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MLB roundup: Dodgers hit eight homers in historic win

MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers
Mar 28, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Joc Pederson (31) follows through on a swing for a two-run home run during the second inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

March 29, 2019

An Opening Day without Clayton Kershaw worked out just fine for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who crushed eight home runs and received six strong innings from fill-in starter Hyun-Jin Ryu in a 12-5 victory over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

Joc Pederson and Enrique Hernandez each hit two home runs as the Dodgers set a major league record for homers in a season opener and matched the club’s mark for any game. Los Angeles hit three home runs in the fourth inning and three more in the seventh.

Arizona starter Zack Greinke (0-1) took the brunt of the damage, giving up four home runs in 3 2/3 innings. He yielded seven runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Christian Walker hit a home run for the Diamondbacks and drove in two runs.

Greinke, the former Dodgers co-ace, has now given up 14 home runs in 34 innings at Dodger Stadium since joining the Diamondbacks before the start of the 2016 season.

Padres 2, Giants 0

Left-hander Eric Lauer and four relievers combined on a five-hit shutout and left fielder Wil Myers drove in both San Diego runs with a 456-foot homer and a single in a win over visiting San Francisco and Madison Bumgarner.

The win ended a run of four straight season-opening losses and put the Padres above .500 for the first time since June 9, 2015, when they were 30-29. Third baseman Manny Machado, signed to a 10-year, $300 million contract in the offseason, went hitless in three at-bats for the Padres.

The game also marked the major league debut of shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., who at 20 years and 85 days, is the youngest Padres player to start on Opening Day and the youngest major leaguer to debut on Opening Day since Adrian Beltre in 1999. Tatis was 2-for-3 in his debut, including a bunt single.

Rockies 6, Marlins 3

David Dahl went 3-for-4 and Trevor Story homered as visiting Colorado opened the season with a win at Miami.

Left-hander Kyle Freeland (1-0), who went 17-7 last season and finished fourth in the National League Cy Young race, earned the win in his first Opening Day start. He allowed just two hits, one walk and one run in seven innings, striking out five.

Dahl’s hit bounced off pitcher Jose Urena’s left leg in the second inning, but the Marlins pitcher (0-1) stayed in the game and allowed nine hits and six runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 innings.

Mets 2, Nationals 0

New York right-hander Jacob deGrom pitched six scoreless innings and Robinson Cano had a solo homer in the first inning and an RBI single in the eighth in a win over Washington in the season opener before a sellout crowd of 42,263 in Washington, D.C.

The reigning Cy Young winner, deGrom (1-0) was lifted after allowing five hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts. He threw 93 pitches, 59 for strikes.

The Nationals’ Max Scherzer (0-1) was lifted with two outs in the eighth in favor of Justin Miller, who came on with a runner on first and gave up a single to Mets rookie Pete Alonso, who got his first big-league hit. Scherzer gave up two runs on two hits with 12 strikeouts.

Brewers 5, Cardinals 4

Christian Yelich belted a three-run homer and Lorenzo Cain made a leaping catch for the final out as host Milwaukee defeated St. Louis in their season opener.

Mike Moustakas launched a solo homer and starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin (1-0) did the same to highlight his two-hit performance. Chacin overcame surrendering back-to-back homers by Kolten Wong and Harrison Bader in the second to toss 5 1/3 strong innings. Wong also homered to lead off the seventh, joining Albert Pujols as the lone Cardinals players to record a multi-homer performance on Opening Day.

Josh Hader struck out the side in the eighth on 11 pitches and fanned Dexter Fowler in the ninth before Jose Martinez’s towering shot to center field was caught as Cain extended his glove over the wall. Hader notched his first save.

Reds 5, Pirates 3

Derek Dietrich’s pinch-hit three-run homer in his first at-bat with Cincinnati helped open the season with a win over visiting Pittsburgh.

Reds starter Luis Castillo, leaning heavily on an effective changeup, pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up one run and two hits, with three walks and eight strikeouts. Zach Duke (1-0) pitched two-thirds of an inning.

Pittsburgh starter Jameson Taillon (0-1) lasted six-plus innings. He allowed four runs and six hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.

