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Troubled Secret Service Faces New Leadership – Again

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The Secret Service, the once vaunted force charged with protecting the president, is again bracing for new leadership – the third director to helm the troubled agency in five years.

The White House on Monday announced that Randolph “Tex” Alles would be stepping down amid a shakeup at the Department of Homeland Security, where DHC Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, effective April 10. Trump tapped James Murray, a career Secret Service agent and official who is currently the assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations, as the agency’s new director.

Murray also has served as Secret Service’s liaison to Congress, the special agent in charge of the Washington field office and held the top leadership role at the agency’s training center in Maryland.

There was no immediate reason given for Alles’ departure, which appeared to be part of a housecleaning of sorts of DHS officials with ties to John Kelly, President Trump’s former chief of staff and, prior to that, secretary of Homeland Security. The moves coincides with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, taking over the DHS portfolio.

Kelly is a retired U.S. Marine Corps general who was pushed out of the administration at the end of last year after months tangling with Trump and other White House officials. Kelly helped pull in Alles, a former major general in the Marine Corps, to lead the Secret Service, at the beginning of Trump’s presidency.

In a memo to other Secret Service officials and staff on Monday, Alles denied being fired and said administration officials had told him “weeks” ago – before a serious security breach at Mar-a-Lago — to plan for “transitions in leadership” across DHS.

“No doubt you have seen media reports regarding my ‘firing,’” he wrote in the memo addressed to “All the Men and Women of the U.S. Secret Service” and obtained by RealClearPolitics.

“I assure you that is not the case, and in fact was told weeks ago by the administration that transitions in leadership should be expected across the Department of Homeland Security,” he wrote.

“The president has directed an orderly transition in leadership for this agency, and I intend to abide by that direction. It is my sincere regret that I was not able to address the workforce prior to this announcement,” he continued.

Both Alles and the administration made it clear that the arrest of a Chinese woman carrying a malware-laced device at Mar-a-Lago did not lead to the director’s departure. An administration source told RCP the decision “has been in the works for two weeks and is no way related” to the Mar-a-Lago incident.

Alles, in his staff memo, also called Murray a “consummate professional, a true leader” and someone whose capabilities have earned his confidence.

At the beginning of his administration, Trump followed recommendations made by a blue-ribbon panel convened in 2014 at the height of several Secret Service scandals to tap an “outsider” to head the agency.

Alles was the first non-Secret Service employee to be named director in the agency’s storied history. The panel, and several key members of Congress, all called for a new director who was unconnected to the current and former leadership who could truly change the insular culture and uneven discipline partially responsible for low morale.

Before that recommendation, President Obama named Julia Pierson, a career agency official, to be the first woman Secret Service director. Even after the recommendation, he turned to known quantity Joseph Clancy to replace Pierson when security lapses continued. Clancy had served as the head of the service’s presidential protective division during Obama’s time in office before retiring. Obama brought him back to try to reform the agency, but it continued experiencing security breaches, as well as discipline and retention problems.

Murray is very well-liked and respected but it’s unclear if he can truly shake up the culture to make necessary changes, sources close to the Secret Service community told RCP.

In order to fix the morale problem, one source said Murray needs “to set friendship aside and promote competence, fairness – [that’s] easier said than done in D.C.”

Gary Byrne, a former Secret Service Uniformed Division officer who wrote a tell-all book about the Clintons and their misbehavior in the White House and another about the history of the service, said the agency on Monday was reeling after the announcement of Alles’ departure and Murray’s ascension.

Even though Murray is well-respected, he said officers he’s talked to “still want somebody from the outside” to lead the agency.

“They just keep repeating the same mistakes,” Byrne said of the quick succession of directors.

“Nothing has really changed – unless they fix the problem with the Uniformed Division pay scale and reduce the number of hours everyone is working. It’s an insane amount of hours these guys work,” he said.

The agency’s uneven discipline problems and claims of top officials contributing to a culture of corruption have also exacerbated tensions among the rank and file.

In the first few weeks of the Trump administration, a senior Secret Service agent faced an internal disciplinary investigation after posting on Facebook that she would not take a bullet for the new president. But the agency declined to act on a complaint about Kerry O’Grady, the senior agent in question, until a media report exposed the Facebook post.

