capital.

Dubbed Vigorous Warrior 2019, Friday's training session also included members of Romania's emergency services in the staged evacuation of 200 people injured in two supposed explosions in a downtown subway station.

Volunteers wore make-up depicting wounds and screamed as if in pain.

Col. Laszlo Fazekas, Director of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine, said the event is "NATO's biggest military-medical exercise so far ... and the experiences we gather during the exercise will inform NATO's medical realm for years to come."

Source: Fox News World

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In Indonesia, Facebook and Twitter are ‘buzzer’ battlegrounds as elections loom

FILE PHOTO: Indonesia's presidential candidate Joko Widodo shakes hands with his opponent Prabowo Subianto after the second debate between presidential candidates ahead of the next general election in Jakarta
FILE PHOTO: Indonesian President Joko Widodo (L) shakes hands with Prabowo Subianto on February 17, 2019 after the second debate between presidential candidates ahead of the next general election in Jakarta, Indonesia. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo

March 13, 2019

By Fanny Potkin and Agustinus Beo Da Costa

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Almost every day, “Janda”, a self-described Indonesian housewife with 2,000 Twitter followers, dispenses lifestyle tips, complains about city life, and praises how the government of President Joko Widodo has improved her life as a young mother.

But Janda the housewife does not exist. The Twitter account’s real owner is an unmarried middle-aged man who offers political social media services backing Widodo’s re-election campaign.

He is a leader of one of the many so called “buzzer” teams, named for the social media buzz such groups aim to create, that have sprung up in Indonesia ahead of the presidential election next month in the world’s third-largest democracy.

“Our battleground is social media. The content we are making for the election is reaching at least a million people per week,” said the owner of the Janda account, declining to be named because his work is legally in a gray area.

In interviews with Reuters, over a dozen buzzer team members, social media consultants and cyber experts described an array of social media operations that they said were spreading propaganda on behalf of both Widodo and his challenger, retired general Prabowo Subianto.

Widodo enjoys a comfortable lead in most opinion polls over Prabowo, as the challenger is widely known. The two contested the previous election in 2014 as well, and Widodo won narrowly.

Fake news was spread in that election as well, although social media was less far-reaching than it is now.

Under Indonesia’s broad internet defamation law, creating and spreading fake news is illegal, but holding social media accounts in false names is not, unless a real person is being impersonated. Social media companies however mostly bar holding accounts under false names.

Three buzzers directly involved in the current campaign described how they operate hundreds of personalized social media accounts each on behalf of the candidates. One denied propagating fake news, while two said they didn’t care about the accuracy of the content.

Both campaign teams deny using buzzers or spreading fake news.

Ross Tapsell, an expert on politics and media at Australia National University, said that it has become normal for candidates in Southeast Asia to hire online campaign strategists, who in turn tap an army of people to spread content on social media.

“So there is no direct link at all to the candidate,” he said.

The buzzer campaigns have far outstripped the efforts of Facebook and other social media companies to curtail creation of fake accounts and spread fake news, cyber experts say. Reuters found that while robot accounts were occasionally deleted, personalized fake accounts like “Janda” are widespread on Twitter and Facebook platforms, despite violating the companies’ rules.

ON THE EDGE

Misinformation spread by real accounts – which are often coopted by buzzer teams – is rampant on Facebook as well as on its Instagram and WhatsApp affiliates and rival service Twitter.

The companies say they are working with the government and fighting back against false content.

Representatives for Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp told Reuters they regularly delete fake accounts in Indonesia, but declined to share removal numbers.

A Twitter spokeswoman told Reuters it is working to remove networks of accounts engaged in misinformation and disinformation.

Facebook, which counts Indonesia as its third-largest market globally with an estimated 130 million accounts, says it trains election management bodies how to flag fake news to the company, which is then evaluated by moderators and deleted if it breaks its community standards.

For Indonesian Communications Minister Rudiantara, those efforts are not enough.

He said the government had asked social media companies to work with authorities to create a standard operating procedure that would allow fake news and hoaxes to be flagged and resolved. They have yet to comply.

