China to probe FedEx after Huawei says parcels diverted

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will investigate whether FedEx Corp damaged the legal rights and interests of its clients, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, after Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said parcels intended for it were diverted. Amid worsening tensions between China and the United States, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Friday that it would draft a hit-list of “unreliable” foreign firms and individuals that harm the interests of Chinese companies. It gave no names. It issued the threat after Washington last month put Huawei on a blacklist that effectively blocks U.S. firms from doing business with the Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment maker.

Huawei told Reuters on Friday that it was reviewing its relationship with FedEx which it alleged had diverted two parcels destined for Huawei addresses in Asia to the United States and had attempted to reroute two others. FedEx said the packages were “misrouted in error”. Xinhua, without elaborating, said FedEx recently did not deliver to the right addressees and addresses in China. FedEx China did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

On Tuesday, FedEx China apologized on its Chinese social media account for the “mishandling” of Huawei packages and confirmed there was no “external pressure” to divert packages. Washington believes Huawei, the world’s largest telecom network gear maker, is a potential espionage threat because of its close ties with the Chinese government. Huawei has repeatedly denied it is controlled by the Chinese government, military or intelligence services. The issue has become a flashpoint in an escalating trade battle between the world’s two biggest economies.

Last month, Washington slapped additional tariffs of up to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods, accusing Beijing of reneging on its previous promises to make structural changes to its economic practices. That prompted Beijing to hit back with additional levies on the majority of U.S. imports on a $60 billion target list. The Chinese tariffs took effect on Saturday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-fedex-probe/china-to-probe-fedex-after-huawei-says-parcels-diverted-idUSKCN1T2338?il=0

Italy revokes lease for site of Bannon's right-wing academy

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s culture ministry has said it will revoke the lease on a state-owned monastery where a right-wing Roman Catholic institute close to former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon had planned to train political activists. In a statement on Friday, the ministry said it would revoke the concession on the mountaintop property outside Rome granted to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, citing violations of various contractual obligations including a failure to pay concession fees and do maintenance work.

Benjamin Harnwell, director of the institute based in the Trisulti monastery, had told Reuters in September that Bannon was helping to craft the curriculum for a leadership course aimed at right-wing Catholic activists to be held in the 800-year-old monastery. Bannon, who has launched a campaign to build a populist movement across Europe, has also been raising funds for the institute, Harnwell said.

An official at Italy’s culture ministry, Gianluca Vacca, said in the statement that inspections ordered by authorities had found a number of irregularities with the concession that allowed the institute to use the property. “Proceeding with the revocation is thus a duty,” Vacca said. The project for a right-wing leadership academy had been criticized by Italy’s left parties and local media had raised doubts over whether Harnwell’s institute fulfilled the requirements of its agreement with the government.

Vacca, a member of the anti-establishment 5-Star party which has been ruling Italy in a coalition with the far-right League since last year, said there were no political motives behind the decision to revoke permission for the institute. He said the procedure to award the concession to Harnwell’s association - whose board of advisers is chaired by Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading Vatican conservative - had been completed under the previous, center-left government.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-monastery-bannon/italy-revokes-lease-for-site-of-bannons-right-wing-academy-idUSKCN1T235I?il=0

China to issue white paper on trade talks with U.S. on Sunday

BEIJING (Reuters) - The information office of China’s State Council, or cabinet, said it would release a white paper on U.S.-China trade talks on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Titled ‘China’s Position on the China-U.S. Economic and Trade Consultations’, the document will be released at a 10 a.m. news conference by the information office, it added.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-report/china-to-issue-white-paper-on-trade-talks-with-u-s-on-sunday-idUSKCN1T22Z4?il=0

Pope urges Hungarians, Romanians to put troubles behind them

MIERCUREA-CIUC, Romania (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged ethnic Hungarians and Romanians to put their troubled past behind them on Saturday as bad weather disrupted his visit to Transylvania, forcing him to be driven for hours on winding mountain roads. More than 80,000 people gathered on muddy slopes around one of Romania’s most popular Catholic shrines to see the pope on the second day of his trip to the country. Transylvania, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the First World War, has a large ethnic Hungarian population and there have been tensions sometimes between ethnic Hungarians and Romanians.

Ethnic Hungarians, many of whom are Catholic in a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation, are the largest minority in Romania, around six percent of the population. This has often caused friction between the two European Union neighbors with tensions flaring occasionally over the public use of ethnic minority flags. In his homily to the rain-soaked crowd, which included Hungarian President Janos Ader, the pope suggested past troubles should not be a barrier to co-existence. “Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters,” he said. In his homily, Francis said God wanted “that we not let ourselves be robbed of our fraternal love by those voices and hurts that provoke division and fragmentation.”

Francis was to have flown by plane from Bucharest to the city of Bacau and then by helicopter to the Sumuleu-Ciuc shrine in this town nestled in the mountains. But thunderstorms, low clouds and rain forced him to fly to the city of Targu Mures, on the other side of the Carpathian mountains, and be driven for to the site. From there, Francis was due to continue by helicopter to the city of Iasi to visit Catholics in the remote region of Moldova, close to the border with the former Soviet Union’s satellite Republic of Moldova. But Vatican officials said he would drive back to Targu Mures and fly by plane to Iasi before returning to Bucharest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has visited Transylvania many times privately to meet local Hungarian leaders and outline his policy views. In 2015, Romania rebuked him for posting on his Facebook page symbols it said suggested Budapest favors autonomy for Romanian territory populated mainly by ethnic Hungarians, calling such “revisionism” unacceptable.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-romania/pope-urges-hungarians-romanians-to-put-troubles-behind-them-idUSKCN1T2306?il=0

>>6645386

Yesterday's breads, has something in the notables regarding this with timestamps..

All this board sliding produce, this, and those responding contribute to it!

>>6645291

Not sure that the Pope will incite change there (not a lot of trust in him by many), but perhaps in some small way what he said will resonate with a few to help create necessary change.

>>6645483

>Reread the post moron

>Council of wizards and warlocks

>Sounds reallll fucking christian

Here are some You should read

>>6645570

Sauce it, or it didn't happen