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‘Tomorrow we’ll be in paradise’: Islamic State followers speak from besieged enclave

Man said to be IS militant, Abu Abd Al-Azeem, speaks in Baghouz
FILE PHOTO: A man said to be an Islamic State militant, Abu Abd Al-Azeem, speaks in Baghouz, Syria in this still image taken from a video obtained by Reuters March 12, 2019. Social Media Website/ReutersTV via REUTERS

March 12, 2019

By Lisa Barrington

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Even as it faced imminent defeat in its last populated territory in eastern Syria, Islamic State made a new propaganda film calling on the few remaining residents of its cold, besieged encampment to maintain their prayers and seek refuge in God.

“Servants of God, keep reciting your prayers and ask for forgiveness,” the loudspeaker of a beaten up van cries as it tours the ramshackle camp in the video. “Repent and ask God for forgiveness, oh servants of God, for perhaps the almighty will find a way out for us.”

The video’s tone is a far cry from the jihadist group’s earlier productions, which boasted of victories in taking over around a third of Syria and Iraq at its height in 2014 and summoned followers around the world to join a growing society.

While acknowledging its military setbacks in the face of a global campaign against it, Islamic State uses the new film to urge followers to maintain their faith in IS even in adversity.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said on Tuesday the assault to capture the besieged enclave of Baghouz, near the Iraqi border, was as good as over.

“Tomorrow, God willing, we will be in paradise and they will be burning in hell,” said an Islamic State member whom the video identified as Abu Abd al-Azeem, whose speech is peppered with Koranic recitations.

Though the physical “caliphate” it declared in 2014 is now in ruins, the video showed Islamic State has not renounced its claim to be the contemporary heirs to Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, sovereign over all Muslim lands and people.

“The infidels laughed at, humiliated us in this world, but war has its ups and downs and the battle is not over,” al-Azeem said, adding that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the only Muslim leader on earth today.

Azeem, wrapped in a thick winter cloak, sits on the ground around a steaming cooking pot. Next to him is a bored-looking boy of around 10 years old, peering out from a thick coat hood.

SIEGE

The SDF has been laying siege to Baghouz for weeks but repeatedly postponed its final assault to allow the evacuation of thousands of civilians, many of them wives and children of Islamic State insurgents. The attack resumed on Sunday, backed by coalition air strikes.

The video, uploaded to IS online channels overnight, shows a community living on farmland in rough dwellings made of blankets, tents, trucks and trailers.

Men eat soup-like food from pots cooking on outdoor fires, sitting on upturned buckets or on the floor. As thousands of people flooded out of Baghouz in recent weeks, many told of severe shortages, with people reduced to eating grass at times.

Azeem implores watchers not to focus on worldly conditions, suggesting those still in Baghouz were martyrs as he referenced part of the Koran that describes how a group of people were burned in a ditch because of their strong belief in God.

After its sudden advance across swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, Islamic State’s wholesale slaughter or sexual enslavement of minorities and its grotesque public killings roused global anger.

Al-Azeem says all IS wanted to do was apply God’s law.

“Why are we bombed by planes, why do all the nations of the unbelieving world come together to fight us? … What is our guilt? What is our crime? We (just) wanted to apply the sharia of God,” he said.

Titled “The Meaning of Constancy, from Baghouz”, the video is dated with the Islamic month of Rajab, which began on March 9, but it is unclear exactly when it was filmed.

Over the course of the video, dozens of men with faces wrapped in scarves, young boys and the occasional woman dressed in black robes are seen milling around the encampment.

A bustling main street in the enclave is lined with small trucks and tent structures. People make their way along the street by motor bike or on foot.

IS still operates in remote territory elsewhere in Syria and Iraq and it is widely assessed that it will continue to represent a potent security threat after the fall of Baghouz.

“Do not be afraid, brothers, be cheerful and have faith,” said a man the video called Abu Addallah. A black balaclava obscured all but his eyes, and he spoke with a North African accent.