“We expect it to get much worse as we get closer to the election,” said Harry Sufehmi, co-founder of Mafindo, an Indonesian organization fighting fake news, which listed nearly 500 social media hoaxes related to politics in 2018.

He was one of three experts whose research found that a larger proportion of the misinformation targets Widodo, with some posts depicting him as anti-Islam, a Chinese stooge or a communist.

All are inflammatory accusations in a country that has the world’s largest number of Muslims, where the communist party is banned and suspicions linger over the influence of Beijing.

A smaller portion of the misinformation campaigns target Prabowo.

BUZZING FOR MONEY

On a recent afternoon in Jakarta, one buzzer team leader scrolled through two mobile phones that had over 250 Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Youtube and Twitter accounts, each with a fake persona. He updated five of them with posts praising Widodo’s achievements or mocking Prabowo and his running mate.

He denied disseminating misinformation, focusing instead on content that gushed about his clients’s virtues. But he admitted he does look for dirt on opponents as part of a “complete package” of posts and videos that he sells for 200 million rupiah ($14,000) a month.

His staff of 15, whom he refers to as “cyber troops”, in turn have subcontractors, throughout Indonesia, many of whom are unaware of the ultimate identity of clients, he said.

He told Reuters he was hired by an adviser to Widodo’s campaign.

Ace Hasan Syadzily, a spokesman for the president’s campaign team, denied knowledge of such groups, but said “the campaign had an obligation to counter false or negative narratives” against Widodo. 

Another buzzer said he had been hired by advisers to Prabowo, while the third said he supplied services to a social media agency used by both campaigns.

Anthony Leong, the Prabowo digital team’s coordinator, denied they use buzzer teams, noting that the campaign required its “10,000 digital volunteers” to use real names and only allowed them to post “positive content”.

“WORK IS FUN”

According to the buzzers interviewed, a junior “cyber soldier” can be paid between 1 million to 50 million rupiah per project depending on the reach of his social media accounts.

“For a lot of us, the work is fun…and the salaries are decent,” said the buzzer who said he is a contractor for a social media agency used by both the Widodo and Prabowo campaigns.

He said his role was to create trending topics during key election moments, using hashtags and content provided by his agency in combination with his personal fake accounts, he said.

“For me, there’s no hoax or so-called negative content. The material just comes from the client,” he told Reuters.

Pradipa Rasidi, a researcher at the University of Indonesia, said most buzzers are young graduates who do it “because it’s hard to find a job after university and the pay is higher”.

But the legal risks are real. The buzzer activities are punishable by jail if they are judged to breach Indonesia’s internet defamation law.

All three buzzers interviewed by Reuters declined to be named or provide certain details of their operations because of those risks.

Policing by the social media companies, however, was not a concern: None had ever had an account or post deleted.

(GRAPHIC: Fake news on social media platforms in Indonesia – https://tmsnrt.rs/2NPGswI)

(Reporting by Fanny Potkin & Agustinus Beo Da Costa, additional reporting by Jessica Damiana, Ed Davies, and Cindy Silviana. Editing by Ed Davies, John Chalmers, Jonathan Weber and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: OANN

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The Latest: People ICE arrested in Texas from 15 countries

The Latest on immigration agents arrest of nearly 300 people at a Texas company (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

Immigration officials say the nearly 300 people arrested at a Texas technology repair company came to the U.S. from 15 different countries on multiple continents.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has released nearly two-thirds of the more than 280 people who did not have legal authorization to work in this country. They worked at CVE Technology Group refurbishing used cellphones.

Special Agent in Charge Katrina Berger says 110 of the people are being held in federal detention centers in Texas. The rest were given a date to appear in immigration court and released for "humanitarian reasons," such as being the sole caregiver for a child or having a serious illness.

Berger says her staff conducted the large operation without drawing agents from other jurisdictions.

A phone message seeking comment with CVE was not immediately returned.

____

3:15 p.m.

A raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that federal authorities are touting as the largest in a decade was the latest in a series of similar enforcement actions under the Trump administration over the last two years.

