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American journalist detained by Venezuelan officers then freed talks about detention

The American journalist who was detained in Venezuela Wednesday spoke exclusively to Fox News about his detention and release.

Cody Weddle, 29, told David Asman on “Cavuto Live” Saturday about the chain of events that included his arrest and aftermath. He recalled being detained on early Wednesday before being freed several hours later then deported. He heard the doorbell to his apartment ring but thought it was somebody delivering water to his residence.

“And when I opened that door I saw three armed men. They had rifles, they had handguns and then there was also a woman there as well and they gave me an order that said I was under investigation for espionage for extracting military equipment and also for treason to Venezuela and they ended up raiding my apartment,” Weddle told Fox News.

When asked what he thought triggered the arrest, Weddle said he was asked about some reporting he did regarding the “current state of Venezuela security forces.”

AMERICAN JOURNALIST DETAINED IN VENEZUELA RELEASED, MOTHER SAYS

“I did reporting that showed the rank-and-file members of Venezuela security forces are suffering from the effects of this economic crisis of the humanitarian crisis,” Weddle said. “They are paid measly salaries and I spoke to a few members of the security forces, anonymously and they all said that the rank and file are ready to see change in the country but that they can’t rise up in any way because the top generals remain with [President Nicolas Maduro] and there is intense surveillance by people like these counterintelligence services so they started asking the context I had in the military, contacts I had with all types of security forces so I think, although they never said explicitly, I think that was perhaps the reason this all happened.”

When asked if he gave up any specific names, Weddle said he did not. He said authorities went through his phone and computer but he did not give them extra information.

The journalist said, when he got to the Miami airport, he was asked if the accents of those who detained him were Cuban or Venezuelan. Asman asked him if there was “any indication that the Cubans were involved” in his detention.

“I didn’t run into any Cubans there or hear any Cuban accents and where I was arrested, but certainly that we know that Cuba has been involved in the security especially of President Maduro, but it’s something that is very vague and we don’t have a lot of information about that or to what extent that exists in the country,” Weddle said.

AMERICAN JOURNALIST BASED IN CARACAS DETAINED BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AMID VENEZUELA UNREST

The Virginia native said it was hard to tell if Maduro’s government could last but said he expected a transition to be coming.

Weddle has lived in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital city, since 2014, and has worked as a freelancer for multiple news stations and newspapers, including the Miami Herald.

Weddle’s detainment comes after Univision journalist Jorge Ramos and five others were briefly detained after they interviewed Maduro at the Miraflores Palace.

Fox News’ Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Kansas woman buys out shoe store for Nebraska flood victims

A Kansas woman donated 204 pairs of shoes to Nebraska flood victims after buying everything that was left at a closing Payless store.

The Hays Post reports the shoes were part of a flood relief shipment taken to farmers in Nebraska by Fort Hays State's agriculture sorority, Sigma Alpha, during the weekend.

A graduate of Fort Hays State, Addy Tritt, said she wanted to help others because so many people have helped her in the past.

When the price at a Hays store dropped to $1 per pair, Tritt negotiated with the business to buy the remaining shoes for $100.

They included 162 pairs of baby shoes and two pairs of men's shoes. The rest were women's shoes.

The retail price of the shoes would have been more than $6,000.

Source: Fox News National

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VIDEO: Maxine Waters Defends Scumbag Jussie Smollett

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UK PM May considers delaying Brexit deadline: Bloomberg

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is seen outside Downing Street in London
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

February 25, 2019

(Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May is considering a plan to delay Brexit and prevent the UK from leaving the European Union without a deal, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the situation.

May is expected to let her Cabinet discuss extending the deadline beyond March 29 at a meeting on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported, adding that May would then reveal the Cabinet’s conclusions in an announcement to parliament later in the day.

No final decision has been taken yet, Bloomberg said.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Police: Chicago officer shot, one person in custody

Chicago police say an officer was shot while executing a warrant and one person was taken into custody.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says the incident happened Saturday night on the city's West Side as police attempted to execute a warrant for narcotics and illegal weapons. Johnson says a shot was fired through a rear door and the 34-year-old officer was struck in the shoulder.

The officer was transported to a nearby hospital. Johnson says he is in stable but critical condition, and he's in "good spirits."

Police say a woman was taken into custody. Additional details about her were not immediately available.

Johnson says the officer has been on the job for more than 4 years and was a U.S. Marine before joining the department.

Source: Fox News National

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Going TikTok: Indians get hooked on Chinese video app ahead of election

The logo of TikTok application is seen on a mobile phone screen in this picture illustration taken
The logo of TikTok application is seen on a mobile phone screen in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2019. Picture taken February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Illustration

February 27, 2019

By Aditya Kalra and Devjyot Ghoshal

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A video clip shot on a sparse rooftop of what looks like a low-rise apartment block shows a young Indian man swaying while lip-syncing a song praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Describing himself as a proud Indian with the online identity “garrytomar”, he is wearing ear-studs and shows a beaded necklace under a partly unbuttoned shirt in the 15-second clip.

“Modi has single-handedly trounced everyone … Modi is a storm, you all now know,” goes the Hindi song, posted on Chinese video mobile application TikTok, the latest digital platform to grip India’s small towns and villages ahead of a general election due by May. (https://bit.ly/2E3v0cv)

Created by Beijing Bytedance Technology Co, one of the world’s most valuable start-ups potentially worth more than $75 billion, TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with various special effects. It is becoming hugely popular in rural India, home to most of the country’s 1.3 billion people.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, its unit WhatsApp and Twitter are extensively being used by Indian politicians for campaigning ahead of the election: Facebook’s 300 million users and WhatsApp’s 200 million have made India their largest market in the world, while Twitter too has millions of users.

