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The real foundation of Notre Dame


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On the roster: The real foundation of Notre Dame - Bernie makes no apologies at Fox News town hall - Dems start to sweat Trump’s fundraising advantage - Pelosi faces heat from party over Omar dispute - Hamburglars
 
THE REAL FOUNDATION OF NOTRE DAME 
If the art and design that a civilization leaves behind is a more honest reflection of its values than the subjective accounts of chroniclers and historians, Western Europe 900 years ago was wild as hell.

Talking about the dizzyingly detailed 18-foot-tall bronze candlesticks cast in the style of central France’s Cluny abbey, art historian Kenneth Clark described their creators’ “irrepressible, irresponsible energy.”

“The Romanesque carvers were like a school of dolphins,” Clark said in the second episode of his 1969 BBC television series “Civilisation.” And looking at the work you have to agree. Our modern aesthetic recoils from such gaudy ornamentation, but 12th century artists were not looking for spare, clean lines. And like a bunch of dolphins (actually called a pod, Sir Kenneth) frolicking in the surf, they were utterly heedless.

The art is seemingly alive, crawling with fantastic beasts, writhing humans and, of course, dogs. In the churches and palaces of the day, like the one where the great Charlemagne had ruled in Aachen, every surface that could be was bejeweled or encrusted or etched. Gilt was good. 

You may have forgotten since eighth-grade days, when teachers knew the redeeming power of the audio-visual rack on a balmy spring Tuesday, Clark’s series focuses on art as a key for understanding Western history. Yes, art is to be appreciated for art’s sake, but it is also a reflection of a civilization’s priorities.

How does it spend its treasure? Where does it enshrine its greatest glories? What does it most fear?

In the centuries after the final fall of the Roman Empire in Europe, fear, want and uncertainty were the norms. If you worried when a barbarian tribe would come marauding or Viking long boats would vomit out bloodthirsty shock troops, “berserkers,” to murder, rape and rob you did not take much time to consider your candlesticks.

But slowly, slowly, slowly, men started to reassert order – men like Charlemagne and his grandfather Charles Martel. By the time we reached the second millennium after Jesus, Europeans – at least those where sufficient order had been restored to allow for a new birth of freedom – were ready to create. And a riot of beauty broke out.

“Irrepressible, irresponsible energy” requires order and ease. Every culture creates art, but sometimes it is little more than drawings on a wall. A civilization, however, produces art on a grand scale. That’s because a civilization is a culture strong and stable enough to afford people the chance to let their spirits soar.

Listen to J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 or stand in front Michelangelo’s David or gaze up at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. What connects them? The masterworks of Western art are the fruits of a civilization rich, peaceful and predictable enough to make room for true beauty. 

As the West mourns the loss of much of Paris’ Notre Dame, the great gothic masterpiece, we are rightly considering matters of faith, history, art and culture. But we should also be considering the matter of the health of our civilization.

Notre Dame was built to glorify God. But it was also an act of rebellion – a defiant act of art that boldly rejected the darkness and fear that had kept Europeans gazing earthward for generations. Here in stone and glass and wood was an eruption of human potential – a victorious yawp in the face of benightedness.

As you watch the spire rise above Notre Dame again in the months to come, be grateful that for all of our near failures and for every time the light of learning and beauty was almost extinguished again, we have somehow managed to maintain a civilization that can afford such wondrous things.

And maybe that will remind us all to do more to shore up that civilization in our little corners of the world. Industry, decency, charity, order and community are the real bedrocks on which the foundation of Notre Dame were laid.  

THE RULEBOOK: DON’T JUMP THE GUN
“In some, it has been too evident from their own publications, that they have scanned the proposed Constitution, not only with a predisposition to censure, but with a predetermination to condemn…” – James Madison, Federalist No. 37

TIME OUT: ‘THE SCRAMBLE FOR EGGS’
Smithsonian: “Between 1848 and 1855, some 300,000 fortune-hunters flocked to California from all over the world in hopes of finding gold. … The feverish growth strained the area’s modest agriculture industry. Farmers struggled to keep up with the influx of hungry forty-niners and food prices skyrocketed. … Chicken eggs were particularly scarce and cost up to $1.00 apiece, the equivalent of $30 today. … The situation became so dire that grocery stores started placing ‘egg wanted’ advertisements in newspapers. … The scramble for eggs drew entrepreneurs to an unusual source: a 211-acre archipelago 26 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge known as the Farallon Islands. … [T]he Farallones had one feature that appealed to the ravenous San Franciscans: they hosted the largest seabird nesting colony in the United States. Each spring, hundreds of thousands of birds descended on the forbidding islands, blanketing their jagged cliffs with eggs of all colors and sizes.”