About 200 law enforcement officials descended Wednesday on CVE Technology Group in Allen, a city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Dallas.

Approximately 280 people who work for the technology repair company were taken away in buses. Each will face deportation proceedings.

The Texas raid was the latest in a series of high-profile busts of businesses around the country as part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Critics say the raids break up hard-working families and make it even harder for businesses to find employees in a tight labor market.

Source: Fox News National

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America’s 1st Female Astronaut Candidate, Jerrie Cobb, Dies

America's first female astronaut candidate, pilot Jerrie Cobb, who pushed for equality in space but never reached its heights, has died.

Cobb died in Florida at age 88 on March 18 following a brief illness. News of her death came Thursday from journalist Miles O'Brien, serving as a family spokesman.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all jet test pilots and all military men.

None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space, despite Cobb's testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel.

"We seek, only, a place in our nation's space future without discrimination," she told a special House subcommittee on the selection of astronauts.

Instead of making her an astronaut, NASA tapped her as a consultant to talk up the space program. She was dismissed one week after commenting: "I'm the most unconsulted consultant in any government agency."

She wrote in her 1997 autobiography "Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot," ''My country, my culture, was not ready to allow a woman to fly in space."

Cobb served for decades as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle.

"She should have gone to space, but turned her life into one of service with grace," tweeted Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and a former NASA scientist.

The Soviet Union ended up putting the first woman into space in 1963: Valentina Tereshkova. NASA didn't fly a woman in space — Sally Ride — until 1983.

Cobb and other surviving members of the Mercury 13 attended the 1995 shuttle launch of Eileen Collins, NASA's first female space pilot and later its first female space commander.

"Jerrie Cobb served as an inspiration to many of our members in her record breaking, her desire to go into space, and just to prove that women could do what men could do," said Laura Ohrenberg, headquarters manager in Oklahoma City for the Ninety-Nines Inc., an international organization of licensed women pilots.

Still hopeful, Cobb emerged in 1998 to make another pitch for space as NASA prepared to launch Mercury astronaut John Glenn — the first American to orbit the world — on shuttle Discovery at age 77.

Cobb maintained that the geriatric space study should also include an older woman.

"I would give my life to fly in space, I really would," Cobb told The Associated Press at age 67 in 1998. "It's hard for me to talk about it, but I would. I would then, and I will now."

"It just didn't work out then, and I just hope and pray it will now," she added.

It didn't. NASA never flew another elderly person in space, male or female.

Geraldyn Cobb was born on March 5, 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma, the second daughter of a military pilot and his wife. She flew her father's open cockpit Waco biplane at age 12 and got her private pilot's license four years later.

The Mercury 13's story is told in a recent Netflix documentary and a play based on Cobb's life, "They Promised Her the Moon," is currently running in San Diego.

In her autobiography, Cobb described how she danced on the wings of her plane in the Amazon moonlight, when learning via radio on July 20, 1969, that Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed on the moon.

She wrote: "Yes, I wish I were on the moon with my fellow pilots, exploring another celestial body. How I would love to see our beautiful blue planet Earth floating in the blackness of space. And see the stars and galaxies in their true brilliance, without the filter of our atmosphere. But I'm happy flying here in Amazonas, serving my brethren. 'Contenta, Senor, contenta.' (I am happy, Lord, happy.)"

Source: NewsMax America

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Timeline of R. Kelly's life and career

R&B singer R. Kelly has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse involving multiple victims dating back to 1998, marking the latest charges against a man trailed for decades by lurid rumors. A timeline of his life and career:

— Jan. 8, 1967: Robert Sylvester Kelly is born in Chicago to Joann Kelly, a school teacher. R. Kelly is third of four children and lives with his family in Chicago's housing projects. Little is known about his father.

— 1975: At age 8, Kelly begins singing in church. Around the same time, his mother teaches him how Stevie Wonder sings by putting a nickel on the record player needle to slow down the revolutions. "So the runs could go really slow and then you learn them," Kelly told ABC News in 2004.

