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America’s 1st Female Astronaut Candidate, Jerrie Cobb, Dies

America's first female astronaut candidate, pilot Jerrie Cobb, who pushed for equality in space but never reached its heights, has died.

Cobb died in Florida at age 88 on March 18 following a brief illness. News of her death came Thursday from journalist Miles O'Brien, serving as a family spokesman.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all jet test pilots and all military men.

None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space, despite Cobb's testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel.

"We seek, only, a place in our nation's space future without discrimination," she told a special House subcommittee on the selection of astronauts.

Instead of making her an astronaut, NASA tapped her as a consultant to talk up the space program. She was dismissed one week after commenting: "I'm the most unconsulted consultant in any government agency."

She wrote in her 1997 autobiography "Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot," ''My country, my culture, was not ready to allow a woman to fly in space."

Cobb served for decades as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle.

"She should have gone to space, but turned her life into one of service with grace," tweeted Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and a former NASA scientist.

The Soviet Union ended up putting the first woman into space in 1963: Valentina Tereshkova. NASA didn't fly a woman in space — Sally Ride — until 1983.

Cobb and other surviving members of the Mercury 13 attended the 1995 shuttle launch of Eileen Collins, NASA's first female space pilot and later its first female space commander.

"Jerrie Cobb served as an inspiration to many of our members in her record breaking, her desire to go into space, and just to prove that women could do what men could do," said Laura Ohrenberg, headquarters manager in Oklahoma City for the Ninety-Nines Inc., an international organization of licensed women pilots.

Still hopeful, Cobb emerged in 1998 to make another pitch for space as NASA prepared to launch Mercury astronaut John Glenn — the first American to orbit the world — on shuttle Discovery at age 77.

Cobb maintained that the geriatric space study should also include an older woman.

"I would give my life to fly in space, I really would," Cobb told The Associated Press at age 67 in 1998. "It's hard for me to talk about it, but I would. I would then, and I will now."

"It just didn't work out then, and I just hope and pray it will now," she added.

It didn't. NASA never flew another elderly person in space, male or female.

Geraldyn Cobb was born on March 5, 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma, the second daughter of a military pilot and his wife. She flew her father's open cockpit Waco biplane at age 12 and got her private pilot's license four years later.

The Mercury 13's story is told in a recent Netflix documentary and a play based on Cobb's life, "They Promised Her the Moon," is currently running in San Diego.

In her autobiography, Cobb described how she danced on the wings of her plane in the Amazon moonlight, when learning via radio on July 20, 1969, that Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed on the moon.

She wrote: "Yes, I wish I were on the moon with my fellow pilots, exploring another celestial body. How I would love to see our beautiful blue planet Earth floating in the blackness of space. And see the stars and galaxies in their true brilliance, without the filter of our atmosphere. But I'm happy flying here in Amazonas, serving my brethren. 'Contenta, Senor, contenta.' (I am happy, Lord, happy.)"

Source: NewsMax America

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Top Republican fires back at AOC over her praise of VA health care: ‘Apparently ignorance is bliss’

A top Republican congressman is firing back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in response to her claim that the Department of Veteran Affairs provides “some of the highest quality care” to veterans.

“Apparently ignorance is bliss when it comes to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and her views of VA,” Rep. Phil Roe, the ranking Republican on the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said in a statement to Fox News. “It is evident that she paid little attention to the scandalous treatment of veterans that occurred several years ago by some in the very agency created to serve them.”

OCASIO-CORTEZ DECLARES VA 'ISN'T BROKEN,' ALREADY PROVIDES TOP-NOTCH CARE

Ocasio-Cortez claimed during a town hall last week that the VA “isn’t broken” despite the scandals that have plagued the agency over the last decade.

“All I can think of is that classic refrain that my parents always taught me growing up, is that: ‘if it ain't broke, don't fix it,’" she said in New York, as part of her argument against privatizing aspects of the agency.

"That is the opening approach we have seen when it comes to privatization, it's the idea that this thing that isn’t broken, this thing that provides some of the highest quality care to our veterans somehow needs to be fixed, optimized, tinkered with until we don’t even recognize it anymore," she said, in comments first reported by The Washington Examiner.

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., is calling out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for her comments about the VA. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., is calling out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for her comments about the VA. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

"They are trying to fix the VA for pharmaceutical companies, they are trying to fix the VA for insurance corporations, and, ultimately they are trying to fix the VA for a for-profit healthcare industry that does not put people or veterans first," she said. “And so we have a responsibility to protect it.”

