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Sudan’s gum arabic dealers shrug off strife to tap fizzy drink market

FILE PHOTO: Gum arabic is seen on an Acacia trees in the western Sudanese town of El-Nahud
FILE PHOTO: Gum arabic is seen on an Acacia trees in the western Sudanese town of El-Nahud that lies in the main farming state of North Kordofan December 18, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

February 26, 2019

By Patrick Werr

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan has faced multiple armed conflicts, economic slumps and nationwide protests, but one of its little known exports has proved resilient through all the turmoil: gum arabic, an essential ingredient in fizzy drinks.

The gum, tapped from acacia trees, is a bonding agent and emulsifier crucial for soft drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, keeping the sugar from separating and sinking to the bottom of the bottle.

It is so crucial to the world beverages industry that the United States specifically exempted it from the economic sanctions it imposed on Sudan in 1997 over allegations of human rights abuses and supporting terrorism.

Gum arabic is grown mainly in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile – Sudan’s poorest and most strife-ridden regions, where insurgencies have simmered for years, in a country awash with other economic obstacles.

“There has been a lack of petrol, diesel, electricity, plus the ability to transfer funds,” said Hisham Salih Yagoub, whose company Afritec cleans, dries and processes 17,000 tonnes a year before sending it to France for further processing.

The gum, also used in paints, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, comes from two species of acacia tree native to the Sahel, the narrow strip of arid land along the Sahara’s southern border.

Sudan, with the densest acacia forests of them all, is the world’s largest exporter, accounting for two-thirds of the total, according to a 2018 UNCTAD report.

Despite the problems, Sudan’s gum arabic exports have grown from $33.1 million in 2009, when the government ended a state monopoly on the business, to $114.7 million in 2017, according to central bank statistics.

TRADING OBSTACLES

But getting that product to international markets has not been easy.

Last year a new problem emerged, a shortage of Sudanese banknotes needed to pay the gum collectors, most of whom live in remote and rudimentary conditions at the edge of the desert.

The collectors are often family groups of about ten members who begin tapping the trees in late September by making a cut in the trunk using a special knife.

About 40 days after the acacias are wounded, the sap oozes out and hardens into beads. The tree requires daily attention. If left unpicked for two or three days the beads cover up and the tree stops bleeding, maybe for the rest of the season, which lasts until May or June.

Tapped correctly – no more than 2 cm deep at the right time – the best trees will produce up to 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) per day. Deeper wounds can cause a tree to stop producing for months.

Afritec’s Yagoub said the banknote shortage has largely stopped him from buying this season. “Some farmers have been accepting checks but it costs 15 percent more,” he said.

But Azhari Eltigani Elsheikh, whose company Migana Industries exports 10,000 tonnes of gum a year, continues to buy, saying his 20-year relationship with his pickers and agents has created trust, allowing him to buy with promises to deliver cash later.

The gum is taken from the auctions for cleaning, drying and processing at plants in Khartoum, then loaded into containers for shipment to Europe.

Yet despite the exemption from sanctions, exporters have had to work around separate U.S. financial sanctions imposed on Sudanese banks.

Yagoub exports to Nexira, a specialties food company based in Rouen, France.

To avoid settling in dollars and exposing themselves to U.S. scrutiny, both Nexira and Yagoub’s bank, the Bank of Khartoum, have opened euro-denominated accounts in KBC, a Belgian bank, with funds moved discreetly within the bank, Yagoub said.

Elsheikh has followed an even more circuitous route, setting up trading companies in Britain and the UAE and channelling payments through the Emirates. Transfers can take six months.

Even with Sudan’s political turmoil, both Yagoub and Elsheikh have plans to expand their operations.

