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Trump stands by border closure threat, as aides say all options being explored

President Trump on Tuesday stood by his threat to close the southern border, as his aides said that it is one of a number of options being explored to tackle the growing crisis there.

“I’m ready to close it if I have to close it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he sat alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

TRUMP THREATENS TO CLOSE BORDER 'NEXT WEEK' IF MEXICO DOESN'T 'IMMEDIATELY STOP' FLOOD OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

On Friday, Trump threatened to close the border “next week” if Mexico doesn’t stop the flows of illegal immigration into the U.S. He also repeated his demand that Democrats in Congress agree to toughen immigration laws.

That threat came after new numbers showed that more than 76,000 migrants were detained in February -- the highest number of apprehensions in 12 years. Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that the border was at its “breaking point.”

Trump stood by his threat Tuesday and while he said that Mexico had "made a big difference" and had increased its efforts to stop Central Americans from traveling north, he warned he was still open to closing the border.

"If we don't make a deal with Congress...or if Mexico doesn't do what they should be doing...then we're going to close the border, that's going to be it, or we're going to close large sections of the border, maybe not all of it," he said.

"We're going to have a strong border or we're going to have a closed border," he said. "We're going to see what happens."

He also brushed off concerns about what effect shutting down the border would have on the economy, saying that national security was a more important consideration: “Security is more important to me than trade."

Earlier, White House aides had indicated that closing the border was one of a number of options being considered as a way to deal with the situation there. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday that Trump was not keen on shuttering the border, but blamed alleged inaction from Democrats in Congress, saying it could force his hand.

"Democrats in Congress are leaving us no choice. They're unwilling to work with us to fix this problem because they're too busy playing politics to do their jobs," she said.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on MSNBC that the White House was considering a number of options short of closing the border, such as shutting down certain entry ports or parts of all of them.

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"Everything is on the table," he said.

Homeland Security officials said that, even though the border has not been shut down, there have been mounting delays at ports of entry as some 2,000 border officers have been reassigned to deal with incoming migrants. Average wait times at Brownsville, Texas, were 180 minutes Monday, twice the length of peak times last year.

The Associated Press and Fox News' Anna Hopkins contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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‘Evil attracts evil’: Judge gives mom life in teen murder

A woman who plotted the rape, torture and murder of her own teenage daughter pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to life in prison for a crime so barbaric that prosecutors and the judge strained for superlatives to describe it.

One day after her co-conspirator boyfriend was sentenced to death, Sara Packer, 44, appeared in a suburban Philadelphia courthouse and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and 16 other offenses in the 2016 slaying of 14-year-old Grace Packer.

"Evil attracts evil. Evil recognizes evil. And in Jacob Sullivan, you found one of your own," Bucks County Judge Diane Gibbons, her voice dripping with contempt, told Packer in sentencing her to the maximum term.

"You like rape. You like murder. That's a fact," said Gibbons, decrying the "rot" and "warped depravity" on display in the case.

Packer, whose crimes were not eligible for Pennsylvania's death penalty, did not make a statement.

Prosecutors said Packer and her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, shared a rape-murder fantasy and spent months plotting Grace's slaying in a vacant house about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Philadelphia.

Sara Packer testified that the couple took her adoptive daughter to a sweltering attic and gave her what they intended to be a lethal overdose of medicine. Sullivan sexually assaulted her as Sara Packer watched. They bound her hands and feet with zip ties, stuffed a ball gag in her mouth and left her to die.

Grace eventually managed to escape some of her bindings. But she was unable to make it out of the house before Sullivan and Sara Packer returned overnight — some 12 hours later — and Sullivan strangled her while Sara Packer held her hand and watched her die.

Sara Packer and Sullivan stored Grace's body in cat litter for months, then dismembered it and dumped the remains in a remote, wooded area of northeastern Pennsylvania where hunters found it in October 2016.

Bucks County prosecutor Jennifer Schorn said in court Friday that Sara Packer — a former county adoptions supervisor who had fostered dozens of children over the years — saw Grace Packer as a source of government benefits and nothing more.

Schorn and the judge marveled at how someone who professed to be a mother could have been so cruel.

"It defies nature, what she did," Schorn said.

