Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

McCabe slams Loretta Lynch in new book, says Clinton probe should have gone to special counsel

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, in his new book, rails against President Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, for her decisions and actions while the FBI investigated Hillary Clinton’s email server during the 2016 campaign, saying Lynch should have been recused from the probe and a special counsel should have been appointed instead.

McCabe wrote in “The Threat,” released Tuesday, that “the tarmac meeting was a horrible lapse in judgment by Loretta Lynch.”

Lynch came under fire in 2016 after an infamous tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton days before the FBI decided it would not recommend criminal charges against his wife for her handling of classified information on her private email server. Lynch, reacting to the criticism for meeting  with Clinton while the FBI investigated his wife, has claimed she and Clinton only discussed “innocuous things.”

TRUMP DENIES CALLING ANDREW MCCABE'S WIFE ‘A LOSER’

But McCabe said Lynch, after the outcry over the meeting, should have stepped away from the probe – which was code-named "Midyear Exam" by the FBI.

“She should have recused herself from Midyear at that point,” McCabe wrote. “She did not—she made things worse.”

McCabe suggested things would have turned out better had Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, both appointed by Obama, recused themselves even earlier from the case.

“It was a fatal choice. Had there been a competent, credible special counsel running Midyear Exam independently—the way Bob Mueller’s Russia investigation has been run – I think circumstances might have been very different, and we would not have been where we ended up in July,” McCabe said.

That's in apparent reference to when then-FBI Director James Comey came under heavy criticism during the campaign for his choice to make a public announcement explaining why Clinton was not being charged. He later explained he felt compelled to take the lead on the announcement because of the questions over Lynch’s credibility.

McCabe argued that for Lynch and Yates, “Recusal would have been a reasonable and, I would argue, better decision for those political appointees to have made." He added, "I don’t know why they didn’t do that.”

“Somehow, they saw the investigation of Hillary Clinton – former first lady and former secretary of state, current candidate for the presidency, likely nominee of the Democratic Party, who was being supported by the president of the United States, to whom they owed their jobs – as a case they could handle without prejudice,” McCabe wrote.

MCCABE: 'NO ONE' IN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP OBJECTED WHEN TOLD OF FBI’S TRUMP PROBE

McCabe also said FBI agents mocked Lynch’s insistence to Comey to characterize the probe as a “matter” instead of an “investigation” – an apparent attempt to downplay the seriousness of it.

“This became a running joke whenever anyone at the FBI felt like Justice was dragging its feet,” McCabe wrote. He said agents would joke, “What have we become, the Federal Bureau of Matters?”

Still, McCabe said Comey was concerned about it.

“The matter of the ‘matter’ did have a serious effect on the director,” McCabe said. “It planted the question, Was the attorney general trying to minimize what we were doing? The question festered. He’d heard that the Clinton campaign was trying to avoid the word ‘investigation,’ too.”

Like Lynch, McCabe’s involvement in the Clinton case has also come under scrutiny. Trump himself has suggested McCabe was in the tank for the Clintons, drawing attention to how McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, received donations from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's super PAC while she ran for a state Senate seat in Virginia in 2015. McAuliffe is a close Clinton ally. McCabe did not recuse himself from the Clinton investigation until a week before the election.

MEGHAN MCCAIN STUNS ANDREW MCCABE ON 'THE VIEW,' ASKS IF HE WAS NEW YORK TIMES LEAKER

In the book, McCabe denied a conflict of interest, and dismisses the accusations as a “conspiracy theory.”

McCabe was eventually fired last year by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after an inspector general report said McCabe lied about leaking to reporters about the Clinton investigation. He defended himself, but declined to write much about that episode, citing legal reasons.

“As for my own firing and the ostensible reasons behind it, the demands and risks of an ongoing legal process put tight constraints on what I can say, although I would like to say much more,” McCabe said. “I am filing a suit that challenges my firing and the IG’s process and findings, and the unprecedented way DOJ handled my termination. I will let that action speak for itself.”

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Ammonia leak in Chicago suburb sends 37 to hospitals, including firefighters, law enforcement responders

Seven people are in critical condition and several more were hospitalized after a gas leak in a northern Chicago suburb early Thursday morning caused a toxic cloud to linger for several hours, officials said.

