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Communist Chinese Government Takes Ethnic Cleansing To The Next Level In Urumqi

Audrey Conklin | Reporter

China’s communist government has been steadily trying to eradicate a Muslim ethnic group in the ancient city of Urumqui for several years, though the impact hasn’t been completely visible until now.

While the West has only known about this crisis in Urumqui for several years because of the area’s strict government security, China is making steady progress with its destruction of a once-vibrant community, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Nearly 13 million Turcik Muslims — the majority of whom are Uighur Muslims — make up the northwestern territory of Xinjiang, China, where Urumqui is located. Turcik Muslims have appeared in recorded Chinese history since the third century A.D.

In the city of Urumqi specifically, Uighurs make up about 13 percent of the total population. In 2017, however, the total population of the city fell 15 percent, from 2.6 million to 2.2 million.

The government has already succeeded in forcing about 1 million Uighur people into internment camps that they’ve dubbed “boarding schools” or “re-education camps” in an effort to suppress their religious beliefs, which Chinese officials say will stay unless Uighurs give up Islam. In more recent developments, the government is destroying homes, businesses and general Uighur existence in the area. (RELATED: China Strongly Implies Muslim Internment Camps Will Never Go Away)

“When plans for Urumqi’s urban overhaul were announced in 2017, the party-controlled Xinjiang Daily said the government would offer compensation to residents forced to move, and planned new residential districts ‘designed with full consideration of the customs and convenience of all ethnic groups,'” The Journal explains.

An ethnic Uighur women reads a newspaper on display on a notice board in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region/ REUTERS/David Gray

An ethnic Uighur women reads a newspaper on display on a notice board in the city of Urumqi in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region/ REUTERS/David Gray

While there were about 400 active mosques in Uighur in 2015, there are now only bare-boned remnants of places of worship. Traditional Uighur restaurants and food stands have closed; Uighur language books have been removed from stores; signs written in the Uighur language have been replaced by Chinese characters; homes have been destroyed as Uighur communities are forced out of the area. And as these places disappear, they are replaced by stores and restaurants meant to appeal to Chinese tourists.

The government has allocated billions to Urumqi for infrastructure spending. In 2017, fixed assets exceeded $30 billion to invest in infrastructure, factories and other building (or rebuilding) plans for the city. In 2018, Urumqi spent $10 billion to destroy the city’s increasingly abandoned outskirts.

And those Uighur people who are still living outside of internment camps organized by the government have been subject to massively invasive digital surveillance. (RELATED: Uighur Muslim Woman Recalls Torture In Chinese Government Internment Camp: ‘I Thought I Would Rather Die’)

As The Journal explains, “It is nearly impossible to move about the region without feeling the unrelenting gaze of the government. Citizens and visitors alike must run a daily gauntlet of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras and machines scanning their ID cards, faces, eyeballs and sometimes entire bodies.”

The Chinese government justifies its massive crackdown on this specific population of citizens as a way to keep China unified and safe from radical Islamic terrorism.

A recent TIME magazine article says China has arrested nearly 13,000 people it describes as terrorists in Xinjiang.

According to Human Rights Watch, “Domestic state media reports and government documents do talk about the [detainment] camps. They explain that these camps are necessary to cure the minds of Turkic Muslims who have an ‘ideological illness.'”

Source: The Daily Caller

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Poll: Catholics Question Loyalty to Church Amid Sex Abuse Scandal

More than one in three Catholics question if they want to remain Catholic — a sign of their deep "frustration" with church leadership amid reports of widespread sexual abuse, according to one expert.

In a Gallup poll last month, 37% of U.S. Catholics said news of the abuse caused them to doubt their loyalty to the church — up from 22% in 2002.

In a Gallup podcast Wednesday examining the results, lawyer and Catholic activist Sister Simone Campbell said Roman Catholic leaders need to pay attention to those findings.

She said the remark she most often hears about Catholics is "'when will they ever learn, when will they stop this?'" adding the Pennsylvania attorney general report on decades of abuse was "shocking and horrifying."

"Folks are really frustrated by that," she said.

"My neighbor told me he quit going to church," she recounted, but said more of "what I hear [from Catholics] is [they're] shopping around more, looking for leadership they can trust."

