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

NYC trial begins for German woman who allegedly swindled victims out of $275,000 in socialite scam

The onetime darling of the Big Apple social scene — dubbed the “scammer socialite,” she's been accused of posing as a wealthy heiress to infiltrate New York City’s upper echelon — went on trial Wednesday on grand larceny and theft-of-services charges. Authorities allege she swindled various people and businesses out of $275,000 in a 10-month odyssey.

Anna Sorokin traveled in celebrity circles and tossed off $100 tips — all the more reason to believe she was, as she'd claimed, a German heiress.

But behind the jet-set lifestyle, prosecutors says, was a fraudster who got a taste of the high life at the expense of friends, banks and hotels.

Sorokin, 28, lived in luxury New York City hotel rooms she couldn’t afford, promised a friend an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco and then stuck her with the $62,000 bill, and peddled bogus bank statements in a quest for a $22 million loan, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has alleged.

“Her overall scheme has been to claim to be a wealthy German heiress with approximately $60 million in funds being held abroad,” prosecutor Catherine McCaw said after Sorokin’s October 2017 arrest. “She’s born in Russia and has not a cent to her name, as far as we can determine.”

FELICITY HUFFMAN, LORI LOUGHLIN FACE POSSIBLE JAIL TIME FOR COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CHEATING SCANDAL

Sorokin’s attorney said she never intended to commit a crime.

Lawyer Todd Spodek told jurors in an opening statement that Sorokin was exploiting a system after she saw how the appearance of wealth opened doors. Spodek said she was aiming to ultimately launch a business and repay her debts.

“Anna had to fake it until she could make it,” Spodek said.

Sorokin, jailed since her arrest, faces deportation to Germany regardless of the outcome of the trial because authorities say she overstayed her visa. Her story, however, may stick around.

Shonda Rhimes, the force behind “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” is developing a show about Sorokin for Netflix. Lena Dunham, of “Girls” fame, is working on one for HBO.

At different times, it's alleged, Sorokin claimed her dad was a diplomat, an oil baron or a big deal in solar panels. In reality, her father told New York magazine, he’s a former trucker who runs a heating-and-cooling business.

At first, people around Sorokin didn’t see a red flag when she asked them to put cabs and plane fares on their credit cards — she sometimes said she had trouble moving her assets from Europe, they said — and they laughed it off as forgetfulness when they had to hound her to pay them back.

“It was a magic trick,” Rachel Williams, the friend from the Morocco trip, wrote in Vanity Fair. “I’m embarrassed to say that I was one of the props, and the audience, too. Anna’s was a beautiful dream of New York, like one of those nights that never seems to end. And then the bill arrives.”

As she ingratiated herself into the New York party scene, prosecutors said, Sorokin started talking up plans to spend tens of millions of dollars building a private arts club with exhibitions, installations and pop-up shops.

Sorokin kept up the heiress ruse as she went looking for a $22 million loan for the club in November 2016, prosecutors said. She claimed the loan would be secured by a letter of credit from UBS in Switzerland, and showed statements purporting to substantiate her assets, according to an outline of the charges.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

While seeking the loan, prosecutors said, Sorokin convinced one bank to lend her $100,000 to cover due diligence costs. She ended up keeping $55,000 and “frittered away these funds on personal expenses in about one month’s time,” prosecutors said. A few months later, in May 2017, Sorokin allegedly chartered a plane to and from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., but never paid the $35,400 bill.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Ocasio-Cortez blasts 'injustice' that prestigious New York City high school admitted few black students

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., charged on Tuesday that a selective New York public high school should have admitted more black applicants this year, saying their relatively low admit rate was an "injustice" and a "system failure" -- although an objective state-mandated test is used to determine admissions decisions, and low-income Asian students took most of the spots.

In her fiery social media post, Ocasio-Cortez pointed to news reports that only seven black applicants secured offers of admission to Stuyvesant High School this year, out of 895 available slots.

"68% of all NYC public school students are Black or Latino," Ocasio-Cortez began. "To only have 7 Black students accepted into Stuyvesant (a *public* high school) tells us that this is a system failure. Education inequity is a major factor in the racial wealth gap. This is what injustice looks like."

The progressive New York Democrat cited a Monday New York Times report, which noted that the population of black students at Stuyvesant was seemingly decreasing: 10 were admitted in 2018, and 13 in 2017.