Sullivan, who pleaded guilty to first degree murder, was sentenced to death by a jury Thursday. Packer admitted in court during Sullivan's sentencing hearing that she hated Grace and "wanted her to go away."

Sara Packer lost her job at Northampton County's children and youth department in 2010 after her husband at the time, David Packer, was sent to prison for sexually assaulting Grace and another foster child. But child welfare authorities did not remove Grace from the home, despite evidence of abuse.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services launched an investigation after Grace's murder. Its report was sealed while Packer and Sullivan were being prosecuted, but is expected to be made public on Monday.

After the sentencing, District Attorney Matt Weintraub called on lawmakers to pass a child protection law called "Grace's Law."

"Grace's memory will no longer be bound to that of these two predators. She is free," Weintraub said.

Source: Fox News National

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Ex-attorney general pleads to stay in Trudeau caucus

Canada's former attorney general pleaded with her colleagues Tuesday to let her remain in the Liberal party caucus amid a scandal that has rocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government in an election year.

Liberal lawmakers are expected to vote as soon as Tuesday evening to oust Jody Wilson-Raybould after she publicized a secretly recorded conversation she had with Michael Wernick, Canada's top civil servant.

Wilson-Raybould believes she was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister to minister of veterans' affairs because she didn't give in to pressure to enter into a remediation agreement with a Canadian company so that it would avoid a potentially crippling criminal prosecution.

The scandal has led to multiple resignations and damaged the party for eight weeks.

In a letter, Wilson-Raybould acknowledged her colleagues are enraged but said she was "trying to help protect the Prime Minister and the government from a horrible mess."

"Now I know many of you are angry, hurt, and frustrated. And frankly so am I, and I can only speak for myself. I am angry, hurt, and frustrated because I feel and believe I was upholding the values that we all committed to," Wilson-Raybould wrote to colleagues.

"Ultimately the choice that is before you is about what kind of party you want to be a part of, what values it will uphold, the vision that animates it, and indeed the type of people it will attract and make it up."

Trudeau has been on the defensive since the Globe and Mail newspaper reported Feb. 7 via sources that Trudeau's staff put pressure on Wilson-Raybould. She denied she was the source of the story, writing "I am not the one who tried to interfere in sensitive proceedings, I am not the one who made it public, and I am not the one who publicly denied what happened."

The secret recording Wilson-Raybould made public shows Wernick telling Wilson-Raybould that Trudeau "is determined, quite firm" in finding a way to avoid a prosecution that could put 9,000 jobs at risk.

It also reveals Wilson-Raybould saying she regards the pressure as "inappropriate."

Wilson-Raybould has refused to express support for Trudeau, a demand many Liberal lawmakers say is necessary if she is to remain in Parliament as part of the party caucus.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said he expected Wilson-Raybould to be expelled.

"Her letter, I believe, sets the stage for her run at the Liberal leadership if the Liberals lose in October and Justin Trudeau steps down," Wiseman said.

"She is a victim of the parliamentary system which in Canada imposes sturdier party discipline than in any of the other Westminster parliamentary systems. The letter reveals her naiveté, as a rookie Member of Parliament, about how the system works."

The Liberal caucus could also vote to remove Jane Philpott, a former Cabinet minister who stepped from her role after she said she lost confidence in how the government has handled the affair.

Source: Fox News World

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Investigators start studying Ethiopian jet's voice recorder

Investigators have started studying the cockpit voice recorder of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines jet.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA tweeted that technical work on the recorder began Saturday. The BEA also said work resumed on the flight's data recorders.

The recorders, also known as black boxes, were sent to France because the BEA has extensive expertise in analyzing such devices. Experts from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the plane's manufacturer Boeing are among those involved in the investigation.

In Ethiopia, forensic DNA work has begun on identifying remains. Local media report that it may take six months to identify the victims' remains, although death certificates should be issued in two weeks. The 157 who died in Sunday's crash came from 35 countries.

Source: Fox News World

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Holocaust survivors chide Austria’s Kurz on anti-Semitism effort

FILE PHOTO: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea
FILE PHOTO: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Pool/File Photo

February 20, 2019

VIENNA (Reuters) – A group representing Austrian Holocaust survivors voiced outrage on Wednesday over staffing shortages in a government department dealing with Nazi-related crimes, calling on Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to take action.