— 1979: At age 12, Kelly said, he "experienced a lot of things at a very young age that I don't know if I was supposed to," including witnessing older youth rape one of his girlfriends.

— 1983: At age 16, his mother moves the family from the projects and enrolls her son at the prestigious Kenwood Academy, a Chicago public school. Kelly meets his mentor, Lena McLin, who chairs Kenwood's music faculty. "She was my second mother. She made me feel I could do anything," Kelly told People in 1994.

— 1984: At age 17, his music teacher places him in a local talent show to perform a version of "Ribbon in the Sky," a Stevie Wonder song. "That night it was like Spider-Man being bit. I discovered the power you get from being onstage," he told Newsweek in 1995. In the years that follow, he performs in Chicago's subway stations full time with his Casio keyboard, often pretending he's blind to avoid arrest.

— 1990: R. Kelly's R&B group MGM wins the $100,000 grand prize on the syndicated television talent show, "Big Break," hosted by Natalie Cole. Because of money disagreements, that was the last time the group performed. Music executive Wayne Williams of Jive Records discovers Kelly singing at a barbecue that summer.

— January 1992: R. Kelly & Public Announcement debut "Born Into The '90s." Released a year later, the album goes platinum.

— Fall 1992: R. Kelly tours on a 10-week nationwide run that includes billings with En Vogue, CC Penniston and High Five.

— November 1993: His album "12 Play" is released and eventually sells more than 5 million copies. Hit singles include "Sex Me" and "Bump N' Grind," which becomes the longest-running No. 1 R&B song in more than 30 years.

— Aug. 31, 1994: At age 27, R. Kelly marries 15-year-old R&B singer Aaliyah D. Haughton. The couple weds in a secret ceremony arranged by Kelly at a hotel in Chicago. The marriage is annulled months later because of Aaliyah's age.

— September 1994: Aaliyah's debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number," which Kelly produces, is certified platinum. (Aaliyah died in a plane crash seven years later, at age 22.)

— September 1995: Produces Michael Jackson's hit single "You Are Not Alone." Kelly also produces songs for Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, Toni Braxton, and Janet Jackson.

— November 1996: R. Kelly releases his third album, "R. Kelly." A month later, he incorporates Rockland Records, where he can groom new artists, and his song "I Believe I Can Fly," from the "Space Jam" soundtrack, peaks at No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart. The same year, he marries 22-year-old Andrea Lee, a dancer from his touring troupe. The couple goes on to have three children: Joanne, Jaya and Robert Jr.

— Feb. 18, 1997: Tiffany Hawkins files a complaint against Kelly alleging intentional sexual battery and sexual harassment while she was a minor, according to court records.

— January 1998: Hawkins' lawsuit is reportedly settled for $250,000, shortly after she gave a seven-hour deposition.

— February 1998: Kelly wins three Grammys for "I Believe I Can Fly," including best R&B song and best male R&B performance.

— November 1998: His album "R." hits stores. It has since sold 6 million copies.

— November 2000: His album "TP-2.com" debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

— August 2001: Tracy Sampson files a lawsuit against Kelly, alleging their sex was illegal under Illinois law because he was in "a position of authority" over her. The case is reportedly settled out of court in the spring of 2002, for an undisclosed amount.

— Feb. 8, 2002: The Chicago Sun-Times reports that it received a 26-minute, 39-second videotape allegedly showing Kelly having sex with a minor. The paper reports Chicago police began investigating allegations about Kelly and the same girl three years earlier. At the time, the girl and her parents deny she was having sex with Kelly.

The same day the news breaks, Kelly performs at the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

— June 5, 2002: Kelly is indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography, stemming from the sex tape. He pleads not guilty and is released on $750,000 bail.

— January 2003: Kelly is arrested at a Miami Dade hotel in Florida on additional child pornography charges after investigators said they found photos of him having sex with a girl. Kelly is released from jail on $12,000 bond. Charges are later dropped after judge rules police didn't have a warrant to search Kelly's house.

— Feb. 18, 2003: Kelly's album "Chocolate Factory" is released, selling 538,000 copies in its first week.

