Conservative Blogger
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Tennessee ‘natural meaning’ law raises fears in LGBT community
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam on Friday enacted a bill that critics say is an underhanded way of denying rights to same-sex couples by insisting on the “natural and ordinary meaning” of words in state statues.
The legislation, which was signed by the Republican governor despite pressure from civil liberty and gay-rights groups, requires words in Tennessee law be interpreted with their “natural and ordinary meaning, without forced or subtle construction that would limit or extend the meaning of the language.” It did not explain, however, what that means.
Civil rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocates warned the law is meant to undermine the rights of same-sex couples in any statutes that include words like “husband,” “wife,” “mother” or “father.”
Neither of the two sponsoring lawmakers, Republican state Senator John Stevens and Republican state Representative Andrew Farmer, could be reached to comment.
However, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported Stevens said he proposed the measure partly to compel courts to side more closely with the dissenting opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges which legalized same-sex marriage.
Haslam said on Friday he believes the law will not change how courts interpret legal precedent.
“While I understand the concerns raised about this bill, the Obergefell decision is the law of the land, and this legislation does not change a principle relied upon by the courts for more than a century, mitigating the substantive impact of this legislation,” he said in a statement.
The Tennessee measure is one of more than 100 bills introduced in U.S. state legislatures this year that to curtail LGBT rights, said Cathryn Oakley, senior legislative counsel for the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
While public opinion polls and court rulings have shifted in favor of same-sex rights in recent years, there is ongoing pushback from the 2015 ruling, Oakley said.
Last month, a Kentucky family court judge made headlines by issuing an order stating he would not hear adoption cases involving same-sex couples due to personal objections. That echoed Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’ 2015 refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses because it violated her religious beliefs.
Gay-rights groups previously warned the law could create an economic backlash against Tennessee similar to that suffered by North Carolina, where a law requiring students use the restroom of the gender on their birth certificates led sports organizations and musicians to cancel events.
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.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Hillary Clinton Email Cases Still Smolder, With Foes Eager to Spark New Investigation
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| She just won't go away. |
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
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| Again ? :-) |
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.
Friday, May 5, 2017
U.S. employment growth seen rebounding, wages increasing
U.S. job growth likely rebounded in April and wages increased, pointing to a further tightening in labor market conditions that could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month.
Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 185,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters poll of economists, after a paltry gain of 98,000 in March.
The March gain, the smallest in 10 months, was dismissed as payback after unseasonably mild temperatures in January and February pulled forward hiring in weather-sensitive sectors like construction and leisure and hospitality.
The Labor Department will release its closely watched employment report at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) on Friday.
Job gains in line with expectations would support the Fed’s contention that the pedestrian 0.7 percent annualized economic growth pace in the first quarter was likely “transitory,” and its optimism that economic activity would expand at a “moderate” pace.
“The labor market continues to tighten, we have on average seen inflation rise over this past year,” said Ray Stone, an economist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey. “From the Fed’s perspective, there is probably going to be a policy tightening in June and probably again sometime over the balance of the year.” The Fed on Wednesday kept its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged and said it expected labor market conditions would “strengthen somewhat further.”
The U.S. central bank raised its overnight interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point in March and has forecast two more increases this year.
Average hourly earnings likely rose 0.3 percent last month, partly because of a calendar quirk. While that would keep the year-on-year increase at 2.7 percent, there are signs that wage growth is accelerating as labor market slack diminishes.
A government report last week showed private sector wages recorded their biggest gain in 10 years in the first quarter.
NEAR FULL EMPLOYMENT
The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. Job growth averaged 178,000 per month in the first quarter.
The unemployment rate probably ticked up to 4.6 percent last month from a near 10-year low of 4.5 percent in March. With the labor market expected to hit a level consistent with full employment this year, payroll gains could slow as firms struggle to find qualified workers.
“We have seen a steady increase in anecdotal evidence of a mismatch in the labor force,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer at CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management in Baltimore. “There are a number of industries that are having trouble hiring enough qualified personnel and those things will eventually lead to upward wage pressures.”
