🇺🇸 **U.S. ‘Aggressively’ Building Trump’s Border Wall, DHS Chief Says**
*Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/qhvDD>

The acting secretary of Homeland Security pushed back on the narrative that President Donald Trump’s border wall is not being built, pointing out that construction has actually been going at an aggressive pace.

“So normally for a federal project of this scope, from the time you get funded to starting, it’s over two years,” Kevin McAleenan said Tuesday on Fox News. “We’ve already built the [fiscal year] 2017 funding in less than two years. That shows how aggressively we’re moving out on this.”

McAleenan — who became acting DHS secretary earlier in April after Kirstjen Nielsen resigned — has been tapped by the Trump administration to lead the agency at a time when the U.S. southern border is experiencing record numbers of illegal migrants, many of them Central American families.

Trump has been forced to fight tooth-and-nail with congressional Democrats over border wall funding. The federal government experienced its longest shutdown in U.S. history as the two camps fought over how much money could be appropriated for wall construction. The White House is being sued after it declared a national emergency on the southern border, allowing it to allocate billions more in funding.

The new DHS leader said more military troops are needed to help alleviate the crisis.

“They helped us repel two attempts by a caravan to enter the United States by helping us fortify ports of entry,” he said to host Dana Perino, adding that their presence has helped free up border agents to enforce immigration laws. “They’re going to be helping us build the wall, too.”
---------------

🇵🇱 **Polish leader: LGBT rights an import that threatens nation**
*New York Post* - <http://archive.fo/BVP4Z>

The chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation.

Kaczynski, Poland’s most important politician, also said “everyone must accept Christianity” and that questioning the powerful Roman Catholic in Poland is unpatriotic.

Kaczynski seems to be tapping into the feelings of those Poles who feel that liberal values are being forced on them against their will as an unwanted side effect of having joined the European Union 15 years ago. The Catholic Church has long been revered in Poland as the institution that kept the language and spirit alive during a long period of foreign rule, while also supporting the democracy movement under communism.

Kaczynski called the film “Kler” an “attack on the church,” adding: “We are dealing with a direct attack on the family and children — the sexualization of children, that entire LBGT movement, gender. This is imported, but they today actually threaten our identity, our nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state.”

----------------

🇵🇱 <:smork:309402628050124801> 🖕 🏳️‍🌈

🇲🇲 **Myanmar pardons nearly 7,000 prisoners in second amnesty this month**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/fLwXM>

Myanmar began releasing prisoners on Friday after the president announced he would pardon nearly 7,000 people in addition to thousands released earlier this month.

President Win Myint granted unconditional amnesty to 6,948 prisoners serving jail terms around the country “to bring delight to the citizens of Myanmar and taking into consideration humanitarian concerns”, according to a statement.

More cases were being scrutinized for possible pardons, it said.

More than 9,000 prisoners were released on April 17, the first day of the traditional New Year, but human rights activists were disappointed that the earlier amnesty only included two people jailed on political charges.

Min Tun Soe, a spokesman for the prisons department, told Reuters that Friday’s amnesty would also not include many activists.
----------------

🇺🇸 **US Economy Grows 3.2% Smashing Expectations**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/ccoxm>

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2019 — beating Wall Street’s expectations of 2.5 percent growth — according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income saw a boost of 3 percent. while overall prices grew by 0.8 percent.

“The upside beat was helped by net trade (exports jumped while imports contracted sharply) and inventories which combined contributed almost 170 bps of the rise,” Bleakley Advisory Group CIO Peter Boockvar said in a statement to CNBC.
--------------

🇪🇺 **Study: Radical Islamic terrorism accounts for 91 percent of terror victims in Europe**
*Voice Of Europe* - <https://archive.fo/CAGQD>

The recently released Black and White Book of Terrorism in Europe has brought to light that radical Islamic terrorists have accounted for 91 percent of all of the victims of terror attacks since 2000.

The book is the project of Spanish MEP and president of the Foundation for Victims of Terrorism, Maité Pagazaurtundua, and cites that 753 people have been killed in terror attacks across the European Union
during the time span between 2000 and 2019, the French daily newspaper, Le Figaro, reports.(*<https://archive.fo/dlSFn>*)

Additionally, the report looks at European victims of terror that has been committed abroad and reveals that an additional 1,115 people including tourists and military personnel were also victims of radical
jihadists during the same period of time.

Of the total number of victims, 91 percent of them were killed as a direct result of actions taken by radical Islamic extremists. 20 percent of those murdered were done so by suicide bombers.

Conversely, casualties which resulted from political terrorism were considerably lower with far-right extremists and far-left extremists each accounting for the murder of 13 people.

