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FILE PHOTO: Alitalia airplanes pictured at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Alberto Lingria/File Photo
April 5, 2019
MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday there were investors ready to get involved in a rescue plan for troubled flagship carrier Alitalia.
“Partners are there”, Di Maio said on the sideline of an event in Milan.
A deadline for Ferrovie dello Stato to present a rescue plan for Alitalia has been extended by one month to end-April after the Italian railway group, which is in talks with Delta Air Lines over Alitalia, failed to present a business plan for the carrier in time.
(Reporting by Francesca Landini, writing by Elvira Pollina, editing by Valentina Za)
FILE PHOTO - German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the media during a meeting of the Prime Ministers of Germany's eastern federal states in Neudietendorf near Erfurt, Germany, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
April 3, 2019
DUBLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet residents who live along the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland during a visit to Dublin on Thursday to discuss Brexit to learn what impact any return of frontier checks would have on their lives.
Ireland’s 500 km (350 mile) border with British-governed Northern Ireland will be the United Kingdom’s only EU land frontier after Brexit, and the question of how to retain seamless trade across it has been a major hurdle in efforts to ensure the UK quits the bloc in an orderly fashion.
That becomes an even more difficult task if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal as Dublin has pledged to maintain the integrity of the European Union’s single market, where goods move freely around the bloc without the need for checks.
Britain, Ireland and the EU fear the installation of physical customs infrastructure on the border could reignite largely dormant sectarian tensions and prove a tempting target for militants seeking a united Ireland and those who oppose it.
Merkel will use her trip to meet Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to consider the border situation and how to prevent a no-deal “hard Brexit”, she said on Wednesday.
The leaders will participate in a roundtable discussion in Dublin with people from Northern Ireland and the border area ahead of their meeting, the Irish government said.
“These are people for whom the border is a very real issue – people from communities along the border, from business, and with direct personal experience of conflict before the Good Friday Agreement,” the government said in a statement, referring to the 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence.
“It is important to hear their voices as we work together to deal with the challenges that Brexit presents.”
Ireland has for months refused to countenance any no-deal contingency plans for the border but recently began discussions with the European Commission over how it might be managed if its nearest neighbor crashes out of the bloc.
No plan has been agreed as a result of those ongoing talks, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alison Williams)
People place flowers over the names of the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing during a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
NEW YORK – A crowd has marked the anniversary of the 1993 bombing at the old World Trade Center that foreshadowed 9/11.
A bell tolled at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza on Tuesday to mark the midday moment when a truck bomb exploded in an underground garage 26 years ago.
Six people died, one of them pregnant. Relatives read their names.
More than 1,000 people were injured.
Authorities say the bomb was set by Muslim extremists angry about U.S. policies in the Mideast.
Six suspects were convicted and imprisoned. A seventh remains at large.
Former trade center director Charles Maikish (MAY'-kihsh) told Tuesday's crowd the 1993 bombing was "a lesson, hard-learned, and a wake-up call."
He credited subsequent safety upgrades with speeding the twin towers' evacuation on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mexican troops questioned two U.S. soldiers along the two countries’ border earlier this month. The American soldiers were on the U.S. side of the border conducting a routine surveillance operation, defense officials say.
Military officials from the U.S. Northern Command said that “five to six Mexican military personnel questioned two U.S. Army soldiers who were conducting border support operations.”
The soldiers were in an unmarked Customs and Border Protection vehicle near the southwest border in the vicinity of Clint, Texas.
Officials confirmed that the Mexican troops were armed with what seemed to be assault riffles. They drew their weapons when they saw the two U.S. soldiers and ordered the U.S. troops to return their weapons to a military vehicle.
According to officials, the two Americans obliged “in an attempt to de-escalate a potential volatile situation.”
“Throughout the incident, the U.S. soldiers followed all established procedures and protocols,” Northern Command said in a statement.
The crisis at America’s southern border has reached unprecedented levels with human/drug trafficking and violence on the rise. Former heavyweight champion David “Nino” Rodriguez joins Alex to discuss the realities of illegal immigration you won’t hear about on any other network!
MCALLEN, Texas — The issues on the U.S.-Mexico border could soon start impacting the price of fruits and vegetables.
For fresh produce, time is of the essence. Now that wait times have increased on border crossings -- because of a shift in personnel to address the border crisis -- it's been tougher for U.S. companies to bring fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico.
And experts say that will impact prices.
Fruit and vegetable distributors that stock the shelves of grocery stores throughout America, including tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, carrots, pineapples, among others —rely on farms in Mexico for that produce. Forty-three percent of all U.S. fruit and vegetables come from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Carlos Ayala, Amore Produce owner, shows Fox News produce refrigerated stockroom (Fox News)
“(The) Mexican border, it’s one of the most important crossings to the United States,” said Joshua Duran, Amore Produce sales representative.
“It's going to be felt at the grocery stores when we start paying more for limes and our avocados at the grocery store,” Contreras said. (Fox News)
But over the past three weeks, distributor Amore Produce truck drivers carrying that produce have seen up to three times the wait at the border, stuck in sometimes 15 hours of log-jam traffic to cross into the U.S. as they carry produce in their trucks. Duran said truck drivers are seeing only one or two gates open at the border.
“Now we are having a lot of problems in the border,” Duran said. “So, let’s say we used to have like five hours. We’re getting 10 or 15 hours to pass that truck to the United States…one or two (gates) are not enough to get all the entire trucks coming from Mexico and not only for produce, for all the products that people here in the United States get from Mexico.” (Fox News)
“Now we are having a lot of problems in the border,” Duran said. “So, let’s say we used to have like five hours. We’re getting 10 or 15 hours to pass that truck to the United States…one or two (gates) are not enough to get all the entire trucks coming from Mexico and not only for produce, for all the products that people here in the United States get from Mexico.”
It’s caused the McAllen produce distributor, located just 20 minutes from the border, to have less produce than usual. Duran said the company is not able to deliver the fresh produce to the 10 states they distribute to, including Florida, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Colorado—because their truck drivers are waiting longer which gives more time for the produce to rot quicker and not make it fresh to the consumer.
“We couldn’t get it here and we couldn’t send it to the customers in the north,” Duran said.
Amore Produce, the McAllen produce distributor, located just 20 minutes from the border, has less produce than usual. (Fox News)
Marabella Produce owner Alejandro Knight has to throw produce out because by the time it gets to him, he notices they will spoil when they’re delivered to the customer and hit grocery store shelves. Knight said his fridge warehouse is almost always full, even with the floor covered in pallets. It hasn’t been like that recently, as floors have been bare and some parts of the facility have been empty.
“We cannot deliver a fresh product anymore if we have to wait for each load to cross, five to six days, it's impossible to work like this,” Knight said.
Knight said the Mexican growers are now “afraid” to send the fruit (and veggies) because of the border wait time, so they keep the produce in Mexico.
Marabella Produce normally sends seven to 10 loads with 1,800 cases of produce per week. But now, it just has three to seven loads a week. The company usually distributes to Chicago, North Carolina, Maryland, Atlanta—but lately, has had to limit the shipments to Texas.
Knight said his fridge warehouse is almost always full, even with the floor covered in pallets. It hasn’t been like that recently, as floors have been bare and some parts of the facility has been empty. (Fox News)
“They won't get fresh produce in their houses, they won’t get fresh tomatoes or pineapples, or they will have very ripe fruit in their stores, so it’s not the same,” Knight said.
If this keeps up, it could lead to everyday American consumers finding produce more expensive with the supply drying up. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley economist, Salavador Contreras, said Americans are likely to feel the effects of these longer wait times.
“It's going to be felt at the grocery stores when we start paying more for limes and our avocados at the grocery store,” Contreras said.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol temporarily reassigned 545 CBP officers from ports around the nation’s border to help Border Patrol in the surge of apprehensions of family units and unaccompanied minors from Central America that have “overwhelmed Border Patrol capabilities and facilities.”
Over the past three weeks, distributor Amore Produce truck drivers carrying that produce have seen up to three times the wait at the border, stuck in sometimes 15 hours of log-jam traffic to cross into the US with the produce in their trucks. Duran said their truck drivers are seeing only one or two gates open at the border. (Fox News)
“Facilitation of legitimate trade and travel remains a priority for CBP at its 328 ports of entry nationwide," a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said. "While the current southwest border security and humanitarian crisis is impacting CBP operations, we are working to mitigate the effects as much as possible…Travelers are urged to plan accordingly and check the CBP wait times page for the most up-to-date border crossing information."
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said the long wait times vary from location and time of day. They update their data hourly.
Contreras said reducing the number of customs agents at the border has an economic impact on the U.S. economy.
“It’s been estimated that staffing one to three additional booths increases U.S. GDP by $2 million and adds roughly 33 additional jobs,” Contreras said. “So, trade flows are very important for the U.S. economy. They have a big impact on the U.S. economy. And if we reduce the number of agents at customs and increase the wait times, then that would have the opposite effect of reducing U.S. GDP and then reducing U.S. jobs.”
Vehciles wait in line on bridge leading to US. “Facilitation of legitimate trade and travel remains a priority for CBP at its 328 ports of entry nationwide," a US Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said. "While the current Southwest border security and humanitarian crisis is impacting CBP operations, we are working to mitigate the effects as much as possible." (Fox News)
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced bipartisan legislation early this month to address the border personnel shortages by hiring officers until 2020 “until the agency’s staffing needs are met.”
In the meantime, produce distributors are hopeful things will turn around quickly.
“I hope the authorities open their eyes and notice that this is affecting not only in economic terms but also in every family,” Knight said. “The United States, all the people should be served the best produce on the tables. They won’t get it like this.”
The House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2019. House Democrats have introduced a resolution Friday to block the national emergency declaration that President Donald Trump issued last week to fund his long-sought wall along the U.S-Mexico border, setting up a fight that could result in Trump's first-ever veto. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
WASHINGTON – Democrats controlling the House have teed up a vote next week to block President Donald Trump from using a national emergency declaration to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, accelerating a showdown in Congress that could divide Republicans and lead to Trump's first veto.
The Democrats introduced a resolution Friday to block Trump's declaration, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House would vote on the measure Tuesday. It is sure to pass, and the GOP-run Senate may adopt it as well. Trump quickly promised a veto.
"Will I veto it? 100 percent," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Any Trump veto would likely be sustained, but the upcoming battle will test Republican support for the president's move, which even some of his allies view as a stretch — and a slap at lawmakers' control over the power of the federal purse.
A staff aide introduced the measure during a short pro forma House session in which Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., presided over an almost-empty chamber.
"What the president is attempting is an unconstitutional power grab," said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, the sponsor of the resolution, on a call with reporters. "There is no emergency at the border."
Trump's declaration of a national emergency gives him access to about $3.6 billion in funding for military construction projects to divert to border fencing. But the administration is more likely to tap funding from a federal asset forfeiture fund and Defense Department anti-drug efforts first.
Trump's edict is also being challenged in the federal courts, where a host of Democratic-led states such as California are among those that have sued to overturn Trump's order. The House may also join in.
Pelosi said the House measure would "reassert our system of checks and balances."
For Democrats, the vote is another chance to challenge Trump over funding for a border wall, the issue that was central to the 35-day government shutdown. It also puts some Republicans from swing districts and states in a difficult spot, as many have expressed misgivings about Trump's action despite their support for his border security agenda.
Should the House and the Senate initially approve the measure, Congress seems unlikely to muster the two-thirds majorities in each chamber that would be needed later to override a Trump veto.
The measure to block Trump's edict will be closely watched in the Senate, where moderates such as Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., have signaled they would back it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is only a reluctant supporter of Trump on the topic.
Trump's GOP allies promised they would uphold any veto denying Democrats the two-thirds votes required to overcome one.
"Democrats' angst over Congress' power of the purse is unwarranted, especially since the commander in chief's authority to redirect military funds for a national emergency is affirmed in a law passed by their own branch," said top House Judiciary Committee Republican Doug Collins of Georgia.
Pelosi wrote in a letter to her fellow lawmakers that the Republican president's "decision to go outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process violates the Constitution and must be terminated."
"It is institutional. It is constitutional. It is not political," Pelosi said.
The battle is over an emergency declaration Trump issued to access billions of dollars beyond what Congress has authorized to start erecting border barriers. Building his proposed wall was the most visible trademark of Trump's presidential campaign.
Congress last week approved a vast spending bill providing nearly $1.4 billion to build 55 miles (89 kilometers) of border barriers in Texas' Rio Grande Valley while preventing a renewed government shutdown. That measure represented a rejection of Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to construct more than 200 miles (322 kilometers).
Besides signing the bill, Trump also declared a national emergency and used other authorities that he says give him access to an additional $6.6 billion for wall building. That money would be transferred from a federal asset forfeiture fund, Defense Department anti-drug efforts and a military construction fund. Federal officials have yet to identify which projects would be affected.
Castro, the resolution sponsor, said that he has already garnered support from a majority of the House as co-sponsors and that he has at least one GOP sponsor, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan.
FILE PHOTO: A logo of the Exxon Mobil Corp is seen at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp on Friday reported first-quarter profit fell sharply on lower oil and gas prices and weakness in its refining and chemicals businesses that offset modest production gains.
The largest U.S. oil producer’s first quarter earnings fell to $2.35 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $4.65 billion, or $1.09 a share, a year ago.
Analysts had expected Exxon to earn 70 cents per share, according to Refinitiv Eikon estimates.
Shares were trading down about 2.7 percent in premarket trading on Friday.
Exxon’s oil equivalent production rose 2 percent to 4 million barrels per day, up from 3.9 million bpd in the same period the year prior. The company said its output in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale basin, rose 140 percent over a year ago.
(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
CAIRO – A Baha’i advocacy group has expressed concerns over the fate of minority Baha’is at the hands of Yemen’s Houthi rebels ahead of the appeals hearing for one of the community leaders sentenced to death.
The Baha’i International Community said in a statement Friday that the hearing for Hamed bin Haydara, detained in 2013 and sentenced to death last year on espionage and apostasy charges, is due on Tuesday.
The statement quotes Bani Dugal, the Baha’i community representative at the United Nations, as saying the prosecution hasn’t addressed Haydara’s appeal but is instead making “absurd, wide-ranging accusations.”
International rights groups have decried the prosecution of Yemeni Baha’is by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Iran has banned the Baha’i religion, which was founded in 1844 by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by followers.
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)
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.”
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)
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