Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am


Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Care home scandal nudges Finland’s voters back toward Social Democrats

Residents of Heikanrinne public elederly care facility perform their activities in Forssa
Residents of Heikanrinne public elederly care facility perform their activities in Forssa, Finland April 2, 2019. Picture taken April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Matti Matikainen

April 8, 2019

By Anne Kauranen

FORSSA, Finland (Reuters) – In a Nordic country used to a high level of state social care, Finns were shocked to hear of care homes leaving elderly patients all night in soaked diapers, a scandal that may play a part in helping the left return to power after 20 years in opposition.

With one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world, Finland is on the front line of a problem affecting most Western countries – how society can afford to care for an ever larger population of the elderly and infirm.

Finland predicts its social and healthcare costs will jump to 26.5 billion euros per year ($30 billion) in 2035 from 18.7 billion in 2018. That increase would push up such costs as a share of gross domestic product to 9.6 percent in 2035 from 7.9 percent in 2018.

Centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila had hoped to offset the rise by cutting services and stepping up privatization. But the task of reforming the healthcare system proved too great and Sipila’s center-right government resigned.

Parliamentary elections will be held on April 14.

Concerns about social welfare have been a gift for the opposition Social Democrat Party (SDP) that has led polls for almost a year, with 20.1 percent of the vote in the latest one by public broadcaster Yle.

The party has promised to raise taxes, set limits for healthcare privatizations, and increase all state pensions of less than 1,400 euros per month by 100 euros.

GRAPHIC – Finnish demographics: https://tmsnrt.rs/2CPLTYq

Worries about the future are particularly acute in places like Forssa, a town of 17,000 people in the southwest that depended for over 150 years on its textile industry, which has been in decline since the 1980s and has seen many younger people leave as jobs disappear.

“There is no one at home. My husband is dead and my children out in the world,” 87-year-old Raili Huhtala said in a public nursing home where she moved to after being partially paralyzed by a stroke a few years ago.

Like Huhtala, a growing number of elderly people around the country do not have family nearby to take care of them.

For now, taxpayers have been able to pay for round-the-clock care, but that may not be the case for future generations.

“The situation in Finland is different from for instance Southern Europe in the sense that we as a welfare society trust strongly that the state will fulfill our needs for treatment,” said Annukka Kuismin, head of elderly care services in the Forssa region.

SEEKING SOLACE

SDP leader Antti Rinne says the state can afford to take care of its elderly but his main opponent, finance minister Petteri Orpo, called his economic policies “irresponsible”.

Polls show Orpo’s National Coalition in second place at 15.8 percent, with the nationalist Finns Party third with 15.1 percent.

Tuomo Turja, research director at pollster Taloustutkimus, said the government’s popularity was initially hurt by imposing measures on the unemployed that forced them to take short-term jobs or training to avoid any reduction in their benefits.

“Then there was the (failed) healthcare and social services reform and the debate about elderly care and nurse threshold,” Turja said.

Care home scandals added to the problem. Several privately-operated nursing homes have been shut down by authorities after investigations into fatalities and negligence.

At one in Forssa operated by Attendo, authorities found there had been too few nurses, causing elderly patients to lie in wet diapers all night long.

Attendo says it has taken action to improve its services, including hiring more personnel to assist with cleaning and catering to allow nurses to concentrate on nursing.

But some voters have drawn their conclusions of the crisis and put their hope in the SDP to defend Finland’s public welfare services.

“Since I’ve inherited through my mother’s breast milk a Social Democratic genetic ancestry, I hope and believe that they will settle these affairs better than the current government,” said 61-year-old Lea Makela, who heads a local pensioners’ association in Forssa.

Makela said the elderly care crisis had caused many aging people to fear getting old.

“My own mother is over 90 years old and looking at her, I am quite worried if we will have proper care and treatment at all when we turn 90,” she told Reuters.

Another voter, 73-year-old Hannu Rekunen, said he was worried about nurses whose numbers have been reduced to cut costs.

“I hope that the Social Democrats too will do well in the elections and that’s what it looks like,” he said.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen, additional reporting by Matti Matikainen, graphic by Tommy Lund in Gdynia, editing by Justyna Pawlak, Robin Pomeroy)

Source: OANN

0 0

Guaido supporters in Venezuela 'took control' of diplomatic buildings, US says

Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have taken control of three diplomatic buildings in the United States, the State Department said Monday night.

Spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters that Guaido's supporters were in possession of two military attache installations in Washington D.C. and the Venezuelan consulate in New York. Palladino added that the Trump administration was "pleased to support these requests."

Carlos Vecchio, Guaido's ambassador to the United States, posted videos on Twitter of diplomats and military officers walking through the vacant buildings. At the consulate in Midtown Manhattan, staffers removed images of disputed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez from the walls.

"It is impossible not to feel emotion as we enter this homeland, the sovereign territory of our #Venezuela, liberated from the usurper regime Of Maduro," tweeted Gustavo Marcano, another pro-Guaido official. "This is what will happen throughout our country when the usurpation ceases!"

In another diplomatic coup for the opposition, Panama also accepted a Guaido loyalist as Venezuela's ambassador Monday.

CUBAN DOCTORS IN VENEZUELA SAY THEY WERE FORCED TO TIE MEDICAL TREATMENTS TO VOTES FOR MADURO

The Maduro government described the takeover by Guaido supporters as a "forced and illegal occupation" and called on the Trump administration to "immediately reverse said de facto forced occupation."

"The diplomatic offices of Venezuela in the United States can only be used by the official diplomatic agents representing the democratic and constitutional government of President Nicolás Maduro," said the government statement, which added, "If the government of the United States persists in the breach of its international obligations, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reserves the corresponding legal and reciprocal decisions and actions in Venezuelan territory." It did not provide details on what those actions might be.

The last remaining American diplomats in Venezuela left the embassy in Caracas and flew home last Thursday. Maduro has cut diplomatic ties with the U.S., though diplomats loyal to him have remained in the United States as representatives to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Washington has thrown its support behind Guaido since he declared himself interim president on Jan. 23. The United States and about 50 other countries have recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader and have supported his claim that Maduro was re-elected last year in an allegedly flawed vote.

Maduro has alleged that Guaido is a collaborator in a U.S. plot to overthrow the government in Venezuela, where the population has endured hyperinflation and a dangerous shortage of medicine and other necessities that the opposition blamed on the administration's socialist policies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Former East German Stasi files to live on in federal archive

Shredded documents of the former East German Ministry for State Security (MfS), known as the Stasi, are pictured at the central archives office in Berlin
Shredded documents of the former East German Ministry for State Security (MfS), known as the Stasi, are pictured at the central archives office in Berlin, Germany, March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

March 13, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is to merge the 111 kilometers (69 miles) of files meticulously collected by the loathed Communist East German secret police with its national archive to help preserve them and ensure they remain accessible, above all to victims.

The Ministry of State Security, or Stasi, was one of the most repressive police organizations in the world, infiltrating almost every aspect of life in East Germany. Over four decades, it used torture, intimidation and informants to crush dissent.

In the three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germans have been able to apply for access to their personal files. In a painful process, many have uncovered a web of betrayal, discovering that friends, colleagues, spouses and even children had snooped on them.

On Wednesday, the head of the state-run Stasi files agency said it would in future be put under the auspices of the Federal Archive. The move will allow it to tap the national body’s expertise, technology and resources to preserve the “monument of a surveillance state”.

“In these times it is more important than ever to have a discourse about history to sharpen our senses to today’s challenges and strengthen awareness of freedom and human rights,” said Roland Jahn, head of the Stasi files agency.

He added, however, that Germany had a duty to show justice to the victims of the Communist dictatorship and the Ministry for State Security.

“Above all, these documents were and are for people who suffered under repression, to help them find out about their fate,” he said, stressing it would remain a priority to ensure the documents are accessible to people.

Last year, the archive received 45,000 requests to look at the files, down from some 87,000 a decade earlier. Interest from media and researchers remains high, said Jahn.

The Stasi had some 91,000 full-time staff at the time East Germany collapsed and a network of around 200,000 informants who spied on friends, colleagues and relatives.

In addition to the 111 kilometers of files, the authority has 15,000 sacks of shredded files that the Stasi attempted to destroy before its headquarters were ransacked in January 1990.

The exact timing of the move is still to be decided, but media have reported it is likely to take place in the next couple of years, and Germany’s Bundestag Lower House of Parliament has to give its approval.

