Iowa Supreme Court blocks portion of 20-week abortion ban

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday granted an emergency temporary injunction halting a portion of a 20-week abortion ban that was signed into law by Republican Governor Terry Branstad just hours earlier.
The law, passed by Iowa’s Republican-controlled House and Senate last month, bans abortions once a pregnancy reaches 20 weeks and stipulates a three-day waiting period before women can undergo any abortion.
The law does not make exceptions for instances of rape or incest but does allow for abortions if the mother’s life or health is at risk.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood, a group that provides family planning services, including abortions, challenged the waiting-period part of the legislation in court as well as the requirement for an additional clinical visit women must make before an abortion.
The state Supreme Court on Friday issued the injunction after it was denied Thursday by a district judge.
“We are pleased that the court granted the temporary injunction, ruling on the side of Iowa women who need access to, and have a constitutional right, to safe, legal abortion,” Suzanna de Baca, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland said in a statement.
The state will have an opportunity to respond to the court’s decision on Monday.
“This is all part of the process and we’re confident that the stay will be lifted very shortly,” said Ben Hammes, a spokesman for the Republican governor.
Women in the United States have the right under the Constitution to end a pregnancy, but abortion opponents have pushed for tougher regulations, particularly in conservative states.
There are 24 states that impose prohibitions on abortions after a certain number of weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive policy.
Seventeen of these states ban abortion at about 20 weeks and after.
Iowa’s law, Hammes said after the signing, marked a “return to a culture that once again respects human life.”
In Tennessee, a bill similar to the Iowa measure was sent to the desk of that state’s Republican governor on Wednesday to possibly be signed into law.

Pentagon to lease privately owned Trump Tower apartment for nuclear ‘football’: letter

The U.S. Defense Department is finalizing a lease on a privately owned apartment in New York’s Trump Tower for the White House Military Office to use for supporting President Donald Trump without providing any benefit to Trump or his organization, according to a Pentagon letter seen by Reuters.
The Military Office carries and safeguards the “football,” the device that contains the top secret launch codes the president needs to order a nuclear attack, as well as providing him secure communications wherever he is.
The White House, Secret Service, and Defense Department had no comment on whether similar arrangements have been made at other properties Trump frequents – Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where Trump is spending this weekend.
In a letter to Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat on the House Armed Services and intelligence committees, Defense Department official James MacStravic, said the apartment is “privately owned and … lease negotiations have been with the owner’s representatives only.”
MacStravic, who wrote that he was “temporarily performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics,” said any acquisition of leased space with “an annual rental in excess of $1 million must first be approved by my office.”
He “approved this action” after consulting with the White House Military Office and other officials, he said.
Officials declined to reveal the cost of the lease or identify the owners of the apartment.
MacStravic’s letter, dated March 3, added: “We are not aware of any means through which the President would personally benefit from a Government lease of this space.”
The letter explained that the White House Military Office, a Pentagon unit, “requested approval to lease space in the Trump Tower for personnel assigned to support the President when at his private residence.”
The letter said such arrangements are “typical of support provided” by the Military Office to previous U.S. presidents and vice presidents at their private residences. It is not clear, however, whether the office has ever paid to rent space to house the classified equipment presidents need when they are staying at homes they own outside Washington.
A White House spokeswoman said the White House had no information on the leasing issue. The Defense Department and U.S. Secret Service declined to comment.
The Trump Organization did not reply to an email requesting comment.
When the Pentagon in February first acknowledged that it was seeking to lease space in Trump Tower, some Democrats questioned whether such a move would produce a financial windfall for Trump.
“I am concerned by the appearance that the President of the United States will financially benefit from this deal at the expense of the Department of Defense – and ultimately, taxpayers,” Speier wrote to Defense Secretary James Mattis shortly after the Trump Tower issue became public in February.
By negotiating only with representatives of the owners of a private apartment, the Pentagon said it was seeking to avoid such concerns.