In recent years, the European continent has seen a significant uptick in far-left extremism and associated violence, with the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV),
revealing that numbers of violent far-left extremists had risen from 7,1000 to 9,000 between the years 2012 and 2017.

During the same time period, the number of far-left extremist crimes also increased, by an astounding 88 percent.

As far as European Union countries go, Spain has suffered the most terror-related deaths, with 268 victims. France followed closely with 263 terror-related casualties.
----------------

🇻🇦 **Pope sends aid to migrants stranded at the US border**
*Vatican News* - <https://archive.fo/N54Zd>

Pope Francis has donated 500,000 dollars to assist migrants in Mexico. The funds, from the Peter’s Pence collections, will be distributed among 27 projects promoted by sixteen Mexican dioceses and religious congregations, which requested assistance in continuing to provide food, lodging, and basic necessities to the migrants.

According to a statement from Peter’s Pence, “In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometres on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them.”

In particular, the aid is intended to assist the more than 75,000 people who arrived in Mexico in 2018, in six migrant caravans. “All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States, without a home or livelihood”, the statement reads. “The Catholic Church hosts thousands of them in hotels within the dioceses or religious congregations, providing basic necessities, from housing to clothing”.

Although a great deal of attention was focused on the caravans at the time, the Peter’s Pence statement notes that “media coverage of this emergency has been decreasing, and as a result, aid to migrants by the government and private individuals has also decreased”.
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🇺🇸 **Collapsed Crane in Seattle leaves 4 Dead**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.fo/45OZZ>

Four people were killed and multiple others hurt in Seattle on Saturday when a crane collapsed into traffic, officials said.

At least three people were hospitalized following the incident at Fairview Ave. N and Mercer Street, the Seattle Fire Department tweeted. Among them were a mother and her baby, Fire Chief Harold Scoggins said, according to the Associated Press.

The deceased included two ironworkers and two individuals who were in their vehicles at the time, according to Scoggins. Three were men and one was a woman.

The falling crane, which had been situated on top of a building, damaged multiple cars, the department said.

Photos from the area showed multiple responders on scene, as well as several smashed vehicles. A photo shared by the fire department also showed damage to the top of a building.

It was not yet clear what caused the crane to fall, Scoggins said.

Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted that his team was "closely monitoring the situation" and expressed his condolences.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Higher minimum wage means restaurants raise prices and fewer employee hours, survey finds**
*CNBC* - <https://archive.fo/FHlaW>

For restaurants, minimum wage hikes usually mean higher menu prices and fewer employee hours, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Harri, a workplace management software company that works with restaurants, surveyed 173 restaurants between Feb. 28 and March 15 about the impact of raising the minimum wage. The respondents represent more than 4,000 restaurant locations ranging from fine dining to fast food.

Fast-food workers across the country have been driving the fight for a higher minimum wage to keep up with the cost of living. States across the U.S. have been raising their minimum wages. Six states, including Illinois and Maryland, have approved laws phasing in a $15 minimum wage. Washington, D.C., currently has the highest minimum — $13.25 — and that is set to rise to $14 an hour on July 1 and to $15 on July 1, 2020.

The restaurant industry employs a large portion of minimum wage workers. It's no surprise that 83% of survey respondents affected by minimum wage hikes reported that their labor costs rose at least 3%.

Twenty-three percent responded to minimum wage hikes by not making any changes to their business.

But the majority did. The most popular response — from 71% of operators — was to raise menu prices. Nearly half reworked their food and beverage options to reduce costs.

Some operators responded to the minimum wage increases by cutting costs, with 64% saying they reduced employee hours, and 43 percent saying they eliminated jobs.
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🇦🇺 **Sydney Doctor Banned After Performing Unwanted Vaginal Examination**
*ABC News* - <http://archive.fo/FQ124>

Dr Joseph Georghy was investigated by the Medical Council of NSW after two women lodged complaints against him following incidents at the North Shore Cosmetic Medical and Dental clinic in North Sydney.

One, a 53-year-old female pancreatic cancer patient, accused Dr Georghy of performing an inappropriate breast examination on her in May 2016.

According to a Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision published on Tuesday, during the appointment — which was for a Vitamin C and Glutathione infusion — the woman claimed he failed to give an explanation for the examination, flipped up her bra and squeezed her breasts without consent.

Dr Georghy denied several of the allegations, including the breast exam and bra flicking.

The tribunal found the doctor also grabbed the woman's underpants and jeans and attempted to pull them down.

The patient claimed he told her she would need to "get her things in order" and suggested she sell her house.

