Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Maga First News with Peter Boykin

8:00 am 9:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Minnesota lawmaker's push for tougher female genital mutilation law faces opposition

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Republican state legislator Mary Franson has spent two years pushing for a new state law that would allow tougher prosecution of parents who facilitate or allow the genital mutilation of their daughters.

But Franson and supporters of those who want to punish more than just the practitioners of the horribly painful and widely condemned practice are finding opposition, both active and passive, to what its supporters believe should be a legislative no-brainer.

“The bill makes FGM (female genital mutilation) a felony, and it empowers social services to come in and take those children out of the home and remove the parental right from those parents,” Franson told Fox News in an interview. “This is completely on par with child endangerment such as criminal sexual conduct or assault with a dangerous weapon – anything that causes substantial bodily harm.”

An estimated 8,000 girls endure FGM around the world every day, a practice the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies as a serious human rights violation. The practice brings with it serious physical and emotional health consequences, including sexual dysfunction, incontinence, increased risk of HIV transmission, the risk of infection, and uncontrolled bleeding.

But Franson’s efforts have been far from smooth sailing. When her bill first hit the floor in 2017, it faced tough questioning from several lawmakers – among them then-state legislator and current U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who suggested Franson was using the bill as a bid for press attention.

"What I don't want us to do is to create laws because we want to get in the media,” Omar stated at the time. "What I would like to have been done is to have (the parents) charged with laws that already exist.”

Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, voices her opposition to the bill to unionize day care providers during a debate as the Minnesota legislative session came to a close Monday, May 20, 2013, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, voices her opposition to the bill to unionize day care providers during a debate as the Minnesota legislative session came to a close Monday, May 20, 2013, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Despite Omar's concerns, she and another 127 House members voted for the bill to pass on. Four other representatives did not. The bill fell flat in the Minnesota Senate.

Franson said Omar should have done more. “Ilhan hasn’t mentioned it at all. She never spoke about it on the House floor. She was in the back room watching it on the TV until it became time to vote, and she had to come out and vote.”

Omar’s support would have been particularly important because she represented the large Somali community where girls are at higher risk of being forced into FGM. And Franson argues it was in fact pressure from that community that kept her bill from moving forward.

Somali-American nonprofit groups have raised concerns that further criminalizing FGM would push the issue deeper underground, effectively worsening the problem. They have argued instead that putting more funding towards outreach and education would be more effective.

Another FGM-related bill was introduced by a male senator, Warren Limmer, last year. That effort, too, was rejected by groups who viewed it as bigoted. So Franson is trying again.

“I re-introduced it this year, we have some Republican authors on there,” Franson said. “Nobody is willing to carry it in the Senate because they are weak.”

Under current Minnesota law, the practice of FGM is already illegal but focuses more on those who actually perform the FGM. So not only would Franson’s bill mandate it a felony for parents to subject their daughters to FGM, but it also calls for the loss of custody and prison terms between five and 20 years.

GENITAL MUTILATION ALSO OCCURS IN THE US, ACTIVISTS CALL ON STATES TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL

Franson said she was motivated to continue pursuing the issue after a Michigan judge ruled in November that a 1996 U.S. federal law banning FGM was “unconstitutional” – thus dropping key charges against practitioners accused of performing FGM on nine young girls. That spurred an outraged Franson not to abandon the fight.

“This ruling underscores the dire need to pass my bill to protect girls from female genital mutilation and send a message to parents that there are consequences for this practice,” she said. “I will never stop fighting for the safety of little girls and will keep working to put an end to this barbaric practice and punish parents who subject their daughters to these horrors.”

Franson’s updated bill would punish Minnesota parents that force their girls to undergo the practice, which involves partially cutting or completely extracting female genitalia under the guise of “a girl’s purity and eligibility for marriage.”

One prominent group against the measure is Isuroon, a non-profit organization that seeks to help Somali women build self-sufficiency. The group has called efforts to further criminalize FGM a "witch hunt" against their community, which could potentially harm already scared Somali refugees.

