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Australian father rescues infant son from dingo’s jaws

An Australian father rescued his 14-month-old son from a dingo’s jaws while vacationing on a remote tourist island, authorities said Friday.

The animal dragged the infant from his family's camper on Fraser Island, located off the coast of Queensland. The parents were alerted to the attack when they awoke to their son’s cries late Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported.

CORONER RULES DINGO REALLY DID TAKE AUSTRALIAN BABY IN 1980

“The parents awoke with the toddler crying and heard the crying getting further away from the campervan," Fraser Island paramedic Ben Du-Toit said. "The dad got out of the campervan to investigate and found the dingo dragging the toddler away from the campervan. He also spotted several other dingoes in the... immediate vicinity.”

The father grabbed his son and chased away the dingos in the area, he said. The boy was treated for two deep cuts to his neck and the back of his head and small cuts to his scalp. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital for further treatment, the news agency reported.

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The attack was the third on Fraser Island this year. Two dingos were put down in March after attacking a French mother and her son. A six-year-old boy was also mauled by one in January.

Source: Fox News World

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Explainer: Congress no longer runs a jail, so just how powerful are its subpoenas?

The U.S. Capitol building is seen through flowers in Washington
The U.S. Capitol building is seen through flowers in Washington, U.S., April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

April 24, 2019

By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) – The U.S. Congress does not arrest and detain people for ignoring its subpoenas anymore, but it still has significant power to demand witnesses and documents, and Republican President Donald Trump is putting that power to the test.

“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

In another display of his disregard for Washington norms, Trump is defying subpoenas issued by Democrats in the House of Representatives, who have launched numerous investigations of him, his businesses, family and administration.

He earlier this week filed an unprecedented lawsuit seeking to block a congressional subpoena intended to force an accounting firm to disclose information about his financial dealings as a businessman.

Here is how the congressional subpoena, contempt and enforcement process works.

What is a subpoena?

A subpoena is a legally enforceable demand for documents, data, or witness testimony. In Latin, “sub poena” means “under penalty.”

Subpoenas are typically used by litigants in court cases. The Supreme Court has also recognized Congress’s power to issue subpoenas, saying in order to write laws it also needs to be able to investigate.

Congress’ power to issue subpoenas, while broad, is not unlimited. The high court has said Congress is not a law enforcement agency, and cannot investigate someone purely to expose wrongdoing or damaging information about them for political gain. A subpoena must potentially further some “legitimate legislative purpose,” the court has said.

What can Congress do to a government official who ignores one?

If lawmakers want to punish someone who ignores a congressional subpoena they typically first hold the offender “in contempt of Congress,” legal experts said.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said on Tuesday that his panel will vote on holding a former White House security director, Carl Kline, in contempt for failing to appear for questioning. The committee wants to ask him about allegations that the Trump administration inappropriately granted clearances to some of the president’s advisers.

The contempt process can start in either the House or the Senate. Unlike with legislation, it only takes one of the chambers to make and enforce a contempt citation.

Typically, the members of the congressional committee that issued the subpoena will vote on whether to move forward with a contempt finding. If a majority supports the resolution, then another vote will be held by the entire chamber.

The Democrats have majority control of the House; Trump’s Republican Party holds the Senate. So any contempt finding in months ahead is likely to come from the House.

Only a majority of the 435-member House needs to support a contempt finding for one to be reached. After a contempt vote, Congress has additional powers to enforce a subpoena.

Ross Garber, a lawyer in Washington, said Trump’s lawyers will likely argue that any subpoenas and contempt citations issued now expire when a new Congress is seated in January 2021.

But Washington lawyer Garber said there is debate among lawyers about that question, which has not been settled by the Supreme Court.

How is a contempt finding enforced?

The Supreme Court said in an 1821 case that Congress has the “inherent authority” to arrest and detain recalcitrant witnesses.

In a 1927 case, the high court said the Senate acted lawfully in sending its deputy sergeant-at-arms to Ohio to arrest and detain the brother of the then-attorney general, who had refused to testify about a bribery scheme known as the Teapot Dome scandal.

It has been almost a century since Congress exercised this arrest-and-detain authority, and the practice is unlikely to make a comeback, legal experts said.

Alternatively, Congress can ask the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, a federal prosecutor, to bring criminal charges against a witness who refuses to appear. There is a criminal law that specifically prohibits flouting a congressional subpoena.