(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelaty in Cairo and Laila Bassam in Beirut; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Q&A: The end of the Islamic State group's “caliphate”

The announcement of victory over the Islamic State group in Syria marks the end of the extremists' self-styled caliphate, a proto-state in which they held millions hostage to their dark and brutal vision.

But IS, which traces its roots back to the bloody emergence of al-Qaida in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, has survived past defeats and is already waging a low-level insurgency in areas it was driven from months or even years ago.

The grueling 4 ½-year campaign to drive IS from the territories it once held has left entire towns and neighborhoods in ruins, in both war-torn Syria and Iraq. If the long-standing grievances of Sunni Muslims in both countries continue to fester, the extremists could rise again.

___

WHAT HAS ENDED EXACTLY?

What is over is the Islamic State group's physical "caliphate," after the Syrian Democratic forces, a Kurdish-led group supported by the United States, declared on Saturday the capture of the last tiny patch of territory controlled by the militants at the village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria.

That domain once stretched over large parts of Syria and Iraq, which the group conquered in a blitz in the summer of 2014, capturing towns and cities, including Mosul, Iraq's second-largest. The fighters bulldozed berms along the border and proclaimed a contiguous caliphate stretching across a third of both countries. At its height, the territory was the size of Britain, stretching nearly to the northern Syrian town of Aleppo to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and home to 8 million people.

The extremists governed under a harsh and violent interpretation of Islam. They massacred those who resisted their rule and beheaded hostages including western journalists and foreign aid workers in gruesome videos circulated online. Alleged adulterers were stoned to death, those believed to be gay were thrown from the tops of buildings, and children were made to watch the atrocities as part of their brainwashing. The group captured thousands of women from Iraq's Yazidi minority, forcing them into sexual slavery.

IS also carried out the more mundane actions of a state — collecting taxes, printing school textbooks, minting its own currency and restoring public infrastructure. It was an experiment in statehood that not even al-Qaida ever tried on a significant scale.

From its de facto capital of Raqqa, in northern Syria, its leaders plotted spectacular attacks abroad, including the 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. As IS began to hemorrhage territory, it began opportunistically claiming attacks without any evidence of its involvement.

The self-proclaimed caliphate attracted tens of thousands of people from around the world, lured by the group's online activism and slickly produced propaganda videos. Young, troubled men were eager to wage war against those branded enemies of Islam, while others were drawn to the promise of life in an Islamic state governed by God's law.

That physical "caliphate" was declared dead, for now.

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WHAT IS THE COST OF LIBERATION?

The grueling four-year air and ground campaign against IS has killed or wounded tens of thousands of people, drove hundreds of thousands from their homes and left a swath of destruction stretching from the suburbs of Damascus to central Iraq.

The major cities IS once held — Mosul, Raqqa, Fallujah and Ramadi — have all seen major devastation.

The group put up fierce resistance nearly everywhere, using civilians as human shields and launching waves of car bomb and suicide attacks. As it slowly retreated, it left behind booby-traps and explosives that in many areas have yet to be cleared.

The U.S.-led coalition dropped tens of thousands of bombs over Syria and Iraq to help its allies on the ground advance, sometimes pulverizing entire city blocks. Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power battled IS in some areas, as did Iraq's state-sanctioned militias, with help from Iran.

The death toll from the campaign remains uncounted. In a report released last year, the coalition confirmed the deaths of 1,139 civilians in airstrikes conducted between August 2014 and November 2018. Rights groups say the number is much higher.

An Associated Press investigation found at least 9,000 civilians died in the assault to retake Mosul alone. In Raqqa, the U.S.-backed campaign killed hundreds of civilians and caused destruction on a massive scale.

Syria is still mired in civil war, and Iraq estimates it will need $100 billion to rebuild. Local leaders in Mosul say they need that much for their city alone. No one has offered to foot the bill, and hard-hit areas remain empty, even years later.

___

WHAT'S NEXT?

The official declaration of victory is of mostly symbolic value. Thousands of IS militants have dispersed and gone to ground, and U.S. defense officials have warned that IS could stage a comeback in Syria within a year if military and counterterrorism pressure is eased.

"They've cut the trunk of this malignant tree, but they haven't pulled up its roots, which are still capable of growing and spreading," Hisham al-Hashemi, a researcher in extremism and expert on IS, wrote in a Twitter post.

Activists who closely follow the conflict in Syria already point to signs of a growing insurgency and sleeper cells carrying out assassinations, setting up flying checkpoints and claiming roadside bombs in liberated areas across Syria and Iraq.

That insurgency could gain strength as President Donald Trump presses ahead with his planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria. The American commander overseeing the fight against IS, Gen. Joseph Votel, has warned that the group is far from being defeated, saying its leaders have dispersed and gone underground.

"What we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization but a calculated decision to preserve the safety of their families and preservation of their capabilities," he said earlier this month, adding that the insurgents are "waiting for the right time to resurge."

The withdrawal of American forces from eastern Syria would open the door for major turmoil as various actors — including the Syrian government, allied with Russia and Iran — race to fill the vacuum.

IS was all but defeated once before, when U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011; experts warn it could stage another devastating comeback.

And IS has established affiliates across Asia and Africa, and continues to be active in places like Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Yemen and the Philippines.

___

WHAT ABOUT DETAINED FIGHTERS AND THEIR FAMILIES?

Another major concern is jihadis finding their way back to Europe.

Around 1,000 foreign fighters are currently being held in Kurdish-run prisons in northern Syria. Their wives — many of them from Western countries — and their children are in camps in northern Syria.

Syrian Kurdish authorities are calling on countries to take back their nationals, saying they cannot afford to keep shouldering the burden. Trump has weighed in, calling on Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to repatriate their nationals and put them on trial.

"The U.S. does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go," he tweeted in February.

But few countries are willing to bring back people they view as a security threat, posing a dilemma for the Kurdish-led forces as the U.S. prepares to withdraw.

Source: Fox News World

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After years serving CEOs, Goldman’s Ayco also wants other workers

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Goldman Sachs (GS) is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Goldman Sachs (GS) is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, United States April 16, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 25, 2019

By Elizabeth Dilts

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc is expanding a financial advisory service for top executives to target millions of other affluent employees at some of the biggest U.S. companies, as it seeks to build its retail and wealth management businesses.

Goldman’s Ayco unit provides high-end tax and wealth advice to top executives at some 400 companies, including 60 Fortune 100 companies. According to the bank’s estimates these firms employ at least 8 million people and Goldman now wants them as clients, too.

Goldman began rolling out a new Ayco personal finance website for rank-and-file workers in October and has so far signed up 70 companies. By the end of 2019, the bank hopes to have signed up around 100 companies, which employ 2 million employees, Larry Restieri, the unit’s chief executive, said in an interview this month.

In recent weeks, it has also started pitching high-yield savings accounts and personal loans from its online bank Marcus through the Ayco website, Restieri added.

The rollout is the latest effort of the Wall Street trading and advisory firm to reposition itself as a traditional bank.

Goldman seeks to reach a wider customer base. Its trading business has been shrinking. In the first quarter, the bank’s corporate clients helped it grow mergers and acquisitions revenue but overall revenue slumped.

Chief Executive David Solomon must deliver on a target of $5 billion in new annual revenue by 2020 or risk getting squeezed by rival behemoths like JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp . [https://tmsnrt.rs/2H81K9a]

The bank took its first step toward that goal with the creation of Marcus in 2016. In March, Goldman announced a co-branded credit card with Apple Inc, which will connect it to hundreds of millions of iPhone users.

