#source: reuters

[elephantaday]

Day 147 of posting pictures of elephants.

[fuck-the-ccp]

China says Hong Kong will never be calm unless violent protesters removed

China's Hong Kong affairs office warned on Wednesday that the city will never be calm unless "black-clad violent protesters" were all remove

[mtg-player1]

Isnotreal attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria, killing an important general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, among others (1) (2). Isnotreal hasn't confirmed or denied blame for this attack (2).

Iran declared, Wednesday last week, that it would respond (1) (3).

my sources disagree (slightly):(NRK: The Iranian response was sending over 300 missiles and drones (3). ) (Reuters: over 200 drones and missiles, according to Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari(2))

Most of them got cut off, according to isnotreal (3). Iran also said it was a response to multiple crimes by Israel (not just the criminal attack on the consulate) (3).

Iran's allies, including Hizbollah (according to themselves) and the Houthies (according to media), are also supposed to have attacked isnotreal (3).

The USA (Biden) is saying they are assisting isnotreals defence and side with Isnotreal strongly against Iran (3) (2) (link to statement). Donald Trump says he thinks the USA is not doing enough to support isnotreal (2). The Norwegian foreign minister condemned isnotreals attack on Iran (3). Iranians celebrate Irans attack on Isnotreal, saying "death to Israel", "death to usa", according to AFP (4). Iran warns isnotreal not to commit further crimes, or else they will respond stronger, but say they consider the matter concluded (2). Isnotreal wants the UN to move to condemn Iran's retaliation (3). Isnotreal says they will retaliate grandly (2).

Multiple news bureaus report having seen drones from Iraq (3).

The British, Usamerican and Jordanian defenses all report having shot down Iranian drones that were heading to isnotreal (3).

The NRK correspondent in Jerusalem reports having seen missiles being shot down, this being the first time in a while there's been any bombing in the area, videos from Hareetz also show this (3).

For most of the bombing isnotrealis were told to sit in bomb rooms (3). The bombings we're warned about in the app Red Alert (3).

slight disagreement between my sources here, but: (NRK: According to isnotreali ambulances there has been one injury, a ten year old was critically hurt (3).) (Reuters: According to isnotreali authorities there has been one injury, a seven year old girl was critically hurt (2))

edit: Addition that Norwegian newspaper The Class Struggle (Klassekampen) made a two pager on the attack on Iran (published Saturday 13.04.2024), predicting Irans attack and supporting the claim that 7 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. They also added that the UK David Cameron said it would be a misstep for Iran to retaliate. (5)

Sources:

1 NRK link published april 1 2024 18:59 (Norwegian time). No author listed. language: Norwegian bokmål. Accessed April 14 11:12.

2 Reuters link . Published April 14 2024 10:45 GMT+2 (edited 3 hours ago). Written by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Timur Azhari in Baghdad, Jeff Mason, Eric Beech and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Lidia Kelly in Lisbon; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Daniel Wallis, Chizu Nomiyama, Howard Goller and William Mallard. Accessed April 14 13:54.

3 NRK link published april 14 2024 13:18. Written by Øyvind Bye Skille, Åse Marit Befring, Milana Kenžević, Julia Kirsebom Thomassen, Aud Darrud, Hedda Kurseth and Eivind Molde. language: Norwegian bokmål. Accessed April 14 13:20.

4 NRK link published april 14 2024 12:37. Written by Ida Kristin Rønning, Aid Darrud and Amanda Iversen Orlich. Language: Norwegian bokmål. Accessed April 14 13:22.

edit:

5 Klassekampen. Published April 13 2024. Written by Amal A Wahab. language: Norwegian bokmål. Accessed April 17 2024.

Note about the quality of sources:

NRK generally seem a lot more critical of isnotreal and don't seem to fit the criticisms that have been raised about "western media", I mean I assume most of the people complaining don't even speak Norwegian so yeah, I trust NRK, NRK is btw Norway's official news agency "Norsk rikskringkasting", which is free. NRK doesn't have a rating, but Norway is considered to have "excellent freedom" of press, ranking first globally (MBFC).

Reuters is English language Western media, so I assume they are more biased in favor of isnotreal, however they have a relatively high factuality score and are said to have low bias, though with being from the UK they are only mostly free media (MBFC). Their trust principles are linked here.

Also note about this post, I am mostly translating the NRK article, I skipped some parts (mostly to make this more strictly news) and restructured some parts. This is mostly the work of the journalists in source 3.

edit:

Klassekampen is a left wing paper that I personally consider fairly reliable for Palestine. They have from the start just written more about Palestine, simply enough. Again there's no MBFC score for this paper. This article has not been debunked in the Norwegian fact checker Faktisk.no. Klassekampen has failed fact check before (at faktisk.no), usually about Norwegian politics.

[sophieshouseofimages]

[studentofrhetoric-blog]

Part 2, Monday, May 1st, 2017

International News:

--- "Centrist presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen attacked each other's visions of France and the role it should play in Europe on Monday against a background of May Day rallies and protests. Macron sought for a third successive day to paint National Front (FN) candidate Le Pen as an extremist, while she portrayed him as a clone of unpopular outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande, under whom he served as economy minister from 2014 to 2016. Two opinion polls showed Macron winning what is widely seen as France's most important election in decades with between 59 and 61 percent of the vote. On offer is a choice between his vision of closer integration with a modernized European Union and her calls to cut immigration and take the country out of the euro. "I will fight up until the very last second not only against her programme but also her idea of what constitutes democracy and the French Republic," said Macron, an independent backed by a new party, En Marche! (Onwards!), which he set up a year ago. He was speaking after paying tribute to a young Moroccan man who drowned in the River Seine in Paris 22 years ago after being pushed into the water by skinheads on the fringes of a May Day rally by the FN, then led by Le Pen's father Jean-Marie. Later, at a rally, he described her as "the anti-France candidate" and said "We want Europe to be strong because we want France to be strong." He also rejected calls from leftwing politicians to drop his business friendly reforms."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN17X1OG?il=0

--- "Centrist French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron on Monday rejected calls from the left to amend the pro-business reforms in his electoral program. With six days to go before the second round of the presidential election that polls show him on track to win, Macron made the pledge at a rally of around 12,000 people on the edge of Paris. "I heard the calls to change my manifesto," he said, in a reference to the demands of Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left candidate who picked up one in five votes in the first round of voting last weekend. "Some did it in the past, but I won't do it." Macron needs leftwing votes if he is to beat his far-right run-off rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday. A poll last week show about 40 percent of those who voted for Melenchon would support him, but that another 40 percent could abstain, with the rest choosing Le Pen. He said his proposed reforms, which include capping severance payments to make firing and hiring easier, were necessary to address unemployment, which has hovered around 10 percent in France for several years. "These changes are essential to prevent the National Front from becoming stronger in five years' time," he added. In a message of conciliation to voters concerned about globalisation, however, Macron said he would set up a committee to investigate the consequences of the CETA free trade deal between Europe and Canada. He also repeated he would seek fairer EU rules to prevent what he calls 'social dumping' - under which companies can move jobs to member countries where labor is cheaper and employ imported workers at lower rates."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-reforms-idUSKBN17X275?il=0

