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Poole, Michigan dispatch Florida with strong second half

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round-Michigan vs Florida
Mar 23, 2019; Des Moines, IA, United States; Michigan Wolverines guard Jordan Poole (2) shoots the ball against Florida Gators center Kevarrius Hayes (13) during the second half in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

March 24, 2019

Jordan Poole scored a game-high 19 points Saturday, and second-seeded Michigan pulled away with an 11-0 run to start the second half as it bagged a 64-49 win over 10th-seeded Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.

Isaiah Livers came off the bench to add 10 for the Wolverines (30-6), who will face No. 3 Texas Tech or No. 6 Buffalo in the West Region semifinals on Thursday in Anaheim, Calif. Michigan, which owned the boards 42-29, overcame 42.1 percent shooting from the field.

Jalen Hudson was the only double-figure scorer for the Gators (20-16) with 11 points, but he made just 4 of 15 shots from the floor and was 3 of 10 from the 3-point line. Florida fired away to no avail, hitting only 19 of 55 field-goal tries (34.5 percent) and 9 of 26 from 3-point range.

Point guard Zavier Simpson barely missed a triple-double for the Wolverines, finishing with nine points, nine rebounds and nine assists. His pass to Ignas Brazdeikis teed up a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the second half that kicked off the game-deciding spurt.

Jon Teske checked in with a layup, and then Poole put his stamp on the run. He converted a 3-point play and then drilled one of his four 3-pointers to make it 43-28 with 17:50 left in the game.

The Gators were able to score the next nine points, pulling within 43-37 on Keyontae Johnson’s dunk at the 14:21 mark. But Michigan’s defense clamped down at that point, allowing only 12 points for the game’s remainder.

Poole’s 3-point shot with 2:01 remaining applied the knockout punch, giving the Wolverines a 60-44 advantage.

Florida led briefly on two occasions in the first few minutes before Michigan ripped off 11 straight points. Poole had a big hand in that run, converting a rare 4-point play and then draining a 3-pointer to make it 15-6 just under six minutes into the game.

The Gators fought back to grab their last lead at 23-21 on a layup by Kevarrius Hayes with 6:49 left in the half. But the Wolverines regained the advantage less than two minutes later and went to the break up 32-28.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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NFL notebook: Steelers’ Foster requests social – media ceasefire

NFL: Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks
FILE PHOTO: Dec 22, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Arizona Cardinals running back Rashard Mendenhall (28) rushes against Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Brandon Mebane (92) during the second half at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

April 12, 2019

Pittsburgh guard Ramon Foster is asking his ex-teammates to stop the criticism of current Steelers players.

The latest social-media salvo was fired early Thursday morning by former Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall, who called quarterback Ben Roethlisberger a racist in a series of tweets. Mendenhall, who played for Pittsburgh from 2008-12, was addressing accusations that wideout Antonio Brown quit on the team when he did not play in the 2018 season finale.

“Moving forward…any former player or affiliate of the Steelers who has an issue with anyone still in the locker room, please contact me or Maurkice Pouncey or anyone else you feel you can talk to,” Foster wrote in response on Twitter. “Whoever you have an issue with, we will get you their number so you can address them. I PROMISE.

“These media takes might give y’all good traffic on your social media outlets but the guys still in that locker room, who y’all still know personally have to answer for those comments. Call them what you want, but call them personally and tell THEM. Defend who you want to defend but you don’t have to mention the team at all.”

–Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray had a pre-draft visit with the New York Giants, and he reportedly will head to an NFC East rival next.

Multiple outlets reported the Giants visit, and Murray posted a photo on social media of the outside of the team’s facility. The MMQB reported Murray also will visit the Washington Redskins next week.

By most accounts, Murray remains the favorite to go first overall to the Arizona Cardinals.

–All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Baltimore Ravens through the 2020 season, ESPN reported.

Some speculated the 34-year-old veteran, a seven-time Pro Bowler, might retire this offseason. Yanda was entering the final year of a four-year, $32 million deal signed in 2015.

An Iowa product, Yanda has been with the Ravens since they drafted him in the third round in 2007. He ranks seventh in franchise history with 162 games played.

–Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette was arrested on suspicion of driving with a suspended license, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

His license had been suspended for failing to pay a speeding ticket, according to multiple reports.

Fournette was cited on Nov. 17 for driving 37 mph in a 25 mph zone, which carried a fine of $204, according to the Duval County Clerk of Courts. The 24-year-old was released on a $1,500 bond. The team said it is aware of the situation but declined further comment.