— February 2004: In Chicago, Cook County prosecutors drop seven of the 21 child pornography charges against Kelly.

— November 2004: Kelly files a $90 million lawsuit against Jay-Z and a promoter, claiming breach of contract and sabotage. Jay-Z kicked Kelly off their 40 city tour, citing Kelly's "unpredictable behavior."

— July 2005: Kelly's seventh solo album, "TP.3 Reloaded," hits No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart.

— September 2005: Andrea Kelly asked for an order of protection from her husband, accusing the singer of hitting her when she said she wanted a divorce. The couple reconciles. She says later they live in different homes.

— February 2006: R. Kelly's brother, Carey Kelly, says his brother offered him $50,000 and a record deal to say he was the person on the sex video.

— May 29, 2007: Kelly releases his album "Double Up," which peaks at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart.

— August 2007: In Chicago, Judge Vincent Gaughan rules that jurors and the public will see the sex tape in open court, rejecting arguments from defense lawyers and prosecutors that it shouldn't be shown.

— September 2007: Following a five year delay, the trial is scheduled to start — but Gaughan postpones it until 2008. He doesn't explain why.

— Dec. 21, 2007: Gaughan decides not to revoke Kelly's bond after threatening to do so when the singer failed to show up at a hearing a few days earlier. Kelly was in the middle of a 45-city tour and said his bus had been held up by police for speeding in Utah.

— May 9, 2008: Kelly's child pornography trial finally begins.

— June 13, 2008: Kelly acquitted on all counts after less than a full day of deliberations.

— Jan 8, 2009: Kelly and his former wife, Andrea, confirm had divorced after 11 years of marriage.

— July 12, 2011: Crain's Chicago Business reported that a $2.9 million foreclosure was filed by JPMorgan Chase bank against Kelly's suburban Chicago mansion. A spokesman claims the singer was not having financial trouble.

— March 21, 2012: Kelly announced he was reviving his cult classic video series, "Trapped in the Closet." The project began as five videos for his dramatic cliffhanger songs in 2007, and eventually grew to several dozen musical chapters dealing with a web of sexual deceit. Kelly teamed with IFC to premiere the old and new series, and performed the rap opera at event such as a sing-along at Bonnaroo. There was talk of a Broadway show.

— Sept. 4, 2012: After successful romantic albums "Write Me Back" and 2010's "Love Letter," Kelly vowed not to abandon the explicit music that helped make him famous. "Make no mistake about it, R. Kelly is not going anywhere. It's just that R. Kelly has such a unique talent, and I've been blessed to be able to do all type of genres of music ... I'm exploring my gift right now," Kelly told The Associated Press.

— June 15, 2012: The Chicago Sun-Times reports Kelly owes the IRS more than $4.8 million in back taxes.

— June 27, 2012: Kelly publishes his autobiography, "Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me," focusing on his creative and family life rather than his legal troubles.

— Sept. 29, 2012: Kelly was nominated for two Soul Train Awards, making him the most nominated act ever at the awards show.

— March 18, 2013: Kelly's custom-built mansion, once valued at more than $5 million, sells for $950,000 in a foreclosure auction.

— July 17, 2017: Buzzfeed reports on parents' claims that Kelly brainwashed their daughters and was keeping them in an abusive "cult." One woman says she was with Kelly willingly. Following the BuzzFeed report, activists launched the #MuteRKelly movement, calling for boycotts of his music.

— Feb. 13, 2018: Kelly evicted from two Atlanta-area homes over more than $31,000 owed in unpaid back rent.

— April 30, 2018: The Time's Up campaign, devoted to helping women in the aftermath of sexual abuse, joined the #MuteRKelly social media campaign and issued a statement urging further investigation into Kelly's behavior, which had come under closer scrutiny over the last year as women came forward to accuse him of everything from sexual coercion to physical abuse. An appearance at a concert in his native Chicago was canceled after protests. Kelly's camp responded: "We will vigorously resist this attempted public lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture."

