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Time's 'phenom': Is AOC using the media — or the other way around?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is officially a phenom.

Hey, the cover of Time magazine says so.

There's little question that AOC has shrewdly used the media and the media have just as shrewdly used her – either as a young female heroine, for much of the mainstream press, or as a socialist target, for much of the conservative media.

President Trump has privately noted that Ocasio-Cortez "has it," that indefinable star quality – though he disagrees with her on almost everything. And like the president, AOC enjoys picking fights with the press – especially those nettlesome fact-checkers – which in turn generates even more coverage.

She's already been on the cover of National Review, pilloried for her Green New Deal. And what member of Congress, after just three months in office, has gotten the coveted Time cover status?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ LANDS 'TIME' COVER: FROM 'DORKY KID' TO 'THE PHENOM'

Perhaps the magazine is just using her as clickbait, or newsstand bait, like everyone else.

Here's the nut graph of the Time piece, justifying the extraordinary focus on her:

"She's a young Hispanic woman, three cornerstones of the party's electoral coalition. She's a democratic socialist at a time when confidence in capitalism is declining, especially among progressive millennials. The issues she ran on — a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, abolishing ICE — are animating a new generation of Democrats. She's a political phenomenon: part activist, part legislator, arguably the best storyteller in the party since Barack Obama and perhaps the only Democrat right now with the star power to challenge President Donald Trump's."

About the only thing keeping the pundits from swooning over her as a White House contender is that, at 29, she's not old enough to run.

But the overcoverage can be justified in this sense: Ocasio-Cortez has become the face of the Democratic Party, perhaps even more so than Nancy Pelosi. Her supporters love the idea of a dynamic, Instagram-savvy, aggressively liberal change agent pushing the party establishment to the left. Her detractors love the idea of a self-described democratic socialist with huge spending plans representing a party that relied on more moderate candidates to win the House.

At the same time, the all-AOC approach misses the mark in vastly overstating her influence. Freshmen have little real power in an institution based on seniority. Pelosi hasn't exactly embraced Ocasio-Cortez's proposals. So she has the ability to drive a media debate, but not to call an oversight hearing or put a bill on the floor.

Still, Time says "she's replaced Hillary Clinton as the preferred punching bag of Fox News pundits and Republican lawmakers, and the hits are taking their toll. Public opinion of Ocasio-Cortez has soured as she becomes better known; according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, 31 [percent] of Americans overall have a favorable impression of her, against 41 [percent] unfavorable — a 15-point swing since September. The same poll found that her popularity had increased with Democrats and nonwhites."

The Fox website yesterday played up a new ad that hits Ocasio-Cortez – from a Republican in a special House election in North Carolina.

AOC STARS IN GOP CONGRESSIONAL AD: 'BLESS HER HEART, SHE HAS SOME TERRIBLE IDEAS

The generally upbeat Time story acknowledges both the limits of her power and her controversial role in the party.

"Her Green New Deal proposal has driven policy debates on the left, but it has virtually no chance of becoming law anytime soon. Her allies plan to boost primary challengers to moderate and conservative Democrats, a push that Ocasio-Cortez has distanced herself from but one that has earned her the enmity of some colleagues. Many House Democrats resent her celebrity and worry it overshadows efforts to reach the moderate voters who propelled the party to the majority. Privately, some admit they're also a little afraid of her."

Now that is fascinating. In other words, they're not only worried about the image she projects, but some feel she's too big for her freshman britches.

The dilemma is that while Ocasio-Cortez answers only to her district in Queens and the Bronx, other parts of the country are not as receptive to a hard-left message, even if it draws kudos online. One Democratic candidate in Michigan is quoted as saying her message is more important than winning elections — but you can't change policy without winning office. (And he got clobbered in his race.)

Time dutifully notes that she is being partially blamed for Amazon withdrawing its second headquarters from Queens; that her office botched the Green New Deal rollout by posting an apocalyptic draft version; and that she's the subject of an FEC campaign finance complaint that she calls bogus.

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And given that she's made some factual errors — not unlike the man in the White House — the magazine reminds us of what she told Anderson Cooper:

"I think that there's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually and semantically correct than about being morally right."

But your moral position is stronger when you traffic in actual facts.

