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The real foundation of Notre Dame


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On the roster: The real foundation of Notre Dame - Bernie makes no apologies at Fox News town hall - Dems start to sweat Trump’s fundraising advantage - Pelosi faces heat from party over Omar dispute - Hamburglars
 
THE REAL FOUNDATION OF NOTRE DAME 
If the art and design that a civilization leaves behind is a more honest reflection of its values than the subjective accounts of chroniclers and historians, Western Europe 900 years ago was wild as hell.

Talking about the dizzyingly detailed 18-foot-tall bronze candlesticks cast in the style of central France’s Cluny abbey, art historian Kenneth Clark described their creators’ “irrepressible, irresponsible energy.”

“The Romanesque carvers were like a school of dolphins,” Clark said in the second episode of his 1969 BBC television series “Civilisation.” And looking at the work you have to agree. Our modern aesthetic recoils from such gaudy ornamentation, but 12th century artists were not looking for spare, clean lines. And like a bunch of dolphins (actually called a pod, Sir Kenneth) frolicking in the surf, they were utterly heedless.

The art is seemingly alive, crawling with fantastic beasts, writhing humans and, of course, dogs. In the churches and palaces of the day, like the one where the great Charlemagne had ruled in Aachen, every surface that could be was bejeweled or encrusted or etched. Gilt was good. 

You may have forgotten since eighth-grade days, when teachers knew the redeeming power of the audio-visual rack on a balmy spring Tuesday, Clark’s series focuses on art as a key for understanding Western history. Yes, art is to be appreciated for art’s sake, but it is also a reflection of a civilization’s priorities.

How does it spend its treasure? Where does it enshrine its greatest glories? What does it most fear?

In the centuries after the final fall of the Roman Empire in Europe, fear, want and uncertainty were the norms. If you worried when a barbarian tribe would come marauding or Viking long boats would vomit out bloodthirsty shock troops, “berserkers,” to murder, rape and rob you did not take much time to consider your candlesticks.

But slowly, slowly, slowly, men started to reassert order – men like Charlemagne and his grandfather Charles Martel. By the time we reached the second millennium after Jesus, Europeans – at least those where sufficient order had been restored to allow for a new birth of freedom – were ready to create. And a riot of beauty broke out.

“Irrepressible, irresponsible energy” requires order and ease. Every culture creates art, but sometimes it is little more than drawings on a wall. A civilization, however, produces art on a grand scale. That’s because a civilization is a culture strong and stable enough to afford people the chance to let their spirits soar.

Listen to J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 or stand in front Michelangelo’s David or gaze up at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. What connects them? The masterworks of Western art are the fruits of a civilization rich, peaceful and predictable enough to make room for true beauty. 

As the West mourns the loss of much of Paris’ Notre Dame, the great gothic masterpiece, we are rightly considering matters of faith, history, art and culture. But we should also be considering the matter of the health of our civilization.

Notre Dame was built to glorify God. But it was also an act of rebellion – a defiant act of art that boldly rejected the darkness and fear that had kept Europeans gazing earthward for generations. Here in stone and glass and wood was an eruption of human potential – a victorious yawp in the face of benightedness.

As you watch the spire rise above Notre Dame again in the months to come, be grateful that for all of our near failures and for every time the light of learning and beauty was almost extinguished again, we have somehow managed to maintain a civilization that can afford such wondrous things.

And maybe that will remind us all to do more to shore up that civilization in our little corners of the world. Industry, decency, charity, order and community are the real bedrocks on which the foundation of Notre Dame were laid.  