–The Jets signed former Packers and Ravens running back Ty Montgomery.

Terms were not disclosed, but multiple outlets reported the deal is for one year.

A converted wideout, the 26-year-old Montgomery spent his first three-plus seasons with Green Bay before being traded to Baltimore for a 2020 seventh-round pick in October.

–Dallas Cowboys right tackle La’el Collins is recovering from surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder, he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Collins had the operation in January and expects to be ready for training camp.

The 25-year-old has started all 32 games at right tackle for Dallas over the past two seasons.

–The Jaguars claimed guard Parker Ehinger off waivers from the Cowboys.

Ehinger, 26, missed all of 2018 with a knee injury sustained in training camp. He started four games in 2016 and one in 2017 with Kansas City.

–Free agent defensive tackle Tyeler Davison will visit the San Francisco 49ers on Friday, NFL.com reported.

Davison, 26, recently visited the Atlanta Falcons, per reports. He had 23 tackles and two sacks in 14 games (12 starts) for the New Orleans Saints last season.

–Former NFL and Notre Dame running back Cierre Wood was scheduled to appear in court in Las Vegas after being charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 5-year-old girl, according to court records.

The alleged victim was the daughter of Wood’s girlfriend, identified by local media as 26-year-old Amy Taylor, who also was taken into custody Tuesday night at Summerlin Hospital.

The Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed 5-year-old La’Ravah Davis died at the hospital that night, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas reported.

–Former Alabama wide receiver and New York Jets draft pick ArDarius Stewart was arrested in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on suspicion of carrying a pistol without a permit, AL.com reported.

Stewart was being held on $500 bond, according to the report.

Stewart was selected by the Jets in the third round of the 2017 draft after a decorated career with the Crimson Tide but was out of football in 2018.

–The Giants signed former Alliance of American Football cornerback Henre’ Toliver. Toliver, 22, had two pass breakups and 13 tackles in eight games with the Salt Lake Stallions of the AAF.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Sanders, O’Rourke Face Off in Iowa; Other Hopefuls in NH, NV

They became notable presidential candidates in Iowa after narrow losses that nonetheless put them on the national political stage. They're competing for some of the same young voters. And this weekend, they've been driving around this first-in-the-nation caucus state reintroducing themselves to voters as others in the 2020 Democratic field dispersed to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

It's been Bernie versus Beto all weekend in Iowa, with both hopefuls reintroducing themselves as the man with a plan to deny President Donald Trump a second term. Sanders swept back into the state as the early front runner after raising $18 million in 41 days during the first quarter of the year, the most of any candidate. O'Rourke raised $9.4 million in 18 days.

In dueling rallies, town halls and house parties, they spoke most of improving health care and affording college tuition.

Other hopefuls fanned out to political hot spots elsewhere, with much the same mission: Gauging early strength in a crowded field and raising enough money to secure a coveted spot in the presidential debates that begin in June.

Republican leaders have relished the jockeying among Democrats.

"I'd be happy with any of 'em, to be honest," the president said of the Democratic derby.

Here's a roundup of the crowded Democratic campaign.

Iowa Democrats know Sanders, the Vermont senator who lost the state — and the Democratic presidential nomination — to Hillary Clinton in 2016. At two town halls in counties he won during that caucus fight, Sanders' questioners asked most about making health care more affordable.

Over and over, people told Sanders grim stories about medical bills putting them deeply in debt. He empathized, at one point putting an arm around a young woman who had begun weeping as she spoke. Sanders told his audience that he supports "Medicare for All" and a single-payer health care system. But he didn't get into specifics.

Shannon Abel, a 28-year-old coordinator at a nonprofit organization in Muscatine, Iowa, said she still liked what she heard from Sanders. Then again, she had only begun seriously paying attention to politics after nearly a year of being ill and seeing the medical bills — with an $80 co-pay — put her family deeply in debt.

Of Sanders, Abel said, "He knows what it's like to not have money."

O'Rourke is calling for a range of educational changes to alleviate college debt, including providing free community college and allowing students to potentially eliminate or refinance their debt through public service.

"The cost of higher education, and not just tuition . is out of reach for so many of our fellow Americans," O'Rourke told a crowd gathered for a campaign house party in Polk City, Iowa. He said the tens of thousands in debt that students carry when they graduate "is a weight that literally sinks them into the ground."

