Jim Jordan: Congress Won't Override Veto Blocking Natl Emergency
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Sunday predicted there won’t be enough votes in Congress to override a veto of any resolution to counter President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration.
In an interview with ABC News’ “This Week,” the founding member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus also rejected the idea that Trump is breaking precedent by getting denied an appropriation but spending it anyway — saying Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise.
“Congress said, it's OK for some [money] but the president said, ‘this is such a grave problem, I need more money to build more wall and to fulfill the campaign promise that I told the American people I was going to do,’” Jordan argued.
And he predicted any congressional effort to stop him will fail.
“There’s going to be resolutions in both the House and Senate to – to disapprove what the president’s doing,” he said. “I think they’ll pass but when the president will veto them, I don’t think there’s any chance that the veto will be overridden.”
“It’s going to be settled in court,” he added.
Jordan also chided Congress for ignoring the multiple caravans of migrants that have come to the United Statess seeking asylum.
“How many caravans do we need? Six or seven or does an endless caravan, the one that never stops?” he asked.
He added that Democratic positions on abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, open borders and illegal immigrant protections are “dangerous.”
FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2019 file photo, Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax presides over the Senate session at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. One of the two women accusing Fairfax of sexual assault says his response has been "disgraceful, irresponsible and manipulative." In an interview aired Monday, April 1 with CBS News, Vanessa Tyson criticized Fairfax for comparing himself to lynching victims when he defended himself in a speech on the state Senate floor in February. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – House Republicans said Tuesday that they tried and failed to broker a deal with Democrats that would allow for a bipartisan public hearing in which two women who accuse Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault could testify under oath.
Republican Speaker Kirk Cox issued a statement blaming Democrats for refusing to participate in what he said would be a bipartisan hearing, effectively blocking any hearing from taking place.
"There should be no mistake about what has happened here: the alleged victims are seeking a bipartisan hearing; Republicans are seeking a bipartisan hearing; Democrats in the House of Delegates are refusing to allow that to happen," Cox said.
Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson leveled their accusations against Fairfax in February. Tyson says Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex in 2004. Watson says Fairfax raped her in 2000 when both were students at Duke University.
Their allegations have received new attention after televised interviews this week with CBS News in which they tearfully described their experiences.
Fairfax, a Democrat, has said his encounters with both women were consensual and says he took a polygraph test that determined he's telling the truth.
Both women have said they want to testify in front of the General Assembly. Cox, in his statement, said Republicans have reached out to both women and they are willing to share their stories at a legislative hearing, but only if there is bipartisan cooperation to conduct the hearing.
Cox released a letter he received from House Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn in which she rejected Republicans' overtures for a joint hearing.
"Law enforcement officials are best equipped to investigate these matters, and we certainly would not want to harm their inquiries or deny due process to either the complainants or the Lieutenant Governor by conducting a hearing that could easily be exploited for political purposes," she wrote.
She also noted that the House Democratic Caucus has called for Fairfax's resignation.
Fairfax has also said a law enforcement investigation is the better path.
"My accusers have not filed criminal charges and they have not sued me," Fairfax said in a written statement provided Monday to the AP. "Instead, we see escalating media appearances and stated desire for a political process that is unprecedented in Virginia and could not be designed to get at the truth. Such a process would instead be a media circus used for partisan and political purposes."
Cox's statement came a few hours after "CBS This Morning" aired a tearful interview with Watson in which she said she had been friends with him for more than a year before he locked her in a room and raped her.
"I completely trusted him," she said. "It was a huge betrayal. He was my friend. I don't understand how you do that to someone that you've been a friend to."
She rejected Fairfax's claim the sex was consensual, saying Fairfax held her down during the attack. "If you have to hold someone down, it's not consensual," she said.
The Associated Press typically does not identify people who say they were sexually assaulted, but Tyson and Watson stepped forward voluntarily and have expressed a desire to testify in public.
The women leveled their allegations against Fairfax at a moment when he seemed poised to ascend to the governor's post. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was facing numerous calls to resign after a racist photo showing a person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan costume was found on his medical school yearbook page.
Then, the next in line after Fairfax, Attorney General Mark Herring, acknowledged that he appeared in a photo wearing blackface as a student at the University of Virginia, and the prospect of all three statewide officeholders leaving and handing power to Republicans cooled demands for their resignations. Northam, Fairfax and Herring, all Democrats, have remained in office and at the head of their party ahead of November elections in which Democrats hope to gain control of the state Legislature.
CNN is responding to the release of the redacted Mueller report with a panel consisting of eight people who all completely agree with each other.
Because there’s nothing like diversity of opinion!
“CNN has 8 people talking about this & they all vehemently agree with one another on every last thing,” tweeted journalist Glenn Greenwald. “This has been a major part of the problem from the start. All humans are more likely to err or worse if they are insulated from challenge or dissent. It’s inherently corrupting.”
