Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Biden accused by second woman of improper physical contact

A second woman has come forward to accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of inappropriate touching, further complicating the prospective presidential candidate's political future and intensifying what has become a social media reckoning on his previous public behavior with women.

Amy Lappos, 43, told the Hartford Courant in an interview published Monday that Biden grabbed her during a $1,000-per-plate October 2009 fundraiser for Connecticut Democrat Rep. Jim Himes. Lappos, who initially posted about the episode on Facebook on Sunday, was working as an aide for Himes at the time.

“It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head," Lappos told the paper. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.”

A Biden spokesman did not immediately respond to Fox News' requests for comment. In statements earlier Monday and over the weekend, both Biden and his team strongly denied accusations the former vice president acted inappropriately around women. Still, they vowed to listen to any allegations or concerns.

Lappos, who was seen in photos with Biden at the event, said the episode occurred inside the Greenwich home of an affordable housing developer, and that Himes was not present at the time.

Lappos continued: “I never filed a complaint, to be honest, because he was the vice president. I was a nobody. There’s absolutely a line of decency. There’s a line of respect. Crossing that line is not grandfatherly. It’s not cultural. It’s not affection. It’s sexism or misogyny.”

OTHER 2020 DEMS SAY THEY BELIEVE BIDEN ACCUSER LUCY FLORES

In her initial Facebook post, Lappos condemned those who would suggest the "grossness of men invading women’s boundaries to sniff and touch is debatable. And shame on some of the women here excusing this as boys being boys or it’s not as bad as Trump. I can speak from experience when I say it’s an incredibly uncomfortable situation and not at all acceptable. We need to hold our men to the same standards we hold all men."

Actress Eva Longoria with Biden at a get-out-the-vote rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2014. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images, File)

Actress Eva Longoria with Biden at a get-out-the-vote rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2014. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images, File)

Lappos' accusations came on the heels of a similar claim by former Nevada lieutenant governor candidate Lucy Flores, who accused Biden of inappropriate sexual conduct during a 2014 campaign event. Flores alleged in an article Friday that Biden "plant[ed] a big slow kiss on the back of my head."

In a statement shortly afterward, a Biden spokesperson denied that the vice president or his staff had been aware that Flores was uncomfortable. And the 76-year-old prospective 2020 presidential candidate issued a statement Sunday strongly denying wrongdoing -- but promising to "listen respectfully" to any accusations of misconduct.

WIFE OF FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY DEFENDS BIDEN, SAYS PHOTO CIRCULATING ONLINE IS HIGHLY MISLEADING

Flores' claim prompted a slew of social media posts highlighting what critics said amounted to Biden's clearly inappropriate behavior in public view.  Some images showed Biden alongside women ranging from a biker to the wife of the former defense secretary to actress Eva Longoria – raising questions about whether the images will haunt Biden in the #MeToo era as he moves toward a rumored 2020 presidential run.

Vice President Joe Biden with customers at a diner in Seaman, Ohio, in September 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Vice President Joe Biden with customers at a diner in Seaman, Ohio, in September 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

"I'm just shocked that no one has ever told Vice President Biden, 'stop interacting with women that way. You're making them feel uncomfortable,'" Flores told MSNBC on Monday. "Or, at least we think you’re making them feel uncomfortable because that is the perception we’re seeing from the outside in."

For her part, Lappos told the Courant that Biden's apparent behavior was disqualifying: "If Biden truly supports women and gender equality he would step aside and support one of the many talented and qualified women running. The same goes for the other men who have thrown their hat in the ring. Women are 52 percent of the population. We are not a minority, we are the majority. It is time we are represented as such. After 45 male presidents it is time we elect a woman."

But, in a fiery statement Monday, a Biden spokesman pushed back on the accusations made against him at that point, saying many photos of Biden have been misinterpreted -- even according to some of the women who appear in them -- while others were blatant "smears and forgeries."

"One such instance involved Stephanie Carter, the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, and the other Senator Chris Coons’ daughter," Biden spokesman Bill Russo said. "Each was ostensibly captured by a photo that some have interpreted in a way that is reflected consistently, and without scrutiny, in the reporting. Ms. Flores herself has cited the Carter photo as an example of the behavior she experienced.

Biden with Stephanie Carter in February 2015 at the White House. (Alex Wong/Getty Images, File)

Biden with Stephanie Carter in February 2015 at the White House. (Alex Wong/Getty Images, File)

"Here’s the problem: in neither case is the often repeated and recirculated interpretation true," Russo continued. "Both Stephanie Carter and Senator Coons have now felt compelled to speak out to put these ugly urban legends to rest."

