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Golf: Koepka writing new Masters memory after Mickelson brush-off

Phil Mickelson of the U.S. warms-up on the driving range during the second day of practice for the 2019 Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Phil Mickelson of the U.S. warms-up on the driving range in inclement weather during the second day of practice for the 2019 Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

April 9, 2019

By Steve Keating

AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) – Like many golf fans, one of Brooks Koepka’s most vivid Masters moments involves three-times champion Phil Mickelson.

Pulling it up from deep inside his childhood memory banks, Koepka recalled in detail on Tuesday his meeting with Mickelson near the Augusta National parking lot two decades ago when a starry eyed kid with dreams of being a Masters winner one day cornered ‘Lefty’ for an autograph.

“He turned me down, (I am) probably about the only kid Phil’s ever turned down,” recalled Koepka with a chuckle. “He told me years later, I shouldn’t have been in the parking lot so fair enough.

“He doesn’t remember. I mean, I can’t believe he doesn’t remember the first time he ever said no to a kid, signing an autograph.

“I told him, I think in 2014, I think we were playing a practice round at the British Open. I had to tell him. I was like, ‘Listen, man, you stiffed me and I really didn’t like you for a long time’.

“We can laugh about it now.”

Fast forward 20 years and Koepka is a three-times major winner signing autographs at Augusta National — the only hint of a scar left from the Mickelson brush-off is his difficulty in saying ‘no’ to a little kid.

Koepka said he has since got Mickelson’s autograph and this week will be focused on getting his own name on the Masters trophy and slipping into a Green Jacket.

In each of his three previous Masters, the 28-year-old American has made progress but is still without a top-10, with his best finish a tie for 11th in 2017.

He watched last year’s tournament from his couch recovering from a wrist injury.

He returns to Augusta National as a far different player, having since won three majors, back-to-back U.S. Opens in 2017 and 2018 along with the 2018 PGA Championship.

“I’ve got three trophies that I haven’t had any time I’ve teed it up (here),” said Koepka. “I’ve never been a major champion when I played here.

“Completely different player probably. (I) Understand how to handle pressure a lot better, understand this golf course a lot better. Even sitting out a year, there are certain things you can pick up on when you’re watching.

“And (I have) really kind of matured on and off the golf course. I think it is a big deal.”

“It’s nice to be back here. It’s always a special place to be playing.”

(Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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Iran says its armed forces are not a regional threat, calls for unity against U.S.

FILE PHOTO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a news conference on a visit to Baghdad
FILE PHOTO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a news conference with Iraqi President Barham Salih (not pictured) in Baghdad, Iraq, March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani/File Photo

April 18, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that Iranian armed forces were not a threat against any regional country, as Tehran held an Army Day military parade to unveil its latest military equipment.

“I want to tell the regional countries that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not against you and your national interests. They stand against invaders… The roots of our problems are the Zionist regime and American imperialism,” Rouhani said in a ceremony in Tehran, broadcast live on state television.

Rouhani also said the U.S. designation of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization was “abhorrent” and an “insult” to the Iranian nation.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: OANN

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U.S. housing starts fall to near to two-year low; permits weak

Construction worker builds a single family home in San Diego, California
FILE PHOTO: A construction worker builds a single family home in San Diego, California, U.S. February 15, 2017. Picture taken February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 19, 2019

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. homebuilding dropped to a near two-year low in March, pulled down by persistent weakness in the single-family housing segment, suggesting the housing market continued to struggle despite declining mortgage rates.

Housing starts fell 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.139 million units last month, the lowest level since May 2017, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

Data for February was revised down to show homebuilding tumbling to a pace of 1.142 million units instead of the previously reported 1.162 million-unit rate.

Building permits fell 1.7 percent to a rate of 1.269 million units in March, the lowest in five months. Building permits have now declined for three straight month. Permits for single-family housing dropped to a more than 1-1/2 year low in March, a bad omen for starts in the coming months.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts increasing to a pace of 1.230 million units in March.

The prolonged weakness in homebuilding likely reflects land and labor shortages, as well as expensive building materials.

A survey on Tuesday showed that though builders reported strong demand for new homes, they continued to highlight “affordability concerns stemming from a chronic shortage of construction workers and buildable lots.”

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate has dropped from a peak of about 4.94 percent in November to around 4.12 percent, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac. Declining mortgage rates reflect a recent decision by the Federal Reserve to suspend its three-year monetary policy tightening campaign.

The housing market hit a soft patch last year, with investment in homebuilding contracting 0.3 percent, the weakest performance since 2010.

Single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, dropped 0.4 percent to a rate of 785,000 units in March, the lowest level since September 2016.

Single-family homebuilding fell in the South and Midwest, but rose in the Northeast and South. The sharp drop in the Midwest likely reflected flooding in the region.

Permits to build single-family homes dropped 1.1 percent to a rate of 808,000 units in March, the lowest since August 2017. Single-family home building permits have now declined for four straight months.

Starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment were unchanged at a rate of 354,00 units in March. Permits for the construction of multi-family homes dropped 2.7 percent to a pace of 461,00 units last month.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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Analysis: WikiLeaks founder unlikely to be extradited soon

The battle between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the American government was always going to be epic, involving concepts like free speech, journalists' rights, national interests, even treason.

As Assange settles in to his first night in British custody , his allies and enemies alike are gearing up for what promises to be a long, dogged legal slog, not only over his possible extradition to the U.S. but over how U.S. courts should view his actions, which sharply cleave public opinion.

Yet in a way, Assange has been fighting this battle for much of the past decade. The struggle has taken him through a "mansion arrest" in the English countryside; a dramatic escape into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London; a multimillion-pound U.K. police siege of the embassy that has strained government coffers; and even a bizarre attempt to turn him into a Moscow-based diplomat.

Whatever happens now, one thing is clear: Assange, who was dragged out of the embassy and arrested Thursday by British police after Ecuador withdrew his political asylum, is not going anywhere soon. Extradition to the United States could take years more.

Assange's saga kicked off in November 2010, when his publication of 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that month left American officialdom apoplectic. Joe Biden, then-U.S. vice president, compared Assange to a "high-tech terrorist." Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, called for him to be hunted down by U.S. troops like an al-Qaida operative.

Tempers at the top eventually cooled — Palin would later apologize to Assange after he began publishing material about U.S. Democrats. As a candidate, President Donald Trump startled many Americans by repeatedly praising WikiLeaks.

But in the U.S. intelligence community, the rage against Assange lingered. On the sidelines of a conference a few years ago, a former senior National Security Agency official told an Associated Press journalist that all he wanted was a couple of minutes alone with Assange in a dark alley, grasping his hands together as if he were crushing a man's windpipe.

Assange seemed to sense that the release of the diplomatic cables, which also enraged and embarrassed other countries around the world, were the point of no return.

It's often forgotten that Assange once traveled easily to the United States, appearing at the National Press Club in Washington on April 2010 to present "Collateral Murder," the title he chose for the camera footage that captured American helicopter pilots laughing as they fired at a crowd of civilians they mistook for Iraqi insurgents.

Shortly after his visit, his source for the video — an American Army intelligence analyst now named Chelsea Manning — would be arrested after an ill-advised online confession. Assange dropped out of sight, likely aware that the government now had spools of conversations between him and Manning, including the one that now forms the centerpiece of the Justice Department's newly unveiled indictment against Assange for conspiracy to hack into a U.S. government computer.

For a while, Assange gravitated to the Frontline Club in London, the convivial journalists' hangout where he dropped one media bombshell after another in collaboration with the Guardian newspaper and other media outlets. But staying in Britain, a close ally of the United States, was risky.

In a fateful move, Assange decided to scope out Sweden, a country with powerful press protections and where he had already located some of WikiLeaks servers. The expedition would prove to be a disaster.

Two women he stayed with there would soon go to the police with allegations of sexual assault and rape. The prosecution nearly tore WikiLeaks apart and threated the upcoming publication the U.S. diplomatic cables.

With Sweden out of the question and "Cablegate" sure to enrage the Americans further, Assange looked to Moscow. A document published by the AP last year showed he considered the idea of getting a Russian visa through his friend and sometimes WikiLeaks collaborator, Israel Shamir.

Assange would eventually get the visa, Shamir said later, but it came several weeks too late. Sweden had already applied for an Interpol Red Notice, something akin to an international arrest warrant, making travel all but impossible. That left Assange little choice but to turn himself in on Dec. 7, 2010, to British authorities.

Things only got more surreal from there.

Assange was granted bail at the country mansion of Frontline's founder, Vaughan Smith, receiving a stream of well-heeled and rebellious visitors in rural Norfolk while his London legal battle against extradition went all the way to Britain's Supreme Court. When that court finally turned him down, Assange dyed his hair, popped in colored contacts and skipped bail, fleeing to the Ecuadorian Embassy.

From there, he carried on as before, albeit in a more constricted space. When the AP visited him in 2012, he occupied a back room in the embassy scattered with laptops, some marked "Do not connect to the internet." When discussing an upcoming leak, Assange took this reporter into the corridor between his office and the bathroom, speaking in a whisper in a bid to baffle the high-tech surveillance thought to be deployed against him.

The embassy stalemate dragged on for years, costing the British government millions in policing costs.

But it didn't stop Assange from publishing new material, notably in 2016, when his disclosure of U.S. Democratic Party documents stolen by Russian hackers hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential election campaign.

But if Assange had hoped for leniency from America's new president, he would soon be disappointed. Twitter messages between WikiLeaks and Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., showed the group lobbying him to get his father to suggest that Australia appoint its native son Assange to be its ambassador to the U.S.

Instead, the Trump administration promoted him to public enemy; in a 2017 speech, then-CIA director Mike Pompeo described WikiLeaks as a "hostile non-state intelligence agency."

Meanwhile, Assange wasn't getting much more satisfaction from his Latin American host, which was increasingly embarrassed by its houseguest's publications. The government of Ecuador tried all kinds of creative solutions to break the embassy impasse, including an abortive attempt to send Assange to Russia under diplomatic cover. When it became clear that the WikiLeaks founder wasn't leaving — and that he wouldn't curb his publications to suit Ecuador's diplomatic interests — the government looked for a way to wash its hands of him.

Tensions had been building for more than a year, but the Thursday morning raid in London was still a surprise. WikiLeaks had issued one of its periodic warnings that Assange was at risk, but at a Wednesday press conference, his longtime lieutenant, Kristinn Hrafnsson, told journalists that Assange's eviction from the embassy had been averted.

It's not clear what comes next, but it'll almost certainly be complicated.

The interactions quoted in the U.S. indictment are nothing new — Assange's instant message exchange with Manning has been in the public domain ever since the latter's court martial — so Assange's high-powered legal team has had years to prepare their arguments. And Britain has generally tended to favor accused hackers fighting extradition to America.

Lauri Love, a friend of Assange's who was accused of penetrating U.S. government networks, was last year spared extradition after Britain's high court ruled in his favor. British hacker Gary McKinnon, accused of breaking into U.S. military and space networks, won his fight against extradition in 2012 after a decade-long struggle.

Assange's fight may not take a decade, but he's unlikely to see the inside of a U.S. courtroom anytime soon.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the arrest of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange here: https://www.apnews.com/WikiLeaks

Source: Fox News World

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The Latest: Comair in South Africa grounds Boeing 737 Max 8

The Latest on Ethiopian Airlines crash (all times local):

8:10 p.m.

Comair, the operator of British Airways and Kulula flights in South Africa says it has grounded its Boeing 737 Max 8 while it consults with Boeing, other operators and technical experts.

A statement does not say how many planes are affected. It says the decision was made without intervention from regulatory authorities.

Comair joins a number of other airlines in grounding the planes after Sunday's deadly crash in Ethiopia.

Wrenelle Stander, executive director of Comair's airline division, says in the statement that Comair "remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft."

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6 p.m.

The United Nations secretary-general says at least 21 U.N. staff members died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday along with an undetermined number of people who had worked closely with the world body.

Antonio Guterres spoke at the opening of the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which began with hundreds of delegates standing in silent tribute to the 157 victims.

The U.N. Security Council also began its meeting on Afghanistan with diplomats standing in honor of those who perished.

Guterres said that "a global tragedy has hit close to home and the United Nations is united in grief."

He said the U.N. staff members came from all corners of the globe and that "they all had one thing in common — a spirit to serve the people of the world and to make it a better place for us all."

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5 p.m.

A Greek man who narrowly missed the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday says he argued with ground staff to try and board after reaching the gate minutes too late.

"I saw the last passengers going through but the gate had already closed. I complained, in the usual way when that kind of thing happens. But they were very kind and placed me on another flight," Antonis Mavropoulos told Greece's private Skai Television, speaking from Nairobi.

Mavropoulos, who runs a recycling company and lives in Athens, was traveling to Kenya to attend an environmental conference.

"I'm slowly coming to terms with what happened and how close it came. On the other hand, I'm also very upset — I'm shattered — for those who were lost," he said in the interview Monday. "To be honest, I didn't get much sleep last night."

Mavropoulos put his survival down to luck.

"I didn't check my suitcase because I knew the gap between connecting flights was tight. If I had checked the bag in, they would have waited for me," he said. "This is a very difficult moment — one that can change your life."

___

4:45 p.m.

Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate cites the United States ambassador as saying a six-member team of U.S. aviation experts are on their way to the site of Sunday's crash.

Ambassador Michael Raynor visited the crash site on Monday. He told the broadcaster that the experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive at the site on Tuesday.

He says that "Boeing and Interpol will also assist the Ethiopian government in the investigation. Interpol will assist in identifying the victims."

The flight data recorder and voice cockpit recorder have been found.

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4:35 p.m.

Ugandan authorities say a senior police officer is among the dead in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday.

Ugandan police say they are mourning Christine Alalo, who served as police commissioner under the banner of the African Union mission in Somalia.

The statement calls her "a highly respected member of the force who loved her job."

Alalo was returning from a trip to Italy. She is the lone Ugandan who died in the crash. All 157 on board were killed.

___

4:20 p.m.

A German pastor and an aid worker from Germany are among the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday.

The World Council of Churches says Rev. Norman Tendis was traveling to a U.N. environment summit in Nairobi. The 51-year-old worked in Villach, Austria.

The German development aid organization GIZ confirms that a staffer was on the plane. Spokeswoman Tanja Stumpff tells The Associated Press that the woman was on a business trip.

Germany's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that at least five German citizens died in the crash.

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4:05 p.m.

Catholic Relief Services announces "with heavy hearts" that four of its Ethiopian colleagues died in Sunday's plane crash outside Addis Ababa.

The aid group in a statement says Sara Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu, Sintayehu Aymeku, and Mulusew Alemu had been traveling to Nairobi for training.

The four had worked with the organization for as long as a decade. They worked in procurement, logistics and finance.

All 157 people on board were killed. They came from 35 countries.

___

3:30 p.m.

There are scenes of agony as members of an association of Ethiopian airline pilots cry uncontrollably for colleagues killed in Sunday's crash near Addis Ababa.

Framed photographs of seven crew members sit in chairs at the front of a crowded room.

One pilot says he had planned to watch a soccer game between Manchester and Arsenal with the flight's main pilot, Yared Getachew.

It was Getachew who issued a distress call shortly after takeoff and was told to return. But all contact was lost.

Another pilot says he flew with Yared several times and said they even lived together before becoming senior pilots.

___

3:15 p.m.

Pope Francis has sent his condolences to the families of the victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a statement Monday that the pope was sad to learn about the crash and "offers prayers for the deceased from various countries and commends their souls to the mercy of Almighty God."

The statement said, "Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to their families, and upon all who mourn this tragic loss he invokes the divine blessings of consolation and strength."

___

3 p.m.

Shares of Boeing are tumbling before the opening of U.S. markets following the crash in Ethiopia of a Boeing 737 Max 8, the second deadly crash since October.

All 157 people on board were killed on Sunday. A Lion Air model of the same plane crashed in Indonesia last year, killing 189 people.

Shares of Boeing Co. plunged more than 9 percent in premarket trading Monday. If that trend holds, it could be one of the company's worst trading days in about a decade.

Indonesia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways are doing the same.

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1:35 p.m.

Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reports that the black box has been found from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane.

An airline official, however, tells The Associated Press that the box is partially damaged and that "we will see what we can retrieve from it."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media.

The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday en route to Nairobi.

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1:20 p.m.

China says two United Nations workers were among the eight Chinese nationals killed on the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang says the other Chinese passengers included four who were working for a Chinese company and two who had travelled to Ethiopia for "private matters."

All 157 people on board the flight to Nairobi died.

Lu said Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders have sent condolence messages to their Ethiopian counterparts. China has extended condolences to victims' families.

China has ordered its airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts by 6 p.m.

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12:45 p.m.

The United Nations migration agency said that one of its staffers, German citizen Anne-Katrin Feigl, was on the plane en route to a training course in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and the plane's destination.

Germany's foreign ministry has officially confirmed that five victims of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 157 people were German citizens.

The ministry said in a statement Monday that it was in contact with the families of the victims. It did not reveal any information on the identity of those who died in the crash Sunday.

All in all, 35 countries had someone among the 157 people who were killed. All people on board died minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa.

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12 p.m.

The U.N. office in Nairobi is joining Ethiopia in mourning the 157 dead in Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa.

A moment of silence and U.N. flags at half-staff marked the deaths that included several workers with U.N. and affiliated organizations.

The U.N. resident coordinator in Nairobi, Siddharth Chatterjee, says that "This has taken us by shock. ... But it also goes to reinforce the mortality of human life and therefore reinforces the need for humanity."

He says U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent "a poignant message of condolences to everybody, not just the U.N. staff but the crew of the flight and all other nationalities which were on the plane."

People from 35 countries died.

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10 a.m.

A spokesman says Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution, following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed.

Asrat Begashaw said Monday that although it is not yet known what caused the crash on Sunday, the airline decided to ground its remaining four 737 Max 8 planes until further notice as "an extra safety precaution." Ethiopian Airlines was using five new 737 Max 8 planes and was awaiting delivery of 25 more.

Begashaw said searching and digging to uncover body parts and aircraft debris will continue. He said forensic experts from Israel have arrived in Ethiopia to help with the investigation.

Source: Fox News World

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Bill O’Reilly to Newsmax TV: Sanctuary City Bus Plan Would Backfire

President Donald Trump's plan to send asylum seekers to sanctuary cities is a function of his "perpetual campaign mode" – but would backfire because they would end up remaining in the United States "forever," political commentator Bill O'Reilly said Monday.

In remarks on Newsmax TV's "The Wayne Allen Root Show," O'Reilly, host of the "No Spin News" podcast at billoreilly.com, said the president has a "great idea," but it is one that "can never actually be done."

"What's important on this story . . . is that Donald Trump is in perpetual campaign mode," he said. "He governs, but also has an eye on 'I'm campaigning; I want to be re-elected.'"

"So, this is a big issue for Trump's crew, they all like that sanctuary cities be punished," he continued, saying Trump's theory is "'I might send these people to San Francisco, let's hear them howl.'

"But if you did that, then you would guarantee that everybody you bussed to San Francisco or Seattle or [Los Angeles] or New York City, that every one of those people would remain in the United States forever," O"Reilly said.

"Look, people who come here illegally are gonna settle where they know people," he explained. "That's what happens. Most people who are coming here from Central America and Mexico, they already know people here. That's where they're going to go. You want to drop off them off in San Francisco? Fine. But they're going to high-tail it out of there to wherever their folks are, wherever their friends are."

Important: Newsmax TV is now carried in 65 million cable homes on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Comcast/Xfinity Ch. 1115, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615 or More Systems Here.

Source: NewsMax America

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Trump says he won’t predict trade deal with china

U.S. President Trump departs on travel to the U.S. Southern border from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to the U.S.-Mexico border from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

April 5, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday would not predict that a trade deal with China will be reached, even though talks are moving very well along with China.

Trump spoke to reporters at the White House after an intense round of trade talks in Washington to hammer out an agreement on remaining issues to end a months-long trade war that has rattled global markets.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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