--- "Supporters of far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Monday shrugged off her ditherings over the week-end on the euro, saying they trusted her with taking France out of Europe's single currency and back to the Franc. Le Pen on Saturday said ditching the euro was not her top economic priority, in a bid to broaden her support amid voters worried over her trademark policy, ahead of the presidential election run-off May 7 vote against centrist front-runner Emmanuel Macron. However, on Sunday she renewed her attacks against the single currency, which she said was "dead", - renewing a key theme of her campaign which has been marked by her anti-European Union, 'Frexit' stance. Opinion polls show that while an overwhelming majority of FN voters back a return to the Franc, about three quarters of French voters want to keep the euro, making it a major hurdle to Le Pen's quest for power."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-le-pen-idUSKBN17X1KR?il=0

--- "French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen would back a Europe of co-operation between nations while her rival Emmanuel Macron wants to keep France in the "EU jail," Le Pen ally Nicolas Dupont-Aignan said on Monday. "Electing Emmanuel Macron, a junior, immature and troubled version of Francois Hollande, would mean locking up France definitively in the EU jail," Dupont-Aignan, the leader of a small nationalist, right-wing party who struck an alliance with Le Pen last week, told an FN rally. "What's at stake this Sunday, what's at stake in 2017, is saving France," he said, referring to the decisive May 7 run-off vote between Macron and Le Pen. "This will only be possible by regaining our independence ... and building the only Europe that can work, the Europe of nations ... of cooperation on specific projects." Le Pen has said that Dupont-Aignan would be her prime minister if she were elected as French president."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-le-pen-ally-idUSKBN17X1JG?il=0

--- "Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Syrian government forces of likely dropping bombs containing nerve agents at least three times elsewhere in the country before an April 4 attack that killed dozens of people and sparked a retaliatory U.S. strike. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons. The Syrian U.N. mission was not immediately available to comment on the allegations by Human Rights Watch, which cited interviews with witnesses and medical personnel. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons, a global watchdog, has said sarin or a similar banned toxin was used in the April 4 strike. Human Rights Watch said that before the April 4 attack on Khan Sheikhoun, government warplanes also appeared to have dropped nerve agents on eastern Hama on Dec. 11 and 12, 2016, and northern Hama, near Khan Sheikhoun, on March 30, 2017."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-chemicalweapons-idUSKBN17X261?il=0

 --- "Three young women were arrested under anti-terrorism laws in east London on Monday in connection with a security operation in the capital last week, police said. The two 18-year-old and one 19-year-old women were held on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorist acts, the Metropolitan Police force said. "The arrests were made as part of an ongoing intelligence-led operation in connection with an address on Harlesden Road," the police said in a statement, referring to the location of a raid by armed counter-terrorism officers in northwest London on Thursday evening. Police at the time said that raid had disrupted an active militant plot. Monday's arrests came days after a man was arrested carrying knives near Prime Minister Theresa May's office in Westminster, and just over a month after a British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge. On Thursday, armed counter-terrorism officers using tear gas stormed the house in the Willesden area of the capital and shot a woman in her 20s."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-security-arrests-idUSKBN17X1ET?il=0

--- "Britain's governing Conservative Party holds a 19 point lead over Labour, a poll by ICM said on Monday, a commanding advantage just slightly lower than the record lead recorded the previous weekend. Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives took 47 percent of the vote in the poll, with support for Labour at 28 percent. Last weekend ICM found a 22 percentage point lead for the Conservatives, a record for the firm. Monday's poll was the latest in a string of polls to show that Labour was closing the gap slightly. "A slight fightback is recorded for Labour, but not to the extent identified in a couple of other polls," Martin Boon, director at ICM, said, adding that a methodological change had also affected the poll."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-election-poll-icm-idUSKBN17X1WI?il=0

--- "German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she hopes the European Union and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries can finally complete a free trade agreement and that she would discuss the issue with Abu Dhabi's crown prince. Germany, which relies on foreign trade for half its gross domestic product, fears that the protectionism backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and the fallout from Britain's vote to leave the EU posed global economic risks. "I'll be talking with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan about this question," Merkel said on Monday before her meeting. "The issue at hand is how to intensify the economic relations between the two regions." On a trip to Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Merkel told reporters that the economic relations between the two regions needed to be strengthened. She said she had also discussed the issue on Sunday on her visit to Saudi Arabia. "I made it clear that a free trade agreement with the Gulf states would be of great interest from a European point of view," Merkel said during her visit to Jeddah on Sunday. She noted that the EU had made a new offer for an agreement but that the GCC states had not yet responded. Merkel said she had talked to King Salman about the issue on Sunday evening."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-trade-gulf-merkel-idUSKBN17X1QY?il=0

--- "Across Asia, more and more countries are being pulled into Beijing's orbit, with the timid stance adopted by Southeast Asian nations on the South China Sea at a weekend summit a clear sign this fundamental geostrategic shift is gathering momentum. U.S. President Donald Trump's flurry of calls at the weekend to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore might cheer those who fear his predecessor Barack Obama's "pivot" to Asia has been abandoned in favor of an "America First" agenda. But White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said the conversations were aimed at lining up Asian partners in case tensions over North Korea lead to "nuclear and massive destruction in Asia", and mentioned no broader strategic goal. Southeast Asian nations will need more than that to convince them the United States still has their backs. In the meantime, some are leaning closer to China, soft-pedalling quarrels over the disputed South China Sea and angling for a slice of Beijing's "One Belt, One Road" infrastructure investment program to compensate for the U.S. abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. The unexpected bonhomie that has emerged between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could give Asian countries further confidence to continue their swing toward Beijing."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-asia-analysis-idUSKBN17X1NE?il=0

--- "U.S.-backed militias said on Monday they had pushed Islamic State fighters out of the old quarters of Tabqa, a strategically vital town controlling Syria's largest dam, hemming the militants into the remaining modern district along the shore. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance made up of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighting groups, are fighting a multi-phased campaign to drive Islamic State from its stronghold of Raqqa, 40km (25 miles) downstream and east of Tabqa. The SDF will wait to assault Raqqa until it seizes Tabqa, its military officials have previously said, but it had made slow progress since besieging the town in early April. This changed on Thursday when the SDF began to advance north into the old city. On Monday the SDF said in an online statement it had taken the last three neighborhoods of the old city and an adjoining industrial district. SDF forces were now fighting Islamic State in the three modern quarters of the town which lie along the Tabqa reservoir, SDF spokesman Talal Silo said. Islamic State still control the dam. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said on Monday the SDF now controls about 80 percent of Tabqa."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-raqqa-idUSKBN17X1II?il=0

--- "The United Nations is continuing to receive signals that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen could attack the key port of Hodeidah, causing humanitarian suffering and loss of life, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said on Monday. A Saudi-led military coalition backing the internationally-recognized government in its war against the Houthi rebels has been preparing an assault on Hodeidah. "The U.N. is concerned about the humanitarian repercussions of such an attack in terms of inflaming the humanitarian crisis even further, let alone our concerns about loss of civilian life were there to be a large-scale attack on port," Zeid told a news conference in Geneva. Last week Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr repeated allegations that the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels were smuggling weapons into Yemen through Hodeidah and said his government preferred U.N. supervision of the port rather than an attack."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-idUSKBN17X1F1?il=0