Ocasio-Cortez's comments were aimed at Trump administration efforts to expand choice and private health care options in the VA health care system, particularly via the MISSION Act -- signed into law by President Trump last year.

But Roe, R-Tenn., in his statement, said there has been “widespread recognition” from Democrats and Republicans that the department needed reform since the 2014 scandal that found secret wait lists, systemic neglect and veterans dying waiting to see a doctor. He noted that the MISSION Act was signed into law with bipartisan support in Congress and backing from veteran groups -- but said there remains “mountains of work ahead of us still.”

“While Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and I have VA medical facilities in and near our districts with great quality ratings, not all veterans are so lucky. That’s not to mention the many student veterans across the nation who struggled to pay their bills last fall due to VA’s failure to properly process their GI Bill benefits, or the many veterans who wait years for decisions on their disability claims,” he said.

VA SECRETARY WARNS TRUMP'S SIGNATURE PROGRAM COULD COLLAPSE WITHOUT FIX

“Problems and inconsistencies like that are the definition of a system that needs fixing,” he said. “I am baffled as to how Rep. Ocasio-Cortez fails to see that.”

“When you don't know anything about anything you should probably keep your mouth shut or everyone will know you don't know anything,” he added.

Roe was joined in his criticism of Ocasio-Cortez by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who also serves on the committee.

“From veterans waiting 30-60 days for an appointment, suicide hotlines going to voicemail, to the rationing of medicine and vast cost overruns, this Department is failing on multiple fronts,” he said in a statement. “To say that this is the level of care those who put their lives on the line to defend our nation deserve is frankly offensive.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Steube noted that Ocasio-Cortez is a strong proponent of government-run, single-payer health care plans in her pushes for a Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all and suggests it is that ideological bent that leads her to view the VA in a positive light.

“As a partially disabled veteran who deals with VA frequently, I know that this department is in need of serious reform,” he said. “But, it doesn’t surprise me that Representative Ocasio-Cortez won’t admit it -- she advocates for government run health care for all every day, so if she were to admit the failures of the only current system of government run health care, she would have to admit faults within her own plan.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Australia’s Senate condemns lawmaker over New Zealand massacre Muslim comments

Senator Anning speaks during a news conference in Brisbane
FILE PHOTO - Senator Fraser Anning speaks during a news conference in Brisbane, Australia, March 18, 2019. AAP Image/Dan Peled/via REUTERS

April 3, 2019

Sydney (Reuters) – Australia’s Senate censured an independent right-wing lawmaker on Wednesday for his comments that New Zealand’s mosques shooting massacre which left 50 people dead was a result of letting “Muslim fanatics” migrate to the country.

Senator Fraser Anning has been widely condemned for his comments made shortly after a lone gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch on March 15.

“There is no room for racism in Australia. Sadly, what Senator Anning said after the Christchurch massacre, however shocking isn’t out of character,” Australian Muslim Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the Senate.

“Just a week before I joined this place, he gave a speech calling for a ban on people like me coming to this country.”

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, has been charged with one murder following the attack and was remanded without a plea. He is due back in court on April 5, when police said he was likely to face more charges.

Sitting for the first time since the attack, Australia’s upper house overwhelmingly passed a censure motion against Anning – the first such public rebuke of a lawmaker in four years. A censure motion has no direct legal consequences but acts as an expression of the Senate’s disapproval.

Senator Anning denied he had blamed the victims, insisting the censure was an attack on his civil liberties.

“This censure motion against me is a blatant attack on free speech,” Anning told Reuters via email.

Leaders of the major parties in the Senate condemned Anning’s comments, with opposition Labor Senator Penny Wong rejecting his “free speech” defense.

“There is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. The former is a feature of our democracy. The latter is an attack on democracy,” Wong said.

“This motion makes it clear he doesn’t speak for us. He doesn’t speak for the Senate. He doesn’t speak for this nation. He doesn’t represent Australian values.”

Anning’s comments gained international attention after footage of a teenager smashing an egg on the head of the right-wing senator was widely shared on social media.

(Reporting by Alison Bevege; Writing by Colin Packham; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: OANN

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Media ‘vilify’ border agents and ‘romanticize’ illegal immigrants, says National Border Patrol Council President

National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said on “Fox and Friends” Thursday morning that the media “vilify” border patrol agents while they “romanticize” migrants coming to the U.S. illegally.

