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Report: Rep. Omar Investigated for Campaign Spending

Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is reportedly under investigation for her campaign spending as a state lawmaker, conservative media outlet Sinclair reported Monday.

Sinclair Broadcast Group's James Rosen, in a post on ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington that cited unnamed sources, reported the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board is preparing to issue rulings within the next 4-6 weeks on a pair of complaints filed last year by GOP state lawmaker, Rep. Steve Drazkowski.

Drazkowski alleged Rep. Omar improperly spent close to $6,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including payments to her divorce lawyer and for travel to Boston and Estonia. 

"I had observed a long pattern," Drazkowski told Rosen. "Rep. Omar hasn't followed the law. She's repeatedly trampled on the laws of the state in a variety of areas, and gotten by with it."

Rosen reported Omar, as a state lawmaker, had repaid $2,500 for honoraria she received for speeches at colleges that receive state funding, a violation of ethics rules for Minnesota lawmakers.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Trump says trade deal with China could be reached in about four weeks

U.S. President Trump participates in Opportunity and Revitalization Council meeting at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council in the Cabinet room at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 4, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a trade deal with China was getting very close and could be reached in about four weeks.

Trump spoke at a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who is in Washington for trade talks. Liu said there has been great progress in the negotiations.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said there were still some major issues left to resolve.

Trump said the sticking points included tariffs and intellectual property theft, and the president said he would discuss tariffs with Liu.

China and the United States are in the middle of intense negotiations to end a months-long trade war that has rattled global markets. Washington wants sweeping changes to China’s economic and trade policies, while Beijing wants Trump to lift expensive sanctions on Chinese goods.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Alistair Bell)

Source: OANN

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Cryptocurrency companies use ‘backdoor’ listings to ease into mainstream

Representations of the Ripple, Bitcoin, Etherum and Litecoin virtual currencies are seen on motherboard in this illustration picture
Representations of the Ripple, Bitcoin, Etherum and Litecoin virtual currencies are seen on a PC motherboard in this illustration picture, February 13, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

February 22, 2019

By Alun John and Anna Irrera

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Several cryptocurrency exchanges have moved closer to mainstream markets by buying listed companies, looking to raise funds and present themselves as embedded in the traditional financial services world they once spurned.

In the most recent deal, U.S. crypto broker-dealer Voyager Digital on Feb. 11 achieved a “backdoor” listing on Toronto’s Venture Exchange after it bought control of mineral exploration firm UC Resources.

Such purchases, also known as reverse mergers, allow companies to offer shares to the public without the rigors and regulatory scrutiny of a full initial public offering (IPO).

“Many (cryptocurrency) exchanges have put a lot of strategic effort into trying to legitimize their operations and their reputations, and for some there’s an assumption that having some exposure to the traditional public market will help,” said Fei Ding’an, managing partner at Ledger Capital, a digital asset investment firm.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is the only major national regulator so far to have drawn up a definitive framework to govern digital assets and the platforms where they are traded.

In January, OKC Holdings, a company controlled by Star Xu, the founder of crypto-exchange OK Coin, bought 60.5 percent of LEAP Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed construction firm, for HK$484 million ($61.69 million).

Days later, the parent of Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced plans for a U.S. listing via the purchase of Blockchain Industries.

Last year, investors that included the co-founders of crypto-exchange software producer ANX International bought a controlling stake in Hong Kong-listed marketing firm Branding China, while Huobi, a Singapore based exchange, bought a 72 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed power electrical company Pantronics Holdings.

Voyager said its listed shares could help fund growth.

“Being a public company enables Voyager to operate with the transparency that the crypto market deserves from its institutions,” Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich said in an email.

Neither Huobi nor OKCoin has given details of their plans for the purchases.

ANX International remains separate from the renamed BC Group, but since the change in ownership the listed unit has launched new businesses that include a digital asset trading and exchange platform.

A spokesman for BC Group said being publicly traded gave clients “additional confidence in knowing we are a credible company and here for the long game.”

Spokespeople for OKCoin and Huobi declined to comment.

Neither Bithumb nor its parent Blockchain Exchange Alliance responded to requests for comment.

LEGITIMACY

Crypto experts said the deals could help the industry gain greater mainstream acceptance.

The reputation of cryptocurrencies, and particularly exchanges, has been hit hard by fears of price volatility and possible uses for laundering money alongside high-profile hacks and infrastructure failures.

Last year, the New York attorney general’s office warned that several cryptocurrency exchanges were plagued by poor market surveillance and pervasive conflicts of interest, saying some may be operating illegally.

This month, $137 million in cryptocurrencies was frozen in the user accounts of Canadian digital platform Quadriga after the founder, the only person with the password to gain access, died unexpectedly.

The crypto market peaked in late 2017, when trading volumes surged and bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, reached a high just above $20,000. Bitcoin’s price has fallen more 80 percent since then, and trading volumes have slumped.

Some exchanges may also feel pressure from investors seeking a means of realizing their profits.

“With the market turning south and regulators not being happy, this is an opportunity to satisfy investors and founders who are looking for an exit,” said Zennon Kapron, director at financial technology consultancy Kapronasia.

WRESTLING WITH REGULATORS

Public listings of cryptocurrency exchanges also pose a challenge for regulators, who are only beginning to grapple with the issues of overseeing the trading of digital currencies.

Japan’s FSA became the first major jurisdiction to regulate the exchanges in 2016, but has since refined its rules to allow the industry to largely self-regulate.

In the United States, New York state has, so far, issued a handful of so-called BitLicences for companies doing any sort of virtual currency business.

Both Hong Kong’s market watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission, and the Hong Kong Exchange declined to comment.

But the commission is considering whether some cryptocurrency trading platforms are suitable for regulation, a process it hopes to finish this year, its chief executive, Ashley Alder, told legislators on Tuesday.

Hong Kong officials have already questioned the sustainability of crypto businesses when last year, the world’s largest makers of cryptocurrency mining rigs did not follow through on IPO plans in Hong Kong, in part because of the questions officials raised.

“It’s possible a crypto exchange could incubate a new crypto business inside a Hong Kong-listed company, maintain the listed company’s existing operations, and not be treated as a new IPO, but it is a very difficult tightrope to walk,” said a person familiar with the listing committee’s processes, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the subject.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s Listing Committee must be satisfied that a company’s business is sustainable before it can list. The miners’ bids were stymied by fears that the falling price of bitcoin made their business models unworkable, sources said.

Although backdoor listings are permitted in most countries, some regulators, including those in Hong Kong, can review the deals and can in some circumstances require a full IPO instead.

“Crypto companies may struggle to demonstrate suitability for listing given the state of regulation of the industry and uncertain business models,” said Jason Sung, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills.

Exchanges like Bithumb that are looking to the United States could also similar roadblocks.

The SEC has authority both over U.S. companies selling digital securities and companies conducting a reverse merger in the United States.

“Depending on what the companies are planning to do they very well might have to seek regulatory approval from the SEC or the CFTC,” said Richard Levin, chairman of the financial technology and regulatory practice at the U.S. law firm Polsinelli.

(Reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong and Anna Irrera in New York; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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Biden joins striking union members in Boston as speculation mounts over 2020 run

Former Vice President Joe Biden made an appearance on Thursday at a rally for striking grocery store workers in Boston, where he expressed his solidarity with the union members and his anger at corporate America.

Biden, who is widely expected to soon announce a run for the presidency, highlighted his working-class upbringing in Pennsylvania and his disdain for unfair labor practices.

“Wall Street CEOs and bankers did not build America, you built America,” Biden told a crowd of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union gathered outside a Stop & Shop market in the Dorchester neighborhood.

TRUMP PREDICTS BIDEN, SANDERS, WILL BE THE TWO DEM 2020 FINALISTS

More than 30,000 UFCW Stop & Shop workers have been on strike since April 11 as they fight the company over what they've called unreasonable contract and benefit cuts.

“This is morally wrong what is going on around the country, and I’m sick of it, and I’ve had enough of it,” Biden said. “We’ve got to stand to together, and we will take back our country.”

While Biden has not officially declared that he plans to challenge President Trump for the White House, recent polling indicates that he is considered one of the front-runners for the Democratic nomination, alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. A recent poll by Fox News shows that Biden holds a seven-point lead in a head-to-head race against Trump, while Sanders holds a three-point lead over Trump.

POLLS SUGGEST VOTERS SHRUGGING OFF BIDEN INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING CONTROVERSY

Looking ahead to his re-election campaign, Trump predicted in a tweet earlier this week that he would face either Biden or Sanders in the general election next year.

Sanders is leading a crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field in fundraising so far, raising $18 million.

Winning back working class voters is of major importance to the 2020 Democratic after the party suffered major losses in union-heavy states like Michigan and Pennsylvania in the 2016 election. Biden has already been courting union voters even before he has officially entered the race.

“You are coming back," he told the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers last week. "We need you back."

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Biden is not the only potential candidate courting union votes: Sanders’ campaign became the first in U.S. history with a unionized workforce, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined striking Stop & Shop workers on a picket line in New Hampshire last Friday and California Sen. Kamala Harris hired a top Service Employees International Union executive for her campaign and made her first proposal one to raise teacher's pay.

Major union endorsements are likely several months away, especially because the labor movement is treading carefully after complaints that its leadership was too quick to back Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary over Sanders.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Erdogan says Turkey will solve Syria issue ‘on the field’ after Sunday’s elections

Turkish President Erdogan addresses his supporters during a rally for the upcoming local elections, in Ankara
FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during a rally for the upcoming local elections, in Elmadag district of Ankara, Turkey March 28, 2019. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS

March 30, 2019

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey will solve the Syria issue “on the field” after Sunday’s local elections, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, as he sought to drum up support for his AK Party in the vote.

Turkey has carried out two cross-border operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria and has warned that it will launch further incursions if the threats along its borders are not eliminated.

“First thing after the elections, we will solve the Syria issue on the field if possible, not at the table,” Erdogan told supporters in the first of his six rallies in Istanbul.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: OANN

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Debenhams rejects higher Ashley offer, set for administration

FILE PHOTO: Shoppers walk past the Debenhams department store on Oxford Street in London
FILE PHOTO: Shoppers walk past the Debenhams department store on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 9, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Debenhams said on Tuesday it had rejected a last-minute offer by shareholder Mike Ashley to underwrite an increased 200 million pound ($262 million) rights issue, meaning it is likely to fall into the hands of its lenders shortly.

Sports Direct boss Ashley increased his offer to underwrite the business to 200 million pounds from an earlier offer of 150 million pounds at around midnight on Monday. Debenhams said in a statement on Tuesday that offer was not sufficient for the lenders.

(Reporting by Kate Holton)

Source: OANN

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US ambassador’s Passovers wishes spark wave of angry comments from Poles

The U.S. ambassador to Poland sparked a wave of angry comments on Twitter after she wished Jews a happy Passover in Polish on Friday.

Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher, who also wished Poles a happy Easter on Sunday, was accused of offending the mostly Roman Catholic country with the tweet, with some calling it a “provocation.”

Her tweet said: “On the occasion of the Feast of Pesach, commemorating the departure of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage tonight, I wish peace and joyful holidays! Chag Pesach Sameach, Happy Passover!”

It triggered many anti-Semitic comments including one claiming that “only Catholics live in Poland.”

POLISH NEWSPAPER’S FRONT PAGE SPARKS OUTRAGE AFTER IT INSTRUCTS ‘HOW TO SPOT A JEW’

Another said in part: “it is a great snub for the Polish nation that just Jewish individuals still on this earth.”

Robert Bakiewicz, a far-right activist who organizes a yearly Independence Day march said: “Christ died and was resurrected also for you, pagans and traitorous Jews.”

Some came to Moschaber’s defense, recalling that Poland also has a small Jewish population.

This weekend – during the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – Jews held a special Passover Seder with approximately 100 Jewish families from Israel, Europe, and the United States at the Warsaw Ghetto.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Poland was home to Europe’s largest Jewish population before the 1939 occupation by Nazi Germany. The government has also been accused in the past of trying to rewrite history by banning any suggestion of Polish complicity in the Holocaust.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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