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

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 43.2 percent
Average disapproval: 51.6 percent
Net Score: -8.4 points
Change from one week ago: up 3 points 
[Average includes: Gallup: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; 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.]

BERNIE MAKES NO APOLOGIES AT FOX NEWS TOWN HALL
Fox News:Bernie Sanders took the stage at a fiery Fox News town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Monday, and sparks flew almost immediately, as Sanders defiantly refused to explain why he would not voluntarily pay the massive new 52-percent ‘wealth tax’ that he advocated imposing on the nation's richest individuals. ‘We'll get through this together,’ Sanders said at one point, as tensions flared. Sanders later admitted outright that ‘you're going to pay more in taxes’ if he became president. Just minutes before the town hall began, Sanders released ten years of his tax returns, which he acknowledged showed that he had been ‘fortunate’ even as he pushed for a more progressive tax system. According to the returns, Sanders and his wife paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on $561,293 in income, and made more than $1 million in both 2016 and 2017. Sanders donated only $10,600 to charity in 2016 and $36,300 in 2017, the records showed, followed by nearly $19,000 in 2018.”

Dems wonder if they can stop Bernie’s momentum - NYT: “…Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders, in a political scenario all too reminiscent of how Mr. Trump himself seized the Republican nomination in 2016. … But stopping Mr. Sanders, or at least preventing a contentious convention, could prove difficult for Democrats. He has enormous financial advantages — already substantially outraising his Democratic rivals — that can sustain a major campaign through the primaries. And he is well-positioned to benefit from a historically large field of candidates that would splinter the vote: If he wins a substantial number of primaries and caucuses and comes in second in others, thanks to his deeply loyal base of voters across many states, he would pick up formidable numbers of delegates for the nomination. That prospect is not only spooking establishment-aligned Democrats, but it is also creating tensions about what, if anything, should be done to halt Mr. Sanders.”

Where does Beto fall on the policy spectrum - Politico:Beto O’Rourke’s most distinctive policy position? To be determined. There’s no signature issue yet, no single policy proposal sparking his campaign. Convening crowds — and listening to them — is the central thrust of his early presidential bid. And one month into the race, even some of O’Rourke’s supporters are starting to worry about persistent criticism that the charismatic Texan is missing big policy ideas of his own. … It’s not that O’Rourke doesn’t have positions. He does, and in the month since announcing his presidential campaign, he has expressed many of them with specificity. … But none of those positions is unique to O’Rourke. And with his relatively meager legislative record — and a belief that he can transcend ideological lanes within the Democratic Party — O'Rourke appears unclear about where he fits on the policy spectrum.”

Mayor Pete pitches national service program plan - Politico: “Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Monday night advocated a form of national public service for all young adults as a way to create unity among Americans. ‘We really want to talk about the threat to social cohesion that helps characterize this presidency but also just this era,’ the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. ‘One thing we could do that would change that would be to make it, if not legally obligatory, but certainly a social norm that anybody after they're 18 spends a year in national service.’ … Buttigieg was vague about what would constitute national service, but both he and Maddow acknowledged it would most likely not be a military draft. Without saying the program would be mandatory, Buttigieg did suggest colleges and employers ask applicants about participation in it.”

Harris rakes in donations from Hollywood - Politico: “Hollywood donors are flocking to Kamala Harris. Actors and actresses who wrote checks to the Harris campaign during the first three months of the year included Ben Affleck, who gave $2,800; Elizabeth Banks, who donated $5,600; Eva Longoria Baston, who donated $5,400; Alison Pill, who donated $360; Wanda Sykes, who donated $500; Lily Tomlin, who donated $525; and America Ferrera, who donated $250. Filmmakers and studio executives were similarly supportive of Harris’ presidential bid: Filmmakers J.J. Abrams and Lee Daniels wrote Harris checks of $2,800 and $2,700, respectively. … Harris did not garner a herd of Hollywood supporters by accident. She has made an effort to court donors in Hollywood for years while holding statewide office in California, as well as during the early months of her presidential bid.”

