Trump's taco tweet baffles, riles social media users

NEW YORK | By Amy Tennery 

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Thursday by tweeting a photo of himself with a taco bowl and the caption: "I love Hispanics," but the gesture was not to everyone's taste."Happy #CincoDeMayo!" tweeted Trump (@realDonaldTrump). "The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!"
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican defeat of the French during the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
The posting angered, baffled or amused some social media users, including Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, Trump's likely opponent in the Nov. 8 election.
"'I love Hispanics!' —Trump, 52 minutes ago," Clinton (@HillaryClinton) tweeted. "'They’re gonna be deported.' —Trump, yesterday."
Trump has struggled to gain the support of Latino voters since launching his presidential campaign last year with comments accusing Mexico of sending rapists and drug runners across the U.S. border.
He has also vowed to deport all the illegal immigrants living in the United States and build a wall along the border with Mexico and have that country pay for it.
"Trump Tower Grill" began trending on the microblogging platform after Trump's tweet, as social media users weighed in on the post.
"Trump sources confirm that in fact, Mexico paid for the taco salad," tweeted Tom Watson (@tomwatson).
Others found the tweet offensive and argued it relied heavily on crude stereotyping.
"Now officially waiting for a photo of Trump eating some Church's Chicken (or Bojangles) with a thumbs up and a 'I love the blacks!' [caption]" tweeted Slate chief political correspondent Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie).
"Trump and matzah ball soup on Jewish New Year... You can count on it," tweeted Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten).
(Additional reporting by Alana Wise in Washington and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)

• 
  
• 
  

Exclusive: Top reason Americans will vote for Trump: 'To stop Clinton' - poll

NEW YORK | By Chris Kahn 

 The U.S. presidential election may turn out to be one of the world's biggest un-popularity contests.Nearly half of American voters who support either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump for the White House said they will mainly be trying to block the other side from winning, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday.
The results reflect a deepening ideological divide in the United States, where people are becoming increasingly fearful of the opposing party, a feeling worsened by the likely matchup between the New York real estate tycoon and the former first lady, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
"This phenomenon is called negative partisanship," Sabato said. "If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn't have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton."
Trump has won passionate supporters and vitriolic detractors for his blunt talk and hardline proposals, including his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, his vow to force Mexico to pay for a border wall, and his promise to renegotiate international trade deals.
Former Secretary of State Clinton's appeal to voters seeking continuity with President Barack Obama's policies, has won her a decisive lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but finds strong opponents among those disillusioned by what they see as lack of progress during Obama's tenure.
The poll asked likely voters about the primary motivation driving their support of either Trump or Clinton heading into the general election on Nov. 8.
About 47 percent of Trump supporters said they backed him primarily because they don't want Clinton to win. Another 43 percent said their primary motivation was a liking for Trump's political positions, while 6 percent said they liked him personally.
Similar responses prevailed among Clinton supporters.
About 46 percent said they would vote for her mostly because they don’t want to see a Trump presidency, while 40 percent said they agreed with her political positions, and 11 percent said they liked her personally.
The April 29-May 5 poll included 469 likely Trump voters and 599 likely Clinton voters. It has a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. (For results, click tmsnrt.rs/1TLCbqX)
To be sure, voters’ opinions could change over the next several months. Candidates will be feted at party conventions, will square off in a series of national debates, and will be targeted by millions of dollars worth of advertisements.
But the negative atmosphere is likely to reign, says Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University professor who has studied the rise of negative partisanship in America.
Both campaigns probably will decide their best strategy is to work even harder to vilify each other, he said.
"It’s going to get very, very negative," he added.
That would play into a longer-term trend.
A 2014 study by Pew Research Center found that Democrats and Republicans have shown increasingly negative views toward each other over the past few decades. In 2014 more than a quarter of Democrats, and more than a third of Republicans, viewed the opposition as "a threat to the nation’s well-being."
Barbara Monson, 59, a Republican from Murray, Utah, is among them. "No matter who the Republican (nominee) is, I would have voted for him," poll respondent Monson said of her support for Trump. "It’s never going to be Clinton. Never."
Jo-Anne Michaud, 69, an independent voter from Abingdon, Maryland, told Reuters she would try to keep an open mind. Although she has voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the past, she feels repelled by Trump.
"I used to like the guy when I watched his show," Michaud said. "But I just hate the way he talks now. I don’t think he’s a nice person deep down inside."
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Clarence Fernandez)

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

SpaceX rocket lands at sea after satellite launch

An unmanned SpaceX rocket has landed back on Earth after a successful commercial mission to put a satellite into orbit. Expectations for the mission had been low, with the craft carrying a minimal amount of fuel. 

The Falcon 9 rocket landed successfully on a floating launch pad, having launched a Japanese telecommunications satellite into space.

A live web broadcast showed the first stage of the rocket touching down vertically on a floating sea platform.

The rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1.21 a.m. local time (0521 UTC). The lower segment of the rocket broke away less than three minutes later, landing on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 miles (650 kilometers) from the launch spot.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk was unable to contain his excitement on social media.

"The Falcon has landed," said one of the landing commentators.

The company, which successfully achieved a first landing at sea in April, had played down expectations about the latest mission. The rocket's controlled descent was conducted on a minimal amount of fuel, from a higher altitude than previously, having delivered the Japanese JCSAT-14 telecommunications satellite into orbit as part of its commercial mission.

SpaceX says the reusability of its rockets is the key to making space launches cheaper and more accessible.

Dream of Red Planet

The launch was the fourth of more than a dozen flights scheduled this year, with SpaceX contracted to deliver satellites for a range of clients including NASA. Last week, the company won its first contract to launch a military satellite, breaking the monopoly of a company joint-owed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

SpaceX is the only company so far to recover a rocket after an orbital launch, having achieved its first landing - on solid ground - back in December.

The company hopes to begin delivering US astronauts to the International Space Station - using its Dragon capsules - by the end of next year. However, its ultimate goal is to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars by 2018, with Musk aiming for a human mission in the 2030s.

rc/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)

What is happening between Turkey's Davutoglu and Erdogan 'resembles a horror film'

The winds of a possible new election have been blowing around Ankara. Hilal Koylu reports from Ankara about how the prime minister's departure has raised speculation about President Erdogan's machinations. 

During the 20 months that Ahmet Davutoglu has served as Turkey's prime minister and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), there have been ongoing rumors of a rift between himself and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rumors which Erdogan himself repeatedly quashed.

But, the prime minister's announcement this week that he would likely give up his post showed - like other recent events - how these rumors might have been true all along.

Signs of discord between the two leaders began to appear late last month when Davutoglu's authority to appoint district and local party leaders was revoked at a meeting of the Central Decision and Executive Board.

Days later, a blog analyzing the relationship between Prime Minister Davutoglu and President Erdogan appeared online. Entitled "The Pelican files," the blog pointed out what the anonymous writer described as moves the premier had made against the head of state. The author's identity remains unknown, but some believe the blog stems from an Erdogan supporter, while others believe it was written by a party outsider.

Davutoglu's announcement on Thursday came within a week of both of these events. Davutoglu made a point of emphasizing his loyalty to the president, in a bid to contradict those claiming that there was a rupture within the AKP. He also put to rest questions of his resignation by announcing that he would remain prime minister until the extraordinary congress on May 22.

But his departure raises questions about how President Erdogan will use it to expand his presidential powers, as well as what political change is occurring both within the government and in the opposition.

'A horror film'

In Ankara, both the political ramifications of Davutoglu's announcement and what exactly occurred between Erdogan and Davutoglu are topics of much curiosity.

According to Ayse Ayata, who teaches political science in Turkey, what is happening "resembles a horror film" and amounts to a "presidential coup" by Erdogan.

"We are talking about a prime minister who saw the fall in votes during the June 7 general election and worked to increase them in the November 1 election. Davutoglu is a prime minister who received 50 percent of the national vote," the Middle East Technical University professor told DW.

Erdogan will throw out the opposition HDP and call new elections, Ayata says, leading the country into a situation that will damage democracy and society, and, ultimately, "will end badly."

"It is clear that Erdogan sees nothing preventing his path to the presidential system," Ayata said. "It also involves protecting himself and his family. That is clear."

'The conflicts will escalate'

Ankara University political scientist Baskin Oran also thinks that Turkey is headed toward another election.

"Erdogan took the latest step in installing a presidential system by waging a coup and casting off the Davutoglu government, because Davutoglu didn't do everything that he said," Oran told DW.

According to the political scientist, Erdogan will pursue a strategy of provoking the Kurds and keeping his coalition of the AKP, the military and neo-nationalists.

"Erdogan, until the end, will escalate the conflicts in this country. In order to win an election, he will benefit from an atmosphere of fear and chaos," he said.

But, Oran says, the real question is how long Erdogan will benefit from this strategy - and whether it might ultimately lead to his own downfall.

Foreign media left in the cold as North Korean congress starts

North Korea is staging the first full congress of its ruling party for nearly 40 years. But foreign journalists invited to attend have had to practice patience. 

Thousands of delegates from across the communist nation gathered in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Friday for what has been billed as the North's most important political show in decades.

The country's leader, 33-year-old Kim Jong-Un, was expected to deliver a keynote address at the gathering, the first since a 1980 congress that saw his father, Kim Jong-Il, in his turn the son of North Korea's founding leader, Kim Il-Sung, designated as heir apparent.

North Korea's information committee said the congress began on Friday morning. But more than 100 foreign journalists invited to cover the event were not immediately allowed inside the venue, the April 25 House of Culture. After being made to wait outside for more than an hour, they were taken back to their hotels.

State television also provided no live coverage of the congress, whose agenda and duration remain unknown.

'Nuclear prestige'

However, observers say the main aim of the meeting is to cement Kim Jong-un's absolute rule as legitimate inheritor of the Kim family legacy, and to showcase the country's status as a nuclear power in face of international disapproval that has taken tangible form in heavy sanctions.

The UN has imposed its toughest penalties in 20 years following the country's fourth nuclear test, which was carried out in January, and a rocket launch that followed soon after.

Ahead of the event, state media hailed the most recent nuclear test as proof of the North's "greatness and prestige as a nuclear power state."

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, in its turn, vigorously criticized the international community for objecting to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

"Regardless of whether someone recognizes it or not, our status as a nuclear state that is armed with H-bombs cannot change," it said in a statement.

The congress is likely to see Kim Jong Un's dual policy - known as "byungjin" - of developing North Korea's nuclear weapons capacity in tandem with its domestic economy enshrined as formal party doctrine.

There has been some speculation as to whether the North might carry out another nuclear test during the congress. However, the US-Korea Institute at the US Johns Hopkins University said on Thursday it was not possible to say either way if an underground test was imminent, basing its opinion on analysis of recent satellite pictures of the test site at Punggye-ri.

tj/msh (AP, AFP)

Ready for the apocalypse in Poland

Fears are rising in Poland - fears of Russian President Vladimir Putin, of terrorism and the specter of another war. One symptom is the growing numbers of preppers - people who stock up on provisions to be ready for tough times ahead. 

Syria airstrikes on refugee shelter 'could amount to war crime,' UN warns

The United Nations (UN) has said that, if found to be deliberate, the airstrikes on two Syrian refugee camps "could be a war crime." At least 30 people were killed and more than 80 others injured. 

UN humanitarian affairs chief Stephen O'Brien said on Friday that he was "horrified and sickened" by the attacks that targeted camps of internally displaced Syrians in Idlib province near Syria's border with Turkey.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, first reported on the attacks on Thursday, after airstrikes targeted a camp in Sarmada. The town lies in rebel-held territory in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of divided Aleppo. At least seven children, were among the 30 victims, the watchdog said.

The refugees targeted in the strikes had reportedly been sheltering from fighting in Syria's northern hub of Aleppo and Palmyra, the heritage city recaptured by Syrian government forces with Russian air support.

"If this obscene attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of a civilian structure, it could amount to a war crime," O'Brien said.

It was not immediately who was responsible for the strikes, although some unconfirmed reports said they belonged to regime forces.

"We've seen early claims that this was regime strike, but we just want to be absolutely sure before we level blame at somebody," US State Department Mark Toner said in Washington. "But it's totally in keeping with the types of ... airstrikes that regime has carried out ... against innocent civilians."

Truce in Aleppo

A temporary ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo was also reportedly breached on Friday after insurgent groups captured a strategically important village from Syrian government forces.

The al Qaeda-linked al Nusra Front and allied Islamists seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages after less than 24 hours of clashes, killing at least 70 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syria's central province of Homs was also targeted in a twin bombing on Thursday in the village of Mukharam al-Fawkani. According to Syria state media and the regional governor, Talal Barrazi, at least 10 people were killed, including four children.

Similar deadly attacks in the Homs area in the past have been claimed by the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group, which earlier this week overran an adjacent gas field.

ksb/msh (AP, Reuters, dpa)