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Hong Kong regulator bans UBS from sponsoring IPOs for one year; StanChart fined

FILE PHOTO: Logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich, Switzerland October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

March 14, 2019

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s securities regulator banned UBS on Thursday from sponsoring initial public offerings (IPOs) in the city for one year for failures as a sponsor of three IPOs.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) also fined the Swiss bank HK$375 million ($47.77 million). The three IPOs UBS was fined for were those of China Forestry, Tianhe Chemicals, and one other firm, the regulator said in a statement.

The SFC also fined Standard Chartered HK$59.7 million for failing to discharge its obligations as sponsor of China Forestry’s 2009 IPO.

The regulator suspended the licence of UBS banker Cen Tian for failing to discharge his duties as sponsor principal in charge of the IPO of China Forestry, it said.

“UBS takes note of the findings of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) investigations. We are pleased to have resolved these legacy issues relating to our Hong Kong IPO sponsorship license. We look forward to continuing to service our clients in Hong Kong,” UBS said in a statement.

“We welcome the opportunity to resolve this case with the SFC, which stems from matters arising over 10 years ago. We note that on 8 January 2015, Standard Chartered Group announced the closure of institutional cash equities, equity research and equity capital markets activities (including IPO sponsor activities),” StanChart said in a statement.

“Going forward, the Bank remains committed to ensuring that it has a robust controls framework in place to ensure compliance and continues to invest in improving standards across all our business segments,” the British bank said.

(Reporting by Alun John, additional reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Source: OANN

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Norwegian Air to seek compensation from Boeing for MAX groundings

Two Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are parked at a Boeing production facility in Renton, Washington
FILE PHOTO: Two Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are parked at a Boeing production facility in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 11, 2019. REUTERS/David Ryder

March 13, 2019

By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian Air said on Wednesday it will seek compensation from plane maker Boeing for costs and lost revenue after grounding its fleet of 737 MAX 8 aircraft in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

“We expect Boeing to take this bill,” Norwegian said in an emailed statement.

The Oslo-based airline has 18 ‘MAX’ passenger jets in its 163-aircraft fleet. European regulators on Tuesday grounded the aircraft following Sunday’s crash of a similar plane in Ethiopia, which killed 157 people and was the second crash involving that type of plane since October.

Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said on Monday that he was confident in the safety of the 737 MAX in an email to employees, which was seen by Reuters.

Industry sources, however, said the planemaker faces big claims after the crash.

Norwegian has bet heavily on the ‘MAX’ to become its aircraft of choice for short- and medium-range flights in coming years as the low-cost carrier seeks to boost its fuel efficiency and cut the cost of flying.

“What happens next is in the hands of European aviation authorities. But we hope and expect that our MAXes will be airborne soon,” Norwegian Air’s founder and Chief Executive Bjoern Kjos said in a video recording released on social media.

“Many have asked questions about how this affects our financial situation. It’s quite obvious that we will not take the cost related to the new aircraft that we have to park temporarily. We will send this bill to those who produce this aircraft,” he added.

Idle planes will add to pressures on the airline, which is making losses amid intense competition at a time when several smaller European competitors have gone out of business.

The carrier has raised 3 billion Norwegian crowns ($348 million) from shareholders in recent months and said it would cut costs as it tries to regain profitability this year.

“If this situation gets solved within the next fortnight, this will not be very serious for Norwegian,” said analyst Preben Rasch-Olsen at brokerage Carnegie, adding that seasonally low demand in March likely leaves spare capacity.

“The little extra costs they are incurring, they can probably get that covered by Boeing,” Rasch-Olsen said.

“But if this situation continues into the Easter holidays, or May and June, then it is a problem. They (will) need to get in new planes. And then comes the costs.”

Europeans tend to book their summer holidays in May, so the grounding may not yet affect bookings for the peak season for the airline industry, the analyst said.

Meanwhile, Norwegian was maintaining its order for more aircraft of the same type from Boeing, spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen said.

Norwegian is expected to take delivery of dozens more of the ‘MAX’ in coming years, raising the overall number to more than 70 by year-end 2021, according to recent company announcements.

Shares in the airline have now dropped 6.8 percent this week as investors worried about the impact of the Ethiopian crash.