Tax returns reveal 2020 candidates’ charity donations - WaPo: “Former congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) released 10 years of tax returns last night. He and his wife reported $1,166 of charitable giving from a total income of $370,412 in 2017, the most recent year they released a return for. That’s one-third of 1 percent. How much someone gives to charity is a meaningful metric of their values and priorities, though far from the only one. … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his wife gave $19,000 to charity out of an income of $566,000 last year, or 3.4 percent. … Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) … gave $27,000 to charity – or 1.4 percent. … Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and her husband donated $6,600 of their $338,500 income to charity last year, or just under 2 percent… Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) … gave $3,750 to charity, also just under 2 percent. The most generous of the top-tier presidential candidates appears to be Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). She and her husband donated $50,000 last year of their $906,000 income. That’s 5.5 percent.”

DEMS START TO SWEAT TRUMP’S FUNDRAISING ADVANTAGE
Bloomberg: “Fundraising totals for 2020 candidates show the advantage of being an incumbent president -- and the challenge for Democrats, who are raising less money and still have to compete among themselves before taking on Donald Trump. … Sanders, who leads with $18.2 million raised and has $15.7 million in cash on hand, started with a massive fundraising advantage because of the list of supporters he’s maintained from his failed 2016 bid… Some Democrats moved quickly to use Trump’s fundraising news to seek fresh donations. Kamala Harris sent out an e-mail solicitation seeking more money for her campaign Monday evening, highlighting the $30 million Trump raised during the quarter. … Elizabeth Warren, a Senator from Massachusetts, collected about 70 percent of her contributions in amounts of $200 or less, the filings show. While that’s a higher proportion than many of her contenders, her overall fundraising total lagged others who had declared their intentions to run even later than she did.”

Trump uses border efforts with election momentum - WashEx: “President Trump’s reinvigorated effort to secure the Mexican border coincides with the acceleration of his 2020 reelection bid and comes as some immigration hawks say the administration has failed to realize a signature campaign promise. Trump on Monday said the federal government would begin releasing undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities, a provocative move to pressure Democrats in Congress to negotiate and that follows a bold house cleaning of top personnel at Homeland Security. The president wants the department to toughen its response to a historic surge of asylum-seekers and unlawful immigrants, vexing problems that persist despite his vow to halt illegal crossings. … But as Trump’s own election nears, immigration hawks otherwise supportive of the administration’s aggressive border policies say the president could find himself exposed, politically, for lack of tangible results.”

Weld makes it official as Trump’s first primary challenger - WaPo: “Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld officially announced Monday that he will challenge President Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, after several months of mulling a long-shot bid that would appeal to traditional GOP voters. Weld made the announcement in an appearance on CNN’s ‘The Lead With Jake Tapper,’ where he described himself as ‘a Republican who works across the aisle and gets things done.’ ‘Donald Trump is not an economic conservative. He doesn’t even pretend to be. The country deserves to have some fiscal constraint and conservatism,’ he said. Weld, 73, will face a steep climb against Trump, an incumbent who is deeply popular with Republican voters. Weld last won an election in 1994 and has drifted politically in recent years, even serving as the vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in 2016. But he is now determined to offer the GOP a moderate alternative.”

PELOSI FACES HEAT FROM PARTY OVER OMAR DISPUTE
WaPo: “The far left’s frustration with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the rise, as liberal advocates and lawmakers fume that she hasn’t done enough to defend freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar from attacks by President Trump and other Republicans and has undermined their policies and leaders, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Omar’s allies over the weekend were upset by what they viewed as Pelosi’s delayed response in standing up for one of the two Muslim women in Congress after Trump accused Omar of playing down the tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Pelosi, whose initial statement criticizing Trump made no mention of Omar, said Monday that it was ‘beneath the dignity of the Oval Office’ for Trump to have shared a video on Twitter of Omar spliced with footage of the burning twin towers. But liberals seethed that Pelosi (Calif.) and Democratic leaders did too little, too late. They were equally baffled by Pelosi’s quip seeming to dismiss Ocasio-Cortez during a CBS ‘60 Minutes’ interview Sunday, suggesting her ‘wing’ of the party included ‘like five people.’”

Once her defender, Bernie distances himself from Omar - WaPo: “Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders created some distance Monday night from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), emphasizing that he doesn’t know Omar well and suggesting that she should change the way she addresses the Jewish community. At the same time, Sanders repeated his defense of Omar against accusations by many that she has made remarks that are anti-Semitic. Sanders’s comments, which the independent senator from Vermont made in a televised town hall here hosted by Fox News Channel… ‘Hold it, hold it, hold it,’ Sanders told moderator Bret Baier, after Baier called Sanders a ‘staunch supporter’ of Omar. ‘I’ve talked to Ilhan about twice in my life.’ … Sanders, who would be the nation’s first Jewish president, continued, ‘I think that Ilhan has got to do maybe a better job in speaking to the Jewish community.’ He said that he does not consider Omar to be anti-Semitic and that he respects her.”

Omar reaps cash benefits from controversies - Politico: “Small-dollar donors rushed to defend embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the first three months this year, as she faced charges of anti-Semitism from prominent Democrats, according to a fundraising report filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat elected in 2018 and sworn in for the first time in early January, found herself embroiled in controversy shortly after arriving in Washington. The first Somali-American member of Congress was widely rebuked in February, including by her own party, after several high-profile instances in which she invoked anti-Semitic tropes about U.S. politicians’ support for Israel. Omar raised $832,000 in the first quarter, according to her FEC report — among the best totals posted by any House Democrat.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
House Dems subpoena Deutsche Bank for Trump records - NYT

Poll shows Alabama voters divided on Sen. Doug Jones, Roy Moore leads list of replacements - Montgomery Advertiser

Survey finds 13 percent of Americans believe men are ‘better suited emotionally’ for office - Politico

Trump to award Tiger Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - NYT

AUDIBLE: THIRSTY
“This glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name in those districts.” – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while praising Democrats who flipped House seats in 2018 downplayed representatives like herself and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whose districts were solidly Democratic.

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

HAMBURGLARS
Tech Times: “In the battle of man versus McDonald's machine, man comes out on top as a pair of buddies hack their way into a bunch of free burgers in Australia. … In a YouTube video that has racked up more than 2.6 million views (and counting), two Australians share the ingenious way they outsmarted the McDonald's machine to get a free burger and 10 patty-less burgers as a bonus. As the pair show in the video, the first step is to put in an order of 10 burgers on the machine, which cost $1 each. Then they customized these by taking out the beef patty from the order, which cuts down the cost to $1.10 — for a burger that only costs $1. As a result, they were credited $1 for all 10 burgers, which the pair used to buy an eleventh burger. For this last burger, they kept the patty in. The pair's final count is: one hamburger and 10 other burgers with no patty.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“On foreign policy, as the cliché goes, I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. It left me. Not so on domestic policy. The Democratic Party remained true to itself. I changed.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) wrote in his book, “Things That Matter.”

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

Source: Fox News Politics

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Suspect in hit-and-run death of Tennessee officer in custody

The suspect in the hit-and-run death of a Tennessee officer was taken into custody Monday morning, police said.

Janet Elaine Hinds, 54, turned herself in hours after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation put her on its Top Ten Most Wanted list, the Chattanooga Police Department announced on Twitter .

The agency said Hinds was wanted for vehicular homicide in the death of Nicholas Galinger. The 38-year-old officer was hit Saturday night while he was inspecting a manhole cover that had water flowing from it due to heavy rain.

News outlets report a police affidavit said Hinds was speeding, crossed a double-yellow line and hit a sign warning of an exposed manhole cover before hitting Galinger. She then drove away from the scene, police said.

Court records show she faces several other charges including reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and violation of a traffic control device.

In a court appearance Monday, prosecutors argued for a high bond but Hinds' attorney, Ben McGowan, said that she has strong ties to the community, raised her family there and is the Soddy-Daisy postmaster. The judge set bond at $300,000.

Galinger graduated from the police academy last month and was struck while on a call with his field training officer.

Police recovered a Honda CR-V from Hinds' residence on Sunday. The vehicle had front-end damage.

Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy said the community "lost not just an officer. We lost a son, a father, a friend, and a protector."

Source: Fox News National

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CNN to be sued for more than $250M over 'vicious' and 'direct attacks' on Covington High student: lawyer

CNN is likely to be hit with a massive lawsuit worth more than $250 million over alleged “vicious” and “direct attacks” on Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, his lawyer has told Fox News.

Lawyer L. Lin Wood discussed his decision to sue CNN for its reporting and coverage of his client during an interview that will air on Fox News Channel’s “Life, Liberty & Levin” on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET.

“CNN was probably more vicious in its direct attacks on Nicholas than The Washington Post. And CNN goes into millions of individuals' homes,” Wood told Fox News host and best-selling author Mark Levin.

COVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT'S LEGAL TEAM SUES WASHINGTON POST

CNN couldn't resist the idea that here's a guy with a young boy, that Make America Great Again cap on. So they go after him

— Lin Wood, attorney

“They really went after Nicholas with the idea that he was part of a mob that was attacking the Black Hebrew Israelites, yelling racist slurs at the Black Hebrew Israelites. Totally false.