Look, the fact that a woman who was recently a waitress and bartender is on Time's cover is quite an achievement. It's a bubble that may not last. But for now, AOC and the media are in a codependent relationship that benefits both sides.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Economic Slowdown Confirmed: Here Are 14 Very Alarming Numbers That Reveal The Current State Of The Economy

The economic numbers just continue to get worse and worse, and at this point it has become exceedingly clear that an economic slowdown is happening.

In fact, even the chair of the Federal Reserve is using the term “slowdown” to describe what is taking place.  But of course many are still hoping that the U.S. economy can pull out of this slump and avoid the sort of crippling recession that we experienced in 2008.  Unfortunately, that may be really tough because the entire global economy is slowing down right now.  Our world is more interconnected than ever before, and what happens on one side of the planet is invariably going to affect the other side of the planet.  Some parts of the globe are already mired in deep economic problems, and the U.S. appears to be following down the same path.

If you still think that the economy is in “good shape”, please read over the following list very carefully.

The following are 14 very alarming numbers that reveal the true state of the economy…

#1 Continuing jobless claims are rising at the fastest pace in 10 years.

#2 U.S. businesses are adding jobs at the slowest pace in 18 months.


Infowars reporter Rob Dew @DewsNewz points out the Twitter is allowing Islamic wife beating instructional video while hypocritically removing Alex Jones for false reasons.

#3 General Motors, Ford, Nissan and Fiat Chrysler all reported sales declines of at least 5 percent on a year over year basis in March.

#4 Tesla vehicle deliveries were down a whopping 31 percent during the first quarter of 2019.

#5 U.S. consumer confidence fell more than 7 points in March.

#6 Manhattan real estate sales have now fallen for six straight quarters.  That is the longest losing streak in 30 years.

#7 London real estate sales just dropped by the most we have seen in 10 years.

#8 The owner of Kay, Zales and Jared jewelers just announced that they will be closing 150 stores.

#9 Retail layoffs are 92 percent higher than they were at this time last year.

#10 U.S. freight shipment volume has fallen for three months in a row.

#11 The inventory to sales ratio in the United States has risen sharply for five months in a row.

#12 At this point, almost half of all renters in America spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent.

#13 The real median net income for Minnesota farmers was only $26,055 in 2018, and that was before many of them were absolutely devastated by the recent flooding.

#14 Overall, U.S. economic numbers are off to their worst start for a year since 2008.

We didn’t see economic numbers like this last year.

But now things have clearly changed.  It is starting to feel more like 2008 with each passing day, and this is a point that Mac Slavo made in his most recent article

The signs of yet another economic recession are everywhere. In fact, it seems hard to find any positive economic news anymore, even though a mere few months ago, it was difficult to find a report signaling the United States might be headed for some turmoil.

These days, many people get offended at the thought that the U.S. economy is heading for trouble.  But the truth is that we have been heading for trouble for a very long time.

Our economy is built on a foundation of sand.  More specifically, we have borrowed our way into “prosperity”.

The other day, I wrote an article about our $22,000,000,000,000 national debt.  It is the biggest single debt in the history of the world, and we continue to add to it at a rate that is absolutely insane.  In fact, our 234 billion dollar deficit in Februarybroke the all-time record for a single month.  If we continue to do this, there is no way that our story ends well.

But that 22 trillion dollar debt is only a fraction of our overall debt.

When you add up all forms of debt in the United States, it comes to a grand total of more than 72 trillion dollars.  And that doesn’t even include a single dollar of our unfunded liabilities on the federal, state and local level.

When Ronald Reagan took office, the total amount of debt in the U.S. was less than 5 trillion dollars.

When historians look back on this time in history, they will not be surprised that our society ultimately collapsed.  What will surprise them is that it took so long for it to do so.

Sometimes I get criticized for urging people to get prepared.  But those that really deserve the criticism are those that are assuring everyone that everything is going to be just fine.  If we got the smartest minds in the entire country together and treated this like a major national emergency, perhaps we could find a way to engineer some sort of a soft landing when this debt bubble bursts.

But as it stands, there is no plan and our long-term problems get worse with each passing day.  Our economy is headed for a crash of epic proportions, and it isn’t going to matter who is in power in Washington when it happens.

And at the rate that our economy is currently slowing down, America may become an economic horror show a lot sooner than many people had anticipated.

