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Jaguar Land Rover begins Brexit-linked UK plant shutdowns

FILE PHOTO: Signs are seen outside the Jaguar Land Rover plant at Halewood in Liverpool, northern England.
FILE PHOTO: Signs are seen outside the Jaguar Land Rover plant at Halewood in Liverpool, northern England, September 12 , 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo

April 8, 2019

By Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) – Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) shuts its UK plants on Monday for five days over Brexit, adding to other shutdowns to leave at least half the country’s car production off-line in what could be a pivotal week for Britain’s divorce from the EU.

The move by Britain’s biggest carmaker, to prepare for any disruption resulting from Brexit, was taken a few months ago at a time when the departure date – since extended to April 12 – was March 29.

Automotive firms face a number of possible risks under a disorderly Brexit, including delays to the supply of ports and finished models, new customs bureaucracy, the need to recertify models and an up to 10 percent tariff on finished vehicles.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts to obtain a longer extension have also ruined contingency plans for some of them.

Shutdowns are generally organized far in advance so employee holidays can be scheduled and suppliers can adjust volumes, making them hard to move.

With Britain’s political leaders still deadlocked over Brexit and some EU states questioning a further departure delay, culture minister Jeremy Wright said May would continue talks with the opposition Labor Party to try to find a compromise solution.

BMW’s UK Mini and Rolls-Royce plants are also shuttered this week, as is Peugeot’s Vauxhall factory, which brought forward summer shutdowns to April.

Together JLR, Mini, Rolls-Royce and Peugeot’s Vauxhall brand, which is branded as Opel on the continent, built over 750,000 of Britain’s 1.52 million cars last year.

Honda has also scheduled six “non-production days” in April but has declined to say on which dates they will take place.

Britain’s once buoyant car sector has since 2017 posted sharp falls in sales, output and investment.

JLR has already had to cut output last year as it faces declining sales, partly as customers shun diesel vehicles.

Overwhelmingly foreign-owned, the Britain-based car industry has become increasingly frustrated as a stable and attractive investment environment becomes mired in a deep political crises, risking free and frictionless trade.

At least 25 percent of Britain’s automotive engine capacity is also closed as BMW’s central English Hams Hall factory continues a four-week shutdown while JLR’s Wolverhampton site stops production for the week as part of Brexit preparations.

Honda engine production will also stop on six days this month.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: OANN

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CBP defends decision to detain girl, 9, for more than 30 hours despite her being US citizen

A mother was left reeling after two of her children -- including her nine-year-old daughter -- were reportedly held for 30 hours by Customs and Border Patrol agents, despite being passport-carrying U.S. citizens, after trying to cross into California from Mexico to attend school.

Thelma Galaxia said she and a friend were each driving their two children from their homes in Tijuana across the border to the children's schools in San Ysidro on Monday. When they reached the Port of Entry, traffic was backed up significantly and Galaxia was worried about the children getting to school on time, so she told 9-year-old Julia and 14-year-old Oscar to walk through the Port of Entry on foot and she would order them an Uber to get to class

When the children attempted to walk across the border, however, Julia and Oscar were stopped by CBP and subsequently detained and separated from each other for 32 hours.

CBP has defended their actions in a statement to Fox News, saying their intent was to "perform due diligence in confirming her identity and citizenship."

Julia gave the officers her U.S. passport card, but said that they told her she didn't look like the girl in the photo, and accused her of being her cousin Melanie. She also said they accused her brother of sex and human trafficking, and said he would face charges if he didn't sign a document saying that Julia was her cousin Melanie.

“I was scared," Julia told NBC 7. "I was sad because I didn't have my mom or my brother. I was completely by myself."

SUPREME COURT HANDS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION A VICTORY IN IMMIGRATION BATTLE

CBP could not clarify why it took more than a day to identify Julia as a U.S. citizen but said that the girl gave "inconsistent information during her inspection."

They added that Oscar was identified as a citizen later in the day on Monday and released, but it wasn't until about 6:30 p.m. that Julia was allowed to reunite with her family.

At least 25,000 people reportedly cross the border legally between Tijuana and San Ysidro on foot every day

At least 25,000 people reportedly cross the border legally between Tijuana and San Ysidro on foot every day (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

MARINE CORPS COMMANDANT WARNS OF DIRE FISCAL SITUATION AFTER FUNDS ARE REROUTED TO TROOPS AT BORDER

Local news was present as Thelma Galaxia was reunited with her children. In the hours since her children were detained, she had reportedly called the Mexican consulate in an attempt to get them back.

