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7 in South Sudan charged with sabotage and insurgency

Seven people including South Sudanese academic and activist, Peter Biar Ajak, were charged in court Monday with sabotage, insurgency and possession of weapons for allegedly staging an uprising in South Sudan's main national security prison in October. If found guilty they could be sentenced to death.

The men are being tried in a civilian court and are being accused by the country's National Security Service for stealing firearms and communicating false statements while in prison. South Sudanese businessman, Kerbino Agok Wol, one of the accused, allegedly spearheaded the attack and then spoke about it with U.S. based news outlet, Voice of America while in jail.

The charges are the first to be brought against the men, and they are different from the reasons each of them was originally detained.

Ajak, a political commentator and a graduate of Harvard University and a PhD student at Cambridge University in Britain was arrested in July at Juba's international airport. Businessman and philanthropist, Wol was detained last April and another of the accused, Benjamin Agai, had been in prison for 10 months for allegedly stealing a car, yet this was the first time he'd seen a judge, he said.

During the hearing, Ajak's lawyer, Monyluak Alor Kuol accused the prosecution of trying to deflect public attention away from the reason his client was in jail in the first place. "He's a victim of abuse of power by some national security elements," said Kuol.

Last month the United Nations warned that South Sudan is increasingly run by its national security service and the country is at risk of becoming a police state, according to a report by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

Monday's hearing, in a packed courtroom attended by members of the international community including the United States, the United Nations and advocacy groups, was at times charged.

At one point the prosecution presented government papers to the court referring to incidents with names and dates that didn't match the present case. "This trial is something else, these statements are something else," said Wol's defense lawyer, Ajak Mayol Bior waving his hands in the air.

In recent months several in the international community has pressured South Sudan's government to release both Wol and Ajak.

In March the U.N. condemned Ajak's continued detention citing a "clear trend in the use of national security and counter-terrorism legislation by states to criminalize free expression and the legitimate work of human rights defenders." U.S. congresswoman Madeleine Dean tweeted in February that it's time for South Sudan's President Salva Kiir to free South Sudan's political prisoners, including Ajak.

And for the first time ever, earlier this month South Sudan's government was summoned to appear before the East African Court of Justice over the arbitrary arrest and detention of Wol, according to Amnesty International.

As the trial continues with two more hearings scheduled later this week, local advocacy groups are calling on the government to uphold the rule of law.

"It is a right time for the state to exercise its constitutional obligations on protecting the rights of the citizens," said Edmund Yakani, executive director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a local rights group.

Source: Fox News World

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WSJ: World Leaders Have Direct Line to Trump

President Donald Trump has taken a hands-on approach to diplomacy, even giving some world leaders his personal cell phone number, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Trump has encouraged the practice, although senior officials are often left in the dark because of it and remain concerned about promises made that cannot be fulfilled.

"We never know who he's talking to or what he's agreed to," one official told the newspaper.

Trump prefers direct communication so he and his counterparts can "speak freely without the bureaucratic headaches and security measures that often come with official calls," reports the WSJ.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and North Korea's Kim Jong Un all have a direct line to Trump.

"At this point, foreign leaders understand that nobody can speak authoritatively other than Trump, and that what other interlocutors say may not represent the president's position today," Robert Danin, a longtime U.S. diplomat, told the WSJ.

Trump often prefers one-on-one discussions, an approach he used in his business dealings before entering the White House in 2017.

Source: NewsMax America

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Read the Robert Mueller report

Source: Fox News Politics

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New York Democrats launch fresh bid to dig up Trump’s tax returns

New York state Democrats launched a new effort Monday to pave the way for the release of President Trump’s state tax returns – a move New York’s GOP chairman called “ludicrous,” “partisan” and illegal.

Under New York tax law, it is illegal to share someone’s state tax return information.

DEMS RAMP UP ANTI-TRUMP PROBES

But on Monday, state Sen. Brad Hoylman introduced S5072, which would amend the law and require the commissioner of taxation and finance “to cooperate with investigations by certain committees of the United States Congress under certain circumstances” – a bid to let the state share tax return information, specifically Trump’s, with congressional committees that request it.

“This new bill will permit New York State to comply with requests from congressional investigative committees and help ensure Congress can’t be blocked in their attempts to hold even the highest elected officials in the land accountable to the American people,” Hoylman said in a statement.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the bill could help Congress get tax returns if blocked at the federal level – an apparent reference to an effort by another House committee to get six years of Trump’s returns directly from the IRS.

“This legislation would make the work of a federal committee a little easier, if confronted with inability to receive the federal tax return, we can turn to New York State,” Nadler said.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats will “never” see the president’s tax returns, “nor should they.”