They fell by 4.8 percent in early trade on Wednesday but later recovered to trade up 2.7 percent by 1246 GMT.

Norwegian canceled some flights on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it canceled at least three dozen departures, its website showed, most of which were due to fly from airports in Oslo, Stockholm and other Nordic cities.

The airline was booking passengers on to other flights and using other types of planes from its fleet to help fill the gaps.

In a separate statement, Norwegian said it would deploy one of its larger Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft to operate its daily route from Dublin to Stewart airport north of New York City, replacing the grounded MAX.

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos; Editing by Susan Fenton and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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Bernie faces voters in the heart of Trump country 


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On the roster: Bernie faces voters in the heart of Trump country - Welcome to the race Mayor Pete - Mueller report expected Thursday morning - Trump stays on attack mode with Omar - Either a solid prank or a lot of leftovers

BERNIE FACES VOTERS IN THE HEART OF TRUMP COUNTRY 
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – If there’s an argument to be made to skeptical mainstream Democrats for nominating Bernie Sanders, it starts right here in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

The 2016 election was a political earthquake in Bethlehem and nearby communities to the north like Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. Here in Northampton County, voters hadn’t gone for a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988 before it went for Donald Trump by 4 points. The shift was even more pronounced in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre) where the Republican share of the vote increased by 13 points from 2012 to 2016.

Without this region, Trump would have come up short instead of his 44,292-vote nail-biter win in Pennsylvania. And if he had missed with kindred voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, he wouldn’t be president today. 

Americans who aren’t familiar with these communities or ones like them stretching out into the industrial Midwest and Appalachia may be tempted to accept the version offered by the scores of journalists who have fanned out in the region over the past four years: Doped up, out of work, undereducated xenophobes who voted for Trump out of some malign impulse for revenge against the elites who had ruined their lives. 

Not only does that badly shortchange the people who live here it misses the real dynamics at work.

These counties were certainly up for grabs in 2016. This was rock-solid Obama country and, as the 2018 midterm results showed, the reversal to red was hardly permanent. But Democrats are very nervous that it might happen again. The fascination with former Vice President Joe Biden is related to his strong brand and famous name, yes, but also because he is a son of Scranton. Sheriff Joe, the human firewall.

Sanders, though, has a different argument to make. And it includes a subtle threat.

His campaign points to survey data that say 12 percent of Sanders’ 2016 primary voters ended up voting for Trump in November. That would be something like 1.5 million Democratic primary voters switching sides, and plenty of them were in post-industrial eastern Pennsylvania.

Sanders argues that without him, these voters will drift back to Trump. But he also makes the case that he is the candidate who can best undo the party’s long slide with white, middle class voters. These folks have radicalized and become populists who will only respond to a candidate who promises to attack the bipartisan establishment in Washington and Wall Street.

There’s another theory of the case, however. This holds that Hillary Clinton was the worst big-time politician of her era and certainly the worst Democratic nominee since at least Michael Dukakis. Sanders’ own success actually reinforces this thesis. There’s no way he would have had the stunning success he did in 2016 had it not been for the intense, visceral rejection of Clinton and Clintonism by so many Democrats.

Was Sanders, like Trump, the beneficiary of the black hole that has become the Clinton legacy? Or is he the vanguard of still churning populist revolt that will not be sated until massive change comes to the American way of life?

Tonight, Sanders gets to make his case to a local audience here on the grounds of the old Bethlehem Steel Plant. Will they adjudge him to be a re-run of a played-out drama or the leader of a revolution that has only just begun?

[Watch Fox: Hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will help local voters take Sanders’ measure tonight starting at 6:30 p.m. ET] 

THE RULEBOOK: EVERYONE’S A CRITIC
“Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

TIME OUT: ‘YOU WATCH ME, I’LL GET IT DONE’
History: “On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American in the major leagues when he plays his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. … 28-year-old Jackie Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut with the Dodgers, against the Boston Braves, in front of more than 25,000 spectators at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Robinson played first base and went zero for three at the plate. During his first season in the majors, Robinson encountered racism from opposing teams and fans, as well as some of his own teammates. However, the abuse didn’t affect his performance on the baseball field. Robinson played in 151 games, hit .297, stole more bases than anyone else in the National League and was awarded the first-ever Rookie of the Year title. … In 1955, Robinson helped the Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees to win the World Series. He retired from baseball after playing his last game on October 10, 1956…”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval: 
43.2 percent
Average disapproval: 51.6 percent
Net Score: -8.4 points
Change from one week ago: up 1.8 points 
[Average includes: Gallup: 45% approve - 51% disapprove; GU Politics/Battleground: 43% approve - 52% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve - 52% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 44% approve - 50% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 43% approve - 53% disapprove.]