"You need this to do this to survive," she was told.

The woman also claimed she was told she needed to "take this seriously" and was "too relaxed".

"People die all the time," the patient said she was told.

"Once you start chemotherapy, you are only a number and nobody cares."

The tribunal found Dr Georghy spent some "some time" talking about his expertise dealing with cancer patients, and declared "I am the best doctor in Australia".
----------------

🇺🇸 **FBI Investigating Antifa For Plotting To Buy Guns From Cartel For ‘Armed Rebellion’**
*Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/klzjE>

The FBI is investigating anti-fascist activists for an alleged plot to buy guns from a Mexican cartel in order to “stage an armed rebellion” at the southern border, according to an unclassified document obtained by The Chicago Tribune.

The FBI document, from December of 2018, warns of militant antifa activists planning to “disrupt security operations” at the U.S.-Mexico border. The group allegedly planned to buy guns from a Mexican cartel associate known as Cobra Commander, in order to “stage an armed rebellion at the border.”

The source who provided it to the San Diego Tribune asked the outlet not to publish the six-page document because the investigation is ongoing, and the outlet cited two additional law enforcement officials who confirmed the news. The FBI has warned dozens of law enforcement agencies in both Mexico and the United States of the alleged plot.

Two of the men named in the report told the San Diego Tribune the allegations are absurd.

“It doesn’t make any sense that someone from the United States would purchase guns in Mexico,” Ivan Reibeling, the man known as Cobra Commander, told the outlet. “And the Hondurans certainly didn’t bring money to buy guns. It doesn’t make any sense; in fact it’s extremely absurd to say the Hondurans wanted to attack the United States at the border.

The FBI sent the report marked “priority” to agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the CIA and the National Security Administration.
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🇻🇪 **Exclusive: Blackwater founder’s latest sales pitch - mercenaries for Venezuela**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/AC67m>

Over the last several months, the sources said, [Erik] Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch.

One source said Prince has conducted meetings about the issue as recently as mid-April.

White House National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis declined to comment when asked whether Prince had proposed his plan to the government and whether it would be considered. A person familiar with the administration’s thinking said the White House would not support such a plan.

Venezuela opposition officials have not discussed security operations with Prince, said Guaido spokesman Edward Rodriguez, who did not answer additional questions from Reuters. The Maduro government did not respond to a request for comment.

Some U.S. and Venezuelan security experts, told of the plan by Reuters, called it politically far-fetched and potentially dangerous because it could set off a civil war. A Venezuelan exile close to the opposition agreed but said private contractors might prove useful, in the event Maduro’s government collapses, by providing security for a new administration in the aftermath.

A spokesman for Prince, Marc Cohen, said this month that Prince “has no plans to operate or implement an operation in Venezuela” and declined to answer further questions.
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🇧🇷 **Endless Lines of Brazil Job Seekers Show No Relief in Sight**
*Bloomberg* - <http://archive.fo/K8M21>

Brazil’s job market weakened in the first quarter, with 13.4 million people out of work and often forming massive lines to compete for precious few openings.

The jobless rate surged to 12.7 percent in the first three months of the year, its highest level in 10 months, the national statistics institute reported Tuesday. Economists expected the rate to rise to 12.9 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey.

With one quarter of Brazil’s work force either unemployed or underemployed, family consumption that has been the economy’s traditional growth engine is sputtering, and record-low interest rates are doing little to stimulate growth. Moreover, the weak job market is starting to hurt the popularity of President Jair Bolsonaro among the poor.

While unemployment has risen in the first quarter in each of the past seven years due to seasonal factors, economists don’t expect the rate to return to single-digits anytime soon. In March, the economy unexpectedly shed more than 43,000 formal jobs, whereas analysts expected a gain of 80,000 positions. The number of new positions -- in both the formal and informal sectors -- is only slightly higher than that of Brazilians entering the job market, according to Adriana Dupita, Bloomberg’s Latin America economist.
----------------

🇳🇴 🇷🇺 **Norway finds 'Russian spy whale' off Arctic Coast**
*BBC* - <http://archive.fo/TwIOi>

A beluga whale found off Norway's coast wearing a special Russian harness was probably trained by the Russian navy, a Norwegian expert says.

Marine biologist Prof Audun Rikardsen said the harness had a GoPro camera holder and a label sourcing it to St Petersburg. A Norwegian fisherman managed to remove it from the whale.

He said a Russian fellow scientist had told him that it was not the sort of kit that Russian scientists would use.

Russia has a naval base in the region.

The tame beluga repeatedly approached Norwegian boats off Ingoya, an Arctic island about 415km (258 miles) from Murmansk, where Russia's Northern Fleet is based. Belugas are native to Arctic waters.

