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Trump vows to release FISA docs now that Mueller probe is concluded, slams 'treasonous' FBI

President Trump, in an exclusive wide-ranging interview Wednesday night with Fox News' "Hannity," vowed to release the full and unredacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants and related documents used by the FBI to probe his campaign, saying he wants to "get to the bottom" of how the long-running Russia collusion narrative began.

Trump told anchor Sean Hannity that his lawyers previously had advised him not to take that dramatic step out of fear that it could be considered obstruction of justice.

"I do, I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release," Trump said. "I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers, they really didn't want me to do it early on."

Trump also accused FBI officials of committing "treason" following Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report clearing him of Russian collusion -- slamming former FBI Director James Comey as "terrible," former CIA Director John Brennan as potentially mentally ill, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman as a criminal.

"I think [former Obama administration CIA Director John] Brennan's a sick person, really I do," Trump said, sharply criticizing Brennan's "horrible" claims in recent weeks that Trump had committed treason himself. "I think there's something wrong with him."

FILE - In this May 23, 2017, file photo, former CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Intelligence Committee Russia Investigation Task Force. President Donald Trump is revoking the security clearance of former Obama administration CIA director Brennan (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this May 23, 2017, file photo, former CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Intelligence Committee Russia Investigation Task Force. President Donald Trump is revoking the security clearance of former Obama administration CIA director Brennan (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Brennan was one of the loudest and most virulent voices to trumpet the Russian collusion theory over the past two years, asserting falsely just weeks ago that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was likely planning to indict members of the Trump administration's family in a scene reminiscent of the "ides of March” and the assassination of Julius Caesar. He since implied he had "bad information."

Just hours earlier Wednesday, Trump made clear he was enthusiastic about the idea of appointing a second special counsel to review the origins of the Russia investigation when it came up during a meeting Tuesday with Republican senators, a source familiar with the discussions told Fox News.

In an apparent shot at former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump also told Hannity "this all would not have happened" if Attorney General William Barr had been with his administration from the beginning.

"If you wrote this as a novel, nobody would buy it; it would be a failure, because it would be too unbelievable," Trump said. "We're getting to the bottom of it. This can never, ever happen to a president again. That was a disgrace and an embarrassment to our country. ... Hopefully they won't get away with it.

"We'll have to see how it all started, but I'm going to leave that to other people, including the attorney general and others, to make that determination," Trump continued. "Fifty years, 100 years from now -- if someone tries the same thing, they have to know the penalty will be very very great if and when they get caught."

Trump also lashed out at House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who has pushed strongly for investigations into possible Trump-Russia links. "Schiff is a bad guy, he knew he was lying -- he's not a dummy. For a year and a half he would just leak and call up CNN and others. You know, I watch him, so sanctimonious ... He knew it was a lie, and he'd get in the back room with his friends in the Democrat Party, and they would laugh like hell. In one way, you could say it's a crime what he did -- he was making statements he knew were false. He's a disgrace to our country."

FILE - In this March 22, 2018 photo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., then ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, exits a secure area to speak to reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Though the special counsel’s findings remain unknown, Trump has grown increasingly confident that the report would produce what he insisted all along _ no clear evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. And the president and his closest advisers are now considering how to weaponize those possible findings. A subtle change is underway among congressional Democrats, as well, who have long believed the report would offer damning evidence against the president. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - In this March 22, 2018 photo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., then ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, exits a secure area to speak to reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Though the special counsel’s findings remain unknown, Trump has grown increasingly confident that the report would produce what he insisted all along _ no clear evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. And the president and his closest advisers are now considering how to weaponize those possible findings. A subtle change is underway among congressional Democrats, as well, who have long believed the report would offer damning evidence against the president. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The president insisted the U.S. should have a "great relationship" with Russia and China, but that the "fake news" and "nonsense" distorted his intentions into something more sinister.

"When I said there could be somebody spying on my campaign, it went wild out there," Trump told Sean Hannity. "They couldn't believe I could say such a thing. As it turned out, that was small potatoes compared to what went on. ... Millions and millions on the phony dossier, and then they used the dossier to start things."

Trump also criticized former FBI Director James Comey, whom he'd fired in 2017, as a "terrible guy."

"It was treason, it was really treason," Trump said, referring to texts between former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page that discussed an "insurance policy" in the event of Trump's election.

I think [former CIA Director John] Brennan's a sick person, really I do."

— President Trump

"You had dirty cops, you had people who are bad FBI folks ... At the top, they were not clean, to put it mildly." He said later, "We can never allow these treasonous acts to happen to another president."

Trump's interview came as multiple GOP lawmakers have claimed the president trampled all over what may have been the best week of his presidency by backing the complete overturn of ObamaCare.

On Monday, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans to affirm last year's ruling by a Texas federal judge stating that the Affordable Care Act was no longer constitutional because the 2017 tax reform legislation eliminated the health care law’s penalty for not having health insurance.