THE RULEBOOK: DON’T JUMP THE GUN
“In some, it has been too evident from their own publications, that they have scanned the proposed Constitution, not only with a predisposition to censure, but with a predetermination to condemn…” – James Madison, Federalist No. 37

TIME OUT: ‘THE SCRAMBLE FOR EGGS’
Smithsonian: “Between 1848 and 1855, some 300,000 fortune-hunters flocked to California from all over the world in hopes of finding gold. … The feverish growth strained the area’s modest agriculture industry. Farmers struggled to keep up with the influx of hungry forty-niners and food prices skyrocketed. … Chicken eggs were particularly scarce and cost up to $1.00 apiece, the equivalent of $30 today. … The situation became so dire that grocery stores started placing ‘egg wanted’ advertisements in newspapers. … The scramble for eggs drew entrepreneurs to an unusual source: a 211-acre archipelago 26 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge known as the Farallon Islands. … [T]he Farallones had one feature that appealed to the ravenous San Franciscans: they hosted the largest seabird nesting colony in the United States. Each spring, hundreds of thousands of birds descended on the forbidding islands, blanketing their jagged cliffs with eggs of all colors and sizes.”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval:
 43.2 percent
Average disapproval: 51.6 percent
Net Score: -8.4 points
Change from one week ago: up 3 points 
[Average includes: Gallup: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; GU Politics/Battleground: 43% approve - 52% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 52% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 44% approve - 50% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 43% approve - 53% disapprove.]

BERNIE MAKES NO APOLOGIES AT FOX NEWS TOWN HALL
Fox News:Bernie Sanders took the stage at a fiery Fox News town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Monday, and sparks flew almost immediately, as Sanders defiantly refused to explain why he would not voluntarily pay the massive new 52-percent ‘wealth tax’ that he advocated imposing on the nation's richest individuals. ‘We'll get through this together,’ Sanders said at one point, as tensions flared. Sanders later admitted outright that ‘you're going to pay more in taxes’ if he became president. Just minutes before the town hall began, Sanders released ten years of his tax returns, which he acknowledged showed that he had been ‘fortunate’ even as he pushed for a more progressive tax system. According to the returns, Sanders and his wife paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on $561,293 in income, and made more than $1 million in both 2016 and 2017. Sanders donated only $10,600 to charity in 2016 and $36,300 in 2017, the records showed, followed by nearly $19,000 in 2018.”

Dems wonder if they can stop Bernie’s momentum - NYT: “…Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders, in a political scenario all too reminiscent of how Mr. Trump himself seized the Republican nomination in 2016. … But stopping Mr. Sanders, or at least preventing a contentious convention, could prove difficult for Democrats. He has enormous financial advantages — already substantially outraising his Democratic rivals — that can sustain a major campaign through the primaries. And he is well-positioned to benefit from a historically large field of candidates that would splinter the vote: If he wins a substantial number of primaries and caucuses and comes in second in others, thanks to his deeply loyal base of voters across many states, he would pick up formidable numbers of delegates for the nomination. That prospect is not only spooking establishment-aligned Democrats, but it is also creating tensions about what, if anything, should be done to halt Mr. Sanders.”

Where does Beto fall on the policy spectrum - Politico:Beto O’Rourke’s most distinctive policy position? To be determined. There’s no signature issue yet, no single policy proposal sparking his campaign. Convening crowds — and listening to them — is the central thrust of his early presidential bid. And one month into the race, even some of O’Rourke’s supporters are starting to worry about persistent criticism that the charismatic Texan is missing big policy ideas of his own. … It’s not that O’Rourke doesn’t have positions. He does, and in the month since announcing his presidential campaign, he has expressed many of them with specificity. … But none of those positions is unique to O’Rourke. And with his relatively meager legislative record — and a belief that he can transcend ideological lanes within the Democratic Party — O'Rourke appears unclear about where he fits on the policy spectrum.”

Mayor Pete pitches national service program plan - Politico: “Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Monday night advocated a form of national public service for all young adults as a way to create unity among Americans. ‘We really want to talk about the threat to social cohesion that helps characterize this presidency but also just this era,’ the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. ‘One thing we could do that would change that would be to make it, if not legally obligatory, but certainly a social norm that anybody after they're 18 spends a year in national service.’ … Buttigieg was vague about what would constitute national service, but both he and Maddow acknowledged it would most likely not be a military draft. Without saying the program would be mandatory, Buttigieg did suggest colleges and employers ask applicants about participation in it.”

Harris rakes in donations from Hollywood - Politico: “Hollywood donors are flocking to Kamala Harris. Actors and actresses who wrote checks to the Harris campaign during the first three months of the year included Ben Affleck, who gave $2,800; Elizabeth Banks, who donated $5,600; Eva Longoria Baston, who donated $5,400; Alison Pill, who donated $360; Wanda Sykes, who donated $500; Lily Tomlin, who donated $525; and America Ferrera, who donated $250. Filmmakers and studio executives were similarly supportive of Harris’ presidential bid: Filmmakers J.J. Abrams and Lee Daniels wrote Harris checks of $2,800 and $2,700, respectively. … Harris did not garner a herd of Hollywood supporters by accident. She has made an effort to court donors in Hollywood for years while holding statewide office in California, as well as during the early months of her presidential bid.”

Tax returns reveal 2020 candidates’ charity donations - WaPo: “Former congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) released 10 years of tax returns last night. He and his wife reported $1,166 of charitable giving from a total income of $370,412 in 2017, the most recent year they released a return for. That’s one-third of 1 percent. How much someone gives to charity is a meaningful metric of their values and priorities, though far from the only one. … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his wife gave $19,000 to charity out of an income of $566,000 last year, or 3.4 percent. … Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) … gave $27,000 to charity – or 1.4 percent. … Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and her husband donated $6,600 of their $338,500 income to charity last year, or just under 2 percent… Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) … gave $3,750 to charity, also just under 2 percent. The most generous of the top-tier presidential candidates appears to be Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). She and her husband donated $50,000 last year of their $906,000 income. That’s 5.5 percent.”

DEMS START TO SWEAT TRUMP’S FUNDRAISING ADVANTAGE
Bloomberg: “Fundraising totals for 2020 candidates show the advantage of being an incumbent president -- and the challenge for Democrats, who are raising less money and still have to compete among themselves before taking on Donald Trump. … Sanders, who leads with $18.2 million raised and has $15.7 million in cash on hand, started with a massive fundraising advantage because of the list of supporters he’s maintained from his failed 2016 bid… Some Democrats moved quickly to use Trump’s fundraising news to seek fresh donations. Kamala Harris sent out an e-mail solicitation seeking more money for her campaign Monday evening, highlighting the $30 million Trump raised during the quarter. … Elizabeth Warren, a Senator from Massachusetts, collected about 70 percent of her contributions in amounts of $200 or less, the filings show. While that’s a higher proportion than many of her contenders, her overall fundraising total lagged others who had declared their intentions to run even later than she did.”

Trump uses border efforts with election momentum - WashEx: “President Trump’s reinvigorated effort to secure the Mexican border coincides with the acceleration of his 2020 reelection bid and comes as some immigration hawks say the administration has failed to realize a signature campaign promise. Trump on Monday said the federal government would begin releasing undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities, a provocative move to pressure Democrats in Congress to negotiate and that follows a bold house cleaning of top personnel at Homeland Security. The president wants the department to toughen its response to a historic surge of asylum-seekers and unlawful immigrants, vexing problems that persist despite his vow to halt illegal crossings. … But as Trump’s own election nears, immigration hawks otherwise supportive of the administration’s aggressive border policies say the president could find himself exposed, politically, for lack of tangible results.”

Weld makes it official as Trump’s first primary challenger - WaPo: “Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld officially announced Monday that he will challenge President Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, after several months of mulling a long-shot bid that would appeal to traditional GOP voters. Weld made the announcement in an appearance on CNN’s ‘The Lead With Jake Tapper,’ where he described himself as ‘a Republican who works across the aisle and gets things done.’ ‘Donald Trump is not an economic conservative. He doesn’t even pretend to be. The country deserves to have some fiscal constraint and conservatism,’ he said. Weld, 73, will face a steep climb against Trump, an incumbent who is deeply popular with Republican voters. Weld last won an election in 1994 and has drifted politically in recent years, even serving as the vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in 2016. But he is now determined to offer the GOP a moderate alternative.”