At the highly selective Bronx High School of Science, meanwhile, only 12 black students received offers of admission, compared with 25 in 2018.

But the report also mentioned several facts Ocasio-Cortez did not -- including that "low-income" Asian students are a majority at New York City's most selective schools. At Stuyvesant, for example, 74 percent of current students are Asian-Americans who performed very well on the admissions test, known as the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which is used by eight of New York City's most selective high schools.

Approximately 19 percent of the students are white and 3 percent are Hispanic, according to school data.

HARVARD APPEARS TO PENALIZE ASIAN APPLICANTS, BOOST BLACK STUDENTS, EXPERT SAYS

The Times noted that state efforts to help students prepare for the test -- including free test prep for minority students -- have not helped change the admissions numbers in favor of black applicants.

"The numbers are abysmal; we knew that."

— NYC public advocate Jumaane Williams

As a result, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio last year called for a new admissions system to New York's most prestigious schools, which would simply scrap that test, and instead ensure that top students from each local middle school received admissions offers.

“These numbers are even more proof that dramatic reform is necessary to open the doors of opportunity at specialized high schools,” de Blasio said, responding to the Times' report.

In an op-ed last year, de Blasio elaborated: "Eight of our most renowned high schools – including Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School – rely on a single, high-stakes exam. The Specialized High School Admissions Test isn’t just flawed – it’s a roadblock to justice, progress and academic excellence. If we want this to be the fairest big city in America, we need to scrap the SHSAT and start over.”

He added: "Right now, we are living with monumental injustice. The prestigious high schools make 5,000 admissions offers to incoming ninth-graders. Yet, this year just 172 black students and 298 Latino students received offers. This happened in a city where two out of every three eighth-graders in our public schools are Latino or black. ... Can anyone defend this?"

Stuyvesant High School in New York, in JuneMARY ALTAFFER / AP

Stuyvesant High School in New York, in JuneMARY ALTAFFER / AP

But his proposal to eliminate the test remains unpopular in New York. A spokesperson for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said only that there were "two sides" to the issue, and Jumaane Williams, the city's public health advocate, told the Times that he opposed scrapping the test.

“The numbers are abysmal; we knew that,” Williams, who is black, told the Times. “The question is what do we do about it, how do we do it without needlessly pitting communities against each other?”

Asian-Americans, backed by the Trump adminstration, have increasingly challenged what they characterize as Democrats' insensitivity to racism directed at them by institutions and individuals. In one closely watched case, the Justice Department last year filed court documents siding with Asian-American students who allege Harvard discriminates against them in its admissions process.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

William Fitzsimmons, the 30-year dean of admissions at Harvard, who oversees the screening process of about 40,000 applicants and narrows them down to 2,000 acceptance letters that are handed out each year, testified during the trial that African-Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores out of a possible 1600 combined math and verbal, are sent recruitment letters with a score as low as 1100, whereas Asian-Americans need to score at least 250 points higher – 1350 for women and 1380 for men.

"That’s race discrimination, plain and simple,” argued John Hughes, a lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA).

Fox News' Caleb Parke contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Priest's son demands Vatican attention for clergy's children

The head organizer of the Vatican's sex abuse summit has met with an Irish activist who is seeking to draw attention to another issue the Vatican has long sought to keep quiet: the plight of children of priests.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, for years the Vatican's sex crimes investigator, met Tuesday with Vincent Doyle, the child of a priest. Through his advocacy and self-help group Coping International, Doyle has sought to compel Catholic leaders to acknowledge the issue of priests' children and the psychological and emotional impact the church's enforced secrecy has on them and their mothers.

In a statement, Scicluna said the issue needed to be addressed and the children of priests acknowledged.

"Each case should be tackled and handled on its own merits," said the statement Scicluna gave Doyle, who shared it Wednesday with The Associated Press. "The interest of the child should be paramount."

Notably, the statement did not say the priest should leave the priesthood to take care of his child as a layman — the common default response by church superiors.

This week the Vatican acknowledged publicly to The New York Times that it has internal guidelines on how to handle such cases.

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed that the guidelines' fundamental principle is looking out for the best interests of the child. As such, he said, the guidelines "ordinarily ask for the priest to present his request to be dispensed from the obligations of the clerical state, and as a lay person, assume his responsibilities as a father, dedicating himself exclusively to his child."

