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

Yale Law School policy may discriminate against Christian groups, Sen. Ted Cruz says

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has opened an investigation into Yale Law School over a decision to expand its nondiscrimination policy to certain organizations’ hiring practices – a move he contends may be aimed against Christians.

Per the school’s “nondiscrimination policy,” students who are affiliated with or work for organizations deemed discriminatory will not gain access to certain funds. The policy was recently expanded to cover summer public interest fellowships, post-graduate public interest fellowships, and loan forgiveness for careers in public interest, according to LifeSite News.

In February, members of the Yale Federalist Society invited a lawyer from the Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom to speak on campus, a move that enraged Yale’s LGBT group “Outlaws.”

SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH COLORADO BAKER WHO REFUSED TO MAKE WEDDING CAKE FOR SAME-SEX COUPLE

Outlaws wrote to school administrators demanding that it expand its discrimination policy to Christian groups, given some Christian groups' stance on gay rights.

“[W]e are asking the Yale Law School administration to clarify its [Summer Public Interest Fellowship (‘SPIF’)] and admissions policies regarding organizations that discriminate against members of its community,” the group wrote.

On March 25, the school sent an email to its students announcing an expansion of nondiscrimination policy.

In a letter last Thursday to Yale Law’s Dean Heather Gerken, Cruz wrote: “(It) appears that the policy arose from unconstitutional animus and a specific discriminatory intent both to blacklist Christian organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and to punish Yale students whose values or religious faith lead them to work there.”

Cruz told Gerken that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution is opening an investigation, a possible “referral to the Department of Justice for action against the law school.”

GET THE FOX NEWS APP

According to the Yale Daily News, administrators insisted that the policy applies solely to organizations’ “hiring practices” and not its “values,” adding that it “enthusiastically supports the efforts of Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, liberal, and conservative groups to hire our students.”

Cruz said the investigation may include a subpoena or a referral to the Department of Justice for action against Yale Law School.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Athletics: Semenya gets Van Niekerk backing as she targets longer distance

South Africa's 400m Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk looks on as he attends South African Championships in Germiston
South Africa's 400m Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk looks on as he attends South African Championships in Germiston, South Africa, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

April 26, 2019

GERMISTON, South Africa (Reuters) – Olympic 400 meters champion Wayde van Niekerk has backed South African compatriot Caster Semenya in her battle with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which now appears to have taken a new twist.

Semenya, a double 800 meters Olympic gold medalist, is waiting for the outcome of her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to halt the introduction of new regulations by governing body IAAF that would require her to take medicine to limit her natural levels of testosterone.

The IAAF wants female athletes with differences of sexual development who run in events from 400 meters to a mile, to reduce their blood testosterone level to below five (5) nmol/L for a period of six months before they can compete, saying they have an unfair advantage.

“She’s fighting for something beyond just track and field, she’s fighting for woman in sports, in society and I respect her for that,” Van Niekerk told reporters.

“I will support her and with the hard work and talent that she’s been putting into the sport. With what she believes in and what she’s dreaming for, I’ve got a lot of respect for her.

“I really hope and pray that everything just goes from strength to strength for her.”

Semenya has sprung a surprise at the on-going South African Athletics Championships though, ditching the 800 meters and instead competing over 1,500 and 5,000-metres – the latter one would not require her to medically lower her testosterone level.

She stormed to victory in the 5,000-metres final in a modest time of 16:05.97, but looked to have lots left in the tank as she passed the finish line.

Semenya beat fellow Olympian and defending national 5,000m champion Dominique Scott in Thursday’s final but the latter admitted she is unsure whether the 800m specialist could be a serious Olympic contender over the longer distance.

“Honestly‚ I have no idea‚” Scott said. “Before today I probably would have said no. It’s hard to compare a 5,000 at altitude to a 5,000 at sea level.

“But I think she’s an amazing runner and I don’t think there’s any limit or ceiling on what she can do.”

Van Niekerk, the 400m world record holder, had to abort his comeback from a knee injury, that had sidelined him for 18 months, following a combination of cold weather and a wet track.