— May 11, 2018: Spotify cuts R. Kelly's music from its playlists, citing its new policy on hate content and hateful conduct. Kelly's team says he has only promoted love in his music and that Spotify is acting on "false and unproven allegations." They note other artists on the service have been accused or convicted of crimes.

— May 21, 2018: News outlets report that Apple and Pandora are also not promoting Kelly's music, though both companies haven't officially made announcements.

— May 21, 2018: Faith Rodgers, 20, accuses R. Kelly of sexual battery, mental and verbal abuse, and knowingly inflicting her with herpes during a yearlong relationship, according to a lawsuit filed in New York.

— Aug. 15, 2018: An Atlanta-area property company sued Kelly for $203,400 over "extensive damage" to two homes he rented. An associate of Kelly's was previously accused of robbing the same homes in 2017. Kelly and the company settled for $170,000, but lawsuit says Kelly has only paid $20,000.

— Jan. 3, 2019: Lifetime airs the documentary "Surviving R. Kelly," which revisited old allegations against him and brought new ones into the spotlight. The series follows the BBC's "R Kelly: Sex, Girls & Videotapes," released the previous year, that alleged the singer was holding women against their will and running a "sex cult."

— Jan. 8, 2019: Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx holds press conference after her office is inundated with calls about the allegations in the documentary, some tied to Kelly's Chicago-area home. Foxx says there's no active investigation of Kelly and that launching one would require victims and witnesses.

— Jan. 9, 2019: Lady Gaga apologizes for her 2013 duet with R. Kelly in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against him, saying she intended to remove the song, "Do What U Want (With My Body)," from streaming services. The collaboration had been intensely criticized when it was released, in part because of the allegations against him and because of the sexually charged performances they did on "Saturday Night Live" and the American Music Awards in 2013.

— Jan. 10, 2019: Nielsen Music says streaming numbers for R. Kelly nearly doubled after the Lifetime documentary. Kelly averaged more than 955,600 streams in the last week of 2018. He averaged more than 1.5 million streams from Jan. 3-6.

— Jan. 14, 2019: Faith Rogers said Kelly had written a letter last October to one of her lawyers, threatening to reveal embarrassing details of her sexual history if she didn't drop her May 2018 lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse. The Chicago Tribune publishes a story detailing court records it obtained on a July lawsuit seeking payment of $174,000 in back rent and other costs for his Chicago recording studio. A signed eviction notice was put on hold for Kelly to pay by Jan. 21.

— Jan. 21, 2019: Multiple media outlets report Kelly and his label, Sony subsidiary RCA Records, had parted ways. Lady Gaga and Celine Dion recently removed their duets with Kelly from streaming services, and French rock band Phoenix apologized for collaborating with Kelly in 2013. Kelly continues to deny all allegations of sexual misconduct.

— Feb. 1, 2019: An estimated 25.8 million people had seen all or some of the six-part documentary series that brought together dozens of people who accused Kelly of sexual misconduct, primarily contact with underage girls, since the first episode aired Jan. 3, according to the Nielsen company.

— Feb. 6, 2019: Kelly announced by tweet a new tour outside the U.S., saying he'd be going to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The tweet was later deleted following a backlash from Twitter users who urged fans not to buy concert tickets.

— Feb. 14, 2019: Attorney Michael Avenatti said he gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of Kelly having sex with an underage girl, and that it is not the same evidence used in Kelly's 2008 trial, when he was acquitted on child pornography charges.

— Feb. 22, 2019: Kelly is charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse.

___

Compiled by News Researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft in New York.

___

See the AP's full coverage of the investigations into R. Kelly.

Source: Fox News National

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A Florida measure that would ban sanctuary cities is set for a vote Friday in the state’s Senate after clearing its first hurdle earlier this week.

The bill would effectively make it against the law for Florida’s police departments to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

“The Governor may initiate judicial proceedings in the name of the state against such officers to enforce compliance,” a draft version of the Senate bill reads.

A House version of the bill, which passed by a 69-47 vote Wednesday, adds that non-complying officials could be suspended or removed from office and face fines of up to $5,000 per day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign off on the measure, although it’s not clear which version.

