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Erdogan says Turkey must cut interest rates to fight inflation

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses supporters during a rally for the upcoming local elections, in Istanbul
FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he addresses AK Party and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters during a rally for the upcoming local elections, in Istanbul, Turkey March 24, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

March 28, 2019

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the central bank must cut interest rates or inflation will remain high, and he blamed the recent volatility in the lira on “attacks” by the United States and other Western countries.

The Turkish currency dived 5 percent against the dollar on Thursday after banks started providing lira liquidity to the London market again following several days of authorities withholding liquidity to support the currency.

The lira has come under renewed pressure recently over concerns about Turkey’s balance of payments, its ability to service its foreign debt, and repeated calls from Erdogan, who has described himself as an “enemy of interest rates”, for the central bank to cut rates.

Speaking to young voters in Ankara ahead of local elections on Sunday, Erdogan said Turkey had thwarted the attacks by the United States and the West on the lira and added that some banks were playing a game on the currency ahead of the vote. He did not name the banks.

“They can’t find lira now, they are struggling in terms of payments. The tables have turned. While they can’t do this, the lira firms and dollar falls,” Erdogan said.

Instead, however, the lira weakened as far as 5.6465 per dollar on Thursday from 5.33 on Wednesday. Last year, it plunged almost 30 percent against the dollar. As of 1152 GMT, it had clawed back some of its losses to 5.5861.

“Banks playing this international game have started saying they won’t publish reports in election times. Publish it, what’s that going to change?” Erdogan said. “We must discipline the speculators in the market.”

Turkish financial regulators opened investigations into JP Morgan and other banks at the weekend, accusing them of providing misinformation in reports that stoked volatility in the lira.

The country head to polls on Sunday to vote in municipal elections that Erdogan has described as a “matter of survival” for Turkey, as the economy has taken a nosedive.

Inflation, which has been in double digits since 2017, rose to nearly 25 percent last year. In February it stood at just under 20 percent.

Erdogan, whose unorthodox economic views have unnerved investors, said on Thursday that inflation would fall as interest rates were cut.

“The main issue is interest rates. As interest rates are brought down, inflation will fall,” Erdogan said.

“The real problem is interest rates. I’m also an economist,” he added.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Source: OANN

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Mueller report conclusion raises question of Trump pardons

Speculation is mounting over whether President Trump will grant pardons to his campaign associates charged during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, now that the report has turned up no evidence of collusion with the Russians during the 2016 presidential election.

The White House, in the past, has said that there had been no discussion of pardons for any of the players indicted in the Mueller investigation. But with the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation, the question is front-and-center once again, especially as one prominent former aide publicly seeks clemency.

EX-TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS FORMALLY ASKS FOR PRESIDENTIAL PARDON, WOULD BE 'HONORED TO ACCEPT'

Six Trump campaign associates were charged in Mueller’s nearly two-year-long investigation. They include: former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort; former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos; former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn; former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates; former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen; and former Trump adviser Roger Stone.

All of them faced false-statement counts. Manafort was the only Trump associate whose case in the Mueller investigation was largely based on other charges -- including foreign lobbying, and bank and tax fraud. Manafort is set to serve 81 more months in prison.

Trump reportedly said over the weekend that Manafort was treated unfairly; however, a pardon in Manafort's case could be far-fetched given the severity of that case. Speculation has centered more on those Trump aides who were prosecuted largely for false-statement offenses that arose from the investigation itself.

Just this week, Papadopoulos told Fox News that his legal team has sought a pardon.

“My lawyers have formally asked for a pardon,” Papadopoulos said. “If it’s granted, I would be honored to accept it.”

He later told Fox News' "The Story" that he has "no expectation" but would consider it a "tremendous honor."

Papadopoulos, the first to formally request a presidential pardon, pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal prosecutors about his communications with an overseas professor who promised the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in 2016. He already served his 14-day prison sentence last year.

Of those charged, Flynn, Stone and Gates have yet to be sentenced to any prison time.