MULVANEY VOWS DEMS WILL NEVER SEE TRUMP TAX RETURNS

Ed Cox, the chairman of the New York State Republican Party, called the latest legislation from New York Democrats “ludicrous.”

“This is so political, so aimed at Donald Trump no matter how they disguise it otherwise,” said Cox, who predicted the issue will go all the way to the Supreme Court. “I suspect it will be ruled to violate equal protection laws and be deemed a bill of attainder.”

A bill of attainder is an unconstitutional legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial. Cox argues the Democratic majority and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are trying to change the law for political gain.

“They are trying to re-litigate the 2016 election. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome and in the process, they aren’t doing the business of the people of New York state. Instead they are playing politics including the governor, who is running hard to be president,” Cox said.

Cuomo has said he will not make a 2020 presidential run and has said former Vice President Joe Biden has the “best case” among the Democratic contenders. But in a profile in The Atlantic, Cuomo suggested that “if” Biden chooses not to run, he could throw his hat in the ring.

To this point, Cuomo has not expressed public support for the legislative proposals.

The push for S5072 follows the January introduction of a bill by New York Assemblyman David Buchwald that requires the disclosure of tax returns by statewide elected officials including the president.

On the steps of the state capitol in Albany, Buchwald and Hoylman touted that legislation, the New York Truth Act, as critical.

“Why is it important that we have access to the president’s tax returns? It is because those tax returns reveal conflicts and potential conflicts of interest. They show whether the president has been in full compliance with our tax laws and they also show what the implications are to him of proposals he makes to amend the tax laws in this country,” Buchwald, a former tax attorney, said at the press conference.

While similar efforts have failed in the past, state Democrats suggest this year’s could gain traction. Buchwald said 93 Assembly members and a majority 32 state senators support the Truth Act.

“There is a copy of President Trump’s tax returns right here in New York state in an office somewhere, and the only thing that prevents that state income tax return from being made public is a state statute that we in the state legislature should have the power to amend,” Buchwald said.

Trump has shown little interest in turning over the documents, as the White House braces for a fight.

“We’re under audit, despite what people said, and we’re working that out—I’m always under audit, it seems, and I’ve been under audit for many years because the numbers are big. ... But until such time as I’m not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that,” Trump told reporters last week.

Source: Fox News Politics

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McCabe: Rosenstein thought 2 Cabinet members could support bid to oust Trump

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said Thursday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told him during a 2017 meeting that he thought two Cabinet members might support efforts to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office.

Fox News on Sunday reported similar comments from former top FBI lawyer James Baker, who claimed Rosenstein said two Cabinet members were “ready to support” such an effort. In a previous interview promoting his new book, McCabe said Rosenstein discussed the possibility of Cabinet members supporting the 25th Amendment idea, without getting into specifics.

MCCABE SAYS ROSENSTEIN WAS 'ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS' ABOUT SECRETLY RECORDING TRUMP

McCabe did not name names during a session with reporters Thursday either, but echoed the claim that Rosenstein was eyeing two Cabinet members. However, he stressed that Rosenstein had not actually asked anyone to support it and suggested he was speculating about which Cabinet members might sign on.

“Rod indicated to me people he thought might support -- not that he had Cabinet members, not that he'd asked anybody, not that he'd floated the idea to two Cabinet members or the entire Cabinet or anyone else -- simply that he thought two people might support it,” McCabe said Thursday during the wide-ranging discussion with reporters.

McCabe said he could not remember which two Cabinet members Rosenstein was referring to and did not want to guess about a matter so serious.

“I don't very clearly remember who Rod was talking about and I don't want to give you the wrong names so it's better that I don't comment,” McCabe said.

He described the days following Trump's ousting of former FBI Director James Comey, when Rosenstein is alleged to have made the comments, as “frenzied.”

Rosenstein, who still works at the Justice Department but who is expected to exit by next month, has denied the claims since they first surfaced in the media last year. The White House said this week that Trump will nominate Jeff Rosen to replace him.

TRUMP TO NOMINATE JEFF ROSEN TO REPLACE ROD ROSENSTEIN AS DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL

“As the deputy attorney general previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment, nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment,” the Justice Department said in a statement last week, also pushing back on claims Rosenstein looked at wearing a "wire" to tape Trump.

But Baker, in closed-door testimony to Congress last year, detailed alleged discussions among senior officials at the Justice Department about invoking the 25th Amendment, claiming he was told Rosenstein said two Trump Cabinet officials were “ready to support” such an effort. In his testimony, the lawyer said McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page came to him to relay their conversations with Rosenstein, including discussions of the 25th Amendment.