Doyle is pressing for that default position to change, arguing that it often is not in the best interests of the child for his father to be fired.

Doyle also notes that these children are born under a wide range of circumstances, with some the result of sexual abuse by priests against girls and women.

In an interview Wednesday, Doyle said he met this week with the president of the U.S. bishops' conference, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, and walked into the Congregation for Clergy and secured a meeting with the department undersecretary, Monsignor Andrea Ripa.

Doyle said all agreed on the need for case-by-case approach to the issue of priest's children. The Irish Catholic Church hierarchy has taken the lead on addressing the issue with a child-focused set of guidelines published in 2017.

"This is important, as it eliminate the default expectations that he (the priest) has to leave," Doyle said. He said he was heartened by all his meetings and that the Catholic officials were compassionate and understood the pain he conveyed to them.

Doyle has been campaigning to help eliminate the stigma children of priests often face, and educate the church about the problems they can suffer as a result of the secrecy imposed on them and the absentee fathers they may never know. Those problems, which can include depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, were the subject of a 2017 series in The Boston Globe.

There are no figures about the number of children fathered by Catholic priests. But there are about 450,000 Catholic priests in the world and the Catholic Church forbids artificial contraception and abortion. While eastern rite Catholic priests can be married before ordination, Roman Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy.

Scicluna is one of four key organizers of Pope Francis' clergy sex abuse summit, which opens Thursday but is not expected to address the issue of priests' children.

___

More AP coverage of clergy sex abuse can be found at: https://www/apnews.com/Sexualabusebyclergy

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Bernie introduces new ‘Medicare for all’ plan


**Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**

On the roster: Bernie introduces new ‘Medicare for all’ plan - Team Trump considers revising family separation plan - McConnell is ready for new budget plan - Gillibrand says she was wrong on immigration - As in ‘he’s aware that he’s eating gluten’

BERNIE INTRODUCES NEW ‘MEDICARE FOR ALL’ PLAN
AP: “Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont unveiled a new version of his ‘Medicare for All’ plan on Wednesday, shaking up the 2020 presidential race by reopening the debate over his call to eliminate private health insurance. ‘It is not a radical idea to say that in the United States, every American who goes to a doctor should be able to afford the prescription drug he or she needs,’ Sanders said. ‘Health care is a human right, not a privilege.’ Four of Sanders’ fellow senators and rivals for the Democratic nomination are set to sign onto the updated single-payer health care proposal. The bill’s reintroduction promises to shine a light on Democratic presidential candidates’ disparate visions for the long term future of American health care. Under fire from President Donald Trump and Republicans for the astronomical price tag of Medicare for All, some candidates who support the plan tout it as one of several ways to achieve more affordable coverage and lower the number of uninsured people.”

He’ll also release his tax returns by Monday - NYT: “Senator Bernie Sanders, whose $18 million fund-raising haul has solidified his status as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Tuesday that he would release 10 years of tax returns by Tax Day on Monday and acknowledged that he has joined the ranks of the millionaires he has denounced for years. ‘April 15 is coming,’ Mr. Sanders, whose refusal to release his full past returns has become an issue in the campaign, said in an interview in his office. ‘We wanted to release 10 years of tax returns. April 15, 2019, will be the 10th year, so I think you will see them.’ Told that he was being compared to President Trump, who has refused to release his tax returns, Mr. Sanders got more specific: ‘On the day in the very immediate future, certainly before April 15, we release ours, I hope that Donald Trump will do exactly the same.’”

[Watch Fox: Sanders joins hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for a town hall in Bethlehem, Pa. Monday April 15 at 6:30 pm ET.]

THE RULEBOOK: HOLD THE PURSE
“[The House of Representatives] in a word, hold the purse that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of the government.” – James Madison, Federalist No. 58

TIME OUT: ‘HIS ACCIDENCY’ 
Vanity Fair: “In 1868, President Andrew Johnson found himself impeached and on trial before the U.S. Senate. Over the course of his term, he had essentially declared war on his own government, vetoing an outrageous 29 bills, firing officials without Senate permission, and pardoning old pals. Congress fought back: 15 vetoes were overridden, and after a nearly three-month trial Abe Lincoln’s successor barely escaped conviction. ‘The question of whether a president could govern while being on trial was a hot topic,’ writes Jared Cohen in Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America, out this month from Simon & Schuster. ‘Johnson clearly thought he could … The book is also a reminder that, when it came to succession, America’s founders basically winged it. ‘If you think about how much we leave to chance, the fact that only Andrew Johnson was a disaster is really quite the miracle,’ Cohen says.”