After nearly two years on paid administrative leave, O’Grady is being allowed to leave the service in just a few weeks virtually unscathed financially with her retirement largely intact.

“They let her get away with what she did because they didn’t want her spilling the beans on the dirt of the Secret Service,” Byrne said, noting that it “absolutely degraded morale.”

“The senior officials and staff of the Secret Service knew what was going on … and they were ignoring her behavior until” the issue became public and others in the community started to “raise a stink,” Byrne said.

In recent years, the Secret Service has ranked either dead last or near the bottom of a government employee survey of job satisfaction conducted annually by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. The agency’s most-recent ranking, released late last year, is near the bottom at No. 398.

Many of the morale problems are tied to agents’ and officers’ crushing workload -- long hours amid increased security demands from the White House and in protecting presidential candidates in recent years, as well as lagging employment recruitment and poor retention rates.

As of August of 2017, just nine months into the Trump presidency, more than 1,000 agents had hit their federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to cover the entire year.

Responding to that crisis, Alles was able to convince Congress to provide more funding in a 2018 bill aptly titled the Secret Service Recruitment and Retention Act, but it mainly played a stop-gap role in fixing the overtime funding shortfall.

Solving the underlying workload issues would mean expanding the Secret Service workforce, giving each agent and officer time to take longer breaks from duty to recharge and attend training sessions to sharpen skills.

Trump’s 2019 budget aimed to accomplish this by providing hundreds of millions of dollars more to support an additional 450 agents and officers for a total of 7,600 positions by the end of the fiscal year. However, the DHS inspector general testified to Congress last year that even that number is insufficient – that the agency needs a total of 8,200 personnel, 1,700 more than it currently has.

After Congress provided more money for overtime, agents are now getting paid for all the work they do but are still working far too many hours and being stretched too thin, insiders say.

“If you’re working 120 hours a pay period, which a lot of these guys are, you’re still working too much,” Byrne said.

Susan Crabtree is a veteran Washington reporter who has spent two decades covering the White House and Congress.

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Kamala Harris’s Father Blasts Her “Pursuit of Identity Politics”

Senator Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) own father has taken issue with her pandering for support by perpetuating Jamaican marijuana stereotypes, blasting her “pursuit of identity politics” in comments to Jamaican media.

The 2020 presidential candidate recently appeared on The Breakfast Club, a nationally syndicated radio show that features interviews with “celebrities and hip-hop artists.”

During the interview, Harris said she supports federal legalization of marijuana and boasted of smoking pot in the past.

“I have. And I inhaled. I did inhale,” Harris said. “Look, I joke about it, I have joked about it. Half my family is from Jamaica, are you kidding me?”

Father Donald Harris reportedly took issue with his daughter’s remarks, issuing a statement to Jamaica Global Online (JGO).

“My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not, with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joyseeker, and in the pursuit of identity politics,” Donald Harris said.

“Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.”

JGO notes that local Jamaican outlets seized on Kamala’s comments, using them to sensationalize headlines.

“This is the line that has been repeated over by virtually every news media since Kamala Harris gave that response to the interviewer on New York’s Breakfast Club radio show when asked if she smoked marijuana,” JGO reports, citing examples.

Sen. Harris announced her support for the Marijuana Justice Act, introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), saying, “it’s smart thing to do and it’s the right thing to do.”


Dan Lyman:


Everyday Democrats project their own corruption onto President Trump, yet the facts reveal how dangerous the Democratic party has become.

Source: InfoWars

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Dem lawmakers who voted against Starr report release now pushing for Mueller report

Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and 14 other Democrats currently in the House voted in 1998 against releasing the Starr Report about President Bill Clinton.

But 21 years later, many of those Democratic lawmakers are some of the most ardent voices in Congress pushing for the full release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler, Oversight Committee Chairman Cummings, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Waters are part of a group of lawmakers in the lower chamber putting pressure on Attorney General William Barr to release the so-called Mueller Report. But back in 1998, these lawmakers were among the 63 then serving in the House to vote against release of Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s report on his investigation into President Bill Clinton.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS AUTHORIZE SUBPOENAS FOR MUELLER REPORT

The Starr Report began in 1994 under Independent Counsel Robert Fiske as a probe into “Whitewater,” a land deal involving President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. But it eventually morphed into questions of obstruction of justice involving Clinton over his relations with Monica Lewinsky.

The House voted 363-63 to release the Starr Report on September 11, 1998, with all 63 no votes coming from Democrats.

On Wednesday, current members of the House Judiciary Committee voted 24-17 to give Nadler permission to issue subpoenas to the Justice Department for the final report, its exhibits and any underlying evidence or materials prepared for Mueller's investigation. Nadler has not yet said if he'll send the subpoenas, which would be the first step in a potentially long fight with the Justice Department over the materials.

The Judiciary panel also voted Wednesday to authorize subpoenas related to five of President Donald Trump's former top advisers, stepping up a separate, wide-ranging investigation into Trump and his personal and political dealings.

On the Mueller report, House Democrats had given Barr until Tuesday to provide an unredacted verson to Congress, along with underlying materials. The Justice Department ignored that deadline, with Barr telling committee chairmen in a letter last week that he was in the process of redacting portions of the almost 400-page report and it would be released by mid-April, "if not sooner."

The vote further escalates the Democrats' battle with the Justice Department over how much of the report they will be able to see, a fight that could eventually head to court if the two sides can't settle their differences through negotiation. Democrats have said they will not accept redactions and want to see the evidence unfiltered by Barr.

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In the letter last week, Barr said he is going over the report to avoid disclosing any grand jury information or classified material, in addition to portions of the report that pertain to ongoing investigations or that "would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties."

Democrats say they want access to all of that information, even if some of it can't be disclosed to the public. Nadler said he will give Barr time to change his mind on redactions, but if they cannot reach an agreement,  the subpoenas will be issued "in very short order." He also said he is prepared to go to court to get the grand jury information.

"This committee requires the full report and the underlying materials because it is our job, not the attorney general's, to determine whether or not President Trump has abused his office," Nadler said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Austria’s Signa partners with RFR to buy New York’s Chrysler Building: sources

FILE PHOTO: New York City's iconic Chrysler Building is seen in Manhattan
FILE PHOTO: New York City's iconic Chrysler Building that was opened in 1930 on East 42nd Street is seen in Manhattan, New York, U.S., January 9, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

March 9, 2019

(This story corrects the name of Signa founder in paragraph 7)

By Greg Roumeliotis and Harry Brumpton

(Reuters) – Signa Holding GmbH, Austria’s largest privately owned real estate company, will buy the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City in partnership with property firm RFR Holding LLC for about $150 million, people familiar with the matter said.

Signa and RFR are equal partners in a joint venture that signed an agreement on Friday to buy the building from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council at a fraction of what it paid to own it, the sources said.

Abu Dhabi had splashed out $800 million to own a 90 percent stake in the Chrysler Building at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Property values subsequently crashed, and in some cases never fully recovered.

The sources asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Signa Holding and CBRE, which has handled the sale process of the asset, declined to comment. RFR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The art-deco tower, which was the world’s tallest building when completed in 1930 only to be eclipsed by New York’s Empire State Building, is considered a crown jewel of the city’s skyline. Its old age is fueling maintenance costs, however, and its historical status has often made modifications to the needs of its tenants difficult.

Weighing on the sale price was the rent that the Chrysler Building has to pay to the Cooper Union school, because it does not own the land underneath the property. The annual rent increased to $32.5 million in 2018 from $7.75 million in 2017. The lease will increase to $41 million in 2028, according to financial statements from Cooper Union.

The deal marks Signa’s debut in the U.S. property sector. Led by its founder René Benko, Signa has a sprawling real estate and retail portfolio in Europe. Its real estate assets are worth more than 14 billion euros ($16 billion), while its development projects have a gross asset value of over 8 billion euros, according to its website.

Signa is no stranger in investing in numerous landmark buildings in prime locations. Its holdings include KaDeWe and the Upper West Tower in Berlin, Goldenes Quarter with the Park Hyatt Hotel in Vienna, Alte Akademie in Munich, and Alsterhaus and Alsterarkaden in Hamburg.

Founded in 1991 by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, RFR made its name in real estate by owning and managing some of Manhattan’s most prestigious office properties, including the Seagram Building and Lever House, which are located on Park Avenue.

Signa and RFR have done deals together in the past, including in 2017, when Signa agreed to buy five landmark properties from RFR in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich for about 1.5 billion euros.

The Real Deal had earlier reported RFR’s role in the deal for the Chrysler Building.

(Reporting by Gregory Roumeliotis and Harry Brumpton in New York; Additional reporting by Herb Lash)

Source: OANN

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Water woes hit henna plant farms in Iraq’s Fao peninsula

Henna for sale is displayed at a market in Basra
Henna for sale is displayed at a market in Basra, Iraq March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani

March 17, 2019

By Mohamed Atie and Aref Mohammed

FAO, Iraq (Reuters) – In southern Iraq, where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers meet, the Fao peninsula was once known for its swathes of henna plants and palm trees. But the lush greenery of this Basra province district has now turned into a hardscrabble surface.

Walking past dead palm trees on land so dry it cracks, farmer Abbas Abdul Hassan said water shortages and ensuing use of salty water from the polluted Shatt al-Arab river for irrigation had eaten up areas that grew henna plants, whose ground leaves make the dark paste used as a dye.

“This land was packed with henna plants … the salty water tide killed the henna and killed palm trees,” he said.

Once bearing some 425 farms producing 5,000 kilograms (11,023 lb) of henna leaves annually, mainly for export, that number has now fallen to around 50 farms producing around 300 kilograms, Fao farm owner Fadhil Falih Abdulla said.

Decades of conflict in Iraq, once a major date producer before switching its economic focus from agriculture to oil, have devastated farms.

Its second city Basra has suffered destruction from wars, conflict and neglect since the 1980s. Fao, which lies on the bank of the Shatt al-Arab delta near the Gulf, was hit hard due to its location on the frontline of Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran.

Abdul Atheem Mohammed of Basra’s agriculture office said some 38,000 palm trees had died in the area since 2008.

“Shortages of water which caused the rise of salty water tides hit agriculture hard in Basra and caused the fall in henna farms in Fao,” he said.

A local government project has been trying to revive the plantations in the last two years by setting up a farm in northern Basra. During the collection season – January to April and then May – leaves are reaped every 45 days and sold at local markets.

At a Basra salon, customer Sara Ibrahim described Fao henna as “a heritage”.

“Iraq used to export the henna of Fao to the Gulf countries,” she said as she got her hands decorated with henna. “But it is difficult to get it nowadays.”

(Reporting by Mohammed Atie and Aref Mohammed; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian)

Source: OANN

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China says Xinjiang has ‘boarding schools’, not ‘concentration camps’

Officials attend the meeting of Xinjiang delegation on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
(L-R) Nayim Yasen, deputy director of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the National PeopleÕs Congress (NPC), Shewket Imin, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, Xinjiang Chairman Shohrat Zakir, and Sun Jinlong, party secretary of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Production and Construction Corps, attend the meeting of Xinjiang delegation on the sidelines of the NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

March 12, 2019

By Michael Martina

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is running boarding schools not concentration camps in the far western region of Xinjiang, its governor said on Tuesday, as the United States called conditions there “completely unacceptable”.

China has faced growing international opprobrium for what it says are vocational training centers in Xinjiang, a vast region bordering central Asia that is home to millions of Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities.

Activists say there is a network of mass detention camps there holding more than a million people, part of a crackdown that Beijing says is needed to stem the threat of Islamist extremism.

The U.S. government has weighed sanctions against senior Chinese officials in Xinjiang, including on the Communist Party boss there, Chen Quanguo, who as a member of the powerful politburo is in the upper echelons of China’s leadership.

Xinjiang governor Shohrat Zakir, the region’s most senior Uighur official who ranks below Chen, said that there had not been any violent attacks in more than two years and three months since the government adopted “a series of measures” to combat terror and extremism.

“Some international voices say Xinjiang has concentration camps and re-education camps,” Shohrat Zakir told a briefing on the sidelines of China’s annual largely rubber-stamp parliament.

“These kinds of statements are completely fabricated lies, and are extraordinarily absurd,” he said.

“They are the same as boarding schools,” he said, adding that the personal freedoms of the “students” were guaranteed.

Chen, who attended what was one of the most eagerly anticipated briefings of China’s parliamentary session by foreign media, did not answer questions on the camps.

POSSIBLE SANCTIONS

Former detainees, however, have described to Reuters being tortured during interrogation at the camps, living in crowded cells and being subjected to a brutal daily regimen of party indoctrination that drove some people to suicide. (https://tinyurl.com/y9zzouss)

Some of the sprawling facilities in the region are ringed with razor wire and watch towers.

U.S. officials have said China has made criminal many aspects of religious practice and culture in Xinjiang, including punishment for teaching Muslim texts to children and bans on parents giving their children Uighur names.

Academics and journalists have documented grid-style police checkpoints across Xinjiang and mass DNA collection, and human rights advocates have decried martial law-type conditions there.

Chen made his mark swiftly after taking the top post in Xinjiang in 2016, with mass “anti-terror” rallies conducted in the region’s largest cities involving tens of thousands of paramilitary troops and police.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet is seeking access to China to verify continuing reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in Xinjiang.

U.S. ambassador for religious freedom Sam Brownback, speaking from Taipei on a teleconference call with reporters, said the situation in Xinjiang was “completely unacceptable” and that sanctions against Chinese officials under the Global Magnitsky Act remained a “possibility”.

That act is a federal law that allows the U.S. government to target human rights violators around the world with freezes on any U.S. assets, U.S. travel bans and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them.

Brownback added that dialogue between Washington and Beijing on the issue had made little headway thus far, calling discussions “more of a dual monologue”.

“The monologue back from China initially was that they denied the (detention camps) even existed and then the statement was that these are vocational training facilities which the people are appreciative of, which we just don’t agree with,” he said.

China has warned that it would retaliate “in proportion” against any U.S. sanctions.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Philip Wen; Additional reporting by Lusha Zhang)

Source: OANN

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Executive Order Sparks Fierce Legal Battle With Governor Over Natural Gas Pipelines

President Donald Trump’s executive order to expedite oil and natural gas pipelines could spark another legal battle against Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration.

Trump pulled no punches against New York when he signed executive orders to expedite pipeline projects Wednesday afternoon. The move sparked a sharp rebuke from Cuomo, who threatened to fight “tooth and nail” against permitting reforms.

“We need help with New York,” Trump said Wednesday at an International Union of Operating Engineers’ training center near Houston.

“New York is hurting the country because they’re not allowing us to get those pipelines through, and that’s why they’re paying so much for their heating and all of the things that energy and our energy produces,” Trump said. “So hopefully they can come on board and get in line with what’s happening.”

The orders are aimed at expediting oil and gas pipeline approvals, including asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update guidance regarding state permitting authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA).


Globalists and the left are united in their anti-American stance on energy.

The goal here is to keep some states, like New York and Washington, from using CWA permitting to kill major energy projects. Trump specifically called out New York’s blocking of the Constitution natural gas pipeline.

“And also, in New York, they’re paying tremendous amounts of money more for energy to heat their homes because New York State blocked a permit to build the Constitution Pipeline,” Trump said.

New York and the Constitution pipeline’s developers have been locked in a legal battle for the last three years after the state denied the project a CWA permit. The pipeline will bring natural gas from producers in Pennsylvania to upstate New York, and is supported by labor unions.

Cuomo’s administration denied permits for Constitution and other pipelines on environmental grounds, and instead is using his own version of the Green New Deal to get 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040.

Cuomo said he would fight Trump’s permitting reforms “tooth and nail.”

“President Trump’s Executive Order is a gross overreach of federal authority that undermines New York’s ability to protect our water quality and our environment,” Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday. “Any efforts to curb this right to protect our residents will be fought tooth and nail.”

Trump is looking to set stricter timelines and narrow the scope of review states can use evaluate pipelines and other projects that need CWA permits. For example, New York rejected the Constitution pipeline 360 days into its review.

New York rejected a CWA permit Valley Lateral pipeline in 2017 over the impacts it could have on climate change, which, of course, has nothing to do with water quality. Trump’s order could prevent states from using such an expansive standard for review.

In the meantime, however, Cuomo’s pipeline rejections have strained gas supplies in the northeastern U.S., including New York and New England. Supplies are so constrained in New York, for example, that a moratorium on new gas hook-ups hit Westchester County in March, worrying local officials that new development would collapse.

“This obstruction does not just hurt families and workers like you; it undermines our independence and national security,” Trump said, mentioning how New England paid much more for gas this winter because of its lack of pipelines.


Del Bigtree has been exposing the pharmaceutical industry for years and now, with the passage of SB-276, the battle has reached the next level.

Source: InfoWars

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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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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