A tractor towing two, two-ton containers of anhydrous ammonia about 4:30 a.m. sustained a leak in one of the tanks, creating a chemical cloud that lingered over Beach Park, a suburb 40 miles north of Chicago, Lake Forest Fire Chief Mike Gallo said.

Police say about two dozen law enforcement agencies responded to the leak, causing many of them to be hospitalized.

Police and emergency personnel respond to a hazardous materials situation that blocked off roads and closed schools in Beach Park, Ill., on Thursday, April 25, 2019, (Joe Shuman/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Police and emergency personnel respond to a hazardous materials situation that blocked off roads and closed schools in Beach Park, Ill., on Thursday, April 25, 2019, (Joe Shuman/Chicago Tribune via AP)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anhydrous ammonia is a colorless gas that can cause breathing difficulties, burns, blisters and is fatal if breathed in high concentrations. Farmers use it to add nitrogen to soil.

Thirty-seven people were hospitalized after the leak, many suffering breathing problems. Eleven firefighters were among those sent to the hospital and one was listed in critical but stable condition, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Three law enforcement officers were in good condition and several others were in serious but stable condition.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Authorities have not released what caused the leak but said it was contained within a few hours.

During the leak, residents within a one-mile radius were urged to stay indoors and shut their windows while schools were closed for the day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Left out of peace talks, U.S. allies reassess Afghan support

FILE PHOTO: German troops take part in a military exercise in Mazar-i-Sharif
FILE PHOTO: German troops take part in a military exercise during a visit by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan December 23, 2013. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/File Photo

March 15, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Rod Nickel

KABUL (Reuters) – At a dinner party in Kabul’s high-security “green zone” in March, a senior European diplomat poured himself a glass of red wine and pulled up a photograph on his iPhone.

Released by Qatar’s foreign ministry on Feb. 25, it showed seven Qatari officials alongside U.S. and Taliban negotiators as talks on ending the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan had restarted in the Gulf state the previous day.

“If Qatari officials can be at the negotiating table, then how did the U.S. forget to invite its key allies who have fought the Afghan war since 2001?” said the diplomat, whose nation has contributed hundreds of troops to NATO’s mission in the country.

“We continue to pour millions of dollars as an act of solidarity, but when it comes to peace talks, the U.S. decided to go solo.”

Reuters spoke with 10 diplomats from countries spanning three continents that are among the 39 that provide military personnel to the NATO training operation, known as Resolute Support, in Afghanistan, and those that provide development aid.

Many of those countries are significant, consistent donors. Most of the diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the situation.

The diplomats interviewed said their governments were broadly rethinking their commitments to rebuilding the country. That process had been hastened by feeling excluded from peace talks, and also by a weariness for supporting the Afghan campaign among voters and lawmakers in their respective countries, they said.

Asked about those comments, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said regular reviews of foreign assistance was “good practice” and Afghanistan’s development remained in the interest of the international community.

“We see no signs that interest and investment are wavering,” said the spokesperson, adding that U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad has briefed NATO allies and other partners three times since December, and effective coordination remained a priority.

Nick Kay, NATO’s newly appointed senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, said NATO allies “fully support” Khalilzad’s efforts to negotiate a settlement.

But even the Afghan government has complained of being left out. President Ashraf Ghani’s national security adviser on Thursday accused Khalilzad of “delegitimizing” the Kabul government by excluding it from deliberations.

Qatari officials did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, U.S. development aid for Afghanistan totaled about $1.2 billion, well ahead of the next biggest donors Germany, European Union institutions, Britain and Japan, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data. But the United States’ junior aid partners collectively contributed nearly two-thirds of all development assistance, highlighting their critical if less visible importance to the country’s future.

CHANGING PRIORITIES

U.S. and Taliban negotiators wrapped up their longest round of peace talks on Tuesday with progress made but no agreement on when foreign troops might withdraw.

Whether funding countries keep investing in Afghanistan could prove pivotal to sustaining any peace. Diplomats say that, after troops leave, it may be the only leverage they have to retain influence over future Afghan governments.

Since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, Afghanistan has been among the top recipients of foreign government aid to promote economic and social development. In 2016, international donors pledged $15.2 billion in aid for Afghanistan until 2020.

With those pledges due to expire, many countries are re-evaluating their military and funding commitments.

