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Georgetown’s Reparations: Virtue Signaling Superficiality

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The students of Georgetown University voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a mandatory student fee to pay reparations for the school’s participation in the slave trade almost two centuries ago.  As is typical for my alma mater, Georgetown reveals its real concern is not justice but rather virtue signaling, assuaging guilt, and promoting a showy agenda of “wokeness.”

Regarding the larger issue of reparations, Democratic presidential candidates trip over themselves to pretend this divisive and extremist idea can actually happen.  If our country had somehow never dealt with the injustice and inhumanity of slavery, then perhaps a reparations discussion would make sense, although the very concept of multi-generational debts is troubling on its face.

But in point of fact, our country already paid reparations mightily, waging a devastating war to end the evil of slavery.  The reparations were paid with the lives of well over 300,000 Union soldiers, men who died to reunite our nation and abolish human bondage on these shores.   In fact, the Civil War was so brutal that the total loss of life equates to over 7 million dead in today’s population terms.  Those radicals rude enough to demand additional reparations should visit Gettysburg National Cemetery, where over 3,500 Union soldiers lay for eternity, their young lives sacrificed for a great cause that led to the elimination of slavery in our land. Reparations were indeed paid, not just by those brave men but by the widows and orphans they left behind.

Aside from the national issue of reparations, what should be the particular response of Georgetown, whose founding priests owned slaves and sold off hundreds of them in 1838 to keep the then-fledgling academy afloat?  For starters, the university issued a sincere apology.  The school also instituted legacy status for descendants of Georgetown slaves applying for admissions, treating them, effectively, as the children of alumni. Both moves represent minor but still appropriate accommodations.     

But if the university believes it owes a financial debt, 181 years later, then it should be substantially more than the $400,000 per year the student fee will raise and it should be paid directly from the school’s endowment. Moreover, Georgetown occupies some of the most valuable real estate in America.  If you mean it, Georgetown, then hand over a healthy chunk of the campus.  Even better, how about also taxing the pay of the bloated and biased faculty?  Let’s really make it hurt, rather a token add-on paid by parents of students.  But Georgetown would rather take the easy road: virtue-signal and appear enlightened in a manner that requires no real sacrifice. 

In fact, the madness of this new proposal would require that a black exchange student from Africa now pay an effective fine to Americans as recompense for his own ancestors being trafficked here.  Further adding to the insanity, some of those American descendants of slaves may well be majority Caucasian today.  “Black guy from Ghana, pay the white kid from Louisiana because his great-great-great-great-grandfather was a slave owned by Georgetown priests.”     

If reparations for private institutions like Georgetown make sense, then the school should go well beyond symbolic gestures.  On a national scale, reparations represent madness and insult the commitment of this country that spilled rivers of blood to correct our national sin.

Politicians endorsing reparations also insult the intelligence of black voters, thinking they can pander to them with fanciful promises of a literal bribe.  Minority voters do not seek government generosity, but rather the conditions to succeed independently, which is why Americans of color increasingly rally to the Trump growth agenda.  That agenda will only accelerate over the next 5 ½ years because the president’s reelection prospects vault higher with his likely opponents all playing to the extremes on issues like reparations.

Steve Cortes is a contributor to RealClearPolitics and a CNN  political commentator. His Twitter handle is @CortesSteve.

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Renault’s outlook cut to ‘negative’ by rating agency Standard & Poor’s

FILE PHOTO - The logo of French car manufacturer Renault is seen at a dealership of the company in Illkirch-Graffenstaden near Strasbourg
FILE PHOTO - The logo of French car manufacturer Renault is seen at a dealership of the company in Illkirch-Graffenstaden near Strasbourg, France, January 10, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/File Photo

February 20, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook on carmaker Renault to “negative” from “stable”, citing broader challenges within the automotive sector that could hit its profits.