FORMER TOP FBI LAWYER: 2 TRUMP CABINET OFFICIALS WERE ‘READY TO SUPPORT’ 25TH AMENDMENT EFFORT

Speaking to reporters Thursday, McCabe was asked to describe his relationship with Comey, his former boss, and said, "I don't really have a relationship with Jim now."

Comey and McCabe have previously contradicted each other over whether McCabe told his former boss he was going to speak with a newspaper reporter for a story on the Clinton email case – an issue which led to McCabe’s firing from the FBI last year.

McCabe is now under investigation by the Washington U.S. Attorney's Office for leaking information to that reporter. McCabe's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, on Thursday confirmed that investigation is still ongoing. "We have been in touch with the US Attorney's Office," Bromwich said, saying the probe is “underway."

On Thursday, McCabe also denied past claims he told congressional investigators that without the "Steele dossier," they would not have been able to obtain a FISA warrant on former Trump campaign official Carter Page. That dossier of unverified claims about Trump and his relationship with Russia has played a major role in the Russia investigation.

"My belief is that that is a fundamental misrepresentation of what I said," McCabe said.

McCabe also defended Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, citing the number of “indictments, convictions, guilty pleas.” It’s believed Mueller will submit a report to the attorney general in the near future about his investigation.

“You've got dozens of indicted intelligence officers, people connected to foreign intelligence services in Russia,” McCabe said. “I mean, it's a remarkable investigation, and it's one that's produced tangible and meaningful results, and I think that alone justifies and validates, certainly our initial fears, our initial concerns and I think it validates the process that Mueller and his team have gone through to get here.”

McCabe, who has sparred with the president as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill about his leadership at the FBI, was asked if he is still a Republican.

"I can't imagine voting for a Republican now," he said.

Fox News’ Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Beto doubles down on call to abolish Electoral College

Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke reiterated his call on Monday to abolish the Electoral College.

Answering a question from the audience at the We The People summit in Washington, the former Texas congressman argued that doing away with the Electoral College would restore the trust of voters, impinge on the practice of gerrymandering and allow for fairer elections.

“Let’s abolish the electoral college,” O’Rourke said. “If we get rid of the Electoral College, we’d get a little closer to one person, one vote.”

He added: “Our democracy…it is warped, it is corrupted right now. It we don’t fix it, it’s never going to get better.”

BETO O'ROURKE PICKING UP SUPPORT FROM PRIMARY RIVALS OUT OF THE GATE

O’Rourke, who rose to national prominence during his failed campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas last fall, has spoken before about moving to abolish the Electoral College.

During an event at Penn State University last month, O’Rourke questioned how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election despite receiving more votes overall than President Trump.

“I think there’s a lot to that. Because you had an election in 2016 where the loser got 3 million more votes than the victor,” O’Rourke said in a video posted online.

He added: “It puts some states out of play altogether, they don’t feel like their votes really count.

“If we really want everyone to vote, to give them every reason to vote, we have to make sure their votes count and go to the candidate of their choosing,” O’Rourke said. “So I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that.”

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

O’Rourke’s call echoes that of his fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who also has advocated abolishing the Electoral College.

“Every vote matters and the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting, and that means get rid of the Electoral College,” Warren said.

If the move is ever brought to fruition, it would almost certainly face a court challenge.

It has gained renewed attention amid Democrats grumbling about the Electoral College in the wake of President Trump's 2016 win. While he defeated Hillary Clinton in the electoral vote, he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million ballots.

Fox News’ Liam Quinn contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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ECB’s Villeroy urges lower capital for EU banks’ European subsidiaries

FILE PHOTO: ECB policymaker Villeroy de Galhau, who is also governor of the French central bank, attends the Paris Europlace International Financial Forum in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who is also governor of the French central bank, attends the Paris Europlace International Financial Forum in Tokyo, Japan, November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

April 5, 2019

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Lower capital requirements for European subsidiaries of EU banks would help encourage the emergence of more cross-border banks, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday.

ECB officials have long called for cross-border consolidation among European banks, which they believe would help credit flow to countries needing it most, making their monetary policy more potent.

But such consolidation is slow because bankers say that current regulations tie up to much capital in their European subsidiaries for cross-border mergers to make sense.

“We will not achieve an effective and profitable Banking Union without cross-border consolidation in Europe: there are still too many roadblocks and not enough cross-border restructuring,” Villeroy said in a speech at financial conference in Bucharest.

“A useful step towards forming genuine pan-European banking groups could be to lower capital requirements of European subsidiaries, while safeguarding their financial position through credible cross-border guarantees provided by the parent company,” added Villeroy, who is also head of the French central bank.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Slack Technologies Inc, operator of the popular workplace instant-messaging app, reported a loss of $140.7 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing ahead of its planned public market debut.

The company said its daily active users exceeded 10 million in the three months ended Jan. 31, 2019.

Slack expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SK”, it said.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to go public via a direct listing, making it the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass the traditional route of listing shares through an initial public offering.

A direct listing is a cheaper way of becoming a public company as the process requires fewer investment banks and therefore lower fees.

In a direct listing, however, a company does not sell any new shares to raise money. Instead, it gives existing shareholders the opportunity to cash out.

Slack is the latest in a string of high-profile technology companies looking to go public this year. Lyft Inc, Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications have completed IPOs so far in 2019.

The company is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing, Reuters had previously reported. Some early investors and employees have been selling the stock at around $28, valuing the company close to $17 billion, Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge, a brokerage company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Slack set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Its competitors include Microsoft Teams, a free chat add-on for Microsoft’s Office365 users.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s decision to make it easier for residents of rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport is meant to test Ukraine’s new leader and the West should not recognize the documents, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the order on facilitating passports on Wednesday, three days after comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Linas Linkevicius, whose own country also has strained relations with Moscow, told Reuters in an interview that the West should consider imposing new sanctions on Russia.

“This is a blatant violation of international law. And basically also a kind of test to the new (Ukrainian) leadership, which is also a usual game,” Linkevicius said.

“The least we can do (is) we shouldn’t recognize these passports. How to do that technically, it’s another issue to discuss. Also (we need) to look at additional sanctions,” said Linkevicius, whose small Baltic nation is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for armed separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Some 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict despite a notional ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015.

Linkevicius, who in Kiev on Friday became the first minister of an EU country since Ukraine’s election to meet President-elect Zelenskiy, said they had discussed the passport issue.

Zelenskiy also raised the possibility of resetting the Minsk ceasefire agreement without giving any concessions to Russia, Linkevicius said.

“DANGEROUS CANCER” OF GRAFT

The minister urged Zelenskiy to deliver on his electoral promise of tackling corruption, which he described as the “most dangerous cancer” facing Ukraine, which hopes one day to join the EU.

Last month, Lithuania’s own relations with Russia came under renewed strain after a Vilnius court found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov, in absentia, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in a 1991 crackdown against Lithuania’s pro-independence movement.

Russia branded the verdict “extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative” and opened a probe into the judges involved.

Linkevicius accused Russia of seeking to politicize the judicial process by trying to take revenge on the judges, adding: “This is lamentable.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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A Cook County judge recently called out embattled State Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report — but dropping similar charges against embattled “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.

Foxx has faced intense criticism over her office’s decision to drop a 16-count indictment against Smollett, just weeks after bringing the charges against the high-profile TV star. Foxx’s deal with Smollett, which did not require him to admit guilt, drew ire from the public, the city’s top cop and the former mayor who called it a “whitewash of justice.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHICAGO PROSECUTOR KIM FOXX CHIDED BY NATIONAL ATTORNEYS GROUPS AFTER JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED 

Cook County Judge Marc Martin, who was presiding over an unrelated case, chastised Foxx and her office for creating a situation where anyone charged with filing a false report would expect the same leniency her office afforded Smollett.

Candace Clark, 21, is facing one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors accused her of giving a friend access to her bank account and then telling authorities the money had been stolen. She denies the charges and claims she’s the victim of Foxx’s double standard — something the judge weighed in on.

“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good. And this smells, big time,” Martin said to prosecutors during a recent hearing, Fox 32 reported. “I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”

The judge continued, “There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown. It’s not right. And (if) I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. (If the) press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February but continued to oversee the investigation through text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats.

The text messages revealed Foxx called Smollett a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” They also show she cautioned Magats about throwing the book at Smollett.

“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.

“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with four women, three of whom were underage.

KIM FOXX’S CHIEF ETHICS OFFICER RESIGNS FOLLOWING SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY

President Trump said last month he asked for a federal review of Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. He also called the actor “an absolute embarrassment to our country.”

The Smollett case garnered national attention and threatened to tear Chicago apart. It pit the police department and mayor against prosecutors and underscored the idea that wealthy people are somehow above the law.

Smollett told police he was attacked on Jan. 29 around 2 a.m. as he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. He said two masked men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, beat him and tied a rope around his neck. He claimed they shouted, “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

CLICK HERE FOF THE FOX NEWS APP

After an intense investigation, police said Smollett staged the entire incident to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett has strongly denied the accusations.

Source: Fox News National

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