The announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that she was opposed to impeaching the president unless something unexpected and mortally damaging to him arises, has almost unimaginably transformed her into a force for good sense in Congress.
MSNBC’s ‘national security contributor’ declared Monday that President Trump’s recent dismissal of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, as well as other officials equates to “workplace violence.”
Appearing on Deadline, Frank Figliuzzi suggested there is a “possible analogy between what we’re seeing in the president and studies of violence and acting out, particularly workplace violence.”
Figliuzzi added that Trump’s negative attitude indicates a “pathway to violence.”
“When people say to him, ‘The law or policy is such and such and we would be violating the Constitution or the law,’ and he simply dismisses it and fires people and keeps doing it, are we essentially watching a workplace violence incident play out at the highest level of our government?” Figliuzzi stated, posing the comment as a question.
“Is he acting out now and where does this go if I’m right about that?” he added.
Figliuzzi’s pseudo psycho-analysis continued as he suggested that immigration is a ‘flash point’ that sets Trump off.
“When we see people using language of despondency, lashing out, blaming others, obsessive compulsive attachment to one issue and the inability to get off it—in that case it would be the border, security on the border and immigration—the question we have to ask ourselves from a behavioral sense is: Are we watching a president essentially on his way to what we call a flash point, and are we now beginning to see him act out in the form of purging and mass firing and completely not listening to any logic?” he asked.
Or, instead of this psycho-conspiracy theory logic, could it simply be that Trump dismissed Nielsen and others because they were not doing the best job that can be done in the situation?
Isn’t it the President’s job to ensure his officials are doing the best job for the good of the country?
Figliuzzi has repeatedly suggested Trump is ‘violent’ in this sense. He previously used the analogy when commenting on Trump’s disagreements with White House aide Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway, who routinely verbally attacks the President on Twitter.
This is yet another classic example of leftist Trump derangement syndrome, where anything Trump says or does is immediately equated to violence, racism, or misogyny in an effort to obstruct his Presidency.
A general view shows cars near a bar La Playa Men's Club where at least 13 people were killed and another seven wounded in a shooting at a bar early on Saturday in the city of Salamanca, Mexico March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Jesus Lara
March 9, 2019
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – At least 13 people were killed and another seven wounded in a shooting at a bar early on Saturday in Mexico’s violence-wracked Guanajuato state, local media reported.
It was not immediately clear who committed the crime. Before sunrise, a group of armed men pulled up in three vans at the La Playa Men’s Club in the city of Salamanca, burst into the premises and opened fire, local media reported.
Powerful oil theft gangs have stolen vast quantities of fuel from Salamanca’s oil refinery. This week President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a major offensive to capture local gang leader Jose Antonio Yepez, known as “El Marro.”
A video taken after the shooting from the street near the bar showed a line of police vehicles. A woman wailed uncontrollably in the background as an ambulance drove into the area.
Salamanca lies in Guanajuato state, part of the country’s industrial heartland that was a magnet for carmakers such as Volkswagen AG, General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp, but it suffered a doubling of murders last year, making it one of Mexico’s most violent regions, official data shows.
More than a decade after the launch of a militarized effort against drug cartels that has led to some of Mexico’s bloodiest years on record, the latest effort will test the new government’s ability to curtail the reach of organized crime.
Lopez Obrador took office on Dec. 1, vowing to fight crime in a new way.
(Reporting by Delphine Schrank in Mexico City; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
This undated booking photo provided by the Montana Highway Patrol shows Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Wade Palmer. Authorities say Palmer is in critical condition after being shot while investigating an earlier shooting in Missoula. Highway Patrol officials said in a statement Friday, March 15, 2019, another trooper found the wounded 35-year-old Palmer in his patrol car outside a bar in Evaro, Mont. early Friday. (Montana Highway Patrol via AP)
MISSOULA, Mont. – A Montana Highway Patrol trooper who was investigating an earlier shooting was himself shot and critically injured early Friday after finding the suspect's vehicle, leading authorities to launch an overnight manhunt that ended in the arrest of a 29-year-old man, officials said.
Another trooper found Wade Palmer, 35, wounded and still buckled into his patrol car outside a bar in the small town of Evaro, a statement from Montana Highway Patrol officials said. The shooter had fled.
Palmer was taken to a Missoula hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Police shut down that stretch of U.S. Highway 93, warned residents to lock their doors and then spent hours searching before they arrested Johnathan Bertsch at about 6:15 a.m.
Bertsch was being held as a suspect in both Palmer's shooting and the earlier shooting about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away in Missoula, where two men and a woman sitting in a car were wounded late Thursday, said Missoula County Chief Deputy Attorney Jason Marks.