“Priorities have changed for every EU nation,” a European diplomat said, adding that countries besides Afghanistan needed support.

“The donor fatigue is intense and no one is in the mood to overlook it after 2020,” another diplomat said.

A third diplomat said their country was re-evaluating its future aid with different scenarios in mind, including whether to continue development if the Taliban joins Afghanistan’s government, and what to do if peace talks fail.

Any drop-off in international aid would be disastrous for Afghanistan, since much of it funds basic health and education services, said Adele Khodr, country representative for Unicef.

“It is definitely something we are concerned about. Imagine what would happen – (Afghanistan) would be Yemen,” Khodr said. “(By) pulling out, the international community will pay a much higher price in insecurity across the world.”

Ninety percent of the money spent on the health sector in Afghanistan comes from the international community, said Toby Lanzer, deputy special representative in Afghanistan for the UN.

An official in Ghani’s office in Kabul declined to comment on potential risks to future aid.

He said the government was making every effort to hold peace talks with the Taliban. The militant group said on Tuesday that such talks would have to wait until after a troop withdrawal plan is set.

‘CRUCIAL TO STICK TOGETHER’

Some diplomats caution against a quick retreat.

“If we leave the country hastily, all these (advances) will go down the drain,” Ambassador Markus Potzel, Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and one of the 10 diplomats interviewed, told Reuters in Kabul.

Potzel was referring to gains such as Afghan girls’ attendance in school and new employment opportunities.

Maintaining aid was also critical to holding influence in Afghanistan, he said.

“That’s our leverage. We can attach strings,” Potzel said. “It is crucial to stick together.”

A spokesperson at the British Embassy in Kabul said any changes to Britain’s troop contribution would be made in consultation with coalition partners.

As of March 2019, 39 countries contributed 17,034 foreign forces in Afghanistan for Resolute Support, of which the U.S. provided 50 percent, according to NATO. U.S. troops are also deployed in a separate mission directed against groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s questioning of NATO’s value to Washington, along with the absence of allies at the negotiating table, has deepened the unease within the military alliance created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and Western European nations.

“The concern is that we need to be appraised of the progress of the discussions and to be involved. We have invested a lot,” said a European diplomat. “This commitment should be reflected in influence or at least information on the peace talks.”

The diplomat said it was understandable that access to the negotiating table was narrow right now, but “what I would find abnormal is that we would be served a deal in which we had nothing to say and then be asked to foot the bill”.

SHRINKING FOOTPRINT?

The senior diplomats interviewed by Reuters, who are based in Kabul and Islamabad, said their governments were finding it harder to justify the continuing presence of their troops and the steady drain of aid funding to Afghanistan.

“It is increasingly difficult to tell our people why we are still here especially when they read reports about more than half of country being under the Taliban control,” said a Western diplomat. “Almost all NATO countries are now struggling to justify their presence in Afghanistan to voters back home.”

The war’s long duration has also weakened commitment.

“If we had known that the war could go on as it has been for 18 years, we would have had a rethink in 2001,” the Western diplomat said.

The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan has always been the Taliban’s main demand, and Trump’s interest in drawing down U.S. troops has stimulated efforts to end the war.

“The prime concern is that we may wake up one day to a tweet by Trump about a unilateral withdrawal of U.S. troops before a peace agreement has been negotiated,” said a diplomat whose country supports Afghan healthcare projects.

Neighboring Pakistan sees a similar danger, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

“An immediate vacuum can also be detrimental for peace and security and an indefinite presence is also not acceptable, so this is the detail that has to be worked out,” he said.

NATO members and partners said they also expect regional powers to share costs and step up their roles in Afghanistan to prevent civil war after foreign forces depart.

“China has been sitting on the bleachers for a long time now,” a diplomat said.

The Chinese embassy in Kabul did not respond to requests for comment.

Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, said the U.S. continues to count on friends to share the burden in Afghanistan.

“But so long as the war continues with no peace deal, that supply of states willing to assist will shrink,” said Kugelman.

(Reporting by Rupam Jain and Rod Nickel in Kabul; additional reporting by Eric Knecht in Doha, James Mackenzie in Islamabad and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

0 0

How Trump is using furor over Ilhan Omar to bash Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi is speaker again for one reason: her party picked up 40 seats in mostly moderate districts.

