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Adrenochrome Ambrosia And How America Eats its Young

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Economists' Flawed Attacks on Steve Moore

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In a 2008 speech then Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn informed his audience that “A model in the Phillips curve tradition remains at the core of how most academic researchers and policymakers—including this one—think about fluctuations in inflation.” Translated, the entity (the Fed) that employs more economists than any other in the world is staffed near unanimously by economists who think too many people working and producing is the cause of inflation.

Implicit in their near monolithic view whereby they wholly redefine the nature of inflation is that during periods of growth, demand outruns supply on the way to rising prices. Worried about the latter, then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke in 2007 of an alleged downside to global economic liberalization given his view that (“there seems to be little basis for concluding that globalization overall has significantly reduced inflation”) too many newly acquisitive Chinese workers would drive up the cost of everything. The problem is that there’s no basis for what is a consensus view inside the world’s foremost central bank.

Pointing out a basic economic truth that doesn’t factor into the models of most economists, demand is an effect of supply; as in surging global demand is logically a consequence of surging global supply. This is true domestically, and also internationally. No one can demand without supplying first, which means any price level would not be driven upward by increased demand.

After that, the Phillips Curve model that informs the thinking of Fed economists presumes that the U.S. is an impregnable economic island, as opposed to a highly advanced part of a global whole. Translated, millions of hands and robot arms around the world produce the iPhone, the Ford F-150, and the clothes we wear. The Phillips Curve model presumes surging domestic labor costs born of labor shortages during growth periods, yet the U.S. economy is a booming result of global supplies of labor.

The above applies to capacity too. The Fed’s economists have their “output gaps” and “capacity utilization” models, and they claim too much prosperity will lead to capacity shortages such that prices rise, except that the U.S. economy booms precisely because millions of hands and tens of thousands of factories well outside the U.S. are yet again integral parts of the U.S. production process. Don’t readers remember how frothing protectionist Lou Dobbs built a second career based on U.S. companies aggressively accessing global labor and capacity to produce goods and services?

Most important of all, the Fed’s demand-side, growth-causes-inflation models presume that what we buy powers progress, as opposed to investment. They’re confused. We all have infinite demands, but they’re limited by our ability to supply. We’re able to produce more and more (meaning supply) thanks to investment that makes us more and more productive. This requires prominent mention because the instigator of economic growth (investment) is what mitigates any presumed labor shortages. Anyone who doubts this need only consider how often they deal with living humans when buying gasoline, movie tickets, airline tickets, not to mention the myriad things produced globally that they buy online. Nowadays they’re at least delivered to us by humans, but those days are surely numbered. All thanks to investment. In short, the very growth that Fed economists think causes labor and capacity induced inflation is the surest sign that market-driven production enhancements are erasing any presumed shortages through automation, all the while pushing prices down. Economic growth is the enemy of rising prices, not an author of them. The Fed’s models are flamboyantly backwards.

What’s been written so far partially explains why I’m so thrilled that my friend Steve Moore has been nominated as Fed Governor. Precisely because he doesn’t buy into discredited, Phillips Curve-based views held by most inside the Fed, he’ll bring contrarian views to an organization desperately in need of outside thinking. I say this despite my own view that the Fed is hurtling toward irrelevance, and that its relevance has long been overstated by the various economic religions ascribing to it magical powers to either boost or shrink economic growth through what is logically impossible: “easy” or “tight” money.

That I think the Fed a legend in its own mind, along with all too many economists, pundits and politicians, speaks to an obvious disagreement with Moore about the central bank that he’ll hopefully soon be a part of. Moore views the Fed’s rate machinations as important, while I think they’re much ado about nothing.

Lest anyone forget, no one borrows "money." They borrow what money can be exchanged for; tangible items like computers and office space, intangible services like consulting and communications, and most important of all, human resources. Crucial here is that the Fed cannot increase what individuals are borrowing money to attain, nor can it shrink it. The goods, services and human resources that economic actors aim to acquire in the real economy are always on offer in the marketplace. The Fed can’t render the cost of real resources artificially expensive any more than it could decree the cost of those same resources cheap. To believe it could is to believe that artificial price controls of the rent control variety result in abundance.

Crucial here is that Moore knows this, notwithstanding his recent critiques of the Fed. He knows that while the Fed’s calcified economists believe they’re altering economic reality, that they can somehow decree credit cheap, in the real economy it’s as though the Fed doesn’t exist. Figure that Bill Gates can borrow easily, so can Apple, but there’s probably no interest rate at which Sears could attain abundant credit right now, nor could most college grads walk out of a bank with money after asking for a loan to fund their start-up idea. Credit is plentiful in Palo Alto, but rather scarce in neighboring East Palo Alto where difficult economic conditions are the norm.