“It's so frustrating and disappointing to see that border patrol agents are vilified for strictly enforcing the laws that Congress put in place,” Judd said, in response to a question whether border patrol agents are becoming more mindful of their enforcement amid the criticism from the media.

“We're trying to protect the American public. Yet, they romanticize those people crossing the border illegally and vilify the good guys that are trying to do the job for the American public.”

We're trying to protect the American public. Yet, they romanticize those people crossing the border illegally and vilify the good guys that are trying to do the job for the American public.”

— National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd

OBAMA'S BORDER CHIEF WARNS CONGRESS: IMMIGRATION CRISIS 'AT A MAGNITUDE NEVER SEEN IN MODERN TIMES'

Judd also welcomed President Trump’s suggestion of bringing additional troops to the existing 6,000 at the border to deal with the crisis, saying the border patrol doesn’t have enough resources to deal with the surge in illegal border crossings.

“What we are looking at is all of our resources being pulled from the field as the [Chief Patrol Agent Rodolfo Karisch] testified that we just don't have the resources in the field to deal with the numbers of people that are crossing the border,” he said.

“What we are looking at is all of our resources being pulled from the field as the [Chief Patrol Agent Rodolfo Karisch] testified that we just don't have the resources in the field to deal with the numbers of people that are crossing the border.”

— Brandon Judd

“And what we have to look at is the number of people that are actually getting away, evading apprehension. Texas Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz from the same sector said within this fiscal year alone, we have 25,000 people that were able to evade apprehension.

“Those are people we do not know what their purpose for coming into the United States are. We don't know where they are from. That's a very dangerous situation and dynamic we are setting up,” he added.

BORDER PATROL OFFICIAL: CARAVAN-SIZE INFLUX OF MIGRANTS ARRIVING EVERY WEEK IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY

Karisch testified before Congress earlier this week, claiming that a caravan-size influx of migrants is flooding across the border each week in just a single sector.

“Much media attention has focused on caravans coming across from Central America,” he said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. “But the fact is that RGV is receiving caravan-equivalent numbers every seven days.”

Karisch said his sector has apprehended people from 50 different countries, including China, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt and Romania. “People are traveling across hemispheres to attempt to illegally enter the U.S., using the same pathways as the Central Americans,” he said.

The National Border Patrol Council President also said the leadership changes in the administration, particularly the resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen, is for the better.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“It's absolutely for the better. If you look at Secretary Nielsen, she is second to none in cybersecurity. That's where her expertise lies. Unfortunately, she did not have that experience in border security,” he said.

“So we elevated the commissioner of customs and border protection who had a career at CBP to face the problems that the DHS is looking at in the face right now and that is border security.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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FBI Moves Swiftly to Arrest Alleged Member Of United Constitutional Patriots Who Helped Catch Illegals

After hearing how the pro-American group the United Constitution Patriots caught hundreds of illegal aliens invading our southern border in New Mexico earlier this week, the FBI moved immediately to arrest one of their alleged members on a gun charge.

From NBC News:

The FBI on Saturday arrested a man connected with an armed group that has been detaining migrants in New Mexico, the state attorney general’s office said.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, of Flora Vista, New Mexico, was arrested for allegedly being a felon in possession of a weapon, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and the FBI said.

[…] The FBI Albuquerque division said that Hopkins, who is also known as Johnny Horton Jr., was arrested with the assistance of the Sunland Park Police Department.

The FBI said he was arrested on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition. It was not immediately clear what the underlying conviction was.

The FBI said that no other information would be released until after Hopkins has his initial court appearance, which is expected Monday at 10:30 a.m. at U.S. District Court in Las Cruces. The FBI in its statement did not mention anything about an armed group stopping migrants near the border.

The FBI did nothing to stop Nikolas Cruz shooting up his school in Florida despite multiple warnings. They did nothing to stop Stephen Paddock shooting up concert goers in Las Vegas. They did nothing to stop Omar Mateen shooting up a club in Orlando. They did nothing to stop Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik shooting up Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

It only took them less than one week to arrest an alleged member of the United Constitutional Patriots for daring to try and protect our southern border.

This, at a time when illegal immigration and the border crisis has never been worse.

The Democrats in New Mexico and the liars in the media love saying these people have no “right” to protect our border.