“The land, the studies are ready,” Yagoub said.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr; editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Campenaerts breaks Wiggins’ one-hour record in Mexico

Belgium's Victor Campenaerts takes the hour record in Aguascalientes, Mexico
Cycling - Belgium's Victor Campenaerts takes the hour record at the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico, April 16, 2019 Belgium's Victor Campenaerts pedals during his attempt to break cycling's hour record REUTERS/Liberto Urena

April 16, 2019

(Reuters) – Belgian Victor Campenaerts broke Bradley Wiggins’ UCI hour record at Mexico’s Velodromo Bicentenario on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Flemish rider, who has won the last two European time trial titles, covered 55.089 kilometers.

That effort topped the mark previously set in June 2015 when five-times Olympic champion and Tour de France winner Wiggins completed a distance of 54.526 km at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark.

“I am happy I broke the magic mark of 55 kilometers,” said Lotto-Soudal rider Campenaerts.

“It was super hard, I was a bit optimistic in the first 30 minutes and then I said myself I had to slow down a bit the pace, but even with that I think I was faster than Wiggins in all parts.

“The team gave me all the confidence I needed and I was able to answer them the right way.”

The Bicentenario velodrome in Aguascalientes sits at an altitude of 1,800m and has hosted several track-record bids.

To prepare, Campenaerts spent two months in Namibia for altitude training, took part in the Tirreno-Adriatico — his only early-season race — before flying to Mexico at the end of March to acclimatise himself and complete his preparations.

“We’ve seen a superb performance,” said UCI President David Lappartient. “Well done to Victor, who had an amazing ride and showed his consistency from the start right through to the end of his attempt, a key factor in his success.”

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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Texas Tech ends Buffalo’s best season in 2nd round

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round-Texas Tech vs Buffalo
Mar 24, 2019; Tulsa, OK, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders guard Jarrett Culver (23) shoots the ball between Buffalo Bulls forward Nick Perkins (33) and guard Dontay Caruthers (22) during the second half in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at BOK Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

March 25, 2019

Sophomore guard Jarrett Culver recorded 16 points and 10 rebounds as Texas Tech mauled Buffalo 78-58 on Sunday in NCAA Tournament second-round play at Tulsa, Okla.

Senior center Norense Odiase added 14 points and a career-best 15 rebounds as third-seeded Texas Tech (28-6) cruised in the West Region contest. Senior guard Matt Mooney and sophomore guard Davide Moretti had 11 points apiece and senior forward Tariq Owens had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Red Raiders.

Texas Tech will face second-seeded Michigan in the Sweet 16 in Anaheim, Calif., on Thursday.

Senior forward Nick Perkins registered 17 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for sixth-seeded Buffalo (32-4), which scored its fewest points of the season. Senior guard CJ Massinburg added 14 points and junior guard Davonta Jordan had 13.

The Bulls shot just 37.3 percent from the field and were 9 of 26 from behind the arc.

The Red Raiders held a 46-29 rebounding edge while shooting 48.2 percent from the field, including 5 of 16 from 3-point range.

Texas Tech started fast and finished strong while taking a 33-25 halftime advantage.

The Red Raiders held a 19-6 lead after sophomore forward Deshawn Corprew drained a 3-pointer with 11:10 left. Buffalo answered with a 19-5 surge to take its only lead of the game at 25-24 on Jordan’s 3-pointer with 3:26 remaining.

Texas Tech scored the final nine points of the half for the eight-point cushion and continued the rampage with an 18-3 burst to start the second half. The Bulls missed their first 10 field-goal attempts of the second stanza.

Culver buried a 3-pointer to increase the margin to 48-28 with 14:15 left and the lead reached 23 before Harris converted a basket with 12:27 remaining to end Buffalo’s field-goal drought of 10:59.

A short time later, freshman guard Kyler Edwards drained back-to-back 3-pointers and Odiase scored on a putback during a 9-0 push to give the Red Raiders a 62-33 advantage with 9:18 remaining.

Buffalo never put up a charge while suffering a disappointing end to the best season in program history.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Gidley: Pardons for Trump Associates Not Discussed

There have been no conversations about President Donald Trump issuing pardons for any of his associates who have been charged or pleaded guilty as part of the U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the White House said Monday.