Expanding Ayco is the next step into the $9 trillion U.S. mass affluent customer market and offers the bank an opportunity to gain new clients cheaply.

The primary cost to the bank – developing the online platform – will be offset by fees companies will pay to offer the service to their workers, Goldman executives said.

Some investors fret Goldman is expanding into an area where it has little experience. They worry the bank is making $40,000 personal loans and extending credit card debt to iPhone users when the economy is showing signs of slowing.

Goldman thinks otherwise. Executives there say the Ayco expansion is part of a bigger plan, culminating with the launch of a retail wealth management offering later this year.

Restieri said it is too early to put numbers on the contribution the expanded Ayco could make toward Goldman’s $5 billion goal.

In November, the bank said that it was halfway toward meeting that target and that Ayco, along with private wealth management and asset management, had so far contributed $400 million.

ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE

Ayco’s website, called Financial Wellness, starts with an online questionnaire. Employees of corporate clients such as Google’s parent Alphabet Inc answer questions like, “Do you generally live within your means?” and “Do you have an emergency fund?”

After workers answer questions about their savings, credit card debt, student loans and other finances, Ayco offers what it calls solutions such as Marcus savings accounts, personal loans or products from other financial institutions.

Adoption rates are a question. One company that offered a financial incentive got as much as 60 percent of its employees to use Financial Wellness. Others have seen lower pick-up rates.

But as Ayco rolls out its mass-market offering, Restieri thinks it will benefit from brand cachet of having already served the bosses.

“When this offering is presented to employees, the top C-suite of those companies would have already been using us for 10-15 years,” Restieri said.

(Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; editing by Neal Templin and Paritosh Bansal)

Source: OANN

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Ukrainian ultra-right spray tear gas over lesbian gathering

Ultra-right activists in Ukraine have attempted to derail a lesbian conference in Kiev, engaging in scuffles with security guards.

Several dozen activists from ultra-right groups picketed a hotel hosting a European lesbian conference that opened Thursday. They tried to break through security cordons protecting the entrance and sprayed tear gas at the guards.

The assailants were holding placards "We are against gays" and "Go back to hell, sodomites."

One ultra-right activist, Margarita Korotkikh, said their goal is "to put pressure on the government and explain that heterosexuals are against LGBT propaganda."

Ukraine's ultra-right groups have become increasingly assertive, regularly assaulting gatherings by LGBT and women's rights groups. International rights groups have criticized Ukrainian authorities for failing to track down and punish ultra-right activists for acts of violence and intimidation.

Source: Fox News World

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Hannity battles Donna Brazile over 'Medicare for all,' Green New Deal in lightning round

Fox News' Sean Hannity faced off Tuesday night against former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairwoman and new Fox News contributor Donna Brazile in a wide-ranging policy debate that tackled several issues on which 2020 candidates have weighed in.

Hannity kicked off the lighting round with “Medicare for all,” something Brazile insisted isn’t “controversial.” She cited a poll that showed 56 percent of Americans support “some form of 'Medicare for all'” but also support the option of keeping private insurance.

On the subject of late-term abortions, Brazile told Hannity that the Democrats’ position is that “this is a choice that women should have a say in” and that they should have a “full range of reproductive health services.”

“I’m not a doctor and I’m not going to tell anyone what to do with his or her body,” Brazile said.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE GREEN NEW DEAL

She also expressed that the Green New Deal “should be debated” and that something should be done about climate change.

Brazile rejected Hannity’s assertion that “everything is gonna be free” under the Green New Deal, insisting that they’re “goals” that Democrats have been setting.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

She also said she believed in using “multiple methods” to secure the southern border, not just a border wall, and called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be reformed.

The former DNC chairwoman later defended House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., whom she called a “decent, honorable person.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Trump Hits GM: Reopen Ohio Plant, Close One in Mexico or China

President Donald Trump is escalating his pressure on General Motors, as he calls for the company to reopen an Ohio manufacturing plant.