“The negative outlook reflects the risk that Renault will be unable to return its EBITDA margin to 2017 levels (9%-10%) over the next two years given the numerous headwinds in the global automotive industry and company-specific problems that could reduce its operating profit generation for a sustained period,” S&P Global Ratings wrote in a note.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Leigh Thomas)

Source: OANN

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Bloomberg: Amazon Workers Train Using Conversations Recorded by Alexa Customers

Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening.

Sometimes, someone is.

Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices. The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa’s understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands. 

The Alexa voice review process, described by seven people who have worked on the program, highlights the often-overlooked human role in training software algorithms. In marketing materials Amazon says Alexa “lives in the cloud and is always getting smarter.” But like many software tools built to learn from experience, humans are doing some of the teaching.

The team comprises a mix of contractors and full-time Amazon employees who work in outposts from Boston to Costa Rica, India and Romania, according to the people, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program. They work nine hours a day, with each reviewer parsing as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift, according to two workers based at Amazon’s Bucharest office, which takes up the top three floors of the Globalworth building in the Romanian capital’s up-and-coming Pipera district. The modern facility stands out amid the crumbling infrastructure and bears no exterior sign advertising Amazon’s presence.

The work is mostly mundane. One worker in Boston said he mined accumulated voice data for specific utterances such as “Taylor Swift” and annotated them to indicate the searcher meant the musical artist. Occasionally the listeners pick up things Echo owners likely would rather stay private: a woman singing badly off key in the shower, say, or a child screaming for help. The teams use internal chat rooms to share files when they need help parsing a muddled word—or come across an amusing recording.

Sometimes they hear recordings they find upsetting, or possibly criminal. Two of the workers said they picked up what they believe was a sexual assault. When something like that happens, they may share the experience in the internal chat room as a way of relieving stress. Amazon says it has procedures in place for workers to follow when they hear something distressing, but two Romania-based employees said that, after requesting guidance for such cases, they were told it wasn’t Amazon’s job to interfere.

“We take the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information seriously,” an Amazon spokesman said in an emailed statement. “We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order improve the customer experience. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone.

“We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system. Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow. All information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption and audits of our control environment to protect it.”

Amazon, in its marketing and privacy policy materials, doesn’t explicitly say humans are listening to recordings of some conversations picked up by Alexa. “We use your requests to Alexa to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems,” the company says in a list of frequently asked questions.

In Alexa's privacy settings, the company gives users the option of disabling the use of their voice recordings for the development of new features. A screenshot reviewed by Bloomberg shows that the recordings sent to the Alexa auditors don’t provide a user’s full name and address but are associated with an account number, as well as the user’s first name and the device’s serial number.

The Intercept reported earlier this year that employees of Amazon-owned Ring manually identify vehicles and people in videos captured by the company’s doorbell cameras, an effort to better train the software to do that work itself.

“You don’t necessarily think of another human listening to what you’re telling your smart speaker in the intimacy of your home,” said Florian Schaub, a professor at the University of Michigan who has researched privacy issues related to smart speakers. “I think we’ve been conditioned to the [assumption] that these machines are just doing magic machine learning. But the fact is there is still manual processing involved.”

“Whether that’s a privacy concern or not depends on how cautious Amazon and other companies are in what type of information they have manually annotated, and how they present that information to someone,” he added.

When the Echo debuted in 2014, Amazon’s cylindrical smart speaker quickly popularized the use of voice software in the home. Before long, Alphabet Inc. launched its own version, called Google Home, followed by Apple Inc.’s HomePod. Various companies also sell their own devices in China. Globally, consumers bought 78 million smart speakers last year, according to researcher Canalys. Millions more use voice software to interact with digital assistants on their smartphones.

Alexa software is designed to continuously record snatches of audio, listening for a wake word. That’s “Alexa” by default, but people can change it to “Echo” or “computer.” When the wake word is detected, the light ring at the top of the Echo turns blue, indicating the device is recording and beaming a command to Amazon servers.