Russo cited an interview in which Carter corrected the record on her own experience with Biden, as well as a Washington Post article in which Coons' daughter similarly absolved Biden of misconduct.

Vice President Joe Biden leaning in to say something to Maggie Coons, next to her father Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., in January 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Vice President Joe Biden leaning in to say something to Maggie Coons, next to her father Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., in January 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"And they are not the only ones," Russo said. "There are other, even more insidious examples of claims about the Vice President that have no foundation: the use of photoshopped images and other manipulations of social media. Perhaps most galling of all, a cropped photo of the Vice President comforting his grandson outside of his son Beau’s funeral has been used to further this false narrative."

Russo concluded: "The important conversation about these issues are not advanced, nor are any criticisms of Vice President Biden validated, by the continued misrepresentation of the Carter and Coons moments, or a failure to be vigilant about a cottage industry of lies."

Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Zimbabwe to exhume, rebury thousands from 1980s mass killing

Zimbabwe's state media say the government has promised to exhume and rebury the bodies of thousands of people killed during a 1980s military campaign aimed at crushing dissidents.

The Herald newspaper cites the secretary in the justice ministry as calling the reburials part of measures supported by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to bring closure to the killings between 1983 and 1987. She did not say when they will start.

Mnangagwa was state security minister at the time, publicly supporting the campaign. He has refused to apologize for his alleged role but recently said people should be free to talk about the killings.

Operation Gukurahundi rampaged through Matabeleland. A 1997 report by the Catholic Commission on Peace and Justice, drawing on more than 1,000 interviews, said 10,000 to 20,000 civilians were killed.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

The Problem with “Reparations”

As the issue of reparations for victims of slavery rages within the Democratic party, and on cable news stations, we encounter a common problem: virtually no one is addressing the specifics of how such a reparations effort would be administered.

Who would receive these reparations payments? Who would pay them? How would guilt and victimhood be determined? As is usually the case with American policy debates, this “debate” offers little more than an opportunity for pundits and activists to grandstand on related issues such as poverty and race — while avoiding the central topic at hand. Support or opposition then becomes nothing more than a matter of affirming one’s political loyalties. The actual issue of reparations — and how they’ll be paid out — is mostly ignored.

It is important to remember, however, that there is nothing necessarily problematic about the idea of paying reparations to the victims of a crime. In fact, the idea is essentially pro-private-property because it attempts to repay a victim for property stolen from him or her by another party.

After all, any decent legal system would provide for a victim of kidnapping and forced labor to obtain repayment for the time and labor stolen from him by the kidnaper. As Walter Block writes:

Justified reparations are nothing more and nothing less than the forced return of stolen property — even after a significant amount of time has passed. For example, if my grandfather stole a ring from your grandfather, and then bequeathed it to me through the intermediation of my father, then I am, presently, the illegitimate owner of that piece of jewelry. To take the position that reparations are always and forever unjustified is to give an imprimatur to theft, provided a sufficient time period has elapsed. In the just society, your father would have inherited the ring from his own parent, and then given it to you. It is thus not a violation of property rights, but a logical implication of them, to force me to give over this ill-gotten gain to you.

But here’s the rub: in order to do this with an eye toward justice, one must identify specific victims and specific perpetrators. Potentially, as Block suggests, one could envision a legal case in which the heirs of victims would be paid reparations by the heirs of the perpetrators. But again, we still encounter the problem of identifying specific persons (and heirs) involved. Reparations cannot be paid in the abstract, since, as Chris Calton has noted:

[L]ibertarian ethics are not based on abstract moral claims; they’re based on concretely identifiable property rights. When a violation of a person’s property rights takes place, restitution is the logical means of compensating the victim …

But in the real world [on matters of slavery] such a claim is incredibly difficult to prove. And failure to prove a legitimate property claim means that the currently recognized property title holds. Anything else would be committing a new injustice to give the illusion of correcting an old one.

In light of this, we can see that many of the currently proposed methods of paying out “reparations” are imprecise, vague, and consequently unjust. A program, for example, that forces all taxpayers (whether guilty or not of any relevant crimes) to pay reparations to a specific group of people raises several key problems that must be addressed:

1. What if a taxpayer is descended from people who didn’t even arrive in the country until after emancipation? That is, should a Japanese-American, whose immigrant ancestors arrived in the United States in 1910, be forced to pay reparations? How about descendants of Mexicans who arrived in the US in 1925?

2. What if the taxpayer has some ancestors who lived in the US before emancipation and some who arrived here afterward? Would that person’s “reparation tax bill” be pro-rated to match the fraction of his ancestry that shared antebellum guilt?