Flynn and Stone (who pleaded not guilty and is still fighting the charges) did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on whether they would request a pardon. Fox News could not reach Gates for comment.

BULK OF MUELLER CASES AGAINST TRUMP ASSOCIATES BASED ON FALSE STATEMENTS 

Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who informally advised Trump during the probe, argues that Flynn, Stone and Papadopoulos should be considered for clemency.

“I think they should not be given prison sentences, and if they are, I recommend they’re given commutations of sentences,” diGenova told Fox News. “They are victims, not defendants. They are victims of a politicized environment of prosecution and they have been abused.”

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has warned Trump against granting pardons.

“If Trump pardoned anybody in his orbit, it would not play well,” Graham said during a press conference on Capitol Hill Monday, adding in an interview with Axios that he did not think “that would be very smart.”

And Democrats on Capitol Hill, like Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said even before the release of Mueller’s report that the issue of clemency was a “concern” of his.

“I am concerned that the president not misuse his pardon power in a way that will be seen as overtly partisan and to challenge or push back on the whole Mueller investigation,” Coons told Politico.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders this week told ABC News that there was no discussion "at this point" of pardons.

Trump, himself, has said he hasn’t thought about pardoning anyone convicted or charged as part of Mueller’s probe.

But if Trump does decide to consider granting pardons to his former associates, Cohen will likely not be one of them.

Cohen, who is set to report to prison to serve a three-year sentence in May, turned on his boss of nearly a decade when he was indicted. Trump blasted Cohen, claiming he only did so to reduce his prison sentence. Cohen was charged for lying to Congress as part of Mueller's probe -- though was charged over a range of fraud and other counts as part of a related federal investigation based out of New York.

NADLER SEEKS BARR TESTIMONY ON MUELLER REPORT, CHALLENGES CALL TO CLEAR TRUMP ON OBSTRUCTION

Fox News reported earlier this month that Cohen at one point “directed his attorney” to ask about a possible pardon. Cohen’s former lawyer, Stephen Ryan, also reportedly discussed a pardon with Trump’s lawyers in the weeks after FBI agents raised Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room as part of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s criminal investigation into his personal business dealings. But Cohen later decided, and told Congress, that he would not accept a pardon.

Cohen did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment, but his attorney, Lanny Davis, tweeted this week:

“@MichaelCohen212 will soon share with #America what he told Mueller and #Congress. For now, remember this…#collusion to lie or to influence others to lie, while threatening those who dare to tell the #truth during an investigation, is called #ObstructionOfJustice. More to come!”

While Mueller’s investigation found no evidence of collusion, the special counsel decided not to come to a decision on whether the president obstructed justice in any way, kicking that decision to the Justice Department.

On Sunday, Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein effectively cleared Trump, saying that the evidence from the case “is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

Democrats challenged that decision, and have urged Barr to turn over the full report in the near future.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Venezuelan intel agents arrest top opposition aide after allegedly planting firearms, grenade in night raid

Venezuelan intelligence agents have “kidnapped” a top aide to interim leader Juan Guaidó following a middle-of-the-night raid at gunpoint, where agents allegedly planted firearms and a grenade to justify the arrest.

The detention of Guaido’s chief of staff, Roberto Marrero, came shortly after the Venezuelan authorities entered and searched the homes of Marrero and opposition lawmaker Sergio Vergara on Thursday. Vergara said he was woken up by heavy banging at his door and agents pointing weapons at him.

Both officials accompanied the interim leader on a recent Latin American tour to galvanize opposition to the socialist Nicolas Maduro regime and shore up support for Guaido as the legitimate leader of the country.

CITIGROUP TO SELL MORE THAN $1B IN VENEZUELAN GOLD IN BLOW TO MADURO REGIME, REPORTS SAY

Guaido accused the regime of kidnapping and urged it to release his aide, whose location remains unknown, the BBC reported.

