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U.S. farmers receive $7.7 billion in trade aid to date: USDA

FILE PHOTO: Farmer Lucas Richard of LFR Grain harvests a crop of soybeans at a farm in Hickory
FILE PHOTO: Farmer Lucas Richard of LFR Grain harvests a crop of soybeans at a farm in Hickory, North Carolina, U.S. November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Mostoller/File Photo

February 22, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Department of Agriculture has paid out $7.7 billion so far to farmers, William Northey, Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, said on Friday, in aid designed to offset the negative impact of tariff imposition.

The administration of President Donald Trump has pledged up to $12 billion in aid to help offset losses for crops hit by retaliatory Chinese tariffs imposed in response to Washington’s tariffs on Chinese goods.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Pernod CEO: in regular and ‘courteous’ talks with Elliott

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Ricard is seen on labels at the Ricard manufacturing unit in Lormont, near Bordeaux
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Ricard is seen on labels at the Ricard manufacturing unit in Lormont, near Bordeaux, France February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

April 18, 2019

By Dominique Vidalon and Pascale Denis

PARIS (Reuters) – Drinks group Pernod Ricard is having regular and “courteous” talks with activist investor Elliott, although it is not necessarily meeting Elliott any more than it would with any other regular shareholder, the head of Pernod told Reuters.

“There is a regular dialogue between the teams, but we do not see them more than other shareholders. My ambition remains to deliver on our strategic plan, that’s my motto,” CEO Alexandre Ricard said in a telephone interview.

When asked about speculation that Pernod could sell the whole or part of its wine business, Ricard replied: “Pernod Ricard has the firm intention to continue to actively manage its portfolio, in terms of either selling or buying.”

Ricard added he was “not worried” about Pernod’s business in Cuba, despite latest moves by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Trump administration is lifting a long-standing ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cuba’s Communist government since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

The major policy shift, which the State Department said could draw hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billion of dollars, is intended to intensify pressure on Havana at a time Washington is demanding an end to Cuban support for Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Pascale Denis; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

Source: OANN

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Was Trump trying to silence Cohen? Mueller wasn’t sure

Days after the FBI raided Michael Cohen's home and office last year, President Donald Trump called his longtime fixer and urged him to "stay strong" and "hang in there" in the face of the intensifying investigation.

That call was among several assurances Cohen says he received that the White House would have his back so long as he "stayed on message," special counsel Robert Mueller said in his long-awaited report on his Trump investigation. The redacted 448-page document was made public Thursday.

Mueller's team said it found evidence to suggest that the president intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with federal authorities, noting among other things that after Cohen flipped on his boss, Trump branded him a "rat" and publicly suggested Cohen's family members had committed crimes.

Ultimately, however, the special counsel reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. And last month, upon receiving Mueller's report, Attorney General William Barr decided Trump shouldn't be prosecuted.

Cohen, 52, is set to report to prison next month to begin serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to crimes that included lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow and arranging the payment of hush money to a porn star and a Playboy centerfold who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

The Mueller report, though blacked out in places, offers a window into the quiet support Cohen received from Trump before he turned on his longtime boss and began cooperating with federal prosecutors.

In the months after the April 2018 raid against Cohen by the FBI, Trump associates sought to assure him that the president intended to take care of him. Someone associated with the Trump Organization — whose name is blacked out of the report — told Cohen that "everyone knows the boss has your back." Another time, a friend of the president's reached out to tell Cohen that he was with "the Boss" at Mar-a-Lago and that Trump said "he loves you" and not to worry, according to the report.

Cohen "believed he needed the power of the President to take care of him," he told Mueller's team, noting his legal fees were still being paid at the time by the Trump Organization.

But Cohen grew increasingly worried and asked one Trump attorney "what was in it for him," the report says. Cohen "discussed pardons with the President's personal counsel and believed that if he stayed on message he would be taken care of."

By June 2018, however, he had broken with the president, saying in an interview that he needed to put family and country ahead of his loyalty to Trump. Trump reacted by lashing out at him and later, in what Cohen regarded as a threat, accused Cohen family members of illegal acts.

"The evidence concerning this sequence of events," the Mueller report says, "could support an inference that the President used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter the provision of information or undermine Cohen's credibility once Cohen began cooperating."

Some of Cohen's statements to Mueller's team were blacked out of the report. But Cohen attorney and spokesman Lanny Davis tweeted Thursday that Cohen has "7 days, 70 hours, + 100 pages of what #TeamMueller knows and can fill in the bulk of the redactions."