(Reporting by Swantje Stein, Reuters Television; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Source: OANN

0 0

White House rips Omar for calling Stephen Miller a ‘white nationalist,’ highlights her ‘history of anti-Semitic comments’

The White House on Wednesday slammed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for calling White House adviser Stephen Miller a white nationalist, describing her remarks as “completely ignorant” and accusing her of “wildly” attacking a Jewish member of the administration.

“Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has a well-documented history of anti-Semitic comments, social media posts and relationships – so it’s not surprising that she would wildly attack a Jewish member of the Administration,” Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

CRENSHAW CALLS OUT OMAR FOR DESCRIBING 9/11 ATTACKS AS 'SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING'

“It is completely ignorant to slander a Jewish man as a White Nationalist, and it dishonors the Jewish victims of anti-Semitic persecution across the globe.” he said.

Omar had sparked controversy Monday when she branded Miller, known for his hardline views on immigration, a white nationalist and said that “the fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.”

Her remarks came after the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump had told Miller “you’re in charge” of the administration’s immigration policy

Omar has her own history of controversy, particularly relating to her criticism of Israel and U.S. support of the Middle East democracy. In March she suggested that supporters of Israel were pushing for U.S. politicians to declare "allegiance" to that nation.

“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," Omar said. "I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or big pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying movement that is influencing policy?"

TRUMP SAYS DEMS HAVE LET ANTI-SEMITISM 'TAKE ROOT' IN THEIR PARTY

That came after she apologized for suggesting in February that some members of Congress were being paid by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to support Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she tweeted.

President Trump has repeatedly criticized Omar and,  speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RCJ) on Saturday, “thanked” her and then feigned surprise when the audience booed the reference.

“Oh, oh, I forgot, she doesn’t like Israel, I forgot, I’m so sorry, no, she doesn’t like Israel, does she?” he said.

On Tuesday, he quoted strategist Jeff Ballabon, who said it was unacceptable for Omar to “target Jews, in this case Stephen Miller.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Asked by reporters on Wednesday about Miller, Trump called him a “brilliant man” but added that there’s “only one person that’s running [immigration policy].”

“You know who that is? It’s me,” he said.

Fox News' Blake Burman contributed to this report

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris making illogical arguments on reparations: Jason L. Riley

Democratic 2020 candidates raising the issue of reparations are making illogical arguments on the issue, Wall Street Journal columnist and Fox News commentator Jason L. Riley argues.

Riley, who is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, critiqued recent remarks made by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on the topic.

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren told a town-hall audience in Jackson, Miss., Monday that ‘it’s time to start the national, full-blown conversation’ about slavery reparations for blacks. Come again? Compensating black Americans for past oppression has been a subject of discussion for decades. The senator’s problem is that large majorities of the public have consistently opposed reparations, not that we don’t talk about it,” Riley wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

READ JASON L. RILEY'S FULL COLUMN IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL HERE

Jason L. Riley critiqued recent comments on reparations from Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris in a new Wall Street Journal piece.

Jason L. Riley critiqued recent comments on reparations from Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris in a new Wall Street Journal piece. (FOX)

On Sen. Harris, he wrote: “Ms. Harris wants to hold slavery responsible for black America’s contemporary problems. But that requires ignoring the progress made by blacks—both in absolute terms and relative to whites—who lived much closer to the era of slavery. For example, the soaring violent-crime rates that produce so much “trauma” in poor black communities today did not exist in those communities in the first 100 years after emancipation, even though poverty rates at the time were much higher and racism was still legal and widespread.”

In a statement last month, the California Democrat explained why she supports reparations.

“We have to be honest that people in this country do not start from the same place or have access to the same opportunities,” the statement read.

ELIZABETH WARREN PITCHES POLICIES TOTALING $100 TRILLION AT TOWN HALL: ESTIMATES

During a town hall event on Monday, Warren also voiced support for reparations and said she would back the creation of a panel “to examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.”

"I believe it's time to start the national, full-blown conversation about reparations," Warren said on CNN, before adding: “ignoring the problem is not working.”

Read Jason L. Riley’s full column in the Wall Street Journal

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Kamala Harris admits ‘unintended consequences’ in anti-truancy law while she was California AG

Kamala Harris expressed regret this week over a 2011 anti-truancy law she supported that put some parents in jail while she was California’s attorney general.

Speaking on the podcast “Pod Save America,” Sen. Harris said the law was never intended to punish parents for their child’s chronic truancy, but rather to get students on the right track in the classroom. She admitted, however, that it had “unintended consequences.”

KAMALA HARRIS, WHO DEFENDED DEATH PENALTY AS CALIFORNIA AG, NOW CHEERS NEWSOM'S DECISION TO END IT

“My regret is that I have now heard stories where in some jurisdictions, DAs have criminalized the parents. And I regret that that has happened,” she said, which aired Wednesday. It marks the first time Harris has shown remorse over the law, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The law is an example of difficult questions Harris may face from progressive voters concerned with prison reform.

It’s not the first time Harris’ prosecutorial past has come under the microscope. Earlier this month, a New York Times op-ed writer claimed Harris has fought to uphold wrongful convictions as attorney general. She has also been criticized for her defense of the death penalty as attorney general only to say she would call for a federal moratorium of the death penalty if she were elected president.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Harris made it clear that no parents were arrested while she was district attorney in San Francisco and the arrests were in jurisdictions outside of hers.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

House oversight committee votes to issue subpoenas on White House security clearances, census questions

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday formally voted to issue subpoenas on information regarding both White House security clearances and the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The committee, which is led by Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., voted 22-15 along party lines on a resolution to subpoena former White House personnel security director Carl Kline over controversial security clearances.

“We cannot have people who have not been cleared - and we have serious questions to their criminal records, drug use, financial, and foreign relationships,” Cummings said following the committee meeting.

OFFICIAL: TRUMP TEAM OVERRULED 25 SECURITY CLEARANCE DENIALS

The resolution came after Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversaw the issuance of clearances for some senior White House aides, revealed that she compiled a list of at least 25 officials who were initially denied security clearances last year, but senior officials overruled those denials.

The allegations were detailed in a letter and memo released Monday by Cummings.

The documents, which are based on Newbold's March 23 private committee interview, don't identify the officials on the list but say they include "two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals" in different parts of the Executive Office of the President.

Cummings' panel has been investigating security clearances issued to senior officials including Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former White House aide Rob Porter. That probe picked up steam after The New York Times reported that Trump ordered officials to grant Kushner a clearance over the objections of national security officials, and after Newbold spoke out to NBC News and other news outlets about her concerns.

“We have had difficulties with the White House getting information,” Cummings said. “We’ve bent over backwards trying to accommodate the White House. Either we get no response, or we get no forward response. We’re better than this. There is no way on the oversight committee we can do our job.”

KUSHNER RESPONDS TO SECURITY CLEARANCE CLAIMS

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee's ranking Republican, said in a statement that Cummings' probe is a "partisan attack" and an "excuse to go fishing" through personnel files. He also said that one person on Newbold's list is a GSA custodian.

Also, in a response memo circulated to Republican members, Jordan's staff cast Newbold as a disgruntled employee who had only limited knowledge of the reasons security clearances were granted. The Republican document also suggests Newbold's concerns were "overblown," saying that four or five of the clearance denials for "very serious reasons" were a small fraction of about 5,000 employees who work in the Executive Office of the President.

On the issue of the citizenship question, Democrats say they want specific documents that will determine why Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross decided to add the question. They say the Trump administration has declined to provide those documents despite repeated requests.

Ross says the decision to add the question was based on a Justice Department request to help it enforce the Voting Rights Act.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But Democratic lawmakers say Ross wanted to add the citizenship question from his first days in the administration. They fear it will reduce census participation in immigrant-heavy communities.

“There are reasons for not releasing information, but we have an unprecedented situation here in regard to the census,” Cummings said. “We do not have the things we need.”

Fox News Caroline McKee and Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta
Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta, Cyprus, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Stefanos Kouratzis

April 26, 2019

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of “criminal indifference” because the dead women were foreigners.

The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus’s justice minister and police chief.

Police were combing three different locations west of the capital Nicosia for victims of the suspected killer, a 35-year-old army officer who has been in detention for a week.

The bodies of three women, including two thought to be from the Philippines, have been recovered. Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, found on Thursday, and had said the person was “either Indian or Nepali”.

Police said they were searching for a further four people, including two children, based on the suspect’s testimony.

“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.

“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”

Police have said they will investigate any perceived shortcomings in their handling of the case.

One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, said his motives were questioned by police.

The bodies of the two Filipino women reported missing in May and August 2018 were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft.

Police are now searching for the six-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her eight-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Phillipines who vanished in Dec. 2017.

The suspect has not been publicly named, in line with Cypriot legal practice.

A public vigil for the missing was planned later on Friday.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

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