The opposition leader said Venezuelan intelligence agents planted “two rifles and a grenade” at his aide’s home during the raid. “We don’t know where he is. He should be freed immediately,” Guaido tweeted.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, condemned the raids and threatened Maduro’s regime with consequences.

“The United States condemns raids by Maduro’s security services and detention of Roberto Marrero, Chief of Staff to Interim President @jguaido,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a tweet. “We call for his immediate release. We will hold accountable those involved.”

VENEZUELA IN CHAOS AFTER MASSIVE POWER OUTAGE, MADURO'S REGIME BLAMES MARCO RUBIO

Vergara was reportedly also briefly detained following the raids. According to the BBC, he said over 40 heavily armed officers from the intelligence agency raided the properties.

Most Western governments, including the U.S., are backing Guaidó and recognize his legitimacy. Venezuelan prosecutors say Guaidó is being investigated for alleged links to violence as well as for any connection to the nation’s worst power outages that plunged the country into darkness for extensive time periods.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Venezuelan government officials directly blamed the U.S. -- including Florida Senator Marco Rubio -- for the outages. More reliable sources peg the blackouts as being caused due to crumbling infrastructure.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Source: InfoWars

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No agreement yet on individual trade issues with U.S. – Japan’s Motegi

Japan's Minister of Economic Revitalization Toshimitsu Motegi speaks during the signing agreement ceremony for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, in Santiago
Japan's Minister of Economic Revitalization Toshimitsu Motegi speaks during the signing agreement ceremony for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, in Santiago, Chile March 8, 2018. Picture Taken March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido

April 16, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Japan’s Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday that no agreement had been reached on individual trade issues with the United States after two days of talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Motegi told journalists in Washington he hoped to reach a “good result” on the talks “at an early stage.”

He said he may accompany Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he visits the United States next week.

The two-day trade talks came after U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed last September to start trade talks in an arrangement that protects Japanese automakers from further tariffs while talks are underway.

(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Writing by Malcolm Foster in Tokyo; Editing by Richard Chang)

Source: OANN

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Screen Time Associated With Behavioral Problems in Preschoolers

A new Canadian study of more than 2,400 families suggests that among preschoolers, spending two hours or more of screen time per day is linked to clinically significant behavioral problems.

Compared with children who had less than 30 minutes per day of screen time, children who were exposed to more than two hours of screen time per day were five times more likely to exhibit clinically significant “externalizing” behavioural problems such as inattention; and over seven times more likely to meet the criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Piush Mandhane, associate professor of pediatrics in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, led the study, which was published today in the journal PLOS ONE.

“We found that screen time had a significant impact at five years of age,” said Mandhane. “Current Canadian guidelines call for no more than two hours of screen time a day at that age. But our research suggests that less screen time is even better.”

The research used data from the CHILD Cohort Study, a national birth cohort study collecting a wide range of health, lifestyle, genetic and environmental exposure information from nearly 3,500 children and their families from pregnancy to adolescence. Mandhane leads the Edmonton site of the CHILD Cohort Study.

Parents reported their child’s total screen time per day, including watching TV and DVD’s, and using computers, video consoles, smartphones and tablets. On average, three-year-old children spent 1.5 hours of screen time per day; for 42 percent of the three-year-olds, their viewing time exceeded the Canadian recommended screen-time guideline of less than one hour per day. At age five, children spent, on average, 1.4 hours of screen time per day; for 13 percent of the five-year-olds, their viewing time exceeded the Canadian recommendation of less than two hours per day.


David Knight explains how smart devices are a continuation of MK-Ultra.

The study also assessed child behavior and attention at age five by having parents complete the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), a screening measure for a variety of problems such as anxiety and depression, emotional reactivity, inattention, aggressiveness, and sleep disturbances.

“Prior to this, there weren’t a lot of data out there that asked the questions, ‘How much is too much? Are the guidelines appropriate? Ultimately, will limiting screen time in preschool years have benefits for a child’s development?’ This study gives parents some of those answers,” added the study’s first author Sukhpreet Tamana, an AllerGen Highly Qualified Personnel and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta.

