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Obama Talks Race, Values at Town Hall

The Trayvon Martin shooting required us as a society to "wake up," former President Barack Obama told a wide-ranging panel discussion on race, values, pop culture, wealth, and stereotypes Wednesday in Oakland, California, The Washington Post reports.  

"As somebody who is the head of federal law enforcement, I could not comment on the particulars of the case, but what I could say was that Trayvon could have been my son," Obama said alongside Golden State Warrior basketball star Steph Curry.

"It required us as a society to wake up and find ways in which we could come together and say to all of our young people, but particularly young men of color who on a whole bunch of indicators were having a more difficult time in this society for a whole range of historical reasons, we had to say you matter," he added.

The event was held to mark the fifth anniversary of My Brother's Keeper, an initiative Obama started after Martin's shooting in 2012. Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida.

Obama also stressed treating women with respect and criticized flaunting wealth.

"We live in a culture where our worth is measured by how much money we have and how famous we are," he told a crowd of mostly young black men. "I will tell you, at the end of the day, the thing that will give you confidence is not that. I know a lot of rich people that are all messed up!"

Source: NewsMax America

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South African opposition party vows to create jobs, fight graft in manifesto

Leader of South African opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Mmusi Maimane arrives for the party's election manifesto launch in Johannesburg
Leader of South African opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Mmusi Maimane arrives for the party's election manifesto launch in Johannesburg, South Africa, February 23, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

February 23, 2019

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), launched its manifesto for May’s general elections on Saturday with pledges to create jobs and set up an anti-corruption unit.

The DA faces a resurgent ruling African National Congress (ANC) under new President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has also vowed to root out graft and boost growth in Africa’s most industrialized economy..

The ANC has comfortably won every parliamentary election since it swept to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994 and the DA has made ruling South Africa a long-term ambition.

Still, corruption is perceived as a weakness for the ANC after years of rule by former President Jacob Zuma, who was removed from the presidency last year by the ANC after years of corruption probes. He denies any wrongdoing.

“The South Africa I want to build will have no place for corruption and corrupt politicians,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane told supporters at the party’s manifesto launch in Johannesburg.

He said his party would have “zero tolerance for corruption” and wanted to see corrupt politicians spend 15 years in jail.

The DA, which has roots among white liberals from the anti-apartheid era, elected its first black leader in 2015 to widen its appeal among voters, and improved its national credentials by winning control of three major cities in 2016.

Maimane also outlined manifesto pledges to create jobs by offering tax incentives to encourage new business and maximize the manufacturing, agriculture and tourism sectors to build the economy.

“If we can put a job in every home we can transform our society,” said Maimane

The unemployment rate, which is at more than 27 percent, is a politically sensitive issue in South Africa especially ahead of national elections this year.

(Writing by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Helen Popper)

Source: OANN

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Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think

Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think

Chicago Police Department via AP

This week Chicago police charged television star Jussie Smollett for disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. Smollett claimed to be the victim of a racist and homophobic attack on January 29, but in the days before the arrest it became clear that police believed Smollett had hired two men to attack him. 

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Alex Jones Releases Raw Video of Leftist Attack in Austin Texas

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Venezuela gets fuel from Russia, Europe but the bill soars

FILE PHOTO: An oil pumpjack and a tank with the corporate logo of state oil company PDVSA are seen in an oil facility in Lagunillas
FILE PHOTO: An oil pumpjack and a tank with the corporate logo of state oil company PDVSA are seen in an oil facility in Lagunillas, Venezuela January 29, 2019. REUTERS/Isaac Urrutia/File Photo

February 21, 2019

By Marianna Parraga, Natalia Chumakova and Ron Bousso

MEXICO CITY/MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) – Venezuela is paying heavy premiums for fuel imports from Russia and Europe, with fewer than a dozen sellers seeing the risk as worth the reward after flows from the United States dried up because of sanctions, trading sources said and data showed.

The South American nation exports crude but its refineries are in poor condition – hence the need to import gasoline and diesel for petrol stations and power plants, as well as naphtha to dilute its heavy oil.

Since the United States imposed fresh sanctions on Venezuela on Jan. 28, products supplies have mainly come from Russian state oil major Rosneft, Spain’s Repsol, India’s Reliance Industries and trading houses Vitol and Trafigura, according to sources and vessel-tracking data.

Russia has been a traditional political backer of Caracas, while India and Spain also have long-standing trade ties. But supplies even from those allies are coming at a cost.

“The prices they are charging us are horrifying,” said an executive at Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA who is familiar with recent purchases.

The executive said the heavy premiums were partially due to the fact that single cargoes passed through several hands before reaching Venezuelan ports and also involved complex and expensive ship-to-ship transfers.

A trader involved in one fixture said shipowners were now charging a fee of up to 50 cents per barrel to Venezuela versus 15-20 cents before sanctions.

