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Peace, honesty and cheap gas: Ukraine’s new leader shoulders high expectations

FILE PHOTO: Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 24, 2019

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko and Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – When the Ukrainian president played by actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy faces a corrupt parliament in his TV comedy, he fantasizes about blasting them all away with two submachine guns.

Now that Zelenskiy has been elected president in real life, Margarita Bulava, who voted for him, hopes he will have a similarly transformative effect on the country’s politics.

One of Zelenskiy’s biggest challenges will be meeting the expectations of voters like 28-year-old event hostess Bulava, who had never voted before last Sunday’s presidential election. Now she has an ambitious wish-list.

There should be no inflation. People like her mother, who works in a laundry in Poland, should stop needing to move abroad for better paid jobs. There should be peace with Russia. Wages should be higher, and pensioners should be able to afford their heating bills without having to sell flowers in the subway.

“It’s a huge plus that he has never been in politics because he is completely from another sphere. He sees the situation in the country through the eyes of the people,” said Bulava.

But what if the new president fails to deliver? “It’s very scary if really none of this succeeds because expectations are really very big and everyone believes that something really should happen,” she said after working out at her gym in Kiev.

A comedian and actor with no prior political experience, Zelenskiy, 41, beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko by a landslide, promising change to a country at war with Russian-backed forces and facing some of the worst poverty in Europe.

In a wildly successful election campaign, Zelenskiy remained vague on some key policy questions, trading on the image of the honest everyman he plays on TV: a schoolteacher who accidentally becomes president after a rant about corruption filmed by one of his students goes viral.

But his outsider status may hamper his ability to deliver on his promises, especially early in his presidency when he has no lawmakers representing his party in parliament.

And if he disappoints voters early on, that could make the problem worse, hurting his new party’s prospects going into October parliamentary elections that will determine the make-up of the cabinet with which he must share power.

POPULARITY FRAGILE

Zelenskiy’s vague positions on the campaign trail won him support from a wide array of voters who wanted to see new faces in politics. But that makes his popularity “fragile”, said Agnese Ortolani, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

His support “could dissipate quickly when it comes to making decisions that could alienate part of his constituency,” Ortolani said.

An April survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) highlighted two issues in particular that are high on voters’ wishlists. Thirty-nine percent of Ukrainians expect Zelenskiy to cut their heating bills in his first 100 days in charge, and 35 percent expect him to act on an election pledge to strip lawmakers of their immunity from prosecution.

On heating tariffs, Zelenskiy is likely to face the same painful choice as his predecessors. Raising them will antagonize voters but lowering them risks derailing Ukraine’s $3.9 billion aid program from the International Monetary Fund, which has demanded Kiev allow gas prices to rise to market levels.

For now, the question is mainly in the hands of the cabinet, picked by parliament, rather than Zelenskiy.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman see-sawed on the issue, first agreeing to raise tariffs early in his term in 2016 but then stalling on further increases. When the need for IMF loans became acute, he agreed to raise them last October.

Zelenskiy called on Wednesday for the government to lower gas prices within days. Bonds fell after Zelenskiy’s statement.

If his party wins the parliamentary election, and a Zelenskiy-picked government takes charge, the need for new IMF loans might box him into raising prices again.

As for stripping lawmakers of their immunity, it was the sort of proposal aimed at cleaning out politics that won over voters such as bar owner Oleksiy Kostenyuk.

“In my opinion, this will change our parliament radically. Those who break the law will go away, those who earn money illegally will go away, and we will get a new type of politician,” Kostenyuk said.

Zelenskiy promised to introduce the necessary legislation but parliament may not play ball. Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker in Poroshenko’s faction, the largest in the chamber, told Reuters he did not expect such a move to succeed because politicians fear being prosecuted in political vendettas.

Sooner or later, political reality will puncture the image of Zelenskiy’s straight-shooting TV persona, Ariev said.

“We will see the demolition of many dreams of the people who had voted for Zelenskiy, and the demolition of his image from the movie.”

(Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: OANN

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What’s in a name? Franco’s memory divides a Spanish town

Old pictures belonging to Vicenta Prado's family lie on a couch after an interview with Reuters in Guadiana del Caudillo
Old pictures belonging to Vicenta Prado's family lie on a couch after an interview with Reuters at the house where Prado's family settled in the fifties in Guadiana del Caudillo, Spain, March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Susana Vera

April 24, 2019

By Susana Vera and Silvio Castellanos

GUADIANA DEL CAUDILLO, Spain (Reuters) – A small town that owes its origin and name to Francisco Franco may not be a decisive battleground in Sunday’s national election, but it epitomizes how the late dictator’s legacy and the rise of the far right are dividing voters across Spain.

Led by a mayor from the nationalist Vox party, Guadiana del Caudillo resisted a 2007 law that formalized condemnation of Franco’s regime and ordered its symbols removed from public view.

This defiance cost the town of 2,500 inhabitants much-needed state funds. Franco’s title “El Caudillo” (the leader) remains part of its name and a plaque commemorating his visit to launch its construction in 1951 adorns the town hall, complete with the regime’s eagle symbol and protected under bullet-proof glass.

In the run-up to one of the tightest elections in decades, opinion polls show that Vox, a newcomer on Spain’s political landscape, will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982.

One of Vox’s campaign promises is to repeal the 2007 law.

“Why should you remove (the name) of someone who has done good things? That’s my opinion,” said 94-year-old Mateo Plaza, one of the town’s first settlers under Franco’s “colonization” plan for Spain’s arid outback.

Activists from a group called Guadiana Awake, which seeks the removal of the Francoist symbols and has organized rallies of several hundred people in the town, have a different view.

“The Caudillo has not given us anything, he has made us suffer. We do not owe anything to that dictator,” said the group’s spokeswoman Ana Plaza, 34, who is not related to Mateo.

Franco’s regime killed or imprisoned tens of thousands to stamp out dissent, and up to 500,000 combatants and civilians died in the war between his forces and leftist Republicans.

Mayor Antonio Pozo, who joined Vox last year after leaving the conservative People’s Party, called a vote in 2012 on the town’s name. Residents voted for no change, but hundreds abstained.

The Extremadura regional Socialist government has since then gradually cut tens of thousands of euros in funding to the town.

“If the Socialists win (town elections in May), the plaque is going to be removed and the subsidies will come,” said local resident Vicenta Prado, criticizing Pozo’s “incomprehensible love” for it. If they lose she will leave the town, she said.

Pozo ordered the plaque shielded after it was damaged by vandals and has argued in televised comments that it does not breach the law as it does not praise Franco.

Vox says it does not endorse Franco politically, though its election candidates include four former generals, two of whom signed a pro-Franco petition last year.

Rather than any direct support for the dictatorship, this spells of nostalgia, for a minority, for a more traditionalist, nationalist time in the country’s history.

(Writing and additional reporting by Elena Rodríguez; Editing by Andrei Khalip and John Stonestreet)

Source: OANN

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But why, Bernie?


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On the roster: But why, Bernie? - Poll: 6-in-10 Americans disapprove national emergency - Klobuchar stays in the center in town hall - Team Trump adds to 2020 campaign staff - Love your passion

BUT WHY, BERNIE?
Not to be churlish, but what’s the point of Bernie Sanders, anyway?

His special purpose was plain in 2016. The Clinton machine had succeeded in clearing the field of all but the marginal, weird and obviously self-promotional, e.g. Lincoln ChaffeeMartin O’Malley and Jim Webb

Sanders, a 73-year-old self-described socialist from Vermont with no record of substantive achievement in a 25-year career in Congress and a Brooklyn accent that could break glass, was certainly all of those things. But he also was the only one running to Hillary Clinton’s left. 

Had Elizabeth Warren or another left-wing icon known how terribly weak Clinton really was and sought the Democratic nomination, we would probably today remember Sanders with the same urgency that we now do for Chaffee and his metric momentum.

But he was the only game in town for Democrats who frankly found Clinton to have been a corporate sellout in her career and whose fundamental message was “I’m with her.” That was basically a shorter way to say: Get in, sit down and shut up.