Phillies 10, Braves 4

Rhys Hoskins hit a grand slam, Maikel Franco homered and had three RBIs and host Philadelphia cruised to a win over Atlanta.

Andrew McCutchen opened the scoring with a solo home run for the Phillies. Prized free agent Bryce Harper, who signed a 13-year, $330 million contract, went 0-for-3 with an intentional walk.

Phillies starter Aaron Nola (1-0) allowed two hits and one run in six innings. He had some control issues as he struck out eight and walked five. Braves starter Julio Teheran (0-1) lasted five innings and gave up four hits and three runs while striking out seven before being lifted.

Mariners 12, Red Sox 4

Tim Beckham hit two of Seattle’s five home runs in a home victory over visiting Boston.

Boston allowed the most runs ever by a defending World Series champion in its season opener, according to ESPN, as Edwin Encarnacion, Ryon Healy and Domingo Santana also homered for Seattle, which improved to 3-0 after sweeping a two-game series against Oakland in Tokyo last week.

Mariners left-hander Marco Gonzales (2-0) got the win despite allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out four and issued one walk. Red Sox lefty Chris Sale (0-1) yielded seven runs on six hits in three innings. The seven runs matched the most Sale has allowed since joining Boston in a December 2016 trade from the Chicago White Sox.

Astros 5, Rays 1

Justin Verlander pitched seven strong innings, George Springer hit a three-run homer and visiting Houston opened the season with a win against Tampa Bay.

Michael Brantley and Jose Altuve each had two hits including a home run for the defending American League West champion Astros.

Verlander, the 2018 American League Cy Young Award runner-up, outpitched defending Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. In his 11th Opening Day start, Verlander (1-0) allowed a run on three hits with nine strikeouts and a walk over 102 pitches. Snell (0-1) lasted six innings, allowing five runs on six hits — three of them home runs.

Tigers 2, Blue Jays 0

Christin Stewart hit a two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning, Jordan Zimmermann allowed only a single in seven superb innings and visiting Detroit defeated Toronto.

Niko Goodrum led off the 10th with a double against Toronto reliever Daniel Hudson (0-1), the first extra-base hit of the game. Stewart followed with a home run on an 0-2 pitch, the fourth hit by the Tigers and only the sixth hit combined by both teams.

Victor Alcantara (1-0) allowed only a one-out single to Brandon Drury in the bottom of the ninth, his only inning.

Yankees 7, Orioles 2

Luke Voit hit a three-run homer and tied a career high with four RBIs while Masahiro Tanaka pitched effectively into the sixth inning as New York recorded a victory in its season opener over visiting Baltimore.

After homering 14 times in 132 at-bats last summer following a trade from St. Louis, Voit homered on the fifth pitch he saw from Andrew Cashner (0-1). Voit hit New York’s first homer of the season when he lifted a 3-1 slider 428 feet to straightaway center field on to the netting above Monument Park.

Tanaka (1-0) came into the game 0-2 with a 9.49 ERA in three Opening Day starts but encountered few difficulties, allowing two runs (one earned) and six hits. He struck out five, walked none and threw 56 of 83 pitches for strikes.

Royals 5, White Sox 3

Brad Keller made sure his selection as the Opening Day starter was rewarded, as he helped host Kansas City defeat Chicago. The start of the game was delayed by an hour and 46 minutes because of rain.

Keller (1-0) was almost untouchable. He pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and walking just one and striking out five.

Carlos Rodon (0-1) was nearly as good as Keller before he appeared to run out of gas in the sixth. He pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on just three hits. He walked one and struck out six.

Twins 2, Indians 0

Right-hander Jose Berrios allowed two hits over 7 2/3 innings and Marwin Gonzalez had a two-run double as Minnesota presented Rocco Baldelli a victory in Minneapolis over defending American League Central-champion Cleveland in his major league managerial debut.

Berrios, making his first career Opening Day start, walked one and struck out 10. The 10 strikeouts were an Opening Day record for the Twins.

Corey Kluber, tying the franchise record set by Stan Coveleski (1917-21) with his fifth consecutive Opening Day start for the Indians, no-hit the Twins for 5 1/3 innings before giving up a line double to Byron Buxton that one-hopped the fence in left. Buxton went to third on long fly out by Max Kepler but was stranded when Jorge Polanco popped to third.