There has been "no discussion that I'm aware of" regarding pardons, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. Fellow White House spokesman Hogan Gidley also told MSNBC in an interview that the White House has not had any conversations about such pardons.

Gidley said he did not know whether any lawyers for Trump's associates had approached the White House counsel about pardons.

Mueller's team finished up work on Friday and submitted its findings to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who issued a four-page summary on Sunday. Barr said the Special Counsel's Office had found no evidence of criminal collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia in the 2016 election but had left open the issue of whether Trump had tried to obstruct justice.

Still, Mueller's investigation led to charges and guilty pleas against dozens of people, including a series of Russian nationals and companies as well as several top Trump advisers, such as former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former adviser Roger Stone.

"We have a very rigorous process that relates to pardons," Gidley told MSNBC.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Germany's Lufthansa orders 40 Boeing 787, Airbus A350 planes

Germany's Lufthansa says it is ordering dozens of new Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 long-haul jets, and will sell six of its Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft in the coming years.

Germany's biggest airline said its supervisory board on Wednesday approved the purchase of 20 Boeing 787-9 planes and 20 Airbus A350-900s. The new planes will be delivered from late 2022 to 2027.

Though it didn't disclose the purchase price, Lufthansa said it negotiated a "significant" reduction on the $12 billion list price.

CEO Carsten Spohr said "by replacing four-engine planes with new models, we are laying a sustainable foundation for our future."

The company said it plans to sell six of its 14 A380 planes to Airbus, with the planes leaving Lufthansa in 2022 and 2023. The price wasn't disclosed.

Source: Fox News World

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Not A Hoax: CNN’s Van Jones Compares Smollett to Jackie Robinson

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Source: InfoWars

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Trump World ramps up campaign to turn tables in Russia case, target Dems who ‘colluded’

As Democratic leaders tentatively took impeachment proceedings off the docket this week, the White House put payback on the front burner -- calling for closer looks into everyone from the FBI officials who investigated the Russia case to allies of Hillary Clinton's campaign who solicited foreign help during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“All those things have to be explored and more,” Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday.

On social media and in televised interviews, President Trump, his attorneys, his campaign and senior members of his administration have in the wake of the Robert Mueller report seemingly adopted a strategy of highlighting lesser-known episodes of alleged misconduct by Democrats and investigators, as Democrats pursue obstruction of justice inquiries.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway led the charge on Monday, openly wondering on Twitter why former FBI Director James Comey focused so heavily on the lurid and salacious claims in a largely discredited anti-Trump dossier.

"Comey, then-FBI Director, waited 2 months after @realDonaldTrump was elected to pay a visit & brief the President-elect," Conway wrote. "While there, he wasted his time on this golden-shower-nonsense-concocted-dossier. Could have been honest about Obama ignoring Russian interference instead."

COMEY'S PAPER TRAIL: WHY DID FBI DIRECTOR KEEP HIGHLY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IN HIS PERSONAL MEMOS?

"Tables are finally turning on the Witch Hunt!" Trump also tweeted.

The FBI is currently being sued by conservative group Judicial Watch, after the bureau failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request concerning contacts in late 2016 between the then-FBI general counsel and a top Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, as well as contacts between the FBI and the author of the dossier.

Comey briefed Trump on the salacious contents of the dossier in January 2017, ostensibly to make him aware of potential blackmail threats, Comey later testified. That confidential meeting later leaked, and CNN cited the fact that intelligence officials had briefed Trump on the dossier as a justification for airing the story, even though the dossier's claims were unverified.

Comey told lawmakers that then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper, an Obama appointee, came up with the idea to brief Trump on the dossier's contents.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had the idea to brief Trump on the Steele dossier in January 2017, former FBI Director James Comey has testified.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had the idea to brief Trump on the Steele dossier in January 2017, former FBI Director James Comey has testified. (Reuters)

Separately this week, Giuliani revived Republican-led calls to look into whether, and to what extent, a Democratic Party consultant worked with Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign.

"Keep your eye on Ukraine," he said Wednesday.

A 2017 investigation by Politico found that Ukrainian officials not only publicly sought to undermine Trump by questioning his fitness for office, but also worked behind the scenes to secure a Clinton victory.

ANTI-TRUMP AGENT STRZOK'S PHONE FROM DAYS ON MUELLER TEAM TOTALLY WIPED; FBI BLAMES SOFTWARE GLITCH FOR OTHER MISSING TEXTS

Among other initiatives, Politico found, the Ukrainian government worked with a DNC consultant to conduct opposition research against Trump, including going after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for Russian ties, helping lead to his resignation.

Last month, Ukraine Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko opened a probe into the so-called black ledger files that led to Manafort's departure, after a leaked tape recording apparently showed a senior Ukrainian anticorruption official admitting to disclosing Manafort's information to help the Clinton campaign. A Ukrainian court later ruled that the move amounted to illegal interference in the U.S. election.

"Now Ukraine is investigating Hillary campaign and DNC conspiracy with foreign operatives including Ukrainian and others to affect 2016 election," Giuliani tweeted Tuesday. "And there’s no Comey to fix the result."

On Sunday, Giuliani hammered the same theme. "Is it a crime for an American campaign to consider information from a foreign source or to obtain it?" he asked, responding to claims that the Trump team acted improperly by meeting with Russian-affiliated individuals who promised damaging information on Clinton.

"If so the allegation that the DNC [Democratic National Committee] colluded with Ukrainian officials to generate information to hurt the Trump campaign and help the Clinton campaign must be investigated," Giuliani added.

Buoyed by Special Counsel Mueller's findings that no member of the Trump team illegally conspired with Russia, Republicans have additionally turned to a separate known episode of apparent collaboration between a 2016 presidential campaign and a foreign national -- specifically, the decision by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC to hire Fusion GPS. The firm, in turn, funded the infamous dossier, drafted by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which contained numerous assertions that fueled an anti-Trump media frenzy -- but that Mueller's investigators were unable to substantiate.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller walks to his car after attending services at St. John's Episcopal Church, across from the White House, in Washington, on Sunday.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller walks to his car after attending services at St. John's Episcopal Church, across from the White House, in Washington, on Sunday. (AP)

Nonetheless, the FBI relied heavily on the dossier to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to monitor former Trump aide Carter Page, and the bureau did not clearly disclose to the FISA court that Steele was working for a firm funded by Clinton and the DNC. Rather, the FBI told the court the materials were prepared in connection with a campaign for president. (Only partial versions of the FBI's FISA application has been released; Trump has told Fox News he will eventually declassify and release all relevant information from the FISA application.)

Democrats, too, heavily pushed the Steele dossier. At a 2017 hearing, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., confidently described Steele as "a former British intelligence officer who is reportedly held in high regard by U.S. intelligence" and repeatedly cited "Steele's Russian sources" as he described a purported Trump-Russia conspiracy.

But in an article last week, The New York Times joined a chorus of publications that have long cast doubt on the dossier's veracity, writing that the document "financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee" was "likely to face new, possibly harsh scrutiny from multiple inquiries."

The article noted that Steele relied in part on Russian sources and that, ironically, the document could have been part of a "Russian disinformation" effort to smear Trump even as Moscow was going after Clinton.

The article suggested that dossier skepticism, once panned as denialism, has entered the mainstream, as Mueller's report found "some of the most sensational claims in the dossier appeared to be false, and others were impossible to prove."

Internal FBI text messages obtained by Fox News last month showed that a senior Justice Department official warned of "bias" in a source key to a FISA application. The DOJ Inspector General is investigating whether the FBI violated its procedures or Page's constitutional rights by withholding exculpatory information from the FISA court.

"The Office of the Inspector General has a pending investigation of the FISA process in the Russian investigation, and I expect that that will be complete probably in May or June, I am told," Attorney General William Barr testified earlier this month.

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has already sent several criminal referrals to the Justice Department related to alleged crimes committed during the Russia probe, and Fox News is told as many as "two dozen" individuals could be implicated. It was unclear exactly whom had been referred.

"The American people have only seen the pieces that have been declassified so far," Nunes told Fox News earlier this month. "There's still more information."

The Trump team's pushback comes as top Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have clamped down on calls to impeach the president. In a private Democrat conference call on Monday, two sources told Fox News, Pelosi said impeachment would be premature, and even anti-Trump firebrand Maxine Waters declined to call on her colleagues to begin impeachment proceedings.

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: INSIDE MONDAY'S DEM CONFERENCE CALL ON IMPEACHMENT PLANS

However, Fox News is told Democrats emphasized on the conference call that more investigations and fact-finding are necessary before any final decision can be made.

Schiff, for his part, has already referred to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting as "direct evidence" of collusion in plain sight. Schiff has only doubled down since Mueller's report was published, calling for closer looks into Trump's finances and contacts with Russians.

Donald Trump Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and Manafort were known to have attended the meeting with Kremlin-linked attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the Trump team gave shifting explanations for the role of the president in drafting media responses to inquiries about the episode.

But Mueller found that the meeting was not a criminal campaign finance violation, in part because there was insufficient evidence that the involved parties knew they were breaking the law -- a high standard that applies only to certain crimes. Additionally, prosecutors said, it was unclear whether an exchange of information not available on the public marketplace could constitute a "campaign contribution" by a foreign national in the first place.

Still, Schiff told Fox News that episodes like that meeting raised grave concerns, and indicated impeachment would be a "difficult" issue that would be addressed in a matter of weeks.

In the dueling messaging wars, though, the Trump team has been nothing if not confident in recent days.

Giuliani told "Fox News Sunday," for example, that "so far we don’t think we need to" release a planned counter-report to Mueller's findings, because "we think the public debate is playing out about as well as it can -- why confuse it?"

Fox News' Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 26, 2019

LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.

The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)

Source: OANN

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo

April 26, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.

The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.

Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.

But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.

Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.

High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.

It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.

Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.

“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.

The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.

Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.

Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.

Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.

Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.

This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 26, 2019

By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh

(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.

The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.

Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.

“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.

Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.

“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.

U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.

Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.

Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.

Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.

Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.

Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.

Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.

Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.

Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan

(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.

Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.

Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.

WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?

The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.

Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.

HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?

The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.

Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.

The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.

The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.

No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.

Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.

Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.

CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?

No.

Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.

“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.

“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”

PROOF OF WRONGDOING?

In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.

Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”

PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?

Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.

In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.

The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.

WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?

A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes
FILE PHOTO: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s lawyers on Friday are set to ask a Florida judge to toss out hidden-camera videos that prosecutors say show the 77-year-old billionaire receiving sexual favors for money inside a Florida massage parlor.

The owner of the reigning Super Bowl champions plans wants the video to not be used as evidence against him as he contests two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Florida, along with some two dozen other men.

His legal team is fresh off a win on Tuesday, when they successfully persuaded Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser to block prosecutors from releasing the hidden-camera footage to media outlets, which had requested copies under the state’s robust open records law.

Kraft, who has owned the franchise since 1994, pleaded not guilty, but has issued a public apology for his actions.

His attorneys have argued in court papers that the surreptitious videotaping of customers, including Kraft, inside a massage parlor was governmental overreach and the result of an illegally obtained search warrant.

The warrant, Kraft’s lawyers claim, was secured under false pretenses because police officers cited human trafficking as a potential crime in their application. Prosecutors have since acknowledged that the investigation yielded no evidence of trafficking.

Palm Beach County prosecutors in a court filing on Wednesday said Kraft’s motion should be rejected because he could not have had any expectation of privacy while visiting a commercial establishment to engage in criminal activity.

That prompted an indignant response from Kraft’s attorneys, who said the prosecution’s position on privacy was “unhinged.”

“It should go without saying that Mr. Kraft and everyone else in the United States have a reasonable expectation that the government will not secretly spy on them while they undress behind closed doors,” they wrote.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, editing by G Crosse)

Source: OANN

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