🇺🇸 **Sanders releases 10 years of tax returns showing income bump from campaign book**
*NBC* - <https://archive.fo/K9JZx>

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released 10 years of tax returns Monday evening, showing the majority of his income came from his U.S. Senate salary until 2016, when his income jumped with the publication of a book on his first
presidential run.

His total income popped to over $1 million in 2016 and 2017, after he wrote “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In” in November 2016, raising his effective tax rate for those years to over 30 percent.

“I consider paying more in taxes as my income rose to be both an obligation and an investment in our country," Sanders said in a statement released by his campaign. "I will continue to fight to make our tax system more
progressive so that our country has the resources to guarantee the American Dream to all people.”

His book debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at #3, and has sold approximately 227,000 copies, according to the industry tracker NPD BookScan. Two subsequent books, “The Bernie Sanders Guide to Political
Revolution” and “Where Do We Go From Here: Two Years in the Resistance” sold over 27,000 and 26,000 copies, respectively.

During his 2016 campaign, Sanders initially released just a summary of his 2014 tax returns, before releasing his full return later in the primary.

"We had a good idea based on his 2014 returns what to expect,” Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, told NBC News after reviewing his returns. “He made a whole
bunch of money as an author now, which is sizable. Running for president has been a lucrative business for him.”

Sanders has been under pressure to release his returns since he launched his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in February. In a televised CNN town hall shortly after, the senator promised to release
them "sooner than later.”
----------------

🇪🇬 **Egypt constitutional changes could mean Sisi rule until 2030**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/RQUVG>

Egypt's parliament has approved constitutional amendments that would allow President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to stay in power until 2030.

Mr Sisi is due to stand down in 2022, when his second four-year term ends.

But the amendments, which must be put to a referendum within 30 days, would lengthen his current term to six years and allow him to stand for one more.

They would also give Mr Sisi more power over the judiciary and further enshrine the military's role in politics.

In 2013, Mr Sisi led the military's overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, following protests against his rule.

Since then, he has overseen what human rights groups say is an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that has led to the detention of tens of thousands of people.

Mr Sisi was first elected president in 2014 and was re-elected last year after winning 97% of the vote. He faced no serious competition because several potential rivals dropped out or were arrested.

Parliament is also dominated by supporters of Mr Sisi and it has been criticised by the opposition as being a rubber stamp for the president.

One MP who campaigned for the constitutional amendments, Mohammed Abu Hamed, told AFP news agency that Mr Sisi was a president who "took important political, economic and security measures" and who had to be allowed to
"continue with his reforms" in the wake of the unrest in neighbouring Libya and Sudan.

But Khaled Dawoud, of the liberal al-Dustour party, dismissed the argument as "absurd" and told the BBC that the changes represented a "power-grab" by Mr Sisi.

The internet monitor NetBlocks said Egyptian authorities had partly or fully blocked 34,000 websites in an attempt to restrict access to a campaign website that had reportedly collected 250,000 signatures against the amendments.
----------------

🇸🇾 **Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/kKIaK>

A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani, a town besieged by Islamic State for months, and where the tide turned against the militants four years ago.

Children play near damaged houses in Kobani, Syria April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
The converts say the experience of war and the onslaught of a group claiming to fight for Islam pushed them toward their new faith. After a number of families converted, the Syrian-Turkish border town’s first evangelical
church opened last year.

Islamic State militants were beaten back by U.S. air strikes and Kurdish fighters at Kobani in early 2015, in a reversal of fortune after taking over swaths of Iraq and Syria. After years of fighting, U.S.-backed forces
fully ended the group’s control over populated territory last month.

Though Islamic State’s ultra-radical interpretation of Sunni Islam has been repudiated by the Islamic mainstream, the legacy of its violence has affected perceptions of faith.

Many in the mostly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, whose urban centers are often secular, say agnosticism has strengthened and in the case of Kobani, Christianity.

Christianity is one of the region’s minority faiths that was persecuted by Islamic State.

Critics view the new converts with suspicion, accusing them of seeking personal gain such as financial help from Christian organizations working in the region, jobs and enhanced prospects of emigration to European countries.

