Manhattan (Reuters) – Demonstrators briefly shut down an Arizona highway leading to a campaign rally for Donald Trump on Saturday while protesters rallied outside of Trump Tower in Manhattan to voice their opposition to the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Television news footage of the demonstration outside Phoenix showed dozens of protesters blocking traffic while holding signs that read “Dump Trump” and “Shut Down Trump.”

The demonstrators eventually started marching down the highway. Later, some were seen nearing the rally at Fountain Hills, Arizona, before Trump arrived.

Three people were arrested, according to police in Maricopa County, where Joe Arpaio, a well-known critic of U.S. immigration policy and an ardent Trump supporter, serves as sheriff.

Video posted on news website Arizona Central’s Facebook page showed a truck driving through a large group of protesters. Officers from the county police department worked to clear demonstrators from the motorist’s path.

A woman is seen crying and shouting for officers to take responsibility to stop the vehicle, while a deputy sheriff shrugs at the suggestion.

Later at a rally in Tucson, Arizona, Trump said the protests were “disgraceful,” and thanked police.

“They arrested three people and everybody else left… They left!” Trump said to roaring cheers from the audience.

“I love our police, but we should do a little bit more of that, you’d have a lot less protesters, you’d have a lot less agitators,” said Trump, who is favored to win his party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Several demonstrations also broke out during the later rally, prompting police to escort out a number of people.

Footage of the Tucson rally shows an attendee punching and kicking one demonstrator who is being escorted out. The clip also shows police removing the attacker.

Trump has come under fire from rivals for fueling unrest with his rhetoric. This week, he warned of riots if Republicans denied him the nomination at the party’s convention.

In Trump’s home city of New York, about 1,000 demonstrators marched from Central Park to Trump Tower, the billionaire developer’s signature building on Fifth Avenue.

The crowd of mostly young people chanted and carried placards denouncing Trump. Some said police used pepper spray on them as they marched from the park.

Police were seen taking at least one person into custody. A spokesman for the New York Police Department could not immediately confirm whether any arrests were made or whether pepper spray was used.

‘PEOPLE WHO LOVE HIM’

Arizona, where political parties will hold primary elections on Tuesday, shares a long stretch of border with Mexico, and is a flashpoint for the issue of illegal immigration into the United States.

Trump has made illegal immigration the signature issue of his campaign, earning the endorsement of Arpaio, the outspoken sheriff.

“Donald Trump has the right to be heard by the thousands of people who love him, support him and want him to be president of the United States,” Arpaio told CNN.

Later, the sheriff, wearing civilian clothes, introduced Trump at the rally.

Trump rallies have grown increasingly unruly as the months-long campaign has progressed. An event in Chicago a week ago was canceled after protesters swarmed the venue.

Last weekend, a man was arrested when he attempted to rush the stage where Trump was addressing a rally in Ohio. In another incident, a man who was caught on video punching an anti-Trump protester in the face at a North Carolina rally was arrested and charged with assault.

Trump leads in opinion polls ahead of Arizona’s March 22 primary, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average, leading Senator Ted Cruz of Texas by 13 percentage points.

 (Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Mary Milliken and David Gregorio)

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The sequence of posts would be based on the likelihood of interest in the content, the user’s relationship with the person or timeliness of the post, Instagram said in a blog post.

On an average, users miss 70 percent of their feeds, Instagram added.

Instagram is the latest addition to the growing list of social media platforms reorganizing user feed to draw better attention from users.

Twitter Inc, in February, jumped on the feed customization bandwagon and let go of uniformly displaying tweets in reverse chronological order.

Facebook’s feed also displays content in a similar algorithmic fashion based upon user interests.

The widely used photo-sharing app’s decision to move away from its time-based feed could rid it of one prime feature – showing real-time content.

Technology blogger Techcrunch argues that users would have to worry about making their posts good enough to be chosen by the algorithm or their posts could be de-prioritized.

Instagram said the change in the feed for users would roll out in the coming months.

 (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some of the most powerful medicine delivered to young patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on Wednesday came in a package less than 32 inches tall and with a tail.

Honor, a 10-month-old colt with Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, trotted into the hearts of dozens of children and teens being treated at the Manhattan hospital.

Just a handful of young patients were well enough to secure their doctors’ permission to meet Honor in person in a hospital playroom, while others watched him from their beds, viewing an internal television broadcast in their rooms and isolation units.

Maria Benitez, who is 19 but looks much younger, broke into a smile when Honor pranced into the playroom. The hospital declined to elaborate on details of Benitez’s medical condition, saying only she is currently being treated as an outpatient.

While Maria said her favorite animal is a horse, this one was quite different from what she expected.

“He’s smaller,” Maria whispered, staring at the chestnut horse with black eyes.

“They are little horses, but they have big jobs,” said Jorge Garcia-Bengochea, co-founder of Gentle Carousel.

Miniature horses have comforted trauma victims after such tragedies as the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the 2013 tornadoes that devastated Oklahoma and the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. They also work with families of police officers who have died in the line of duty.

“They are herd animals, so they are very intuitive of what other horses are doing, needing. And they treat people that same way. They sense different emotions, different feelings that children have,” Garcia-Bengochea said.

“Children have been through very traumatic situations and they’ve shut down. Just being around the animal, they get animated, they start talking and they actually sometimes tell the horse things that they haven’t told other people,” he said.

In the hospital, the tiny equines serve as a symbol of hope and beauty, conjuring up an image of outdoor activities, running and strength, said Diane Rode, who heads up the hospital’s child creative arts therapy unit.

“When you’re in the hospital, you’re dealing with pain, anxiety, isolation, and it’s easy to get stuck in that. Focusing on the miniature horses creates a relationship back to the world and an interest and pleasure in the world we are working to foster,” she said.

“Children need more than medicine to get better,” Rode added.

 (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg, Elly Park and Andrew Hofstetter in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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Avon shares were up nearly 4 percent at $4.55 in extended trading.

The company sold most of its North American business to Cerberus Capital, its biggest investor, after four years of falling sales.

Avon said it expected to record $60 million in pre-tax charges related to job cuts in the first quarter.

The company, which has 28,300 employees, said the transition of its headquarters would occur over time.

In January, Avon had outlined plans to cut $350 million in costs over the next three years, invest in technology and tap social media to revive sales.

However, a bigger-than-expected fall in fourth-quarter sales indicated that the company had failed to revive demand for its cosmetics in key markets.

“We believe that there is still much more that needs to be done to improve the business as outlined in our December 3 letter,” shareholder Barington Capital said in a statement.

In December, investors led by Barington proposed a restructuring of Avon, and said they had lost confidence in the makeup brand’s leadership.

Barington added on Monday that it continued to believe Avon needed to add new independent directors.

Avon said it would maintain its current facilities in Suffern and Rye, New York and continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under its current symbol.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva, Bernard Orr)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – A majority of New York City police officers believe the city has become a more dangerous place and feel less satisfied in their jobs, according to a survey released on Monday by the city’s largest police union.

More than 6,000 of the city’s 24,000 patrol officers responded to the online survey, which was conducted by public opinion firm McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

Nearly 90 percent of the respondents said the city had become “less safe” in the last few years since Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton began their tenure. Ninety-six percent said the relationship between the public and the department had worsened.

“The results of this survey prove what we’ve been hearing time and time again from members over the past two years – the job is more difficult than ever, the dangers are greater, and morale is extremely low,” said Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch.

“The understaffing, inadequate training, low pay and lack of support has had a chilling effect on police officers across the city.”

Monica Klein, a spokeswoman for de Blasio, called the survey’s results “highly suspect.”

“We are experiencing historic lows in criminal activity,” she said. “Murders and shootings are at their lowest in modern history. NYPD is the most effective police force in the country thanks to our officers’ dedication and commitment to their job.”

De Blasio’s relationship with the New York City Police Department has been marked by occasional tensions since he took office in 2014.

An NYPD spokesman said the department had not yet received the survey but would review it once it was delivered.

The McLaughlin firm noted that the survey was open to all officers and did not use sampling, making it impossible to report an accurate margin of error. Approximately half of the union’s officers received emailed invitations to participate.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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