Clinton was still disliked by the Democratic “netroots” that had united online to defeat her 2008. When Sanders made those voters the centerpiece of his campaign, it was a natural partnership. They had beaten her before with a longshot candidate, why not do it again?

It would have been like if Mitt Romney had managed to clear the GOP field in 2012 of all but Ron Paul. (Imagine the debates!) There’s always a reservoir of opposition against any presumptive frontrunner, but when the base is really unhappy there’s so much more water behind the dam. And in Sanders’ case, he was the only course for the water to follow.

As they did with nudging Donald Trump into a run, the Clintons’ overcooked the strategy on the 2016 primaries. She was so afraid of a repeat of 2008 that she engineered a whole new headache: A low-wattage, two-person duel against a candidate with unlimited fundraising and nothing to lose in sticking around for the end.

Some top-tier candidates this time around have embraced what sounded like antediluvian liberalism when Sanders offered it in 2016. This was not the technocratic, multi-ethnic, public-private, European-style stuff of Barack Obama, but rather the old-fashioned steel-desk liberalism of the 1940s and 1950s. This was Adlai Stevenson in a parka. So the assumption among those looking for a way to cut through the crowded 2020 field is that it was Sanders’ policies that made him a contender. 

If backing “the green dream, or whatever they call it” is the price to play the game, so be it. Universal, free college? Fine. The end of private health insurance? Check.  

But all of that forgets that ideology wasn’t what propelled Sanders as much as a resistance to Clinton. He didn’t trounce her in states like West Virginia because of his platform, per se, but rather because he was fighting against established power.

Like Trump the right-wing cultural populist, Sanders, a left-wing economic populist, offered to achieve the defeat of the corrupt establishment by his very election alone. A vote for Sanders wasn’t necessarily a vote for socialism as much as it was a vote for a retro-revolution. And just like with Trump, older, whiter, less affluent voters were the most keenly connected. Make America 1957 Again.

So now what?       

There are other less-anachronistic-sounding choices for left-wingers. Warren may have missed her moment in 2016, but she still makes a better choice for the same voters who had to pick Sanders before. 

But even worse, Sanders doesn’t have an establishment candidate to target. As Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote in the New Yorker: “That sensation of revolution was more powerful than ideology alone. It is also less durable.”

A cynical view would hold that Sanders and his consultants are happy to return to the fountain of cash they found in the deserts of the 2016 primaries. And if it wreaks havoc on the party, so be it. Sanders, after all, isn’t a Democrat. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to like the party he’s running in.

A more benign explanation is that Sanders is just being Sanders. Like he’s been doing since he ran for the mayoralty of Burlington 40 years ago, he just goes places and talks about socialism with lots of hand gestures. Sometimes the cameras show up and the money pours in, sometimes nobody cares. But that’s never stopped him before.  

THE RULEBOOK: CHA-CHING
“Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 30

TIME OUT: HBD COPERNICUS
BBC:Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in Thorn (modern day Torun) in Poland. His father was a merchant and local official. When Copernicus was 10 his father died, and his uncle, a priest, ensured that Copernicus received a good education. … While a student at the University of Bologna he stayed with a mathematics professor, Domenico Maria de Novara, who encouraged Copernicus' interests in geography and astronomy. … [His uncle] died in 1512 and Copernicus moved to Frauenberg, where he had long held a position as a canon, an administrative appointment in the church. This gave him more time to devote to astronomy. … Copernicus' major work ‘De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium’ (‘On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres’) was finished by 1530. Its central theory was that the Earth rotates daily on its axis and revolves yearly around the sun. He also argued that the planets circled the Sun.”

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

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 41.8 percent
Average disapproval: 54.4 percent
Net Score: -12.6 points
Change from one week ago: up 3.6 points 
[Average includes: Fox News: 46% approve - 52% disapprove; Gallup: 44% approve - 52% unapproved; CNN: 42% approve - 54% disapproval; IBD: 39% approve - 57% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 38% approve - 57% disapprove.]

POLL: 6-IN-10 AMERICANS DISAPPROVE NATIONAL EMERGENCY
NPR: “More than 6-in-10 Americans disapprove of President Trump's decision to declare a national emergency so he can build barriers along the U.S border with Mexico, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds. Nearly 6-in-10 also don't believe there is an emergency at the southern border and that the president is misusing his presidential authority. They also believe that his decision should be challenged in court. … Republicans and Trump supporters are firmly with the president, while Democrats and independents disapprove. These numbers slightly outpace, but are largely reflective of, the president's overall approval rating. … So, to sum up: Not many beyond his base like this; it's unprecedented; and Americans are very polarized. That's been the story of the Trump presidency so far. Trump has done little to move beyond his base, and that theory of politics – revving up the base and not winning over the middle – is going to be tested in 2020.”

Sixteen states file lawsuit against Trump - Politico: “A coalition of 16 states filed suit on Monday to block President Donald Trump’s effort to fund his border wall by declaring a national emergency, calling it a ‘flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles.’ The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, is the third in a string of legal challenges already launched against Trump’s use of emergency powers since he announced the move during a meandering White House news conference on Friday. Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group, filed a suit late Friday in the District of Columbia on behalf of three Texas landowners who would be impacted by the construction of a wall along the border. And Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has filed a motion against the Department of Justice demanding that the agency provide documents pertaining to the legal justification of the president’s emergency declaration.”

KLOBUCHAR STAYS IN THE CENTER IN TOWN HALL
Politico: “Sen. Amy Klobuchar placed herself firmly in the center lane of the Democratic primary on Monday, calling popular progressive policy platforms ‘aspirational,’ and declining to fully commit to them. The Minnesota Democrat called the Green New Deal ‘aspirational’ and said that Medicare-for-all is ‘something we can look to in the future,’ during a CNN town hall hosted in Manchester, N.H., on Monday night. On free four-year college, Klobuchar said: ‘No, I am not for four-year college for all.’ Klobuchar, who launched her presidential bid earlier this month, is pitching herself as pragmatic Midwesterner who won’t over-promise liberal policies to primary voters. The three-term senator carefully calibrated her answers on several progressive platforms — expressing support without fully committing to them. But her tell-it-like-it-is centrism could prove problematic for a Democratic primary electorate that has drawn further to the left.”

Obama gives advice, but still no endorsement for 2020 - NYT: “A secret meeting of former President Barack Obama’s financial backers convened in Washington early this month … [T]he group interviewed an array of 2020 presidential candidates and debated whether to throw their wealth behind one or two of them. Mr. Obama had no role in the event, but it unfolded in his political shadow: As presidential hopefuls like Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Sherrod Brown auditioned before them, the donors wondered aloud whether Mr. Obama might signal a preference in the race, according to three people briefed on the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity. David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s former chief strategist, told the group they should expect no such directive. Mr. Axelrod confirmed in an interview that he briefed the gathering, recalling: ‘They asked me about Obama endorsing. I said, ‘I don’t imagine he will.’’”

Warren proposes wealth tax funded universal child care plan - Bloomberg: “Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposed a universal child care plan that would limit American families’ expenses to 7 percent of income regardless of how many children they have in care -- paid for by a tax on the ultra-wealthy. The Massachusetts senator’s plan, unveiled Tuesday on Medium.com, would make child care free for families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, or less than $51,500 for a family of four. Other families would pay up to 7 percent of income, depending on how much they earn. The proposal marks the latest policy entry into a 2020 contest that features scores of progressive Democrats competing over how best to mitigate income inequality and expand the economic safety net for working families.”

TEAM TRUMP ADDS TO 2020 CAMPAIGN STAFF
WSJ: “President Trump added a new round of senior-level hires to his re-election team, continuing an early push to build out his campaign and preserve a clear path to the Republican nomination in 2020. The new hires include a trio of roles in media relations, positions that hold outsize importance for a president who turned lessons from his reality television career into billions of dollars in free media during his 2016 race. Those media aides are communications director Tim Murtaugh, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and strategic communications director Marc Lotter, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence whose duties will include overseeing the campaign’s surrogates on news and social media, according to people familiar with the situation, who said the hires will be announced later Tuesday.”

Schultz stresses in letter to supporters he won’t be a ‘spoiler’ - Axios:Howard Schultz tries to turn electability back on Democrats in a letter to supporters today, pledging that he is committed to making sure an independent run for president would do ‘nothing to re-elect Donald Trump.’ … ‘As I’m sure you’ve seen,’ Schultz writes, ‘there have been some skeptical and even downright angry comments from party activists and inside-the-Beltway pundits in the press and on social media. Others have expressed genuine fears that an independent candidate could help re-elect President Trump.’ ‘I hear and respect this overriding concern, and have repeatedly promised that I will not be a spoiler. I am committed to ensuring that I will do nothing to re-elect Donald Trump. I mean it.’ ‘Will the eventual Democratic nominee be the party’s own version of a spoiler?’ Schultz writes in the letter, which is being emailed to supporters and pushed through social media.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Voter fraud hearings underway in North Carolina - WTVD-AP

Pergram: ‘George Washington's Farewell Address to be read on Senate floor in annual tradition’ - Fox News

Rosenstein will leave Justice Department next month - CBS News

Trump considering new candidates for UN job - Bloomberg

Ryan Streeter: ‘Cheer up. Despite national gloom, we're actually pretty happy with our lives and neighbors.’ - USA Today

AUDIBLE: #MOOD
“Sorry, I’m just trying to get some ranch.” – An Iowan said as she tried to pass Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand who was addressing a crowd at a bar in Iowa City.

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

LOVE YOUR PASSION
UPI: “Police breaking up a late-night drag racing session in Britain ended up seizing an unusual vehicle -- a speedy tractor. Amesbury Police said they responded to a report of drag racing motorcycles in Wiltshire and ended up discovering the bikes were racing against a New Holland T6 175 tractor. Police said the tractor was found to be running on red diesel, a duty-free fuel allowed to be used strictly for agricultural purposes. ‘Rather unusual stop for team 1 tonight,’ police tweeted. ‘Tractor stopped after being reported for drag racing motorbikes!’ ‘Vehicle was seized as the driver couldn't prove he was insured and was driving on red diesel,’ the tweet said.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“I don't really care what a public figure thinks. I care about what he does. Let God probe his inner heart. Tell me about his outer acts.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Jewish World Review on Oct. 18, 1999.  

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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Rashida Tlaib calls for hunger strikes to shut down ICE

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) urged her supporters to join her in a hunger strike to push for action to "shut down" U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arguing the radical push to abolish ICE can't be achieved by Congress.

Tlaib, headlining a Detroit fundraiser this past weekend for the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, complained of colleagues who are constantly "policing" what she says and lack willingness to embrace bold stands such as abolishing ICE. She called on her activist audience to join her in a hunger strike at the border.

"It's going to take movements outside the halls of Congress," Tlaib told the crowd, according to video captured by America Rising, a conservative group.

AOC BACKS TLAIB'S IMPEACHMENT RESOLUTION

"I want you all to shut them down, we can shut them down," Tlaib said to applause. "Don't wait for this Congress to act, shut them down."

"I know what they're going to say, they'll go, ‘What do you mean Rashida?' Well I'll tell you. There are some people that are using hunger strike, all these other things, going to the border, and I plan to."

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon

Source: Fox News Politics

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NYPD's Hate Crime Unit Probes Anti-Semitic Graffiti on Ginsburg Poster

Police in New York City are investigating the defacing of a poster featuring Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a hate crime.

According to the New York Post, the graffiti was discovered in a Brooklyn subway station. The words "Die; Jew B**ch!" were scrolled on Ginsburg's face in black marker. Covering her mouth was a black swastika.

Dermot F. Shea, the NYPD's chief of detectives, posted a tweet that said detectives are approaching the incident as a hate crime.

"Thank you @BPEricAdams and @Chevi_F for bringing this abhorrent incident to our attention," Shea wrote. "Detectives from @NYPDHateCrimes are working with @NYPDTransit and will be conducting a full investigation. As always, NYC has no place for hate. @NYPDnews @NYPDDCPI"

The MTA scrubbed the poster clean on Tuesday.

The poster is an advertisement for a new book written about Ginsburg, who has served on the Supreme Court since 1993.