Most modern speech-recognition systems rely on neural networks patterned on the human brain. The software learns as it goes, by spotting patterns amid vast amounts of data. The algorithms powering the Echo and other smart speakers use models of probability to make educated guesses. If someone asks Alexa if there’s a Greek place nearby, the algorithms know the user is probably looking for a restaurant, not a church or community center.

But sometimes Alexa gets it wrong—especially when grappling with new slang, regional colloquialisms or languages other than English. In French, avec sa, “with him” or “with her,” can confuse the software into thinking someone is using the Alexa wake word. Hecho, Spanish for a fact or deed, is sometimes misinterpreted as Echo. And so on. That’s why Amazon recruited human helpers to fill in the gaps missed by the algorithms.

Apple’s Siri also has human helpers, who work to gauge whether the digital assistant’s interpretation of requests lines up with what the person said. The recordings they review lack personally identifiable information and are stored for six months tied to a random identifier, according to an Apple security white paper. After that, the data is stripped of its random identification information but may be stored for longer periods to improve Siri’s voice recognition.

At Google, some employees can access some audio snippets from its Assistant to help train and improve the product, but it’s not associated with any personally identifiable information and the audio is distorted, the company says. 

A recent Amazon job posting, seeking a quality assurance manager for Alexa Data Services in Bucharest, describes the role humans play: “Every day she [Alexa] listens to thousands of people talking to her about different topics and different languages, and she needs our help to make sense of it all.” The want ad continues: “This is big data handling like you’ve never seen it. We’re creating, labeling, curating and analyzing vast quantities of speech on a daily basis.”

Amazon’s review process for speech data begins when Alexa pulls a random, small sampling of customer voice recordings and sends the audio files to the far-flung employees and contractors, according to a person familiar with the program’s design.

Some Alexa reviewers are tasked with transcribing users’ commands, comparing the recordings to Alexa's automated transcript, say, or annotating the interaction between user and machine. What did the person ask? Did Alexa provide an effective response?

Others note everything the speaker picks up, including background conversations—even when children are speaking. Sometimes listeners hear users discussing private details such as names or bank details; in such cases, they’re supposed to tick a dialog box denoting “critical data.” They then move on to the next audio file.

According to Amazon’s website, no audio is stored unless Echo detects the wake word or is activated by pressing a button. But sometimes Alexa appears to begin recording without any prompt at all, and the audio files start with a blaring television or unintelligible noise. Whether or not the activation is mistaken, the reviewers are required to transcribe it. One of the people said the auditors each transcribe as many as 100 recordings a day when Alexa receives no wake command or is triggered by accident. 

In homes around the world, Echo owners frequently speculate about who might be listening, according to two of the reviewers. “Do you work for the NSA?” they ask. “Alexa, is someone else listening to us?”

Source: NewsMax America

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Denmark to Start Sending Migrants Home Instead of Integrating Them

Denmark is tightening its asylum system with the passage of new laws referred to as a 'paradigm shift' by officials, Danmarks Radio reports.

The bill, formally titled 'Act 140,' was agreed upon in Parliament by the populist right-wing Danish People's Party (DPP) and the Social Democrats (SD) and will go into effect on March 1st.

A primary aim of the legislation is to reduce the number of 'refugees' in the country by focusing on repatriation instead of integration, according to DPP chairman Peter Skaarup.

"You have to get used to the fact that when you come to Denmark, you are here temporarily, and once you have had temporary shelter, you go back again," Skaarup said.

Key points of the bill include -

  • Residence permits for foreigners must be temporary and can be more easily revoked or not renewed.
  • Refugees must return to their home countries once it is safe enough to do so.
  • The Minister of Immigration can set a national limit on family reunifications (chain migration) on a month-to-month basis.
  • Penalties for breaking an entry ban are significantly increased, with much stiffer prison sentences for those caught in Denmark after being expelled.
  • Social welfare benefits to migrants will be reduced.

Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Støjberg, who is known as a relative hardliner, says she expects a "noticeable effect" on the migrant population in Denmark as a result of the new laws.