First off, every indicator shows they already knew that. They simply asked these illegal aliens to stop and they did. They then called border patrol.

Odds are the border patrol just booked the illegal aliens they caught and released them throughout our country, as those are our laws now under President Trump.

The idea American citizens don’t have the right to protect their borders is laughable in itself and reflective of how backwards our society truly is. These illegals are invading our homes. We have a right to defend our homes with force and we have a right to protect our borders. Citizen’s arrests are a rich part of American history and they’re becoming more relevant than ever now that our government is refusing to uphold the law.

Never forget, the same government which claims the right to bomb every nation on earth preemptively and launch full-scale ground invasions of countries like Venezuela because we don’t like their leaders claims Americans have no right to defend our own border.

There’s a reason they’re hitting Hopkins with a gun charge rather than kidnapping. They didn’t actually do anything wrong.

That said, there’s a good chance the FBI and the authorities in New Mexico will move against them illegally and make up fake charges to persecute them with, as the FBI just did with all of President Trump’s campaign associates.

Our government is now operating under what the late paleoconservative writer Sam Francis called, “Anarcho-Tyranny.”

As Francis described it: “What we have in this country today, then, is both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny — the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes; the criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent through exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation, the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools; the imposition of thought control through ‘sensitivity training’ and multiculturalist curricula, ‘hate crime’ laws, gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally, and a vast labyrinth of other measures. In a word, anarcho-tyranny.”

“The laws that are enforced are either those that extend or entrench the power of the state and its allies and internal elites … or else they are the laws that directly punish those recalcitrant and ‘pathological’ elements in society who insist on behaving according to traditional norms — people who do not like to pay taxes, wear seat belts, or deliver their children to the mind-bending therapists who run the public schools; or the people who own and keep firearms, display or even wear the Confederate flag, put up Christmas trees, spank their children, and quote the Constitution or the Bible — not to mention dissident political figures who actually run for office and try to do something about mass immigration by Third World populations.”

Source: InfoWars

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WTF? Teen Vogue Video Counters Science, “Binary is Bulls**t”

Major magazine Teen Vogue continues pushing gender confusion on America’s youth with a new video meant to highlight “5 Common Misconceptions About Sex and Gender.”

The YouTube description says, “7 Activists and LGBTQIA+ people debunk common misconceptions about sex and gender.”

The group of activists tells teenagers that modern gender roles are not “scientific” and that the idea humans are either male or female is “totally wrong.”

One segment of the video suggests people can choose whatever gender they want:

Over history, the location or the idea of what determined one’s true sex shifted. A hundred years ago, it used to be whether you had ovaries or testes. Then it shifted to what kinds of chromosomes that you had. But the body doesn’t have just one place where we can sit there with a microscope or something else and say, “Hey, wait a second. This is really who you are; this is your true sex.” In fact, who you are is who you say you are.

A speaker in the video argues people with XY chromosomes aren’t always male, saying, “When I say I’m a woman, I don’t just mean I identify as a woman. I mean that my biology is the biology of a woman regardless of whether or not doctors agree.”

Completely disregarding science once again, another activist states, “Human beings are so complex that each person has the right to define who they are and X and Y can’t define who you are in your heart in your mind.”

Next, Teen Vogue insists trans women, even if they have a penis, are not tricking anyone and that “all of her body parts are female body parts.”

The video, whose target demographic is teenage girls, ends with a call to “fight back” by showing “these concepts aren’t the fixed, scientific constructions that people want to suggest.”

This isn’t the first example of Teen Vogue feeding leftist ideology to impressionable young women such as their tutorial on anal sex, their stance against “digital blackface,” continual support for abortion and much more.

Source: InfoWars

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Israel Launches Overnight Airstrikes On Syria Just After Netanyahu’s Re-election

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Source: InfoWars

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FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva
FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva, Switzerland, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

April 26, 2019

ZURICH (Reuters) – Shareholders approved Credit Suisse’s 2018 compensation report with an 82 percent majority on Friday, overriding frustrations expressed at its annual general meeting over jumps in executive pay during a year its share price plummeted.

Three shareholder advisers had recommended investors vote against Switzerland’s second-biggest bank’s remuneration report, while a fourth backed the report but expressed reservations about whether management pay matched performance.