To solve the problem, he offered a number of proposals to help students "stop digging the hole" and stop taking on debt when they go for a college degree: Making community college free, allowing students to earn an associate degree while they're in high school so they're "ready to earn a living wage on day one," increase access to union apprenticeships. For those already saddled with student loan debt, O'Rourke said he'd like to "re-up the public service student debt forgiveness program" — a federal program that currently accepts only a fraction of applicants and is eliminated altogether in President Donald Trump's latest budget proposal.

If students are willing to work in in-demand jobs at places like the Department of Veterans Affairs, or "willing to teach school or be in a support role in a community that needs your talent and human capital, I want to wipe clean your student loan debt. At a minimum I want to refinance what you have at a much lower rate."

Sanders says he wants to make college free and pay for it by getting rid of tax havens and lowering taxes for the richest Americans.

That's been received with some skepticism among budget and deficit hawks. But to Trevor Meyers, 19, it sounds right.

Meyers, like Sanders, is a democratic socialist. The Muscatine County resident attends a nearby college and lives at home with his family, which owns a farm. A sibling, he said, is five figures in debt from college.

"How is anybody in our society going to get started in life?" he wondered.

He liked Sanders, but said he's going to check out one of O'Rourke's events too.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is discussing gun control and death penalty issues with survivors of a massacre that claimed nine Bible study participants at a historic black church in South Carolina.

Hickenlooper sat down on Saturday with Anthony Thompson and Polly Sheppard during a visit to Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston.

Thompson's wife was slain in the June 2015 shooting. Sheppard, who survived the ordeal but lost her son and aunt, has said the shooter told her he was sparing her life so she could tell others what happened. He is now on federal death row.

The church has become a place of pilgrimage for some 2020 presidential candidates as they campaign in the state, home of the first primary in the South.

Hickenlooper is known as a staunch advocate for gun control legislation. Following the fatal 2012 shootings in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater, the then-governor called for and signed bills requiring universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds.

Both Thompson and Sheppard told Hickenlooper they want those kinds of reforms in South Carolina and elsewhere.

Sen. Michael Bennet told reporters in Nashua, New Hampshire, that he hopes to be on the move again a few weeks after surgery for prostate cancer.

"I don't think there's any point in dwelling on it," said the Colorado Democrat. "If it turns out to be worse than I think, I'll deal with it then."

The cancer diagnosis has "slowed us down a little bit," Bennet said when asked about how it would impact him getting on the debate stage for the Democratic presidential debates, with well over a dozen candidates now running.

"It's obviously slowed down our ability to raise money and at some point it could have an effect on whether we get to the debate stage or not, but I think we have a good chance to get there," he said.

And with how he's feeling right now, Bennet said he's likely to run.

"I mean, I didn't pick this particular set of circumstances," he said. "This is not how I would have rolled it out."

Democrats running for president will have to do more than campaign on an anti-Trump message if they want to take back the White House in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Saturday.

"If your message is 'not-Trump,' it's not going to work," the Democratic presidential hopeful told about 500 supporters who packed a high school gymnasium in Reno, Nevada. "Our job is to talk about our vision."

Warren, D-Mass., blasted Trump's economic and environmental policies and touted her plan to invest $500 billion over the next 10 years to build, preserve and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income families. She said she would pay for it by returning the estate tax thresholds to where they were during President George W. Bush's administration and imposing a new "wealth" tax on the nation's 17,000 wealthiest families.

"Washington is working for the ultra-super-duper rich, and until we change that we are going to stay on this path. This is our moment," she told the cheering crowd.

Warren was making her second campaign stop this year in the early caucus state, which on Feb. 22 follows only New Hampshire and Iowa in the nominating process. She spoke for about 30 minutes, took questions from the audience and posed for photographs for another half hour. More than half the crowd lined up to take selfies with her.

____

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg headed to New Hampshire after his campaign announced he'd raised more than $7 million this year.

Hundreds of voters interested in the mayor attended his two events in the state; some were turned away because the venues were at capacity.

The mayor gave short speeches at both his Friday and Saturday events and did not take town hall style questions from the two crowds.

Speaking at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord on Saturday morning, the 37-year-old Buttigieg said he understands people's difficulty in avoiding the spectacle of politics these days.

"As hard as it is to take our eye off what we see on cable, because grotesque things have the quality of drawing your eye, and we can't take our eye off that show, but the show's not what matters," he said. "What matters is our everyday life."

He later told voters, "We've got to change the channel, and that's what we're about."