"When there are broader groups involved in managing the diocese . . . then there's a whole different change," she added, saying what is important for the church leadership to do is
"being willing to talk about the sin of our church."

"I do urge dioceses and bishops to have shared leadership, that includes men and women . . .  as well as not hiding from the sin of our past."

Podcast producer Justin McCarthy also interviewed Catholics on a panel about their feelings about the church amid the sex abuse scandal.

"I wouldn't even go to confession . . . how do you confess to someone who's already committed more sins than I have," one unidentified female panelist said.

One man recounted he no longer makes charitable contributions to the church because he believes "they're using some of that money for lawsuits."

Another lamented when he was in college, "I stopped going to church [though] I decided I [still] wanted to be a Catholic, I stayed in the church."

"Then when all this stuff hit the fan . . . everyday I thought, 'what am I doing? Is this something I want to be involved with? [Leaders] knew about this."

Source: NewsMax America

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NHL roundup: Pastrnak hat trick leads Bruins over Rangers

NHL: New York Rangers at Boston Bruins
Mar 27, 2019; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) smiles at teammates after scoring his third goal of the game during the third period against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

March 28, 2019

David Pastrnak continued his torrid return from injury with a hat trick and two assists, and the Boston Bruins won their 12th straight at home, 6-3 over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

Pastrnak failed to record a point March 19 in his first contest back after missing 16 with a thumb injury, but he has five goals and six assists in four since.

On Wednesday, he set career highs with his 36th goal and five points in a regular-season game while helping the playoff-bound Bruins extend their longest home winning streak since a 14-game run in 2008-09.

Boston also avoided being swept in the three-game season series by the Rangers, who will miss the playoffs for a second straight campaign and are 2-8-5 since Feb. 24.

Stars 2, Flames 1

Dallas took another step toward clinching a playoff spot with a win at Calgary, but they may have paid a heavy price with goalie Ben Bishop leaving the game due to injury.

Late in the second period, Bishop came up lame after sliding across the crease while tracking the play and immediately departed due to a lower-body injury. It’s the second time this month Bishop has been hurt during a game. After getting injured on March 14, he missed two games.

The Stars, who hold the first Western Conference wild-card spot, received 20 saves from Bishop and another 15 stops from Anton Khudobin. Alex Radulov and Miro Heiskanen put Dallas up 2-0 with the Flames’ TJ Brodie scoring late.

Avalanche 4, Golden Knights 3

Tyson Barrie had a goal and two assists, and Nathan MacKinnon added a goal and an assist to lead Colorado to victory over Vegas in Denver.

Matt Calvert and Gabriel Bourque also scored goals for the Avalanche, which won for the fifth time in six games and moved two points ahead of Arizona for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Avalanche and Coyotes, who both have five games remaining, play Friday night in Denver.

Philipp Grubauer had 34 saves to pick up his career-high 16th win of the season, improving to 5-0-1 in his last six starts.

Flyers 5, Maple Leafs 4 (SO)

Sean Couturier scored in the fifth round of a shootout to lift host Philadelphia past Toronto. Flyers goaltender Carter Hart, who made 38 saves through regulation and overtime, stopped William Nylander’s fifth-round attempt to preserve the win.

Couturier had the only successful shootout attempt among the 10 skaters who participated. The Flyers snapped their three-game home losing streak.

Travis Konecny, Radko Gudas, Couturier and Ryan Hartman each scored in regulation for the Flyers, who remained mathematically alive in the race for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Rescues, Evacuations as Floodwaters Breach Levees in Midwest

Authorities were using boats and large vehicles on Saturday to rescue and evacuate residents in parts of the Midwest where a recent deluge of rainwater and snowmelt was sent pouring over frozen ground, overwhelming creeks and rivers, and killing at least one person.

The scramble to move people out of harm's way was expected to subside going into the new week, as rivers and creeks in flooded eastern Nebraska and western Iowa were expected to crest Saturday and Sunday. That left officials downstream looking to prepare for likely flooding.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson had already met with emergency management team members Friday to review and update flood-response plans, and the Missouri Highway Patrol was preparing additional equipment and putting swift water rescue personnel on standby. The Missouri National Guard also temporarily relocated the 139th Airlift Wing's C-130s from Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in St. Joseph as a precaution.