FLORIDA MAY SEND A BIG MESSAGE TO SANCTUARY CITIES

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state.

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state. (AP)

LAWRENCE JONES: NEEDLES, DRUG USE AND HUMAN WASTE ARE THE NEW NORMAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

Florida is home to 775,000 illegal immigrants out of 10.7 million present in the United States, ranking the state third among all states.

Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — already have enacted state laws requiring law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Florida doesn’t have sanctuary cities like the ones in California and other states. But Republican lawmakers say a handful of their municipalities — including Orlando and West Palm Beach – are acting as “pseudo-sanctuary” cities, because they prevent law enforcement officials from asking about immigration status when they make arrests.

“There are still people here in the state of Florida, police chiefs that are just refusing to contact ICE, refusing to detain somebody that they know is here illegally,” Florida Republican Rep. Blaise Ingoglia said earlier this month. “So while the actual county municipality doesn’t have an actual adopted policy, they still have people in power within their sheriff’s department or police department that refuse to do it anyway.”

Florida’s Democratic Party has blasted the anti-Sanctuary measures, while the Miami-Dade Police Department says it should be up to federal authorities to handle immigration-related matters.

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“House Republicans today sold out their communities to Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis by passing this xenophobic and discriminatory bill,” the state’s Democratic Party said Wednesday after the House passed their version of the bill. “It’s abhorrent that Republican members who represent immigrant communities are now turning their backs on their constituents and jeopardizing their safety.

“Florida has long stood as a beacon for immigrant communities — and today Republicans did the best they could to destroy that reputation,” they added.

Fox News’ Elina Shirazi contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

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According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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The Amish population in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is continuing to grow each year, despite the encroachment of urban sprawl on their communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the county added about 2,500 people in 2018. LNP reports that about 1,000 of them were Amish.

Elizabethtown College researchers say Lancaster County’s Amish population reached 33,143 in 2018, up 3.2% from the previous year.

The Amish accounted for about 41% of the county’s overall population growth last year.

Some experts are concerned that a planned 75-acre (30-hectare) housing and commercial project will make it more difficult for the county to accommodate the Amish.

Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, told Manheim Township commissioners this week that some in the community are worried about the development and the increased traffic it would bring.

___

Information from: LNP, http://lancasteronline.com

Source: Fox News National

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Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has warned that if Democratic 2020 presidential candidates don’t take the crisis at the border seriously, they’ll do so at their own risk.

Speaking with “Fox & Friends” hosts on Friday morning, Rivera discussed the influx of candidates entering the race, including former Vice President Joe Biden, and gave an update on the newest developments at the border.

“If [Democrats] don’t take it seriously they ignore it at their peril,” Rivera said.

He went on to discuss the fact that Mexico is experiencing the same problems dealing with volumes of people at the border as the United States is. Processing facilities, as many have argued, are understaffed and underresourced, resulting in conditions that have been controversial.

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“It is very, very difficult when hundreds and hundreds become thousands and thousands ultimately become tens of it is very difficult to have an orderly system,” he said.

Rivera asserted his opinion that the United States could lessen the influx of migrants coming into the country by investing in the development of Central American countries, where many are fleeing from violence and economic instability.

“I believe, as I have said before on this program, that we have to stop the source of the migrant explosion, by a comprehensive system of political and economic reform in Central America where people have the incentive to stay home,” Rivera said.

“I think we have help Mexico with its infrastructure. Mexico has a moral burden, as the president made very clear, not to let unchecked herds of desperate people flow through 2,000 miles of Mexican territory to get our southern border.”

Rivera also brought up President Trump’s controversial comments about Mexican immigrants during his campaign in 2016.

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The Fox News correspondent said that having been so excited about Trump’s campaign, the comments made him feel “deflated” as a Hispanic American.

However, as the crisis at the border has accelerated over the last few years, Rivera argued that ultimately, the president’s comments weren’t incorrect.

“He is now in a position where he can justly say I was right, that the that the anarchy at the border doesn’t serve anybody,” Rivera said. “Maybe he said it in a language I felt was a little rough and insensitive, but there is no doubt.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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