3. What if a taxpayer’s ancestors were abolitionists who opposed slavery?

4. What if a taxpayer has no ancestors who owned slaves?

The (Bad) Economics of Collective Guilt

In all of these cases, it’s hard to see how the person paying reparations is in any way actually responsible for the kidnapping, theft, assault, and other crimes perpetrated against actual slaves. Yes, many activists may claim that “everyone” is  — in the vague abstract — “guilty” of slavery because one’s ancestor once bought cheap cotton dungarees in 1858, or once (even unwittingly) worked for a company that sold timbers to ship builders who built slaving ships. These arguments rely on the same twisted logic which would have us believe that people who buy gasoline are somehow morally responsible for the brutality of the Saudi Arabian dictators, or that a teenager who smokes a joint is responsible for terrorism like that perpetrated on 9-11. (Yes, the US government created an ad campaign saying exactly this.)

This everyone-is-guilty claim, in fact, is one invented by the slavedrivers themselves in an attempt to claim that all white Americans — including Northerners — somehow directly benefited from slavery, and thus all abolitionists were hypocrites. It was always a desperate and unconvincing argument, but by putting these claims forward, the slavedrivers of old helped pave the way for the modern-day reparations advocates.

In real life, the people responsible for slavery are only the people who directly owned, sold, or traded in slaves; and the politicians who pushed to preserve, spread, or defend slavery through legislation and the state’s police powers.

Slavery Suppressed Wages for Many Workers

Moreover, many non-slaves can be shown to have been negatively impacted by slavery because it acted to suppress wages. As historian Kerry Leigh Merritt describes in detail in her book Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, wage-earning, non-slaveholding whites in the South — who constituted the overwhelming majority of the population — received far lower wages than they would have had they not been forced to compete with slave labor by a legal system designed to favor the tiny minority of slaveowners. Nor were these effects limited to Southern whites only. The increased profitability of agriculture in the South — thanks to slavery — acted to divert resources from Northern agriculture and industry as well, thus lowering wages for at least some Northern workers. Moreover, capital that poured into the slave plantation could have been used to improve worker productivity through innovation in machinery and other capital. Instead, that investment was diverted away from improving free labor, and devoted to expansion and maintenance of the slave economy. Overall, the presence of slaves suppressed wages nationwide.

The fact that slaveowners and plantation owners indisputably benefited from slavery hardly means that white day laborers benefited as well. Yes, chattel slaves fared far worse than any other group. But that doesn’t mean those day laborers were — to use the modern parlance — “privileged” by the existence of the slave economy. In practice, it significantly lowered their income.

So, once again we are left with the problem of determining who is legally and morally responsible for paying out these reparations in any way connected to identifying truly guilty parties. In practice, it’s nearly impossible, although government being what it is, advocates for reparations are likely to simply demand that all the taxpayers foot the bill to pay one identifiable interest group, whether or not the taxpayers involved can be shown to have any direct involvement in the perpetuation or spread of slavery.

Ultimately, the issue shouldn’t even be regarded as a complicated one. If “reparations” are truly that, then they can only be based on handing over stolen property from the thief to the victim (or their heirs). So long as these specific individuals are not identified, then the policy being discussed has nothing to do with reparations. It’s just a wealth redistribution scheme.

Source: InfoWars

0 0

Don Lemon Defends AOC’s Fake Accent: ‘Difference Between Mocking Someone & Knowing Your Audience’

Super Male Vitality

Limited Advanced Release

69.95

31.47

The all new and advanced Super Male Vitality formula uses the newest extraction technology with even more powerful concentrations of various herbs and extracts designed to be even stronger.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/smv-200.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/super-male-vitality.html?ims=jftqm&utm_campaign=IW+-+SuperMale+-STFA+-+55%25+Off+-+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-STFA-SuperMale-55%25off-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/super-male-vitality.html?ims=jftqm&utm_campaign=IW+-+SuperMale+-STFA+-+55%25+Off+-+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-STFA-SuperMale-55%25off-Widget

Super Male Vitality

69.95

31.47

The all new and advanced Super Male Vitality formula uses the newest extraction technology with even more powerful concentrations of various herbs and extracts designed to be even stronger.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/smv-200.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/super-male-vitality.html?ims=jftqm&utm_campaign=IW+-+SuperMale+-STFA+-+55%25+Off+-+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-STFA-SuperMale-55%25off-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/super-male-vitality.html?ims=jftqm&utm_campaign=IW+-+SuperMale+-STFA+-+55%25+Off+-+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-STFA-SuperMale-55%25off-Widget