The National Weather Service said the Missouri River at St. Joseph reached nearly 26 feet on Saturday, about a foot below what's considered major flooding at the northwest Missouri city. But it's expected to crest Wednesday or Thursday at 29.3 feet — more than two feet above major flooding level.

Evacuation efforts in eastern Nebraska and some spots in western Iowa on Saturday were hampered by reports of levee breaches and washouts of bridges and roads, including part of Nebraska Highway 92, leading in and out of southwest Omaha. Authorities confirmed that a bridge on that highway that crosses the Elkhorn River had been washed out Saturday. In Fremont, west of Omaha, the Dodge County Sheriff's Office issued a mandatory evacuation for some residents after floodwaters broke through a levee along the Platte River. And in Mills County, Iowa, authorities ordered people in some rural areas to evacuate after the Missouri River overtopped levees.

The flooding followed days of snow and rain — record-setting, in some places — that swept through the West and Midwest. The deluge pushed some waterways, including the Missouri River, to record levels in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. The flooding was the worst in nearly a decade in places.

The family of farmer James Wilke, 50, of Columbus, Nebraska, said he was killed Thursday when a bridge collapsed as he was using his tractor to try to reach stranded motorists on Thursday. His body was found downstream, his cousin Paul Wilke told the Columbus Telegram. Gass Haney Funeral Home confirmed James Wilke's death.

At least two other people were missing in floodwaters in Nebraska. Officials said a Norfolk man was seen on top of his flooded car late Thursday before being swept away in the water and another man was swept away by waters when a dam collapsed on the Niobrara River.

Officials in Sarpy County, south of Omaha, said Saturday that power may be shut off to communities along the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers for safety reasons. They warned those who choose to ignore calls to evacuate that rescues would be attempted only during daylight hours. Some cities and towns, such as North Bend on the banks of the Platte River, were submerged. Others, such as Waterloo and Fremont, were surrounded by floodwaters, stranding residents in virtual islands with no access in or out.

"There is no way out of here unless you've got a helicopter — or a boat," the Rev. Mike Bitter, pastor of Christian Church of Waterloo, told the Omaha World-Herald.

Officials in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska were urging people not to drive unless necessary. In Iowa, a section of northbound Interstate 29 that runs parallel to the Missouri River was closed due to flooding. Authorities were rerouting motorists at Kansas City, Missouri, using a detour that took people almost 140 miles (225 kilometers) out of the way.

Farther east, the Mississippi River saw moderate flooding in Illinois from Rock Island south to Gladstone. Meteorologist Brian Pierce with the National Weather Service's Quad Cities office in Davenport, Iowa, said flooding on the Mississippi could get worse a few weeks as more snow melts in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"What we're having now is the dress rehearsal for the main event that's going to happen in early April," he said of the flooding on the Mississippi.

Rising waters along the Pecatonica and Rock rivers flooded some homes in the northern Illinois cities of Freeport, Rockford and Machesney Park. The National Weather Service said record crests were possible along the rivers, with water levels forecast to continue to rise over the next several days and remain above flood stage through most of the weekend.

Freeport resident Mary Martin told the (Freeport) Journal-Standard that she went to the store to get milk and bread when she saw floodwaters were rising Friday.

"Within an hour of going to the store, I could not get back in. That's how fast the water was coming up," Martin said.

Source: NewsMax America

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World reacts with sadness and anger to New Zealand mosque attacks

AOS (Armed Offenders Squad) push back members of the public following a shooting at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch
AOS (Armed Offenders Squad) push back members of the public following a shooting at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 15, 2019. REUTERS/SNPA/Martin Hunter

March 15, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Leaders around the world expressed disgust and sorrow at the killing of 49 people in New Zealand mosques on Friday, attacks that many blamed on the demonization of Muslims.

Western leaders from Donald Trump to Angela Merkel expressed solidarity with the people of New Zealand, deploring what the White House called a “vicious act of hate”. The response from some Muslim countries went further, blaming politicians and the media for stoking that hatred.