[Ed. note: And it happens to be the next topic of the “I’ll Tell You What” book club. Dana and I are already reading up for our April 24 episode, so you’d better catch up!]

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

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 42 percent
Average disapproval: 52.4 percent
Net Score: -10.4 points
Change from one week ago: down 0.2 points 
[Average includes: GU Politics/Battleground: 43% approve - 52% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 52% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 44% approve - 50% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 43% approve - 53% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 39% approve - 55% disapprove.]

TEAM TRUMP CONSIDERS REVISING FAMILY SEPARATION PLAN
WaPo: “The Trump administration is considering a revised version of its family separation tactic to cope with an influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that would force parents to choose whether to remain detained as a family or agree to a separation to keep their children out of custody, according to administration officials. The administration weighed the new policy as President Trump insisted that he has no plans to separate families, falsely claimed that President Barack Obama carried out the same plan and maintained that his decision to halt the practice last year was the reason so many Central Americans have been coming to the United States. ‘We’re not looking to do that now,’ the president told reporters in the Oval Office, when asked to respond to reports that the White House is planning to separate families again. ‘But it brings a lot more people to the border when you don’t do it.’”

Pentagon announces $1 billion contracts for border wall - Time: “The Pentagon announced two military contracts Tuesday worth $976 million to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, marking the first step toward President Donald Trump’s long-promised goal since he declared a national emergency nearly two months ago. The Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $789 million contract to the Galveston, Texas-based company, SLSCO Ltd., for ‘border replacement wall construction’ in Santa Teresa, N. M., near El Paso, Texas. Barnard Construction Co. Inc., of Bozeman, Mont., was awarded a contract worth $187 million for ‘design-bid-build construction project for primary pedestrian wall replacement’ in Yuma, Ariz. Both projects, announced on the Defense Department website, are slated for completion in fall 2020.”

Resignation of DHS acting deputy secretary continues shakeup - Fox News: “President Trump's high-level overhaul of the Department of Homeland Security continued on Tuesday, with the announcement that DHS' acting deputy secretary is resigning amid a reported historic surge in illegal immigrants and asylum seekers at the border. Claire Grady was technically the next in line to replace Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned Sunday. But Trump chose Kevin McAleenan, the head of Customs and Border Protection, as acting secretary. That meant Grady had to resign or be fired. Two officials with direct knowledge of the decision, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press, said Grady was pressed to quit. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Nielsen said Grady had offered her resignation, writing that ‘her sound leadership and effective oversight have impacted every DHS office and employee and made us stronger as a Department.’”

MCCONNELL IS READY FOR NEW BUDGET PLAN
AP: “Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday it’s time to kick off bipartisan talks on a new budget pact to fund federal agencies over the next two years. The Kentucky Republican told reporters that he spoke with President Donald Trump last week and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday morning, and that both support trying to reach an agreement on a new spending pact for both the Pentagon and domestic programs. ‘We’ve agreed to put together, at the staff level, a group to begin discussing the possibility of reaching a two-year (spending) caps deal so we can move ahead hopefully with some kind of regular appropriations process,’ McConnell told reporters. A new funding agreement is needed to prevent the return of spending cuts under the remnants of a failed 2011 budget and debt agreement. Trump has only reluctantly signed spending bills during his two years in office…”

GILLIBRAND SAYS SHE WAS WRONG ON IMMIGRATION
Politico: “Democratic presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday confronted some of her previous stances on immigration, saying they ‘didn't care’ about the needs of diverse Americans. ‘When I was a member of Congress from upstate New York, I was really focused on the priorities of my district,’ the New York senator said during a CNN town hall. ‘When I became senator of the entire state, I recognized that some of my views really did need to change.’ Before becoming a senator in 2009, Gillibrand represented a largely Republican district in the House and expressed ideas on immigration — from blocking certain benefits for undocumented immigrants to establishing English as an official language — that have come back to haunt her as she seeks the Democratic nomination in 2020. Those old stances especially corrode her platform as the antithesis of President Donald Trump…”