WELCOME TO THE RACE MAYOR PETE
AP:Pete Buttigieg, the little-known Indiana mayor who has risen to prominence in the early stages of the 2020 Democratic presidential race, made his official campaign entrance Sunday by claiming the mantle of a youthful generation ready to reshape the country. … In the hours after his announcement, more than $1 million in donations poured in, said Lis Smith, speaking for the campaign. … Buttigieg will return this week to Iowa and New Hampshire … to campaign as a full-fledged candidate now being taken more seriously. Over the past few months, Buttigieg has appeared frequently on national TV news and talk shows and developed a strong social media following with his message that the country needs ‘a new generation of leadership.’ Buttigieg’s poll numbers have climbed. Some polls put him behind only Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sought the party’s nomination in 2016, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet said he’s running.”

Gillibrand hits $3 million for first quarter fundraising - NYT: “Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign raised $3 million in the first quarter of the year, a spokeswoman said on Sunday, a disappointing sum that ranked her last among the six senators currently running for president. Ms. Gillibrand, New York’s Democratic junior senator, has made running as a woman a central theme of her candidacy, and nearly two-thirds of the campaign’s donors were women, said the spokeswoman, Meredith Kelly. Ms. Kelly did not disclose how many donors the campaign had, but she said that 92 percent of contributions were under $200. Given her modest haul so far, Ms. Gillibrand will likely need to rely heavily upon the roughly $10 million in campaign funds she had left over after her Senate re-election bid last year. Only a few 2020 candidates had such a large cash stockpile to supplement their presidential fund-raising.”

Warren makes pledge to ban oil and gas drilling on federal lands - WashEx: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Monday that she would ban all drilling on federal lands and waters on her first day in office. ‘On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that says no more drilling — a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases, including for drilling offshore and on public lands,’ the Massachusetts Democrat said in post on Medium outlining her public lands agenda. Warren also said she would reinstate an Obama-era Interior Department rule that the Trump administration has proposed rolling back limiting leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations.”

Caucuses continue to dwindle - NYT: “In this cycle, caucuses are dwindling. Democratic National Committee rules now encourage states to use a government-run primary, where more people participate, and to increase participation in the caucuses that remain. … Already, the three largest caucus states — Washington, Minnesota and Colorado — have flipped to primaries. So have Utah, Idaho and Nebraska. Two more caucus states — Alaska and Hawaii — are using party-run, rather than government-run, primaries. This switch can increase participation and turnout to levels somewhat more like in a traditional primary, depending on how they are administered. That leaves just six caucus states: Iowa and Nevada — the two highest-turnout caucuses… and Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming and Maine. … The overall effect seems as if it will be pretty modest. That might be something of a surprise. After all, the effect of having a caucus is substantial.”

MUELLER REPORT EXPECTED THURSDAY MORNING
Fox News: “Special Counsel Robert Mueller's much-anticipated Russia report is set to be released to the public and Congress on Thursday morning, the Justice Department announced. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told Fox News on Monday the report would be made available -- with redactions -- Thursday morning to lawmakers and to the public. The news comes despite mounting calls from Democrats to first release the report to Congress without redactions. Attorney General Bill Barr testified last Wednesday he planned to have the report available ‘within a week,’ maintaining his original vow to release Mueller's full report by mid-April. … Most congressional Democrats demanded Barr turn over the full report, without redactions, to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for review, prior to releasing it to the public. … Barr maintained the DOJ is working ‘diligently to make as much information as possible available to Congress.’ Meanwhile … the DOJ defended Barr's rollout of Mueller's conclusions.”