Iranian supreme leader critical of ‘Western-influenced’ Rouhani education plan

Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday criticized the government of President Hassan Rouhani for promoting a “Western-influenced” United Nations education plan which his hardline allies have said contradicts Islamic principles.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remarks came ahead of May 19 polls, in which the president is seeking re-election.
“In this country, the basis is Islam and the Koran. This is not a place where the faulty, corrupt and destructive Western lifestyle will be allowed to spread its influence,” Khamenei told a gathering of educators, according to his website.
“It makes no sense to accept such a document in the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said, referring to the Education 2030 plan proposed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Khamenei did not give details of his opposition to the UNESCO plan, but hardline commentators in Iran have said its promotion of gender equality in education contravened Islam.
“How can a so-called international body which is under the influence of the great powers allow itself to assign duties for countries with different histories, cultures and civilizations?” said Khamenei, who often warns of a “soft war” mounted by the West to topple Iran’s Islamic government.
Khamenei has the final say over policy in Iran and has repeatedly distanced himself from Rouhani in recent weeks.
But he has stopped short of backing any of Rouhani’s hardline opponents, who include influential cleric Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
A U.N. human rights report issued in August 2015 said Iran had almost achieved universal enrolment and gender parity at all educational levels.
But the report said that gender-ratio policies adopted in 2012 had led to a fall in enrolment of female students in universities.

Macron favourite as France votes for new president, early turnout low

French voters choose on Sunday whether a pro-European Union centrist or a eurosceptic, anti-immigration far-rightist will lead them for the next five years, with early figures indicating turnout could be low, but above most recent forecasts.
Opinion polls predict that after 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who wants to bridge the left-right divide, will be named as president, seeing off the challenge from National Front leader Marine Le Pen.
A Macron victory would further stem the tide of nativist, anti-globalisation voting outcomes like those that will see Britain quit the EU and which made Donald Trump U.S. president.
Macron, who wants to deregulate the economy and deepen EU integration, is set to win the head-to-head with between 61.5 and 63 percent of the vote, according to the last opinion polls on Friday.
Should an upset occur and Le Pen win, the very future of the EU could be on the line given her desire to close borders, dump the euro currency, and tear up trade treaties.
Even in defeat, the 48 year-old’s vote is likely to be about twice what her party scored the last time it reached the presidential second round in 2002, demonstrating the scale of voter disaffection with mainstream politics in France.
By midday, both candidates had voted, he in Le Touquet on the north coast, and she in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont.
Midday turnout figures from the Interior Ministry said 28.23 percent of voters had turned out so far, the lowest at this stage of the day since the 2002 presidential poll, when it was 26.19 percent. Turnouts at midday in 2012 and 2007 were 30.66 percent and 34.11 percent respectively.
A poll on Friday had predicted a final turnout of 75 percent this time. The eventual turnouts in 2002, 2007 and 2012 were all above 80 percent.
Pollsters see likely abstentions as highest among left-wing voters who feel disenfranchised by Sunday’s choice after nine other candidates were eliminated in first round, but it is unclear what a high or low turnout could mean for the outcome.
Nevertheless, voter surveys forecasting the result itself proved accurate for the tight first round race last month.
Markets have risen in response to Macron’s widening lead over his rival after a bitter television debate on Wednesday.
“We increased our equity exposure and added some French stocks after the first round,” said Francois Savary, chief investment officer at Geneva-based fund management firm Prime Partners. “The major political risk of a Le Pen victory appears to be disappearing.”
After a campaign in which favourites dropped out of the race one after the other, Le Pen is nevertheless closer to elected power than the far right has been in France since World War Two.
If opinion polls prove accurate and the country elects its youngest-ever president rather than its first female leader, Macron himself has said himself he expects no honeymoon period.
Close to 60 percent of those who plan to vote for Macron say they will do so to stop Le Pen from being elected to lead the euro zone’s second-largest economy, rather than because they fully support the former banker turned politician.
“I don’t necessarily agree with either of the candidates,” psychotherapist Denise Dulliand, who was voting in Annecy in the mountainous southeast, told Reuters.
“But I wanted to express my voice, to be able to say that I came, even if I am really not satisfied with what is happening in our country, and that I would like to see less stupidity, less money and more fraternity.”
MORE ELECTIONS TO COME
The battle between mainstream and more radical policies in France will continue into parliamentary elections next month in which the new president will try to secure a majority in parliament. One poll this week suggested that was within reach for Macron.
Much will also depend on how the candidates score on Sunday. Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, on Thursday told L’Opinion daily that winning 40 percent of the vote would be “a huge victory” for the National Front.
Whoever wins will open a new chapter in French politics, after the major left- and right-wing parties — the Socialists and The Republicans — that have ruled France for decades both suffered humiliating defeats in the election’s first round.
The campaign was hit by yet another surprise on Friday night, just as the quiet period in which politicians are forbidden from commenting began. Macron’s team said a massive hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign-financing information online.
Exit polls will be published when voting ends at 8 pm (1800 GMT).
With security a prime concern More than 50,000 police officers were on duty on Sunday. A series of militant attacks in Paris, Nice and elsewhere in France have killed more than 230 people in recent years.

Clintoon Foundation Cartoons

Hillary Clinton Email Cases Still Smolder, With Foes Eager to Spark New Investigation

She just won't go away.

Conservative transparency group Judicial Watch continued its carousel of court hearings Tuesday, seeking records relating to Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, hoping to uncover evidence of wrongdoing.
The legal pursuit of the former Democratic presidential nominee remained hot inside a federal courthouse in the nation's capital, even if fewer reporters showed up than before her surprise November defeat.
At one hearing, appeals judges reviewed a request to identify all State Department employees who used personal email for work after Clinton took office. At the other, a district court judge considered the speed of redacting and releasing FBI investigative records about a cloud service backup of Clinton’s private email server.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said outside the group’s second hearing that there remains an objective to the legal onslaught, even if Clinton holds no office.
Fitton wants President Donald Trump to make good on a campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton, whose handling of classified records and interactions with family foundation donors were major election issues.
“We want the thumbs to be taken off the scale, finally,” he says, alleging the State Department and FBI may be slow-walking disclosure because they fear triggering Trump to reconsider his walk-back of the campaign pledge.
Currently a new probe of Clinton, who maintained her innocence and against whom FBI Director James Comey in July recommended no charges for mishandling classified records, does not appear likely.
After defeating her, Trump downplayed his talk about a special prosecutor, saying "I don't want to hurt the Clintons." And attorneys now facing off against Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act demands work for the new Trump administration.
In court Tuesday, the group sought FOIA processing priority for 785 pages of FBI investigative records -- of about 10,000 pages of FBI Clinton investigation records -- that it believes could be explosive.
The pages relate to the Datto cloud backup service, which stored data from Clinton’s private server -- something discovered to the apparent displeasure of Platte River Networks CEO Treve Suazo, whose company helped maintain Clinton's server.
“This data should not be stored in the Datto Cloud, but because the backup data exists, we cannot delete it,” Suazo wrote in a 2015 email to a Datto employee, which was released in a congressional committee investigating Clinton's email server.
Judicial Watch believes investigative records about Datto may include information about the 30,000 or so emails that Clinton's team deleted before turning over content it deemed work-related to the State Department. Many but not all of those emails were later recovered by the FBI and determined to be work-related.
Justice Department attorney Cesar Lopez-Morales said in court Tuesday that a heavy FOIA request burden prevented authorities from agreeing to Judicial Watch's request to prioritize the 785 pages.
“A lot of the Clinton investigation remains sensitive,” Lopez-Morales said, meaning “a limited number” of people can access the documents. And, he said, “there’s a risk of missing files as you’re pulling out the specific files” from folders.
Judicial Watch attorney Michael Bekesha suggested copying files rather than removing them from folders, but U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said he was inclined to side with the administration.
Moss expressed concern it would be “inefficient and unfair” to prioritize the pages and asked rhetorically, “what happens if everyone comes in and does this?”
Lopez-Morales said the full set of FBI investigatory files are likely to be fully processed for redaction and release within about 17 months, down from the 20 months previously estimated.
The approximately 10,000 pages of FBI records are distinct from State Department documents from Clinton's tenure, including emails, being processed for release. A hearing in March is scheduled to review the pace of State Department processing, which as of November was calculated to take five years in response to lawsuits from Judicial Watch and Vice journalist Jason Leopold.
The tangle of Clinton emails cases can be difficult to follow, even for leaders of Judicial Watch, which is known as a prolific document requester and FOIA litigator. But the effort continues to see successes. In December, a federal appeals panel revived a pair of lawsuits -- one from Judicial Watch -- to force authorities to do more to compel recovery of Clinton emails. Last week, the group published 549 pages of State Department documents a judge ordered released in a different case targeting Clinton aide Huma Abedin's emails.
Fitton concedes it’s difficult to keep all of the Clinton email lawsuits straight, and Bekesha deferred to spokeswoman Jill Farrell for a precise number of active cases relating to Clinton’s emails. Farrell says the group has 13 Clinton email lawsuits currently pending.

North Korea accuses CIA of ‘bio-chemical’ plot against leadership

North Korea on Friday accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and South Korea’s intelligence service of a plot to attack its “supreme leadership” with a bio-chemical weapon and said such a “pipe-dream” could never succeed.
Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that North Korea might conduct its sixth nuclear test or test-launch another ballistic missile in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Reclusive North Korea warned this week that U.S. hostility had brought the region to the brink of nuclear war.
The North’s Ministry of State Security released a statement saying “the last-ditch effort” of U.S. “imperialists” and the South had gone “beyond the limits”.
“The Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S. and the Intelligence Service (IS) of south Korea, hotbed of evils in the world, hatched a vicious plot to hurt the supreme leadership of the DPRK and those acts have been put into the extremely serious phase of implementation after crossing the threshold of the DPRK,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted the statement as saying, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“A hideous terrorists’ group, which the CIA and the IS infiltrated into the DPRK on the basis of covert and meticulous preparations to commit state-sponsored terrorism against the supreme leadership of the DPRK by use of bio-chemical substance, has been recently detected.”
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service were not immediately available for comment. The U.S. military has said CIA director Mike Pompeo visited South Korea this week and met the NIS chief for discussions.
KCNA said the two intelligence services “ideologically corrupted” and bribed a North Korean surnamed Kim and turned him into “a terrorist full of repugnance and revenge against the supreme leadership of the DPRK”.
“They hatched a plot of letting human scum Kim commit bomb terrorism targeting the supreme leadership during events at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and at military parade and public procession after his return home,” KCNA said.
“They told him that assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months…
“Then they handed him over $20,000 on two occasions and a satellite transmitter-receiver and let him get versed in it.”
North Korea conducted an annual military parade, featuring a display of missiles and overseen by top leader Kim Jong Un and his right-hand men on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later.
KCNA, which often carries shrill, bellicose threats against the United States, gave lengthy details about the alleged plot but said it could never be accomplished.
“Criminals going hell-bent to realize such a pipe dream cannot survive on this land even a moment,” it said.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that Washington was working on more sanctions against North Korea if it takes steps that merit a new response. He also warned other countries their firms could face so-called secondary sanctions for doing illicit business with Pyongyang.
Tillerson said the Trump administration had been “leaning hard into China … to test their willingness to use their influence, their engagement with the regime”.
Two women accused of killing the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim with a chemical weapon appeared in court in Malaysia last month.
They allegedly smeared the man’s face with the toxic VX nerve agent, a chemical described by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.

Japan, China to hold finance talks amid concerns on protectionism, North Korea

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan and China will hold their first bilateral financial dialogue in two years on Saturday to discuss risks to Asia’s economic outlook, such as the protectionist policies advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump and tension over North Korea, officials said.
Chinese Finance Minister Xiao Jie, who missed a trilateral meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on Friday for an emergency domestic meeting, has flown in for the bilateral dialogue, seeking to dispel speculation his absence had diplomatic implications.
Xiao and Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso will discuss issues ranging from North Korea’s nuclear and missile program to the two countries’ economic outlook and financial cooperation during the dialogue, to be held on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting in Yokohama, eastern Japan.
Senior finance officials from both countries will also hold a separate round of talks, Japanese Finance Ministry officials say.
Relations between Japan and China have been strained over territorial rows and Japan’s occupation of parts of China in World War Two, though leaders have recently sought to mend ties through dialogue.
Still, China’s increasing presence in infrastructure finance has alarmed some Japanese policymakers, who worry that Beijing’s new development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), may overshadow the Japan-backed ADB.
Japan and China do agree on the need to respect free trade, which is crucial to Asia’s trade-dependent economies.
Finance officials from Japan, China and South Korea agreed to resist all forms of protectionism in Friday’s trilateral meeting, taking a stronger stand than G20 major economies against the protectionist policies advocated by Trump.
China has positioned itself as a supporter of free trade in the wake of Trump’s calls to put America’s interests first and pull out of multilateral trade agreements.
Japan has taken a more accommodative stance toward Washington’s argument that trade must not just be free but fair.

Clinton Refuses to Take Blame; Problems Ahead for Democratic Party

Washington, DC – Kendall Forward, OAN Political Correspondent
Hillary Clinton is gaining criticism for failing to take the blame for losing the 2016 election. In an interview with Christiane Amanpour at a Woman for Woman event on Tuesday, she claimed if the election had been earlier, she would be president; “It wasn’t a perfect campaign. There is no such thing um but I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28th and Russian Wikileaks placed doubt in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me who got scared off.”
Colin Reed, executive director of the political action committee, America Rising says it’s simply not true; “The problems she had were deep seeded and long in the making. They were things that she created. A secret e-mail server was one thing but only in politics, the unethical stuff going on with the Clinton Foundation there was a slew of reasons the American people did not trust Sec. Clinton.” He says she lost because she ran a bad campaign and lost voter trust.
According to Reed, it’s part of a bigger problem democrats face, including increasing lack of leadership in the party, leaving democrats looking to the past for candidates.
“Right now there’s no one really in charge. The leadership is all over the age of 75,” says Reed. “Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren are clearly trying to take over the party, but they’re running into resistance from folks that are already in the middle.” He says the party is moving too far left, isolating more members and voters; “It is time for this party to look forward but they’re having a real hard time doing that.”

French candidate Macron claims massive hack as emails leaked

Again ? :-)

FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) – Leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its campaign emails online 1-1/2 days before voters choose between the centrist and his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen.
Macron, who is seen as the frontrunner in an election billed as the most important in France in decades, extended his lead over Le Pen in polls on Friday.
As much as 9 gigabytes of data were posted on a profile called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a site that allows anonymous document sharing. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of it was genuine.
In a statement, Macron’s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.
“The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information,” the statement said.
An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules that forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, which took effect at midnight on Friday (2200 GMT).
The presidential election commission said in statement that it would hold a meeting later on Saturday after Macron’s campaign informed it about the hack and publishing of the data.
It urged the media to be cautious about publishing details of the emails given that campaigning had ended, and publication could lead to criminal charges.
Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began. The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).
Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday’s second round of voting, in what is seen to be France’s most important election in decades. The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 percent of the vote.
RUSSIAN HAND SEEN
Former economy minister Macron’s campaign has previously complained about attempts to hack its emails, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.
On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a attempts to steal email credentials dating back to January, but that the perpetrators had failed to compromise any campaign data.
The Kremlin has denied it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron’s camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers’ group operating in Ukraine.
Vitali Kremez, director of research with New York-based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, told Reuters his review indicates that APT 28, a group tied to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence directorate, was behind the leak. He cited similarities with U.S. election hacks that have been previously attributed to that group.
APT28 last month registered decoy internet addresses to mimic the name of En Marche, which it likely used send tainted emails to hack into the campaign’s computers, Kremez said. Those domains include onedrive-en-marche.fr and mail-en-marche.fr.
“If indeed driven by Moscow, this leak appears to be a significant escalation over the previous Russian operations aimed at the U.S. presidential election, expanding the approach and scope of effort from simple espionage efforts towards more direct attempts to sway the outcome,” Kremez said.
France is the latest nation to see a major election overshadowed by accusations of manipulation through cyber hacking.
U.S. intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of parties tied to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to influence the election on behalf of Republican rival Donald Trump.
On Friday night as the #Macronleaks hashtag buzzed around social media, Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the National Front, tweeted “Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately killed?”
Macron spokesman Sylvain Fort, in a response on Twitter, called Philippot’s tweet “vile”.
En Marche! said the documents only showed the normal functioning of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow “doubt and misinformation”.
Ben Nimmo, a UK-based security researcher with the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council think tank, said initial analysis indicated that a group of U.S. far-right online activists were behind early efforts to spread the documents via social media. They were later picked up and promoted by core social media supporters of Le Pen in France, Nimmo said.
The leaks emerged on 4chan, a discussion forum popular with far right activists in the United States. An anonymous poster provided links to the documents on Pastebin, saying, “This was passed on to me today so now I am giving it to you, the people.”
The hashtag #MacronLeaks was then spread by Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump activist whose Twitter profile identifies him as Washington D.C. bureau chief of the far-right activist site Rebel TV, according to Nimmo and other analysts tracking the election. Contacted by Reuters, Posobiec said he had simply reposted what he saw on 4chan.
“You have a hashtag drive that started with the alt-right in the United States that has been picked up by some of Le Pen’s most dedicated and aggressive followers online,” Nimmo told Reuters.
Alt-right refers to a loose-knit group of far-right activists known for their advocacy of extremist ideas, rejection of mainstream conservatism and disruptive social media tactics.