"We simply have to have refugees return when they no longer need our protection," Støjberg told TV2. "It has always been the case that the day that there is peace in one's home country, you travel home and rebuild your country. But you must note that nine out of ten refugees remain in Denmark. And that is, of course, completely unsustainable."

"It is untenable if we are both to protect those who need our protection but also to keep those who no longer need our protection."

The Danish government hopes to send home at least 25,000 migrants who have arrived in the last five years.

Denmark appears to be moving in a different direction on issues related to immigration than many European countries, recently announcing plans to quarantine certain foreign criminals on an isolated island and stripping a Moroccan jihadist of his Danish citizenship in a landmark legal ruling.

The DPP has also called to harden Denmark's border with crime-ridden Sweden.

Paul Joseph Watson breaks down the story surrounding a woman who left the U.K. when she was 15 to marry a member of ISIS and join their Islamic caliphate revolution. Now, after giving birth and naming her son after a Muslim warlord, she would like to return to the U.K. to cash in on the benefits of Western civilization.

(PHOTO: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Source: InfoWars

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Watch Live: Big Tech Suffocating Free Speech as Patriots Stand Up In Defiance

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Ahead of Kim Summit, Trump Says He's Happy 'As Long as There's No Testing'

President Donald Trump appeared to signal a lowering of expectations for any agreement he might reach with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on denuclearization during their second summit this week, telling a gathering of governors at the White House on Sunday that "as long as there's no testing, we're happy," the Washington Examiner reported.

Trump, however, did say he has a "special feeling" about the upcoming summit and stressed his "very, very good relationship" with Kim.

"We see eye to eye, I believe ... What's going to happen, I can't tell you ... As long as there's no testing, we're happy," Trump said.

While Pyongyang has not conducted any missile or nuclear tests since 2017, there has been scant indication of North Korea taking steps towards denuclearization since the first summit last summer in Singapore.

Some critics have expressed concern that the president may feel pressured to go easy on Kim during the summit, with The Washington Post reporting that some of Trump’s aides skeptical that an agreement could be struck to solidify the vague tenets of the July agreement from the Singapore meeting.

“Trump seems to now define them not testing as a success. That’s not a success,” said former CIA analyst Bruce Klingner. “If there’s no progress, then at what point does the U.S. say, ‘Look, they’re stringing us along?’”

Another indication of the lowered pressure on North Korea was pointed out by CNN.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper quoted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying recently that sanctions relief will be made when "we're confident that we substantially reduced that risk," compared to Pompeo saying last summer that such a move would only be takenwhen "complete denuclearization" is achieved.

Pompeo insisted, however, that there was no change in the U.S. demands.

Related Stories:

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Multiple people died Thursday when a semitrailer plowed into stationary traffic that resulted in explosions and flames on a Colorado freeway, authorities said.

The incident occurred just before 5 p.m. in the Denver suburb of Lakewood when a truck driver lost control while traveling east on Interstate 70, according to a preliminary investigation. The collision started a chain reaction and a diesel fuel spill, Lakewood police spokesman Ty Countryman told the Denver Post.

“This is looking to be one of the worst accidents we’ve had here in Lakewood,” he said.

The driver of the runaway truck survived. At least one truck was carrying lumber, another was hauling gravel and the third may have been carrying mattresses, KDVR-TV reported.

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Lakewood police tweeted there were multiple fatalities but did not give a specific number. Six people were taken to a hospital. Their conditions were not released, according to the paper.

Lanes in both directions were closed and expected to remain so into Friday morning.

Source: Fox News National

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President Trump will address members and leaders of the National Rifle Association on Friday at the group’s annual convention in Indiana.

Around 80,000 gun enthusiasts and more than 800 exhibitors are expected to pack the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis for the three-day event, the Indianapolis Star reported. It will mark the third straight year that Trump will deliver the keynote address, where he is expected to champion the rights of gun owners.

“Donald Trump is the most enthusiastic supporter of the Second Amendment to occupy the Oval Office in our lifetimes,” Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), said in a statement. “President Trump’s Supreme Court appointments ensure that the Second Amendment will be respected for generations to come. Our members are excited to hear him speak and thank him for his support for our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.”

“Donald Trump is the most enthusiastic supporter of the Second Amendment to occupy the Oval Office in our lifetimes.”

— Chris Cox, executive director, NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action

COLORADO ENACTS ‘RED FLAG’ LAW TO SEIZE GUNS FROM THOSE DEEMED DANGEROUS, PROMPTING BACKLASH

President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association annual convention in Dallas last year. (Associated Press)

President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association annual convention in Dallas last year. (Associated Press)

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke at last year’s convention in Dallas. During his speech, Trump assured gun owners that he would protect their Second Amendment rights, according to the paper.

“Your Second Amendment rights are under siege,” Trump told the cheering audience in Dallas. “But they will never, ever be under siege as long as I am your president.”

Trump has supported some gun control measures in the past. Last year, his administration imposed a ban on bump stocks, attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire in rapid bursts. Although, he most recently threatened to veto two Democratic gun control bills.

This year’s convention comes as the NRA faces outside pressure and internal problems. The group has seen its legislative agenda stall amid a series of mass shootings — including a massacre at a Parkland, Fla., high school in February 2018 that left 17 dead and launched a youth movement against gun violence.

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It’s also grappling with infighting in its ranks, money problems and investigations into whether Russian agents courted officials and funneled money through the group.

“I’ve never seen the NRA this vulnerable,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control measure.

The convention will run through the weekend and conclude Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Shoppers walk past the Debenhams department store on Oxford Street in London
FILE PHOTO: Shoppers walk past the Debenhams department store on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Ailing British retailer Debenhams said two proposed company voluntary arrangements (CVA) could see all its stores remaining open during 2019, with 22 closures planned for next year, putting about 1,200 jobs at risk.

Debenhams’ lenders took control of the retailer earlier this month in a process designed to keep its shops open at the expense of shareholders.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Xiaomi branding is seen on a carrier bag at a UK launch event in London
FILE PHOTO: Xiaomi branding is seen on a carrier bag at a UK launch event in London, Britain, November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

April 26, 2019

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Chinese brands controlled a record 66 percent of Indian smartphone market in the first quarter, led by Xiaomi Corp, a report showed, with volumes rising 20 percent on the back of popularity for brands like Vivo, RealMe and Oppo.

Xiaomi’s India shipments fell by 2 percent over last year, but the Beijing-based company was still the biggest smartphone brand in the country, followed by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, according to Hong-Kong based Counterpoint Research.

Shipment volumes for Vivo jumped 119 percent, while those of Oppo rose 28 percent.

“Vivo’s expanding portfolio in the mid-tier range ($100 to $180) drove its growth along with aggressive Indian Premier League cricket campaign,” Counterpoint analysts said.

India is the world’s fastest growing market for smartphones, where affordable pricing coupled with features like “selfie” cameras and big screens have popularized Chinese brands.

Video streaming services like Netflix Inc and Hotstar, as well as heavy usage of messaging apps like Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp have further spurred demand.

“Data consumption is on the rise and users are upgrading their phones faster as compared to other regions,” Counterpoint’s Tarun Pathak said.

“As a result of this, the premium specs are now diffusing faster into the mid-tier price brands. We estimate this trend to continue leading to a competitive mid-tier segment in coming quarters.”

(Reporting By Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Source: OANN

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Good morning and welcome to Fox News First. Here’s a look at what you need to know today …

EXCLUSIVE: Trump says ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden doesn’t have what it takes

President Trump, in a wide-ranging, exclusive phone interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, dismissed the launch of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, nicknaming him “Sleepy Joe” and saying he’s “not the brightest bulb.” Biden, the president said, has name recognition but he won’t “be able to do the job.” When asked about Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Trump criticized his record, saying Sanders had “misguided energy” and asserted that Sanders “talks a lot” but hasn’t accomplished anything. The president referred to former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas as “a fluke” who had lost much momentum and outright dismissed Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — although he said he was “rooting” for Buttigieg. (Trump could address Biden and the other Democratic presidential candidates when he speaks today before the National Rifle Association.)

