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House Dems demand info on Trump’s reported offer to ‘pardon’ acting Homeland Security boss

House Democrats are demanding answers from Kevin McAleenan, the newly appointed acting Homeland Security secretary, amid reports that the president offered to pardon him if he faced jail time for denying migrants entrance into the United States.

"We request that you promptly provide details concerning this reported directive to close the border and the related offer of a pardon," House Judiciary Democrats wrote in a letter sent to McAleenan on Tuesday. Warning that such a pardon offer would violate the Constitution, the Committee's Democrats demanded McAleenan identify DHS employees present during President Donald Trump's alleged comments.

Both Trump and a DHS spokesman denied the president engaged in any inappropriate conversations with McAleenan.

The letter linked to Friday's New York Times report, which cited three unnamed sources claiming that Trump directed McAleenan to close the border and offered to pardon him. Trump's alleged comments reportedly raised DHS officials' concerns, although one of the Times' sources said Trump could have intended his comments as a joke.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS DEMAND DOCUMENTS ON TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S 'BIZARRE AND UNLAWFUL' PROPOSAL TO RELEASE MIGRANTS IN SANCTUARY CITIES

Fox News has not confirmed rumors of the reported pardon. The group of Democrats, led by Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., portrayed the rumored offer as part of a broader pattern of misconduct on the president's part.

"The reported discussion between you, President Trump, and other Department personnel follows a troubling pattern of conduct that has emerged over the past two years that appears to demonstrate that President Trump views the pardon power as a political tool, or even worse, as an expedient mechanism for circumventing the law or avoiding the consequences of his own conduct," the letter read.

Tuesday's letter came amid reported turmoil at DHS when former Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen allegedly told the president his plans to close the border were illegal. Nielsen reportedly resigned after Trump told McAleenan, then commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, to ignore Nielsen's hesitation and close the border.

"I never offered Pardons to Homeland Security Officials, never ordered anyone to close our Southern Border (although I have the absolute right to do so, and may if Mexico does not apprehend the illegals coming to our Border), and am not 'frustrated,'" he tweeted on Friday. "It is all Fake & Corrupt News!"

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

According to the Times, DHS spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton similarly said “[a]t no time has the president indicated, asked, directed or pressured the acting secretary to do anything illegal.” “Nor would the acting secretary take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law," he added.

Trump and congressional Democrats have struggled for months to come up with a solution to the complicated legal and political situation at the southern border. The president recently proposed sending the influx of migrants to sanctuary cities, a plan that House Democrats blasted as an "unlawful attempt to score political points."

Source: Fox News Politics

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The Latest: Police at complex linked to California car crash

The Latest on eight people injured in Northern California after a car plows into them (all times local):

11:35 a.m.

Police officers are at the apartment in Northern California of a man that authorities say appeared to deliberately plow into a group of people, injuring eight.

Authorities have not identified the man who was driving the Toyota Corolla but officers on Wednesday were at an apartment associated with the car's owner in Sunnyvale, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of San Francisco.

Sunnyvale Police Capt. Jim Choi says investigators are still trying to determine a motive in the crash Tuesday evening. The FBI says it is assisting with the probe.

Choi says some of the eight people injured, including a 13-year-old girl, were at a corner or on the crosswalk when the car hit them before smashing into a tree.

The crosswalk reopened Wednesday morning.

___

7:30 a.m.

The FBI says it's assisting California officials in the investigation of a motorist who appeared to deliberately plow into a group of people, injuring eight.

Prentice Danner, a spokesman for the FBI's field office in San Francisco, says the Sunnyvale Police Department is the lead agency in the investigation. But Danner says that if it is determined a federal crime was committed, the bureau will become more involved.

Sunnyvale Police Cpt. Jim Choi says the driver of the car was arrested and has been identified but that his name is not being made public to avoid compromising the investigation.

___

6:30 a.m.

Authorities in Northern California say a man was arrested after he appeared to deliberately plow into a group of people, injuring eight, but that a motive is still under investigation.

Sunnyvale Police Cpt. Jim Choi tells KPIX-TV that witnesses told investigators the motorists was speeding and drove directly toward the pedestrians without trying to veer away or stop the car before striking the pedestrians Tuesday night.

Choi says some of the eight people injured were at a corner or on the crosswalk and that officials have to indication the motorists tried to avoid them. The department says the crosswalk remains closed Wednesday as officials investigate.

He says officials are looking into whether the driver was having a medical emergency or purposely hit the pedestrians.

___

12:00 a.m.

Authorities say eight people have been injured after a motorist appeared to deliberately plow into them in Sunnyvale.