“I blame these increasing terror attacks on the current Islamophobia post-9/11 (where) 1.3 billion Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror,” Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote on social media.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the attack was a result of Muslims being demonized. “Not only the perpetrators, but also politicians & media that fuel the already escalated Islamophobia and hate in the West are equally responsible for this heinous attack,” he tweeted.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated “the urgency of working better together globally to counter Islamophobia and eliminate intolerance and violent extremism in all its forms,” a spokesman said.

Hundreds of protesters in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, chanted “Allahu akbar!” (God is Greatest) after Friday prayers.

“We will not let the blood of Muslims go in vain,” said one protester. Members of the Bangladesh national cricket team, in Christchurch for a match against New Zealand, had arrived for Friday prayers as the shooting started but were not hurt.

‘THEY ARE US’

New Zealand police said 49 people had died and more than 40 were wounded. Three people were in custody including one man who has been charged with murder, police said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said some of the victims may have been new immigrants or refugees.

“They are us,” she said. “The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not. They have no place in New Zealand.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said an Australian national arrested after the attack was an “extremist, right-wing violent terrorist”.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who is New Zealand’s head of state, said she was “deeply saddened by the appalling events”.

Pope Francis deplored the “senseless acts of violence”.

In a message of condolence sent by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis “assures all New Zealanders, and in particular the Muslim community, of his heartfelt solidarity in the wake of these attacks”.

President Trump described the attack as a “horrible massacre” and said the United States stood by New Zealand.

In Europe, German Chancellor Merkel mourned “with the New Zealanders for their fellow citizens who were attacked and murdered out of racist hatred while peacefully praying in their mosques”. Her foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said: “When people are murdered solely because of their religion, this is an attack on us all.”

‘FLAMES OF HATRED’

Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, said Londoners stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of Christchurch. He also pointed his finger at those who promote religious hatred:

“When the flames of hatred are fanned, when people are demonized because of their faith, when people’s fears are played on rather than addressed, the consequences are deadly, as we have seen so sadly today,” he said.

The Palestinian chief peace negotiator, Saeb Erekat, called the attack a “consequence of racist ideologies that continue trying to promote religious wars”.

He compared it to the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people last October, deadly attacks on churches in Egypt by Islamic State and an attack by a far-right Israeli gunman on a West Bank mosque in 1994 that killed 29 people.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the attack brought back memories of 2011, when anti-Muslim extremist Anders Breivik killed 77 people at a youth gathering on a Norwegian island: “It shows that extremism is nurtured and that it lives in many places.”

Al-Azhar University, Egypt’s 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islamic learning, called the attack “a dangerous indicator of the dire consequences of escalating hate speech, xenophobia and the spread of Islamophobia”.

(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta; Nadine Awadalla in Cairo; Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Joseph Sipilan in Kuala Lumpur; Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Mike Holden in London, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, Michelle Martin in Berlin, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Roberta Rampton and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Philip Pullella in Rome; Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Tom Allard, Peter Graff and Frances Kerry; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Robin Pomeroy)

Source: OANN

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Nevada seeks to become eighth state to allow physician-assisted suicide

LAS VEGAS -- Donald Strait’s wife, Caren, died last summer after a nearly four-year-long battle with cancer, but he said he’s still fighting on her behalf.

“I'm not certain if she died of starvation, malnutrition or if she died of dehydration – lack of water,” Straight, a resident of Nevada, told Fox News. “But either way she would have much rather have been able to just simply take a pill or several pills, or whatever it takes and just be able to end it.”

Straight is referring to the Death with Dignity laws, which in seven states plus the District of Columbia allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients.

Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Hawaii, Colorado, California and Washington D.C. all have assisted dying statutes, in addition to Montana, which became legal after a state Supreme Court ruling in 2009.

Don Strait said hopes to see Senate Bill 165 pass so terminally ill patients don't suffer like his wife, who died last summer of adnominal cancer.

Don Strait said hopes to see Senate Bill 165 pass so terminally ill patients don't suffer like his wife, who died last summer of adnominal cancer.

Nevada is the latest state seeking to allow physician-assisted dying, which is also referred to as “Death with Dignity” or “Medical Aid in Dying,” after a bill was introduced in the legislature earlier this month.  

