Former Trump lawyer Cohen congressional testimony postponed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Testimony by U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen before the House Intelligence Committee has been postponed until Feb. 28, the panel said on Wednesday. Cohen, who is set to go to prison in March after pleading guilty to crimes including campaign finance violations during Trump’s 2016 election campaign, was scheduled to appear before the panel for closed testimony on Thursday.

“In the interests of the investigation, Michael Cohen’s testimony has been postponed until Feb. 28th,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told Reuters. It was the second time a congressional appearance by Cohen has been put off. Last month, Cohen cited threats from Trump for postponing testimony before an open hearing of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee set for Feb. 7. That hearing has not been rescheduled.

Cohen has also been subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee to appear in mid-February. In December, Cohen was sentenced by a federal judge in Manhattan to three years in prison for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the 2016 election.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cohen/former-trump-lawyer-cohen-congressional-testimony-postponed-idUSKCN1PV1S6?il=0

>>5053443

Thinking Schiff wants to bury his testimony with the conflicts of these two events…Remember Mueller saying that Cohen was lying just a week or 2 ago.

U.S. lawmakers target China's ZTE with sanctions bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Tuesday that would reimpose sanctions on ZTE Corp if the Chinese telecommunications firm fails to live up to U.S. laws and an agreement with the Trump administration. U.S. President Donald Trump angered many members of Congress, including some of his fellow Republicans, in July 2018 when he decided to lift a ban on U.S. companies selling to ZTE, allowing the Chinese company to resume business. ZTE broke a previous agreement and was caught illegally shipping U.S.-origin goods to Iran and North Korea, Commerce Department officials said. ZTE pleaded guilty last year over the sanctions violations.

Republican Senators Marco Rubio, Susan Collins and Jerry Moran sponsored the legislation along with Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen, Mark Warner, Elizabeth Warren and Doug Jones. The bill comes just days after top U.S. officials met with their counterparts from China in Washington to try to hammer out an agreement to end a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. It also comes as the United States tries to extradite a top executive at Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on charges she conspired to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Many members of Congress view ZTE and Huawei as national security threats, worrying that the use of their technologies in the United States could make it easier for China to steal secrets. This is the second time lawmakers have introduced a bill on ZTE and sanctions. The previous bill, introduced in September, expired as the previous Congressional session ended. ZTE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-zte/u-s-lawmakers-target-chinas-zte-with-sanctions-bill-idUSKCN1PU2MU?il=0

Hammer and pickle: Vietnam-style reform would mean big changes for North Korea

HANOI (Reuters) - Nestled in a leafy park between a rusting Soviet fighter jet and the old East German embassy, a lonely statue of Lenin stands in the center of Hanoi as a symbol of the Russian revolutionary’s inspiration to Communist-ruled Vietnam. In 1986, one year after the statue was erected, Vietnam embarked on its comprehensive program of “doi moi” reforms which transformed the country from a war-torn agrarian basket case into one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. Today, Hanoi’s “Lenin Park” is popular, not for Vietnamese paying homage to their communist roots but for a dedicated crew of skateboarders aping their Western cohorts.

As Vietnam prepares to host North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump’s second summit later this month, the Vietnamese model of reform is being widely touted as the economic path for impoverished and isolated North Korea to follow. Vietnamese reforms have seen per capita GDP soar almost five-fold since 1986 and kept Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party, which tolerates little dissent, firmly in power. But it has necessitated political change and levels of individual freedoms that would require major reforms in North Korea, where Kim Jong Un exercises almost total control and is revered by state propaganda as a living deity.

“When all the power is in the hand of a single person, decisions are prone to mistakes,” said Cao Si Kiem, the former governor of Vietnam’s state bank who enacted sweeping reforms of Hanoi’s monetary policy from 1989-1997. “We had to accept power dilution,” Kiem told Reuters, referring to Vietnam’s era of opening up.

When Vietnamese revolutionary and founding president Ho Chi Minh’s health was failing during the Vietnam War, his right hand man in the Party, Le Duan, took over and ruled as a strongman until his death in 1986. Duan’s demise ended Vietnam’s “strongman era”, and helped facilitate economic and then political reforms, said Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. “Le Duan was a hardcore communist, an old guard of the Leninist political and economic system,” said Hiep. “After his demise, no single politician could command such a level of control. Instead, the politburo took over and became the most important decision maker, albeit on a consensus basis”.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-vietnam-reforms-analys/hammer-and-pickle-vietnam-style-reform-would-mean-big-changes-for-north-korea-idUSKCN1PV0AO?il=0

>>5053782

I hear Hanoi is educational.

Swedish Liberal leader to step down, casts shadow over govt's stability

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The leader of Sweden’s Liberals will step down in November, he said on Wednesday, less than a month after backing Social Democrat leader Stefan Lofven as prime minister in a deal that split his own party. Jan Bjorklund said he would not stand for re-election when his mandate ended, but that the deal to support Lofven was not at risk. “The party stands behind the January Agreement,” Bjorklund told reporters. “There is criticism from some people, but there is broad support in the party.”

The Liberals’ executive committee voted to abandon the center-right Alliance 17-8 the party had been a member of to back the deal in support of Lofven. He was voted in for a second term as premier on Jan 18, more than four months after a national election that left parliament deadlocked. Lofven does not need the Liberals’ 20 votes to govern, but if they were to pull out of the deal, the Centre party - with 31 lawmakers - might also reconsider its position. “What could happen is that the Centre party would not want to be the only center-right party with Stefan Lofven and would also pull out and the agreement would capsize,” Magnus Hagevi, political scientist at Linneaus University, said. “That’s the risk.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-politics-liberals/swedish-liberal-leader-to-step-down-casts-shadow-over-govts-stability-idUSKCN1PV1Z4?il=0

>>5053982 Baker take a look at this please

>>5053760