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From bombers to Big Macs: Vietnam a lesson in reconciliation

The Vietnamese capital once trembled as waves of American bombers unleashed their payloads, but when Kim Jong Un arrives here for his summit with President Donald Trump he won't find rancor toward a former enemy. Instead the North Korean leader will get a glimpse at the potential rewards of reconciliation.

By the time the Vietnam War ended in 1975, tens of thousands of tons of explosives had been dropped on Hanoi and nearly two decades of fighting had killed 3 million Vietnamese and more than 58,000 Americans. Vietnam, though victorious, lay devastated by American firepower, with cities in ruins and fields and forests soaked in toxic herbicides and littered with unexploded ordnance.

Despite the conflict's savagery, what followed was a remarkable rapprochement between wartime foes and it took merely 20 years to restore full relations.

Now some hope Vietnam will offer Kim a road map for his own detente with the United States and that the formerly besieged capital city will be the site of a dramatic resolution to one of the last remaining Cold War conflicts.

While North Korea remains America's sworn enemy 65 years after the Korean War fighting ceased, Vietnam today stands as a burgeoning partner which even buys lethal U.S. weaponry. Bilateral trade has soared by 8,000 percent over the last two decades and billions of dollars in American investment flows into one of the world's best performing economies.

And while North Koreans are still taught to loathe Americans by their country's propaganda machine, in Vietnam there is little animosity.

"I was born after the war and only hear war stories from American films or books," said Dinh Thanh Huyen, a 19-year-old university student who was waiting in line at a crowded McDonald's in Hanoi. She said she was happy the former enemies have moved on. "History is for us to learn from, not to hold grudges."

Kim could take note of the history of win-win rapprochement and how Vietnam's communist leaders have allowed a capitalistic economy and an open door to the U.S. and other outsiders, all while not sacrificing their tight grip on power. Or he could allow it all to pass him by as he narrows his focus for the Feb. 27-28 summit on tit-for-tat bargaining over nuclear arms and economic sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke in Hanoi last year about "the once-unimaginable prosperity and partnership" the U.S. has come to enjoy with Vietnam and noted Vietnam was able maintain its form of government.

"I have a message for Chairman Kim Jong Un: President Trump believes your country can replicate this path. It's yours to seize the moment," he said. "This can be your miracle in North Korea as well."

To be sure, Vietnam remains a one-party state with a poor human rights record where even moderate critics and dissenters are frequently jailed.

Since the first Trump-Kim summit last June in Singapore, a few small steps have already been taken along a timeline forged by the U.S.-Vietnamese thaw, including Pyongyang turning over remains of U.S. servicemen killed in the Korean War, the first such hand-over in more than a decade.

It was the same missing in action issue that heralded U.S.-Vietnamese reconciliation, with the repatriation of American war dead creating an environment for improvement in relations in other areas.

Next came step-by-step lifting of economic sanctions, as Washington encouraged Vietnam's so-called "doi moi" reform, initiatives launched in 1986 to shed a state-run economy in favor of a market-oriented one open to foreigners.

North Korea has already shown interest in Vietnam's reforms, sending students and official delegations who returned home with favorable reports. Having enjoyed close relations with North Korea since 1950, Vietnam could be the ideal go-between in nudging Pyongyang to re-engineer its disastrous economy and turn foes to friends.

"Vietnam's model of development 'doi moi' is an important factor in the United States' larger strategy of drawing North Korea out of its self-imposed isolation as part of the larger process of denuclearizing," said Carlyle Thayer, a political scientist at The University of New South Wales.

But Thayer and other experts share strong reservations about how much of the U.S.-Vietnamese "miracle" can be duplicated. There are stark differences in the way the North Korea responded once the fighting stopped.

The North slammed shut its doors and slid into a Cold War bunker — and it remains one of the world's most isolated nations. Vietnam, however, chose to put behind its tragic past and move forward.

Not long after the war, American journalists and official U.S. delegations were allowed entry to a poor, shabby Hanoi, its lovely French colonial buildings moldering from neglect. The only clothes many men had were the baggy green uniforms and pith helmets of the North Vietnamese army. Suspicion was palpable and Westerners, including journalists, were assigned minders to keep tabs on them.

Expecting a hostile reception, the Americans were stunned at the lack of animosity displayed by the average Vietnamese, even those who had lost loved ones to U.S. bombs. Returning American veterans were often signaled out for especially warm welcomes, sometimes tearfully embracing their onetime battlefield enemies while exchanging stories of suffering.

Making such scenes possible were a set of special circumstances. Some were geo-political: Vietnam badly needed a counter-balance that the U.S. could provide to its perennial enemy — neighboring China.

This has taken on special urgency in recent years as Beijing moves aggressively to claim large swaths of the South China Sea. Telling are the exchanges between the U.S. and Vietnamese coast guards and the provision of U.S. patrol boats. Last year the USS Carl Vinson, an American aircraft carrier, made a historic port call in Vietnam, the first of its kind since the war ended.

Vietnam also no longer faced a threat from the United States, whereas North Korea perceives that it does, making abandonment of its nuclear program difficult, perhaps even in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

But an underlying human element was also at work.

"During the Vietnam War Hanoi always drew a distinction between the peace-loving American people and the imperialist American government," Thayer said. "There was a basis for future reconciliation."

The face-to-face encounters that followed, serving to ease mutual hostility, never occurred with North Korea. Instead, generations of North Korean children sat in classrooms looking at posters of Americans portrayed as big nosed goblins. A massive anti-American rally loomed large on the annual calendar.

"The Vietnamese saw over the years of our war that many American people and veterans spoke out against the war," said Bob Mulholland, a prominent Vietnam combat veteran.

And there were powerful advocates of reconciliation, including Sens. John Kerry and the recently deceased John McCain as well as other veterans who quietly returned to Vietnam to help the shattered country.

Although the Vietnam War has begun to fade from the collective memory in both countries, it is not the "forgotten war" that the Korean conflict has long been known as. With peace and greater prosperity have come fresh connections forged by a younger generation.

Near the McDonald's in Hanoi's old quarter, not far from a Starbucks, the area is closed to traffic each weekend and entertainers, including American buskers, take to streets now strung with U.S. and North Korean flags. Vietnamese youth can be seen mingling with young American travelers.

Just a short stroll away, tourist Brian Walker was taking in Hanoi's Military War Museum, fronted by the wreckage of an American B-52 shot down while bombing the city.

"For many Americans, it may be a country of a bloody war that we took part in," said 28-year-old social worker from New York City. "But coming here, all I see is people with big smiles, good food and a beautiful landscape."

___

Gray reported from Bangkok.

Source: Fox News World

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Trump tries fresh approach with long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of an oilspill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the United States in an agricultural area near Amherst South Dakota
FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows the darkened ground of an oil spill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the United States, located in an agricultural area near Amherst, South Dakota, U.S., in this photo provided November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Dronebase

March 29, 2019

By Timothy Gardner and Eric Beech

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a new permission for TransCanada Corp to build the long-delayed Keystone pipeline for imports of Canadian oil, replacing his previous permits in a fresh attempt to get around the blocking of the $8 billion project by a court in Montana.

In granting the permission in an executive order, Trump revoked a previous permit for the pipeline issued in March 2017 and an executive order approving the project he issued two days after taking office in January that year.

It was not immediately clear whether under the new approval the pipeline, which would carry 800,000 barrels per day of crude from Canada’s oil sands to refineries along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, would have to undergo extensive new environmental reviews.

The Keystone XL pipeline has been pending for more than a decade after environmental reviews and after former President Barack Obama rejected the project saying it would do little to benefit U.S. motorists and would contribute to global warming.

Friday’s permission was the latest move in the Trump administration’s pursuit of what it calls “energy dominance,” or maximizing production of oil, gas and coal for domestic use and exports to allies and trading partners. The administration has rolled back environmental regulations on emissions from power plants and vehicles and opened up federal lands to drilling and mining.

Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and chief executive officer, said in a release that Trump “has been clear that he wants to create jobs and advance U.S. energy security and the Keystone XL pipeline does both of those things.”

The pipeline faced numerous legal hurdles after several environmental groups sued the U.S. government over the 2017 presidential permit, and Keystone has been held up in the courts, most recently in Montana.

Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for Montana blocked construction of the pipeline in November last year.

Morris wrote in his ruling that a U.S. State Department environmental analysis “fell short of a ‘hard look’” at the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on Native American land resources.

The head of the Sierra Club green group said Trump was trying to bypass “bedrock” environmental laws for the benefit of a foreign pipeline company. “We will continue to pursue every available avenue to ensure that this pipeline is never built,” said Michael Brune, the club’s executive director.

Analysts at ClearView Energy Partners said in a note that Trump’s new permit might end delays related to further environmental review called for by the court, but that the project still faces hurdles in states it goes through including multiple water quality permits in South Dakota.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Timothy Gardner in Washington and Nia Williams in Calgary; editing by Marguerita Choy and James Dalgleish)

Source: OANN

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Pete Buttigieg, longshot 2020 Dem, calls for packing SCOTUS, scrapping Electoral College

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg on Friday highlighted his push to add justices to the Supreme Court and scrap the Electoral College in presidential elections, as he campaigned in the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House.

The South Bend, Indiana mayor, who launched a presidential exploratory committee in January, said the 2020 election should not be about President Trump, telling reporters that “of course we’ll confront him, we’ll call him out. We’ll beat him. But at the end of the day, it’s not about him, it’s about us.”

SHINE MOVING FROM TRUMP WHITE HOUSE TO RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

As he headlined "Politics and Eggs" at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics – a must stop for White House hopefuls – the 37-year old contender and Afghanistan war veteran joked that he’s a “young person with a funny name coming out of nowhere….I think it’s safe to say I’m not extremely famous.”

Buttigieg highlighted that when it comes to his long shot bid for the Democratic nomination, a “big part of the challenge for us is simply getting known.”

He spotlighted his call to scrap Electoral College and let the national popular vote determine the winner of a presidential election.

“I simply believe that every American ought to have the same vote, the same voice, no matter where you live, whether you’re in a big city or small community, whether you’re in a state like Indiana or a state like New Hampshire, that when it comes to choosing a president, everyone’s vote should be strictly equal,” he explained.

BIDEN TEAM QUIETLY GETTING READY FOR LIKELY 2020 LAUNCH

Pete Buttigieg on Friday highlighted his push to add justices to the Supreme Court and scrap the Electoral College in presidential elections, as he campaigned in the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Pete Buttigieg on Friday highlighted his push to add justices to the Supreme Court and scrap the Electoral College in presidential elections, as he campaigned in the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

The push to scrap the Electoral College isn’t a crowd pleaser in New Hampshire, a small general election battleground state with four electoral votes are always up for grabs.

Of course, the Granite State’s most famous politically for holding the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, so Buttigieg was quick to highlight that “I’m talking about the general election, not the primary calendar. I just wanted to make sure that’s clear to everybody to my New Hampshire audience.”

Buttigieg spotlighted that “the debate must begin” on expanding the Supreme Court to prevent “the perception of the court being a nakedly political institution.”

HOLDER SAYS DEMS SHOULD CONSIDER PACKING SUPREME COURT

He said the plan he finds “most intriguing” would expand the high court to 15 justices, with five appointed by a Democratic president, five by a GOP president, with the other five coming from the appellate bench and being seated only by the unanimous consent of the other ten.

“It just takes the politics out of it a little bit. Because we can’t go on like this, where every time there’s a vacancy, there’s these games being played and then an apocalyptic ideological battle over who the appointee is going to be,” he argued.

Asked by Fox News why he never mentioned Trump’s name during his address and question and answer session with the audience, Buttigieg said “the biggest message I have the current president is ‘it’s not about you.’”

“I just think that in addition to responding to current moment and the current president, we need to be talking about what the next era is going to look like. This president will come and go. This presidency will come and go,” he said.

And he pushed back against criticism from Republicans that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left with the "Green New Deal" and "Medicare for All" proposals, arguing labeling them as "socialism" won’t be effective for the GOP going forward.

“I know that word’s been used as a kill switch on debate over the years,” he told Fox News.

“But now there’s a new generation coming up who just want to know if ideas work or not. Most Americans are attracted to Medicare for All,” he added. “These are not wacky far left ideas.”

The Republican National Committee took aim at Buttigieg’s long shot status, criticizing his mayoral record and claiming he’s “failing to stand out from the rest” in a Democratic field that now stands at 14 contenders.

“With little-to-no support as other Democrats dominate the 2020 field, Buttigieg is desperate to gain traction with Granite Staters despite not having any major accomplishments to actually run on.,” RNC Spokesperson Mandi Merritt said.

If Buttigieg pulls off a major upset and wins the Democratic nomination, he would become the first openly gay nominee of major political party. But he said it’s not an issue on the campaign trail.

"It’s been remarkable how many interviews and how many appearances, it really has been a non-issue. And that’s historic too in its own way,” he said. “I also recognize that there’s a historic quality to this potential candidacy and that it has the potential to make it just a little easier for the next person who comes along.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Federal Judge Blocks Medicaid Work Rules in Blow to Trump

A federal judge blocked Medicaid work requirements in two states on Wednesday, dealing a blow to one of the Trump administration's marquee efforts to push the poor toward self-sufficiency.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington issued two decisions finding that Medicaid work requirements for low-income people in Arkansas and Kentucky pose numerous obstacles to getting health care that haven't been adequately resolved by federal and state officials.

He sent the federal Health and Human Services Department back to the drawing board.

Work requirements are already in effect in Arkansas, but Kentucky's program has been on hold because of lawsuits. Both states want "able-bodied" adults who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion to work, study, volunteer or participate in "community engagement" activities.

But advocates for the poor say that Medicaid is a health care program and that work requirements have no place in it. Boasberg did not resolve that core issue.

Instead, he wrote that HHS approval of the Arkansas requirement was "arbitrary and capricious because it did not address ...whether and how the project would implicate the 'core' objective of Medicaid: the provision of medical coverage to the needy."

He used similar language in his ruling on Kentucky.

Nationally, some 12 million people are covered by the Medicaid expansion, accepted now by more than 30 states. Officials in GOP-led states have argued that work requirements and other measures such as modest premiums are needed to ensure political acceptance for the expansion.

The Trump administration early on encouraged states to apply for Medicaid waivers that would allow work requirements.

Eight states have had their requests approved, though not all have put their programs in place, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Requests from seven others are pending. In one of those states, Virginia, a work requirement was key to getting the legislature to approve Medicaid expansion.

Source: NewsMax America

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Vatican makes new overtures on eve of China's Xi Italy visit

The Vatican is greeting the visit to Italy of Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week with a new round of overtures and says the "door is always open" to dialogue.

Italian media have been speculating for days about the possibility of a meeting between Xi and Pope Francis during Xi's March 21-24 visit. But there has been no word from either side.

China and the Holy See haven't had diplomatic relations for over half a century.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, when asked Tuesday about Xi's visit, said "Our door is always open."

The Vatican has been working to build on relations stemming from the historic 2018 provisional agreement reached between Beijing and the Holy See over bishop nominations.

Source: Fox News World

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Ukraine’s ex-PM accuses incumbent president of rigging vote

Ukraine's former prime minister, who polled third in the nation's tight race for the presidency, claims that the incumbent president rigged the results in his favor.

Yulia Tymoshenko said at a news conference on Tuesday that President Petro Poroshenko, who finished second beating Tymoshenko by less than 2 percentage points, falsified the vote in his favor. She said, however, that she will not contest the results as she believes the courts are also controlled by the president.

With nearly 99 percent of the vote counted, comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy leads the race with 30 percent. That means that Ukraine's new president will be elected in a runoff between Zelenskiy and Poroshenko later this month.

Tymoshenko was leading in the polls just a few months before the election.

Source: Fox News World

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3 Chinese Runners Banned Over Boston Marathon Cheating Allegations

Three Chinese runners received lifetime bans from competing in official races in their home country over allegations that they cheated in the recent Boston Marathon.

According to Xinhua news, two of the runners applied to race Boston, which occurred on April 15, with falsified qualification documents. The other runner is accused of giving his Boston bib to someone else.

Moving forward, neither of the three runners will be allowed to race in a Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) event.

The Boston Globe reported that 620 Chinese citizens entered Boston. Five hundred thirty-seven competed on race day, with all but three of them finishing.

"Although the recent cheating allegations are a disappointment, we are highly confident that the vast majority of the field works hard, trains through all conditions, and brings integrity and good sportsmanship to our course," the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the marathon, told the Globe.

The Globe listed the three aforementioned runners' names as Wu Zhaofeng, Zhao Baoying, and Zhang Jianhua.

Source: NewsMax America

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

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

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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