Brain Force Plus

39.95

15.98

Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with the all-new Brain Force PLUS: 20% more capsules and a critically enhanced formula featuring a brand new ingredient and increased potency* – all for the same low price.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/bf-300-1.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/brain-force.html?ims=bnlem&utm_campaign=IW+-+Brain+Force+-STFA+-+60%25+Off+-+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-STFA-BrainForce-60%25off-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/brain-force.html?ims=bnlem&utm_campaign=IW+-+Brain+Force+-STFA+-+60%25+Off+-+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-STFA-BrainForce-60%25off-Widget

DNA Force Plus

149.95

59.80

With one of our most advanced formulas yet, DNA Force Plus is finally here. Focusing on overhauling your body's cellular engines and protecting them from reactive oxygen species, DNA Force Plus has one of the best combinations of antioxidants on the market.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=xxqxg&utm_campaign=DNA+Force+Plus+-+STFA+Ending+Soon+-+60%25+Off+&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-DNAFP-Widget-60%25off-STFA

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=xxqxg&utm_campaign=DNA+Force+Plus+-+STFA+Ending+Soon+-+60%25+Off+&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-DNAFP-Widget-60%25off-STFA

DNA Force Plus

149.95

59.80

With one of our most advanced formulas yet, DNA Force Plus is finally here. Focusing on overhauling your body's cellular engines and protecting them from reactive oxygen species, DNA Force Plus has one of the best combinations of antioxidants on the market.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=xxqxg&utm_campaign=DNA+Force+Plus+-+STFA+Ending+Soon+-+60%25+Off+&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-DNAFP-Widget-60%25off-STFA

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=xxqxg&utm_campaign=DNA+Force+Plus+-+STFA+Ending+Soon+-+60%25+Off+&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-DNAFP-Widget-60%25off-STFA

DNA Force Plus

149.95

59.80

With one of our most advanced formulas yet, DNA Force Plus is finally here. Focusing on overhauling your body's cellular engines and protecting them from reactive oxygen species, DNA Force Plus has one of the best combinations of antioxidants on the market.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=xxqxg&utm_campaign=DNA+Force+Plus+-+STFA+Ending+Soon+-+60%25+Off+&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-DNAFP-Widget-60%25off-STFA

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=xxqxg&utm_campaign=DNA+Force+Plus+-+STFA+Ending+Soon+-+60%25+Off+&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-DNAFP-Widget-60%25off-STFA

Source: InfoWars

0 0

Bill O’Reilly to Newsmax TV: FBI Will Soon Feel the Pain

Bill O'Reilly told Newsmax TV there will soon be a lot of "pain inflicted" on the FBI.

"I hear that from very credible sources," he said Thursday, noting the agency "did indeed botch" the investigation into Russia and the Donald Trump campaign and the Hillary Clinton email probe.

O'Reilly did not offer any specifics.

​Regarding the White House's reaction to the release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller, O'Reilly said: "I think there's a sense of relief, but the Trump administration knows the Democrats in the House of Representatives are not going to stop, and that could work to Trump's advantage when he runs for president again, but it is an annoyance. It will keep the Trump Hate Media in business for a while.

"But I think overall, William Barr, the attorney general, did the president a favor, not a personal favor. It's not the way CNN or MSNBC are portraying it. That's not what happened. But Barr was very clear about what Mueller found out. So, if you are a person who cares about the news and facts, you got it. He laid it out very clearly."

And he added: "From the very beginning, I always said, because I know Trump so well, he's not capable of colluding with anyone. He's just not. It's not the way he thinks. He doesn't have the concentration span to collude."

Source: NewsMax America

0 0

U.N. rights forum condemns Israel over deadly Gaza protests

Palestinian medics raise up their hands as they try to evacuate a wounded demonstrator during protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza Strip
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian medics raise up their hands as they try to evacuate a wounded demonstrator during protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza Strip January 11, 2019. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

March 22, 2019

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in Gaza, and called for perpetrators of violations in the strip to face justice.

Protests at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip began in March last year, with Gazans demanding Israel ease a blockade of the enclave and recognize their right to return to lands their families fled or were forced from when Israel was founded in 1948.

The resolution was based on a report by a U.N. inquiry which said that Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests last year.

“The targeting of civilians is a serious matter that should not be condoned,” Palestine’s ambassador Ibrahim Khraisi said, citing the report’s findings. The toll included 35 Palestinian children, two journalists, and medical workers, he noted.

