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Colorado sheriffs who refuse to enforce anti-gun 'red flag' law should 'resign,' state AG says

Colorado's attorney general testified said week that country sheriffs vowing not to enforce the state's proposed anti-gun "red flag" bill should "resign" -- a challenge that threatened to ramp up tensions between state officials and local leaders who were already creating droves of so-called Second Amendment "sanctuary counties" to resist the legislation.

Democrat Phil Weiser made the remarks, which were first reported by The Colorado Sun, while testifying before a state committee on Friday. Weiser has said that the red flag legislation, which would permit a court to the seizure of weapons from people determined to be a threat to others or themselves, would save lives, particularly in domestic violence situations.

“If a sheriff cannot follow the law, the sheriff cannot do his or her job,” Weiser said. “The right thing to do for a sheriff who says, ‘I can’t follow the law’ is to resign.”

The proposed state law, House Bill 1177, is expected to secure passage in the Colorado legislature and be approved by the state's Democrat governor, Jared Polis. It says petitioners, under oath, must establish by a "preponderance of the evidence" -- a relatively lax legal standard essentially meaning that something is "more likely than not" -- that a person "poses a significant risk to self or others by having a firearm in his or her custody or control or by possessing, purchasing or receiving a firearm."

An emergency hearing must then be held within 24 hours, and if an "extreme risk protection order" (ERPO) is issued by a judge, an individual will be barred from "possessing, controlling, purchasing or receiving a firearm for 364 days," and must "surrender all of his or her firearms and his or her concealed carry permit."

CALIFORNIA'S GUN SEIZURE PROGRAM HITS HURDLES

Defendants can successfully override the ERPO only by establishing by "clear and convincing evidence" -- a legal standard even more strict than guilt beyond a reasonable doubt -- "that he or she no longer poses a significant risk of causing personal injury to self or others."

“Because ERPO will be constitutionally upheld, every sheriff will be required and, I believe, will follow through to uphold an act under that law," Weiser told the state Senate panel.

Several other states are considering similar red flag laws, and counties in states as far apart as New Mexico and Illinois have responded by creating Second Amendment sanctuaries, leading to court challenges. But Weiser's comments were perhaps the most direct repudiation by state officials of local leaders who have resisted their gun control efforts.

Weiser did not respond to Fox News' request for clarification on his remarks.

A man wears a patriotic-themed cowboy hat during a pro gun-rights rally at the state capitol, Saturday, April 14, 2018, in Austin, Texas. Gun rights supporters rallied across the United States to counter a recent wave of student-led protests against gun violence. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A man wears a patriotic-themed cowboy hat during a pro gun-rights rally at the state capitol, Saturday, April 14, 2018, in Austin, Texas. Gun rights supporters rallied across the United States to counter a recent wave of student-led protests against gun violence. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Conservatives have said Colorado's legislation should focus more on providing mental health services, and they warn that the bill would only discourage distressed individuals from seeking help. Legislators, critics say, should focus instead on expanding and improving the state's existing provisions for 72-hour mental health holds.

"The criteria for a 72-hour hold is you are a danger to yourself and others,” Assistant State Senate Minority Leader John Cooke, a Republican and former sheriff, told The Colorado Times. “Well, that’s what this bill is saying, too — to come in and take your guns. But the problem is you leave the person at the house. It’s gun confiscation, and it’s really short on mental health. So, if you’re going to take the gun, you ought to take the person instead if they are that dangerous.”

Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams told Fox News that Weiser, effectively, could take a hike.

NRA'S DANA LOESCH RIPS CNN'S AWARD FOR TOWN HALL IN WHICH SHE WAS HECKLED, RUBIO WAS COMPARED TO SERIAL KILLER

“If you pass an unconstitutional law, our oaths as commissioners or myself as the sheriff — we’re going to follow our constitutional oath first,” Reams, whose county commissioners recently voted to become a Second Amendment "sanctuary," told Fox News. “And we’ll do that balancing act on our own.”

On Wednesday afternoon, commissioners in Logan County, Colo., became the latest officials to pass such a sanctuary measure. The vote among commissioners was unanimous.