Source: InfoWars

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Howard Schultz apologizes after claiming he spent more time than 2020 candidates with military

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is contemplating mounting an independent bid for the presidency in 2020, apologized on Thursday for saying he probably had served more time in the military than any of the candidates who've entered the race, admitting he was simply "wrong."

The flap again put Schultz, a billionaire with no prior political experience, on the defensive. Democrats have spent weeks attacking Schultz and openly worrying that an independent run would split their base and hand the White House back to President Trump.

Two Democratic candidates are veterans: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Gabbard served in Iraq with the Hawaii Army National Guard from 2004 to 2005, and Buttigieg is a veteran of the Afghanistan War, having served a tour with the Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer.

Schultz made the comments during an interview Thursday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

SCHULTZ: DEMS WOULD BE PICKING A 'SPOILER' IF THEY NOMINATE A SOCIALIST

“Do you consider yourself competent to run the American military?” Hewitt asked.

“Yes, I do,” Schultz replied. “I probably have spent more time – in the last decade, certainly – than anyone running for president, with the military. I’ve been to Okinawa. I’ve been to Kuwait. I’ve – with Marines, with the Army. I’ve been to the national training center in Mojave Desert.”

Schultz also pointed out that he has "great friends" in the military, including retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal and William McRaven, the retired admiral who oversaw the bin Laden raid in Pakistan.

Soon after Schultz's comments aired, Buttigieg tweeted he didn't "recall seeing any Starbucks" in Afghanistan, where he deployed in 2013.

“I remember a Green Beans Coffee at the exchange at Bagram, and a decent espresso machine run by the Italian NATO element at ISAF HQ," Buttigieg wrote. "But I don’t recall seeing any Starbucks over there . . .”

Afterward, Schultz tweeted that leaders must accept responsibility for mistakes and his comment "was wrong."

"I apologize to @PeteButtigieg and @TulsiGabbard who served our country honorably,” Schultz wrote on Twitter. “In that moment I made something that should unite us all, about me. I made a mistake and I apologize.”

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A flood of mocking posts quickly appeared on social media. But earlier in the week, Schultz indicated that he was well aware his campaign would face harsh critics and unknown future headwinds -- and said the struggle was worth the cost anyway.

"I refuse to be deterred by the naysayers," Schultz said, "because I love this country and because so much is at stake."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Notre Dame: Media Claim Prosecutors Have ‘Ruled Out Arson’ Before Start Of Police Investigation

Dozens of media outlets are claiming Paris prosecutors’ office has “ruled out arson” less than 24 hours after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire was extinguished, though that doesn’t appear to actually be the case.

From AP:

The Paris prosecutors’ office says investigators are treating the blaze that destroyed part of Notre Dame as an accident for now.

The prosecutors’ office said late Monday they have ruled out arson in Monday’s fire, including possible terror-related motives for starting the blaze.

Prosecutors say Paris police will conduct an investigation into “involuntary destruction caused by fire.”

TIME Magazine, under the headline “Prosecutors Rule Out Arson at Paris’ Famous Notre Dame Cathedral as Firefighters Extinguish Blaze,” had this line as their source:

“There is no indication that this was a deliberate act,” Paris prosecutor Rémi Heitz told a press conference Tuesday morning, adding that investigators considered an accident the most likely cause.

That’s not the same as “ruling it out.”

Contrast those reports with this one from German media site DW: “Notre Dame fire was likely accident, not arson — prosecutor“:

“Nothing suggests that it was a voluntary act … We are favoring the theory of an accident,” Heitz told reporters, adding that a team of 50 people were working on a probe into how the fire started.

He said the investigation would likely be “long and complex.”

Here’s a snapshot of coverage from Google News:

To be clear, I doubt they’d even tell the public if this was revealed to be arson, but claiming the police have already definitively ruled it out appears to be flat out false.

As to the arson angle, The Sun reported earlier this month that 875 churches were vandalized in France just last year.

Multiple fires have broken out just recently:

If Muslims or leftists started this fire — and I’m not saying they did — revealing that to the public could kickstart a revolution.

As it stands now, Macron — who has been down in the dumps in the polls for over a year and desperately trying to shut down the yellow vest protests — is getting to pose as a great unifier.