Farun Weli, founder and executive director of Isuroon, Minneapolis, told Fox News there is no data that proves female genital “circumcision” – a term some argue is medically inaccurate but preferred by those who oppose efforts to toughen laws against it – is happening in Minnesota. Weli also claimed Franson was a “domestic terrorist,” who terrified families with the notion their children could be taken away, or unlawfully “checked” without parental permission.

"It's such an outlandish statement that it lacks any credibility," Franson said of Weli’s “domestic terrorist” remark. "I suppose we have different definitions of that term."

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., listens to President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., listens to President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Franson also expressed concern that Rep. Rena Moran, a Democrat, was recently named chair of the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, which could pose a further challenge to the bill. Moran was one of the four Democratic legislators who opposed the initial legislation in 2017.

Those four "no" votes came from worries over separating children from their parents of potential deportation, which could lead to further complications and frighten victims from coming forward, according to public records. Somali-American organizations had been advocating the representatives give more funding for outreach and education, and some of the opposing lawmakers agreed.

Moran and Omar did not respond to a request for comment.

“Those opposing focus on the issue that the child is going to be removed from the home, parental rights are going to be terminated,” Franson continued. "And my response to that is if you don’t practice FGM and don’t harm your daughter, it is never going to happen to you, and you are not going to lose your child."

Rep. Franson with activists advocating for further laws against Female Genital Mutilation in Minnesota

Rep. Franson with activists advocating for further laws against Female Genital Mutilation in Minnesota (Mary Franson)

Franson intends to speak on the issue next month on behalf of the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), during a panel addressing FGM at the United Nations in New York. And while she says she continues to face powerful outside resistance, several FGM survivors and other community activists from within the Somali-American and wider immigrant community – including men who want to stop this from happening to their daughters and sisters – are standing firmly by her side.

An overwhelming 98 percent of women aged 15 to 49 are believed to have undergone FGM in Somalia, according to a 2006 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Somalia is considered the highest-risk country for the procedure, even though the government there – which also refers to it as “circumcision” – constitutionally banned the measure in 2012.

And Somalia announced its first-ever FGM prosecution last year after a 10-year-old girl bled to death after being taken to a traditional cutter.

FGM is considered not to be a religious practice, but rather a cultural one. And while Minnesota is home to the largest Somali immigrant population in the country, it’s a melting pot of migrants and an array of ethnicities from all across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

There have been no known cases of FGM reported in Minnesota. But Franson and other activists believe that’s because it’s a largely “hush-hush” practice, occurring behind closed doors.

FBI agents leave the office of Dr. Fakhruddin Attar at the Burhani Clinic in Livonia, Mich. Friday, April 21, 2017, after completing a search for documents. The investigation is connected to the case of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, of Northville, charged with performing genital mutilation on two young girls from Minnesota. (Clarence Tabb Jr. /Detroit News via AP)

FBI agents leave the office of Dr. Fakhruddin Attar at the Burhani Clinic in Livonia, Mich. Friday, April 21, 2017, after completing a search for documents. The investigation is connected to the case of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, of Northville, charged with performing genital mutilation on two young girls from Minnesota. (Clarence Tabb Jr. /Detroit News via AP) (The Associated Press)

She pointed to one case in 2017 in which two girls belonging to a small Indian Muslim sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra, according to court documents, who were taken to Michigan to have FGM performed, which Franson said motivated her to examine the issue more carefully.

“If this wasn’t happening,” Franson asked, “then why is our own health department dedicating resources to this?”

The Minnesota Department of Health offers an FGM “cutting prevention and outreach program” that offers funding for the MDH Refugee and International Health Program and the International Institute of Minnesota (IIMN) to form and co-lead a working group dedicated to prevention and community engagement on the matter.

The custom is not only carried out by trained medical practitioners in some communities; but also community elders in non-safe settings - with sharp scissors as a tool of choice.