Construction and manufacturing hiring likely led the anticipated acceleration in job growth last month. Retail employment probably declined for a third straight month.
Retailers including J.C. Penney Co Inc
More people likely entered the labor force in April, which could led to a marginal rise in the participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job. The labor force participation rate is at an 11-month high of 63 percent.
“At this point there just aren’t a lot of excess discouraged workers left and dropout rates of unemployed workers are already low, so there’s not a lot of apparent room left to extend the participation rate rebound,” said Ted Wieseman, an economist at Morgan Stanley in New York.
U.S. House approves tighter North Korea sanctions
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Thursday to tighten sanctions on North Korea by targeting its shipping industry and companies that do business with the reclusive state.
The vote was 419 to 1.
Supporters said the legislation was intended to send a strong message to North Korea, amid international concern over the escalation of its nuclear program.
The measure would have to be approved by the Senate before it could be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law.
Although legislation addressing North Korea has been introduced in the Senate, there was no immediate word on when or if the Senate might take up a bill.
Any new U.S. sanctions against North Korea would likely affect China, the North’s most important trade partner.
While China has been angered by North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, it has signed up for increasingly tough U.N. sanctions against it, and says it is committed to enforcing them.
Asked about the latest U.S. legislation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated that China opposed other countries using their own domestic law to impose unilateral sanctions.
With the situation tense on the Korean Peninsula, all sides need to exercise restraint and not irritate each other to avoid the situation worsening, he said.
Report: Russia says Syria safe zones will be shut for US warplanes
Russian news agencies reported on Friday that U.S. and coalition warplanes will not be allowed to fly over safe zones in Syria.
Putin on Wednesday said he had a “very good” conversation over the phone with Trump, and that his U.S. counterpart agreed to a proposal to establish Syrian safe zones to protect civilians in the war-torn country.
But the White House only confirmed that the two leaders discussed the safe zones, not that there were any agreements.
It is unclear how Russia would enforce this reported no-fly zone for coalition forces.
Reuters reported that countries like Iran and Turkey have agreed on Moscow’s proposal for the “de-escalation zones.” The United Nations also reportedly welcomed the plan.
The proposal presented to the rebels in Astana delineates four zones in Syria where front lines between the government and rebels would be frozen and fighting halted, according to a statement made by rebels. The four include areas in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, the eastern Ghouta suburbs outside Damascus, and an area in the south of the country.
The zones, according to the document received by rebels, would be monitored by international observers and allow for the voluntary return of refugees.
Late Wednesday, Syria's Foreign Ministry said Damascus is "fully backing" the Russian initiative on the four cease-fire areas, according to the state-run SANA news agency.
But Ahmed Ramadan, an opposition representative, told The Associated Press that rebels requested a written answer on a number of questions, including why the cease-fire would only be in effect in the four areas instead of a nationwide truce.
Congress Passes Bill to Repeal and Replace Obamacare
Congress voted to make sweeping changes to the American health care system Thursday. Republicans passed the American Health Care Act to repeal and replace Obamacare with 217 yea votes and 213 no votes.
Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) , one of the few Republicans who voted no to the bill, said, “I don’t think this bill lowers premiums” and he added he would have liked to see a CBO score. The bill still has not been scored. Lance also said he’d like to “see the parties coming together and see cooperation from our Democratic colleagues” in a more bipartisan bill.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, said it was a series of discussions that brought him and other Caucus members from a ‘no’ to ‘yes’ vote.
In an last minute switch, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Billy Long (R- MO) told President Trump, they had decided to vote ‘yes’, giving Republicans the final count they needed to go forward with the vote.
After the vote, House Democrats sang “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye”, a song by Steam, on the House floor to Republicans.
A few major main provisions of the bill include:
- Obamacare subsidies for lower income Americans are repealed.
- The bill offers yearly tax credits ($2,000-$4,000 a year) to those without insurance based on age.