She was also confronted about relationship with Hillary - Fox News: “New York senator and 2020 candidate Kirsten Gillibrand was awkwardly confronted Tuesday about her relationship with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after suggesting that her husband Bill Clinton should have resigned from office. Back in November 2017 during the early stages of the #MeToo movement, Gillibrand told The New York Times that it would have been an ‘appropriate response’ for former President Clinton to resign over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. ‘Things have changed today, and I think under those circumstances there should be a very different reaction,’ Gillibrand said at the time. … Gillibrand, who succeeded Clinton in the Senate and was a big supporter of her 2016 campaign, was confronted by CNN anchor Erin Burnett about their relationship during a televised town hall on Tuesday night.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Benjamin Netanyahu to secure fifth term as Israel’s prime minister - WSJ

Mick Mulvaney lets Trump be Trump - NYT

Senate Republicans voice concerns over Herman Cain’s Fed nomination - Politico

AUDIBLE: WOOF
“I believe you’re supposed to take the gavel and bang it.” – Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a heated exchange with Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., during his testimony on Trump’s taxes Tuesday.

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

AS IN ‘HE’S AWARE THAT HE’S EATING GLUTEN’
The Takeout: “Gluten avoidance is one of those things that people sometimes poke fun at, even though for people with celiac disease, or those who are extremely allergic to gluten, it can be deadly serious. But many people also try to avoid gluten for more minor health reasons. Vancouver-based Earls restaurant, a chain with 20 restaurants in the U.S., was apparently just trying to address those differences on its menu, noting that its tacos were available with ‘gluten aware tortillas.’ Conservative pundit Matt Walsh then asked on Twitter, ‘What the hell is a ‘gluten aware tortilla’’? … ‘Gluten aware’ kind of rankles in an overly PC way. Maybe one of those ‘This gluten-free product is prepared in the same kitchen as gluten products’ disclaimers?’ Too long? Still, we suspect that people with celiac disease would likely be asking those important questions regardless.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“You bring criminals to justice; you rain destruction on combatants. This is a fundamental distinction that can no longer be avoided. The bombings of Sept. 11, 2001, must mark a turning point.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Washington Post on Sept. 12, 2001.

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

0 0

‘Astrocomb’ opens new horizons for planet-hunting telescope

The hunt for Earth-like planets, and perhaps extraterrestrial life, just got more precise, thanks to record-setting starlight measurements made possible by a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) “astrocomb.”

NIST’s custom-made —which precisely measures frequencies, or colors, of light—ensures the precision of starlight analysis by an instrument called a spectrograph at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas. The project is a collaboration involving NIST, the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and Pennsylvania State University, the primary partner in the telescope and spectrograph.

The new apparatus for the first time provides the precision needed for discovering and characterizing planets orbiting M dwarf stars, which comprise 70 percent of the stars in the galaxy and are plentiful near Earth, the research team reported in Optica.

“The comb immediately allowed our Penn State colleagues to make measurements they could not otherwise make,” NIST Fellow Scott Diddams said. “These improved tools should allow us to find around the most ubiquitous stars in our galaxy.”

A star’s nuclear furnace emits , which is modified by elements in the atmosphere that absorb certain narrow bands of color. To search for planets orbiting distant , astronomers look for periodic changes in this characteristic “fingerprint,” that is, very small variations in the apparent colors of starlight over time. These oscillations in color are caused by the star being tugged to and fro by the gravitational pull of an unseen orbiting planet. This apparent wobble is subtle, and measurements are limited by the frequency standards used to calibrate spectrographs.

Hundreds of exoplanets have been discovered using star wobble analysis, but a planet with a mass similar to that of Earth and orbiting at just the right distance from a star—in the so-called “Goldilocks zone”—is hard to detect with conventional technology.

Data collected by the NIST-CU-Penn State research team show the astrocomb will make it possible to detect Earth-mass that cause color shifts equivalent to a star wobble of about 1 meter per second—the approximate speed of a person walking across a room, and at least 10 times better than previously achieved in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared light is the main type emitted by M .

Credit: ESO

Over the past 20 years, NIST researchers in Boulder, Colorado, first invented and then pioneered further advances in . The comb delivered to Texas is unique in having about 5,000 widely spaced “teeth,” or specific color calibration points. It’s tailored to the reading capability of Penn State’s Habitable Zone Planet Finder sprectrograph and spans the target infrared wavelength band of 800-1300 nm. Just 60 by 152 square centimeters in size and made of relatively simple commercial components, the comb is also robust enough to withstand continuous use at a remote site.