--- "Taiwan's U.S. ties are solid with regular contacts, its foreign minister said on Monday, as the government came under opposition criticism over U.S. President Donald Trump's cool response to the possibility of a phone call with Taiwan's president. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that if the need arose, she would not rule out talking directly again to the U.S. president, when asked about such a possibility. But later in the day, Trump brushed aside the suggestion, saying he did not want to create problems for Chinese President Xi Jinping when Beijing appears to be helping with efforts to rein in North Korea. The island's foreign minister, David Lee, responding in a regular parliamentary session to opposition references to Trump's comments, said relations with the United States were good. "The outlook for Taiwan-U.S. relations is very optimistic," Lee told lawmakers. Lee said there were "fixed" channels of high-level contacts between the two sides. He said Taiwan was waiting for the U.S. administration to fill vacancies at senior levels, such as those that handle Asian affairs, to be able to implement bilateral policies."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-politics-idUSKBN17X1E1?il=0

--- "Russian police arrested about 20 gay-rights protesters demonstrating on Monday in St Petersburg against the treatment of homosexuals in the southern Chechnya republic, one of the detained activists told Reuters. A Reuters cameraman saw police bundling several gay rights activists into police cars at one location. The human rights group OVD-Info human, which monitors police arrests, said about 17 had been detained. Western governments and human rights activists have long criticized the Russian authorities for their treatment of gay people. Last month, Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that up to 100 gay men were being held and tortured in "camps" in Chechnya. It said at least three of them had been killed. Chechnya's Moscow-backed president Ramzan Kadyrov denies that human rights are routinely abused in his republic and his spokesman has called Novaya's report "an absolute lie", saying there were no gay men in Chechnya to be persecuted. Igor Kochetkov, a well-known activist in Russia's gay, lesbian and transgender community, told Reuters that he was among a group of 10 being detained in one St Petersburg police station. He said another group of about 10 had been transferred to a second location."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-lgbt-idUSKBN17X21A?il=0

--- "Europeans took to the streets on Monday, celebrating the international workers' holiday of May Day with an assortment of rallies and demonstrations, which in France turned violent as protesters threw petrol bombs at police. One Paris police officer was seriously burnt and two others injured in confrontations with protesters. In Turkey, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up demonstrations and arrested hundreds. A small group of Italian demonstrators clashed with police as they tried to break through a police barrier in the northern city of Turin. The spokesman for Belgium's Workers Party was knifed in the leg at a rally in Liege. Elsewhere, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma abruptly left a rally he was due to address as workers booed him and fights broke out between his supporters and opponents. In the United States, unions and activists planned protests against U.S. President Donald Trump."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-may-day-protests-idUSKBN17X23W?il=0

Domestic & International News:

--- "President Donald Trump does not intend to trade away U.S. jobs for China's help on North Korea, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday, adding that there were "constructive" talks with Beijing underway on trade issues. In an interview with CNBC, Ross rowed back from Trump's comments in a CBS interview on Saturday that China's help on North Korea "trumps trade." Asked if the need for China's help to contain threats from North Korea had made it more difficult to be tough with Beijing on trade issues, Ross said he did not think so. "We've been having some very constructive discussions on trade with the Chinese in parallel" to discussions on North Korea, Ross told CNBC. "I think what the president was trying to say is that we're trying to have an overall constructive relationship with China on a variety of topics, the most pressing of which, because it directly involves human lives, is the North Korea situation. I don't think he meant to indicate at all that he intends to trade away American jobs just for help on North Korea," Ross said. Ross also reaffirmed that the administration intended to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, not withdraw from it."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-ross-idUSKBN17X1X5?il=0

--- "U.S. President Donald Trump must convey to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte the deep sense of alarm about his apparent shirking of his duty to prosecute human rights violations, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said on Monday. The White House on Sunday defended Trump's decision to invite Duterte to Washington, saying his cooperation was needed to counter North Korea, even as the administration faced human rights criticism for its overture to Manila. "So one hopes the message will be very clear and undiluted from the President of United States to the President of the Philippines," Zeid told a news briefing."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-philippines-un-idUSKBN17X1D8?il=0

--- "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a lower court's ruling that had allowed an American oil drilling company to sue Venezuela over the seizure of 11 drilling rigs in 2010 but allowed the business another chance to press its claims. Siding with Venezuela, the justices ruled 8-0 that a lower court that had given the go-ahead for the suit must reconsider whether claims made by Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company (HP.N) can proceed. Writing for the court, Justice Stephen Breyer said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2015 used the wrong standard in denying Venezuela immunity from the lawsuit. Helmerich & Payne shares fell about 2 percent in midday trading after the ruling. The company sued both the Venezuelan government and state-owned oil companies under a U.S. law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, saying among other things that the property seizure violated international law. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act allows for foreign governments to be sued in U.S. courts under certain circumstances, including when private property is seized. On Monday, the justices said the appeals court wrongly allowed claims to move forward merely because a company had presented a "nonfrivolous" case against a foreign government. Breyer called that too low a bar to allow a suit against Venezuela. The lower court must decide whether any property had been taken in violation of international law...Newly appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was not on the court when it heard arguments in the case in November, did not participate. During the argument, some of the justices appeared wary about the foreign policy implications of making it too easy for foreign governments to be sued in U.S. courts."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-venezuela-idUSKBN17X1TL?il=0

Domestic News:

--- "President Donald Trump announced on Monday he has signed an executive order creating a new technology council to "transfer and modernize" the U.S. government's information technology systems. A White House official confirmed Monday that about 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology. "Americans deserve better digital services from their Government. To effectuate this policy, the federal government must transform and modernize its information technology and how it uses and delivers digital services," Trump's executive order dated April 28 said. Trump has held a number of meetings with top tech chief executives since becoming president, including Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc, IBM Corp, Microsoft Inc, and Tesla Inc."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-technology-idUSKBN17X1S9?il=0

--- "A federal spending agreement reached late on Sunday will reimburse New York City for money spent securing U.S. President Donald Trump and his family at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Altogether, New York City and other state and local governments that have hosted the president would receive $61 million in the latest federal budget deal. Officials in Florida's Palm Beach County, home to Trump's private club Mar-a-Lago, have also asked for help in paying security costs. "We are getting what we are owed," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement on Monday. "That's good news for our city and the hardworking police officers faced with this unprecedented security challenge." He and Police Commissioner James O'Neill worked for several months with New York's congressional delegation to have the funds included in the deal, he said. Congress is expected to approve the legislation by the end of the week. The deal includes $20 million for costs incurred between Election Day in November and Inauguration Day in January, as well as $41 million after Trump was sworn in. The funding, which must be shared with other local governments, is on top of the $7 million allocated last fall. The city spends on average $127,000 to $146,000 a day for the New York Police Department to protect First Lady Melania Trump and the couple's young son when President Trump is not in town. Those costs are expected to swell to a daily average of $308,000 when Trump is in the city, the mayor's office said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-new-york-idUSKBN17X1Y5?il=0