PELOSI FACES HEAT FROM PARTY OVER OMAR DISPUTE
WaPo: “The far left’s frustration with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the rise, as liberal advocates and lawmakers fume that she hasn’t done enough to defend freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar from attacks by President Trump and other Republicans and has undermined their policies and leaders, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Omar’s allies over the weekend were upset by what they viewed as Pelosi’s delayed response in standing up for one of the two Muslim women in Congress after Trump accused Omar of playing down the tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Pelosi, whose initial statement criticizing Trump made no mention of Omar, said Monday that it was ‘beneath the dignity of the Oval Office’ for Trump to have shared a video on Twitter of Omar spliced with footage of the burning twin towers. But liberals seethed that Pelosi (Calif.) and Democratic leaders did too little, too late. They were equally baffled by Pelosi’s quip seeming to dismiss Ocasio-Cortez during a CBS ‘60 Minutes’ interview Sunday, suggesting her ‘wing’ of the party included ‘like five people.’”

Once her defender, Bernie distances himself from Omar - WaPo: “Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders created some distance Monday night from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), emphasizing that he doesn’t know Omar well and suggesting that she should change the way she addresses the Jewish community. At the same time, Sanders repeated his defense of Omar against accusations by many that she has made remarks that are anti-Semitic. Sanders’s comments, which the independent senator from Vermont made in a televised town hall here hosted by Fox News Channel… ‘Hold it, hold it, hold it,’ Sanders told moderator Bret Baier, after Baier called Sanders a ‘staunch supporter’ of Omar. ‘I’ve talked to Ilhan about twice in my life.’ … Sanders, who would be the nation’s first Jewish president, continued, ‘I think that Ilhan has got to do maybe a better job in speaking to the Jewish community.’ He said that he does not consider Omar to be anti-Semitic and that he respects her.”

Omar reaps cash benefits from controversies - Politico: “Small-dollar donors rushed to defend embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the first three months this year, as she faced charges of anti-Semitism from prominent Democrats, according to a fundraising report filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat elected in 2018 and sworn in for the first time in early January, found herself embroiled in controversy shortly after arriving in Washington. The first Somali-American member of Congress was widely rebuked in February, including by her own party, after several high-profile instances in which she invoked anti-Semitic tropes about U.S. politicians’ support for Israel. Omar raised $832,000 in the first quarter, according to her FEC report — among the best totals posted by any House Democrat.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
House Dems subpoena Deutsche Bank for Trump records - NYT

Poll shows Alabama voters divided on Sen. Doug Jones, Roy Moore leads list of replacements - Montgomery Advertiser

Survey finds 13 percent of Americans believe men are ‘better suited emotionally’ for office - Politico

Trump to award Tiger Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - NYT

AUDIBLE: THIRSTY
“This glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name in those districts.” – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while praising Democrats who flipped House seats in 2018 downplayed representatives like herself and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whose districts were solidly Democratic.

Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

HAMBURGLARS
Tech Times: “In the battle of man versus McDonald's machine, man comes out on top as a pair of buddies hack their way into a bunch of free burgers in Australia. … In a YouTube video that has racked up more than 2.6 million views (and counting), two Australians share the ingenious way they outsmarted the McDonald's machine to get a free burger and 10 patty-less burgers as a bonus. As the pair show in the video, the first step is to put in an order of 10 burgers on the machine, which cost $1 each. Then they customized these by taking out the beef patty from the order, which cuts down the cost to $1.10 — for a burger that only costs $1. As a result, they were credited $1 for all 10 burgers, which the pair used to buy an eleventh burger. For this last burger, they kept the patty in. The pair's final count is: one hamburger and 10 other burgers with no patty.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“On foreign policy, as the cliché goes, I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. It left me. Not so on domestic policy. The Democratic Party remained true to itself. I changed.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) wrote in his book, “Things That Matter.”

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Quake sways buildings in Mexico City; some evacuations

An earthquake has caused tall buildings to sway in the Mexican capital, prompting some office workers to evacuate.

There is no immediate word of any damage or injuries related to the Monday afternoon quake.

Mexico City is built on a former lakebed, meaning earthquakes even far away are felt strongly there.

Source: Fox News World

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Critics pounce as Warren says she's got 'zero' sympathy for parents in college admissions bribe scandal

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she had “zero” sympathy for parents caught up in the college cheating scandal during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBCesday morning.

Warren did not elaborate on her feelings after being asked the question as part of a number of rapid fire questions posed by “Mornin’ Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski.

