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Justin Fairfax accuser says Dems are ducking her case: ‘Pure cowardice’

The attorney for a woman who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her while they were undergraduates at Duke University nearly two decades ago is accusing state Democrats of “pure cowardice” for signaling they won’t proceed with public hearings on the allegations against him.

“Apparently, the Virginia House Democratic Caucus believes that courageous victims of rape need to be heard — just not by them,” said Nancy Erika Smith, an attorney for accuser Meredith Watson. “Ms. Watson is counting on the General Assembly to do the right thing and hold hearings now. These nonstop efforts to duck their role is pure cowardice. Sympathy is welcome, but action is needed.”

SECOND JUSTIN FAIRFAX ACCUSER CALLS FOR PUBLIC HEARING INTO ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS

Watson has called for state's general assembly to hold a public hearing into both her allegations and those of Vanessa Tyson, who has separately accused the Democrat of rape during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Fairfax has denied both allegations.

On Tuesday, the Virginia House Democratic Caucus reiterated calls for Fairfax to resign, but said they “believe that the law enforcement investigation should proceed unencumbered and outside of the political arena.”

“Ms. Watson & Dr. Tyson are courageous in coming forward to tell their stories. We respect all survivors and believe they should be fully heard. The allegations they have made against Lt Gov Fairfax are criminal in nature and we are treating them with the seriousness they deserve,” the statement from the Democrats said.

Meanwhile, Republicans signaled they would like to see the legislature conduct a hearing.

“It’s becoming more compelling that a legislative forum should be seriously considered,” House Speaker Kirk Cox said. “We are actively working to develop that process and hope our Democrat colleagues will work with us moving forward.”

Earlier this week, Watson wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that she was "frustrated by calls for an investigation rather than a public hearing" into the allegations brought against Fairfax by her and Vanessa Tyson.

"Such 'investigations' are secret proceedings, out of the public eye, leaving victims vulnerable to selective leaks and smears. And we all know how such investigations end: with 'inconclusive results,'" Watson wrote. "My privacy has already been violated, yet I am still willing to testify publicly under oath. Tyson has made the same offer. Our plea to the Virginia General Assembly to require the same of Fairfax has been met with inaction."

Meanwhile, a Virginia delegate who threatened to introduce articles of impeachment against Fairfax has hit pause, saying in a tweet last week that “additional conversation” is needed before anything is filed.

Watson has said that Fairfax raped her in 2000, but that she did not report it because of how Duke officials responded to her earlier claim that she was raped by basketball star Corey Maggette. (Maggette has denied the claim.) An attorney for Watson has claimed that Fairfax was one of the people she told about the alleged assault and that the future lieutenant governor "used this prior assault against Ms. Watson" when he allegedly raped her.

Last week, Fox News obtained Facebook messages from Watson in which she commented on Fairfax's 2017 candidacy for Virginia lieutenant governor and told contacts about the alleged rape.

FACEBOOK MESSAGES SHOW SECOND FAIRFAX ACCUSER DETAILED RAPE ALLEGATIONS DURING 2017 RACE

Tyson, an associate professor of politics at Scripps College in California, previously accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex on him during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Fairfax, who was attending Columbia Law School, was working as a so-called "body man" for vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

Fairfax has said that the encounters with Watson and Tyson were consensual and suggested that both women's accusations are part of a political smear campaign to prevent him from succeeding Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam if he's forced to resign amid a racist photo scandal.

“I have never forced myself on anyone ever,” Fairfax said in a recent statement. “I demand a full investigation into these unsubstantiated and false allegations. Such an investigation will confirm my account because I am telling the truth.”

Fox News' Garrett Tenney and Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Virginia Tech guard Outlaw charged with misdemeanor

NCAA Basketball: Miami-Florida at Virginia Tech
Mar 8, 2019; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies guard/forward Ty Outlaw (42) reacts following a made three pointer against the Miami Hurricanes in the first half at Cassell Coliseum. Michael Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo

March 27, 2019

A charge of possession of marijuana against Virginia Tech senior guard Ty Outlaw came to light Wednesday, two days before the Hokies take on No. 1-seed Duke in the NCAA Tournament.

Multiple outlets reported the misdemeanor charge, which, according to Montgomery County District Court records, was dated March 21 when Outlaw was with the Virginia Tech team in San Jose, Calif., for the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

The charge reportedly stemmed from a police visit to Outlaw’s apartment on March 20.

Outlaw scored seven points with seven rebounds in Friday’s victory over Saint Louis in the opening round, then scored 10 points with 11 rebounds in a second-round game Sunday against Liberty to secure fourth-seeded Virginia Tech’s trip to the Sweet 16.

As of Wednesday evening, the Virginia Tech athletic department had not publicly commented on the charge. Outlaw’s status for Friday’s game against the Blue Devils remained unknown. Virginia Tech is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1967.

He has scored 8.7 points and grabbed 5.4 rebounds per game this season, having made 45.6 percent of his 3-point attempts (78 of 171).

Outlaw spent time at UNC Greensboro and Lee College, a community college in Texas, before arriving at Virginia Tech. He redshirted a season with the Hokies while dealing with a heart condition before returning to the court last season. Earlier this month, the ACC honored Outlaw with the Bob Bradley Spirit and Courage Award.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Trump administration slaps new sanctions on Iran

The Trump administration announced Friday that it is slapping new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian individuals involved in the country’s nuclear and missile research programs, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced Iran’s growing influence.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions target 31 Iranian scientists, technicians and companies affiliated with Iran’s Organization for Defense Innovation and Research, which is known to have been at the forefront of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

“Individuals working for Iran’s proliferation-related programs—including scientists, procurement agents, and technical experts—should be aware of the reputational and financial risk they expose themselves to by working for Iran’s nuclear program,” the State Department said in a statement on Friday.

The administration’s move to impose sanctions is unusual, because they are not focused on what the individuals are currently doing, but rather because of their past work in nuclear weapons development, and the potential that they could attempt to restart the nuclear activities.

The officials targeted continue to work in Iran’s defense sector and are part of a core group of experts who could reinstate the nuclear program. The sanctions cover 14 people, including the head of the organization, and 17 subsidiary operations.

The sanctions freeze assets that those targeted may have in the U.S., and bar any Americans from any transactions with them. Officials said the move will make those targeted “radioactive internationally,” and would make anyone who does business with them subject to further U.S. sanctions.

Iran pledged not to continue work on atomic weapons under the 2015 nuclear deal. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has said that Iran continues to comply with that agreement, which the U.S. pulled out of last year, calling it fatally flawed.

The Trump administration has re-imposed U.S. sanctions that were eased under the terms of the agreement, and it continuing to impose new ones as part of a pressure campaign to force Iran to agree to renegotiate the agreement.

The announcement came as Pompeo was in Beirut warning Lebanese officials to curb the influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. He says Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and should not be allowed to set policies or wield power despite its presence in Lebanon's parliament and government.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News Politics

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EU leaders postpone decision on 2050 climate goal to June

European Union leaders are pushing back a decision on the bloc's efforts to end most emissions of greenhouse gases.

Leaders meeting in Brussels agreed Friday to discuss the EU's long-term plans for tackling climate change at their next summit in June, ahead of a U.N. gathering on the issue in the fall.

Much of the two-day EU summit this week was taken up with haggling over the EU's future relationship with Britain.

Some countries, including France and the Netherlands, had proposed that leaders agree on "an ambitious long-term strategy by 2020 striving for climate neutrality by 2050" in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord's goal of keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

But Germany and some eastern European countries opposed an explicit reference to the year 2050 for curbing emissions.

Source: Fox News World

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Pete Buttigieg: Dems Shouldn’t Focus Campaign on Trump

Running against President Donald Trump in 2020 means having a message that doesn't revolve around him, Democratic president Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday.

"The way we have to approach it is on one hand, when he says something that isn't true, we have to say so," the South Bend, Indiana mayor, whose presidential campaign has been blowing up in recent weeks, told CNN's "New Day."

"Then we have to move on very quickly," he added. "A really robust message for my party can't be one that revolves around the personality of somebody from the other party. We have to have a message that will make as much sense in 2040 as it does in 2020."

He said he thinks the focus placed against Trump in 2016 was the result of a media environment, combine with party strategy, and that didn't work to defeat him.

"I think a lot of Democrats were so horrified by who the Republicans were nominating, we almost forgot that don't vote for the other guy is not the same as having your own message," Buttigieg said.

While there is a great deal of division in the United States, Americans do agree on the outlines of a bipartisan immigration reform plan, said Buttigieg, adding that he thinks the reform measure pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "is the right template," but it needs to have more protection for "dreamers."

He also commented on his ongoing arguments with Vice President Mike Pence, saying he does believe the vice president has the right to his religious beliefs. However, Buttigieg said it's an issue when Pence uses his faith to hurt other people.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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U.S. diplomat says urged transparent land reform on South Africa visit

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan attends the U.S.-Brazil Security Forum, at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan attends the U.S.-Brazil Security Forum, at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, Brazil May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

March 15, 2019

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said on Friday South African land reform should be carried out in a transparent manner so it did not hurt investor sentiment and the economy.

“My plea was for transparency in how land reform is accomplished, other than that I have been in listening mode,” Sullivan told journalists during a visit to Johannesburg.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Beto O’Rourke’s past support for charter schools scrutinized in 2020 White House bid

FILE PHOTO: U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former Representative Beto O'Rourke speaks at the 2019 National Action Network National Convention in New York
FILE PHOTO: U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former Representative Beto O'Rourke speaks at the 2019 National Action Network National Convention in New York, U.S., April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Tim Reid

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) – Democrat Beto O’Rourke has called for investment in a “world-class public school system” and says teachers make up the single biggest professional group contributing to his 2020 presidential campaign.

But several teacher groups say the former Texas congressman’s support for charter schools in recent years is complicating his efforts to secure their backing in his White House bid.

Charter schools, most of which are publicly funded but often privately run, are a complicated issue for Democrats. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama supported them, viewing them as giving school choice to lower-income families.

Charter schools have grown across the country in response to demand from parents for different options from traditional public schools. Many charter school employees are not unionized.

But some teachers unions say they divert state and federal funds from public schools. They have raised O’Rourke’s past positive comments about charter schools, as well as his wife’s ties to them through her work, as points of concern as they scrutinize the Democratic field.

“We’re going to have to get a lot of questions answered by Beto,” said Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teachers Association in O’Rourke’s hometown. “At this point, I would be wary and I think a lot of my colleagues are going to hit him hard on these points.”

Teachers and their unions are being eagerly courted by the large slate of Democrats seeking the party’s 2020 presidential nomination to run against President Donald Trump, the expected Republican nominee. Educators are a key voting bloc in state nominating contests and have flexed their political muscle in the past two years with a wave of strikes and protests over better pay and resources.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential contender from California, has proposed giving teachers an average $13,500 annual pay raise as a central part of her pitch to primary voters.

The politics of charter schools has shifted since some prominent Democrats lent their support. Public schools have seen their budgets cut since the 2008 financial crash, hardening opposition to charters among many teachers. The Trump administration’s strong support for charter schools has also increased Democratic antipathy.

Another 2020 Democratic candidate, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, also is drawing scrutiny for his support for school choice and charter schools when he was mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

‘STRONG, CONSISTENT ADVOCATE’

Aides to O’Rourke say he is unequivocal in his support for public schools and has never taken any action to advance charter schools over them. He and his wife send their children to the same El Paso public school O’Rourke attended.

“Beto has been a strong and consistent advocate for public school classrooms in Texas and across the country,” Chris Evans, a spokesman for O’Rourke, said in an email. “He has made it clear that our focus should be on, and our taxpayer funds should go toward, public school classrooms where the overwhelming majority of American students attend. He believes we should be paying teachers a living wage.”

O’Rourke thinks charter schools “should have comprehensive oversight and accountability to the taxpayer,” Evans added

But O’Rourke’s past statements about charter schools give some public education advocates pause.

In 2016, when O’Rourke voted against a federal voucher program in Washington, D.C., he said money should be invested in “proven educational models such as charter schools.”

In 2015, O’Rourke said he voted for the Every Student Succeeds Act – which passed Congress with bipartisan support – in part because it gave parents choices by “investing in new charter school models.”

During a 2012 Democratic primary debate when he first ran for Congress, O’Rourke called charter schools “a good idea” because they encourage competition and innovation. 

O’Rourke’s wife, Amy, works for an organization in El Paso that backs the expansion of charter schools in the area. In 2007, she opened a dual-language elementary charter school in a low-income neighborhood of El Paso.

Evans said Amy O’Rourke’s work had been focused on expanding opportunities for students in underserved communities.

‘HUGELY PROBLEMATIC’

Anthony Cody, co-founder of the Network for Public Education Action, a national advocacy group for public schools that opposes charter schools, said his organization found O’Rourke’s past comments and his wife’s work in the charter school world “hugely problematic.”

Noel Candelaria, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, which opposes the expansion of charter schools in Texas, said it would be important for O’Rourke to make clear to his organization “where he stands on charter schools” now before he wins an endorsement.

The association endorsed O’Rourke during his unsuccessful Senate bid last year against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union, defended O’Rourke’s “nuanced” view of charter schools.

“For us, it’s not ‘charters good or bad,’ and if you listen to Beto’s actual comments about public schools and charter schools, he gets to the same position: They can’t siphon money from public schools, they can’t take fewer kids with special needs.”

Weingarten said she recently talked with O’Rourke. “I think when he toured the (Mexican) border and spoke to teachers, it was very transformational for him,” she said. “People’s positions evolve over time.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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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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