"It's time we quit trying to put lipstick on a pig and start funding our mental health facilities, instead of trying to take the rights from our people," Logan County Sheriff Brett Powell said in public remarks prior to the vote.

He added that law enforcement searches are traditionally only acceptable during criminal investigations.

"In Colorado, it's not a crime to harm yourself," Powell said.

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According to a list compiled by Rally for Our Rights, a nonprofit, 22 Colorado counties have become "Second Amendment sanctuaries" in the last month, including El Paso County, the state's largest.

El Paso last week vowed to fight the Colorado measure in court if needed, and pledged not to “appropriate funds, resources, employees, or agencies to initiate unconstitutional seizures in unincorporated El Paso County." The country affirmed its "support for the duly elected Sheriff of El Paso County, Colorado and collaborate with the Sheriff to refuse to initiate unconstitutional actions against citizens."

El Paso Commissioner Stan VanderWerf called on the state's Democrat leaders to change course.

“I would ask Governor Polis to refuse to sign it,” VanderWerf said, “because of the unconstitutionality of the bill as presently written. No governor or senate should willfully sign into law or pass legislation that are violations of a set of documents that protect our rights.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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US denies entry to founder of anti-Israel BDS movement

A founder of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement was barred from entering the U.S. on Wednesday, amid an escalating pushback against the anti-Israel movement in Congress.

Omar Barghouti was traveling to the U.S. for a speaking tour, the group said in a statement, when he was told by airline staff at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport that his visa was revoked “for immigration reasons” and he wasn’t allowed to board his flight.

TRUMP SAYS DEMS HAVE LET ANTI-SEMITISM 'TAKE ROOT' IN THEIR PARTY

"The U.S. entry ban against me, which is ideologically and politically motivated, is part of Israel's escalating repression against Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights defenders in the BDS movement for freedom, justice and equality," he said.

"Israel is not merely continuing its decades old system of military occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing; it is increasingly outsourcing its outragous, McCarthyite repression to the U.S. and to xenophobic, far-right cohorts across the world."

The Jerusalem Post reported that he had been invited to speak at events at New York University and Harvard University, as well as Washington D.C. He was also to attend his daughter’s wedding.

The BDS movement has picked up worldwide traction among the international anti-Israel left, including in America, and advocates boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli businesses, universities and cultural institutions.

Barghouti’s apparent ban comes as Republicans in Congress are accusing Democrats of allowing anti-Semitism to infect their party, and are seeking to pass legislation to allow states to penalize the movement. The Hill reported that House GOP lawmakers are launching a discharge petition to force a vote on the Senate bill.

Democrats have battled accusations of anti-Semitism, a controversy that blew up in March when Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., suggested that supporters of Israel were pushing for U.S. politicians to declare "allegiance" to that nation.

LEFT-WING PARTIES IN US, UK STRUGGLE TO DEAL WITH RISING ANTI-SEMITISM CONTROVERSIES

“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," Omar said. "I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or big pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying movement that is influencing policy?"

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise made reference to the controversy as he condemned House Democratic leadership for not bringing the Senate bill to the floor.

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“The Senate responded quickly and decisively with appropriate legislation to counter the dangerous BDS movement, but Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi has refused to bring this bipartisan bill to the House Floor and House Democrats stood idly by as their colleagues made senseless anti-Semitic remarks,” Scalise said, according to The Hill

In an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, President Trump on Saturday referenced Omar and said the Democrats “have even allowed the terrible scourge of anti-Semitism to take root in their party and in their country.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Two Republican attorneys general urge court to uphold Obamacare

FILE PHOTO - A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro
FILE PHOTO - A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro, San Diego, California, U.S., October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 1, 2019

By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two Republican state attorneys general on Monday urged a federal appeals court to uphold the Obamacare federal healthcare law, saying that striking it down would be disruptive for patients, doctors, insurers and employers.

The attorneys general of Ohio and Montana submitted “friend of the court” briefs to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,

which is expected to review a December ruling by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, striking down the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

Dozens of patient and healthcare industry groups, including the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, American Cancer Society and seniors advocacy group AARP also filed briefs in support of the law.

The briefs come less than a week after the U.S. Department of Justice, in an unexpected legal maneuver, said the entire healthcare law should be invalidated. Previously, President Donald Trump’s administration had said portions of Obamacare should be struck down and others should survive, including a state-led expansion of the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor.

The 2010 law, seen as the signature domestic achievement of Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, has been a flash point of American politics since it passed, with Republicans including Trump repeatedly attempting to overturn it.

Democrats made defending the law a powerful messaging tool in the campaign for the November elections, in which they won a decisive 38-seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The House submitted a filing last month to the appeals court in support of the law, as did a group of 17 mostly Democratic-led states including California and New York.

The lawsuit that led to the Texas ruling was brought by a coalition of 20 Republican-led states including Texas, Alabama and Florida.

It centered on the law’s so-called individual mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the mandate, ruling that the penalty was allowed through Congress’ power to tax.

In late 2017, however, Trump, a Republican, signed a tax bill reducing the penalty for not buying insurance to zero. The states challenging the law argued that the mandate was no longer a tax, and was therefore unconstitutional.

O’Connor agreed, and found that the rest of the law could not be separated from the mandate, meaning it must be struck down entirely.

About 11.8 million consumers nationwide enrolled in 2018 Obamacare exchange plans, according to the U.S. government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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UN judges to deliver Radovan Karadzic appeals decisions

United Nations judges are set to hand down their decisions in the appeal by former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic against his convictions and 40-year sentence for masterminding atrocities in his country's devastating 1992-95 war.

Karadzic appealed his 2016 convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as his sentence. Prosecutors appealed his acquittal on a second count of genocide during Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Relatives of victims of the war gathered outside the courtroom Wednesday ahead of the hearing that will announce the decisions.

Karadzic is one of the most senior figures tried by the Hague war crimes court. His case is considered as key in delivering justice for the victims of the conflict, which left over 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.

Source: Fox News World

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Cycling: Hurts to think of tragic Catlin’s pain, says rival Archibald

FILE PHOTO: 2018 European Championships - Glasgow
2018 European Championships - Track Cycling, Women's Omnium, Elimination Race - Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Britain - August 6, 2018 - Katie Archibald of Great Britain reacts after winning the race. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

March 15, 2019

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Olympic, world and European track cycling champion Katie Archibald says the suicide this month of American rival Kelly Catlin has hit her hard.

The 23-year-old Catlin, also a world champion, was part of the American team pursuit quartet beaten to Olympic gold in Rio in 2016 by a British squad featuring Scotland’s Archibald.

Catlin, likely to have been part of the U.S team to challenge Britain’s crown in Tokyo next year, was found dead this month in her apartment at Stanford University.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Archibald, who celebrated her 25th birthday this week, told Reuters in an interview on Friday. “It hurts me to think about the pain that she must have been hiding.

“That’s what has kept in my mind these past few days. It’s left a heavy feeling in your chest, in your stomach. It’s really horrible to imagine what Kelly was carrying around.”

Archibald said the shock was greater because she had always seen Catlin as someone who “walked with her head high”.

“She was an exceptional athlete, an exceptional talent,” she said. “Watching her in track center she always did stand out.”

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper this week Catlin’s father Mark questioned whether a concussion his daughter suffered two months before her death had contributed in any way to her mood.

“She had I think problems with reasoning, kind of befuddled,” he said. “She had changed and it was tough to see and it was a concern to us.”

Archibald suffered concussion after a crash in the omnium at the recent world championships in Poland.

STRICTER PROTOCOLS

She said protocols around head injuries to riders had improved in British Cycling.

“The contrast between having a crash five years ago and having a crash now with the check-ups and the procedures you go through, they are really a lot stricter,” she said.

“But it does scare you to think that a crash could not just take you out of your sport, but also take you out of yourself.”

While the reasons behind Catlin’s suicide are not known, the death of an elite Olympic athlete in the prime of her career has again shone the light on the pressure placed on the shoulders of young sportsmen and women.

A UK Sport review into the governance of British Cycling’s elite program, published in 2017, highlighted concerns such as fear, intimidation and bullying.

British Cycling implemented an Action Plan to address 39 areas of concern, including “athlete whole-life development and welfare”.

Archibald, who only took up cycling seriously aged 17, says while there is work to be done UK Sport and British Cycling are “pretty engaged” on athlete welfare.

“There is more sympathy for being human and having struggles,” she said. “There’s more focus now to who you are outside of sport, an identity that isn’t attached solely to performance. That’s an important part of mental health.

“Maybe less stigma too about acting as an individual. I never agreed with the idea that there is only one personality type that can be an Olympic champion. You don’t have to be devoid of emotion.”

After a tough time at the worlds which left her “waking up unhappy”, Archibald is looking forward to letting her hair down at this month’s Six Day event at the Manchester velodrome.

Starting on March 22 it boasts an international-quality field competing across a range of track disciplines with the lights turned down and the music turned up.

“Go out, race hard, and not stress if it doesn’t work out. It’s like no other event,” Archibald, who will be joined by Britain’s golden couple Jason and Laura Kenny, said.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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China says willing to hold more talks with India on blacklisting Kashmir attacker

Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Pakistan's militant Jaish-e-Mohammad party, attends a pro-Taliban conf..
FILE PHOTO: Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Pakistan's militant Jaish-e-Mohammad party, attends a pro-Taliban conference organised by the Afghan Defence Council in Islamabad August 26, 2001. MK/JD

March 16, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Friday it was willing to have more discussions with all parties concerned including India on blacklisting the head of Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy in disputed Kashmir in February.

China prevented a U.N. Security Council committee on Wednesday from blacklisting JeM founder Masood Azhar.

India said it was disappointed at the block, which sparked calls for boycotts of Chinese products on domestic social media, while the United States said it was counter to a goal it shared with China of achieving regional peace and stability.

In a statement faxed to Reuters late on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the “technical hold” on the blacklisting was to give more time for the committee to have further consultations and study on the issue.

China hopes the committee’s actions can “benefit reducing the tense situation and protect regional stability”, the ministry said, responding to a Reuters question on the boycott calls in India.

“China is willing to strengthen communication with all parties, including India, to appropriately handle this issue,” it added, without elaborating.

The United States, Britain and France had asked the Security Council’s Islamic State and al Qaeda sanctions committee to subject Azhar to an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze. The 15-member committee operates by consensus.

China had previously prevented the sanctions committee from sanctioning Azhar in 2016 and 2017.

The Feb. 14 attack that killed at least 40 paramilitary police was the deadliest in Kashmir’s 30-year-long insurgency, escalating tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors, which said they shot down each other’s fighter jets late last month.

Western powers could also blacklist Azhar by adopting a Security Council resolution, which needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France.

Blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council in 2001, JeM is a primarily anti-India group that forged ties with al Qaeda.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Diane Craft)

Source: OANN

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'First in the nation' election tradition in New Hampshire at risk

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. — Every four years, at the stroke of midnight, a small New Hampshire town 20 miles south of the Canadian border with fewer than a dozen residents is thrust into the national spotlight.

The town of Dixville Notch comes together to cast its primary votes all at once, the minute the polls open, billing itself as the very first in the nation.

"Every four years, Dixville voters get their five minutes of fame," said Tom Tillotson, the town's election moderator. "Four minutes later, everybody's forgotten about us for another four years."

But the tradition is now at risk.

LAWMAKERS RE-ELECT GUARDIAN OF NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY, DESPITE WORK ON TRUMP ELECTION COMMISSION

This comes amid scrutiny of the 2016 contest in Dixville Notch from election investigators at the New Hampshire Attorney General's office, New Hampshire Public Radio reports.

Dixville Notch Election Moderator Tom Tillotson prepares to count the ballots in the 2016 election, in which several votes were disputed. (FOX NEWS)

Dixville Notch Election Moderator Tom Tillotson prepares to count the ballots in the 2016 election, in which several votes were disputed. (FOX NEWS)

"We noticed some irregularities in the way that they were running their elections," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Broadhead, who oversees the Election Law Unit. "And so we broadened the inquiry to the election officials as well."

Broadhead said that his team found some votes in the 2016 election were cast by individuals who did not live in the town, along with several other inconsistencies in the voter registration process. They were tipped off by a neighboring town's clerk who identified residents in her town watching coverage of the Dixville Notch primary, the Attorney General's preliminary report said.

Eight people voted in Dixville Notch in 2016. Since the investigation began, the voter roll is down to just five — the minimum amount of people needed for the town to hold an election in the state of New Hampshire.

Those five people are Tillotson, his wife, his son, and two people working to reopen the shuttered Balsams Resort in the center of town.

In its heyday, the Balsams used Dixville Notch's elections as an attraction in the slow winter months in the North Country.

CASTRO TOUTS EXPERIENCE, POLICY SPECIFICS, AS HE CONTRASTS HIMSELF WITH BETO O’ROURKE

Since 2011, the 150-year-old resort has sat vacant in the serenity of New Hampshire's wilderness. When Balsams and a nearby factory closed, it took all of the people working there with it, leaving a ghost town.

The Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch has sat vacant since 2011. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

The Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch has sat vacant since 2011. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

Although there are now several other small New Hampshire towns that participate in midnight voting, in 1960 Dixville Notch became the first. Tillotson said Dixville Notch is emblematic of full democracy in action.

"The whole point of Dixville voting Is not to get publicity," Tillotson said. "The whole point is to encourage people to get out and vote—to lead by example. Here's a little town where a hundred percent of the population gets up at midnight. That's not easy."

Although Dixville Notch dubs itself "First in the Nation," several other small New Hampshire towns participate in the tradition. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

Although Dixville Notch dubs itself "First in the Nation," several other small New Hampshire towns participate in the tradition. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

While the fate of the tradition rests on the Balsams project, elsewhere in the state a slew of proposed changes to New Hampshire voting laws could completely transform elections in the state.

In the state legislature, which Democrats recently regained control of, close to 60 bills have been proposed to change nearly every facet of the election process. Some bills seek to reform lobbying rules and how campaigns are funded, while much of the focus has been on voter eligibility rules.

LARRY HOGAN, POTENTIAL TRUMP PRIMARY CHALLENGER, HEADED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE IN APRIL

The New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union has sued the state, claiming a new law requiring a drivers' license to vote is unconstitutional.

"Now, anybody who votes in New Hampshire will have to get a New Hampshire driver's license and register their car in New Hampshire and that can cost hundreds of dollars here," said Henry Klementowicz, staff attorney for the New Hampshire ACLU. "That is a fee that they'll have to pay simply as a consequence of voting. So we think that's a poll tax and that's wrong."

While that lawsuit is pending, Democrats in New Hampshire legislature will have an uphill battle passing legislation with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in the governor's mansion.

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Meanwhile, back at Dixville Notch, Tillotson hopes the Balsams project will prevail so the tradition will live to see the 2020 election.

"I don't think I've accepted yet that Dixville Notch midnight voting is over," Tillotson said, looking downward. "So I'm optimistic. As I said there's a lot of good stuff happening inside. This project is looking forward more to go forward."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

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) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

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A man accused of fatally beating a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son had been previously deported from the United States five times, most recently in late 2016, immigration officials said.

Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, a 33-year-old Honduran national, has used multiple aliases, including the fake name of Jose Agurcia-Avila he gave police in Memphis, Tennessee, following his arrest in the boy’s death earlier this month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told WMC-TV.

ICE officials have since filed an immigration detainer against Zuniga-Aviles, who was initially deported back to Honduras in February 2010. He was also returned to the Central American country in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

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“ICE will seek to take him into custody to reinstate his removal order following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” the statement reads. “Mr. Zuniga-Aviles has been removed from the US five prior times: his most recent removal by ICE to Honduras took place in December 2016.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH CRIMINAL HISTORY ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA WOMAN’S MURDER

Zuniga-Aviles later returned to the U.S. following his removal, a felony under federal law, immigration officials said. It’s unclear exactly when he returned, but he was living with his girlfriend and the woman’s 4-month-old son in Memphis at the time of his arrest, WREG reports.

DAD OF MAN KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BLASTS CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TRIP TO CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

The infant, Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, was pronounced dead at a hospital from blunt force trauma to the head after his mother, Mercy Lizondro-Chacon, called police on April 12 to report that the boy was having trouble breathing, according to an affidavit of complaint obtained by the Commercial Appeal.

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This article originally appeared in the New York Post. For more from the Post, click here.

Source: Fox News National

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