Critics pounced on Warren who herself has been embroiled in controversy over her alleged Native American heritage.

“Elizabeth Warren just said she had ‘zero’ sympathy for the parents involved in the college admissions cheating scandal,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted. “It’s ironic that she’s so offended given that she lied about being a minority to climb the Ivy League ladder.”

WARREN RELEASES DNA ANALYSIS

Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate who is originally from Oklahoma, had for decades claimed to have a Native American heritage; her critics say she used it to advance her career by promoting herself as a “minority.” Warren denies that.

Earlier this month it was reported that Warren herself indicated that her race was "American Indian" in a handwritten registration form filed in 1986 with the Texas State Bar.

President Trump regularly mocks Warren on the issue, referring to her as “Pocahontas.”

Fifty people have been charged in the college admissions scandal, including more than 30 parents and nine coaches. 

WHO IS WILLIAM RICK SINGER, THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CHEATING SCANDAL'S ALLEGED RINGLEADER

"This is just stunning," Warren told ABC News Tuesday. "To me this is just one more example of how the rich and powerful know how to take care of their own."

Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Wirecard shares soar after law firm clears head office of wrongdoing

The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim
The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim near Munich, Germany September 6, 2018. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

March 26, 2019

By Douglas Busvine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Local staff at the Singapore office of Wirecard may have committed crimes but these were not material to the German payment company’s financial position, an investigation by an outside law firm has found.

Shares in Wirecard, under pressure since the Financial Times ran the first of a series of investigative reports in January alleging fraud and false accounting at the firm’s Asia-Pacific office, rallied by up to 30 percent on the news.

Wirecard had at first rejected the FT’s reporting as “false, inaccurate, misleading and defamatory”. Yet in its final conclusions, Singapore law firm Rajah & Tann did find evidence that crimes could have been committed.

“The review … did not reveal findings of criminality in respect of the headquarters of Wirecard,” the company said in a summary of the law firm’s conclusions.

“Criminal liability may, however, be attributable to individual local employees in Singapore according to local law.”

ROUND-TRIPPING?

The negative press coverage knocked billions off the value of Munich-based Wirecard, the top German company in the booming fintech sector, months after it ousted Commerzbank from the blue-chip DAX index.

The FT based its reporting on a preliminary report by Rajah & Tann last May that examined a whistleblower’s allegations that accounting staff in the Singapore office carried out sham transactions, or so-called ’round-tripping’, to pad revenues.

These were not confirmed in the law firm’s final report: “The independent review had no findings of round-tripping or corruption,” Wirecard said.

Singapore police subsequently opened an investigation and raided Wirecard’s premises in the city-state.

The police probe piled the pressure on Wirecard and CEO Markus Braun – long the target of so-called short sellers who publish negative research to profit from any falls in a company’s share price.

German prosecutors have, however, reacted by expanding ongoing investigations into suspected market manipulation. Germany’s markets regulator has imposed a temporary ban on short sales in Wirecard stock to steady the market.

“This underpins our view that the whole negative stance from FT was exaggerated and once more created a strong buying opportunity for fundamental investors,” said Hauck & Aufhaeuser analyst Robin Brass.

Detailing Rajah & Tann’s findings, Wirecard said the suspect transactions had not had a material on the company’s financial reports.

Revenue of 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million) was wrongly stated in the 2017 annual report when it should have been booked for 2018. Further, an asset of 3 million euros was wrongly recorded for one week in 2018 and would not be recorded in the 2018 annual accounts.

Wirecard said it would postpone the release of its 2018 annual report by three weeks to April 25 to allow time to take the law firm’s findings into account.

The company confirmed guidance that its 2019 profits, measured as earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) would be between 740 million euros and 800 million euros.

($1 = 0.8859 euros)

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by Thomas Seythal/Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Chilean Cover-up Cardinal Close to Pope Francis Leaves Santiago

Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, in charge of crisis management and sexual abuse cover-up of the Church in Chile, which began during the pontificate of Pope Ratzinger, has finally ended. His resignation as Archbishop of Santiago was officially accepted by Pope Francis on Saturday.

