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Man accused of taking empty Tulsa school bus on joyride

Police in Tulsa have arrested a man who they say stole an empty school bus and took it for a joyride.

Police say the Tulsa Public Schools bus was stolen early Monday when the driver went into a gas station and left the bus running. The Tulsa World reports a man told officers he decided to steal the bus after seeing an anti-texting-and-driving sign on the bus that said, "drop it and drive."

Police say the man told officers that he "dropped what he was doing" and drove off in the bus.

The man later radioed dispatch to tell him where he would leave the bus. Police arrested him on complaints of auto theft and driving without a license.

Source: Fox News National

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Congress To See Ex-WH Official Accused in Security Scandal

A former White House official who was accused of overturning security clearances for people who were found to have “serious disqualifying issues” will appear before the House Oversight Committee on April 23, The Washington Post reports.

Carl Kline, the former White House personnel security director, will testify as part of the panel’s investigation into security clearances in President Donald Trump’s White House. A whistleblower in his office accused him of granting security clearances to people that she and some of her fellow employees had found issue with.

“I regret the circumstances that have resulted in the committee on Oversight and Reform electing to subpoena Carl Kline, despite our legitimate offer to have him appear voluntarily,” Kline’s lawyer, Robert N. Driscoll, wrote in a letter to the committee.

Tricia Newbold, the whistleblower, told the committee last March that Kline overruled several clearance-denial recommendations, including a clearance application from White House adviser Jared Kushner, and subsequently retaliated when she complained.

“By corollary, it is not Mr. Kline’s role to comment on the strength of any such assertions, but to comply with instructions from the White House regarding appropriate scope of testimony,” Driscoll wrote. “I fully understand you may not see things the same way, but it is my sincere hope that we can avoid a harmful and costly inter-branch dispute that has a 40-plus year public servant and military veteran hanging in the balance.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Fox News Poll: What bugs voters most about taxes? Rich not paying enough

According to a Fox News Poll released Wednesday, voters’ top tax concern isn’t how much they pay. Instead, they are most concerned about the rich not paying enough (34 percent) and the way the government spends the money (28 percent).

About 1 in 10 say what bothers them most is the amount they pay (12 percent), too many people don’t have to pay at all (12 percent), and the complexity of the system (10 percent).

Compared to 2014, the last time the question was asked, there has been an increase in voters who are troubled that the rich aren’t paying enough (+6 points).  The shift in frustration comes mainly from self-identified liberals (+20) and voters under age 30 (+14 points).  However, it’s not limited to traditional left-leaning groups -- voters ages 65 and over (+14), voters earning $50k and over (+11), and whites without a college degree (+9) are also increasingly bothered by the wealthy not pulling their weight.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE POLL RESULTS.

“One underappreciated aspect of the past two years is the Democrats have fought the president to a draw on taxes,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson. “While the Democrats managed to regain their edge on health care, they also reframed the tax debate in terms of fairness and breaks for the wealthy, which has prevented President Trump and the GOP from gaining any substantial political benefit from their tax reform.”

In December 2017, President Trump marked a campaign promise off his list as the Republican-led Congress passed a sweeping tax reform bill.  At that time, former House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “The message to the hardworking taxpayers of America is:  Your tax relief is on its way.  That is what’s happening here.  The message to the families in America who’ve been struggling, paycheck and paycheck -- your tax rates are going down and your paychecks are going up.”

Voters don’t entirely share Ryan’s view. Last month, the Fox News Poll found voters split over the new tax law:  34 percent favorable vs. 36 percent unfavorable.  Thirty percent were unable to rate it.

In addition, the new poll finds 55 percent of voters think their taxes are “too high,” and that’s about where that number has stood since the Fox News Poll first asked the question 15 years ago (2004).

However, while the overall numbers held steady, a role reversal recently took place in the background.

Consider this:  The number of Democrats who say their taxes are too high is 59 percent.  It was 49 percent in 2018 and 45 percent in 2017.  That’s a 14-point increase since Trump won.

An even bigger swing happened among Republicans -- in the opposite direction. Sixty-eight percent said their taxes were too high in 2017 and 59 percent in 2018.  Now, 50 percent feel that way. That’s an 18-point drop since their candidate won, and a 9-point decrease since passage of the GOP tax reform bill.

“No one ever claimed that partisans are logically consistent,” says Shaw. “With a Republican president, Republican voters are less likely to think their tax burden is unfair. Meanwhile, with Trump in the White House Democrats think taxes are too high -- but they also support substantial increases in federal spending.”

Overall, 37 percent say their tax bill is “about right.”  Three percent think they pay too little.

Trump’s job performance on taxes has taken a hit since last year.  In March 2018, more voters approved than disapproved of him on taxes by 2 points (48-46 percent). Today, he is underwater by 6 (42-48 percent).  Drops in approval among independents (-12 points) and Democrats (-8) account for that downward shift.

“Over a year since Trump signed his tax cuts into law, voters just aren’t feeling it,” says Anderson.  “His job approval for handling taxes is down, while more people say their taxes are too high and the rich aren’t paying their fair share.”

Trump receives his only net positive job rating on the economy (50 percent approve vs. 42 percent disapprove).  He gets a net -2 on North Korea (42-44 percent), a -13 on immigration (41-54 percent) and -15 on health care (37-52 percent).

Trump broke with decades-long precedence when he declined to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign.  He continues to decline to make them public.

But voters want transparency. Three-quarters overall (74 percent) and over half of Republicans (54 percent) believe that, in general, “the president of the United States” should be required to release his or her tax returns.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Indeed, roughly equivalent numbers want that same transparency from “congressional leaders like the speaker of the house and senate majority leader” (76 percent) and “presidential candidates” (72 percent).

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand became the first presidential candidate to release her 2018 tax returns Wednesday challenging her rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination to do the same.  With the exception of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren who, barring 2018, has released a decade worth of tax returns, none of the other candidates have released their own.

The Democratic-led House passed a comprehensive proposal March 8 that would require the disclosure of presidential tax returns.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,002 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) (formerly named Anderson Robbins Research) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from March 17-20, 2019.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Gunbattle with militants kills four Indian soldiers, civilian in Kashmir: police

A policeman stands guard at a street during a curfew in Jammu
A policeman stands guard at a street during a curfew in Jammu, February 17, 2019. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

February 18, 2019

By Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Four Indian soldiers and a civilian were killed in a gunbattle in disputed Kashmir on Monday, a police official said, as India launched a hunt for suspected members of an Islamist militant group that killed 44 Indian paramilitary police last week.

A police spokesman in the northern state of Jammu & Kashmir said Indian troops had cordoned off Pinglan village in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, where a suicide bomber rammed into a convoy of paramilitary police on Thursday.

Another state police official, who declined to be identified because the operation is not yet over, said information had been received about the presence of up to three militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, including foreigners, inside a house in the village.

The second police official said four soldiers and a civilian were killed in the gunbattle.

“There was an exchange of fire early this morning that wounded the army men and the owner of the house. They died later,” said official said.

An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Pulwama and police have asked people to stay indoors.

Mohammad Yunis, a journalist in Pulwama, said troops were searching the village and civilians trapped in adjacent houses were being evacuated.

Pakistan has denied any links to the attack on the convoy of reserve police last week.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region at the heart of decades of hostility, is claimed in its entirety by India and Pakistan but is ruled in part by both south Asian countries.

Indian forces have detained about 23 men suspected of links to Jaish, which has claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack on Indian security forces in decades.

(Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

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ADM may eliminate positions in restructuring of specific areas

FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 10, 2019

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. grain trader Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Wednesday it will open a voluntary retirement window for North American employees and may eliminate individual positions as part of restructuring of specific areas.

The actions are needed to strengthen ADM’s core business and establish the company as a global leader in nutrition, according to a statement.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Netroots make it rain for Bernie: $6M in one day


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On the roster: Netroots make it rain for Bernie: $6M in one day - I’ll Tell You What: Off topic - Trump campaign’s new look is corporate, complex - Bombshell testimony in N.C. House race inquest - ‘What can you do?’