LAW BANNING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL; MICHIGAN DOCTORS CLEARED OF CHARGES

While at least 30 countries have laws prohibiting FGM to different degrees, world leaders and human rights defenders have long lamented that penalties are lax, and often not enforced. Within the U.S., legislation is often state-by-state. Some 23 states don’t have laws on the books prohibiting FGM.

A teenager from Uganda's Sebei tribe sits inside a mud hut after undergoing female genital mutilation in Bukwa district

A teenager from Uganda's Sebei tribe sits inside a mud hut after undergoing female genital mutilation in Bukwa district (Copyright Reuters 2016)

As Franson and others have noted, exact figures concerning the depth of the problem are hard to come by, given that the practice is largely shrouded in secrecy. Yet U.S. officials have cast a spotlight on the matter in recent years, pointing out that the number of girls at risk of being forced into FGM has doubled between 2007 and 2017.

Activists in the U.S. have also long underscored the importance of educating refugees and immigrants on arrival – especially from countries in the Middle East and Africa where it is widely practiced – of its strict illegality in the U.S., something which the State Department itself has not historically done.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

”A lot of time, girls are coming here because they are fleeing oppression,” Franson said. “And they need to be free from the oppression that FGM brings here in America. I am not going to admit defeat. I am still hopeful we can change this.”

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

India Launches Airstrikes on Pakistan

Infowars Life Protein Bar Combo

Limited Advanced Release

96.00

57.60

Get the best of both worlds with Infowars Life Vanilla Coconut and Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars!

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/pb-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/protein-bar-combo.html?ims=thhpy&utm_campaign=Widget+-+Protein+Bar+Combo&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=ProteinBarCombo-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/protein-bar-combo.html?ims=thhpy&utm_campaign=Widget+-+Protein+Bar+Combo&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=ProteinBarCombo-Widget

Infowars Life Protein Bar Combo

96.00

57.60

Get the best of both worlds with Infowars Life Vanilla Coconut and Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars!

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/pb-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/protein-bar-combo.html?ims=thhpy&utm_campaign=Widget+-+Protein+Bar+Combo&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=ProteinBarCombo-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/protein-bar-combo.html?ims=thhpy&utm_campaign=Widget+-+Protein+Bar+Combo&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=ProteinBarCombo-Widget

Infowars Life Protein Bar Combo

96.00

57.60

Get the best of both worlds with Infowars Life Vanilla Coconut and Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars!

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/pb-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/protein-bar-combo.html?ims=thhpy&utm_campaign=Widget+-+Protein+Bar+Combo&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=ProteinBarCombo-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/protein-bar-combo.html?ims=thhpy&utm_campaign=Widget+-+Protein+Bar+Combo&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=ProteinBarCombo-Widget

BodEase

59.95

29.95

This is the ultimate turmeric and inflammatory support product on the market.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/bodease-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/bodease.html?ims=vafom&utm_campaign=IW+Bodease+50%25+Off+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-Bodease-50%25-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/bodease.html?ims=vafom&utm_campaign=IW+Bodease+50%25+Off+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-Bodease-50%25-Widget

BodEase

59.95

29.95

This is the ultimate turmeric and inflammatory support product on the market.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/bodease-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/bodease.html?ims=vafom&utm_campaign=IW+Bodease+50%25+Off+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-Bodease-50%25-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/bodease.html?ims=vafom&utm_campaign=IW+Bodease+50%25+Off+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-Bodease-50%25-Widget

BodEase

59.95

29.95

This is the ultimate turmeric and inflammatory support product on the market.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/bodease-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/bodease.html?ims=vafom&utm_campaign=IW+Bodease+50%25+Off+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-Bodease-50%25-Widget

https://www.infowarsstore.com/bodease.html?ims=vafom&utm_campaign=IW+Bodease+50%25+Off+Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=IW-Bodease-50%25-Widget

Source: InfoWars

0 0

US Jewish Leaders Slam Netanyahu's Parliament Moves

Jewish-American rabbis, organizations, and donors have lashed out at Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to ensure a racist, far-right party is part of the next parliament.

Netanyahu has pushed for weeks for an election pact between Otzma Yehudit, an extremist party that includes supporters of the racist Rabbi Meir Kahane, and the religious-Zionist Habayit Hayehudi party, Haaretz reported.

He convinced both to join forces Wednesday and run on a joint ticket in the April 9 election, increasing their chances of winning seats in the Knesset.

"This will complicate efforts to advocate for Israel, especially within the Jewish community. What are we supposed to tell our children?" former Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., warned, per Haaretz.

"We, Zionists, and supporters of Israel in America, spend so much effort to rightly expose and highlight incitement on the Palestinain side. So, when the prime minister gives this legitimacy to such an extreme party, it hurts our efforts. I fear that it will introduce some degree of moral equivalence and serve to rationalize incitement. That's not helpful." 

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism – the largest Jewish organization in North America – called it "deeply distressing to imagine that those who follow in the footsteps of Meir Kahane could be welcomed into Prime Minister Netanyahu's political circle," Haaretz reported.

And Susie Gelman, a major Jewish philanthropist who has supported Jewish and Israeli institutions for decades, told the news outlet she found the efforts "absolutely shocking."

"I have had policy disagreements with Netanyahu before, but this raises a new question: Is there any line of decency and morality that he will not cross?" she added, Haaretz reported.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also weighed in on social media.

"There should be no room for racism & no accommodation for intolerance in Israel or any democracy," he tweeted. "ADL previously has spoken out on hate-filled rhetoric of leaders of the Otzma Yehudit party, it is troubling that they are being legitimized by this union."

Source: NewsMax America

0 0

London police appeal for info after series of stabbings

London police are searching for a man who is believed to have stabbed four people in a series of unprovoked attacks.

The Metropolitan Police Service says two of the victims are in critical condition. Officers are warning there will be increased police activity in the Edmonton area of north London after the four attacks, which occurred over 15 hours Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Police say the attacks are not terror-related.

Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Smillie says the victims "appear to have been selected at random" because they were alone and vulnerable.

The attacks come amid an escalation of knife-related crime in Britain. Authorities have announced that some police forces have been given greater powers to stop and search suspects without reasonable suspicion in an effort to stop future attacks.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Finnish Social Democrat leader Rinne declares victory in election

Chairman of the Finnish Social Democratic Party Antti Rinne and his wife Heta Ravolainen-Rinne attend the election party in Helsinki
Chairman of the Finnish Social Democratic Party Antti Rinne and his wife Heta Ravolainen-Rinnes attend the election party in Helsinki, Finland April 14, 2019. Lehtikuva/Antti Aimo-Koivisto via REUTERS

April 14, 2019

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s leftist Social Democrat party (SDP) leader Antti Rinne has declared victory in Sunday’s general election, after partial results showed his party winning by a tight margin with 17.8 percent.

The nationalist Finns Party was in second place with 17.6 percent, after more than 97 percent of votes were counted.

“For the first time since 1999 we are the largest party in Finland … SDP is the prime minister party,” Rinne said.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen and Tarmo Virki; editing by Justyna Pawlak)

Source: OANN

0 0

85-year-old pro-lifer attacked while praying outside San Francisco Planned Parenthood: video

An 85-year-old pro-life man was assaulted as he prayed outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in San Francisco last Thursday and it was captured on camera.

In the 22-second clip, an alleged Planned Parenthood supporter knocks the pro-life advocate, identified as Ron, to the ground, tells him to stay on the ground, then repeatedly kicks him as he tries to take away the "40 Days for Life" banner for which Ron was peacefully protesting.

PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST ASSAULTED BY ABORTION PROTESTER ON CAMPUS

"I tried to keep him from taking it and that was it," Ron told the NBC affiliate in the Bay Area. "Then he knocked me down and kicked me."

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating the incident as an assault.

Ron said this is the third time the same man harassed him or tried to steal the sign in a week.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACCUSED OF MISTREATING PREGNANT EMPLOYEES: REPORT

Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted out the video Thursday with the caption: "Help find this piece of garbage."

Life Legal Defense Foundation, who is representing the elderly victim, said the same assailant had attacked Ron and another man just two days prior.

JOY VILLA WEARS 'F--K PLANNED PARENTHOOD' DRESS AT ANTI-ABORTION FILM 'UNPLANNED' PREMIERE

Allison Aranda, Life Legal senior counsel, called the vicious attack "intolerable" and said she will make sure "justice is served and that the freedom to speak freely on the public sidewalk without threat of physical violence is protected no matter the message."

Although fearful for his safety, Ron is back in front of the clinic praying, with bruises. He has been leading the anti-abortion prayer campaign in San Francisco for many years.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Over the past few months, we have seen an increase in violence from abortion supporters in an effort to instill fear and deter our law-abiding volunteers," Shawn Carney, the president of 40 Days for Life said, adding "that the idea that San Francisco is tolerant is a joke."

Planned Parenthood allegedly has video surveillance of the area which could include the attacks, but reportedly is unwilling to release the video or assist in the investigation. The pro-life group has said there has not been a police presence at the abortion clinic despite the attack.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Cheney rips Dems for lack of action taken against Omar for comments

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., continued her attack on Sunday on last week’s Democratic resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry – saying that it was nothing more than a move to protect Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., by not calling her out by name.

Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in House, was one of the few – and certainly the most prominent – members of the GOP to break with the party to oppose the resolution last Thursday. At the time she labeled it "a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism."

Speaking on Sunday to NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Cheney doubled-down on her comments.

REP. ILHAN OMAR SLAMS BARACK OBAMA'S MESSAGE OF 'HOPE AND CHANGE' AS A 'MIRAGE'

“Look, I think there are two ways we could have gone,” she said. “Some of the people in our conference clearly looked at it and said there’s nothing objectionable in the resolution. My statement made clear that that was my view as well. But I decided to vote against it because I think it was really clearly an effort to actually protect Ilhan Omar, to cover up her bigotry and anti-Semitism by refusing to name her.”

Omar, a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, has been at the center of a political firestorm almost since the day she took office for a series of comments that have been anti-Semitic and highly critical of the state of Israel.

The one-sided 407-23 vote on Thursday belied the emotional infighting over how to respond to Omar's recent comments suggesting House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. For days, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the lawmaker, arguing over whether Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, should be singled out, what other types of bias should be decried in the text and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel.

Cheney, who led the effort to remove controversial Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, from his committee posts after making numerous remarks that she deemed “abhorrent and racist,” has questioned why Democratic leaders have not acted in a similar manner with Omar.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“The Democrats have yet to take any action to remove her from her committee,” she said. “And they’ve got a real problem. I mean, the extent to which they’re abiding by anti-Semitism, enabling anti-Semitism in their party. It’s something we watch them struggle with, but something that’s dangerous for the country. I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to stand up and do the right thing.”

She added: “It is absolutely shameful that Nancy Pelosi and Leader [Steny] Hoyer and the Democratic leaders will not put her name in a resolution on the floor and condemn her remarks and remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Those people who won’t condemn it are enabling it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Maga First News with Peter Boykin

8:00 am 9:00 am



Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani encouraged newly-elected lawmakers to participate in the peace process with the Taliban as he opened on Friday the first session of parliament since a controversial election.

Ghani has invited thousands of politicians, religious scholars and rights activists to an assembly known as a loya jirga next week to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Several opposition leaders have said they will boycott the four-day assembly in Kabul, saying it was pulled together without their input and is being used by Ghani as he seeks a second term in a September presidential election.

“We have presented the peace plan on a regular basis and we are committed to it,” Ghani said in the first session since parliamentary elections marred by technical problems, militant attacks and accusations of voting fraud last year.

“Based on this plan, there will be no peace deal and negotiation that does not have the green card of the parliament,” he added.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks to end the Afghan war.

U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reported some progress toward an accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal and on how the Taliban would prevent extremists from using Afghanistan to launch attacks as al Qaeda did on Sept. 11, 2001.

The insurgents have so far rejected U.S. demands for a ceasefire and talks on the country’s political future that would include Afghan government officials.

The loya jirga, a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups, is an attempt by Ghani to influence the peace talks and cement his position for a second term, Afghan politicians and Western diplomats say.

Amid growing political divisions in Kabul, opposition politicians have demanded that Ghani step down when his mandate ends next month, and give way to an interim government to oversee peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani has ruled that out.

The country’s top court said last week Ghani can stay in office until the presidential election in September.

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad, Rupam Jain, Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday defended special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while slamming former President Barack Obama’s administration for being slow to take action on Russian interference in U.S. elections and ex-FBI Director James Comey for telling Congress the agency was investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence schemes,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association, marking his first public remarks after the Mueller report was released, reports CBS News.

He also pointed out that the investigation revealed a pattern of computer hacking and the use of social media to undermine elections as “only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration also made “critical decisions,” including choosing not to publicize the full story about Russian hackers and social media trolling, “and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America,” said Rosenstein.

He noted that the Mueller probe began after Comey disclosed during a hearing before Congress that President Donald Trump “pressured him to close the investigation and the president denied that the conversation occurred.”

Rosenstein said two years ago, when he was confirmed, he was told by a Republican senator that he would be in charge of the probe and that he’d report the results to the American people.

However, he said he didn’t promise to do that, because it is “not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

President Trump on Friday said “no money” was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, after reports that the U.S. received a $2 million hospital bill from Pyongyang for the late American prisoner’s care.

“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist[sic] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!” Trump tweeted Friday.

NORTH KOREA GAVE US $2M HOSPITAL BILL OVER CARE OF AMERICAN OTTO WARMBIER, SOURCES SAY

The Washington Post first reported that North Korean authorities insisted the U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier, 21, who was a student of the University of Virginia, sign a pledge to pay the bill before allowing Warmbier’s comatose body to return to the United States. Sources confirmed the bill and the amount to Fox News on Thursday.

Sources told the post that the envoy signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions from the president, but a source told Fox News that the U.S. did not ever pay money to North Korea.

The White House declined to comment when asked on the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that: “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”

Meanwhile, the president added: “’President[sic] Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.’ Cheif[sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!”

Warmbier was on tour in North Korea when he allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March 2016. Warmbier, for unknown reasons, fell into a coma while in custody and was held in that condition for an additional 17 months.

North Korean officials did not tell American officials until June 2017 that Warmbier had been unconscious the entire time. He died less than a week after he returned to the U.S. North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

AMERICAN PRISONERS HELD IN NORTH KOREA ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER POMPEO VISIT, TRUMP SAYS

Fred and Cindy Warmbier sued North Korea over their son’s death and in December were awarded $501 million in damages – money that the Hermit Kingdom will probably never pay.

While the Warmbiers blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has said he believes Kim’s claims that he did not know about the student’s treatment.

Trump and Kim have met in two separate summits. The most recent, held in February, ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told Fox News: “Otto Warmbier was mistreated by North Korea in so many ways, including his wrongful conviction and harsh sentence, and the fact that for 16 months they refused to tell his family or our country about his dire condition they caused.  No, the United States owes them nothing. They owe the Warmbier family everything.”

Last year, the Trump administration was also able to save three American prisoners held by North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song were all detained in North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the three Americans home last May, and said they were all in “good health.”

Fox News’ John Roberts, Rich Edson, Nicholas Kalman, and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist