On this Friday edition of the War Room, Owen Shroyer is joined by meme legend, Carpe Donktum to discuss his widely circulated Joe Biden clip. Owen breaks down the days breaking news and is also joined by Laura Loomer to shed light on the continual censorship of conservatives.
GUEST // (OTP/Skype) // TOPICS: Carpe Donktum//Skype Laura Loomer//OTP
MOSCOW – Activists say that police have detained several participants in a protest against the construction of a waste dump in northwestern Russia.
Several thousand demonstrators rallied in Arkhangelsk on Sunday demanding the project be halted, and some have vowed to stay on the city's central square to press their demands.
Police allowed the unsanctioned protest to go on peacefully, but detained several organizers on Monday, according to OVD-Info, an independent online portal monitoring human rights issues.
Regional Gov. Igor Orlov, who has faced criticism for stonewalling complaints against the waste plant, has criticized the demonstrators for failing to get official clearance for the protest.
The rally in Arkhangelsk was the latest in a series of protests in Russia focusing on environmental issues, such as toxic landfills and waste processing plants.
Three US service members were injured in yet another traffic incident in Poland, as Washington and Warsaw are reportedly nearing a deal on permanent US presence in the eastern European country.
A military truck traveling in a convoy between Swietoszow and Luboszow in Lower Silesia caught fire on Wednesday, local media reported. The injured service members were taken to a hospital and military firefighters were on the scene. The cause of the fire was being investigated.
Pożar pojazdu amerykańskiej armii na Dolnym Śląsku. Trzy osoby ranne https://t.co/iphIgEYkpM
The incident comes amid reports that the US and Poland are close to reaching a deal on establishing a permanent US military base, which Polish President Andrzsej Duda joked would be called “Fort Trump” during his visit to Washington last fall.
This is the third mishap involving US troops struggling with rural Polish roads so far this year. Last month, two soldiers were injured when three army vehicles collided near the Hungarian border. In February, a bus carrying US service members overturned in Lower Silesia, putting six soldiers in the hospital.
Poland currently hosts around 4,000 US troops – including a tank brigade, an infantry brigade, and an Air Force detachment – as part of an ongoing NATO effort to “deter Russia” launched in 2015. The leadership in Warsaw has been eager for a permanent US presence.
An adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reportedly urged health policy groups to raise their concerns about “Medicare-for-all” proposals, just as the plan was beginning to be embraced by top 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls.
Politico reported that Wendell Primus, Pelosi’s health policy adviser, told a private meeting of policy groups on Nov. 30 that the push for the radical, single-player goal risked diverting from the party’s main health care message.
Most top 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have backed a Medicare-for-all plan, with some proponents like Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., embracing the possibility that it would end most private insurance plans.
But while Democratic leaders have pushed for further health care reform, Pelosi has shied away from a full embrace of a Medicare-for-all plan. In an interview with Rolling Stone in February, she said that it would not be “as good a benefit as the Affordable Care Act.”
“It doesn’t have catastrophic [coverage] -- you have to go buy it. It doesn’t have dental. It’s not as good as the plans that you can buy under the Affordable Care Act. So I say to them, come in with your ideas, but understand that we’re either gonna have to improve Medicare — for all, including seniors — or else people are not gonna get what they think they’re gonna get,” she said. “And by the way, how’s it gonna be paid for?”
As to the broader concept of a single-payer plan, she put the cost at $30 trillion and asked: “Now, how do you pay for that?”
According to Politico, Primus called Medicare-for-all an unhelpful distraction and expressed a need for more scrutiny of the policy implications. Some who attended the meeting said it left them with the impression that Democratic leadership wanted them to undermine the proposal.
“It came across as, we need this so we can get on with our agenda,” one person present told the outlet. “Can you help us point out the problems?”
A Pelosi spokesman disputed that Primus was looking for a “one-sided analysis” of the proposal.
“Wendell absolutely did not ask for any kind of one-sided analysis of Medicare for All, and anyone who says otherwise wasn’t actually listening,” spokesman Henry Connelly said. “As Democrats, across the entire spectrum, we believe in legislating based on facts, data and honest analysis.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who had introduced her own Medicare-for-all bill in the House, told Politico that if true, the remarks were disappointing.
“I will take it up with our leadership to make sure we’re not undermining members’ bills,” she said.
The revelation is likely to only fuel the division between the more centrist Democratic leadership and the growing far-left wing of Democratic freshmen, presidential candidates and other lawmakers.
Pelosi has in the past expressed doubt about liberal proposals such as the Green New Deal -- which she called “Green dream or whatever they call it,” although she has since praised the enthusiasm behind the ambitious push to tackle income inequality and climate change.
That tension was on display this week when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., criticized a policy by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to blacklist political firms that work against sitting members of Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez called it “extremely divisive & harmful to the party” and recommended a pause in all donations to the DCCC.
Fox News' Stephen Sorace and Judson Berger contributed to this report.
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer doesn’t seem to think Zachary Greenberg’s lawyer has much of a shot with winning her client’s case.
Greenberg, the 28-year-old man charged with three felony counts and one misdemeanor count in connection with the assault on Leadership Institute Field Representative Hayden Williams on the campus of the University of California-Berkeley last month, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to each of the charges. Williams is an employee of Campus Reform’s parent organization.
Greenberg’s attorney, Alanna Coopersmith, reminded reporters after reporters after Greenberg’s arraignment of his right to due process. Given the video evidence in the case, though, Hemmer said he would not want to be in the position of representing Greenberg.
“Good luck with that,” the Fox News anchor said, adding, “if you just take the clip and look at it…”
Fox News legal analyst Mercedes Colwin didn’t seem to think the outcome of the case is so certain. Colwin said the result could hinge on whether the judge in the case allows the video to be considered along with the other evidence.
“The thing is, the judge has to sit there and allow the clip in. Hopefully, the judge will let it in because obviously, this is contemporaneous, it looks like it captured the entire encounter between the two of them. It should come in, but you just don’t know. It depends on who the judge is,” Colwin said.
“Even though it’s on tape, could he still go unpunished, Fox News anchor Sandra Smith asked Colwin.
“He could, I mean it all depends on evidentiary rulings. We know because we’re not sitting there as jurors. But the jurors may not get all of the evidence. That tape may not come in. What happened before the encounter. How many of us have sat down and said, ‘oh this person is definitely going to be guilty, and, lo and behold, they’re found not guilty. So you never know.”
As Campus Reform’s Cabot Phillips noted later in the segment, it would not necessarily be of any surprise if Greenberg does go unpunished.
“There have been plenty of instances where there have been attacks or at least threats of attacks against conservatives where there has been no recourse, no sort of consequence or accountability against those people.”
Mike Adams breaks down the Democrats’ plan to change U.S. Presidential Election laws to usurp citizens’ real representation and enact mob rule by making the winner of the popular vote the President.
PHOENIX – The Latest on the killing of four people in Phoenix (all times local):
4 p.m.
Police have identified the 30-year-old Phoenix man arrested in the killings of his wife, two of their young children and a man he apparently thought was romantically involved with his wife.
Sgt. Tommy Thompson said Friday that Austin Smith was booked on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault.
Smith was arrested Thursday evening after officers responding to a shooting at an apartment found the body of 46-year-old Ron Freeman. Two other people were wounded there.
Officers who went to Smith's home later Thursday found his wife, 29-year-old Dasia Patterson, and their 5-year-old daughter, Nasha Smith, dead from gunshot wounds. Their 7-year-old daughter, Mayan Smith, died from apparent blunt-force trauma, and the couple's 3-year-old daughter was uninjured.
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10:15 a.m.
Phoenix police say a man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife, his two young daughters and a man who the suspect thought was romantically involved with his wife.
Sgt. Tommy Thompson said Friday that authorities found the daughters ages 5 and 7 dead at the family's home Thursday night. A 3-year-old daughter was unharmed.
Thompson says the suspect was arrested while driving away from an apartment complex where the man had been shot dead and two others were shot and wounded.
The suspect and the victims were not identified.
__
This version corrects the name of the officer in the 3rd paragraph, Thompson not Thomson.
___
7:20 a.m.
Phoenix police say one person was killed and two others wounded in near-simultaneous shootings in an apartment complex and that police quickly detained one person as a possible suspect.
Police said officers responding to one shooting Thursday night heard gunshots in the area and found some of the victims during a search.
According to police, the possible suspect was taken into custody during a traffic stop shortly after the shootings occurred and a vehicle was seen leaving the area.
The dead person was described as a man and those wounded as a man and a woman, and Detective Luis Samudio said it wasn't immediately known whether the possible suspect knew the victims.
Details of the circumstances of the incident weren't immediately available and no identities were released.
FILE PHOTO: A Libyan man carries a picture of Khalifa Haftar during a demonstration to support Libyan National Army offensive against Tripoli, in Benghazi, Libya April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori
April 15, 2019
By Ulf Laessing and John Irish
TRIPOLI/PARIS (Reuters) – Military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s intended lightning seizure of Libya’s capital has stalled, but he is unlikely to face real pressure from abroad to pull back as the arrival of hardline opponents bolsters his war cry against “terrorism”.
Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli almost two weeks ago, predicting defections, victory within two days and joyful women ululating in the streets.
However, the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has managed to bog them down in southern suburbs, thanks largely to armed groups who have rushed to aid them from various western Libyan factions.
And instead of ululating, many women in fact joined a rally on Friday in Tripoli against the offensive.
Haftar, a 75-year-old former general in former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s army, has been building up troop numbers and intensifying air strikes in a campaign he is selling as necessary to restore order and eradicate jihadists.
That, however, is uniting Haftar’s enemies behind Serraj, who lacks regular forces and needs help, but may find them difficult to control the longer the war drags on, analysts say.
Renewed conflict has scuppered for now a U.N. peace plan for Libya, with a national reconciliation conference planned for this week postponed. It also threatens to disrupt oil supplies from the OPEC member and cause new migration across the sea to Europe.
Diplomats believe Haftar for now will face no pressure from backers including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and France, who still see him as the best bet to end the chaos and divisions since the ousting of Gaddafi in 2011.
ISLAMISTS IN TRIPOLI
Their case, which undermines calls by former colonial ruler Italy and others for a political solution, is aided by the arrival of militants in recent days to help Serraj’s forces.
One of them is Salah Badi, a commander from nearby Misrata port who has Islamist ties and possible ambitions himself to take Tripoli. In videos from the front line, Badi has been seen directing men as well as a U.N.-sanctioned people trafficker.
Some hardcore Islamists, previously affiliated to Ansar Sharia, have also popped up in the fighting, according to the videos. That group was blamed by Washington for the 2012 storming of a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.France, which has oil assets in Libya though less than Italy, has called for a ceasefire – albeit more reluctantly than Rome – while also echoing Haftar’s narrative that some extremists were among the Tripoli defenders.
“There is an oversimplification. It is not just Haftar the baddy against the goodies in Tripoli and Misrata. There are groups that are at the end of the day allied to al Qaeda on the other side,” said a French diplomatic source.
“Perhaps if those opposed to Haftar had done a deal with him in 2017, the balance of power would not have shifted against them,” the source said, referring to when France brought Haftar and Serraj together for face-to-face talks in Paris.
Serraj’s government has sought to downplay the presence of hardliners. “On both sides there are members accused of being violators,” Mohamed Siyala, his foreign minister, told reporters.
Haftar’s own troops are swelled by an estimated hundreds of Salafist Islamists, and one of his commanders is wanted by the International Criminal Court over the alleged summary execution of dozens of people in the eastern city of Benghazi.
It was there that Haftar in 2014 launched his “Operation Dignity” campaign, naming his forces an “army” to try and distinguish from “militias” elsewhere.
He won the Benghazi battle against mainly Islamists in 2017 with covert support from the UAE, Egypt and France, but some of his defeated foes are now in Tripoli seeking revenge.
“TINY MINORITY”
Neighboring Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi met Haftar at the weekend in Cairo and in a statement “confirmed Egypt’s support for efforts to combat terrorism.”
Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at German think tank SWP, said there was exaggeration of the presence of militants in Tripoli for propaganda purposes.
“These elements are a tiny minority of the forces that are fighting against Haftar right now, but this could become a self-fulfilling prophecy the longer this goes on,” he said.
“So anybody who has an interest in preventing jihadist mobilization in Libya should have an interest in stopping this war now.”
In the past, the UAE and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes in eastern Libya, but it is unclear whether they would do so in the current campaign, diplomats and analysts say.
For Paris, Haftar, or a perceived stable army in Tripoli, is key to its wider policy against militants in the Sahel.
France has some 4,500 troops in the deserts to the south and west of Libya, and wants to ensure the porous borders are locked as tightly as possible. Its support of Haftar will depend on whether it thinks he can win or how much civilian casualties can be contained.
Should those escalate and refugee numbers swell, then it may be forced to be more proactive in pressuring Haftar.
It will also depend on how UAE support evolves.
France has listened increasingly closely to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed’s views on Libya since President Emmanuel Macron came to power. An internal policy battle in France between the foreign and defense ministries prior to his arrival had until then blurred Paris’ lines.
“While France is keen to project its Libya policy as a home-grown policy, in reality France merely follows the UAE — more or less,” said Jalel Harchaoui, research fellow at the Clingendael Institute think-tank in The Hague.
“What this means today is: Unless MBZ decides that Haftar has blown his chance and failed irretrievably, Emmanuel Macron is unlikely to alter or subdue his pro-Haftar policy in Libya.”
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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.)
NEED FOR CASH
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)
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)
KHARTOUM, Sudan – 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.
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)
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.
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