The powerful Cardinal Ezzati who is facing accusations of cover-up of several abusive priests in Chile, has left Santiago and can now retire and spend the rest of his days in a luxury resort paid by the Vatican and not in prison like Cardinal Pell. His resignation is the result of the current crisis of the Church in Chile, where in recent years a growing number of cases of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up has ultimately ruined the reputation of the Catholic Church he was trying to protect.

Cardinal Ezzati, who is an old friend of Pope Francis, is now facing the civil justice system, accused of allegedly covering up sexual abuse by the former Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago, Fr. Oscar Muñoz Toledo. At a press conference following the resignation acceptance, Cardinal Ezzati said that the crisis in the Church in Chile, “Without a doubt has been the greatest sorrow of this time.”

He also tried to justify himself by saying that the archdiocese has fully cooperated with the civil justice system, “we had open doors,” and, “prosecutor had requisitioned the documents he wanted” in the different raids carried out by the Chilean police authorities. This is only partially true, as the police had to carry out various raids.

In the eyes of Pope Francis, Ezzati gained standing to become a Cardinal. He specialized in crisis management by being apostolic visitator of the infamous Legionaries of Christ, an Order with a strong presence in Chile, whose leader, the late Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008), was a pedophile and a Satanist working for the New World Order at the highest levels, including the Bush family. After his death the seal of silence and fear that was weighing on many Legionaries was broken, and the Vatican needed someone like Cardinal Ezzati to control the Legionaries, especially in Chile.

As Archbishop of Santiago, Ezzati inherited the oversight on the case of Father Fernando Karadima accused of the sexual abuse of minors in Chile, which became public in 2010, raising questions about the responsibility and complicity of several Chilean bishops, including some of the country’s highest-ranking Catholic prelates. By 2018, this case attracted worldwide attention as a critical failure of Pope Francis and the Church and pushed the whole Chilean Church to address the sexual abuse of minors in an unprecedented manner. Catholic bishops in Chile even handed the Pope their resignations, something I reported last year on leozagami.com:

http://leozagami.com/2018/06/14/chilean-crisis-of-the-catholic-church-deepens-as-pope-is-exposed/

Cardinal Ezzati ultimately said in his recent press conference: “For now I am availing myself of my right to remain silent which Chilean legislation offers me. I will speak at the appropriate time. My lawyer knows the day and the hour to speak.”

When Ezzati’s resignation was accepted, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Celestino Aós Braco of Copiapó as Apostolic Administrator in Santiago but this resignation seems to have angered the Pope who is onboard a sinking ship.

Leo Zagami is a regular contributor to Infowars and the author of the new groundbreaking book, Confessions of an Illuminati Vol. 6.66 The Age of Cyber Satan, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics.


Source: InfoWars

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Media Buzz: Media's Betomania boosts O'Rourke, magazine cover boy, for 2020

Vanity Fair describes Beto O'Rourke as undergoing "a near-mystical experience."

It was in a packed house during his failed Senate campaign, O'Rourke told the magazine: "I don't ever prepare a speech. I don't write out what I'm going to say. I remember driving to that, I was, like, 'What do I say? Maybe I'll just introduce myself. I'll take questions.' I got in there, and I don't know if it's a speech or not, but it felt amazing. Because every word was pulled out of me. Like, by some greater force, which was just the people there. Everything that I said, I was, like, watching myself, being like, How am I saying this stuff? Where is this coming from?"

What's nearly mystical is the glowing coverage that O'Rourke has been getting from much of the media. In fact, he's the first presidential candidate in American history to tie his announcement to a Vanity Fair cover (complete with Annie Leibowitz photos).

And the pull quote that has defined his launch: "Man, I'm just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment."

BETO O'ROURKE SAYS HE'D SUSPEND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AT FEDERAL LEVEL

O'Rourke might catch fire in this personality-driven Trump era, but he could just as easily flame out. As the Vanity Fair piece noted of the man who did an Instagram video from the dentist's chair, "O'Rourke's radical openness can also look like naïveté ... Skeptics question whether O'Rourke's political transcendentalism can sustain the meat grinder of a national election."

The liberal Slate ran a piece titled "Beto 2020 Has No Reason to Exist," saying that whatever his talents, "Beto is missing one important thing ... an actual reason to run."