The newly-converted Christians of Kobani deny those accusations. They say their conversion was a matter of faith.
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. measles cases surge nearly 20 percent in early April, CDC says**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/Nc2dr>

The number of confirmed cases of measles in the United States this year jumped by nearly 20 percent in the week ended April 11, in the country’s second-worst outbreak
in nearly two decades, federal health officials reported on Monday.

As of April 11, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 555 cases of the disease since the beginning of the year, up from 465 cases confirmed
by April 4. The cases were found in 20 states spanning the country.

The measles virus is highly contagious and can lead to complications and death, particularly in children. The CDC report did not say whether there have been any fatalities.

The U.S. outbreak is part of a worldwide rise. The World Health Organization reported on Monday that global cases had risen nearly four-fold in the first quarter of 2019
to 112,163 compared with the same period last year.

A growing and vocal fringe of parents in the United States oppose vaccines believing, contrary to scientific evidence, that ingredients in them can cause autism or other
disorders.

Five parents filed a lawsuit with the New York State court against the city’s health department on Monday, requesting a halt to emergency orders requiring the measles
vaccine on the grounds that it goes against their religious beliefs.

“There is insufficient evidence of a measles epidemic or dangerous outbreak to justify the respondents’ extraordinary measures, including forced vaccination,” said the
lawsuit, identifying the parents only by their initials.

The city’s Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment.
----------------

🇮🇶 **Iraq parliament bans online battle games, citing 'negative' influence**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/arl6X>

Iraq’s parliament voted on Wednesday to ban popular online video games including PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite, citing their “negative” influence especially on the young in a country long plagued by real-life bloodshed.

Iraq held its first election in 2018 after years of devastating factional violence. Islamic State militants held wide swathes of the country for three years until they were driven out in heavy fighting with U.S.-backed forces in 2017.

Lawmakers, who were sworn in last September after months of disputed results and ballot box recounts, approved a resolution that mandated the government to bar online access to the games and ban related financial transactions.

The ban came “due to the negative effects caused by some electronic games on the health, culture, and security of Iraqi society, including societal and moral threats to children and youth,” the text of the resolution read.

Oil-rich Iraq has suffered for decades under the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein and U.N. sanctions, the 2003 U.S. invasion and civil war it unleashed, and the battle against Islamic State, over which Baghdad declared victory
in 2017.

Corruption is rampant and basic services like power and water are lacking. Unemployment is widespread, especially among young people.

The new ban quickly drew online discontent with hundreds of Iraqi social media users criticizing lawmakers for what they said were misplaced priorities. Parliament has passed only one piece of legislation since it first convened,
the 2019 federal budget law which was issued in January.
----------------

🇫🇷 **As Notre-Dame money rolls in, some eyebrows raised over rush of funds**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/dgB4G>

Pledged donations from French billionaires, companies and ordinary citizens for the restoration of fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral are approaching 900 million euros after just two days, a
reflection of the landmark’s resonance in the national psyche.

But the outpouring has prompted questions from charities, politicians and commentators about why some of the business donors have offered so much so quickly, including speculation about how
they might benefit from tax breaks on the donations.

People on social media, both in France and abroad, have expressed frustration that other disasters - from the Syrian and Iraq refugee crisis to the Grenfell Tower fire in London - have not
received anything like the same degree of support.

The first major donation to Notre-Dame came from Francois-Henri Pinault, the billionaire head of luxury goods group Kering that owns fashion brands Gucci and Saint Laurent.

Pinault, 56, a celebrity figure in part because he is married to actress Salma Hayek, pledged 100 million euros ($113 million) as the blaze was still raging - a decision dictated by emotion,
a spokeswoman for his family’s holding company said.

Hours later, his great rival Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and the head of Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, announced he was donating 200 million euros, moved by the alarming pictures on TV, according to a group spokesman.

The Bettencourt-Meyer family, the largest shareholder in L’Oreal, followed suit a while later, pledging a combined 200 million euros alongside the global cosmetics group.