This is all a long way of saying that the Fed cannot instigate through its rate machinations; at best it can confirm existing market realities. As Moore’s mentor in Arthur Laffer has long said, the Fed is not a rate setter. It is instead a rate follower. All of this fits in well with a classical model that yet again says demand is enabled by supply. Only those supplying copious resources, or those deemed by the marketplace as capable of supplying copious goods and services in the future, are capable of attaining credit in the real economy. For anyone to pretend that the Fed can run roughshod over Say’s Law through interest rate meddling or so-called “money supply” management improperly presumes that the Fed can bend the laws of economics. It can’t. It should be stressed once again that the perception of the Fed’s oversold relevance will soon enough catch up to reality. 

How this applies to Moore is that I’ll write opinion piece after opinion piece while he’s in the Fed’s employ with an eye on convincing him that the monetary mystics buzzing around him inside and outside the central bank, individuals who believe the Fed can engineer prosperity through rate fiddling and management of so-called “money supply,” are giving him bad advice. Sorry, but to presume to plan money supply is to presume to plan production. There’s never a problem of “money supply” in Beverly Hills, Greenwich or Manhattan, yet it’s nearly always scarce in East St. Louis, Liberty City, and West Baltimore. As a supply sider, Moore intuitively understands the latter. Supply is what enables demand, which means the “money” exchangeable for goods and services is always and everywhere an effect of production first.

Money necessary to facilitate exchange finds producers, always. This would be true with or without a Fed, and with or without a U.S. Treasury, or U.S. Mint. Money wasn’t first created by the state; rather it was created by producers who needed an agreement about value that would enable producers of varying goods and services and varying wants to trade with one another. It’s all a reminder that the Fed couldn’t increase “money supply” in Buffalo any more than it could shrink it on the Upper East Side. In the real economy, there are no “money shortages" where there's production. About this, Moore and I disagree, as do we disagree that the Fed’s vain attempts to “hike” interest rates (all four of those attempts in 2018 having been reversed by market forces) had some kind of material economic and stock market impact. The easy-to-discredit notion that the Fed can engineer economic and market bliss/desperation (see “QE,” and other monetary engineering brought to you by central banks) has “you didn’t build that qualities” that free thinkers shouldn’t be associating themselves with. Sorry, but Amazon’s greatness and its valuation was not facilitated by a central bank projecting its vastly overstated influence through an antiquated banking system. Just as John D. Rockefeller soared to brilliant heights sans a central bank, so would Jeff Bezos have. I’ll aim to convince Moore of this through voluminous op-eds. Indeed, I hope he ultimately brings immense skepticism about the Fed’s ability to achieve anything inside its walls.  

Where Moore and I agree is that money isn’t an instigator as much as money quite simply is. Money is once again an agreement about value that facilitates the investment, production and exchange without which there is no economic progress. That’s why money has for thousands of years been created with stability of the unit of account in mind. It’s not money if it’s not stable, simply because stability of the measure is money’s sole purpose as a facilitator of trade and investment.

So while it’s decidedly not part of the Fed’s portfolio to set the dollar’s exchangeable value (either in terms of a commodity, a basket of commodities, or foreign currencies), it’s exciting to think the economists at the Fed who are wedded to floating, chaotic money will have to endure a different point of view. To economists whose jobs are an effect of real productivity taking place well away from their cushy world of academic delusion, floating money is a good thing. They plainly misunderstand how problematic it is for real producers. Floating money is a huge barrier to progress precisely because it slows the trade that is a prerequisite for the latter. Economists seem to have forgotten that no one exchanges money; rather they exchange products. Money just enables the exchange, but when its value is a moving target, winners and losers are artificially created where there used to only be winners. Is it any wonder that global trade disputes have surged since President Nixon’s fateful 1971 decision (cheered on by economists) to sever the dollar’s link to gold, thus setting all global currencies afloat?

Worse is what money without anchor means for investment. Economists don’t have to worry about this, particularly the demand-side economists at the Fed, mainly because their hopeless models are based on consumption. But in the real world, consumption yet again follows supply, and supply is driven by investment that constantly pushes up the productivity of workers. Yet when currencies are floating, investment naturally lags as the uncertainty about returns necessarily slows investment. Translated, investors who are always and everywhere buying future currency streams don’t want to risk returns coming back in devalued dollars.

All of this explains Moore’s desire for money that holds its value throughout time. So while he’ll have the mystics buzzing around him, claiming they know the proper interest rate and proper “supply” of dollars to achieve a stable currency, hopefully he’ll instruct them that the dollar’s exchange value isn’t part of the Fed’s portfolio as is, all the while reminding them that the dollar merely lacks a price rule. The good news is that Treasury could institute a price rule between breakfast and lunch, and markets would quickly adjust to it.

For believing in money that is money, and for lacking a PhD, Moore will suffer vicious attacks from the credentialed. He already is. He should know that his many friends will back him.

As for the economists who’ve pulled out the longest of knives, or who plan to, never forget the profession you’re part of. Most of you believe that the job of central banks is to put people out of work in order to keep inflationary pressures down. You believe economic growth causes inflation, even though it’s quite literally the greatest foe of rising prices precisely because investment is what drives down the price of most everything. To use but one of countless examples that support the previous truth, the fastest computer in the world today is three times as powerful and four times cheaper than the 2nd fastest computer built three years ago. Feverish, growth-enhancing investment continues to result in faster, more capable technology, that is also quite a bit less expensive.  

Your same profession believes that government spending actually powers economic revival. Implicit there is that during slowdowns, the economy gains when Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are arrogating to themselves enhanced control over resource allocation relative to Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Peter Thiel. Your pathetic theories are rooted in the view that central planning actually works, and that collectivism failed flamboyantly in the 20th century solely because the murderous governments that tried it lacked your allegedly wise minds.

But most damning of all is the criminally obtuse, yet largely monolithic view inside your profession that World War II ended the Great Depression. To believe a profession that compares unfavorably to astrology, and that is spectacularly wrong much more often, the maiming and killing of the people who power all economic advance has a growth upside.

Thinking about all this, thank goodness Moore isn’t one of you. Your profession has meant less than nothing for progress throughout history. Figure that the best books (Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson, Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Say’s Treatise on Political Economy, and Mill’s Principles of Political Economy) were written by non-economists as is. While the individuals who comprise the global “economy” never needed credential people of your ilk to prosper, it’s useful to point out that your cushy jobs that enable you to “think” 365 days/year are a certain consequence of economic growth that your models in no way enabled.

Rather than looking down on Moore, maybe learn something from him. And not just about economics. Watch as Moore acts decently in the face of cruel verbal assaults on him. Happy warrior that he is, Moore will smile despite the unsmiling things said.

Here’s hoping Steve Moore is confirmed as the next Federal Reserve Governor. Economists captivated by what’s easily disprovable and that can be murderous, arguably have the most to gain from someone they so outwardly disdain. So will those who simply want to understand how to be a good person.  

John Tamny is a speechwriter and writer of opinion pieces for clients, he's editor of RealClearMarkets, Director of the Center for Economic Freedom at FreedomWorks, and a senior economic adviser to Toreador Research and Trading (www.trtadvisors.com). His new book is The End of Work, about the exciting explosion of remunerative jobs that don't feel at all like work.  He's also the author of Who Needs the Fed? and Popular Economics. He can be reached at jtamny@realclearmarkets.com.  

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Gallup Poll: Trump Approval Rating Dips to 39 Percent

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dipped to 39 percent, according to a new Gallup poll.

That marks a drop of 4 points from the 43 percent approval he had in February. And it matches his rating from December at the start of the partial government shutdown, Gallup noted.

Here is how the poll breaks down:

  • 90 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s job performance
  • 4 percent of Democrats
  • 33 percent of independents

The new poll was conducted March 1-10 after the unsuccessful summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and after Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee.

The poll surveyed 1,039 people. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Suspected burglar crushed to death by 900-pound safe: police

A suspected burglar was found crushed to death by a 900-pound safe in an Indiana home this week, local authorities said.

The Marion Police Department said they received a call on Tuesday from a man named George Hollingsworth who believed his garage was broken into. Hollingsworth told police that the door frame was damaged and the garage was so cluttered that he couldn't tell what was stolen, according to a press release.

While cleaning out the garage on Wednesday to see what might have been stolen, Hollingsworth found a body underneath a 900-pound antique floor safe that had evidently fallen over, Deputy Chief Stephen D. Dorsey said.

FLORIDA MAN HOLDS BURGLARY SUSPECT AT GUNPOINT UNTIL POLICE ARRIVE

“My mind couldn’t comprehend it,” Hollingsworth told Indianapolis' FOX 59. "I would have rather seen him steal stuff and get out than die like that. What a horrible way to die."

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The Marion Fire Department helped Hollingsworth lift the safe and remove the body, according to police. Police identified the failed burglar as 28-year-old Jeremiah A. Disney, of Marion after an autopsy on Thursday. An investigation is ongoing.

Source: Fox News National

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Louisville downs Oregon State, earns date with UConn

NCAA Womens Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Albany Regional-Oregon State vs Louisville
Mar 29, 2019; Albany, NY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Bionca Dunham (33) drives to the basket as Oregon State Beavers guard Madison Washington (3) defends during the first half in the semifinals of the Albany regional in the women's 2019 NCAA Tournament at the Times Union Center. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

March 30, 2019

Top-seeded Louisville choked off fourth-seeded Oregon State on Friday night with defense, easing to a 61-44 win in an NCAA Women’s Tournament regional semifinal in Albany, N.Y.

The Cardinals (32-3), who will meet second-seeded Connecticut on Sunday for a ticket to the Final Four on April 5 in Tampa, were led by Sam Fuehring’s 17 points and nine rebounds. Asia Durr also scored 17 points despite making only 5 of 12 shots, and she contributed eight boards and four assists.

But the big story was what Louisville did when the Beavers (26-8) had the ball. The Cardinals limited Oregon State to 17-of-56 shooting (30.4 percent) from the field and allowed only two 3-pointers on 22 attempts. That more than canceled out a 41-33 Beavers advantage in rebounding.

Mikayla Pivec scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Beavers, but the rest of her teammates combined to make only 11 of 42 field-goal attempts.

The Albany Region final will be a rematch of a Jan. 31 contest in Louisville, where the Cardinals subdued the Huskies 78-69 to snap a 17-game losing streak against them that dated back to their first meeting in 1993.

Louisville wasted little time putting its stamp on this one. Durr scored six points in a 13-4 run over the game’s first 4:02, a sequence that ended with a 3-pointer and a layup from Fuehring. The Cardinals settled for a 21-15 lead after 10 minutes.

Louisville’s defense ruled the next two quarters, limiting Oregon State to a combined 13 points in that span. The Beavers endured droughts of 2:59 in the second quarter and 4:30 to start the third quarter, keeping them from taking advantage of Louisville’s inability to add to the lead.

Eventually, the Cardinals found the range again, opening up a 44-28 advantage after three periods by rattling off eight straight points in a 1:37 span late in the period. Durr contributed consecutive jumpers, while Bionca Dunham and Dana Evans each added transition layups.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Man stabbed to death in Warsaw, police make arrest

Police officers investigate the site of stabbing in Warsaw
Police officers investigate the site of stabbing in Warsaw, Poland, April 11, 2019. Agencja Gazeta/Adam Stepien via REUTERS

April 11, 2019

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish police on Thursday detained one man in central Warsaw after another died of stab wounds, but there was no suspicion of a terrorist motive or further danger to citizens, a spokeswoman said.

Police were informed at 6:55 p.m. (1655 GMT) that a man was lying bloodied on a street in central Warsaw, but paramedics were unable to revive him.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: OANN

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Barclays hoped 2008 cash call would drive international growth, court told

FILE PHOTO: The Barclays logo is seen in front of displayed stock graph in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Barclays logo is seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration taken June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays believed deals with strategic investors during the 2008 financial crisis would help to provide a springboard for its international ambitions, the bank’s former chairman told a London criminal trial on Tuesday.

Marcus Agius, called as a prosecution witness in the fraud trial of four former senior colleagues, said the bank had hoped to secure partnerships that would reinforce the bank’s global ambitions by granting Barclays “favored nation status” for future business opportunities with investors such as Qatar.

“That was how it was put and that was how the board understood it,” the veteran banker told a packed courtroom.

Former Barclays’ chief executive John Varley and three former senior executives Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath, deny conspiring to commit fraud by false representation when the bank raised more than 11 billion pounds ($14 billion) from investors in 2008 to avert a British state bailout.

Prosecutor Edward Brown alleges the men did not properly disclose an extra 322 million pounds in fees paid to the Qatari investors through so-called “advisory service agreements” during the financial crisis and that other investors that took part in the two capital raisings – from Abu Dhabi, China, Singapore and Japan – would have expected the same terms.

Agius, in a light gray suit, told Southwark Crown Court that in June 2008, Barclays initially thought a deal with Qatar would be desirable, but not essential. But markets became increasingly febrile towards the end of that summer.

In October 2008, just four months after an initial capital raising, Barclays turned again to Qatar – and Abu Dhabi – for a second emergency fundraising to stave off state control.

Agius said he did not remember frenetic to-ing and fro-ing between the bank’s executives and Qatari investors about fees, but said that the board wanted to avoid the restrictions of a British government sector-wide bailout – and that a deal with investors such as Qatar seemed “sensible”, if complex.

Asked if he remembered being told that the Qataris had laughed at Barclays officials, who, according to Oct. 22 board meeting minutes, had offered them 120 million pounds in fees, Agius replied: “No.”

The case marks the Serious Fraud Office’s first criminal charges filed in Britain against such senior bankers over financial crisis-era conduct.

The trial has charted how the Barclays executives battled to clinch a deal with Qatari investors who made tough demands. Varley described the investors as “new cocks of the roost” in an email to Agius on June 5, 2008, which was shown to the court.

Agius said his relationship with Varley was “always excellent” and that he considered him creative and courageous with a formidable work rate. “I regarded him as a man of utmost integrity, high intelligence … someone committed to see the bank succeed,” he said.

Qatar Holding, part of the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund, and Challenger, an investment vehicle of former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, which invested in Barclays in 2008, have not been accused of wrongdoing.

The trial is scheduled to last up to six months.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Fox News Politics

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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