Source: InfoWars

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Police: Man arrested doesn’t remember Seattle shootings

A man accused of randomly shooting at cars and a public bus in Seattle, leaving two people dead and two injured, told police afterward that he was in an alcoholic blackout and didn't remember doing it, authorities said in court documents Friday.

Tad-Michael Norman, 33, was charged in King County Superior Court with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder in the Wednesday afternoon rampage. He was being held without bail. It was not immediately clear if he had obtained a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

"The defendant's actions - purposely firing a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol at five random members of the community on a public street, killing two and wounding two others - demonstrate the extreme danger he poses to the community," senior deputy prosecutor Scott O'Toole wrote in charging papers. "Taking at face value his claim to detectives that he has no recollection of the events leading up to and including the shooting only heightens the danger he poses."

According to a probable cause statement by Seattle Police Detective Alan Cruise, Norman told investigators he went to a Fred Meyer grocery store earlier in the day and bought vodka, rum and wine. He began drinking at about 12:30 p.m., about 3½ hours before the shootings, and he remembered playing video games, but after that he recalled nothing until he was being treated for minor injuries at Harborview Medical Center on Wednesday night, the statement said.

"He described the nature of his alcohol abuse as blackout drinking," Cruise wrote. "Detectives recounted a summary of what we believed happened including him shooting 3 people, carjacking a vehicle and being involved in (a) serious vehicle collision," Cruise wrote. "Norman said he has no memory of any of that."

According to police, Norman walked into the street in front of his home in northeast Seattle and fired at a car driven by Julie Blair, who was not injured. Her car was struck twice. Blair said that as she drove away she could see him firing at another car.

Schoolteacher Deborah Judd told reporters in her hospital room Thursday that she had been driving home from a staff meeting — "zipping along, I think I was eating Cheez-Its" — when she saw a man in the middle of the road shooting at her. She was struck in the arm, shoulder and lung, she said. She remained in satisfactory condition Friday.

Bus driver Eric Stark said the gunman fired into his windshield, striking him in the chest. After taking stock of his injuries and hitting an emergency alert, Stark managed to reverse the bus away and turn it around, getting his passengers to safety. He told reporters from his hospital bed Friday that the shooter "didn't seem panicked or crazy."

"Just seemed really calm, like he was shooting paper target at a range," Stark said.

Police said Norman then shot and killed another driver — Robert M. Hassan, 76 — and fled in Hassan's car, crashing head-on into another vehicle. That vehicle's driver, Richard T. Lee, 75, was killed.

Hassan was a retired physician and Air Force colonel, his brother told The Seattle Times.

Norman did not appear to have any criminal history in Washington state. He was a vendor with Microsoft, and his contract ended last year, a company representative said.

Source: Fox News National

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In leaky White House, Trump team keeps Middle East peace plan secret

FILE PHOTO - Haley, Kushner and Greenblatt wait for meeting of UN Security Council in New York
FILE PHOTO - U.S. United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley (C) White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (L) and Jason Greenblatt (R), U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy wait for a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

April 10, 2019

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a White House where no secret is safe for long, one development has remained stubbornly confidential – the contents of a Middle East peace plan authored by President Donald Trump’s advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.

With Trump having delighted Israelis and angered Palestinians by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and moving the American Embassy to the holy city last May, a U.S.-brokered peace deal may seem farther away now than when talks collapsed five years ago.

Then on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election, only days after proposing to annex Jewish West Bank settlements, traditionally viewed as illegal by much of the world. The Trump administration has yet to comment on the election-eve remarks.

Aides expect Trump to release the plan once Netanyahu forms a government coalition, and officials say that despite criticism of the administration’s moves to date, the plan will demand compromises from both sides.

That the peace plan has remained a secret is remarkable in a White House where drafts of executive orders, confidential conversations and internal deliberations all find their way to the front pages.

Kushner and Greenblatt have limited the plan’s distribution over the two years they have been crafting it. It has been kept secret “to ensure people approach it with an open mind” when it is released, a senior administration official said.

Only four people have regular access – Kushner, Greenblatt, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz, the official said.

Trump is briefed regularly on the contents but is not believed to have read the entire document of dozens of pages.

“He is briefed if something interesting is happening or there is an idea they want to run by him,” the official said.