No other suspects were being sought in the shootings. Charges were expected to be filed against Bertsch Friday afternoon, and he was expected to make an initial court appearance on Monday, Marks said. There was no immediate information on whether he has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
The three people from the first shooting outside a car dealership were taken to a hospital for gunshot wounds, Missoula police Sgt. Travis Welsh told the Missoulian newspaper. Their conditions weren't immediately clear.
Palmer has been a trooper since 2012. He has a wife and two children, and he won the law enforcement agency's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, in 2015.
Bertsch was previously arrested in 2009 for allegedly stealing gas, then leading officers on a chase and ramming his car into a patrol car, the Missoulian reported.
WASHINGTON — North Korea is rapidly rebuilding a long-range rocket launch facility in the Tongchang-ri province, according to satellite imagery obtained by a D.C.-based think-tank.
President Trump walked away from negotiations during a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un last week in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The images were obtained by one of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ research verticals. The photos show work completed at the Sohae rocket launch center which is located along the border with China.
The Mar. 2nd photos show that the vertical engine test stand has been rebuilt.
North Korea originally appeared to dismantle the Sohae launch facility in late 2018 — an event in which reporters from the West were invited to.
President Donald Trump speaks as Sec of State Mike Pompeo looks on during a news conference after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
During a press conference following his Hanoi summit with Kim, President Trump told reporters that Kim agreed not to conduct missile or nuclear tests. “He told me..he told me that he would not conduct any more tests,” said Trump.
Negotiations between Trump and Kim fell apart last week in Hanoi after North Korea requested that all international sanctions against their regime be lifted in exchange for destroying one test site.
“Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump told reporters at his press conference. “We asked Kim to do more, but he wasn’t willing to do that today,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
BERLIN – German media report that two men have died after a shooting in Munich.
Police in the Bavarian capital said Thursday the situation is "under control" and there is currently no danger to the public.
The Munich daily tz reported the shooting happened on a building site. It quoted an unnamed police spokesperson as saying authorities are working on the assumption that one man shot dead another and then killed himself.
FILE PHOTO: Wipro Chairman Azim Premji attends the Saudi-India Forum in New Delhi, India, February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis
March 13, 2019
(Reuters) – Wipro Ltd Chairman Azim Premji has pledged about 34 percent of the company’s shares controlled by him toward philanthropy, the Azim Premji Foundation said on Wednesday.
The commitment, worth 527.50 billion rupees ($7.5 billion), would take the total value of the endowment corpus contributed by Premji to 1.45 trillion rupees ($21 billion), it said.
Premji and entities controlled by him hold about 74 percent stake in Wipro, according to exchange data.
Premji, India’s second richest man, was instrumental in turning Wipro from a vegetable oil manufacturer to a software services company nearly four decades ago.
Azim Premji Foundation is a not-for profit organization that works in the field of education and runs a university in Bengaluru.
Shares of the Bengaluru-headquartered software services exporter closed at 257.90 rupees on Wednesday.
(Reporting By Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreejay Sinha)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
April 26, 2019
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.
“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot
April 26, 2019
By Julien Pretot
MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.
It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.
“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.
Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.
They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.
At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.
In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.
At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.
“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.
As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.
The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.
“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.
SAME TREATMENT
One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.
“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.
This is not the case with the boys, she added.
“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.
Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.
“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.
OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.
“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.
“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”
‘ONE CLUB’
The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.
While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.
There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.
“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.
“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.
Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.
“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.
“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”
Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.
“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.
“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo
April 26, 2019
GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.
“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.
The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.
The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.
Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.
Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT
The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.
Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.
Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.
(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)
2/FED: UP OR DOWN?
Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.
Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.
Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.
Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.
Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.
(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)
3/HEISEI TO REIWA
Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.
The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.
The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.
The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.
(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)
4/EARNING TURNING
Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.
Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.
That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.
The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.
Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.
GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.
Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.
Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.
Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.
The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.
(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that doctors and nurses don’t treat African American women the same way they do white women.
Warren appeared on Wednesday together with a number of other 2020 Democratic candidates at the She The People Forum in Houston, discussing issues concerning women of color.
The Massachusetts senator announced on stage a plan to decrease the childbirth mortality rate among black women while identifying a systematic problem with how they are treated.
“And there is a specific problem, as you rightly identified, for women of color who are three, four times more likely to die in childbirth,” Warren said.
“And here’s the thing, even after we do the adjustments for income, for education, this is true across the board. This is true for well-educated African American women, for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I’m seeing put it down to just one thing, prejudice,” she added.
“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”
“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”
Warren went on to get into details of her plan, noting that hospitals will be given bonuses if they manage to reduce the childbirth mortality rate among black women in an effort to give financial incentives for those doctors and nurses to provide better care.
“And if they don’t, then they’re going to have money taken away from them,” Warren added.
“I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change, and we gotta have change now.”
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