But this option is also unlikely to be pursued, at least when it comes to subpoenas against executive branch officials.

“It would be odd, structurally, because it would mean the Trump administration would be acting to enforce subpoenas against the Trump administration,” said Lisa Kern Griffin, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Duke University.

For this reason, in modern times Congress has opted for a third and final approach to enforcing a contempt finding: getting its lawyers to bring a civil lawsuit asking a judge to rule that compliance is required.

Failure to comply with such an order can trigger a “contempt of court” finding, enforced through daily fines and even imprisonment, Griffin said.

In 2012, the House, then controlled by Republicans, subpoenaed internal Justice Department documents related to a failed federal law enforcement operation to track illegal gun sales, dubbed “Fast and Furious.”

Democratic then-President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, refused to comply, citing a doctrine called “executive privilege.” The House voted to hold him in contempt in a rare instance of Congress taking such action against a sitting member of a president’s Cabinet.

Can Trump persuade a court to quash the subpoenas?

Just as Congress can sue to enforce a subpoena, Trump has shown a willingness to sue to block one.

On Monday, Trump brought a constitutional challenge to a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee for his financial records. The subpoena was sent to Mazars USA, an accounting firm, and seeks eight years of his financial statements.

Cummings has said the records are related to its investigation of allegations that Trump inflated or deflated financial statements for potentially improper purposes.

Garber said there was some merit to Trump’s argument that the subpoena power is being improperly used to unearth politically damaging information about him, rather than to help Congress make laws or set budgets.

But Edward Kleinbard, a lawyer who formerly served as chief of staff to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, said Congress is well within its power to investigate whether the president complied with tax laws and similar statutes.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Kevin Drawbuagh and Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Historic Mural Removed From School Because it Only Features White Children

A historic mural dating from 1937 was removed from a middle school in Chicago because it only showed white children and failed to reflect the school’s modern day “diversity”.

The mural was taken down at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park after the school’s “Social Justice Club” and “Diversity Committee” complained that it was upsetting to students of color.

“I have had students approach me pointing out that this picture does not represent our student body or the diversity of Oak Park,” Principal Todd Fitzgerald wrote in an email to staff.

The mural – entitled ‘Child and Sports–Winter’ was originally painted by Ethel Spears and was previously displayed in Lowell Elementary.

“This mural made students feel invisible because it doesn’t reflect the current student body,” Brito Millan said. “How can a student learn in a healthy environment when they don’t feel they are being seen?”

However, David Sokol, a retired professor of American art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, described the removal of the painting as a “modern-day book burning.”

“There is nothing offensive with the mural; it just shows all white kids playing,” said Sokol. “Just because it doesn’t have any black kids, doesn’t make it offensive. It doesn’t display any stereotypes at all. That’s how Oak Park looked back then. You can’t erase history.”

Barbara Bernstein, a founder of the New Deal Art Registry, agreed, commenting, “I think it does a real disservice to remove a piece of historical work,” said Bernstein. “Not everything in your environment is going to be a perfect reflection of you.”

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Source: InfoWars

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'First in the nation' election tradition in New Hampshire at risk

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. — Every four years, at the stroke of midnight, a small New Hampshire town 20 miles south of the Canadian border with fewer than a dozen residents is thrust into the national spotlight.

The town of Dixville Notch comes together to cast its primary votes all at once, the minute the polls open, billing itself as the very first in the nation.

"Every four years, Dixville voters get their five minutes of fame," said Tom Tillotson, the town's election moderator. "Four minutes later, everybody's forgotten about us for another four years."

But the tradition is now at risk.

LAWMAKERS RE-ELECT GUARDIAN OF NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY, DESPITE WORK ON TRUMP ELECTION COMMISSION

This comes amid scrutiny of the 2016 contest in Dixville Notch from election investigators at the New Hampshire Attorney General's office, New Hampshire Public Radio reports.

Dixville Notch Election Moderator Tom Tillotson prepares to count the ballots in the 2016 election, in which several votes were disputed. (FOX NEWS)

Dixville Notch Election Moderator Tom Tillotson prepares to count the ballots in the 2016 election, in which several votes were disputed. (FOX NEWS)

"We noticed some irregularities in the way that they were running their elections," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Broadhead, who oversees the Election Law Unit. "And so we broadened the inquiry to the election officials as well."