Kushner, a New York real estate developer and husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and Greenblatt, a former lawyer for Trump, joined the process knowing little about the tortured, decades-long path in search of Arab-Israeli peace.

Their proposal addresses such core political issues as the status of Jerusalem, and separately aims at helping the Palestinians strengthen their economy.

Cloaked in secrecy is whether the plan will propose outright the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians’ core demand.

On Wednesday, Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the plan would be presented before too long but, when asked, declined to say whether the administration favored a two-state solution, long the basis of Middle East peacemaking.

Not even Trump, who is known to blurt out news whenever he feels like it, has dribbled out details of the peace plan because of the sensitivity.

He tells his Middle East envoys, “If you guys can get this done you’re going to be the greatest negotiators in history,” said a senior White House official.

‘YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE’

When Kushner and Greenblatt began developing their plan in 2017, they asked the parties to look to the future and describe an outcome on each issue that they could accept rather than get locked into historical stances, two officials said.

“You can’t let your grandfather’s conflict hold back your children’s future” was their message to both sides, one official said.

Palestinians reject Trump’s pro-Israel policies.

“The extremist and militaristic agenda, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has been emboldened by the Trump administration’s reckless policies and blind support,” said PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton are all kept up to date on the peace plan, but have kept a hands-off approach to it, deferring to Kushner, two other officials said.

The secrecy maintained by Kushner and Greenblatt, even as they refine and polish the plan, has posed something of a challenge for Gulf governments, who want to know the details before committing resources to a Palestinian fund.

Kushner and Greenblatt toured Gulf states in February to promote the economic part of the plan and get opinions about it, without providing a detailed view of the contents of the more crucial political section.

One of their stops was in Qatar.

Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Lolwah Al Khater, speaking to a small group of reporters in Washington recently, gave no indication that Kushner and Greenblatt provided much in the way of details on the political plan when they visited.

“I don’t think it’s still set in stone,” she said.

Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East envoy and now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the U.S. team still has “a lot of work to do to make sure that Arab leaders aren’t surprised by what’s going to be presented, and they need to see it in writing, not verbally.”

But he said secrecy at this point is understandable.

“Holding something very close makes sense and it’s not taken as a negative by the parties, because in the end, if the content isn’t leaking out, it also makes sure that what would be controversial doesn’t create an immediate firestorm. There’s a logic to that,” Ross said.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)

Source: OANN

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Trump’s deputy press secretary: Designating Iran’s government as foreign terrorist organization is an effort to improve the country

President Trump's principal deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley believes the White House's decision to designate Iran's Revolutionary guard as "foreign terrorist organization" is part of a plan to put pressure on the country to "change its behavior."

While speaking to "America's Newsroom" on Monday morning, Gidley defended the president's decision and said it illustrates Trump's ability to do what other administrations have threatened but not acted on.

"This is the first time the United States has recognized another government as a foreign terrorist organization," Gidley said. "A lot of other administrations have threatened it, but this President, again, came to the table and did it. It's an important move for the administration and for safety and security around the globe."

He went on to argue that there was no specific "tipping point" that catalyzed the decision, but that Iran's reputation as a "state sponsor of terrorism" has long been known.

The move is a part of an ongoing "maximum pressure campaign," Gidley said, that is intended to motivate Iran to "do something different than what they have been, which is wreaking havoc across the globe and sponsoring those who do."

NIELSEN OUT AT HOMELAND SECURITY AS TRUMP FOCUSES ON BORDER

President Donald Trump announced the decision to label the IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organization" on Monday, which holds the potential to have a ripple effect on military, diplomatic and ecomonic relations throughout Iran and the Middle East at large

President Donald Trump announced the decision to label the IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organization" on Monday, which holds the potential to have a ripple effect on military, diplomatic and ecomonic relations throughout Iran and the Middle East at large (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

DESPITE CRUMBLED CALIPHATE, HUNT FOR BAGHDADI CONTINUES IN SYRIA

President Trump announced the decision on Monday, which holds the potential to have a ripple effect on military, diplomatic and economic relations throughout Iran and the Middle East at large.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," President Donald Trump said.

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Iran has yet to respond, but it's possible that they could retaliate, or impose travel bans prohibiting executives and companies from dealings with the United States.

Fox News' Matthew Lee and the Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani encouraged newly-elected lawmakers to participate in the peace process with the Taliban as he opened on Friday the first session of parliament since a controversial election.