Last year, Venezuela imported most products from the United States with the main providers being PDVSA’s own U.S. subsidiary Citgo Petroleum and a U.S. unit of India’s Reliance.

Monthly supplies fluctuated but in December alone PDVSA imported almost 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of fuel as its domestic refineries worked at just below a third of its 1.3-million-bpd capacity, according to PDVSA data.

Imports have fallen to some 140,000 bpd of gasoline, diesel, naphtha and other fuels since the end of January, Refinitiv Eikon data shows.

In addition, at least 13 cargoes carrying 5 million barrels of various fuels are heading to PDVSA’s terminals or waiting in Venezuelan waters to discharge, according to shipping sources and Eikon data.

TO THE RESCUE

The new U.S. sanctions, aimed at forcing out Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, bar U.S. oil dollars from flowing to Venezuela.

However, the sanctions were later clarified, allowing U.S. persons to purchase and engage in swaps and non-cash deals for petroleum and petroleum products with PDVSA until April 28 in a move aimed at easing flows and averting a fuel crisis.

But even though the clarification meant Washington was still allowing fuel supplies to PDVSA, sellers have been scarce so far.

From Russia, Vitol and Trafigura are taking fuel from the ports of Ust-Luga and Taman to the Caribbean island of Aruba, where PDVSA’s unit Citgo operates an oil terminal, according to shipping sources and Refinitiv Eikon data.

Vitol is bringing 30,000 tonnes of Rosneft-produced gasoil in the Orient Challenge vessel, while Trafigura chartered the Elandra Fjord to ship 37,000 tonnes of gasoline produced by Russian oil firm Surgutneftegaz.

Rosneft is also lifting 60,000 tonnes of naphtha in a ship-to-ship transfer off Cyprus, Refinitiv Eikon data shows.

Reliance has booked the 500,000-barrel tanker Albiani to ship naphtha from northwest Europe. Repsol chartered several gasoline cargoes as part of a swap deal for Venezuelan crude with PDVSA, sources said.

PDVSA, Rosneft and Reliance did not reply to requests for comment. Surgutneftegaz declined to comment. Vitol and Repsol said they fully complied with all legislation and sanctions.

“We continue to closely monitor events on a cargo-by-cargo basis,” a Repsol spokesman said.

Trafigura declined to comment. The trading house will stop business with PDVSA after completing a small number of already-concluded trades, sources have said.

PDVSA’s president Manuel Quevedo traveled to India last week to secure larger sales of Venezuelan oil to refiners as his country needs to divert up to 500,000 bpd of crude once bought by U.S. customers.

Executives from Rosneft have traveled to Venezuela in recent weeks for talks, industry sources said. Rosneft is a major lender to PDVSA and co-owns oil projects in the country.

Some Venezuelan petrol stations have been receiving insufficient fuel from PDVSA in recent weeks, so scarcity of supply has worsened in regions including the south of the country and the Andean states. Venezuela has so far, however, avoided a full-blown fuel crisis.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City, Ron Bousso, Julia Payne and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, Natalia Chumakova, Olga Yagova, Katya Golubkova and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Isla Binnie in Madrid and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Dale Hudson)

Source: OANN

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Man charged with threat to murder Muslim U.S. Representative

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Omar arrives for NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg address to a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) looks on prior to an address by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

April 6, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A 55-year-old New York man has been arrested and charged with threatening to murder Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, a freshman U.S. Congress member from Minnesota who is a Muslim, federal prosecutors said.

Patrick Carlineo Jr. of Addison, New York, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday in a statement.

According to prosecutors, Carlineo spoke by telephone with one of Omar’s staff members on March 21 and asked the employee: “Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she’s a (expletive) terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her (expletive) skull.”

The threat was referred to the U.S. Capitol Police who launched a probe in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department said.

Carlineo made an initial court appearance on Friday and is being held pending a detention hearing on April 10.

Spokespeople for Omar, one of the two first Muslim women elected to Congress, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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Canadian family drives home from Florida with dead body to avoid US health care costs, reports say

A Canadian family decided to keep driving when its 87-year-old patriarch died in the backseat of their car while returning home from a Florida vacation last month to avoid paying for U.S. health care, reports said.

When Fernand Drapeau’s wife and son reached the U.S.-Canada border on March 31, authorities stopped and searched the car. Inside they found Drapeau, who appeared to have died from a heart attack at least a day before arriving at the border, the Vancouver Sun reported.

FLORIDA MAN THREATENED TO DESTROY TOWN WITH ARMY OF TURTLES: POLICE

The family cited the high cost of U.S. health care, plus the cost of shipping the body back to Quebec as the reason for not stopping at a hospital, CTV News reported.

Border officials said it was the first time that such an incident has occurred.

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No charges have yet been filed in the case. Authorities are continuing to investigate.

Source: Fox News National

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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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