Source: NewsMax America

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James McCord, Watergate Co-Conspirator, Died Two Years Ago

The death two years ago of James W. McCord, one of President Richard Nixon's men arrested at the Watergate complex in 1972, was kept entirely out of the press, according to the website Kennedys and King.

McCord died June 15, 2017, but his family wanted to keep it quiet. Filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan first published news of McCord's death in his book, "Dirty Tricks: Nixon, Watergate, and the CIA," a history of the Watergate investigation released in November 2018.

The Washington Post said McCord died of pancreatic cancer in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. He was 93.

McCord served in the CIA for 19 years before being privately employed as head of security for the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP).  

McCord, along with four other burglars, were arrested June 17, 1972 during a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. They were caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents.

Nixon took steps to cover up the crime but was re-elected later that year in a landslide victory. His role was revealed two years later, leading to his resignation, the first of a U.S. president.

McCord was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and bugging the Democratic Party's Watergate headquarters.

After 16 days of trial spanning 60 witnesses and more than 100 pieces of evidence, the jury found them guilty of all charges against them in just under 90 minutes.

Source: NewsMax America

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Japan February jobless rate falls to 2.3 percent: government

FILE PHOTO: Job seekers attend a job fair held for fresh graduates by ACCESS Humanext Co, in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: Job seekers attend a job fair held for fresh graduates by ACCESS Humanext Co, in Tokyo, Japan, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

March 28, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s jobless rate fell in February while the availability of jobs held steady at a high level, government data showed on Friday, underscoring a tight labor market despite tepid wage gains and inflation.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.3 percent last month, against economists’ median forecast for 2.5 percent, figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.

The jobs-to-applicants ratio stood at 1.63, unchanged from January and matching economists’ median estimate in a Reuters poll.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Sumio Ito; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)

Source: OANN

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New Hampshire shooting leaves 2 dead; 11-year-old boy reportedly in custody

A child was taken into custody on Friday after a man and a woman were found shot at a New Hampshire home.

Authorities received a call around 7:30 a.m. about a shooting at a residence in Alton, a city roughly 45 miles northwest of Manchester, the New Hampshire Department of Justice stated in a news release.

VERMONT DAYCARE OWNER ARRESTED IN DEATH OF INFANT GIVEN ANTIHISTAMINE

Police found Lizette Eckert, 50, dead at the scene, and James Eckert, 48, was later pronounced deceased after being transported to a hospital. Autopsies determined they both died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

The state attorney general's office said that a juvenile — identified by WFXT as an 11-year-old boy — was taken into custody around two hours after the Eckerts were discovered. Officials didn't say how the boy is connected to the two adults, nor did they reveal any possible motives in the shootings.

CALIFORNIA PSYCHIATRIST'S BODY FOUND IN TRUNK OF CAR, DIED OF BLUNT-FORCE INJURY, POLICE SAY

The boy was charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder. It was not immediately clear if the charges were upgraded following James Eckert's death.

The Eckerts, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader, were active members of the St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Alton.

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“They were here every week. They were very devout, very faithful parishioners,” Rev. Robert Cole told the news outlet. “Beautiful people."

The couple reportedly leaves behind three children.

Source: Fox News National

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Factbox: Big bank CEOs face the heat over pay disparity at Capitol Hill

FILE PHOTO: JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York
FILE PHOTO: A view of the exterior of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York City May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Files/File Photo

April 10, 2019

(Reuters) – Chief executive officers of some of America’s largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc, on Wednesday testified before Congress, where they were grilled on a wide range topics.

The discussions ranged from banks’ ability to safeguard the financial system, their role in financing gun-makers, to diversity and compensation.

Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat faced tough questions from Representative Nydia Velazquez, a New York Democrat, on the discrepancy between his pay and the average worker’s salary.

“Citi has the dubious distinction of having the largest discrepancy between CEO compensation and median employee salary of any other institution present today – a remarkable 486:1 ratio,” Velázquez said.

When asked how Corbat would feel if he were an employee in a company where his boss earned $486 for every $1 he made, the 57-year old CEO said, “I would be hopeful that there is opportunity to continue to advance within the firm,” much to Velázquez’s chagrin who ended the conversation saying, “Just unbelievable! This is why people who live in a bubble or ivory towers cannot understand why there’s so much anger out there.”

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Suhail Hassan Bhat in Bengaluru; Editing by Sweta Singh)

Source: OANN

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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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