A’s 4, Angels 0

Right-hander Mike Fiers allowed just one hit in six shutout innings and was supported by a two-home run attack as Oakland celebrated its Opening Day on U.S. soil with a victory over visiting Los Angeles.

Fiers (1-1), who was roughed up for five runs in three innings when the A’s opened with a 9-7 loss to Seattle in Japan last week, took a no-hitter one out into the fifth inning before Tommy La Stella crushed a double to center field.

Right-hander Trevor Cahill (0-1) took the loss, allowing all four Oakland runs on six hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked one, facing the team that employed him last season.

Cubs 12, Rangers 4

Javier Baez hit two homers and drove in four runs to lead Chicago to a season-opening win against Texas in Arlington, Texas.

Baez became the first Cubs player with a multi-homer game in the season opener since Corey Patterson in 2003. David Bote, Jason Heyward and Albert Almora Jr. also had two hits each, and Kris Bryant drove in two of his three runs with an eighth-inning homer for Chicago.

Cubs left-hander Jon Lester (1-0) went six innings, allowing two runs and four hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Texas left-hander Mike Minor (0-1) pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing six runs and five hits with three strikeouts and two walks.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Ukraine president holds 1-man ‘debate’ before runoff vote

With one week remaining until Ukraine's presidential election runoff, President Petro Poroshenko has come to the country's largest sports stadium for a proposed debate where his opponent didn't show up.

There also weren't any spectators in Kiev's Olimpiskiy Stadium, though a large crowd stood outside to listen to a broadcast of Poroshenko making a statement and answering journalists' questions. He stood next to an empty lectern bearing challenger Volodymyr Zelenskiy's name.

The event Sunday was the latest unusual scene in the race between Poroshenko and Zelenskiy, a comic actor whom polls show holding a commanding lead.

Zelenskiy, who's never held office, had challenged Poroshenko to a debate in the stadium two days before April 21 election, but Poroshenko wanted it to be held Sunday. Zelenskiy never agreed to the Sunday debate.

Source: Fox News World

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Tornado reported near weather service office in Kentucky

Weather officials in Kentucky say a tornado blew past their office Thursday morning.

The National Weather Service in Paducah tweeted, "TORNADO JUST MISSED OUR OFFICE IN WEST PADUCAH. TAKE SHELTER NOW IF YOU'RE IN PADUCAH!!!!" The tweet was posted about 9:30 a.m., Central Daylight Time.

There was no immediate word on any damage.

Weather forecasters say numerous severe storms are possible beginning Thursday afternoon in the Tennessee Valley region and as far south as the northern Birmingham area.

Video of the Kentucky tornado was posted on social media. Jared Borum filmed the forming cyclone as it moved across a field of trees in Paducah. Borum and a room full of others watched the funnel grow and whip across the field.

"It's amazing. See the debris? You can see it hitting the trees," Borum said on his recording.

People could be heard saying, "You can see the tornado right here," ''Oh my God," "What in tarnation" and "It's a legit tornado."

Officials said schools are closing early in north Alabama because of the severe weather possibility.

Forecasters say winds up to 60 mph are possible along with isolated tornadoes and hail.

The state is on the southern end of a storm system that pummeled the central United States.

Source: Fox News National

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UK wage growth at new decade high as employers hire in the face of Brexit

FILE PHOTO: City workers head to work during the morning rush hour in London
FILE PHOTO: City workers head to work during the morning rush hour in Southwark in central London April 16, 2014.REUTERS/Toby Melville

April 16, 2019

LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) – – British workers’ pay grew at its joint fastest pace in over a decade, fueled by further job creation, adding to suggestions that Brexit uncertainty is prompting firms to hire workers rather than make longer-term investment in equipment.

Total earnings, including bonuses, rose by an annual 3.5 percent in the three months to February, the Office for National Statistics said, matching the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

That was the joint highest rate since mid-2008 although in February alone the pace of wage growth slowed.

Average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, rose by 3.4 percent on the year, also in line with the Reuters poll.

It was the first fall in that measure of pay growth since the middle of last year.

Britain’s labor market has defied the approach of Brexit, helping households whose spending drives the economy.

However, the surge in jobs could reflect nervousness among businesses who have cut investment, making them more likely to hire workers who can be sacked in the event of a downturn in the economy.