- A complete Medicaid funding overhaul. A fixed amount of funding is provided by the federal government. The bill ends open-ended entitlement and puts the program on a budget, cutting $880 billion dollars over 10 years.
- The bill cuts taxes on high income people by taking out a tax that previously charged an additional 3.6%
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Changes at helm of U.S. bank agency signal new Trump era
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration on Wednesday took its first step in replacing Obama-era banking regulators, naming a veteran financial lawyer as interim head of the watchdog for federally chartered banks.
Keith Noreika, a partner at law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, will be first deputy comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and will run the OCC on an interim basis when Comptroller Thomas Curry leaves on May 5, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
Former banker Joseph Otting, who worked with Mnuchin at Californian lender OneWest, is considered the lead contender to permanently replace Curry, several people familiar with the matter have said. That appointment requires Senate confirmation and analysts said they expected Noreika to be in charge for much of this year.
U.S. President Donald Trump wants to overhaul regulation of the financial services system to make it easier for banks to lend and has asked Mnuchin to review the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law by June 3.
The OCC is one of several regulators that monitors the health of Wall Street banks but has a particularly influential role in scrutinizing lending practices.
Under Curry, OCC bank examiners have clamped down on what they perceive as overly risky loans, particularly the type used to fund private equity buyouts.
Curry used his position to warn banks when he thought they were talking on too much risk in loans to energy firms and property developers.
“Curry did use the bully pulpit to warn banks against risky activity and I think you’re likely to see less of that going forward,” said Ian Katz, financial policy analyst at research firm Capital Alpha.
The appointment of Noreika and the expected nomination of Otting meant limits on how much banks can lend to highly indebted companies may be loosened in the future, said Jaret Seiberg, analyst at Cowen Washington Research Group.
“This is the most bullish sign yet for the biggest banks that the Trump administration will pursue a traditional Republican approach of financial regulation rather than adopt a more populist tone that could include high leverage capital requirements,” Seiberg said.
CONTROVERSIAL CHOICES
Trump’s plans to overhaul regulation are being held up by the government’s current lean crew of regulators.
While the Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm attorney Jay Clayton to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, the OCC’s changing of the guard might not be so smooth.
Democrats have criticized practices at OneWest, the lender created by Mnuchin after the 2008 housing crisis that foreclosed on 36,000 California families. Mnuchin hired Otting as chief executive of the bank in 2010 and he held that role until it was bought by CIT Group in 2014.
Noreika’s background as a lawyer who has advised banks on M&A, including Ant Financial’s acquisition of Moneygram, as well as on the Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from making speculative bets, is also controversial.
“It is disturbing that the President is rushing to replace Mr. Curry with an acting appointee who has clear conflicts of interest, and lacks any experience in running such an important agency,” Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement.
Noreika’s appointment does not require Senate approval.
Curry, a career regulator, was appointed by the Obama administration for a five-year term that expired last month and has since been serving under an extension.
While Curry took a tough line on risky lending, the agency did come under fire for its failure to tackle a sales practice abuse scandal at Wells Fargo & Co.
The OCC is also trying to establish itself as a regulator of online lenders and financial technology firms. State authorities have argued that is their job and are suing the OCC, arguing it lacks the legal authority to offer a banking charter for technology companies.
There are also three vacant spots on the Federal Reserve Board, including the post of vice chair of supervision, which will play a key role in any overhaul of bank regulation.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mnuchin told a conference of community bankers that Trump had signed off on a nominee to fill the vice chair role but did not name the person. Reuters had previously reported that Randal Quarles, who worked as under secretary for domestic finance at the Treasury under President George W. Bush, was a leading candidate.
Mnuchin said the administration was also close to naming the two other Fed selections.
Trump spends more time than predecessors in White House bubble
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump made fewer appearances outside of the presidential bubble than his three immediate predecessors, venturing less beyond the White House or his private Mar-a-Lago estate, according to a Reuters review.
The U.S. president cast himself during his election campaign last year as a Washington outsider and a populist champion, and often seemed most comfortable at raucous campaign rallies.
Trump still constantly tells Americans what is on his mind through prolific use of Twitter messages, but he has not traveled out into the country often since taking office on Jan. 20.
Trump made comments at official appearances 132 times in the first 100 days, compared with 139 by Barack Obama in the same period, 177 by George W. Bush and 162 by Bill Clinton. (http://tmsnrt.rs/2p8M8EU)
Some 22 of his appearances were in settings other than the White House, Air Force One, a government agency or at Mar-a-Lago, a Florida resort that his administration has called the “winter White House.” That compares to 62 such appearances by Obama in his first 100 days, 80 for Bush and 46 for Clinton.
Reuters reviewed public remarks delivered by the presidents using White House websites, pool reports and documents archived by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Trump made public comments on five separate occasions at Mar-a-Lago. None of the other three presidents spoke to the public from a personal residence during their first 100 days, although Bush spoke twice at Camp David, the rustic presidential retreat in Maryland.
Asked about his travel, Trump’s advisers say he is focused on implementing the promises he made at his campaign rallies.
“There is obviously a premium on his time,” said White House spokeswoman Natalie Strom. “We proceed with any additional travel very thoughtfully.”
Bradley Blakeman, who was deputy assistant for scheduling and appointments under Bush, said Trump may be missing out on opportunities to sell his message to the public.
“Deals are made in Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue, but they are sold on Main Street, USA,” Blakeman said. “It’s an important part of the bully pulpit.”
He said Trump should do targeted events focused on specific legislative priorities that will get coverage by local news outlets, where stories on presidential visits tend to be more positive than in the national media.
During his first 100 days, Bush visited more than half a dozen schools in Washington and at least five different states as he promoted his education initiative, No Child Left Behind.
Trump’s first major legislative push has focused on reforming the U.S. healthcare system, but he has not yet delivered remarks at a medical facility.
In an interview with Reuters last week, Trump lamented the confining nature of the presidency with its 24-hour Secret Service protection.
“You’re really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere,” he said.
Still, he remains a constant focus of public attention, helped by his use of Twitter, a tool that was seldom used or was entirely unavailable to his most recent three predecessors.
“Interaction online does not completely replace the value of in-person appearances, but you can’t ignore the fact that there is no limit on the amount of people the president’s tweets can reach,” Strom said.
Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said that while Trump’s use of social media had opened a new chapter in presidential communication, his lack of sustained attention on any one issue undercut his message.
“There’s not a focus there. When a president is all over the map, then he loses his power,” Jacobs said.
Feds decline to charge Louisiana policemen in fatal shooting
BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday they would not charge two Louisiana police officers in the fatal shooting of a black man last summer, prompting family members of the slain man to call for a state investigation.
The death of Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge, the state capital, was one in a series of racially charged police killings that inflamed a national debate over treatment of minorities, and especially young black men, by law enforcement.
The July 5, 2016 shooting prompted nationwide protests including a demonstration two days later in Dallas at which five law enforcement officers were fatally shot by an African-American former U.S. serviceman.
As of nightfall on Wednesday, the streets of Baton Rouge were quiet, with a few protesters gathering under intermittent rain.
In announcing the decision not to file federal charges against officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake, U.S. Attorney Corey Amundson told reporters in Baton Rouge there was “insufficient” evidence to prove civil rights violations.
Amundson said investigators could not determine whether Sterling was reaching for a gun at the time he was shot.
Members of Sterling’s family, in a simultaneous news conference, called on Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to pursue state criminal charges against the officers.
“Open up your heart, your eyes, and give us the justice that we deserve,” said Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of Sterling’s oldest son, fighting back tears.
Lawyers for the family said U.S. officials told them Salamoni was recorded on video threatening to kill Sterling less than 90 seconds before firing the fatal shots.
A lengthy summary of the Justice Department’s findings released on Wednesday did not include that detail.
Landry warned that a state investigation, which was delayed to allow the federal probe to proceed, “could take a considerable amount of time.”
The decision not to charge the two officers by the U.S. Department of Justice came amid scrutiny of how aggressively President Donald Trump’s administration will seek to hold police officers accountable in such situations.
Both Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, have criticized the Obama administration, saying it targeted police unfairly in civil rights investigations.
Sessions is still responsible for deciding whether to bring charges in other high-profile police killings, including the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York and the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland that same year.
The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s state chapter, Marjorie Esman, however, said the decision was consistent with the Obama administration’s approach in similar cases, given the high legal standard in federal civil rights cases.
Wednesday’s events came a day after a white former South Carolina officer pleaded guilty in the 2015 shooting of an unarmed black man and a Texas officer was fired for shooting an unarmed 15-year-old boy on Saturday.
Sterling was shot outside a convenience store after a resident reported he had been threatened by a black man selling CDs. Officers said that Sterling was attempting to pull a loaded gun out of his pocket when Salamoni opened fire, according to the Justice Department summary.
The two officers are on paid administrative leave pending an internal police investigation.
Salamoni’s attorney, John McLindon, said he expects the state will come to the same conclusion as the federal probe.
“There’s not going to be any finding of any criminal conduct,” McLindon said by phone Wednesday evening.
Lake’s lawyer, Fred Crifasi, said the officer was relieved by the Justice Department’s decision but would not comment further.
Asian stocks retreat, dollar holds near six-week high on hawkish Fed
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks retreated on Thursday, taking their cues from a subdued session on Wall Street, while the dollar retained gains made after the Federal Reserve’s hawkish policy statement.
European markets looked more positive, with financial spreadbetters expecting Britain’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX to open 0.2 percent higher and France’s CAC 40 to start the day up 0.1 percent.
At the end of its two-day meeting, the Fed kept its benchmark interest rate steady, as expected, but downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth and emphasized the strength of the labor market, a sign it was still on track for two more rate increases this year.
Futures traders are now pricing in a 72 percent chance of a June rate hike, from 63 percent before the Fed’s statement, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
The dollar stood at 112.765 yen, slightly higher than Wednesday and at its strongest level since March 20.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of trade-weighted peers, climbed 0.1 percent to 99.309, building on Wednesday’s 0.2 percent jump.
“The key over the coming weeks will be the economic data from the U.S. but, in addition, the (Fed) will be closely watching Washington and negotiations surrounding the new administration’s tax cut plans,” said Lee Ferridge, head of multi-asset strategy for North America at State Street Global Markets.
“Should the data hold up (or better still, improve from here), while the chances of a late summer tax cut agreement remain intact, then the market will likely price in a June move.”
Attention now turns to U.S. non-farm payrolls for March, due on Friday, after separate data showed private employers added 177,000 jobs in April. That was higher than expected but the smallest increase since October.
Economists polled by Reuters expect U.S. private payroll employment likely grew by 185,000 jobs in April, up from 89,000 in March.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.4 percent on Thursday, dragged lower by commodities, energy and financials stocks.
Japan is closed for the Golden Week holiday.
Chinese stocks pared earlier losses to trade flat, as gains in small-caps offset a cooling in China’s services sector growth to its slowest in almost a year in April as fears of slower economic growth dented business confidence.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.4 percent.
Australian shares were also 0.4 percent lower.
“May is a notoriously cruel month for Asia with foreign exchange, equities and domestic bonds all losing in historical average returns,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists led by Claudio Piron wrote in a note.
South Korea’s KOSPI bucked the weaker trend, jumping 0.7 percent and hovering just a touch below an all-time high hit earlier in the session on strong corporate earnings.
Rising exports point to continued profit growth in the second quarter, with sentiment supported by hopes for economic stimulus from a new president.
Overnight, Wall Street closed flat to lower.
The Nasdaq fell 0.4 percent as Apple shares slid after reporting lower than expected iPhone sales on Tuesday.
Facebook and Tesla also dropped during the session and after hours despite upbeat quarterly results, also weighed on the index.
Political concerns, which have taken a backseat recently, may re-emerge, with a U.S. House of Representatives vote on a revised bill to repeal Obamacare due later in the session after two failed attempts to corral enough support to pass the legislation.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Republican leadership is confident there is enough backing for the bill to pass, after key moderate leaders met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Even if the bill passes the House, it could face an uphill battle in the Senate.
In Europe, Germany ended higher but Britain and France closed lower on Wednesday. The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.04 percent to slip from a 20-month high.
The euro ticked up 0.1 percent to $1.08945 on Thursday, after losing 0.4 percent on Wednesday as the dollar strengthened on the Fed’s statement.
Following a debate between French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron, who will face off in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday, a poll showed some 63 percent of voters found market favorite Macron to be more convincing.
In commodities, oil prices slipped on Thursday after a smaller-than-expected decline in U.S. inventories last week.
U.S. crude pulled back 0.25 percent to $47.69 a barrel. On Wednesday, it touched its lowest level in over five weeks before closing higher.
Global benchmark Brent fell 0.2 percent to $50.70.
Gold inched up 0.1 percent to $1,239.80 an ounce, making up some of Wednesday’s 1.5 percent loss.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Conservative U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation fires leader
The Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank that has gained influence in Republican-controlled Washington, fired its leader Jim DeMint on Tuesday, and sources close to the situation said the organization’s leadership determined he had veered too far from its conservative principals and too close to U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House.
A scathing statement from Thomas A. Saunders III, chairman of The Heritage Foundation’s Board of Trustees, did not go into specifics of any disagreement but did cite problems with internal communications and other “management issues.”
“After a comprehensive and independent review of the entire Heritage organization, the Board determined there were significant and worsening management issues that led to a breakdown of internal communications and cooperation,” Saunders said in a statement.
“While the organization has seen many successes, Jim DeMint and a handful of his closest advisers failed to resolve these problems.”
Two political operatives who work with the organization said DeMint’s opponents argued that he had grown too close to Trump and too far from the conservative principles on which the organization was founded.
Ed Feulner, who previously served as the Heritage president, will return to the role in an interim capacity until a replacement is found, according to a statement from the Heritage board.
DeMint, a former senator from South Carolina, took over the organization in 2013 after he retired from public office. Since then, he has transformed the organization once known for research and white papers into a political behemoth. For instance, he created an arm of the organization devoted entirely to influencing elections and pushing lawmakers to side with the group’s policy positions.
But as DeMint transformed the organization, unease grew within its ranks, according to the sources.
After Trump was elected, more than a dozen staffers from the Heritage Foundation and its political arm Heritage Action were deployed as volunteers to help with the transition process. Heritage staffers worked on teams deployed to set up a Trump government at the EPA, the Office of Management and Budget and the departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, State and Treasury. An additional seven volunteers on the transition team had ties to Heritage, either having worked there before or working as a non-staff expert with the think tank.
Clinton says Comey’s letter, Russian hackers cost her the election
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Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she was on the path to victory in the 2016 presidential election until late interference by Russian hackers and FBI Director James Comey scared off some potential supporters.
In her most extensive public comments on the Nov. 8 election, Clinton told a New York conference she was derailed by Comey’s Oct. 28 letter informing Congress the Federal Bureau of Investigation had reopened a probe of her use of a private email server and by the WikiLeaks release of campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, allegedly stolen by Russian hackers.
“If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,” she told a women’s conference moderated by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“It wasn’t a perfect campaign, but I was on the way to winning until a combination of Comey’s letter and Russian WikiLeaks,” the Democrat said of the loss to Republican Donald Trump. “The reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.”
Clinton, who said she is going through the “painful process” of writing a book dealing in part with the election, also said misogyny played a role in her defeat. Becoming the first woman U.S. president would have been “a really big deal,” she said.
Clinton took personal responsibility for the campaign’s mistakes, but did not question her strategy or her staff. “I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot. I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had,” Clinton said.
She said she had no doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to influence the election for Trump, and bluntly criticized the new U.S. president for some of his foreign policy views and for tweeting too much.
“I’m back to being an activist citizen – and part of the resistance,” she said.
Clinton said broader negotiations involving China and other countries in the region were critical for convincing North Korea to rein in its nuclear program. She questioned Trump’s recent suggestion he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances.
“You should not offer that in the absence of a broader strategic framework to try to get China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, to put the kind of pressure on the regime that will finally bring them to the negotiating table,” Clinton said.
She also said she supported the recent missile strikes ordered by Trump in Syria but was unsure if they would make a difference. “There is a lot that we don’t really yet fully know about what was part of that strike,” she said.
Macron and Le Pen to square off in French pre-election TV debate
France’s presidential rivals, centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, go head-to-head on Wednesday in a televised debate in which sparks are sure to fly as they fight their corner in a last encounter before Sunday’s runoff vote.
Opinion polls still show Macron, 39, holding a strong lead of 20 points over the National Front’s Le Pen with just four days to go to the final vote, in what is widely seen as France’s most important election in decades.
Voters are choosing between Macron, a strongly Europe-minded ex-banker who wants to cut state regulations in the economy while protecting workers, and Le Pen, a eurosceptic who wants to ditch the euro currency and impose sharp curbs on immigration.
Macron finished only three points ahead of Le Pen in the first round on April 23, but he is widely expected now to pick the bulk of votes from the Socialists and the center-right whose candidates were eliminated.
Though Le Pen has a mountain to climb to catch Macron, the 2017 campaign for the Elysee has been packed with surprises, the exchanges between the two have become noticeably sharper and the 48-year-old National Front veteran has shown she is capable of catching him out with clever public relations maneuvering.
Macron warned he would not pull his punches in Wednesday night’s televised encounter against a rival whose policies he says are dangerous for France.
“I am not going to employ invective. I am not going to use cliches or insults. I’ll use hand-to-hand fighting to demonstrate that her ideas represent false solutions,” he told BFM TV.
Le Pen, who portrays Macron as a candidate of high finance masquerading as a liberal, said: “I shall be defending my ideas. He will be defending the posture that he has adopted.”
“His program seems to be very vague, but in reality it is a simple continuation of (Socialist President) Francois Hollande’s government,” she said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.
MUST-WATCH EVENT
In that interview she reaffirmed she wanted to take France out of the euro and said she hoped the French people would have a national currency in their pockets within two years.
An Elabe poll for BFM TV and L’Express published on Tuesday showed Macron winning 59 percent of the votes in the second round versus 41 percent for Le Pen. Other pollsters have consistently shown roughly the same figures.
Commentators said Wednesday’s debate could still have an influence, particularly on potential abstainers, many of whom voted for the candidate of the hard left who came fourth in the April 23 first round.
“What he (Macron) has to do it to convince the people who didn’t vote for him (in the first round) and who do not agree with his program that they will be respected,” said one outgoing government minister, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The final face-to-face debate between rivals in a French presidential election, aired live, is a ‘must-watch’ event across the country, when the candidates take the gloves off to land whatever punches they can.
Some clashes have entered into political legend.
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a center-right candidate, famously bested the Socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1974 when the latter referred to “a matter of heart” when discussing an economic point.
Giscard d’Estaing hit back saying “You don’t have a monopoly on the heart, Monsieur Mitterrand” – a phrase which stuck and which he later said helped his victory over the Socialist in what was an extremely tight contest.
In 2002 conservative Jacques Chirac, then the incumbent in the Elysee, refused to debate with Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of Marine Le Pen, after the National Front’s founder unexpectedly got through to the second round.
Chirac said no debate was possible “in the face of intolerance and hate”, a reference to Le Pen’s policies and thinking, which were considered to be xenophobic.
Chirac defeated Le Pen senior in a landslide.
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