And yet the Democrats are being yanked to the left by their most visible uber-liberals, creating a huge image problem for the 79-year-old congresswoman.

With the left-wingers grabbing the lion's share of media attention, President Trump is already trying to run against her party as a bunch of wild-eyed socialists.

That leaves Pelosi with the unenviable task of preventing the Democrats from being defined by their most ideological members — and yes, the irony that this challenge falls to a classic San Francisco liberal is unmistakable.

Democrats aren't the world's most organized party. Holding together a fractious caucus has never been an easy task. And there are lingering levels of distrust from the way the establishment favored Hillary Clinton in 2016 over Bernie Sanders, who now finds himself the nominal front-runner for 2020.

FOX NEWS' BERNIE SANDERS TOWN HALL VIEWING NUMBERS BEAT CNN, MSNBC COMBINED

With the party obsessed with knocking off Trump, keeping a façade of unity may well be impossible.

"The far left's frustration with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the rise," The Washington Post declares.

The latest contretemps revolves around Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim congresswomen, who has repeatedly stirred controversy with comments viewed as anti-Semitic. It was Pelosi who had to steer passage of a House resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry that was watered down by not mentioning Omar.

Now the Minnesota lawmaker is in a war of words with Trump, triggered by her remarks about 9/11. Omar complained that Muslims were being treated as second-class citizens because "some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." The New York Post put a photo of the burning twin towers on the front page with the headline, "Here's Your Something."

The president pounced by retweeting a post that called Omar a "sick monster." He posted a video with footage of the World Trade Center — titled "WE WILL NEVER FORGET!" — with Omar's remarks spliced in.

PELOSI APPEARS TO TAKE NEW JAB AT AOC, SAYS 'A GLASS OF WATER' WITH A 'D' COULD WIN SOME DISTRICTS

When Omar started receiving death threats, some in the media blamed Trump, as if criticism of a politician is the equivalent of inciting crackpots against her. But the situation was certainly inflamed.

The Post reports that "Omar's allies over the weekend were upset by what they viewed as Pelosi's delayed response" in supporting her colleague. Her first statement criticizing Trump made no mention of Omar. Pelosi ratcheted up her rhetoric on Monday, saying the president's sharing of the video was "beneath the dignity of the Oval Office."

Liberals are also upset, according to the paper, at Pelosi's jibe at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a "60 Minutes" interview. Pelosi said AOC's "wing" of the party included "like five people."

DOZENS OF DEMS VOTE 95 PERCENT OF TIME WITH AOC DESPITE PELOSI CLAIM BLOCK IS 'LIKE FIVE PEOPLE'

Trump has ramped up his attacks on Omar, saying Monday that she's "very disrespectful" toward both America and Israel and has "got a way about her that's very, very bad for our country."

The president is also using Omar as a way of dinging Pelosi. Keep in mind that Trump has not directly assailed Pelosi — not even bestowing a nickname on the woman who seemed to have outmaneuvered him during the 35-day government shutdown.

Look at this presidential tweet: "Before Nancy, who has lost all control of Congress and is getting nothing done, decides to defend her leader, Rep. Omar, she should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!"

Trump is essentially saying that Pelosi has lost control to her left-wing zealots, and has been reduced to an Omar puppet. Pelosi actually runs the House with a strong hand, but Trump's slam nicely dovetails with his desire to run against the Omar/AOC/Bernie "socialists."

Liberal critics are accusing the president of using bigoted rhetoric.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"If Omar is a target, it has little to do with what she said and everything to do with who she is: A black Muslim woman — and an immigrant — whose very person disrupts the exclusionary ideal of a white Christian America," says Jamelle Bouie, an African-American columnist for The New York Times.

It's all gotten pretty ugly, no question about it. Ilhan Omar, although she apologized once for anti-Semitic comments, does not appear to be a conciliatory politician. And neither, of course, is Donald Trump.

But there is a payoff to waging such high-profile fights: Omar raised $832,000 in the first quarter of the year, more than all but a few House Democrats.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

Parliament will wrest control of Brexit if PM fails to build consensus: UK lawmaker

MP Yvette Cooper attends a debate on PM Theresa May's Brexit 'plan B' in Parliament, in London
FILE PHOTO: MP Yvette Cooper attends a debate on PM Theresa May's Brexit 'plan B' in Parliament, in London, Britain, January 29, 2019. UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Handout via REUTERS

March 11, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May must find a way to build consensus in parliament over Britain’s departure from the European Union, and if she fails to, parliament will try to take control of Brexit, a Labour Party lawmaker said on Monday.

Yvette Cooper, an opposition party lawmaker who has led efforts to hand parliament more control over Brexit, said in a speech at the Centre for European Reform: “There are practical steps the prime minister can take now, not easy ones, but sensible ones – step by step to build more consensus around a way through this.”

“Now if she won’t find a way through, then parliament has a responsibility to do so instead. And once again, we will be ready to work cross-party on amendments to do that.”

(Reporting by William James, writing by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Source: OANN

0 0

Schultz details how he’d run the country if elected as an independent president

He’s not a declared presidential candidate yet -- but former Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz on Wednesday spelled out how he’d run the country as a centrist president not tied to either major political party.

And in a speech at South Florida’s Miami-Dade College, Schultz lamented the worsening partisan gridlock between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

HOWARD SCHULTZ RIPS GREEN NEW DEAL

"We deserve better than this,” he argued. “The cost of our government’s dysfunction is great - and it impacts all of us. Our biggest problems are not being solved.”

Schultz spotlighted that “this dysfunction cannot stand,” and vowed that as “an independent president, I would be a bridge to bring leaders of both parties together in a way no president has done in recent years.”

He promised that as president he’d “have members of both parties to the White House for coffee as often as I can.”

And he touted that he would “assemble a cabinet that truly represents America in every way, including a cross-partisan group of Democrats, Republicans, and independents—and a greater share of women than any previous president.”

SCHULTZ WARNS DEMOCRATS THEIR 2020 NOMINEE COULD BE 'SPOILER'

Lamenting that federal courts “have become yet another battlefield in the ongoing war between Democratic and Republican leaders,” he vowed to nominate Supreme Court justices only if they could be confirmed by two-thirds of the Senate.

He also outlined that he would “prioritize reforms that break the logjam of extremism and partisanship that have prevented us from coming together and passing common sense legislation. Among those reforms will be aggressive measures to limit the power of lobbyists and special interests in Washington.”

Schultz is in the middle of a national tour – tied to the release of his new book – as he weighs a long shot independent White House run. He’s said he’ll make a final decision on launching a presidential campaign later this year.

Schultz -- a lifelong Democrat -- has said the reason he’s mulling an independent White House bid is because he feels the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left.

At the recent South by Southwest conference and festival in Austin, Texas, Schultz slammed some of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and others are proposing to try and defeat Donald Trump with a far extreme proposal,” he spotlighted.

BIDEN, SANDERS, TOP LATEST 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY POLLS

Democrats have repeatedly criticized him, saying an independent bid by a billionaire like Schultz who could self-finance his campaign would siphon votes from the eventual Democratic nominee – which they argue would help Republican President Donald Trump win re-election in 2020.

In his speech, Schultz also took aim at Trump, saying “the damage this presidential administration has already inflicted on our democratic institutions and ideals is severe.”

And Schultz promised that if elected, he wouldn’t berate his cabinet and other top officials.

“I won’t humiliate them on Twitter or make decisions so outrageous that they feel compelled to resign in protest,” he explained, in an indirect slight at the president.

Source: Fox News Politics

0 0

A look at alleged raiders of North Korean Embassy in Madrid

The 10 people who allegedly raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid last month belong to a mysterious dissident organization that styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea.

Their leader appears to be a Yale-educated human rights activist who was once jailed in China while trying to rescue North Korean defectors living in hiding, according to activists and North Korean defectors.

Details have begun trickling out about the raid after a Spanish judge lifted a secrecy order Tuesday and said an investigation of what happened on Feb. 22 uncovered evidence that "a criminal organization" shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents. A U.S. official said the group is named Cheollima Civil Defense, a little-known organization that recently called for international solidarity in the fight against dictatorship in North Korea.

Here's a look at the group and its apparent leader.

___

THE GROUP

Details about the creation of the Cheollima Civil Defense group are hazy. The word "Cheollima" — spelled "Chollima" in the North — refers to a mythical winged horse that the government often uses in its propaganda.

In March 2017 the group said it had arranged the escape of Kim Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who was assassinated at a Malaysian airport earlier that year.