The ONS said employment grew by 179,000 in the three months to February, in line with the Reuters poll forecast.

“The jobs market remains robust, with the number of people in work continuing to grow,” ONS statistician Matt Hughes said. “The increase over the past year is all coming from full-timers, both employees and the self-employed.”

The strength of the labor market is pushing up the official measurement of wages more quickly than the Bank of England has forecast, leading some economists to think it might raise interest rates once the uncertainty about Brexit lifts.

The BoE forecast in February that wage growth would slow to 3.0 percent by the end of 2019 as the economy feels the drag of Brexit uncertainty and a global slowdown.

It also forecast that Britain’s economy will grow at its slowest rate in a decade this year, even if it avoids the shock of a no-deal Brexit.

The pace of wage rises remains slower than the 4 percent increases seen before the financial crisis.

(Reporting by William Schomberg and Andy Bruce)

Source: OANN

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Biden Sorry For Being Creepy: ‘I Will Be More Mindful’ Going Into 2020

Democratic 2020 presidential frontrunner Joe Biden released a video apology Wednesday on Twitter promising to be less creepy to women in the future.

Biden pushed back against criticism of his history of unwanted touching of women and girls, saying he’s always given “gestures of support and encouragement.”

“Today I want to talk about gestures of support and encouragement that I’ve made to women – and some men – and I’ve made them uncomfortable. And I’ll always try to be, uh – in my career I’ve always tried to make a human connection. That’s my responsibility, I think,” he said in the video.

“I shake hands, I hug people, I grab men and women by the shoulders and say ‘you can do this.’ Women, men, young, old…it’s the way I’ve always been. It’s the way I show I care about them and I’m listening.”

The potential 2020 candidate continued to justify his behavior as showing “encouragement” and just being “who I am,” while carefully avoiding any mention of kissing women and girls, touching and smelling their heads and hair, and making suggestive comments.

“And I’ve said: shaking hands, hands on the shoulder, a hug, encouragement, and now it’s all about taking selfies together. Social norms have begun to change, they’ve shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset. And I get it. I get it,” Biden said.

Biden’s problems began after former Nevada assemblywoman Lucy Flores wrote a blistering op-ed detailing a 2014 encounter with the former vice president wherein he smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head.

Since then, social media widely mocked his creepy behavior, and several other women have come forward describing similar incidents with Biden.

The video release of Biden addressing his behavior directly signals that his campaign is desperate to shake off his touching controversy, but the damage may have been done, as some on the left and right in media have already either called Biden’s defeat, or are urging him not to run.


Source: InfoWars

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Cherono wins Boston Marathon by 2 seconds

Men's winner Lawrence Cherono of Kenya crosses the finish line ahead of Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia during the 123rd running of the Boston Marathon on the sixth anniversary of the 2013 Boston marathon bombings in Boston
Men's winner Lawrence Cherono of Kenya crosses the finish line ahead of Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia during the 123rd running of the Boston Marathon on the sixth anniversary of the 2013 Boston marathon bombings in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. April 15th, 2019. REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl

April 15, 2019

The 123rd Boston Marathon ended with a sprint to the tape Monday, as Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono edged Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa by two seconds in one of the closest finishes in the event’s history.

Cherono outkicked Desisa in the final steps of the 26.2-mile race, winning in his Boston Marathon debut in 2:07:57. Desisa was denied his third Boston title.

“It was something amazing,” Cherono said. “It was not easy.”

The women’s race had far less drama thanks to Ethiopia’s Worknesh Degefa, who led the last 22 miles and finished 44 seconds ahead of 2017 Boston winner Edna Kiplagat of Kenya. Degefa finished in 2:23:31.

“(My husband) said you have good speed, when you have comfortable, just go,” Degefa said through a translator.

The top American finishers in the men’s race were Scott Fauble and Jared Ward in seventh and eighth, respectively. For the women, Americans Jordan Hasay and 2018 Boston champion Des Linden were third and fifth.

Daniel Romanchuk became the first American to win the men’s wheelchair title since 1993. Just 20 years old, he also became the youngest Boston winner ever with a time of 1:21:36.