Norway's public broadcaster NRK has put out a video showing the beluga's harness being released.

Prof Rikardsen told the BBC that the harness "was attached really tightly round its head, in front of its pectoral fins and it had clips". He said there was a GoPro attachment, but no camera.

"A Russian colleague said they don't do such experiments, but she knows the navy has caught belugas for some years and trained them - most likely it's related to that," he said.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Domino's worker assaults co-worker who revealed spoiler for 'Avengers: Endgame'**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.fo/7CmXc>

Police in Friendswood, Texas, said an employee at a local Domino’s snapped at – and even assaulted – a co-worker who revealed a spoiler for “Avengers: Endgame.”

Authorities in Friendswood posted the news to the town’s Facebook page in a “Police Activity Report” posted on Monday, confirming that police responded to the fast-food outlet on Sunday evening after receiving reports of an assault.

“Justin Gregory Surface, 33, of Friendswood, was issued a citation for Assault by Contact after another employee revealed a spoiler about the movie the report reads.

A representative for Domino’s was not immediately available to comment on Sunday’s incident, although a local resident who spoke with KTRK called the incident both “hilarious” and “insane.”

“I feel like if they were that into it, they should have pre-ordered tickets,” the woman told the outlet.
----------------

🇱🇰 **Sri Lanka bans face veils after attacks by Islamist militants**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/fJSPP>

Authorities in Sri Lanka on Monday banned women from wearing face veils under an emergency law put in place after deadly Easter Sunday attacks by Islamist militants.

The measures would help security forces to identify people as a hunt for any remaining attackers and their support network continues across the Indian Ocean island, authorities said.

But there are concerns within the Muslim community that a prolonged ban could fuel tensions in the religiously-diverse nation that emerged from a civil war with ethnic minority Tamil separatists a decade ago.

Officials have warned that the militants behind the April 21 suicide bombings on hotels and churches that killed over 250 people were planning more attacks, using a van and bombers disguised in military uniforms.

“It is a presidential order to ban any dress covering faces with immediate effect,” Dharmasri Bandara Ekanayake, a spokesman for President Maithripala Sirisena, told Reuters.

Separately, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is feuding with Sirisena, issued a statement saying he had asked the justice minister to draft regulations to ban the burqa.

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), the top body of Islamic scholars in Sri Lanka, said they supported a short-term ban on security grounds, but opposed any attempt to legislate against burqas.

“We have given guidance to the Muslim women to not to cover their faces in this emergency situation,” ACJU assistant manager Farhan Faris said after the scholars asked the government to drop plans
for a law against the burqa and niqab.

About 9.7 percent of Sri Lanka’s roughly 22 million people are Muslim. Only a small minority of women, usually in Muslim areas, fully hide their faces.

Human Rights Watch condemned the ban.
----------------

🇳🇱🇳🇬 **Widows of hanged Nigeria activists can continue case vs Shell: Dutch court**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/3yzV4>

A Dutch court said on Wednesday it has jurisdiction to hear a damages suit brought against Royal Dutch Shell by four widows of activists executed by the Nigerian government in 1995.

In a preliminary decision, judges at the Hague District Court said they would allow the suit to go forward, a rare win in a decades-long legal fight, though the claimants must still prove Shell’s liability. Shell denies wrongdoing.

“This procedure will continue,” said presiding judge Larissa Alwin, reading the decision of a three-judge panel.

The men executed were among a group that became known as the “Ogoni Nine” - activists who included writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The group had protested against Shell’s exploitation of the Niger Delta. Its nine members were arrested and hanged after a flawed trial that turned international opinion against Nigeria’s then-military rulers.

Alwin ordered Shell to turn over documents that could help the claimants’ case, specifically any evidence that Shell paid people to give false information about the activists to Nigerian law-enforcement officials.

Dutch courts do not award large punitive damages claims, though the case has the potential to embarrass Shell and provide a measure of comfort for the activists’ families if it finds the company bears responsibility in their deaths.

“My husband was killed like a criminal. I want him to be exonerated.”

Relatives have sought to hold the Anglo-Dutch energy company partially responsible in foreign courts, after exhausting legal possibilities in Nigeria.