A man claiming to be Kim Han Sol appeared in a YouTube video at the time and said he was safely with his mother and sister.

"My name is Kim Han Sol from North Korea, part of the Kim family," the man said in English in the 40-second video clip. "My father has been killed a few days ago."

Recently the group declared on what appears to be its website the establishment of "Free Joseon," which it described as "a provisional government" that would fight against "the criminal incumbents of the north." The Joseon Dynasty ruled the Korean Peninsula for more than 500 years until 1910, when Japan colonized Korea, which was later divided at the end of World War II.

The group also recently posted a video showing an unidentified man destroying glass-encased portraits of North Korea's two late leaders. South Korean media reported that the group was behind the writing of "Let's topple Kim Jong Un," the current North Korean leader, on the wall of the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia.

After the Spanish judge released documents about the Feb. 22 incident, the Cheollima website said it had been responding to an urgent situation at the embassy and was invited onto the property, and that "no one was gagged or beaten." The group said there were "no other governments involved with or aware of our activity until after the event."

The Spanish court report said the intruders urged North Korea's only accredited diplomat in Spain, So Yun Sok, to defect.

The Cheollima website said the group shared "certain information of enormous potential value" with the FBI, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality.

The FBI said its standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations.

If Cheollima was behind the embassy break-in, it indicates the involvement of North Korean defectors who have experience working for North Korea's military or security authorities, said Nam Sung Wook, a former president of the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea's main spy agency.

"There are many young North Korean men who come to the South with more than 10 years of military experience," said Nam, who now teaches at Korea University in South Korea. "People would be surprised at what they are capable of doing, and they aren't always being closely watched by the South Korean government."

___

THE ALLEGED LEADER

A Spanish court document identified the leader of the group that entered the embassy as Adrian Hong Chang.

This is likely to be Adrian Hong, who in 2005 co-founded Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), an international activist group devoted to rescuing North Korean refugees, according to North Korean defectors and activists who spoke with The Associated Press.

Hannah Song, CEO of LiNK, said Hong has had no involvement with the organization for more than 10 years. "We have no knowledge of his recent activities," Song said.

The Spanish judge, Jose de la Mata, described Adrian Hong Chang as a Mexican national and resident of the United States. According to the Spanish court report, the man flew to the United States on Feb. 23, got in touch with the FBI and offered to share material and videos. The report didn't say what type of information the items contained or whether the FBI accepted the offer.

An online message by AP to a verified Twitter account linked to activist Adrian Hong wasn't immediately answered.

Hong is known for his work helping North Koreans flee their homeland and resettle in South Korea and elsewhere. LiNK said it has helped more than 1,000 North Koreans reach safety. Fellow activists and North Korean defectors said Hong was detained in China briefly in the 2000s because of his work.

Kang Chol-hwan, a prominent North Korean defector-turned-activist, said he was close to Hong and helped him with LiNK.

Kang, an ex-inmate of North Korea's notorious Yodok prison camp, said Hong became passionate about North Korean human rights after reading his detention memoir. He said Hong visited Seoul and rallied against what he believed were pro-North Korea sympathizers and those silent on North Korean human rights issues.

Kang, who said he last saw Hong about five years ago, said Hong wanted to "muster anti-government forces (in North Korea) and bring down North Korea from the inside." Kang said Hong even went to Libya to study the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi so he could explore ways to topple the Kim government.

"He has great capacity for organization because of his experience establishing LiNK," Kang said. "He's a very smart guy."

Fellow defector-turned-activist Heu Kang Il, who met Hong around 2005, recalled him as a "passionate young man."

Testifying before the Canadian Senate in 2016, Hong said: "North Korea is not a normal nation with the government seeking to serve and protect its citizens. It is a brutal totalitarian regime, ruled by a royal family and a class of vassals, both in tenuous concert with one another. It does not care for the welfare of its people."

In an op-ed for The Christian Science Monitor in 2014, Hong said the international community must support "efforts to strengthen meaningful opposition and civil society in the country, training exiles to one day assume leadership positions, educating younger refugees, and creating more robust programs to help defectors adjust to life on the outside."

"A class of Korean technocrats must be capable of stabilizing and rebuilding on a national scale," Hong wrote.

Source: Fox News World

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Story Time

1:00 am 6:00 am



The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist