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New trial ordered for man convicted in divisive rape cases

A man whose conviction in two rape cases divided his small northeast Kansas town must have a new trial because of errors by the prosecutor and court in the original trial, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

Jacob Ewing, 24, of Holton was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison after his June 2017 conviction for raping and sodomizing one woman in 2016 and raping and committing two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy against another woman in 2014.

Ewing argued in his appeal that special prosecutor Jacqie Spradling misstated evidence in her closing arguments that inflamed the "passions of the jury." The appeal also argued the court made other errors in allowing certain evidence in his trial, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported .

"The cumulative effect of the errors committed by the district court and the prosecutor denied Ewing his constitutional right to a fair trial," the appeals court ruled.

Trevor Wohlford, one of Ewing's attorneys, declined to comment on the ruling. The Kansas Attorney General's office also declined to comment.

The errors cited in the appeal included Spradling suggesting that Ewing enjoyed abusing vulnerable victims and implying that one of the women was in that category, a misstatement about what DNA evidence shown at trial proved, and comments about Ewing's use of pornography, which the appeals court said should not have been admitted into evidence.

"Given the conflicting nature of the evidence admitted at trial, it is reasonable to believe that the jury took to heart the prosecutor's comments during closing arguments that purported to represent the evidence, even when those statements did so inaccurately," the court wrote.

The state had argued in its response to the appeal that the prejudicial cumulative errors can't exist where "the evidence is overwhelming against the defendant." The appeals court ruled that it didn't find the evidence "overwhelming."

"The burden is on the State to show that the cumulative error committed in this case was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The State has failed to meet this burden," the court wrote. "We hasten to point out that our finding is in no way intended to be a comment on the credibility of the alleged victims in this case."

The allegations against Ewing, a former state football champion and member of a well-known family, divided Holton , a town of 3,300 residents about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Topeka. His supporters posted signs in their yards and wore supportive T-shirts to court. Advocates for the women formed a support group and organized volunteers to sit in the courtroom during proceedings.

Ewing was also found not guilty in April 2017 of charges that he raped and sodomized an underage girl. Following a plea deal in a separate case, he was given another 7½ years in prison for the attempted rape of a woman in January 2014 and a charge of child exploitation related to images of an underage girl.

___

Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com

Source: Fox News National

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Former Afghan hostage being tried on assault against wife

Former Afghanistan hostage Joshua Boyle has gone on trial in Canada on charges that he repeatedly assaulted his wife.

Boyle faces 19 charges, including sexual assault. A partial gag order was lifted as the trial started Monday, revealing that all but one of the 19 charges relate to his American wife, Caitlan Coleman of Stewartstown, Pennsylvania.

Boyle and his wife were taken hostage in 2012 by a Taliban-linked group while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan. The couple had three children during their five years in captivity. The family was rescued in 2017 by Pakistani forces.

Boyle was arrested in December that year.

Source: Fox News World

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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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Rep. Steube on Trump investigations: ‘When is enough enough?’

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., called for the end of investigations into President Trump on Wednesday, saying Americans would not "learn" anything more from such actions.

"When is enough enough? You know, you've had 22 months to investigate, you've had $25 million that was spent with 18 lawyers, 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants and 500 witness interviews. At one point, you say, 'okay, we've done enough investigations,'" Steube said on "Your World with Neil Cavuto," referring to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

"And, with all that investigation, it comes with no collusion, and the attorney general decides not to have any obstruction charges," he told Neil Cavuto.

TRUMP VOWS HE’D TAKE IMPEACHMENT FIGHT TO SUPREME COURT

Trump on Wednesday vowed to fight back against congressional Democrats issuing subpoenas for administration officials, while calling their latest bid to bring in former White House counsel Don McGahn for testimony “ridiculous.”

Steube said that enough time and effort was spent in the Russia collusion investigation and that it was time for the country to move on.

DEM LEADERS REJECT IMMEDIATE IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS

"What are we going to learn from these hearings from the people that are part of this report that we haven't learned already?" Steube asked.

The congressman also said he had no interest in hearing from McGahn and believed the president had every right to claim executive privilege.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Boeing’s 737 production cut hits suppliers’ shares

FILE PHOTO: Employees walk by the end of a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing factory in Renton
FILE PHOTO: Employees walk by the end of a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

April 8, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – Boeing’s decision to cut the production of its 737 aircraft hit the shares of its suppliers on Monday while its European rival Airbus rose.

Boeing Co said late on Friday it planned to cut its monthly 737 aircraft production by nearly 20 percent after two deadly crashes, signaling it does not expect aviation authorities to allow the plane back in the air any time soon.

Boeing’s decision knocked down the shares of aerospace groups involved in the 737, with Meggitt, Melrose and Safran all falling by between 1 percent to 2.5 percent.

“If the lower rate endures through September 2019, the potential loss of revenue to Meggitt is $8.525m, perhaps somewhat more as we figure the monthly 737 MAX production rate was likely to rise towards 57 per month through 2019,” wrote analysts at brokerage Jefferies.

(GRAPHIC: Suppliers after second Boeing crash – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DeeqXZ)

Deliveries of Boeing’s best-selling aircraft were frozen after a global grounding of the narrowbody model following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10, killing all 157 people onboard.

Production will be cut to 42 airplanes per month from 52 starting in mid-April, the company said in a statement, without giving an end date.

Investment bank Cowen said Boeing’s decision to cut the production of the 737 was the right thing to do.

“The 737 rate cut to 42/month should help resolve the MAX crisis but with a large 2019 cash hit,” wrote Cowen in a note.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Chick-Fil-A Responds to San Antonio Ban from Airport Over “Anti-LGBTQ Behavior”

Chick-fil-A responded to the San Antonio City Council Friday after the company was blocked from entering into a retail contract at the city’s international airport over what one councilman called “a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.”

In a statement obtained by KTSA, a restaurant spokesman disputed the council’s “misperceptions” of the company’s values, and invited the council to visit any of its 32 San Antonio area restaurants.

“The press release issued by [councilman Roberto Trevino] was the first we heard of his motion and its approval by the San Antonio city council. We wish we had the opportunity to clarify misperceptions about our company prior to the vote. We agree with the council member that everyone should feel welcome at Chick-fil-A. In fact, we have welcomed everyone in San Antonio into our 32 local stores for more than 40 years. Our local restaurants consistently give back to the San Antonio community and have awarded more than $600,000 in scholarships to Chick-fil-A restaurant team members in San Antonio.

“We would welcome the opportunity to have a thoughtful dialogue with the city council and we invite all of them into our local stores to interact with the more than 2,000 team members who are serving the people of San Antonio. We hope they will experience for themselves that Chick-fil-A embraces all people, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. We are proud of the positive impact we are making in communities across America, and specifically in San Antonio, and have been transparent about our giving on our website. On a related note, Chick-fil-A was named “Best Franchise Brand” in 2018 by Airport Revenue News.”

On Thursday, District 1 City Councilman Roberto Trevino made a successful motion approving a retail contract at the San Antonio International Airport with an added amendment which would exclude a proposed Chick-fil-A restaurant.

Trevino later applauded the passage of the amendment for “[reaffirming] the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion.”

“San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior,” Treviño stated. “Everyone has a place here, and everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport. I look forward to the announcement of a suitable replacement by Paradies.”

Following the council’s decision, faith based non-profit Texas Values issued a statement urging the Texas legislature to act to reaffirm religious freedom.

“Local governments targeting and banning private Christian businesses like Chick-Fil-A is a hostility to religion that Texans will not stand for,” a statement from Texas Values said. “I thought Texas was ‘open for business.’ I guess that applies everywhere in Texas except for San Antonio, where the government demands that you renounce your religious beliefs.”

Ahead of the council’s decision reports circulated earlier in the week claiming Chick-fil-A donated $1.8 million to pro-family groups, which leftists characterized as “anti-LGBTQ.”


Source: InfoWars

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California woman stabbed officer after driving over 100 mph on Interstate 5, police say

A California Highway Patrol officer was stabbed in the back on Friday after pulling over a woman who had been traveling over 100 mph on Interstate 5, officials said.

Haile Neil, 25, is facing attempted murder charges after stabbing the officer during the traffic stop near the town of Williams, located about 60 miles northwest of Sacramento.

The officer had noticed the vehicle speeding along Interstate 5 over 100 mph and then initiated a traffic stop, police told FOX40.

TEXAS WOMAN ACCUSED OF DRIVING DRUNK, CRASHING INTO POLICE VEHICLE

After pulling over the vehicle, the officer suspected Neil was impaired. When the 25-year-old was asked to get out of her vehicle so the officer could conduct a field sobriety test, she pulled out a concealed knife and stabbed the officer in the back.

GUNMAN SOUGHT AFTER SHOOTING, WOUNDING VIRGINIA POLICE OFFICER, OFFICIALS SAY

A tow truck driver who happened to be passing by the area saw the incident and helped the injured officer to restrain Neil, according to police.

Interstate 5 commuter Melanie Hall told FOX40 the whole incident was "crazy" since things are generally quiet in the area.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

"It’s pretty unbelievable that people would just have enough nerve to jump on top of a police officer and stab him in the back," Hall told the television station. "She had to not have been all there."

In addition to the attempted murder charge, Neil was also charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance, FOX40 reported. The officer from the CHP's Williams office was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and has since been released.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Slack Technologies Inc, operator of the popular workplace instant-messaging app, reported a loss of $140.7 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing ahead of its planned public market debut.

The company said its daily active users exceeded 10 million in the three months ended Jan. 31, 2019.

Slack expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SK”, it said.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to go public via a direct listing, making it the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass the traditional route of listing shares through an initial public offering.

A direct listing is a cheaper way of becoming a public company as the process requires fewer investment banks and therefore lower fees.

In a direct listing, however, a company does not sell any new shares to raise money. Instead, it gives existing shareholders the opportunity to cash out.

Slack is the latest in a string of high-profile technology companies looking to go public this year. Lyft Inc, Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications have completed IPOs so far in 2019.

The company is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing, Reuters had previously reported. Some early investors and employees have been selling the stock at around $28, valuing the company close to $17 billion, Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge, a brokerage company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Slack set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Its competitors include Microsoft Teams, a free chat add-on for Microsoft’s Office365 users.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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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 26, 2019

By Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s decision to make it easier for residents of rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport is meant to test Ukraine’s new leader and the West should not recognize the documents, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the order on facilitating passports on Wednesday, three days after comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Linas Linkevicius, whose own country also has strained relations with Moscow, told Reuters in an interview that the West should consider imposing new sanctions on Russia.

“This is a blatant violation of international law. And basically also a kind of test to the new (Ukrainian) leadership, which is also a usual game,” Linkevicius said.

“The least we can do (is) we shouldn’t recognize these passports. How to do that technically, it’s another issue to discuss. Also (we need) to look at additional sanctions,” said Linkevicius, whose small Baltic nation is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for armed separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Some 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict despite a notional ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015.

Linkevicius, who in Kiev on Friday became the first minister of an EU country since Ukraine’s election to meet President-elect Zelenskiy, said they had discussed the passport issue.

Zelenskiy also raised the possibility of resetting the Minsk ceasefire agreement without giving any concessions to Russia, Linkevicius said.

“DANGEROUS CANCER” OF GRAFT

The minister urged Zelenskiy to deliver on his electoral promise of tackling corruption, which he described as the “most dangerous cancer” facing Ukraine, which hopes one day to join the EU.

Last month, Lithuania’s own relations with Russia came under renewed strain after a Vilnius court found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov, in absentia, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in a 1991 crackdown against Lithuania’s pro-independence movement.

Russia branded the verdict “extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative” and opened a probe into the judges involved.

Linkevicius accused Russia of seeking to politicize the judicial process by trying to take revenge on the judges, adding: “This is lamentable.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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A Cook County judge recently called out embattled State Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report — but dropping similar charges against embattled “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.

Foxx has faced intense criticism over her office’s decision to drop a 16-count indictment against Smollett, just weeks after bringing the charges against the high-profile TV star. Foxx’s deal with Smollett, which did not require him to admit guilt, drew ire from the public, the city’s top cop and the former mayor who called it a “whitewash of justice.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHICAGO PROSECUTOR KIM FOXX CHIDED BY NATIONAL ATTORNEYS GROUPS AFTER JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED 

Cook County Judge Marc Martin, who was presiding over an unrelated case, chastised Foxx and her office for creating a situation where anyone charged with filing a false report would expect the same leniency her office afforded Smollett.

Candace Clark, 21, is facing one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors accused her of giving a friend access to her bank account and then telling authorities the money had been stolen. She denies the charges and claims she’s the victim of Foxx’s double standard — something the judge weighed in on.

“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good. And this smells, big time,” Martin said to prosecutors during a recent hearing, Fox 32 reported. “I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”

The judge continued, “There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown. It’s not right. And (if) I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. (If the) press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February but continued to oversee the investigation through text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats.

The text messages revealed Foxx called Smollett a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” They also show she cautioned Magats about throwing the book at Smollett.

“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.

“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with four women, three of whom were underage.

KIM FOXX’S CHIEF ETHICS OFFICER RESIGNS FOLLOWING SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY

President Trump said last month he asked for a federal review of Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. He also called the actor “an absolute embarrassment to our country.”

The Smollett case garnered national attention and threatened to tear Chicago apart. It pit the police department and mayor against prosecutors and underscored the idea that wealthy people are somehow above the law.

Smollett told police he was attacked on Jan. 29 around 2 a.m. as he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. He said two masked men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, beat him and tied a rope around his neck. He claimed they shouted, “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

CLICK HERE FOF THE FOX NEWS APP

After an intense investigation, police said Smollett staged the entire incident to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett has strongly denied the accusations.

Source: Fox News National

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