Work is expected to begin next year on a long-planned expansion of @ArlingtonNatl in Virginia. The cemetery is the final resting place of more than 400,000 service members and their family members. Read More: https://t.co/QZCCFFDf4mpic.twitter.com/6TEbtQ7E4a
The U.S. will withdraw all remaining personnel from @usembassyve this week. This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in #Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy.
President Donald Trump has been talking about ordering a military operation targeting Venezuela since 2017.
At first, that was widely dismissed as a rash threat, but the idea of a U.S. effort to force "regime change" in the oil-rich South American country may be gaining momentum in Washington.
"It's a regime that, frankly, could be toppled very quickly by the military if the military decides to do that," Trump said in September.
In January, National Security Adviser John Bolton flashed a notebook that read "5,000 troops to Colombia."
And on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered all U.S. diplomats to leave Venezuela, saying their presence there "has become a constraint on U.S. policy," hinting at opening potential military options.
WNU Editor: Some CIA-linked assets are also in the air .... CIA Linked Plane Makes Brief Trip To Venezuela As American Diplomats Evacuate (Warzone/The Drive). But as to a U.S. military intervention .... I doubt it. Over 100,000 soldiers would be required, and the costs to stabilize the country would be enormous. There is also no political or public will in the U.S. for such a military operation. So why the discussion on U.S. military moves? I see these moves more as a green-light to Venezuelan opposition groups and the Venezuelan military that the U.S. would support them should they decide to move against the Maduro government.
The US defense budget proposal for FY 2020 boasts a record-breaking research and development request, as the Pentagon seeks to get its hands on all the shiny new things, such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weaponry.
The US Department of Defense has rolled out the proposal for its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Pentagon needs even more funds compared to the massive $716 billion budget in 2019 and now wants it to grow by some five percent – to a whopping $750 billion.
A significant part of the funding is needed to run multiple research and development programs, as the US military is keen to get new weapons and technologies – such as hypersonic missiles, already successfully tested by Russia and China.
A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, RAF Mildenhall, England, above the coast English coast, March 14, 2019. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Emerson Nuñez
* A large Bomber Task Force reportedly consisting of up to six B-52 Stratofortress heavy long-range bombers are flying into Europe this week. * The rotation, which comes at a time of heightened tension with Russia, is focused on interoperability training, but there is a deterrent element as well. * This week, B-52 bombers also flew over the disputed South China Sea, where the US and China have repeatedly found themselves at odds.
US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress heavy long-range bombers are flying into Europe this week, US Air Forces Europe - Africa announced Thursday, at a time Russia is making threats against the US as a Cold War-era missiles ban collapses.
A Bomber Task Force consisting of bombers from the 2nd Bomb Wing out of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana are deploying to the US European Command area of operations.
Pentagon officials did not account for and manage $2.1 billion worth of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter parts and must now rely on the aircraft's maker, Lockheed Martin, to tell them where and when it spent the funds, according to a new watchdog report.
The scathing report from the Defense Department's (DOD) Office of Inspector General found that Pentagon officials "failed to implement procedures, and failed to appoint and hold officials responsible, to account for and manage government property for more than 16 years."
* In Maracaibo, hundreds of businesses were looted in blackout * The pillage shows that anyone's grip on the nation is tenuous
The sack of Maracaibo was almost over Thursday after a frenzy of violence and looting that showed just how close Venezuela is to total chaos.
In the country's sweltering oil capital, about 500 businesses -- bakeries, tire shops, entire shopping malls -- were pillaged during the nationwide power blackout that began March 7. Looting continued even after the lights flickered on as residents overwhelmed the security forces of the Nicolas Maduro regime. Storekeepers are just beginning to clean up as the desperate keep sifting through the rubble.
Tens of thousands of supporters of Catalan independence have rallied in Spain's capital Madrid in protest at an ongoing trial of 12 separatist leaders.
Many waved Catalan flags and had placards reading "Self-determination is not a crime".
Protest organisers said 120,000 people marched in Madrid. Spanish police put the number at just 18,000.
The separatist leaders of Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid face rebellion and sedition charges.
If convicted, some could face up to 25 years in prison.
* Smoke bombs and bricks were hurled at officers in so-called 'Act XVIII' Day of Rage organised by movement * Fighting broke out on Champs Elysee, the most famous avenue in the French capital, with 25 arrests by 11am * They have been protesting since November 17 last year and are calling for President Macron to step down
French President Emmanuel Macron has cut short a skiing trip in the Pyrenees to return to Paris for a crisis meeting after 'yellow vest' protesters trashed shops and torched cars in the heart of Paris.
Businesses on the famed Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris were destroyed on Saturday, on the 18th weekend of French the protests, characterised by a sharp increase in violence after weeks of dwindling turnout.
Macron is now due to hold an emergency meeting at the interior ministry, his office said.
Protesters were seen vandalising and later setting fire to Fouquet's brasserie, a favourite hangout of the rich and famous for the past century - as well as luxury handbag store Longchamp, a bank, another restaurant and several news stands.
WNU Editor: With the weather getting better and with French President Macron's six month moratorium on implementing his climate/economic agenda fast approaching, these protests are only going to continue, and they will get worse.
* Chelsea Clinton tried to attend a vigil at New York University on Friday * Students berated her and said her words had inspired attack in New Zealand * White nationalist shooter killed 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch * NYU students said that Clinton had inspired 'Islamophobic mob' with her words * Was referring to Clinton's criticism of Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar last month * Clinton accused Omar of using 'anti-Semitic tropes' in her language about Israel
Muslim students have berated Chelsea Clinton at a vigil for the victims of the New Zealand mosques massacre, saying she is to blame for the attack.
Clinton, who is pregnant with her third child, was attending the vigil at New York University on Friday when senior Leen Dweik began castigating her in an astonishing moment caught on video.
'This right here is the result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you put out into the world,' says Dweik, gesturing to the vigil for the 49 who were killed in Christchurch when a white nationalist shooter stormed two mosques.
WNU Editor: I found it bizarre that some in the media were blaming President Trump for the terror attack against two mosques in New Zealand. But blaming Chelsea Clinton?!?!?!?! These people have lost their minds.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to attend the May 6-7 Arctic Council meeting in Finland in a show of Washington's commitment to the region amid growing U.S. concern about China's interests there, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States are members of the Council, which coordinates Arctic policy and is gaining clout as sea ice thaws to open up new trade routes and intensify competition for its oil, gas and mineral resources.
* Masked assailants infiltrated compound in Madrid, Spain, tied staff up with rope, stole computers and phones, and fled in two luxury vehicles * Experts say devices seized are a treasure trove of information that foreign intelligence agencies are likely to seek out
Days before US President Donald Trump was set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam, a mysterious incident in Spain threatened to derail the entire high-stakes nuclear summit.
In broad daylight, masked assailants infiltrated North Korea's embassy in Madrid, restrained the staff with rope, stole computers and mobile phones, and fled in two luxury vehicles.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan along with other top miltiary and civilan leadership at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., March 15, 2019. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Angelita M. Lawrence)
The V-22 Osprey is built to transport U.S. special operations commandos long distances, and mid-air refueling comes with the territory. This video certainly makes Osprey refueling look like a harrowing experience, yet this is a job the aircraft carry successfully out around the world every day.
The sick must provide their own medical supplies as havoc grips Maracaibo, but shelves in the looted shops are bare
The air in the crowded emergency ward was already thick with the rusty smell of dried blood when the door burst open and two men barged in, screaming for help.
Between them, they carried a third man: barefoot, bare-chested – and bleeding freely from a deep wound which had nearly severed his right arm.
Two doctors ran over to help; one examined the wounded man while the other told his friends to go and find bottled water and sutures; there were none left in the hospital.
WNU Editor: The Venezuelan government is now saying that power has been restored .... Power has finally been restored to Venezuela, minister says (CNN). My one contact in Caracas was able to send me a message to me yesterday after being incommunicado for 3 weeks, and he is telling me another story. There are rolling blackouts in Caracas, and outside of Caracas the information that he is receiving from family is that the electricity is unreliable even if it does come on. Water supplies are also unreliable, and in Caracas law enforcement has been completely overwhelmed by the crime and looting that has engulfed the city in the past week. He is surprised that martial law has not been declared.
The resolution against his emergency declaration was a stunning bipartisan rebuke to Trump, but lawmakers currently do not have the votes to overturn his veto.
Donald Trump issued the first veto of his presidency Friday afternoon, rejecting a congressional resolution that would have blocked him from funding his border wall without congressional approval.
"Consistent with the law and the legislative process designed by our founders, today I am vetoing this resolution," Trump said. "Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution, and I have the duty to veto it. And I'm very proud to veto it."
President Obama : 12 President Bush : 12 President Clinton : 37 President Bush Sr. : 44 President Reagan : 78 President Carter : 31 President Ford : 66 President Nixon : 43 President Johnson : 30 President Kennedy : 21 President Eisenhower : 181 President Truman : 250 President Roosevelt : 635
THE EU put together a secret plan to force Ireland to vote again on the rejected Lisbon Treaty entitled 'Solution to the Irish Problem', an internal EU briefing paper claimed.
TRIBUTES have poured in from around the world as people from all faiths and walks of life come together to pay respect to the 49 individuals killed in the horrific terror attack in New Zealand on Friday.
PARIS has been locked into yet another weekend of violent protest from members of the Yellow Vest movement marching against Emmanuel Macron, with police deploying water cannons on the crown during clashes.
(WASHINGTON) — Newly released documents show that a former adviser to Russia’s president had a complete fracture of his neck “at or near the time of his death” in a Washington hotel room in 2015.
The documents from the city’s medical examiner were released to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
In a report published Saturday, RFE says the finding offers no clear-cut evidence of foul play in the death of Mikhail Lesin, who was a key adviser to Russian leader Vladimir Putin during Putin’ rise to power.
But RFE says the documents provide “the most precise scientific description” yet of a death that’s been shrouded in suspicion. The official ruling was that Lesin died of blunt force trauma after falling repeatedly while intoxicated.
After the mass shooting on Friday, far-right Sen. Fraser Anning put out a statement in which he blamed Muslim immigrants for the terror attack on two Christchurch mosques that took the lives of 49 people and injured at least 40.
“Whilst this kind of violent vigilantism can never be justified, what it highlights is the growing fear within our community, both in Australia and New Zealand of the increasing Muslim presence,” Anning said in the statement. “The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.”
Just incredible: As 49 Muslim worshippers lay dead in New Zealand, a sitting Australian senator blames “the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand”. pic.twitter.com/13w7aAK8IR
A 17-year-old, who has not been identified by authorities, performed the egging during a Saturday event in Melbourne. He can be seen holding up his phone, seemingly to record the incident, before breaking a raw egg on the back of Anning’s head. Anning responds by turning around and hitting the boy in the face.
The senator then lunges for the teen and strikes him again before the two are separated.
Someone has just slapped an egg on the back of Australian Senator Fraser Anning's head, who immediately turned around and punched him in the face. @politicsabc@abcnewspic.twitter.com/HkDZe2rn0X
The teenager was briefly arrested but later released without being charged, according to Victoria police.
“The incident is being actively investigated by Victoria Police ‘in its entirety’ including the actions of [Anning] and others,” the department said in a statement.
BEA, the French agency for civil aviation safety, has begun technical work on the cockpit voice recorder from the Boeing 737 Max that crashed in Ethiopia, it said in a tweet on Saturday.
— BEA | Bureau d'Enquêtes & d'Analyses ✈️ 🚁🛩 🇫🇷 (@BEA_Aero) March 16, 2019
The work is being done in coordination with the Ethiopian investigation team. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Co. are also taking part.
In Ethiopia today, Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said that it would take between five and six months to identify the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines jet.
BEA posted photos on its Twitter account of the recorder provided by the Ethiopian investigation team.
— BEA | Bureau d'Enquêtes & d'Analyses ✈️ 🚁🛩 🇫🇷 (@BEA_Aero) March 16, 2019
Ethiopia and France signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize the technical work to be done on the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder on Friday.
(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — A U.S. Navy veteran from California has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, his lawyer said Saturday, becoming the first American known to be imprisoned there since President Donald Trump took office.
Though the case against Michael R. White remains unclear, it comes as Trump has taken a hard-line approach to Iran by pulling the U.S. out of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran, which in the past has used its detention of Westerners and dual nationals as leverage in negotiations, has yet to report on White’s sentence in state-controlled media. Its mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Obviously the concern is that the Iranians are using this as a tool against the United States, given the other individuals who are in custody,” Washington-based lawyer Mark Zaid told The Associated Press.
White’s arrest was first reported by IranWire, an online news service run by Iranian expatriates, which interviewed a former Iranian prisoner who said he met White at Vakilabad Prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad in October.
In the time since, White has been convicted of insulting Iran’s supreme leader and posting private information online, Zaid said. He said the information surrounding the case remained vague. He learned of the sentence from the State Department, which in turn learned of it from the Swiss government, which looks after American interests in Iran.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. The New York Times first reported White’s 10-year sentence.
White’s mother, Joanne White, had told the Times that her son, who lives in Imperial Beach, California, went to Iran to see a woman she described as his girlfriend and had booked a July 27 flight back home to San Diego via the United Arab Emirates. She filed a missing person report with the State Department after he did not board the flight. She added that he had been undergoing treatment for a neck tumor and has asthma.
White worked as a cook in the U.S. Navy and left the service about a decade ago.
Zaid said Saturday that White apparently traveled to Mashhad without informing the woman in advance. It remains difficult for Americans to get visas to Iran, 40 years after the Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.
“That’s certainly our concern, that’s he’s being used as a pawn,” Zaid said. “But we’re more in a confused state than an aware state.”
There are three other Americans known to be held in Iran.
Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his octogenarian father Baquer, a former UNICEF representative who served as governor of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, are both serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges. Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly “infiltrating” the country while doing doctoral research on Iran’s Qajar dynasty.
Iranian-American Robin Shahini was released on bail in 2017 after staging a hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for “collaboration with a hostile government.” Shahini has since return to America and is now suing Iran in U.S. federal court.
Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years on espionage-related charges.
Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him, though his family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.
While attending a New York City vigil for the victims of mass shootings at two mosques in New Zealand on Friday, Chelsea Clinton was confronted by a NYU student over recent criticism of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
In a since-deleted tweet, Omar suggested that politicians only support Israel because of donations from wealthy Jewish people. Clinton called out the freshman Democrat for allegedly trafficking in anti-Semitism. “We should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism,” Clinton tweeted.
In a viral video from the vigil, a student can be seen confronting Clinton for rhetoric that she says “stoked” the hatred of Muslims that led to Friday’s terror attack on two Christchurch mosques that took the lives of 49 people and injured at least 40. Twitter user @vivafalastin has claimed to be the student featured in the video.
i can’t believe this has to be said, but i didn’t tell chelsea clinton she was the one who put a gun to muslims’ heads. i said, & continue to say, that by jumping on the right-wing bandwagon & villifying ilhan omar, she fed into the EXACT discourse we were at the vigil to protest
“This right here is the result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you put into the world,” the student tells Clinton in the video. “And I want you to know that and I want you to feel that deeply — 49 people died because of the rhetoric you put out there.”
“I’m so sorry that you feel that way,” Clinton responds. “Certainly, it was never my intention. I do believe words matter. I believe we have to show solidarity.”
Prominent conservatives such as President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Fox News host Tucker Carlson have spoken out in support of Clinton since the video began making the online rounds.
“It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism,” Trump Jr. tweeted. “We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem.”
It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism. We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem.
Flags flew at half-mast against a grey sky over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Saturday, as Australia tried to make sense of what just happened on the other side of the Tasman Sea. Some Muslim women ventured out of their homes only after removing their hijab. Others stayed indoors, still in a state of shock and fear. Parents struggled to explain the tragedy to children, some of whom watched it unfold; a live-stream of the atrocity was widely seen and shared, despite all efforts to stop it from spreading.
The terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, claimed 49 lives as a man armed with semi-automatic weapons covered in white supremacist iconography opened fire inside two mosques where scores of people, including children, gathered for Friday prayers. The episode sent shock waves around the world, but it also exposed divisions over who belongs in Australia, where the suspect was born and raised. In parts of the commonwealth, academics and rights advocates say white nationalism has seen a resurgence and Islamophobia has become normalized amid the nation’s struggle to cope with immigration.
Outside Australia’s multicultural urban centers, divisions can sometimes be hidden in plain sight. The rural town of Grafton, about 310 miles northeast of Sydney in New South Wales, is best known as the host of an annual festival celebrating its jacaranda trees — purple-coated canopies lining streets dotted with Victorian architecture. Of its roughly 17,000 people, one quietly — unexpectedly, some who know him said — turned to violent extremism.
Not much is known about Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, who on Saturday appeared in a Christchurch court to face a charge of murder. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who characterized the event as a “terrorist attack,” has said that more charges will follow. In a press conference shortly after Tarrant and three other people were arrested, Ardern said those responsible had “absolutely no place in New Zealand and in fact… no place in the world.” Her counterpart across the sea, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, condemned the “violent, extremist, right-wing terrorist attack,” upon learning the suspected killer was bred within his country’s borders.
Colleagues and neighbors say they didn’t see it coming. Tarrant attended the local high school, then got a job at the Big River Squash and Fitness Center. His former boss, the facility’s owner Tracey Gray, told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that he trained excessively, was dedicated to health and fitness, and didn’t show any outward sign of “extremist views” or “crazy behavior.” She said that during his employment he never seemed to run afoul of the values of the fitness industry: inclusivity, helping people of all kinds achieve their physical potential.
Others were less surprised, particularly those among the Muslim community, some of whom say the political climate in Australia has become hospitable to hatred. Mariam Veiszadeh, a young Afghan-born lawyer and president of the Islamophobia Register, says she has observed a steady uptick of threats and abuse against Muslims for years. Hijab-wearing acquaintances have been verbally demeaned. A friend, walking through Sydney’s central railway station, was spat on squarely in the face. “In broad daylight,” Veiszadeh said, “with hundreds of people walking by.”
Much attention has been paid, she says, to preventing the radicalization of Muslim youth, while less has been done to assess the reach and root causes of radicalization among young, disenfranchised white men. In her view, they’re two sides of the same coin. “In fact, one feeds the other,” she says.
The past year alone has seen a number of alarming developments in Australian politics that some say hint at a growing problem. Late last year, far-right politician Pauline Hanson proposed a motion to formally acknowledge a rise in what she considered anti-white racism that borrowed language from the white supremacist movement. Also late last year, a political party from New South Wales, the NSW Nationals, banned 22 of its members for life after discovering that they had links to neo-Nazi and fascist groups. The party further forbid its members from joining any of a number of so-called alt-right groups that appeared to be gaining some currency in the country: Squadron 88, the Lads Society, the Dingoes, New Guard and Antipodean Resistance.
The social fault lines that underpin nationalist sentiment are increasingly spilling out into the open. On Friday, Senator Fraser Anning of Queensland suggested on Twitter that Muslim immigration was ultimately to blame for the violence in Christchurch, just hours after the attack. The following day he was met by protestors at a media event in Melbourne and struck in the back of the head with an egg. The conservative senator, who in 2018 drew widespread criticism when he called for a “final solution” to Australia’s “immigration problem,” responded by punching the young demonstrator in the face.
But the causes of Australia’s divisions are multifold and cannot be blamed on leaders alone, says Anne Aly, the first Muslim member of Australia’s national parliament. “We can’t look at terrorism in a vacuum; it grows within a social context and environment,” she tells TIME. “I think we’ve had such context and environment that allows the white supremacist, anti-Muslim discourse, to thrive.”
Bilal Rauf, a spokesperson for the Australian National Imams Council, tells TIME that public figures in Australia who allow divisive rhetoric to spread are creating “an environment where people who have radical views and ideas feel emboldened to act.” In the wake of the attack in Christchurch, he says, “it’s even more important that we stand in solidarity against it.”
In the wake of Friday’s terror attack on two Christchurch mosques that took the lives of 49 people and injured at least 40, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is working to reciprocate the support that Pittsburgh’s Jewish community received from Muslim groups in its own time of need.
“Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with the devastating effect a mass shooting has on a faith community,” said Meryl Ainsman, chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “We are filled with grief over this senseless act of hate. May those who were injured heal quickly and fully, and may the memories of the victims forever be a blessing.”
(PARIS) — French yellow vest protesters set life-threatening fires, smashed up luxury stores and clashed with police Saturday in the 18th straight weekend of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron. Large plumes of smoke rose above the rioting on Paris’ landmark Champs-Elysees avenue, and a mother and her child were just barely saved from a building blaze.
The resurgent violence came as protesters are seeking to breathe new life into a movement that seemed to be fizzling, and get attention from French leaders and media whom they see as underplaying their economic justice cause and favoring the elite.
Paris police appeared to be caught off guard by the speed and severity of the unrest. French police tried to contain the demonstrators with repeated volleys of tear gas and water cannon, with limited success.
Cobblestones flew in the air and smoke from fires set by protesters mingled with clouds of tear gas sprayed by police, as tensions continued for hours along the Champs-Elysees.
One perilous fire targeted a bank on the ground floor of a seven-story residential building. As firetrucks rushed over, a mother and her child were rescued as the fire threatened to engulf their floor, Paris’ fire service told The Associated Press. Eleven people in the building, including two firefighters, sustained light injuries, as other residents were evacuated.
Protest organizers had hoped to make a splash Saturday, which marks the 4-month anniversary of yellow vest movement that started Nov. 17. It also marks the end of a two-month national debate that Macron organized to respond to protesters’ concerns about sinking living standards, stagnant wages and high unemployment.
The violence started minutes after the protesters gathered Saturday, when they threw smoke bombs and other objects at officers along the famed Champs-Elysees — scene of repeated past rioting — and started pounding on the windows of a police van, prompting riot police to retreat.
Simultaneous fires were also put out from two burning newspaper kiosks, which sent black smoke high into the sky. Several protesters posed for a photo in front of one charred kiosk.
Demonstrators also targeted symbols of the luxury industry, as shops including brands Hugo Boss and Lacoste were smashed up and pillaged, and mannequins thrown out of the broken windows. A posh eatery called Fouquet’s, which is associated with politicians and celebrities, was vandalized and set on fire. A vehicle burned outside the luxury boutique Kenzo, one of many blazes on and around the Champs-Elysees.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on French television that an estimated 10,000 yellow vest protesters were in Paris and another 4,500 protesters were demonstrating around France. He also said the crowd included 1,500 “ultraviolent ones who are there to smash things up.”
Still, the numbers paled beside the 30,000 people estimated to be taking part in a separate climate march that was weaving through Paris at the same time, according to Castaner.
And the number of yellow vest protesters remains smaller than early in the movement, when it drew masses to the streets nationwide and polls showed a majority of French people supporting their cause. Since then, repeated rioting by the protesters and economic concessions by Macron have diminished public support for the yellow vest cause.
Paris police told The Associated Press that 109 people were arrested in Paris on Saturday.
Yellow vest groups representing teachers, unemployed people and labor unions were among those that organized dozens of rallies and marches.
Protesters dismiss Macron’s national debate on the economy as empty words and a campaign ploy to gain support for the European Parliament elections in May. Protesters are angry over high taxes and Macron policies seen as coddling business.
Many protesters, particularly those on the political extremes, see the national debate as a failure.
“As long as we don’t get any results, we will continue (to protest) for all we asked for: pay rises, pensions, purchasing power, food waste. Everything,” said Martine Sous, a protester from the Eure region west of Paris.
While the rioters drew most attention Saturday, most of the protesters remain peaceful.
Australia said conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos won’t be allowed to enter the country for a tour this year after his comments on the mass shooting in New Zealand.
The alt-right provocateur and former Breitbart journalist said on Facebook that attacks such as the one in Christchurch happened “because the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures.”
A shooter walked into a packed mosque in the South Island city of Christchurch on Friday afternoon and opened fire on worshipers, filming and live-streaming the act to social media. He drove to another mosque and continued the massacre, killing 49 people and leaving several still fighting for their lives.
“Yiannopoulos’ comments on social media regarding the Christchurch terror attack are appalling and foment hatred and division,” David Coleman, Australia’s minister for immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs, said in a statement. “The terrorist attack in Christchurch was carried out on Muslims peacefully practicing their religion. It was an act of pure evil.”
Yiannopoulos defended his comments after the ban was announced.
“I explicitly denounced violence,” he said. “And I criticized the establishment for pandering to Islamic fundamentalism. So Australia banned me again.”
Twitter banned Yiannopoulos, who is British but has lived in the U.S., from its platform in 2016.
Earlier this month, he was granted permission to visit Australia for a speaking tour that would take place before an election in May, the Australian Associated Press reported. His trip there in December 2017 sparked violence after opposing protesters clashed outside a venue where he was speaking, the report said.
(HARARE, Zimbabwe) — Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been hit by a vicious cyclone that has killed more than 140 people, left hundreds more missing and stranded tens of thousands who are cut off from roads and telephones in mainly poor, rural areas.
U.N. and government officials report that Cyclone Idai has affected more than 1.5 million people in the three southern African countries.
Hardest hit is Mozambique’s central port city of Beira where the airport is closed, electricity is out and hundreds of homes have been destroyed. The storm hit Beira late Thursday and moved westward into Zimbabwe and Malawi, affecting thousands more, particularly in eastern areas bordering Mozambique.
Homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and police stations have been destroyed by the cyclone. Thousands have been marooned by the heavy flooding.
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Identifying the remains of the 157 people killed in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash may take up to six months, the airline said in a document on Sa Source: BHT
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday stressed the need to make world class drugs available at affordable prices, with thrust on research and i Source: BHT
In the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, parties cannot release manifesto in the last 48 hours before each phase on April 11, 18, 23, 29, May 6, 12 and May 19. Source: BHT
The Reserve Bank of India on Saturday maintained that there is no dilution in its stand with regard to February 12 circular on stressed assets recogn Source: BHT
I chose the perfect time to test out Sony's WI-C600N, a new entrant in the neck-band style earphones category, bringing noise cancellation to the more Source: BHT
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday mounted a strong attack on the YSR Congress alleging it was colluding wit Source: BHT
The opposition has scored a self-goal by asking for proof of damage following air strike on Balakot terror camp, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said o Source: BHT
Private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank on Saturday said it has raised Rs 459.59 crore through qualified institutions placement (QIP). The Chennai-h Source: BHT
As demonstrators targeted symbols of the luxury industry, shops including brands Hugo Boss and Lacoste were smashed up and pillaged, and mannequins thrown out of the broken windows. Source: BHT
Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) has hiked its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 0.05 per cent for six-month tenor and lowered interest Source: BHT
Debt-ridden Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) on Saturday said its board has approved the re-appointment of its promoter Manoj Gaur as Executive Chairm Source: BHT
SBI (297.7) The upmove in SBI seems to be gaining momentum. The stock surged 5.8 per cent to close higher for the fourth consecutive week. But series Source: BHT
Coimbatore-based Lakshmi Machine Works has forayed into solar power generation, with its first facility to be inaugurated on Sunday in Tamil Nadu. T Source: BHT
The Tamil Nadu Congress unit on Saturday urged its national president Rahul Gandhi to contest from the southern state for the April 18 Lok Sabha elec Source: BHT
Kalyani Group has set up a Centre of Excellence in RF and Microwave Engineering in the IT hub of Gachibowli here seeking to train highly skilled profe Source: BHT
TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will kick off his campaign for the Lok Sabha polls with a public meeting at Karimnagar Source: BHT
Former IAS officer Shah Faesal will launch his political outfit 'Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement' at a function in Rajbagh area of the city on Su Source: BHT
MP BJP leaders back Shivraj Singh Chouhan's wife Sadhna Singh for Vidisha Lok Sabha seat Sadhna Singh's name for the seat came up after Chouhan decided not to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
