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Venezuela shutting sea links to Dutch Caribbean amid turmoil

A Venezuelan official says the country is banning sea trips to and from three Dutch Caribbean islands — a region that has been linked to efforts to undermine President Nicolas Maduro by sending aid to the South American nation.

Falcon state Civil Protection Director Gregorio Jose Montano said Tuesday that the indefinite shutdown of the "maritime border" affects Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire.

It comes as opposition leader Juan Guaido rallying international support for his challenge to Maduro.

Guaido has called for international emergency aid for Venezuela, including from Curacao, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Venezuela.

Maduro vows to block the aid, saying it's part of a U.S. coup.

Dutch officials have said they're opening Curacao as a hub for emergency shipments.

Source: Fox News World

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Homeland Security denies NYT report that Trump directed McAleen to close border and offered him a potential pardon

A Department of Homeland Security official dismissed a report by The New York Times on Friday alleging that the president pressured Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan to close the southern border and offered him a pardon if the need arose.

A spokesperson with the department confirmed to Fox News on Friday that Trump has never “indicated, asked, directed or pressured the acting secretary to do anything illegal,” and said McAleenan would never “take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law.”

The Times, citing three sources familiar with the conversation, said Trump “urged” McAleenan to close the southwestern border. In the event of legal troubles, the story went, Trump said he'd pardon him.

NIELSEN RESIGNS AS DHS SECRETARY AFTER WHITE HOUSE MEETING WITH TRUMP

The conversation was said to have taken place before Trump announced on Sunday that McAleenan, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner at the time, would replace Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned.

Trump had made threats to close the border but after his trip to Calexico, Calif., last week, he seemed to back down.

The Times report, however, alleged that the president privately pushed for the matter behind closed doors and was told by Nielsen that doing so would be illegal. Two days later she announced she would be leaving her post.

The report stated that Trump “encouraged” McAleenan to disregard his predecessor’s warning and move forward with his request.

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Sources told the Times that it was unclear if Trump’s alleged remarks were meant as a joke.

McAleenan is a longtime border officer, who previously practiced law in California and is seen by some as potentially taking the job of DHS secretary permanently.

Fox News’ Kristin Brown and Frank Miles contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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German conservatives float compromise to defuse EU row with Hungary’s Orban

FILE PHOTO: Hungary's National Day celebrations in Budapest
FILE PHOTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during Hungary's National Day celebrations in Budapest, Hungary, March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo

March 20, 2019

By Marton Dunai and Andreas Rinke

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s conservatives floated a compromise in a long-running dispute between Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the EU’s center-right grouping that could avert his party’s expulsion over concerns about Budapest’s authoritarian drift.

Orban, a feisty nationalist, was due in Brussels on Wednesday for a meeting to decide the fate of his Fidesz party after 13 sister organizations in the European People’s Party (EPP) urged its expulsion.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, head of Germany’s Christian Democrats, the largest party in the EPP, said Fidesz should be suspended, but not expelled, for violating the grouping’s values with contested judiciary reforms and anti-immigration campaigns.

“As long as Fidesz does not fully restore trust there cannot be normal full membership,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told Reuters.

A membership “freeze” would be an option, added Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is the frontrunner to eventually replace German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Bavaria’s premier Markus Soeder, both EPP members, supported her position, sources close to Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

But, as Orban’s decision to attend in person what would normally be a routine administrative meeting demonstrates, the stakes are high: EPP membership for Fidesz confers mainstream respectability and influence that other populist parties lack.

The decision poses a particular headache for Manfred Weber, the EPP’s lead candidate in May’s European Parliament elections, whose chances of succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the executive European Commission would be reduced without the votes of Fidesz’s European lawmakers, of whom there are currently 12.

Juncker, who was the target of a Hungarian government poster campaign depicting him as a proponent of mass immigration into Europe and a puppet manipulated by wealthy Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros, wants Fidesz expelled.

JUNCKER BACKS EXPULSION

On Wednesday Juncker, who is also from the EPP, repeated his call for Fidesz to be kicked out of the grouping.

“I think that Mr Orban is a long way from basic Christian Democratic values,” he told German radio.

The EPP grouping, the largest in the European Parliament, is also concerned over Orban’s campaign against the private Central European University in Budapest that Soros founded.

Sources close to Weber said Orban had at least partially met the German conservative’s conditions for keeping Fidesz in the EPP, including by apologizing to colleagues in the grouping for labeling them immigration-backing “useful idiots”.

The sources said the EPP committee in Brussels would vote on Wednesday on proposals to deprive Fidesz of the right to vote in meetings of the grouping or to propose candidates for posts. Fidesz would also no longer be present at all meetings.

Weber also proposed that former European Council president and Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy could head a monitoring committee to evaluate Fidesz’s cooperation with its sister parties, the sources added.

However, some were not sure Fidesz – which has a big majority in Hungary’s parliament – would accept being suspended.

“I think in reality this means that Fidesz will leave the group,” said Swedish conservative Gunnar Hokmark. “I don’t think they will appreciate being suspended. And anyway they will not be able to live up to the conditions.”

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin, writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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The Philippine journalists taking the rap in Duterte’s latest war

Rappler reporter Pia Ranada interviews Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte in Calamba City
Rappler reporter Pia Ranada interviews Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the eldest daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, after a campaign sortie in Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines, March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

March 28, 2019

By John Geddie and Martin Petty

MANILA (Reuters) – When Filipino journalist Pia Ranada fell into a ditch and injured her leg on election day, May 9, 2016, the presidential candidate she was reporting on drove her to hospital and sat with her as she was treated.

Less than two years later, that same man, by then in the midst of a bloody crackdown on drugs in which around 5,000 suspects were killed by police, attacked her during a national broadcast.

“You are a Filipino who was allowed to abuse our country … in the name of the holy grail of press freedom,” President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech in January 2018, addressing Ranada directly. “You are not only throwing toilet paper, you are throwing shit at us.”

It was an explosive moment during a period of simmering tension between Ranada’s news outlet, Rappler, and Duterte’s administration, part of a chain of events that has drawn global concern for one of Southeast Asia’s few remaining corners of relatively free and open press.

Now facing multiple criminal charges against the site and its staff, the latest of which were filed this week, Rappler’s management say they will not bow to what they see as government intimidation.

Duterte’s office says it has no grudge against Rappler and the government is not behind any of the cases against the news site and its staff.

Reuters also has no evidence that Duterte was directly involved. Instead, interviews with Philippine officials and journalists show that close allies of Duterte coordinated the investigations against Rappler, and that Duterte was deeply angered by some of its reporting.

A spokesman for Duterte’s office said accusations his government was abusing or harassing Rappler were “unreasonable”.

MAKING WAVES

Rappler Executive Editor Maria Ressa, who previously held senior positions at U.S. broadcaster CNN, started Rappler with some associates on Facebook in 2011, and it became a news website in 2012. The name comes from combining “rap” and “ripple”, meaning to discuss and to make a wave.

Ressa told Reuters she had found Duterte “utterly refreshing” when she interviewed him in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Ressa added that her site’s extensive coverage of Duterte’s campaign allowed the septuagenarian to tap into a young, social media-savvy voter base that helped a provincial city mayor secure an unlikely triumph over challengers from Manila’s political establishment.

Yet Duterte’s victory was also founded on a pledge to eliminate crime and drugs, and allegations the crackdown that ensued involved widespread extrajudicial executions by police quickly became a focus of Rappler’s and other media outlets’ reporting on his presidency.

Ressa said she believes their hard-hitting drug war reports, as well as stories accusing the administration of creating a social media “ecosystem” where bloggers and internet trolls attack Duterte’s opponents, quickly put them on a collision course with the president.

The tide turned on Rappler in late 2016, when the government’s top lawyer, Solicitor-General Jose Calida, requested the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission investigate the firm over alleged ownership violations.

Calida is seen as a close ally of Duterte and helped manage his election campaign before being appointed solicitor-general in June 2016.

But a source close to Duterte, who wished to remain anonymous, said Calida was not acting under orders from the president.

“Duterte doesn’t really care about stories about the war on drugs,” the source recounted. “It was really Calida trying to gain brownie points.”

A spokesman for Calida’s office said via email “it is a serious misconception” he was focused on the president’s opponents. The Office of the Solicitor-General declined to comment on Rappler citing ongoing legal proceedings.

Ressa said “attacks” by the government which started in 2016 led to board members leaving, a 45 percent drop in advertising revenue and a hefty pay cut for key management. Rappler now operates pending a review after its license was revoked for violating rules against foreigners owning stakes in media.

TOO CLOSE

Throughout 2017, Duterte stepped up criticism of certain press outlets, singling out Rappler as “fake news” and “foreign-owned” in public speeches.

But Ranada – the Rappler reporter assigned to cover the president – said on a personal level their relationship was at a “very good point” during the same period.

Indeed, Duterte and Ranada spent so much time together at a media Christmas party at the presidential palace in December 2017, her peers started to worry she was getting exclusive material, journalists and officials present said.

That was just weeks before Duterte’s expletive-laden rant about Ranada.

What prompted that outburst, and changed the nature of Duterte’s relationship with Rappler forever, according to the source close to the president, was a story about his closest aide, Christopher Go. The article alleged Go had “intervened” in a military procurement deal by asking the navy to look at a proposal by a South Korean firm. Go denied wrongdoing.

The source said Duterte “lost it” over that story because “it was too close to him, it was almost alleging that he was corrupt”.

In response to Reuters’ questions, a spokesman for Duterte’s office, Martin Andanar, said: “We do not have any personal issues with any reporter… However, any form of deliberate attempt to misinform the public is an attack to the efforts of the administration to deliver what is due to the Filipino people.”

Go declined to comment on the procurement deal, saying it had been investigated by the Philippine Senate and was “case closed”. He told Reuters he thought Rappler was “very biased against me and the president”.

A day after Duterte’s verbal attack, the justice minister at the time, Vitaliano Aguirre – a staunch loyalist and former university classmate of the president – issued a blanket order to the Philippines’ equivalent of the FBI, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), to probe Rappler “over possible violation of the constitution and laws”.

Rappler said the order, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, was a “fishing expedition”.

Aguirre, who resigned in April 2018, denied this.

Asked about his experience of Rappler during his time in office, Aguirre said in a text message: “My experience with RAPPLER?…it is engaged in bias reporting against the Duterte administration…It would slant news reports every chance it gets… and it is not above reporting fake news.”

In the weeks that followed, a years-old libel case was resurrected against Rappler, a tax evasion probe was launched and both Ranada and Ressa were banned from the palace at the president’s order.

Andanar, from Duterte’s office, said the cases against Ressa and Rappler were “bereft of any government participation” and that it was “unreasonable to conclude that the administration is in any form harassing them or abusing its power”.

DANGEROUS MESSAGE

Ressa was among a group of journalists named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in December 2018 for “defending free expression and the pursuit of truth and facts”.

Last month, she was served an arrest warrant live on television at her office over a libel case and had to spend a night at NBI’s headquarters before she was released on bail.

On Wednesday, several Rappler executives including Ressa, were also charged with violating laws in relation to foreign ownership rules.

“The Philippines has for a long time been a standard bearer in the region for press freedom,” said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “If Duterte is able to get away with effectively silencing what has been one of his most prominent and credible media critics, that could send a message to the wider region that this is an attack you can get away with.”

Despite all the legal cases, verbal and online attacks, and financial troubles, Ressa remains defiant.

“This is largely intimidation and this is part of the reason we are refusing to be intimidated,” said Ressa. “We will fight and I do think we can win.”

(Reporting by John Geddie and Martin Petty; Additional reporting by Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Aviva’s UK insurance boss to step down, management review to begin

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an AVIVA logo outside the company's head office in the city of London
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an AVIVA logo outside the company's head office in the city of London March 5, 2009. British life insurer Aviva on Thursday said it was maintaining its dividend, soothing concerns the payout could be cut to conserve capital, and reported annual profits that broadly met forecasts. REUTERS/Stephen Hird

April 24, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – British insurer Aviva said on Wednesday that Andy Briggs, head of its UK insurance business, was stepping down from the company, just weeks after missing out on its top job to newly installed Chief Executive Maurice Tulloch.

Briggs will remain with the insurer until October 23 to support an orderly transition, Aviva said in a statement.

He joined the Board of Aviva in April 2015 to lead its enlarged UK Life business following the takeover of Friends Life where he served as Group Chief Executive.

Angela Darlington, currently Aviva’s Group Chief Risk Officer, will become interim chief executive of UK Insurance, subject to regulatory approval.

Aviva also said Tulloch would lead a review of the UK businesses to ensure “the appropriate management structure” going forward. 

(Reporting By Sinead Cruise, editing by Huw Jones)

Source: OANN

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Belgium apologizes for role in African kidnappings

The Belgian government has apologized for the country's role in kidnapping babies from their African mothers during colonial times.

Thousands of children in what are now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi were taken away and raised in Belgian institutions.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said in a statement Thursday that "on behalf of the federal government, I present our apologies to the mixed-race children born from Belgian colonization and their families for the injustice and suffering they were subjected to."

He expressed "compassion for the African mothers, whose children were torn away from them," and concern for the emotional horror the children went through.

He said he hoped the recognition would be a step toward a collective national reckoning and in fighting racism.

Source: Fox News World

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Woman gets jail for running over son in school parking lot

A woman who pleaded guilty to reckless driving for running over her 9-year-old son while dropping him off at school in Michigan has been ordered to serve 30 days in jail.

Thirty-six-year-old Tiffany Kosakowski told Kent County Circuit Court in Grand Rapids that she must "live with this for the rest of my life."

Judge Curt Benson sentenced her Thursday to 6 months in jail, with all but 30 days suspended. He called her actions "simply inexcusable."

Kosakowski's son hung from the passenger-side front door for nearly 50 yards (48 meters) in December at Chandler Woods Charter Academy's parking lot in Belmont before he lost his grip and was run over. Authorities say he didn't want to stay at school.

The boy survived but suffered traumatic injury to his brain.

Source: Fox News National

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Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta
Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta, Cyprus, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Stefanos Kouratzis

April 26, 2019

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of “criminal indifference” because the dead women were foreigners.

The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus’s justice minister and police chief.

Police were combing three different locations west of the capital Nicosia for victims of the suspected killer, a 35-year-old army officer who has been in detention for a week.

The bodies of three women, including two thought to be from the Philippines, have been recovered. Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, found on Thursday, and had said the person was “either Indian or Nepali”.

Police said they were searching for a further four people, including two children, based on the suspect’s testimony.

“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.

“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”

Police have said they will investigate any perceived shortcomings in their handling of the case.

One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, said his motives were questioned by police.

The bodies of the two Filipino women reported missing in May and August 2018 were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft.

Police are now searching for the six-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her eight-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Phillipines who vanished in Dec. 2017.

The suspect has not been publicly named, in line with Cypriot legal practice.

A public vigil for the missing was planned later on Friday.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 26, 2019

LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.

The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)

Source: OANN

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo

April 26, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.

The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.

Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.

But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.

Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.

High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.

It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.

Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.

“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.

The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.

Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.

Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.

Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.

Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.

This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 26, 2019

By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh

(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.

The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.

Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.

“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.

Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.

“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.

U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.

Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.

Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.

Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.

Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.

Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.

Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.

Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.

Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan

(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.

Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.

Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.

WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?

The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.

Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.

HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?

The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.

Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.

The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.

The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.

No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.

Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.

Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.

CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?

No.

Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.

“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.

“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”

PROOF OF WRONGDOING?

In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.

Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”

PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?

Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.

In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.

The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.

WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?

A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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