The Bay Area city's Department of Public Safety says it happened Tuesday evening.

Eight people were taken to the hospital, including a 13-year-old boy.

There's no word on their condition or a motive for the apparent attack.

The driver was taken into custody after the car smashed into a tree.

KGO-TV reports that witnesses say the man apparently made no effort to stop before hitting the pedestrians.

Source: Fox News National

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Sunny Portugal: A gateway to Europe’s medical pot market

Worker smiles as she shows cannabis plants at the Tilray factory in Cantanhede
A worker smiles as she shows cannabis plants at the Tilray factory in Cantanhede, Portugal April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante

April 25, 2019

By Catarina Demony and Rafael Marchante

CANTANHEDE, Portugal (Reuters) – Famous for its roasted suckling pig and wines, the Portuguese city of Cantanhede now hosts the country’s first medical cannabis production farm – a budding European hub of efforts to meet growing demand for the flowering herb.

Portugal’s California-like weather caught the eye of Canada-based Tilray as its CEO Brendan Kennedy roved around Europe from 2015 to 2017 in search of the perfect spot for a new production site.

Kennedy said Portugal had the ideal climate for cannabis cultivation and the country’s young, educated workforce and its major agricultural sector were further attractions.

Covering 2.4 hectares (5.9 acres) in a biotechnology park just outside Cantanhede, Tilray’s site was given the green light by Portugal’s regulator Infarmed in 2017. The company then rushed to import its first baby plants and recently reported its first two successful cannabis harvests.Kennedy opened the site to visitors for the first time at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.

“Some of our competitors are located in Denmark and northern Germany, where there isn’t that much sun – so we think we can produce a more environmentally-friendly product here,” he told Reuters.

Portugal also offers tariff-free entry to the rest of the European Union, a market Tilray wants to explore further at a time when an increasing number of governments are legalising medical marijuana.

FROM PROHIBITION TO LEGALISATION

“The paradigm is shifting from prohibition to legalisation,” Kennedy said, with demand for the product growing. “I’m fairly optimistic that over the next two years we will see every country in Europe legalising it.”

Last year Portugal’s parliament approved a bill to legalise marijuana-based medicines, following in the footsteps of EU countries such as Italy and Germany as well as Canada and parts of the United States. Britain made a similar move in July 2018.

Tilray’s 20-million-euro ($22.29 million) facility includes indoor, outdoor and greenhouse cultivation sites, as well as research labs, processing, packaging and distribution sites for medical cannabis and cannabinoid-derived products.

Tilray supplies medical cannabis products with CBD and THC to patients in a number of countries, through subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Germany and Latin American, and through agreements with pharmaceutical distributors.

Earlier this year, the European Parliament called for an EU-wide policy on medical cannabis and properly funded scientific research.

“We are at point where almost every doctor around the world recognises the medical benefits of cannabis,” Kennedy said.

The World Health Organization has stated that several studies have demonstrated cannabinoids provide therapeutic effects for nausea and vomiting in the advanced stages of illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.

Moreover, a handful of regulated pharmaceuticals use chemicals derived from cannabis, such as GW Pharmaceuticals’ Sativex which is approved for treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

BOOST EXPORTS

From Canada, where Tilray has six facilities, the company already sells medical cannabis products to 13 countries. Portugal will help Tilray boost exports further, Kennedy said.

“Our business plan for this facility is focused on exporting products from Portugal to other countries around the world.”

In Europe, Tilray products are already available in Germany, Croatia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic but it expects to start exporting to the United Kingdom – and potentially to France, Italy and Greece – in the next 12 months.

Kennedy said Tilray hopes this summer to expand exports to countries such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

According to analysis firm Prohibition Partners, the EU cannabis market will be worth 123 billion euros by 2028.

Kennedy did not confirm how much medical marijuana Tilray plans to produce.

($1 = 0.8973 euros)

(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Rafael Marchante; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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McCabe: 'No one' in congressional leadership objected when told of FBI’s Trump probe

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said in a television interview Tuesday that he briefed congressional leadership in 2017 about the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation into President Trump, but claimed none of the lawmakers – including then-House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – objected to it.

“Did you order a counterintelligence investigation into the president?” NBC’s Savannah Guthrie asked McCabe, who is promoting his new book, on “Today.”

“I did,” McCabe replied.

TRUMP ACCUSES ROSENSTEIN, MCCABE OF PURSUING ‘ILLEGAL AND TREASONOUS’ PLOT AGAINST PRESIDENCY

McCabe went on to describe how, after Trump fired then-FBI director James Comey in May 2017, he briefed the so-called bipartisan “Gang of 8” congressional leaders about the FBI's decision to open a counterintelligence investigation to probe the president's relationship with Russia. Trump has repeatedly denied the accusation his campaign colluded with the Russians to win.

“The purpose of the briefing was to let our congressional leadership know exactly what we had been doing,” McCabe said.

Asked if anyone in Congress objected to the investigation, McCabe said, “I told Congress what we had done…no one objected. Not on legal grounds, not on constitutional grounds and not based on the facts.”

But one member of congressional leadership told Fox News on Tuesday that McCabe's claim is confusing, because by May 2017, it was already known that the FBI counterintelligence investigation into Trump and his campaign had begun nearly a year earlier.

In May 2017, however, the investigation was about to be turned over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In his book, McCabe details a meeting during that period with top lawmakers, during which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the appointment. It's unclear whether the meeting in question, then, went into greater detail about the nature of the investigation itself.

In addition to Ryan and McConnell, other top members of the "Gang of 8" included House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

MCCABE SAYS ROSENSTEIN WAS 'ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS' ABOUT SECRETLY RECORDING TRUMP

McCabe was fired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year after an inspector general report said McCabe lied about leaking to reporters about the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails.

Meanwhile, Trump on Monday accused McCabe and Rosenstein of pursuing an “illegal and treasonous” plot against him, after McCabe detailed private DOJ discussions about secretly recording and potentially ousting the president.

The alleged discussions have been a subject of fierce debate – and conflicting accounts – for months. But McCabe revived the issue during promotional interviews for his forthcoming book, telling CBS News' "60 Minutes" that Rosenstein was “absolutely serious” when he suggested recording Trump in the tumultuous days following Comey's firing as FBI director.

Trump seethed on Twitter over the comments, calling McCabe a liar before lashing out at top DOJ and FBI officials, including ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, for what he described as a “deranged” plan.

“He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught … There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous ‘insurance policy’ in full action!” he tweeted.

Rosenstein repeatedly has denied he "pursued or authorized recording the president" and also has denied McCabe's suggestion that the deputy attorney general had broached the idea of invoking the Constitution's 25th Amendment, which allows Cabinet members to seek the removal of a president if they conclude that he or she is mentally unfit. The Justice Department echoed both denials in a statement released last week, saying Rosenstein "was not in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment."

FORMER TOP FBI LAWYER: 2 TRUMP CABINET OFFICIALS WERE ‘READY TO SUPPORT’ 25TH AMENDMENT EFFORT

Yet McCabe said in the interview, "Rod raised the [25th Amendment] issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other Cabinet officials might support such an effort.” He added that he believed Rosenstein was "counting votes or possible votes" to remove Trump from office.

Fox News reported Sunday that former FBI lawyer James Baker, in his testimony to Congress, provided even more details about the alleged 25th Amendment discussions – saying two Cabinet officials were “ready to support” such an effort.

Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, Judson Berger and Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Defamation Lawsuit Means Trouble for Washington Post

Defamation Lawsuit Means Trouble for Washington Post

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

I’m the first to admit we live in an era of overzealous litigators, scratching for the next lawsuit like a dog with a bone, burying them with retainer fees and motions to exhaust a person into a pit of despair and bankruptcy.

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2020 Democrats slam Barr over Russia report handling, call on Mueller to testify

Democratic presidential candidates directed their ire toward Attorney General Bill Barr on Thursday as they blasted the law enforcement chief's handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, including the press conference Barr held moments before the report's release.

Many of the 2020 White House hopefuls accused Barr of mounting a defense of the Republican president ahead of potentially damaging revelations in the Mueller report.

MUELLER REPORT REVEALS BEHIND THE SCENES WHITE HOUSE DRAMA OVER SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE

One Democratic presidential candidate, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, went a step further -- calling on Barr to resign.

“The attorney general can represent the United States or he can be Donald Trump’s defense attorney. He can’t be both. And as we saw at this press conference today, the way that he mischaracterized the Mueller report, he is seeking to help Donald Trump. He should resign,” Swalwell told Fox News. “We need an attorney general who has credibility with the American people.”

Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, argued that the report spotlights “glaring vulnerabilities in our democracy” due to “the fact that so many Russians were able to get so close to a campaign, a transition, and an administration.”

And Swalwell stressed that “it’s now Congress’s job to hold the president responsible and investigate this Mueller report and hear first from Mueller.”

Four of Swalwell’s higher-profile rivals for the Democratic nomination – Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York – all quickly called for Mueller to testify in front of Congress.

“Barr is acting more like Trump’s defense attorney than the nation's Attorney General. His press conference was a stunt, filled with political spin and propaganda,” Harris wrote on Twitter.

“Americans deserve the unvarnished truth. We need Special Counsel Mueller to testify publicly in Congress.”

Klobuchar said in a video that “we want to hear from Director Mueller himself. Director Mueller should come to testify before the Judiciary Committee that I sit on.”’

“He should be able to give us his own views of what happened here so we can answer questions. He’s the one that conducted this major investigation and he’s the one – not Attorney General Barr – that should answer the questions of America,” the senator added.

Booker echoed those calls, saying on Twitter that “Mueller must testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as soon as possible. Congress & the American people need to hear directly from the person who authored the report.”

And Gillibrand, on Twitter, called for the release of the full, unredacted report.

“The Senate should hold public hearings on the investigation with major witnesses and Mueller should testify to his findings. And give Congress the full, unredacted report,” she urged.

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, also took aim at Barr.

“It's a disgrace to see an Attorney General acting as if he's the personal attorney and publicist for the President of the United States,” she wrote on Twitter.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Ebola is real, Congo president tells skeptical population

FILE PHOTO: A health worker wearing Ebola protection gear, walks before entering the Biosecure Emergency Care Units at the Alima Ebola treatment centre in Beni
FILE PHOTO: A health worker wearing Ebola protection gear, walks before entering the Biosecure Emergency Care Unit (CUBE) at the ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action) Ebola treatment centre in Beni, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, March 30, 2019. Picture taken March 30, 2019.REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

April 16, 2019

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi on Tuesday implored people in areas hit by the nation’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak to accept the disease is real and trust health workers.

Mistrust of first responders and widespread misinformation propagated by some community leaders has led many in affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to refuse vaccinations. Instead, they turn to traditional healers, whose clinics have contributed to the hemorrhagic fever’s spread.

“It is not an imaginary disease,” Tshisekedi said after arriving in the city of Beni on his first tour of eastern Congo since being inaugurated in January.

“If we follow the instructions, in two or three months Ebola will be finished,” he optimistically told a crowd after having his temperature taken and washing his hands, as required of all incoming passengers to Beni airport.

Congo has suffered 10 outbreaks of Ebola, which causes severe vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding, since the virus was discovered there in 1976. The current one has seen 1,264 confirmed and probable cases and 814 deaths since it was declared last August.

It is surpassed only by the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, in which more than 28,000 cases were reported and more than 11,000 people died.

Following a series of attacks on treatment centers by unidentified assailants in February and March, the current outbreak is now spreading at its fastest rate yet.

More than 100 cases were confirmed last week.

Tshisekedi, who won a disputed election last December to succeed Joseph Kabila, also called on Tuesday for the disarmament of dozens of militia that operate in the east and whose presence has complicated the Ebola response.

“The time of armed groups is over,” he said. “The new government is reaching out to these children of the country to surrender arms through disarmament programmes.”

(Reporting by Fiston Mahamba and Stanis Bujakera; Writing by Giulia Paravicini; Editing by Aaron Ross and Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

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) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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A man accused of fatally beating a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son had been previously deported from the United States five times, most recently in late 2016, immigration officials said.

Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, a 33-year-old Honduran national, has used multiple aliases, including the fake name of Jose Agurcia-Avila he gave police in Memphis, Tennessee, following his arrest in the boy’s death earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told WMC-TV.

ICE officials have since filed an immigration detainer against Zuniga-Aviles, who was initially deported back to Honduras in February 2010. He was also returned to the Central American country in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE NEW YORK POST

“ICE will seek to take him into custody to reinstate his removal order following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” the statement reads. “Mr. Zuniga-Aviles has been removed from the US five prior times: his most recent removal by ICE to Honduras took place in December 2016.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH CRIMINAL HISTORY ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA WOMAN’S MURDER

Zuniga-Aviles later returned to the U.S. following his removal, a felony under federal law, immigration officials said. It’s unclear exactly when he returned, but he was living with his girlfriend and the woman’s 4-month-old son in Memphis at the time of his arrest, WREG reports.

DAD OF MAN KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BLASTS CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TRIP TO CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

The infant, Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, was pronounced dead at a hospital from blunt force trauma to the head after his mother, Mercy Lizondro-Chacon, called police on April 12 to report that the boy was having trouble breathing, according to an affidavit of complaint obtained by the Commercial Appeal.

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This article originally appeared in the New York Post. For more from the Post, click here.

Source: Fox News National

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