Team Trump taking a relaxed approach to Mueller report - Axios: “Two of the president's top advisers who will be handling the response to Mueller’s report were watching the Masters when [Axios’ Jonathan Swan] called them about it this weekend. By all accounts, the president himself is also taking a fairly blasé approach. The subject has barely come up, if at all, in recent senior staff meetings, according to two sources with direct knowledge. … Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, told [Swan] Trump hasn't seen the report. And senior White House aides have scant details about it, telling me they could only guess when exactly it will come out and how much of it will be redacted. Most expect Attorney General Bill Barr to release the report mid-week. … The president's outside legal team will not read the report alongside his White House lawyers. Rather, the two groups of attorneys plan to go through it separately. A senior Trump adviser said the two groups will write separate responses — with the outside response likely more aggressive than the White House's institutional response.”

Trump maintains ‘no collusion, no obstruction’ - Fox News:President Trump on Monday said it was time to ‘investigate the investigators,’ doubling down on Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia investigation. ‘Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction. These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!’ Trump tweeted early Monday. The president’s tweet comes following a week of mounting scrutiny on the attorney general for his testimony that ‘spying did occur’ on the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Democrats blasted Barr, and accused him of ‘peddling conspiracy theories.’ But despite the backlash from Democrats over his use of the term, Barr's testimony appeared to refer to intelligence collection that already has been widely reported and confirmed.”

TRUMP STAYS ON ATTACK MODE WITH OMAR
USA Today: “Before taking off Monday for Minnesota, President Donald Trump again attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minneapolis and one of the first two Muslim-American women to serve in the U.S. Congress. On Twitter, Trump also criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for defending Omar, saying she ‘should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!’ Omar, Pelosi and other Democrats said Trump's frequent attacks on the freshman congresswoman from Minnesota smack of being anti-Muslim, and are spiking death threats against Omar. Saying threats have escalated since Trump backers used her comments in a 2020 campaign video, Omar tweeted this weekend: ‘We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop.’ Trump's latest attacks came hours before he left for Minnesota, where he is scheduled to hold an economic policy event related Monday's deadline for tax filings.”

Trump still likes idea to send immigrants to sanctuary cities - LAT: “President Trump still ‘likes’ the idea of transferring immigrants in the U.S. illegally to so-called sanctuary cities like San Francisco, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday. But she portrayed the notion as a burden-sharing strategy that the Democrats should welcome rather than a plan designed to punish political adversaries like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Senior Democrats pushed back on the idea, previously rejected by administration lawyers in internal White House deliberations, as probably illegal and emblematic of the administration’s failure to conceive of a fair and coherent immigration policy. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, described the administration’s policymaking on immigration as built around crises that the president had created.”

Dems think Miller’s to blame - WaPo: “House Democrats are sharpening their focus on White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller, with key lawmakers saying he should be brought before congressional committees to testify about his role in recent policy controversies. The talk of hauling Miller before lawmakers comes days after The Washington Post reported that he played a key role in a plan first discussed last year to release undocumented immigrants into ‘sanctuary cities’ represented by President Trump’s Democratic critics. While the plan never came to fruition because of objections from agency officials, Trump has since embraced the idea. With a spate of new vacancies at the Department of Homeland Security … Miller has emerged as a key target for Democrats who see him as an influential survivor in an administration that has otherwise churned through personnel.”

Graham to introduce immigration legislation - Fox Business: “Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he will draft legislation in an effort to fix immigration laws in the U.S. ‘I’ll be introducing a package, and hopefully with Democratic support, that will change our asylum laws,’ Graham, R-S.C., told ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a large majority of people who apply for asylum are released, but never return for their hearing. … ‘It’s impossible to do a hearing in 20 days,’ Graham said, adding that he wants to modify the decision and asylum laws. ‘So we’re going to try to change the time you can hold an unaccompanied minor or a minor child beyond 20 days because if you come up with a family and you have minor kids in the family, we release the whole family in 20 days because you don’t want to separate families.’”