Kurz, a conservative governing in coalition with a far-right party founded by ex-Nazis, has repeatedly denounced anti-Semitism and the Holocaust since taking office just over a year ago. His government has pledged to offer citizenship to the descendants of Austrians who fled the country under Nazi rule.

But a department at the main domestic intelligence agency that handles reports of Nazi-related crimes is understaffed to the point of having a large backlog, according to the Mauthausen Committee, which represents survivors of Austria’s biggest Nazi-era concentration camp.

“The government – and in particular the chancellor – stresses at every opportunity that everything is being done to fight neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism effectively,” the committee said in a statement.

“In fact the Nazism-reporting department is being denied the necessary staff, to the point that it has a backlog of hundreds of pieces of evidence and some far-right crimes are falling under statutes of limitations,” it said, adding that it mainly gets no reply when it passes on information to the department.

The far-right Freedom Party controls much of Austria’s security apparatus including the Interior Ministry, to which the main domestic intelligence agency belongs.

“Chancellor Kurz is responsible for ensuring that Interior Minister (Herbert) Kickl no longer hinders the fight against neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism. One can only hope that there is no political intent behind this hindrance,” the committee said.

In Austria, which was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, it is a crime to deny the Holocaust or give the Hitler salute.

As in several other European countries, cases of anti-Semitism appear to be on the rise. The leader of Austria’s main Jewish organization also says the far-right Freedom Party that is in power has failed to tackle anti-Semitism within its ranks, even after scandals involving party officials.

Israel refuses to deal directly with Freedom Party ministers even though the party says it has turned its back on its Nazi past, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Kurz for saying Israel’s security is a major priority.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy)

Source: OANN

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Stephen Hawking's former carer banned from nursing after facing multiple misconduct charges

Professor Stephen Hawking’s former carer has been banned from nursing after she “failed to provide the standards of good, professional care" that the scientist "deserved".

Patricia Dowdy, 61, had faced multiple misconduct charges about the care she had provided to the world renowned physicist including financial misconduct and dishonesty.

Dowdy had been working for Professor Hawking, who had been confined to a wheelchair, for 15 years before his death.

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Queen Elizabeth II meets Professor Stephen Hawking (R) during a reception for Leonard Cheshire Disability in the State Rooms, St James's Palace on May 29, 2014 in London. Hawking is accompanied by Patricia Dowdy.

Queen Elizabeth II meets Professor Stephen Hawking (R) during a reception for Leonard Cheshire Disability in the State Rooms, St James's Palace on May 29, 2014 in London. Hawking is accompanied by Patricia Dowdy. (Getty)

It is understood the scientist's family had lodged a complaint about Dowdy, with details of the case previously suppressed by the nursing regulation body to protect both Professor Hawking and the nurse's privacy.

STEPHEN HAWKING'S FINAL PAPER REVEALED

Britain's Nursing and Midwifery Council had previously claimed the secrecy order had been granted due to the nurse's "health".

Documents about the case read: "The panel remained satisfied that his right, and the rights of his family, to privacy outweighed the public interest in a fully public hearing."

STEPHEN HAWKING WHEELCHAIR SELLS FOR NEARLY $400G AT AUCTION

Physicist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76 in March 2018.

This article originally appeared in The Sun. For more from The Sun, click here.

Source: Fox News World

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Deadly crackdown stokes fear among protesters in Venezuela

Jhonny Godoy had taken to Twitter to proclaim his opposition to President Nicolas Maduro, posting a video that showed him running through the streets waving the national flag as protests erupted across Venezuela's capital.

Two days later, his family said, rifle-wielding special police agents wearing black masks stormed into their home in the Caracas slum of La Vega, pulled him outside and shot him to death.

The slaying of the 29-year-old was part of a crackdown that has spread fear among young protesters in poor neighborhoods of Venezuela, where a history of steadfast loyalty to Maduro has begun to crack amid hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine. At least 43 people have been killed in the round of protests that began last month, when Juan Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled congress, declared himself interim president of the crisis-wracked country.

Human rights groups say some of those deaths appear to be targeted slayings by the National Police Action Force, or FAES, an elite commando unit created in 2017 for anti-gang operations. Rights groups say it is now acting against disaffected youths living in the slums.

