FILE PHOTO: Canada Tennis - Canada v Chile - Davis Cup Playoff - Halifax, N.S. Canada-18/9/16 - Chile's Christian Garin in action against Canada's Denis Shapovalov during their singles match. REUTERS/Tim Krochak
April 14, 2019
(Reuters) – Chilean Christian Garin powered past eighth seed Sam Querrey to make his second ATP Tour final at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston on Saturday.
Garin, who beat Querrey 7-6(2) 6-2, will play Casper Ruud in Sunday’s final after the Norwegian defeated Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan 7-5 6-2.
Querrey was the last remaining seed but the American could not hold off Garin in the first set and was overwhelmed in the second.
The 22-year-old Chilean was two points from losing the opening set at 5-6, but held serve and cruised through the tiebreak.
Garin remained dominant on serve in the second set, winning 16 of 19 service points as Querrey’s forehand failed him.
“The conditions today were slow and windy, which is really good for me,” Garin told reporters. “I was really focused in the second set and I think he was a bit tired in the end, but I’m playing really well.”
The Chilean made his first ATP Tour final last month at the Brasil Open and is projected to move inside the top 50 if he wins on Sunday.
Galan came into his semi having just wrapped up his rain-delayed quarter-final against Jordan Thompson. The match resumed in the third set and Galan got the better of the seventh-seeded Australian to win 6-1 4-6 6-4.
He then got off to a fast start against Ruud, who needed a medical timeout after three games to work on his neck.
But Ruud rebounded by winning 11 of the last 13 games, breaking Galan four times en route to the win and sealing his spot in the final.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Pritha Sarkar/Peter Rutherford)
Women stand in line to get fuel at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho/File Photo
April 18, 2019
GENEVA (Reuters) – A senior United Nations relief official called on governments on Thursday to help resolve the fate of 2,500 foreign children being held among 75,000 people at al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State’s last stronghold.
“Children should be treated first and foremost as victims. Any solutions must be decided on the basis of the best interest of the child,” Panos Moumtzis, U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, told a Geneva briefing.
Solutions must be found “irrespective of children’s age, sex or any perceived family affiliation”, he said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Gareth Jones)
The rate of medical visits due to the flu is double the baseline 2.2 percent, recording a 4.4 percent for the week ending March 16, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports. It is the highest mark this late in the year since the CDC began recording the data 20 years ago.
"The CDC expects flu activity to remain elevated for a number of weeks, suggesting this season is likely to be relatively long," according to the report, per USA Today. ". . . Flu activity is expected to remain elevated nationally through April."
The flu season generally runs from October to May, and 44 states have widespread flu reports, while 26 are reporting high activity.
"Influenza-like-illness levels have been at or above baseline for 17 weeks this season," CDC reported. "By this measure, the last five seasons have averaged 16 weeks, with a range of 11 to 20 weeks."
Flu symptoms include: stuffy nose, fever, cough, muscle or body aches, headaches, and tiredness.
There have been 76 flu-related pediatric deaths nationwide, according to the report.
Recent allegations of former Vice President Joe Biden’sinappropriate touching of women dominated political headlines for most of last week, but a new poll indicates voters in one of the country's largest states don't consider it a serious issue.
A Quinnipiac University public opinion survey of California voters also suggests that Biden – who’s likely to launch a White House bid in the coming weeks – is the leader of the pack in the Golden State among the large field of contenders vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Two-thirds of voters questioned in the live operator survey – including 67 percent of women, 71 percent of Democrats, and even 55 percent of Republicans - said the controversy was not a serious issue.
"'Let Biden be Biden,' say California voters, clearly unconcerned about former Vice President Joe Biden's tactile embrace of supporters," Quinnipiac Polling assistant director Tim Malloy said. "But there is one noticeable generational split. The youngest of voters are far more inclined to say, 'hands off.'"
Biden’s well publicized and decades long affectionate brand of physical politics was thrust into the spotlight nearly two weeks ago, thanks to allegations from 2014 Nevada Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Lucy Flores. She said in an essay published in New York Magazine that Biden made her feel "uneasy, gross, and confused" at a campaign rally when she said he kissed her on the back of the head. Her claims quickly went viral and became a top cable news story for a week.
In the ensuing days, six other women came forward to recount similar physical encounters with Biden that they said made them feel uneasy.
Those accounts were countered by dozens of testimonials from women – ranging from former Biden staffers to lawmakers – who said they had always viewed the former vice president as supportive.
Speaking with reporters last Friday, the former vice president stressed, “I’m sorry I didn’t understand more. I’m not sorry for any of my intentions. I’m not sorry for anything I’ve ever done. I’ve never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman.”
And Biden explained that "it is incumbent on me and everybody else to make sure that if you embrace someone, if you touch someone, it’s with their consent, regardless of your intentions."
According to the poll, 26 percent of likely Democratic presidential primary voters in California say they would support Biden as their party’s nominee, with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in second place at 18 percent. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the state’s former attorney general, was a percentage point behind Sanders, at 17 percent.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg stood at seven percent, with Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former San Antonio mayor and former Health and Human Services secretary Julian Castro each at two percent. Everyone else in the large field of 2020 contenders registered at one percent or less.
