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China’s Xi, in scandal-plagued Chongqing, praises city’s achievements

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. Kenzaburo Fukuhara/KYODONEWS/Pool via REUTERS

April 17, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping offered praise on Wednesday for what he called the achievements of the southwestern city of Chongqing, one of the country’s most important cities, hit by two major graft scandals in recent years.

Chongqing has been ground zero for Xi’s war against graft, with two of its former Communist Party chiefs, both once seen as contenders for China’s top offices, jailed for corruption.

On a visit to the city, Xi “gave affirmation to the achievements Chongqing has made in its work”, the official Chongqing Daily said, after he heard a report from party and government officials.

Xi said he hoped that the city could ensure party instructions are fully implemented and continue to create a “pure and honest political ecology”, the paper added.

“Cultivate a team of high-quality cadres who are loyal and clean,” it paraphrased Xi as saying. “Maintain high pressure on punishing corruption and consolidate the overwhelming victory in the anti-corruption struggle.”

Last year, a court sentenced former Chongqing party boss Sun Zhengcai to life in prison for corruption.

Before being jailed, Sun had been abruptly removed from his post, and replaced by Chen Miner, who is close to Xi.

Another former Chongqing party boss, Bo Xilai, was jailed in 2013 for bribery, corruption and abuse of power in a dramatic scandal kicked off by his wife’s murder of a British businessman.

The Chongqing Daily report said Chen attended the meeting in Chongqing with Xi, but did not say if Xi had directly talked about the cases of Sun or Bo.

Xi has presided over a sweeping corruption crackdown since coming to power in 2012, vowing to target both “tigers” and “flies”, a reference to elite officials and ordinary bureaucrats.

The campaign has led to the jailing or punishment of thousands of officials and brought down dozens of senior party and military officials.

Beyond issues of bribery and use of public money to funds lavish lifestyles, the anti-corruption effort has taken aim at those who express doubt in public about party policies or are found lacking in political loyalty.

China has rebuffed criticism that the campaign is as much about settling political scores as about stamping out criminal acts.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: OANN

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Michigan professor accused of sexual misconduct retires

A University of Michigan violin professor whom students accused of sexual misconduct going back years has retired.

The Ann Arbor school told The Detroit News that Stephen Shipps retired on Feb. 28.

The school hired Shipps in 1989. He took a leave of absence on Dec. 7, three days before the Michigan Daily published a story in which students accused him of engaging in sexual relationships with teenage students, unwanted touching and making inappropriate statements.

Neither Shipps' attorney, David Nacht, nor a school spokeswoman replied to messages seeking comment left by The Associated Press.

One of Shipps' accusers told The Detroit News that she lost her virginity to Shipps when she was a 17-year-old high school student in the late 1970s, when Shipps was concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony in Nebraska.

Source: Fox News National

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Democrats vow to keep investigating Trump despite Mueller's conclusions, no new indictments

Congressional Democrats vowed Friday to keep investigating President Trump, his family, and associates despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrapping up his Russia investigation with no new indictments.

Attorney General William Barr notified key congressional leaders in a letter Friday evening that Mueller finished his investigation, adding that a summary of the probe’s findings may be provided to lawmakers as soon as this weekend.

Both the investigation's end and the lack of any new indictments struck at the core of the Democrats’ messaging for the last two years that led people to believe the Mueller probe would uncover evident collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

ADAM SCHIFF REJECTS REPORTS THAT MUELLER INDICTMENTS ARE OVER, SAYS SPECIAL COUNSEL COULD BE CALLED TO TESTIFY

This prompted House Democrats to somewhat downplay the Mueller probe and suggested that the left-leaning lawmakers themselves might take on the job of trying to prove collusion, not ruling out the possibility of Mueller being asked or subpoenaed to testify before congressional committees.

“If the Justice Department doesn't release the whole report or tries to keep parts of it secret, we will certainly subpoena the parts of the report and we will reserve the right to call Mueller to testify before the committee or to subpoena him,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Nadler is leading an investigation into “alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump,” a probe he announced earlier this month and has requested documents and records from 81 individuals and entities connected, in some way, to the president.

So far only a fraction of those targeted have responded or complied with the document requests by the Nadler-imposed deadline of March 18.

Democrats in the House will also ask multiple executive branch agencies to preserve the information they gave to the special counsel, the Washington Post reported.

POLITICAL REACTION POURS IN AFTER MUELLER REPORT DROP

The Democratic chairs of the six House committees investigating the Trump administration and their Senate Democratic counterparts reportedly have penned a letter that will be sent to the Department of Justice, FBI and White House Counsel’s Office, and other agencies in an effort to preserve records in the event of the committees requesting for them.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,made similar comments to Nadler and rejected reports that no more Mueller indictments are coming.

“If necessary, we will call Bob Mueller or others before our committee, I would imagine the judiciary committee may call the attorney general if necessary,” Schiff told CNN.

This is not the first time Schiff dismissed the importance of the Mueller report. Earlier this month, he insisted that the question of whether Trump was “compromised by a foreign power” would end only when Schiff's panel's investigation ends.

“Our predominant concern on my committee is: Was this president, is this president, compromised by a foreign power?,” Schiff said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

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“Well, if there’s insufficient evidence in the Mueller report and we’re not able to produce sufficient evidence in our own investigation," Schiff said, "that ends the inquiry."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Merck KGaA goes hostile in $5.9 billion Versum takeover battle

FILE PHOTO: A logo of drugs and chemicals group Merck KGaA is pictured in Darmstadt
FILE PHOTO: A logo of drugs and chemicals group Merck KGaA is pictured in Darmstadt, Germany January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

March 26, 2019

By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German pharma group Merck KGaA on Tuesday sidestepped the management of takeover target Versum Materials and took its $5.9 billion offer directly to the U.S. chemical company’s shareholders.

Versum, the former specialty chemicals division of industrial gases group Air Products, has been opposed to Merck’s cash offer since it was first proposed last month, saying it was committed to an all-share merger with U.S. rival Entegris agreed in January.

Merck on Tuesday kept its offer price unchanged at $48 per share in cash. That compares with an offer of $38.8 worth of Entegris stock for each Versum share under the existing deal, based on Entegris’ closing price of $34.68 on Monday.

“The Versum Board’s hasty rejection of our proposal and unwillingness to engage in discussions with us has forced us to take this proposal directly to shareholders,” family-controlled Merck said in a letter to Versum shareholders after filing definitive proxy materials with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

For diversified Merck, controlled by descendants of the group’s 17th century founder, this marks the first hostile takeover attempt since its 2006 swoop on domestic drugs rival Schering, which Bayer eventually snatched up for 17 billion euros.

The move is also the first major hostile takeover attempt by a German company for a U.S. target since BASF’s 2006 approach for catalytic converter maker Engelhard, which ended up being an agreed deal.

Merck’s offer will run until June 7, the letter said. A Merck spokesman said the offer would be conditional on Merck winning over investors with combined holdings of more than 50 percent of Versum shares.

Merck said Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas Fortis and Deutsche Bank had committed financing for a Versum acquisition.

Versum’s shares closed at $49.67 on Monday, reflecting hopes of a higher bid. Merck shares were up 0.9 percent.

Merck is building a high-tech chemicals division, called Performance Materials, that caters to the electronics industry.

A major part of that is its liquid crystals business, which used to enjoy operating income margins of 40-50 percent but is now seeing sales shrink amid pressure from Chinese rivals.

Both Merck and Entegris are seen as trying to seize on beaten down stock prices in the volatile semiconductor industry after demand for mobile devices slowed and prices for memory chips sank. Versum, which makes chemicals for the semiconductor industry, has seen a 27 percent drop in its shares in 2018.

The main rivals in the fragmented market for chemicals used in electronics include DuPont, Honeywell , Hitachi Chemical, Shin-Etsu, according to UBS analysts.

Merck is diversified across three separate businesses, including a pharmaceuticals unit, which struck a 3.7 billion euro collaboration deal with GlaxoSmithKline last month, and a life science division that makes supplies and gear for biotech labs.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Tassilo Hummel and Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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Girl, 10, killed in her driveway in Phoenix road-rage shooting

Police reportedly seized a pickup truck Friday that may have been used in connection with the shooting death of a 10-year-old girl killed in a suspected road-rage incident in Phoenix.

Summerbell Brown was with her sister and parents Wednesday afternoon when she was shot. Police said her killer was driving a white Ford F-150 that was captured on surveillance video following the Brown family’s vehicle on a residential street.

"This nightmare is going to replay in my head forever," Summberbell's mother Taniesha Brown told ABC 15 Phoenix. "I can't sleep. I hope she's at peace."

The pickup that was seized by police matched the description of the vehicle they have been looking for, FOX10 Phoenix reported Friday.

DRIVER OF MINNESOTA SCHOOL BUS WITH STUDENT ABOARD IS SHOT IN APPARENT ROAD-RAGE INCIDENT, COPS SAY

Police found it in a residential Phoenix neighborhood, the station reported.

The surveillance video footage was released Thursday, along with a suspect sketch, by police seeking help in locating the driver.

Police said the pickup involved in the shooting had dark tinted windows and damage above the rear wheel on the driver’s side, FOX10 reported.

MASSACHUSETTS MAN, 65, CLINGS TO HOOD OF SUV ON TURNPIKE IN SUSPECTED ROAD-RAGE INCIDENT

Summerbell's killer tailed the Brown family into their driveway, officials said.

"He was ready to start shooting,” her father Dharquintium Brown told ABC 15. “I got out of my vehicle, and asked him, 'What's going on?' Because he stopped at my house. I asked him, 'What's up?' And he just got to firing. He shot my car, and he shot me, and he shot up my house and he killed my daughter."

Summerbell died of her injuries Thursday.

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Brown had been driving. Summberbell's mother and sister were not hurt, police said.

Source: Fox News National

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Newt Gingrich urges Trump not to shut down border: ‘It would truly be a mess’

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told President Trump shutting down the border with Mexico would be "absurd" for millions of families.

Gingrich made the comment on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning after the commander-in-chief threated to close the Southern Border if Mexico doesn't "immediately stop" the record-breaking surge of illegal immigrants flooding into the states.

"I would strongly urge the president not to try to shut down the border," Gingrich said. "We have so many people every day who go back and forth. We have so much economic goods on both sides. It would truly be a mess, and it would frankly mess up the very economy he's proud of. You'd have tremendous side effects from closing the border."

AMERICA WOULD RUN OUT OF AVOCADOS IN WEEKS IF TRUMP SHUTS BORDER WITH MEXICO, GROWER WARNS

The author of "Trump's America" then gave Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro credit for being honest about supporting open borders.

"The truth is the Democratic party is the open border party," Gingrich said. "They would welcome any number of immigrants. They would no longer be illegal because the border would be open."

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Gingrich said it would "totally change everything," pointing to a Gallup poll that estimated about 165 million people would decide to come to the United States if the border were truly open.

The former House Speaker continued by saying he believes Republicans should offer five or six common-sense reforms to address the crisis at the border, and while he doesn't think the president should close the border, he added: "The president - on this issues - is entirely right as commander-in-chief to say we have to get control of the border."

NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL URGES DEMOCRATS TO SEE 'EMERGENCY' CRISIS AT THE BORDER FIRST HAND

According to Customs and Border Protection, more than 76,000 migrants were detained in February, marking the highest number of apprehensions in 12 years. That figure includes more than 7,000 unaccompanied children. More than 36,000 migrant families have arrived in the El Paso region in fiscal 2019, compared with about 2,000 at the same time last year, according to CBP data.

Source: Fox News Politics

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AOC: Those Without Jobs 'Are Left to Die” in U.S.

“If you don’t have a job, you are left to die" in the United States, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said over the weekend, The Verge reported on Sunday.

Ocasio-Cortez, speaking at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, made the comments in the context of explaining that "we should not be haunted by" the possibility of automated workers replacing jobs.

"We should be excited by that,” the New York congresswoman said. “But the reason we’re not excited by it is because we live in a society where if you don’t have a job, you are left to die. And that is, at its core, our problem."

She added that expanded automation could potentially mean "more time educating ourselves, more time creating art, more time investing in and investigating the sciences, more time focused on invention… more time enjoying the world that we live in. Because not all creativity needs to be bonded by wage.”

Ocasio-Cortez did not put forward a specific plan for dealing with automation, but her comments were part of her general message against economic inequality and corporate greed.

“We should be working the least amount we’ve ever worked, if we were actually paid based on how much wealth we were producing,” she said. “But we’re not. We’re paid on how little we’re desperate enough to accept. And then the rest is skimmed off and given to a billionaire.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who describes herself as a democratic socialist, has proposed the Green New Deal resolution, according to The Hill.

The plan aims for zero carbon emissions in a decade and includes a federal jobs guarantee.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Trump departs for travel to Indianapolis from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Indianapolis, Indiana from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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