CNN has 8 people talking about this & they all vehemently agree with one another on every last thing. This has been a major part of the problem from the start. All humans are more likely to err or worse if they are insulated from challenge or dissent. It's inherently corrupting: pic.twitter.com/6U5aZqzgPn
“I’ve honestly never seen the type of media meltdown that I’m seeing on CNN. They are so emotionally invested in the storyline that they’ve been pushing for 2+ years and they know what Mueller did to it and how this will forever reflect on them,” he added.
CNN’s credibility is in meltdown following US attorney general William Barr’s confirmation that no one connected to the Trump campaign, and no American whatsoever, colluded with Russia to interfere in the presidential election.
Remember, this is the same media which routinely lobbies Big Tech to deplatform people for “fake news” yet just spent the last 2+ years peddling the biggest piece of fake news in modern political history.
Now watch the best bit from Barr’s press conference when he completely owned a journalist.
NASHVILLE, N.C. – A North Carolina man accused of killing his wife was arrested Sunday on an Arizona interstate, authorities said, adding they will take a closer look at the death of the man's first wife more than a decade ago.
Nash County, North Carolina, Sheriff Keith Stone said 57-year-old Rexford Lynn Keel Jr. was arrested during a traffic stop on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, by state troopers. Stone said a caller in Arizona tipped authorities that the suspect had been sighted on the interstate. Keel had a large amount of cash and a knife with him, Stone said, and the truck he was driving was searched.
The Nash County Sheriff's Office said it obtained an arrest warrant Friday accusing Keel of murder in his wife's death. The man's 38-year-old wife, Diana Alejandra Keel, had gone missing on March 9. Her body was found days later in another North Carolina county and Stone said it appears she had died of multiple stab wounds.
Investigators said Keel had fled in a pickup truck, launching a multiday manhunt.
Stone said Sunday that it appears the woman, a mother of two, had died of multiple stab wounds. She had a 10-year-old son with her husband, as well as an 18-year-old daughter, according to the sheriff.
"My heart goes out to the son, 10 years old, that's without a mother today ... and to the 18 year old daughter that's trying to further her education. What a traumatic experience. What a sad experience this is," he said.
The sheriff said the last person to report seeing her was a mail carrier who brought her a package shortly before she was reported missing.
Stone also said that investigators would be taking a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the death of Keel's first wife, which previously had been ruled accidental. Elizabeth Edwards Keel, 42, died at the couple's home on Jan. 1, 2006, according to the sheriff's office.
"We're going to go back and look at the information ... We're going to talk with the district attorney's office. But definitely it's something we need to be looking into," Stone told reporters Sunday when asked about Elizabeth Keel's death.
Matthew Lambert, who worked with Elizabeth Keel, told WRAL-TV that friends were surprised at the time that she had died in an apparent fall on some stairs. He described her as an "outdoorsy" person who liked to ride horses.
A recent news release from the Nash County sheriff's office said Elizabeth Keel's death was classified by a medical examiner at the time as accidental from "blunt trauma to the head" from falling and striking the front concrete steps of the family home.
Keel was listed as being held Sunday in the Pima County, Arizona, jail.
The upcoming 2020 U.S. census has many inside and around the Census Bureau concerned the agency is not prepared for the complicated process of counting every person in the country, The Hill reports.
"I'm not confident they're ready one year out," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, which oversees the Census Bureau. "I'm very concerned. I'm concerned on where they are on their budget, I'm concerned on technology, I'm concerned on substance."
He added, "they're not meeting their own deadlines, and so what confidence does that give you that they're going to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in 2020 when they actually conduct the census?"
The congressman said the ongoing fight over whether to include a question about citizenship on the census could harm immigrant communities and young children.
"If the citizenship question stays in, then we face a very high rate of noncompliance, and that means you're going to have to add on a number of enumerators who will [need] to go back physically and try to capture the information they didn't get the first time around," Connolly said.
"It seems like the work that the bureau has done shows that unease with government is higher than it has been previously," said John Thompson, a former Census Bureau director who left in 2017. "They're going to do their best to get the best count that they can. But if there are concerns that they can't overcome, the safety, the confidentiality of the information, there could be an undercount, and it could be bigger than it was."
FILE PHOTO: A packet of Marlboro cigarettes made by Philip Morris are pictured in this photo illustration July 3, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed/Illustration
March 13, 2019
By Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Philip Morris International Inc’s Indian partner charges machinery-related costs for manufacturing its Marlboro cigarettes in India, the company said on Wednesday, following a Reuters article that showed it may have circumvented foreign direct investment rules.
Philip Morris has for years paid manufacturing costs to Godfrey Phillips, despite a nine-year-old government ban on foreign direct investment in the industry, Reuters reported last week, based on a review of dozens of internal company documents dated between May 2009 and January 2018. (https://reut.rs/2NIlHD8)
Philip Morris and Godfrey have said they comply with Indian rules.
India prohibited foreign direct investment in cigarette manufacturing in 2010. Ahead of the ban, Philip Morris formed a new wholesale trading company with Godfrey in 2009, and the two sides signed a procurement agreement.