Shell, headquartered in the Hague, paid $15.5 million to one group of activists’ families, including the Saro-Wiwa estate, in the United States in a 2009 settlement in which Shell also denied any responsibility or wrongdoing.
----------------

🇺🇸 Leftist Activists FORCE Mastercard To Vote On Banning The Far Right
Tim Pool~ https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=lsGj3DxFlbY
Leftist Activists FORCE Mastercard To Vote On Banning The Far Right. Activist group "The Sum Of Us" has successfully forced Mastercard to hold a vote that would see the creation of a "human rights committee" to oversee who uses the mastercard service. The goal of the leftist activist group is to shut down access for 'far right' groups as well as politicians and activists. They stress that stopping to flow of income will stop people they do not agree with. This may be the most dramatic escalation in the Culture War we have seen yet, the targeting of major financial institutions to shut down opposition. While it sounds noble to ban certain groups we do not like it won't end there. Massive multi national corporations should not have the right to sever access to basic services based on bad opinions. Far left social justice activists have pushed for restrictions and censorship and this news marks the most dramatic escalation we have seen yet.

<:NAZBOL:433428753591566366> <:swattie:548761037483147264> **Outer heaven user @Fried confirmed to be gay and into feral**

on 1st of may user Yaneg and FurFag has made a discovery while discussing furry stuff with fried. Said user has been confirmed to be into feral as hes been obsessed about it for past few months.

Fried also confessed on amsalems server that he hates lesbian porn and that he finds women disgusting and in the past posted gay furry porn on his server.

Fried has earned a nickname Ferral fried since and has became a new lolcow of outer heaven

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Ima regret this but.... what is feral

🇺🇸 **Amazon's facial-recognition technology is supercharging local police**
*SFGate/Washington Post* - <https://archive.fo/z2Fcp>

Deputies in this corner of western Oregon outside ultraliberal Portland used to track down criminals the old-fashioned way, faxing caught-on-camera images of a suspect around the office in hope that someone might recognize the face.

Then, in late 2017, the Washington County Sheriff's Office became the first law enforcement agency in the country known to use Amazon's artificial-intelligence tool Rekognition, transforming this thicket of forests and suburbs into a public testing ground for a new wave of experimental police surveillance techniques.

Almost overnight, deputies saw their investigative powers supercharged, allowing them to scan for matches of a suspect's face across more than 300,000 mug shots taken at the county jail since 2001. A grainy picture of someone's face - captured by a security camera, a social media account or a deputy's smartphone - can quickly become a link to their identity, including their name, family and address. More than 1,000 facial-recognition searches were logged last year, said deputies, who sometimes used the results to find a suspect's Facebook page or visit their home.

But Washington County also became ground zero for a high-stakes battle over the unregulated growth of policing by algorithm. Defense attorneys, artificial-intelligence researchers and civil rights experts argue that the technology could lead to the wrongful arrest of innocent people who bear only a resemblance to a video image. Rekognition's accuracy is also hotly disputed, and some experts worry that a case of mistaken identity by armed deputies could have dangerous implications, threatening privacy and people's lives.

Some police agencies have in recent years run facial-recognition searches against state or FBI databases using systems built by contractors such as Cognitec, IDEMIA and NEC. But the rollout by Amazon has marked perhaps the biggest step in making the controversial face-scanning technology mainstream. Rekognition is easy to activate, requires no major technical infrastructure and is offered to virtually anyone at bargain-barrel prices. Washington County spent about $700 to upload its first big haul of photos, and now, for all its searches, it pays about $7 a month.
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🇺🇸 **Opening the Borders ‘Not a Mistake’: Merkel Defends Migrant Crisis Decisions**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.is/c13mb>

Her decision to suspend the Dublin Regulation on asylum with her announcement that “refugees” were welcome — moves which triggered an unprecedented wave of third world migration to Europe — were “not something to disown”, she told the audience.

Angela Merkel has again defended her decision to open the borders in 2015, insisting welcoming the influx of more than a million third world migrants was “not a mistake”. Germany has also seen a rise in violent crime since the influx, with the country’s Interior Ministry last year admitting that asylum seekers, refugees, and illegal immigrants carried out at least 447 killings and attempted killings in 2017.
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🇩🇪 **Jewish Group Alarmed after German Police let Neo-Nazis March**
*New York Post* - <http://archive.fo/vRYJP>

Germany’s leading Jewish organization expressed alarm Thursday over footage of flag-waving neo-Nazis in self-styled uniforms marching through an eastern German town on May Day unhindered by police.

Footage of the march Wednesday prompted widespread outrage in Germany and calls for authorities in the state of Saxony, where far-right sentiment is particularly strong, to step in.

“The images of the neo-Nazi march by The Third Way party in Plauen are disturbing and frightening,” said Josef Schuster, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews.

Noting that the rally took place on the eve of Yom HaShoah , the day when Jews commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust, Schuster added that “right-wing extremists are marching in Saxony in a way that brings back memories of the darkest chapter in German history.”

German security agencies say The Third Way, a relatively small party, has close ties to far-right extremists. The march in Plauen took place to the beat of heavy drums made to look like those used by the Hitler Youth. Participants shouted slogans such as “Criminal foreigners out!” and “National socialism now!”

Saxony police said several hundred people took part in the march. Counter-protesters were kept away.
----------------

🇺🇸 **The U.S. Created 263,000 Jobs in April, Unemployment Fell to Lowest Level Since 1969**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.is/9JioB>

Unemployment is at the lowest level since December 1969 when it hit 3.5 percent. Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents to $27.77. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.2 percent. Inflation is running at 1.5 percent, so real average hourly earnings have gone up by 1.7 percent.

Economic reports have painted a picture of far more favorable economic conditions than they did in the final months of 2018. First-quarter GDP rose 3.2 percent, far more than the 2.1 percent forecast by economists. Wages and productivity rose strongly as well. Inflation has consistently fallen this year and in March price gains hit 1.5 percent, well below the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
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🇨🇦 **Alberta man wins appeal after accidentally shooting girlfriend during sex**
*CBC* - <http://archive.fo/IXfjV>

An Alberta man has won an appeal to serve his sentence in the community after he accidentally shot and injured his girlfriend during sex.

Matthew Bergh was sentenced to 12 months in jail for careless use of a handgun in the 2017 shooting.

In an appeal of the sentence, Bergh argued the judge overemphasized his criminal record and alcohol use.

In a ruling last week, three Appeal Court justices found the judge was wrong to conclude that a conditional sentence would be insufficient deterrence.

They also said the judge failed to consider Bergh's sincere remorse, his treatment for drug and alcohol use and that he sold all his firearms.

Court heard the shooting happened when Bergh — unaware his handgun was loaded — ran the barrel up and down his girlfriend's right side, back and buttocks before it accidentally fired.

The bullet entered through her abdomen and exited through her right buttock.

The woman survived, but "suffered serious internal injuries, underwent surgery and spent 18 days in hospital," the Appeal Court decision said.

Both Bergh, then 32, and his girlfriend had been consuming intoxicants throughout the night. Bergh took acid, cocaine and alcohol.

He originally told police he awoke to the sound of a single bang and thought his girlfriend had shot herself.
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🇺🇸 **Country House Wins Kentucky Derby After Maximum Security Is Disqualified**
*New York Times* - <http://archive.fo/jDJ58>

This has not been horse racing’s finest hour: dead horses at Santa Anita Park and consternation among horse people that they can treat their athletes better but have failed to do so. It’s little wonder then that the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday ended in astonishment, controversy and confusion.

By all appearances, Maximum Security had outrun the field, remaining unbeaten and giving a hard-knocking trainer from the Mid-Atlantic, Jason Servis, and his up-and-coming jockey, Luis Saez, their first Derby victories.

But there was a problem — a big one. Maximum Security had jumped a puddle on the rain-soaked track and slid to the outside, not only impeding the progress of a rival, War of Will, but also forcing that colt’s rider, Tyler Gaffalione, to squeeze his knees and wrangle the reins just to stay aboard.

So the racing stewards went to watch the video for five minutes, then 10 minutes, then nearly 22. Only to disqualify the winner.

The record book will say that Country House (2nd place horse) won the mile-and-a-quarter race and collected a $1.86 million check for his owners and paid a whopping $132.40 for a $2 bet.
----------------

🇮🇱 **Death tolls rise in surging Israel-Gaza fighting**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/iCeGi>

Rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel while Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, in surging cross-border fighting on Sunday,
according to Gazan officials and the Israeli military.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the military to continue “massive strikes” against Gaza’s ruling Hamas group and Islamic Jihad in the most serious border clashes since a spate of fighting in November.

Israel’s military said that more than 600 rockets and other projectiles - over 150 of them intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system - have been fired at southern Israeli cities and villages since Friday.

It said it attacked more than 260 targets belonging to Gaza militant groups. Gaza officials said Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 27 people, including 14 civilians, since Friday.

A rocket that hit a house in Ashkelon on Sunday killed a 58-year-old man, police said. He was the first such Israeli civilian fatality since the seven-week Gaza war in 2014.

Another rocket strike killed a factory worker, a hospital official said. The military said a civilian was killed near the border by an anti-tank missile fired at his car from Gaza and a fourth died when a rocket struck the city
of Ashdod.

In Gaza, militant groups identified eight fighters killed in Israeli strikes, while medical officials said that nine civilians also died, including a couple and their baby daughter.
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. may review ties with countries deemed anti-Israel: envoy**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/Q133b>

The United States may review its ties with countries it deems as being anti-Israel after what a U.S. envoy said on Sunday was a shift in policy toward equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a March speech that anti-Zionism - opposition to Israel’s existence as a homeland for the Jewish people - was a form of anti-Semitism, or hostility toward Jews, that was on the rise worldwide and that Washington would “fight it relentlessly”.

The State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, Elan Carr, said this U.S. position could spell reviews of ties with foreign governments or leaders.

“The United States is willing to review its relationship with any country, and certainly anti-Semitism on the part of a country with whom we have relations is a deep concern,” he told Reuters during a visit to Israel.

“I will be raising that issue in bilateral meetings that I am undertaking all over the world,” he said. “That is something we are going to have frank and candid conversations about - behind closed doors.”

Carr declined to cite specific countries or leaders, or to elaborate on what actions the Trump administration might take.
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🇪🇺 **Eurozone Manufacturing in ‘Steepest Downturn Since 2013’, Economic Woes Harder to Blame on Brexit**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/tRu0r>

A more detailed look at the monthly survey, which is monitored by rate-setters at the European Central Bank, showed the manufacturing sector in its steepest downturn since 2013 and overall growth held up by the services sector.

The eurozone has been hobbled by rising trade tensions between the United States and China, higher oil prices, and uncertainty over Britain’s impending departure from the European Union.
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🇺🇸

🇺🇸 **Alexa has been eavesdropping on you this whole time**
*CT Post/The Washington Post* - <https://archive.fo/x7OKb>

Many smart-speaker owners don't realize it, but Amazon keeps a copy of everything Alexa records after it hears its name. Apple's Siri, and until recently Google's Assistant, by default also keep recordings to help train their artificial intelligences.

So come with me on an unwelcome walk down memory lane. I listened to four years of my Alexa archive and found thousands of fragments of my life: spaghetti-timer requests, joking houseguests and random snippets of "Downton Abbey." There were even sensitive conversations that somehow triggered Alexa's "wake word" to start recording, including my family discussing medication and a friend conducting a business deal.

You can listen to your own Alexa archive here. Let me know what you unearth.

For as much as we fret about snooping apps on our computers and phones, our homes are where the rubber really hits the road for privacy. It's easy to rationalize away concerns by thinking a single smart speaker or appliance couldn't know enough to matter. But across the increasingly connected home, there's a brazen data grab going on, and there are few regulations, watchdogs or common-sense practices to keep it in check.

Let's not repeat the mistakes of Facebook in our smart homes. Any personal data that's collected can and will be used against us. An obvious place to begin: Alexa, stop recording us.
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🇺🇸 **World's biggest brothel swamped with millennial adult VIRGINS 'not interested in sex'**
*Daily Star* - <https://archive.fo/PUWp1>

Dena, from famous Nevada legal brothel Sheri’s Ranch, revealed the Daily Star Online they having a boom of “late bloomers”.

Sheri’s Ranch is believed to be the largest establishment of its kind in the world.

The brothel styles itself as luxurious rest with a bar, spa, pool and a full range of services on the “sex menu”.

And ranch mama Dena revealed some of their clients are not interested in just sex.

She revealed some of their clients come and play video games as part of their session.

Dena told Daily Star Online: “I have noticed that there are more adult virgins than ever before coming to Sheri’s so that they can lose their virginity to a prostitute and learn the proper ins-and-outs of sex.

“While I’m not sure if these late bloomers are visiting us because they have been immersed in video games and virtual worlds throughout their teens, it does seem to make sense.

“Millennials” – who reached young adulthood in the 21st century – have been claimed to be having less sex.

The General Social Survey revealed that the share of men under 30 who aren’t having sex has tripled in the past decade.
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🇷🇺 **Aeroflot plane crash: Russia jet 'struck by lightning'**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/Muf3p>

Passengers and crew on board a jet that was forced to make an emergency landing at a Moscow airport say it was struck by lightning moments before it crashed.

Reports of the strike came as survivors told how they escaped the Aeroflot jet which burst into flames on landing at Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday.

Forty-one of the 78 people on board were killed in the accident.

Investigators probing the cause of the crash have made no official comment on the claims it was hit by lightning.

Modern aircraft are built to withstand lightning strikes, and Russia's national carrier has said only that the plane returned to the airport for "technical reasons".

However passengers said the plane, which was heading for the northern Russian city of Murmansk, was struck just after take-off.

Pilot Denis Yevdokimov told Russian media that the lightning had interrupted communication with air traffic controllers and forced him to switch to emergency manual mode.