Trump tweeted Monday that GM should: "Close a plant in China or Mexico, where you invested so heavily pre-Trump," and "Bring jobs home!"

Trump travels to politically important Ohio this week. Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that officials should start talks with the United Auto Workers immediately so that the Lordstown plant could be reopened or sold.

General Motors said in a statement Sunday that the future of plants scheduled to be closed "will be resolved between GM and the UAW." The automaker said that they had "opportunities available for virtually all impacted employees."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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CNN’S S.E. Cupp on Trump: ‘Beat Him at the Ballot Box’

A conservative host on CNN cannot reach liberal viewers without trumpeting for the ouster of President Donald Trump, but S.E. Cupp does it with a call to "beat him at the ballot box" – the way the U.S. Democracy intended – and not moving to impeach him.

"This president is unfit to lead," she said on CNN's "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered." "He has shown time and time again his utter disdain for democratic process, separation of powers, the law. He's got to go. But not by impeachment."

Cupp was pointing to the political attacks on President Trump from the Mueller report, which concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove a crime but passed the buck to Congress to decide the president's fate on potential impeachment proceedings.

"The reality is without bipartisan support for such a drastic and disruptive maneuver it will only rip us apart even further and that benefits Trump, not America," she said of impeachment. "Beat him at the ballot box.

"Beat him with ideas and policies. Beat him with an agenda that doesn't divide us further, that isn't just designed to piss off half the country or punish people who voted for him."

Cupp said toppling the president using "respect, hope, and optimism" should not be hard.

There has not been much in the way of respect, hope, or optimism for President Trump from his political opposition, particularly with an estimated $35 million Mueller report which features – for those critics – the most memorable conclusion being not "no collusion, no obstruction" but this line: "While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

Ostensibly, for President Trump's opposition: politically guilty because potentially not proven innocent criminally.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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“Outdated laws” need fixing to deal with the surge in illegal immigrant families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico, a top Border Patrol official said Friday.

Migrant families face no consequences if apprehended trying to cross the border illegally under present law, Border Patrol chief of Operations Brian Hastings claimed during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“We need a change in the current outdated laws that we’re dealing with for this current demographic and this crisis that we have,” he said.

Hastings said as of Thursday there have been 440,000 apprehensions along the southwest border. There were 396,000 apprehensions all of last year.

SOUTHERN BORDER AT ‘BREAKING POINT’ AFTER MORE THAN 76,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TRIED CROSSING IN FEBRUARY, OFFICIALS SAY

And those numbers continue to rise, he said.

Historically 70 to 90 percent of apprehensions at the border were quickly returned to Mexico, Hastings said.

Now, 83 percent of those apprehended have come from the Central American northern triangle which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and of those 63 percent are “family units” and children who cannot be returned, he said.

“There are no consequences that we can apply to this group currently,” Hastings said. “We’re overwhelmed. If you look at agents there doing a tremendous job trying to deal with the flow.”

The law dictates children have to be released after 20 days of detention.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says that has forced immigration officials to release entire families because “you don’t want to separate families.”

Recently, he said he is drafting legislation that would allow children to be detained for more than 20 days.

Hastings said agents are frustrated with the situation but are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Up to 40 percent of our agents are processing at any given time,” he said. “That should say that in and of itself is pulling from those border security resources.”

Source: Fox News National

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President Trump on Friday blasted liberal billionaire activist Tom Steyer for his continued push to impeach Trump — with Trump claiming Steyer is “trying to remain relevant” and doesn’t have the “guts” to run for the White House himself.

“Weirdo Tom Steyer, who didn’t have the ‘guts’ or money to run for President, is still trying to remain relevant by putting himself on ads begging for impeachment,” the president tweeted. “He doesn’t mention the fact that mine is perhaps the most successful first 2 year presidency in history & NO C OR O! [Collusion or Obstruction]”

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT BACKERS NOT GIVING UP AFTER MUELLER REPORT

Trump and his allies have pointed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report’s conclusions that there was no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and its decision not to make a conclusion on obstruction of justice as a vindication for the president.