Source: NewsMax America

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Maryland House Speaker Busch dies, a Chesapeake Bay defender

Michael Busch, a champion of the Chesapeake Bay and progressive causes during his record-tenure as Maryland's Democratic House speaker, battled for the environment up until the end of his life. He died Sunday at age 72.

His environmental policies were especially high-profile in his final days as he sponsored a bill to permanently protect five oyster sanctuaries under Maryland law. The measure drew a veto from Gov. Larry Hogan, but the House overrode the veto Friday, and the Senate was expected to vote on an override Monday — the last day of the legislative session.

Bush died after developing pneumonia arising from a follow-up procedure to a 2017 liver transplant after being diagnosed with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a liver disease. He also had heart bypass surgery in September, after experiencing shortness of breath. Chief of staff Alexandra Hughes said Busch died surrounded by loved ones.

EX-MARYLAND GOV. HARRY R. HUGHES DIES AT 92; SERVED 2 TERMS

Alison Prost, the Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, praised Busch's legacy of defending the waterway's fragile ecosystem.

"The Chesapeake Bay lost a champion today," Prost said. "While there were many issues that were near and dear to Speaker Busch, he elevated saving the Bay to a priority for the General Assembly, and legislators followed his lead."

"The Chesapeake Bay lost a champion today. While there were many issues that were near and dear to Speaker Busch, he elevated saving the Bay to a priority for the General Assembly, and legislators followed his lead."

— Alison Prost, Maryland executive director, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Busch also fought for expanded health care, educational improvements and other issues as Maryland's longest-serving House speaker. He was elected to the speakership in 2003.

"Nobody has done more to expand health care access and improve public health in Maryland than Speaker Mike Busch," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative.

A progressive Democrat, Busch as speaker oversaw Maryland's approval of same-sex marriage and the repeal of the death penalty. Legislation raising the state's minimum wage was passed twice under his House leadership.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller called Busch a model delegate who cared for every corner of the state.

"My heart is broken for Mike Busch's family, the State of Maryland, and the Speaker's extended family — elected officials and staff that he has been a mentor and coach to over his time in public service," said Miller, a Democrat who has been battling prostate cancer. "Mike has been a friend for years, and has led the state to new heights of environmentalism and education."

Hogan, a Republican, ordered flags flown at half-staff for Busch, calling him "a giant in our government."

"Speaker Busch and I came from different sides of the aisle, but we often came together in the best interests of the people of Maryland," Hogan said. "He served with the decency and good nature of a teacher, a coach, and a family man. I was honored to ... work closely with him."

It's unclear when the House will choose Busch's successor. The speaker is elected by the 141 House members. Since Busch's absence last month, Del. Adrienne Jones has presided as speaker pro tem.

Busch was first elected to the House in 1986. His district included the state capital of Annapolis, making him a frequent presence in the State House — even when the General Assembly wasn't in session.

He was known as a consensus builder and good listener, qualities that helped him manage the diverse chamber.

Busch had a strong commitment to equal rights that resulted from growing up in the 1960s during the height of the civil rights movement against racial segregation.

"That was ingrained in me from my grandparents to my parents and through the '60s," he told The Associated Press in 2002.

At the time, he recalled two pictures on his grandparents' mantel — Jesus and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both sets of grandparents "believed that Roosevelt gave average people a piece of the American dream," he said. "I really believe government is there to give people opportunity."

Busch, a Catholic, was born in Baltimore, and lived in Anne Arundel County from age 10 until he left for college.

He was a record-setting running back at Temple University in 1969, peaking in his junior year when he ran for 185 yards in a game. But for a leg injury, he might have pursued a pro career. The Dallas Cowboys sent him a letter telling him "you are being considered by our ball club as one of our top draft choices," but the team didn't know his career was already over.

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After getting a degree in education, he returned home and taught in public and parochial schools. He was a football and basketball coach at St. Mary's High School in Annapolis before quitting teaching in 1979.

His interest in politics was whetted in 1982 when he was a driver for Robert Pascal, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor. Busch finished fifth among 12 Democrats running for three House seats that year, then won in 1986.

Funeral arrangements weren't immediately disclosed.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Senators rally around McCain legacy after fresh barrage of Trump attacks

Senators on both sides of the aisle rallied to the defense of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Wednesday, after President Trump launched a fresh round of attacks against the senator’s legacy this week.

