China Deports US Businesswoman Accused of Spying

An American woman who was arrested while on a business trip in China and later convicted of spying has been deported to the United States.

Jeff Gillis says his wife, Phan “Sandy” Phan-Gillis, got on a flight to Los Angeles on Friday evening. The couple planned to stay in LA a few days to visit relatives before returning to their Houston home.

It was just Tuesday when Phan-Gillis was sentenced by Chinese authorities to 3 ½ years in prison. But the sentence was seen as an indication that she soon could be allowed to return home.

She had faced an uncertain fate since March 2015, when she disappeared from her group traveling in southern China. She was later accused of espionage.

Phan-Gillis is a U.S. citizen of Chinese descent.

Source: newsmax – China Deports US Businesswoman Accused of Spying

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Merkel: 'Good Relationship' With Trump Despite Frosty Start

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that she and President Donald Trump have built a “good working relationship” even though the two had frosty exchanges last year that raised fears of damage to the pivotal U.S.-German partnership.

“President Trump and I have developed a good working relationship, which doesn’t rule out having different points of view,” Merkel told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) group of newspapers.

“When we talk with each other, for instance, it’s about developing a common strategy for the Ukraine conflict or the horrible war in Syria. It’s also about the fight against terror or the disastrous humanitarian situation in Yemen – all these conflicts are at the doorstep of Europe.

“If we want to resolve these problems, if we want to help people, we need strong involvement from the United States,” Merkel said.

In his 2016 election campaign, Trump had disparaged Merkel for allowing more than a million refugees from Syria, the Middle East and Afghanistan into her country, saying she was “ruining Germany” with those policies. He had also criticised Germany’s large trade surpluses and threatened to import duties.

After Trump won, Merkel congratulated him but pointed out importance of democracy and the need to respect people’s dignity regardless of their origin, colour of their skin, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.

Merkel’s relations with Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama got off to an awkward start when she rejected his request to speak at the Brandenburg Gate during the 2008 presidential campaign. But the two grew close, cooperating on sanctions against Russia and launching negotiations on a transatlantic free-trade deal.

Merkel met Trump for the first time in March – an encounter closely watched by governments around the world for clues about the transatlantic alliance that helped shape the post-war global order that Trump was threatening to upend.

Trump and Merkel shook hands when she arrived at the White House but did not do so in the Oval Office where she frequently leaned towards him while he stared straight ahead.

The two leaders’ differing views on trade, Russia and immigration led to some uncomfortable moments at a joint news conference which ended oddly with a quip by Trump about wiretapping that left Merkel visibly bewildered.

But Trump has since praised the chemistry he has developed with Merkel and the two have spoken regularly on the telephone. She also invited Trump’s daughter Ivanka, an unpaid advisor to the president, to address a conference in Berlin.

“When I visited him in Washington, we talked about trade agreements,” Merkel said. “The U.S. president is asking for fair conditions from his country’s point of view, and we’re naturally looking out for German and European interests.”

In her weekly podcast on Saturday, Merkel rejected criticism from Trump over Germany’s perennially large trade surpluses.

“It’s right indeed that we need to invest more at home,” she said, adding her government has been doing that. “But I’d also like to say … we’re proud that there is such strong demand around the world for our products. That’s our standard and many people are working very hard for that.”

Source: newsmax – Merkel: ‘Good Relationship’ With Trump Despite Frosty Start

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Maher Challenges Obama Speaking Fee: Didn't That Cost Clinton the Election?

HBO “Real Time” talk show host and comedian Bill Maher questioned the $400,000 speaking fee former President Barack Obama is scheduled to receive for a speech to a Wall Street firm later this year, asking, “Isn’t that what sort of cost Hillary the election?”

Maher discussed the issue with a panel in a segment of his show where former GOP communications director Tara Setmayer explained she saw no problem with Obama accepting the fee, The Hill reported Saturday.

“Personally, as long as he’s not running for office again, I don’t care how much money he makes,” Setmayer said. “If people want to pay him that, it’s a free market value. Who cares?”

Maher responded by comparing the blowback against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while running as the Democratic nominee for president in 2016 over payments she received for speeches she had made to Wall Street.

“But, wait a second, the current president is trying to undo all of his Wall Street regulations, and then he goes to Wall Street and takes (money). Isn’t that what sort of cost Hillary the election?” he asked.

“Are those ‘horrible’ speeches she made to Wall Street, and she couldn’t release the transcripts of it?” Maher added.

Panelist Rob Reiner, actor and liberal activist, countered that there was a difference because Obama’s political career was over.

“The difference is, ‘Are you in the pocket of Wall Street?’ And (Hillary Clinton) was running for office. He’s not running for anything right now.”

Maher countered, “It kind of looks like, ‘When he’s on our team, we’re okay with it.'”

“You could say that when a guy is president, he’s looking ahead to that $400,000 payday,” Maher said. “Isn’t the best thing to do to take your $10 million book deal? Can’t you live off that?”

Obama signed a joint book deal with his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, in March for over $65 million, marking the highest payment ever for presidential memoirs, Newsweek reported.

A spokesperson for Obama defended his decision to accept the fee for the speech, maintaining the former president had both initiated regulations on Wall Street while also receiving campaign contributions from financial industries.

Source: newsmax – Maher Challenges Obama Speaking Fee: Didn’t That Cost Clinton the Election?

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Marchers Use Trump's 100th Day to Protest Climate Policies

Thousands of people across the U.S. are marking President Donald Trump’s hundredth day in office by marching in protest of his environmental policies.

In Washington, D.C., large crowds on Saturday were making their way down Pennsylvania Avenue, where they planned to encircle the White House. Organizers say about 300 other protest marches are expected around the country.

Participants in the Peoples Climate March say they’re objecting to Trump’s rollback of restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, among other things.

In Augusta, Maine, protesters outside the statehouse said they wanted to draw attention to the damage climate change can cause marginalized communities. A demonstration stretched for several blocks in downtown Tampa, Florida, where marchers said they were concerned about the threat rising seas pose to the city.

Source: newsmax – Marchers Use Trump’s 100th Day to Protest Climate Policies

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Amazon's Moves Beyond Retail Get Wall Street Thumbs Up, for Now

Amazon.com Inc.’s ventures far beyond online retail, from cloud computing to movie making, are raising questions among corporate strategy experts about its focus.

The Seattle-based company wowed Wall Street again this week with a 23 percent jump in sales, pushing its shares to an all-time high. But there are concerns that if blockbuster growth stops, investors may come to regard the company more like a conglomerate stock – worth less than the sum of its pieces.

“High growth covers a lot of sins,” said Harry Kraemer, a partner at private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

“Picture yourself running the company where one minute we’re talking about how we’re going to operate air cargo, and the next minute we’re going to talk about artificial intelligence,” he said. “I don’t think it’s sustainable.”

So far, analysts have balked at the idea of calling Amazon a conglomerate because its businesses, although varied, all relate in some way to retail. Warehouses, trucks and planes bring packages to shoppers’ doorsteps. Amazon Web Services sells the very cloud-computing services to enterprises that were built to meet the technology needs of Amazon.com.

“It’s not like General Electric Co. having financial services and making aircraft engines,” Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian said.

Some initiatives, though, such as a television studio in Hollywood, seem further afield.

Amazon says the video foray has allowed it to stream unique programming to members of its Prime shopping club, thereby increasing sign-ups for a program that encourages people to buy more goods, more often.

The financial success of the investment is difficult to assess. Revenue from Prime membership fees and other media subscriptions rose 49 percent in the first quarter to $1.9 billion, the company reported on Thursday. It does not disclose the costs of content for its Prime Video service, but they were estimated by an analyst to be more than $3 billion in 2016.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

OUT OF FASHION

These days, conglomerates like GE are out of fashion in the corporate world. By a standard method of valuation – comparing a company’s share price to its earnings per share – Amazon is worth about 10 times more than storied conglomerates Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and United Technologies Corp.

Investors discount conglomerate stocks partly because diverse businesses are tough to manage, and partly because they believe the market allots money across industries better than a company can.

Indeed, a 2012 report by McKinsey & Co. consultants found that conglomerates’ revenue on average grew by 6.3 percent per year from 2002 to 2010, while “focused” companies grew by 9.2 percent.

Amazon has acknowledged its pursuits point in many directions, but stresses they are for the long-term, not for quick gains.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky rattled off a lengthy list of investments from retail in India to drones and artificial intelligence on the company’s earnings conference call on Thursday, in an attempt to explain why its operating profit margin had thinned in North America.

“I know I’m drifting a bit from North America, but it’s all part of the same theme,” he told analysts.

For now at least, Amazon is being treated as a special case in part from the halo effect around its billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, the second-richest person alive. Many view Bezos as an entrepreneurial genius; he’s already extended his reach beyond Amazon to start a space exploration company and purchase the Washington Post.

“Bezos gets a longer leash to wander around than the typical CEO,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. But he was not convinced it was entirely justified.

“You hesitate to bet on this being the singular team that can do something that history has shown – over and over again – is really hard to do,” said Gordon.

Referring to Walt Disney Co.’s CEO, he said: “Leave the movie making to Bob Iger.” 

Source: newsmax – Amazon’s Moves Beyond Retail Get Wall Street Thumbs Up, for Now

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Duterte Will Urge Trump Against NKorea War in Saturday Call

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will urge his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump not to go to war with North Korea in a phone call scheduled later on Saturday.

Speaking after wrapping up a meeting of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila, Duterte said the U.S. needed to be prudent and patient.

“I am expecting a call from President Trump tonight,” Duterte said. “Who am I to say you should stop but I would just say Mr. President please see to it that there’s no war because my region will suffer immensely,” Duterte said. “Everybody is worried.”

Earlier on Saturday, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson mounted an effort at the United Nations to rally pressure against Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Trump has threatened to act unilaterally against North Korea if China fails to do more to curb its neighbor’s activities.

In a tweet shortly after the missile launch Saturday, Trump said North Korea had disrespected the wishes of China and “its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!”

‘A Catastrophe’

With concerns about North Korea dominating the summit, Duterte, who is the current chairman of Asean, compared the standoff to two countries playing with toys.

“We have to caution everybody including those who’d give the advice to the two players because you have nuclear warheads to just show restraint,” Duterte said. “One miscalculation of a missile, whether or not a nuclear warhead or an ordinary bomb, one explosion there that would hit somebody would cause a catastrophe.”

As the leader of the more responsible country, Duterte said he was sure Trump was cautioning his military to “hang on there and not to start something which they can’t control.”

Maritime Disputes

Duterte said China’s recent actions in the South China Sea, which have overshadowed recent Asean summits, were not discussed at the leaders’ meeting on Saturday, describing any talks on the issue as “useless.”

China’s attempts to assert its dominance over the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes that carries more than $5 trillion in annual trade, have in the past angered Southeast Asian nations with competing maritime claims such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

The waterway has become a flash point in a broader tussle for regional influence between China and the U.S. in Asia.

“We want a code of conduct enacted at the very least before the end of this year so that everybody will feel comfortable sailing there because if not then it remains to be a flash point,” Duterte said.

Duterte said China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ project would help neighboring countries and expand markets, adding that the reason for China’s pursuit of the project could only be economics.

Source: newsmax – Duterte Will Urge Trump Against NKorea War in Saturday Call

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WashPost: Half of Those Arrested in Immigration Raids Had Traffic Offenses Or No Record

Records provided by congressional aides to The Washington Post paint a small but detailed snapshot of the illegal immigrants being arrested under the administration of President Donald Trump, the newspaper reported Friday.

The Post called the data “the most detailed look yet,” and breaks down how many people were arrested for being in the U.S. illegally, who had committed crimes and what those crimes were. The data involves a roundup called Operation Cross Check and the period covers early February.

Of the 675 immigrants included in the data who were detained and targeted for deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, 177 had no criminal convictions, although charges were pending in 66 of those cases involving immigration or traffic offenses.

Among the more serious offenders, 80 had been convicted of assault, 57 were convicted of “dangerous drugs” and two people were convicted of homicide. The largest single group of the total showed 163 had been convicted of traffic offenses, with over 90 percent involving drunken driving, according to ICE, The Post reported.

The 675 people in the raid represent a small part of the 21,362 immigrants rounded up into custody for deportation from January through the middle of March of this year. This total marks a 32 percent jump over the same period last year.

However, The Post pointed out that former President Barack Obama also deported thousands of people with no criminal convictions, but “toward the end of his administration, he imposed strict new rules that prioritized the arrest of criminals.”

Critics argue the arrests include students, minor offenders and parents of U.S. citizens who have no criminal record. Kica Matos, a spokeswoman for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, maintained many of the convictions were years old.

“(The data) confirms our worst fears, which is that this administration is really trying to deport as many as possible, regardless of whether they have a criminal record,” Matos said.

Jennifer Elzea, ICE spokeswoman, said Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly had stated the U.S. would “no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”

“All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found, removable by final order, removal from the United States,” she said.

Democrats have grown wary of Kelly’s motivations, the article explained, but Kelly, a retired Marine general, addressed critics last week in a speech at George Washington University.

“If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws,” Kelly said. “Otherwise, they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., maintained on Friday that Kelly’s posture “wasn’t a constructive way to deal with Congress,” adding, “That kind of language ought to be jettisoned.”

The director of policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, Jessica M. Vaughan, said ICE was doing its job.

“Those are legitimate reasons to remove people,” she said. “ICE officers are no longer operating under the restraints imposed by the Obama administration. They’re not forced to look the other way when they encounter people who are removable.”

Trump is following through on a campaign promise in his efforts to secure public safety in the U.S. through his immigration initiatives. Officials said, though the emphasis was on deporting criminals, anyone in the U.S. illegally could face deportation.

Source: newsmax – WashPost: Half of Those Arrested in Immigration Raids Had Traffic Offenses Or No Record

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Coca-Cola: Philadelphia's Tax on Sugary Drinks Spurs 32 Percent Drop in Sales

Coca-Cola says Philadelphia’s new tax on sugary drinks is seriously hurting their business in the city.

According to a story on the beverage company’s website, the company’s volume in Philadelphia is down 32 percent from a year ago.

Fran McGorry, president and general manager of the local bottler known as Philly Coke, says because of the lost sales, the company’s workforce has been reduced by about 40 positions. The company has more than 700 workers in the region.

Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney, says the soda industry is suing the city to repeal the tax and has repeatedly looked for opportunities to scapegoat it. She says Coca-Cola had a bad first quarter and pointed to an announcement of job cuts across all their markets earlier this week.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman says the reductions at the Atlanta-based company aren’t related.

Source: newsmax – Coca-Cola: Philadelphia’s Tax on Sugary Drinks Spurs 32 Percent Drop in Sales

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Hacker Leaks Stolen 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 5 Episodes to Piracy Network

An anonymous hacker has carried through on a threat to release “Orange Is the New Black” season five episodes online — after Netflix allegedly failed to respond to the cybercriminal’s shakedown demands.

Variety was unable to verify the authenticity of the “OITNB” episodes the hacker claimed to have shared on popular file-sharing site the Pirate Bay.

The first 10 episodes of season 5 were apparently shared shortly before 6 a.m. ET Saturday, with the 10 files comprising a total of 11.46 gigabytes. The hacker, who uses the handle “thedarkoverlord,” published the premiere episode from the upcoming season of “Orange Is the New Black” on Friday to the Pirate Bay.

Netflix has set June 9 for the release of season five of “Orange Is the New Black.” It’s possible that the streamer will move up the “OITNB” premiere date now that the bulk of the episodes have leaked.

Related Netflix Hacker Also Claims Theft From ABC, Fox, IFC, National Geographic

Reps for Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest development outside regular business hours.

According to “thedarkoverlord,” the hacker or hackers also have obtained unreleased shows from ABC, Fox, National Geographic and IFC. The content appears to have been stolen in an attack on post-production studio Larson Studios in late 2016, according to piracy-news site TorrentFreak. “Thedarkoverlord” explained in an online post that they obtained only the first 10 of the 13 episodes of “OITNB” season 5 because the cyberattack was carried out before the final three installments were available.

In a statement Friday, Netflix said: “We are aware of the situation. A production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.”

It’s not clear what impact the theft and piracy of Netflix’s top show will have. The hacker (or hacker collective) behind the heist has claimed to have made an extortion demand to the company, asking for an unspecified sum of money. However, the motive for purloining and leaking “OITNB” could be more about bragging rights in the cybercrime underworld.

In a message posted early Saturday, “thedarkoverlord” was arrogant and even scolding.

“It didn’t have to be this way, Netflix. You’re going to lose a lot more money in all of this than what our modest offer was,” the hacker wrote. “We’re quite ashamed to breathe the same air as you. We figured a pragmatic business such as yourselves would see and understand the benefits of cooperating with a reasonable and merciful entity like ourselves.”

The hacker concluded the diatribe with an explicit threat to the other networks whose TV shows were allegedly stolen: “And to the others: there’s still time to save yourselves. Our offer(s) are still on the table — for now.”

Netflix last year renewed “OITNB,” which execs have said is consistently its most-watched original series, for seasons 5, 6 and 7. Creator and showrunner Jenji Kohan signed on for all the upcoming seasons of the show, produced by Lionsgate TV.

Source: newsmax – Hacker Leaks Stolen ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Season 5 Episodes to Piracy Network

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SKorea Navy Begins Drill with US Supercarrier

South Korea’s navy says it has started joint exercises with U.S. ships, including the supercarrier USS Carl Vinson, which the United States dispatched to the region in a show of force amid the growing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The drills began Saturday hours after South Korean and U.S. officials said they detected what they presumed was a failed missile launch from an area near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The South Korean navy says the drill is aimed at “deterring North Korea’s provocations and displaying the firm alliance between the United States and South Korea.”

The USS Carl Vinson also participated in annual springtime drills between United States and South Korea in March.

Source: newsmax – SKorea Navy Begins Drill with US Supercarrier

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