TWO YEARS LATER TRUMP TAX CUTS STILL UNPOPULAR
Politico: “President Donald Trump boasted in Michigan last month that he signed into law ‘massive tax cuts, the biggest in the history of our country.’ As Americans rush Monday to finish up their own taxes, their judgment on Trump’s beloved tax cut bill is pretty clear: Most really don’t like it. Multiple polls show a majority of Americans don’t think they got a tax cut at all — even though independent analyses show they did. And only around a third of the country approves of the legislation itself, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by Congress at the end of 2017. So as Trump moves closer to full-time reelection mode later this year, he will have to battle a stark reality: While his personal rating on the economy remains high, his signature legislative achievement is widely viewed as a political dud, one that has drawn special anger in places with high state and local taxes and pricey housing markets where deductions were limited to reduce the overall cost of the tax plan.”

Sarah Sanders: Congress is not ‘smart enough’ for Trump’s taxes - WaPo: “White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn’t believe members of Congress are ‘smart enough’ to examine President Trump’s tax returns, pushing back against Democrats’ demands for information on the president’s finances. House Democrats have given the Trump administration a hard deadline of April 23 to turn over the president’s tax returns, arguing that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s concerns about the request ‘lack merit.’ In an interview with ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Chris Wallace, Sanders said that Democrats were treading a ‘dangerous road’ and that their request for Trump’s tax returns is ‘all about political partisanship.’ ‘Frankly, Chris, I don’t think Congress — particularly not this group of congressmen and women — are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump’s taxes will be,’ Sanders said.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Trump campaign raked in over $30M in first quarter - Fox News

Looking at Ohio swing voters, Obama is still candidate of choice - Axios

Pergram: ‘Black holes and Congress’ accomplishments at 100 days’ - Fox News

AUDIBLE: OH NOW…  
“Candidly, I don’t even know all the reasons why this is going so well.” – Pete Buttigieg in an interview with New York Magazine.

Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

EITHER A SOLID PRANK OR A LOT OF LEFTOVERS
WJTV: “Mystery mashed potatoes are popping up on front porches in the Belhaven (Miss.) community. … Who leaves mashed potatoes on someone's front porch? … ‘This neighborhood does a lot of quirky things, we decorate road signs we put Christmas trees in our potholes, so it's not surprising at all, that's why I love this neighborhood, because they do so many strange things, but it's definitely one of the weirdest things I've seen since living in Jackson,’ Jordan Lewis said she found mashed potatoes left on her car. After posting to Facebook, Jordan Lewis found she wasn't alone, several others said they also found a bowl of potatoes on their property. ‘They've found it on their mailboxes, on their cars... So we don't know if someone is just playing a prank or if someone just had a lot of leftovers,’ Lewis joked.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“While retrospective judgment tends to make us feel superior to our ancestors, it should really evoke humility. Surely some contemporary practices will be deemed equally abominable by succeeding generations. The only question is: Which ones?”  – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the National Review on May 8, 2015.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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U.S. senator seeks to shoot down Trump bid to ease small arms exports

New Jersey Senator Menendez speaks during a debate with Hugin in Newark
FILE PHOTO: New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, the Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey, speaks during a debate with Bob Hugin, the Republican candidate, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., October 24, 2018. Julio Cortez/Pool via Reuters

February 26, 2019

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior U.S. senator said on Tuesday he sought to block President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul weapons export policy, setting the stage for a potential standoff over the administration’s effort to make it easier for gun makers to sell small arms to foreign buyers.

Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would refuse to consent to the Trump administration’s plan to transfer the export of small arms, including assault-style and sniper rifles and ammunition, to the Department of Commerce from the Department of State at least until he obtained more information about the plan.

Firearms “are easily modified, diverted, and proliferated, and are the primary means of injury, death, and destruction in civil and military conflicts throughout the world. As such, they should be subject to more, not less, rigorous export controls and oversight,” Menendez wrote in a letter sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday and released on Tuesday.

The administration notified Congress of the policy shift last month, part of a broad overhaul of export policy announced last year. The move would generate business for gun makers such as American Outdoor Brands and Sturm Ruger & Company.

There is a long-standing precedent in which a handful of lawmakers, including the ranking member of the minority party on the foreign relations committee, can object to and “hold” such a policy shift – or a weapons export deal.

In the past, administrations have respected such objections. But since they are not legally required to do so, it was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration would respond to Menendez’s concerns and delay its plans or go ahead now that a 30-day review period is over.