Dramatic video showed the plane making a very bumpy landing, bursting into flames after bouncing on the tarmac.
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🇺🇸 **Infographic: U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 49-Year Low**
*IBT* - <https://archive.fo/5Z6ce>

The U.S. labor market continues to run strong, creating an unexpectedly high number of 263,000 jobs in April. According to the latest jobs report, published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent last month, the lowest level since December 1969 and down from a 30-year high of 10.0 percent measured in October 2009 in the aftermath of the latest recession.

Total nonfarm employment has now risen for 103 consecutive months as the U.S. economy created more than 20 million jobs since the end of the great recession in 2009. Nonfarm payrolls reached
151,095,000 in April, up from 130,501,000 in July 2009, the first month of the current expansion.
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🌍 **1 million species of plants and animals at risk of extinction, U.N. report warns**
*CBS* - <https://archive.fo/q93us>

People are putting nature in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with the risk of extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals, scientists said Monday.
But it's not too late to fix the problem, according to the United Nations' first comprehensive report(<https://archive.fo/Gk0jM>) on biodiversity.

"We have reconfigured dramatically life on the planet," report co-chairman Eduardo Brondizio of Indiana University said at a press conference.

Species loss is accelerating to a rate tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past, the report said. More than half a million species on land "have insufficient habitat for long-term survival"
and are likely to go extinct, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored. The oceans are not any better off.

"Humanity unwittingly is attempting to throttle the living planet and humanity's own future," said George Mason University biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who has been called the godfather of biodiversity for his research.
He was not part of the report.

"The biological diversity of this planet has been really hammered, and this is really our last chance to address all of that," Lovejoy said.

Patricia Miloslavich, a contributor to the report and senior professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Universidad Simón Bolívar, spoke with "CBSN AM" on Monday about the conclusions.
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🇱🇰 **All suspects in Sri Lanka bombings arrested or dead: acting police chief**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rQsuB>

All suspected plotters and those directly linked to Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings have either been arrested or are dead, the country’s acting police chief said on Monday.

In an audio statement circulated by the defense ministry, Chandana Wickramaratne, the acting Inspector General of Police, said security forces had also confiscated bomb-making material
intended for future use by the militants involved in the attacks, which killed more than 250 people.

Sri Lankan authorities have said the bombings were believed to have been carried out by two little-known local Islamist groups, the National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu
Ibrahim (JMI). Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
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🇺🇸🇰🇷 **Trump discusses North Korea with Japan's Abe after tests**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/CdxFl>

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he had spoken with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about North Korea and trade after North Korea raised doubts about the future of
denuclearization dialogue with new weapons tests.

In a tweet, Trump described his talk with Abe, a close ally, as a “Very good conversation!” but gave no other details.

Trump and his administration have played down the North Korean weapons tests, which took place on Saturday, and which military analysts say could have involved short-range, ground-to-ground ballistic missiles.

Abe told reporters the United States and Japan would “respond together” to North Korea “going forward.”

If the weapons were ballistic missiles, they would have been the first fired by North Korea since its 2017 freeze in nuclear and missile testing opened the way for dialogue with the United States and South Korea.

Analysts interpreted the tests as an attempt to exert pressure on Washington to give ground in denuclearization negotiations after a February summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in failure.

In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said he was still confident he could reach a deal with Kim.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Washington still had “every intention” of negotiating with North Korea. Pompeo said he and Trump spoke about the launches on Saturday and were
“evaluating the appropriate response.”
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🇧🇬 **Pope defends migrants during trip to immigration-adverse Bulgaria**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/gAB12>

Pope Francis said on Monday the plight of suffering immigrants and refugees was “the cross of humanity,” taking up their case for the second day of a visit to Bulgaria that has put him at odds with the government.

Bulgaria’s center-right coalition government, which includes three nationalist anti-migrant parties, wants the European Union to close external borders and set up refugee centers outside the bloc.

It has built a fence along its border with Turkey and stepped up controls on its border with Greece to help block any repeat of the massive migrant influx that gripped Europe in 2015 and stoked support for far-right
anti-immigrant parties.

Francis began his second day in Bulgaria with a visit to a refugee center in Sofia, where he met with about 50 people and their children who are helped by a Catholic charity.

“Today, the world of migrants and refugees is a bit like a cross, the cross of humanity, a cross that many people suffer,” he told them in improvised remarks after hearing some of their stories and listening to children singing.

The center, housed in a former school building, helps migrants mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Taha Saber Ismael, a refugee from Iraq, gave the pope a printed note in imperfect English asking him to help his and six other Iraqi families obtain residency permits because they were “hoping having good and safe country to live in”.
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