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Sweden’s Veoneer bets driverless car delay will be its gain

FILE PHOTO: Jan Carlson, CEO of Veoneer, Inc., rings the opening bell to celebrate it's first day of trading on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: Jan Carlson, CEO of Veoneer, Inc., rings the opening bell to celebrate it's first day of trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 15, 2019

By Johannes Hellstrom and Esha Vaish

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s Veoneer expects to gain from a commercial delay in self-driving cars, betting that rising demand for its radar and camera-based systems as the industry ramps up to autonomy will boost its market position.

Forecasts on when autonomous vehicles will become a commercial reality have been receding, with most analysts now expecting broad-based adoption to take another decade as accidents in early testing have raised fresh concerns about regulation, technology and cost.

Veoneer, seen by many investors as a play on autonomous driving, has suffered as a result. Weak car markets, delayed 2020 targets and cash concerns also contributed to a 36 percent drop in Veoneer’s stock over the past six months.

Chief Technology Officer Nishant Batra, however, said that by being more selective following its investment and product portfolio review, Veoneer could position itself to scale up more efficiently and set the foundation for the future.

He said increasing requirements for active safety features to get top ratings in car safety assessment schemes such as the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) would be the big market driver for the coming years.

Veoneer’s base case is that the market for its active safety products will soar to $24 billion in 2025, from $7 billion in 2018.

“We have always focused on getting the portfolio ready for attacking that demand,” Chief Technology Officer Nishant Batra said. He added that the bigger role in the market for camera and vision systems coupled with software for combining data from different sensors was a “sweet spot” for the company.

Some analysts are skeptical. UBS repeated its “sell” rating on Veoneer in a note on Monday, citing worries over the company’s growth as well as capital concerns.

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Loss-making Veoneer kept its $4 billion sales target for 2022 intact and reported a 95 percent jump in active safety order bookings last year, but the delay of its 2020 targets increased concerns it might run short of capital before sales kick in and be unable to keep up with better-capitalized rivals.

While Veoneer and rivals Continental and Bosch all have mono- and stereo camera systems with internally developed software, U.S.-based Aptiv has focused on mono cameras with much success, sourcing algorithms from vision software market leader Mobileye, owned by Intel.

Deutsche Bank, which rates Veoneer a “sell”, said in February the company faced “big near term challenges” from high investment costs, adding it had longer-term questions about the differentiation of Veoneer’s technology, a risk to its competitiveness and margins.

Veoneer believes driver monitoring will be an important area, with sensor fusion between the inward-looking and outward looking camera underway, and Batra said thermal imagery and camera fusing was also being increasingly discussed.

He said the move from the so-called level 1 to level 2 opened up the market for sensor fusion software, which can be monetized through added advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Cars are classified on a 0-5 autonomy scale, with level 2 partially automated, level 3 conditionally automated, and level 4 highly automated and capable of performing all driving functions under certain conditions.

“This market has suddenly come alive for us. When you go from level 1 to level 3, some of the centralization of computing already starts,” he said.

Batra said Veoneer’s main driverless push, Zenuity – the ADAS and autonomous drive software joint venture with Volvo Cars – should be seen as self-sustaining with its software used for both sensor fusion and Level 4 products.

“This also helps the OEMs (carmakers) get ready for the eventual journey toward level 4, so we see this market take off and we have won some good initial contracts in this space.”

(Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom and Esha Vaish; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Source: OANN

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Kenneth Starr ‘very proud’ of William Barr’s handling of Mueller report

As Attorney General William Barr faced questions on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the Mueller report, former independent counsel Kenneth Starr praised Barr for doing what the law requires while being as transparent as possible.

“I’m very proud of Bill Barr. He’s a great lawyer. He’s a great Attorney General already in these early weeks under enormous pressure. He is doing what the law requires,” said Starr on “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday.

AG WILLIAM BARR TESTIFIES AT HOUSE HEARING, FIRST SINCE MUELLER REPORT MEMO RELEASE -- LIVE BLOG

Starr spoke as as Barr testified before a House subcommittee, marking his first appearance before lawmakers on Capitol Hill since releasing his four-page memo on the key findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

During the hearing, Barr vowed to release a redacted version of Mueller's report "within a week," as he pushed back at Democrats blasting him for what they called his "unacceptable" handling of the initial summary of that document.

“I think he (Barr) wants to do everything that he can in favor of transparency within the confines of the law and of course unless we have these materials page by page and we don’t we can’t make an intelligent assessment of the specifics,” Starr, who also wrote the book “Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation,” said.

BARR VOWS MUELLER REPORT RELEASE 'WITHIN A WEEK,' AS DEMS RIP 'UNACCEPTABLE' HANDLING AT HEATED HEARING 

He added that he thought Barr was “cool” and “collected” as he testified before a congressional panel on Capitol Hill.

On Tuesday, Barr said that he identified four areas of the report that he believed should be redacted, including grand jury material. He maintained that he is working "diligently to make as much information as possible available to Congress."

“With respect to the Mueller report, he’s standing his ground and I'm also very happy to hear him defend the March 24 letter,” said Starr referring to the letter summarizing the findings of Mueller’s report. Starr added that the letter “specifically and expressly quotes from the Mueller report itself setting forth the principle conclusions.”

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“That’s precisely what he (Barr) is required to do under the governing regulations so he is going by the books and that is what he is telling the committee today, ‘I’m a by the books law guy. I’m not a politician,’” said Starr who added that Barr is, “The nation’s leading lawyer right now. Let’s let him follow the law.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Germany sees no need for stimulus to tackle slowdown: spokesman

A construction site is pictured in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: A construction site is pictured in Berlin, Germany May 31, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

April 15, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government sees no need for a stimulus package to reinvigorate Europe’s biggest economy, a spokesman said on Monday.

“We have a very solid budget policy,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. “And we are coupling solid budgets with an increase in investments and this should in the coming years improve the basis for more growth.”

“The budget stipulates investment spending that is significantly higher than in the previous legislative period and as such we see no need for a stimulus package,” he added.

Seibert was responding to comments by a conservative lawmaker who said the right-left coalition government should consider a stimulus package to reverse a slowdown.

(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Michelle Martin)

Source: OANN

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US-backed forces admit to 'difficulties' beating IS in Syria

U.S.-backers forces fighting to take back the last Islamic State group outpost in Syria say they are facing difficulties defeating the group.

A spokesman says their effort is being slowed by mines, tunnels, and the possibility of harming women and children still in the village.

Dozens of men and women were seen walking around the besieged IS encampment in the village of Baghouz Sunday, as fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces watched from a hilltop close by.

SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said the camp was approximately 250 km in size — much the same area it was five weeks ago, when the SDF said it was going to finally conclude the battle.

"We are facing several difficulties regarding the operations," Gabriel told reporters outside Baghouz Sunday.

Source: Fox News World

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Inside SoftBank’s push to rule the road

FILE PHOTO: A journalist raises her hand to ask a question to Japan's SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son during a news conference in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: A journalist raises her hand to ask a question to Japan's SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

April 12, 2019

By Heather Somerville and Paul Lienert

(Reuters) – SoftBank Group Corp leader Masayoshi Son has much bigger ambitions for transportation than simply seeing his investment in Uber Technologies Inc turn into more than $13 billion when the company goes public next month.

The Japanese entrepreneur is placing a $60 billion bet in more than 40 companies in a bid to steer the $3 trillion global automotive industry now dominated by vehicles people own and drive to a spectrum of transportation services available at the touch of a smartphone app. Those services range from ride hailing and car sharing to delivery robots and self-driving vehicles.

The extent of those investments, based on a Reuters analysis of publicly available data and interviews with a dozen sources familiar with SoftBank’s investment strategy, has not previously been reported. They show how Son has emerged as one of the power players trying to influence how people and goods move about the world in the coming decades.

Graphic: Softbank’s future mobility investments, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2UQXn4F

Key partners in Son’s quest are Uber, the U.S. ride services leader, and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp.

Uber’s planned initial public stock offering in May is expected to value the company at $90 billion to $100 billion, representing a potential windfall to SoftBank, which put $8 billion into Uber for a 15 percent stake in January 2018. The rising value of that investment will further supercharge Son’s growing clout in the sector, and eventually provide him with additional capital to invest in mobility.

Closer to home, Toyota approached Son more than a year ago about a partnership, and SoftBank in February 2018 signed a memorandum of understanding with the automaker to consider how they might jointly develop mobility services, according to sources familiar with the document. The agreement was followed by the launch of a joint venture dubbed Monet Technologies, designed to set up automated mobility services.

SoftBank and Toyota are also in talks to co-lead a $1 billion investment in Uber’s self-driving unit, Reuters reported in March. While the deal is close to being finalized, discussions remain ongoing around issues such as how much of the unit SoftBank would control, sources told Reuters.

Toyota declined to comment for this story.

In an interview with Reuters, SoftBank Group Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure said that the two Japanese companies “have a lot sessions in which we think and we try to redefine the future of mobility.”

Central to those sessions are discussions about how Toyota and SoftBank can collaborate to bring autonomous vehicles to Japan, he said.

Son has been working since 2014 to weave together a tapestry of diverse transportation bets. His deep portfolio of investments range literally from A to Z: From Arm, a British semiconductor maker that Son acquired in 2016 for $32 billion, to Zume Pizza, a Silicon Valley startup that aims to automate pizza delivery and raised $375 million last year from SoftBank.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

SoftBank has used at least five investment vehicles, including the $100 billion Vision Fund, from which to make its mobility investments, public records show. Its deep pockets, aggressive investing tactics and sweeping vision of the future of transportation give SoftBank and its leader Son an outsized influence in shaping the entire industry.

The Vision Fund has more than 30 investment professionals who work to promote cooperation and integration among the portfolio companies, which they refer to as a “family.”

“We can create this web where companies talk to each other and they help each other because they are part of the same family and they do joint ventures and they do joint investments,” Claure said.

SoftBank and its affiliates have focused some of their biggest investments on self-driving firm Cruise, a unit of GM, and four global ride-services giants — Uber, Didi Chuxing, Ola and Grab. SoftBank is the largest shareholder in the four ride-services companies and the largest outside shareholder in Cruise.

Son “is the true emperor of future mobility,” said Tom De Vleesschauwer, senior director of long-term planning and sustainability at IHS Automotive.

To help implement his vision, Son also allied with General Motors Co and Honda Motor Co, each of which is investing heavily in self-driving vehicles and ride services.

Son laid out his future of transportation vision in an October press conference alongside Toyota, where he talked about building a “cluster” of leading mobility companies in different sectors, which “can collaborate with each other.”

Toyota a year ago introduced e-Palette, an electric shuttle designed for self-driving ride and delivery services, and quickly signed up Uber and Didi as development partners. The e-Palette is also the centerpiece of Monet Technologies, which added Honda as a minority partner in March. All are tied back to SoftBank.

That collaboration is expected to enable some SoftBank companies to become “superapps,” or applications where customers go for a range of services, such as transportation, shopping and payments. Such companies can be much more lucrative than those that offer just one core business or service.

But the fact that many of SoftBank’s companies are rivals can complicate the investor’s ambitions. Uber and Ola, the Indian ride-hailing company, remain fierce competitors and are never in the same room when SoftBank discusses ride-hailing strategies, Claure said.

Traditionally in venture capital, funds do not invest in direct competitors.

“There are tremendous synergies, but on the other hand there is significant risk of tremendous conflicts of interest,” said Paul Asel, managing partner at NGP Capital and a longtime mobility investor.

There are limits to the investor’s influence, however. For example, SoftBank encouraged Cruise to acquire or take a stake in self-driving startup Nuro, but talks between the companies never led to a deal, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

So SoftBank made its own, $940 million investment in Nuro.

HUNTING BIG GAME

In his five-year transportation push, Son’s stakes in ride services startups now look like bargains. In late 2014, SoftBank joined Alibaba, China’s internet giant in which SoftBank also has a stake, in a $600 million funding round in Kuaidi Dache, the forerunner of China’s Didi.

That investment has grown to more than $11 billion in Didi, in which SoftBank now holds more than 20 percent.

SoftBank’s partnerships with major automakers are also proving to be a boon to transportation startups. Toyota invested in Uber in 2016, then boosted its stake seven months after SoftBank’s investment. Honda followed SoftBank with an investment into Grab, and last year committed $2.75 billion to Cruise’s self-driving project, aiding SoftBank’s ambitions.

But the SoftBank portfolio is not without risks, particularly for companies dependent on the Japanese firm to sustain them financially for years to come. SoftBank faces financial pressures, including an obligation to pay an annual 7 percent dividend on a portion of the invested capital and has burnt through the majority of the Vision Fund.

And it is compelled by a new U.S. law cracking down on foreign investment in technology to submit many of its mobility investments to a government regulatory agency for approval. Should that regulatory group block a deal, it could be catastrophic to a startup.

But there is some safety for Son given the size of his portfolio.

“He’s shooting for big game,” Roger Lanctot, global automotive practice director at Strategy Analytics, said of Son. “He only needs to bag one or two and he will do just fine.”

(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; editing by Edward Tobin)

Source: OANN

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OH Predictive Insights Poll: Romney Tops Trump in Utah

If the Utah primary were held today, President Donald Trump would lose to the state’s Republican senator, Mitt Romney, according to a poll released Thursday.

OH Predictive Insights, which is based in Arizona, found most Republicans in Utah prefer Romney to Trump:

  • Romney: 55 percent.
  • Trump: 37 percent.
  • Undecided: 8 percent.

"Republican-base voters around the country back President Trump survey after survey shows," said Mike Noble, OH Predictive Insights' chief of research, in a press release. "But Beehive State voters buck that trend, giving the state’s junior senator a wide margin of victory in a matchup."

Although Romney beats out Trump among Republicans and those who think of themselves as somewhat conservative, Trump holds more sway with those who consider themselves very conservative.

  • Somewhat conservative: Romney 56 percent, Trump 34 percent.
  • Very conservative: Romney 41 percent, Trump 52 percent.

"Just seven years ago, Romney won a bitter primary battle to carry the mantle for the GOP but lost to President Obama," Noble added. "If he wants to take on President Trump in a primary, he can count on Utahns to have his back."

Trump came in third in the 2016 Utah GOP primary, behind Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, garnering only 14 percent of the vote. He won the state in the general election with 45 percent of the vote, with 21 percent going to independent candidate, and Utah native, Evan McMullin. Romney has said he would not challenge Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020.

OH Predictive Insights polled 275 Republicans in Utah by phone and online from March 15 to 27, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.9 percentage points.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Covington Catholic Student Sues CNN for $275 Million

The family of high school student Nick Sandmann is suing CNN for $275 million for the network's coverage of an incident after the March For Life in January.

According to Fox News, the suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. It alleges CNN "elevated false, heinous accusations of racist conduct" against Sandmann. It also said CNN did not follow "well-established journalistic standards and ethics."

Sandmann, 16, is a Covington Catholic High School student who was filmed looking straight at a Native American activist as the man stood inches from Sandmann's face. Initial reports indicated Sandmann and his classmates were taunting the man, named Nathan Phillips. Subsequent videos that were released showed that a group of Black Hebrew Israelites was taunting the schoolboys.

Celebrities, news organizations and their commentators, and other public figures slammed the students, who were wearing "Make America Great Again" hats, for their perceived verbal attacks on the Native Americans — which was shown not to have happened.

Sandmann already filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Washington Post last month because of its reporting on the story.

Source: NewsMax America

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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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