According to a 2017 NPR article, at least 25,000 people cross the border between Tijuana and San Ysidro on foot every day. Many of those are students, born in the United States but living in Mexico for various reasons. As U.S. citizens, they have a right to a U.S. education, although their families could technically be fined for not attending a school in their district.

San Ysidro reportedly has the highest rate of homelessness in the country, as the price of living has risen to a staggering rate, which has driven many families across the border to find affordable housing. In some instances, a family member or parent will be deported, so children will accompany them back to Mexico but make the exhausting trip back to the U.S. daily for school.

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CBP has maintained that they prioritize the "safety of the minors we encounter" and that it is critical to "positively confirm the identity of a child traveling without a parent or legal guardian."

Source: Fox News National

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Raiders owner Davis wants no part of ‘Hard Knocks’

FILE PHOTO - Raiders' owner Davis introduces new head coach Allen during a news conference at the Raiders' training facility in Oakland
FILE PHOTO - Raiders' owner Mark Davis introduces new head coach Dennis Allen (not pictured) during a news conference at the Raiders' training facility in Oakland, California January 30, 2012. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach

March 27, 2019

Should HBO come knocking at the door, Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis hopes not to have to answer it.

The Raiders are one of five teams that meet the parameters for appearing on HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” the popular training camp reality series. And Davis said he doesn’t want his team to take part.

“It would be disruptive,” he said Tuesday, speaking at the NFL’s annual meetings in Phoenix. “We’ve got a lot of business to take care of, get ready for the season. I appreciate that they might think we’d be great TV, but we got something to accomplish.”

The Raiders do have the ingredients for stirring television.

Since the start of the new league year, Oakland has acquired star wideout Antonio Brown and added free agent Vontaze Burfict, and there are rumblings running back Marshawn Lynch could return. Coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock also have three first-round draft picks, and this is scheduled to be the team’s last season in Oakland before relocating to Las Vegas.

The NFL and HBO have established this criteria for selection for “Hard Knocks”: the team can’t have a first-year head coach; no postseason appearances the past two seasons; has not appeared on the show in the past 10 years.

One person is lobbying for the “Hard Knocks” honor to go to the Raiders, though. That’s Lions coach Matt Patricia, who told reporters in February that he thought the Raiders would be a great choice, presumably to deflect the attention from his team.

“I think Jon Gruden is an excellent choice for that show,” he said. “I think the Oakland Raiders and everything they’ve got going on right now would be fantastic viewing for everybody to watch.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Auto giants battle used car dealers for Africa’s huge market

The Mobius II first generation SUV by Kenyan car maker Mobius Motors is seen in the company's show room in Nairobi
The Mobius II first generation SUV by Kenyan car maker Mobius Motors is seen in the company's show room in Nairobi, Kenya March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

April 12, 2019

By Joe Bavier, Emma Rumney and Duncan Miriri

JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) – At the edge of Nairobi’s Ngong Forest, thousands of used cars glitter in the hot sun on a dusty field, waiting for buyers.

Imported from Japan or the Middle East, they offer an affordable route to vehicle ownership in Kenya and have dominated the market for decades.

That is an obstacle big carmakers must overcome if they are to crack Africa, a market promising rapid growth as trade tensions threaten sales elsewhere. African consumers also still need conventional engines just as demand in more traditional markets is curbed by restrictions on carbon emissions.

Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Nissan and others have joined forces to lobby governments for steps that would reduce the imports that have made sub-Saharan Africa notoriously difficult terrain and allow local production to flourish.

“The question on Africa isn’t, ‘Is it a market of the future?'” Mike Whitfield, Nissan’s top executive for Africa, told Reuters. “It’s a case of when.”

Four years after forming the Association of African Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) their efforts are starting to bear fruit. Carmakers that set up local assembly plants could get tax holidays of up to 10 years and duty exemptions in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, according to government plans seen by Reuters.

Thomas Schaefer, who heads Volkswagen’s Africa business, said there is a potential market in sub-Saharan Africa for 3 to 4 million new cars, up from just 420,000 in 2017.

But that will require addressing the well-entrenched interests of second-hand car dealers, smugglers and lowering the price of new cars.

