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John Walker Lindh should not be released to 'sow hate and terrorism:' James Foley's mom

The mother of an American journalist whose execution was brutally broadcast says American Taliban militant John Walker Lindh should not be allowed to go free and further spread his deadly beliefs.

“I don't think he should be released if he is going to continue to sow hate and terrorism around the world.” Diane Foley, the mother of murdered journalist James Foley said while appearing on “Fox & Friends First” Thursday morning.

Foley went on to say that anyone accused of "incredible human rights crimes" should be "put away for the rest of their lives" if found guilty.

JOHN WALKER LINDH OBTAINS IRISH CITIZENSHIP THANKS TO MOTHER

James Foley was beheaded by ISIS in 2014, nearly two years after he had been abducted in Syria.

James Foley was beheaded by ISIS in 2014, nearly two years after he had been abducted in Syria.

Lindh, a former American Taliban militant convicted in 2002 for supporting the terrorist organization, is due to be freed in May.

According to a report by Foreign Policy magazine, as of May 2016 Lindh: "continues to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts.”

The report also noted that Lindh told: “a television news producer that he would continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release.”

Lindh is expected to move to Ireland.

ISIS FIGHTERS TIED TO KILLING 4 AMERICANS IN SYRIA CAPTURED BY US-BACKED FORCES, US OFFICIAL SAYS

I don't think he should be released if he is going to continue to sow hate and terrorism around the world.

— Diane Foley
John Walker Lindh, a former American Taliban militant convicted in 2002 for supporting the terrorist organization and is due to be freed in May has obtained Irish citizenship in 2013 thanks to his family’s ancestry.

John Walker Lindh, a former American Taliban militant convicted in 2002 for supporting the terrorist organization and is due to be freed in May has obtained Irish citizenship in 2013 thanks to his family’s ancestry. (AP/Reuters)

Foley's son, James, was beheaded by ISIS in 2014, nearly two years after he had been abducted in Syria.

She then commented on the type of justice she’s like to see for those who commit acts of terror against Americans.

“I would like them brought back to the United States and tried in federal criminal court so all their crimes can be brought out in the open, and they can be, if convicted, they can be held in prison for the rest of their lives,” Foley said. “That’s what I would like.”

Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Report: Rove Joins 5G Battle That’s Dividing Trump Advisers

Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove is contacting lawmakers' offices on Capitol Hill to warn against bipartisan efforts to ban government control of super-fast 5G wireless technology — a fight that has split President Donald Trump's advisers, Politico reported.

The outreach has included staffers in the office of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, one of several lawmakers sponsoring the legislation, Politico reported.

Rove has also been at meetings with House and Senate Armed Services committee offices organized by a lobbyist for Rivada Networks, which wants the government to manage the sharing of 5G airwaves with wireless providers, company spokesperson Brian Carney said Thursday. Carney told Politico that Rove is not a lobbyist for the company.

Rivada, which is backed by tech investor and Trump ally Peter Thiel, would have the administration take wireless spectrum from the Defense Department and use a third-party operator — ideally Rivada — to make those airwaves available to providers who need it on a rolling wholesale basis, much like in the electricity market, Politico reported.

Rove has been helping Rivada cultivate a network of advocates to push its 5G concept — pitting them against the telecom industry and many Trump administration officials and lawmakers who believe private companies like AT&T and Verizon should manage the buildout of 5G and Rivada's plan smacks of "nationalization," Politico reported.

The fight comes as the United States races China and other countries to be first to deploy 5G wireless networks.

Source: NewsMax America

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Veterans to return to Normandy for first time for 75th anniversary of D-Day

With each passing day, hundreds of World War II veterans are laid to rest – but, their stories of sacrifice, resilience and victory are forever etched in American history.

As the 75th anniversary of D-Day approaches, organizations like Forever Young, help ensure that the Greatest Generation is never forgotten. The group is sending more than a dozen veterans to France to revisit the place where they gave up so much.

“Their stories of sacrifice are so important. If they’re not told then they’re gone forever,” Forever Young founder Diane Hight said. “We just care about these men and women and we want to give back to them. We want to honor them.”

Onofrio “No-No” Zicari, from Geneva, New York was just 21 when he waded through the water onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 before getting pinned down by gunfire.

TRUMP TO ATTEND NORMANDY CEREMONIES MARKING 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY

“We had the beach secured," No-No recalled. "We had to go down and clean up the bodies on the beaches because we had new troops coming in. I told them I’m not going to touch anybody, I’ll pick up the equipment but I’m not touching no soldiers … but they were picking up the bodies and throwing them on this pick-up truck and they were bringing them up to wherever they were going to be buried."

Onofrio “No-No” Zicari, 96, stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day during World War II.

Onofrio “No-No” Zicari, 96, stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day during World War II. (Ben Brown/Fox News)

“Father Flannagan was there giving the last rites to the boys and he was crying, tears coming down and he was mad, real mad. He says, ‘You take my boys and you lay them down. You don’t pile them on top of one another. You lay them down, they’re my boys,’” he added. “’To this day, I get emotionally upset every time I think about that.”

Now at 96, for the first time since the war, No-No will travel back to France where he will get the chance to visit the gravesites of some of his fallen comrades and the hopes of finding closure.

“I wanted to go back almost every year. I wanted to go back then I changed my mind,” No-No told Fox News. “What do I want to go back for? And then my lady friend Diane, she says you should go back.”

LAST SURVIVING DOOLITTLE RAIDER FROM ATTACK ON JAPAN REMEMBERED

No-No said it was during a cruise with Diane, who also acts as his caretaker, that he experienced a moment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“We were on this little craft, and more or less just circling around and I smelled that diesel oil and I flinch and she says, ‘What’s the matter?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I’m having a flashback.’ I broke out in a cold sweat. I smelled that diesel oil and I was back in Normandy,” Zicari said.

The 96-year-old never had the funds to return to where he had fought at such a young age and needed his caretaker to accompany him if he were to ever make the more than 12-hour flight.

“We don't usually raise money for caregivers or family members because it's hard enough raising money for the veterans and the medical team … But I just had to do this. It is important to me for him to go,” Hight said.

FLORIDA FIREFIGHTERS PAINT HOME OF BLIND WORLD WAR II VETERAN, 89

Forever Young raised about $12,000 to send Zicari and his caretaker back to Europe for the anniversary in June, along with the funds to help send roughly 15 other veterans including 102-year-old Major Wooten, who served as a private during WWII.

Major Wooten, 102, served as a private in World War II repairing railroad and hospital cars to help support the front lines.

Major Wooten, 102, served as a private in World War II repairing railroad and hospital cars to help support the front lines. (Hannah Pruett/Euphoria Photography)

“It’s going to bring back memories. Of course, I know things won’t look the same, but it’s going to be the same for me,” Wooten told Fox News.

Wooten is one of 12 children and served in the war along with three of his brothers – one of whom was killed in battle. He worked on repairing the railroad and hospital cars that had been bombed so they could help get supplies to the front lines.

The war hero hopes to reunite with a little girl named Rosemary, who he met during his time overseas.

“She was everybody’s sweetheart. I just wonder if she’s still living now,” Wooten said. “I would like to see her when we go back over there. All we had to give her was candy, I’ll never forget that girl.”

Frank Blazich, lead curator of military history at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History underscored the importance of remembering those who served as “approximately 250 veterans are passing away each day.”

“The last figure I saw was that there were 496,000 I believe alive in 2018. So, it is highly likely at this point we have at we're around 400,000 or less World War II veterans. I think by say 2030 or 2036 we'll be fortunate if we even have a thousand left alive,” Blazich said. “It's imperative we try and save their oral histories and save the context of what they experienced and the changes that they experienced to better comprehend the present and hopefully shape our future.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

There are very few moments in American history where a single day transformed the nation, but June 6, 1944 “is one of those moments,” Blazich told Fox News.

“The way to think about it is kind of a counterfactual. If the landing had not succeeded, what wouldn't have happened in American history? And that gives hopefully pause to say, 'well would Eisenhower have become president? Would the United States have become the leader of the democratic world and really the leader of the world the free world if you will?'”

Source: Fox News National

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Navy SEAL accused of war crimes reunites with family, ‘extremely happy’ to be out of brig, California rep says

The decorated U.S. Navy SEAL facing a war crimes trial is “extremely happy to be out” of the brig he was being held in since September, a California House Republican says, and the SEAL's family has been posting pictures of the first time they were allowed to see him in months.

Rep. Duncan Hunter’s comments on the Brian Kilmeade Show this week come days after President Trump announced that Eddie Gallagher would be moved to “less restrictive confinement” ahead of the SEAL’s May 28 court date. Gallagher is accused of killing an injured ISIS prisoner of war in Iraq, amongst other charges, and was relocated this weekend from the brig to the barracks at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, just outside of San Diego.

“When I saw him he was kind of out of it. Imagine being in a jail, being treated pretty harshly with a bunch of bad people, sex offender-type people and now you are out,” Hunter said. “He was just extremely happy to be out.”

Hunter told Kilmeade that Gallagher is now allowed to see his family, go to a Denny’s restaurant on the base and even hit golf balls at its driving range.

TRUMP’S DECLARATION ON GALLAGHER FOLLOWS GROWING PUSH FROM REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS FOR BETTER TREATMENT

But Gallagher’s family has accused staff at the Miramar brig of treating him improperly while he was there. Last month, 18 House Republicans wrote in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy that they have “received reports that Chief Gallagher’s access to counsel and access to food and medical care may have been restricted.”

Hunter, in his interview this week, warned the Navy that he is keeping a close watch on what is happening at the barracks – and will report his findings to Trump and the American public.

“We have guys going to see Eddie almost every other day in San Diego,” he said. “So we are detailing what they are doing to him…but we got him out of the brig.”

Hunter, who joined the Marine Corps after the September 11 attacks and has served in Iraq, like Gallagher, believes prosecutors in the Justice Department and U.S. military “want wins” and are “very vindictive.” Hunter also said he thinks they might be trying to retaliate against Gallagher now that the president has taken an interest in the case.

“This takes moral courage to look the military in the eye and say ‘hey, you guys are wrong, I’m the commander in chief, I’m making a decision,’” Hunter told the radio program. “You won’t see many presidents that will step out of line like this and do the right thing for the right reasons when you have the entire military establishment and broken system trying to retaliate.

“They are going to take it out on Eddie and we’re going to document that and make sure that the president sees it, and that the American people see it if they do it,” he added.

Special Operations Chief Edward "Eddie" Gallagher is a decorated Navy SEAL, but he is now being accused of committing war crimes.

Special Operations Chief Edward "Eddie" Gallagher is a decorated Navy SEAL, but he is now being accused of committing war crimes. (Courtesy Sean Gallagher)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Gallagher’s family, on a Facebook page that has been posting updates about the case, says the move from the brig to the barracks allows him “to receive the medical care he needs and deserves, and also the opportunity to adequately and fully prepare for his trial with his legal team.”

“Family means everything to us,” his wife, Andrea, wrote in a message posted on Wednesday night. “After 8 combat deployments over the past 15 years, we cherish every waking moment we have together. This is why we’re so incredibly grateful that President Trump exercised true leadership in granting us time together as we fight the battle of our lives against false charges.”

Source: Fox News National

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The Latest: German foreign minister: Brexit vote 'reckless'

The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

8:20 a.m.

Germany's foreign minister says the U.K. Parliament's rejection of the Brexit deal negotiated on Britain's departure from the European Union was "reckless."

Heiko Maas says the EU made "far-reaching additional offers and assurances" at Britain's request this week.

In remarks released late Tuesday, Maas said the U.K. Parliament's decision to reject the deal "brings a no-deal scenario ever closer."

He added that "whoever rejects the agreement plays with the welfare of their citizens and the economy in a reckless way."

Maas said Germany is prepared "as best as possible for this worst possible case," though Germany hopes a disorderly Brexit can still be avoided in the coming 17 days.

___

8:10 a.m.

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator says Britain must finally get its act together as a chaotic no-deal departure from the bloc is little more than two weeks away.

Michel Barnier said Wednesday it was time for Westminster to change tack, after the U.K. parliament handed Prime Minister Theresa May another huge defeat on her freshly renegotiated Brexit deal.

Barnier said that "again the House of Commons says what it does not want. Now this impasse can only be solved in the U.K."

The EU parliament's Brexit group was meeting to assess the situation in Strasbourg, France before a plenary debate on the impasse.

British lawmakers rejected May's Brexit deal in a 391-242 vote on Tuesday night. Parliament will vote Wednesday on whether to leave the EU without a deal.

Source: Fox News World

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Blast in town east of Sri Lankan capital, no casualties

Police investigators work at the site of a blast behind the magistrates court in the town of Pugoda
Police investigators work at the site of a blast behind the magistrates court in the town of Pugoda, 40 km (25 miles) east of the capital Colombo, Sri Lanka April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

April 25, 2019

COLOMBO (Reuters) – An explosion occurred in a town east of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on Thursday but there were no casualties, a police spokesman said.

Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said police were investigating the blast on empty land behind the magistrate’s court in Pugoda, 40 km (25 miles).

“There was an explosion behind the court, we are investigating,” he said, adding it was not a controlled explosion like other blasts in recent days.

The blast came at a time of high tension in Sri Lanka following the Easter Sunday suicide bomber attacks on the island state that killed 359 people and wounded about 500.

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Writing by John Chalmers and Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: OANN

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Beto O'Rourke tried to prank wife with baby poop, report says

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke attempted to play a practical joke on his wife by telling her that a turd he plucked from one of their children's diapers was an avocado, a friend of the couple told The Washington Post.

A gauzy profile of the couple that was published Tuesday and titled "Are Amy and Beto O'Rourke the future of politics?" described the former congressman as an "impulsive and puckish" character who proposed to his future wife on April Fool's Day.

OPINION: IS BETO O'ROURKE THE SELFIE-POLITICIAN AND METAPHOR FOR OUR TIMES?

Neither Beto nor Amy O'Rourke would confirm the baby poop story, though neither denied it and The Post reported that O'Rourke told the paper it sounded like something he would do. The O'Rourkes have three children: Ulysses, Molly, and Henry. It was not clear which child supplied the raw material for the reported prank.

The Post report also said that O'Rourke deployed a remote-controlled cockroach in the family kitchen and attempted to scare his wife in the shower, a la Anthony Perkins in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic, "Psycho."

O'Rourke, who nearly unseated U.S. Sen Ted Cruz in last year's midterm elections, became the latest Democrat to enter the presidential race last week. Almost immediately after O'Rourke threw his hat into the ring, he was criticized for saying that his wife has raised their three children "sometimes with my help" at multiple campaign stops in Iowa.

O'Rourke said the criticism of his "ham-handed" attempt to highlight his wife's work in their marriage was "right on."

"Not only will I not say that again, but I will be much more thoughtful in the ways that I talk about my marriage," he said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The controversy did not appear to lessen enthusiasm among his supporters. On Monday, O'Rourke's campaign announced that it had raised more than $6 million online with a day of his announcement, the most reported by any 2020 candidate.

O'Rourke raised $80 million in grassroots donations in his race against Cruz last year, all while largely avoiding money from PACs.

Click for more from The Washington Post.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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