Thirty-five percent of Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents said Biden had the best chance of beating Republican President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election, and 31 percent said Biden would be the best leader.
California is playing a more influential role in the 2020 nominating process, thanks to a move by the state to push it’s primary up to early March. California will be the largest of the 12 states scheduled to vote on March 3, 2020, directly after the early voting primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted April 3 - 8, with 1,005 California voters question. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, with 5.9 percentage plus or minus margin of error for questions of likely Democratic primary voters.
A 27-year-old Moroccan migrant confessed to the murder of 33-year-old Italian Stefano Leo, saying that he killed Leo because “he looked happy”.
Said Mechaout slit Leo’s throat during a brutal attack on 23 February of this year in Turin.
He later told authorities that Leo’s pleasant demeanor had been the only trigger needed for the murder.
“I am the murderer of Stefano Leo. I have to turn myself in,” said Mechaout. “I feel hunted by the Carabinieri. I don’t want to commit other crimes. Among all the people who were passing, I chose to kill this young man because he looked happy. And I chose to kill his happiness.”
Leo (pictured above) probably “looked happy” because he had recently returned from spending two years with a Hare Krishna community in Australia and described himself as a “pacifist”.
The killer said he decided to kill someone that morning and emphasized that he specifically targeted Leo because of his smiling face.
“I decided I would have to kill someone,” said Mechaout. “I went to buy a set of knives, then threw away all but the sharpest. Then I went to Murazzi and waited. When I saw that guy I decided I couldn’t bear his happy look.”
“I saw him, he looked at me and I thought that he should suffer like me. I cut his throat with my knife,” he added.
Quite how Mechaout was ‘suffering’ is unknown. Perhaps he took Leo’s smiling face as a racist microaggression.
Around 8% of all illegal immigrants living in Italy are Moroccan. More Moroccans have arrived in Europe since the “refugee” wave accelerated four years ago.
Last year, two female Scandinavian hikers were raped and beheaded by ISIS followers in Morocco. One of the girls had previously posted a video on her Facebook page protesting against “Islamophobia”.
FILE PHOTO: Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in a counting machine while a clerk counts them at a branch of a commercial bank in Beijing, China, in this March 30, 2016 file picture. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
April 4, 2019
By Vivek Mishra
BENGALURU (Reuters) – The Chinese yuan will hold on to its recent gains against the dollar, and likely make a modest push forward from current levels over the coming year, as optimism about a U.S.-China trade deal offsets anxiety over weak domestic economic growth, a Reuters poll showed.
Having slumped about 6 percent versus the dollar in 2018, with analysts wagering in early January of a move toward 7 per dollar by mid-year, the yuan has defied pressure and gained around 2.5 percent this year.
That rebound was largely driven by progress in trade talks between Washington and Beijing and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) setting consistently higher mid-point reference rates.
The yuan was expected to gain 0.6 percent to 6.66 per dollar in a year, from about 6.70 on Wednesday, according to the latest poll of over 60 foreign exchange strategists taken over the past week.
That is a modest upgrade to last month’s forecast.
“Trump’s backing away from tariff escalation, previously implicit in our forecasts, means our USD/CNY projections have to be lower,” noted Cliff Tan, East Asian head of global markets research at MUFG.
Market watchers have shifted their attention to the latest round of negotiations being held in Washington after both sides cited progress in discussions in Beijing last week.
“There will be a currency component in any ultimate U.S.-China trade deal and FX markets initially took that to mean USD/CNY has become a one-way bet – stronger yuan. But too strong a yuan may also make for awkward future currency diplomacy,” Tan said.
Expectations for a stronger yuan are also partly driven by changing fortunes for the dollar.
The dollar’s outlook darkened after the Federal Reserve last month abandoned projections for further interest rate hikes this year on signs of an economic slowdown.
That could help unwind last year’s slide in emerging market currencies.
“The end of the Fed’s tightening cycle now appears to be more clearly in sight, and indeed there is some risk it has already been reached. Overall, evolving Fed policy should become an increasing headwind for the U.S. dollar, and an increasing tailwind for the renminbi,” said Erik Nelson, currency strategist at Wells Fargo.
Forecasts in the latest poll showed a complete shift from a January survey when a majority of strategists had predicted the yuan to have breached or to trade at 7 per dollar by mid-year.
In the latest poll analysts were mostly optimistic on the yuan and only four respondents still forecast it to reach 7 per dollar or weaker over the coming year, attributing that pessimism to an economic slowdown and more policy easing.
“We are extremely concerned about the ability of the Chinese economy to keep stimulating growth without a significant weakness in the value of the exchange rate,” said Jane Foley, head of FX strategy at Rabobank who predicted the yuan to hit 7 per dollar rate by end-Sept.
“Trade deal might give some short-term celebration, but again in order to keep the economy growing at the sort of rate, that the government wants it to, then it is reasonable to assume that the yuan will slide below 7,” said Foley, who was the most accurate foreign exchange forecaster on major currencies in Reuters polls last year.
(Polling by Khushboo Mittal; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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)
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)
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)
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.
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.
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