"Maduro seeks to sow fear," said Rafael Uzcategui, coordinator of the respected rights group Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights, known as PROVEA. More than 700 opponents of Maduro have been arrested during the latest push by Venezuela's opposition to oust the socialist leader, according to PROVEA and a crime monitoring group, Observatory of Social Conflict.

Maduro is facing more pressure than ever to cede power in the oil-rich nation. The Trump administration recently sanctioned Venezuela's state-owned oil company, squeezing the country's damaged economy even harder, and Guaido has been recognized as the country's rightful leader by the U.S. and dozens of other nations that argue Maduro's re-election to a second six-year term last year was fraudulent. A new round of sanctions Friday targeted four high-ranking intelligence officials, including the heads of the FAES commando unit and the feared SEBIN intelligence police.

The country has seen the largest protests since 2017, when 120 people died in clashes with national guardsmen and pro-government civilians who fired on the masked demonstrators in middle-class neighborhoods. Now, critics say, Maduro is hitting back by sending security forces into the slums to try to suppress dissent.

PROVEA and Observatory say they recorded 35 deaths during a single week in January — most at night in poor neighborhoods — in addition to eight cases of apparent targeted killings by members of the elite commando unit.

Godoy's cousin, Marvelis Sinai, said that when agents burst into the family's home on Jan. 25, Godoy's mother Ana Buitrago saw her son beaten and dragged out as she begged for his life. Minutes later, she heard two gunshots.

Godoy was shot in the abdomen and foot, and a disposable diaper was shoved in his mouth, apparently to suffocate him, Sinai said.

She said the family believes his killing was linked to the video he posted on Twitter two days earlier.

"I'm going to continue demonstrating because I learned it from my cousin," said Sinai, who works for an opposition politician who hands out free food in the slums. "He died so we can have a free Venezuela."

The case gained special prominence when a tearful Guaido met with Godoy's mother at her home and assured her that her son's death wouldn't be in vain. Later, during a news conference, Guaido blamed the elite police commando unit for the killing.

Authorities have not commented on the case. But it's not the first time the special agents have been linked to deadly operations. PROVEA released a report last month accusing the unit of involvement in more than 200 killings in 2018.

Human Rights Watch also detailed widespread abuses by members of Venezuela's security forces in reports published in 2014 and 2017. It quoted Foro Penal, a Venezuelan group that provides legal aid to detainees, as saying that more than 13,000 people have been arrested since 2014 in connection with anti-government protests.

The Prague-based CASLA Institute, headed by Venezuelan lawyer Tamara Suju, recently gave the U.N. International Criminal Court reports of 536 victims of torture in Venezuela since 2014, including 106 since the beginning of last year. Six nations also made the unprecedented move of asking the court to investigate Venezuela for possible crimes against humanity.

Socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello and Venezuela's defense minister, Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, have denied the accusations of targeted killings. They insist the military follows the constitution and respects human rights.

The attorney general's office has not given a figure for those killed in the recent protests, though Attorney General Tarek William Saab told a local TV channel that eight members of the national guard and the army had been detained for the killings of four people in the rural states of Bolivar and Yaracuy.

Among those who died when the latest protests broke out Jan. 23 was 19-year-old Nick Samuel Oropeza. His family says he was last seen alive fleeing alongside other protesters through the dusty streets of the capital's Las Adjuntas slum as national guardsmen opened fire on people who had blocked streets with mounds of trash. Minutes later, he was found on the ground, his shirt drenched in blood.

A bullet destroyed his kidney and punctured a lung, said his mother, Ingrid Borjas, a 38-year-old lawyer.

"This needs to be investigated," Borjas said, her voice breaking with emotion. "Justice needs to be served for my son and for others."

___

Fabiola Sanchez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fisanchezn

Source: Fox News World

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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
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)

Source: OANN

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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
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)

Source: OANN

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
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.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

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.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(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)

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) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said trade talks with China are going very well, as the world’s two largest economies seek to end talks with a trade agreement to defuse tensions.

Trump said on Thursday he would soon host China’s President Xi Jinping at the White House.

Earlier this week, the White House said that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would travel to Beijing for more talks on a trade dispute marked by tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on North Korea this week following the Russian leader’s summit with Pyongyang’s Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump also said China was helping with efforts aimed at the denuclearization of North Korea.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Makini Brice; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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