A New York Times story put it this way:

"Mr. O'Rourke also comes to the 2020 race with few notable legislative accomplishments after three terms in the House representing El Paso. And in a primary so far defined by big-ticket policy ideas, like the economic agendas of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Mr. O'Rourke enters without a signature proposal that might serve as the ideological anchor of his bid."

So how much does that matter, along with the fact that he doesn't yet have a campaign manager or even skeletal staff?

Obviously, he can raise money — he took in more than $80 million in the contest against Ted Cruz — but O'Rourke is selling himself and his optimistic attitude more than any policy position. He is, however, a center-left capitalist who would be competing more with Joe Biden than with Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren.

O'ROURKE TAKES HEAT FOR WEBSITE'S DIFFERENT MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

The former congressman is consistently vague on policy prescriptions. I listened yesterday when he was asked if he supports Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal. He waxed eloquently about the need for action against climate change but completely sidestepped the legislation (despite some headlines to the contrary.)

And in a recent Washington Post interview that he now says he regrets, O'Rourke said when asked about the immigration problem: "I don't know."

O’Rourke's arrest in a drunk-driving accident two decades ago, which led to the suspension of his license, will undoubtedly come up in the campaign. He told Vanity Fair that after his father bailed him out of jail, "you just feel like a total piece of s---, and you kind of are."

After losing to Cruz, says Vanity Fair, "O'Rourke experienced a post-election depression" like the one he had after winning a House seat in 2012. "He had lost weight, his joints ached, and a stress fracture in his foot curtailed his running regimen. He exercised on his rowing machine and went on his somewhat infamous road trip to interact with regular Americans, trying to work his way through a self-described 'funk' over his loss."

OPINION: WHY BETO O'ROURKE COULD BE DEMS' 2020 NOMINEE AGAINST TRUMP

It will be a funky candidacy, that's for sure.

There is something of a media bubble surrounding O'Rourke, a onetime punk rocker who, for all the pundit chatter, has low name ID nationally.

But O'Rourke has more Hill experience than Barack Obama did in 2008, and one refreshing thing he does is focus on the future rather than spending most of his time bashing the president.

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There is this telling graf in the Vanity Fair profile:

"O'Rourke also sells a kind of cult of personality of his own, offering himself as the David to Trump's Goliath, a folk hero for our time. He acknowledges that what has made Trump successful is also what has made him successful — an outsider who 'bent the media to his campaign,' as he puts it."

Beto seems to have the bending-the-media part down pat. But there is a huge difference between running against Ted Cruz and taking on a dozen Democrats in a crowded field.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Man tentatively identified in deadly Oklahoma bus crash recently exonerated of 1992 murder

An Oklahoma man tentatively identified as the suspected drunk driver who crashed into an Oklahoma school bus carrying a girls’ softball team Friday had recently been exonerated of murder.

John Tallbear served 26 years of a life sentence after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of a homeless man, KOCO-TV reported. Officials said new DNA evidence didn’t link Tallbear to the murder and in June 2018 an Oklahoma City judge determined he was not guilty.

MORE DETAILS EMERGE IN DEADLY OKLAHOMA COLLISION BETWEEN SCHOOL BUS AND SUV

Tallbear had been convicted of DUI twice – once in the 1980s and the other time in the 1990s, KOCO-TV reported, citing court records.

Friday night’s collision left three people dead and six others injured.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said an SUV traveling northbound on Highway 377 in Seminole County just after 7 p.m. fatally collided with a Konawa Public School bus after the driver of the SUV swerved into the opposite lane to pass another driver.

According to authorities, the driver of the SUV passed another vehicle in the northbound lane by switching into the southbound lane. In order to “avoid a collision,” Joseph Scoggins, 30, the driver of the school bus traveling southbound, swerved into the opposite lane.

But just as Scoggins did so, the driver of the SUV swerved back on to the right side of the road hitting the bus head-on.

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The driver and passenger were pinned inside the SUV, which caught fire. Both were pronounced dead on the scene from what authorities described as “massive injuries.”

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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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.)

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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)

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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)

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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.

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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)

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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)

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