Multiple congressional Republicans told Fox News they were bothered by the timing of the Trump administration's intervention in the matter, which came on the heels of the Mueller report findings, the House sustaining the president's veto of a bill to halt the national emergency for the border wall and a Senate vote that shined a spotlight on what conservatives described as problems with the Green New Deal, championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Goldman’s Apple pairing furthers bank’s mass-market ambitions

FILE PHOTO: Logo of Apple is seen at a store in Zurich
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Apple is seen at a store in Zurich, Switzerland January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann -/File Photo

March 26, 2019

By Elizabeth Dilts and Anna Irrera

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s credit card deal with Apple Inc is the latest move by the Wall Street investment bank to court mass-market consumers, potentially connecting Goldman with hundreds of millions of iPhone users.

But Goldman is entering a crowded market for co-branded cards where retailers often have the upper hand, and analysts question how much tolerance its shareholders will have for growing the bank’s fledgling consumer business through credit card lending.

Goldman has been courting consumers since the 2016 launch of its online bank Marcus, and with its first credit card it is targeting fee-conscious ones. There will be no annual or late fees, and customers will pay variable annual interest rates of between 13.24 percent and 24.24 percent, according to Apple’s website.

Apple and Goldman did not disclose the economic terms of their partnership when it was announced on Monday.

But banks have been increasingly willing to take less favorable deals because post-financial crisis regulations make the credit card business attractive for lenders, which are required to hold less capital against such debt than against other assets.

“As this kind of benign credit environment continues retailers have a greater leverage than they had a few years ago,” said a person involved in similar credit card deals.

Issuing banks retain control of approving customers for cards, often using data the retailer has on shoppers as part of the process, the person said.

Goldman Chief Executive David Solomon said in an email to employees on Monday that the card is a “major step” in the bank’s plan to grow its consumer business.

Solomon has said the consumer business is a critical part of the bank’s strategy to grow revenues and cut costs, as revenue shrinks in traditional areas of strength for Goldman like bond trading.

But many investors have been uneasy with Goldman growing its unsecured consumer debt, especially at a time when many speculate that a recession could be looming, said UBS analyst Brennan Hawken.

Marcus now has $45 billion in customer deposits in the United States and the U.K., and has issued $5 billion in personal loans, according to Solomon’s email.

While the amount of loans is small compared to the bank’s overall balance sheet, Hawken said investors would likely prefer Goldman stick to using its consumer business to add deposits, as opposed to personal loans or credit card debt.

“People want Goldman to be Goldman,” Hawken said. Goldman declined comment for this article.

The Apple Card’s wide interest rate range indicates that some customers might have lower credit scores, said Josh Siegel, chief executive of StoneCastle Financial Corp. However, the bank may not necessarily keep that risk on its books.

“They might securitize the debt, which wouldn’t be anything new for an investment bank,” Siegel said. “I can’t imagine that Goldman Sachs, all of a sudden, especially with where we are in the credit cycle, is going to go long on unsecured consumer debt.”

As this is Goldman’s first foray into credit cards, it may take the bank a year or two to assess the quality of its credit decisions, according to an industry expert who declined to be named.

The same person said that the stated range of possible interest rates on unpaid balances was too wide to clearly show how much credit risk Goldman expects to take.

Credit risk concerns aside, analysts said that Goldman’s decision to launch its first credit card in partnership with one of the world’s biggest companies gives it the opportunity to gain consumer market share.

While Apple says its card is “created by Apple, not a bank,” according to its website, the Goldman Sachs logo will appear on the back of the card.

“For Goldman this is a play for massive distribution without having to contort too much,” said Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy and partner at Autonomous Research.

“It makes their brand way better at least in the retail and mass affluent marketplace.”

(Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts and Anna Irrera in New Yor. Additional reporting by David Henry in New York and Stephen Nellis in California; Editing by Neal Templin and Meredith Mazzilli)

Source: OANN

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Crypto-assets pose risks to global banks, warns Basel Committee

FILE PHOTO: Virtual currency Bitcoin tokens are seen in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Virtual currency Bitcoin tokens are seen in this illustration picture, December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

March 13, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The growth in crypto-assets such as Bitcoin pose a threat to banks and global financial stability, despite relatively low levels of exposure among key players, the Basel Committee has warned.

Crypto-assets are not a reliable substitute for money and are unsafe to rely on as a medium of exchange or store of value, the global banking watchdog said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Basel Committee said that while banks currently have “very limited” direct exposure to crypto-assets, they should still improve their risk management and disclosure processes to minimize risk.

Crypto-assets are also highly volatile and expose banks to risks including fraud and terrorist financing links, it said.

The body said it is coordinating with other global standard setting boards and the Financial Stability Board on improving prudential treatment of exposures to cypto-assets.

(Reporting by Iain Withers, editing by Sinead Cruise)

Source: OANN

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RNC criticized over St. Patrick’s Day tweet featuring Beto O’Rourke mugshot

The Republican National Committee on Sunday tweeted out a "special message" from “noted Irishman Robert Francis O’Rourke,” by sending his mugshot with a leprechaun hat that was widely criticized as insensitive.

O’Rourke has previously admitted to a 1998 arrest when he was 26 for drunken driving and said nothing else will come out that could be used against him during the 2020 presidential campaign.

O’Rourke told supporters Sunday that there’s “nothing” he hasn’t already revealed about his past that could come back to hurt his run for office.

The Washington Examiner reported that several high-profile Republicans came out against the tweet. An aide for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tweeted, “If you think you’re funny or clever by stereotyping and making fun of any race or nationality to score political points, you’re an idiot, and you should probably not tweet.”

O’Rourke was asked about the tweet but said he didn’t want to focus on it. “People want us focused on the big picture. On our goals,” he said.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Zuckerberg’s new ‘privacy-focused vision’ for Facebook is just PR and damage control

Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission to rehabilitate Facebook’s image. The CEO announced his new “privacy-focused vision” for the social media platform this week – but it looks more like a PR stunt than anything else.

“Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks,”Zuckerberg wrote. Now, is there anyone who really believes Facebook was built to give people “the freedom to be themselves?”

Zuckerberg does understand, however, why people are questioning Facebook’s newfound commitment to privacy, “…because frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services.” For a company plagued with privacy scandal after privacy scandal, that seems like a bit of an understatement.

Still, reading through Zuckerberg’s grand vision for a new kind of privacy-focused Facebook, we are given the impression that the company is about to completely revamp itself from top to bottom – but the only real concrete change proposed is one that critics are already saying might not enhance privacy that much and isn’t even really motivated by privacy concerns at all.

Essentially, Zuckerberg plans to integrate Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram direct messages to build a kind of single, end-to-end messaging system (which we’ve actually known-about since January). This change is because he now believes “the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure.”


Dr. Nick Begich explains how patriots and conservatives must kick down the digital doorway blocking their voice from being heard before it’s too late.

While it’s nice that Zuckerberg has suddenly realized that people value their privacy online, and end-to-end encryption for private conversations is obviously a positive step, his critics aren’t entirely buying the new image. One technology writer described the move as “a power grab disguised as an act of contrition.”

Why? Because the long-winded spiel about the importance of privacy masks the fact that Zuckerberg’s real motivation for combining the three services is to stave off efforts by US and EU regulators to force the unbundling of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram and introduce new competition to the market.

Zuckerberg is now firmly on a collision course with regulators around the world. Germany’s antitrust body ruled last month that Facebook was abusing its dominant position in the market by combining the three services. Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote, has been “obsessed” with creating an “intimate environment” for WhatsApp users. But an “intimate” feeling “environment” isn’t really going to cut it. Facebook has already been fined $122 million by the EU for misleading antitrust regulators when it said its WhatsApp acquisition would not mean user information from the two platforms would be combined (which, of course, it was).

Facebook exists primarily to sell advertisements – and its entire business model rests on mining our data to do just that. So while protecting private conversations is a good thing in and of itself, it doesn’t appear that anything else fundamental about Facebook will really be changing. Facebook still has a million other ways to get hold of our data and monitor our online activity – and even with stronger messaging encryption, Facebook can still use metadata to tell who we are talking to and when, which is valuable information in itself.

This wasn’t Zuckerberg’s first effort to redeem himself and do damage control for Facebook and its multiplying privacy scandals – and it certainly won’t be his last. A blog post laying out a blueprint for a “privacy-focused” company that doesn’t actually exist doesn’t mean much. Zuckerberg has been offering apologies left, right and center for the last year.

He doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to keeping his promises, though. Plenty of privacy tools Facebook has promised in the past never came to fruition. Remember that “clear history” button that Zuckerberg promised nearly two years ago and users are still waiting for today?

Anyone who thinks Facebook is really going to put its business model at risk, as it scrambles to shield itself from regulators and maintain its monolithic status is more than likely deluded.

Source: InfoWars

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UK must take part in EU elections if Brexit delayed: Austrian negotiator

FILE PHOTO: Flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament in London
FILE PHOTO: Flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament, ahead of a Brexit vote, in London, Britain March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Jacobs/File Photo

March 16, 2019

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

ZURICH (Reuters) – Britain must take part in European parliamentary elections if its departure from the European Union is pushed back beyond July 1, Austria’s delegate to Brexit negotiations said in an interview published on Saturday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to head to Brussels next week to request a short delay to the exit process after the UK parliament on Thursday voted in favor of extending negotiations beyond the original March 29 deadline.

“We have to wait and see what the government in London actually proposes. If there is an extension beyond July 1, then in any event, the United Kingdom must vote in May for the European elections,” Austrian diplomat Gregor Schusterschitz said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Der Standard.

“The EU has never been the side in the negotiations that has rejected something for reasons of principle. This also applies to the question of the extension: it shouldn’t fail because of us.”

Several EU leaders have already said Britain must either have left before a new European Parliament is elected in May to take office in July or must hold its own EU election in order to avoid any legal challenge to the legitimacy of the legislature.

In the interview, Schusterschitz also said the EU might have been too soft on Britain and allowed it too long to conduct a largely domestic discussion, which involved less debate with the EU than it did internal political back-and-forth.

“Maybe we could have been more brutal sometimes,” he said. “We didn’t do that, and so we probably allowed British politics too long to fool around – and not face the really difficult questions, which are being discussed now, much earlier.”

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Mark Potter)

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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