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March for our lives..

Marchers descended on Washington DC from around US to call for gun reform in the "march for our lives " demonstrations. Lois Beckett spoke to some of those taking part.

"We have not forgotten what happened inm Sandy Hook and Columbine and Virginia  Tech. Those things happened a long time ago,and people tried putting them in the back of their minds,but we are showing here that we have not forgotten about any of that," said Ruqaiyah

The shooting that first affected her directly was sandy hook, she said. "i was very young" she said. " i was nervous, i did not really understand what it was about. i remember being afraid".

For Amanah, it was "when it happened here" there was a school shooting nearby in maryland last week.


The father and daughter came to washington to show their support for the parkland students and to advocate for a ban on assault weapons.

"i think the second amendment needs to be repealed and amended. i don't think the right to own a gun should be unlimited," Steve graig said.

Maddie Graig said she thought social media had changed the gun control debate, allowing students to speak directly to each other and share their experiences. "for columbine, there wasn't that social media presence."now, she said, "you can hear every student's opinion. there's a lot more awareness of what's going on across America."

Alice Gambino,age 42,Silver spring,maryland

gambino's two sons, age 15 and 8, were too afraid to come to the rally, worried that the large crowds would attract "gun crazies" and that there might be another act of violence.

"you don't have to go. i'll go for you,"she told them.
 Gambino said this was her first protest for gun control. "i think i was waiting for someone else to do something," she said.

"seeing that the kids in the last attack had to rally themselves, i felt very guilty. we the parents should have already been in the streets and we shouldn't have left until we made the change for them."

Jasmine Meelock,17 and Kaeleigh Wedin,16 Greak mills, Maryland

Meelock and Wedin came to the march for our lives just four days after shooting at their high school in southern
Maryland, which left one of their classmates killed, one injured, and a third,the shooter,dead after a confrontation with a school police officer.

The two teenagers had hidden in their classrooms during the shooting,listening to the principal call over the loudspeaker to exit the halls.

"it was a little bit scary at first when the police officers came into our classrooms. They had guns. It was really chaos. they kicked down the door. it was really loud. A lot of us hadn't seen guns before,"said Meelock.

" I was close to it." said Wedin. "We went on lockdown, we were all waiting to know if we were going to be Ok. If there was a threat to us. We were all planning what we were going to do if we had to get out throught the window."

The shooter had posted on social media and in private messages before the shooting that he was depressed and guns, they said.

Ayana Trottier,17,Turtle Mountain reservation,North Dakota

Trottier had traveled as part of a group from the Turtle
Mountain Indian reservation in North Dakota near the canadian border. Her school's student council had organized the trip to show their support for parkland students, and in reaction to the series of threats their school and town had faced in recent weeks.

It was the teenagers' first march, Trottier and the other young women wore ceremonial ribbon skirts to show the importance of the march. "They're very sacred," she said.

" We want our voices to be heard," she said. "As minorities we understand feeling speechless or not being heard."

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A hundreds of thousands youths of Americans with their  supporters take action from survivors of last month`s florida high school massacre and rallied across the nation on saturday demanding for tighter gun laws.

U.S president Donald to confront this issue as the biggest U.S youth demonstrations for decades,protesters in cities nationwide called on lawmakers, voters registration activists fanned out in the crowds, signing up tthousands of the nation newest voters.

One of the survivor, known as Gonzalez Emma,when she read the names of the other 17 victims,she stood in silence,suddenly tears ran down her cheeks, As she stared out over the crowd for the rest of speech, that lasted over 6minutes,20seconds for the gunmen to slaughter them.

Another survivor known as David Hogg,said it is a new day,"we are going to make sure only the best people get into our elections to run not as politicians,but as Americans, Because this is not cutting it"

The whole street in the cities( chicago,New york,san Diego,Los Angeles,Miami,Minneapolis,etc) was filled with thousands of American youths.


Organizers of the anti-gun rallies want to congress,many of whose members are up for re-election in november,to the sales of assault weapons like the one used in Florida rampage and to tighten background checks for gun buyers.

"All they are doing is to ask the government to take away their liberty from them without due process, A 42 years old man called Brandon Howard,said the protesters in the capital,he had a sign saying"keep your hands off my gun"

Humphrey who was visiting washington with his family for spring break,said he own a gun for target shooting and hunting and uses them responsibly..

He said
"i think teachers should have guns"he said echoing a proposal made by Trump after the killing in parkland..

In New York City, a handful of counter-demonstrators waved placards boldly writing "keep America Armed", "Re-elect Trump2020"

Among those marching next to New York`s central park to call for tighter gun controls was pop star Paul McCartney, who said he had a personal stake in the debate.



"a friend of mine was shot" he said referring to beatles bandmate John Lennon,who was gunned down near the park in 1980.

At the National Rifle Association gun lobby,teenagers lamented, "Hey! hey!! NRA how many kids have you killed today?"

Young Americans organizers have won kudos and cash from dozens of celebrities, with singers Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande as well as HAMILTON creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, among those performing in washington.

$500,000 was donated by Actor George Clooney and his wife and said they would be at the rally in washington.

U.S football team the New England patriots loaned its plane to marjory Stoneman Douglas High school students and their families to travel to washington.

At they march in washington an elementary school student from Virginia,Naomi Wadler,11, captivated demonstrators when she spoke up for African American girls who were victims of gun violence but whose stories dont make the front page.


"keeping our children safe is a top priority of the president" Lindsay Walters lamented,that on friday the justice Department proposed rule changes that would effectively ban "BUMP STOCK" devices that let semi-automatic weapons fire like a machine gun.

Same day (friday) Trump signed $1.3 trillion spending bill including modest improvements to background checks for gun sales and grants to help schools prevent gun violence.

U.S former president Barrack Obama posted on Twitter, said him and his wife Michelle were inspired by all the youths who made the marches happened.

"keep at it you are leading us forward,nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for changes", said U.S ex pres
ident Obama..

 Angela Merkel admits that 'no-go zones' exist in Germany

REFUGEE INFLUX INTO GERMANY FUELED VIOLENT CRIME SURGE, REPORT FINDS 

Despite evidence of the existence of areas in Western countries, European leaders and left-wing media commentators have long denied, and sometimes even mocked, those who claim that no-go zones exist.

But Merkel, who won Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2015 in part because of her open-borders stance, mentioned their existence in an interview this week with German broadcaster n-tv as she called for a zero-tolerance policy on crime.

She said that people have a right to feel safe when they meet in public places. When asked to clarify, she specified that she was talking about no-go zones.

“It means for example that there cannot be any no-go areas, that there cannot be areas where no-one dares to go but there are such places,” she said. “One has to call them by name and do something about it.”

The Associated Press reported that it had left fellow lawmakers “speechless.” The remarks quickly spread across Europe, fueling and encouraging nationalist-populist politicians who have pushed back against lax immigration policies.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has been under siege from the European Union for its hardline stance on asylum seekers, hailed Merkel’s comments as a victory.

EUROPEAN LEADERS, FACING GROWING PUBLIC UNEASE, TOUGHEN UP ON IMMIGRATION

“Today, it seems this taboo has been broken. Guess who is talking about ‘no-go zones’?” a blog post on the Hungarian government’s official website said.

“That we’re finally calling them by name signals a step in the right direction,” it said.
Others were not convinced. Douglas Murray, author of "The Strange Death of Europe" told Fox News that it was the latest example of Merkel saying one thing but doing another. He noted that in 2010, Merkel declared in Potsdam that multiculturalism had "utterly failed," only then to massively increase immigration just a few years later.

"She is the master of being able to say the headline-grabbing thing, while doing absolutely nothing to stop the reality from worsening, and then doing everything to make it infinitely worse," he said.
Murray also questioned to what extent the remarks have to do with her precarious political standing in Germany.

"This is an admission of reality, and the question is whether it is a cynical admission or not," he said.
Merkel has emerged bruised from a weaker-than-expected election result in the German federal elections in September. While her Christian Democrats emerged with the most votes, the rise of the right-wing and anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) ate into her party’s lead and left her scrambling for months for a coalition deal.

During the campaign, Merkel had sought to fend off criticism from the AfD and members of her own party by shifting to the right and taking a tougher stance on migration and Islamic immigration. In December 2016, she said that the 2015 migration surge “cannot, should not and must not be repeated.”

She appears to have succeeded, with her party now finalizing a drawn out negotiation with its former coalition partners -- the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD.) The SPD is currently voting on whether to enter a new coalition. If it does, it will allow a weakened Merkel to serve a fourth term as chancellor.

Should the SPD reject the deal, Merkel’s party will have to decide whether to form a minority government or call for new elections. The result of the SPD vote will be announced Sunday.

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State Unviels Option For Tax system overhaul..

 State unveils options for tax system overhaul. A plan to radically overhaul the state’s tax system to deal with recent federal changes that punish states with high taxes is taking shape in Albany, where the state Department of Taxation unveiled details of several potential options on Wednesday. Its report offers five different plans to change the state’s income tax structure, mostly through..

Its report offers five different plans to change the state’s income tax structure, mostly through shifting the income tax on employees to a payroll tax on businesses that would still be deductible under the new federal rules.