The Democratic Party’s youth movement: Biden’s biggest challenge?
Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Howard Dean warned Joe Biden about the troubles he may face in his presidential campaign, especially from the “35-year-olds” who Dean says have been running the party — a clear nod to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and fellow freshmen Democrats. “This is a very different party than even the party Joe Biden ran in in 2012. Very different,” Dean continued. “A lot of people could win this race. There’s 20 people in there. I think it’s going to take $20 million to get to the starting line. If you can’t raise $20 million, you’re gone, and I think that’s going to take care of about six or eight of these folks. … But it is not the same party that it was five years ago.” A progressive political group that boosted Ocasio-Cortez’s bid for Congress last year vowed to oppose Biden and blasted him as part of the “old guard.”

More tales from the FBI texts
Text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page indicate they discussed using briefings to the Trump team after the 2016 election to identify people they could “develop for potential relationships,” track lines of questioning and “assess” changes in “demeanor” – language one GOP lawmaker called “more evidence” of irregular conduct in the original Russia probe. Fox News has learned the texts, initially released in 2018 by a Senate committee, are under renewed scrutiny, with GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley and Homeland Security Committee chair Ron Johnson sending a letter Thursday night to Attorney General Bill Barr pushing for more information on the matter. President Trump, speaking on Fox News’ “Hannity” Thursday night, responded to this report by accusing Strzok and Page of an attempted “coup.” “They were trying to infiltrate the administration,” he said.

Kim accuses US of acting in ‘bad faith’
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, fresh off his summit with  Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the U.S. has been acting in “bad faith” since his Hanoi meeting with President Trump over the stalemated issue of North Korean denuclearization. The North Korean leader told the Korean Central News Agency that, “the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the region is now at a standstill and has reached a critical point,” the Straits Times of Singapore reported. Kim warned that the situation “may return to its original state as the U.S. took a unilateral attitude in bad faith at the recent second DPRK-US summit talks,” the Korean Central News Agency added.

NFL Draft 2019: It’s all about defense
The first round of the 2019 NFL Draft saw a run on defensive players, with eight of the top 12 picks in Nashville coming from that side of the ball. After Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray was taken first overall by the Arizona Cardinals, the San Francisco 49ers started a run of four straight front-seven players by taking Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa with the second overall pick — the highest draft slot for any Buckeye since left tackle Orlando Pace went No. 1 overall to the St. Louis Rams in 1997.

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TODAY’S MUST-READS
Fox News’ Ed Henry recalls spending time with Celtics great John Havlicek.
Massachusetts judge accused of helping illegal immigrant evade ICE pleads not guilty.
Rosenstein slams Obama administration for choosing ‘not to publicize full story’ of Russia hacking.
F.H. Buckley: What Democrats have forgotten about citizenship.

MINDING YOUR BUSINESS
Amazon crushes earnings expectations, but revenue growth slows.
Low-tax states among best places to make a living in 2019.
Construction job market booming: These states are hiring.

#TheFlashback
2018: Bill Cosby is convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004; it is the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
1986: An explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine causes radioactive fallout to spew into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people are killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)
1977: Notorious nightclub Studio 54 opens in New York.

SOME PARTING WORDS

Watch the “Special Report” panel take a look at former Vice President Joe Biden’s decision to run for president a third time and the battle for the “soul” of America.

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CLICK HERE to find out what’s on Fox News programming today and over the weekend!

Fox News First is compiled by Fox News’ Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Have a good day and weekend! We’ll see you in your inbox first thing Monday morning.

Source: Fox News National

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