Top News Stories for Today – Mar 7, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Mar 7, 2019
Huawei sues US government
Huawei Technologies Co. filed a lawsuit challenging a law signed by President Trump in August that restricts federal agencies from doing business with the Chinese company, the latest in a series of countermoves by the telecommunications giant. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of parts of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual measure that authorized billions of dollars in military spending and put new limits on federal dollars going to Huawei and its Chinese rival, ZTE Corp.
In the suit, Huawei alleges this violates the company’s right to due process and the separation of powers between Congress and other branches of government, The Wall Street Journal reports. The United States considers Huawei a security threat and wants to keep the company from building 5G networks worldwide. The Wall Street Journal
Moon seeks to bring Trump, Kim back to table
South Korean President Moon Jae-in says he’s ready to step in and be the mediator between the United States and North Korea after the two nations failed to reach an agreement in Hanoi last week. However, it remains to be seen what the South Korean leader can do to move US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un closer to a deal both sides can be happy with.
Tuesday President Moon ordered his Cabinet to pursue all avenues to facilitate a resumption of discussions between Washington and Pyongyang. After the Hanoi summit resulted in no agreement being signed between President Trump and Kim, Moon said South Korea’s role has become important and directed ministers to take action. The Voice of America
UK urged to offer acceptable Brexit plan
The UK has been urged to submit fresh proposals within the next 48 hours to break the Brexit impasse. EU officials said they would work non-stop over the weekend if “acceptable” ideas were received by Friday to break the deadlock over the Irish backstop.
The UK has said “reasonable” proposals to satisfy MPs’ concerns about being tied to EU rules had already been made. Chancellor Philip Hammond has warned Brexiteers to vote for the PM’s deal or face a delay to Brexit. BBC
US senator: Air Force officer raped me
Martha McSally, a US senator said that she was raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force, speaking at a hearing on sex assaults in the military. She was the first female US fighter pilot to fly in combat. McSally said she hoped to give sexual assault survivors hope by revealing her experience.
The Arizona Republican said she did not report the rape as she felt ashamed and confused, and distrusted the system. In 2017 nearly 6,800 sexual assaults were reported in the US military, a 10% rise on the previous year. BBC
Manafort to be sentenced in VA
President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be sentenced by a US judge in Virginia on Thursday for bank and tax fraud uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
US District Judge T.S. Ellis could deliver effectively a life sentence to Manafort, 69, if he follows federal sentencing guidelines cited by prosecutors that call for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison for the eight charges the veteran Republican political consultant was convicted of by a jury in Alexandria last August. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Reuters
French cardinal guilty of abuse cover-up
Philippe Barbarin, the Archbishop of Lyon, has been handed a six month suspended prison sentence for failing to act on sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic church. A French court convicted him on Thursday of failing to report allegations of sexual abuse of boy scouts that took place in his diocese in the 1980s and early 1990s, by a priest who is due to go on trial later this year.
The cardinal – Archbishop of Lyon since 2002 – is the highest profile cleric to have been caught up in the sexual abuse scandal in the French Catholic church so far. He was once tipped as a possible future pope. Euronews
LeBron passes Jordan in NBA scoring
LeBron James moved past Michael Jordan into fourth place on the NBA’s career scoring list Wednesday night. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar scored his 32,293rd point on a driving layup in the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets, getting fouled in the act and hitting the ensuing free throw. This achievement was particularly special to James, who grew up in Ohio idolizing Jordan.
James began the night needing 13 points to reach the mark. He now trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points), Karl Malone (36,928) and Kobe Bryant (33,643). The Voice of America
UN: 11 million North Koreans need food
An estimated 11 million people in North Korea, more than 43 percent of the population, are undernourished and “chronic food insecurity and malnutrition is widespread,” according to a U.N. report issued Wednesday. The report by Tapan Mishra, the head of the UN office in North Korea, said that “widespread undernutrition threatens an entire generation of children, with one in five children stunted due to chronic undernutrition.”
With only limited health care and a lack of access to clean water and sanitation, “children are also at risk of dying from curable diseases,” the report added. Mishra said that last year’s UN appeal for $111 million to help 6 million of North Korea’s most vulnerable people was only 24 percent funded, one of the lowest levels in the world. The Voice of America