Brand and reputation experts said the quick response by some of France’s most recognizable corporate titans made sense, especially since the disaster involves a national symbol.
----------------

🇵🇹 **Madeira crash: At least 28 killed on tourist bus near Caniço**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/8sKp6>

A bus carrying German tourists has plunged off a road and overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira leaving 28 people dead.

Another 22 were injured in the accident near the town of Caniço, according to national news agency Lusa.

The accident happened at 18:30 (17:30 GMT) when the driver lost control of the bus at a junction and went off the road, reports said.

Portuguese media showed the overturned vehicle had come to rest near houses.

"I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," local Mayor Filipe Sousa told broadcaster SIC TV.

He said all the tourists on the bus were German but it was not clear if the fatalities occurred only in the bus.

The scene of the crash has been sealed off and the injured transferred to a hospital in the capital, Funchal, Lusa said.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is flying to the island to visit the scene, the agency added.

Madeira was the scene of another fatal bus crash in 2005 when five Italian tourists died in São Vicente, on the northern coast.
----------------

🇵🇪 **Peru's ex-president Garcia dies after shooting himself to avoid arrest**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/yxhHr>

Peru’s former president Alan Garcia died in a hospital in Lima on Wednesday, hours after shooting himself in the head to avoid arrest in connection with a bribery probe, authorities said on Wednesday.
Garcia, who had six adult children, was 69.

A skilled orator elected president twice, first as a firebrand leftist and then as a champion of foreign investment and free trade, Garcia had been dogged by allegations of corruption in recent years that he had
repeatedly denied.

Garcia was one of nine people a judge had ordered to be arrested on Wednesday for alleged involvement in bribes distributed by Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that triggered Latin America’s biggest graft
scandal when it admitted in 2016 that it had paid kickbacks to politicians across the region to secure lucrative contracts.

While three former presidents in Peru have also been ordered to jail in connection with Odebrecht, Garcia had blamed his legal troubles on political persecution, accusing President Martin Vizcarra without evidence of
trying to silence him.

“Others might sell out, not me,” Garcia said in some of his last broadcast comments on Tuesday, repeating a phrase he has used frequently as his political foes became ensnared in the Odebrecht investigation.

Members of his once-powerful Apra party announced his death to crowds gathered outside of hospital Casimiro Ulloa, where he suffered three cardiac arrests and underwent emergency surgery.
----------------

🇮🇹 **Italian students' BBQ results in €13m fine for forest fire**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/3zbkJ>

Two students blamed for a large forest fire in the Italian region of Como have each been fined €13.5m (£11.7m).

The men, both aged 22, were barbecuing at a mountain forest home belonging to one of their grandfathers when the fire broke out on 30 December last year.

The huge bill for the two students was calculated by local officials based on a formula used to determine the extent of damage caused by the fire.

One of the students told Italian media they were "scapegoats" for the blaze.

Speaking to Italy's La Stampa newspaper, one of the university students said he was "deeply sorry" - but said there were multiple sources of the outbreak.

"We are the scapegoats of a fire that cannot be explained," he said, adding: "We are the real victims of this story.

"[We] immediately alerted the fire brigade and threw ourselves at the flames to try and put them out."

Prosecutors, however, traced the path of the fire back to the property and said it had been started by embers from the barbecue, coupled with extremely dry conditions.
The two young men were found jointly responsible, along with the owner of the property.

The fire lasted for several days, destroying some 1,000 hectares of forest on Monte Berlinghera - the damage caused to some 100 hectares was said to be irreversible.

The fine of €13,542,000 was calculated by forest police based on an established formula under local laws.
----------------

🇾🇪🇸🇦🇮🇱🇺🇸 **Trump vetoes resolution to end U.S. participation in Yemen’s civil war**
*The Washington Post* - <https://archive.fo/xqtSj>

President Trump on Tuesday vetoed a resolution that would have ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.

The move, which had been expected, marks the second veto of Trump’s presidency.

“This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,” Trump said in a statement.

The measure had passed the House on a 247-to-175 vote this month and was approved by the Senate last month with the support of seven Republicans.

This month’s House vote marked the first time both chambers had acted to invoke the same war-powers resolution to end U.S. military engagement in a foreign conflict. It also represented the latest instance of Congress’s challenging Trump’s decisions as commander in chief.

The veto means the United States will continue its involvement in Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, waged in the name of holding back Iran’s expansion in the region.

But the Saudi-led effort, which has targeted civilian facilities and prevented aid shipments from getting to Yemenis, has been faulted by human rights organizations for exacerbating what the United Nations has deemed the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Read the text of the Mueller report**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/oqXhd>

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report on his investigation into Russian election interference was released publicly Thursday, with some redactions.
---------------
Download full report here:
<https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf>
---------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades**
*Gallup* - <https://archive.fo/z84Y9>

As Christian and Jewish Americans prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, respectively, Gallup finds the percentage of Americans who report belonging to a church, synagogue or mosque at an all-time low, averaging 50% in 2018.

U.S. church membership was 70% or higher from 1937 through 1976, falling modestly to an average of 68% in the 1970s through the 1990s. The past 20 years have seen an acceleration in the drop-off, with a 20-percentage-point decline since 1999 and more than half of that change occurring since the start of the current decade.

The decline in church membership is consistent with larger societal trends in declining church attendance and an increasing proportion of Americans with no religious preference.

This article compares church membership data for the 1998-2000 and 2016-2018 periods, using combined data from multiple years to facilitate subgroup analysis. On average, 69% of U.S. adults were members of a church in 1998-2000, compared with 52% in 2016-2018.

The decline in church membership mostly reflects the fact that fewer Americans than in the past now have any religious affiliation. However, even those who do identify with a particular religion are less likely to belong to a church or other place of worship than in the past.
---------------

🇺🇦 **Comedian Zelenskiy keeps Ukraine presidential poll lead**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/ddmwI>

Comic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice who plays a fictional president in a popular TV series, has kept his lead in Ukraine’s presidential election race, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday.

The poll by research body Reiting showed Zelenskiy on 57.9 percent of votes and incumbent Petro Poroshenko on 21.7 percent. Reiting polled 3,000 voters in all regions, except annexed Crimea, from April 12 to 16.

The previous poll made by Reiting in April 5-10 gave Zelenskiy 61 percent of votes while Poroshenko received 24 percent.

Poroshenko and Zelenskiy will meet in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential election, which will take place on April 21. Zelenskiy won nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko in the first round, on March 31.
----------------

🇧🇩 **Bangladeshi student burned to death by fellow students for reporting sexual harassment by head teacher**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/y7fLh>

A Bangladeshi teenager who braved the shame and taboo of being sexually harassed by reporting her ordeal to officials, has been doused with kerosene at school and burned to death.

Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, filed a complaint with local police in late March after allegedly being touched inappropriately by the head teacher at her Islamic school, also known as a madrasa, according to the BBC.
A police officer filmed her distraught testimony on his mobile phone and it was leaked after the teacher was arrested.

Despite the increasing threats of violence against her, Rafi continued going to class and on April 6, reportedly was lured to a building rooftop at her school. She was then surrounded by several burqa-clad
individuals who demanded that she retract her police report.

After refusing, the Police Bureau of Investigation Chief told the BBC, the student was doused in kerosene and set alight –but their plan to “make it look like a suicide” failed after the severely injured Rafi was rescued.

She suffered burns to more than 80 percent of her body, and died ten days later. But while being rushed to hospital via ambulance and in one final act of courage, Rafi recorded a statement on her brother’s phone exposing
some of her attackers as fellow students.

“The teacher touched me,” she reportedly said. “I will fight this crime till my last breath.”

“When a woman tries to get justice for sexual harassment, she has to face a lot of harassment again,” Salma Ali, a human rights lawyer and former director of the Women Lawyers’ Association, told the BBC. “The case lingers
for years, there is shaming in society, a lack of willingness from the police to properly investigate the allegations. It leads the victim to give up on seeking justice.”
----------------

🇺🇸 **Elizabeth Warren calls on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/GbuKY>

Elizabeth Warren became the first Democratic presidential candidate to call for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump Friday afternoon, citing the "severity" of "misconduct" detailed in the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States," the Massachusetts senator wrote on Twitter.

In an earlier tweet, Warren said that the report proved that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of helping Mr. Trump, and showed that the president "obstructed the investigation into that attack." Mueller did not come to a conclusion as to whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice.
---------------

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HITLER AND HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY COLUMBINE

🎉💥

🇱🇰 **Sri Lanka explosions: More than 200 killed as churches and hotels targeted**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/im7X0>

At least 207 people have been killed and 400 hurt in explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, police say.

At least eight blasts were reported. Three churches in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo's Kochchikade district were targeted during Easter services.

The Shangri-La, Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand and a fourth hotel, all in Colombo, were also hit.

A curfew has been imposed from 18:00 to 06:00 local time (12:30-00:30 GMT). Seven arrests have been made.

The government also said there would a temporary block on the use of major social media networks.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks but the defence minister said they were probably carried out by one group.

St Sebastian's church in Negombo was severely damaged. Images on social media showed its inside, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews. Dozens of people are reported to have died there.

There were heavy casualties too at the site of the first blast in St Anthony's, a hugely popular shrine in Kochchikade, a district of Colombo.

Among those killed in Colombo were at least nine foreign nationals, hospital sources told the BBC.
----------------

🇺🇸 **North Carolina man accused of shooting 2 children in road rage incident**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/rde5c>

A North Carolina man was arrested Saturday after he allegedly shot a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl during a road rage incident involving their father, investigators said.

The two siblings were rushed to Northern Hospital of Surry County by their father, Graig Allen Sheff, the Surry County Sheriff's Office said. The boy was treated and released, and the girl was reported in stable condition after she underwent surgery.

Surry County officials identified Byron Donnell Green, 41, as the suspect and found him at his apartment in Mount Airy, Winston-Salem station WXII-TV reported.

Green was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, discharging a weapon into an occupied property causing bodily injury and assault by pointing a gun, police said. Green was being held at the Surry County Detention Center on $600,000 bond.
----------------

🇱🇰🇩🇰 **Three children of Danish billionaire killed in Sri Lanka attacks**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/U4xCM>

Denmark’s richest man Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife lost three of their four children in the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, a spokesman for Povlsen’s fashion firm said on Monday.

The spokesman declined to give any further details but Danish media said the family had been on holiday in Sri Lanka.

A string of bombings at churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka killed 290 people and wounded about 500 in Sunday’s attacks. A senior investigator said on Monday that seven suicide bombers had taken part in the attacks.

Povlsen is the owner of fashion firm Bestseller, which includes brands like Vero Moda and Jack & Jones, and is the majority stakeholder in online retailer Asos while also holding a big stake in Zalando.

He owns more than 1 percent of all the land in Scotland, according to Forbes.
----------------

🇺🇦 **Ukraine enters uncharted waters after comedian wins presidency**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/vrddq>

Ukraine entered uncharted political waters on Monday after near final results showed a comedian with no political experience and few detailed policies had dramatically upended the status
quo and won the country’s presidential election by a landslide.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s win was a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko and presents a riddle for investors, the West and Russia who wonder what approach he will take on everything from relations
with Moscow to the domestic banking sector.

Zelenskiy, 41, will take leadership of a country on the frontline of the West’s standoff with Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

In Sunday’s second-round vote, Poroshenko, 53, had tried to rally voters, casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity.
----------------

🇵🇭 **Rescuers race to find survivors after Philippine quake kills 15**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/TL6lv>

Rescue teams in the Philippines searched for signs of life beneath the rubble of a collapsed four-storey commercial building on Tuesday after a strong earthquake shook the country’s biggest island, killing at least 15 people.

Heavy lifting equipment and search dogs were used as dozens of firefighters, military and civilian rescue teams raced to shift lumps of concrete in a commercial area of Porac, about 110 km (68 miles) north of Manila, where a 6.1 magnitude earthquake damaged several buildings on Monday.

Two people were rescued there on Tuesday, adding to seven found alive and four found dead overnight in the mix of rubble and mangled metal that caved in on a ground-floor supermarket in the worst recorded incident.

Most deaths were confined to parts of Pampanga province, where the governor said investigations would be held to determine why only certain buildings were damaged while others were intact.

Porac mayor Condralito Dela Cruz said the earthquake was the most intense the town had ever experienced.

“We’re not sure how many people are trapped still,” he told television news channel ANC.

“We can still hear some voices, the voice of a woman,” he said.

The quake, which struck at 5 p.m. local time (0900 GMT) on Monday, was initially reported as a magnitude 6.3 but was later revised down to 6.1 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
----------------

🇧🇴 **Bolivia crash: Bus plunges into ravine killing 25**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/eizHx>

Twenty-five people were killed in western Bolivia when the bus they were travelling in fell more than 200m (656ft) down a ravine.

The bus was trying to overtake a lorry when it collided head-on with another vehicle and went over the cliff, injuring 24 passengers.

High speed could have contributed to the crash on Sunday night local time.

Accidents on Bolivia's poorly maintained roads result in hundreds of deaths every year.

The bus, which was operated by a company called Totai, was travelling from the country's administrative capital, La Paz, to the Amazon town of Rurrenabaque.

The accident happened near the municipality of Coroico in a mountainous region.

There are at least two children among the victims, highway patrol chief Fernando Rojas said. Some of the injured are reportedly in a critical condition in hospital.

Mr Rojas told El Diario newspaper (in Spanish), that the driver, who was injured in the crash, had been reckless and ignored the signs in the narrow road.

Some 1,000 people die and 40,000 are injured in accidents on Bolivia's roads every year, according to official data quoted by Efe news agency.

In January, 22 people died when two buses collided near the western city of Oruro. In February, a bus and a lorry crashed, also near Oruro, killing 24 people.
----------------

🇮🇱 **Expert says Israeli Politics getting as bad as U.S.**
*The Jerusalem Post* - <http://archive.fo/fX6Mb>

As Israel’s 2019 election winners move from campaigning to coalition-building – and the country takes its Passover break to recover from what was one of its nastiest elections ever – analysts are looking back at the 100 days of campaigning and asking themselves: “What just happened?”

According to Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at the University of Haifa, what Israel just witnessed was another step toward the “Americanization” of Israel’s political landscape and the rising prominence of social media in election campaigns. Both, he said, contributed to this month’s election victory by our once-again-returning prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The role of new media versus old media was quite a dramatic change from the last election,” Weimann told The Jerusalem Post.

This shift, however, is not solely one of platforms. The use of social media itself “has implications in terms of political discourse,” the professor explained. “Social media is not regulated in the United States nor in Israel. It is not censored, and there are no gatekeepers. No one is checking facts or the accuracy of what is being said.”

“Fake news is not a new phenomenon,” said Weimann, “especially with political campaigns. The difference is that now we have platforms where no one can block it... Today, through social networks, it is possible to spread false rumors, promote ‘fake news,’ incite and radicalize discourse, cause harm to candidates and parties, widen social rifts and plunge election campaigns into an abyss of extremism, distrust, sectarianism and violence.”

“There is also growing concern that the business models and algorithms that drive social media companies are fueling extreme partisanship and widening political cleavages, ethnic, and religious splits,” he continued.
----------------

🇺🇸 <:niggerjoy:404280890714226689> **Florida father chases down, shoots carjacker who stole vehicle with man’s son inside**
*WHNT-TV / CBS News* - <http://archive.is/MQANQ>

**THIS DAY IN FLORIDA**

A Florida father chased down and shot a carjacking suspect who deputies say drove off with the man’s 2012 Honda and 6-year-old son, who was sitting inside the vehicle at the time.

Just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday, 29-year-old **Lamar** Thurman got behind the wheel of the owner’s car, which was left running outside a Lantana residence while the unidentified victim said goodbye to friends, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Thurman drove away, but the boy’s father and his friends gave chase, calling 911 as they followed the Honda, according to PBCSO officials. Thurman crashed the car about five miles away, and the vehicle temporarily became stuck before he managed to free it as the father and his friends approached.

As Thurman tried to drive away, the victim pulled out a handgun and fired multiple times, the release states.

Thurman suffered multiple gunshot wounds and crashed again about 200 yards away. The child wasn’t harmed.

Investigators say Thurman, who is listed in critical condition, has no relation to the victims.
----------------

🇰🇵🇷🇺 **North Korea leader Kim Jong Un in Russia for summit with Vladimir Putin**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/btvUz>

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia by train on Wednesday, a day before his much-anticipated summit with President Vladimir Putin. The visit comes as Kim's recently-feverish
diplomacy with the Trump administration, aimed at ridding the North Korean regime of its nuclear weapons, remains deadlocked.

Kim, dressed in a black coat and a fedora, met Russian officials at Russia's Khasan train station near its border with the North. The official website of the Primorye governor released
pictures of Kim stepping off the train and being given the traditional Russian gifts of bread and salt at the station.

Speaking to Russia's state-owned Rossiya-24, Kim said on arrival that he was hoping for a "successful and useful" visit and would like to discuss with Putin, "settlement of the situation
in the Korean Peninsula" as well as bilateral ties with Russia.

Kim then sat down with local officials, as well as a Russian deputy foreign minister, before setting off again for the Pacific port city of Vladivostok for his summit with Putin, set to
begin on Thursday. It is Kim's first visit to Russia, and the first by a North Korean leader since his late father, Kim Jong Il, visited in 2011.

"I have heard a lot about your country and have long dreamt of visiting it," Kim was quoted as saying. "It's been seven years since I took the helm, and I've only just managed to visit."

Kim evoked his father's "great love for Russia" and said that he intended to strengthen the ties between the two countries.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Measles cases in U.S. spike to highest level since 2000**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/yLC4F>

The total number of measles cases in the country have reached at least 671 in 2019, including two pregnant women in New York diagnosed with the disease.

New cases of measles reported in New York, New Jersey and California bring the total number of infections in the U.S. to 671 so far in 2019, the most for a year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.

On Wednesday, New York City and suburban Rockland County confirmed an additional 37 measles cases, and California reported seven new cases.

The second-highest number for measles cases in the U.S. was 667 in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC will report the nation’s official count on Monday and will include updates from at least 22 states.

In New York City and Rockland County, there have been 590 cases since the measles outbreak began in October 2018. Los Angeles reported its first five cases on Monday.

Most of the measles cases are unvaccinated children, although some adults may be at risk. In New York, two of the cases have been pregnant women, one of which was diagnosed in mid-April.

Measles during pregnancy can be dangerous for both the pregnant woman and her developing fetus.
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🇲🇽 **Mexico conducts largest raid on migrant caravan members**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/HaNEg>

Central American migrants traveling through southern Mexico toward the U.S. on Tuesday fearfully recalled their frantic escape from police the previous day, scuttling under barbed wire fences into pastures and then spending the night in the woods after hundreds were detained in a raid.

In the Chiapas state town of Tonala, migrants flocked to one of the few places they felt they could be safe — the local Roman Catholic church — only to start with fear at the sound of a passing ambulance's siren.

"There are people still lost up in the woods. The woods are very dangerous," said Arturo Hernández, a sinewy 59-year-old farmer from Comayagua, Honduras, who fled through the woods with his grandson. "They waited until we were resting and fell upon us, grabbing children and women."

Mexican immigration authorities said 371 people were detained Monday in what was the largest single raid so far on a migrant caravan since the groups started moving through the country last year.

The once large caravan of about 3,000 people was essentially broken up by the raid, as migrants fled into the hills, took refuge at shelters and churches or hopped passing freight trains. A brave few groups straggled along the highways, but with dozens of police and immigration checkpoints, they were bound to be caught.
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🇺🇸 **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.”
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🇵🇱 **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.”

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🇵🇱 <: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.
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🇺🇸 **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.
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🇪🇺 **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.
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🇻🇦 **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.
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🇺🇸 **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".
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🇺🇸 **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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