Philip Morris’ director for corporate affairs in India, R. Venkatesh, said on Wednesday that under that agreement Godfrey “manufactures Marlboro cigarettes and recharges any costs related to special machinery for the manufacture” of those cigarettes to the global tobacco giant’s Indian unit.
“This recharge is simply a business expense,” Venkatesh told Reuters by e-mail, adding that the arrangements were in “full compliance” with Indian regulations.
Philip Morris had not commented on the Reuters story after it was published on March 6. On Monday, Godfrey told Indian stock exchanges it was in compliance with Indian laws and any suggestion it had violated foreign investment rules was “completely misconceived and misplaced”.
After the Reuters report was published, a senior official at India’s main financial crime-fighting agency, the Enforcement Directorate, said Philip Morris and Godfrey were being investigated for alleged violations of the country’s laws. The scope of the investigation, the source added, was much broader than the issues highlighted in the Reuters story.
Three former officials and one former head of the Enforcement Directorate had reviewed the Philip Morris documents for Reuters and said the dealings should be investigated for potentially breaking the foreign investment rules.
“We remain available to discuss this matter further with the appropriate regulatory authorities,” Venkatesh said in his e-mail to Reuters on Wednesday.
Philip Morris paid Godfrey for items ranging from large cigarette-making machines to costs of smaller equipment such as barcode scanners and printers deployed in Godfrey’s factories, the Reuters review of documents found.
Six invoices issued by Godfrey showed billing of 45.5 million Indian rupees ($644,200) to Philip Morris between December 2013 and January 2018 for manufacturing-related charges.
One invoice from January 2018 sent from Godfrey to Philip Morris showed the Indian company had spent 206 million rupees ($3 million) on capital expenditure for Marlboro-related manufacturing activities since 2009, though it was not clear how much of that was paid by Philip Morris.
Other than regular payments, Philip Morris also signed off on one-time expenses and refurbishment costs incurred by Godfrey on at least two occasions in 2013 and 2014. It then accounted those transactions internally under a heading “Packaging – Research”, the documents showed.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognized as the country's rightful interim ruler, meets his supporters in El Tigre, Venezuela March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
March 23, 2019
By Diego Oré
LECHERIA, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s administration has reached its final stage and there will soon be a change in government, opposition leader Juan Guaido said, adding that his allies have spoken with high-ranking military members about changing sides.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Guaido said Maduro had lost the ability to “finance political blackmail” to retain power thanks to pressure brought by foreign governments who have recognized him as the South American country’s rightful leader in the midst of a hyperinflationary economic collapse.
“They are isolated, alone, they are falling apart day by day,” Guaido, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, said in Lecheria, a city in northeastern Anzoategui state, where he held several rallies with supporters over the weekend.
“The citizens do not like them, they reject them, they hate them, because that is what they have received from them: hate.”
Venezuela plunged into a deep political crisis in January, when Guaido invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing Maduro’s May 2018 re-election was illegitimate. He has been recognized by most Western countries, including the United States, as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
Maduro, a socialist, says Guaido is a puppet of the United States and is attempting to lead a coup against him to wrest control of the OPEC nation’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. He retains control of state functions and the loyalty of the military top brass.
But Guaido said that hold was slipping thanks in part to pressure from abroad. The United States slapped sanctions on state oil company PDVSA in January, and on Friday sanctioned several state-run banks in Venezuela. Guaido has also taken control of U.S. refiner Citgo, a PDVSA subsidiary and the country’s most important overseas asset.
“The diplomatic pressure has worked, the economic pressure and the pressure on assets have worked,” Guaido said.
‘WHAT’S MISSING?’
Shortly after assuming the interim presidency, Guaido offered amnesty to members of the military who took his side. While hundreds have deserted, with many fleeing to neighboring Colombia, the top brass has stood by Maduro’s side.
Guaido estimated that between 80-85 percent of military members were “convinced of the need for a change in Venezuela,” and that his team has been meeting with higher-ranking members.
“What’s missing? That the leadership, the high command of the armed forces, take the side of the constitution,” he said.
The 35-year-old engineer, who had a low profile before assuming the presidency of the National Assembly this year, said he was prepared for more members of his team to be detained after his chief of staff, Roberto Marrero, was arrested on Thursday under accusations of terrorism.
Venezuela’s Supreme Court has initiated an investigation of Guaido on the grounds that he had helped foreign countries interfere in internal matters. During a prolonged blackout this month, the chief prosecutor has asked that he be probed for alleged involvement in “sabotage” of the country’s electrical system.
Guaido said Maduro’s aim was “to generate fear.”
“The risk of participating in politics in Venezuela is your life, your freedom, and the persecution of those closest to you,” Guaido said.
He added that his team is evaluating “all the options” to possibly make a payment of some $72 million on PDVSA bonds that come due in April. The bonds have shares in Citgo as collateral, and a failure to make payment could allow creditors to seize part of the company.
Guaido said his team has also been in touch with companies whose Venezuelan assets were expropriated by the late former President Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, about returning to the country should Maduro leave power.
(Reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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)
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)
KHARTOUM, Sudan – 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.
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)
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.
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