“It will largely depend on how successful the African governments are in limiting the amounts of second-hand imports and how price-competitive new vehicles can be with their tariffs,” said Craig Parker, Africa research director at Frost & Sullivan, a U.S.-based market research firm.

MULTIPLYING EFFECTS

Africa’s population and household incomes are rising rapidly. But its 1 billion inhabitants account for only 1 percent of the world’s new passenger car sales, industry data shows. South Africans bought over 85 percent of those vehicles.

The AAAM identified Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana as potential manufacturing hubs and helped draft legislation setting up standards and incentives.

Details of governments’ plans provided to Reuters demonstrate that African nations are keen to secure a spot as a beachhead for the industry.

Nigeria and Ghana are preparing to offer automakers tax holidays of up to 10 years and duty-free imports of parts and components used in local assembly. Nigeria also plans to double the levy on new, fully-built imported vehicles to 70 percent to boost demand for locally produced cars, though the policy’s approval has been delayed.

In Kenya, automakers will pay no import or excise duties and get a 50-percent corporate tax break.

For African nations facing massive demographic pressures, such concessions make sense if they create jobs, said Jelani Aliyu, of Nigeria’s National Automotive Design and Development Council.

“The multiplying effects are exponential,” said Aliyu, who foresees supporting industries developing around the plants.

Legislative and fiscal frameworks are being finalised, but companies are already investing millions of dollars in new plants.

VW and Nissan have set up operations in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana or have pledged to do so. Honda and Peugeot have launched assembly plants in Nigeria, and Peugeot has done the same in Kenya.

Carmakers sorely need the business. Their South African divisions, which typically direct operations elsewhere on the continent, face stagnating domestic sales and scant growth prospects in their main export market, Europe. A chaotic Brexit or U.S. tariff hikes could further dampen sales.

Toyota South Africa’s chief executive Andrew Kirby said the strategy is: “Focus on Africa because Africa is going to grow significantly.”

A pivot to Africa could also help insulate automakers from the immediate effects of the electric vehicle revolution. The continent is ill-placed to join it at the moment due to the higher prices of EVs and unreliable power grids.

Just 66 electric cars were sold last year in South Africa – the continent’s most developed economy.

“Africa will most likely remain as the last bastion of internal combustion engines,” Parker said.

DISTORTED MARKET

Nevertheless, industry officials say the biggest hurdle to developing the market for new cars is dumping from countries such as Japan, where strict vehicle inspections force cars out of circulation after just a few years.

They say this distorts the market by allowing dealers to buy the cars at scrap prices and export them to Africa.

They blame the cheap imports for killing off assembly sectors in a number of African countries including Nigeria, which built around 150,000 cars per year until the 1980s.

Political will is needed to change that, and without it there is little point in considering a country for local production, according to VW’s Schaefer.

“The markets … are literally not functioning right now due to importation of used vehicles,” he said.

In Kenya, the government plans to wind down imports of cars more than three years old by 2021. Exceptions will be made for passenger vehicles with 1.5 liter or smaller engines.

The policy could see mid-range imported models double in price, according to the 300-member Kenya Auto Bazaar Association (KABA). The lobby group has taken out ads in local newspapers denouncing the policy and is demanding a meeting with Kenya’s president.

Mark Oburu, KABA’s vice-chairman, said the move would hit an industry that delivers 85 percent of Kenyan car purchases.

“The middle class will not be able to own a vehicle of their choice,” he said.

In the Nairobi bazaar, Grace was shopping for her eldest son’s first car. She said she could not afford to buy a new one.

“If they don’t rescind that decision, we will be on boda bodas (motor-bikes).”

Both Ghana and Nigeria have also pledged to tackle the issue. Nigeria hiked taxes on imported used cars in 2014, but smuggling has undermined that effort to boost demand for local production, according to manufacturers and government officials.

Used cars are also among the leading imports in many African countries, and governments will have to wean themselves off the associated tax revenues.

There are other stumbling blocks: access to financing is limited, and countries that don’t host assembly plants must also be persuaded to limit used imports and reduce tariffs on African-made vehicles. That will be hard to do if the only outcome they see is higher sticker prices.

“The purpose is not to take the most lucrative slice of the industry,” said Ghana’s minister of trade and industry, Alan Kyerematen, suggesting that neighbors could produce components for his country’s assembly plants.