Ghani has invited thousands of politicians, religious scholars and rights activists to an assembly known as a loya jirga next week to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Several opposition leaders have said they will boycott the four-day assembly in Kabul, saying it was pulled together without their input and is being used by Ghani as he seeks a second term in a September presidential election.

“We have presented the peace plan on a regular basis and we are committed to it,” Ghani said in the first session since parliamentary elections marred by technical problems, militant attacks and accusations of voting fraud last year.

“Based on this plan, there will be no peace deal and negotiation that does not have the green card of the parliament,” he added.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks to end the Afghan war.

U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reported some progress toward an accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal and on how the Taliban would prevent extremists from using Afghanistan to launch attacks as al Qaeda did on Sept. 11, 2001.

The insurgents have so far rejected U.S. demands for a ceasefire and talks on the country’s political future that would include Afghan government officials.

The loya jirga, a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups, is an attempt by Ghani to influence the peace talks and cement his position for a second term, Afghan politicians and Western diplomats say.

Amid growing political divisions in Kabul, opposition politicians have demanded that Ghani step down when his mandate ends next month, and give way to an interim government to oversee peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani has ruled that out.

The country’s top court said last week Ghani can stay in office until the presidential election in September.

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad, Rupam Jain, Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday defended special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while slamming former President Barack Obama’s administration for being slow to take action on Russian interference in U.S. elections and ex-FBI Director James Comey for telling Congress the agency was investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence schemes,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association, marking his first public remarks after the Mueller report was released, reports CBS News.

He also pointed out that the investigation revealed a pattern of computer hacking and the use of social media to undermine elections as “only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration also made “critical decisions,” including choosing not to publicize the full story about Russian hackers and social media trolling, “and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America,” said Rosenstein.

He noted that the Mueller probe began after Comey disclosed during a hearing before Congress that President Donald Trump “pressured him to close the investigation and the president denied that the conversation occurred.”

Rosenstein said two years ago, when he was confirmed, he was told by a Republican senator that he would be in charge of the probe and that he’d report the results to the American people.

However, he said he didn’t promise to do that, because it is “not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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President Trump on Friday said “no money” was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, after reports that the U.S. received a $2 million hospital bill from Pyongyang for the late American prisoner’s care.

“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist[sic] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!” Trump tweeted Friday.

NORTH KOREA GAVE US $2M HOSPITAL BILL OVER CARE OF AMERICAN OTTO WARMBIER, SOURCES SAY

The Washington Post first reported that North Korean authorities insisted the U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier, 21, who was a student of the University of Virginia, sign a pledge to pay the bill before allowing Warmbier’s comatose body to return to the United States. Sources confirmed the bill and the amount to Fox News on Thursday.

Sources told the post that the envoy signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions from the president, but a source told Fox News that the U.S. did not ever pay money to North Korea.

The White House declined to comment when asked on the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that: “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”

Meanwhile, the president added: “’President[sic] Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.’ Cheif[sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!”

Warmbier was on tour in North Korea when he allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March 2016. Warmbier, for unknown reasons, fell into a coma while in custody and was held in that condition for an additional 17 months.

North Korean officials did not tell American officials until June 2017 that Warmbier had been unconscious the entire time. He died less than a week after he returned to the U.S. North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

AMERICAN PRISONERS HELD IN NORTH KOREA ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER POMPEO VISIT, TRUMP SAYS

Fred and Cindy Warmbier sued North Korea over their son’s death and in December were awarded $501 million in damages – money that the Hermit Kingdom will probably never pay.

While the Warmbiers blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has said he believes Kim’s claims that he did not know about the student’s treatment.

Trump and Kim have met in two separate summits. The most recent, held in February, ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told Fox News: “Otto Warmbier was mistreated by North Korea in so many ways, including his wrongful conviction and harsh sentence, and the fact that for 16 months they refused to tell his family or our country about his dire condition they caused.  No, the United States owes them nothing. They owe the Warmbier family everything.”

Last year, the Trump administration was also able to save three American prisoners held by North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song were all detained in North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the three Americans home last May, and said they were all in “good health.”

Fox News’ John Roberts, Rich Edson, Nicholas Kalman, and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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