“The two big takeaways from this study are that children exposed to more screen time, at either age three or five years, showed significantly greater behavioral and attention problems at age five, and that this association was greater than any other risk factor we assessed, including sleep, parenting stress, and socioeconomic factors,” added Tamana.

The researchers also identified factors that provided protection from the negative effects of screen time. Good quality sleep had a small impact, while participation in organized sports was found to have a highly significant protective effect.

“Interestingly, it wasn’t physical activity on its own that was protective; the activity needed to have structure,” said Mandhane. “And the more time children spent doing organized sports, the less likely they were to exhibit behavioral problems.”

“A lot of the things that you do through organized activities are really important for young kids early on,” noted Tamana. “It sets the stage for development amongst children. I think in lieu of screen time, it would be beneficial for parents to increase opportunities for other structured activities instead.”

(Photo by bane bane, Flickr)

The study did not determine if the media content itself (educational, video gaming, social media) or screen type (television, computer, tablet) were important predictors of behavioral problems, though the team plans to examine those questions more fully in future research.

While the researchers suggest “less is more” when it comes to screen time amongst preschool-aged children, they do not advocate for eliminating it entirely.

“Our data suggests that between zero and 30 minutes a day is the optimal amount of screen time,” said Mandhane. “The preschool period is an ideal time for education on healthy relationships with screens, and we believe our data shows that you can’t start too early.”


Alex explains how other states will follow Texas’ example if patriots take a stand.

Source: InfoWars

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Sutherland, Dawson lead Champions event in Mississippi

FILE PHOTO: Kevin Sutherland tees off on the first hole in third round play on Torrey Pines South course during the Farmers Insurance Open PGA golf tournament in San Diego
FILE PHOTO: Kevin Sutherland tees off on the first hole in third round play on Torrey Pines South course during the Farmers Insurance Open PGA golf tournament in San Diego, California January 29, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Blake

March 30, 2019

Kevin Sutherland and Marco Dawson hope to end an early-season PGA Tour Champions trend.

The two share the lead after the first round of the Rapiscan Systems Classic in Biloxi, Miss. No player who has led or co-led after the opening round of the season’s first four events has gone on to win a Champions tournament this year.

Sutherland and Dawson each shot 7-under-par 65 at Fallen Oak Golf Club, giving them a three-shot edge over a quartet of players: Scott Parel, Jeff Sluman, Tom Byrum and Tommy Armour III.

Fred Couples, Kent Jones, Scott Hoch, Gibby Gilbert III and Fiji’s Vijay Singh are tied for seventh at 3 under.

Sutherland started effectively, with his front nine resulting in three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 sixth hole. He made his lone bogey of the day on the par-3 17th hole.

The 54-year-old California native is looking for his second career Champions title, having won the 2017 Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

Dawson birdied five of his first seven holes, with a par and a bogey mixed in. He added three more birdies on a flawless back nine.

Dawson, 55, is a two-time Champions winner, but both of his victories came in 2015.

Defending champion Steve Stricker is tied for 45th after a 1-over-par 73 that included a double bogey on the par-3 eighth hole.

Mark Calcavecchia withdrew after his 13th hole because of a rib injury.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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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.

TRENDING

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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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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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

April 26, 2019

By Julien Pretot

MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.

It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.

“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.

Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.

They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.

At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.

In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.

At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.

“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.

As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.

The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.

“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.

SAME TREATMENT

One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.

“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.

This is not the case with the boys, she added.

“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.

Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.

“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.

OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.

“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.

“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”

‘ONE CLUB’

The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.

While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.

There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.

“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.

“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.

Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.

“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.

“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”

Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.

“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.

“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

April 26, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.

“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.

The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.

The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.

Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT

The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.

Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.

Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.

(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)

2/FED: UP OR DOWN?

Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.

Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.

Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.

Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.

Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.     

(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)

3/HEISEI TO REIWA

Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.

The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.

The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.

The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)

4/EARNING TURNING

Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.

Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.

That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.

The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.

Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.

GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.

Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.

Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.

The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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