Manuela Schar of Switzerland won the women’s wheelchair race for the second time in three years, finishing in 1:34:19.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Go-Jek begins services in Thailand, says Philippine launch to be ‘pretty fast’: CEO

FILE PHOTO: A Go-Jek logo is pictured in the company's office in Singapore
FILE PHOTO: A Go-Jek logo is pictured in the company's office in Singapore, Nov. 29, 2018. REUTERS/Anshuman Daga/File Photo

February 27, 2019

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Indonesia’s Go-Jek has begun services in Thailand and is working toward entering the Philippines, founder and chief executive Nadiem Makarim said on Wednesday, as the ride-hailing firm continues to up its game against regional market leader Grab.

Go-Jek, a play on the Indonesian word for motorbike taxis, launched in Thailand under the brand GET and is building presence in the Philippines through a recent fintech acquisition, Makarim said.

The launch comes as Go-Jek and Grab raise billions of dollars and invest aggressively to secure market share in Southeast Asia, as more of the region’s 640 million consumers turn to smartphones to commute, shop and make payments.

Earlier this month, sources told Reuters that Go-Jek’s was valued at up to $10 billion after raising over a $1 billion in a funding round led Tencent Holdings Ltd, JD.com Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google.

But Go-Jek suffered a setback to its regional expansion last month when its application to start services in the Philippines was rejected on grounds that its domestic unit did not meet local ownership criteria.

Go-Jek subsequently announced the purchase of Philippine fintech company Coins.ph. The Indonesian firm was drawn by Coins.ph’s e-wallet and remittances services as well as its 5 million users, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

On Wednesday, Makarim said the acquisition meant Go-Jek had begun to develop a presence in the Philippines.

“We are present there, we just don’t have our mobility services launched as of yet,” he told reporters. “I can’t give you a firm (start) date, but knowing Go-Jek, it’s usually pretty fast.”

Launched in 2011 in Jakarta, Go-Jek has evolved from a ride-hailing service to a one-stop app allowing users to order and make online payments for products and services as varied as food and massages.

The firm started operations in Vietnam in September and began trials in Singapore and Thailand at the end of last year.

In Thailand, Go-Jek offers motorbike taxis, food and delivery services. Pinya Nittayakasetwat, chief executive of the Thai subsidiary, said Go-Jek will offer payment services “soon.”

Co-founder Kewin Aluwi in January said Go-Jek was evaluating other Southeast Asian markets including Malaysia. On Wednesday, Makarim declined to comment when asked whether Go-Jek planned to enter countries surrounding Thailand such as Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar.

(Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Writing by Fanny Potkin; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Joe Biden may have just stepped into the 2020 ring, but he’s wasted no time in throwing punches at President Trump.

Former Vice President Biden appeared on “The View” Friday in his first interview since officially announcing he is running for the White House on Thursday.

After batting away a softball opening question from host Joy Behar about why he took so long to enter the race, the ex-VP delivered what is likely to be his campaign’s major message.

Asked about the comment in his announcement that a battle is underway for “the soul of this nation,” Biden replied: “What I mean by that is we are not — this is not who we are the way we’re treating people. It’s not who we are as a nation when we’re talking about things like the reason for your problem is the other.

JOE BIDEN’S SENIOR ADVISER IN 2016: ‘WE DON’T NEED WHITE PEOPLE LEADING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY RIGHT NOW’

“It really is what I said and I really mean it and I wrote an article at the time in “The Atlantic” magazine when Charlottesville happened. This is not who we are. It’s about decency, honor, including everyone. The idea to compare these racists and not condemn them. Neo-Nazis — I don’t ever remember that happening in an administration in well over 100 years.

“I found myself thinking — by the way I travel around the world a lot as vice president and since then I have as well. The rest of the world — I mean, they look at us like my god — what happened to America?”

Behar then asked Biden how he plans to win over “blue-collar voters, a group that Trump won.”

“By making the case that we have to restore dignity to work. Think about this. The way we treat ordinary hard-working Americans who are middle class and working class people fighting to get in the middle class is we treat them like they’re a means to an end as opposed to an ends to themselves,” Biden said.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“Go out. When’s the last time we went out and thanked the guy who kept the sewer from overflowing into your basement. What about the woman up on a bucket reconnecting a connection?