Auto executives acknowledge the challenges but point to a famous precedent. When VW and GM entered China in the 1980s and 90s, vehicle ownership rates were lower than in many African markets. Today, those two companies alone sell over 3.5 million vehicles annually in China.

“Everybody was laughing, saying China doesn’t need cars, they only need bicycles,” Schaefer said.

(Joe Bavier and Emma Rumney reported in Johannesburg and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Additional reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana in Kigali and Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Anna Willard)

Source: OANN

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Drunken Dems’ Only Sober Alternative to Trump

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Oh, how their heads hurt. After two intoxicating years, the Mueller Investigation & Media Tequila Party is over. Morning has come, and Democrats have opened their eyes to a pounding headache. Liquor bottles held high the night before now litter the floor: Democrats even ate the Michael Cohen worm. 

Inconveniently, the special prosecutor found no collusion. Those who imbibed most have been left stumbling, trying to explain how Donald Trump covered up the crime no one committed. But the feast was moveable, and the partygoers celebrated each other. They are convinced it was not overindulgence that caused their hangover; merely that they stopped drinking. A little hair-of-the dog is all we need. Pour us another Margarita, and let’s get this party started again.

In the confusion, more sober leaders reasserted control. Old pro Nancy Pelosi determined Democrats are not going to raise the flag of impeachment now, understanding it will become even less likely as the 2020 election grows closer. Delay, delay, delay, Pelosi believes, until the mystic chords of impeachment become memories that never again swell. 

Pelosi did have to throw her caucus’s fine young radicals a bone: Madam Speaker gave them impeachment without impeachment. Democrats will be allowed to hold hearings and pursue investigations. That will keep Trump in the spotlight, Democratic activists motivated, and MSNBC fed.

Pelosi has even gotten most of her 2020 presidential candidates on board. With the notable exceptions of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, most Democratic contenders are calling it closing time. It is a remarkable display of the speaker’s power, considering the Democratic field has expanded to 20 candidates, requiring at least two clown cars. Poor Joe Biden is just entering the race.

Sen. Harris, who tells us she is not a socialist, just another Democrat who supports Bernie Sanders’ socialist agenda, would like to party on. She has said, “I believe Congress should take the steps toward impeachment.” California’s junior senator is sinking in the polls despite or, perhaps, because of her powerful socialist/impeachment one-two punch. She has dropped 6 points in New Hampshire, falling to 4% support, the survey’s margin of error. Technically, Harris may have erased herself.

Warren, who has been defined by her war with Trump over her illusory Native American heritage, has also worked her way down to near nothing in the same survey, notching only 5%. The Massachusetts senator, too, would like to extend impeachment festivities and she embraces every possible radical orthodoxy, including reparations for oppressed minorities, confiscating billionaires’ wealth, and canceling student debt. How would you like to be the last generous soul to pay off his or her student loan, just before Warren erases everyone else’s?

Harris and Warren provide lessons for Democrats who hear “Hail to the Chief” every time they rouse crowds with molten, anti-Trump rhetoric: Voters who don’t support Donald Trump aren’t looking for a Democratic Trump replica. They are looking for an alternative. Hot Democrats who balance Trump's fire with their own aren't different from our current president. They are just the other side of Trump's coin. One of his great gifts is magnetism: The Donald drags his adversaries into no-rules-barred combat on the muddy turf where he fights best.

Yet, the Democrat gaining momentum is not a rabid, anti-Trump fanatic, nor a radical, collectivist zealot. Pete Buttigieg is the calm to Trump’s storm, the still waters to this president's tempest. As others have noted in the now obligatory veneration, the gay, 37-year-old, left-handed Mayor of Smallville is an articulate polymath who speaks numerous languages, quotes Scripture, plays piano, and has studied history, philosophy, and ethics. If Buttigieg’s resume is a contrast to the president’s, so is his joyful maturity, which stands in staggering contrast to the cheerless and substanceless knife fights that pass for Republican and Democrat debate these days, ravenously merchandized by our sensationalist news media. When Bernie Sanders flies into space, for example, endorsing the right of convicted terrorists, rapists, and pedophiles to vote while in prison, it is the young mayor who plays grown-up, elegantly distancing himself from Sanders’s enflamed radicalism by saying, simply, “No, I don’t think so.” 

Cool as an after-dinner mint, Buttigieg uncommonly resorts to reason to explain his positions, avoiding name-calling, charges of senility, or accusations of treason. "Part of the punishment when you are convicted of a crime and you're incarcerated is you lose certain rights. You lose your freedom," Buttigieg told a town-hall audience. "And I think during that period, it does not make sense to have an exception for the right to vote."

Often, voters want in their next president what they didn’t find in their last one. That’s trouble for Sanders who, in many ways, parallels Trump, a fellow radical, white-hot populist who aims to overthrow the corrupt Washington establishment. Sanders, we might argue, is Donald Trump with a smaller balance sheet, no experience leading anything, and a college sophomore’s naïveté.

Joe Biden is calmer than Donald Trump, but the dead often are. Having lost twice, Biden 2020 is the sequel to movies no one went to see in 1988 and 2008. He is #YesterdaysCandidate, the old, white male that today’s Democrats crave to run against. Biden still owns a 1967 Corvette. It is an antique everyone admires, but no one would drive today.

No Democratic candidate provides a brighter alternative to Donald Trump than Pete Buttigieg. Could he give the incumbent a real run for his billions? Maybe, but Trump is still the odds-on favorite for re-election. 

First, he’s doing a good job delivering growth, jobs, and higher wages, and Democrats admit as much when they openly hope the economy won’t be in as good a shape in 2020. Desperate prayers for an economic downturn do not usually evolve into promising strategy. Second, Buttigieg is a self-described democratic capitalist and a voice of reason, but only in comparison to the rest of his left-lurching party. He is at home in a party that has swallowed Sanders’ socialist agenda whole. Behind his moderate appearance, he embraces the tenets of the global elite, including a carbon tax. That is the tax that alienated the working class from the cognoscenti in Emmanuel Macron’s France. Third, Buttigieg is young and untested, and newbie challengers often get beat when the economy is doing well. Adversaries don’t have to persuade people to vote against them, just to put them back in the pantry until they have time to ripen. Lastly, Democrats have control of the House and a reasonable shot of taking the Senate in 2020, when Republicans will defend 22 of the 34 seats contested. 

A turbulent Donald Trump may make the case that he is actually the candidate of stability and restraint, the indispensable counterbalance to a rabid and socialist Democratic Party, proving that God does have a sense of irony, if not humor. So party on, Democrats. As someone once wrote, “There is a great independence, and a confident immunity to risk, in all drinks made out of cactus.”

Alex Castellanos is a Republican strategist, a founder of Purple Strategies and a political analyst for ABC News.

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PNC Financial first-quarter profit meets estimates

FILE PHOTO: The logo above a PNC Bank is shown in Charlotte
FILE PHOTO: The logo above a PNC Bank is shown in Charlotte, North Carolina April 18, 2012. REUTERS/Chris Keane/File Photo

April 12, 2019

(Reuters) – PNC Financial Services Group Inc’s first-quarter profit met analysts’ estimates on Friday, as a rise in expenses and provision for credit losses overshadowed growth in interest income and loans.

The lender’s expenses rose 2 percent to $2.58 billion, while provision for loan losses more than doubled to $189 million from a year ago.

Net interest income rose about 5 percent to $2.48 billion, helped by higher interest rates.

PNC Financial, one of the largest U.S. lenders by assets, said its loan portfolio grew about 5 percent to about $232 billion, with commercial lending accounting for nearly 68 percent of total loans.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PNC’s net income attributable to shareholders rose 2.7 percent to $1.20 billion in the first quarter ended March 31. Earnings per share came in at $2.61, in line with analysts’ expectations, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. [https://reut.rs/2ZaNZvF]

The bank’s total revenue rose 4.3 percent to $4.29 billion.

(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: OANN

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Singapore seizes more pangolin scales in week’s 2nd bust

Singapore has seized 14 tons of pangolin scales belonging to around 21,000 endangered mammals in the second such bust in less than a week.

The scales, which were en route from Nigeria to Vietnam, were found in 474 bags in a shipping container on Monday. The National Parks Board, Singapore Customs and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority say the cargo was declared as cassia seeds.

Last Wednesday, officials discovered a record 14.2 tons of pangolin scales hidden among packets of frozen beef. The earlier shipment was also on its way from Nigeria to Vietnam.

The pangolin is said to be the most widely trafficked mammal in the world, and its scales are in high demand in Asia for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Source: Fox News World

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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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