--- "The U.S. government and coal companies will be required to pay out healthcare to retired coal miners, guaranteeing benefits to workers even as coal companies face bankruptcy, after Congress on Sunday reached a fiscal spending agreement for 2017. The provision to secure the United Mine Workers' healthcare benefits was included in a deal that lawmakers reached late on Sunday for around $1 trillion in federal funding that would avert a government shutdown later this week. Around 22,600 coal miners and their families were on the brink of losing on April 30 their healthcare benefits, which were at risk of default as the industry struggled, with companies trying to recover from bankruptcies. “This permanent solution to protect these benefits is a victory for our miners, their families, and their widows," said Congressman Evan Jenkins, a West Virginia Republican who represents the state's coal-producing counties. Members of the UMWA have made several visits to Washington over the last few months to urge lawmakers to protect their benefits, which they say is a government obligation. President Harry Truman in 1946 brokered the Krug-Lewis agreement, which guaranteed health and pension benefits for coal miners. Sunday's agreement did not address a long-term fix for miners' pension funds, which are also set to be terminated. Lawmakers from both parties still hope to pass the Miners Protection Act, which would transfer funds from the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the union's pension plan to prevent its insolvency."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-miners-idUSKBN17X20E?il=0

[studentofrhetoric-blog]

Part 1, Monday, May 1st, 2017

International News:

--- "Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday the creation of a new popular assembly with the ability to re-write the constitution, which foes decried as a power-grab to stifle weeks of anti-government unrest. "I don't want a civil war," Maduro told a May Day rally of supporters in downtown Caracas while elsewhere across the city security forces fired tear gas at youths hurling stones and petrol bombs after opposition marches were blocked. Maduro, 54, has triggered an article of the constitution that creates a super-body known as a "constituent assembly." It can dissolve public powers and call general elections, echoing a previous assembly created by his predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1999 soon after he won office in the South American OPEC nation...Only half of the 500-member assembly, or less, would be elected and political parties would not participate, he said. Opponents fear Maduro would stuff the assembly with supporters and manipulate the elected seats by giving extra weight to pro-government workers and unions. They said it was another attempt to sideline the current opposition-led National Assembly and potentially avoid elections amid a bruising recession and protests that have led to 29 deaths in the last month. The opposition had been demanding general elections to try and end the socialists' 18-year rule. A grave-faced National Assembly President Julio Borges on Monday evening called on Venezuelans to rebel, potentially portending bigger protests."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN17X203?il=0

--- "Britain can no longer rely on U.S. leadership on Middle East policy and must work more closely with Europe to ensure the Iran nuclear deal stays in place, among other policies, a committee of lawmakers said in a report on Tuesday..."We can no longer assume America will set the tone for the West's relationship with the Middle East," said David Howell, chairman of the British parliament's House of Lords International Relations Committee. In its report, the committee cited in particular Trump's approach to Iran and to the Arab-Israeli conflict. "The new U.S. administration has the potential to destabilize further the region ... The U.S. President has taken positions that are unconstructive and could even escalate conflict," it said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-britain-idUSKBN17X2IM?il=0

--- "U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said on Monday that heavy-handed security measures by Egypt were fostering the very radicalisation it was looking to curb. Egypt last month was shaken by one of the bloodiest attacks in years when Islamic State suicide bombers targeted two Christian churches, killing 45 people. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency hours later. Zeid condemned the church attacks at a news conference in Geneva but said that Egypt's approach to combating Islamist militants was exacerbating the problem. "...a state of emergency, the massive numbers of detentions, reports of torture, and continued arbitrary arrests - all of this we believe facilitates radicalisation in prisons," Zeid said. She said "the crackdown on civil society" was "not the way to fight terror. "Responding, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid called the remarks an "irresponsible" and "unbalanced" reading of the situation in Egypt, where society is targeted by "terrorist operations," according to a statement from the ministry. Abu Zeid defended the emergency law as passed by an elected parliament subject to "rules and restrictions" set out by the constitution. "We don't see the High Commissioner criticizing other states implementing states of emergency that are dealing with similar conditions," the statement said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-rights-un-idUSKBN17X1MI?il=0

--- "The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Monday dropped its longstanding call for Israel's destruction, but said it still rejected the country's right to exist and backs "armed struggle" against it. In a policy document presented in Doha by its leader Khaled Meshaal, Hamas also said it would end its association with the Muslim Brotherhood, a move apparently aimed at improving ties with Gulf Arab states and Egypt, which view the Brotherhood as a terrorist group. Israel responded to the announcement by accusing Hamas of trying to "fool the world", while the group's main Palestinian political rival, the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, also reacted coolly to the policy shift. The publication of the policy document comes two days before Abbas is due to visit Washington, and days after President Donald Trump told Reuters he may travel to Israel this month and sees no reason why there should not be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "We don't want to dilute our principles but we want to be open. We hope this (document) will mark a change in the stance of European states towards us," Meshaal told reporters. Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, said in the document it agreed to a transitional Palestinian state within the borders of 1967, when Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a war with Arab states. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. "Hamas advocates the liberation of all of Palestine but is ready to support the state on 1967 borders without recognizing Israel or ceding any rights," said Meshaal, in a shift that brings Hamas more into line with the position of Fatah."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-hamas-document-idUSKBN17X1N8?il=0

--- "The United States urged Macedonian leaders on Monday to end a political stalemate and allow the parliamentary majority made up of Social Democrats and parties representing ethnic Albanians to form a new government. Nearly five months after a Dec. 11 parliamentary election, Macedonian nationalists unhappy about the inclusion of ethnic Albanians are blocking the formation of a new government, further deepening the worst crisis in the tiny Balkan country since it narrowly averted an ethnic civil war in 2001. "We feel that it is very important for the leaders to find a way to allow the majority in parliament ... to propose a government and a government programme," U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, Hoyt Yee, said in Skopje after meeting leaders. "We understand there are concerns about the composition of the government program and, like in all European democracies, we believe that whatever is proposed by the majority should be considered seriously in parliament, debated in parliament and voted in parliament." More than 100 people were injured last Thursday night in clashes inside and outside parliament over the election of an ethnic Albanian as speaker of the assembly. Yee condemned the violence and called on authorities to investigate the incident."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-macedonia-politics-usa-idUSKBN17X26B?il=0

Domestic & International News:

--- "The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert for Europe on Monday, saying U.S. citizens should be aware of a continued threat of terrorist attacks throughout the continent. In the alert, the State Department cited recent incidents in France, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom and said Islamic State and al Qaeda "have the ability to plan and execute terrorist attacks in Europe." The State Department's previous travel alert for Europe, issued ahead of the winter holiday season, expired in February. A State Department official said Monday's alert was not prompted by a specific threat, but rather recognition of the continuing risk of attacks especially ahead of the summer holidays. The alert expires on Sept. 1. Malls, government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, airports and other locations are all possible targets for attacks, the State Department's alert said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-europe-alert-attacks-idUSKBN17X2CV?il=0

--- "North Korea would need to clear many conditions before a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could be contemplated, the White House said on Monday. After Trump told Bloomberg News he would be honored to meet with Kim, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters the United States would need to see North Korea's provocative behavior ratcheted down immediately. "Clearly conditions are not there right now," Spicer said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-trump-conditions-idUSKBN17X26Z?il=0

--- "An extra 2,500 visas for Afghans who assisted American forces during the war in their country will be granted under the $1 trillion U.S. government funding deal reached on Sunday, preserving a program that had been at risk of shutting down. The spending deal agreed by congressional negotiators continued the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which allows Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, often risking their lives, to move to the United States after a rigorous vetting process. A recent bi-partisan push by U.S. lawmakers for more SIV visas came against the backdrop of efforts by President Donald Trump's administration to clamp down on immigration from majority Muslim countries, an effort that has been blocked by the courts. In March, the U.S. embassy in Kabul said it had stopped scheduling interviews for SIV applicants because it had nearly run out of visas, even though 1,500 more were included in the National Defense Authorization Act passed in late 2016. That helped prompt a group of senators, including Republican Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain to seek more. As of April 20, only 780 SIV visas remained available, while more than 14,000 Afghans had already begun the application progress, according to the U.S. State Department. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a long-time advocate for the SIV program, said letting it lapse would have sent a message that the United States was willing to abandon its supporters."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-visas-idUSKBN17X220?il=0

Domestic News:

--- "In an interview that aired on Sirius XM satellite radio on Monday, Trump suggested that if Jackson had governed a little later than his 1829-1837 presidency, the American Civil War might have been averted. Trump also questioned why the bloody conflict had to happen...Jackson, a slave owner who was instrumental in the forced removal of Native American tribes from the U.S. Southeast in the so-called Trail of Tears, died nearly 16 years before the start of the Civil War. But Trump told Sirius XM that Jackson "was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War." "He said, 'There's no reason for this,'" Trump said. "People don't realize, you know, the Civil War — if you think about it, why? People don't ask that question, but why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?" It was not clear what Trump believed Jackson would have done to avert the 1861-65 conflict, which cost 620,000 lives. In a tweet later on Monday, Trump acknowledged that Jackson had died 16 years before the start of the war but said he "saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!" The events leading to the Civil War have been extensively researched, with slavery being one of the root causes. Slavery and its legacy have been a source of division in the United States since."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-jackson-idUSKBN17X20W?il=0

--- "U.S. President Donald Trump is flirting with unparalleled violations of the Constitution by not divesting himself from a hotel management company that benefits financially from public pension fund investments, according to two Democratic U.S. senators. Reuters exclusively reported on April 26 that public pension funds in at least seven U.S. states periodically send millions of dollars to an investment fund that owns the Trump SoHo Hotel and Condominium in New York City and pays one of Trump's companies to run it, according to a Reuters review of public records. The investments could put Trump at risk of violating an obscure constitutional clause that prohibits the president from receiving additional payments beyond his salary from state governments, say several constitutional lawyers. A separate constitutional clause bars the president from receiving payments from foreign governments. Trump is “setting an extremely dangerous precedent,” said Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut expressed similar concerns. The White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to calls and emails asking for comment."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-hotel-idUSKBN17X2IS?il=0

--- "Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage on Monday sued the state's Democratic attorney general, contending she had abused her power by joining legal opposition to early moves by President Donald Trump that LePage's office supported. LePage, a fiery conservative now in his second term, challenged Attorney General Janet Mills for joining a legal brief opposing Trump's executive order banning immigration from a half-dozen majority Muslim countries. The governor said he supported Trump's order, which has been blocked by courts and which the White House says is necessary to protect national security. "It is no secret that Attorney General Mills and I have differing political views, but that is not the issue," LePage said in a statement. "The problem is she has publicly denounced court cases which the executive branch has requested to join and subsequently refuses to provide legal representation for the state." He said Mills had refused to represent the state in other cases where she disagreed with LePage's political position and prevented his office from filing its own brief in support of Trump, a charge that Mills denied. "Instead of signing onto another party's brief at no cost to the taxpayers, however, or hiring a lawyer to draft his own brief, the governor has wasted state resources by hiring a lawyer to file a frivolous lawsuit, complaining that he cannot do exactly what we have told him he can do," Mills said in a statement."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-maine-politics-idUSKBN17X2FV?il=0

--- "The U.S. Senate took a procedural vote on Monday to clear the way for confirming Jay Clayton as the next head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a 60-36 vote, the Republican-led Senate voted to end debate on Clayton, with some Democrats joining Republicans in support. A final confirmation vote is expected later this week, and the Senate may take up to 30 hours to debate his confirmation prior to the vote."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-senate-sec-idUSKBN17X2I3?il=0

--- "Bill Shine, co-president of Fox News Channel, has become the latest executive to resign in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal at the cable channel. The exit of Shine, who has been with Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's Fox News since its inception over 20 years ago, marks a key step in the attempt by Rupert Murdoch and his sons, who run the company, to clean house after a series of embarrassing revelations. Chairman Roger Ailes resigned in July following sexual harassment allegations, and top-rated news host Bill O'Reilly left last month after a report that Fox and O'Reilly had paid out $13 million to settle harassment claims by five women. Star anchor Megyn Kelly left Fox in January to join NBC News. Kelly was one of Ailes' accusers and detailed his behavior in her best-selling book, "Settle for More." Ailes has denied the allegations. Shine has been named in a number of lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct at the company, and was blamed for not doing more to prevent it. Last month, Julie Roginsky, a Democratic political consultant and Fox News contributor, sued the network and Ailes, accusing them of denying her a permanent hosting job after she rebuffed Ailes' sexual advances. She also sued Shine, asserting that he failed to investigate her claims. Shine and Jack Abernethy were appointed co-presidents in August to lead Fox News in the wake of Ailes' departure."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-fox-shine-idUSKBN17X296?il=0

--- "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Monday vetoed a bill that would have required President Donald Trump to release his tax returns in order to run for re-election in the state, calling it "politics at its worst." The Democrat-controlled state legislature had passed the bill in March in response to Trump's refusal to make public his tax returns when he ran for president as a Republican last year. Under the law, any candidate for president or vice president could not appear on the ballot without releasing at least five years of returns. Before Trump, every major presidential candidate had done so voluntarily since the 1970s. Christie, who became one of Trump's earliest high-profile backers after his own White House run fizzled and served on Trump's transition team, said the legislation was an unconstitutional "form of therapy" for Democrats unwilling to accept Trump's win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. "The hypocrisy and false outrage underlying this bill is stunning - even by Trenton standards," he said in a statement accompanying the veto. New Jersey was the first of at least 20 states considering similar legislation to send a bill to its governor's desk for consideration."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-jersey-trump-tax-idUSKBN17X2EM?il=0

--- "U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday that there is no reason that the U.S. economy cannot grow more robustly if the Trump administration is successful in rolling back a number of regulations. Speaking at the Milken Institute's Global Conference, Ross said he would be "extremely disappointed" if the economy were growing only between 2.0 percent and 2.5 percent. He also said he hopes tax reform can be done this year. He spoke only days after government data showed that the U.S. economy grew only 0.7 percent in the first three months of the year. "If we can undo the shackles put on by regulations, there is no reason the economy can't do much better than it's been doing," Ross told David Rubenstein, co-chief executive officer of private equity company The Carlyle Group."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-milken-conference-ross-idUSKBN17X2EU?il=0

--- "Frustrated with the Puerto Rican government, hedge funds and the Control Board tasked with sorting out the island's debt crisis, some Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland protested on Monday the best way they knew how: with music and dance. The eve of a debt-cutting agreement that could allow creditors to sue the U.S. territory over defaults happened to fall on May Day, when Puerto Ricans aired their grievances at New York City's Union Square along with an array of leftist causes. But they did it in Puerto Rican style, using rhythm as an antidote to hardship. The island's government, shouldering $70 billion in debt it cannot pay, and its bondholders were trying to reach an agreement about how much and which debt it would pay back. Some people blamed the government of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo "Ricky" Rossello. Others directed their ire at Wall Street. A few called for either independence or statehood, saying the island's status as a U.S. territory led to the crisis."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-puertorico-debt-mainland-idUSKBN17X2JS?il=0

--- "The Trump administration plans to replace Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry as chief overseer of federally chartered banks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The change, which could happen as soon as this week, could lead to President Donald Trump replacing Curry with an acting head of the agency, WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which oversees the federal banking system, administers hundreds of bank supervisors stationed inside large U.S. financial firms. Curry, appointed by the Obama administration for a five-year term that expired in April, could remain in the role until a new appointment is made."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-banks-curry-idUSKBN17Y098?il=0

--- "U.S. President Donald Trump said he was actively considering breaking up big banks, Bloomberg Television reported on Monday. Trump's comments could give a push to efforts to revive the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that separated commercial lending from investment banking. Reviving such a law would require an act by Congress. "I’m looking at that right now,” Trump said on Monday in an interview with Bloomberg News in the Oval Office. “There’s some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we’re going to look at that.” While campaigning for president, Trump had expressed support on the campaign trail for a "21st-century Glass-Steagall." White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing that Trump had expressed interest in the issue and had been briefed on it by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin but was not ready to discuss it publicly."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-banks-idUSKBN17X22G?il=0

--- "Ailing Puerto Rico would receive $295 million in Medicaid funding from the federal government as part of the U.S. Congress' spending plan to avert a government shutdown, Governor Ricardo Rossello said on Monday. Rossello said in a statement in Spanish that he was "grateful" for the addition in the spending bill reached late Sunday night. The full House of Representatives and Senate must approve the bipartisan pact, though prompt passage was expected this week. Puerto Rico's public health system is nearly insolvent, a key driver of emigration that has decimated the U.S. territory's population as it wrestles with $70 billion in debt, a 45 percent poverty rate and unemployment twice the U.S. average."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-puertorico-debt-healthcare-idUSKBN17X285?il=0

--- "President Donald Trump said on Monday he would consider raising the federal tax on gasoline to fund infrastructure development, Bloomberg News reported. "It's something that I would certainly consider," Trump told the news agency in an interview on Monday. "The truckers have said that they want me to do something as long as that money is earmarked to highways." The Trump administration released an outline of a tax plan last week that would slash tax rates for businesses and reduce the number of tax brackets for individuals. The plan, however, was silent on gasoline taxes, a potentially delicate issue given the widespread impact any increase would have on U.S. households. Trump told Bloomberg his tax proposal was just an opening gambit in a negotiation with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "Everything is a starting point," he said, according to Bloomberg, adding that he was willing to give up on aspects of his plan. He declined to specify where he would yield."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-gasoline-idUSKBN17X21S?il=0

[studentofrhetoric-blog]

Budget deal may map U.S. Congress road ahead, via Trump bypass

The U.S. Congress, bitterly divided for years along party lines, may be mapping a bipartisan path forward that skirts around President Donald Trump when he refuses to engage constructively with lawmakers, Democrats and some lobbyists said on Monday.

"The U.S. Congress, bitterly divided for years along party lines, may be mapping a bipartisan path forward that skirts around President Donald Trump when he refuses to engage constructively with lawmakers, Democrats and some lobbyists said on Monday. The path was discernible in a nearly $1.2 trillion federal spending deal carved out over the weekend to avert a government shutdown. It had Democratic fingerprints all over it, even though Republicans control Congress and the White House. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Trump will sign the 2017 budget bill when he receives it from Congress on Thursday or Friday. Trump, in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, said he was "very happy" with the deal announced late on Sunday.

Democrats claimed victory on issue after issue in the agreement, which will keep the lights on in Washington through the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, provided it holds up and wins final approval as expected. Trump scored a partial win, getting a commitment for up to $15 billion in additional funding for a military buildup. That was about half of what he originally asked for. No money was included for Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. Democratic opposition to it was solid and support from Trump's fellow Republicans was soft. Mulvaney said Trump will seek wall funding in a budget proposal coming in late May.

At a White House briefing, Mulvaney defended the concessions Trump made to reach an agreement, saying Democrats gave up on some items they had wanted as well in order to find a compromise. "Everything we got in this deal ... lines up perfectly with the president's priorities," he said. Democrats took an opposite view. Describing the work on Capitol Hill that went into the temporary spending pact, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters: "Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate were closer to one another than we were to the president on so many of the different issues."

Schumer and Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said they were bolstered in negotiations by the fact that several Republican senators opposed funding for Trump's wall and his call for deep domestic spending cuts. Schumer and Leahy said the White House never tried to work with Democrats in the process.

.....

The spending deal preserved funding for healthcare provider Planned Parenthood, which has drawn Republican ire because it performs abortions; for the Obamacare healthcare law; and for an array of environmental and other domestic programs Trump wanted to slash. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said because the legislation needs to win a supermajority of 60 votes in the 100-member Senate that cannot be achieved without Democratic support, "we couldn't have our entire way" on the deal."

[studentofrhetoric-blog]

Sunday, April 30th, 2017

International News:

--- "Social media were heavily criticized by a committee of British lawmakers on Monday for failing to do enough to remove illegal and extremist material posted on their sites, and for not preventing it appearing in the first place. Platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook has been criticized over their moderation policies after high-profile cases in which violent or abusive material has been posted online and, in some cases, not been removed even after they were notified.The committee's report said it had found repeated examples of extremist material, including from banned jihadist and neo-Nazi groups not being removed, even after it had been reported."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-socialmedia-idUSKBN17W0U1?il=0

--- "Matteo Renzi, staging a political comeback less than five months after resigning as Italy's prime minister, easily regained the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) on Sunday with an overwhelming victory in a primary election among party supporters. According to partial results, Renzi had about 72 percent of the vote, held in makeshift polling booths around the country. About 2 million party members voted in the primary. Justice Minister Andrea Orlando had 19 percent while Michele Emiliano, the governor of the southern Puglia region, had about 9 percent. Both of his opponents, as well as Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, called to congratulate him, and Renzi gave a long victory speech at party headquarters. "Forward together," Renzi said to applause. Renzi, 42, resigned as prime minister in December after a crushing defeat in a referendum over constitutional reforms aimed at streamlining lawmaking. He was replaced by Gentiloni, his foreign minister, but he quickly began planning a comeback. With a national vote due by May 2018, polls show the ruling PD has slipped behind the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which questions the country's euro membership. Renzi's ability to counter the 5-Star surge may be crucial to fending off an existential threat to the euro zone. However, under Italy's proportional representation voting system, no party currently looks likely to win enough seats in parliament to govern alone."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-renzi-idUSKBN17W0RX?il=0

--- "French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen renewed her attack on the European Union's euro single currency on Sunday, a day after saying that ditching it might not be her top priority...Voter surveys show Macron winning next Sunday with 59-60 percent of the vote, and Le Pen's plans to quit the EU and the euro are among the least popular policies in her protectionist, anti-immigration electoral platform. Analysts were not surprised on Saturday, therefore, when a new FN policy document pushed ditching the euro down the list of her priorities. They said it was in part aimed at older voters who might be worried about the potential impact on the value of their pensions of a return to the franc. "She needs the votes of the over 60s who are terrified by the prospect of a euro exit," said Saxo Bank economist Christopher Dembik. "This is a return to reality. The euro exit is pushed far into the future." FN policy coordinator Jean Messiha concurred. "There was this fear expressed by a certain number of French people that Marine has understood," he told Reuters. Despite the softening in her stance though, Le Pen made clear in a video published on newspaper Le Parisien's website on Sunday that she was still intent on leaving the euro eventually."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-eu-le-pen-idUSKBN17W0QZ?il=0

--- "Iranians should not thank Hassan Rouhani's policy of detente with the West for any reduction in the threat of war, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, stepping up his criticisms of the president as elections approach. In comments that appeared to favor hardline candidates in the May 19 vote, Khamenei played down the benefits of Rouhani's landmark agreement to curb Iran's nuclear activities in return for a lifting of international sanction. "Some say since they took office the shadow of war has been faded away. This is not correct," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media. "It's been people's presence in the political scene that has removed the shadow of war from the country." Khamenei and his hardline supporters have also criticized the nuclear deal -- which stiffled talk by Washington of possible military action against Iran -- for failing to deliver promised economic benefits. But speaking at the opening of a refinery that Iran says will make it self-sufficient in oil products, Rouhani defended his position. "The nuclear deal was a national achievement. We should make use of its advantages. But some have started a fight over it," Rouhani said. He cited the new refinery, in the Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas, as a result of the deal and "interaction with the world"."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-election-khamenei-idUSKBN17W091?il=0

--- "At least 352 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday. The Combined Joint Task Force, in its monthly assessment of civilian casualties from the U.S. coalition's operations against the militant group, said it was still assessing 42 reports of civilian deaths. It added that 45 civilians were killed between November 2016 and March 2017. It reported 80 civilian deaths from August 2014 to the present that had not previously been announced. The report included 26 deaths from three separate strikes in March. The military's official tally is far below those of other outside groups. Monitoring group Airwars said more than 3,000 civilians have been killed by coalition air strikes. Included in Sunday's tally were 14 civilians killed by a strike in March that set off a secondary explosion, as well as 10 civilians who were killed in a strike on Islamic State headquarters the same month. "We regret the unintentional loss of civilian lives ... and express our deepest sympathies to the families and others affected by these strikes," the Pentagon said in a statement."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-usa-civilians-idUSKBN17W0ML?il=0

--- "Tunisian security forces killed a senior commander in an Islamist group who detonated his suicide belt as he was shot during a raid against militants planning attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, officials said on Sunday. Tunisia's armed forces have been cracking down on militants allied to Islamic State and al Qaeda's North Africa branch, especially since the country suffered four major attacks in the last two years, including two against foreign tourists. The clashes came on Sunday when national guard special forces raided a house where the group had been under surveillance for weeks, after communications about a possible attack were intercepted, National Guard spokesman Col. Major Khelifa Chibani said. Another militant was killed and three others arrested in the raid on a house in Sidi Bouzid, a town 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the capital, Tunis. "National Guard special forces killed two terrorists, including a commander of Okba Ibn Nafaa ... " Chibani said by telephone. "They had been in the Sammama mountains, and planned attacks during Ramadan." He did not give any details on the potential attack, but Tunisia has been on alert since militant gunmen attacked the Sousse beach resort in 2015, killing more than 30 foreigners and badly damaging the vital tourist industry."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tunisia-security-idUSKBN17W0LY?il=0

--- "France has killed more than 20 militants hiding in a forest near the border between the West African countries of Mali and Burkina Faso this weekend, its regional force said in a statement. The operation followed the death of a French soldier nearby earlier this month. It involved both air and ground strikes, the statement said. It did not identify the militant group. Mali has been regularly hit by Islamist militant violence, despite a 2013 French-led operation to drive them out of key northern cities they had seized. It extended a state of emergency by six months this weekend. But violence in its southern neighbor, Burkina Faso, began to intensify last year with an attack in the capital that killed dozens. Burkinabe officials believe a new Islamist militant group called Ansar al-Islam led by a local preacher was using the Foulsare Forest as a base for launching attacks elsewhere. France has deployed some 4,000 soldiers to fight Islamist militants in the region."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-security-mali-idUSKBN17W0PZ?il=0

--- "Pope Francis called on Sunday for the respect of human rights and an end to violence in Venezuela, where nearly 30 people were killed in unrest this month. Francis, speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his weekly address, decried a "grave humanitarian, social , political and economic crisis that is exhausting the population". Venezuela's opposition is demanding elections, autonomy for the legislature where they have a majority, a humanitarian aid channel from abroad to alleviate an economic crisis, and freedom for more than 100 activists jailed by President Nicolas Maduro's government. "I make a heartfelt appeal to the government and all components of Venezuelan society to avoid any more forms of violence, respect human rights and seek a negotiated solution ...," he said."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-pope-idUSKBN17W0DO?il=0

--- "German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted in a newspaper interview on Sunday saying that Greece has made strong progress toward introducing reforms that could lead to the imminent release of further financial support. "If the Greek government upholds all the agreements, European finance ministers could complete the review on May 22 and then soon after that release the next tranche," Schaeuble told the Funke media group newspapers. Greece and its international creditors reached a preliminary agreement at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in April to set up the next transfer of some 7 billion euros in aid. But the finance ministers will not release the tranche until the audit is completed. "The longer it takes, the more uncertainty will be in the financial markets and economy," Schaeuble added. He said the Greek government had promised to make further adjustments in pensions as well as improve tax collection."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-crisis-greece-schaeueble-idUSKBN17W05T?il=0

--- "German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats have opened a seven-point lead over the centre-left Social Democrats five months ahead of the Sept. 24 election, according to a poll on Sunday in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The Emnid institute survey found the Christian Democrats and their Christian Social Union allies winning 36 percent of the vote if the election were held on Sunday, unchanged from a similar Emnid poll for Bild am Sonntag taken a week ago. But the Social Democrats (SPD), led by their chancellor candidate Martin Schulz, continued to slide and lost two percentage points in the week to 29 percent. The CDU/CSU long held a comfortable lead in polls until Schulz was nominated in early 2017 and lifted the SPD to the same levels as the CDU/CSU."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-election-poll-idUSKBN17W05V?il=0

--- "Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday he expected delayed state polls to be held this year, although opponents have demanded a broader general election to replace him in protests that have sparked 29 deaths. The postponed vote for governors of Venezuela's 23 states - originally slated for 2016 - is one of a litany of opposition grievances against Maduro whom foes accuse of becoming a dictator and wrecking the economy. During his weekly TV program, "Sundays With Maduro," the 54-year-old socialist leader said gubernatorial elections would happen later this year although the opposition's real agenda was to topple him with a U.S.-backed coup. "I am anxious for an electoral process to be called," he told supporters on the live show, saying the election board, or CNE, first had to finish legalizing political parties. "Then the CNE will fix the pending governor elections, for this year. ... Venezuela's problem is not that there won't be elections this year. Venezuela's problem is that an empire in extremists' hands wants to take our oil and carry out a coup." The government party controls 20 states, but polls indicate the opposition would now win a majority of the states, given voter anger over the OPEC nation's brutal recession. The next presidential election is due for late 2018, but the opposition wants that brought forward to this year and bundled with legislative, state and mayoral elections."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN17W0R1?il=0

--- "The U.S. Marine Corps has returned to Helmand, the restive province in southern Afghanistan where it fought years of bloody battles with the Taliban, to help train Afghan forces struggling to contain the insurgency. Many of the 300 Marines coming to Helmand as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support training mission are veterans of previous tours in the province, where almost 1,000 coalition troops, mostly U.S. and British, were killed fighting the Taliban. When they left in 2014, handing over the sprawling desert base they knew as Camp Leatherneck to the Afghan army, the Marines never expected to return. The fact that they are back underlines the problems Afghan forces have faced since being left to fight alone. Despite a warning from U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis last week that 2017 would be a tough year, though, the tone as the deployment began was positive...Their mission this time is not to fight but to train and help Afghan forces, although the strong defensive measures around the base underscore the risk they face in Helmand, one of the heartlands of the Taliban insurgency...Some 8,400 American troops are based in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support as well as a separate counterterrorism mission against Islamic State and Al Qaeda, but Gen. Nicholson said earlier this year a few thousand more would been required to end the "stalemate" with the Taliban. The Trump administration is currently conducting a review of U.S. policy for Afghanistan, where American troops have now been stationed for more than 15 years."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-marines-idUSKBN17W07L?il=0

--- "U.S.-backed militias said on Sunday they had made a big advance in Tabqa, a strategically vital town controlling Syria's largest dam, in their campaign to drive Islamic State from its stronghold of Raqqa, 40km (25 miles) downstream. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias, will wait to assault Raqqa until it seizes Tabqa, its military officials have previously said, but it had made only slow progress since besieging the town early this month. In a statement it circulated on social messaging sites, the SDF said it had captured six more districts of Tabqa and distributed a map showing that Islamic State now controlled only the northern part of the town, next to the dam. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the SDF had gained almost complete control over Tabqa in its advance. Tabqa was isolated from Raqqa in late March after the United States helped the SDF carry out an airborne landing on the southern bank of the Euphrates, allowing it to capture the areas around the town, including an important airbase, and cut the road. Islamic State still holds several Tabqa districts along the southern bank of Lake Assad and the southern section of the Euphrates dam, including its operations facilities and a hydro-electric power plant."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-tabqa-idUSKBN17W08L?il=0

--- "A week before the decisive second round in France's presidential election, many voters are skeptical that either of the two candidates can solve chronic unemployment or tackle security concerns, a poll published on Sunday found. The Ifop survey for the Journal du Dimanche highlights two key battlegrounds as centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right opponent Marine Le Pen enter a final week of campaigning - France's economy and borders. Polls predict that Macron, a former economy minister, will win the May 7 run-off with about 59-60 percent. But the momentum has recently been with Le Pen, who has clawed back about five percentage points over the past week. According to the Ifop poll, 45 percent of voters believe the two finalists would not put an end to unemployment, which has for years stood close to 10 percent in France. And 36 percent say neither candidate is able to protect France from attacks. France has been under a state of emergency since 2015 and has suffered a spate of Islamist militant attacks, mostly perpetrated by young men who grew up in France and Belgium. More than 230 people have been killed in the past two years...France returns to the polls in June to select members of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, where a majority is needed to push through government policies. Both Macron, who launched a new party a year ago, and Le Pen, whose National Front has only two seats in the National Assembly, have faced questions about their ability to build a parliamentary majority."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN17V07W?il=0

Domestic & International News:

--- "U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday stepped up outreach to allies in Asia to secure their cooperation to pressure North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. Trump spoke to the prime ministers of Thailand and Singapore in separate phone calls about the North Korean threat and invited both of them to Washington, U.S. officials said. "They discussed ways to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea," one U.S. official said of the calls, speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump's calls to the two Asian leaders came two days after North Korea test-launched another missile that Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful but which drew widespread international condemnation. Trump talked on Saturday night with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who was also invited to the White House. Duterte has been criticized by human rights groups for an anti-drug campaign in which more than 8,000 people have died."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-trump-idUSKBN17W0JP?il=0

--- "The White House on Sunday defended President Donald Trump's decision to invite Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to Washington, saying his cooperation was needed to counter North Korea, even as the administration faced human rights criticism for its overture to Manila. Trump issued the invitation on Saturday night in what the White House said was a “very friendly” phone conversation with Duterte, who is accused by international human rights groups of supporting a campaign of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines. “There is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what’s happening in North Korea,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told ABC’s “This Week” during a weekend in which Trump sought to firm up support in Southeast Asia to help rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Priebus insisted the outreach to Duterte “doesn't mean that human rights don't matter, but what it does mean is that the issues facing us developing out of North Korea are so serious that we need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get to make sure we have our ducks in a row.” The invitation for Duterte to the visit White House at an unspecified date appeared to be the latest example of the affinity Trump has shown for some foreign leaders with shaky human rights or autocratic reputations...On Sunday, Trump also extended a White House invitation to Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former general who heads a military government that took power in a 2014 coup. Prayuth’s administration had strained relations with Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama. “Celebrating a man who boasts of killing his own citizens and inviting him to the White House, while remaining silent on his disgusting human rights record, sends a terrifying message,” said John Sifton, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-philippines-idUSKBN17X0UU?il=0

--- "President Donald Trump said China may have hacked the emails of Democratic officials to meddle with the 2016 presidential election, countering the view of U.S. intelligence officials who have said Moscow orchestrated the hacks. In an interview transcript published on Sunday, Trump gave no evidence backing his allegation, first made on the eve of the Nov. 8 presidential election, that China could have hacked the emails of his rivals. "If you don't catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking," the president said in an interview with CBS "Face the Nation." "(It) could have been China, could have been a lot of different groups." The hackers roiled the presidential campaign by making public embarrassing emails sent by Democratic operatives and aides to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. One email showed party leaders favoring Clinton over her rival in the campaign for the party's internal nomination contest."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-china-idUSKBN17W0N4?il=0

Domestic News:

--- "U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a moderate Republican from South Florida who has been critical of President Donald Trump, plans to retire when her term is up next year, according to an interview she gave on Sunday to the Miami Herald. The decision by Ros-Lehtinen not to seek re-election could give Democrats a chance to pick up a seat in the 2018 congressional election. Her district has increasingly leaned Democratic, and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump's opponent, won it by 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. Ros-Lehtinen, 64, declined to endorse Trump during the White House race and differed with him on issues such as immigration. She balked at supporting the proposed Obamacare replacement legislation that the president backed. Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Havana, became the first Cuban-American and the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress in 1989."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-ros-lehtinen-idUSKBN17W0PT?il=0

--- "The Trump administration's push to overhaul tax laws might soon target a loophole used by some financial managers to lower their tax rates, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on Sunday. President Donald Trump campaigned before the Nov. 8 election to eliminate the so-called "carried interest" loophole, which is used by many financial managers to lower tax obligations. But a rough outline for a major tax overhaul released last week failed to mention the loophole. Priebus, however, hinted that carried-interest could be on the chopping block and warned against analysts taking the view that financial managers would keep on benefiting from it. "That balloon is going to get popped pretty quick," Priebus told ABC's "This Week."  "Carried interest is on the table," he said. "The president wants to get rid of carried interest so that balloon is not going to stay inflated very long, I assure you of that." The carried interest rule allows financial managers at private equity, hedge fund and other firms to pay a capital gains tax rate on their income instead of the higher income tax rate."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-idUSKBN17W0ON?il=0