TikTok is fast catching up: it has been downloaded more than 240 million times in India so far, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower. More than 30 million users in India installed it last month, 12 times more than in January 2018.

“Most urban elites haven’t heard of TikTok and those who have, tend to view it as a platform for trivial content. In reality, it hosts diverse content including a fair share of political speech,” said Kailas Karthikeyan, a New Delhi-based technology analyst who has tracked TikTok for nine months.

TikTok’s video-only interface makes it less elaborate and easier to use compared to platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, making it a bigger attraction in rural India, he added.

POLITICAL INTEREST

While Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress party have not officially joined TikTok, videos tagged #narendramodi have received more than 30 million views and those about Congress chief Rahul Gandhi (#rahulgandhi) have got nearly 13 million hits. Total views for political videos is far higher.

Amit Malviya, the BJP’s chief of information technology, said the party was tracking TikTok conversations and it was “a brilliant medium for creative expression”. The party, however, has no plans as of now to officially join the platform, he said.

A Congress source said the party was exploring joining TikTok and assessing how it could be used to better reach out to people in rural areas in the run-up to the election.

Not all political videos on TikTok seek votes. Some videos show people waving the Congress flag on Indian streets. Another clip shows Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a stage, with a Hindi-language rustic voiceover of her saying she will marry the Indian leader.

“I would die with him and live with him,” the Merkel voice impersonator declares in the video. (https://bit.ly/2XjTdUQ)

In another TikTok post, Modi fan Yogesh Saini says the prime minister is his world, moments before opening his jacket to reveal a video of Modi on his chest. (https://bit.ly/2SQq0SN)

Saini, 23, isn’t affiliated to any political party, but says: “It’s my job to support Modi-ji, so I’m doing that,” using the honorific Indian suffix. He spoke to Reuters from the small town of Sawai Madhopur in the desert state of Rajasthan.

SCRUTINY, BACKLASH

Jokes, dance clips and videos related to India’s thriving movie industry dominate the platform. #Bollywood tagged videos have nearly 13 billion views and the app is also flooded with memes, as well as videos on cooking.

TikTok, though, is facing opposition from some quarters.

The information technology minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, M. Manikandan, said he will urge the federal government to ban the app as some content was “very unbearable”.

“Young girls and everybody is behaving very badly. Sometimes the body language is very bad, and (people are) doing mimicry of political leaders very badly,” Manikandan told Reuters.

A Hindu nationalist group close to Modi’s BJP too has called for a ban on TikTok.

TikTok said it respects local laws and there was “no basis” for the concerns. Promoting a safe and positive in-app environment was its “top priority”, it said.

The backlash comes as social media companies face increased scrutiny from authorities over fake news and undesirable content ahead of the polls. A federal proposal will mandate them to swiftly remove “unlawful” content when asked.

A senior government official in New Delhi said the government wants TikTok to comply with the new Indian regulations as and when they kick in, but there wasn’t any immediate concern on content.

Still, the government has asked the Chinese company to have better checks in place to ensure its users are aged above 12, which is recommended by the app itself, the official said.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Devjyot Ghoshal; Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash in Odisha and Subrata Nag Choudhury in Kolkata; Editing by Martin Howell and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: OANN

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Ship reported hijacked near Libya by migrants rescued at sea

The military of European island nation Malta is reporting that migrants have hijacked a cargo ship in Libyan waters.

The Armed Forces of Malta said military personnel were standing by and the hijacked vessel still was in Libyan territory on Wednesday night.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says the ship's crew rescued a group of migrants who are thought to have taken control and to be directing the ship toward Malta or Italy's Lampedusa island.

Salvini said "it would be the first act of piracy on the high seas with migrants that hijacked" a cargo ship.

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

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

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

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

(Reporting by Richard Leong)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Tom Sims

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“MARKET PLAY”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City
FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Shares of Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers fell on Friday as Amazon.com Inc unveiled a one-day delivery plan for its Prime members in a move to further disrupt the fiercely competitive retail landscape.

The e-commerce giant’s announcement on Thursday could cause other brands, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies to have to invest more aggressively to compete with Amazon and its delivery, analysts said.

Retailers in recent years have poured billions into ecommerce and faster shipping options and are trying to close the gap with Amazon.

“This is about making it more expensive to catch up and affirms our world view that only the largest and smartest will survive,” Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher said.

The move is expected to heighten consumer expectations on e-commerce delivery just like Amazon did with its two-day shipping option for members of its loyalty club Prime, noted analysts.

“The faster you ship, the more people buy,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said.

The challenge for non-Amazon players was that very few of the existing logistics and parcel delivery players now have the ability to do nationwide one-day delivery, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.

“And even fewer can do it at the vast scale and reasonable cost that AMZN would need for Prime delivery,” Nowak said in a note.

Walmart Inc’s shares fell about 3 percent, while Target Corp dropped about 5 percent in morning trade.

Shares of Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc fell about 1 percent. Grocer Kroger Co was nearly 3 percent lower, while consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc dropped 2.1 percent.

(Reporting by Soundarya J and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: OANN

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A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)

April 26, 2019

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.

Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.

Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.

“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”

The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.

Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.

A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.

“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”

Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.

CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.

To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.

A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.

Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.

“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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