“Unfortunately, because of the way the laws were written here in this state she was forced to just lay in a bed and slowly waste away,” Straight said about his wife, who was hoping to make the trek to Washington to obtain the necessary prescription to end her life, but was too weak to travel in her final days suffering from Carcinomatosis – a form of abdominal cancer.

NJ CLEARS 1ST HURDLE TO MAKE ASSISTED SUICIDE LEGAL; OPPOSITION CALLS HEARING A 'CHARADE'

Caren eventually became unable to eat and requested no further food or liquids. It took 12 days for her to die, Donald said.

Death with dignity bills have faced strong opposition from Catholic groups, which equate them to suicide. The groups say the bill lack safeguards to protect against abuse.

“Legalizing suicide is not a solution. In the face of these challenges, we should support and accompany our loved ones with genuine compassion, not with the false compassion of assisted suicide,” said Las Vegas Bishop George Leo Thomas said.

The bills have also been questioned by some in the medical community who say it puts “too much power” in the hands of doctors.

“The choice all sounds wonderful until you start to think about that it’s going to become a burden, it’s going to become the duty to do this instead of a choice,” Dr. Kirk Bronander, a medical professor and Nevada director of the American Academy of Medical Ethics. “It’ll be a duty because families may be pushing you to do this, it may be a duty because the insurance companies are pushing you to do this.”

He warns against medical professionals taking the decision lightly.

“It does not take great skill to kill the patient,” he said, “it takes great skill to hold their hand and give them proper end of life care.”

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Nevada Democratic State Sen. David Parks, a primary sponsor of the bill in his state, said the legislation hits home in a personal way as he “made a promise some years ago to a lady who was a co-worker and she ended up succumbing to bladder cancer.”

“She said to me at one point if I was healthy enough I’d move to Oregon, and that was when Oregon was the only state that offered the Death with Dignity legislation,” Parks said, adding that she begged him to introduce a similar bill in Nevada.

NEW MEXICO ABORTION BILL CALLED 'MOST EXTREME IN THE NATION'

According to data from the Oregon Health Authority, of the 168 Death With Dignity Act deaths in 2018, the top four end-of-life concerns included losing autonomy, less able to engage in activities, loss of dignity and being a burden on family, friends/caregivers.

While losing autonomy and being less able to engage in activities was a concern for roughly 95 percent of the patients, loss of dignity and being a burden represented 79 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

Oregon’s Death with Dignity law passed in 1997, with a total of 2,217 prescriptions written under the law and 1,459 people actually having died from ingesting the pills, the data showed.

Dr. Thomas Hunt, a professor at Roseman University of Health Sciences, believes the bill has the proper safeguards in place – including being diagnosed with a terminal condition with six months or less to live, being diagnosed by two separate physicians, submitting two written requests and verbal request and the patient has to be deemed competent.

Hunt sees the controversial topic as a personal choice issue.

“If a patient feels that this is in their best interest and they feel like they have they want control over those last days weeks or maybe even a couple of months I think they should have that,” he said.

Ashley Cardenas, police and programs director for Compassion and Choices, an organization that educates the public about end-of-life care, said the “in more than 40 years of combined experience, we've never had an incident that has been substantiated for coercion or abuse or insurance fraud."

Nevada lawmakers heard the bill on Monday in Carson City. It will now head to a working group for discussion before a vote is taken up on the floor.

Source: Fox News National

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The Latest: Dutch police considering terrorism in shooting

The Latest on a shooting in a tram in the Netherlands (all times local):

12:10 p.m.

Police in the central Dutch city of Utrecht say they are investigating a shooting in a tram that left "multiple" people injured and are considering the possibility of a "terrorist motive."

Police, including heavily armed officers, flooded the area after the shooting that happened Monday morning on a tram at a busy traffic intersection.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the situation "very worrying" and the country's counterterror coordinator said in a tweet that a crisis team was meeting to discuss the situation.

There have been no reports yet of any suspects arrested.

___

11:40 a.m.

Police in the central Dutch city of Utrecht say on Twitter that "multiple" people have been injured as a result of a shooting in a tram in a residential neighborhood.

Utrecht police say that trauma helicopters were sent to the scene Monday and they are appealing to the public to stay away to allow first responders to do their work.

Further details were not immediately available.

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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