Just over half of voters perceive North Korea as a “major” threat to U.S. national security, and about the same number support taking military action to stop the country’s nuclear weapons program.

In addition, more approve than disapprove of how President Trump is handling North Korea, according to the latest Fox News Poll.  Forty-six percent approve, up from 45 percent in April 2018 and marking a new high.  Forty-one percent disapprove.

Forty-nine percent favor military action to prevent North Korea from continuing to develop its nuclear weapons program (37 percent oppose).  That is down a touch from 53 percent in April 2017 -- around the same time North Korea displayed new long-range missiles at a military parade and test fired a ballistic missile ahead of a U.S.-China summit.

CLICK TO READ THE COMPLETE POLL RESULTS.

The four-point decline comes entirely from a shift among Republicans:  73 percent favored military action in April 2017 compared to 63 percent today.  They are joined by 36 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents.

Overall, 52 percent see North Korea as a “major” threat to national security.

That puts it on the higher end of perceived threats.  By comparison, more voters consider foreign cyberattacks (72 percent) and ISIS (62 percent) as “major” threats, while far fewer say the same about the migrant caravan (35 percent) and instability in Venezuela (22 percent).

Despite being less likely to favor military intervention, Democrats (58 percent) are 12 points more likely than Republicans (46 percent) to consider North Korea a “major” threat.

“Unlike many domestic issues, foreign policy attitudes are highly dependent on who is president,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson. “Here we see that Democrats are more attuned to the possibility of a run-in with North Korea because they don’t trust President Trump to handle the issue competently.”

A summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set for February 27-28 in Vietnam.

Trump declared during the State of the Union, "If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea with potentially millions of people killed."

One-third of voters (32 percent) think military conflict with North Korea is less likely than it was two years ago, while 21 percent say more likely.  The largest share, 41 percent, believes the threat is about the same as it was around the time Trump took office.

Republicans (53 percent) are nearly four times as likely as Democrats are (14 percent) to think a conflict is less likely now.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,004 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) (formerly named Anderson Robbins Research) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from February 10-12, 2019.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

Source: Fox News Politics

CAIRO – Egyptian security officials say nine suspected Muslim Brotherhood members have been executed after being convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of the country's top prosecutor.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media, say the executions were carried out Wednesday.

The nine were found guilty of taking part in the bombing that killed Hisham Barakat, the most senior government official killed by Islamic militants since the military's 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president. Egypt's highest appeals court upheld the death sentences in November.

Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Egypt to halt the executions, saying that some defendants said they were forcibly disappeared and confessed under torture.

Source: Fox News World

At least eight children have died as a building that contained a school collapsed Wednesday morning in Nigeria, according to BBC.

Housing about 100 children in a private school on the top floor, the three-story building in Lagos, Nigeria collapsed at around 10:00 a.m. local time. Emergency rescue teams have been working to move debris and metal as more schoolchildren are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.

There has been no word on the total number of casualties or the cause of the collapse. (RELATED: 1$ Billion And 4 Lives Later The Situation In West Africa Is Still Fragile)

Child rescued and carried away through a crowd of people as emergency teams rush to save trapped students at scene of a school building collapse in Lagos, Nigeria. https://t.co/FBrIGsBMHP pic.twitter.com/nkkIvWXffK

— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2019

“It is believed that many people, including children, are currently trapped in the building,” said Ibrahim Farinloye, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency’s southwest region.

Seven children have been pulled out of the wreckage so far by the emergency team, according to residents of the area.

Photos and video of the rescue scene show hundreds of onlookers crowded around the site of the collapse, which was a residential block containing a lot of apartments. Some “worried” parents arrived at the scene, while others went to the local hospital to look for their children. (RELATED: Islamic Terrorists Slaughter 15 In Nigeria)

Rescue workers help carry a child at the site of a collapsed building containing a school in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, Nigeria March 13, 2019. (REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde)

Unfortunately, the use of sub-standard materials and weak enforcement of regulation checks lead building collapses to be common in Nigeria. In 2016, a crowded church in southern Nigeria collapsed killing more than 150 worshippers. Later in that same year, a five-story building in Lagos collapsed during construction, killing more than 30 people.