Broadhead said that his team found some votes in the 2016 election were cast by individuals who did not live in the town, along with several other inconsistencies in the voter registration process. They were tipped off by a neighboring town's clerk who identified residents in her town watching coverage of the Dixville Notch primary, the Attorney General's preliminary report said.

Eight people voted in Dixville Notch in 2016. Since the investigation began, the voter roll is down to just five — the minimum amount of people needed for the town to hold an election in the state of New Hampshire.

Those five people are Tillotson, his wife, his son, and two people working to reopen the shuttered Balsams Resort in the center of town.

In its heyday, the Balsams used Dixville Notch's elections as an attraction in the slow winter months in the North Country.

CASTRO TOUTS EXPERIENCE, POLICY SPECIFICS, AS HE CONTRASTS HIMSELF WITH BETO O’ROURKE

Since 2011, the 150-year-old resort has sat vacant in the serenity of New Hampshire's wilderness. When Balsams and a nearby factory closed, it took all of the people working there with it, leaving a ghost town.

The Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch has sat vacant since 2011. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

The Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch has sat vacant since 2011. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

Although there are now several other small New Hampshire towns that participate in midnight voting, in 1960 Dixville Notch became the first. Tillotson said Dixville Notch is emblematic of full democracy in action.

"The whole point of Dixville voting Is not to get publicity," Tillotson said. "The whole point is to encourage people to get out and vote—to lead by example. Here's a little town where a hundred percent of the population gets up at midnight. That's not easy."

Although Dixville Notch dubs itself "First in the Nation," several other small New Hampshire towns participate in the tradition. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

Although Dixville Notch dubs itself "First in the Nation," several other small New Hampshire towns participate in the tradition. (ROB DIRIENZO / Fox News)

While the fate of the tradition rests on the Balsams project, elsewhere in the state a slew of proposed changes to New Hampshire voting laws could completely transform elections in the state.

In the state legislature, which Democrats recently regained control of, close to 60 bills have been proposed to change nearly every facet of the election process. Some bills seek to reform lobbying rules and how campaigns are funded, while much of the focus has been on voter eligibility rules.

LARRY HOGAN, POTENTIAL TRUMP PRIMARY CHALLENGER, HEADED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE IN APRIL

The New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union has sued the state, claiming a new law requiring a drivers' license to vote is unconstitutional.

"Now, anybody who votes in New Hampshire will have to get a New Hampshire driver's license and register their car in New Hampshire and that can cost hundreds of dollars here," said Henry Klementowicz, staff attorney for the New Hampshire ACLU. "That is a fee that they'll have to pay simply as a consequence of voting. So we think that's a poll tax and that's wrong."

While that lawsuit is pending, Democrats in New Hampshire legislature will have an uphill battle passing legislation with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in the governor's mansion.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Meanwhile, back at Dixville Notch, Tillotson hopes the Balsams project will prevail so the tradition will live to see the 2020 election.

"I don't think I've accepted yet that Dixville Notch midnight voting is over," Tillotson said, looking downward. "So I'm optimistic. As I said there's a lot of good stuff happening inside. This project is looking forward more to go forward."

Source: Fox News Politics

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Taiwan says will not accept any deal that destroys democracy

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen visits the 6th Army Command, ahead of Lunar New Year, in Taoyuan
FILE PHOTO - Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen visits the 6th Army Command, ahead of Lunar New Year, in Taoyuan, Taiwan January 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

February 20, 2019

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan will not accept any deal that destroys its sovereignty and democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday after the island’s opposition KMT party said it could sign a peace deal with China if it wins a presidential election next year.

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) party suffered stinging losses to the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) in mayoral and local elections in November.

Self-governed Taiwan is China’s most sensitive issue and is claimed by Beijing as its sacred territory.

(Reporting By Yimou Lee, Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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China Experiencing Worst Economic Growth in 30 Years

China is trying to stem an economic slowdown, including rising unemployment, continuing into the first two months of 2019 after documenting its worst year of economic growth in nearly 30 years in 2018.

Beijing is trying to counter the slowdown by spending more on infrastructure project and encouraging banks to extend loans to small businesses, reported The Wall Street Journal Thursday.

China’s economic health indicators were released Thursday and encourage far less optimism than they did this time last year. Home sales by value rose 4.5 percent in January and February from a year earlier, compared with a 14.7 percent increase at the same point in 2018, according to The WSJ. And the country’s value-added industrial output, which “measures the economy’s manufacturing, mining, utilities and other output,” had a 5.3 percent year-over-year increase as of the January-February period compared to a 5.7 percent year-over-year increase in December.


Huawei is being used by China to spy on America, even prompting the Pentagon to remove all its products that the military may be using.

Unemployment numbers also indicate a slowdown. A national urban survey unemployment rate grew from 4.9 percent in December to 5.3 percent in February, according to The WSJ.

Some experts predict the Chinese economy will hit its adjusted economic-growth target of around 6 percent. China is likely to exceed 6 percent in coming quarters because it has “the capacity to boost growth if needed,” Philippe Ithurbide, global head of research at Amundi, told Bloomberg in a video posted Thursday.

(Photo by kees torn / Wikimedia Commons)

The WSJ warned that “getting an accurate read” of China’s economy is hard in January and February because of the Lunar New Year holiday, prompting economists to combine data from the two months.

The new data comes as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet in April after months of a tit-for-tat trade war. Trump announced in late February he was delaying tariffs on Chinese imports.

But the U.S. is not done with using tariffs to ensure China plays by its rules.

“We have to maintain the right to be able to, whatever happens to the current tariffs, to raise tariffs in situations where there’s violations of the agreement,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday according to Bloomberg. “I can’t predict success at this point, but we’re working hard and we have made real progress.”

China’s economy slowed dramatically during 2018, dropping to its lowest point in nearly 30 years as the communist country battled a prolonged tariff fight against President Donald Trump.


Infowars Europe’s Dan Lyman joins Owen Shroyer to discuss the reality that liberty is on the rise world wide.

Source: InfoWars

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Macron says French Islamic State detainees should be tried where they face charges

French President Emmanuel Macron meets his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih in Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 25, 2019. Christophe Ena/Pool via REUTERS

February 26, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that French Islamic state detainees in Iraq and Syria should be tried in the countries where they face charges and that France would ask for potential death penalties to be converted to life sentences.

Two Iraqi military sources told Reuters on Sunday that the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces handed over French Islamic detainees last week.

Although Macron did not comment on the handover specifically on Tuesday, he said that French citizens arrested in the region were entitled to consular assistance.

“In these instances, we ensure that their right to defend themselves is protected and that, … if they are sentenced to the death penalty, that it be converted to life imprisonment,” Macron said during a debate with mayors in Paris.

“There is, however, no return scheme in place,” he said in a reference to possible repatriations to France of detainees arrested in Iraq or Syria.

(Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; writing by Matthias Blamont ; editing by Sarah White)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Naqvi Founder and Group Chief Executive of Abraaj Group attends the annual meeting of the WEF in Davos
FILE PHOTO: Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive of Abraaj Group attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Arnold

LONDON (Reuters) – A London court case to extradite Arif Naqvi, founder of collapsed private equity firm Abraaj Group, to the United States on fraud charges was adjourned until May 24, a court official said on Friday.

Naqvi was remanded in custody until that date, the official said. A former managing partner of Dubai-based Abraaj, Sev Vettivetpillai, was released on conditional bail to appear again at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 12, the official said.

Under the U.S. charges, both men are accused of defrauding U.S. investors by inflating positions held by Abraaj in order to attract greater funds from them, causing them financial loss, the official said.

Vettivetpillai could not be reached for a comment.

Naqvi, in a statement released through a PR firm, has pleaded innocent.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Naqvi and his firm raised money for the Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund, collecting more than $100 million over three years from U.S.-based charitable organizations and other U.S. investors.

Naqvi and Vettivetpillai were arrested in Britain earlier this month. Another executive, Mustafa Abdel-Wadood was arrested at a New York hotel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Griswold said at a hearing in Manhattan federal court on April 11.

Abdel-Wadood appeared at the Manhattan hearing and pleaded not guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges.

(Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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Former Vice President Joe Biden announces his 2020 candidacy
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in this still image taken from a video released April 25, 2019. BIDEN CAMPAIGN HANDOUT via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in his first interview as a Democratic presidential candidate, said on Friday that he does not believe he treated law professor Anita Hill badly during the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Biden had joined the burgeoning 2020 Democratic field a day earlier.

Biden’s conduct during those hearings, when he was chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, became a renewed subject of controversy after the New York Times reported that Biden had called Hill earlier this month in the run-up to his presidential bid and that Hill was dissatisfied with Biden’s expression of regret.

Appearing on ABC’s “The View,” Biden largely defended his actions as a senator almost 30 years ago, saying he believed Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment levied at Thomas and tried to derail his confirmation.

Activists have long been unhappy that Hill was questioned in graphic detail by the all-white, all-male committee chaired by Biden.

“I’m sorry she was treated the way she was treated,” Biden said, but later, he asserted, “I don’t think I treated her badly. … How do you stop people from asking inflammatory questions?”

“There were a lot of mistakes made across the board and for those I apologize,” he said.

Biden praised Hill as “remarkable” and said she is “one of the reasons we have the #MeToo movement.”

Asked why he had not reached out to Hill earlier, Biden said he had previously publicly stated he had regrets about her treatment and that he “didn’t want to quote invade her space.”

That seemed to be a reference to another controversy that looms over Biden’s presidential run: allegations by several women that he made them uncomfortable by touching them at political events.

Biden also addressed that criticism, saying he was now more “cognizant” about a woman’s “private space.” But he maintained that he had been “trying to bring solace.”

He suggested he was still trying to sort out the guidelines for his conduct going forward.

“I should be able to read better,” he said. “I have to be more careful.”

Pressed by the show’s panel for an apology to his accusers, Biden would not entirely capitulate.

“So, I invaded your space,” he replied. “I mean, I’m sorry this happened. But I’m not sorry in a sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate.”

Biden, 76, served as former President Barack Obama’s vice president for two terms. He is competing with 19 others for the Democratic presidential nomination and the chance to likely face President Donald Trump next year in the general election.

His first public event as a presidential candidate is scheduled for Monday in Pittsburgh.

(Reporting by James Oliphant; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tesla is seen in Taipei
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tesla is seen in Taipei, Taiwan August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tesla Inc’s stock slumped over 4% on Friday to its lowest price in two years, rounding out a rough week that included worse-than-expected quarterly results and a pitch by Chief Executive Elon Musk on autonomous cars that failed to win over investors.

With investors betting Tesla will soon raise capital, the stock has fallen 13% for the week to its lowest level since January 2017, before the launch of the Model 3 sedan aimed at making the electric car maker profitable.

One positive development for Tesla: a U.S. District Court judge on Friday granted a request by Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission for a second extension to resolve a dispute over Musk’s use of Twitter.

On Wednesday, Tesla posted a worse-than-expected loss of $702 million for the March quarter. Musk said Tesla would return to profit in the third quarter and that there was “some merit” to raising capital.

Musk is still battling to convince investors that demand for the Model 3, the company’s first car aimed at the mass consumer market, is “insanely” high, and that it can be delivered efficiently to customers around the world.

Tesla ended its first quarter with $2.2 billion, down from $3.7 billion in the prior quarter, and the company is planning expansions including a Shanghai factory, an upcoming Model Y SUV, and other projects.

(GRAPHIC: Tesla’s cash – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DyJjX6)

On Monday, Musk hosted a self-driving event, where he predicted Tesla would have over a million autonomous vehicles by next year. Some analysts perceived the presentation as a way to deflect attention from questions about demand, margin pressure, increasing competition and even Musk’s ongoing battle with U.S. regulators.

Tesla’s stock has now fallen 29 percent in 2019 and the company’s market capitalization has declined to $41 billion from $63 billion in mid-December.

(GRAPHIC: Tesla’s declining market cap – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dwd62r)

Analysts now expect Tesla’s revenue to expand 19% in 2019, compared with 83% growth in 2018 and 68% growth in 2017, according to Refinitiv.

Following Tesla’s quarterly report, 12 analysts recommend selling the stock, while 11 recommend buying and eight are neutral. The median analyst price target is $275, up 16% from the stock’s current price of $236. Berenberg analyst Alexander Haissl has the most optimistic price target, at $500, while Cowen and Company’s Jeffrey Osborne has the lowest, at $160, according to Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Friday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s rare public criticism of the Obama administration was a “soft” way of accusing the previous administration of covering up Russia’s attempts at hacking the 2016 presidential election.

While speaking Thursday in New York at the Public Servants Dinner of the Armenian Bar Association, Rosenstein said that the Obama administration “chose not to publicize the full story about Russian computer hackers and social media trolls and how they relate to Russia’s broader strategy to undermine America.”

During an appearance on “America’s Newsroom” Friday morning, Huckabee called the comments an “unusually candid moment for Rosenstein.”