A State Department spokesman said the department was examining the letter and had no further comment.

Trump sees the U.S. weapons industry as an important source of U.S. jobs. Backers of the policy shift say foreign customers will merely obtain small arms from other countries if they are unable to make purchases from U.S. manufacturers.

The relaxing of rules could increase foreign gun sales by as much as 20 percent, the National Sports Shooting Foundation has estimated. As well as the industry’s big players, the change could also help small gunsmiths and specialists who are currently required to pay an annual federal fee to export a relatively minor amounts of products.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: OANN

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FBI Confirms Hillary Clinton Emails Found in Obama White House

The FBI discovered a trove of Hillary Clinton’s missing emails in the Obama White House – specifically the Executive Office of the President, according to FBI testimony obtained by watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, disclosed under oath to Judicial Watch as part of a court order that the Executive Office of the President was one of various “repositories” Clinton used for her secretive emails.

“This astonishing confirmation, made under oath by the FBI, shows that the Obama FBI had to go to President Obama’s White House office to find emails that Hillary Clinton tried to destroy or hide from the American people.” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“No wonder Hillary Clinton has thus far skated – Barack Obama is implicated in her email scheme.”

Priestap listed several other repositories for Clinton’s emails, including the State Department, the US Secret Service, and the offices of her senior staffers Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan.

Additionally, Priestap also confirmed Infowars reports from 2016 that the FBI reviewed nearly 49,000 other Clinton emails found on the laptop of sex offender Anthony Weiner, then-husband to Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Read Priestap’s full testimony below:


Democrats have been projecting obstruction onto President Trump, yet they are the ones responsible for obstructing the 2016 election. Alex Jones takes your calls on the days breaking news.

Source: InfoWars

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Good Samaritan fatally shot after paying for meals, handing out $20 bills at Waffle House

A good Samaritan handing out $20 bills to customers was fatally shot inside a Waffle House in Florida this past weekend after an altercation with a disgruntled woman, authorities said.

Ezekiel Hicks, 25, was charged with murder Sunday in the death of 41-year-old Craig Brewer, who was shot and killed at a restaurant in Gainesville, just a few miles from the University of Florida.

Brewer, who was passing out cash and offering to pay for meals, got into a dispute with Hicks after arguing with the suspect’s female acquaintance, who was reportedly upset Brewer didn’t pay for her food.

FLORIDA WOMAN, 63, SHOT AND KILLED FOLLOWING DISPUTE ABOUT DOG, FAMILY SAYS

Hicks exited the restaurant after the encounter but soon returned armed with a 9mm Glock pistol, FOX35 Orlando reported. Authorities said after a brief physical altercation, Hicks fired multiple rounds into the victim. Brewer was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office say the encounter was captured on surveillance footage.

Hicks was arrested near the restaurant soon after the incident and reportedly admitted to the shooting, authorities said. He faces first-degree murder and unlicensed firearm charges.

Source: Fox News National

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Rush Limbaugh: Biden is Democrats’ best chance at beating Trump … but he has no chance because of Dems

Good morning and welcome to Fox News First. Here's a look at what you need to know today ...

Rush Limbaugh: Joe Biden is Democrats' best chance at beating Trump, but ...

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday that former Vice President Joseph Biden is the Democrats' best chance to defeat President Trump in 2020 but has no chance to win the primary. "Here's the thing: Joe Biden is probably the best chance they've got, and he doesn't have a chance. They're probably -- Joe Biden? And crazy Bernie [Sanders]? And Mayor Pete [Buttigieg]? Three white guys, two of them are brontosauruses from 'Jurassic Park,' and that isn't going to sit well with the rest of this party, which has gone so far left," Limbaugh said on "The Story with Martha MacCallum." Limbaugh also said Biden may not be fully committed to running in 2020. Biden's long-awaited 2020 presidential bid announcement has been pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday. (Watch Limbaugh's interview above.)

Bernie Sanders' call to let prisoners vote sparks heated debate - and an about-face from a rival
From Meghan McCain and Whoopi Goldberg on "The View" to Cher on Twitter, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders caused quite a stir when he said during a CNN town hall Monday that convicted criminals in prison, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and rapists, should be allowed to vote. McCain seemed flabbergasted that Goldberg agreed with Sanders. Cher, an unapologetic celebrity liberal icon, blasted Sanders so thoroughly on Twitter that Donald Trump Jr. welcomed her to the Republican Party. The backlash appears to have caused potential 2020 rival, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to rethink her views. After initially saying “we should have that conversation” about allowing criminals currently in prison to vote, Harris appeared to be backtracking, saying Tuesday that criminals such as murderers and terrorists should be deprived of their right to vote.

White House fights Democrats' subpoenas, requests for Trump's tax records
The White House will fight House Democrats' subpoena of testimony and documents from ex-White House counsel Don McGahn, Fox News is told -- and almost immediately, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y, characterized the move as "one more act of obstruction" by the Trump administration. The brewing fight over the McGahn subpoena was poised to set up a series of other contentious legal showdowns as Democrats seek to publicly question more current and former Trump aides who were featured prominently in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation. In addition, Carl Kline, a former White House personnel security director subpoenaed by Democrats, did not show up Tuesday for a scheduled deposition. To make matters worse between Democrats and the Trump White House, the administration defied a demand from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., to turn over six years of Trump's tax returns. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin asked for more time and said he would give the panel a final decision by May 6.

Wall Street hopes for momentum after a super Tuesday
All eyes will be on Wall Street on Wednesday after stocks closed at a new all-time high on Tuesday, as better-than-expected quarterly profits from some of the largest companies encouraged investors. The S&P 500 hit an all-time high, marking the stock market's complete recovery from a nosedive at the end of last year. The benchmark index's previous record was set last September, shortly before the market sank in the fourth quarter amid fears of a recession, an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, and concern the Federal Reserve was moving too aggressively to raise interest rates. Still, shares were mostly lower in Asia on Wednesday as the rally on Wall Street ran out of steam. Investors seemed unswayed by the S&P 500's performance.

FILE - This file image made from video and provided by Jeopardy Productions, Inc. shows "Jeopardy!" contestant James Holzhauer on an episode that aired on April 17, 2019. On his 14th appearance Tuesday, April 23, 2019, Holzhauer eclipsed the $1 million mark in winnings. (Jeopardy Productions, Inc. via AP)

FILE - This file image made from video and provided by Jeopardy Productions, Inc. shows "Jeopardy!" contestant James Holzhauer on an episode that aired on April 17, 2019. On his 14th appearance Tuesday, April 23, 2019, Holzhauer eclipsed the $1 million mark in winnings. (Jeopardy Productions, Inc. via AP)

What is ... another new 'Jeopardy!' record?
"Jeopardy!" champ James Holzhauer has just broken another record. On Tuesday's episode, the 34-year-old surpassed $1 million in the shortest time ever. His $118,816 win put his total take at $1,061,554 million after 14 games. This is the third separate record Holzhauer has shattered since he started competing on the game show. Last Wednesday, he won the episode with a total of $131,127, topping the one-day record he set earlier in his run of $110,914.

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TODAY'S MUST-READS
FBI assisting Sri Lankan government with Easter bombing investigation.
Smollett’s attorney rejects media’s request to unseal court docs: report.
Philippines' Duterte gives Canada one week to take back garbage or 'we will declare war.'

MINDING YOUR BUSINESS
Herman Cain: Sexual harassment not a factor in my withdrawal from Fed consideration.
Trump threatens to 'reciprocate' EU tariffs after Harley-Davidson's profits plummet.
Drug distributor settles with Trump administration over allegations it helped fuel opioid epidemic.
Coca-Cola coffee drink gets wide rollout by end of 2019.

#TheFlashback
1995: The final bomb linked to the Unabomber explodes inside the Sacramento, Calif., offices of a lobbying group for the wood products industry, killing chief lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray. (Theodore Kaczynski would later be sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for a series of bombings that killed three men and injured 29 others.)
1990: The space shuttle Discovery blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
1800: Congress approves a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

SOME PARTING WORDS

WATCH: The "Special Report" All-Star panel take a closer look at reports that Social Security and Medicare programs are running out of money and what can be done.

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
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)

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
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)

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