NETROOTS MAKE IT RAIN FOR BERNIE: $6M IN ONE DAY
Fox News: “Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised nearly $6 million since launching his 2020 bid for the White House -- a day ago. The independent senator from Vermont’s presidential campaign announced Wednesday morning that they received an eye-popping $5.9 million in contributions in the 24 hours since 7 a.m. Tuesday, when Sanders officially announced his candidacy. The campaign touted that 223,047 individuals made contributions, averaging nearly $27 per person just like during his 2016 bid. The haul was the product of an aggressive fundraising push by the Sanders campaign, with emails and texts asking for contributions late into Tuesday evening. One email, hitting inboxes around 9 p.m. ET, pointed out that ‘as the clock ticks toward midnight, we’re pretty close to reaching a pair of milestones we frankly didn’t think would be possible on day one.’ The large fundraising haul is more than double the $1.5 million Sen. Kamala Harris of California … raised last month…”

Could Klobuchar outdo Schultz? - WaPo: “Former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz appears to believe he could perform well in a presidential race with voters turned off by President Trump and those fearful that the Democratic Party is moving too far left. … Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) might be able to change those numbers. While Schultz believes he has ideas and solutions to the problems concerning moderate voters, Klobuchar has actually been able to communicate them when asked, in addition to having a policy record on many of these topics, winning her support from both sides of the aisle. During a CNN town hall Monday, she put some meat on the bones of ideas that are popular — or at least of interest — to left-leaning voters. … Schultz did not fare as well when asked to address similar issues at his town hall and has not done much to answer lingering questions since.”

Beto as beta? - AP: “Beto O’Rourke said Tuesday that he hasn’t ruled out being a 2020 vice presidential candidate — even as he plans to decide in the next 10 days if he’ll seek the presidency. Answering a question in Spanish about the possibility of being another candidate’s running mate, the Democratic former Texas congressman answered in Spanish: ‘I’m going to consider every way to serve this country. And, yes, that will include anything.’ … He said in English that he may yet opt to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican whip, in 2020. … Advisers to former Vice President Joe Biden, who is considering a White House run of his own, said in December that they’d approached O’Rourke’s camp about his being a vice presidential candidate. O’Rourke said then that he’d not spoken to Biden, and his camp hasn’t dismissed the idea since.”

Tim Ryan warns party perceived as ‘hostile to business’ - Fox News: “Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who is considering a 2020 presidential run, said Wednesday that his party has to be ‘very careful’ not to appear too anti-business as it tries to win back the White House. ‘I think we’ve got to be very careful. We come off sometimes as hostile to business,’ the Ohio congressman lamented as he spoke with Fox News and two New Hampshire news organizations on Wednesday. … Ryan, who raised his national profile with an unsuccessful leadership challenge against Nancy Pelosi in 2016, said Wednesday he’s ‘getting close’ to making his own decision on whether to run for president. … Ryan spoke during a three-day swing through the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire. The trip is full of private meetings with leading Democratic state and local lawmakers, rainmakers and union leaders.”

Infighting continues over location of 2020 Democratic convention - AP: “Leaders in three major cities are in a last-minute scramble to win the 2020 Democratic National Convention, an event that could funnel millions of dollars into the local economy and put them at the center of the political world for one week next summer. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is choosing among Houston, Miami and Milwaukee. In recent weeks, some Democrats have privately suggested Milwaukee would get the nod… But since then, a fierce debate has unfolded behind the scenes… [Perez is] insisting that each finalist still has a legitimate chance to win and that he would decide by the end of February. Perez has promised a convention that showcases the nominee and gives the Democratic ticket an opportunity to unify the party after what’s expected to be a bruising, wide-open primary fight.” 

THE RULEBOOK: TWO IF BY SEA
“When a nation has become so powerful by sea that it can protect its dock-yards by its fleets, this supersedes the necessity of garrisons for that purpose…” – Alexander HamiltonFederalist No. 24

TIME OUT: THE ABSTRACT IN REFLECTIONS
NatGeo: “[Photographer Jodi Cobb’s] mission was to document [Venice’s] vulnerability to water—the threat of flooding and how the Venetians were trying to prevent it. [Cobb] made a few photographs of the reflections, but [she] was there to investigate the only unknown: Would Venice vanish underwater? Those reflections held no clues. … The reflections in the canals inexplicably enticed [her]. [Cobb] often stopped to photograph them, confounding [her] young Italian assistant who knew the magazine did not publish abstract images and thought [she] was just wasting time. … When the assignment was over, [Cobb] didn’t show those reflection pictures to anyone. … Five years later [she] found them … [and as she] began to edit, strange creatures emerged from the depths of the images: bizarre mythical beasts, cartoon characters, carnival masks, snakes, and gargoyles. They had been there all along, waiting for my imagination to bring them to life.”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 41.8 percent
Average disapproval: 54.4 percent
Net Score: -12.6 points
Change from one week ago: up 0.8 points 
[Average includes: Fox News: 46% approve - 52% disapprove; Gallup: 44% approve - 52% unapproved; CNN: 42% approve - 54% disapproval; IBD: 39% approve - 57% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 38% approve - 57% disapprove.]

I’LL TELL YOU WHAT: OFF TOPIC
This week, Dana Perino and Chris Stirewalt discuss relatable moments on the campaign trail, the importance of civics and expensive naps. Plus, Dana goes through the mailbag and Chris answers trivia. LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

TRUMP CAMPAIGN’S NEW LOOK IS CORPORATE, COMPLEX  
Politico: “President Donald Trump is assembling a sprawling, corporate-style reelection campaign with 10 divisions reporting to a single senior adviser, campaign manager Brad Parscale — a top-down structure that represents everything Trump’s improvisational 2016 effort was not. … The campaign has hired more than 30 full-time staffers so far and has begun building out a surrogate network devoted exclusively to putting pro-Trump talking heads on TV and radio and in newspaper op-eds — a move that reflects Trump’s fixation with how he’s portrayed in the media. … The setup has the hallmarks of a more traditional campaign associated with a president running for reelection. But coming from this ad-lib president — whose 2016 effort was wracked by constant infighting that spilled into the press, no apparent organizational structure, and unclear lines of authority — it marks a major departure from business as usual.

Hogan: Trump looks ‘pretty weak’ for 2020 - CBS News: “Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan says that while President Trump is likely to fend off a GOP primary challenger, he may be vulnerable in the general election against the eventual Democratic nominee. ‘The issue I'm concerned about is he has a very low re-elect number, I think in the 30s, high 30s, low 40s,’ Hogan said of Mr. Trump's poll numbers in an exclusive interview with CBS News Tuesday. ‘So the chance of him losing a general election are pretty good. I'm not saying he couldn't win but he's pretty weak in the general election.’ If the president's approval ratings continue to dip heading into the campaign cycle, Hogan said the Republican Party will need to consider what his potential defeat next November could mean for GOP office holders across the country. ”

‘TOM WHO?’: HOUSE DEMS BUCK STEYER’S IMPEACHMENT DRIVE
Politico: “House Democrats are rallying behind Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler as he faces growing pressure from the left flank to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Driving the campaign is billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer, who is spearheading a $40 million campaign to push key House Democratic chairs investigating Trump and his administration to begin holding impeachment hearings. Steyer’s Need to Impeach PAC held a town hall in Nadler’s Manhattan district Tuesday evening, and the group is running a 30-second television ad powered by a six-figure digital buy encouraging Nadler’s constituents to press him to back immediate impeachment…. When asked about Steyer’s efforts targeting Nadler, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New York Democrat and Judiciary Committee member who also has found himself under scrutiny from the left, quipped: ‘Tom who?’”

BOMBSHELL TESTIMONY IN N.C. HOUSE RACE INQUEST 
Raleigh News & Observer: “Contradicting his father, the son of Republican Mark Harris testified Wednesday that he told his father as early as 2017 he had concerns about a political operative hired to run an absentee ballot campaign in Bladen County. The testimony from John Harris contradicted suggestions by Harris and his campaign that they’d seen no red flags about McCrae Dowless, who is now at the center of allegations into voting irregularities in the 9th Congressional District. John Harris’s often dramatic testimony came on the third day of a hearing by North Carolina’s State Board of Elections that could decide the nation’s last unresolved congressional race and has drawn national attention. Mark Harris, sitting next to his wife, began crying as he watched his son’s testimony.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Tim Carney: ‘The one trait that predicts Trump fever’ - Politico 

Which Republican senators are for, or against, Trump’s national emergency declaration - WaPo

Michael Cohen prison date pushed back to May 6 Fox News

Trump backs away from March 1 deadline for China tariffs - WSJ

Marc Short heads back to the White House, this time as Pence's chief of staff Politico

Justice Clarence Thomas calls for SupCo to reconsider case that shields reporters - NYT

AUDIBLE: MAYBE EVEN A CUP OF COFFEE  
“I would say I'm being approached from a lot of different people. And I guess the best way to put it is I haven't thrown them out of my office.” – Gov. Larry Hogan when asked if he is thinking about running for president by CBS News

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“I do not understand your polling methodology and my concern is that you don't either. The polls you use have never successfully predict[ed] any election in my memory. I admit I don't know their polling pool but [I] suspect that the criteria is they must be breathing and most likely never held a paying job. Polling anybody but likely voters are of no practical use. There are polling organizations that have good predictive records but they seem to be excluded from you list.” – Paul Hill, New Bern, N.C.

[Ed. note: We don’t want to be repetitive, but we get so many letters about polling from readers that from time to time we like to talk a little about what we’re doing and why. First, we believe that in the long term it’s more useful to focus on polling averages than individual polls. We’re keenly interested in the findings beneath the surface on individual polls, but to track a race, or for now, the president’s job approval, the average is more useful. We set some pretty high standards for the polls that we use for our average, too. The surveys have to be 1) non-partisan, 2) conducted by live interviewers using a representative mix of cellular and landline numbers, 3) have a sample of sufficient size to be representative and 4) have been conducted over an appropriate period of time to capture a single snapshot of voter attitudes. At this point so far from an election it’s too soon to talk about who will be a likely voter. That’s only germane once the candidates and issues are set since the first choice many Americans is whether to participate or not. I’m not sure which surveys you mean, but I know that several of the most predictive pollsters from 2016 are included in our current average. Most of all, I would encourage you to not put too much stock in polling. It’s a useful snapshot of a moment in time and can help us see which way voters are moving and, ideally, what’s driving those moves. But they are not oracles that predict the future.]     

Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

‘WHAT CAN YOU DO?’
The [Adelaide, Australia] Advertiser: “It can get boring on test flights. Hours spent quietly winging it from point A to point B with no other purpose than testing out a new engine. But then inspiration strikes. For one pilot, that inspiration was to use the Mid North as his own personal canvas to voice how boring test flights can get. Written in letters dozens of kilometers long, the pilot spelt out the words ‘I’m bored’ during a return flight from just north of Port Broughton. The pilot, who is understood to be a recently qualified instructor at Flight Training Adelaide, left Parafield Airport in a single propeller Diamond Star plane at 8.53am on Tuesday, taking a circuitous route north. … Flight Training Adelaide director Pine Pienaar said the pilot’s actions were not condoned and that ‘apparently he got bored.’ ‘Young instructors, what can you do?’ Mr Pienaar said.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“Hillaryism embodies the essence of modern liberalism. Having reached the limits of a welfare state grown increasingly sclerotic, bureaucratic and dysfunctional, the mission of modern liberalism is to patch the fraying safety net with yet more programs and entitlements.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Washington Post on June 23, 2016.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Defying threats, Afghan singer Aryana comes home for women

Afghan singer Aryana Sayeed is pictured at Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
Afghan singer Aryana Sayeed is pictured at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

March 16, 2019

By Orooj Hakimi and Rod Nickel

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Each time Aryana Sayeed, one of Afghanistan’s most famous singers, returns to the country of her birth, she braves threats and endures scrutiny right down to her choice of clothes.

Still, she returns often, as much to encourage women in a restrictive country as to share her music, a mix of pop and traditional songs.

“It’s really hard for me as a female singer to carry on with my work in Afghanistan with the type of pressure that I have on my mind, the threats that I get on a regular basis, the attacks on social media,” she said in an interview in Kabul.

“I get messages, scary ones actually.”

Aryana, as she is usually known, had just finished performing last week on Afghan Star, a televised singing competition.

In 2017, Aryana enraged conservative Afghans when she was photographed wearing a self-colored dress at a Paris concert. Clerics threatened that she would be killed if she returned to perform a scheduled concert in Kabul.

She performed anyway.

“People love to hear her voice. But they don’t love her,” said filmmaker Sadam Wahidi, who is working on a documentary about Aryana, who is often compared to Hollywood reality star Kim Kardashian.

Aryana’s success in Afghanistan and among Afghans living abroad illustrates how much the treatment of women has changed since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban by U.S.-led forces. But the vitriol she draws shows how intractable some attitudes remain.

Born in Kabul, she fled Afghanistan’s civil war at age 8 with her family, stopping in Pakistan, then Switzerland. After the family’s asylum case was rejected, they hired a smuggler to get to London, and settled down.

Aryana, 34, now splits her time between Kabul and Istanbul.

‘SO SCARY’

In her home city, Aryana travels by armored vehicle, but more often she lives in isolation.

“I’m basically a prisoner in my own room,” she said. “All I do is go to my room and back to the set and record the show.”

Women have gained the right to work and girls can attend school since the Taliban government fell.

It is a stark contrast to life under the hardline Islamists, when women were banned even from appearing in public without a male relative or with faces uncovered. Playing musical instruments was also forbidden.

Still, rural Afghanistan remains more conservative than the cities, and many people object to Aryana’s clothing and her promotion of women’s rights.

“Aryana Sayeed’s concerts are not in accordance with our society and Islam,” said Layeq Khan Wahdat, 26, a resident of Paktika province. “Dress-up like this can promote prostitution and seduction.”

Aryana’s latest return to Afghanistan came as the United States discusses peace with the Taliban to end the 17-year war. The prospect of re-integration of the Taliban is chilling to the singer.

“That’s so scary even to think about it,” she said. “I don’t want to accept that this is my last concert. If they come with the same mindset, I’m afraid the rights of women will be taken away from them again.”

The Taliban have said their return to Afghan society would be less harsh and that they do not oppose women’s education or employment; however they are against women wearing “alien culture clothes.”

At her Afghan Star performance, Aryana wore a tight-fitting white jumpsuit and cape, with no headscarf.

TOLO TV, Afghanistan’s largest private station that airs the singing show, closely cropped images of her in the outfit to display her only from the chest up.

Several hundred young women wearing headscarves watched in the studio audience admiringly and dozens mobbed her afterwards for photos.

“The Taliban are always trying to cut off the voices of women,” said a teenage girl, 17. “But it was Aryana Sayeed who taught us that ‘you are not weak’.”

(Reporting by Orooj Hakimi and Rod Nickel in Kabul; additional reporting by Hameed Farzad; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: OANN

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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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President Trump on Friday said “no money” was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, after reports that the U.S. received a $2 million hospital bill from Pyongyang for the late American prisoner’s care.

“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist[sic] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!” Trump tweeted Friday.

NORTH KOREA GAVE US $2M HOSPITAL BILL OVER CARE OF AMERICAN OTTO WARMBIER, SOURCES SAY

The Washington Post first reported that North Korean authorities insisted the U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier, 21, who was a student of the University of Virginia, sign a pledge to pay the bill before allowing Warmbier’s comatose body to return to the United States. Sources confirmed the bill and the amount to Fox News on Thursday.

Sources told the post that the envoy signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions from the president, but a source told Fox News that the U.S. did not ever pay money to North Korea.

The White House declined to comment when asked on the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that: “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”

Meanwhile, the president added: “’President[sic] Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.’ Cheif[sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!”

Warmbier was on tour in North Korea when he allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March 2016. Warmbier, for unknown reasons, fell into a coma while in custody and was held in that condition for an additional 17 months.

North Korean officials did not tell American officials until June 2017 that Warmbier had been unconscious the entire time. He died less than a week after he returned to the U.S. North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

AMERICAN PRISONERS HELD IN NORTH KOREA ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER POMPEO VISIT, TRUMP SAYS

Fred and Cindy Warmbier sued North Korea over their son’s death and in December were awarded $501 million in damages – money that the Hermit Kingdom will probably never pay.

While the Warmbiers blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has said he believes Kim’s claims that he did not know about the student’s treatment.

Trump and Kim have met in two separate summits. The most recent, held in February, ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told Fox News: “Otto Warmbier was mistreated by North Korea in so many ways, including his wrongful conviction and harsh sentence, and the fact that for 16 months they refused to tell his family or our country about his dire condition they caused.  No, the United States owes them nothing. They owe the Warmbier family everything.”

Last year, the Trump administration was also able to save three American prisoners held by North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song were all detained in North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the three Americans home last May, and said they were all in “good health.”

Fox News’ John Roberts, Rich Edson, Nicholas Kalman, and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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