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2020 Dem slams Trump's 'porn star presidency' but called Bill Clinton-Paula Jones case 'frivolous'

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has branded the Trump administration “the porn star presidency” but once questioned whether Bill Clinton should have been impeached for his scandals, calling a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton “frivolous” and “instigated by his opponents.”

Buttigieg, a millennial Indiana town mayor and the rising star of the Democratic presidential primary who already has drawn comparisons to former President Barack Obama, is expected to appear at the party’s debates after getting donations from 65,000 donors.

Earlier this month Buttigieg received media coverage after he blasted Vice President Mike Pence, saying Pence became a “cheerleader for the porn star presidency” and questioning whether Pence “stopped believing in scripture” and started to believe in Trump.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SLAMS PENCE FOR WORK WITH TRUMP, ASKS HOW HE ‘BECAME A CHEERLEADER FOR THE PORN STAR PRESIDENCY’

But during his days as a columnist for a Harvard University student paper, Buttgieg urged Americans to ignore presidential scandals involving “sexual excitement” and went great lengths to defend Clinton.

“And, in a formative moment for us all, the nation’s political life ground to a halt while President Clinton was impeached for having obfuscated about his sexual activities to a lawyer in a frivolous sexual harassment suit instigated by his opponents,” Buttgieg wrote in a 2004 Harvard Crimson column.

"... President Clinton was impeached for having obfuscated about his sexual activities to a lawyer in a frivolous sexual harassment suit instigated by his opponents."

— Pete Buttigieg

He refers to a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones, then a government employee in Arkansas, who claimed that Clinton, then-governor of Arkansas, propositioned her for sex.

Clinton ended up paying Jones $850,000 in an out-of-court settlement so she drops her sexual harassment charges against him.

In an email to Fox News, Buttgieg’s spokeswoman, Elisabeth Smith, didn’t address the content of the columns and said that “even in college, Pete understood the moral hypocrisy of the far right and politicians like Mike Pence. That's the point he made in 2004 and it's the point that he made regarding Mike Pence's support for Donald Trump.”

PETE BUTTIGIEG DEFENDS HIS EXPERIENCE, SAYS 2020 CALLS FOR CANDIDATE WITH 'COMPLETELY DIFFERENT' BACKGROUND

The 2020 candidate went on to write in 2004 that Republican scandals, unlike Democrats, are “devoid of sexual excitement” and instead “packed with violence” – giving the example of the Iran-Contra controversy.

Buttgieg, who after Harvard became a Rhodes scholar and later served a tour in Afghanistan in 2014, said that both the Left and Americans should pay less attention to sexual scandals.

“The Left needs to hope for — and, if possible, help — Americans to acknowledge that what happens in the war room (and, for that matter, the board room) is more important than what happens in the bedroom,” he wrote.

This wasn’t the only time Buttgieg questioned whether Democrats should have ostracized Clinton immediately after the impeachment. In a 2003 column, he compared Clinton’s behavior to former Rep. Dan Burton’s conspiracy theories surrounding the death of a White House staffer.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

“If Burton could be taken seriously after his watermelon episode, are we really sure the Democrats had no choice but to drop Bill Clinton like a political hot potato rather than use him in the 2000 campaign?” Buttgieg asked.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Ahead of election, Polish lawmakers propose to cut copper tax

Molten copper is poured at the KGHM copper and precious metals smelter processing plant in Glogow
FILE PHOTO: Molten copper is poured at the KGHM copper and precious metals smelter processing plant in Glogow May 10, 2013. REUTERS/Peter Andrews

March 19, 2019

WARSAW (Reuters) – Lawmakers from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party proposed on Tuesday to cut mining tax payments so that major copper producer KGHM could spend more money on investment.

The mining levy, introduced in 2012 and calculated using a formula based on local production volumes and prices, primarily affects KGHM, a major employer in southeast Poland and one of the world’s biggest copper and silver producers.

