‘Bloomberg’s White House campaign used prison labor’ N Korea may be planning nice ‘Christmas gift’, says Trump

WASHINGTON: Billionaire US presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg used prison labor to make calls for his campaign, investigative website The Intercept reported on Tuesday.

Bloomberg called the report “fundamentally accurate” and said his campaign had already ended its relationship with the company involved.

The Intercept reported that the former New York mayor's campaign contracted, through a third-party vendor, the ProCom call center company based in New Jersey.

Procom runs call centers in New Jersey as well as Oklahoma, where two of its call centers operate from state prisons, The Intercept said.

In at least one of those Oklahoma prisons, a minimum-security women's facility, inmates were contracted to make calls on behalf of the Bloomberg campaign, according to the report.

Bloomberg said his campaign only learned about this situation when the reporter on the story called them.

“But as soon as we discovered which vendor's subcontractor had done this, we immediately ended our relationship with the company and the people who hired them,” he said in a statement.

“We do not support this practice and we are making sure our vendors more properly vet their subcontractors moving forward.” Months after frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, Bloomberg announced in late November his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Donald Trump in next year's presidential election.

Bloomberg has a net worth of more than 54 billion, according to Forbes. He is using that personal fortune to spend heavily on online and TV ad campaigns, and his campaign is skipping crucial states long toiled in by less well-off rivals. The Intercept said it asked Stephen Mcquaid, a director of business development at ProCom, whether the company had done work for Bloomberg.

“To my knowledge we are not, and nor have I ever heard that we were making any dials for the Bloomberg campaign or on behalf of them through someone else, nor have I heard that we (are) currently making them, but I am not in a position to know every campaign that is going,” he was quoted as saying.

PALM BEACH (US): President Donald Trump has said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be planning to give him “a nice present” such as a “beautiful vase” for Christmas rather than a missile launch.

The president was asked what he will do if North Korea does conduct a long-range missile test. The North has threatened to take unspecified action if sanctions are not eased by the end of the year, and speculation has centered on the possibility of a new missile test, possibly of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The North has said that its “Christmas gift” to the United States will depend on Washington's actions. Trump, who is in Florida for the holidays, had just finished thanking service members from each branch of the military via satellite when he was asked about North Korea. He opted for a wait-andsee approach.

“Maybe it's a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I may get a nice present from him. You don't know. You never know. Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have been stalled since a February summit between Trump and Kim fell apart.

Bloomberg said his campaign only learned about this situation when the reporter on the story called them