But some Democrats and left-wing activists have pointed to the instances of possible obstruction of justice that the investigation looked into as proof of the need for more investigations or even impeachment proceedings.

ELIZABETH WARREN DOUBLES DOWN ON TRUMP IMPEACHMENT PUSH, SAYS IT’S ‘BIGGER THAN POLITICS’

Steyer has been one of the leaders backing a push to impeach Trump and founded “Need to Impeach” and has kept up that push since the report’s release. He announced on Thursday that he was calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to support impeachment proceedings.

On Friday he responded to Trump’s tweet, calling him “angry and scared.”

“I know you want it all to go away. But for the sake of the country you must face your transgressions. Rage away, but that anger doesn’t matter,” he said in a tweet. The truth and the people will prevail.”

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Impeachment hearings have been backed by a number of House Democrats, as well as 2020 presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. However, Pelosi has long been skeptical of impeachment proceedings against Trump.

“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in an interview last month. “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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A Florida measure that would ban sanctuary cities is set for a vote Friday in the state’s Senate after clearing its first hurdle earlier this week.

The bill would effectively make it against the law for Florida’s police departments to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

“The Governor may initiate judicial proceedings in the name of the state against such officers to enforce compliance,” a draft version of the Senate bill reads.

A House version of the bill, which passed by a 69-47 vote Wednesday, adds that non-complying officials could be suspended or removed from office and face fines of up to $5,000 per day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign off on the measure, although it’s not clear which version.

FLORIDA MAY SEND A BIG MESSAGE TO SANCTUARY CITIES

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state.

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state. (AP)

LAWRENCE JONES: NEEDLES, DRUG USE AND HUMAN WASTE ARE THE NEW NORMAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

Florida is home to 775,000 illegal immigrants out of 10.7 million present in the United States, ranking the state third among all states.

Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — already have enacted state laws requiring law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Florida doesn’t have sanctuary cities like the ones in California and other states. But Republican lawmakers say a handful of their municipalities — including Orlando and West Palm Beach – are acting as “pseudo-sanctuary” cities, because they prevent law enforcement officials from asking about immigration status when they make arrests.

“There are still people here in the state of Florida, police chiefs that are just refusing to contact ICE, refusing to detain somebody that they know is here illegally,” Florida Republican Rep. Blaise Ingoglia said earlier this month. “So while the actual county municipality doesn’t have an actual adopted policy, they still have people in power within their sheriff’s department or police department that refuse to do it anyway.”

Florida’s Democratic Party has blasted the anti-Sanctuary measures, while the Miami-Dade Police Department says it should be up to federal authorities to handle immigration-related matters.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“House Republicans today sold out their communities to Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis by passing this xenophobic and discriminatory bill,” the state’s Democratic Party said Wednesday after the House passed their version of the bill. “It’s abhorrent that Republican members who represent immigrant communities are now turning their backs on their constituents and jeopardizing their safety.

“Florida has long stood as a beacon for immigrant communities — and today Republicans did the best they could to destroy that reputation,” they added.

Fox News’ Elina Shirazi contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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The Amish population in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is continuing to grow each year, despite the encroachment of urban sprawl on their communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the county added about 2,500 people in 2018. LNP reports that about 1,000 of them were Amish.

Elizabethtown College researchers say Lancaster County’s Amish population reached 33,143 in 2018, up 3.2% from the previous year.

The Amish accounted for about 41% of the county’s overall population growth last year.

Some experts are concerned that a planned 75-acre (30-hectare) housing and commercial project will make it more difficult for the county to accommodate the Amish.

Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, told Manheim Township commissioners this week that some in the community are worried about the development and the increased traffic it would bring.

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Information from: LNP, http://lancasteronline.com

Source: Fox News National

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