“Think about what we don’t do guys. It’s all been about dividing. There’s a real opportunity, incredible opportunity if we just treat each other with more decency.

“My dad had an expression. He said, ‘Joey, a job is about more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity, it’s about your place in the community, it’s about your place in society and your self-worth. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say it’s going to be okay and mean it.’

“Think about how many people can’t do that today. This president has done nothing to help that group.”

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Biden’s appearance came after President Trump took a swipe at him in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night.

“I think we are calling him ‘Sleepy Joe’ ’cause I’ve known him for a while. Is he a pretty sleepy guy? He won’t be able to deal with [Chinese] President Xi, I will tell you. That’s a different level of energy and, frankly, intelligence. So I sort refer to him as ‘Sleepy Joe.’ A lot of people wanted me to change the word ‘sleepy’ to something else that rhymes with it,” Trump told host Sean Hannity. “I thought it was too nasty.

“He’s not going to be able to do the job.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Biden officially announced his candidacy in a video Thursday morning, going directly after Trump.

“If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen,” Biden said in the video.

Source: Fox News Politics

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A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City
FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

April 26, 2019

By Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co’s board has retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart to hunt for a new chief executive, ideally a woman who can tackle its regulatory and public perception issues, two people familiar with the matter said.

Wells Fargo’s ambition to become the only major U.S. bank with a female CEO underscores the need to restore its image with a wide range of constituents, including customers, shareholders, regulators and politicians, after it became mired in a scandal in 2016 for opening potentially millions of unauthorized accounts.

Former CEO Tim Sloan left abruptly last month, becoming the second CEO to leave the bank in the scandal’s fallout.

The board plans to approach Citigroup Inc’s Latin America chief Jane Fraser, one of the sources said. During Fraser’s 15-year tenure at Citigroup, she has gained experience running consumer and commercial businesses as well as its private bank.

Fraser could not be immediately reached for comment.

The board also discussed approaching JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Marianne Lake, but after the bank named her to run JPMorgan’s consumer lending business last week, that option became less viable, the source added. The board wants someone who can convince regulators, employees, investors and customers that the bank has fixed problems underpinning the sales scandal, the sources said.

The bank’s board feels that choosing a woman might please lawmakers in Washington who have been critical not only of Wells Fargo’s misbehavior, but of the broader banking industry for a lack of diversity and gender equality, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It also believes that such a move could bolster Wells Fargo’s image with the households of customers where women play a leading role in managing finances, one of the sources added.

The new CEO will also have to resolve litigation and regulatory matters. There are 14 outstanding consent orders with government entities, as well as probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

To be sure, Spencer Stuart will approach and consider several male candidates for the CEO job as well, one of the sources said. The top priority is to find an external candidate who can navigate the bank’s regulatory issues, the source added.

Finding an outsider who meets all those qualifications and wants the job will be difficult, the sources said. There are few people with the necessary experience, even fewer of those who are women, and it is not clear if any of the obvious candidates would be open to taking the role.

The sources asked not to be identified because Wells Fargo’s board deliberations are confidential.

Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and Spencer Stuart declined to comment.

Wells Fargo’s board has not made any public statements about its requirements for a new CEO, beyond Chair Betsy Duke saying the job should attract the “top talent in banking.”

The board wants to complete the search within the next three to six months, one of the sources said.

STALLED SHARES

After Sloan’s ouster, Wells Fargo’s board appointed Allen Parker, who had been general counsel, as interim CEO. The board has said it is looking for an external candidate as a permanent replacement. It is not clear whether Parker will stay at the bank.

Others whose names have been mentioned by analysts, recruiters and industry sources as perspective CEO candidates include Alphabet Inc finance chief Ruth Porat and Bank of America Corp’s chief technology officer Cathy Bessant.

Wells Fargo shares have stalled since Sloan’s departure on March 29th, while the KBW Bank index has rallied more than 7 percent.

Wells Fargo would be “the best stock on earth to buy” if it had the right CEO, said Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Indiana.

Donaldson held about 50,000 Wells Fargo shares, but sold the stake last year as problems mounted. The CEO change could convince him to re-invest, depending on who it is, he told Reuters.

“It would be very smart for them to get a woman,” he said.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra, Greg Roumeliotis and Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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