“Today and every day I miss my good friend John McCain,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted. “It was a blessing to serve alongside a rare patriot and genuine American hero in the Senate. His memory continues to remind me every day that our nation is sustained by the sacrifices of heroes.”

ROMNEY 'CAN'T UNDERSTAND' WHY TRUMP WOULD BASH MCCAIN

McCain was highly regarded by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for both his bipartisan approach to negotiation, his six-term service in Congress and his military service -- where he served in Vietnam and was held prisoner and tortured for more than five years.

But Trump and McCain repeatedly sparred with one another. In 2015, after McCain had said Trump's platform had "fired up the crazies," Trump had mocked McCain's imprisonment in the Vietnam War, saying: "I like people that weren't captured."

But since McCain’s death last year of brain cancer, Trump has not abandoned the feud.

DONALD TRUMP'S FEUD WITH MCCAIN FAMILY ESCALATES: 'I WAS NEVER A FAN'

“I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, citing in particular McCain’s vote against the repeal of ObamaCare in 2017.

“He campaigned on repealing and replacing ObamaCare for years and then it got to a vote and he said thumbs down,” Trump said.

Over the weekend, he blasted McCain for giving to the FBI an uncorroborated dossier alleging that Moscow held compromising information on Trump.

He quoted former Independent Counsel Ken Starr as saying this was "unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain."

"He had far worse 'stains' than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!" he tweeted.

That caused Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to say he “can’t understand” why Trump would go after McCain, whom he called “heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God.”

On Tuesday, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., told conservative outlet The Bulwark that "America deserves better" and that nobody "is above common decency and respect for people that risk their life for your life."

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“I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better, I don’t care if he’s president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world. Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democrats joined in pushing back against Trump’s comments, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. announcing Wednesday that he intends to introduce a resolution re-naming the Russell Senate Building after McCain -- calling him an "American hero."

Fox News' Liam Quinn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 26, 2019

LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.

The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)

Source: OANN

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo

April 26, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.

The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.

Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.

But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.

Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.

High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.

It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.

Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.

“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.

The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.

Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.

Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.

Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.

Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.

This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 26, 2019

By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh

(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.

The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.

Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.

“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.

Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.

“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.

U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.

Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.

Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.

Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.

Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.

Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.

Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.

Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.

Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan

(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.

Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.

Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.

WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?

The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.

Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.

HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?

The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.

Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.

The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.

The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.

No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.

Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.

Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.

CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?

No.

Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.

“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.

“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”

PROOF OF WRONGDOING?

In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.

Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”

PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?

Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.

In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.

The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.

WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?

A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes
FILE PHOTO: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s lawyers on Friday are set to ask a Florida judge to toss out hidden-camera videos that prosecutors say show the 77-year-old billionaire receiving sexual favors for money inside a Florida massage parlor.

The owner of the reigning Super Bowl champions plans wants the video to not be used as evidence against him as he contests two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Florida, along with some two dozen other men.

His legal team is fresh off a win on Tuesday, when they successfully persuaded Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser to block prosecutors from releasing the hidden-camera footage to media outlets, which had requested copies under the state’s robust open records law.

Kraft, who has owned the franchise since 1994, pleaded not guilty, but has issued a public apology for his actions.

His attorneys have argued in court papers that the surreptitious videotaping of customers, including Kraft, inside a massage parlor was governmental overreach and the result of an illegally obtained search warrant.

The warrant, Kraft’s lawyers claim, was secured under false pretenses because police officers cited human trafficking as a potential crime in their application. Prosecutors have since acknowledged that the investigation yielded no evidence of trafficking.

Palm Beach County prosecutors in a court filing on Wednesday said Kraft’s motion should be rejected because he could not have had any expectation of privacy while visiting a commercial establishment to engage in criminal activity.

That prompted an indignant response from Kraft’s attorneys, who said the prosecution’s position on privacy was “unhinged.”

“It should go without saying that Mr. Kraft and everyone else in the United States have a reasonable expectation that the government will not secretly spy on them while they undress behind closed doors,” they wrote.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, editing by G Crosse)

Source: OANN

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