Cohen himself tweeted: "Soon I will be ready to address the American people again ... tell it all ... and tell it myself!" It wasn't clear how or when he would do that.

Source: Fox News National

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Ancient shipwreck to be made accessible to divers in Greece

Near the northern Greek island of Alonissos lies a remarkable ancient shipwreck: the remains of a massive cargo ship that changed archaeologists' understanding of shipbuilding in antiquity.

Now this spectacular find is to become the first ancient shipwreck to be made accessible to the public in Greece, including to recreational divers.

Greece's rich underwater heritage has long been hidden from view, off-limits to all but a select few, mainly archaeologists. Scuba diving was banned throughout the country except in a few specific locations until 2005, for fear that divers might loot the countless antiquities that still lie scattered on the country's seabed.

Ancient shipwrecks and even many more recent ones are still off-limits.

Now that seems to be gradually changing, with a new project to create underwater museums.

Divers will be able to tour certain shipwrecks and non-divers will experience the sites through virtual reality in information centers on land.

The first of these sites is the Peristera shipwreck, named for the uninhabited Greek island opposite Alonissos where it was discovered in the early 1990s. The cargo ship was laden with thousands of amphoras, or vases, probably containing wine, when it sank in the late 5th century B.C.

All that survives is the cargo, the exposed parts of the wooden ship having long since rotted away. But the sight is spectacular.

Thousands of ancient vases, the vast majority intact, lie in layers. Fish, sponges and other sea creatures have made the amphoras their home, adding color and life to the site. In some places, the cargo towers above divers as they pass along the perimeter of the wreck.

"It is very impressive. Even I, who have been working for years in underwater archaeology, the first time I dived on this wreck I was truly impressed," said Dimitris Kourkoumelis, the lead archaeologist on the project preparing the site for visitors. "It's different to see amphoras ... individually in a museum and different to see them in such concentration."

The wreck still holds mysteries. Only a small part has been excavated, and experts have yet to determine how or why it sank, or what other treasures it might have carried beneath the estimated 4,000 amphoras in its hold.

There are indications a fire had broken out on board, but it's unclear whether that contributed to its sinking.

"Was it a piracy act? Was it overloaded?" said Elpida Hadjidaki, the first archaeologist to excavate the site. These questions remain unanswered.

The Peristera wreck is the largest ship of its time to have been found and its discovery was of major significance to historians.

"Up to then, we thought that large ships that were carrying 1,500 amphoras and were up to 70 tons, they were built by the Romans in the 1st century B.C.," Hadjidaki explained. "Well, now we have a ship that was not built in the 1st century B.C., it was built in the 5th century B.C., it carried 4,000 amphoras and God knows what else and it's 126 tons."

Hadjidaki said she is thrilled the wreck is being opened to visitors.

"It's fantastic. Twenty-five years ago, I was the first person that proposed that and people were jumping at me, they thought I was crazy," she said. "Why should we keep it to ourselves? We have to give knowledge to people."

The first test for guided tours of the wreck, which lies at a depth of about 22-28 meters (72-92 feet), was carried out last weekend with small groups of recreational and professional divers.

A thorough briefing, complete with historical information and the rules of the dive, preceded the short boat ride from the tiny harbor of Steni Valla on Alonissos to the site. On the wreck itself, explanatory signs have been suspended along the perimeter.

The initial feedback has been positive.

"It was an amazing opportunity ... to dive at last on an ancient wreck," said Kostas Menemenoglou, a 39-year-old recreational diver from the central town of Volos. "It was a fantastic experience. It's really like diving into history."

Three other shipwrecks in the Pagasitic Gulf in central Greece are also included in the project, which is part of a European Commission-funded BlueMed program, which plans to expand the project to Italy and Croatia. More test dives will be held this summer and next year, with hopes of fully opening the sites to recreational diving in early 2021.

"Accessible archaeological sites are one of the most interesting projects — not just a Greek project but a worldwide project," said Kourkoumelis, who noted it has taken a long time to get to the point of allowing visitors to access an ancient wreck.

"It took years. And that's logical, because underwater ancient sites and particularly ancient shipwrecks are exposed ... and fragile," he said, noting it was crucial to properly set up the project and the dive conditions, making sure the sites are protected before they can be opened to the public.

"All the conditions must be ensured so that these sites remain safe in the future and for future generations," he added.

____

Follow Becatoros on https://twitter.com/ElenaBec

Source: Fox News World

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Weary EU set to give yet more time for Brexit

Rally held by The People's Vote in London
A man waves a European flag at a rally held by The People's Vote, calling for another Brexit referendum, ahead of an EU summit, in London, Britain, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

April 9, 2019

By Alastair Macdonald and Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Brexit will not be on Friday, EU leaders will confirm when they meet British Prime Minister Theresa May at another crisis summit on Wednesday, but diplomats said they are still wrestling on how long it might be delayed and under what conditions.

May, still unable to find a parliamentary majority to back the orderly departure deal she negotiated with Brussels, shuttled to Berlin and Paris for pre-summit talks, while EU ministers gathered in Luxembourg to prepare Wednesday’s meeting.

Two weeks after a summit at which the other 27 EU leaders granted London a fortnight’s grace from the original departure deadline until April 12, EU ministers said May had failed to meet their conditions for a further extension – namely to show them a plan for using additional time to avoid crashing out.

Yet EU diplomats said there was no appetite around the table to drop the axe on Britain just yet. They said that talks, which were to continue among national envoys in Brussels later on Tuesday, were now focused on a proposal from summit chair Donald Tusk to give Britain up to a year longer to organize its withdrawal.

“People are tired and fed up – but what to do?” one said. “We won’t be the ones pushing the UK off the cliff edge.”

However, a long extension would entail Britain holding an election on May 23 to return lawmakers to the new session of the European Parliament, which starts on July 2. The EU would also like to limit Britain’s ability to influence key decisions, such as on the bloc’s new executive leadership or budget, if it stays for longer – though that would be far from easy to do legally.

A nine-month extension to Dec. 31 was gaining favor, diplomats said. But officials are also trying to come up with ways to pressure the British to take a decision sooner rather than later – in part, by offering a long delay that pro-Brexit critics of May’s deal fear might mean Brexit never happens.

EXTENSION? WHAT FOR?

Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, told reporters after briefing ministers in Luxembourg: “Any extension should serve a purpose. The length should be proportional to the objective. Our objective is an orderly withdrawal.

“No-deal will never by the EU’s decision,” he added. “In order to avoid no-deal, the UK needs to agree to a deal.”

An aide to French President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken a lead in pushing for the Union to be ready to show Britain the door if its parliament cannot ratify a withdrawal deal, said a full year would be too long. The aide stressed that Britain could be subject to reviews of its behavior to ensure it did not disrupt the bloc from within.

May has renewed the request she made last month for an extension to June 30, saying that talks she launched last week with her Labour opponents gave her a chance of ratifying her Brexit deal after three previous defeats in parliament.

EU leaders would much prefer Britain to be out by May 22, before the elections, and will insist on Britain holding its own vote on May 23, even if it expects to have left before the new EU legislature sits in July. May has planned for a contingency of giving six weeks’ notice by Friday of an EU election.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel will host a meeting of Britain’s closest neighbors, the ones who would be hardest hit by the disruption of a no-deal Brexit, just ahead of the summit. Officials expect the French, Dutch, Danish and Swedish leaders to attend – in principle to coordinate on trade arrangements, but also to discuss objectives for the summit in the evening.

May is due to address the 27 at 6:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) before leaving the room while the others discuss over dinner whether and how to postpone Friday’s deadline for Britain’s departure.

“Things are fluid,” a senior EU diplomat said. Leaders were meeting and calling each other across the continent, trying to coordinate, leaving the summit outcome still very uncertain.

(Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Death toll from collapse of buildings in Brazil rises to 7

Brazilian firefighters say the death toll from the collapse of a pair of buildings in Rio de Janeiro has risen to seven, with 10 others injured.

The Rio fire department's press office said Saturday that 17 people are also listed as missing.

The condemned four-story buildings collapsed Friday in the hillside neighborhood of Itanhanga, an area that was hard hit by recent heavy rains and flash floods.

Fire department Col. Luciano Sarmento said he hoped survivors would be found because "air pockets may have been formed allowing people to breathe."

Authorities are combing through the rubble in an around-the-clock search.

Rio Mayor Marcelo Crivella said earlier that the area where the buildings stood was run by militias that control large swaths of Rio.

Source: Fox News World

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Families of Christchurch dead in agonizing wait for burials

Families of the 50 people killed in the Christchurch mosque shootings are enduring an increasingly agonizing wait for the bodies of victims to be released as New Zealand reels from the unprecedented tragedy.

Three days after Friday's attack, New Zealand's deadliest shooting in modern history, relatives were anxiously waiting for word on when they can bury their loved ones. Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible after death.

Aya Al-Umari, whose older brother Hussien Al-Umari died at the Al Noor mosque, said "It's very unsettling not knowing what's going on, if you just let me know — is he still in the mosque? Is he in a fridge? Where is he?"

Authorities say they hope to release all the bodies by Wednesday.

Source: Fox News World

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Logo of the Exxon Mobil Corp is seen at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference in Rio de Janeiro
FILE PHOTO: A logo of the Exxon Mobil Corp is seen at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp on Friday reported first-quarter profit fell sharply on lower oil and gas prices and weakness in its refining and chemicals businesses that offset modest production gains.

The largest U.S. oil producer’s first quarter earnings fell to $2.35 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $4.65 billion, or $1.09 a share, a year ago.

Analysts had expected Exxon to earn 70 cents per share, according to Refinitiv Eikon estimates.

Shares were trading down about 2.7 percent in premarket trading on Friday.

Exxon’s oil equivalent production rose 2 percent to 4 million barrels per day, up from 3.9 million bpd in the same period the year prior. The company said its output in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale basin, rose 140 percent over a year ago.

(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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A Baha’i advocacy group has expressed concerns over the fate of minority Baha’is at the hands of Yemen’s Houthi rebels ahead of the appeals hearing for one of the community leaders sentenced to death.

The Baha’i International Community said in a statement Friday that the hearing for Hamed bin Haydara, detained in 2013 and sentenced to death last year on espionage and apostasy charges, is due on Tuesday.

The statement quotes Bani Dugal, the Baha’i community representative at the United Nations, as saying the prosecution hasn’t addressed Haydara’s appeal but is instead making “absurd, wide-ranging accusations.”

International rights groups have decried the prosecution of Yemeni Baha’is by the Iran-backed Houthis.

Iran has banned the Baha’i religion, which was founded in 1844 by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by followers.

Source: Fox News World

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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani encouraged newly-elected lawmakers to participate in the peace process with the Taliban as he opened on Friday the first session of parliament since a controversial election.

Ghani has invited thousands of politicians, religious scholars and rights activists to an assembly known as a loya jirga next week to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Several opposition leaders have said they will boycott the four-day assembly in Kabul, saying it was pulled together without their input and is being used by Ghani as he seeks a second term in a September presidential election.

“We have presented the peace plan on a regular basis and we are committed to it,” Ghani said in the first session since parliamentary elections marred by technical problems, militant attacks and accusations of voting fraud last year.

“Based on this plan, there will be no peace deal and negotiation that does not have the green card of the parliament,” he added.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks to end the Afghan war.

U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reported some progress toward an accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal and on how the Taliban would prevent extremists from using Afghanistan to launch attacks as al Qaeda did on Sept. 11, 2001.

The insurgents have so far rejected U.S. demands for a ceasefire and talks on the country’s political future that would include Afghan government officials.

The loya jirga, a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups, is an attempt by Ghani to influence the peace talks and cement his position for a second term, Afghan politicians and Western diplomats say.

Amid growing political divisions in Kabul, opposition politicians have demanded that Ghani step down when his mandate ends next month, and give way to an interim government to oversee peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani has ruled that out.

The country’s top court said last week Ghani can stay in office until the presidential election in September.

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad, Rupam Jain, Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday defended special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while slamming former President Barack Obama’s administration for being slow to take action on Russian interference in U.S. elections and ex-FBI Director James Comey for telling Congress the agency was investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence schemes,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association, marking his first public remarks after the Mueller report was released, reports CBS News.

He also pointed out that the investigation revealed a pattern of computer hacking and the use of social media to undermine elections as “only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration also made “critical decisions,” including choosing not to publicize the full story about Russian hackers and social media trolling, “and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America,” said Rosenstein.

He noted that the Mueller probe began after Comey disclosed during a hearing before Congress that President Donald Trump “pressured him to close the investigation and the president denied that the conversation occurred.”

Rosenstein said two years ago, when he was confirmed, he was told by a Republican senator that he would be in charge of the probe and that he’d report the results to the American people.

However, he said he didn’t promise to do that, because it is “not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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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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