“We are trying to take the correct decisions now early in the year so as not to put myself in any harm,” he said.

“It was a bit chilly this entire week prepping and coming through here as well it was quite cold and it caused bit of tightness in my leg. We decided to not risk it.

“My recovery is going well and I would like to be back in competition this year, but will only do so if I can deliver a good performance.

“I am a competitor and respect my opponents, so I need to be at my best when I return.”

(Reporting by Nick Said, additional reporting by Siyabonga Sishi; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

Source: OANN

0 0

Indiana police launch homicide probe into infant’s disappearance

Indianapolis police revealed Saturday that homicide detectives are leading the investigation into the disappearance of an infant girl reported missing two weeks after she was last seen alive with her mother’s boyfriend.

Police fear the worst because they said 8-month-old Amiah Robertson hasn’t been seen since March 9. They also found "items" of hers along a river bank Wednesday after getting a tip.

"I think that we all hope for the best always, but I think that we can't ignore the reality of the situation," Lt. Bruce Smith said. "Amiah cannot take care of herself. And absent somebody else who is currently taking care of her that hasn't come forward, we are very concerned about what happened to her."

FLORIDA DETECTIVES INVESTIGATE MASSAGE PARLOR MURDER, SEEK PERSON OF INTEREST

Police named 20-year-old Robert Lyons as the person who was with Amiah when she was last seen. He is the boyfriend of the girl’s 19-year-old mother, Amber Robertson.

On March 9 Lyons left the babysitter’s with Amiah and then showed up hours later at Robertson’s without her, police said. The next day he allegedly taunted Robertson about Amiah's whereabouts.

“He is certainly a suspect in her disappearance,” Smith said.

Police said Lyons wasn’t being sought at this time. They said they spoke to him after family reported Amiah missing on March 16.

DETAILS EMERGE AFTER 5 PEOPLE ARE FOUND DEAD IN PENNSYLVANIA APARTMENT, SUGGESTING POSSIBLE ATTEMPT AT MURDER-SUICIDE

Det. Jeannie Burket said Lyons told her where Amiah “should be alive and okay.”

“Some places she was said to be by Robert do not exist,” she said.

Robertson has been cooperative, police said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Burkert asked for anyone who may have seen Lyons on March 9 to come forward.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Spy agency: Russia TV ‘demonized’ religious group in Estonia

Estonia's intelligence agency says a Russian state-controlled television station has been portraying members of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Estonia in "a hostile and ridiculing" way.

Estonia's Internal Security Service says "part of the Kremlin's arsenal of influence is the harassment of various social groups."

The agency says that two reporters from Russia-1 last year used hidden cameras in Tallinn "to explain the reasons for outlawing the religious group, so its members are demonized," adding the program was aired Nov. 29 in Russia.

The service wrote Friday in its annual report that Yelena Yerofejeva and Pavel Kostrikov were each given a five-year ban from entering Europe's Schengen passport-free zone because of "religious discrimination" activities.

Russia officially banned Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017 and declared the group an extremist organization.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Michigan State steamrolls LSU, moves into Elite Eight

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-East Regional-LSU vs Michigan State
Mar 29, 2019; Washington, DC, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Aaron Henry (11) drives to the basket against LSU Tigers forward Kavell Bigby-Williams (11) during the first half in the semifinals of the east regional of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports

March 30, 2019

WASHINGTON – Freshmen Aaron Henry and Gabe Brown had career nights, lifting No. 2 Michigan State to an 80-63 victory over No. 3 LSU in the East Region semifinals of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

Henry and Brown scored career-highs with Henry pouring in 20 and Brown scoring 15 as the Spartans (31-6) advance to Sunday’s regional final, where they’ll play the winner of No. 1 Duke vs. No. 4 Virginia Tech.

Cassius Winston scored 17 and handed out eight assists for Michigan State while Xavier Tillman chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds with Kenny Goins tallying six points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

Tremont Waters scored 23 for LSU (28-7), including a bucket that pulled the Tigers within 45-41 with 16:44 to play. But Michigan State responded with an 11-0 run, which began with Brown’s triple and 3-pointers from Henry and Goins.

Michigan State’s 3-point barrage blew open what was a four-point game, gave the Spartans a 56-41 lead with 14:41 to play and forced an LSU timeout. The Spartans kept it coming, eventually pushing the lead to 66-48 before LSU put together its final surge.

Two straight triples from Waters got things going and four points from Reid pulled the Tigers within 70-60 with a little more than four minutes to play. But Matt McQuaid scored six points to help the Spartans put the game away.

Kavell Bigby-Williams added 11 points for the Tigers while Naz Reid was good for 10 points and nine rebounds.

It was all Michigan State in the first half as the Spartans scored the first eight points of the game, forcing LSU to take a timeout less than two minutes into the game after Henry and Winston hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

The timeout did little to slow the Spartans, who made six of their first nine shots and went up 22-11 on a triple from Winston. LSU started to get back into it, pulling within 25-17 with 9:28 left in the first half before Michigan State started to take control once again.

A 15-6 surge for the Spartans put them ahead, 40-23, with 2:10 to play in the half after Nick Ward scored on a jump-hook. But the Tigers built some momentum heading into the locker room as they scored the final five points of the half, including a 3-pointer from Waters to cut Michigan State’s lead to 40-28 at the break.

LSU came storming out of the locker room, scoring the first eight points for a 13-0 run that began late in the first half.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

0 0

Judge May Force Administration to Reunite More Families Separated at Border

In a blow to the Trump administration's U.S.-Mexico border strategy, a federal court judge in California has expanded the number of migrant families separated at the border that the government may be required to reunite.

San Diego-based U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw late on Friday issued a preliminary ruling that would potentially expand by thousands the number of migrants included in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sabraw already ordered the Trump administration last year to reunite more than 2,800 migrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under the administration's "zero tolerance" policy.

But he will allow more separated families to join the class-action lawsuit after a report released in January by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General, which identified potentially thousands more families that had been separated as early as July 1, 2017. The administration's "zero tolerance" policy did not take effect until May 2018.

"The hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its borders," Sabraw said in his ruling.

Sabraw said that report was "a significant development in this case" and its contents "are undisputed."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump implemented the zero-tolerance policy to criminally prosecute and jail all illegal border crossers - even those traveling with their children - which led to a wave of separations last year.

The policy sparked outrage when it became public, and the backlash led Trump to sign an executive order reversing course on June 20, 2018.

The IG report said prior to the officially announced zero-tolerance policy, the government began ramping up separations in 2017 for other reasons related to a child’s safety and well-being, including separating parents with criminal records or lack of proper documents.

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said in January after the IG report came out that the practice of separating apprehended minors from adults to protect the interests of the children has been standard practice “for more than a decade.”

The report also said more than 100 minors, including more than two dozen under age 5, were separated after the President’s executive order.

“The court made clear that potentially thousands of children’s lives are at stake and that the Trump administration cannot simply ignore the devastation it has caused,” Lee Gelernt, ACLU lead attorney in the class-action family separation lawsuit, said on Friday.

Source: NewsMax Politics

0 0

Trump Poll Numbers Drop Amid Release of Mueller Report

Congressional Democrats took legal action on Friday to gain access to all of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's evidence from his inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as the probe's findings dented President Donald Trump's poll ratings.

The number of Americans who approve of Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a redacted version of Mueller's report on Thursday, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online opinion poll.

Mueller did not establish the Trump campaign coordinated with Russians but did find "multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations."

While Mueller ultimately decided not to charge Trump with a crime such as obstruction of justice, he also said the investigation did not exonerate the president, either.

U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, issued a subpoena to the Justice Department to hand over the full Mueller report and other relevant evidence by May 1.

"My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice. The redactions appear to be significant," Nadler said in a statement.

The Justice Department called the request "premature and unnecessary," but spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement the department would work with Congress "to accommodate its legitimate requests consistent with the law and long-recognized executive branch interests."

The report provided extensive details on Trump's efforts to thwart Mueller's investigation, giving Democrats plenty of political ammunition against the Republican president but leaving them with no consensus on how to use it.

The document has blacked out sections to hide details about secret grand jury information, U.S. intelligence gathering and active criminal cases as well as potentially damaging information about peripheral players who were not charged.

Six top congressional Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected U.S. Attorney General William Barr's offer to give them access to a less-redacted version of the report. In a letter to Barr, they repeated their request for the full report but said they were open to "a reasonable accommodation."

Democratic leaders have played down talk of impeachment of Trump just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election, even as some prominent members of the party's progressive wing, notably U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, promised to push the idea.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren became the first major contender for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination to call for the start of impeachment proceedings, saying on Twitter that "the severity of this misconduct" demanded it.

'CRAZY MUELLER REPORT'

Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a political witch hunt, lashed out again on Friday.

"Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report...which are fabricated & totally untrue," Trump wrote on Twitter.

He seemed to be referring to former White House counsel Don McGahn who was cited in the report as having annoyed Trump by taking notes of his conversations with the president.

"Watch out for people that take so-called 'notes,' when the notes never existed until needed," Trump wrote. "It was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the 'Report' about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad)."

Phone conversations between the president and McGahn in June 2017 were a central part of Mueller's depiction of Trump as trying to derail the Russia inquiry. The report said Trump told McGahn to instruct the Justice Department to fire Mueller. McGahn did not carry out the order.

According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,005 adults conducted Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, 37 percent of people approve of Trump’s performance in office - down from 40 percent in a similar poll conducted on April 15, which matches the lowest level of the year. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.

Representative Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the Democrats' subpoena "is wildly overbroad" and would jeopardize a grand jury's investigations.

While most Republicans have stood by Trump, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, now a U.S. senator from Utah, criticized Trump and those around him as portrayed in the report. Romney, an on-and-off Trump critic, said on Twitter it was "good news" there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump with a crime.

"Even so, I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President," said Romney, who lost the White House race to President Barack Obama in 2012.

The Mueller inquiry laid bare what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, denigrate 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump.

RUSSIA DENIES MEDDLING

Russia said on Friday that Mueller's report did not contain any evidence that Moscow had meddled. "We, as before, do not accept such allegations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Asked on Friday about Russian interference in 2016, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington that "we will make very clear to them that this is not acceptable behavior."

Half a dozen former Trump aides, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, were charged by Mueller's office or convicted of crimes during his 22-month-long investigation. The Mueller inquiry spawned a number of other criminal probes by federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere.

One reason it would be difficult to charge Trump is that the Justice Department has a decades-old policy that a sitting president should not be indicted, although the U.S. Constitution is silent on whether a president can face criminal prosecution in court.

Nadler told reporters on Thursday that Mueller probably wrote the report with the intent of providing Congress a road map for future action against the president, but the Democratic congressman said it was too early to talk about impeachment.

But the House Oversight Committee's Democratic chairman, Elijah Cummings, said impeachment was not ruled out.

"A lot of people keep asking about the question of impeachment ... We may very well come to that very soon, but right now let's make sure we understand what Mueller was doing, understand what Barr was doing, and see the report in an unredacted form and all of the underlying documents,” he told MSNBC.

Source: NewsMax Politics

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Slack Technologies Inc, operator of the popular workplace instant-messaging app, reported a loss of $140.7 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing ahead of its planned public market debut.

The company said its daily active users exceeded 10 million in the three months ended Jan. 31, 2019.

Slack expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SK”, it said.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to go public via a direct listing, making it the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass the traditional route of listing shares through an initial public offering.

A direct listing is a cheaper way of becoming a public company as the process requires fewer investment banks and therefore lower fees.

In a direct listing, however, a company does not sell any new shares to raise money. Instead, it gives existing shareholders the opportunity to cash out.

Slack is the latest in a string of high-profile technology companies looking to go public this year. Lyft Inc, Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications have completed IPOs so far in 2019.

The company is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing, Reuters had previously reported. Some early investors and employees have been selling the stock at around $28, valuing the company close to $17 billion, Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge, a brokerage company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Slack set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Its competitors include Microsoft Teams, a free chat add-on for Microsoft’s Office365 users.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s decision to make it easier for residents of rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport is meant to test Ukraine’s new leader and the West should not recognize the documents, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the order on facilitating passports on Wednesday, three days after comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Linas Linkevicius, whose own country also has strained relations with Moscow, told Reuters in an interview that the West should consider imposing new sanctions on Russia.

“This is a blatant violation of international law. And basically also a kind of test to the new (Ukrainian) leadership, which is also a usual game,” Linkevicius said.

“The least we can do (is) we shouldn’t recognize these passports. How to do that technically, it’s another issue to discuss. Also (we need) to look at additional sanctions,” said Linkevicius, whose small Baltic nation is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for armed separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Some 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict despite a notional ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015.

Linkevicius, who in Kiev on Friday became the first minister of an EU country since Ukraine’s election to meet President-elect Zelenskiy, said they had discussed the passport issue.

Zelenskiy also raised the possibility of resetting the Minsk ceasefire agreement without giving any concessions to Russia, Linkevicius said.

“DANGEROUS CANCER” OF GRAFT

The minister urged Zelenskiy to deliver on his electoral promise of tackling corruption, which he described as the “most dangerous cancer” facing Ukraine, which hopes one day to join the EU.

Last month, Lithuania’s own relations with Russia came under renewed strain after a Vilnius court found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov, in absentia, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in a 1991 crackdown against Lithuania’s pro-independence movement.

Russia branded the verdict “extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative” and opened a probe into the judges involved.

Linkevicius accused Russia of seeking to politicize the judicial process by trying to take revenge on the judges, adding: “This is lamentable.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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

A Cook County judge recently called out embattled State Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report — but dropping similar charges against embattled “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.

Foxx has faced intense criticism over her office’s decision to drop a 16-count indictment against Smollett, just weeks after bringing the charges against the high-profile TV star. Foxx’s deal with Smollett, which did not require him to admit guilt, drew ire from the public, the city’s top cop and the former mayor who called it a “whitewash of justice.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHICAGO PROSECUTOR KIM FOXX CHIDED BY NATIONAL ATTORNEYS GROUPS AFTER JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED 

Cook County Judge Marc Martin, who was presiding over an unrelated case, chastised Foxx and her office for creating a situation where anyone charged with filing a false report would expect the same leniency her office afforded Smollett.

Candace Clark, 21, is facing one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors accused her of giving a friend access to her bank account and then telling authorities the money had been stolen. She denies the charges and claims she’s the victim of Foxx’s double standard — something the judge weighed in on.

“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good. And this smells, big time,” Martin said to prosecutors during a recent hearing, Fox 32 reported. “I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”

The judge continued, “There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown. It’s not right. And (if) I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. (If the) press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February but continued to oversee the investigation through text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats.

The text messages revealed Foxx called Smollett a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” They also show she cautioned Magats about throwing the book at Smollett.

“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.

“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with four women, three of whom were underage.

KIM FOXX’S CHIEF ETHICS OFFICER RESIGNS FOLLOWING SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY

President Trump said last month he asked for a federal review of Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. He also called the actor “an absolute embarrassment to our country.”

The Smollett case garnered national attention and threatened to tear Chicago apart. It pit the police department and mayor against prosecutors and underscored the idea that wealthy people are somehow above the law.

Smollett told police he was attacked on Jan. 29 around 2 a.m. as he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. He said two masked men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, beat him and tied a rope around his neck. He claimed they shouted, “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

CLICK HERE FOF THE FOX NEWS APP

After an intense investigation, police said Smollett staged the entire incident to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett has strongly denied the accusations.

Source: Fox News National

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