In providing tailored light to the spectrograph, the NIST comb acts like a very precise ruler to calibrate and track exact colors in a star’s fingerprint and detect any periodic variations. The comb, made with new electro-optic laser technology, provides strong signals at accurately defined target frequencies that can be traced to international measurement standards.

The project has been in the works for years. The NIST-CU-Penn State research team did a test run in 2012 that showed the promise of the new approach. The new comb was delivered and saw “first light,” as they say in astronomy, in February 2018, and has been running nightly since May of 2018. The new comb has a broader light range and is more stable than the earlier demo version.

While the idea of using frequency combs to aid planet discovery has generated a lot of interest around the world, the new NIST astrocomb is the first in operation at near-infrared wavelengths. Other combs currently operating on a telescope, such as the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) in Chile, are dedicated to visible light measurements.


Roger Stone and Owen Shroyer join Alex Jones to discuss how the mainstream media attacks and Big Tech censorship can’t stop Infowars from telling the truth and won’t stop Alex Jones’ fans from listening to it.

Source: InfoWars

0 0

Manafort asks judge for sentence far below the maximum -court filing

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Manafort arrives for arraignment on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives for arraignment on a third superseding indictment against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington, June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst//File Photo/File Photo

February 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Monday asked a federal judge in Washington to impose a prison term “significantly below the statutory maximum” when he is sentenced on March 13, according to a court filing.

Manafort pleaded guilty in a federal court in Washington last September to conspiracy against the United States – a charge that includes a range of conduct from money laundering to unregistered lobbying – and conspiracy to obstruct justice for attempts to tamper with witnesses.

He can be sentenced up to five years for each count, for a statutory maximum of 10 years.

“We respectfully request that the Court impose a sentence

significantly below the statutory maximum sentence in this case,” Manafort’s lawyers said in the filing.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team said in a filing on Saturday that Manafort, 69, “repeatedly and brazenly” broke the law, and argued he did not deserve leniency at sentencing.

While Mueller did not recommend a specific sentence, he portrayed Manafort as a “hardened” criminal who was at risk of repeating criminal behavior if released from prison.

Mueller is investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any collusion between Russia and the campaign of President Donald Trump.

Russia denies trying to interfere in the election, and Trump says his team did not collude with Moscow.

Manafort is due to be sentenced on March 8 in a separate case in Alexandria, Virginia. He faces up to 25 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines in that case, in which he was convicted last year of financial crimes.

In Monday’s filing, Manafort’s lawyers asked the Washington judge to impose a concurrent sentence if he receives prison sentences in both cases.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: OANN

0 0

Flat German net trade contributes to fourth-quarter stagnation: stats office

People enjoy the sunset in front of a container ship at the Elbe river in Hamburg
People enjoy the sunset in front of a container ship at the Elbe river in Hamburg Germany March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

February 22, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – German exports rose by as much as imports in the fourth quarter, data showed on Friday, contributing to an economic stagnation in Europe’s largest economy.

The Federal Statistics Office said that both exports and imports rose by 0.7 percent on the quarter, resulting in net trade making no contribution to growth.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr; editing by Thomas Seythal)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
A remote controlled robot for the 'Isotopium: Chernobyl' game is seen at the game's location in Brovary
A remote controlled robot for the ‘Isotopium: Chernobyl’ game is seen at the game’s location in Brovary, Ukraine April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

April 26, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko

KIEV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian computer game that brings to life a town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun but has attracted 60,000 people globally since its launch in October.

Players of “Isotopium: Chernobyl” drive tanks around the ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl, knocking out competitors as they search for an energy source called isotopium and collecting points every time they find some.

While the game takes its theme from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, which marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday, it was also inspired by the 2009 science fiction film “Avatar”.

Newcomers to the game think they have entered a virtual world when in fact they are controlling a real robot, equipped with a camera and computer, which makes its way around a model of the town rendered down to the tiniest detail.

“When playing our game, for the first 5-10 minutes many players don’t understand that it is not fictional,” said the game’s co-founder Sergey Beskrestnov. “They message us saying: ‘You have cool texture, you have good graphics, your designer is good, well done. You have a cool operating system.’

“People then reply: ‘It is not an operating system, it is real,’ and the player can’t believe it is real,” said Beskrestnov, speaking mid-game from Prypyat city square as he towers over surrounding five-storey buildings.

Kiev-born Beskrestnov was just 12 years old when on April 26, 1986 a botched test at the nuclear plant in the then Soviet Union sent clouds of smoldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe, forced over 50,000 people, including Beskrestnov’s family, to evacuate and poisoned unknown numbers of workers involved in its clean-up.

Beskrestnov and his partner Alexey Fateyev used Google maps and hundreds of pictures from the Chernobyl area to recreate Prypyat landmarks, including residential buildings, a hotel, concert hall, amusement park and a stadium.

The game’s real-scale model occupies a 180 square meter (1,938 sq. ft) basement of a residential building in the Ukraine city of Brovary, just 150 km (93 miles) from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and 30 km east of Kiev.

Miniature radioactivity warning signs, graffiti on the walls of abandoned buildings and tables and chairs left scattered inside a small cafe all add to the creepy atmosphere of a once lively town.

“It’s a really neat concept …,” Shaun Prescott wrote in a review of the game published by PC Gamer magazine in January. “Controlling the tanks is kinda cumbersome, but they are tanks, after all.”

An attentive player will notice at least one inaccuracy – the real Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not located in town as it is in the game.

It costs $9 to immerse in the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic town for an hour but only 20 people at a time can play simultaneously. Beskrestnov’s company, Remote Games, said 62,615 people around the world have registered to play the game, including around 15,000 in France and 10,000 in the United States.

A camera fixed on top of a moving tank broadcasts high quality signal in real time, allowing players from as far apart as Australia and Canada enjoy the game without facing any time delay in delivering video signals.

Its creators next ambition is to devise a game featuring the colonization of Mars in which 1,000 people will be able to simultaneously control robots on different missions involved in the operation.

“Many people advise us to contact Elon Musk directly because it resonates his dreams and ideas,” Beskrestnov jokes.    

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California
FILE PHOTO: A Starbucks sign is show on one of the companies stores in Los Angeles, California, U.S. October 19,2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Initial optimism over first-quarter results from Starbucks Corp was waning fast on Wall Street on Friday, as analysts questioned the longer-term prospects of its new sales push given subdued overall customer traffic numbers especially in China.

The company on Thursday beat brokerage estimates for quarterly same-store sales on the back of demand for its new Cloud Macchiato, Matcha tea and cold brews in the United States.

However, BTIG’s Peter Saleh was one of a number of sector analysts who said while customers forking out for higher-priced new drinks had helped drive growth in same-store sales, “anemic” traffic at cafes remained a concern.

He and others pointed to a 1 percent decline in footfall at cafes in the Chinese market, viewed as crucial to the chain’s growth for the foreseeable future.

More broadly, transaction numbers, the substitute analysts use for customer traffic, were unchanged in all three of the company’s global regions.

Shares in the company, which hit a record high after the results on Thursday, fell 1 percent in morning trade.

“We remain cautious given near-term headwinds surrounding China, including cannibalization, increasing competition (and) a slowing economy,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan said.

Starbucks has also poured money into beefing up its delivery network in China as it battles with local startup Luckin Coffee, whose speedy growth led it to file for an IPO in the United States earlier this week.

New menu items and partnerships with delivery services, the heart of the company’s strategy to win back customers lost to artisanal coffee shops and cheaper fast-food rivals, did help Starbucks’ sales in its home market.

However, analysts said growth in China may continue to be subdued.

Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expects store expansion in China to take priority over comparable sales growth.

She downgraded her rating on Starbucks’ to “market perform” from “outperform”, arguing that the company facing tough sales comparisons later on in 2019 from last year and the current rich valuation of shares meant the stock had limited room to rise.

“Investors will be hesitant to invest new money in a stock with a topline that, while still strong, is unlikely to meaningfully accelerate,” Herzog said.

Still, the company’s solid same-store growth in the United States, improving profit margins and a lower tax rate for the rest of the year led at least 6 Wall Street brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock to as high as $81.

11 of 29 brokerages rate Starbucks “buy” or higher, 17 “hold” and 1 “sell” or lower. Their median price target is $75.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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