Source: The Daily Caller

FILE PHOTO: A worker moves boxes with green tomatoes through the corridors of the wholesale market "Central de Abastos" in Mexico City, Mexico January 11, 2019. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Stefanie Eschenbacher and Anna Irrera

MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mexico’s new leftist government is betting on financial technology to help lift people out of poverty.

The administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador recently announced measures aimed at making financial services more affordable in a nation where more than half the population is unbanked.

It is planning a digital payments system run and built by the central bank that will allow Mexicans to make and receive payments through their smartphones free of charge. A pilot roll-out for the platform, known as CoDi, is expected by March.

“In the future, it will no longer be necessary to have a bank in the sense of a traditional, established bank,” said Arturo Herrera, Mexico’s deputy finance minister. “Mobile phones will become banks.”

Phone-based banking has proven a hit among the poor in other emerging markets such as China, India and Kenya. Those efforts have been driven by private sector companies that offer user-friendly, affordable apps.

Whether Mexico’s state system will prove as nimble and easy to use remains to be seen. And it will initially require help from the very same banks that for decades have shut out low-income Mexicans with pricey fees.

Other hurdles include Mexico’s spotty telecoms. While cell phone and internet coverage have improved in recent years, basic infrastructure is still missing in many remote areas.

“Mexico has a lot of the key ingredients to succeed, but it’s not plug and play,” said Monica Brand Engel, a partner at Quona Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in fintechs focused on the unbanked in emerging markets.

CATCH-22

An estimated 42 million Mexicans lack bank accounts. Steep fees and past scandals have put many off the country’s mainstream banks. Many shun accounts to stay off the radar of tax collectors.

That hobbles Mexico’s growth. Coffee farmer Martin Romero is a prime example of why.

His small town in the state of Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s poorest, has no bank branch. Romero is paid in cash. He travels hours to pay bills and is unable to save or borrow for larger expenses.

“Of course I would like a bank account,” Romero said. “That way we could save at least a little of what we earn.”

(For a graphic on financial inclusion in Mexico, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2IhXe8R)

While many Mexicans applaud Lopez Obrador’s push, some fintech executives are grumbling about getting shut out of the loop.

To use CoDi, consumers must have an account with an institution participating in Mexico’s existing interbank payments system, which will power the new platform.

Jaime Cortina, director of operations and payments at the central bank, said the goal was to develop a payment method that Mexicans could use to make payments between each other, in shops and online.

Current members of the system include established institutions such as BBVA’s Bancomer, Banco Santander and Citigroup Inc’s Citibanamex. Fintechs that want to join need an electronic payment institution license, a process that new players fear could take up to a year.

That presents unbanked Mexicans with a bizarre Catch-22: To access the government’s free mobile payments system, at least initially, they would have to open accounts with banks that many do not want to join or cannot afford in the first place.

Adolfo Babatz, CEO of payments startup Clip, said Mexico’s government should be looking to fintech entrepreneurs to bring true innovation to the financial system, not banks that have benefited from high barriers to entry. His Mexico City-based company has created a low-cost mobile credit card reader that fits on smartphones.

Mexico should “look at the examples from the rest of the world,” Babatz said.

In Kenya, for example, mobile payment system M-Pesa was launched in 2007 by a private company, mobile network operator Safaricom. M-Pesa is now a surrogate bank account for millions of users. In China, hundreds of millions of previously unbanked consumers have flocked to Alipay, the payment app owned by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.

GRAY ECONOMY

Low-cost banking alone may do little to lure Mexicans out of the shadows. Nearly 57 percent work off the books, according to government data. An estimated 90 percent of transactions are done in cash.

“People who work and live in the informal economy do not want to be taxed,” said Carlos Lopez, director for retail strategy and new digital business at Mexico’s largest bank, BBVA Bancomer.

Herrera, the deputy finance minister, told Reuters the government is making efforts to reduce cash in circulation to cut down on money laundering and corruption, and to draw more people into the formal economy.

He said the administration plans to transition to direct deposit or digital wallets to dispense welfare benefits over the next 18 months. At present, many Mexicans rely on government-issued cards that can be used at ATMs to withdraw their benefits in cash.

He also expressed optimism that fintechs would bring needed competition to the money transfer business, reducing the cost of remittances sent home by Mexicans abroad.

But even in cosmopolitan Mexico City, a future of cashless payments seems far off for people such as Paula Martinez. She sells traditional sweets, chewing gum and single cigarettes from a wooden basket in the fashionable Roma neighborhood.

The mother of three does not have a bank account, and says she and her husband have never considered it.

“We don’t earn enough,” Martinez said.

(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Anna Irrera. Editing by Neal Templin and Marla Dickerson.)

Source: OANN

This photo provided by McHenry County Sheriff’s Office shows Deputy Jacob Keltner. Floyd E. Brown is accused of fatally shooting Keltner, Thursday, March 7, 2019 at a hotel as a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force tried to serve Brown with an arrest warrant for burglary and parole violation charges. (McHenry County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

WOODSTOCK, Ill. – A funeral is planned at a Chicago-area high school for a sheriff's deputy who was shot and killed while trying to serve an arrest warrant at a hotel.

McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Keltner will be remembered Wednesday at Woodstock North High School. A procession for law enforcement and emergency vehicles will follow.

Mourners can also leave notes and flowers on a sheriff's squad car dedicated to Keltner and parked in Woodstock. The 35-year-old Keltner was a 12 ½-year veteran of the sheriff's office in northern Illinois.

Keltner was part of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force that was trying to serve a warrant on a man for burglary and parole violation charges last Thursday. Police say the suspect shot Keltner, fled the Rockford hotel in a vehicle and was arrested hours later after a standoff.

Source: Fox News National

A charging plug for the battery for the eNiro Kia electric car is pictured at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

March 10, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – Kia Motors may halt operations at its No.1 plant in China as part of its longer-term efforts to enhance competitiveness, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Kia Motors said in a statement after the source told Reuters on Sunday that the company is reviewing various plans to strengthen production and sales competitiveness in China.

Kia Motors, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor, makes cars in China in a tie-up with Dongfeng Motor Group and Jiangsu Yueda Investment Co Ltd. They run three factories in Jiangsu Province in China.

Hyundai Motor also said the automaker was considering suspending production at its oldest plant in China as sales tumble and it struggles with overcapacity in its biggest market.

(Reporting By Hyunjoo Jin; Writing by Jane Chung; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

Social media is a great way to connect with old friends, learn about all sorts of people across the globe, and completely ruin your career in an instant. That’s what a young West Point graduate named Spenser Rapone is learning right now.

Earlier this week Rapone, a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, posted the following images in support of Colin Kaepernick:

#VeteransForKaepernick pic.twitter.com/3jnCtawvHc

— Commie Bebop (@punkproletarian) September 24, 2017

In case there was any lingering doubt, hasta la victoria siempre pic.twitter.com/0XrW38wcCk

— Commie Bebop (@punkproletarian) September 25, 2017

If this seems like a bad idea to you, the Army agrees. Young Spenser is in hot water. Just imagine, getting through West Point and then throwing it all away… for Colin Kaepernick.

Rapone’s dad isn’t happy about it either. WFMJ in Youngstown, OH:

Army officials are looking into controversial social media posts by a Second Lieutenant from New Castle. At issue are photos of West Point graduate Spenser Rapone in uniform displaying pro-communist messages…

Meanwhile Rapone’s father, Lawrence County Treasurer Richard Rapone, disavowed his son’s political views on his public Facebook page.

Here’s what he wrote:

I believe in free speech, and I also know that there’s a thing called the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So I support Rapone’s right to say any damn fool thing he wants, and I also understand the Army’s obligation to kick his ass for it. They’re not there to be #woke. They don’t care how many likes and retweets you get.

My advice to Second Lt. Rapone: Declare that you’re actually a woman trapped in a man’s body, and then wait for another Democrat to get elected. That trick always works.

(Hat tip: JWF)

P.S. This kid listens to Chapo Traphouse, of course. I hope they have him on as a guest after he’s drummed out of the Army. He’s their hero now.

AMERICAN COMMUNIST PARTY PLEDGES FEALTY TO DEMOCRATIC PARTY MANIFESTO:

Source: DC Trawler – The Daily Caller