Poland holds general election this year. The tax has been a subject of debate during previous campaigns. In 2015, some politicians had promised to scrap it.

KGHM paid 1.67 billion zlotys ($442 million) in mining tax in 2018, while the group’s profit were 1.66 billion zlotys.

“Lowering the mining levy by 15 percent … will make additional funds available to KGHM, which will significantly translate into long-term stability and development of the company,” lawmakers said in draft law published on parliament’s website.

Reducing the mining levy would lower budget revenues by an estimated 180 million zlotys in 2019 and 240 million zlotys in subsequent years, the draft said.

By 1310 GMT shares in KGHM had risen by 4.2 percent.

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Agnieszka Barteczko and Edmund Blair)

Source: OANN

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Brazil tribal lands under new threat from farmers, miners

The Wider Image: Brazil tribal lands under new threat from farmers, miners
Indigenous Macuxi people work in a manioc plantation at the community of Uailan on the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation, Roraima state, Brazil February 10, 2019. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

April 8, 2019

By Bruno Kelly and Sergio Queiroz

RAPOSA SERRA DO SOL, Brazil (Reuters) – A decade after the Macuxi people won a bloody legal battle to expel rice planters from their reservation in a remote part of Brazil, their hold over ancestral lands has come under threat again from new right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.

The sprawling 1.7 million hectares (6,600 square miles) of savannah on the border with Venezuela — a reservation called Raposa Serra do Sol — is home to 25,000 native people whose main livelihood is raising cattle.

But the land remains coveted by commercial farmers and mining prospectors who believe the area is rich in minerals such as gold, diamonds, copper, molybdenum, bauxite and even niobium, a metal used to strengthen steel that Bolsonaro considers “strategic.”

“In the fight for our land rights, 21 of us died,” says Chief Aldenir Lima, the leader of the 70 communities on the reservation. “Since then we recovered what we had lost and today, the white farmers’ rice plantations have been replaced by our cattle herds.”

That could change if Bolsonaro follows through on his promise to review the borders of the reservation — part of his push to repeal a ban on commercial farming and mining on indigenous lands.

Bolsonaro’s first move after his January inauguration was to put indigenous land decisions under the Ministry of Agriculture, which is controlled by farm sector representatives eager to open up new frontiers to large-scale farming.

The president has already singled out Raposa Serra do Sol.

“It is the richest area in the world. There are ways to exploit it rationally. And for the Indians, to give them royalties and integrate them into society,” he said in December.

The Macuxi fear the return of illegal gold miners and other poachers on their lands, emboldened by Bolsonaro’s rhetoric and his moves to weaken their rights.

“I want to ask the new president Jair Bolsonaro to respect indigenous people and our constitutional rights,” says community leader Tereza Pereira de Souza, her hair crowned with a headdress of yellow feathers.

“It took us 30 years to get our land borders legally recognized and registered,” she says.

Brazil’s 900,000 indigenous people make up less than 1 percent of the population and live on reservations that account for 13 percent of the territory.

Bolsonaro says they live in abject poverty and hunger and should be assimilated instead of being confined to reservations like “zoo animals.”

In Raposa Serra do Sol, Daniel Andrade butchers a cow’s carcass and holds up a cut of fresh beef. Nobody goes hungry on the reservation, he counters.

Any attempt to change the reservation’s legal status would likely be opposed by the Supreme Court on the grounds that Brazil’s 1988 Constitution protects indigenous land rights.

Anthropologists warn removing that protection would destroy the traditions and languages of the Macuxi and four other related tribes on the reservation.

“Nature is our life, our blood and our spirit, because it gives us sustenance,” says Martinho de Souza, a Macuxi shaman. “We were born on this land, we live here and we will die here.”

Nearby, in the shaman’s village of Tamanduá, chickens run about the earth floor and a pot of food cooks over a wood fire. The village is named after a type of anteater, a large mammal in danger of extinction.

Younger tribe members say they would fight for the land, among them Tiago Nunes Pereira, 24, who shows scars on his leg from a gunshot wound he suffered in a clash with farmers when he was just 12 years old.

“Blood was shed here. That hurt a lot. I’m not scared to die. We will never tire of fighting, to the last one of us.”

Photo essay https://reut.rs/2WHemak

(Reporting by Sergio Queiroz and Bruno Kelly; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Source: OANN

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More Biden gaffes? Former VP claims he's 'most progressive' Dem 'running' — despite in-party critics, not declaring candidacy

Former Vice President Joe Biden told a Delaware audience Saturday he has the "most progressive" record of any Democrat "running" -- or at least considering a run, as Biden isn't yet officially in the race.

The apparent slip-up came during a speech to members of the state's Democratic Party, where he argued that recent criticism he'd received from progressives was unfounded.

"I'm told I get criticized by the 'New Left,' " Biden told the audience. "I have the most progressive record of anybody running for the ... anybody who would run."

Biden, known for past gaffes, quickly corrected himself, clarifying that he meant to say "anybody who would run," then adding "I didn't mean it" while a cheering crowd in his home state nearly drowned him out.

JOE BIDEN SAYS HE'S THE 'MOST QUALIFIED PERSON IN THE COUNTRY TO BE PRESIDENT'

There has been much speculation on whether Biden will launch a presidential run and enter the already crowded field of Democrats looking to unseat President Trump.

“We have to bring this country back together again," Biden continued. "The world's worst dictators are using [the president's] own words to justify their own abuses of power," he added.

In recent weeks, Biden has taken heat from his own party, most recently for his kind words for current Vice President Mike Pence. In February, while speaking in Omaha. Neb., he commented on the icy reception Pence received at the Munich Security Conference where Pence's praise for Trump was met with silence.

"The fact of the matter is, it was followed on by a guy who's a decent guy, our vice president, who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, 'I'm here on behalf of President Trump,’ and there was dead silence. Dead silence,” Biden told the audience.

LGBT-rights activist and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon slammed Biden for praising Pence.

“You’ve just called America’s most anti-LGBT elected leader ‘a decent guy.’ Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community,” she wrote on Twitter.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Biden later walked back his comments about Pence.

In January, Biden faced criticism when the New York Times reported that he praised Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Upton during a visit to Upton’s home state of Michigan three weeks before the November midterm elections.

Upton went on to defeat his Democratic opponent by less than 5 percentage points. Some Democrats blamed Biden for the party failing to pick up the seat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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If you have the green, Masters treasure is now a click away

A golf patron carries two shopping bags full of Masters products during first round play of the 2019 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
A golf patron carries two shopping bags full of Masters products during first round play of the 2019 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

April 13, 2019

By Steve Keating

AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) – There was a time when getting your hands on Masters merchandise was nearly as difficult and rewarding as winning a Green Jacket.

There is still only one place in the world to purchase official Masters souvenirs and that is inside Augusta National at their Harrods-like merchandise store which is only open during Masters week, the 64 cash registers manned by a smiling, uniformed staff from dawn to dusk.

There’s just one catch. To get in the store means having to first secure a Masters badge, one of the most coveted and hardest tickets to land in all of sport. For Thursday’s opening round, asking prices were as high as $7500 on resale sites.

Yet there is no longer a need to stand in that long line with hundreds of other souvenir hunters as the queue snakes its way through a maze of lanes that would rival any major airport security screening area.

Now with a cell phone (forbidden to spectators at Augusta National) and a no-price-is-too-high attitude, you too can be the owner of a Masters green polo shirt with its iconic yellow silhouette logo — and you won’t even have to leave your couch.

A Masters coffee mug, dog bowl or crystal glasses are all just a click or two away as enterprising websites skirt Augusta National’s monopoly by offering everything you can get inside the merchandise store at hugely inflated prices.

Sites like www.mmogolf.com and www.golfshopplus.com will take your order and have people on site at Augusta National fill it, guaranteeing your purchase is official merchandise complete with tags.

Aaron Behar, an owner of http://www.mmogolf.com, describes the operation as a “professional shopping service”.

The intensely protective membership at Augusta National may call it something different but for more than 10 years, the two have peacefully co-exsisted, unlike the club’s ongoing issues with ticket scalpers and resale sites.

“We are a shopping service and I want to make clear we are in no way affliated with Augusta Natioinal,” Behar told Reuters. “We only provide a service and obtain merchandise for personal and corporate clients.

“We do this for a number of tournaments but the Masters is a very exclusive product, one you can only get if you are there.

“We are simply a shopping service.”

Not surprisingly, there is a considerable mark up attached to muling merchandise out of Augusta National.

Bahr, like most patrons, gets his tickets off resale sites and as his costs go up, as they have this year, so do his prices.

A golf shirt that cost $95 in the store goes for $230 on the resale shopping sites while $35 T-shirts go for $60 and a green coffee mug that sells for $15 inside Augusta will fetch $60 outside the walls.

While Bahr has turned Masters merchandise resales into a business, there are no shortage of freelancers out there looking to cash in on the iconic brand.

On Kijiji and eBay, you can find everything from Masters golf balls to frosted plastic beer cups retrieved from garbage bins going for $3.99.

If you are having a Masters party, Goldbelly.com will ship the famous Augusta Pimento Cheese sandwich to your door with a two-pound pack costing $59.

Like everything at Augusta National, the club does not discuss money. That would be unseemly for one of the world’s most exclusive organisations but some golf industry experts estimate the merchandise store generates between $35-45 million in sales.

Everyone who passes through the Augusta gates must saunter past the store on way to the first tee and few can make the journey without pulling out a credit card.

While there is a growing secondary market for Masters merchandise, the vast majority of purchases are still made by golf fans who simply want a memento of their bucket list achievement.

Bill Henberson waited 30 years in the Masters lottery for a chance to attend golf’s first major, and marked the occasion by schlepping home three shirts, hats for grandchildren, a flag and a puzzle.

A group of four men said between them they had dropped roughly $2,100 on gifts for kids, friends — and themselves. Of course, with the 20 hats they had tucked into their shopping bags, there was more than enough gear to go around.

Another visitor walked away with T-shirts, hats, flags, magnets and cups, not bothering to look at the final cost.

“It’s the only time my husband doesn’t complain about spending,” Henberson’s daughter Jaima noted wryly.

(Additional reporting Amy Tennery. Editing by Ian Chadband)

Source: OANN

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Thai navy tows floating home of fugitive U.S. ‘seasteader’

A Royal Thai navy ship drags a floating home, lived in by an American man and his Thai partner, in the Andaman Sea, off Phuket Island in Thailand
A Royal Thai navy ship drags a floating home, lived in by an American man and his Thai partner, in the Andaman Sea, off Phuket Island in Thailand, April 22, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

April 22, 2019

By Panu Wongcha-um

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s navy on Monday began towing to shore the floating cabin of a fugitive U.S. citizen and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the “seasteading” movement who face possible death sentences for setting up their offshore home.

The cabin set on top of a spar 14 nautical miles off the Thai island of Phuket had been touted as milestone in the movement to build floating communities in international waters as a way to explore alternative societies and governments.

Authorities have revoked the visa of bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski, 46, and charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty, punishable by the death penalty or life in prison.

The Royal Thai Navy dispatched three boats on Monday to dismantle the structure and bring it back to shore for use as evidence in the government’s case against the couple.

“The couple announced on social media declaring their autonomy beyond the jurisdiction of any courts or law of any countries, including Thailand,” Rear Admiral Vithanarat Kochaseni told reporters, adding they had invited others to join them.

“We see such action as deteriorating Thailand’s independence,” he said.

HTMS Mannai, a landing craft utility ship, was expected to return to Phuket with the six-meter (20 ft) wide, hexagon-shaped cabin by late Monday.

Elwartowski and Supranee lived in the cabin for two months and left before the Thai navy raided the structure on April 13.

Their whereabouts are unknown, though the government has said the pair is believed to be in Thailand.

Elwartowski has referred requests for comment to Ocean Builders, which funded and built the cabin, and the Seasteading Institute, which advocates building offshore floating cities and originally received backing from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Ocean Builders said on its website the cabin was in international waters and beyond Thailand’s jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.

Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute, said the couple had achieved a milestone for the movement.

“They proved a single-family seastead can float stably in international waters for less than the cost of the average American home,” Quirk said in a statement.

Elwartowski also conducted valuable research on ecosystems over the two months the couple lived in the cabin, he said.

“You can demolish the seastead, but you can’t demolish the knowledge that was gained,” said Quirk, who is described by his group as a “seavangelist” and an “aquapreneur”.

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat. Editing by Kay Johnson and Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Leftists Call For ‘Modern Roof’ On Notre Dame That Conservatives ‘Will Hate’

Leftists have begun calling for the destroyed Notre Dame cathedral’s roof to be rebuilt with a modern “brand new design” to upset conservatives.

In an article entitled Give Notre Dame a Modern Roof the Alt-Right Will Hate, Daily Beast writer Erika Harlitz-Kern claimed Notre Dame represents a part of “white” Western Civilization, and therefore must be altered to reflect a global society.

“If you ask me, in honor of Notre Dame’s history, the new roof needs to be a brand new design, representative of today and not of the past,” Harlitz-Kern wrote Friday.

“In the eyes of those who promote the ideas of Western civilization and so-called Judeo-Christian values, the Middle Ages stand out as the ideal time period when Europe was a white society united in a homogenous Christian culture led by one single Christian institution.”

Harlitz-Kern said Western Civilization is actually not a European phenomenon, but the result of global influences.

“Such a view of the Middle Ages is inaccurate. In fact, what is considered to be European culture, in the past and today, is an amalgamation of impulses from all over the world.”

She then praised French President Emmanuel Macron’s government for holding a globalist competition for architects to present their modern design ideas for Notre Dame’s roof and spire.

“An acknowledgement of Notre Dame as the result of worldwide impulses across the centuries can be found in the French government’s decision to put out a global call for architects to participate in a competition to rebuild Notre Dame,” she wrote.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said the competition presents an “evolution of heritage” should they decide to modernize the 850-year-old church.

“The international competition will allow us to ask the question of whether we should even recreate the spire as it was conceived by Viollet-le-Duc,” Philippe said. “Or, as is often the case in the evolution of heritage, whether we should endow Notre Dame with a new spire. This is obviously a huge challenge, a historic responsibility.”

French conservatives, such as Marine Le Pen, expressed their outrage at the French government’s plan to modernize Notre Dame.

“Hands off Notre Dame!” she tweeted in French Thursday.

The left’s calls to alter Notre Dame shouldn’t be a surprise given they have no respect for history, especially if it’s related to “white” history, as evidenced by their desire to tear down Confederate statues, and even monuments of America’s founders like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.


Twitter: 

Although many people were recorded celebrating the Notre Dame fire online, the MSM is pushing the false narrative that conservatives are creating fake news. Paul Joseph Watson reveals the truth according to the facts as they unfolded.

Source: InfoWars

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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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U.S. President Trump departs for travel to Indianapolis from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Indianapolis, Indiana from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said trade talks with China are going very well, as the world’s two largest economies seek to end talks with a trade agreement to defuse tensions.

Trump said on Thursday he would soon host China’s President Xi Jinping at the White House.

Earlier this week, the White House said that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would travel to Beijing for more talks on a trade dispute marked by tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on North Korea this week following the Russian leader’s summit with Pyongyang’s Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump also said China was helping with efforts aimed at the denuclearization of North Korea.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Makini Brice; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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