“Now you say you've seen the tape; if you took the time to look at the full context of what happened that day, Nicholas Sandmann did absolutely nothing wrong. He was, as I've said to others, he was the only adult in the room. But you have a situation where CNN couldn't resist the idea that here's a guy with a young boy, that Make America Great Again cap on. So they go after him.”

Wood continued: “The CNN folks were online on Twitter at 7 a.m retweeting the little one-minute propaganda piece that had been put out. … They're out there right away going after this young boy. And they maintain it for at least two days. Why didn't they stop and just take an hour and look through the Internet and find the truth and then report it? Maybe do that before you report the lies.”

CONSERVATIVE LEADERS DEMAND APOLOGY FOR MEDIA TREATMENT OF COVINGTON STUDENTS

Wood then detailed the timing of the suit, saying it will be issued “Monday, Tuesday at the latest.”

“I've got some young, smart lawyers that are working hard as we can," he told Levin. "Double-checking, and listen, when we file complaints, we've investigated it because we want to get it right. Maybe CNN can learn from that."

Wood month filed suit last month against The Washington Post. The suit calls for $250 million in compensatory and punitive damages over the paper's coverage of the confrontation, an encounter that went viral on social media. He told Fox News that the claim against CNN is apt to be even higher.

DAD OF COVINGTON STUDENT NICK SANDMANN BACKS KENTUCKY'S ANTI-DOXXING BILL IN EMOTIONAL TESTIMONY

“I expect because of the way they went after Nicholas so viciously, that the claim for his reputational damage will be higher than it was against The Washington Post,” the veteran attorney said.

“The Post was $50 million for the reputational damage … $200 million in punitive damages -- punitive damages are designed to punish and to deter.

“I would think the punitive-damage award against CNN that we’ll seek will be at least the same $200 million as it was against The Washington Post. But the compensatory damage to Nicholas's reputation, that number I expect will be higher.”

COVINGTON HIGH STUDENT'S LEGAL TEAM SLAMS WASHINGTON POST EDITOR’S NOTE, SAYS PAPER ‘DOUBLE DOWNED ON ITS LIES’

The lawsuit against The Washington Post accused that outlet of practicing "a modern-day form of McCarthyism" by targeting Sandmann and "using its vast financial resources to enter the bully pulpit by publishing a series of false and defamatory print and online articles ... to smear a young boy who was, in its view, an acceptable casualty in their war against the president."

Several days ago, The Post published an editor’s note admitting that subsequent information either contradicted or failed to confirm accounts relayed in its initial article. The editor’s note was not satisfactory to Sandmann’s legal team.

Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School, became a target for outrage after a video of him standing face-to-face with a Native American man, Nathan Phillips, while wearing a red Make America Great Again hat surfaced in January. Sandmann was one of a group of students from Covington attending the anti-abortion March for Life in Washington, D.C., while Phillips was attending the Indigenous Peoples' March on the same day.

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Sandmann and the Covington students were initially accused of initiating the confrontation, but other videos and the students' own statements showed that they were verbally accosted by a group of black street preachers who were shouting insults at them and the Native Americans. Sandmann and Phillips have both said they were trying to defuse the situation.

Last month, investigators hired by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington concluded that the students did not instigate the confrontation with Phillips. Bishop Roger Foys, who initially condemned the students' behavior, wrote in a letter to parents that they had been "placed in a situation that was at once bizarre and even threatening."

Fox News' Brian Flood and Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW ON "LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN" SUNDAY AT 10PM ET

Source: Fox News National

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Reports Reveal 3rd Anti-Trump Dossier

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In physics, a tipping point refers to the point at which an object is no longer balanced, and adding a small amount of weight can cause it to topple. In general, a tipping point is defined as the “point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change or the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.”

In every conflict, there comes a time, usually following a string of heavy losses, when the despair lifts and the outlook brightens and hope returns. It doesn’t mean that the fight is over. In WWII, D-Day was the tipping point, but the Allies still had to endure the Battle of the Bulge. But it does signal the beginning of the end.

Over the last week or so, a series of events have occurred which, if assessed by themselves, might appear meaningless. When considered as a group, however, the synergy created can lead to a meaningful shift.

1. First, disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has stepped into the spotlight. (You really have to wonder why McCabe, who remains under a criminal investigation, believes that now is a good time to publish a book and embark on a media tour.)

He presents himself more as one who is trying to defend himself than as a reasonable, credible leader who acted out of genuine concern for US national security. He still can’t offer any reasons why he opened a criminal investigation of Trump other than he “believed that there might be a threat to national security.” Trump’s firing of Comey is not evidence of obstruction of justice.

In the exchanges below with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, please note my emphasis of words such as “I think, it’s possible, there might be, the President himself might in fact be a threat, in our view, potentially impact, possibly turn off, we thought it might be possible, if you believe that the President might have obstructed justice.”

Cooper asked him if he still believes that the President is a Russian asset. McCabe replied, “I think it’s possible. I thinkthat’s why we started the investigation and I’m anxious to see where Director Mueller concludes that.”

Appearing on NBC with Savanah Guthrie, McCabe was asked if he believed Trump was a threat to national security. He replied:

We had information that led us to believe that there might be a threat to national security. In this case, that the President himself might be in fact be a threat to the United States’ national security.

The president, in our view, had gone to extreme measures to potentially impact— negatively impact, possibly turn off— our investigation of Russian meddling into the election, and Russian coordination with his campaign. We thought that it might be possible [that Trump was working for Russia] … you have to ask yourself, if you believe that the President might have obstructed justice for the purpose of ending our investigation into Russia, you have to ask yourself why. Why would any President of the United States not want the FBI to get to the bottom of Russian interference in our election?

He is very careful to avoid any definitive statements about Trump’s wrongdoing because he knows that would come back to bite him. He’s an FBI agent. He knows how to avoid traps.

He then claimed that no one in the ‘Gang of Eight’ objected to their investigation. The ‘Gang of Eight’ at that time included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr (R-NC), then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, then-House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-CA), and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Knowing that members of the ‘Gang of Eight’ are not allowed to discuss what was said in their meetings, he tells NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that everyone was on board. I find it unbelievable that all 8 members agreed with opening the investigation, especially Devin Nunes, who worked tirelessly to expose the deep state.

McCabe: I told Congress what we had done.

Guthrie: Did anyone object?

McCabe: That’s the important part here, Savannah. No one objected. Not on legal grounds, not on constitutional grounds and not based on the facts.

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) appeared on Fox News’ Martha MacCallum’s show and said that was not so.

The reason he’s doing it this way is that Devin Nunes and Paul Ryan are not allowed to discuss anything that’s said in a ‘Gang of Eight’ meeting and McCabe knows that. So he can level the accusation and Devin and Paul cannot refute him.

There were three investigations into a duly elected president. The Peter Strzok one from July of 2016 and then McCabe started a counterintelligence [probe] and if he’s telling the truth, started a criminal probe into the president of the United States.

I listened to Devin and Paul quiz the [Justice Department] and the FBI for hours on multiple occasions about the one counterintelligence investigation, we all knew about it. I find it stunning that they would know about a second one and not say a single solitary word.

McCabe’s media tour, in my opinion, has only diminished the already weak case against President Trump. And it has likely reinforced the perception in voters’ minds that McCabe truly is the liar DOJ IG Michael Horowitz believes him to be.

2.  The Hill’s John Solomon and investigative reporter Sara Carter appeared together on Sean Hannity’s show on Tuesday night. Both have followed the Trump/Russian collusion probe closely.

Solomon spoke about a bombshell revelation he will be posting today about a third dossier prepared by Fusion GPS. He said:

We know about the Steele dossier, we know about the Blumenthal dossier that was sent to the State Department and forwarded to the FBI. Tomorrow, I’m gonna report that there was a third dossier put together and given to the Justice Department using Fusion GPS materials and when you hear who wrote it, who gave it to the Justice Department and who knew about it, you’re gonna love this.

He didn’t want to give the story away, but he gave Sean a clue that pointed to Nellie Ohr, wife of Bruce Ohr.

Sara Carter discussed how for over a year now, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency have “impeded” efforts by Republican lawmakers to review the “unmasking” requests of Obama Administration officials. Very little has been reported about the unmasking of over 100 Americans.

Hannity then discussed Victor Davis Hanson’s article (I posted about it here) in which he declared the coup against Trump to be dead. Hannity asked them both if they “believe that things are now closing in on those deep state people that tried to rig a presidential election and undo a duly elected President, breaking the law and doing nefarious and illegal things?”

Solomon: I do believe that the truth is coming out about the small group of people at the top of the Justice Department and the FBI tried to undo what the American voters did and do it in ways that were in violation of the law and the regulations they were supposed to adhere to.

Carter: Sean, what we’re seeing is a silent coup and if the Justice Department doesn’t open up an investigation, then it’s a disservice to the American people.

(The segment begins at 24:00 in the video below.)

3.  Jussie Smollett’s stunt provided a clear example of just how far those on the left are willing to take their hatred of conservatives. Americans have been riveted by the developments in this case. Smollett, as he navigates his way through the legal consequences he will surely face, will be a walking, talking reminder of how extreme the Democratic party has become.

4.  William Barr was confirmed by a senate vote of 54-45. (One senator did not vote.) 51 Republicans voted yes and one voted no. Three Democrats voted yes and 41 voted no.

Most reader comments express deep concern that Barr may be part of the deep state and therefore, will not do what’s necessary to clean up the mess and to hold people accountable. I would argue first that, after the damage done to his presidency by Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from oversight of the collusion investigation, Trump probably was very careful to vet Barr before nominating him. Second, Barr has been critical of the Mueller investigation in the past which is why only three Democrats voted for his confirmation. Third, this has been the most consequential, most destructive scandal in American political history. Does William Barr, after a long and respected career in law enforcement want to be remembered by history for his corruption? He has an opportunity to shine. I don’t believe he will be so quick to squander it because of his good buddy Robert Mueller.

Too much is known about the poisonous actions taken by this group of unelected government officials who have wielded such power. Although Democrats have moved so far to the left and would like nothing better than to see the US become a socialist state, which they, of course, would control, the majority of Americans oppose such a radical transformation. This feels like a pivotal moment in history. Let’s keep up the momentum.

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Artist probes Russia's toxic legacy through family history

Pavel Otdelnov recalls how as a child he saw his mother boil his parents' bedding every day. His father worked in the factories of Dzerzhinsk, the center of Soviet chemical manufacturing, and the chlorine and phosgene that yellowed the sheets seeped through protective gear into his skin.

"Dad was born in a workers' camp and gave his entire life to chemical industries around Dzerzhinsk," Otdelnov wrote in the notes for "Promzona", a new exhibit at Moscow's Museum of Modern Art that features his paintings of industrial ruins interspersed with objects from workers' daily lives.

The artist's huge, architecturally precise paintings of decayed factories in his hometown, some overgrown as nature reclaimed the land, show what he calls "the ruins of a Soviet mythology." Many of the chemical plants, once a proud part of Soviet history, sit abandoned in a city fouled by toxic waste, the result of a utopian mythology which never translated into reality, least of all for its people.

"People who worked in those factories understood a long time ago, in the 1970s, that the Soviet idea, communism, was a myth and would never be realized," Otdelnov, whose post-Soviet landscapes also are in the Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery and private international collections, said in an interview. "They understood that a long time before the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Otdelnov was born into a "labor dynasty" that gave Dzerzhinsk several generations of chemical workers, starting with his great-grandfather. Just before World War II, his grandmother came from a remote village to the former secret city located 355 kilometers (220 miles) east of Moscow and named for a feared Bolshevik secret police chief.

After the Soviet Union started making chemical weapons starting in Dzerzhinsk in 1941, the artist's grandmother worked on the shop floor assembling lethal payloads. She met her husband after the war in the same factory, Orgsteklo, where he was in charge of quality control of the plexiglass it produced for military and civilian needs.

Otdelnov's father and aunt worked in the same factory after they finished school. Otdelnov's cousin currently works in a Dzerzhinsk factory lab.

Reports vary as to when Dzerzhinsk factories stopped making lewisite, mustard gas and other chemicals designed as weapons of war. Some accounts put the date as late as 1965. Huge stocks of the deadly compounds were sealed and kept in the city's industrial zone until they were moved to dismantling facilities and destroyed under an international chemical weapons ban in the 2000s.

Dzerzhinsk still has a chemical industry producing compounds for munitions along with fertilizers, pesticides and plastics. Many plants that were part of the military industrial complex didn't survive the collapse of the Soviet Union, but their toxic waste remains buried in underground dumps or seeping from landfills.

Dzerzhinsk often is listed as one of the world's most-polluted cities. The Ecology Committee of the lower house of Russia's parliament put it among the 10 with the worst pollution in Russia. Last year, Otdelnov used a drone to record the industrial ruins from the air, capturing a huge multicolored lake of chemical waste, open to the sky, nearby.

The Museum of Modern Art exhibit includes a room decorated like a local museum with everyday objects like factory newsletters and safety instruction films. Gas masks from the old chemical workshops litter the floor of another room. Brown chemical bottles labeled with the names of gases also are displayed.

Running through the whole show are the voices of the people whose lived reality was so far from the Soviet mythology, their stories recorded by Otdelnov's father and written on the exhibition walls.

Otdelnov's grandmother describes an explosion in the caprolactam plant in 1960 that killed 24 workers and never was made public. The workers were buried in different parts of the city cemetery to avoid questions from other residents about why 24 people who worked in that factory died on the same day.

These personal stories are a telling counterpoint to the official Soviet narrative of "Glory to Labor and Science" in Dzerzhinsk, striking in the stoicism and often humor factory workers displayed in a hazardous environment.

"Humor helped them come to terms with their reality but they weren't especially heroic. They just got used to it," Otdelnov said.

In a memoir written for the show, Otdelnov's father, Alexander, recalled random accidents workers had in the chemical factories, due to faulty equipment or simple human error.

Sometimes they escaped unharmed. Sometimes they died. On New Year's Eve in 1981, as the men hurried to get home, carbon monoxide from an overflow pump filled a gas holding tank to capacity, then burst into the pipe system and through to the employee showers. The 12-man crew that had just completed a shift was killed.

Many of the exhibition's viewers on a cold February evening were young people from Moscow and other cities. Otdelnov's pared-down industrial aesthetic is certainly part of the appeal, but 23-year-old Anna Kiselyova said the exhibit held valuable political lessons for Russia's younger generation. Not just workers

"Our present government tells us this all happened such a long time ago" Kiselyova, a Russian teacher from Moscow, said. "It may seem like a very different world, but I don't think it's just a problem of the past, and we need to be aware of that."

Source: Fox News World

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National Border Patrol Council VP: McAleenan has a ‘tough job’ ahead

National Border Patrol Council Vice President Hector Garza, who is also a border patrol agent, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan’s new role as acting Homeland Security Secretary is going to be “tough.”

“This is going to be a tough job. The Department of Homeland Security secretary has a lot of responsibility. He has to work with our members of Congress,” said Garza on “America’s Newsroom” Monday. “We know that he’s going to be our acting secretary for the meantime. We don’t know who the permanent secretary will be but we do have full confidence in President Trump that he will choose someone that will have the skills and determination to secure the border.”

President Trump revealed in a tweet Sunday that McAleenan will become the acting head of Homeland Security, a sprawling department of 240,000 people, following the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

“Working with Commissioner McAleenan, I have met with him personally on one occasion, he has been leading the charge on the CBP side. We do know that he does advocate for border patrol agents and he has been trying to let the American public know of the crisis that’s happening on the border,” Garza said.

FORMER ICE ACTING DIRECTOR DISCUSSES WHAT KEVIN MCALEENAN CAN ACCOMPLISH AS ACTING DHS BOSS

McAleenan is a longtime border officer, reflecting Trump’s priority for the department initially founded to combat terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks. Fox News is told Trump wanted the “toughest cop” around on border security, and McAleenan fit the bill.

When asked if he thinks McAleenan fits the bill, Garza answered, “It’s a tough job and with the laws that we have in place, it makes it very difficult to do a good job in that position. I think what’s more important is that our members of Congress, they’re going to have to work with the secretary, be it acting or permanent, they’re going to have to work closely with our secretary to make sure that we can solve this mess and that includes providing the resources that our agents need to be able to solve this security crisis.”

KEVIN MCALEENAN, NEW ACTING DHS BOSS, HAS LONG RECORD IN BORDER SECURITY

When asked what he thought about Nielsen in the role of Homeland Security Secretary, Garza said, “She tried her best. She tried her best to do this job. It’s tough, again, with the laws we have in place. It’s not easy.”

Garza stressed the need for Congress to change U.S. immigration laws “so that we stop encouraging illegal immigration.”

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He emphasized that if the laws don’t change “this mess will only get worse” and said, “we need to deal with this crisis right now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

Source: Fox News Politics

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Officer says he was fooled by Nassar's 'lies' in 2004

A Michigan police officer who investigated a complaint against Larry Nassar back in 2004 says he didn't send the case to a prosecutor because he was fooled by the sports doctor.

Officials in Meridian Township, Michigan, publicly apologized to the victim, Brianne Randall-Gay, a year ago, after Nassar was sentenced to decades to prison for molesting girls and young women. But they also took the extraordinary step of hiring an investigator to try to learn more about how police handled her complaint. The report was released Tuesday.

The report didn't reveal many new details. But it includes an interview with Andrew McCready, who investigated Randall-Gay's allegation that Nassar had molested her. Nassar told police that he was performing a legitimate medical procedure.

McCready says, "I believed his lies."

Source: Fox News National

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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.)

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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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