The approval marked a slight increase over the 80.8 percent support garnered for the bank’s 2017 compensation report.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London, Britain December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Simon Jessop and Sinead Cruise

LONDON (Reuters) – Activist investor Edward Bramson is likely to fail in his attempt to get a board seat at Barclays’ annual meeting next week, even though shareholders are dissatisfied with performance of the group’s investment bank.

New York-based Bramson’s Sherborne Investors and the board of the British bank have been sparring for months over Barclays’ strategy.

Bramson wants to scale back Barclays’ investment bank to reduce risk and boost shareholder returns. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley remains staunchly committed to growing the business out of trouble.

After failing to persuade Staley to change course since he began building a 5.5 percent stake in the bank in March last year, Bramson hopes a board seat will rachet up the pressure.

Both sides have written to shareholders pitching their case and Bramson has courted investors in one-on-one meetings, although none have publicly backed him yet.

Interviews by Reuters with five institutional investors in Barclays suggest Bramson has failed to persuade them.

Sherborne declined to comment.

Mirza Baig, head of investment stewardship at top-40 shareholder Aviva Investors, said Bramson was welcome on the bank’s register but the boardroom was a step too far.

“He has created a lot of value at other businesses, but, generally, when he has come in as executive chair and taken full control. This would be a different case where he would just be one lone voice on the board,” he said.

A second Barclays shareholder said he backed Bramson’s goal of improving returns but via an “evolutionary” approach.

“If you look at banks that have tried to restructure their operations in investment banking – you look at Natwest Markets, Deutsche Bank – I struggle to think of an example where a roughshod restructuring has been accretive to shareholder value.”

A third, top-30 investor said he had been impressed by incoming Chairman Nigel Higgins’ grasp of the challenge in hand, and felt investors would give him time.

“Management know they have to execute and deliver improved returns… [Higgins] will continue to re-shape the board but obviously he didn’t feel that having someone with a diametrically opposed view on it would be helpful.”

A fourth, top-30 investor agreed: “We voted for the chairman to come in and it would be crazy to allow an activist to join the board (at this time).”

Jupiter Fund Management, the 24th largest investor, said it also planned to vote against Bramson.

Barclays has nearly 500 institutional shareholders, Refinitiv data showed.

Since Staley joined Barclays in 2015, the investment bank returns relative to capital invested have increased but are still underperforming the overall business.

Barclays’ first-quarter figures showed the investment bank posted a 6 percent drop in income from its markets business and a 17 percent fall in banking advisory fees.

Returns in the investment bank fell to 9.5 percent from 13.2 percent a year ago.

Famed for successful campaigns against smaller British companies in sectors from chemicals to advertising, Bramson’s board seat pitch has been rebuffed by shareholder advisory firms.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the world’s biggest, said Bramson’s proposal “falls short of what can reasonably be expected from a shareholder trying to address issues at a 28 billion pounds, systemically important bank”.

Glass Lewis also flagged concern about Bramson’s lack of banking experience and “questionable” shareholding structure, referring to Sherborne’s use of derivative contracts to hedge losses should its strategy fail.

Critics said the arrangement meant his interests are not truly aligned with those of other long-term shareholders.

British advisory firm Pirc, however, said it recommended that investors abstain in the vote on Bramson’s proposal as a challenge to the board to do better in the year ahead – or face a similar contest in 2020.

(Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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After an over 15-month pregnancy, “Akuti,” a 7-year-old Greater One Horned Indian Rhinoceros, gave birth as a result of induced ovulation and artificial insemination at Zoo Miami, April 23, 2019.

Ron Magill/Zoo Miami

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Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: File photo of a Chevron gas station sign in Del Mar, California
FILE PHOTO: A Chevron gas station sign is seen in Del Mar, California, in this April 25, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp reported a 27 percent fall in quarterly earnings on Friday, hit by lower crude prices and weaker margins in its refining and chemicals businesses.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $2.65 billion, or $1.39 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $3.64 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.

Earlier in the day, larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp reported earnings well below analysts’ estimates, as margins in its refining business were hurt by higher Canadian prices and heavy scheduled maintenance.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ford logo is seen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan
FILE PHOTO: The Ford logo is seen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Friday the U.S. Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into the automaker’s emissions certification process in the United States.

The potential concern does not involve the use of defeat devices, the company said in a regulatory filing. (https://bit.ly/2VqjHpl)

Ford had voluntarily disclosed the matter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board in February.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)

Source: OANN

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