“I thought it was a soft way of him saying there was a cover-up,” Huckabee said. “They knew the Russians were attempting to influence the election and attempting to hack the election but they didn’t fully disclose that to the American people and certainly didn’t disclose it to the Trump campaign.

SWALWELL NOT CERTAIN TRUMP ISN’T A ‘RUSSIAN ASSET’

“Instead they tried to set a trap for them. It failed. The Trump team did not take the bait. And that’s the one conclusion that we can certainly come away with from the $35 million worth of investigation,” Huckabee continued.

Next week, Attorney General William Barr will testify before Congress and is expected to answer questions about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump, which found that there was not adequate evidence to conclude that President Trump and his administration colluded with Russia, though the president could not be exonerated in terms of the possibility that he obstructed justice.

Barr will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next Wednesday and to the House Judiciary Committee the following day.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG 

“It is going to be a theater, an absolute show,” Huckabee said of the hearings. “Just like the Kavanaugh hearings were and like everything else is in Congress. We ought to close the curtain on them and can’t come back until after the election. They aren’t doing their job anyway. We aren’t paying them because they’re doing a wonderful service to the country and spare us the hypocrisy of thinking they’re interested in getting to the bottom of the facts,” he continued.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Ultimately, Huckabee argued, if Americans “took their partisan hats off,” they would see that President Trump was exonerated by the investigation.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Sri Lanka's former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake
Sri Lanka’s former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake, Sri Lanka April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

April 26, 2019

By Sanjeev Miglani and Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s former wartime defense chief, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said on Friday he would run for president in elections this year and would stop the spread of Islamist extremism by rebuilding the intelligence service and surveilling citizens.

Gotabaya, as he is popularly known, is the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the two led the country to a crushing defeat of separatist Tamil rebels a decade ago after a 26-year civil war.

More than 250 people were killed in bomb attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that the government has blamed on Islamist militants and that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.

Gotabaya said the attacks could have been prevented if the island’s current government had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on.

“Because the government was not prepared, that’s why you see a panic situation,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Gotabaya said he would be a candidate “100 percent”, firming up months of speculation that he plans to run in the elections, which are due by December.

He was critical of the government’s response to the bombings. Since the attacks, the government has struggled to provide clear information about how they were staged, who was behind them and how serious the threat is from Islamic State to the country.

“Various people are blaming various people, not giving exactly the details as to what happened, even people expect the names, what organization did this, and how they came up to this level, that explanation was not given,” he said.

On Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena said the government led by premier Ranil Wickremesinghe should take responsibility for the attacks and that prior information warning of attacks was not shared with him.

Wickremesinghe said earlier he was not advised about warnings that came from India’s spy service either, presenting a picture of a government still in disarray since the two leaders fell out last October.

Gotabaya is facing lawsuits in the United States, where he is a dual citizen, over his role in the war and afterwards.

The South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, in partnership with U.S. law firm Hausfeld, filed a civil case in California this month against Gotabaya on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor.

In a separate case, Ahimsa Wickrematunga, the daughter of murdered investigative editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, filed a complaint for damages in the same U.S. District Court in California for allegedly instigating and authorizing the extrajudicial killing of her father.

Gotabaya said the cases were baseless and only a “little distraction” as he prepared for the election campaign. He said he had asked U.S. authorities to renounce his citizenship and that process was nearly done, clearing the way for his candidature.

‘DISMANTLE THE NETWORKS’

He said that if he won, his immediate focus would to be tackle the threat from radical Islam and to rebuild the security set-up.

“It’s a serious problem, you have to go deep into the groups, dismantle the networks,” he said, adding he would give the military a mandate to collect intelligence from the ground and to mount surveillance of groups turning to extremism.

Gotabaya said that a military intelligence cell he had set up in 2011 of 5,000 people, some of them with Arabic language skills and that was tracking the bent towards extremist ideology some of the Islamist groups were taking in eastern Sri Lanka was disbanded by the current government.

“They did not give priority to national security, there was a mix-up. They were talking about ethnic reconciliation, then they were talking about human rights issues, they were talking about individual freedoms,” he said.

President Sirisena’s government sought to forge reconciliation with minority Tamils and close the wounds of the war and launched investigations into allegations of rights abuse and torture against military officers.

Officials said many of these secret intelligence cells were disbanded because they faced allegations of abuse, including torture and extra judicial killings.

Muslims make up nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist.

(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source: OANN

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