Israeli ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter denounced what she called “clear evidence of political bias against Israel” in the report. She accused the panel of ignoring “the very real threat” posed to 70,000 Israeli citizens living along the border from rockets fired by Hamas militants.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Peter Graff and Jon Boyle)

Source: OANN

0 0

China has to learn from Japan’s lost decade: former official

FILE PHOTO: Property buildings are seen against the dawn sky in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: Property buildings are seen against the dawn sky in Beijing, China, April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA. GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD

March 12, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – China needs to learn lessons from Japan’s lost decade and control future levels of debt, the country’s former central bank governor said on Tuesday.

Debt levels in China are too high, but the Chinese government is taking steps to try to deleverage the economy, Zhou Xiaochuan said in a speech at Chatham House in London.

“Japan had very fast development and later then a so-called lost decade,” he said. “The Chinese economy may have a similar overleveraged problem and we need to absorb the knowledge and lessons from what happened.”

The lost decade refers to a period of economic stagnation in Japan that began in the 1990s.

(Reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



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) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said trade talks with China are going very well, as the world’s two largest economies seek to end talks with a trade agreement to defuse tensions.

Trump said on Thursday he would soon host China’s President Xi Jinping at the White House.

Earlier this week, the White House said that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would travel to Beijing for more talks on a trade dispute marked by tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on North Korea this week following the Russian leader’s summit with Pyongyang’s Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump also said China was helping with efforts aimed at the denuclearization of North Korea.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Makini Brice; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk
Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk, Belarus April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

April 26, 2019

By Katya Golubkova and Andrei Makhovsky

MOSCOW/MINSK (Reuters) – Russia is confident it can soon resolve a problem of polluted Russian oil contaminating a major pipeline serving Europe and affecting supplies as far west as Germany, a senior official said on Friday at talks with importers about the issue.

Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin did not give a precise timeframe but Moscow has previously said it would pump clean oil to the border with Belarus from April 29, seeking to end a crisis hitting the world’s second-largest crude exporter.

Sorokin was speaking at talks with officials from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine in Minsk on the issue. Belarus said the issue had cost it $100 million, while analysts say alternative supply routes for refiners cannot fully fill the gap.

Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline. Halting those supplies has knock-on effects further along the network.

The problem arose last week when an unidentified Russian producer contaminated oil with high levels of organic chloride used to boost oil output but which must be separated before shipment as it can destroy refining equipment.

Russia’s Energy Ministry said pipeline monopoly Transneft and other Russian companies had a plan to mitigate the effects of the contaminated oil. It did not give details.

Russian officials have said contaminated oil has already been pumped into storage in Russia and Friday’s talks would focus on how to partially withdraw the tainted crude from the Druzhba pipeline running via other countries.

The suspension cuts off a major supply route for Polish refineries owned by Poland’s PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos, as well as plants in Germany owned by Total, Shell, Eni and Rosneft.

Some refiners have outlined plans for alternative supplies, but analysts say other routes cannot meet the shortfall.

OIL PRICES

Ukraine’s Ukrtransnafta suspended the transit of oil through the pipeline on Thursday, closing supplies via Druzhba’s southern route to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The pipeline issue, which has supported global oil prices, lifted Russian Urals crude differentials to an all-time high on Thursday.

With pipeline supplies to Europe shut, Russia faces a challenge of how to divert about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) that was meant to be shipped through the network to other destinations at the time when export capacity is at its limits.

State-run Russian Railways held talks with energy firms on using up to 5,000 rail tankers to transport crude, RIA news agency reported on Friday.

Concerns about the quality of Urals crude also caused delays in loadings at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, when buyers refused to lift cargoes, resulting in a brief shutdown of the port on Wednesday and Thursday. An Ust-Luga official and traders said on Friday loadings had resumed.

Russian loading plans indicate it aims to boost Urals exports in May before the expiry of a deal on output cuts agreed with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Reuters calculations and Energy Ministry data show.

The provisional loading plan for Russia’s Baltic Sea ports and Novorossiisk in May show exports rising to 10.7 million tonnes, the highest level in half a decade.

Minsk estimated its loss from lower oil product exports due to contaminated Russian oil at around $100 million, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing Belarusian state oil company Belneftekhim.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, in charge of government energy policy, said this week that those found responsible for contaminating the oil could be fined. He did not provide names.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko in WARSAW, Sandor Peto in BUDAPEST, Jason Hovet in PRAGUE, Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets in KIEV, Katya Golubkova, Olesya Astakhova, Gleb Gorodyankin, Olga Yagova and Maxim Rodionov in MOSCOW, Andrei Makhovsky in MINSK; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by Michael Perry and Edmund Blair)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist