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Illinois state trooper killed in wrong-way crash, marking 2nd death in two days

An Illinois State Police trooper was killed early Saturday when a driver going the wrong way slammed into his squad car. The crash marks the third Illinois trooper death this year, and the second in just three days.

Trooper Gerald Ellis, 36, was referred to as "a great hero" by his colleagues. He was on duty and heading home in his squad car on Interstate 94 when a wrong-way driver hit his vehicle about 3:25 a.m.

Ellis, an 11-year State Police veteran, died at the hospital less than an hour later.

CHICAGO POLICE SUED OVER ALLEGEDLY RAIDING A 4-YEAR-OLDS BIRTHDAY PARTY, SMASHING THE CAKE

Ellis was also a military veteran, and he leaves behind a wife and two children.

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly called the loss "a bitter salt in an open wound."

On Thursday, Trooper Brooke Jones-Story was killed when a truck struck her in Freeport. In January, a vehicle hit Trooper Christopher Lambert near Northbrook.

ILLINOIS STATE TROOPER FATALLY STRUCK DURING TRAFFIC STOP, OFFICIALS SAY

The fatalities come amid a sharp increase in drivers hitting squad cars that have stopped with their emergency lights on.

Saturday's death is the first time in 66 years that the Illinois State Police have lost three state troopers in one year.

The police issued a tweet Thursday, following Jones-Story’s death, with a photo of the highway’s overhead signs reading: “Enough Is Enough,” along with a notice on Scott’s Law.

Scott’s Law, also known as the “Move Over” Law, requires drivers to slow down and change lanes upon approaching “stationary authorized emergency” vehicles with their warning lights on, the Illinois State Police explained on their website.

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"There are only two ways this stops: People drive safely, or troopers stop patrolling,” Kelly said. "And there is nothing and no one on Earth, or in heaven or hell that will ever keep these troopers from doing the job that they swore to do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News National

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Jury selection begins in former Minneapolis officer’s trial

Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home.

Thirty-three-year-old Mohamed Noor is charged in the July 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor is charged with murder and manslaughter.

Potential jurors will gather Monday morning to receive instructions as the selection process begins.

Prosecutors must prove Noor acted unreasonably when he shot Damond. The defense plans to argue that he used reasonable force in the situation and acted in self-defense.

Noor refused to speak to investigators about what happened. His attorneys haven't said whether he'll testify at the trial, which is expected to last weeks.

Source: Fox News National

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Mexican bankers, bosses line up to woo powerful president

FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo

March 21, 2019

By Dave Graham and Stefanie Eschenbacher

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) – For two years, financiers at Mexico’s biggest annual banking bash issued veiled warnings about the risk of veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador taking power.

Now he is president, they and industry bosses have changed tack, pledging support for the popular new leader and his plans to revive the economy from the bottom up.

Bank bosses have used the run-up to the banking convention in Acapulco beginning on Thursday to signal approval for Lopez Obrador’s plans to tackle chronic inequality via welfare handouts, ramp up financial inclusion and lift economic growth.

“The financial sector has been and will continue to be committed to Mexico’s development, which is why he celebrate and go along with the measures … announced by the Mexican government,” Marcos Martinez, head of the Mexican banking association (ABM), said at a recent event with Lopez Obrador.

Martinez and other bankers hope the president will meet pledges to tackle corruption and gang violence in Latin America’s No. 2 economy, buttressing growth with the rule of law.

Still, skepticism about his economic credentials is widespread in business circles. So far executives have reasoned they have more to gain by working with him than picking a fight with a president whose approval ratings run close to 80 percent.

Lopez Obrador, who took office in December, wiped billions of the value of Mexican financial assets when he canceled a new Mexico City airport on Oct. 29. Proposals floated by his MORENA party in Congress to curb bank fees also spooked markets.

Yet even as he rolls out welfare schemes across Mexico, he has promised to run a tight budget to protect the country’s investment-grade credit rating and says he can achieve average annual growth of 4 percent during his six-year term.

At this week’s conference in Acapulco, Mexico’s banks would likely deliver a clear message to the president that they will work with him to achieve his goals, said a senior financial industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

That could unlock funds for Lopez Obrador’s plan to create jobs via infrastructure spending, and complement the goal of employers’ federation COPARMEX to lift the spending power of the lowest paid by tripling the minimum wage by 2024.

Cooperating with Lopez Obrador to encourage an expansion of the Mexican middle class could become a major driver of growth, and help curb the president’s worst instincts, a senior industrialist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Stating Mexico had “more financial resources than there are projects”, the new head of Mexico’s powerful CCE business lobby, Carlos Salazar, said last month it would work to end extreme poverty by the end of Lopez Obrador’s term.

By then, the ABM aims to get 30 million more people to use banking services – nearly three-quarters of those estimated to be without an account – and to support domestic demand by boosting lending to small businesses, homebuyers and families.

Deputy finance minister Arturo Herrera told Reuters the government would push hard on financial inclusion at the banking convention, where Lopez Obrador is due to speak on Friday.

However, for the president to make the most of the goodwill in boardrooms, he must work harder to undo the damage caused by poor decisions such as the scrapping of the airport, said Gustavo de Hoyos, head of employers’ lobby COPARMEX.

Business wanted to invest, but right now, the government scored only about “50 percent” on investor confidence, he added.

“If the president and his team can take advantage of these strengths,” de Hoyos told Reuters, “I think we could see really big progress in the course of this administration.”

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

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Golf: British Open returns to Hoylake for 151st edition in 2022

FILE PHOTO: Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits out of a bunker during a practice round ahead of the British Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake
FILE PHOTO: Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits out of a bunker on the fifth hole during a practice round ahead of the British Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, northern England July 16, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

February 26, 2019

(Reuters) – The British Open championship will return to Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake for its 151st edition in 2022, organizers the R&A said on Tuesday.

The tournament was last held at the venue in 2014 when four-times major winner Rory McIlroy lifted the Claret Jug prize.

More than 230,000 fans watched Tiger Woods triumph at Hoylake in 2006, a then record attendance for a British Open held outside of St Andrews.

“We know there will be tremendous excitement at the prospect of its return to Royal Liverpool,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in a statement on the 2022 tournament that will be held from July 10-17.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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Clergy call for firing of 2 officers involved in shooting

Clergy and community leaders called Wednesday for the immediate firing of two Connecticut police officers who opened fire on a car and seriously wounded a passenger, saying newly released police video shows last week's shooting began when the driver started getting out of the vehicle with his hands up.

"Hands up! Don't shoot!" the leaders chanted at a news conference in New Haven, invoking words used during protests that have followed other police shootings around the country.

Authorities said Hamden officer Devin Eaton and Yale University officer Terrance Pollack stopped the car in New Haven on April 16 while responding to a report of an attempted armed robbery in Hamden. Police said both officers opened fire when the driver got out of the car abruptly. The shooting sparked several protests in New Haven and neighboring Hamden. Another is planned for Thursday.

Eaton's body camera video, released by state police on Tuesday, shows him starting to shoot after the driver, 21-year-old Paul Witherspoon III, begins getting out of the car and raising his arms. The video shows Eaton then run to the other side of the car and fire several shots that smashed out the front passenger door window.

Witherspoon's girlfriend, 22-year-old Stephanie Washington, was shot but survived. She has been released from a hospital. Officials also said Pollack was wounded during the shooting but have not elaborated. Witherspoon was not injured. Witherspoon and Washington are black, as are the two officers.

The Rev. Boise Kimber, of the First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven, said the body camera and surveillance videos clearly show what happened and there is no need to wait for investigations to be completed before firing the two officers, who were placed on paid leave pending the probes.

"They have violated every protocol of their department," Kimber said during Wednesday's news conference. "We're asking Hamden, we're asking Yale ... to terminate those two officers to bring some relief to our community. Mr. Witherspoon got out of his car with his hands up — with his hands up — and was fired upon."

Yale referred questions about the calls to fire the officers to comments made Tuesday by Janet Lindner, the school's vice president for administration. Lindner said Pollack will remain on paid leave until investigations are completed.

"Until the investigation is complete and all the facts are known, let us commit to refrain from drawing final conclusions about this incident," Lindner said.

"The shooting was a tragedy, and Yale offers its heartfelt feelings of concern to Ms. Washington, Mr. Witherspoon, and their families," she said. "We all want a just outcome."

Messages seeking comment were left with Hamden officials on Wednesday.

Eaton fired 13 shots and Pollack fired three, said James Rovella, commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees state police. Authorities did not find a gun in the car.

Witherspoon's relatives have also disputed the report of an attempted armed robbery, saying Witherspoon only argued with a man who cut in front of him in line at a gas station. Local clergy on Wednesday said the person who reported the attempted robbery should be arrested.

Eaton did not activate his body camera until after the shooting, but the gunfire was still recorded because the camera has a feature that recalls images from the moments before it is turned on, Rovella said Tuesday. Pollack's body camera and cruiser dashboard camera were not turned on, Rovella said.

Both Hamden and Yale have similar policies requiring officers to turn on their body cameras during interactions with the public, but only when it is safe to do so.

Source: Fox News National

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With Israel election in sight, Netanyahu stumps with Trump

In a tight race for re-election, Israel's prime minister has gotten a welcome lift from his friend in the White House.

Benjamin Netanyahu's campaign speeches, billboards and social media videos have all heavily featured President Donald Trump's image, statements and pro-Israel actions as endorsements of the long-seated prime minister.

Drawing inspiration from Trump, Netanyahu has dismissed a corruption case against him as a "witch hunt" and his Likud party has launched a weekly webcast to counter what it claims is "fake news" broadcast by mainstream media.

For Netanyahu, the close ties with Trump are a welcome change after eight frosty years with the Obama administration, which repeatedly clashed with the prime minister over his policies toward the Palestinians and his opposition to the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Upon taking office two years ago, Trump quickly reversed course and established a tight relationship with Netanyahu. This has yielded benefits for Netanyahu on the campaign trail.

In the run-up to Tuesday's vote, Netanyahu has hosted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, visited Trump in the White House and received American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war.

Those moves are seen as an unspoken U.S. endorsement of Netanyahu, and in Israel, having close ties with whoever occupies the White House is seen as a major asset.

Trump enjoys strong support among Israelis, 69% of whom expressed confidence in the president's ability "to do the right thing regarding world affairs," according to a Pew Research Center poll published in October.

That support largely springs from Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the opening of the U.S. Embassy there. Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and his decision to slash U.S. aid to the Palestinians are also popular among Israelis.

A YouTube ad published April 1 strings together Trump statements from recent years extolling Netanyahu's leadership as a "great prime minister."

"Benjamin Netanyahu, there's nobody like him," Trump says in a clip taken from a 2013 video. Building-sized billboards in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv show the two leaders shaking hands.

A poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 63% of Israelis "believe that Netanyahu's standing in the current election campaign will be strengthened by the U.S. recognition" of the annexation of the Golan Heights. The survey interviewed 603 people and had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.

While the gambit has played well domestically, Netanyahu's close ties with Trump risk undermining bipartisan support for Israel among Americans, and Israel's relationship with traditionally liberal American Jews.

More than 70 percent of American Jews voted against Trump, and many express unease about U.S.-Israel relations becoming too closely associated with the friendship between two polarizing leaders.

The April 9 election is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's decade-long rule, and his campaign is using the relationship with Trump to portray him as a respected statesman with personal ties to world leaders.

In an Instagram video posted Wednesday, Netanyahu touts his administration's "unprecedented diplomatic advancements," foremost among them "strengthening relations with the United States," but also closer ties with Russia, China, India, Japan and Brazil.

On Thursday, Netanyahu paid a surprise visit to Russia, where President Vladimir Putin announced his country's instrumental role in recovering the remains of an Israeli soldier who went missing in action in Lebanon in 1982.

The return of the soldier's remains, along with a visit this week by Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has given Netanyahu another diplomatic victory late in the campaign.

Netanyahu seeks a fourth consecutive term in office as Israel's leader. If re-elected, he will become the country's longest serving prime minister, outstripping its founding father, David Ben Gurion. The prime minister's campaign has steamed ahead despite Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's recommendation last month that Netanyahu be indicted for a series of corruption charges.

With less than a week to go, opinion polls give Netanyahu a slight edge in the race. But he faces major opposition from his former army chief of staff, Benny Gantz.

Sounding much like Trump, Netanyahu has attacked the press, branded Gantz and other opponents as "leftists" and questioned Gantz's mental health .

A video released by Netanyahu in late March said members of Gantz's party signed a petition to boycott a 2015 meeting with Trump, "the president who moved the embassy to Jerusalem, recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and left the nuclear agreement with Iran. Shame!"

Gantz is running along with two other former army chiefs of staff, which gives their Blue and White party security chops to rival those of Netanyahu.

Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the Blue and White party's unassailable military credentials have forced Netanyahu to stump on his foreign policy accomplishments rather than in his traditional role as "Mr. Security."

"We are a tiny, tiny country but our leader is on very good terms with the president of the United States, the president of Russia, and the president of Brazil," Hazan said. "In other words, he's using his relative advantage to say 'if you don't elect me, whoever replaces me will not be able to play in the international league that I have raised Israel to and we will drop significantly,'" Hazan said.

___

Follow Ilan Ben Zion on Twitter at www.twitter.com/IlanBenZion

Source: Fox News World

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For a Brief Moment #SilentSam was Silent No More, Although He will NOT be the last Death of the Civil War if @SPLCenter, #Antifa, and the #Left Get their method!

Protesters topple Silent Sam Confederate statue at UNC For a Brief Moment Silent Sam was Silent No More, Although He will NOT be the last Death of the Civil War if @SPLCenter , Antifa, and the Left Get their way!   CHAPEL HILL  The event unfolded as students begin a new semester at UNC Tuesday, […]

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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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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
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)

Source: OANN

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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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